4
VRUHAG
I burst from my cage and breathed in the humid jungle air, tasting it for any trace of my mate’s scent. How long had it been since she’d arrived on the planet’s surface? I’d passed out in transit and had lost track of time.
In the back of my mind, I automatically categorised the scents. Prey, predator or unfamiliar. On my home planet, I was close to the top of the food chain, with only a few beasts strong or clever enough to take on an orc. Here, on Kalumbu, I was prey. I’d watched stronger beings than me get eaten by the beasts that roamed this planet. It’s why they’d chosen Kalumbu as the setting for the Trials. It was a beautiful planet, full of lush jungle and plants painted in colours we didn’t even have names for on Orcadia. Yet almost everything here was deadly. Not just
