The Gift of Sky and Soil (Father Sky Book 1)

by Gillian Zane

  “Okay, I untied them,” she said, panting with the effort.

  “I’m going to pull you up.” I was used to lifting weights, and she didn’t look that heavy, but in her position and pulling her from the muddy water was going to test my strength. She might as well have weighed five hundred pounds. I got my hands underneath her armpits, braced myself on the fallen tree, and pulled as hard as I could. I felt like a weakling. I pulled again, trying not to grunt or curse to make her feel worse, and finally she popped out of the water like a cork and we both fell backwards, her ass to my crotch, which caused a significant amount of pain. I tried to reign in the expletives but it couldn’t be helped, especially since she kind of just sat there stunned, her ass still making mincemeat out of my balls. That is until my balls realized there was a girl’s ass pressed up against them and they quieted down quickly and all the blood went to my dick. I cursed internally in an entirely different fashion and tried to imagine my grandmother in the shower. All I needed was to pop a hard-on at this moment in time.

  “You okay?” I managed to disentangle myself from her, the pain coming back the moment my libido began to fade. Now, instead of being on my lap, she was pressed against my side, all warm and smelling like flowers and sunshine, with only a slight underlying aroma of sweat. Who jogs and smells like flowers and sunshine? I had been wandering around for a few hours and I smelled like outside and ass.

  She shifted, trying to get to her feet, and the gun slipped out from her cleavage and landed right on my dick. My curse would have made a hooker blush as I grabbed at the offending metal object that was weightier than I had first guessed. It did look like a toy. She froze when she saw me holding the gun, but I flipped it around and handed it to her while trying not to wince.

  Time to get little miss trigger happy on her feet and headed home. I pushed myself up, wrapped an arm around her waist, and pulled her to her feet, setting her to the side and marveling at how light she felt now that she wasn’t embedded in mud.

  “I feel like a fucking idiot,” she pouted, and my eyes went to her lips. She had perfect lips, thick and heart-shaped, which gave her an illustrated look, like they were painted on, even though I didn’t notice any trace of make-up. With the eyes and the lips, she could be an anime character come to life, which I had a slight obsession with when I was a teen, okay I still kind of did. I turned around to do a discreet adjustment to my junk and to stop staring at her lips.

  “Why are you jogging out here? There is barely any trail and we are probably ten miles from any of the trail starts.”

  “I don’t know, I was lost in the run, and it’s like there is—” she trailed off. Looking down at her feet, I winced. Ten miles was going to be a hard hike in socks.

  “Come on, let me help you get your shoes back.” I held out a hand, and she used it to balance herself on the fallen tree. She would skin her knees if she did all the work, so I placed a hand on her shoulder and shooed her back.

  “Let me get them.” She looked up at me defiantly, those sexy lips curled in a frown.

  “I can do it,” her hands were on her hips, pushing out her tits even more. Fuck. I felt like a teenager as my dick reacted. I hadn’t had this kind of reaction to a female since my undergraduate days. When I first saw her, she had looked much taller. She was muscular and curvy, like you would see in the gym, but when I stood next to her, she barely came up to my chin and probably weighed hardly anything, all her weight was in those curves. I could tuck her right under my arm if I wanted, but I was afraid she would bite me.

  Showing off more of my White Knight skills, I unbuttoned my long-sleeve shirt and smirked when I saw that I wasn’t the only one that couldn’t resist a quick peek. When they finally made eye contact with me, there was appreciation in them. Nerd boy body no more. All that time in the gym had been for this moment. Right here.

  “What are you doing?” she asked, a slight tremor in her voice.

  “Getting your shoes.” I used the tree as a brace, laying my shirt over it so I wouldn’t scratch my stomach, and submerged my arms into the water, feeling around for anything that felt like shoes. I found one and yanked, and without her weight in it, it came up easily. I tossed it over my shoulder in a stupid move, getting my back all wet. I found the second one a moment later, and this time I placed it to my side and managed to not make a mess.

