Jack woke up with the rising of the sun. Something fuzzy and warm was snuggled against his chest, and he happily wrapped his arms around it to fall back asleep. He felt the emotional warmth and happiness through the bond and the lean-to was soon filled with the sound of purring. For a while Jack thought he was back on earth, sleeping in on a Saturday with his old family cat curled into his chest. He yawned, stretching his arms and legs out and was immediately reminded that he wasn’t in his childhood bed. The primitive stitches in his arm stung and he kicked the side of the lean-to as he stretched. He winced in pain and opened his eyes. He was face to face with the jaws of a saber tooth tiger. He froze, his brain screaming that he was in danger. But then Tilly snuggled back into him and he remembered the events of the previous night.

  He relaxed and looked around, his hands moving to pet the big, sleepy kitty. It was light out, which made him frown. Soren and Clara should have woken him up for a watch rotation. He wouldn’t lie and say he didn’t need the extra sleep, but it was still worrying that his friends hadn’t woken him up. He slowly crept out of the lean-to and looked around. Thrasher was still asleep by the fire, which was low but not out. Soren was leaned against him, sleeping peacefully. Clara was awake, sitting by the fire and trying her best to be quiet as she clacked two rocks together. Each time she did a few chips were knocked off the smaller rock, slowly shaping it into a stone spearhead. She looked over to Jack as he stepped out of the lean-to and gave him a small nod.

  “Good morning. How are you feeling?” She asked. He could see small bags under her eyes.

  “I’m good. You need to sleep.” He said as sternly as he could manage. She shook her head.

  “I got a good five hours or so. Soren was up most of the night. I just didn’t sleep well. Something about being attacked two nights in a row by stealthy tigers gave me bad dreams.” She said. He sat down beside her, scanning the woodline before tossing a fresh branch onto the fire.

  “Yeah. I slept like a rock, but that was mostly due to the pain and exhaustion.” He said. The fire slowly built back up, devouring the branch in a crackling shower of cinders. Clara had boiled water overnight to fill the water bottle and they passed it back and forth as they started another can-full on the fire. Clara went back to her rocks.

  “I found some flint, I think. Or something similar. I’ve been practicing making these spearheads. I can get it pretty sharp, but the last step is an absolute bitch. You have to chip the bottom of the spearhead so it fits into a notch on the spear itself. But if you fuck up it breaks the entire thing.” She demonstrated with a clack of stone. She got the first side right, but when she flipped it over to finish the piece, the angle was off and the entire thing splintered. She sighed and tossed it onto a small pile of broken stones that had been growing beside her throughout the night.

  “Is that step necessary?” He asked, picking up a rock of his own to try his hand at it. “It looks like you got it plenty sharp.”

  “Yeah, if you don’t do that last step it will break really easily when you try to use it. At least that's what my archeology teacher said. I used to hate that class, but it’s been surprisingly helpful. The process is called knapping. I think.” She said, as she showed him some of the techniques she had worked out. His flint broke on his seventh hit, but she managed to make a good spearhead over the next hour. Soren, Thrasher and Tilly all slept despite the noise, so Jack and Clara drank their fill and enjoyed the sunrise as they continued working. This time Clara got the final step right and finished the spearhead. She grinned and immediately started working on the body of the spear.

  She took one of the sturdier branches that was taller than her and around seven feet tall. She peeled the bark off and smoothed out all the nubs and twigs poking off it with a rough rock. It wasn’t as good as sandpaper, but it did a decent enough job. She stuck the end of it in the fire, charring the tip until it changed color to a darker brown. She pulled it out and stuck it in the stream to cool it off, then she took some of her failed spearheads and used them to carve a slit into the end of the branch. She fit the stone spearhead into the slit, the two indents on its base making the tight fit perfect, then she started to wrap it in twine. Jack helped her keep the twine taught as she wound it around the spearhead’s base, and finally tied it off with a secure knot. One stone spear was done, and its tip glinted in the sunlight.

  “Good work. We just need sixty seven more and the tribe will be quite fearsome.” He said, smiling at her work.

