I RAN after the badger-like creature for what seemed like miles. Slowly, feeling came back into my right arm, though it stopped above my wrist. It was just as well, because my arm throbbed and prickled as if someone was sticking hundreds of needles into me every couple seconds.
At one point, the creature stopped at a puddle of water to drink. Of course, that reminded me of my own thirst. I’d lost my backpack… somewhere… and with it my water and food supply for emergencies.
I sat down on the soft earth and leaned against the rough bark of a tree. Dampness seeped into my clothes right away, making for an uncomfortable experience.
After stretching out my legs, I drew in long breaths in an attempt to lessen the burn in my lungs. Trees and bushes surrounded me, and only the animal’s lapping of water disturbed the silence. Why the hell didn’t I hear any sounds? Didn’t those oversized war beasts make noise? Or was it only when they charged or hunted someone?
To stop thinking about rhelzs or elgoths, I said, “What are you?”
The animal lifted its striped head and cocked it to the side. After swiping its tongue over its snout, it scampered to me. Its gait reminded me of a lizard, but everything else screamed mammal. It hopped onto my left leg, then leaped against my belly. I almost jumped out of my skin.
“Hey,” I said. “I’m still not sure whether I should run away screaming or if I should pet you. You definitely have the cuteness factor going for you, but….”
What the hell did I think I was doing? Talking to an unknown creature and following it around?
The animal butted its small head against my uninjured hand. On pure instinct, I kneaded the thin skin behind its ears. The creature closed its eyes, and moments later, a loud purr emanated from it.
I laughed and it squinted one-eyed at me. “No reason to get mad at me, okay? I’m still kneading. See?”
An extremely loud purr answered me.
“How about a name? You definitely need a name. It’s just too weird to always think of you as it or creature or even war beast.”
The animal hissed and both eyes flew open when I used the word war beast. It scuttled up on my chest and ended with its sticky forepaws on my cheeks. All the while it stared at me from its glittering, marble-like eyes.
“I didn’t mean to offend you, okay?” I said softly. Sweat trickled down my temples, but I didn’t dare move to wipe the drops away. I didn’t need to because the creature licked them off me, sighing after each drop.
“Um,” I cleared my throat. “How about Blacky? That’s a common name for animals on my home planet.”
The animal moved my head from one side to the other. For a moment, I puzzled about the meaning of this gesture. A moment later it dawned on me. “Oh. No? Blacky isn’t a name you like?”
Again the creature turned my head from one side to the other. This wasn’t just some animal acting purely on instincts. This one possessed a great deal of intelligence and communication skills. Did it really understand me, or did it just react to the sounds of my words? I was pretty sure it understood—however it did that—but I still hadn’t made up my mind whether it was dangerous to me or not.
The corners of my mouth twitched as I said, “When I was a kid I watched a really, really old movie. It’s hundreds of years old and an animated movie, but anyway, there was one character, a skunk and….” I frowned. “A skunk is an animal that’s capable of spraying a liquid with a pretty strong odor and in that story no one wanted to be friends with the skunk. Well, but then another animal named the skunk Flower and I don’t know, but you remind me of that skunk and Flower is a pretty name, don’t you think?”
The creature blinked at me. I rambled on, encouraged by the fact it didn’t spit at me. “How about Ayanna? That means ‘beautiful flower.’ It’s of African origin but used in most English speaking countries. You don’t really care about the names origin, do you? Or how about simply Flora? Oh, or we could pretend to be sophisticated and call you Fleur?”
The creature chirped and it appeared to be smiling.
“You like one of those names?”
It moved my head up and down in a nod. Didn’t it wink at me earlier? How the hell did it know how to communicate with me? Had it met humans before?
“Okay. Which one? Ayanna?”
That got a no, as did Flora. When I asked, “Fleur? You like Fleur?” the animal carefully moved my head up and down and chirped again.
Despite the oddness—or should I say surrealism of the situation—I smiled. “All right, Fleur it is. By the way, I’m Berit.”
“Brrrrrr,” Fleur announced.
I startled so badly, only its sticky paws prevented it from tumbling to the ground.
“Berit,” I pronounced clearly, my heart beating impossibly fast.
After the tenth try, Fleur said, “Berrrriiiit.”
“Right.” I laughed and petted Fleur’s little head. “Berit. That’s me, and you’re Fleur.”
Fleur flicked its tongue against the tip of my nose and withdrew its paws with a smacking plop before it scuttled onto the ground.
“I take it that it’s time to move again?” I asked, groaning as I hauled myself to my feet.
Fleur dashed ahead, and I followed at a slower pace.
AS I tried to keep Fleur in my view, as well as my surroundings, I tripped over a root and landed hard on my knees.
“For fuck’s sake!” I cursed.
Fleur zipped back to me, chirped something, and then stiffened.
“Fleur?”
Fleur climbed up on my back as I rose to my feet. The sticky paws on my neck were the only reminder of it—though I couldn’t shake the feeling that it was a she—still being there with me.
