This side of the estate was in shade from the great hill behind them, but it was still hard to look further into the desert because of all the reflected glare. Two men and a young girl were standing together, talking. The edge of the hill overhung this space, held up by steel and concrete roof plating and numerous stone pillars and arches.

The light shone brightly in Kik’s eyes after so long spent inside wearing dark glasses. Thenfor saw him standing in the doorway and called him over.

“Come on Kik, don’t just stand there. Come and meet Vist, and his… niece? Well, this is Vist and Pellie.”

Pellie was a young girl, aged between eight and ten. She had dark skin, brown eyes, and long black hair, tied in a single ponytail which hung down her back from the base of her neck. Her clothes were mostly pale orange and red cloths wrapped over and around each other, its shape masking her human outline and its colour blending into the desert sand.

The other person, a tall, white-haired, bearded man, turned towards Kik. His nose looked like it had been squashed many times. His eyes were small and squinting, set into his face. His skin, although mostly covered by cloth similar to Pellie’s loosely draped over his body, was once light but now heavily tanned. He looked like he had a fair bit of weight on him.

“Good to meet you at last,” he said. His voice was rocky as a mountain valley. “I knew your father a long time ago, but let’s not talk about that now. I hear you need training.”

Kik nodded. “I have no choice but to survive alone now, so I need to get stronger. Otherwise I won’t be able to move onwards.”

Thenfor looked at him, surprised. “It seems you’ve gained confidence,” he said. “Perhaps a month of reflection was exactly what you needed.”

Kik smiled wistfully. “I’m not well, but I’m better. I have a reason to survive. I haven’t lost everything yet.”

Vist nodded. “It seems you’ve got determination, but don’t get ahead of yourself.” He turned to the small girl. She was holding a small box to her chest and watching him in silence. “Pel, stay with Thenfor. I’m going to see what he can do.”

The pair walked off behind one of the pillars holding up the hill, Vist in the lead. There was a strange patchwork vehicle parked there, but Kik couldn’t get a good look as it was mostly obscured. Vist opened up a hatch in the bottom and pulled out a pair of wooden staves. They were staves, although they might have been closer to the size of a cane for Vist, since they weren’t as tall as Kik was.

“Follow me,” he said, walking among the pillars to a point out of the view of Thenfor and Pellie.

Thenfor tossed over one of the two rods, which was caught, then took up a ready stance, holding his staff like a spear. Kik wondered why they were using rods of equal length despite their height difference. His opponent was slouching, so it was hard to make an accurate estimate, but Kik estimated that Vist was almost ten centimetres over two metres tall.

He also took up a ready position, holding the staff diagonally across his body, keeping his left side towards Vist. He wasn’t sure how he was meant to hold the staff, but he kept one end near his right shoulder and prepared to strike downwards with it.

Suddenly, Vist explosively dashed forwards, raising his own staff above his head as he dove at Kik’s chest. The panicked counterblow was blocked with ease, and although he tried to dodge, Kik was sent flying backwards from a push with the staff and a knee to the midriff. He fell hard, but managed to keep the grip on the staff.

He got up, ready for another strike incoming, but Vist had once again taken up his ready position. Kik was now aware of his opponent’s potential, and knew he was outclassed. This time he copied his opponent, noting how the hands were placed evenly and towards the ends of the staff. He instantly had better control over his staff’s movements, although his hands couldn’t reach as far towards each end as Vist.

This time Vist approached slowly, shuffling his feet. Kik copied him, and the two ended up circling each other. Eventually, Vist stepped in with a thrust, once again demonstrating his bursts of speed. Kik managed to redirect the first strike with a sideways sweep from his staff, but the opening was instantly checked before he could seize the opportunity. The next one was directed lower, which Kik blocked as well, sweeping his staff downwards and sideways across his body.

However, the block overextended Kik. Vist swept the knocked-away pole sideways at Kik’s legs and Kik, unable to gather any force from his over extended arms, had his legs knocked out from under him. He fell heavily to the ground, but once again kept his grip on the staff.

This time, Vist didn’t stop when he was on the ground. He brought one end of his staff up and smashed it into the ground, which Kik narrowly managed to roll away from. He then swung his staff down in a large arc towards Kik’s body. This time Kik rolled in, towards Vist’s legs, and the staff stopped on the ground before it hit Kik.

Pulling the staff away from his body, Kik thrusted the tip towards Vist’s face. Vist instinctively dropped his own staff to grab the end of Kik’s before it hit his eyes. Kik then let go of the staff and twisted himself around so his legs were facing Vist. He brought up one boot between his opponent’s legs.