  “O god. I don’t want to make these all day. I’ll show the crafters, but no thank you. I would much rather be running around out here using the spears than sitting all day and making them. If Soren doesn’t get up soon I think I’ll go mad.” She said, but Jack could see how proud of her work she was. They returned to the fire, and Jack tried his luck making another stone spear. He failed, but it was a good way to pass the time. He got a bit better at knapping with each failed attempt and finally finished sharpening a piece of flint into the shape he wanted. He paused and looked up to check the woodline again. Nothing was around other than some Compys who were drinking from the stream.

  He took a minute to admire the reds and yellows the sunrise was throwing across the clouds. The sky was beautiful, though it looked like a storm was brewing behind the mountain to the west. He could see a small flock of Pteranodons flying above the river, and couldn’t wait to tame one. He doubted that he could ever ride one, but they would still be cool. When he looked north he could see the smoke from their home base. He could picture the large bonfire in the center of camp putting up smoke as the majority of the tribe woke up and added fuel to the fire. Then he noticed another trail of smoke to the south. It was closer than the Roaring Falls base, probably around three miles away.

  “Clara.” He said, his tone grabbing her focus right away. He pointed the smoke trail out.

  “Oh. We should probably get going then.” She said, stepping over to Soren and gently shaking him awake. He yawned and sat up.

  “Gmoring.” He mumbled, rubbing his eyes. Jack passed him some water, then stored the flint spearhead he was working on in the backpack. His arms stung, but they hadn’t started bleeding again.

  “We can see smoke to the South. Time to go meet the neighbors.” Clara said, helping Soren up and passing him the water bottle.

  “Oh joy.” He said. “Breakfast first?”

  Jack had munched on some of the leftover meat, but it was starting to smell. He didn’t trust it to stay good for any longer, but it tasted fine if a bit bland. They finished off their rations, and grabbed their torches. Thrasher had woken up when Soren stood, and went to drink his fill from the steam. He was chewing on some grass, waiting for them to get moving. Tilly was proving as lazy as any housecat, but after Jack started to rub her belly she woke up and licked his face. It was gross, but she was up. He washed his face in the stream as Clara laughed at him and showered the “silly kitty” with attention.

  The sadness that he had been feeling from Tilly since the bond formed was still there, but it was fading slowly with positive attention and love. Jack wondered why she was sad. She had been alone, and the encyclopedia had definitely said that they were pride animals. Like lions, the females only ever left their pride when there were too many of them and the pride split, or when they traded members with other prides to keep the genetic diversity healthy. So why was she alone? Unless she wasn’t. Jack suddenly felt guilty. He had killed the male saber tooth the night before. And ever since he had felt like he was being followed. Had Tilly seen him kill her mate? Had she been stalking them for revenge? He remembered a story about a tiger back on earth who had been injured by a hunter, and had stalked him back to his home and slaughtered him in revenge.

  He bent down to rub Tilly’s ears and look into her eyes. She seemed happy. She had a new pride with them, but there was still some sadness he could feel in the bond. He gave her a smile.

  “I know we didn’t meet on the best of circumstances, but I think we will get along very well. Let's be friends, Tilly.” He said. She didn’t understand a word, other than her name, which she perked up at. He chuckled and scratched behind her ear until Thrasher pushed him over, demanding the same attention. Soren pet him, laughing at the jealous dinosaur..

  “It's okay big boy. You will get plenty of pets too.” He said.

  Jack stood up and they started moving. Each of them grabbed a torch and kicked dirt onto the fire until the flames died. With a nod, they set out back towards the open valley. After walking for ten minutes, the woods fell away and they could see the tall grass. A herd of twenty-four triceratops were grazing on the vegetation at the edge of the woods. Each one was around fifteen feet tall, with a single male that stood closer to twenty feet tall. They could see the massive Brontosauruses were still in the center of the valley, but they looked to be slowly heading towards the river. They also spotted the huge male Bronto they had seen the day before at the waterfall. It was still alone and hanging out near where the woods met the river, northwest of the herd. The smoke was to the southeast of them, on top of a hill that blocked sight of the rest of the valley. It was a good two miles away and a lot of dinosaurs stood between them and their destination.

  “Let’s do our best to keep away from any of the herds, but mainly focus on avoiding the Brontos and their nesting grounds. I don’t want to mess with any of them.” Jack said.

  They started forward, keeping their distance from the Triceratops. Tilly entered the tall grass and vanished from their sight. Despite the grass being green, she managed to blend in amazingly well. He caught a few glimpses of her as they moved, but he could imagine that if the grass ever dried out her brown coat would make her nearly invisible here. Thrasher stood out much more and Soren climbed onto his back to keep a lookout around them.

