Yahiro rubbed her face quietly into her shoulder.I was a chameleon.Not only was she adept at changing environments, she could also change her features as well. There were only so many times a cop could go undercover, but for her, with a little bit of make-up, a slight change in hairstyle, she could be taken as an Asian, or a plain American girl. Her blend was ambiguous and that had made her the perfect person in her profession.
The perfect choice for undercover work. Her adaptability was enough to keep her going. The thought of a job well done. Where the end meant she could go home—
Back to Earth.
She sighed quietly and gripped her stone. Maybe if she pretended hard enough, she would make it back home. Even harder, and she could be set free, reinstated into a job, and back into a bed she could call her own. One could dream.
She heard the wind pick up; the tips of her ears twitched, which drew her out of her thoughts. Her concentration spiked at the change beyond her sight. It was more than the distant howls of alien creatures, or the infrequent bug that scurried over her skin. The wind changed slowly but this wind... this was sudden.
Her fingers closed over the stone pressed against her chest until the light it emitted was weak at best, and waited.
Awhooshsounded, followed by the wind. It brushed over her and rustled the strange foliage around her body in the dark.Please be a bird.But her body itched to leave her chosen hideout and run far into the dark.
Another blast of chilly air hit her, fluttering wisps of hair about her head.
“Ereen!”
Her eyes snapped open.
RUN!Holding the stone before her, she shot to her feet and sprinted from the growling sound. The light from her talisman burst forth and cleared her path. She forgot all else and followed the tendrils of daylight into night, spurred on by the scream of “LUCHEN!” behind her. The translator embedded behind her right ear didn’t translate that.
The wound at the bottom of her foot shocked her back to her oath to live through the night. Her body pushed through the sharp twigs and branches over a landscape so similar to and yet so different from the wildernesses of Earth.
“Eun mar LUCHEN!” The bestial roar was right behind her, heating the stone in her hand to burst like wildfire over her skin.
Yahiro panted, ignoring the pain, ignoring the feel of the stone and blindly followed the path it laid out for her.
Until she ran right over a cliff.
She shrieked, dropping the stone as she plummeted through the air. The warmth left her right as a band of arms wrapped around her flailing frame. She fell right into the roaring voice, her breath lost in the night, unable to stop screaming.
The louder she screamed, the louder the being that caught her did. Words she didn’t understand filled her ears. The moment they landed and her feet touched the ground, Yahiro stabbed her elbow back and into the creature’s belly.
A human?Her eyes widened and a vague hope bloomed, but not before she twisted and slammed her palm where a human nose would be. When it hit like it was supposed to, she simultaneously cheered herself on and wanted to apologize. Yahiro fell back as she was abruptly let go with a roar akin to a curse filling her ears.
She shook her head, her still damp hair tangling around her shoulders.It can’t be someone from the crash.
Humans can’t fly!
“Maro!” The strange language filled the dark again and she turned on her heel to run. But stopped.
Her fingers twitched with cold. Without her stone, she couldn’t see a damn thing, her eyes having never adjusted to the dark.
The being knocked her in the side and she went sprawling to the ground but didn’t stay there long, using the added boost to crawl away from her attacker on all fours. After she gained several yards of distance, she slowed her pace and pivoted, quieting her movements over the alien terrain.
I’ll survive the night. Iwillsurvive the night.She chantedsurviveover and over again in her head. The crush of bark and trees snapping behind her fueled her on. Every knee forward, every hand swiping the ground, felt like a success.
Survive this. Don’t think, Hiro. Survive!
Her pounding heart and panting breaths were too loud in her ears but she succeeded in getting further away. New cuts opened on her palms and on the backs of her feet as she dragged them over the ground, feeling her way through splintered wood and thorns deeper into the forest. The noise of frenetic rage suddenly died far behind her and she bit her lip.
If the creature stopped, he’ll hear my traitorous heart.
Makeshift wind suddenly fluttered over the bushes within her vicinity, lifting her hair. The back of her neck grew cold and she heard something crash down beside her. She jumped but it was too late. The sudden silence that came next chilled her to the bone. Whatever was after her was listening for her now. It was about to find her.
It was next to her. She knew it deep down inside, feeling connected to it. It was there.
Yahiro held in a whimper as her fear from earlier came flooding back. The darkness danced and her mind went blank. Monsters from her past and now her present stalked about and beyond her sight. Waiting for the blow was the worst.