Expecting a soft impact and the other party to collapse in pain, Kik was surprised. His boot didn’t have much power behind it, given he had brought it up from a resting position, but it should still have done damage. Instead, his foot just bounced off and fell back down.

Seeing his distraught expression that his best chance had failed, Vist reached down and helped him up. “Something I learnt in the military, is to always wear a groin guard. Far too many people tried what you just did. Perhaps it’s why I’ve never had any children, but at least I learn fast enough to still be alive.”

Kik frowned as he accepted the helping hand. “Why would being kicked between the legs mean you can’t have children?”

Vist stared at him for a moment. “Oh, why am I surprised? I should have expected as much from Garet’s son. No doubt your father told you nothing, he never did like awkward conversations. It did make him popular with some sorts, ladies like a bit of innocence in a man nowadays. Your father aside, It seems you have a lot to learn, in more ways than one. Come on. Here’s your staff, you’re going to need it from now on.”

They walked back to the two who were standing. Thenfor was a bit awkward. Perhaps he had done something to embarrass himself in front of Pellie. Looking closer at the box she was holding, it was made of dark metal, with a twist-lock lid on the top. The entire inside seemed like it should slide upwards out of the casing. He had no idea what was inside, but she seemed to be holding it reverently. Noticing his gaze, she stared at him. Her eyes were a dark brown like chocolate.

Vist slapped him on the back, breaking their eye contact as he stumbled forward. “I’ve taken a look at his technique, and there’s not much to say. He’s got guts, though, can take a hit, and learns quickly. I can teach him. How long do I have?”

“A month and a half,” Thenfor replied. “Bring him back here after that. That’s how long until his ship is fixed.” He turned to Kik. “Do your best and don’t die. But then again, I don’t need to tell you that, do I? After all, you’ve listened to his song.”

Smiling, he spun about on his heel and walked back through the large doorway into the myriad corridors of the house.

Vist sighed heavily. “He’s an idiot,” he said. “Doesn’t know a thing about desert survival. Oi, kid! We’re leaving this evening. We march overnight. I’ll get you some better desert marching equipment and after that you’ll need to rest. I know you’re not tired and you’re going to want to run around, but if you do it now you’re just going to fall asleep tonight as we walk.”

Kik followed him over to the wagon where he was given a pile of equipment. First were two watches, one local time and one galactic. He was also given a compass, a ridiculously large backpack and belt of pouches, a temperature regulated sleeping bag, a coil of tough rope, some pitons and an auto rappeler harness, a satellite position locator, a moisture condenser, a pair of binoculars with night-vision settings, a spray can of insect and animal repellent, a flashlight, a motion detector with attached alarm, a data chip containing a map and a guidebook to local flora and fauna, a set of emergency signals, ranging from a flare to a whistle, and many, many spare batteries. Vist then threw in a few pairs of spare clothes and some fist-sized rocks.

“Why do I need those?” Kik asked.

Vist looked at him as if he was stupid. “Do you know anything? When you’re in the desert, suck on a pebble. The movement of liquid through your body means you’re less thirsty and don’t need as much water.”

Kik had no idea how he was meant to suck on a ‘pebble’ that size, but he didn’t ask again, because he was sure he’d be treated like an idiot.

Strapping the watches to his wrists and placing most of the rest of the equipment in various compartments in the backpack and belt pouches, he was also given various pieces of cloth, which Vist showed him how to wrap around his body. This covered most of the exposed skin and sealed the gaps in his clothes.

Vist then called over Pellie and climbed into the vehicle through the roof, yawning. “We’ve been up all night on our way here, so we’re going to get our sleep now while we can. When we wake up, we’ll set off. I recommend you grab as much sleep as you can, because the more rest you get now, the more prepared you’re going to be later.”

Now that Kik got a closer look at the vehicle, it wasn’t as primitive as it seemed at first glance. The chassis was made with hundreds of small metal and plastic plates bolted to each other, giving it a haphazard look. Underneath that, however, it was quite a sturdy vehicle, with a well-built frame. It was supported by multiple maglev plates, which were currently off. If they were activated, Kik hypothesized it could probably carry five people with ease. However, it seemed to have no means of propulsion.

Giving up on the vehicle, Kik looked around before choosing a shady corner to lie in. Placing the new data chip in his goggles, he scanned through the few entries on flora and fauna before reading the area map. He eventually fell asleep, despite his previous alertness, listening to his father’s music.

