We had spent the remainder of the afternoon traversing down the opposite mountain face after scaling its rounded peak.

We had been granted an expansive view of the refugee town at this altitude as we navigated a brushy sloped terrain filled with dry shrubbery and weeds. It was a small coastal settlement peppered with small buildings, wide open lots, and even several warehouses of some kind positioned in a row near the water. There were a couple of columns of thin grey smoke rising from two buildings, an obvious sign of life. I guessed this to be a former fishing hamlet of some kind, or perhaps a former naval or shipping facility with the implication of a disused drydock that could be spotted along the shoreline and a long wall that encircled the whole complex, effectively acting as its barrier.

And speaking of the coast, beyond the town laid a massive body of water with choppy ripples that glimmered in the waning sun. It was a cove that ran along for two to three miles or so where the outline of a thinning peninsula could be made out in the haze of the afternoon heat, which must have reached its peak by now. There was only so much that my thermal pilot's suit was able to do in preventing me from baking inside of it, but I still favoured this over Sauria's often relentless humidity. The sight of this regional haven coming closer and closer to us provided a helpful means of distracting myself before the inevitable cooldown of the evening would begin.

It was late in the evening when we finally made it to the east gate of Red Bay. The long wall around the settlement was made of large white bricks that were ageing with grime and had growths of vegetation with spirals of barbed wire on top, further hinting at the likelihood that this was once a centre of important activity before the Combine took over.

The east side gate was connected to a dirt road that led off elsewhere into the hilly countryside, which was where I anticipated we would be let in. However, Aaron led me and Ben towards a much less conspicuous, and less 'grand' entrance which seemed to be nothing more than a simple metal staff door, with hinges plagued with rust and peels of a former grey paint job eroding like burning cottonwood.

A small white device was mounted just above the door with a black lens on the end, no doubt a security camera, and a familiar yellow lambda sign was painted just off to the side of the door handle on the wall. All of us were exhausted after a long day of walking and hiking across miles of land, so seeing that sign was a wonderous sight having already associated it with respite (even if the previous one ended on a disturbing note).

"All right, gang, safe haven is just beyond here," Aaron announced, sounding and looking rather beat himself as he trudged closer to the door with a slouched posture. Although my backpack wasn't heavy, having carried it for so long put a strain on my shoulders and prompted me to set it on the ground for a moment. Ben, out of the three of us, seemed the most content and projected the sense that he was still able to keep walking for another five miles it seemed.

We both watched Aaron step up to the unkempt door and proceeded to press a button on a panel off to the side of the door. It was silent, though it was likely meant to alert some kind of security within the haven's confines, which was confirmed to be the case when the mounted camera began to whir and wind before fixing its lens on Aaron, who was so massive he obstructed me and Ben from the camera's view.

"H-Hey! Hey! Back up from the door! This is a…!" a panicked male voice crackling out from the speaker box rang out, though quickly subdued itself after the supposed observing on the other end of the camera saw Aaron waving pleasantly at it. "Oh, it's just you…" he realised, unamused with this realisation.

"Hey, Redgie! Didn't know you were still working sentry," Aaron greeted.

"Yes, I am, and I'm bored out of my ass," Redgie complained, quite foully. "What are you doing back here, Beuford? It's a little early for you to be back this soon. Your McMansion didn't run out of caches, did it? I don't think we've got much to lend; we're running a little short right now."

"Oh, that's a pity indeed, but that's not why I'm here," Aaron insisted.

"You don't say," an annoyed Redgie said. It seemed quite clear to me that this Redgie chap was not a very friendly sentry. "Well then, what are you here for?"

"I've got some refugees here. Hope you guys got more rooms than you do food," Aaron said, trying to pepper the conversation with some humour, but Redgie didn't take to it.

"Sure. More mouths to feed. That's just what we need right now," Redgie grumbled. If there was any attempt to hide his contempt from our ears, Redgie was lousy at it. "How many more do you have for us?"

