“Earth.”
“I’ve never heard of them.”
Them?Yahiro leaned over and rested her head against Quist’s chest, hoping to hear a heartbeat, knowing he may not even have a heart.
“Earth is a place,” she whispered, her mood sinking further.
“In the sky?”
She closed her eyes.Please stop talking.
“Sure. Yes.”
“I’ve never heard of this Earth,” he murmured, his voice directly beside her now. She stopped herself from flinching and fleeing, reaching out instead to clasp the stone she had placed on Quist’s chest and pressed it between her palm and his chilly skin.
“You wouldn’t have.”
“My name is Sundamar...”
“I don’t care!” Yahiro snapped out, feeling a little guilty when he didn’t say anything after.
The hours slipped by until the morning light streamed through the trees like thrown spears and as she knew would happen, the stone held between her and Quist vanished as daybreak stole away the night. She clung to it, to him, as hard as she could even knowing Sundamar was right across from her waiting and watching. Yahiro didn’t care. She didn’t even know if she hated him; she just wanted one thing to go right in her miserable life.
One. Damn. Thing.
He remained unmoving under her cheek and she was about to accept the fact that he was gone when a beam of light hit them directly and his wing flopped.
“Quist?” her voice came out hoarse and thick. She lifted her head and looked over his body, hoping for more movement but nothing happened and the glen dipped back into waning light and tree-shadow. “Quist?” she sniffled and peeled back the damp wings over his wound carefully. Sundamar stood abruptly, giving her room, and moved away as if her closeness suddenly bothered him. She paid him no mind as she switched out the feathery bandages.
Suddenly crunching and crushing sounds filled her ears, startling her backward but not before her eyes filled with blinding sunlight.
“Stop!” she shrieked, unsure why, trying to see but her eyes wouldn’t dilate fast enough. Branches, leaves, and bark rained down around the area, all of it missing her and Quist, and under the ruckus, she heard a moaned gasp escape his lips.
Yahiro turned back toward him and cupped his cheeks. “Quist? Wake up. Please. You’re safe, I promise. Please wake up!” she begged but he did nothing by squirm and groan. The sun continued to fill the space until she sat within a ringlet of gold and had a wall of broken up and cleaved brush around her.
The sun is helping him.
She shot to her feet and tore away any of the remaining brush, following the other alien around as he slashed his sword in powerful arcs, one-shotting trees straight in half. Each one that he felled made her heart race faster, all honed down to land opposite of her and Quist. Yahiro dragged the sticks away and returned her focus on keeping the area around them clear, and when that was done, when the other alien was single-handedly creating his own little field, she worked on dousing Quist’s body with fresh water and wiping the sweat that poured from his skin. She created a leafy pillow for his head to rest upon.
Time continued to pass and she eventually got rid of the bandages altogether, shifting her alien’s body so his wound had direct light. When his eyelids fluttered and a soft breath escaped his lips, she curled up into herself and cried.
His chest fell and rose as if he was in nothing more than a deep slumber. When her tears dried and her skin tightened under the rays of the sun, she squeezed his hand and made her way to Sundamar, who had yet to stop his deforestation.
“Sundamar?” she said, hesitantly. When he continued on as if he didn’t hear her, his armor clanking under another powerful swipe, she grasped the cloth furrows between the armored slates at his back. “Sundamar, he’s fine.”
It was the least she could do. Before he answered her, she turned around and went to the water. His heavy steps snapped the fallen branches but she refused to look, knowing he moved to Quist’s side. Yahiro didn’t want to thank him. She didn’t want to look at him. Instead, she wanted Quist to get better so he could pick her up and fly her somewhere far away.
She frowned as she cupped the water and drank, her face a distorted reflection on its surface. Where would she and Quist go? She knew next to nothing about Sonhadra and what she did know, the broken ship and inmates, she wanted nothing to do with.
As far as I know...Yahiro didn’t want to finish the thought. She clenched her eyes shut but couldn’t stop herself.As far as I know, he could’ve taken me straight to him. Sundamar.Even now she could feel him watching her.
Several phena swam by and her stomach growled, promptly reminding her that she was a mortal and on borrowed time.
A shadow appeared at her side.
“Are you okay, pale one?”
Yahiro ignored him and the way his voice sang a melody through her ears, choosing to splash the sweat and grime off her face. She moved to stand and his hand wrapped around her upper arm. She tore it from his grip.
