by Viola Grace
Niika whistled sharply, and Morro and Tidae walked over. “You called, mistress?”
She rolled her eyes. “Yes. We are going to find the ancient Stone City today, and the day after tomorrow, we can tag some herds. Is that acceptable?”
The Wilders looked at each other and nodded. “Can we still take a run before dinner?”
She sighed. “We will see. You will need knives, rope and one meal pack.”
Everybody prepared, leaving Niika to look around the campsite to check for possible dangers. The camp appeared secure, so as they walked out, she activated her favourite item designed by the Nine, the dome. It covered their meal packs, their bedding and the fire pit.
It should be safe enough if they ended up being gone longer than she anticipated. One day’s rations was a test. If they couldn’t feed themselves in case of danger, they could go hungry.
She settled her water and blades in place and set off to show the Stone Folk how to get into their own city.
They didn’t have a problem letting her lead, but as she walked down the hall created by the base of the crevice beginning into two towering cliffs that just jutted from the landscape in a growing swell, she could feel them getting close in their eagerness to see what was ahead.
She could hear Cavos and Trusk murmuring back and forth as they recognised the environment, but she kept walking until she stood in front of the entrance to the hidden city. “It’s behind there.”
A tumble of rock fifteen feet high spoke to something being hidden beneath. Cavos asked, “You are sure?”
“I am. The door glows red hot, but it glows through those rocks. I can find a few keystones in there as well, if you like.”
Trusk raised his dark grey brows. “Keystones?”
Niika nodded. “Keystones. Stones that you pull to bring the others down.”
Cavos smiled, “Not necessary. Just a moment.” He stepped into the fallen stones and disappeared.
Niika looked at the Wilders, and they simply looked resigned to the Stone Folk showing off.
The rocks shifted, so they stepped back a moment before the landslide erupted outward in a shower of stone chips.
Nik turned and looked at Trusk. He shrugged with his hands open. “Blowing rubble is best left to the high families.”
She checked her arms and face for cuts, but none of the bits had broken the skin. She checked her companions and shouldered her pack once again. Cavos was standing in the now-open cavern, smiling and dusting his hands together.
He stepped aside as she moved forward. “Miss Baker, we are loyal followers.”
She gave him an evil look and moved across the stone, following the burning red that pulsed and flared as she got closer to the source. “Nice trick, by the way.”
Cavos shrugged. “We all have our skills. The Wilders can shift into a more deadly form of their already formidable selves, the Stone Folk can manipulate rock. It is what we are born to do in our different ways. This world shaped us, changed us just as it is changing your people.”
Nik tilted her head in acknowledgement and kept walking toward the heart of the tracking pattern. “Why do you want to find your city?”
Cavos chuckled and drew even with her. “Wouldn’t you?”
The laughter that came out of her did it with a rush. “I suppose I would.”
The scent of water rushed at them when they turned a corner. The suddenness caught Nik by surprise. She turned back and walked through the restriction and then returned to her party. “That is rather neat.”
With the turn of the corner, the light was gone. “Does anyone mind if I use a light source? We have a way to go.”
Morro and Tidae shrugged in the dimness, and since Cavos and Trusk were ahead, she had to assume they didn’t mind.
She removed her lamp from her pack and fired it up. The path they were on was no longer rough rock. The walls were smooth and the floor under their feet was tiled. “Wow.”
Morro and Tidae looked around nervously. Morro said, “We don’t like being confined like this.”
“Do you have a preferred method for being confined?”
She could swear that Morro blushed. “Never mind.”
Nik put her hand on his shoulder. “Don’t worry. We can feel fresh air on both sides, and this is a fairly clear path with no side tunnels. We can get out. I can always find a way out.”
He cocked his head and looked at the hand on his shoulder, reaching up to touch her but missing her when she pulled her hand away. “How do you find it?”
“I hunt it. I hunt what I need. When I need to locate a specific thing, I can locate it without hesitation. Right now, I need to hunt Cavos and Trusk. Those bastards have gone on without us.”
He laughed, Tidae looked relieved, and together, they moved forward.
Chapter Four
Cavos and Trusk had turned everything on before the rest of their party arrived. Cavos wanted to show the home of the Stone Folk to an advantage, and Trusk just wanted the light and water.
When Niika came out of the cavern entrance with Morro far too close to her, Cavos realized that he might have made a tactical error in regards to the female he wanted.
He walked toward her, watching the stilted pace she was walking with. Concern filled him, and he reached out to take her hand, helping her down the final four stairs.
The contact electrified him, just as it had the first time she touched him. “Welcome to the city of Trasidil, the home of the Stone Folk.”
“Thank you.” She smiled, but he could see the fatigue in her features.
Morro was looking at him, and challenge was flaring in his eyes. Cavos would deal with that later.
“Come this way. We started the water pumps and the potable water should be ready by now. If we can get the rest of the systems working, you should be able to take a hot bath before we eat.”
She smiled wryly. “Who is in charge here?”
