The autocab turned into the mid-afternoon sunlight, flying for a half-moment as if straight toward Archavia’s moon, Selana. It was a breathtaking sight, but Aisell was in no mood to enjoy it.

Her morning with Bedra and Degu had been fun – just what she’d needed, really. They had a nice meal, did some shopping, talked about all sorts of random things that had nothing to do with anything weighty. It had been a lovely respite.

And then Bedra had suggested they go to the human shelter.

Aisell shuddered. She thought it would be fun. Like when they were kids — all the funny, adorable humans goofing around to get their attention….

But she’d gotten to know Luke. And in the faces of the humans in the shelter, she saw for the first time what she’d failed to notice as a kid. There was despair. Anger. Hopelessness. Fear. The pain of smart, loving creatures — no, people — who’d been cast off like so much refuse.

She couldn’t unsee it. It was plain as day.

She’d left before Bedra got too deep into her search – she had made an excuse, wished her friend good luck in the next term. But she couldn’t hang about, not without breaking down. Truth be told, she felt like the universe had slapped her in the face.

This was the world she’d brought Luke to. A world where humans were bought and sold and thrown away like…like they were things.

Luke wasn’t a thing.

The autocab vectored toward the farm, the bucolic scene achingly beautiful in the blue-white light.

He’d wanted to go home, she’d understood that, sure. But he’d wanted just as strongly not to be seen as a thing, as a possession, as a pet. And she didn’t see him that way, and neither did Lezah. She thought that would be enough…but others would.

They always would.

She didn’t know that it would have changed her mind. She knew that it was hopeless, that he was not going to get home. It was still life or death.

But maybe she would have done things differently. Maybe…maybe she would have been honest with him. Up front. Waited a day, rather than snatch him when he couldn’t argue. Or at the very least…snatch him when he was awake, when he could fight her. Because she would have realized why he’d fight coming here with everything he had. Why he’d have to.

She needed to talk to him. She needed to tell him she thought she understood. Maybe she even needed to offer to take him back to Titan – though it was almost painful to finish that thought. Or maybe she needed to be willing to in order to convince him to stay. Because….because she did want him to choose to stay.

She just hoped beyond hope that he would. Because if he wanted to go…she still wasn’t sure she could let him.

Still, she needed to treat him like a person. To explain why she’d done what she did, admit she was wrong to have lied to him, and to promise to treat him like the friend she still wanted him to be. Maybe, just maybe, he’d be able to forgive her, and he would allow that things could be good between them. Maybe the détente that they’d reached could become a friendship again.

She smiled, just a bit. And maybe, just maybe, she’d see if there could be something more. As much as she’d tried to deny it…maybe there could be a future for them.

The autocab landed, and its hatch opened; Aisell tapped her pad, paying the fare. She hopped out and headed up the walk to the house. Lezah was outside, looking in the shrubbery underneath a window.

“Hey, Lez,” Aisell said, planning to head past her sister and into the house. “How are….”

Lezah looked up at Aisell, and Aisell looked back.

And Aisell’s stomach dropped.

—

The first thing Luke was aware of was the smell.

It was pleasant. Damp and earthy, but not musty. His mind flashed back to a trip his family had taken to Cave of the Winds, many years ago.

In the background, he heard hushed voices. They sounded off, just a bit. They were speaking Archavian, and yet there was something about their tone, their tenor, that was oddly familiar. He had felt, for one eerie second, like he was back home.

He kept his eyes closed, though; he had a headache, and he wasn’t quite able to piece together the last few minutes before he’d fallen unconscious. He’d been by the window. Lezah was off making lunch, and he was thinking about Aisell, and…and then what?

He felt like he’d been kidnapped. It seemed likely, actually, even if he couldn’t quite pull his memories together. Maybe it was just because he was getting very used to being abducted. There was something very familiar in his current disorientation.

This time, though, he didn’t have to run, and he hadn’t just been betrayed; he had some time to get his bearings. Listen to his captors. Figure out what they wanted, and why.

“…a very long time since we have rescued a captive. Not since Thurfrit’s grandmother. But what records we have suggest patience is in order. According to records from Pavlas the Chronicler, captives do not always rejoice at being freed. At least, not at first.”

“That’s ridiculous! Would he rather be their dancing toy?” Quendra paced. She’d been thoroughly pumped returning to the Tribe with the captive secured, with not so much as a scratch on her or any of her team. It could not possibly have gone better. She had received acclaim from everyone. (Well, save for Kumm, but Quendra hadn’t expected anything but a glower for her, and hadn’t gotten it.)

