![canstockphoto17834978.jpg](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmPXKhpBGpj8TnsVQKpzn1KKusNYMChx1zvoXoHM2m4L7S/canstockphoto17834978.jpg)

> We love, we protect, and we only want you to carry our own with you when you escape. Please, please, take our tiniest and most vulnerable with you when we sacrifice ourselves for an exit (X1000% if it's our pets, who can't even deal with the galaxy we brought them into) ---HUMANKIND c/- Protection

"You lot go on, I'll catch up. Just do me a solid, okay? Make sure Tibbles is safe with you." Human Fil was torn between what they planned to do and the promise they needed in order to do it.

"Tibbles will be safe with us," vowed Gork, even though Human Fil's phlegmatic pet lizard scared five colours of crap out of them. It set off every single one of Gork's instinctual hazard alerts. Nevermind that the creature had two modes - slow and slower - it _felt_ to Gork like it was a three-Siwu[1] package of concentrated threats.

The Human had told the Last Lie, and the ship was falling apart around them, but Gork kept their word. They got together three of Human Fil's best friends and gathered up lizard, terrarium, bed and toys. No matter _how_ creepy its skin nor constant its gaze nor unnerving its flicking blue tongue was. The sacrifice did not include the most vulnerable that Human Fil had pack-bonded with.

Once safely away in a lifepod, Gork got as far away from Tibbles as possible. The lizard seemed content to sit near the heat vent and flick its corpse-like tongue in lieu of blinking. "I held my promise," they said. "I made sure you're safe. I am _not_ adding you to my household."

Tibbles dragged a towel into a bunch under itself, laid along it and huffed out a breath.

Thraak said, "I don't want it in my household either."

"Same mood," agreed Companion Roq. "Human Fil loved it. I, however, am constantly creeped out by it."

There was an extended silence in which the assembled Grillid watched Tibbles do not a lot of anything at all. Eventually, Gork asked, "Does Human Fil have other pack-mates?"

Companion Roq looked horrified. "I'd... I'd have to check my contacts... and that's in my cloud... and my reader was by my bed when--"

A distant flash of light heralded the end of the reader, the bed, the ship, and most likely Human Fil with it. Though with Humans, you never could tell for sure.

Four Grillid lifted their feet off the floor when Tibbles moved a leg. The floor belonged to the lizard, now. They assembled Grillid also began to pray that Human Fil had family -somewhere, _anywhere_- that would care for the lizard in hir place.

[1] Siwu - Standard Weight Unit. Roughly equivalent to a kilogram in one Standard Gravity.

[Image <a href="https://www.canstockphoto.com">(c) Can Stock Photo / pelooyen</a>]

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