“I’m coming with you,” Agra announced when she reappeared the next morning. The sunlight and fresh snow of a new day fell through the skylight in the main chamber where the humans had spent the night. Jakob was the leaning against the wall with a ration bar and rifle in his hands waiting for the days mission to begin.

  “Oh good,” Jakob said with a grin. The man seemed to be in better spirits now that Liz had given him her weapon. “The more the merrier.” Taylor and Liz reappeared from behind the entrance curtain with more firewood. They had gone through much of what Agra had previously gathered the night before.

  “I’m going to make sure you don’t hurt them.” Agra growled. She threw Quintek a dirty look as the raggedy black feathered Syn snaked his way past her. “We’ve had a little chat and he’s agreed to help me capture them,” Agra said.

  “What?”

  “Calm down Jakob,” Liz said throwing a stick at him. “At least it’s a solution Agra can agree with. I doubt we can pull off a hunt on our own. Think! We have one gun and are easily out matched be even one Syn in terms of strength. If Agra and Quintek want to capture them then so be it. It’s a solution and we ought to do our part.

  Agra was now looming over Jakob despite of the rifle in his hands. “We do it my way first Jakob. If that fails, then you can have your blood.”

  “What do you have in mind?” he asked begrudgingly.

  Satisfied with his answer Agra backed away and turned towards Quintek. “He says that 10 of our kind followed him into the pod when he realized your crippled ship would not survive. Three died during the fall meaning six still roam the surface. They were together when he left them, and they should still be. It means we can lure all of them into a trap.”

  “What kind of trap?” Taylor asked.

  “There is another cave system a half a day’s walk from here. Getting their attention on the walk over should be no problem. We will lead them to a tunnel where we will cave in the entrance.” Agra said as if the plan was as cut and dry as she was making it out to be. She crossed her arms, picking at her wrappings with clawed fingers.

  “Then what?” Jakob asked as he slung the rifle over his shoulder.

  “They won’t be a threat to anyone anymore. They will be my responsibility not yours,” Agra said harshly.

  The dim tepid light of the rising sun sparkled in the fresh frost as Agra led a line of figures through barren white fields of ice. Quintek seemed to relish the company as he bounded up beside Agra who by comparison was trudging wordlessly with severe expression on her trembling beaked face. She occasionally turned to glare at Jakob who followed close behind with Liz and Taylor. The rifle had not left his hands.

  “Tell me Divine One. How it is you came to fraternize with humans?” Quintek asked with a short series of clicks and pops. He had specially crafted the phrase to provoke, to test and prod.

  “Don’t call me that!” Agra snapped back with a clawed finger in his face. Blinking surprise Agra found that she had stopped abruptly and that the eyes of everyone were now on her. She had answered in English without realizing it.

  “What did he call you?” Liz asked.

  “Its nothing,” Agra said before resuming the march with a quicker pace. The humans eyed each other questioningly as Quintek ran ahead to join her. They kept their distance.

  Hours passed into a dim passably lukewarm summer on Altaire IV. Quintek had not left Agra’s side. Despite her outward attempts at animosity, Agra couldn’t deny that Quintek was of incredible interest to her. The Syn following close behind her was an enticing enigma, as well the first of her kind she had spoken to in years. She couldn’t ignore him forever, nor did she really want to. It didn’t take long for Agra’s curiosity to get the better of her.

  “My friends refer to themselves as humans. That is the name of their kind. Would you happen to know what our kind calls themselves?” Agra asked abruptly with a series of chirps and clicks. Focused intently on the three humans behind them Quintek perked up at the sound of her voice.

  “Even you do not know?” Quintek asked with a disheartened blink of his red eyes.

  “My teacher refused to tell me,” Agra said with lingering shame, “said I was unworthy.”

  “So you had a teacher.”

  “I don’t want to talk about that. You don’t know the answer, so forget I asked,” Agra said flustered.

  “A fascinating secret though,” Quintek offered as he strode up beside her. “Our kind obviously has a name, but that knowledge is something exclusively kept by the masters.”

  “The Queens?” Agra said throwing a human word into the conversation. “Your masters are strictly female so I think it’s more accurate to call them Queens.”

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  “And quite disrespectful I’d imagine,” Quintek said as he tested the word Agra had taught him. She was right. To even describe the Queens in anything but the Sacred Tongue was an offense of the highest order. “Is that what you would rather be called? A Queen?”

  “No, never,” Agra hissed. She contemplated walking away, but couldn’t. She had more questions she wanted answered and that meant talking with Quintek whether she like it or not.

  “Agra is enough,” she finally said to move the conversation forward.

  “This preoccupation with names is something you inherited from your human teacher isn’t it?” Quintek replied with his own question. “They all have names. You have a name. You even wanted me to have a name. I find it very strange.”

  “That’s the second time you’ve called me strange. What makes me any stranger than you?” Agra complained. “You don’t act like any soldier I’ve ever heard of.”

  “How would you know that?” Quintek remarked slyly. He knew he had trapped her.

  “My Father told me,” Agra insisted. “He told me about your savage kind.”