  Jack noticed there weren’t any herds of Parasaurolophus here for some reason. But he could see at least a few examples of the other herbivores that lived in the river basin. Triceratops were the most common, then Gallimimus, then it was a tie between Stegosaurus and Mayasaura. Several smaller herds of Styracosaurus, Ankylosaurus, and other Hadrosaur species all mingled as they munched on the tall grass. Interestingly, Soren spotted a small group of what looked like Bison. Jack couldn’t find anything about them in the encyclopedia, and they were too far away to identify them. His best guess was that they had some long scientific name that he couldn’t recognize. He made a mental note to let Mavis know about it when they got back.

  They kept their distance from the herds as best as they could. Jack lost sight of Tilly and he hoped that she was staying safe. They quickly found it impossible to track a straight path through the valley. Having to detour around a herd of Stegosaurus that made aggressive grunting sounds when they saw Thrasher and Soren. They apparently got too close to the Stegos, and one of them started to charge them; its tail swinging back and forth with long spikes glinting in the morning light. The angry dinosaur was easily twenty feet tall, and its plates made it appear even larger. It was like being chased by a semi truck, and they quickly started to sprint.

  “Shit!” Clara cried out as they ran. “Why is it so pissed off?”

  “I think its nest is over there!” Soren said as he desperately hung onto Thrasher’s neck. Thrasher was leading the charge away from the angry mother, clearly getting the message that he was not welcome here. Fortunately Jack and Clara were able to peel away from the charging Stego, as it continued to chase Thrasher.

  Jack kept his distance. His club wouldn’t do anything to the Stego and they only wanted to escape, so it was easier to just run. He hoped Tilly wasn’t in its way. Thrasher turned out to be faster, and after a few hundred feet the grumpy dinosaur turned around and started to lumbar back its herd and presumably its nest. The hunters quickly gathered back together.

  “Well that sucked. Is this just a massive nesting ground?” Clara asked as she rested against Thrasher. She caught her breath quickly.

  “Probably. That would make sense.” Soren said as he climbed higher onto Thrasher’s back and looked around. Tilly poked her head out of the grass and chirped at them. Jack was happy to see her, though he was slightly confused to see her fangs covered in blood. She dropped the body of a raptor at their feet. It was missing an arm, and had several large bites taken out of its body. Its intestines were dragging behind it, and its face had been scratched deeply, exposing its skull.

  “Um. Good girl. You can keep that one.” Jack said, and Clara gagged at the grizzly sight. Rather than watch Tilly eat, they started to move again. This time they made sure to give all the dinos as wide a berth as they could. Tilly walked with them for a while before vanishing into the grass again. Jack occasionally saw the grass shake nearby, but he didn’t see her again.

  It took two hours to walk the two miles across the valley. They carved a twisting, zig zag path to avoid all the nests. As they climbed a hill, they got a good look at the center of the valley where the Brontos were nesting. The grass had been fully stomped down, and deep furrows were scattered about where the giants rested. A massive female was sitting around a nest that had been dug out of the soil, it wasn’t looking at them. Considering the distance the other herbivores gave it, they had no doubt that it would be a death sentence to approach it. As they watched the dinosaur shifted its neck, and they caught sight of a massive egg. It was brown, and nearly the size of a washing machine.

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  “We should try and go around this place on our way back.” Soren said.

  “Yeah. Let's plan on that. I think Tilly is keeping the raptors away from us, but I still don’t like it. It's hard to keep an eye out for predators and avoid all these herbivores.” Jack said.

  They climbed to the top of the hill and could finally see over it. The valley was smaller than they had thought, as a smaller river came down from the eastern cliffs and joined the main river. This created a natural boundary for the valley. The far side of the river was an extremely tall forest of redwood trees. Each one was close to one hundred feet tall or more. It finally made sense why the Bronto’s lived here, they could cross the water without risk and eat from the taller trees. The grass on the far side of the river was much shorter, though he could see some large bushes. It was strange to see the drastic change of biomes. The valley felt like a natural change from the river basin, and Jack wasn’t even sure it was considered a new biome. But the redwoods were just there, like a wall of vegetation. The forest floor was much darker than the woods they had been traveling through and the trees were spaced far enough apart to easily let massive predators pass though. He had no doubt there was something massive living there. Maybe a T-Rex, or possibly something bigger.

