"She's gone," I said. "We really should go."

"No," Matt stammered. "I can't. She's still alive down there!"

"Get out of here!" Quana yelled at us. "Go while you still can!"

I dragged Matt into an alcove nested inside the Wodov's compartment.

"Why would she do that?" he whimpered. "She has a loving husband, and an egg! How could she just throw her life away?"

I shrugged. "Maybe she thought she'd live, and still be herself."

"Where would she get such an idea, though? She didn't know for a fact that it'd work!"

"I don't know. She was hanging out with Salda. Who knows? She may have brainwashed her, verbally or chemically."

Matt smacked his forehead. "The Aqsarki! Of course!"

I stared at him. "Aqsarki? What's that?"

"Not what. It's a who. Quana and I were studying a book on Pathilonian legends. Apparently the Aqsarki are a race of aliens living outside the Kaybok system. It's said that their bodies consist entirely of energy, like neurons.

"For the most part, they inhabit plants on a little planet called Muifakis 9. The legends state that these creatures sometimes form spore pods and fire themselves down to Pathilon and other planets, inhabiting the bodies of whatever life they find there. It's rumored that the tribe of Otamerr on Pathilon, the most notoriously pacifistic tribe on the planet, carry those creatures around in their brains. The more we studied, the more she obsessed about it. `If such a thing existed,' she said. `I'd want to have one. Just think, sharing the gospel with your mind rather than mere words that could be misread or misinterpreted! So many earth concepts, the meaning of the gospel-right there in an instant, with a rightly directed thought!'"

He shook his head. "I just thought it was a story. I agreed that it would be great."

"C'mon," I said. "We've got to get out of here."

Already I could hear the things slithering up the corridor. I saw their dark shapes darting up from below the staircase railing, sniffing around the nearby furniture piece.

We hurried to the opposite end of the Wodov's box, which, strangely enough, did have chairs, posh ones designed for tails, turned the corner around a dividing wall, and stopped when I heard someone whistling.

The sound came from the stairwell immediately to my right. I could see the black head emerging from below the rail.

"Quick!" a figure in a Germorx dolphin skin robe hissed. "This way!"

The bird nose and cheetah spots told me that this was Prince Nabal, deposed ruler of Mecavor, a country on Pathilon.

An eyeless rodent, his pet muadwomp Hanna, poked its head out of the hood of his robe, sniffing the air in curiosity.

"Hurry. We don't have much time." Nabal rushed us into the private bedrooms of the temple wodovs, a lavish gold chamber filled with electronics and the finest of jamassi beds, exotic pink and gold ones with elaborate patterns and canopies.

"What are you doing here, prince?" I asked as I watched him pulling apart drapes in search of something.

"There's something in this room...if you are referring to my purpose on this planet." He gestured to my wife. "She's my friend, too. I came as soon as I heard." He yanked on a bell pull, and immediately a pair of drapes slid aside to reveal an elevator.

"What about Shali?" Matt asked. "You're putting her in danger."

Shali was Nabal's wife, a commoner he picked up after his conversion to Christianity. They are very happy with each other. Shali just hatched her third egg.

"She's up at the space station, with your family. The in-laws, at least." He opened the elevator with a key, hurried us in.

"Wait," I asked. "Nabal, how did you find all this stuff? Have you been here before or something?"

"You can say that. As part of my duties as prince, I visited operations on Wuxrinus during a few Quaceb holidays. My elite status grants me certain privileges. They said I didn't have to return any of my keys."

The elevator had the shape of a seed pod, the flooring and walls cushioned with fine padding. A circular banquette-like furniture piece stood in the center, which we sat upon as Nabal turned the gold dial to the appropriate floor.

None of this made any sound. The elevator was designed to move in absolute silence, as to not interrupt services.

These were not Christian Quacebs, so a great deal of temple money got misappropriated to extravagant frills such as this elevator, which shot us down to another floor and opened back up mere seconds after we placed our tushes on the furniture.

Nabal led us out into a fancy sort of crypt, filled with gold sarcophagi, elaborate irreligiously figurative statuary, some in gold, and other fine ornaments. "We should be safe in here for awhile. Only the high priests have access to this vault. No one gets in or out without a special key."

"Quana..." my wife whimpered.

I rubbed her back consolingly.

Pillow glanced around. "Wait, Zero and Chikarra..."

