by S. E. Smith
“Why does that sound like normal, everyday life with you?” he half-heartedly teased.
“My life hasn’t always been as adventurous as it is now that I’ve found you,” she replied.
She unconsciously leaned back against his body when he slid his arm around her waist. She laid her hand over his and they stared out over the river in silence. Their embrace was a comfortable, soothing one.
Yesterday afternoon had changed everything for her. Before, she had been drawn to him out of curiosity. He had been an oddity—and he had something she wanted. Now, she was hyper aware of everything about him.
The curiosity had turned to a deep, physical attraction, but there was something more. She felt a connection with him that went beyond the physical to something that was soul-deep, something emotional and… well, the connection was something she needed to work through to understand. Unfortunately, now was not the time. She needed to focus on their survival.
“The river is usually lower and you can follow the path along its banks. It is the safest path to travel, but with the river this high, it is impossible to safely negotiate.” She paused and waved her hand to the southwest. “The other option is to the southwest, a desolate area called the Goddess’s Fury. It contains the boiling mud pits and hot springs used by my people in the Mating Challenge that I told you about. The region around the pits is covered in a perpetual fog, and there are fragile crusts over most of the boiling springs—so you see, it’s very easy to fall through to one’s death,” she explained.
Gril’s arm tightened around her. She sighed and turned to face him. If they hoped to get to her village, much less his space ship, they would have to go southwest, but he deserved to know just how dangerous the situation they were in was. There could be no going back the way they had come now that the old path had been washed away in the flood.
“Night crawlers—lots and lots of night crawlers. They thrive in the darkness created by the steam,” she whispered.
“Are those the black hairless creatures or the ones with the glowing red eyes?” he asked with growing apprehension.
“The ones with the glowing red eyes,” she answered.
Gril closed his eyes for a second before he opened them and looked down at her with a wry smile. She would have preferred a dozen packs of the hairless forest beasts to one night crawler. At least the Night Shadows killed their prey first. The Night Crawlers liked to eat their catch while it was still alive.
“Please tell me that you know where there is some of the moss that keeps them away,” he said.
Madas shook her head. “There isn’t any in the area. The moss that thrives in that kind of heat and humidity is a completely different species. Our only hope is to stay one step ahead of them,” she said, resting her head against his chest so he couldn’t see the fear, and the desolation, in her eyes.
16
The mist created by the hot springs quickly enveloped them when they entered the Goddess’s Fury, coating their skin with a humid dampness similar to the cleansing showers aboard the Tearnat Command ships used for deep space travel. One major difference from the showers, though, was the scent of sulfur that permeated the cloying, moist air. Gril brushed a trickle of moisture from his face.
They had only walked a few feet into the area before Madas held up her hand and he stopped behind her. She poked at the ground in front of her with the end of her spear. A hissing sound filled the air and a thick stream of steam rose from the ground.
She looked over her shoulder at him with a worried expression, and L’eon surprised him by suddenly climbing down his body to the ground. Madas frowned when L’eon walked by her and sniffed the ground—then sneezed, sat down, and scratched behind his ear with his back foot.
“I’m glad to see one of us isn’t concerned,” Gril dryly observed.
Madas giggled. “I know. He constantly surprises me,” she said.
He reached out and touched her arm when she started to walk again. He nodded to L’eon, who was now weaving back and forth with his nose to the ground and motioned for her to wait. L’eon stopped and looked forward before he turned and trotted back to them. Gril raised an eyebrow when the little lizard pointed with his tail.
“I think we have a new guide,” he murmured.
Madas made a face and nodded. “Show off! Make sure that you are careful. I don’t want you to get hurt,” she murmured, kneeling briefly to rub an affectionate hand over L’eon’s head before rising to her feet again.
Gril was unsure if he should completely trust L’eon. He kept one hand on Madas’s lower back and the other one on his pistol. Madas must have had the same reservations because she continued to poke at the ground in front of her.
They moved deeper into the swampy area. Through the heavy fog, all they could see was L’eon’s tail, and every once in a while his head, when he peered around to orient himself.
“Has he been here before?” Gril quietly asked.
Madas shook her head. “No. I’ve only been here a few times with my father when he was alive. L’eon was not on our world then,” she replied.
“He is not native to this area?” Gril asked.
She shook her head. “No, I found him six months ago inside a meteorite that had crashed to the ground,” she answered.
Gril noticed that L’eon had changed directions and instinctively wrapped his arm around Madas to make sure she stopped. He released her when she squeezed his hand to show that she had noticed the change, and they began walking again. Madas pierced the ground with her spear and jumped when there was a loud cracking sound. A second later, a large swirl of putrid steam rose through the fog as the cavity opened. Gril could hear the wet splat from the mud boiling.
“Go to the right,” he said.
Madas swallowed and nodded. Gril searched the dim landscape. Dead trees loomed in the ghostly mists, washed out like dry, sun-bleached skeletons, left over from a previous period when this area had once been as wooded and green as the rest of the surrounding forest below.