But she was starting to realize that grabbing him….that was the easy part.

“It is not that simple. Think, Quendra. They are dependent on them for food, drink – they depend on those monsters for love and companionship! They can begin to believe that this is simply the way things must be. It’s their defense against the horror.”

“Healer, I appreciate that, but surely, once freed….”

“…Quendra, you are brave. But not always patient. You –”

“I can be patient!” Quendra interjected. “When hunting, I sometimes lay in wait for days, in hope of finding prey.”

“Indeed. You can be patient – with prey. Not always with people. If you would rather….”

The Huntress sighed. She knew what the Healer was driving at, and she was having none of it. She had gotten the captive this far. She was determined to see this through to the end.

“No, Wolan. But…thank you. I will try to be patient with him.”

“Good. Now, unless I miss my guess, he is awake, and listening to us.”

“What?”

Luke’s eyes snapped open. He looked over in the direction of voices, about to challenge them, when suddenly his breath caught.

The younger of the two people had taken a step toward him, her eyes trained on him like a hawk’s. She was strikingly attractive, with a tomboyish style. She kept her fire-red hair cropped short; her face seemed to be fifty percent freckles. She wore simple dress, leather and cloth, obviously designed for activity; she wore at least two knives visible, and Luke had a strong feeling that at least a couple more were hidden on her person.

All of this could have drawn his attention, but none of it made as big an impact as her height.

She was not enormous. She was not gigantic. She did not dwarf him.

She was human.

A human wearing clothes. A human who was armed.

A free human.

And with that realization, Luke drifted back into unconsciousness.

—

“What do you mean, ‘he just disappeared?’” Aisell shouted, unable to control her mounting panic, and unwilling even to try. “He couldn’t! I know he’s small, but….”

“There’s a hole in the screen,” Lezah said, her voice on the edge of tears. She had already gone through panic. Through horror and sickening despair, especially when she heard the bark of the kipp. “It looks like it was ripped….”

Aisell bounded over to the screen, not waiting for her sister to complete the sentence. The hole was fist-sized, ragged. “Luke couldn’t have ripped this.”

“I know, but a kipp….”

“No. No way. Where’s the blood?” Aisell shouted. “Where was the noise? You’re telling me a kipp came in while you were making lunch, grabbed Luke and you didn’t hear it? And if it did….I mean, are you that careless? That lackadaisical? What the hell were you doing, anyhow?”

Lezah tried to breathe; she knew Aisell was hurting, more even than she was, and she felt like she’d been stabbed in the heart with a stone blade. Nothing Aisell had asked was a new question; in the few hours since Luke had disappeared, Lezah had asked them all of herself. She wanted to do what she always did – reply evenly, calmly. Hold things together.

“You GORRAM PIECE OF SHAKA!” she screamed. “You lie to him, bring him here, keep him locked in a cage for weeks on end. Leave him despondent and lost and hurting, and leave it to me to pick up the gorram pieces for everyone else again, and you have the nerve to call me careless? Aisell, if I hadn’t kept calm, kept you and him sane, he’d have killed himself or run away by now, but instead he was actually smiling when I saw him last, and that was me who did that, not you.”

Aisell’s crystal blue eyes seemed to glow red. “Oh, good! It’s Lezah the martyr, fixing all our mistakes, because we’re too stupid to handle things! Don’t act like I forced you to hang out with him. You were moving in on Luke these last few days, I saw it!”

Lezah gaped for a moment. “What are you talking about?”

“You’re all buddy-buddy, best friends, while he keeps hating me. I’m not stupid, I have eyes! And yet when I had the chance, I saved him – when he was in your care, he disappeared!”

Lezah stepped forward menacingly; she never used her height against her siblings, not even when they were young. But now she got as close to Aisell as she could, and stared down in a blind rage. “Who was off shopping while this happened, hmm? Who was off having a day while I was searching every corner of this house, every inch of the outside, hoping to the Emperor that Luke would turn up, and he didn’t, but how dare you blame that on me? You know what we were talking about while you were gone? How you lied to him, kidnapped him, betrayed him. You may have saved him, but for what?”

Aisell did the only thing she could do. She hit Lezah square in the jaw.

They crashed to the floor, pulling and shouting at each other, barely aware of anything but pain and grief and rage, and there’s no telling how much longer it would have gone on had a voice not said, “What in the Emperor’s left teat is going on?”

