Free An Accidental Alliance by Jonathan Edward Feinstein

her.
          “I wasn’t,” she replied. “Next time we go out, we’ll have a set of wheels.”
          The next morning Park decided they were far enough away from base to stop for a day to do a detailed survey. The banks of the river were not as steep here and they could see across the plains on both sides.
          “Look at those!” Iris pointed to the southeast. She had spotted a large herd of grazers about half a mile from the river. The grass was shorter here with only occasional tufts of longer stems where the animals had somehow missed them as they wandered by.
          “I was beginning to wonder if there was anything that ate the grass,” Park admitted. “and these are big fellows, aren’t they?”
          “They may be an all female herd, you know,” Iris reminded him, “Gals, not fellows.”
          “Well there are obviously some females in the group, at least if they are at all analogous to the animals we’re acquainted with. See the young ones among them?”
          “Where,” Iris asked, staring into the crowds of beasts. They were large creatures. The adults stood six feet and more at their shoulders. Their skin was black and had the same plated appearance many of the other creatures Park and Iris had seen so far. They also had a rhinoceros-like horn on their noses which combined with the fierce spikes that protruded from their shoulders, made the grazers nothing Park wanted to get into a fight with.   As Iris peered at the grazers she realized that the largest ones were mostly staying on the edge of the herd while smaller animals and obvious babies were deep inside the protective formation. “Oh, I see them now. Do you think the smaller ones are the females?”
          “Could be,” Park allowed, “or they might just be younger. These may also be edible. The young ones may be more tender, though.”
          “You’re not going to kill one of the babies are you?” Iris asked.
          “No,” Park shook his head, “but those big ones won’t fit in the boat either. Let’s try for something in between.”
          “In the boat?” Iris asked.
          “We’re supposed to bring samples back to base. We could just bring a limb or something for the biologists,” Park considered, “but they’ll get more out of a complete animal. If they turn out to be edible, they’ll be of even more use to us.”
          “The cooler on the boat won’t hold anything that large,” Iris responded.
          “Yes, we’ll have to race back to base if we want to do this,” Park told her, “but if we can get past the portage tonight, we can motor our way until we run out of fuel and then continue on when the sun comes out. The beast won’t be too bad by then, I hope.”
          “I still wouldn’t want to eat it and the biologists will want its guts to study,” she pointed out.
          “They will,” Park agreed, “but that will have to wait for another time. For now they get to study muscle structure and the shape of its skeleton. Gutting it will reduce the weight we have to carry and maybe it won’t spoil as much on the way.”
          “So which one do you want?” Iris asked.
          “I’m not sure yet,” Park replied. “Let’s just keep an eye on them. They don’t look particularly bothered by us. The odds are they have never seen anything like us. It makes them distrustful, naturally, but if we just stand here and don’t get any closer I hope they’ll eventually ignore us.”
          “So long as they don’t attack,” Iris told him.
          “If they do, you run back to the boat as fast as you can,” Park told her. “I won’t be very far behind.”
          “You think they will attack?” Iris asked nervously. “Is that what herd animals like this do most of the time?”
          “I honestly don’t know,” Park chuckled. “I told you I’m not a hunter. Not yet anyway. Also