by Juno Wells
She stopped. The smell of fried fish was definitely getting stronger now. And she was pretty sure she saw smoke rising up. And movement.
Shit. If that was the Pirgks, she would have to backtrack as quietly as she cou-
“Greetings,” a voice said brightly. A deep, masculine voice that she knew pretty well by now. “Won't you come out of the woods and have some breakfast?”
She felt a lot of her anxiety and worry evaporate. She smoothed her hair and walked out of the forest, trying to seem nonchalant, as if she'd known all the time that he was there. “Fine. I guess I can take some time from my pleasant stroll in the woods.”
He was sitting down on the ground in the clearing, and he had built a fire where he was cooking slices of fish hanging from fresh, green twigs. He was looking up at her and smiling happily. “I always liked watching you move,” he said with appreciation. “But now there's no garments in the way, let me just say that I like it even more.”
She swayed her hips exaggeratedly, liking his approving gaze on her naked body. She was pretty relieved that Braxan was not only alive, but had gotten them some food, too. And he had his pants on. “I notice you're wearing your garments. Any chance you brought mine?”
“There's a chance I did.” He nodded to a little heap beside him. Those were her clothes, neatly folded and stacked. She had a moment of panic. How clean had her panties been?
Then she shook her head at her own weirdness. She had bigger worries than that right now. “Thanks. So I guess you won the fight?”
He rearranged the fish slices on the spears. “There wasn't much of a fight, I'm afraid. There were only ten of them, and they were completely exhausted by their trek through the jungle. Their arrows didn't penetrate my somewhat hard skin.”
The panties weren't too gross, so she pulled them on along with her jeans and shirt. “You do come pre-armored,” she agreed. “Pretty handy sometimes.”
She plopped down on the ground beside him and rummaged through the pockets of the jacket. “And you even got the fish. Well done. Any reason you thought I should make my way on my own without even knowing if you were alive or dead?”
He shrugged. “It seemed to me that this area didn't have too many dangerous creatures in it. I think those mostly live in the outer parts of the jungle where they can prey on outsiders that try to make their way in. And you are a capable woman. You'd have to walk through the forest anyway, and I thought you'd appreciate some food when you got here.”
The comms unit didn't show much of a signal, but she put it to her ear anyway. “Oh, I do appreciate it. A lot. Thanks. It does smell good.”
She lifted her hand reflexively as she heard a voice from the unit. “... Base responding. This is Belzon Base responding. Please identify yourself.”
It was the standard communication procedure. “This is Amelia Moore, clerk at Admin.”
There was static for a moment, then the voice came again. “Yes, that's what the display is showing, but I couldn't really believe it. Okay, Amelia. So you're obviously alive. I'm glad. Where are you?”
It sounded like Bheni, the other clerk who kept the electronics running in the administration dome. “I'm outside the crater to the south. There's thick jungle here, but I'm okay. So far,” she added.
“Copy you're outside the crater to the south. Do you know how to get back to base?”
“Yeah, but I've got some Pirgks pursuing me. They kidnapped me from the base.”
“That's what the tracks showed. Lots of people went out to look for you, but we can't go too far away from the base now. We're thrilled you're alive, Amelia. There's not much we can do to help you right now. The Pirgks are surrounding the base, and there are more coming all the time. And I guess we're just waiting for the dragons to show up. Are you okay? I mean, clearly not, but still ...”
Bheni's voice trailed off, and it was obvious that she felt bad about not being able to do much.
“I'm doing okay. I was able to escape from the Pirgks. Hopefully I'll make it back to base in a few days' time. So the Pirgks are surrounding you? All day and all night?”
“Pretty much. You know Pirgks, they're not too organized. So they come and go. We're keeping them at arm's length for now. Amelia, the commander is asking me if you have any ... any message you'd like us to relay to your family or loved ones if ... well, you know ...”
'If you don't come back'. The meaning was obvious.
Amelia thought for a moment. She really wanted to keep a positive mindset. “You know, I'll just tell them myself when I see them. All right, the power pack for this comms unit wasn't fully charged from the start, and I want to preserve whatever juice it has left. I'll be in touch later. How is Josh? And Jean?”
“Jean is recovering fine and has been brought out of sedation. Josh ... didn't make it.”
Shit. Poor Josh. Always doing the things no one else wanted to do. “Did anyone find the dragon's blood?”
“We did not. We can't really go outside anymore. Okay, Amelia, the commander says you should save the battery in the unit so you can be in touch later. It burns a lot of power when you're that far away. He wants you to contact us every thirty hours if you can. Except when the orange sun is up, of course.”
“Copy that. Thanks. Amelia out.”
She disconnected. Commander Hanson was right – it took a lot of power to punch through the considerable interference from all the various suns around the planet and carry a usable signal. So it was better to cut the conversation short.
“So your base is still there,” Braxan said and picked a slice of fish off a twig, then handed it over.
Amelia gingerly took the piece between her fingers. It was hot and burned her skin, but it smelled so good she didn't really care. “It is. For now. Sounds like they can handle the Pirgks. But they're worried about the dragons that attacked yesterday. Do you happen to know anything about dragons? Or dragon-like aliens, I guess?”
