The four porters and six hunters gathered around me to catch a lift to Orange Flower. The porters pressed close while the hunters encircled us. Four hunters couldn't reach my shoulders or arms, so they held onto someone else in order to remain connected.

Several hunters leveled their fishing spears outward. It was a wise precaution when five porters were in one group. Even if Saursune fighters had found my scent trails and were waiting in ambush at the location, at least some of us would escape.

There was no winning this centuries-long war—we were simply doing anything we could to minimize our losses and flee before they killed all of us. With that grim thought floating through my mind, I touched the village crystal and murmured the location code while reaching for the Orange Flower stone with my mind.

Ripples like gentle sunlight flickered along my veins, and I felt the strain deep inside from transporting ten people at once. The air hazed around us for four long seconds that felt more like four hours.

I rapidly blinked my eyes as the haze finally cleared, trying to make sure the area was safe. No one let go of my shoulder or arm yet, but neither did any call out a warning. We slowly relaxed—not entirely, since we were in an unfamiliar forest that might hold Saursunes or other predators—but at least we weren't in immediate danger.

One hunter stepped away from the group, bow still at the ready. "It looks clear, but let's be careful until we explore further."

The hunters—men and women—cautiously dispersed into the area while the porters examined the crystal and committed the location to memory. I rolled my shoulders to try and loosen the tightness and discomfort in my chest. It wasn't truly painful, not yet, but porting strain added up quickly, so I'd have to watch how many ports I did and how many passengers I took the rest of the day.

"Are you okay?" Ariel quietly asked.

"Just porting strain. I'm glad you can port out of here on your own power. I think it's harder to port ten people than to make two round trips with five." If trouble had been lurking, I could have ported the entire group out, but I would have flopped on the resting hides like Andre had last night. We never risked a trip if we weren't certain we had enough energy to immediately port to safety.

"The most I've ever ported is six, and that hurt."

I nodded sympathetically. Most porters only took four or five passengers, and even then, it limited how many times we could port in a day. The more passengers, the fewer ports we could manage.

"I can stay with the hunters if you're ready to leave," Ariel said.

Calum glanced around the area one last time, making sure he had committed it to memory and could return in the future, then told Derek and Belle, "I can port you back to the village to pick up your groups. No sense in all of us wasting a port."

They held onto his shoulders as he murmured, "Home."

Their bodies blurred for a moment, then they were gone. It wouldn't take them long to collect their hunting and gathering groups and head out to whatever location Grant suggested they try today.

I held up a fishing net and asked Ariel, "Feel like doing a bit of fishing? As much as I want to check the apple orchard, I should let the porting strain fade before I try porting there."

Her gaze flickered to the creek thirty paces away, where two hunters were already searching the waters for fish. "Sure."

We kept a sharp eye on our surroundings as we worked. The net proved its worth in the deeper parts of the creek; almost every tenth cast brought up a fish. We might even catch enough to dry and add to our reserves, which would be a huge accomplishment.

After an hour, I knelt beside the crystal since the one I was porting to would be equally as small. I could have leaned over as if petting a cat, but such a position wasn't very stable.

I rested my hand on it while trying to visualize the small meadow near the orchard that I had described to Grant three years ago.

"Apple Orchard," I whispered.

The world around me hazed over. Essentially blinded, my eyes strained against the vague green blurs. I held the orchard location firmly in my mind, but was ready to bounce to the abandoned desert village if needed. My nerves were strung tight. I'd forgotten how long it took to port between two small crystals. It might have only been five seconds, but that was five seconds when I couldn't see!

I held my breath until my sight finally cleared, a foolish habit, but one I often fell into. Hastily, I looked around and exhaled when I didn't see anything except trees and shrubs. The faint twinge of porting strain was barely noticeable after the solo port, and only present because of the larger trip earlier.

My attention returned to the crystal. Dozens of slender spires pointed in random directions; I'd never seen a crystal with so many spires before. Most only had six or so. It would be interesting to watch it grow to its full, waist-high size over the next five years.

I cautiously began exploring the area. The apple orchard—much to my disappointment—only had tiny unripe fruit the size of my thumbnail. It would be months before they were ready to eat. But there were twenty-three trees, so it would be an unparalleled harvest on that day.

I found berry bushes and numerous edible plants scattered all over. Some even had ripe fruit hanging on the branches. This was the perk of having crystals that other villages didn't know about. You didn't have to worry about other groups trying to collect it before you did.

The locations of crystals rarely remained a secret for long. Villages occasionally traded the locations for other spots or supplies. Often enough, a far-straying hunter simply stumbled across a crystal or group by accident and led their porter there. On rare occasions, people whispered the location to relatives in other villages, who might risk a several-hour hike to find it.

No one in their right mind tried a blind port. Half of those who tried never returned. Those who lived to tell the tale usually ended up at a random crystal in a climate similar to the place they'd left, likely geographically close-by, but an unfortunate number had appeared in Saursune towns and barely escaped in time.

Saursunes treated the crystals like ornamental plants, and the odds of ending up at one of the many crystals in their towns or cities was far too high. It may only take a porter a handful of seconds to realize the danger and port to safety, but that often wasn't enough time around Saursunes.

Light glinted off something in the distance. With trepidation, I edged closer to the shrubs blocking my view and peered through the leaves. Below the hill I stood on, about half an hour's walk away, were dozens of buildings where none had been three years prior. The tall, dome-like structures were different from the rectangular storage buildings on farms.

I stared at the first Saursune town I'd ever seen. At least twenty Saursunes were walking along the stone-paved roads; most strolled along on their hind legs while a few younger ones loped down the street on all fours. The ones walking stood almost as straight as a human, with their surprisingly flexible tails balancing them out.