"Just two. One vortigaunt, and one Cerinian vixen."

I tensed a bit after Aaron addressed my presence, though he did not move out of the way of the camera. What Aaron relayed did not seem to register with Redgie as a lengthy moment of silence played out. "…A what?" Redgie soon inquired.

"Yeah, a living Cerinian; can you believe it? She's an alien, and definitely unlike one any of us have ever seen before."

"Beuford, I'm really not in the mood for this," Redgie groaned. "If this is about that shake-weight crap, I swear…"

Aaron rolled his head in frustration, losing interest in performing for this bloke―and the profanities his subconscious thoughts were broadcasting were understandable. "I ain't joking, you lil' grump. Have a look, won't you?"

Aaron then shuffled aside, leaving me in full view of the camera. It moved and focused in on me. Unsure about what to say to this rude sentry, I only meekly raised my hand and gave a little wave. "Uhm… Hello there, Redgie…" I greeted nicely enough, though I was expecting some kind of flummoxed reaction given my insisted resemblance to a creature that I had on this planet.

Redgie took an even longer moment to take in the image of me. I could not read his thoughts from here, but I imagined that none of them regarded me as anything other than anomalous. "What…the…hell…is that?" Redgie asked me directly, though the graininess of the speaker made it difficult to discern whether he was frightened or disgusted. Perhaps a dash of both?

"A damn good woman, and an even greater friend," Aaron butted in, getting back into view. "Oh yeah, she's also magic, and she wrestled down a gunship with her bare hands and won. I am a witness to such a feat."

While that last bit was certainly stretching the truth more than I would have permitted, it warmed my heart to hear Aaron regarding me with such affection. "So," Aaron continued, getting closer to the camera, "if I were you, Redgie, I'd go ahead and buzz us in. I got a feeling the doc might want to meet this one, so you may as well page him while you do so. She's a little more than another mouth to feed, you see."

After another long, contemplative moment on Redgie's end, the locks on the door suddenly clicked before the old metal door jutted backwards a bit, indicating that it was now unlocked. Aaron smiled with approval. "Thanks, Redge!" Aaron said sincerely, though no reply was given. Aaron then began to lead me inside Red Bay's confines after I picked my backpack off the ground, though I managed one last glance up at the camera while I was just below it before moving on, hoping that Redgie received a better-detailed look at my face.

Aaron then closed the metal door behind us as we emerged onto an open lot where the dirt road from outside continued towards the settlement, which was the direction we ought to take clearly enough. "Well, that chap would certainly not be the one I would assign to greet straggling dissidents seeking safety," I remarked, crossing my arms as Aaron returned to our sides.

"Ah, never you mind Redge. He's just got a bit of a Napoleon complex," he reassured. "They've always got him on sentry duties because nobody can stand him."

"I can't imagine why," I shrugged, eager to move on from that interaction, though the silent and humble Ben felt the need to make his first and last comment on the transpired events.

"He flares his hackles when he has no pelt."

Aaron had led me and Ben up the dirt road that rounded a small hill before finally arriving at what was considered the plaza of this small town of refugees.

It was a profound sight to see so many humans at once. Aside from Combine soldiers―though I struggle to include them given how much of their autonomy had been stripped from them―Aaron had been my only ambassador to the human race, so getting to meet more members of his species was exciting, though I was prepared for an initial chary reception from the locals. I hoped that I would be able to make friends with everyone soon if I were to stay here for an extended period of time.

Red Bay's central 'plaza' was nothing more than a grassy lot situated right behind two three-story buildings that sat by the dockside and the dirt road itself that continued to the right alongside the white-brick wall, leading on deeper across the facility elsewhere. Several humans were mingling with each other as they sat atop some neglected concrete pipework, appearing to be having some kind of reading session. A few more humans were walking around the area, keeping to their tasks of the day. Aside from a few differing cosmetics, such as hats and coats, all the humans that I could see wore identical dark blue clothes. I would later find out that these were the civilian uniforms that the Combine ascribed to citizens.

