said the quickest prayer to Kax ever:
"Help!"
I didn't hear any answer. I did get lucky, though. On one of my jumps, I unexpectedly landed in a pile of stones. They loosened and all started tumbling down the hill toward Lido and the Niques.
Lido's big belly just barely cleared the stones, but he jumped over them.
The Niques were too small to jump over the stones. They turned around and ran down the hill! They ran fast enough to not get killed, but slow enough that they wouldn't be coming after us for a few days. I took great satisfaction in seeing them turn their tails and run away.
My three Niques had just crested the hill. They now stood in the way of Lido reaching the space shuttle and unloading his jex. Thank Kax, we were next to a particularly steep part of the hill, which hid us from their view. It didn't hide us from their noses, but we would just have to gamble they didn't catch on. I had a plan.
"Give me your jex."
Lido found a suitably clean place without thorns, spun to mash the tall wild grasses down, and dumped his load of jex.
I ingested it.
"We'll run down the hill where they can see us, Lido, and then you go right and I'll go left. So far as they know, you have the jex. Hopefully, they'll think you're taking it to the next shuttle, and they'll all follow you. Then, I can take the jex to this shuttle."
"OK!"
We took off running down the hill. Well, I took off. Lido kind of lumbered off, but he was doing the best he could. Don't laugh!
The Niques followed as soon as they saw us. Sure enough, when we split up, they all three followed Lido. He was just headed home, but they wouldn't know that until he passed by the trail up to the next Kaxian space shuttle.
I moseyed on up to our nearby space shuttle and dropped my second load of jex for the day, smiling the whole time. Looking out for my friend, I followed Lido's scent until I was sure he had made it safely home, and then I headed home, myself.
* * *
Scrabbling under my back-yard fence, I heard my human coming home in his car.
"Whew!" I thought, "Made it home just in time."
I was so busy being pleased with myself for outsmarting those Niques that I didn't notice the fresh footprints next to my hole under the fence, or the fresh human scent that should have told me my parents' human had already been home today.
About the Dog Aliens Series
Clem has more adventures in the 182-page book, Dog Aliens 1: Raffle’s Name, which is available in many ebook formats as well as in paperback. For more information, see author Cherise Kelley’s blog: Size 12 By St Patrick’s Day!
Dog Aliens: Kaxian Duty - A Short Story Page 4
