Re-l blinked furiously. There was sweat in her eyes, and she couldn't afford a moment to wipe it away. Her arm burned fully now, the muscles protesting against every movement. Still there was no end to the creatures.

When the man put a hand on her arm she jerked, and felt as though she were waking up, or rising up to the surface of a lake after a long period underwater. Sounds and colours seemed to bloom into life again, and she was vividly aware of the noise of the beasts, of the whistling wind, and of the distinct pressure of a hand on her arm. She moved with liquid slowness backwards, away from the horde of hissing animals, dropping to the ground, pressing into the sand. Then there was a moment of soft white silence as the bomb exploded.

She opened her eyes an indefinite amount of time later. She wasn't hurt, though her ears were ringing.

"That was an effective grenade," she said to the man, and then she wondered if he could even hear her.

The beasts were not all dead, but those left alive had apparently decided that this group was too much trouble. They slunk back into the desert, blending quickly into the sand.

Re-l knelt, still too shaken to stand, and found a smile coming out of nowhere, filling her up. She let it out tentatively, and looked at her companion.

"I think you might have saved us," she said.