Description from the novel:

“The woman that rode the beast gave no smile. She looked young. Perhaps in her twenties, and she dressed differently than the rest. They wore thin, sleeveless clothing, with light skirts or different lengths. It was clearly more for comfort than for looks or fashion, although Matt thought it did look intimidating on them. Their skin was dark olive, and some had decorated their bodies with tattoos of beasts unrecognizable to him.

She however, the one astride the burgundy cat, wore something more regal. Her clothes were fitted much tighter to her full shape. Her short skirt was embroidered with gold. Its designs ran from her hips to her smooth legs. Her top was cut shorter than the others, as to intentionally reveal more of her abdomen. She broke from the circle around him and approached, pointing the end of a spear at Matt’s neck.

“Rul sera neev nok leez,” she said.

Matt put up his hands. “I’m sorry, I don’t understand.

The leader sneered and gave a quick head motion towards one of her fellow riders. The other women closed in on him astride their beasts. One dismounted from her cat and without hesitation pulled Ursa from Matt’s belt. He lunged to pull it from her hands, but the woman caught his arm and pulled, sending him down onto the hard earth. Now standing over him, the woman grabbed Matt by the hair and yanked back his head, exposing his neck. In a fluid motion, faster than Matt could even react, the woman pulled from her satchel translucent round ooze, about the size of a tennis ball, and pressed it against his neck. From the base of the ooze microscopic, yet sharp, painful spikes latched into him. Matt screamed in agony. He felt a rush of blood to his head. The landscape around him seemed to ripple like water, until this all subsided, and all came back into clarity.

“Hand the weapon here,” the leader spoke.

Matt’s looked up at her, and saw the woman who had attached this gelatinous thing to his neck hand Ursa over to her.

“How… how is it I can understand you?”