“I am. This is my home city, and the object of my studies for the last twenty years. I know every inch of this city in theory, and I look forward to proving the product of my imaginations.”
* * * *
Niika was exhausted. The moment that she found what she was hunting for, her mind drained her body of all energy. It was not a great effect when hunting living prey, but it usually was fine when looking for plants and medicinals.
Cavos was full of energy. He seemed more substantial here underground, as if this was what he needed to come into his own.
Nik moved carefully. Her supports were cutting into her back as they did when she moved too quickly. They were designed to pull and keep the subject contained, so she had worked hard to develop a gait that wouldn’t trigger it. Hiking through tunnels had caused a tension in her thighs and that tension was now hobbling her.
“A hot bath sounds wonderful. Where can I procure such a rare creation?”
He straightened and kissed the back of her hand. “I shall make it my first priority.”
She blushed at how silly it made her sound. “Don’t. We need to find a place to stay the night, first.”
Trusk walked up and grinned. “I have taken care of it. One of the city halls is still habitable. It has living quarters in it.”
Niika paused and looked around her, taking in the vista that expanded as far as the eye could see. The city was arranged in a wheel and spoke pattern. The centre was filled with a fountain that splashed water thirty feet into the sky.
The arch of stone above them left two hundred feet between roof and ground.
“How is all of this supported?”
Cavos offered her his arm, and she took it, ignoring the shudder that passed through his body.
He walked with her toward the city, pointing out the buttresses that had been formed in the rock above in a web so tight, nothing could fall.
She heard a noise that was very familiar coming from half a kilometre away. She turned her head and asked, “Morro, Tidae, are either of you up for a bit of hunting?”
“I teach an excellent five-minute course in catching Zaphlings. They are usually the tastiest of the easy prey.” She smiled at the thought of getting the Wilders to chase down the small creatures. Tiny hooves, pudgy bodies and faster than thought, one Zaphling would feed them for two days.
There was no way she could catch one with her braces acting up, but there was no sense in having two strong predators with her if she wasn’t going to use them to provide a meal.
“Why are you creaking?” Cavos’s whisper brought her out of her thoughts.
“Ah, that. Well, let’s just say a lady needs her secrets, and as I am one helluva lady, I need more than most.” She chuckled softly.
His skin shifted for a moment, and she swore that she could see it turn to stone for an instant. “As you like.”
She wished she could tell him, tell anyone, but being mobile via Tokkel tech was not something that most women on Gaia would admit to.
The Tokkel had been most curious to seek out and examine the newest inhabitants of the same world that twisted them but elevated the Nine. The Gaians—most recently of Earth—had been shocked to be under alien attack and even more perturbed when citizens went missing. Everything Tokkel was to be despised and that meant her braces were in danger.
A few days without mobility had been more than enough for her lifetime.
A fire via firestones was crackling merrily. The rocks that Trusk and Cavos had gathered were brightly glowing once they cracked them with a fire poker and exposed their interiors to oxygen.
Niika sat near the fire and extended her legs, moving slowly and stretching them back to full mobility. The men watched her curiously, but they did not ask what she was doing. Once her legs were completely under her control once again, she got to her feet and reached into her pack. “Gentlemen, it is time to learn the fine art of Zaphling hunting.”
She wore her knives, held a small folded pack in her hand and led the way out to the field where the deliberate smacking of skull against skull told her that this herd was in the middle of mating season.
Perfect.
Cavos and Trusk were following, their curiosity bristling out of them.
She stopped and turned. “Gentlemen. We are about to go into battle against Zaphlings. They are fast, sturdy and exceptionally tasty. They are peculiar in that they can turn very aggressive when confronted. When I am saying aggressive, they can cause deep bites and nasty bruising.”
Trusk asked, “Why don’t you grow your protein?”
“You mean in a lab?”
“Yes.”
“With an eye to survival, we tried a lot of local offerings and saved our tech for medical and practical applications. We are still settling in as colonists. The Tokkel didn’t help matters, we lost a lot of good people.”
She cleared her throat at their silence. “Now, to hunt the Zaphling, you need a chaser who is hopefully scarier than the Zaphlings are and someone with a net and a knife.”
Niika turned and walked toward the edge of the city, looking out over the field that was holding court to a herd of over a hundred of the little creatures with several parts of the field divided for the males to have their competitions for their supremacy.
The men drew even with her, and they all stared out at the collection of possibilities. “So, gentlemen. Who will do what to which beast?”
Morro looked at her with a calculating gaze. “Which is the most dangerous, the males or the females?”
“Good question. The females. The males only notice two things, other males and females. The females watch out for everything else. Can you see anything else from here?”
Tidae looked and squinted at the small, pudgy creatures in the field. “They are crushing rocks with their teeth.”
She chuckled. “Yes, they are. They use them for digestion just like some birds do on the surface. Their jaws can be exceptionally dangerous. Don’t get bit.”
Morro gave her a narrow-eyed look. “I thought you said they were easy to catch.”
