The smell of blood had several crocs crawling onto the shore before the hunters finished gutting our first kill. After a quick discussion, a few hunters forced most of them back into the water while the rest kept working. One particularly stubborn croc remained on the shore nearby, only about thirty paces away.

I kept a close eye on it, not trusting the big reptile at all. It sat motionlessly until a black scavenger bird landed between us, then the croc charged.

"Look out!" I called at the same time several others sounded the alarm.

The bird took flight as the hunters leapt away with the grace of a gazelle. Six ended up in the cart with me, and the rest scattered across the sandbar as the croc came to a stop with a creaky hiss, still five paces away. Then it noticed the guts and stepped forward to grab a mouthful, tossed them back into its mouth.

A hunter picked up the coils of rope. "Anyone else think this croc just nominated itself to be next in line?"

With the croc now helping itself to our kill, the hunters reorganized to take advantage of the situation. The fastest hunter took the nooses and edged closer as the others held onto the ropes or readied the Saursune spears.

When the hunter eased forward, the croc swung toward him with wide jaws, forcing him to skip back. His next three attempts were just as unsuccessful. The hunter tried tossing the noose, but the croc snapped at the leather-wrapped end before dropping it. He pulled the rope back.

"Pass me your spear," the hunter with the nooses told someone in the cart.

He tried using the wooden spear to slide a noose over the croc's top jaw, but the croc took exception to the stick and chomped it instead. When its mouth opened to dislodge the splintered wood, the hunter tossed both nooses over the top jaw. This time, the croc was too slow to snap at it. One slid off, not snagging on a tooth, but the other held.

"Is one rope enough?" someone asked.

"Let's try."

Apart from those with Saursune weapons, the rest grabbed onto the rope and waited.

"On three. One, two, three!"

The rope tightened with a twang as the spears whizzed through the air. The croc began rolling in an attempt to get free as three spears stabbed into skin between its front legs, using the now-known weak spot to reach the heart and lungs.

Their feet skidded across the packed sand as the massive beast dragged them toward the river. I watched anxiously from the cart, wanting to help so badly, but knowing if I jumped out, the hunters' attention would be dangerously divided.

The croc whipped its head around, ripping the rope out of some hunters' hands. They hissed in pain as they desperately grabbed onto the cord again. The hunters with spears struck at the side of its neck, trying to sever arteries through the tough skin.

Blood flowed onto the sand as the croc's progress slowed. The hunters' feet churned the sand as they pulled hard on the ropes, turning its head around and gradually dragging it back this way. With heart and lungs pierced, the croc swiftly bled out and went limp. Several hunters dropped the rope and winced as they opened and closed their hands, revealing bloody red marks.

I jumped out of the cart and jogged to the closest hunter. "Did the rope do that?"

"Yes, when the croc ripped the rope out of our hands. We're going to need gloves next time." She took her water canteen off her belt and poured some water over the painful-looking marks.

It was a good thing Grant had returned the salve to me. I pulled it out and took her hand. Gingerly, I dipped my finger into the cream and dabbed it onto the bleeding skin.

"What is that?" she asked, peering at the shell. "The pain just disappeared."

"Saursune healing salve. Just wrap some thin pieces of leather around your hands if you're going to work so it doesn't come off."

Cruz passed the hunter a set of light leather gloves. "You can use these if you want. It's a good thing none of us wrapped the rope around our hands. It didn't occur to me that it could leave such a mark."

"We've never encountered a rope that could be pulled out of our hands without snapping," Liam pointed out, ruefully regarding the blood and ragged skin on his hands. "Even braided rabbit leather just shreds under that kind of force."

"Come over here so I can put some salve on that," I told him. "The last thing we want is an infection setting in."

That was enough for anyone with bleeding hands to wait for my doctoring attempts. The six "injured" individuals were nominated to stand guard with me to avoid any chance of something getting into the wounds. Or, if only one hand had been injured enough to bleed, they could carry things in the other hand or chase off the crocs that kept creeping onto the shore.

I spread grass mats in the bottom of the cart to keep the meat from sitting directly on the wood. The hunters quickly realized the edges of the spear heads were far more effective at cutting than their blades, and those individuals were chopping off huge sections that I wasn't sure I could lift.

Cruz said, "We've got at least two, maybe three, Saursunes watching us from the trees."

My head jerked up; I had been focused on the crocodiles on the shore, not for anything lurking on the other side of the river. Most knives vanished into hiding, and those who had been keeping the live crocs at bay swiftly returned to the group. The spears and anything else weapon-like were swiftly put into the cart and wedged under a grass mat.

"Should we head back now?" I asked, trying to spot the well-hidden observers. In a quieter voice, I added, "They gave us the weapons, if they take exception to the spears being used to kill large reptiles, I'm not sure I can port twenty people at once." I should be able to—I had ported an eighteen-group a week ago—but I'd also ported several heavy loads this morning.

