by Stacy Jones
He started off in that direction with Lily staying right on his heels, but they encountered a problem as soon as they got to the edge of the big, circling platform around the tree.
Neither of them were exactly accomplished at swinging through the trees.
Shit, shit, shit!
Peering over the edge of the platform, she looked for a branch she could lower herself down to without having to jump and take the risk of falling to her death. It took walking halfway around the edge before she found one positioned close enough, the little moon giving her just enough light to see it.
Not giving herself time to second guess or let her fear of heights overwhelm her, she sat down with her legs dangling over the lip directly above the thick limb below, flipped over onto her stomach, and started wiggling backwards.
Trrak trilled with alarm once he realized what she was doing and darted forward with his fang-filled mouth open, aiming for her head.
Her eyes rounded and she reared back to dodge him… and lost her balance.
A short scream erupted as she fell, her hands grabbing frantically at air.
Only a second passed before she landed with a pained grunt, her ass and right elbow taking the brunt of her fall. She lay there for a moment, adrenaline making her entire body shake.
When it sank in that she wasn’t going to fall anymore, she released a shuddering breath and pushed herself unsteadily to her feet. Her elbow stung and, when she touched it with the fingers of the opposite hand, they came away wet with blood.
“Don’t do that!” she scolded the animal peeking over the edge above.
He let out a mewling coo and stretched his neck out as far as he could like he was trying to reach her. Sighing, Lily raised her arms to him, waving her hands to call him to her.
“Come on, buddy. You’re going to have to jump a little, but I’ll catch you,” she encouraged, keeping her tone soothing even though urgency to find the little girl was riding her.
He whimpered and anxiously scratched his sharp, black claws on the platform but didn’t make any moves to jump. Thinking quickly, Lily opened one of the pouches on her vine and pulled out a chunk of Nutella melon.
“Look! A treat! Come here, Trrak, and you can have the yummy chocolate,” she coaxed, her voice quiet but comically high as she waved the chunk of food around.
His eyes zeroed in on the treat, his head moving to follow her movements.
She was completely unprepared when he suddenly leapt at her, mouth open and black eyes locked on the treat.
Oh fuck…
He collided into her with enough force to knock her off her feet, sending them crashing to the branch, but fortunately didn’t take her hand off when he nipped the food out of her fingers.
Ouch.
Groaning, she heaved the oversized cub off of her and pushed herself up. Her ass was definitely bruised that time and her elbow was dripping blood from having been scraped twice in the same spot.
She quickly wrapped a strip of fabric she’d had tied to her vine around her elbow to stop the blood and rubbed her ass as she limped to the edge of the limb to look for their next way down.
They continued that way; her going down first, tempting Trrak down with food, then catching him when he leapt at her teeth first.
By the time they were low enough in the trees that they could basically walk from one limb to the next without having to jump much, if at all, at least ten minutes that felt like hours had passed and Lily was having a hard time keeping her anxiety under control.
They needed to find Sahas now , before the child wandered right into the enemy’s hands and was killed.
Or worse.
The light of the little moon barely illuminated anything this far down and Lily’s eyes were starting to feel the strain of staring into the darkness.
She had Trrak’s tail in her fist and depended heavily on him to guide her. His predator’s night vision was the only thing keeping them safe as they navigated their way from one limb to another, instead of broken and bloody on the forest floor.
The farther they went, the more she began to get the creeping sense that they were going in the wrong direction, or that they were taking too long and had missed their chance to find the little girl. That feeling grew until she started to second guess Trrak .
She was peering into the dark behind her, debating on whether they needed to go in a different direction, when something suddenly caught her attention. Jerking her head back around, she held her breath and listened, trying to catch the noise again.
There!
She thought she heard a small voice calling out in the distance.
Freezing in place, Lily strained her eyes, trying to pierce the deep shadows ahead.
“Trrak, did you hear that?” she breathed.
He answered with a small, vibrating growl and changed direction to head toward the sound.
It sank in at that moment for the first time, as they moved cautiously toward the unknown, that she was alone with a big, but young animal in a massive alien forest she didn’t really know, at night, with an undetermined number of strange beings out there trying to kill or at least hurt people.
Lily had been solely focused on the little girl, but now her fear shifted to include her and Trrak as well.
Her increasing dread didn’t stop her from continuing forward, but she began trying to look everywhere at once, paranoid that some horrible beast was going to snatch her feet from below or her head from above.
Every creak of the leaves or limbs shifting in the slight wind made her jump. Every shifting shadow made her gasp. Her pulse was pounding in her ears, making it hard to hear, and the hairs on the back of her neck were sticking straight up.
Childhood fears of monsters hiding in the dark, just waiting until you stuck your foot out from under the protection of your blanket, or for you to dangle your feet over the side of the bed so they could snatch you and drag you under, came back to her.
Gritting her teeth, she tried to shove those fears to the back of her mind. Afraid or not, she was going to find that child, and she was going to take her back to safety.
A new sound, coming from below this time, reached her ears. Something about it made both her and Trrak freeze.