The bleached and picked clean skeletons of large Tusked Walmounts dotted the area. Some of the remains were large enough that he could stand inside the cage of ribs sticking up from the soft ground. Glowing blue eyes reflected back at him from where a large bird was perched on top of one beast that had recently met its death and hadn’t yet been completely picked clean. The scavenger was half his size, had dark, iridescent purple feathers, and two greedily feeding heads.
It suddenly flew from where it had been feasting on the skull of the pale gray beast to the branch above. Gril’s hand tightened on his laser pistol when both heads turned to watch them as they passed by the tree. His nose wrinkled at the smell of the pack animal slowly being cooked in the boiling water. He saw Madas lift her hand to cover her nose.
“You never forget the smell of this place. It is a wonder anyone survives an hour, much less three days in a cage. I think the only reason they put you in a cage is so that you don’t throw yourself into the pits to get away from the stench,” she muttered.
Gril tried not to chuckle. He didn’t want to draw the smell into his lungs any more than he was already doing. She did have a good point, though.
They both grew quiet when they walked by an empty metal cage hanging above the center of a large hot spring from a thick rope made of vines, attached to a metal ring. The vine was attached to poles that had been erected on each side of the midsize hot spring.
The bottom of the cage hung open. A torn cloth satchel had been tied to the bars. It drifted with the rising steam. He pulled Madas closer when he saw the bones of a leg still partially covered in material halfway up the far bank.
Madas didn’t say anything. She turned her head and looked at the ground. L’eon rose on his hind legs, sniffed the air, and softly growled before he shook his head and began walking again. Gril’s heart wrenched when he saw Madas lift a trembling hand to her cheek.
“I hate this place,” she whispered.
Gril squeezed her
waist in empathy. He had seen much cruelty in his years of service. Many species thought the Tearnats were vicious, horrible people. Personally, he thought the Elpidiosians were far more vicious than anyone else.
Both the Elpidiosians and the Kassisans were more technologically advanced than the Sand Tearnats. A short war several centuries before had created a rift between the Tearnats and the two species that had taken a considerable amount of diplomacy to heal. The advantage the Tearnats had was they were more difficult to kill. They also had a larger population since they didn’t suffer from the reproductive issues the other species had—one advantage to laying eggs instead of live birth.
“The fog looks like it is clearing,” he observed.
Madas looked up and nodded. “We are past the largest section of the hot springs and mud pits. From here on, they are smaller and less numerous. On the other side of the dead meadow, we will begin to see live trees and finally reach the forest. The fog comes in banks. We want to be through the meadow before it thickens,” she cautioned.
“What happens if we don’t make it?” he asked.
“Then we become another set of bones,” she answered with a wave of her hand.
He took in a deep breath when he saw what she was referencing. Beyond where L’eon had come to a stop, the three ridges along his back standing up, there was nothing but the skeletal remains of beasts for as far as the eye could see through the thin veil of fog—some of those skeletons the size of his ship!
“I can see why you call it the dead meadow,” he said.
“Yes, these are the ones who did not make it past the night crawlers who nest here,” she quietly replied.
“Are you saying there is no other way to the forest? Can’t we go around?” he demanded in an incredulous tone.
“To the right there are boulders too large and smooth to scale and a torrential river. To the left are more boiling mud pots, hot springs, and sheer cliffs. The only way through is that way,” she said, pointing straight ahead.
He stepped next to her and examined the area more thoroughly, turning his head when he saw movement out of the corner of his eye. The shadow moved with the fog.
“The night crawlers like the dark?” he asked.
“Yes.”
He looked around, then walked over to a pile of bones, and searched for a couple of long sections. Bending, he picked two bones from the pile. He turned, searching for a material that would burn for a while. He could use his shirt, but it would be nothing more than ash before they made it halfway across the meadow.
“Use the fat from the dead beast. It will burn for a long time,” Madas instructed.
His gaze lit on the remains of a large dead creature that she pointed to. He could see the fat from its stomach lining. He shoved the end of the bone with the large joint into the fat and twisted several times before pulling it out.
He repeated the process with the second bone. Once he felt he had enough fat, he held one of the thigh bones out to Madas.
“Hold it away from you,” he instructed.
She followed his direction, holding the bone out to the side. He lifted his laser pistol, adjusted the setting to low, and fired it at the tip of the bone. The sound of fat sizzling before it ignited made him wince. The last thing he wanted to do was advertise where they were.
“Do not worry about the sound. They already know that we are here,” she quietly said.
Gril grimly nodded and pointed his laser at the second bone that he was holding. The sizzling fat created a black smoke. Gril held the bone away from him as he reset the laser pistol to high before looking back at Madas.
“Where did you learn to do this?” she asked, holding up the bone.
“I know a thing or two about survival—but, thank you for the idea about the animal fat. I would have overlooked that one,” he added.
She shot him a brief smile before she focused on the fog. “I think the fog has dispersed as much as it is going to. We’d better go quickly before it gets dark. We will be safe once we get to the forest,” she said, motioning to L’eon to continue.
“How do you know?” he curiously asked.