Cruz examined the trees on the side of the river where I'd seen the blue flash earlier. "Let's play it by ear. I don't think they'll try swimming the river with this many crocs around. They've seen us hunt before, and they did give us these weapons. The only difference is that a croc is a bit bigger than a rabbit or a fish. If we see any hints of aggression, we can drop anything remotely like a weapon and see how fast Natalie can bounce us out."

"If anyone wants to bounce now, I can make a quick trip," I offered.

"I think we're safer if you're with us, especially if we're using knives," Liam replied. "Like Cruz said, the Saursunes wouldn't have given us weapons if they didn't want us hunting with them, and getting across the river isn't a simple task with dozens of crocs around. It won't take us long to cut this up enough to lift it to the cart."

A few murmured but none took me up on my offer. They shuffled themselves around in such a fashion that their bodies prevented anything on that side of the river from seeing the blades. Progress slowed to a crawl now that they were relying on pottery and stone knives instead of the spear edges.

I perched on the front of the cart, both to function as a lookout and to distract any watching Saursunes. Much like the patriarchs, the Saursunes seemed far more interested in porters than in our companions. Perhaps they'd ignore what my group was doing if they could easily see me. I caught a few glimpses of the Saursunes, but the muddy, croc-infested river was keeping them away from the sandbar.

The hunters worked at a feverish pace, hacking off huge sections that took two or three people to lift. The first croc was finally loaded into the cart, even though it took seven to lift the last piece. They focused their efforts on the second croc, which was about halfway chopped up.

A pottery knife broke when someone put too much pressure on it. It was tucked into a belt pouch as they took out another. The cart groaned under the huge pile of meat heaped high above the sideboards. I debated spreading out a leather hide to pile meat on, but it was just the torso left.

My gaze returned to the five hunters keeping crocs away from us, and something farther down the river caught my attention.

"Airship!" I jumped off the cart to stand near the crystal as the airship flew just above the river, heading directly toward us. The hunters instantly darted to my side and hands reached for my shoulders. "I'll take ten and come right back!"

Several hands left my shoulders, but I didn't stop to count as I grabbed onto the cart and threw myself into the port. The crocs in the cart were heavier than the water, and I could definitely feel the added weight of the ten hunters.

The shimmering and vision haze were unaffected by my haste and took their usual time in clearing as I delivered my group to the Guard Station. With the weapons and trackers in the cart, I couldn't go directly home.

As soon as the hands were gone, I bounced back to the Jungle Sandbar. My sight hazed over, but the light desert browns didn't turn into the expected greens and browns of the forest. I blinked rapidly to peer through the porting haze. No hands touched my shoulders as my vision finally cleared, and the light browns solidified into the backs of the hunters' leather shirts as they surrounded the crystal.

"Natalie, is that the same Saursune from Orange Flower?" Cruz asked, glancing at me over his shoulder.

I stood on my tiptoes and leaned to the side to see past the remaining hunters, then gawked at the airship. It had stopped downstream, roughly where it had been when I left. But it had turned sideways, and the side door was now open.

A dark brown Saursune sat in the opening.

She tilted her head when she saw me. There was too much distance to tell if the faint scars were present, but there was no doubt in my mind that it was Citrine.

"It—it is," I stammered, staring at her in surprise. "And that looks like the same airship." Rationally, I should have expected Citrine and Jasper to show up, but having them fly to the sandbar in an airship hadn't crossed my mind.

Cruz's voice was far calmer than should have been possible. "I was wondering about that. Do you feel like hanging around to see what they want, or should we leave for the day?"

The question rolled off his tongue so casually that I blinked and stared blankly at him.

He gave me a faint smile. "The cart and weapons are gone. Half of the group is safe. This is the same Saursune you've been trading with, right?"

It took me a few seconds to realize that my mind was stuck in the past reaction of bouncing the instant we saw an airship, and I had immediately slipped into the desperation of making sure I got my entire group to safety. But Cruz was right. This was Citrine. Of all the Saursunes out there, I couldn't imagine her hurting one of my hunters, even if they had been cutting up a croc.

"They're probably looking to trade for my energy," I mumbled. "I don't mind staying if you're okay with that airship coming closer." I wasn't sure how much energy I had left, but it also seemed kind of rude to immediately leave after they had come all this way.

"Does anyone else want to go to the Guard Station?" Liam asked. "Maybe reassure the others that we're safe?"

"I'd prefer to leave," someone to my right said.

Someone else added, "The Saursunes I was fine with, but not an airship."

"Grab on," I told them. Liam, Cruz, and five others stepped away from the crystal as three held onto my shoulders. "Guard Station."

As soon as they let go, I bounced back, leaving them to tell the others that we were safe. The guards would probably think I was insane, and I hoped word didn't get back to the patriarchs. They'd have a fit if they heard that some of us were letting alien airships fly in for a visit.

Who was I kidding? They'd hear.

So much for me not encountering Saursunes on a sandbar in the middle of a jungle river...