Guardian of the Storm by Kaitlyn O'Connor

gone out to hunt and gather plenty of times, but mostly the young people just went to help carry things back, not to actually do it—the killing and preparation, you know.”
    Kiran shook his head. “This is very strange.”
    Tempest drew a deep breath with an effort. “I understand that it would seem that way to you. Violence almost completely destroyed our world, however, and we had worked very hard to learn not to be violent. Unfortunately, violence is part of survival and it was hard to learn to take care of ourselves when we found that we had to kill if we wanted to live.”
    “We, too, are a peaceful people.”
    Tempest glanced at him, but she didn’t argue the point. She was sure that, comparatively speaking, the Zoeans were peaceful. They were still, of necessity, far more war-like than the people , far less civilized.
    She wondered quite suddenly if the Niahians were rebuilding, as well. It made sense, now that she began comparing the two different civilizations. Everyone at the colony had assumed that Niah was merely a primitive world, undeveloped, its inhabitants only just climbing toward true civilization.
    Kiran had told her very little, but from what he had said, it seemed to indicate that something global had happened to his world. The Keepers of the Memory might indicate ancient records that dated back to a time when this world had been entirely different, perhaps much more civilized. He’d suggested as much, but she’d thought it was just tales, passed down from generation to generation. She hadn’t considered, until now, that it might actually be true and that his world, having been nearly destroyed, the survivors had had to start once more, virtually at the bottom of the chain of evolution to build again.
    For the first time since she’d met him, she felt a genuine curiosity to know what it was that he had been sent to accomplish. Apparently, it was something he, and all of his people, believed would bring their world back to what it had been before.
    It still didn’t make sense to her, turn it though she would. Planets, if they weren’t totally destroyed, usually regenerated, but they did it slowly, over time. Everyone believed, given time, the Earth would one day be inhabitable again, maybe not for many generations, but eventually.
    But, short of moving the whole planet to a different orbital path, and perhaps seeding it, she couldn’t imagine anything that would bring about a sudden change.
    Kiran abruptly drew her from her thoughts by grasping her arm. She looked up at him in surprise, then followed the direction of his gaze.
    In the distance, just topping a tall dune, she saw men—perhaps a dozen of them, mounted on beasts. She could tell nothing about them at this distance except that they were wearing long reddish robes that blended surprisingly well with their surroundings. If not for the beasts they were mounted on and the fact that the fabric was flapping around them, she might never have noticed them at all.
    Pushing her into the sand, Kiran covered her with his own body. Tempest grunted as the air was forced from her lungs by the impact. “What are you doing?”
    “It is the Mordune,” he whispered harshly.
    “Yeah, but why squash me?”
    “Your flesh is white,” Kiran pointed out testily.
    She wasn’t that white! In point of fact, she was more red by now than anything else … not brown, like the Niahians, but definitely not white—not anymore. She found she didn’t really have the breath to argue with him, however.
    After a moment, he rolled off of her and began dragging her down the other side of the dune. “You think they saw us?” she gasped.
    “Yes,” he said grimly.
    Tempest’s heart seemed to stand still. “What do we do now?” There was no place to run to. No place to hide.
    “We wait. If they did not see us, they will pass us by.”
    “But, if they did …?”
    “They might still pass us by.”
    “And they might not.” Waiting wasn’t much of a plan in