• Chapter 2
    .....Cover which we fear

    He scolded his own ignorance. Only a fledgling would land in a mass of trees to be "stealthy". The birds had been disrupted and the Skydust ha dbroken branches on its decent.
    "Dammit dammitdammitdammit!!!" White cursed tearing off a strip from his already tattered armlets. hie pale skin glittered dark in the half light under Lunarfern's branched canopy. Blood. He was bleeding out here, alone, in the middle of a oasis.
    His keen ears tuned to the sounds aroung him: a bird chirped then fell silent, fluttering away. Nothing stired, nothing made a noise.
    Danger!
    He slowly moved, grasping his whip and untwirling it in a slow fashion. He could feel eyes on him, cold smell the stench of hunger, caould hear the low rumbling in the preditors throat. But he could see nothing.
    He was not made for total nocternalism. During the time of the new moon he came to port, and slept below deck, in a lanturned room. He could not navigate the darkness.
    "Three....." He heard paws on soft moss, the nearly incoherent swish of a fern. He gripped the whip tighter. "Two...." the rumbling growl was louder, and now a snarl joined it. White felt persperation beading on his forhead.
    "One..." He lept to his right, meeting in midair a emaciated jackle.