Kik was shaken awake by Vist in the evening, and sat up quickly.. “What is it? The oxygen?” he asked, before realising he wasn’t in space. He blinked tiredly. “Oh, seems I fell asleep. Are we leaving now?”

Vist nodded. “The sun will be down in half an hour or so. We’re marching with the setting sun at our backs. It will be very low, and we’ll be in the shade so it won’t be too hot. I want to get going before it cools too much overnight.”

Kik nodded and sprang to his feet, pulling off the video glasses. The shadows had deepened since he had fallen asleep. The ridges off in the light were highlighted, while the gullies were deeply shadowed. Pel was waiting by the vehicle, which was floating above the ground. There was a faint hum from the electromagnets holding it in the air.

Vist turned the vehicle in midair so its slightly more streamlined nose was facing forward. This was compared to the rest of it, of course. In reality the vehicle was as streamlined and aerodynamic as a bent brick. “Get in the hover-sled,” Vist told him. “I’m pushing for an hour. I want to move quickly until a little after sunset. After that the predators come out, human and otherwise, and I want to be in the middle of nowhere by then.”

Kik nodded, climbing aboard. He nearly had to jump to reach the upper rim of the vehicle, so he had difficulty climbing in. Straight away, Vist set his hands against the top and gave it a good push. It floated smoothly forward. He started running behind it, pushing up the speed.

The wind tousled Kik’s hair as the scenery passed by. Inside the top there was a small cavity, but most of it was filled with equipment. Pel sat in the opposite corner to Kik, clutching the box to her body and glaring at him if he looked at it too closely.

Eventually Kik was overcome by boredom, and he decided to speak with her. “It’s nice to meet you, Pel. My name is Kik.” He held out his hand to shake, but dropped it after she didn’t say anything. Still, he persisted. “Where did you grow up? Where are your parents?”

A whisper came from her still lips. “Huh?” he asked.

“My parents are at the same place as your father,” she repeated, annoyed that he was still bothering her. Her voice sounded scratchy but melodic.

Kik waited a few minutes before asking another question. “What’s in your box?”

“A friend,” was the brief response.

“Can you open it so I can see?” Kik asked gently.

She shook her head violently and held it closer. “I can’t take her out. She’ll die. Is that why you’re being friendly? You want her to die? I’m going to protect her!”

Kik shook his head. It seemed she had the wrong idea about him, but anything he said was likely to make the situation worse. He stayed in silence for a little while.

Eventually, Vist climbed into the back of the small vehicle, and they glided on momentum alone. The boat rocked significantly as he clambered aboard, but it adjusted itself once he was on, albeit lower to the ground. “Wind’s picking up from behind us,” he remarked, licking a finger and holding it up in the air. “Move to the side,” he told Kip, as he pulled a pair of poles and bundle of cloth up from the floor.

Kik scrambled out of the way as he lifted the pole up vertically and extended it before slotting it into a slot in the floor. At its full telescoped height, it reached over four metres tall, slightly longer than the length of the vehicle. Four ropes around the side of the ship were tied to this halfway up, forming a pyramid shape of ropes.

He slotted the other pole into a rod protruding from about a quarter of the way up, forming a sideways T shape. This pole was much smaller, only about half the length. He then unrolled the cloth, revealing a triangular-shaped sail. He tied three ropes into slots on the sail. Two had already been tied onto the long and short poles. The last was locked into the deck through a pulley, with one end hanging free to be let in or out. His deft work indicated many hours of repetitive practice. Kik and Pel watched him work.

The cloth rose up the central pole, flapping wildly. It seemed the horizontal pole would swing to one side, but the rope attached to the bottom of the sail held it firm. Once it reached the top, Vist let out the rope locked to the floor, and the horizontal beam swung around facing off to the left side of the vehicle, until Vist locked the rope to the floor again. Straight away, the cloth bulged into a swollen shape as it was filled with wind and the vehicle shot forward. This was several times faster than Vist’s top speed. “The sunset winds are reasonable tonight,” Vist remarked.

“What’s this setup?” Kik asked him.

Vist grinned. “I’m glad you asked. It took a long time to find out how to do this. Hardly anybody gets around on wind power anymore. This is how single-sailed craft used to be set up, back when people travelled using the wind more.”

Kik inspected the setup. “So what’s everything called?”

Vist pointed at the triangular cloth, the vertical pole, and the horizontal pole in turn. “These are the sail, the mast and the boom. You might recognise the terms, they’re still used in some spaceships. Land, water and sky ships are where the names came from. Same as the terms prow, aft, port and starboard. She might not look it, but this Ars is as proud a ship as any of those beauties in space.” He laughed aloud.