Aisell and Lezah looked up at a tall young woman standing in the doorway, pack slung over her shoulder. She looked down on them in disbelief; had she come in to find the two of them eating a baby, she wouldn’t have been more surprised.

Lezah looked at Aisell, and without a word, pulled her into a hug; Aisell buried her face in her sister’s chest and sobbed uncontrollably, and Lezah…Lezah sobbed controllably.

“Holy…what’s going on? Did mom and dad die or something?”

“Luke….” Lezah swallowed and started again. “Luke’s gone.”

“Who’s Luke?” Aezhay asked, walking in toward her sisters, confused as it was possible for a person to be.

“He’s a human. Aisell rescued him from Titan Station.”

“Oh, and you lost him? Well, that stinks. I remember when I lost Fray-fray, that was….”

“This is nothing like that,” Aisell growled. “He wasn’t a pet, he was a person. From Earth! A person, got it?”

“Yeah, sure, okay Ais,” Aezhay said, looking to Lezah with her eyebrows raised, as if questioning her sister’s grasp on reality.

But Lezah simply nodded. “It’s true, Zhay. I know, I wouldn’t have thought it…but he was as much a person as you or me.”

Aezhay didn’t know what to say. Aisell taking a flight of fancy was very Aisell. Lezah…Lezah didn’t do flights of fancy.

“Is,” Aisell said, finally, wiping her eyes.

“What, pup?” Lezah asked.

“Is. He is as much of a person as any of us. And we’re gonna find him.”

“But…he’s a human! How are we gonna find something…um…someone….” Aezhay ground to a halt.

“Well, we’ll have to look hard,” Lezah said, offering a hand to her oldest sister. “He may be hurt…or worse,” she said, softly, to Aisell.

“If he’s hurt, we’ll help him, and if worse…if worse….”

Aisell didn’t finish the sentence. Instead she took her sister’s hand and got up. “All right,” she said, looking out the window. “We need a plan.”

—

Luke awoke, partially; he still wasn’t sure this wasn’t a dream, and if it was a dream, he still wasn’t sure if it was a good or bad one.

He felt like not much time had passed, and was rather surprised to see that a man was sitting at his bedside, sketching something on parchment.

“Hello, stranger! I see you’re awake!”

“Um…yeah. I guess I am,” Luke said. “I…uh…where am I?”

“You’re at our home,” the man said. He was slightly stocky, with longer hair and a scruffy, dark beard.

“I can see that, I guess,” Luke said. “But who are you?”

“I’m Thurfrit the Chronicler,” the man said. “I’m working on the epic tale of your rescue. Tell me, sir, what are you called?”

“I’m…I’m Luke. Luke Palmer.”

“Luklukpalma. I see.”

“No, just…Luke Palmer.”

“Luke-Palmer. Two names?”

“Yes.”

“Fascinating! Did your captors both want to give you one, and couldn’t decide?”

“Chronicler,” a woman said from the entryway. “Leave him alone. He’s still recovering from the dart.”

“But Huntress….”

Quendra gave Thurfrit a slight smile. “Thurfrit, I know you wish to ask him questions, but…give him time, okay?”

Thurfrit raised his eyebrows at that. “I…pardon me, Huntress, I never….”

“Healer’s orders,” the red-haired woman said. “Okay?”

“Yes, Quendra,” Thurfrit said. “It was nice to meet you, Luke-Palmer. I look forward to seeing you again.”

“Sure. Fine.” Luke watched the man gather up his things and stuff them haphazardly into his pack, before he departed the room. The red-head – Kendra? – sat down in the chair that Thurfrit vacated.

“Hello,” she said, calmly. “My name is Quendra the Huntress. Yours is Luke-Palmer?”

“Just call me Luke,” he said. “Palmer’s my family name.”

She smiled gently, though she really wanted to start firing away at the man. Still, cognizant of the healer’s words, she gave him a small bowl.

“Here,” she said. “You’re probably hungry.”

“Thanks,” Luke said, taking the dish. It was full of berries, perhaps the size of grapes. They were a pale red, and reminded him slightly of raspberries, save for one significant thing. “Um…are they supposed to be glowing?”

“Yes,” Quendra said. “Haven’t you seen glowberries before?”

“No, I haven’t,” Luke said, trying one. They were delicious – they were sweet and tart and juicy, like a combination of strawberry, banana, and blackberry, and something else he couldn’t quite describe. “These are excellent, thanks.”

“You’re welcome. You probably still feel like sleeping; the sleep dart’s effects last a good long while. Go ahead, rest; you’ll feel better by the time darkness comes. , It was nice to meet you, Luke.”

