Even if we’re doing very mate-like activities when we’re alone in his hut. I’m sure my cheeks start to feel warm when I remember how he’d held my thighs open and how much I’d wanted him to give me all of his-
“Elder Hyrook says we need some tyk-tyk fruit for the feast,” little Tyll turns to answer Zyn. “Can we go and get some?”
Zyntarr’s huge frame lowers to crouch in front of the little boy. With the large arches of his black wings behind him, he’s still just as tall as I am. “The tyk-tyk fruits are found deep in the jungles,” Zyn says. “When you are grown, there will be plenty of time for you to spend picking all the fruit you could ever need.”
That answer doesn’t seem to be enough for little Tyll. “But the last lesson we had in the jungles, we were trying to track frizikki, and we found none! How are we to learn the ways of the forests if we do not go there?”
Zyntarr looks to me with a raised brow.
“Don’t look at me, this is his idea.”
Zyn stands, rising to his full, towering height again. He doesn’t say anything, just looks down at me with his mis-matched eyes.
“Please! Please can we go?” Tyll pleads, Zyntarr doesn’t look at the boy though, he just continues to stare at me - like this would be my decision. A small block of ice freezes in my chest at the thought. “Please! I could learn so much more out there instead of helping to sweep up here.”
“Sweeping is still an important task, Tyll,” Zyntarr says, though he’s still keeping eye contact with me as he says it. Then, his tone softens, quietens so that I know he’s speaking to me. “What do you think? I will gather another male to help me keep you two safe while we are out there. But if you do not wish to go…”
“Oh! My father! We can take my father!” the boy practically squeals as he bounces up and down, barely able to contain himself.
Internally, I’m cringing at having to spend time with Zuul. He’s not my favorite Trixikka, but it would be lovely for Tyll to have an excuse to spend more time with his biological dad. The jungles can be dangerous. I’ve only ventured back in for a few dozen steps when taking the young boys for a lesson, and learning a thing or two about the flora of this planet myself. I haven’t been deep into the jungle since being rescued. It had been a terrifying place back then, but with Zyntarr looking over me? I don’t think it would be so bad. Besides, Dove lived out there for months with Ezryk before coming to live with us.
“You can say no, little Bea,” Zyn says in a low voice, his head dipped to be closer to mine. “It is your choice.”
That block of ice in the pit of my stomach is reaching its frozen tendrils higher and higher, trying to curl a frosty grip around my voice. I want to freeze whenever any decision islaid at my feet. I faintly hear my mother sneering about my impulsiveness, her harsh breath fogging up my mind.
“Let’s…let’s do it,” I force out before I freeze completely. Fear starts to grip tighter. What if we get attacked by those mimyckah? What if Tyll and I get separated from the Protectors? What if I have another panic attack?
“Yes!” Tyll squeals, jumping into the air, flapping his little wings enough to slow the descent of his feet down to the ground. “We are going to learn so much from my father, Miss Bea. I’ll go tell him now!”
With that, he scampers off with so much excitement, there’s practically dust-clouds in his wake.
Seeing the little boy’s joy goes some way to quell the storm of ‘what ifs’ swirling in my mind.
“Excellent!” Elder Hyrook exclaims, clapping his rough hands, and rubbing them together with glee. “You will find two dozen tyk-tyks, or return with none at all. The only thing worse than not offering any, is not offering enough!” With that, he turns back around, effectively dismissing us as he goes back to counting and sorting his food stores.
Zyntarr’s mouth curls up ever so slightly as the brow over his white eye raises. “We have our orders, shall we go and complete them?” He offers me his arm like a proper gentleman - which would look strange if you didn’t know Zyntarr, because on the surface, he’s a massive wall of scarred muscle in a loincloth. But I know better. I know I’ll be safe with him out in that jungle.
* * *
Zuul had apparently been hesitant to agree to accompanying Tyll out into the jungle for fruit of all things. But once he’d heard that I would be there, too, he’d changed his mind - a fact that hadn’texactly left me filled with joy since he is most likely just trying to spend more time with any female in the hopes of going all twinkly in the chest department. He’d even offered to carry me as we’d flown out to the best fruit-picking spots.
That particular offer had been shot down so quickly and forcefully by Zyn, I’m pretty sure he’d been deeply offended by Zuul for even suggesting it.
Either way, we soar over miles and miles of jungle vegetation below, making it all look so small from up here. It’s taken a little while and a few journeys, but I think I’m finally ok with flying with Zyn - I enjoy it, even. I know his huge arms aren’t going to drop me, I know his wide wingspan can carry us both. So, on this journey, I find myself closing my eyes to the wind brushing past us, ruffling my hair and making me smile.
“I will take you to flight more often if you gift me smiles such as this,” a rumbling voice says, accompanied by a purr I can feel at my side where I am pressed to his broad chest.
I don’t open my eyes, but my smile grows wider. “I like the breeze on my skin after just feeling the heat all day.”
“Tyk-tyks are to be found east of here,” Zuul calls out from behind us where he carries his excitable son.
Zyntarr’s purr stops abruptly, like he’d forgotten we weren’t alone up here, soaring through the skies. He grunts, speeding up the beats of his giant wings before catching an updraft and coasting. “No, they are not,” is all he says, forging ahead without a backward glance.
When we land, for a brief moment, I am back at that horrible day - the day I woke up in an alien auction, shipped off with my now-friends, and then, when we came here. It all looks the same to me. I remember running, and running and running away from where that giant worm-creature had erupted from the ground. I’ve since overheard some of the Trixikka saying they’ve spottedother monster-worm holes in the jungle to the north. They said that they don’t normally venture close to Trixikka territories.
I really hope that’s true.
I’m not bare-footed this time when my feet touch the jungle floor. I’ve been making these kind of crude slippers out of soft-yet-durable hide offcuts for me and the other ladies, and I’m thankful for them now. I remember how cut up my feet had gotten from running. How I’d twisted an ankle over a protruding tree-root that seemed to come out of nowhere through my panic.