Kik nodded. “So why is the boom called the boom? Is it onomatopoeic?”

Vist grinned, giving him a bad feeling. “I’ll show you why it’s called that. Hard a port!” He gestured for Kik to duck and did so himself.

He manipulated the controls on the back of the boat, dropping the port side of the lower hull. The boat tilted sideways and swung around. The sail hung for a second, but the air seemed to fall out of it, despite the strong breeze coming from behind. Then it swung violently around to the other side of the mast, creating a dull metallic “boom” sound as it took its spot at the other side, pulling the rope against the deck.

Once they were underway, Vist left the sail in place and walked over to Kik. “Alright, now it’s time to work on your balance and coordination,” he said. “Come with me to the prow.” Walking the few steps to the front, they stopped before the low rail that prevented the cargo from rolling overboard.

Vist bent over the side, reaching far out over the edge, his head vertical over the side. One of his hands was holding one of the four ropes holding up the mast, but if he let go it would be a painful fall onto the quickly passing sand beneath them. The other hand opened and rummaged around a storage compartment in the side of the vessel.

Eventually he came back up, holding a flat metal disk. One side was plain, beaten, scratched metal. The other side was a maglev plate similar to those holding up the ship. The disk had two holes, directly opposite each other, with thin rope tied through them.

“We’ll use this,” Vist said. “I knew I had it around somewhere.” While Kik looked on quizzically, he tied the two ropes to points on the very front of the ship, leaving around a metre of slack on each. This left the disk lying in the middle of the ship before the mast. He checked the back, tapped a few components and banged once or twice, until the magnet turned on and floated above the metal. It rose straight up above the ship and floated there, creating a flat metal platform around seventy centimetres in diameter floating in space.

Before Kik could ask any questions, Vist picked him up by the neck of his clothes and dropped him on top of the disk. It shook as he landed on it, and he ended up in a peculiar position, kneeling on the platform with his feet over the edge while leaning backwards, until it finally stabilised and he was able to bring his body upright. “Now stand still for five minutes and try not to fall too far forward,” he said, as he tossed Kik the staff they had trained with.

Kik managed to grab the staff that was thrown at him, but had to regain his balance again. By the time he was stable, Vist was at the back of the ship, resting. He somehow managed to stand upright, using the staff against the ground as a support, but every time he tried to push off the ground he would end up needing to balance against the staff again. He could hear muffled chuckles from the back as his efforts were mocked.

Finally, he managed to stand upright, purely by coincidence. One time, after pushing off the ground but just before he lost his balance, he brought the staff horizontal across his chest Suddenly, it became far easier to keep himself stable. He still fell that time, but the next time he got the hang of it, and stood upright with the staff held out horizontally across his waist.

Once he had the hang of it, it was easy, but he eventually had to deal with cramping muscles rather than balance issues. He fell several times and had to climb on again, but eventually, after a full three quarters of an hour, he had managed to stand upright for five minutes in a row.

At this point, Vist came up behind him. “Looks like you can complete the first exercise,” he told Kik. “Now do it without the pole. You can use it to stand up, but once you’re upright, drop it and balance without it.”

He walked back to his rest spot. Resolving himself, Kik breathed in and out and bent his knees before dropping the pole. Instantly, he could feel the rocking of the disk increase. Straight away, he fell off.

While he was getting the hang of balancing, he was forced to look off at the horizon to keep his eyes on a fixed point. The sky was fully dark now, but the single moon in the sky was particularly large and bright, meaning that he could actually see all the way to the horizon in the night. The dunes rolled away from the wind, flat and featureless, and the ship drifted into and out of their gullies. It felt like cresting rows and rows of waves, although this terrain was about as far from ocean as it was possible to get.

It took Kik an hour and a half to get the hang of standing on the disk, partly because of the ship changing direction slightly whenever he managed to stand up for any decent length of time. When this happened, both his fixed viewpoint was no longer fixed and his board tilted along with the ship, pulled downwards by the rope. Vist seemed to be taking pleasure in turning just before Kik finished. But finally, he made it through five minutes of cramping muscles and rigid poses. As soon as Vist told him he was finished, he fell off.

“Alright, I guess that’s enough balancing for now. The wind’s dying out, so somebody needs to get out and push. Guess who’s up for the job?” He grinned widely at the groaning Kik.

Of course he didn’t just have to push the ship with his muscles aching after the long balancing session, he also had to wear his backpack as he did it.

