The two survivors chose to set up camp inside the facility. Nothing would be crazy enough to challenge them with a mole-bear nearby and as long as it slept and they remained quiet they were relatively safe. They took a few hours to rest and smoke some more meat.
Even though neither of them was in top condition, they had to be armed in case they needed to fight. John now carried Charrack's bow. Although it was difficult for him to draw it, he could at least take a few shots with it before tiring out.
John explored the compound alone, searching for any food sources he could find. Some birds nests contained eggs, which he collected. He tried his hand at shooting some time of the smaller animals, but due to his lack of practice and broken finger he couldn't hit anything. Dejected and exhausted he made his way back to camp on his crutches.
Charrack was busying himself by carving more wood. He waved as John walked through the door, wincing from the pain the action caused.
"Find anything?" He asked.
John held up an egg and placed the rest next to the fire. "These will do for an omelette, if only we had some salt." He pointed at Charrack's carvings, "What are you working on?"
Charrack held up the curved piece of wood he was working on, "A crossbow. It should help with hunting since we are both weakened at the moment. I'll just have to treat the wood so it doesn't splinter and we'll need something to tie it together."
"How do you plan on doing that?" John asked.
"Smoke should do the trick, but I'd like some metal wiring and pins to fasten everything together. We can also use sinew for the string."
It was a good thing Charrack was a capable survivalist, or at least just super confident, because there had been no end of trouble since they arrived on the planet. If there was anyone who could get them out of this situation it was him. The more time John spent with him, the more he came to respect him.
With nothing better to do, John decided to try conversation. They had been improving their use of each other's language drastically.
"So Charrack, what did you do before the war?"
Charrack stopped carving for a moment, "For awhile I was in law enforcement, did hunting as a hobby. I had a wife, two kids and things got a little tough. I ended up losing my job and,... well things didn't go the way I had planned."
"Sorry, I didn't mean to pry." John apologized. "I understand you lost people in the war."
"I lost everything in the war!" Charrack's voice was laced with bitter rage, and John could have sworn his eyes changed to a bright red color. "My home world burned, my family was murdered, my friends all died in combat, my home was destroyed, my freedom traded in exchange for military service, my people slaughtered by your cursed human,.." Charrack stopped himself and his eyes turned back to their original black shade. "But none of that's your fault. You never had a choice either, just following orders right?"
John didn't dare respond or ask anymore questions after that. Perhaps Charrack would calm down, but for now he would have to tread lightly.
The last hours of daylight passed and night fell upon the derelict outpost. But in the night wind John heard a whispering sound. It sounded like hushed voices talking to each other, but he couldn't make out the words. He slipped outside with the bow and peered into the darkness as far as he could.
Around the corner of the storage building he could see a flickering light growing ever closer. He strained his ears to catch what words were being said. As soon as he recognized it as Valken he rushed back inside.
"Charrack I have some news that is either really good or really bad." He whispered.
Charrack looked up from his work, "Well, what is it?"
"There's some Valk outside and they appear to be heading this way."
"Are you certain?" Charrack asked.
John gave a definitive nod and stood motionless. Valk could mean bad news, most would not be understanding of a human under any circumstances nor another Valk that would help one. As far as John new, no Valk had ever provided shelter to a human nor a human for a Valk. Whatever happened, he couldn't let them see him.
Charrack looked at their surroundings and started hiding any evidence that John had been there. His things were piled up next to where he was whittling the crossbow.
"I'm going to have to say I killed a human and took his equipment otherwise they'll find out you are here. And no matter what, stay hidden."
John hobbled around back and rushed to the mole-bear's den. In a moment he heard shouting and Charrack's voice shushing them to be quiet. John sat down in front of the half closed door and breathed as slowly as he could. The slow breathing of the hibernating beast rattled the door, making John shudder.
The whispers coming from the entrance were hard to understand so John decided to creep closer to catch what he could. Even though he wasn't familiar with hearing the Valken language, he was able to piece together enough words to understand the conversation.
"... But what happened to you? You look like you've been trampled under the feet of a thousand bulls." A deep voice boomed, echoing off the walls even through a whisper.
"Keep it down!" Charrack demanded, "you don't want the mole-bear to wake up."
"Alright I'll keep it down." The deeper Valk's words were more hushed now.
"But tell us how you got here and why you are so beat up." A third voice intoned.
"I was chased through a portal by a human, I managed to kill him and take his survival gear." Charrack answered.
John breathed a silent sigh of relief, at least he wasn't being turned in.
"After that I ran into several animals and great beasts that roam this planet," Charrack continued. "I even ran into a dragon."
When he mentioned the dragon the other Valk began praising him and demanded of Charrack how he survived.
"It was by sheer luck, when I hid under the water he lost interest in me and took off."
"You are fortunate indeed that it did not think you were a threat." A new voice said. This one was much smoother than the rest and the others seemed to pause to let them speak. Perhaps they were the squad leader.
"My injuries came as a result of a constrictor snake just recently. But I dealt with him swiftly enough.
"You must be quite strong to have survived the snakes. One of our squad fell to their clutches this morning." The deep voiced one said.
"What are you here for?" Charrack asked, "surely it's not for the scenery?"
"As pleasant as it is, no, we are here to hunt dragons." The leader answered.
"Perhaps I can be of assistance." Charrack offered.
"No offense great hunter, but you are wounded, we cannot carry you." The deep voiced Valk responded.
"But I can show you where the dragon goes to drink," Charrack insisted. "I believe he also has the core to the portal of this facility."
"The portal here is still intact?" The leader asked. "It would save us many days of travel to use this one instead of the one we arrived through. Let me see it."
"No!" Charrack said, perhaps too loudly. "The mole-bear guards it, listen to it's breathing. You can't go back there."
They all listened closely and John noticed something strange about the mole-bear's breaths. They were much louder and quicker now. He turned back around and stared at the entrance to the portal room.
To his great horror, he saw the mole-bear standing outside, staring at him....