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needed to go. When they had been riding for an hour and foam flecked the beast beneath her, she ran a quick check on her jehrkreez and was surprised to see that he was designed for this sort of thing.
    His clawed feet dug in and propelled him forward with a strange rocking motion that she found rather pleasant. It wasn’t a riot runner, but it was fun.
    Nearing let out a sharp whistle, and she sent out another signal; this time, there was a living being in it and the low body temperature made her worry. At a few hundred yards away, she slowed her beast and let Nearing take the lead.
    He passed her and zeroed in on the lost girl.
    She followed and her beast gave her another look. “What? I am just here to find a safe path. He is better with people, from what I have seen.”
    When the young girl screamed, Yllin cursed and urged her beast forward. She dismounted and landed on her ass, crawling over to where the girl huddled against a tree, shying away from Nearing.
    “Easy, lass. Take it easy. We are here to get you home or, at least, back with your own people.”
    The young girl ran for her and struck with enough force to send her backward.
    The high, soft voice started rambling, but Yllin could only make out one word. “Demon.”
    Nearing looked bashful.
    Yllin got to her feet and lifted the girl in her arms. “Don’t worry about him, love. He is perfectly harmless. He just looks a little creepy by your standards. He found you; I just showed him the path to get him here.”
    The girl was shaking, but Yllin got her up on the beast and swung up behind her. She pulled out a ration bar and broke off a small piece, fishing out a bottle of water to help her wash it down.
    “I wish there was a way to get a signal out that we found her.”
    The beast under her lifted his head and let out a long, low howl that Nearing’s beast took up. In the distance, they heard other animals howling, and it rippled through the valley until a bright light fired into the air.
    Yllin looked at that flare and plotted a course. “Let’s get you home.”
    The beast lumbered slowly with the child nibbling away at the food.
    Nearing came up next to them, and the little girl now had more curiosity in her eyes than fear.
    “What are you feeding her?”
    “Breakdown bars. A protein and enzyme cocktail that any species can eat for situations like this. The water is just hydrogen and oxygen.”
    She broke off another small piece and her passenger ate it, washing it down with another controlled swallow of water.
    The beast was moving steadily in the path she had chosen. She gave slight signals with her knees but kept her arms around the little girl.
    The pale green skin and deep green hair would have made it hard to spot her in the forest but that didn’t explain her location.
    “How did you get up so far?”
    She mumbled and Yllin had to lean in to hear her.
    “Your brother dared you to ride a jehrkreez? When you got on top of him he ran off?”
    The beast she was on snorted and shook his head.
    The little girl nodded.
    “Ah, what is your name, honey?”
    “Arbelika Yamra Twix. My brother calls me Licker.”
    Yllin grinned. “My brothers have names for me as well. They are all older than me, and I was always trying to impress them, which made me do stupid stuff and sometimes dangerous stuff.”
    They were moving at a steady pace that was taking them to the searchers, but they would still take hours to arrive.
    Arbelika ducked her head. Her solid black eyes were embarrassed. “I told my brother to watch me that I was going to ride one as fast as it would go. When it stopped, I got off and it ran away, leaving me lost and very far away from the camp ground.”
    Yllin’s beast nodded, and she knew that it was confirming the child’s story. There was more to her mount than fur, claws and attitude.
    “May I call you Arka?” She asked it politely.
    The girl looked up with gratitude. “That is a pretty short-name.”
    “I thought so. I am