Braxan took another piece of grilled fish into his own hands and nibbled at it. “Dragons are mythical creatures on most planets.”
Amelia took a little piece of fish into her mouth, then felt her eyes widen. After months of canned and preserved food on the base, she had almost forgotten what fresh food could taste like. And this fish was juicy and tasty and just delicious. “Yeah, that's what everyone thought,” she said, chewing happily. “Then we get four of them showing up and spewing fire and burning people to charcoal. Looked like they were helping the Pirgks.”
Braxan got up and walked to the edge of the forest, bending down as if he was looking for something. Then he ripped a couple of reddish leaves off a little bush and brought them over. He took the little bunch of leaves in his fingers, held them over his piece of fish and squeezed them until they dripped juice onto it. A fresh citrusy scent filled the air, and Braxan held out the leaves and raised his eyebrows quizzically.
“Oh yeah,” Amelia said and held out her slice of fish so the lemony juice could drip down on it.
The fish tasted even better with the fresh zest on it, and Amelia's spirits rose even further. Talking to the base had been good. Now they knew she was alive and well, and she knew that the base still existed. There was still hope.
She had a feeling there was something she should have asked the base, but it wouldn't come to her.
Braxan handed her another piece of perfectly grilled fish, then squeezed the leaves over it for her.
She bit into it. “How do you know so much about the plants here, anyway? Like, the berries and this lemongrassy thing? Are you from this planet after all?”
He shook his head. “The berries looked good, and these leaves I could smell from far away. I think you probably could, too, if you hadn't been sitting downwind from the fire.”
Amelia's thoughts had cleared up a great deal after the talk with Belzon Base. And now she had the energy to ask about him. “Why are you here? On Belzon?”
Braxan chewed his own piece of fish thoughtfully. “I crashed to the ground o
n this planet right before I met you. I had already been shot and injured. And you know the rest.”
Amelia peered at him. “Except everything before that. Which is what I'm really asking about. I think you know that.”
The clearing was silent for a long time. Then Braxan tossed a fishbone on the fire. “You wish me to condense my life into a sentence that can be reeled off in a second or two. Perhaps that is the custom among your people. Among mine, it most certainly is not. We respect our own history and those of others. Sometimes we tell good friends about important events in our lives. In private, under circumstances that are calm and collected and that give time for reflection and proper consideration. We find that a life is to be revered, its story treated with the utmost respect. The situation in which we now find ourselves is ridiculously improper for that kind of deep, trust-building event.”
He lifted his head and his eyes bored into her, forcing her to look down. It was the longest statement she had heard from him so far. And he spoke with such finality that Amelia felt a coldness creep down her spine. Shit. Had she offended him? “I'm sorry-”
She felt his fingers on her cheeks, lifting her face. And then she looked into his eyes again, and now they were the warmest she had ever seen.
“You have nothing to be sorry about. Nothing. Your question is natural. I would be hurt if you didn't ask it. Believe me when I say that I long to answer it. And I promise that I will answer it. Fully. When the time is right. It is I who should apologize. I was gruff when no gruffness was required.”
His touch was so tender that Amelia found herself leaning into his hand on her cheek. It felt good.
Braxan changed his position so he was sitting behind her with his legs on either side of her hips. She leaned her head against his chest and felt totally at ease. He would tell her who he was when he was ready.
She was starting to doze off when Braxan head snapped up. He frowned and raised his hand in warning, then stood up slowly, scanning the edge of the forest and listening.
Amelia rose too, alarmed. “Pirgks?” she whispered.
Braxan looked carefully around. A drop of oil fell from his slice of fish and hissed as it landed in the fire. “It is suddenly too quiet.”
Amelia heard it too. Even with only the moons in the sky, the jungle had usually been more noisy than this, always teeming with the sounds of natural wildlife like the background hum from a city at night.
It was dead quiet. And it seemed as if the whole forest was just holding its breath.
“I don't like it,” she whispered and got her jacket. She was not about to leave anything behind this time. “If it's the Pirgks, then they will probably attack with more people this time.”
Braxan squinted to the edge of the forest in the direction that Amelia had come from. “I doubt the Pirgks are able to follow us this deep into the jungle,” he said softly. “The ones that attacked us were the only ones that made it that far.”
Amelia looked nervously around. “So do we run?”
Braxan got busy dousing the fire and handed two slices of fish over to Amelia. “Eat as much as you can. Fast. You'll need the energy.”
His calm demeanor was almost more alarming than if he had panicked, but Amelia saw the point and hurriedly chewed her way through a couple of mouthfuls while they walked fast towards the other side of the clearing.
Right before they reached the jungle, there seemed to be a deep hum in the air, more perceptible by feel than by hearing. Amelia threw a quick glance over her shoulder.
There was something there. Dark specks in the sky, right over the treetops far away. But they were coming closer faster then she would have thought possible.
And now she knew what they were. The breath stuck in her throat and she felt her heart fall in her chest. “Dragons!”