  “Thank you.” When I turned to her, she was pouring out the liquid in her once white tennis shoes.

  “You’re welcome.” I grabbed my shirt and slipped it back on. “Do you think you can make it back to the trail?” I asked because I didn’t want to have to escort this girl back to safety. I had come out here for a reason. Driven almost an hour and wandered through these woods for probably four trying to find whatever was out here.

  “There is something up there; I came this far, I'm not turning back.” She shrugged and slipped her feet into her wet shoes. They made a ridiculous sloshing sound.

  “What do you mean?”

  “You can’t feel it?” she asked with a raised dark eyebrow. I liked her eyebrows. They were almost black and thick and in lovely contrast to her white hair. It was a cute gesture, which I was distracted by for a moment, and then I realized her words. She could feel it too.

  5

  Trying not to swoon and flirt with the hot scientist guy who came to my rescue was really hard. I needed to keep myself in step, but unfortunately my current step was a sodden, messy, covered in mud, clumsy girl who needed saving in the woods. You know that girl, the one carrying a gun, but gets herself stuck in a puddle? I was a joke, and I probably looked like a joke. I glanced down at my body, my clothes were muddy and stained, blood spots peppered my arms. I smelled like fish water as well, which was not an attractive smell.

  If I flirted with this guy, he would probably laugh at me; he was currently high-stepping ahead of me and occasionally glancing at me with scorn like I was stalking him. I wasn’t used to being ignored. I was used to attention from both men and women, and it was usually positive attention. His ignoring me was most likely the reason my interest buzzed. I didn’t usually go for the hot nerdy look, even though he had the body of a featherweight MMA fighter, all ripped and corded, but still not bulked up. He reminded me of the guy who played Merlin on a fantasy show I used to watch with my mom, except he didn’t have goofy ears like that actor, his were nice and tucked to his head, holding up a very nerdy pair of glasses.

  Honestly, I was all about the nerds, even though I usually didn’t date them. They were the ones I befriended and then swatted away when they tried to hit on me. I did start out my social media fame with cosplay and gaming. Nerds were my foundation. But, not nerds like this. Tall, fit nerds, with dark floppy hair and big bedroom eyes.

  Why was I even thinking about this?

  Oh yeah, because nerd boy, who hadn’t even introduced himself, had given me a cursory once over after I said I was going with him to find whatever called to me, and then dismissed me.

  “Well, if you aren’t going to go back to your SUV, I can’t be responsible if you get hurt. Do what you got to do,” was what he said. He didn’t confirm or deny that he felt anything. He had played with his equipment and then began marching off without even a word in my direction. Now he was playing with his equipment again. He had this thing that kind of looked like a small vacuum that he kept holding in the air, and it would kick on and make buzzing and clicking noises. He made faces at it like it pissed him off.

  “What is that?”

  “It’s an air sampler; it’s measuring the pollen in the air.”

  “I thought those things were much bigger and just used to capture the pollen not read the count?” He glanced at him with a quizzical look like I wasn't supposed to know that. I wasn’t stupid, buddy.

  “This is a new invention. It can separate and measure the pollen spores in only a few seconds.”

  He pulled out more objects, but the only thing I recognized was a laptop. There were possibly measuring tools which he
used to capture some water samples. He capped those up and put them in his pack. I expected him to pull out one of those radiation devices that you see in the movies, like Ghostbusters, that starts to beep the closer you get to the radioactive object.

  “What are you doing with those samples?” I couldn’t take the silence and had to fill his non-talking with my own. I had confessed that something out here was attracting me like a bee to a flower, and he just opened up his pack and began fiddling with shit. He must think I’m a nut or something. Likely why he was ignoring me.

  “There are higher concentrations of pollen out here, much higher than anywhere else in the region. That’s what I think is drawing you.” He looked up at me and there was worry in the lines across his forehead. He had a great face, kind of studious, but his green eyes held a bit of playfulness in them. Then his words sunk in. Pollen.

