As the dogs disappeared into the woods, Greater Than glanced sideways at At and said, “I kept waiting for you to do that bow trick of yours, we could use the meat.”

At smiled and said, “I didn’t want to get in your way when you made your move.”

The tension ruptured like an old sack, and they were all laughing and talking at once. Dash and Question bashed their weapons against each others’ then frolicked with their fellows underfoot. When Point related this to me he said, “I’ve seen it before. You can have males who were ready to kill each other, but they stand together like that and it forges some inner bond that just seems more important.”

They finally turned back to investigate their original mission, only to see that Star was already there, prodding it with her foot. This peculiar apparition, however, wasn’t even much of a surprise at that point. They took it in stride as they walked over to her, exchanging greetings, but no questions.

I’m indebted to Percent for a detail that put their chance meeting with a doe on the scene of an almost-massacre into perspective for me. As soon as Question saw Star, he prodded him and XClaim and said, “Get around behind her, check her out.”

They quietly sidled around behind Star and immediately confirmed what he’d told them. Her necklace appeared to be just a leather thong with a pendant of purple glass, but from the rear revealed itself as a longer loop, hung with a very large knife. It was one of At’s special ones, as much weapon as tool: a well-honed length of eight penny nail wrapped with a strip from a tin can so it had both piercing and slicing power and fitted with a handle of polished bone from the squirrel skeleton the kits had rejoiced to discover, but given up on assembling for a decorative sculpture in the common area. So one of Question’s stories from exile was proven true. His peer status grew even higher as they examined the proof of his wildest tales: suddenly rendered manifest.

Because he had told us, asking it be kept between myself and his mates, and of course Paren, who was becoming, if not the den mother, an honorary kit herself. He had seen her twice, and both times he and At had silently shadowed her through the trees, leaving her even more room than they would a raccoon or rabbit because they respected her intelligence and could see that she’d grown wise to the ways of the woods. She moved from tree to tree as much as on the ground, running out branches to take flying leaps to the next limb, jouncing up and down wildly before making her way in to the central trunk. And she was very obviously not exploring, but hunting.

They had watched her scan the woods, descending gracefully to examine possible burrows or shelters in fallen trees. Her sense of smell was obviously keener even that most of us, and she immediately focused in on any droppings she sniffed. She would examine various animal feces acutely, putting her nose close with nostrils wide to examine the spoor. She was looking for a certain animal, no doubt about it: and we all suspected exactly what animal it was she hunted with her super-knife. So she stood there, armed and dangerous, poking an investigative foot into the edges of a steaming pile of intestines and interior organs almost as tall as her own head.

The rest report experiencing an understandable awe as they approached the massive mound of entrails: it was visually threatening, spewed a blast of intriguing alien odors, and was just so impossibly huge. Percent was wide-eyed as he told Paren and myself, “It scared me even before I figured out what it was; just this huge, smelly mountain of stuff . It put my neck hairs on end, no error.”

The party stood motionless for quite some time, just taking it all in. There were so many reasons not to be able to take it all in. Ampersand had been staring in his typical unfocused way, his ears forward and whiskers weaving like limbs in a storm. Suddenly he blinked and nodded—“that way he does when you can almost hear something click in his head”, Question told me—and began to address the group.

“It was an enormous animal,” he said. “Look at your own abdomens, then at your body bulk, and calculate that it was eight, possibly ten times larger than we are. That’s an intestine there: over fifteen times the diameter of ours.”

“Way bigger than that thing that killed Gli…” Bracket started to say, but was stopped by a kick from Question, who shot his eyes at Star and made a hand gesture suggesting a little sensitivity to others.

“Correct.” Ampersand glanced around for discussion and met only inquisitive stares, went on: “We can assume that it was killed, disemboweled, and taken away. Perhaps for meat. But definitely a deliberate kill, a harvesting.” Another glance met no rebuttal.

“It wouldn’t be easy to bring down something this big. I think we can conclude it was killed by means of the explosions we heard. I’m not a big believer in co-incidence. For the same reason, we can conclude that those other beasts that almost attacked us were involved with whoever killed this thing. They were obviously summoned by those notes and obeyed blindly even when they were avid to kill us.”

Greater Than spoke up grudgingly, “All that makes sense. So we have intelligent beings in command of monsters, capable of killing an even bigger monster, maybe by explosions.”

“They could have used those attack animals to kill it,” Dollar put in. “They were pretty definitely killers, and under guidance like some biological weapon.”

“That’s a good point,” Ampersand said with his dry lecturer’s manner. “I rejected it because of the relative size of the prey and those beasts. It would have been four times their size. But perhaps it was a gentle being unable to fight off anything so obviously designed for destruction.”

“Either way, it’s a really urgent threat.” Greater Than, taking the predictable view of the situation. A view I accepted, as did everyone at the scene. “You need to put out patrols and pickets. Try to imagine those things tearing into your commons at dinner time. Not to mention whoever controls them and sets off explosions.”

“Absolutely,” Point quickly agreed. “I’ll arrange some vigilance and system of signals. But what about you? It’s your commons also. And needs defending.”

“Everybody hates Trinchans until there is death at the door,” Greater Than replied curtly. “But for what it’s worth, I’m definitely going to track this situation and scout it out. When I find out anything important, I’ll send word to you. Maybe through some of those little idiots who’ve been following us around and spying on us.”

Apparently Question and XClaim reacted to that with faces that made the whole group laugh once again. Then plunge back to seriousness when Star said, “I’m coming with you.”

“No, in fact, you are not coming with us,” Greater Than rasped out in a tone XClaim described as “Minor Trinchan Threat, Class A-3 of 10.”

“You always have trouble with facts,” Star snapped back. “One way or the other, I’m going to find out about this. Those things that jumped you aren’t that different from that red thrrirch that killed Glider. I’m going after them.”

There was some shock at that kind of language from a doe, but nobody at that point thought it odd that a female would set out into the woods after vengeance on a killing beast with teeth as long as her forearms. That was Star, we were learning. She was not typical and seemed to be getting wilder each day she lived on this new planet.

“Go home,” Greater Than said stolidly. “All of you. Don’t go out there confusing the scent. Stay away and let us handle this.”

Dash was so proud of the “us” it was disgusting, Question told me. He trotted off into the woods with Greater Than, not looking back once. Star sniffed the air and laughed. “I don’t think we have to worry about getting confused with that scent,” she said, then moved off after the Trinchan duo, taking a slightly different path into the woods. In the direction she were headed there was suddenly one of the flat, bright explosions, then another.

Point shook his ears glumly and looked around the group, “I don’t see any way any good will come out of this. Those maniacs are just going to cause more trouble, maybe get hurt. Or worse.”

There was general agreement on that, but At was already pulling out a tin knife and slicing into a length of intestine. The fecal sludge inside gave off another whole set of eloquent odors, though it looked disgusting. Which didn’t keep the kits from plowing around in it over the next few days as they harvested gut to be cut and dried and applied very usefully. One of the first uses At found for the deergut strips was replacing bowstrings.

Meanwhile, the ever pragmatic Dollar said, “That’s obviously a heart, right there. Maybe a liver, too. Should we take some slices home for food?”

Point eyed the organs distastefully. “I think that’s a completely disgusting idea,” he said. Then he pulled out his slim black knife and said, “But yes, we should.”

“Yum, monster guts!” XClaim exclaimed. “Backslash will be so pleased.”