“You should be happy,” he was told. “It means the ship’s lighter and you don’t have to push as much. Isn’t that great?”

Ignoring the misleading truth, Kik got out and resolutely pushed their vehicle for kilometre after kilometre after Vist disassembled the sail again. He grew tired of staring at exactly the same section of patchwork metal, hour after hour. He got sick of pushing the vehicle up each dune and chasing it down the other side, no matter how light work the maglev plates made it. He grew bored of the sensation of his foot sinking into the soft but surprisingly gravelly sand. And most of all, he was driven crazy by the unrelieved pain of using the same muscles repetitively, of holding his hands and arms in exactly the same positions. After the third hour, his feet and hands grew blisters, no matter how well they were protected by socks or cloth wrappings.

Finally, after about six hours, he got back into the car and Vist replaced him. He scoffed down some food, realising just how tired, thirsty and hungry he was. He also drank some water to get a bit of the all-pervasive sand out of his mouth. He was used to getting continual nutrition through his suit in small quantities, so wasn’t accustomed to going six hours without a snack. It was freezing cold in the wind now that he wasn’t moving, so he got out the warm sleeping bag and climbed in. As he fell asleep almost straight away, his muscles finally relaxing, he noticed Pellie still in the same corner of the ship, fiddling with a puzzle made of rings.

When Kik finally awoke, tired from his irregular resting, Vist was inside the boat and the sail was back up. This time, the wind was coming from the front, coming with the slowly rising sun on the horizon. Kik couldn’t see the sun directly, however, as his view was overshadowed by the large solitary mountain they were approaching.

Vist pulled the ship into the shadow of one of the larger caves at the base of the mountains. There, he powered down the maglev plates and let the ship sink to the ground. The three of them disembarked, and Vist quickly ran a sweep of the cave to make sure there were no animals dwelling inside. He set up motion detectors at the entrance to the cave and the rear to make sure nothing approached while they were making camp. He also sprayed some animal repellent around to make sure nothing came for their food. It sat in the air, smelling vaguely like the paint stripper his father used after his mother remodelled their room once.

Walking back to this ship, he called out to Kik. “Come with me, for a little today we’ll try some different training,” he told him. He opened up another storage section on the underside of the ship and pulled out two short sticks, tossing one to Kik. These were about half the length of the staves they had used earlier.

“I know a little about what you’re going to be doing from now on, so I’ll train you for that. If you’re in space a lot, fighting in enclosed spaces is something you’re going to have to do. That’s one of the reasons we’re here.” He led Kik to a small side-tunnel in the cave, that went into the rock about twenty metres before stopping. It was not quite high enough for Kik to stand up straight, let alone Vist, and less wide than it was tall.

“You go in first,” Vist said. “I’ll come in a short way and block the entrance. If you get past me to the entrance, you win. If I force you back so far that you touch the opposite wall, you win. We’ll play ten rounds to begin with, and you can start in the middle, by that rock,” he said, pointing to a bluish outcrop on the wall.

Kik took up his position. The first thing that he noticed was the darkness. Vist hunched over took up most of the entrance and not much light was allowed through. The second thing was connected to this. Vist left barely any space between his side and the wall. To move him out of the way would have to mean knocking him sideways and squeezing through the gap, or forcing him back the whole length of the corridor. The second was out of the question, with their size and strength difference. He couldn’t go through, so he had to go around.

The outcome of the first round was predictable. Kik ran up and all it took was one well-placed strike or shove from Vist to send him backwards a few metres. All of Kik’s blows hit the walls or were knocked aside until he felt the end of the tunnel at his back, rocks poking into his skin. “One point,” Vist said quietly.

The second round passed nearly as quickly as the first. The only difference was that Kik adjusted his attacks from swings to stabs, realizing that there wasn’t enough vertical or horizontal space to move properly. He still lost, though. “Two points.”

“Three points.” “Four points.” “Five points.”The third through sixth rounds saw little improvement. Over time, Kik was getting battered and his nerves deadened, losing his quick reactions, so sometimes he lost easier. His breath was coming faster and he had lost most of his stamina. He was getting frustrated at Vist’s constant count of how much he was losing, which was perhaps his enemy’s aim. “Six points.”

On the seventh round, Kik fought as before, but he forced himself to calm down and look around. His body was a mess of bruises and scrapes from the blows and falls; he couldn’t fight face-to-face any longer. While retreating, he looked for shadows, anything he could use to his advantage. He thought he found one, and began considering a plan. “Seven points.”

