The boy seemed to be at something of a loss when he got out of his shelter. He looked around, not so much searching, Tristan decided, as trying to decide something. As the boy’s gaze headed for the tree he was sitting in, Tristan called to him.

“Hey buddy, did you sleep well?”

Emil looked up until he found the Samalian. “The ground was a little hard.”

“Yeah, it would be.” Tristan climbed down.

“Should I take down the shelter? Make things look like they were before we built it?”

“That’d be a good idea, if you were on the run. As it is, you don’t have to. The weather will take care of it. A few rain storm and there won’t be any evidence of it.”

The boy looked at it, then nodded. He smiled at Tristan. “It’s strange not to put everything back the way it was.”

“I noticed you always made your bed and stored everything once you were done. Is that how they wanted things at he academy? How about you start the fire up again.”

“Yes.” Emil gathered some moss and put that in the pit. “Being orderly means being productive. Putting things back, means that others will be able to use the space afterward.” He struck the stone against his knife and sparks flew on the moss. It only took him four tries before it started burning. He carefully added twigs until they caught too, then larger branches until he had a fire. “You put things away too.”

“I do, but it’s because on a ship you don’t want anything lying around. When you’re in a hurry, the compensators can’t always keep up with the maneuvers, and things will go flying all over the place. That can be dangerous.” He gathered their food and handed it to Emil to prepare.

“It wasn’t something you were taught when you were my age?”

Tristan smiled. “I grew up in a place like this, remember? In a forest, putting things away just means covering your fire so you won’t accidentally burn everything down. It means hoisting your meat high enough and away from your camp so the animals won be able to get to it, or bother you trying to get to it. Making my bed wasn’t much of a concern when that was my bed. He patted the ground.”

Emil cut the tubers into similar sizes and added some of the herbs to them before wrapping them in thick leaves. He made a hole under the fire and pushed the bundle in it.

He sat down on the opposite side from Tristan. “Why did you leave?”

“I wanted to know what else there was. I’d caught sight of shuttles and ships through the canopy a time or two and I could work out there was more than just the forest.”

“Did your father tell you what was outside?”

Tristan shook his head. “He said that it wasn’t for us. The outside world would only want to crush us, make us its slaves. We argued a lot about it. I didn’t know about the universe then, but flying boxes had to mean there were amazing things out there.” He smiled “And I was right.”

“He let you go?”

“He died.”

“I’m sorry.”

“The forest is a dangerous place. Even when you’re careful, an animal can get the better of you. Without him there to stop me, I left.”

“Is that when you met your wife?”

Tristan smiled. “That was a few years later. Between trips in space.”

“Do you have a picture of her? And your daughter?”

“Only in my head.”

“Why?”

“Because I don’t want the bad guys to know about them. You know computers and everything they can do, right?”

Emil nodded.

“With an image, they could find them, hurt them. I don’t want that.”

Emil was quiet was a long time, and Tristan let him. He only spoke when he thought their food was ready.

The boy dug out the tubers and unwrapped them. “Do you think the bad guys will continue coming after me and my father when we’re together?”

“Hopefully they won’t have a reason to by then.” He took those Emil offered him.

“If I stay away from him, do you think the bad guys will leave him alone?”

Tristan gave himself a few seconds to look like he was considering the question. “I don’t know. I don’t know why they came after you or your father. Until we know that, we can’t know if they'd continue.”

“How do you find out?”

“The easiest way is to find one of them and ask. Sometimes, if I know who they are, I can get enough information off the net to work it out. Other time, I’ll find someone unrelated who’ll knows.”

“You don’t have any of that?”

“No. It happened too fast. We barely got away. But I’ll find out. It’s just a question of time.” He gave him his warmest smile and then they ate in silence.

When they were done Emil went over what they had left. “There isn’t much. Are we heading back to the shuttle?”

“Do you want to? I was thinking we could spend another night out here, Alex won’t be back until tomorrow.”

Emil thought about it. “Then we need to go looking for more tubers.”

“Alright. Do you feel confident enough to do it yourself?”

“A—alone?”

Tristan nodded.

The boy looked around, clearly nervous. When he looked at Tristan again, the Samalian gave him an encouraging smile.

“I—okay. I can do it.”

“I know you can. You’re pretty good at living in the woods. Since you’re going to be alone. Head in that direction, and use your knife to mark the trees so you can find your way back.”

Emil took out his knife and nodded. He hesitated for a moment, then headed in the direction Tristan had indicated.

Tristan gave him a fifteen minute head start, then followed his trail, being sure to stay well out of a human’s hearing range.

The boy didn’t move as fast as Tristan expected, stopping often not only to collect edible plants, but to observe some they hadn’t come across in their previous excursions. More than once he found himself having to hold still behind a tree while the boy was busy with this plant or that one.

Their progress was slow, the boy took his time in searching, and not quite a straight line, so that by the time he was in the area where the beast was slumbering, the boy was further away that Tristan liked.