When it was time for us to inevitably cross the lot on our way to Doctor Mofuni's place of dwelling, which happened to be one of the warehouses further down the way, I quickly became the centre of attention to the humans that happened to be out there. Human men and women alike looked upon me with a proportionate amount of confusion and bewilderment.

It was hard as a telepath to not absorb their thoughts when they were so loud and unified to me. My presence was definitely disruptive to them, but not for the reasons I was expecting. Their mutual thoughts rightly and unanimously identified me as a fox, but it was my body and posture that troubled them the most. It wasn't necessarily fear, they just truly didn't know what to make of me as they watched me walk past them.

Having so many perturbed eyes on me naturally made my tail curl closer in between my legs. To quell the humans' natural but not necessarily 'hospitable' reaction to me, Aaron raised his gloved hand to all who were watching. "Easy, everybody. She's with me, and she doesn't bite," he said in an attempt to ease their concerns.

Subverting my expectations again, when the humans briefly diverted their attention to Aaron when he beckoned it, their thoughts flashed with an influxive mistrust of him. Not all of them did, but more than I would have expected. And come to think of it, now that there were other humans here for reference, I just realised how much more massive Aaron was in comparison with the other humans―not just in mass, but in height as well. I was half-expecting to be dwelling in a world of giants like him, but it turned out that they were much more in line with my height. Aaron looked to be an outlier, and given the present humans' subconscious wariness of my large friend, I wondered just how warranted this might have been.

We passed the plaza as swiftly as we entered it and made our way down "Mainstreet", which was an old, splitting asphalt road that led down the more industrial side of the settlement where we were flanked by a row of short buildings to our right and a large building along the seawall plated with white metal with a row of disused conveyors running out from it and suspending above the water, though they were hidden from view at the moment. A couple of dilapidated vehicles were parked along the curb on this street as well, though I wasn't sure if they were operational.

I sensed people in these buildings; I roughly estimated between thirty to fifty each in the two we passed. For the moment, I wasn't too keen on having them see me; I was keen on staying out of public viewing for a little while, a desire further agitated when I could sense the humans we passed discretely trying to follow us, itching to get a better look at me. "Do the humans upset you?" Ben asked me out of the blue, no doubt sensitive to my shyness.

"I wouldn't say that," I said, curling one of my bangs. "I only worry that they will not be too accepting of me."

"Worry not, Krystal," Ben reassured, nudging my arm with his. "These are a passive people. They have been conditioned to live with what is alien to them―conditioned by brutal subjugation, unfortunately."

"In other words," Aaron interjected, "they're a lot more curious than they are mistrusting," Aaron added, bringing to needed hope. "Give 'em a day or so, lassie; you'll fit right in in no time."
"All right," I said, my ears perking just a little at that notion.

After another minute of walking, we came upon the warehouse that housed Doctor Mofuni's lab, which happened to be the first one in a row of three. It was visually indistinguishable from the others, a long building made of white plated metal and a grey metal roof with a large asphalt lot that our street melded into. The sun was setting just over the peninsula across the cove, which made the white buildings appear a bright orange as they contrasted with the darkening soft blue sky.

I almost forgot how late in the day it truly was. It had taken us from dawn to dusk to make it here, and the expense of the journey was beginning to take its toll on me as a wide and long yawn escaped my mouth once Aaron led us up the lot, where a human man then suddenly burst outside the small staff door of the warehouse right next to its massive sliding one, which was currently closed. His emergence was somewhat startling to me now that my senses were waning, and it took him no time at all to spot us coming towards him.

"Oh, Aaron, you're here!" the man called out from across the lot, his voice young and full of delight. He had curly blonde hair and wore a padded blue jacket and khaki pants that were a little dirty around the cuffs―features that were revealed to me in greater detail as he ran over to greet our tall friend.