"They got out. They're keeping watch with Norenio. We need to leave this planet at once. We have lost the princess, Salda, and a lot of other good Abreyas. There's nothing left for us here."

"We have to find father!" Pillow insisted. "If we leave him behind, and he dies, I'll never forgive myself!"

Nabal glanced at Matt.

"I don't know. Quana just has a ...thing in her body. She still might be in there somewhere. You think we can maybe just...camp out here for awhile or something?"

"Are you crazy!" Nabal said. "Aside from lacking facilities for food and sleep, you have an egg! Besides, how long do you think it will take them to figure out we're down here?"

"Not long at all." The princess strode out from behind a statue, accompanied by a pair of giant black insects, the one to her right whistling three soulless notes.

"Let me guess," I said. "She had a key too?"

"Perhaps," Nabal muttered. "Or maybe they just killed someone for it."

"So," said Quana. "Where are we going."

Nabal answered, "Somewhere safe."

The Vulobge is a nonlethal stunning device, one which produces brilliant flashes of light, loud noises, smoke, and a type of foul smelling gas that burns the eyes. This object Nabal lobbed at Quana and her monstrous companions, dragging me and my wife down a narrow tunnel the moment it exploded in front of them.

In between the ear splitting shrieks, roars and headache producing ultra high pitched frequencies, I could hear the blaring opening riffs to Loverboy's Turn Me Loose. That part would have been enjoyable without the machine's chalkboard scraping sounds. Most Abreyas, though, being more accustomed to the atonal stylings of Niggalani Atarax and others like him, hate that song more than any other song written by humans.

Nabal unlocked a gate, and we got rushed up a staircase, returning to the mossy cracked rock shelving of the world outside.

We found Zero and Norenio busily applying explosives to the walls of the stairwell. I mentioned previously that Abreyas don't shoot first and ask questions later. That doesn't mean that they aren't prepared to do so. And considering what we were up against, they didn't have much choice but to resort to this rather violent extreme.

"We have the prince and the Barnses," Nabal said. "Hurry and blow this before Quana gets close enough to be injured."

"Ponai forgive me for this sacrilege," Zero breathed as he activated the timed detonator.

We ran.

The explosives detonated. We dove and narrowly avoided getting hit by rocks, at least the big ones. The small ones still stung pretty bad.

"Where's Chikarra?" I asked Zero as I picked myself up off the ground.

Our warrior just shook his head. "He didn't make it. The prince is right. We must go."

"Not without father!" my wife shouted.

Zero grabbed her arm and tried to drag her to the spaceport by force, but she broke free from his grip and ran away.

"Pillow!" I yelled, but it was no use. She was going to find her father, come hell or high water.

I glanced at my new nennop. "Thonwa? A little help?"

She flexed her wings a little, took off a foot from the ground, then settled back down. "Can't. Too...tired."

"Good Lord," I groaned.

Matt took out his communicator, calling his nennop back at the ship. "Knocky? How's the egg?"

"Doing just fine, Matt," I heard the other answering from the screen. "I've been singing him several hymns. Your offspring is probably wondering why you're not warming him."

Matt told him about Quana.

"What! That's tragic!"

"Knocknaser, I want you to do something for me. I'm afraid Quana will come back to our ship. The creatures...want something. I don't know what yet, but I don't think it's safe for our egg anymore. You should be coded for David's ship, possibly Nabal's. I want you to move my child there and lock the ship down. Got it?"

"Wait," Knocknaser said. "Prince Nabal is there?"

"Guep. He just helped us out of a jam."

"I'm not sure what fruit preserves..."

"Please, Knocky," Matt sighed. "It's an expression. He helped us, and I want you to try getting into his ship."

"He's not coded for entry," Nabal muttered.

"Then go to David's. But hurry before Quana gets there."

"Guep, Bilo."

Matt sighed. "I'm sorry, Knocknaser."

"It's okay. It's not your fault."

The nennop disconnected.

I knew, the moment we chased Pillow past the end of the quarry land, and were hustling through fields of tall squirming white grass, that she was running for her father's research outpost.

In the distance, I could see the dark shapes of more bug creatures emerging from the landscape. Although colored a bright red and horned like cattle, they weren't something any of us wanted to mess with. Even those of us who thought cows are harmless.

A barn stood nearby, one following the classic Abreya design of stone igloo-like structures around a sort of Quonset hut. We all rushed into it in a hurry, slamming the doors shut and jamming a pair of long mud xedod forks through the door handles.