I hadn't realized they came in so many shades of brown, green, and blue. The younger ones had brighter colors, with yellowish bellies and jawlines. The adults were more muted, darker along their spine and lighter on their stomach with no yellow visible at this distance.

About half wore nothing in the way of clothing or accessories. Of the ones that did, many had a wide belt with pouches and various objects attached. A handful wore armor; most had arm, shoulder, or shin guards, but a few—as best I could tell from this distance—had some sort of dull interlocking metal that covered them from their shoulders to the tip of their tail.

Large brown ovals with a flat bottom smoothly coasted along the road leaving the town, perhaps the equivalent of the human cars that had once existed? My heart sank as I regarded the settlement. It was far too close to the orchard. The crystal would have to be abandoned. I felt like crying at the loss of the orchard, but there was no time to mourn. I had to get out of here, and quickly.

Turning, I began running as quietly as I could back to the crystal. My eyes skittered across the bushes the entire way. I reached the crystal without incident and dropped to my knees beside it.

I wished I could dig it up or take it with me, but even a sprouting crystal had a root system too heavy for two strong men to lift, let alone carry any distance. Not only had we lost the orchard, but the shard we'd planted here three years ago was too dangerous to port to. It was a heavy blow.

I stilled as I stared at the soft soil near my knees. With a shaking hand, I reached out to touch the faint outline of my footprint. A Saursune track overlapped it, the claw indentations confirming it had happened since my arrival. Their noses were better than dogs—it knew I was in the area.

The nearby shrubs suddenly felt far too close. A hiss came from behind as if it had been watching me. A chill ran down my spine even as I grabbed onto a crystal spire and ported to the abandoned desert village.

After glancing around to confirm I was safe, I leaned my forehead against the crystal and tried to catch my breath. Two close calls in two days. Once again, the Saursune could have killed me if it chose.

It had probably been following me before I spotted the town. Yet, it hadn't attacked. I frowned in sudden worry and pulled off my shirt, inspecting the back and shaking it out. The scuffed leather didn't have any little "seeds" stuck to it.

I put it back on and pulled off my pants, examining every inch without spotting anything that might be a tracking bead. I'd never seen one before, but I'd been told they could be any color and as small as a grain of rice. It wouldn't be the first time a Saursune had stuck a tracker on an unsuspecting porter. It was their primary way of locating our villages.

No humans had been to that crystal since it had been planted—would the Saursune have had a tracker handy? Or had there been enough time for it to reach the town and return while I explored the orchard and area? They were on all fours. It might have managed the trip and caught up before I left.

There was only one way to make sure I wouldn't lead the aliens back to my village. I got to my feet for a more dignified pose and ported to the Guard Station. As my sight cleared, a cliff loomed above me on my right, and the cliffside ledge—about eighty paces wide—was bordered by a waist-high sapling fence. Beyond it, the desert stretched as far as the eye could see.

To the side, the guards were lowering their bows when they realized there wasn't any danger. It wouldn't be the first time a porter or group had arrived with animals mid-attack. On very rare occasions, Saursunes grabbed onto escaping porters. The aliens hadn't hitched a ride here yet, but it had happened at other scanning locations.

One of the five guards on shift was a man from my village. I nodded respectfully at the elderly porter in a rickety rocking chair, who nodded in reply. At seventy-eight, Weylan was one of the oldest humans I knew about, and one of the oldest porters in known history. Most never survived to see their fortieth birthday.

"Natalie, what brings you here?" the man from my village asked, coming forward.

"I was checking a new crystal and a Saursune snuck up behind me. Can I get a scan just in case it was trying to stick a tracker on me?"

Another guard promptly disappeared inside a stone shelter and came out with a grey oval the size of my hand. He pressed a large button, and half of the device gained a faint greenish glow. I watched with interest as he walked around me, raising and lowering the object.

The scanner was normally used by Saursunes to locate the tracking beads. Another village had obtained this one when they set up a trap to catch and kill one of the aliens. That had been almost a century ago, back when Saursune hunters traveled in ones or twos.

They hunted in groups or used airships now, so it had been decades since the villages had been able to ambush a hunter with a tracking device. The scanner was invaluable, and with some long-standing bargaining between five allied villages, it was kept at this Guard Station for any of our porters who needed a scan.

The man stepped back and lowered the device. "Nothing. Where was this crystal?"

"It was one I planted several years ago. They built a village in the valley sometime while the crystal was growing."

"You were lucky to escape. Feel free to hang out here while you rest." He gestured to the resting hides and rock benches.

"Thanks." I sat on a nearby rock, picking one in the shade, although this mountain was high enough up that the wind stole a lot of the sun's heat.

The Guard Station gave an excellent view of the sand and rocks below. There were no villages near here, apart from the jumble of rocks that belonged to another overrun village. This was the perfect place for porters to come if they were possibly being tracked. The elderly porter—too old to help gather food—remained with the guards and would take them to safety if Saursunes came calling.

"Did you hear that some hunters from Hinton Village ran afoul of a Saursune yesterday?" another guard asked me.

I sat up straighter in concern. "No, I didn't. Are they okay?"

He made a face. "Our porter said it happened so quickly they probably didn't even know what happened."

I winced at the news.

"I think we should all avoid the grain fields for a while," a woman murmured, giving the guard a pointed look.

The man scowled at her but didn't reply. Ah. He must be from Hinton Village. They were one of many villages who saw nothing wrong with sneaking into Saursune fields and farm storage buildings, using the excuse that the aliens had so much that they'd never realize their crops had been thinned out.

Of the five villages who used this scanning station, four never did such a thing—the only four I knew of who didn't raid. We even avoided crystals if a nearby field was getting close to harvest. Unfortunately for Hinton Village, they had taken a gamble, and the Saursunes had been waiting.

It reminded me of my recent calls, and I shivered despite the warm air.