by Ella Maven
As long as I was conscious, that wasn’t going to be us. With my claws, I slashed at the straps holding Tabitha to her chair. They fell away and I snatched her up.
She wrapped her limbs around me like a numa vine. Smart female.
As the cruiser plummeted toward the freshas, I raced to the back, my boots slipping as the aircraft began to roll. I punched the eject button and as soon as the emergency exit panel opened, I grasped Tabitha tightly to my chest and launched myself out of the cruiser.
Tabitha didn’t scream. She didn’t make one single noise, but I could feel her hot breath on my neck and her racing cora beating in time with mine. I yanked on the cord of the emergency bag and glider wings burst from the sides. Tabitha jerked in my arms at the sound and gripped me tighter.
I angled my body toward the coast and hoped we’d get as close as possible before gravity sent us plunging into the freshas. Behind us came a massive splash and a cool spray hit my back as the cruiser hit the surface. I didn’t turn around to see what creatures were already looking to investigate the crash.
Up ahead rose a cliffed coast. Small inlets led me to believe we’d be able to find a cave or some place to rest until I could come up with another plan. My immediate worry was to get us out of the freshas and away from whatever shot us down.
Tabitha’s hair fluttered around us, tangling in my lashes, and catching on my lips. She was alive, and so was I. That was all that mattered now. I just had to make sure we stayed that way.
I set my gaze on the cliffs and in particular a small cove I could see well above the surface of the freshas. The wind tore at my scales, making my eyes water, and Tabitha made small whimpers against my neck. I wished I could comfort her, but I was too busy focusing on gliding us as close to safety as possible. It became apparent quickly we were not going to make it.
I tried to tip up the front of the glider wings but even now I could smell the freshas and see the small huppas gliding just under the surface. They wouldn’t hurt us. It was what I couldn’t see swimming up from the depths that worried me.
“Whatever you do,” I yelled over the rushing wind. “Do not let me go.”
Tabitha nodded, and a moment later I wrenched my body upright. The wings caught on the air and sent us upward for a moment before we plummeted to the freshas’ surface.
We hit feet first, plunging down way too far for my liking. Immediately a grouping of huppas surrounded us, little mouths gaping and eyes bulging. As I gripped Tabitha with one hand and pushed toward the surface with the other, I took comfort in that. When they sensed a bigger predator, they’d leave. That was what I had to be worried about.
The wings tumbled to the sea floor far below us, breaking off from the emergency pack on my back on impact. My lungs screamed, and I worried for Tabitha. Her body bucked against mine, and when I glanced down at her face, her cheeks were bulged, bubbles leaving her lips while her eyes remained wide and panicked.
When we breached the surface, she gasped gratefully. Her wet hair clung to her face as she spit out qua and gulped in air.
I kept us at the surface while we both caught our breath.
“Holy shit,” she panted. “I can’t believe that just happened. How are we alive?”
I began to strike out toward the cliff with one arm while I held her with the other. “I’m not sure either, but we won’t be for long if we don’t get out of this qua.”
“Right,” she murmured. “Can’t swim forever.”
“Oh, I can swim for a long time. I’m not worried about that. Remember the creatures who took down Gaul’s boat?”
Her face drained of color as she pushed away from me and began frantically searching the qua for any sign. “Wait, they’re here? Where? Oh my God, that’s just want we need a giant squid.”
I didn’t know what a squid was, but it was clearly a terrifying creature on Earth. “Tabitha, we don’t need to be looking for it. We need to be moving out of this qua.”
She darted her gaze to me, and then with quick strokes, took off toward the cliff. “Let’s go then,” she called over her shoulder. Her feet kicked behind her. In moments, she had made it an impressive distance. My little female was a swimmer.
I took off after her and slowed to her pace when I caught up.
She didn’t look at me, only kept those steady strokes, her arms slicing through the qua with efficiency.
We were close, the cliff another dozen strokes away when Tabitha made a garbled noise and disappeared below the surface.