"Enemy," said a voice behind us.

"Enemy," another voice agreed.

I spun around and found myself surrounded by Grunkiahu.

What are Grunkiahu? A simple paragraph cannot explain the beauty, the awe of these fantastic creatures. Whole books have been written. The horse, the motorcycle and the sports car cannot compare to the sexiness of Grunkiahu ownership.

Their majestic turkey-like bodies are the size of a good sized adult stallion. Their faces, though not pretty to look at, have a regal bearing, and their large black eyes seem to peer straight into your soul. They come in an amazing variety of gorgeous plumages, and their huge muscles make them unparalleled in transportation, both on land and air.

Their large mass also make it simplicity itself to trample someone to death. This was a concern, as we had at least a dozen stomping threateningly about us.

Of course, there was something that bothered me a lot more: Grunkiahu don't talk.

But yet, as the creatures swelled their features to make themselves appear twice as massive, folding their pig-like ears flat against the sides of their heads, I saw their horned beaks mouthing, "Enemy." (Actually, zetixa', the Wava word for enemy, but it still freaked me out).

"Enemy," growled a Grunk with gorgeous chestnut plumage and neon green wattle.

A large glistening black Wotazib Qiahgex with turquoise wattle stomped its claw foot thunderously, knocking over a bucket with its long alligator tail. "Foe!"

The chestnut Futluwaz Duqrell appeared to glare at the black one. "Enemy!"

"Foe!" the other one argued.

Chestnut stamped its feet. "Enemy!"

"Kill?" the Wotazib said diplomatically.

Chestnut nodded. "Kill kill! Stomp!"

"Kill kill stomp," Wotazib agreed.

"No kill kill stomp!" I shouted. "Friend!"

Futluwaz whirled around to face me, nearly knocking me over with her scaly tail. Puffing her feathers out, she intimidated me with territorial dirt kicking.

"You creatures nofriend! Kill kill stomp!"

Okay, so you're probably not impressed by the threat of being trampled to death by a bunch of birds the size of horses, but I found it pretty damn frightening.

The two in the lead, the Futluwaz and the Wotazib Qiahgex could easily kill both I and Zero in a couple stomps, the other ten could wipe out the rest of my team before the animals could even got a good stampede going.

Matt suddenly dropped to his knees, making the distress sounds of a Grunkiahu hatchling.

For a moment, the creatures purred and stared at him quizzically, tilting their heads in their characteristic avian fashion.

Taking this as a cue, I copied Matt.

The Futluwaz kicked up dust, making me cough. "What is this you are doing? Stop!"

I thought this was definitely something I should not stop, so I kept on making peeping noises. Pillow joined me.

The Futluwaz stomped the ground. "Stop this! Stop! Stop!"

"Wait!" squawked a voice from the rear. "Wait wait wait!"

A female nosed her way past the pair of blue feathered Qekhaz that threatened us, her plumage white with black spots, like a snowy owl.

A Runmad Dehmix. Not my favorite breed, but they're cute, nonetheless.

She sniffed deeply, her beak prodding our chests, nibbled our hair, Pillow's fur. It nosed between our legs, smelling our crotches like a dog, sniffed Thonwa's exoskeleton.

"Hello to you too," Matt joked.

"Food Girl?" the Runmad said as she stared at Pillow.

My wife gasped. "Kuqloz?"

The Runmad looked startled. "Food Girl!"

The crowd of great birds echoed the phrase, murmuring to one another.

The Runmad spun around, addressing her peers. "No kill Food Girl. She is Food Girl!"

The logic was circular, but she received grudging nods in response.

"This is Kuqloz," my wife whispered to me. "I raised her from an egg."

"Kuqloz!" Pillow said, wrapping her arms around its neck. "You're so beautiful and...and big!"

The bird sniffed her. "It's you! My House Abreya! How wonderfully exciting!" It rubbed its body against her. "I love you!"

Pillow stared. "I still don't understand why you can talk!"

"I have always been able to talk, but you did not understand me. Now that the Zogmardu have joined with me, I understand a great deal more."

"The Zogmardu want to kill us," Pillow said. "Why are you different?"

Kuqloz shrugged her feathers. "We each have minds separate. Other Zogmardu no like Grunkiahu Zogmardu, but we are content. We live with Aqsarki and have peace."