At the start of the eighth round, Kik ran backwards quickly into the darkness. He would use his starting position to his advantage. Compared to Vist, who had to walk back to the front of the cave every time, he stayed in the dark, so his night vision was undamaged. The other thing he took advantage of was a slight kink in the tunnel. It wasn’t major, but it prevented people more than six metres away from seeing each other. This way, his opponent had two choices: come around the corner anyway, or give him time to think and prepare.

Vist chose the quick route, so Kik used his environment. He threw a rock.

However he managed to know it was coming, Vist somehow dodged smoothly in the enclosed space, and it sailed through the air above him. He dashed forward, surprising Kik who expected at least some hesitation, and shoved Kik backwards into the wall. “Eight points.”

When the ninth round came around, Kik dashed backwards again, but this time he stood directly around the corner, holding another rock. He would throw it and rush quickly around the corridor as soon as Vist appeared. If he caught him off balance he would have a chance. He pressed his body as close to the wall as possible, willing himself to become one with the rock. Once again, Vist came around the corner quickly, and Kik threw the rock as soon as he saw movement.

This time, however, he had rolled into sight, expecting an attack, and it sailed fully over him, even with the lower arc that Kik had tossed it at. He charged forward, and managed to get almost level with Vist before he stood up. However, Vist beat him to it, and closed off the path before he could reach it. After a frantic clash of sticks, it was over again. “Nine points.”

The tenth battle was Kik’s final chance to break his losing streak. Once again, he dashed backwards, but this time he waited somewhere slightly different.

As Vist came around the corner, he once again rolled, but this time no rock sailed towards him. He frowned, surprised, and focused on the prepared Kik.

He wasn’t there.

Looking around, he panicked for a second, before a stick swung down held by Kik, his legs pressed against the walls, lying against the ceiling. Vist blocked, but finally he was put off balance, stumbling backwards. He pressed one hand against the top of the tunnel both to regain his balance and to make sure he wasn’t jumped over.

Kik dropped to the ground as Vist stumbled backwards, dashing for the only other gap besides to the sides. If he couldn’t go to the left or right, he would go under! He squeezed through his foe’s legs, relishing thoughts of the annoyed expression he would see when he finally got past. “One po…”

An iron grip closed on his leg and he fell forwards, his leg wrenched out from under him. His jaw smashed into the ground and he tasted blood as he bit his own tongue.

“What was that, little worm?” Vist said, as he lifted Kik’s bottom half up by one ankle. “I was sure you just said something about points.” His smile was evident in his voice.

“I said… ten points,” Kik stuttered from his bleeding mouth.

Vist laughed out loud. “That’s right,” he said, picking Kik up like a butler’s cloth and carrying him to the wall. “Ten points.” He dropped him. “Glad you understand. No matter how good you are, you can’t celebrate your victory before you’ve won. Oh, and little worm, next time you lay an ambush around a corner, don’t breathe so loudly.”

Kik groaned at his newfound nickname. Perhaps trying to crawl through Vist’s legs held more side effects than he could have foreseen.

When the two of them had left the tunnel, they returned to the camp. It was now properly daytime, and despite the cool in the caves, heat was flowing in from the desert outside. Their ship was parked a fair way into the caves, so they were fine there, but walking towards the outside would be a hot experience.

“We’re going to rest here for today and tonight,” Vist told Kik. Pel was nowhere to be seen, perhaps asleep somewhere. “Tomorrow there’s something I’m going to have you do in these caves. I’ll tell you more about it tonight, so sleep again for now. I’ll rest while keeping watch. Once again, I understand if you can’t sleep, given that your sleeping pattern has been thrown out of balance, but don’t run around causing problems. You’ll need to save your strength.”

Kik nodded and he walked off towards the hot entrance. Kik pulled his sleeping bag out, got in and lay against the wall. He put on his sunglasses, once again listening to his father’s music.

When he woke again, the sun was shining from the entrance deep into the cave. Kik estimated it was around three hours to sunset. The cave had heated up significantly, and the sleeping bag was now cooling instead of heating. The battery had almost run low, however. He would need to change it soon.

Vist was sitting close to the entrance of the cave, staring outside. He was holding a long-barreled bolt-action rifle, seemingly made of a patchwork of different types of weapon parts. Its rusted barrel sat over his shoulder as the stock rested against the floor. Climbing out of the sleeping bag, Kik walked over to Vist. On the way, he spotted Pel sleeping in the ship, clutching her box as close now as ever.

“Couldn’t sleep? Here to question me on my training methods?” Vist didn’t look up as Kik approached.