  The smoke was coming from the hill close to where the two rivers met. The choice of location baffled Jack. The water was extremely dangerous, and the lack of trees in the valley would make building and survival very difficult. The angry herbivores in the valley would only make life harder. Whoever was there either knew something Jack didn’t, or was suffering terribly from bad choices.

  “Well, I only see one big herd of Mayasaura between us and the smoke. We can probably head closer to the water and avoid them.” Clara said. They didn’t linger, moving down the hill towards the smaller river. The grass was slightly shorter here, and Jack caught sight of Tilly off to his right. The Saber Tooth was seemingly enjoying her stroll, unbothered by the humans' anxiety.

  Jack wiped sweat from his brow. The clay bath that Mattock had given him had slowly fallen off as they walked the day before. Jack hadn't realized how much work the shade of the forest was doing to keep them cool. There was no relief from the sun in the valley and as the day went on, it would only get worse.

  They reached the river, but kept their distance from the water's edge. Jack couldn’t see any crocodiles, but he had no doubt that they were present. A handful of Mayasaura were drinking from the water and surprisingly didn’t seem bothered by their presence.

  “Maybe the water is a neutral zone for them? No eggs to accidentally step on here.” Clara said.

  “Let’s not test their temper.” Jack said, and the group kept moving. The smoke was close now. They were maybe ten minutes away from the hill the fire was on.

  “How should we play this?” Soren asked.

  “We walk up in the open, don’t hide your weapons but don’t point them at anyone. We come bearing gifts and seeking alliances. Let’s put our best foot forward.” Jack said, channeling what he imagined Gordon would say.

  “So you two won’t be talking then?” Clara said with a smirk.

  “I was going to let Thrasher negotiate, he is clearly our leader.” Soren quipped, which got some chuckles.

  “Serious question though. What do we do if they can’t speak English? Or if we run into some Mexican cartel or insane North Koreans? It’s not like we can lose them in the woods.” Clara asked. It was something Jack had been doing his best to not worry about. They needed to check with the other tribe, and there wasn’t anything he could do if they didn’t speak the same language. He hoped he wouldn’t have to fight or kill anyone, but he was willing to. His arms stung as he walked, his left arm was worse than his right so he figured he would be able to swing his club hard enough to hurt someone, but doing so would almost certainly cause the stitches to break and the wounds to reopen.

  “If they are hostile, we run the way we came and follow this river northeast to the cliff. Tilly, stay hidden in the grass. If we run, you can ambush whoever chases us.” Jack said, and the big cat sank down, hiding in the grass again. He wasn’t sure how much she understood, but the Alien taming magic seemed to let some form of communication happen. Mavis would probably love to test how it all worked. Maybe he would catch a Compy for her and let her tame it. Then she could experiment all day long.

  They walked up the hill, clearly visible beside Thrasher. The grass was still around four to five feet tall so their heads and shoulders, as well as their torches, were able to stay above it. No one called out, and they didn’t see any people. Either the tribe ahead didn’t have anyone on lookout, which would have been incredibly stupid, or they were all waiting to ambush.

  They reached the top of the hill and as it flattened out, they saw a small campsite. A campfire burned low, a large pile of grass sat beside it slowly being fed into it by a pale skinned woman with blond hair. All the grass within ten feet of the fire had been cut down, both to feed the fire and make sure it didn’t spread. The woman was filthy and looked exhausted. She held a metal knife in one hand, which she was using to sharpen a short wooden spear. Around the fire three other women were sleeping. They were all white with brown or blond hair. One of them was fully naked, and the others were dressed in mostly shredded workout gear. Notably, none of them had one of the alien bracelets. The women beside the fire had deep bags under her eyes, and only noticed the party of hunters when Thrasher made a huffing noise.

  She turned to stare at them, her eyes first falling on Jack. Fear cleared any exhaustion from her and she shot to her feet, her spear shaking as she aimed it at him. She gave a wordless shout of surprise and panic, but only one of the sleeping girls woke up. Her eyes were just as full of panic. Jack raised his hands, letting his club rest against his side.

