Challenge #00485 - A110: Irresistible Force

Hey look what came around with new bits on it! http://siphersaysstuff.tumblr.com/post/73671577343/therobotmonster-moniquill-siderealsandman

Prepare for a barrage of prompts based on it :P

1. “Our strength and speed is nothing to write home about, but we don’t need to overpower or outrun you. We just need to outlast you - and by any other species’ standards, we just plain don’t get tired.”

[AN: I love that post so much that I’m hinging a book on it :D Bits you see here may or may not turn up in the finished opus]

T'reka leaned heavily on the trunk of the tree that she was resting in. Gulped at her water and desperately tried not to faint. A local year of physical exercise had reformed her body from the stereotypical soft and weak scientist into that of a Scientist of Steel.

She was fitter than most of her fellow kind in the distant city of Kal'rike, but the human had yet to stop her steady pace.

“Again?” said Su-syn. “Just roost on my backpack, I don’t mind.”

The carrying capacity of humans boggled T'reka’s mind. The fact that a juvenile human could carry travel supplies and a grown cogniscent on her shoulders was awe-inspiring.

“My am thanks,” she managed in Human. Su-syn’s head was warm and soft and inviting to lean against. “I understanding human rumours of unstoppable hunting.”

Su-syn laughed as she continued on her relentless pace. “And I haven’t even trained for cross country,” she said. “I’m just doing Kori a favour. That’s all.”

“You is walk more over five Flights.”

“Yeah, it is about two and a half clicks, now. On the plus side, we’re getting close.” Su-syn walked her through almost invisible signs that the ungulate known as Midnite had been in this locale. Dung on the ground. Hairs in the knotbush. Broken twigs and foam from the animal’s saliva.

“You is stop to showing me,” worried T'reka. “Will not horse Midnight get further running? Horse is faster over human.”

“Eh. Horses are faster, but not really in the long term,” Su-syn resumed her steady pacing. “Midnite’s a sprinter, so he does short little dashes and gets tired.” She pointed to a depression in the foliage. “Stopped for a roll. We’re gaining on him.”

It wasn’t a full Flight further that they came upon the black ungulate gulping water from a stream. It - he - raised his head to stare at the two of them.

Su-syn already had a ’crabapple’ a small fruit native to her original planet, the aptly-named Terra. “Hey there, beautiful,” she sang. “Lookit I got…”

The animal walked over and enveloped the crabapple in one bite. And, in a movement T'reka almost missed, Su-syn captured the beast in a rope leash. A halter. The ungulate flicked its ears back and rumbled.

“Well if you didn’t run away,” Su-syn admonished the animal, “I wouldn’t have to catch you like this.”

“We is to riding back?” enquired T'reka.

“Nah. Midnite needs a good rest before he can be ridden again. I’ll walk him back.” Su-syn had barely stopped. She didn’t even stop for water. Just tipped it into her mouth from the container at her hip. “You’d better stay on my backpack. Your feet are sharp and I didn’t bring a blanket.”

T'reka investigated the crystals forming on the ungulate’s hide. “These is salt!”

“Yup. Horses sweat just like humans. We need salt, and they need more of it, because they have more skin to sweat with. But you knew we needed salt.”

Alarm. “How is you knowing?”

“We found your probes on the pipeline,” said Su-syn casually.

Which lead T'reka to wonder exactly how long the humans had known she was in their neighbourhood…

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