The tiny hohun looked down at the tracker, and back up at the gates. Beside them was the guard, asleep at her duties, her meg beside her. A sign was put up saying-

"Don't go inside aliens, it ain't safe!"

Normally the meg would moo and wake up the guard to any aliens approaching, but, to the meg, this was no alien, despite his belief in being so.

His mother, L-429, was unable - or to be more accurate, would not - sell this tracker to any alien. The creature had wandered into a place she disallowed from entry.

The child remembered all the times he was told not to enter, but he wanted to make his mother proud and move the creature to a place more accessible to her buyers.

The hohun steps through the gates, and as the skies darken, and grass grays and the tone of the world changes he feels a fear in his heart.

But it's not too far in. He keeps telling himself with every step. He had to stay brave, mother needed as much money as possible for this fundraiser.

The tracker's beeps quicken with each step, and so does his heart.

And then he sees it.

"Wooooooo........."

The hohun squawked, but when he looked into the eyes of that thing he went blank.

There was a moment of silence in his mind as he realized that no one knew he was coming here, and he had no idea what held him in its hands.

His next thoughts came like a whirlwind.

He tried to remember - what were the prayers of those silly locals? Whenever they were attacked, all they needed to say were a few words and then suddenly anything that wished to hurt them would let them go, in fear of retribution from something worse.

He tried, he tried so hard to remember those words, yet all he could stammer out were the first part of the prayer.

Mother had saved him. Not the mother of the hohuns, but his own mother. The butcher had let him go instantly. Turning its head to face her.

The child scambled behind his mother, unable to talk, only able to mumble the words he felt had saved him.

L-429 backs away slightly, while the butcher takes another step forward.

L-429 wanted to say something, she really did, but she knew it would be worthless to do so. She stood strong, and refused to waver away from the butcher.

She picked up her child, and walked up to the dan'gersign, grabbing it, mumbling how annoying it was for going here of all places.

The child shivers in L-429's hand.

L-429 leaves as soon as she appears. The butcher doesn't say more but only watches as they leave.

As soon as she gets past the gates where she knows it is safe, she drops the dan'gersign to the floor, where it immediately starts to wiggle away as fast as it can, feeling the intense pressure of the situation at hand. It collected the artworks it liked from the village already anyway!

L-429 does not yell, but her voice is stern as she places her child down.

L-429's wife comes over, picking up her child.

Larp's wife initially goes to comfort her, but something she said hit her as....off. She reels back and takes a stern tone.

Larp's wife holds her child a little tighter as she watches Larp fumble with her words.

Larp's wife leaves in a huff.

Larp doesn't even attempt to stop her. What was she going to do? Lie?

Yes, she fully and utterly wanted to protect the hohuns, a species that took her in when she lost everything else and saw no difference in her compared to their own children.

But she also wanted to protect that village. Its residents didn't ask, or could expect to be mangled like that.

She places a hand on the stone wall letting her claws trail down it in anger, when she, and the guard who had woken up long ago meet eye to eye.

The hohun is not intimidated, she just shakes her head.

Larp knew the guard was right.