“Compared to most of the wildlife on Gaia, they are. Now, who wants to use the net?”
Cavos stepped forward. “I will. Do you have a spare knife?”
Blinking, she handed him one of her folding blades. “This should do it. Lift the head with your less dominant hand and slice back as hard as you can. The blood will scatter the herd. They won’t be around the smell of their own wounded. Basically, cut fast or they will be gnawing on your limbs before you know it.”
Morro asked, “You won’t be joining us in the hunt?”
“I don’t hunt with other people around. For me, the kill is solitary.” She shrugged. There was no way she could manage it today. Her damned straps were acting up.
She looked around and found a wall that would allow Trusk and herself to remain on higher ground. They boosted themselves into position and watched the proceedings.
She looked at her companion and grinned. “This is going to be fun.”
The Wilders straightened and made a run for the Zaphlings. The hunt was on.
Chapter Five
It took the intrepid trio three hours, and Niika’s sides ached with laughter. Trusk had soon joined her in hooting with amusement as Cavos was knocked over by a knee-high doe.
When the death was accomplished and the three hunters thoroughly exhausted, Niika stepped down from her vantage point and walked to the kill site.
“Allow me. They are particular buggers when it comes to being butchered. You don’t want to puncture the scent glands. It would ruin the entire carcass.”
She drew her long knife and took charge of the field dressing. The men watched attentively, and when she had removed the gut but kept the more edible innards, they lifted the skinned animal to carry back to the city.
She grunted as she got to her feet and bit back a scream as the braces contracted. She forced herself to her feet, wiped the blades on her trousers and sheathed them before she limped back toward the city.
Cavos turned, and he dumped the innards into Trusk’s arms. In the next moment, he was next to her, running his hands down her spine and outer thighs. “I knew I had heard that creak before.”
Without another word, he lifted her and carried her with speed to the building they had set up camp in. He brought her into one of the empty rooms and kicked open the door of the bathing chamber. He ran water into the tub and quickly stripped off her outer garments.
He froze when he saw the bracing. “What the hell?”
She slowly turned and showed him the blaze of scar tissue on her spine. “It’s what lets me walk. A friend reprogrammed it for me, but I suppose it is wearing out.”
He ran his fingers over her scar, and she shivered. “That is a Tokkel blast.”
She shivered. “It is. The braces keep me moving.”
He helped her into the tub, and she grimaced at the pinking of the water from the blood on her hands. The warmth loosened the braces.
He sat and poured water over her shoulders and back. “Why does it have to be the braces?”
“We don’t have tech to repair spinal damage.”
Cavos sighed and sat back on his heels. “We do, but it would involve you going to the Mother ship.”
Niika felt a surge of hope. “Are you serious? Yes, I would love to.”
He nodded. “Will tomorrow be soon enough?”
She scowled and stretched her legs as much as she could. The band around her hips tightened and then relaxed as her muscles did. “I don’t want to cut this excursion short. I will be fine for two weeks.”
He looked at the expression on her face and shook his head. “No, you won’t. If the system is failing and your damage is as complete as you say, it will leave you unable to move within forty-eight hours.”
She groaned and pressed her forehead to her knees. Niika dreaded being immobile more than she did having to return the funds to the Nine.
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“If you want to continue the excursion, it can be part of your rehab after the surgery.”
Niika looked into his dark eyes and blinked. “We can just come back?”
“The surgery will take a day, recovery two, and then, we can return to this area and start with a guide that can move. I am sure the others will agree.”
Morro spoke from the outer room. “We agree, so we will remain here tonight, and tomorrow, we return to the surface and call for a medical pickup.”
Cavos grinned, reached between her feet to drain the water and filled the tub up once again. “Can you remove the rest of your clothing?”
To her surprise, she was sitting in her half suit. It supported her breasts and covered her entire front but wrapped low on her hips to leave her entire back exposed. “Fine. Turn around.”
He turned and leaned against the tub as she sloshed and twisted to get the soggy clothing off. When it was off and the water had risen above her hips, she draped the half suit over the edge of the tub and watched as Cavos removed it to wash it out in the sink.
He twisted the suit to wring out the water and draped it over a towel rack.
Morro came in with her pack in hand and the most extraordinary thing happened, Cavos got to his feet and turned to stone in front of her fascinated gaze. Morro froze in his tracks, left the pack and walked out.
“Uh, what was that?”
Cavos changed back from icy marble to his normal grey, and he turned to smile. “What was what?”
“You turned to stone, and Morro just walked away without a word. It doesn’t seem like him.”
He smiled and turned to her with her pack. “Ancient custom.”
He stroked her hair and pressed a kiss to her lips. His mouth was cool and firm, but her reaction was a wave of heat and a peculiar shimmy in her belly that was most distracting.
She was staring into his eyes as he leaned back, and considering her state of undress, his eye contact was as extraordinary as anything else. Niika licked her lips. “Was that an ancient custom?”