Chapter Text
Nolo was jealous of Team B.
Team B had Christopher, the tall, thick human with golden hair like the sun, and had muscles that could rival a jolack during its mating season. Now that was a human. That was someone Nolo wanted to travel with, to observe and talk to. Every team had their designated human, and when it was Nolo's turn to find who was theirs, he was severely disappointed.
First of all, her name was Grace. It was so simple, even Yulon, who lost two of his mandibles three cycles ago, could pronounce it easily. Grace was female, as short as Nolo, fat, and was much older than the other escort humans. She was nearly fifty. Once Nolo laid his five eyes on her, he felt nothing but disappointment. This was his companion? Why did Team B get the young man in his prime and they got Grace?
Nolo's teammates didn't see the issue. Of course, they've never seen a human before and fawned over her. They touched her hair, inspected her fingers, and were absolutely delighted to have her on their team. Grace happily touched them as well, running her disgusting digits over their mandibles, poking at their anttenae. Nolo was glad nobody seemed to notice he was keeping his distance.
Once they were ready, Team A was off into the wilderness to create their map. They were given only a few days to complete their task, but Nolo was confident they could it. If they kept going at a nice steady pace, there'll be no problem.
Except.
Nolo had forgotten humans needed to expel their waste. Nearly every hour Grace forced the group to stop so she could excuse herself and go into the bushes. Sometimes it only took a few minutes, sometimes it took nearly fifteen. They also needed to stop for her to eat, rest, and on one occasion, "Selfie!" On their first night out, they only traveled ten miles. Pathetic.
Nolo's companions didn't mind. They were in awe of every stupid thing Grace did, from the way she talked, ate, and when she sneezed, they chortled loudly and gleefully. By the third day they were forty miles behind schedule. Nolo had truly come to hate Grace.
The elders always told them to travel with a human. Humans were strong, courageous, and were a threat to be reckoned with. Surely they meant someone like Christopher, not someone like Grace who kept showing them pictures of her overweight cats.
On the fourth night as they sat around the campfire, Nolo angrily wrote his notes, pointedly ignoring Grace as she regaled her college years to the others.
Who cares? Thought Nolo. Who cares about your ability to imbide alcohol? Not me. Look at this. They should've hit the western mountains already. Instead they were here, miles away because, once again, Grace needed to rest. This was easily the worst assignment Nolo has ever been on and it was all because of that human's fault-
A sudden deep growl erupted from the darkness of the wilderness, startling everyone. Grace stupildy looked up from her can of baked beans and muttered, "What was that?"
"Rexrode," Nolo whispered, horrified. He didn't have time to explain when suddenly the animal leapt out of the bushes and was on top of him within a second.
Nolo has never seen a rexrode outside of his school books. They were large, hairy animals with more teeth and claws than evolution should've given them. This ungodly beast was right on top of him, crushing him, its front claw digging deep into his shoulder, making him scream.
The rest of Team A scattered. Of course they did. They had no weapons, no way of fighting this thing. Nolo couldn't blame them, he'd do the same. Still, he cried out in horror as the rexrode opened its jaw and leaned down to eat his face.
"HEY!"
Both Nolo and the rexrode turned to the voice. There stood Grace, holding her can of baked beans. "Get the fuck off him!"
She threw her can.
The can bounced uselessly off of the rexrode's shoulder. The beast huffed, and it struck out with one of its six legs, slashing Grace across the arm. She cried out and fell back, nearly falling on top of the campfire.
Nolo sobbed. Was this how it was going to end? It was bad enough he was going to be eaten, but the last person he was going to see before the lights go dim was Grace, the useless, pointless human assigned to his team.
Grace achingly got back up. She turned, and Nolo gulped at the sight of her. She was bleeding heavily from her wounds, a fat bruise was already forming around her cheek, and yet there wasn't a single ounce of pain shown on her face. In that moment Grace was as much as an animal as the rexrode. Her mouth turned into a snarl as she bent down and grabbed a burning log from the fire.
"I said," she bit out, holding the log tightly in her fist. "Get the fuck off of him."
The rexrode slashed at her again. This time she was ready for it. She ducked underneath its swipe, swung the burning log and smashed it against the rexrode's leg. The animal squealed and wrenched back its leg, but Grace didn't let up. She ran right at the rexrode, bringing the burning log down upon it over and over again, all the while screaming, "BACK OFF! I SAID, BACK OFF! GET OFF HIM! GET! THE! FUCK! OFF! HIM!"
She kept screaming, not letting up until the singed redroxe ran back into the wilderness, its tail tucked between its legs.
Nolo couldn't believe what he just witnessed. Even as his companions slowly came out of their hiding places, he continued staring at Grace. She stood by the edge of the camp, still holding the burning log, waiting. When she was satisfied the rexrode wasn't coming back, she huffed, muttered, "That's what I thought," and dropped the log.
She turned to Nolo. "Nolo, are you alright?"
He couldn't stop staring at her hand. Her entire right hand was severely burned, turned nearly black. It was bleeding horrifically, there were chunks of spliters sticking out of it, and yet she was asking him if he was alright?
Nolo burst into tears.
He always thought the stories told of humans were exaggerations, tall-tales the humans themselves spread in order to make themselves look better. Nolo knew better now. He was never going to doubt another human again, and he was never going to go on another mission again- not unless Grace was with him.