I dove down and what I saw sent my cora pounding and my blood heating despite the cool temperature. Her hair in a cloud around her face, she reached toward me. Eyes wide, bubbles erupting from her mouth as she shouted one word. I didn’t have to hear it to know what it was—my name. Xavy. A tentacled arm gripped her ankle, pulling her down below.
“Tab!” I yelled back, the bubbles clouding my vision for a brief moment before I batted them away and dove toward her. My machets lifted from my skin, and my lips curled back in a snarl. Portcrewllers were vicious, territorial animals, but I’d hoped we were close enough to shore to avoid them. I could just detect two glowing eyes gleaming at me. Taunting me.
I reached Tabitha’s side and immediately sliced into the tentacled arm. The suctions broke free as a rumbling growl reached my ears. Tab shot toward the surface and I followed. More tentacled arms emerged from the depths on all sides of us, and I couldn’t be sure if they belonged to one portcrewller or many.
I slashed at every one that came at us, and thought I was in the clear when one arm closed around my thigh while another latched on to Tabitha’s waist.
She thrashed as it dragged her back below the surface. I hacked at the tentacle holding me, but this one was thicker, and despite my sharp machets, cutting through it wasn’t easy.
When I seemed close, two more enclosed my wrists, stretching my arms out to my sides. I arched my back and roared, bucking my hips and slashing with my tail, but my efforts were in vain. The portcrewller was too strong.
Meanwhile Tabitha struggled and strained, pushing down on the tentacle wrapped around her. Her neck bulged, and I knew she wouldn’t be able to remain underwater for much longer.
My lungs screamed at me for oxygen. How long could Tab hold her breath? Was this it? Had we survived the crash only to drown?
Tab’s struggles grew weaker, and her eyes bored into mine. She was out of time, and so was I. Her lips moved, and I couldn’t tell what she was saying, only catching I’m sorry. My cora cracked, my head pounded, and I watched helplessly as her body slumped in the tentacled grip. Her arms floated limply around her.
“Tab!” I hollered, renewing my struggles even though they were in vain. In a moment they’d drag us under, feast on our flesh with their teeth.
Movement caught my eye as a dark figure emerged from the depths, moving fast. I braced for the portcrewller’s jaws to come into view, but in the next instant, the tentacles holding me went lax. When I yanked my arms away, the sliced-clean ends of the tentacles appeared.
Was there a bigger predator than the portcrewller around? I struck out toward Tab just as the tentacled arm which had been slowly dragging her further below the surface fell away from her body. I grabbed her and without hesitation shot to the surface.
She didn’t open her eyes or move. The next few moments were a blur. Once we broke the surface, I swam faster than I ever had in my life until I reached the rocky cliff. I pulled her onto a flat rock and immediately pumped her chest. Remembering some healer techniques Rokas had taught us, I breathed into her mouth, tasting the salty freshas on her lips.
Her skin was pale, nearly blue, and her body limp. “Come on, Tab,” I pleaded. “Please, please breathe.”
I kept going, breathing and pumping her chest, refusing to give up. I want to scream and fight and draw blood to punish whoever was responsible for making my Tab suffer, but I couldn’t do that. I had to concentrate on the repetitive movements.
When she coughed, I rolled
her onto her side, where she threw up qua and bile while her body shook and trembled. I rubbed her back and brushed her hair from her forehead. Only when I heard my name in a hoarse whisper did I scramble to face her. “Tab?”
“Wha—?” she blinked her eyes open at me. “How did we get away?”
I glanced back at the freshas, and my eyes caught something bobbing at the surface nearby. A shiny, scaled fin and a set of glowing purple eyes. It vanished below the surface so fast, leaving not even a ripple behind, so I could have sworn I imagined it.
“I don’t know,” I answered Tab, turning back to her. “I think something saved us. Or maybe it just didn’t like the portcrewller. I have no idea. But we’re here. Alive.”
“How many times can we almost die in a day?” she murmured, a small smile on her lips.
I shrugged with a grin. “I might have one more life or death experience left in me this rotation.”
She laughed weakly. “Well, seeing as my comfort zone is zero, I would say I’m at my limit.”