"Wait," Pillow gasped. "The Aqsarki are real?"

The bird looked at her like she were crazy. "Why would they not be?" And then Kuqloz looked at me questioningly, as if trying to decide if she should destroy me or not.

I threw my arm around Pillow, beating my chest. "Me mate of Food Girl."

Uncomfortable murmurs resulted from this.

The chestnut colored one growled. "Mate dangerous. Smell bad."

"Bad smell! Kill!" cried the two blue feathered Qekhaz.

"No!" Kuqloz said. "No kill mate of Food Girl! Food Girl become unhappy! No bring food!"

I heard grudging murmurs.

"Mate is not Abreya. How is this mate of Food Girl?"

"Now, don't get too excited, David," Pillow said suddenly. "Our new acquaintances are visual learners."

With that, she kissed me passionately on the mouth, sliding a hand under my skirt. "Mate!" she said to the animals.

Norenio rolled her eyes. The Grunkiahu gawked like a bunch of chickens at the grand opening of Kentucky Fried Chicken.

Nabal patted his chest. "I also bring food." He gestured to Zero and Matt. "We are food bringers."

"Then where is food!" Chestnut Futluwaz challenged.

"Me get you food soon. Danger outside. No can do now."

The Futluwaz pondered this a moment.

Its eyes narrowed. "Lies!" A wing pointed at Thonwa. "And that very not food bringer!"

My insectoid nennop got tackled to the floor. A feathered body smashed Matt into the barn wall. He came away with a bleeding forehead, but still conscious.

The next moment, Matt, Nabal, Norenio and Zero got shoved into a wall.

"Stop!" Kuqloz protested. "You make Food Girl sad! She will not bring food!"

"You do not know Food Girl will actually bring food," said a Qekhaz.

"Food Girl is Kuqloz Food Girl! Not mine!" Futluwaz said.

"Can I be your Food Boy?" Matt asked.

"Where is food?" the Qekhaz asked indignantly.

"Food Girl is not our Food Girl," said Futluwaz. "Food Girl pull butt feather."

Suppressing a laugh, I looked at my wife in puzzlement.

"I'm sorry," Pillow said to the brown one. "It was so pretty. I was little!" She tried to pet the Futluwaz, but it backed away.

"You pretty," Pillow insisted. She smoothed her hair, pressed a hand to her chest to illustrate.

Futluwaz looked a bit flattered, but still annoyed. "You pull butt feathers!"

"I'm sorry! I no do again!"

"Stomp kill and you no do ever!"

"Please," said Kuqloz. "Food Girl say she sorry. Food Girl think you mientu."

"I am mientu," Futluwaz agreed. "But Food Girl pull butt feathers."

"Food Girl no give me food, either," said one of the Qekhaz. "Food Girl is mean. She shock me with many Black-Stick shockings."

"Black stick shockings?" I asked my wife.

Pillow blushed green. "I used to zap that one with a steering prod, just for fun."

I smirked. "You evil little munchkin."

"I'm sorry," Pillow told the blue one. "I was little hatchling."

"Food Girl hatchling dumb," Kuqloz said. "Like Qeggatzu hatchling who try to peck wooden board."

"Kill dumb Food Girl!" the blue one yelled.

The other Grunks growled and squawked angrily, but Kuqloz kicked and shoved them back, freeing my companions. "Mine!"

When the others attempted to go around and harm my friends, she butted them, shouting "Mine!" again.

"We can't stay here," I said to my wife.

She nodded, stroking Kuqloz on the head. "We are in danger. We need to leave."

"Where are you going, Food Girl?"

"We are being chased. They wish to put...slimy things in our mouths and use our bodies to lay eggs. We want to save other Abreyas, and Grunkiahu, from them."

"They put a slimy thing in me," Kuqloz said. "I am part slimy thing now. The other Zogmardu do not like me because I defend Feeding Abreya. They say mind is simple."

"Father!" Pillow cried. "Have you seen him?"

"No. He is attacked, and he is crawling away." The bird shook its head. "My feathers are itchy. Please scratch?"

Pillow humored the bird by doing so. The creature purred and stomped its foot in pleasure.

The other birds murmured in disgust.

I could tell they were becoming impatient with our group. The barn was thick with the dust they kicked around.

"We kill them now!" Futluwaz squawked. "Kill Kuqloz, kill her House Abreya! Kill her stinking companions!"

The other Grunks shouted in hearty agreement.

