Free Abducted by Aliens (Tales From Angondra Book 1) by Ruth Anne Scott Page A

Then the other factions get dragged into it, and before you know it, they have to get the Aqinas to negotiate a truce when it was the Aqinas that started the fight in the first place.”
    Carmen rubbed her head. “How am I supposed to understand all this?”
    Leroni patted her on the shoulder and laughed. “Don’t even try. I’ve been living here all my life, and I don’t understand it myself. Let’s go back to the city. I want to show you something.”
    They strolled back over the meadows and hillocks to the foot of the city. Leroni stopped in the shade of a giant tree. “This is it.”
    Carmen looked around. “What?”
    Leroni pointed to a massive stone under the tree. “Do you see that hole?”
    Carmen craned her neck and looked into a gaping black hole in the side of the rock. “What is it?”
    “It’s an oven,” Leroni replied. “Our people use it to temper their stonework for building. They mix stone with mud and fire it in there.”
    Carmen stared at it. “I didn’t know your people did that sort of work.”
    Leroni shook her head. “That’s not why I’m telling you. Those tubers I showed you make a kind of powdery dust you can cook into other kinds of food.”
    Carmen’s eyes flew open. “Do you mean like flour?”
    Leroni waved her hand. “I don’t know what you call it. I’m just saying you can cook the tubers and eat them cooked, or you can grind them up into this dust and cook them into different kinds of food.”
    Carmen stared at the hole and nodded. “I think I understand. Thank you so much for showing me this. It helps a lot.”
    Leroni beckoned her around the other side of the rock. “And there’s this, too.” She pointed to a pit dug into the ground. Three big flat rocks with black soot marks lay on the ground around the pit. “We use this place for making flat bricks. We spread our mud mixture on these rocks and bake them over a hot fire. They make a hard flat brick.”
    Carmen frowned. “What are you trying to tell me.”
    “You said you couldn’t cook your meat over a lamp,” Leroni replied. “You could do it here. You could gather wood from the trees over there when you collect your fruit and tubers. Then you could bring it here and light a fire. You could cook your meat on the fire, and you could bake your food on the hot flat rocks.”
    Carmen stared at her. Then she threw her arms around Leroni and kissed her on the cheek. “Leroni, you’re a genius!”
    Leroni laughed out loud. “Listen to you! You’d think I just gave you a space ship to travel back home.”
    Carmen brushed a tear away from the corner of her eyes. “You don’t know what this means to me. Thank you so much.”
    Leroni waved her hand. “Stop it. I didn’t do anything.”
    Just then, Renier strolled down the steps from his apartment and caught sight of them. He came toward them and nodded at Carmen. “I’ve been looking for you. I got word that one of your friends has been found.”

Chapter 10
     
    The palanquin stopped at the foot of a huge mountain, and Renier climbed down. “Where are we?” Carmen asked.
    “This is the border to Avitras territory,” he replied. “We have to go on foot from here. The palanquin can’t go through the forest. It’s too thick, and the Avitras hunt these snails, as you call them. They won’t cross the border.”
    Carmen followed him into the trees, and when she cast a glance over her shoulder, the palanquin sat flat on the ground with the snails nowhere in sight. “How will we get back?”
    “They’ll come back when we’re ready to go,” he replied.
    Carmen shook her head. “I don’t even want to know how you plan to call them back.”
    They hiked straight up the mountain, through tight packed trees. Screeches and squawks from unseen creatures echoed through the canopy overhead. Carmen struggled up the steep grade after Renier, but she refused to let him see her fail.
    Somewhere deep in the darkest forest, Renier stopped. Carmen doubled over to