IT SEEMED to take forever before Tom retrieved his tail and whispered, “I think it’s gone.”
I lowered myself to my knees and brushed a stray strand of hair from Grappler’s face. Her freckles stood out on her white skin, and she stared at me from bottomless eyes that had given up on life.
“We’ll bring you outta here,” I said, surprised at how high-pitched my voice sounded.
She shook her head. “Kill me. Please. Before that… that thing comes back.”
“Grappler, get a grip. We’ll have you back on the ship in no time and you’ll be all right.” I tugged at Tom’s sleeve. “Help me pull her out.”
“We should—”
I cut him off. “I don’t care what you think we should be doing. Help me.” When he showed no signs of moving, I looked up at him and put my heart into my voice. “Please.”
His tail twitched, and for a moment a stormy expression flitted over his face. He bent down, inspected the trunk, and pushed his back against it. “We’ll count to three, and then I’ll push and you pull.”
I nodded my assent, secured my grasp on Grappler, and waited. Tom breathed in and out several times, flexed his muscles and counted. On three, he hoisted the trunk up a couple of inches, and I pulled Grappler out, even though she screeched in pain.
“Quiet!” Tom hissed. He glared at Grappler, who had lost consciousness.
“Quit it!” I shot back at him. I glanced down Grappler’s body and cringed. Blood poured from a deep cut in her lower abdomen. I clamped my hand down on her wound, feeling her life run through my hands. “Get me a backpack. I don’t care which one. We have to stop the bleeding.”
“She’ll lead the elgoth back to us. We have to leave her. We might have a chance of survival now,” Tom said.
I hated him in that moment. “Get me the medical kit!”
“It won’t do her any good. We’ll never make it if we take her with us. If there’s an elgoth on Ligador, there will be other predators lingering,” Tom said, with the slightest quaver in his voice.
I couldn’t let go of Grappler’s wound and get to the backpack myself. Neither could I think about the implications of Tom’s words. With no other option at hand, I begged, “Tom, please.”
From the north, a howl reverberated through the forest. I swiveled my head around, searching for our enemy. My breathing came in strained puffs as I scanned the area and wracked my brain for a solution to our situation when Grappler moved underneath my hands.
“I’m not going to make it,” she said in a bleak voice.
“Would you stop it?”
Her lips twitched into a smile. “No, I won’t. You know as well as I do that someone needs to get back to the freighter and warn the fleet of what’s going on here. It’s a death trap. Come on, Commander. Do your job.”
I shook my head. Grappler and I had worked together for almost five years, just like Flix. I would not lose her as well.
“You’ve always been a lousy commander. I still don’t believe anyone dared to promote you,” she said.
“This isn’t the time for small talk,” Tom objected.
She peered up at him, a shudder running through her when the earth vibrated. “No, it isn’t.”
“No!” I shouted, but it was too late. Somehow she’d snatched her gun out of her holster, pointed it at herself, and fired.
The blast droned out any sounds. I kept my eyes averted as I rose unsteadily to my feet. There wouldn’t be much left of her. A sudden unease filled my gut. Then two strong hands took my hips and doubled me over in front of a sapling. I emptied the contents of my stomach in one splash, drenching the dark earth in an even darker hue.
Tom turned me around, wiped a wet cloth over my mouth, and tipped the contents of a water canteen over my hands. A steady rush of pink water trickled through my fingers.
He threw the canteen aside, grabbed one of my slippery hands, and yanked. I toppled against him. In a hollow voice, I said, “Great commander I make, huh?”
“There’s no time for self-pity. It’s coming back.”
“There’s never time with you for anything.”
Tom slid his fingers into my hair and pulled sharply. The sudden twinge of pain shook something loose inside me.
“Now is the time to survive,” he replied. His eyes glowed when he added in a fierce voice, “I’ll make sure you survive. Now, come.”
I’d always been resilient and mastered any crisis that came my way. I’d always been the leader. But this time I was glad someone else had taken up the role, because I needed rescuing.
Tom didn’t let go of my hand, which made walking all the more challenging, especially in the beginning when we had to scramble over shattered trees and branches. Tom’s pace didn’t help either, but at least it allowed me to stop thinking for a while because I had to focus all my energy on keeping upright.
When he stopped all of a sudden, I asked, “What?”
“Shhh.”
“Don’t shush me.”
I received an icy look that swept away anything I wanted to say. For a commander, I’d become rather tongue-tied. The tip of Tom’s tail quivered on his shoulder, and when I transferred my gaze from it to Tom’s face, the blood froze in my veins. His eyes glowed the same eerie red I’d seen in Niyara’s earlier today, even though it felt as if it was a lifetime ago. Tom spread his frill, which showed a deep gash where I’d dug my fingers in.
“What?” I repeated.
“Listen,” he hissed.
At first I didn’t hear a damn thing, except my puffing. The next moment there was a crackling sound, sometimes accompanied by light knocks. Confused, I glanced around but couldn’t find anything.