  “How did that make you feel?” Quintek said voicing his suspicions. Agra might be able to fool the humans, but she couldn’t keep secrets from him. Agra hesitated, glancing back at the humans as she carefully considered what to say next. They no doubt were already asking the same question Quintek had. At least they wouldn’t be able to understand her answer.

  “Something’s up with Agra,” Liz said with a hushed voice.

  “Its Quintek. I think he’s up to something,” Taylor agreed.

  “We shouldn’t trust any one of them,” Jakob said pushing his way past his comrades. He glanced over at the two Syn and gestured with his rifle. “Quintek was on our ship. He’s the enemy whether he admits it or not. What does that make Agra if they’re so cozy? Agra herself is another story all together. Something isn’t adding up. If she was raised by a human how does she know so much about the Syn? Hasn’t everything she’s told us about the Syn been vague?”

  “Now that you mention it I asked her what she knew about the Syn when we met and she told me she knew nothing. She lied to us,” Taylor realized with wide eyes. He then turned to Liz with a pleading look in his eyes. Liz frowned and finally revealed the strange inconsistencies they had found in the data pad. They all turned towards Agra and Quintek who had moved on to the top of a nearby hill. The sight of a Syn Soldier pointing out something in the distance as his Agra lorded over him made was a terrifying reminder that their kind craved conquest. Agra and Quintek proved how crafty, intelligent, and driven their enemy really was.

  “If she tries anything,” Jakob said gripping his rifle even tighter. He surveyed the snowy horizon.

  “Tracks,” Quintek pointed out with a click some hours later.

  “Oh no,” Agra said bending down to wave her hand above the set of three toed tracks preserved in the snow. The single line of tracks had diverged as two groups of her kin had wandered off into the icy horizon in opposite directions.

  “I thought you said they were together,” she hissed at Quintek.

  “They’re aimless now, without purpose. You should know that” was all that Quintek replied. He then backed away to let the humans get a look at the tracks.

  “So its divide and conquer then,” Jakob grinned with satisfaction.

  “This changes nothing,” Agra said pounding at the snow. As she stood back up, she heard a whistling cry from Quintek. He’d followed one group of tracks up a nearby hill and gestured for her to follow

  “This was a larger group,” he said with a clipped voice as something caused him to stiffen with concern.

  Agra froze in place, a rippling feeling racing up her back. Quintek looked to her with a wordless stare as his black feathers visibly bristled.

  “Agra what is it?” Taylor exclaimed. Jakob scanned the horizon with his rifle raised.

  “I see one,” he smiled, finger snapping to the trigger. Agra turned to see a Syn bounding towards them on all fours.

  “No!” Agra yelled as Jakob fired several sizzling rounds harmlessly into the snow around the Syn as it zipped from side to side. She jumped at him, ripping the rifle from his hands just as he had prepared the killing shot. Jakob flew back into the snow with a thump as the Syn cut short its approach and began to circle.

  “I said no killing,” Agra roared. She once again discarded the rifle and took a step forward when a bestial cry rang out. It was Quintek

  “Agra!”

  Another Syn leapt from a bounding sprint over the hill and crashed into Quintek with a feral shriek. Together they collapsed into a furious melee of claws and torn feathers leaving streaks of blue syncline blood as they rolled through the snow. Agra moved to help him when she urgently remembered the other Syn. She spun around in time to know she was too late. Jakob cursed as he struggled to his feet, the Syn already on top of him. Liz screamed as Taylor tried to intervene. The Syn soldier Mauled Jakob with an open beak and frenzied claws. With a pained yell Jakob was throttled back to the ground. Drops of crimson red stained the snow as the Syn furiously slashed and clawed at the helpless man. Jakob cried out one last time as the creature bit down on his shoulder with a sickening squelch of torn blood and flesh.

  “Kill it.” was the last raspy sentiment to form on his pale blood streaked lips as he went still and the monster began to feed.

  Agra leapt with a feral ferocity. Running at the Syn on all fours she launched herself into her kin with enough force to hear its carapace crack as she tackled them into the snow several meters away. Liz didn’t need to say anything for Taylor to help her drag Jakob away as soon as it was clear.

  They were merely spectators as Agra confronted the Syn with unmatched fury. Any well practiced facade of civility fell away as she engaged in battle as any other Syn would. With a snarling hiss she slashed mercilessly at the Syn she had pinned to the ground with one devastating swipe of her claws after another. Speckles of blue blood smeared her face as the Syn managed the strength to throw her off. It lashed out in desperation, ripping away at her white wrappings with one final hideous screech. Agra regained her balance with murder in her eyes. A torn flap in her wrappings exposed her vivid blood red Syn feathers. Her claws flashed and in one final strike she plunged her hands deep into the creature’s abdomen with a meaty crack. The pitiful creature uttered one final whimpering gurgle before becoming motionless in her grasp. Agra hissed herself before loosening her grasp and allowing the stricken body to crumple in the blue tinged snow. She stood there for a breathless moment covered in its blood before realizing what she had done. Blinking suddenly, Agra held her dripping blood stained claws palm up in the pale light of the sun with horrified mixture of satisfaction and terror.

  “Why?” She cried out in frustration as she began frantically tearing the blood-soaked fabric from her body. By now Liz and Taylor had dragged Jakob up against a fallen tree where they were desperately trying to keep him conscious.