Guest of the UFO

Chapter 11

Mundas took it upon himself to advocate for the security of the Hiermochts. When the dust that the hoofs of the daemon horsed kicked up, Emma and I got down and went to the settlement along with the rest of the team.

When we got to the mouth of the hovel, Mundas suddenly turned around and faced us all. There was an eerie silence and his eyes shimmered with so much pain.

"I'm sorry, to the rest of you. But humans are not allowed into the settlement of the Hiermochts." He glanced at Emma and I.

"Only Emma and Peter Wargner are allowed."

"Why?!" Zuri burst out.

Mundas looked at her calmly. He had a god like restraint I was certainly used to by this time.

"The rest of the humans aren't allowed because you are a threat to the Hiermocht community."

Zuri was properly pissed off now. She took a few steps towards Mundas and spiked through her clenched teeth. "Can you please elaborate?"

Emma went behind her and gingerly tried to lay her hands on her shoulders. Zuri shrugged it off, content to experience the full length of her anger. "Mundas, or whatever you are. I ask again, why are you separating us when there have been clear instructions that we should not do such?"

"Instructions from who?" Mundas asked.

"From Major Santorez." Emma replied defiantly, folding her arms across her chest.

There was a sad smile tugging at the corner of Mundas' lips. "The same Major Santorez who captured, neutralized, and poorly treated the Hiermochts until Peter convinced him to let us be? You think he still has our interest at heart?"

Zuri was silent. Still, her anger was solid. I had a feeling I would see the heat evaporating from every pore of her body if I looked closely.

"Major Santorez does not care about the Hiermochts. If you have not noticed, then I suppose I have to spell it out for you. This time around, the attackers did not come after the Hiermochts. They came after you."

"What?" Emma and Zuri asked simultaneously.

Mundas glanced at the both of them. "If you study the pattern of the attack, you would observe that truly, they did not intend to have casualties on our end. Majority of the people captured were humans. They must have known you all were here and they came after you."

Zuri was even more infuriated. "And who told them? Who told them we were here? It must have been you right? You sneaky, lying, two faced animal!"

She tried to go after Mundas and hit him but Emma held her back as she convulsed at the mouth.

Mundas let her rant, spit vitriol, bare the fangs of her feelings and her rage. After that, she burst into tears and began to shake. Emma held her tightly. In Zuri's eyes there was fright lurking. Her fear was masked by her anger and now it was giving way to reveal its true self. She was angry because everyone sticking together seemed like a good way to survive, and now, Mundas was saying he was against it when she least expected. So she exploded.

"Zuri, I understand your rage. No, the Hiermochts had nothing to do with the attackers coming after the humans. Instead, we were preoccupied with trying to stay alive and hoping Major Santorez helped us onto the ship with good intentions. As you witnessed, not all the Hiermochts got on it. In this place, things are hardly kept a secret, especially under the light of the moons. They reveal all things and the air, the water, the trees and the sand all share a communal kinship. They whisper to each other, nourish each other, and pass secrets from one element to another until the most grounded person in a community puts his ears to the floor, detects the small seismic vibrations and interprets the secrets nature has to tell him. The birds fly far and wide and return to their nest, heavily laden with information which they tweet carelessly, loudly and brash enough for a human with evil intentions to pick it up and act on it. So you see, Zuri, it is not at all the fault of the Hiermochts. I don't know how they knew, but here we are. We need to protect ourselves."