  “Oh God, pollen? Like Pollen?”

  “Do you have allergies? Have you had any kind of reactions to the pollen in the last couple of weeks? Sneezing, coughing, rashes? Higher concentration of pollen doesn’t mean you’re more likely to have a reaction. You’ll have a reaction if you come into contact with just one spore.” He didn’t look convinced by his own words.

  “Nothing, no reactions, I’ve never had allergies.” I wasn’t convinced though, he still looked worried. “Is that what you study? This pollen stuff?”

  “I study plants.” He left it at that, and I frowned. He was playing Mr. Mysterious, and it was pissing me off.

  “Okay, so you’re looking for Pollen?”

  “The source of the pollen at least, it’s close.” He did something with his gadget and made a frustrated noise in his throat.

  “I thought the source was from the thing they pulled up in Africa.” It had been all over the news. The Chinese had discovered something in their African territory, which had led to this latest pandemic.

  “That was the original source, but the way it works is the pollen enters the system and changes the original host to excrete a changed form of the pollen. It’s why you don’t die from coming in contact with the pollen, but the way the body processes the allergen is what is killing people. Your breath literally becomes poisonous to people without immunity.”

  “This is over my head.” I was kind of getting it, but what did humans’ poisonous breath have to do with pollen showing up out here near my house? I voiced a similar question to him, but it wasn’t as concise. I rambled, sounding like the barely made it through high school person I was. I took a step to look over his shoulder at the computer, but my shoes made a horrible squishing sound and I stopped. I didn’t want to get too close; I stunk. I had never felt this insecure in my life.

  “If you are allergic to something, when your body comes into contact with that allergen, it produces an antibody to fight the allergen, which in turn produces a histamine. Usually, say if you are allergic to tree pollen, you’ll sneeze or itch from the histamine. This reaction is much different. The body is producing a slew of horrible side effects, one of which is an unknown viral like cell, which attacks everything it comes into contact with, but we’re unsure of what it is. It can’t be a virus because humans can’t produce viruses, they can only host them. The host body is immune from this virus like cell it produced, but whoever comes in contact with that cell has a forty-two percent death rate.”

  “So, it’s not a virus?”

  “It’s like a virus, but it’s produced by a human host. From what we can tell, only humans are producing this and only humans can take on the cell. And each human that produces it, produces it differently so while you won’t die from your own production, you can die from someone else’s.”

  “That’s even freakier than the way the news explains it. They are saying nothing of us producing this killer virus, but what about the pollen out here? How is that possible?”

  “This is what I’ve been studying specifically. Like humans, plants are coming in contact with the pollen from the original plants. The pollen attaches itself to that plant, and it begins to change the plant. It doesn’t happen to all plants, but about ten percent of plant-life changes from the base cell structure. The pollen gets the invaded plant to change to resemble the original plant. That plant then begins producing the pollen that is so deadly. Most plants are unable to sustain this massive change and will quickly die after producing their first pollen cloud. But if my data is correct, there are some plants that are thriving and actually producing. They, I believe, are the direct result of how the pollen continues to spread.”

  “And you think one is out here?”

  “Yes, that’s exactly what I think.”

  “Is that the smell, that floral smell that is so enticing the pollen? I have an impulse to find whatever it is. Is the pollen doing something to me?”

  “I don’t believe it’s the pollen that is drawing us.” He punched in a few things in to the computer. He said us, so he feels it too. It lifted a weight off my chest. That insecurity that had me questioning everything going on in this moment eased.

  “If not the pollen, what do you think it is?”

  “Plants give off pheromones, it’s how they talk to each other.”

  “Talk?”

  “Yes, they communicate. They excrete pheromones to attract insects for pollination, they can send out alarm pheromones, and a plethora of other pheromones to help them thrive. Humans respond to pheromones as well; it’s why we use perfume and cologne to stimulate our own pheromones that we give off to attract the other species.”

