“Lihvan…” she whispered.
“They will find us, Beks,” he said.“The Fates will lead them here.I know it.”
SIXTEEN
Two days later, there was still no sign of Lihvan’s people.And his condition only deteriorated.
He slept almost all hours of the day and when he was lucid, Beks had to force him to rest since he wanted to hunt for her.But he was in no condition to do anything.His fever had spiked the previous day and hadn’t let up.Itguttedher to see him in pain, to see him thrash from his fever dreams, and mumble incoherent things.Beks tried to keep him as comfortable as possible, wiping down his body with cool water and keeping him hydrated as best as she could.
It was probably a good thing that she had no appetite, considering that they didn’t have any food.
What concerned her most, despite Lihvan’s infection, was that their fire fuel was almost out.Without fire, she wouldn’t be able to keep them hydrated.And with the way the infection was raging through his body, she worried that Lihvan wouldn’t last long.Not unless he got serious medical attention and soon.
Every moment of the day, she was a wreck, but she tried to keep a brave face, especially when Lihvan was awake.Even when he was passed out, she would talk to him with tears running down her face, telling him stories of her childhood with her mother, of her college days, of the fun shenanigans her and Kate had always got up to.She thought that if she just kept talking to him, he wouldn’t be able to give up and leave her.
The thought of him dying…it scared her more than anything in her life.Every time she thought of it, it was like stabbing herself with a dagger, right in the chest.So, she did her best to stay positive, tonotthink about what might happen, even when it seemed hopeless.
She had to have Lihvan’s faith that his people would find them before it was too late.So she was going to try her damnedest to help them survive until they did.
That was why, before the sun set completely, she tied on the shoes that Lihvan had crafted for her, grabbed his dagger, and set out into the black vine forest.Their fire fuel wouldn’t last them another full night.She had to find that little clay-like creature Lihvan located their first day to harvest more so that she could boil more water for tomorrow.
Careful to track her direction, she trudged on, heart beating in her ears, her eyes scanning for anything out of the ordinary.She was no hunter, not like Lihvan.And it was risky coming out like this…but it was necessary.She wouldn’t let her alien down.
For hours, it seemed, she scoured for that clay creature, looking into places she probably shouldn’t have looked into, in cave holes, under and around large, black boulders, and craggy fissures in the ground.All the while, she worried about Lihvan, trying to hurry back to him.She was tempted to give up, but she knew that she couldn’t.She wouldn’t return empty handed.
At last, just as the sky turned gray, she found one.She almost burst into tears at the sight of it, but held it together long enough to tear off a chunk.
“Sorry little guy,” she whispered, ripping off the hem of her shirt to soak it in the fluid that emerged, just like how she’d seen Lihvan do it the first day.
Once she finished, she hurried back in the direction of the cave, hoping that she wouldn’t lose her way.
But just as she spied the cave entrance in between the thick black vines, she was aware that something was out of the ordinary.A strange hush had filled the already quiet forest.And that was when she heard a small shift in the pebbles behind her.
Spinning around, her eyes widened and her heart froze in fear when she saw a creature looming fifteen feet away, watching her,trackingher.
Panic clawed up her throat.It was on all fours, but even then, she saw that it was massive.Hard spikes lined its spine and it had sickly pale white flesh, transparent enough that she could see the beating of its heart, even from the distance.Its eyes glowed yellow and its mouth was rimmed with similarly colored, long ‘v’-shaped teeth.
How long had it been watching her?
When it moved, she hardly heard a thing.It was a predator, agoodpredator.
Beks clutched Lihvan’s dagger in her palm tightly, wondering if she could outrun it.It was only a short distance to the cave, but she wasn’t so sure that it couldn’t fit through.There was no way she would lead that thing to Lihvan.
Slowly, it reared back onto its hind legs, like some grotesque, mutant werewolf.When it let out that ear-splitting, hair-raising warbling sound she’d heard that first day on this planet, she knew thatthiswas the creature Lihvan had wanted to avoid.The one that they had hunted in groups.
Then it lunged for her.
And Beks screamed.
* * *
Lihvan jerked from a strange restless dream to the reality of pure terror.
Beks, he thought, dizzy and uncoordinated.His limbs felt like boulders, heavy and unresponsive.When he looked down, he was covered in sweat and the gauze on his arm was tinged with dark blood.
Frantically, he cast his eyes around the cave.
“Beks,” he tried to call, but his voice sounded like grit.How long have I been under?he wondered, trying to clear his clouded thoughts.
