Back at the saucer, he checks on Aker’iz first. “Still asleep. She will wake up before nightfall and demand food.” He brings her out of the saucer and leans her backpack against a rock.
I get busy with his wound. There’s not much to do about it—the seawater would have cleaned it better than I could. But I apply some of the healing paste that Cora gave me, mostly just to do something. It’s nice to be this close to him after that experience.
“The irox scare me,” I tell him. “Scream loud in my ear.”
“It’s part of their terror,” he says. “But their talons and beak are worse. When I heard it, I knew you were being attacked. I put Aker’iz in the ship and ran. If you’d had your spear, you would not have needed my help.”
“I would,” I assure him. “The spear was…” Well, maybe this is not the time to insist that I’m not a great warrior. Maybe I’d want him to think that I am. I don’t know why he hasn’t chased me away from this place yet, but maybe he thinks he’d have a fight on his hands if he tried. And maybe he should be allowed to think that that would be a fight he had some chance of losing. “The spear was too far away,” I finish. “I should keep close.”
I finish up and then can’t help running my fingers along the wounds. His stripes have a suede-like texture and have not been cut by the talons. It’s like a kind of natural armor of really tough skin. It’s just a bonus that it also looks great.
“In the jungle, one must always have a weapon in one’s hand,” he rumbles gently. “On the beach, it seems it is also a good rule to live by. Or perhaps you wanted to be attacked? Because surely you practice every day with it?”
“Did not wanted to be attacked,” I admit, flattered by his admiration of my sheer luck that he thinks is a finely honed skill. “I not practice much.” His skin is smooth, and the muscles underneath are impossibly firm. His bulge is still very much in evidence. And I’m no better—simply touching him like this andenjoying his scent is sending many tingles straight south. His skin smells like salt, smoke, and something that shouldn’t make me this dizzy. He risked a lot for me today.
“At first I wondered how a small woman can live alone on the beach,” he says calmly. “Now I wonder no more. It is clear why the Bigs mostly stay away. They know a fierce spearswoman lives here.”
So, I’m only human. He’s just saved my life, and he’s making it sound as if I saved both of us. It sends a warm feeling all through me, and I want to be much closer to him.
I clear my mind of judgment, put my finger on his cheek, lean in, and give him a light kiss on the lips.
He doesn’t move. Neither do I.
Then the weight of what I just did hits me all at once.
8
- Kenz’ox-
“Oh,” is all I can say.
Dorie’s lips are incredibly soft, and the touch feels as light as a wafting leaf, but also as stunning as a slash from a sword.
She stares into my eyes for a short while as my mind tumbles. Then she leans away, puts the lid on her pot, and gets up. “Will see how it heals.”
Aker’iz picks that exact time to wake up and immediately give voice to her hunger. I get up, feeling as light as a cloud as I lift her up and start to make her dinner while Dorie goes into the ship.
“Did you see that?” I ask the baby as I change her leather sheets. “No? She put her lips on mine. Just the barest press. Softer than moss, sharper than a blade. And now my skin remembers it too well.”
Aker’iz squirms, and I catch myself staring into the air. “Yes, I sometimes do that with your head or cheek, but never your mouth. And not in that same way. This was very different from that. Her breath is so warm!”
Aker’iz settles down before I start to feed her. She must know that food is not far away.
“But perhaps it’s not important. Simply an act born of a danger survived. You know how we can feel after that. Elated, light-headed. But we both had time to calm down, didn’t we? Yes, the food is coming. Just heating it now. You prefer some warmth in your dinner, I know. I’ll get it just right.”
I put more wood on the fire. The sun has set, and the darkness comes fast.
Sitting down with Aker’iz on my lap, I scoop some of the fruit porridge into Theodora’s mug and fill the little spoon. “Time to open. No, yourmouth. Come on.”
As usual, the baby doesn’t cooperate like a good tribesgirl should. But she’s still getting used to the spoon, so I suppose I have to be patient. She finally understands what I’m trying to do.
“She’s not one of us,” I ponder aloud. I enjoy being able to speak with Aker’iz, which is usually not a good idea in the jungle. But the ship is right there, and if there’s danger I can simply put her inside and close the door. “She’s so different! Her speech is strange, her movements, her clothes… her face, even. How can she survive here? Even today, she was nearly taken by an irox. Yes, she did kill it, but if I hadn’t handed her the spear, she would not have made it. Such a strange mix of skill and thoughtlessness! An irox can appear at any time, and she had placed her spear many paces away! As if tempting the Ancestorsto test her! Now open again. No,open.Don’t close. Oh, do you mean that you are done? All right, I will just put this mug away—no, I didn’t think so.” I keep feeding her, trying to keep my mind away from the memory of Dorie on the beach, her body bared to my eyes.
The evening seems clearer today, more colorful. Oh, the look in those deep eyes… that triangle of dark hair just where her legs come together…
I glance at the ship and the shimmering, blue light that seeps out of the hatch. “She really likes that Plood thing. Trying to make it fly. Wanting to go home. Any day now she could be gone. And the ship with her. The safest place on Xren. Do you think she’d let us come along? There are no Bigs on her home planet, she said. But other dangers. And yet… What if she would let us come? Can any planet be more dangerous than our Xren?”
Aker’iz makes an annoyed sound.