“Yes to the first. As for the second, have I complained about you yet?” Kik asked.

“Behind my back, sure.” Vist grinned.

“You know that’s not true. And besides, what I said when we first met was the truth. I need to get stronger, and you’re the best person to help me. I may hate what you make me do, and I may want to take a break or ignore what you tell me, but I know it’s all for my sake. Even those insults.”

Vist laughed louder than he had so far. “You have a lot to learn about people. I just called you little worm because you looked ridiculous trying to squeeze past me. If you want to think I was toughening you up, you’re welcome to, but the truth is far from it.”

Kik frowned. “Oh. Well, I guess it’s not a bad name. It reminds me to not tackle my problems straight on, but to wriggle around them.”

Vist sighed. “You know, that sounded really terrible. Are you trying to grow up to be a slacker?”

“Are you teasing me?”

“So you understand sarcasm! Well, that’s a start at least.”

There was a moment of silence, until Kik broke it. “When did you meet my father?”

“That’s not a story I tell lightly. It was a pretty horrible place and time. Ask me again later, little worm.”

“So then, what sort of person was my father like?”

Vist thought for a moment before answering. “An idiot?”

Kik coughed. “Seriously?”

“Yep. Whenever he was in trouble he’d always run out like an idiot and beat the enemy out of his way. The sad thing was, it worked for so long he thought it always would. Then the one and only time it didn’t work, his helper died.”

“His helper?”

“Another story I’m not going to tell for a little while. Maybe in a week or two. Anyway, he was hurt badly, both in body and mind. He was too badly injured to keep on fighting the war. So I never saw him again. All Thenfor would tell me when I asked him was he took off and got married.”

“To my mother?”

“Evidently so. He met her before me and I didn’t hear about him getting married more than once. Anyways, this was not quite twenty years ago. Ancient history, long before you were born.”

Kik nodded. “I suppose you wouldn’t know much more than that.”

“Well, I do, I just can’t tell you anything else. Look, take this. I’m going to sleep, I’ve been up all day.”

He passed Kik the rifle and half-ran back to the ship to grab a few hours rest before the sun set again. Kik was left sitting at the entrance to the cave holding a weapon which he didn’t know how to fire. He sat in the shade near the entrance and watched the sun roll down the distant mountains, and the dunes shift with the evening wind blowing into the cave. He pulled the cloth across his face to keep a bit more of the wind out.

When Vist woke up again, an hour after sunset, he scolded Kik for eating too much of the food, before eating just as much himself. His argument when protested against was “I’m bigger.” It seemed to be his argument for many things.

“Alright,” he said after finishing. “We’re going out for today. There’s a creature which I want to hunt with the two of you. Mostly you, little worm. Pel, they’re the same one as last time we were here.” Pellie nodded.

The three of them left on the ship, tacking against the evening wind. It seemed the wind blew from the direction the sun rose or set on this planet. Two hours later, they arrived at a patch of sand that seemed no different to any other patch of sand around, except for a larger number of sizeable rocks. Vist checked the screen of his handheld device, compared it against a GPS locator, and nodded. “The map says this is the area we’re looking for. There’s a large rock formation underground here.”

“And why do we need that?” Kik asked.

“Because the creature we’re looking for is a tunneler,” Vist told him. “It will keep us from being attacked from directly below. Now hurry, get out your binoculars. Look for a cloud of dust above a dune somewhere.”

Kik complied, clambering to the prow of the ship and scanning the horizon with night-vision binoculars. Vist watched the rear, and Pel even left her box by the mast to scan to port and starboard with her own pair. At first he scanned enthusiastically, but as the minutes and then hours dragged by, he grew tired of staring at the unchanging horizon.

Eventually, Vist called out. “Alright, I think… yes, I’ve spotted one. Come over here and take a look at this.”

He held the binoculars stable at Kik’s head height in the direction he had seen the dust cloud. Looking through, Kik could see a haze of sand above a dune, slowly falling like abrasive spray from a wave. Stepping away from them and peering with his own eyes, he couldn’t see the haze from this distance, and he doubted he’d be able to even in the day.

“So that’s one of the things we’re after?” he asked.

“No doubt about it,” Vist replied as he brought the binoculars back to his eyes again. “It just happened again. It happens when they tunnel close to the surface to listen for prey and the gullies between dunes are deeper than they expect, usually late at night after a lot of wind. They break through the surface and spray sand everywhere above them.”

Kik thought. “I didn’t see any mention of them in that book of wildlife you gave me.”