“And you,” Luke said, laying back. He wanted to say more, but she was right — he still felt exhausted. He lay back, and fell into slumber once more.

—

Aisell slumped against the wall, exhausted after eighteen hours of searching. They had ransacked the house inside and out, scoured every corner of the barn, the fields, they even went out as far as the edge of the woods – but there was no sign of him.

“Sorry, Ais,” Aezhay said, sitting down next to her and handing her a gok’ma soda. “I haven’t seen any sign of him. He vanished, just like Fray-fray did. Not that –”

Aisell sighed. “I know you don’t mean to say Luke was a pet. And I understand why you think I’m crazy for thinking he wasn’t.”

Aezhay smiled. “You? Maybe. But I know Lezah isn’t crazy.”

“Oh no?”

“No. When Lee snaps, it’ll take a squadron of peacekeepers to keep her down.”

Aisell chuckled in spite of herself.

Lezah came over two her sisters, and leaned next to them. “Still no sign of him, pup, and the sun’s going down. Don’t know that there’s much more we can do tonight.”

Aezhay looked up. “We could go further into the woods. Maybe….”

Aisell looked into the woods. Sol Archavia had almost dropped below the horizon, and just the top of its bluish disk was visible. If Luke was in the woods, they’d never find him, especially at night – and worse, dozens of different creatures could.

“No,” she said, covering her face. “No, Zhay. Thanks. We’ll look more in the morning. Maybe…maybe he’s hiding. Maybe….”

She hung on to that maybe, because otherwise she’d have to face the fact that Luke had either been taken and killed, or he’d left by choice. She hoped with all her soul that it was the latter…even though she could hardly bear the thought. For if he’d left on his own, he hadn’t been able to forgive her. And never would.

But that was better than the alternative. For if he’d been killed, then she’d betrayed his trust in the name of safety, only to lead him to his demise.

—

As the Archavian night fell, Luke finally began to wake fully. He was examined by the healer; Wolan proclaimed Luke fit, save for some fading bruises; Luke admitted he’d gotten in a fight with a pet human and the healer had nodded, soberly. The injuries certainly didn’t look like they’d been inflicted by a Titan.

Luke got a chance to clean up a bit. He was rather surprised to find that they had running water in their burrow; he was expecting to have to use a latrine of some sort, which wouldn’t be so bad. But an actual toilet – okay, it took some instruction to use, but the principle was the same – that was a godsend.

By the time Quendra arrived, Luke had enjoyed a breakfast of nuts and mossaberries, and was in a reasonably good mood, for a victim of kidnapping.

He thought about immediately demanding his freedom. But that didn’t work last time, and besides…it had been a long time since he’d been able to talk to someone without shouting. A long time since he’d been able to look someone in the eye without craning his neck.

He had to admit, this was a nice change of pace.

Quendra sat down in a chair next to him, and smiled. “The healer says you’re doing well. I…I have a few questions. Do you mind if I ask them of you?”

“Of course not,” Luke said. “Not like I’m going anywhere.”

Quendra smiled politely. “Something confused me…you said that Palmer was your family name. Was it the family name of your captors?”

“What? No – no. I…it’s my family name. Of my family.”

“Your giant family?”

“My human family.”

Quendra frowned. This didn’t make sense. She decided to take a different tack. “How…how did Eyes Like Ice come to take you prisoner?”

“Eyes Like Ice?”

“The guardian. With yellow hair, and…well…eyes like ice.”

“You must mean Aisell. She…well, she didn’t take me prisoner, not exactly. She found me on Titan Station.”

“Titan Station – and where is that?”

“Titan. It’s a moon of Saturn.”

Quendra rubbed her temples. She had heard tales that the giants could fly to other worlds, and she had no doubt it could be true. But she had never considered that there could possibly be humans there.

“So did she buy you there, as a…a pet?”

“No, I told you, she found me. I was scavenging – hiding, eating food that the Titans dropped. Staying out of sight. Not fun, but I was managing.”

Every answer was leading to two more questions. “Were you in a tribe on Titan? Like ours?”

“What? No, I was kidnapped from my home.”

“And where was your home?”

“Colorado,” Luke said.

“Colorado. I…I have never heard of it.”

“It’s on Earth.”

Those three words had quite an effect. Quendra jumped up, knocking the chair backward, her eyes wide in shock and fury. “To the shaars with you!” she shouted, and stormed toward the door.