Hidebound

the long version

Not long after Anfissa meets Ferenc, a strange humanoid bodyguard, on the space cruiser, St. Catherine, she is forced to flee with him, his menacing boss, and another bodyguard in a lifeboat during an attack on the cruiser, to a planet where even the grass is deadly. Travelling across the planet to find a small relay station, Fissa nearly succumbs to dehydration and insect bites until Ferenc offers her help unique to his home planet's culture.