“Well, good thing I don’t have anything planned until tomorrow.” I swept one arm under her knees and the other around her back as I rose to my feet. I gestured toward a cave above us with my chin. “We’re heading up there to get some rest.”
“Rest would be great.” She let her head fall against me.
I picked my way up the craggy cliff toward the cave, hoping I wasn’t about to impose on some creature’s home. The last thing we needed was some Drix-sized brigger to peck out my eyeballs for getting near her nest. Not that I’d ever seen one, but I’d heard rumors of massive winged beasts around this continent.
When I took a tentative step inside the cave, it seemed empty. Still, I placed Tabitha on the ground at the entrance while I grabbed a solar light from my bag and investigated the cave.
I found nothing but a long-abandoned nest, which would make great kindling for a fire. I needed to assess our injuries and give us time to eat and rest. Tomorrow, I’d figure out our plan.
I returned to Tabitha to find her much more alert, eyes finding me immediately when I emerged from the darkness of the inner cave. “Everything okay?”
I nodded as I crouched next to her. Gripping her neck, I tilted her head to get a good look at her. She had a few scratches on her face, and her ankle was covered in welts from the suctioned teeth that had had a hold of her. The skin was broken in places, small rivulets of red blood leaking on the cave floor. I gritted my teeth as I contemplated diving back into the freshas to finish off the damn beast who had made my female bleed.
Worse than that, she trembled, and I didn’t like the blue tinge to her lips. I forgot how the humans couldn’t handle low temperatures. This area of the planet was cooler this time of the sun cycle.
I picked her up again, seeking to warm her with my body heat. “Come, my female,” I said in a dramatic voice. “Entire my palace I have decorated just for you. Enjoy the gritty floor and spiky walls. I had to barter many crops for it.”
Her small laugh echoed toward the back of the cave, and it was probably all in my head, but I swore the walls themselves brightened at the sound.
Six
Tabitha
Xavy’s backpack was like a magician’s hat. First it had sprouted wings, and now he kept reaching inside, pulling out vacuum-sealed bags of all kinds of things, so many that a small pile sat next to the flickering fire.
The first thing he’d produced from his magic bag was a thin blanket made of shiny material which reminded me of those silver thermal blankets back on Earth. The sea water had been freezing, and the only clothing I had was my thin dress currently drying on a rock outside.
I sat beneath the massive blanket naked, trying not to feel weird about it. Not that I ever really minded nudity, but Xavy and I had had a complicated twenty-four hours. I didn’t need to add awkward nakedness to it.
Crouched near the fire, he produced a bar of tein as well as some dried fruits, which I scarfed down. My stomach had been protesting since I woke up on the cruiser. I also took small sips of qua, not eager to use too much. I didn’t want to know what would happen if we ran out. Although based on all the trinkets he had in that bag, maybe he had a water purifier. I’d tasted their freshas when I’d nearly drowned—twice. It had been salty as fuck.
I realized Xavy had just been taking inventory of the pack contents. His fingers flitted over the food and qua jugs before carefully packing everything back inside the bag, save a few packages of food and another jug of qua.
“You’re going to eat too, right?” I asked him.
He finally set the bag aside and took a seat next to me, his back against the cave all. His answer was to shove a whole tein bar in his mouth and grin at me as crumbs dropped on his bare chest.
“Hey, don’t waste any crumbs.” I picked up a large chunk that had plunked to the cave floor and glared at him.
He snatched it from my hand and shoved it in his mouth. “Not wasted,” he said with a full mouth.
Sometimes he was so like the boys I knew back home, and other times he was every inch a one-hundred-and-fifty-year-old warrior from another planet. I liked him both ways, but I might have liked him the most when he was at ease. Charming. All grins and dimples.
I didn’t want to think about last night, but I couldn’t stop thinking about it. It was always there, lurking in the back of my mind like a shadow. At the time I’d been angry at the rejection, but I’d had more time to ruminate on his words now.
He didn’t deny wanting me, but he said he didn’t trust himself to stop and worried that the things he wanted to do to me were dishonorable.
