anger resonated in the woman's voice, which actually sounded good. A male voice growled: "Yes, but she ducked. I couldn't have known that. The shot would have been." He seemed to want to defend himself. "Would have.", The woman mocked further. The person opposite just growled. The two crouched on the middle branches of a sturdy beech tree that had survived the crash of the ship unscathed and between the roots of which the missing fin lay. A third, very young voice asked, "What should we do? Go down and do it?"

The woman laughed softly: "Little one, if we always shoot before we talk, we are no better than the Nirgrida ." She threw her other companion a fleeting, but slightly evil look.She hardly paid any attention to him. The third fell silent and looked mutely at the ship they had landed on. Suddenly a "Look!" Escaped him, but one look at his companions and he knew that they had already spotted the three newcomers.

" Nirgrida ", she growled darkly, while a fourth figure nimbly climbed up to the three of them. The man whispered softly but sharply: "Shouldn't you stay downstairs with the others?", But then the other woman interrupted him. Turning to the newcomer, she asked: “Do you know one of them?” Without words, the other raised her binoculars to her eyes and looked at the three strangers who were standing by the ship in motorcycle clothing and who were taking care of the person whom their comrade had shot. Finally she lowered the binoculars and nodded. "Yes, all three.", She replied briefly and sat down again from the branches of the beech tree to the forest floor in two leaps.The three at lofty heights exchanged brief glances. "What now?", Finally wanted to know the youngest. The woman replied: "Nothing. We'll wait." With that she put her binoculars back to her eyes and could just see how the three bikers were taking the people away. Slowly she let it drop again and continued to look at the place where the four had disappeared. Her two companions disappeared noiselessly down through the canopy of leaves, but she only climbed after them when her name rang out from below, which tore her from her thoughts.

With two jumps she too stood by the small, shabby-looking group. The four soldiers they had been given to protect the children were still half children themselves and looked around just as frightened as those who were supposed to protect them. The majority of the group consisted of children or old people, only the young woman herself and her three companions were out of school and still young enough not to suffer from any ailment."And what now?", An older woman wanted to know, "Kamyra, we have to find a place to stay, the children are fatally out here.", And she pointed to the smallest, who were already sitting on the ground and heavy because of the heat breathed. Kamyra nodded. "I know. You stay here, we're looking for a sheltered spot by the water where we can set up an emergency camp." With that, she and another woman left the group.

In silence, the two climbed over fallen trees and rocks and made their way through thorny bushes until they saw the blue, glittering surface of the lake shimmering through the last trees in front of them. "This is the lake we saw, I suppose," Kamyra remarked, just to say anything. Your companion only agrees with a low "Hm." Kamyra looked at her sideways for a while, until the other one finally turned her head and looked directly into her eyes. "What is?She wanted to know. No deviant tone in her voice revealed anything about her current feelings. She sounded neither irritated, nor bored or sad. These two words escaped her finely curved lips in a tone so monotonous that Kamyra almost forgot to answer. Kamyra's companion could just as well have said nothing, it would have left the same impression, the same empty silence. "Nothing. "Kamyra hurried to say.

They went on, staying in the forest, but still near the shore. But then they came out of the forest into a meadow, the plants of which reached the two women up to their hips. “Carbine?” The name of her colleague still sounded strange to Kamyra and felt unusually hard on her tongue, which only knew the soft language of her own people. Addressed turned around. "Yes?" - "There must be a river or at least a spring here. Look at the meadow.Despite the heat and drought, it is lush and green. "Carbine nodded slowly, as if she were savoring every word, evaluating it and storing it forever in her memory. Kamyra kept wondering about this woman.

They hadn't known each other long. Carbine had been a prisoner of war, one of the victims of her people's senseless struggle with the Kamyras. She had been seriously injured and taken to the POW camp where Kamyra Carbines had taken care of. As a trained healer, she had to help everyone without exception, be it friend or foe, and so the helpers had patched Carbine together again according to Kamyra's instructions. Now Carbine's dark gray-brown shimmering fur covered the old scars, only one was clearly visible: the brand on her bare upper arm, the sign of the twelve.

Kamyra followed her student, because that is what Carbine had become in the short time they had known each other, through the endless sea of ​​grass away from the lake.Suddenly Carbine stopped. "Do you hear that?" She asked, her ears twitching for confirmation. Kamyra listened in the distance. Her ears were smaller than the Carbines because she didn't have to live in a desert area like these. But then she could hear it too: a soft but steady rustling, easy to overhear, but still omnipresent. The two started moving again and set course by ear. Soon the noise grew louder, swelled up and finally ended in a roar when Carbine and Kamyra reached the bank of the river, which tumbled wildly through his bed.

"Perfect.", Kamyra explained with satisfaction, even before Carbine could even ask whether she would set up camp here. In the evening a satisfied Kamyra and an exhausted Carbine returned to the small group at the lake. The next day they wanted to go.

TO BE CONTINUED* sigh * So that's it. And now, the ring is free for everyone who wants to attack me. I am armed against everything!

Bye-bye the Drachini