  “Hold on. We don’t mean any harm.” He said. Soren moved from around Thrasher, he kept a hold of his spear, but kept it pointing up. Either of them probably could have taken the women down. Her grip was bad, her feet were too close together, and her spear was far too short. If Jack took an aggressive step forward he suspected she would fall over when trying to step back.

  “Stay back!” She shouted. Tears coming to her eyes. “You won’t take us!”

  Her words made Jack’s heart pulse with anger. Someone had clearly tried to take advantage of these women. That was fear that had come from bad experiences. He doubted these women had set off alone to try and survive. Their original group was likely the same size as his own, which meant their original tribe was ruled by someone so terrible that these women would risk life out here on their own, or their original tribe had been raided or destroyed. If that was the case, a shirtless Jack carrying a club was probably the worst thing they could have seen. He took a step back, and gestured for Soren to do the same.

  “We come in peace.” He said, but he noticed the women’s body language change as he spoke. It looked like she was going to try and throw her spear.

  “Clara. You might be better at calming things down.” He said.

  Clara nodded and stepped forward. She held her stone spear pointed up. The movement finally drew the women’s eyes towards the third member of their party. She looked confused at first seeing Clara dressed in her fern skirt and wrap, and it stopped her from throwing her spear.

  “Um. Hi. I’m Clara. We come in peace. We are out here looking for other tribes. We won’t hurt you.” She said, unsure of what to say as she took in their sad appearance.

  The woman who had woken up from the lookout’s shout stood up. She had brown hair and blue eyes. Her clothing was torn up, and she had a series of cuts and scrapes across her legs. It looked like she had run through thorn bushes or lost a fight with a raptor pack. None of the cuts looked too deep, but they did look uncomfortable. Her eyes were harder than the lookout’s, and she took in the group's appearance and weapons. She put her hand on the other woman’s shoulder.

  “Shelby, it’s ok. They are from a different tribe. I don’t recognize them from that camp, and that man has a chief’s bracelet. It’s not them. Put the spear down.” She said.

  The lookout, Shelby, slowly lowered the spear and took a deep breath.

  “Sorry.” She said. “I um. I thought you were someone else.”

  “It’s understandable. I’m Clara, this is Jack, Soren, and Thrasher.” Clara said, pointing to each of them in turn as she made introductions. “We are from the Roaring Falls tribe, North from here up the cliff.”

  The other woman sat beside the fire and tossed some of the piled up grass onto it. The fire grew again, and the smoke with it. She gestured for them all to sit, and they did. Thrasher tried a bite of the grass, but decided he didn’t like it. He grumbled but settled down behind Jack as the women continued with introductions.

  “I’m Beth, this is Shelby, and those two are Aster and Isabel.” She gestured to the two women who had slept through the shouts and conversation. They were both clearly moving, but they didn’t look healthy.

  “Are they ok?” Soren asked, gesturing to the two sleeping women.

  “They have been through a lot. We have been running for about three days nonstop now. We have been eating berries, fruits and a few roots but don’t have one of the alien bracelets, so we couldn’t check to see what was okay for us to eat and what wasn’t. They had some bad berries yesterday and spent most of the night getting sick. They stopped throwing up a few hours ago, but honestly we are all dehydrated and hungry.” Beth said.

  “What happened to you?” Clara asked, her tone delicate. Jack could tell that this group had suffered a lot.

  “We um. We landed south of here, I think. Down the valley and across the river. Near the base of that mountain.” Shelby said, pointing to the southwest. They could see the jungle covered mountain that reached up into the sky. The cliff at the bottom of the mountain was much shallower than the one they lived against, and where the river turned southwest around the mountain it could hardly be called a cliff at all.

  “There were around thirty of us who stuck together at the start. Some others just gave up and a few handfuls of people wandered off together. One guy named Jason managed to calm people down enough to get one of the bracelets. We settled in the same clearing we all landed in. There was a stream close to us and no one had the energy to move much. We spent our first days aimlessly wandering around, grieving. That second night a big carnivore came into camp and we lost a lot of people. The third night we started to get sick from the water since we had nothing to boil it in. We sent out scouts to explore the nearby area and we made spears with the knives we had, but we lost more people. Four groups left, only two came back. We were down to around sixteen people and morale was low. One of the groups found another tribe living in the redwoods along with this valley full of Brontosaurus. Jason had the idea to try and tame one. He said we wouldn’t have to fear any of the mega carnivores if we had one.” Beth said, shaking her head.