“What is it?” I asked.
“Something’s hatching.”
“Hatching?” I repeated. “Like emerging from an egg?”
Tom’s hand squeezed mine, and only then did I become aware of how tightly I held it. My hand vanished almost completely in his. It was a sight that would send me scurrying away at any other time. Scurrying away sounded like a phenomenally bad idea right then, so I clasped his hand firmly.
He nodded. “Yes. I think we’re standing at the outer edges of a nest.”
“A nest? I can’t see—” I broke off. Nests were small, round vessels that combined earth, small twigs, and leaves. Nothing like what we were standing on, except for the vessel form. I peered down and discovered something that looked like small rocks. After swallowing several times, I croaked, “These aren’t rocks, right?”
“No, I don’t think so.”
“They’re pretty big for eggs.”
“Probably from one of the larger species,” Tom replied.
One of the eggs’ shell cracked and a long snout surfaced. A sharp whistle erupted from the snout. I jumped at the sheer volume, and so did Tom.
A much louder whistle answered, not far from our position. My knees knocked against each other. “They could be herbivores.”
The egg cap broke away and a wet head emerged from its shell. A red ridge traveled along the middle of the head, ending in a long snout. Reptilian eyes blinked open. It had to be one of the ugliest creatures I’d ever laid eyes on. The… baby craned its head from one side to the other, then did an almost complete rotation and focused on us. It emitted a piercing sound that received an answer in an instant.
Heavy footsteps approached our position, freeing Tom and I from our immobilization. We moved at once and skidded down the slope we’d just climbed. I lost my balance and we tumbled down, ending underneath thick brush, covered by a fallen trunk.
Something heavy stepped onto the trunk, and from our hiding place I could only see two pairs of razor-like claws. A moment later, two more pairs landed next to the first one. One of the creatures swung something back and forth. I frowned, trying to make sense of it.
An arm. The creature was swinging one of Sherman’s arms, I was sure, because of the silver wedding band that appeared like two winding snakes. I gagged.
The creature in the middle gave a sharp trill before it bent its head down. Large reptilian eyes, set in a green-scaled face, peered at me.
“Run and climb up a tree,” Tom said.
“What? I thought they can only detect us through movement.”
“That’s how it works with the elgoths. This is a ram.”
“Doesn’t sound fitting for something that’s easily twelve feet tall,” I replied.
Tom didn’t look over at me, but he slowly lifted his gun, his eyes never leaving the ram, which snorted. The ram’s two companions climbed off the trunk as well and stared at us in utter, unnerving silence. The one holding Sherman’s arm raised its souvenir, sniffed, and threw it aside.
These were heavily muscled creatures, with greenish-yellow scales and eyes that would bestow nightmares on me. Red ridges on their heads suddenly flared up and they screeched.
“Now!” Tom bellowed. He spread out his frill and hissed. The rams pulled back a couple of steps, obviously surprised. Tom glanced over his shoulder. His glare scared the pants off me. So much that I even obeyed him.
I fought against the loose soil and pushed through the thicket when Tom’s gun went off. Surprise moment over.
Tom cursed behind me and wood splintered around us, all accompanied by whistles, screeches, and other noises I couldn’t describe. A long, scarred snout pushed toward me, revealing sharp teeth as big as my hand. I fell back on my ass, wheezing and grabbing for anything to defend myself. I found a club and swung it at the ram’s muzzle.
The creature stumbled backward, clutching its fractured snout with its short forearms. The other rams stopped their attack on us. Tom grasped my collar at the same time the rams approached their hurt companion. A shrill trill echoed through the forest, followed by a flurry of movements. The injured ram collapsed onto the ground with a thud when the other two jumped it.
“Let’s go! Let’s go!” Tom pulled me out of the thicket and we raced past the nest, where I caught sight of three more hatchlings.
The terrible sounds of bones crunching and flesh tearing accompanied our escape run. At one point I stumbled over a root, which sent me sprawling into a puddle. Gasping for air, I hauled myself back to my knees.
I jumped when Tom’s hand closed on my biceps and he snarled, “Don’t stop!”
“I didn’t intend to stop. I tripped.”
“No time for talking.”
“You started it!” I protested between wheezes.
The glare I received shriveled my insides into small knots. A feat in itself since I was beyond panic. “I have no idea where we are and which way we need to go to get back to the freighter. Let me check quickly.”
I groped for the small instruments I always carried clipped to my belt. There was nothing. Stupidly, I blinked and patted myself, hoping my equipment would miraculously appear.
My voice fractured when I said, “It’s gone.”
“I know the way. We need to go. We’re still in ram territory.”
“How do you know that?” I asked. I didn’t get an answer. Tom snatched my hand and fell into a fast trot. I hung on to his hand while I desperately tried to force enough oxygen into my lungs and not stumble again.