My head jerked to the side when I picked up on the sound Fleur must’ve heard first. I reached for the gun in my holster, only to remember I was without a gun. I fumbled a blade out of my boot. Wouldn’t help against a rhelz or an elgoth, or against any kind of war beasts, really, but I felt better with a weapon in my hand.
“Berit!” Tom’s voice boomed through the thicket of trees and bushes even before I discovered him.
I dropped the blade in sheer relief. “Tom!”
Tom broke through an obviously uncooperative coppice, leaves glued to his vest, and I raised my arms, hoping he’d get my hint and lift me into his arms. I shouldn’t have worried. Tom’s arms closed around me like steel bands, and my ribs creaked under the pressure, but I had no breath to protest. Not even enough breath to cry out in pain because sensation flooded back into my right hand, and each movement seemed to rip it open.
I wrapped my legs around his waist and clamped down as hard as I could while Tom chanted my name. I trailed kisses along his folded frill and throat while he peppered any inch of skin he could reach with firm presses of his lips.
Harsh breathing and the rustling of leaves alerted me of someone else reaching us. I couldn’t stand the thought of fighting against another beast. Not right now, when I’d found Tom again.
“Berit,” Carson puffed. “Where the hell have you been? We thought you were dead!”
He walked up to Tom and pulled my head down to his height, which gained him a growl from Tom. I gave Carson a one-armed hug, then let go of him.
“Sorry. Are you all right? We got separated by the mandrox.”
“I know,” Carson replied.
Niyara and Ylkurt came into view as well. Niyara’s tail snapped around Carson’s waist and she stepped up behind him.
Carson curved a hand around her chin before he drew her down for a soft kiss, murmuring, “I’m not going anywhere. I promise.”
Niyara’s reply was muffled, and anyway, I shouldn’t eavesdrop, so I rested my head on Tom’s shoulder and closed my eyes. Just for a second, I wanted to forget about everything and simply inhale Tom’s scent and feel secure in his arms.
Ylkurt cleared his throat after a while and said, “We need to go back now that we’ve found the entrance.”
“You found the entrance?” I echoed. My eyes snapped open, and I loosened the death grip I had around Tom’s waist. I wiggled a bit to let him know he could set me down, but hints didn’t seem to work.
Ylkurt nodded, and Carson added, “We did. We were just about to enter when Tom sniffed the air, growled your name, and stampeded through the forest like a bull.”
“It was dangerous to go without waiting for us, and especially for Carson to follow him,” Niyara snarled, “but an understandable reaction. No one would be able to hold me back if I thought Carson was dead and I suddenly smelled his scent.”
“Well, I’m not dead. Can’t say it wasn’t close, but here I am, hurting but alive.”
“Hurting?” Tom said in that specific, belly-tingles-evoking gravelly voice. It was the first thing he’d said since he’d stopped chanting my name. “Where?”
“It’s no big deal. Would it be quite all right for you to set me down? I think my ribs will snap any second now.”
“Where?” Tom hollered.
My body reacted to Tom’s voice, and I showed him my right hand. “A mandrox bit me. The hand and arm were numb for a while, but sensation is coming back. I liked it better when I couldn’t feel it, even though it sucked to depend on my left hand.”
Tom stood me on the ground, grasping my injured hand. “That needs to be cleaned. Why didn’t you wrap it?”
A laugh burst from my mouth. “Seriously? I had other things to think about.”
“Like what? Mandrox poison is dangerous. It paralyzes the body, which allows the mandrox to kill their prey.”
“I wasn’t paralyzed, at least no farther than up to my shoulder.” I shrugged and grinned. “Maybe I’m immune to their poison?”
“I’ve heard of similar incidents,” Ylkurt agreed.
“It still needs to be wrapped to avoid an infection,” Tom said stubbornly. “Where’s your backpack? Why didn’t you use the communicator to call us? Why did you leave us to believe you were dead?”
I blinked at Tom. Carson gave a distressed groan when anger surged up within me. I tried to quench that angry flame, but when Tom kept staring at me in disapproval, it sparked, and I erupted.
I smashed a fist against Tom’s chest, which didn’t seem to faze him in the slightest and only fueled my anger further. “You know what? Fuck you!” I spat at him. “I lost my backpack. I don’t know when and where. And honestly? I don’t give a fuck about it! I ran away from a herd of mandrox only to be charged by a rhelz.”
Tom’s jaw dropped. I punched a finger against his breastbone and added, “But that’s not the end of it. I climbed up a tree, one-handed since my right arm was completely useless, and thought I was safe on the top of it, but guess what? A peron thought I might be a nice, tasty morsel. Anyway, the peron obviously felt offended by the rhelz’s presence, they fought, and the fucking tree fell—with me in it—and then the rhelz, after it had just killed the peron, hunted me again. Somewhere along the line, I also lost my gun. Anything else you’d like to know, Your Highness?”
I was panting harshly at the end of my tirade, and Tom’s skin color had changed to an ashen gray.
A light chirp at my back reminded me of Fleur. After a deep inhale, I reached behind and patted her little head. Tom’s eyes widened, and in the next second he aimed a gun at me.