She shot him a smile before she began walking. “The forest on the other side is covered in the sweet moss. It grows in natural abundance on the trees along the edge. Father discovered that the night crawlers hate the scent—in large doses it can make them disoriented and even put them in a comatose state. It grows in smaller patches throughout the forests, mostly near streams or areas prone to mist or fog,” she explained.
“If they nest here, and there’s a barrier of their least favorite moss at the tree line, how did they get into the forest? I’ve seen them there,” he asked, curious to know more.
“I don’t know. Father speculated it could have been an unusual winter that withered the moss for a time, or it could have been by design—night crawlers released on purpose by our ancestors. The ones who live in the forest are a smaller version of the ones here. Fortunately, there aren’t very many and they are vulnerable to the Night Shadows, the hairless black beasts you encountered. Not many creatures can withstand a hunting pack,” she added.
“Smaller…,” he repeated.
If he remembered correctly, the night crawler in the forest hadn’t been all that small. He swung his torch around when he saw another movement ten feet from them. A long leg pulled back into the fog.
“If your father was still alive, I don’t know if I would want to beat him to a pulp for risking your life or thank him for giving you the knowledge to survive,” he confessed.
She shrugged. “Since he is dead, you can’t do either, so what does it matter?” she retorted.
Gril turned, holding his torch out in front of him. . He could feel the dampness around them intensifying, soaking into his skin and clothes, and even infiltrating his lungs with additional moisture. The fog was building—and with it, the sound of the night crawlers’ claws against the ground was getting louder.
“Run,” Madas urgently hissed.
17
Gril reached down and swept up L’eon, who jumped from Gril’s shoulder to Madas’s, and wrapped his small front feet around a thick section of her hair to keep from falling off. The fire sticks they carried would not keep the hairy beasts away for long. L’eon could sense dozens of the creatures circling them, but his focus was on the large one that Madas and Gril had not yet seen. L’eon had picked up its presence using the electrical receptors along his nose.
His sensitive nose twitched at the smell of them, and he stood on his hind legs on Madas’s shoulder. He snarled a warning. The hairy beasts closest to him sensed the danger they were in and pulled back.
Ahead was a labyrinth of bones. They wove around most, and passed through the mouth of one particularly large creature, the bones blazing white in the light of their torches, its ribcage offering a small amount of protection from the larger night crawlers following beside them in the fog. Madas darted to another skeleton and paused when a thick veil of fog drifted through the middle of the skeleton like a wave of water carrying a predator. She and Gril pressed up against the exposed jaw bone as the night crawler slowly emerged.
Gril aimed his laser pistol and fired a single, powerful shot through one of the night crawler’s eyes. A large hole opened up where the eye had been and the creature collapsed as the blast pierced its brain cavity. Five night crawlers converged on their dead companion and began devouring it. Gril and Madas turned and ran along the outside of the skeleton, L’eon still tenaciously holding onto Madas. Ahead, they could see a glimpse of the forest through the eddying fog.
Madas stumbled when the ground suddenly trembled. She would have fallen if Gril had not swept out a steadying arm to keep her on her feet. The ground shook again. Bones rattled and smaller pieces fell to the ground. The fog in front of them was growing thicker until all signs of the forest ahead slowly disappeared.
The ground shook again and Gril hissed. He drew Madas closer to his side. Both of them kept the
burning bones out in front of them.
“Earthquake?” Gril asked.
Madas shook her head, trembling with fear. L’eon released her hair and stroked her head to soothe her. They were surrounded, it was true, and the alpha was approaching, but he would not let these creatures hurt his pet.
“No, something… very big is coming,” she speculated in a hushed voice.
L’eon launched himself forward, putting himself between his mated friends and the alpha night crawler closing in on them. Madas released a cry of alarm when he disappeared into the fog. Regret filled L’eon for worrying Madas, but he needed to protect her and Gril.
I tell her I sorry when they safe. First, I chat with big night crawler, L’eon thought with determination.
Rolling his shoulders, he snapped his tail. Electricity built inside him. He extended the ridges along his back, and arcs of electricity set him aglow. His claws grew, turning white with the power building inside him. A savage snarl of warning ripped from his throat when the ground shook again.
“Get behind me,” Gril ordered from behind the little lizard.
L’eon’s body pulsed. The nearest night crawler drew back, hissing at L’eon when he took a step forward, and then L’eon lifted his right front foot, sending a stream of electricity to the night crawler. A loud pop, a sizzling sound, and then the dying screech of the night crawler caused Madas and Gril to turn in confusion.
You big, I’m bad. Don’t mess with the little lizard, L’eon thought with satisfaction.
“L’eon?” Madas hissed.
Gril gave a strained laugh. “I finally remember why L’eon seemed so familiar to me,” he grimly replied.
“What do you mean?” Madas asked.
“I thought I recognized him. I’ve heard of his species and I saw an illustration once. He is known as a Chameleon Lightning Lizard. They inhabited a planet in the outer regions. His planet was destroyed a little over six months ago. I was part of the investigative team,” he said in a terse voice, swinging his torch when a night crawler advanced.