It’s coming from right below us. Not ahead like the first noise .
Stepping as quietly as possible, her worn work boots nearly silent on the rough bark, Lily peeked over the edge of the branch she and Trrak were standing on.
She scanned the ground only maybe twenty feet below.
She thought she saw a deeper shadow moving within the dark, but it wasn’t until the… thing stepped out of cover and into a weak shaft of moonlight that her heart seemed to stop in her chest.
Lily didn’t dare move a muscle until Trrak, curious about why she’d stopped, stepped up beside her.
Her eyes went round as saucers and her body went cold as ice. The immediate fear that he would growl or yip and draw the thing’s attention to them washed over her.
Blindly reaching out a shaking hand, she wrapped her fingers around his muzzle, not taking her gaze off the being below.
It was massive. Its huge head rose slightly above the bushes she knew were eight feet tall on average. Its strangely jointed body was covered with big, armor- like scales that glinted a deep green in the dull, yellow light, and its face was like something out of a nightmare, reminding her more of a crocodile than anything she recognized as even remotely human.
Worse than its terrifying appearance, it was carrying a spear. A spear she recognized as the exact kind the shevari carried.
How had that thing gotten it? Was someone lying injured and in pain on the ground somewhere? Had she passed right over them, not knowing they were there, and left them to die?
All those questions shot through her mind in a split second before the realization that it was headed directly for the sound she and Trrak had heard a moment ago crashed into her.
Sahas.
Panic burned through her
like fire.
Stealth no longer her main concern, Lily let go of Trrak’s muzzle and grabbed his tail again. They took off, moving as fast as they could, as quietly as they could, her boots a muffled thump as she ran beside her pet .
They had to beat the monster to whatever unaware person, be it Sahas or another shevari, that had made that call.
L ily jerked her head up from where she was watching the path in front of her when she heard the voice again up ahead. This time it was unmistakably Sahas. She was calling out her mother’s name, unaware that she was broadcasting her position to the monster below.
Lily glanced quickly at the ground, not slowing her dangerous speed as she ran from one branch to the next, trusting Trrak to guide her. The crocodile alien picked up its pace below, telling her she wasn’t the only one to have heard the child. Its heavy, thunderous footsteps sounded like an ominous drumbeat as it broke into a lumbering run, crashing through the underbrush.
No more than a second passed before it outpaced her, its sure footing on the ground and significantly longer stride more than she could compete with, even with Trrak’s night vision to lead her.
How it hadn’t heard her running above it she didn’t know, but she was endlessly thankful. If it came to her having to fight it off so Sahas could get away, she had the element of surprise and a pouch of poison on her vine. If she could just get to Sahas before the monster did, she could make the child return to the main tree and hopefully kill the creature or injure it badly enough that it couldn’t follow them back.
Lily pushed herself to go faster, but her running steps faltered when she spotted a gap in the path ahead. A thin spot in the canopy above illuminated a break where the branches were spaced too far apart for her to reach without jumping. Her racing heart felt like it skipped a beat and the sweat slicking her skin turned cold.
She thought she heard a flapping, rustling sound from almost directly above, but ignored it, attributing it to the wind shifting the leaves, her entire focus on getting to Sahas before it was too late. It wasn’t until the noise got louder and closer that she recognized it as the sound of wings.
There’s more than one!
Fear and desperation gave her speed. She wanted to look up and see how close the other enemy was, but fought the urge, keeping her gaze fixed on the jump quickly approaching.
Bending mid-stride, she heaved Trrak into her arms, grunting under the strain of his weight and the pain of his sharp claws digging into the still-healing injury on her arm from the day before, as he flailed in surprise at being picked up. Holding the squirming animal as tightly as she could, she dug in, trying to gain enough momentum to make it.
She didn’t give herself time to overthink. Gritting her teeth, she ran along the branch. When she got near the end, she pushed off with both feet, feeling the air rush past her as she leapt.
Time seemed to slow as she and Trrak sailed over the gap. She had a moment of panic where she was sure they weren’t going to make it before time sped back up and she landed with a painful jolt. She stumbled and almost tipped over the side of the limb but managed to get her feet under her at the last second.
The shot of adrenaline made her feel like she was having a fucking heart attack, yet she didn’t pause. Dropping her pet, she left him to catch up, trusting him to follow her, and used the light to guide her forward. She could still hear the flapping of wings above and the pounding footsteps of the alien below, but the girl’s voice called out again, no more than twenty feet ahead.
Almost there…
Lily scanned the trees in front of her, searching for a glimpse of the little girl and finally caught sight of her. Her camouflage made her hard to track, but Lily knew where to look now. Changing direction slightly to intercept her, Lily ran as fast as she could, unwilling to lose her again.
Darting a look at the ground, she could just barely make out the alien, its dark coloring blending with the deep shadows below. It was halfway between her and the child .
I’m not going to make it in time .
Desperation flooded her as that realization hit home like a physical blow.
With no time to come up with a better plan, Lily made a split-second decision, knowing it could very well end in her death.