“No, you wouldn’t have. They’re rare enough that most people haven’t heard of them, even biologists, and this area is underpopulated enough that they aren’t easily found. It’s unlikely they’d be in a book of local animals.”

“So what are they called?”

“These creatures? Uh, this breed are just called burrowers, I guess.”

They waited a while as the burrower got closer, but once Vist determined that they would be passed he sprang into action. Jumping off the side of the ship onto the sand and rock, he began jumping up and down crazily.

“What are you doing?” Kik asked.

“Attracting it,” he said. “It feels or hears vibrations. If I keep doing this, it’ll probably come over this way.”

“Isn’t that a bad idea?”

“Not really. It’ll be stuck in the shallow sand once it comes here and we can fight it. It’s a similar idea to beaching fish, get them in the shallows first.” He grabbed the rifle from its resting point against the rail and peered out again with his binoculars. “It’s coming closer. Looks like a big one. Probably male, as it’s hunting.”

Peering out into the night, Kik couldn’t see or hear anything yet besides the rustle of wind-blown sand and Vist still jumping up and down. He picked up his staff, gripping it tightly in his hands. He knew there was something big out there, and he couldn’t shake the feeling that they were the ones being hunted.

Keeping an eye on the intermittent clouds of sand with binoculars from the rear of the ship, Kik could appreciate the speed which the burrower was moving at. When they had first spotted it, it had been close to the horizon, while now it was swiftly closing.

When it got to the point when its approach could be heard, a dull, scuffling sound, Vist stopped jumping off the ground intermittently. He readied the rifle and waited, and so did Kik.

Kik was scanning the horizon for other approaching burrowers when the first struck. The shaking became louder for a few seconds until a large creature burst from the ground, spraying sand into the air. The tunnel it had dug out of collapsed as its whole weight lifted above the ground.

It was six metres long, covered in a segmented brown carapace. Sand flew from the gaps in the carapace as if sprayed from a hose. On its tail were three blade-like attachments, which spun and flexed as the tail twisted.

The other end, its head, had a central mouth surrounded by multiple whiskers. It had no eyes, ears, nose or other obvious sensory appendages. The mouth was open as it flew through the air, revealing a single row of clockwise-angled teeth, and the whiskers were spread out, forming a ring around its head.

The giant armoured worm-like creature, the burrower, jumped at where Vist had been standing. Had been, because by the time it had left the ground, he had rolled underneath it, pointing his rifle at the point where its whiskers met its armour.

He fired, and a thick “boom” filled the air, despite the small and haphazard shape of his rifle. One of the whiskers was severed, a thick green liquid erupting briefly from where it used to lie. The burrower, which must have been intending to grab its prey and dig back into the ground straight away, landed at a poor angle and sprawled out above the ground. It writhed around, and took the second shot to its throat as Vist quickly ejected the previous round and fired again. Before he could fire a third time, it burrowed into the sand and mostly disappeared, the last trace of it being its bladed tail cutting through the sand.

“It’s already dead,” Vist called to the two waiting on the ship. “Those bullets had a bit of poison which should have sprayed out once they hit something solid. Taking one of those to the throat, I’m honestly surprised it managed to burrow away. Stay alert anyway, it or its friends could still come for us.”

A few minutes later, the now slow moving burrower came back. Dragging itself along aboveground with the movement of its segmented armour, it tried to grab onto Vist with its whiskers or bite him. Of course, in its weakened state with its speed, it couldn’t so much as touch him, and he put a third slug in its mouth to finish it off.

Walking up to the corpse, it slowly vented sand from between the plates as it breathed its last. Over the next couple minutes, he pulled apart and cut off the useful bits of the body while telling Kik how they worked and what they did.

“These blades at the back are made from the same material as the carapace. They weaken and collapse the tunnel behind the burrower as they dig.”

“The whiskers help it feel and hear. They’re incredibly sensible to vibration in whatever medium they’re touching, whether that be the ground or the air, to a lesser extent.”

“These armoured plates help the creature move, by pushing against the walls of the tunnels. They are also its method of breathing out and expelling sand. As it digs, it chews up the sand in its mouth and spits it out backwards to get rid of it and propel itself forward.”

“Its head is the most sensitive part. The armour starts just around the whiskers, so it’s mostly unprotected. That being said, it’s also the part you have to be most wary of, except perhaps the tail.”

“How do you know so much about them if they’re so rare? Why are you telling me all this?”

“Well, for the first part, I’m not going to tell you. For the second, that’s because you’re going to need it tomorrow. After all, you’re going to have to go grab one of their eggs from their nest.”