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his imagination to take hold of him.
    Perhaps her family had heard the legend and had simply decided to name her that? He knew very little about the star people. Perhaps it was common to name females such names. She’d said the word was from her own world. Perhaps they had chosen names for their offspring to remind them of their world?
    The uneasiness receded. Finally, realizing that he was weary and it was growing very late, he lay down next to the fire and forced himself to relax and seek his rest.
    * * * *
    Tempest wasn’t certain what woke her, but she became abruptly wide awake. Sitting up, she looked around the campsite. Kiran, she saw, appeared to be sleeping. She studied him for several moments and finally decided that he really was asleep.
    A faint sound caught her attention and she turned toward it, gasping when she saw two angry red eyes peering at her from the darkness beyond the firelight. She relaxed only fractionally when she realized it was the grat. For several moments they merely stared at one another. Finally, Tempest felt around on the ground for a good sized rock to pitch at the animal. She was on the point of doing so when she remembered what Kiran had said.
    Well, she didn’t feel sorry enough for the grat to allow it to gnaw on her!
     
They’d had food left over, however.
    After a moment’s debate, she moved quietly toward the bundled food and unwrapped it. Tearing off a piece, she tossed it toward the grat. The eyes disappeared, but she could see no sign of the animal moving to retrieve the offering. She shrugged. It was wild. Most likely it wouldn’t come near the meat, but at least she’d tried.
    She was on the point of bundling the meat up again when it occurred to her that she’d probably be hungry herself before she managed to find food on her own. Tearing off half of what was left, she tied the bundle once more and tiptoed quietly away from the campfire, heading away from the grat.
    One of the moons had set and it was a good deal darker than it had been earlier, difficult to see more than a few yards away. Tempest regretted falling asleep. If she’d only managed to stay awake, she would’ve had a far easier time of finding a hiding place. As it was, she had to move slowly and very carefully just to keep from making noise that might wake Kiran. Finally, she decided she had put enough distance between herself and the campsite to move more quickly and less cautiously and she began to scramble over the rocks more rapidly. She didn’t have much time to find shelter. The small moon was dipping toward the horizon and, except for the feeble light from the stars, she would be left in total darkness before much more time passed.
    Relief filled her when she reached the desert floor at last. She hesitated, wondering it Kiran would bother to look for her or only be satisfied that she had taken herself off and relieved him of any responsibility for her. Finally, she decided that being followed by Kiran was probably the least of her worries. There was no point in wasting more time to try to throw off a pursuit that was unlikely. She knew one grat inhabited the oasis. It didn’t seem likely there would be another one since they were territorial, but there might well be other, even more dangerous animals. With that thought prodding her, she hurried along the desert floor, studying the rocks above her for some sign of a crevice or cave.
    She had walked and searched for more than an hour and the small moon was already dipping below the horizon when she spotted what appeared to be the entrance to a cave about half way up the jumble of rocks. It was difficult to be certain from this distance and might be no more than a slight crevice, but since she was running out of options, she decided to climb and hope for the best.
    It was almost pitch black by the time she reached the general area where she’d spied what she thought might be an opening in the rock. Almost blind now, she felt around, searching for