Sucking in a deep breath, she screamed as loudly as she could, “Sahas! Run!”
As she’d both hoped and feared, her scream redirected the crocodile alien’s attention from the child to her. It skidded to a stop and whirled around, its big head moving side to side as it searched for her. She knew when it spotted her because it made a bone-chilling, clicking growl.
It sounded… hungry. And anticipatory.
Ignoring the instinctual fear that tightened the skin of her scalp and sent goosebumps skittering over her, Lily put on a burst of speed, using the alien’s distraction to close the distance between her and the little girl.
Sahas was frozen, standing on a branch just ahead. Her little body was shaking visibly and she was staring in wide-eyed terror at the monster on the ground .
Lily was only feet away, running along the limb Sahas was standing on, when the tree vibrated as if struck with something heavy and the sound of rending bark reached her ears.
Skidding to a stop next to Sahas, Lily quickly peeked over the edge. The glow of the moon spotlighted the alien in all its horrific glory as it used its claws to climb the trunk, its protruding jaw open and baring entirely too many yellowed fangs.
It was climbing slowly, its heavy bulk not allowing it to scale the trunk very quickly, but they still only had maybe twenty feet before it reached them.
“Sahas, tul Shevak Sha!” Lily yelled, telling her to go back to the hollow tree.
When the child stayed frozen with fear, Lily reached out with one hand to pull Sahas past her, back in the direction of the main tree, while yanking the bow over her head with the other.
Trrak growled viciously from her left just before Lily heard and felt a thud on her right. Blindly pushing the little girl at Trrak, she whipped around, swinging her bow in front of her to strike the attacker .
What she saw surprised her so badly her swing faltered, giving him time to rear back and dodge her blow.
“You!” she exclaimed.
Shock made her hesitate. She thought he’d been a figment of her imagination or a big, alien bird. But he was real.
It was the winged man she’d seen flying above the treetops when she and the guys had been traveling to join the tribe.
Lily took him in in an instant. He was big, at least as tall as Arruk and Drrak. His skin was metallic bronze and his wings were massive feathered things arching above his head, making him seem even bigger than he already was. He didn’t have hair but instead had a crest of pitch black feathers that were standing on end, raised in unmistakable aggression like the crest of a cockatoo. His face was shadowed by those raised feathers, but the outline of it was definitely other .
Quickly pushing her shock aside, she raised her bow again, holding it in front of her like a barrier as she backed away from him, forcing Sahas and Trrak to back up with her.
He took a step closer, his wings quivering with either agitation, threat, or urgency. She couldn’t tell and couldn’t see his face well enough to search it for clues as to which emotion he was feeling.
Lily felt hopelessness crash over her. They were boxed in, and she didn’t know how to get them out of it. The crocodile alien was steadily climbing the tree, while the winged alien was slowly inching closer.
Still backing away, Lily surreptitiously reached down with her free hand, without taking her eyes off the threat in front of her, and untied the top of the pouch holding the poison sap then reached for her quiver to pull an arrow free.
Unfortunately, despite the cloaking shadows, the bird man seemed to see exactly what she was doing. But, instead of attacking her, he tucked his wings tight to his body, hunched in on himself, and raised his hands in what was obviously a universal show of I come in peace.
That
stunned her enough to halt her steps.
When he saw he’d managed to stop her retreat, he flipped his hands over to wave her forward, his movements communicating his urgency while he kept his body stooped and nonthreatening. He glanced quickly at the alien climbing the tree, then back at her, waving her forward with more insistence, his huge wings giving a hard, agitated flutter.
Is he here to help?
She had no way of knowing if it was a trick, but now that she was really looking at him, she didn’t sense any malice coming from him. Plus, he hadn’t attacked her.
She didn’t have time to think it through. She had to decide whether to trust him or not. Now.
Lily could feel herself panicking. The sound of the monster climbing the tree, getting closer and closer, Sahas whimpering in fear at her back, Trrak growling low in his throat, the sound of blood rushing in her ears, and the agitated rustling of feathers in front of her became deafening.
She couldn’t think of another solution. They were going to have to take a gamble and trust the winged man.
“You can’t carry all three of us. And I can’t let that thing follow us back,” she whispered aloud, though she knew there was no chance of him understanding her.
Making a decision, Lily spun around and picked up the little girl.
“If he rrukt, shh rekkr ,” she ordered, making Sahas look at her as she unsheathed one of her knives and held it between them, telling the child to hurt him if he scared her.
Sahas’s little face was pinched with fear and her big blue eyes were wide, but she nodded jerkily and took the blade, gripping it tightly in her small black and white hand.
Lily’s chin wobbled as tears threatened, the little girl’s bravery making her heart squeeze painfully, but she swallowed them back. They didn’t have time for her to break down. She hugged the child tightly and pressed a kiss to the top of her velvety head before passing her off to the winged man.
He took Sahas, cradling her with reassuring gentleness, but he didn’t take off right away, staring at Lily as if making sure she wanted to stay behind.