Losker popped his medication into his mouth, listening absentmindedly to the television. He leaned over his countertop and watched the green sunset from the window. He was still getting used to the thirty-hour days again, now that he didn't have to follow human time anymore. Angrily, he stared at the half-showing evergreen orb and chastised himself. He was this close, this close, to telling Ro how he felt, but he couldn't go through with it. Besides, she liked someone else. Maybe Ethan—he was very attractive by human standards. Or that dark-haired man who's name started with a P but otherwise escaped him.
If there was one thing he learned from human science fiction literature, it was that interspecies relationships only work when the alien looks like a human.
Losker loped to his bedroom and pulled a pair of soft, worn sweatpants out of his closet, which were followed by a shirt for some obscure band that he used to like. How strange, he thought, that Liivat had music, but not dancing.
«...village of Jrovi was completely empty. Although there is evidence of violence, no one was found dead. What do you have to say about this, Officer Cantei?»
Losker froze, shirt halfway over his head. Slowly, he backed into the living room.
«Thank you, Kreate» Cantei said on screen. «As of this moment, based off the evidence we have, this is a kidnapping.»
«A kidnapping? You can't possibly mean the whole village, can you?»
«I'm afraid so. Everyone is gone. All their footprints lead the same direction...into the forest. There's no reason they'd leave the safety of the Towers without a portable Goroea—which are all accounted for.» Cantei rubbed his head and continued grimly, «Along with the footprints of the Jroviay, who are all Galida, we found human shoe prints. We have reason to believe that they are behind the kidnapping.»
«Thank you, Cantei» Kreate said. He left the view of the camera, leaving the pretty reporter to stand alone in the empty village. «We've been assured that both the police and the Special Task Force are doing as much as they can to bring the humans to justice and the Jroviay home. More information about this case will be available tomorrow. Hang in there, Galida Territory. Back to you, Behulo.»
Losker stared dumbly at the screen. Now, the news was displaying Jresia Relroan's latest party plans, but he was still stuck on what he had just heard. After two weeks of silence, the humans came back and took more of his people. First the killing, now the kidnapping, and he didn't know which one was worse. He had a terrible feeling in his stomach—one that said that whatever the humans were planning, it was going to be filled with death and end with death.
His phone rang, and his quickly picked it up. «Losker Huloe speaking.»
«It's Fre Qor. You're needed to question Roseanne and Laura.»
«Kle. I'll be right over, sir.»