  “Are you saying the plant is secreting pheromones which are attracting us?”

  “If humans are integral to its survival, yes, it’s possible. When plants are being attacked by predatory insects, they can send out certain pheromones that attract a species of insect that will attack the predatory insect. It’s a survival instinct.”

  He went all clinical and professor-ish as he lectured. I had heard of pheromones before, but with the way he talked, it was like plants could communicate, and I didn’t know if I believed that. Talking plants. Ridiculous.

  “If it wants us to find it, then maybe we shouldn’t find it? We could be attacked by insects or something?”

  “I have to find it. I have to get to the bottom of this pollen problem. As long as it’s producing pollen, people will be dying.”

  “Save the world, huh?”

  “That’s the plan.”

  “So, let’s go find this mutant plant.” I brushed the mud off my knees and stood from the log I sat on.

  “No, wait, it’s too dangerous, I don’t know what this thing is pumping out.” He shook his head emphatically, and I rolled my eyes at his change of tune.

  “Now it’s too dangerous, make up your mind.”

  “For you, I think you should go home, and I’ll go find it. The pollen could be dangerous for you. I’ve been tested; I know it doesn’t have an effect on me.”

  “Well, whatever it is putting out, I’ve already got it in my system, same as you.” I waved my hand around at the little floating killers all around us. It had certainly picked up in the last few minutes. “I can’t come into contact with any other humans now, right? I could kill them. Can you test me and make sure? Oh God, can I kill you?”

  His face went a little pale and his eyes widened.

  “I’ll come with you and find this thing and then you can test me so I won’t accidentally kill someone, or you. I’ve been going to the grocery store and Home Depot a lot. Have I been killing people because this stuff is floating around my house as well?”

  “No, no, that’s okay. You’ll be fine, self-quarantine, it will be out of your system in 6 days. If you infected me, there is nothing really that can be done.”

  “I’m going with you.” I crossed my arms over my chest, and he finally showed a bit of reaction as he quickly glanced away from the cleavage my arm placement created. He must be scared of boobs. Maybe he was gay. Most likely, all the smart good-looking ones were.

  “I can’t g
uarantee your safety.”

  “You couldn’t guarantee my safety if you drove me in your car. I’m coming with you. Come on, it’s this way, I can almost see it.” I pointed in the direction I was already heading. I would have to skirt around the water, but I could see the pollen in the air, and it was much thicker in the direction I was headed. I lost my footing almost immediately, but his arm was there, holding me up. He smelled like mint, not like mint toothpaste or candy, but actual mint, as if it was stuffed in his pockets. I took a deep breath, enjoying his scent, and realized his hand was on my ass. I would have normally slapped at him, or made some biting comment, but it didn’t offend me one bit.

  “I’m not usually this clumsy.” He didn’t respond; only made sure I was stable on my feet and then waited for me to lead the way. This guy was seriously fucking with my self-esteem.

  6

  Following behind the woman who was now the new bane of my existence had its pros and cons. The number one pro was the view. No matter how much lift and tuck athletic gear they sold, most women couldn’t fill out a pair of spandex jogging shorts like this. They were tinier than the boxer briefs I had on at the moment, and with each step, the muscles in her thighs flexed — and well, I was getting really distracted. I hadn’t seen anyone this fit in real life, but still soft and smooth, other than photoshopped models in magazines. Then there was the fact that the fact that her shorts were wet left little to the imagination and I could see the outline of her thong, which had me thinking about what kind of woman jogged in a thong. It was probably the same kind of woman that wore lingerie before she liked to fuck. Had pretty lace bras and a trimmed and waxed bush. Holy crap. I was supposed to be thinking about pollen, but instead my dick was as hard as the hiking stick I was using to poke at the ground to test my footing and I was contemplating how to talk her into bending her over that fallen tree and letting me test her for pollen with my cock.