One sun was in the sky, and while it was early by Xiunus standards the tsabhua were rousing themselves, relighting fires and sorting out breakfast.  The three colonists were travel-worn and knew the routine already.  Dawnbreaker set about getting food while Cygnus packed up their sleeping blankets.  Kukimbia watched them, munching on berries she had in a bowl.  Orion, who usually helped with the morning proceedings, was instead suspiciously checking over the...

Orion sighed as she leaned against a nearby wall of rock.  The two whelps she was watching over had scampered off again, climbing one of the striated formations to play on its wind-smoothed surface.  They took any hint of climbable rock as a challenge, as if there weren’t cool vantage points in Mireh!  The pair were probably going to disturb something’s nest and get bit at this rate.  Still, standing in the shade was nice.  Even in Kerah, Issiq was hot....