"This does not bode well." Nabal took a whistle out of his pocket, one with electronic parts and looked like a body louse.

"Is that the Loud Thing?" Kuqloz asked. "I do not like the Loud Thing."

"Be brave, Kuqloz," Pillow urged. "It's just a noise. We need to leave quickly."

Nabal gave the whistle a sharp puff, which came out in a muffled whirring noise that was as faint as a dog whistle.

"Oh no!" the other birds cried in unison. "The Loud Thing!" They winced and whined in agony.

"Rrr-rrr-rrr!"

Even Kuqloz was tensing, her feathers puffing out in fear.

Pillow picked up the Cobneyus, the stun baton that you used to jolt a Grunkiahu into movement. The Grunks shied away at this. Even Kuqloz looked nervous.

"Please do not use the Stick Thingy. We talk now. If you want to do something, just say and I do, okay?"

Pillow nodded. "Okay, but if you give me problems, I'll use it!"

Kuqloz bristled at this, but nodded.

"Besides..." She stroked the bird's neck. "It's not really for you. I must have something with which to fight the creatures outside...can I ride on your back?"

Kuqloz cast an embarrassed glance at the others of her kind. "Be gentle. I have not been ridden in some time."

The Grunk lowered her neck, and Pillow climbed on top.

"What is the plan?" Nabal asked, taking a break from his whistle.

"We continue on to the research outpost. These Grunkiahu should prove to be a sufficient distraction once we let them all out."

"We wish to free all of you!" Nabal said to the feathered crowd. "In exchange, you must help us."

"We will not help you," said the Futluwaz. "You blow Hurty Whistle!"

"Agreed!" said a green and purple Dackuqza. "I wish to stay right where I am!"

The black Wotazib stomped forward. "I wish to be free!"

"Then freedom you shall have!" I said, throwing the doors open.

What followed was complete chaos.

The Grunkiahus damn near trampled us to death in their haste to go outside. My friends ducked in stalls, hid behind posts. Pillow pulled me up on Kuqloz's back.

"You are not going to attempt copulation between my wings, are you?" the bird asked. "That is so disgusting."

I and Pillow both chuckled at this, each of us blushing a little.

"It's not really a good time for that," I said.

"Maybe later." Pillow said with a giggle.

"I do not mind it so much," Kuqloz said. "But when it happens, I wish to rub my cebwatta against a post."

"I believe that is called an overshare," I muttered to my wife.

"Abreyas believe in oversharing," she replied with a smirk.

Our amusement turned to horror when a massive bug creature ripped into the leader of the escaping Grunks, purple blood spraying as the poor bird got torn limb from limb.

Seven other monsters tore into the escaping Grunks.

They had horns, armor and strength, but the Grunks had wings.

They fought back heroically, stomping enemy skulls, kicking, pecking, driving talons into their bodies. The blood of the red insects burned the skin on contact. The Grunks had tough hides, but shrieked upon receiving such a burning spray.

Thonwa, apparently rested a bit, flew Matt away from an attacker.

Zero, Nabal and Norenio drew weapons, firing at our enemy when they could. They took down four this way before their weapons ran out of charge and became useless.

The battle raged fierce, and near its conclusion, six Grunks lay dead, three of the bugs lay still, and two of the injured birds took flight, never to be seen again.

That left three enemy Grunkiahu and one big bug.

The insect beast made a strange howling sound, and the three remaining Grunks rushed to its side, facing us like soldiers as they protectively guarded the creature.

We faced the Futluwaz, the Wotazib and one blue Qekhaz.

"Surrender!" said the bug. "Give up this battle at once and I will make your deaths quick and painless."

"Surrender, Food Girl," said the Futluwaz.

"Surrender or it will be painful!" the Qekhaz added.

Pillow handed me the black rod, then glanced at Matt. "Could you be a dear and fetch me the pitchfork from the barn?"

Matt nodded, rushing to get it for her.

"Pillow, baby," I said. "What are you doing?"

"Honey, if those three Grunks try to get in our way, I want you to shock them. Hard."

Matt came rushing out with the pitchfork, offering it to her.

"Thonwa," she said. "Could you please fly Matt back to his ship? He has an infant to protect..."

"What?" Matt cried, but Thonwa was already whisking him away.

"And what about you?" I asked my wife.

She twirled the fork dramatically. "This creature and I are going to have a little joust."