There was a strange tone in his voice at the end, like he was speaking to himself, like he needed to remember that was why he had to return.
“Why has it been so long?” she asked.
He glanced down at her, his arms tightening briefly, telling her that the question might’ve caught him off guard. It only made her more curious.
The mountain range loomed next to them, so much larger than she could’ve imagined. They were so close that Lainey felt she could simply reach out in front of her and touch it.
“For reasons you may see, since you will be coming with me,” he murmured.
Lainey couldn’t help but roll her eyes, though she was itching for an actual answer. “Yeah, okay.”
“Look, we are almost there,” he said next.
Lainey went on her tiptoes, her butt brushing against his crotch as she did, and then gasped.
Because at the very base of the mountain they were closest to was what she could only describe as a meadow. A little, lush, moonlit meadow.
A little oasis amid the black sand desert that they’d traveled over.
“How?” she whispered.
“The stream,” he answered, pointing at something that Lainey didn’t think was a stream, but rather resembled a river. It ran straight through, cutting through the meadow, until it disappeared behind the next mountain over. “There is a spring inside that trickles out. That gives this place life. That draws life.”
Kirov lowered them further until they were hovering just overhead. He landed the hovercraft next to the mountain, in a flattened area that told Lainey he’d parked there before, many times.
Like a gentleman, he helped her step down until her feet sunk into the impossibly soft sand. Soon, that sand gave way to what looked like blue moss. Blue moss that shimmered in the moonlight. It covered the entire floor of the meadow, crawling up from the banks of the river, drinking and sustaining itself on the water, stemming and growing in all directions.
When Lainey closed her eyes for a brief moment, all she heard was a gentle breeze and a babbling brook. And another sound that had her cocking her head in puzzlement.
“What’s that whispering sound?” she wondered aloud, though she kept her voice quiet.
When she opened her eyes and looked at Kirov, he was watching her, his expression something she couldn’t read, but an expression that made her straighten in awareness.
With his hands on her shoulders, he turned her until she faced where the stream came out from the mountain. And there, every so often, she saw gently flashingpinklights.
Just like…
“Are thosefireflies?” she asked, wanting to chuckle.
“Fireflies?” he asked.
“Little bugs that fly, that light up.”
“Tev, they are a kind of insect,” he said. “They come a long way to drink from the stream.”
Lainey found comfort in that, in a strange way. That even in a different part of the universe, on this strange alien planet she was only beginning to understand and experience…there were fireflies.
Pink fireflies.
Lainey cast her eyes around the rest of the meadow, hardly knowing where to look next. It wasn’t huge by any means, but it was surprisingly colorful.
As Lainey walked closer to the gentle flowing stream, she saw that the bottom was covered in what looked like stones, not sand. And those stones resembled moonstones, shifting in color, from blue and green and milky white, depending on how the moon hit them.
Every so often, from the blue moss, grew sprigs of what she could only describe as mini-blue pine trees, no taller than her waist. And on these pine trees, grew little round berries that shimmered like opal gemstones.
From blue moss, to pink fireflies, to a river full of moonstones, to opal berries, the only word Lainey could think to describe this place was magical.
Kirov gave her time to look around, to process what she was seeing. Her senses were overloaded, considering she’d only just moved out of the room they’d all been kept in for the last several weeks.