"Hello, Rob, nice to see you again," Aaron beamed warmly as he embraced the man half his size. The mention of the young man's name stirred up a swell of longing in my heart. However, unlike my own Rob in my universe, this Rob was an autonomous being, and his thoughts were loud as he and Aaron rekindled, and it was revealed to me that there was a past between them.

The two inevitably parted from each other after that short and sweet moment passed. "I wasn't expecting to see you come back to base so soon! The Combine didn't level the house, did they?"

"No, no, Rob, I brought some new friends for you all," Aaron reassured.

"Yeah, so Redgie phoned us," Rob validated. "Where are they?"

"Why right here! They're both aliens. I would like you to meet Ben and Krystal."

Aaron moved out of the way after unintentionally obstructing us again, and the happy grin on the young human's face, who I realised now could not have been more than sixteen or seventeen years old, faded the instant he locked eyes with me and he took a wary step back. His reaction was identical to the humans we passed earlier, stunned and unable to make sense of me as my familiar enough features clashed with my overall form.

"Hoooh-now…wha?" Rob stammered a bit. "You're... You're...a fox?!"

I would have been more indignant about this young human's reaction to me, but I was able to sense that his disbelief came more from a sense of awe and wonder than it did from repulsion. It was apparent to me that Rob was much more childlike in many ways, which incentivised me to have a little harmless fun with him.

"Acute observation, Robert Bushnell," I said after deciphering his full name in the maelstrom that was his swirling thoughts. Rob's speckled face turned pale after hearing this from me as Aaron stood back and crossed his arms, grinning from ear to ear as he watched our interaction.

"H… How do you know…?"
"Your full first and surname when not even Aaron knew?" I finished his question for him, which was true. I leaned in a little closer to him, looking from side to side as I put one hand up to my muzzle. "I have my way of knowing things," I whispered, giving him a wink, which he seemed to take more of a threat than a teasing gesture.

"Wh-w-what…?" the boy quivered a bit before Aaron closed his big hand over the young man's shoulder.

"Ah, ease up, Rob. It's been a long day; she's only playing," he encouraged, which seemed to ease Rob up a little. It was this encouragement that enabled Rob to muster the courage to give me an apprehensive handshake when I offered my hand, reminiscent of my first meeting with Aaron in an inverted way.

Though not completely won over by me yet, and I held no grudge towards it, Rob soon relented and tried to relax as he straightened his posture. "When, uh… When Redgie said that we had a blue werewolf coming into the base, I didn't really know what to expect."

"Nothing like me, I'm assuming?"

"Nope;" Rob shook his head. "Somehow you seem to be the weirdest thing I've seen since I was a little kid, and that's saying something. No, I mean…weirdest person… I mean…"

"Oh, you're sweet," said, my tail swishing just a little. "That seems to be the general consensus among your fellow humans when we strolled in here."

My ear twitched as both my cerebral and audible senses acted in unison, allowing me to detect the humans who saw me were now starting to follow us. No doubt the news of our arrival had spread quicker than I was prepared for, and Ben was aware of this as well. "Perhaps it is time we bide not a moment longer, young one," he requested. "Usher the Krystal to her desired audience with your master, the Mofuni. I will excuse myself to reacquaint with my kin."

Ben then turned to me with a look of great importance in his large red eye. "We will reconvene with you when your matters have been arranged." He then began trotting away from us without another word, wandering off elsewhere into the facility. I was a little briefed that he would disembark so abruptly, but given the lack of enthusiasm I heard and sensed him express over Doctor Mofuni before, I imagined he was not keen to share an audience with me.

"Yeah, a lot of vorts are like that," Rob said to me, reading the jadedness on my face which I presumed I had. "But he's got a point; Doctor Mofuni's gonna want to meet you. Why don't you follow me and I'll see you to the elevator?"