Still, this should work.

Tristan took out the remote and activated it. A roar erupted and the boy froze. Another roar, sounding closer, and sound of branches breaking. The animal was moving erratically, causing a lot more breakage than Tristan expected.

The boy backed away, shaking.

The animal bursts from the foliage with a growl, broken branches falling from its maw. Emil screamed and did the one thing he shouldn’t have. He turned and ran.

The beast took off after him, and Tristan cursed. It was a lot faster than he’d expected. He ran after them.

Emil had the advantage of being smaller, he could duck under low branches and around trees, while the animal crashed into them, more than once stopping long enough to rip the branches apart as if they had attacked it. It meant Tristan had a clear path to follow, and with each stop it made, he was catching up. 

They were still a lot closer to Emil than he liked when he finally managed to jump on the beast’s back, digging his claws into it’s tough hide.

“Buddy, you better hide!”

The animal bucked and shook itself, throwing him off. It turned to face him as Tristan got to his feet. It’s golden fur was marred on its back by red blood, its face had more red, there, thicker branches had scratched deeply. It’s amber eyes fixed on him and Tristan thought there was a touch of madness in them.

It lunged at him and he threw himself to the side. It landed and used its momentum to turn and jump at him again. He’d barely gotten back up, he didn’t have much time to react so he went for an attack of his own. He ducked and ran at the lunging animal, under it and ran a claw along it’s belly. He left lines of red there, but his claws hadn’t been able to go deep enough to cause serious damage.

He turned and caught a hind foot in the side, its claws cutting his skin with much more ease. He hissed and glanced at the damage. The cut was from hip to mid-side. He bled heavily, but his fur caught the blood, slowing the flow. If he lied down, he could count on it stopping. Unfortunately, if he did that, the beast would rip him apart before the blood could coagulate. He grabbed his knife and readied himself for another attack. 

The animal’s nostrils flared and it took a cautious step forward. Maybe the cuts on its stomach had made it realize Tristan wasn’t going to be an easy lunch. How often did it have to fight things with claws of their own? Not often by the lack of scars on its body. If it left now, it would have some as a reminder, but Tristan could tell it had no intention of running off. Like him, it would see this to the end. It probably didn’t realize that it would be its own.

It swiped at him and he avoided it. He returned the swipe and it backed off a step. They walked around each other, each testing the other with small attacks.

Tristan saw the boy hiding behind a tree, watching them, fear in his eyes. He was far enough away not to catch the animal’s attention.

It lunged at him. He stepped aside, dug the blade in its side and made it roar in pain. He bit back his own yell as claws dug in his back.

It backed away and gave a lick at its bloody side. Tristan ran at it, and was surprised when it stopped what it was doing and swiped at him. The claws dug in his chest, but he didn’t back away. He did that and it would be on top of him. It wouldn’t get the better of him. It wasn’t some animal that would accomplish the universe’s will.

He stepped forward and saw surprise in its eyes. It backed up, but not in time to avoid a cut on its muzzle. It snarled and swiped at him. Tristan let the paw connect, grabbed it and plunged the knife in the joint.

It roared and shook him hard enough he lost his grip and fell to the ground. Fortunately he managed to keep hold of the knife. He winced in pain as he rolled away and got back to his feet.

The boy moved to leave his hiding place, but Tristan motioned him back. This wasn’t over. 

The beast tried to put some weight on its injured leg and snarled again. It glared at him and limped in his direction, its lips pulled back to show long sharp teeth.

Tristan snarled in return, but it didn’t pause. It lowered itself a dozen of its long strides away and crouched low, its tail lashing, the spade tapping the ground.

Tristan didn’t wait, he ran for it.

Its body froze for a moment, then it reared up, towering over him, it swiped with its good paw, but Tristan avoided it and threw himself into it, plunging the knife in it’s chest.

They topple back and Tristan felt its fangs bite into his shoulder. He plunged the knife in over and over until he was out of strength.

It didn’t move anymore.

He pushed himself off it, and crumbled next to it. He looked at the sky and grinned. I win again.

Then the boy was looking down on him, fear and worry on his face. He looked to want to say something, but no words came out as he looked him up and down.

“I’m okay,” Tristan said.

The boy threw himself at him. “I was so scared. It came out of nowhere. You saved me.”

Tristan couldn’t answer immediately, his weight pressing on most of his wounds. He forced an arms around him. “I said I’d keep you safe. I won’t let anything happen to you buddy, I gave you my word.”

“What are we going to do now?”

Tristan smiled. “Now we need to get back to the shuttle so I can clean up and get patched up. After that, I’m thinking we can skin this thing and add the meat to everything you collected.” He had Emil get off him and help him to stand, then they made their slow way back.

Each time he glanced at the boy, he was looking back at him with admiration. It had be more painful that he’d planned, but it had done the job. Now the boy was ready for the next part of his plan.