  Jack looked over his shoulder. The big mother Bronto was still guarding its nest and the others were walking back from the river. He could see the other herbivores moving out of the way. A mother Triceratops stood in their path, protectively guarding her nest. At over twenty feet tall she was big enough for the Bronto’s to change their course around her, but one of the much smaller Mayasaura was not so lucky. The herd trampled over her and her nest without a care, crushing the stubborn dinosaur into a red paste.

  “That big male, on the far side of the valley is the one he went for with our bravest hunters. He tried to calm it with some food, and it swatted them all with a careless tail swipe when they got too close. Then it stepped on Jason, destroying the alien bracelet and most of our supplies. There were only ten of us after that. We tried to get a new bracelet, but nothing happened. That night the last guy in our group was ambushed by a Dilophosaurus. The ones that spit poison in the movies. It didn’t spit poison, but it was so much bigger than we thought it would be. It was at least fifteen feet long, and it tore him to shreds. We couldn’t do anything but run. We decided to make our way to the tribe our scouts had found in the redwoods.” Beth continued. She stopped to wipe her eyes of tears.

  “That’s when we were attacked. A different tribe, they came down the river. There were twenty-four men. All white, muscular, spoke English with a midwestern accent. Most of them were wearing dirty sports jerseys, and all of them were strong. Their leader was riding a Carnotarus. They had six women with them, but they looked bad. They were all marching topless, and the men were…not kind to them. One of our girls threw a spear at them. She hurt their second in command and they decided to make an example of her.” She shuddered. Her voice was heavy with grief and sorrow.

  “They were monsters.” Shelby said, taking over from her friend. Clara moved beside Beth and took her hand, squeezing it. The woman started to weep. Jack and Soren eyed the grass cautiously. Crying would be a good way to attract predators like the raptors. But neither of them said anything, letting her cry. Clara eventually pulled Beth into a hug and let her sob into her shoulder.

  “You don’t have to describe what happened next.” Soren said, glancing at the naked girl. Jack had a bad feeling that he knew the people she was describing. Shane Gerling had gathered his buddies and taken around twenty five people with him to found his own tribe. They hadn't seen any sign of them since they had fled the clearing. Jack hadn’t known Shane well, but they had met a few times at parties in college. Jack played hockey, Shane played football, and the two teams had a friendly rivalry. Shelby followed Soren’s gaze. She nodded sadly, but continued.

  “They took us. And brought us back to their camp. They were starting to settle further up the cliff from where we landed and had found a flat spot with small trees and knocked them down with their dinos. They had a young Triceratops and a handful of Raptors. Apparently if you tame smaller stuff, the bracelet recharges faster. They had started to build a wall but were much more interested in us for the night. Their leader promised each man a fucking harem of wives and they drew lots to see who got to claim each of us first.” She scowled.

  Jack hadn’t even realized that his fists had clenched hard enough for his nails to cut his palms. He was furious. Every part of him wanted to cross the river and charge up the mountain to crush the skulls of each of the stupid assholes. They would need to be dealt with. A tribe like that couldn’t be allowed to grow near them. There were no cops in this world, no government or police and some people clearly thought that meant they could do whatever they wanted without any consequences. He decided that would be a good name for his club.

  “That night it rained, and the darkness turned the jungle into a void. They didn’t have any proper buildings, only some lean-tos. They don’t have rope like you guys do, so they just kept a guard on us. He dozed off and we took his knife and slit his throat. We grabbed what we could and ran. They sent their raptors after us, but with the guards knife and spear we managed to kill two of the raptors and drive the rest off. Honestly, if it hadn’t been raining I think the Carnotarus would have been able to find us. But we managed to make it down the mountain in the dark. They were still following us, searching in the forest. We had no choice but to try and cross the river. Six of us went into the water, and we are the only four who washed up on the other side. We lost sight of the others. I have no idea if they died in the water or washed up on the wrong side of the shore and were captured again. We forced ourselves to keep moving. Trying to get to the redwood tribe, hoping that they would be better. We have been walking up the river for two days, but we had to stop here. Honestly, without help I don’t think we will last another night.” Shelby finished her story. She looked Jack in the eyes for the first time. Beth had stopped sobbing, but hadn’t let go of Clara.

  “Will you help us?” She asked.