18
- Braxan -
It was worse than he had feared. A local jungle monster or a band of Pirgks he could handle. But dragons ... no, this was close to disastrous.
He'd never before been on the ground during a dragon attack. He'd always been the attacker, trying to scare his targets as much as he could, demoralizing them before he'd even start using his fire. But now, he was astounded as his human body felt the need to run.
He could hear them using their location sounders, trying to notify him that they were close. They were looking for him, specifically. But it was not a rescue mission.
A dragon looking for another dragon was not good news for the dragon being looked for. It meant that the searcher realized that there might soon be an ownerless hoard ready for the taking. Dragons didn't help each other except in extraordinary circumstances. A dragon showing weakness soon found himself attacked.
That was what was about to happen. Braxan was stuck in his human form. The dragon in him was curled up in a corner of his being, sick and weak. The injury in his chest was about to finish the dragon. And when it died, Braxan would die. And when he died ...
He looked over at Amelia as they sprinted through the forest. When he died, she'd be helpless. The dragons would burn her to ashes.
A most remarkable thing happened when he thought it: he felt cold in the pit of his stomach. He could handle dying. It was a fact of life, even for extremely long-lived Ultracos. But for her to die ... it seemed much worse to him.
The jungle was dense, and they were moving as fast as they could. Amelia was much better at making her own way now. The little naked walk she had taken on her own had been good for her, just as Braxan had thought. She was more capable than she'd realized, and the sight of her vaulting over low branches and taking a little arc around a hidden mound of biting insects would have warmed his heart if it hadn't been for this strange other emotion that seemed to have taken over a lot of his mind, paralyzed it.
He chanced a glance up and behind. It was not his flight. He would recognize Dacron's languid wing movements from light years away, and Evec's peculiar twisting motion at the end of every downstroke could be spotted by a hatchling. As could Karox's effective use of the tail.
No, this was not his flight. These were other dragons. He stood still for a moment, looking up and trying to spot some of the green sky in between the dense foliage.
Ah. There they were. And they were dragons. Definitely not Ultracos. Too small and inelegant for that. But he didn't like it, even so. They were silvery, and that meant that they were from the Emperor's Guard. Why in the Slayer's name were they here? If they were there, then the Emperor himself couldn't be far away. This was not great timing.
He strained his eyes gazing upwards. How many were there? Could there be as many as it looked like?
“Shit,” he heard Amelia exclaim as she stumbled over a vine behind him.
Huh. Were they circling or just patrolling? Did they have any idea of where he was, or were they just looking? The smoke from the fire and the smell of frying fish should have been a total giveaway, but pure dragons were not as smart as Ultracos. They might have missed it completely. Yes, they seemed to be flying slowly in a straight line, growing more distant now. They hadn't passed directly overhead. Probably Amelia and he were still safe. More or less.
“They're moving away,” he said softly.
But there was no reply. He glanced behind him, then whipped around. There was only empty jungle. Amelia was gone.
19
- Amelia -
They crashed through foliage and bushes as they ran, and the terror rose in her as she could feel the dragons coming closer. It was like they had some kind of fear field that they sent out ahead of them.
Or maybe it was just that she had seen what dragons could do. Either way, she was terrified. Again.
Braxan stopped to look up, but Amelia ran on along a smooth patch of short grass.
Something curled around her ankle and yanked it back, and she lost her balance and dived forward into a blue little bush. But when she extended her arms to break her fall against the ground, they only hit thin air, and she yelped as she fell down into the
ground and beyond.
For one terrifying second, she was falling, and she drew breath to scream.
But before she could let out the yell, she was not falling anymore. The ground was so soft that she couldn't tell what broke her fall, just that she had come to a halt in the most pleasant way possible.
It was suddenly dark and the air was thick and fragrant with a floral note that was very different from the smell of rotting vegetation in the jungle above.
Amelia got to her feet. She was in a hole in the ground, that was obvious. But it was the weirdest hole she had ever seen. It was not completely dark, because the walls were translucent and let through a mild, white light with a warm, yellow tinge. The ground was smooth, but had a peculiar give to it, as if she was standing on a thick rubber carpet.
She looked around. It was some kind of tunnel. A very exotic tunnel, but one where she could stand up without hitting her head on anything. She couldn't tell which way she had come from. But she was sure of one thing: something or someone had deliberately tripped her up. That vine around her ankle had definitely tightened deliberately. And looking back, that little patch of perfect grass had been too convenient and easy to walk on to be an innocent feature of the landscape.
“Fuck this deranged jungle,” she sighed. Somehow she had been through so much the past couple of days that this new development didn't scare her too much. At least here, she wasn't being targeted by dragons or captured by Pirgks.
“That would be a long project,” a deep voice said, and there was suddenly movement by her feet. “There is a lot to fuck.”
Amelia took a startled step back and almost fell backwards in surprise.
There was a little animal on the ground, white and fluffy like a rabbit. Except it had no ears that she could see, just a ridiculous plate of something that reminded her of mother of pearl stretching from the front of the head to the back, like a razor-thin mohawk gone crazy. It moved around a little, showing its three legs and two eyes that were so similar to a cat's eyes it was uncanny.