Maybe I was fucked up in the head too because dishonorable things sounded right up my alley.
Xavy said he didn’t trust himself, but no matter how I spun it, I did trust him. Was my trust in him enough for both of us? I refused to pressure him to do anything he didn’t want to do or would later regret.
I had to decide if I was going to let it go or push Xavy a bit more to tell me what was going on inside his head. The first would keep us as friends. The second… had the potential to blow up in my face. And I’d had enough explosions for the day.
Beside me, Xavy picked up the next package, which I assumed was food, but when he opened the wrapping, I realized it was a small medical kit. Shifting to crouch in front of me on the balls of his feet, he beckoned with his fingers. “Let me see your legs, Tab.”
Oh right, my legs, which currently stung like I’d been whipped by an entire school of jellyfish. The salt water hadn’t helped at all. Whatever that tentacled thing was, his little suckers had teeth. When I’d felt them bite into my skin, I was afraid to look down, terrified I’d no longer have my limbs at all.
I stuck my bare feet out of the bottom of the blanket, doing my best to cover all my personal bits. One thing I really missed was nail polish. Maybe it was silly, but I always had my toenails painted on Earth, and I changed the color often depending on my mood. We’d been able to replicate hair dye, but nail polish was a no go. I wiggled my naked toes. Xavy’s good nature fled as he took in my injuries. With his nostrils flared and his jaw ticking, he ran his fingers gently over the wounds. When he hit a particularly sensitive spot, I jerked away from him on a hiss.
He darted his gaze to my face. “I’m sorry.”
“No, it’s okay. Just stings.”
He nodded. “As it should.”
“Why don’t you have any of these? That damn thing had a hold of your thigh and both your wrists.”
He held up his hands and flexed them. I saw a few dings in the scales there, but other than that he was unarmed. “Thicker covering than you.” He poked around in the med kit. “Need to get you females some scale suits.” He produced a wrap. “We only have one vial of medis, and I don’t need to save it for me, but I’m worried about any more injuries you could sustain. I don’t want to waste it on something not life-threatening.”
I didn’t like any of those words. Not about the medis—I didn’t care
about that. All I needed was for the blood to clot and a decent wrap to prevent infection. Already the blood had slowed to a trickle. But thinking of us doing more dangerous things that could potentially kill me and require life-saving medicine was horrific. I swallowed around a thick ball in my throat. “Are we… going to be risking our lives in the near future?”
He held my gaze. “You know us Drix don’t like to lie.”
“I don’t want you to lie.” I grazed my fingers over the back of his hand.
His tongue snaked out to wet his lips. “We don’t have a choice. We can’t stay here. We have no way of getting back without the cruiser as we’re on a different land mass. Our only choice is to travel the rest of the way to the Kaluma on foot. And hope they don’t kill us for trespassing before we even get a chance to ask for help.”
My heart thudded. “Damn, Xav. I said don’t lie, but maybe you could sugarcoat some things next time.”
“Sugarcoat?”
“Soften your words. Be a little more optimistic about our life prognosis.” I sighed heavily. “Damn.”
He looked adorably confused. “I don’t—”
“It’s fine,” I waved a hand. “Thank you, for being honest.”
He didn’t seem to believe me, but he dropped it. Ducking his head, he began to gently wrap the wounds around my ankles. “We need to get some sleep tonight and work on our plan.”
I liked that, his talk of our plan. I had never been that good at following orders. I wanted to be involved and have my voice heard. Well, at least, out of bed. In bed was another story. I like that he was communicating with me rather than leaving me in the dark, or worse—lying to me.
“So, can you start from the beginning? What is this mission and who are the Kaluma?”
His fingers stilled before he resumed bandaging my legs, but now his movements were stiffer, his expression tense. He didn’t talk again until he was finished and then he leaned back on his haunches with his wrists braced on his knees. “Shep told us about the Kaluma, an isolated race native to this planet who are extremely territorial. They have abilities that would be extremely useful in our final war with the Uldani. And that’s my mission—to convince them it’s in their best interest to join us in the fight.”