“But you want to see more of the small animals,” he argued. “I want to give you everything you want.”
She drew him around to face her. “I’m not a mission either.”
He seemed to struggle with that statement for a moment. “I don’t know how to live my life without a set goal.”
“Really? What about when you were recovering?” she asked.
He seemed to consider that for a moment. “I had a goal, to get stronger. Each day I’d try to be better. First it was simply moving my body. Then it was trying to cope with my broken brain.”
Amina nodded. “Those are all good goals, but you don’t have to do that with me. Let’s work on a partnership today. When Lorse gets back we’ll have to play our parts again, so we should spend this time relaxing together."
“What if serving you is relaxing for me?” Myrum asked. “Making you happy makes me joyous.”
“I have no idea how to answer that,” Amina admitted, throwing up her arms. “I was going to give you some big speech about learning to enjoy life, but who am I to argue with what makes you happy?”
“I’ve found something else that makes me happy,” he said.
She tilted her head. “Oh? What’s that?”
“When you agree with me.”
She barked out a laugh. “Don’t get used to it.”
His steps were light as they continued down the path. It occurred to her that he was probably relieved to be in a wide open space with skies above his head instead of surrounded by metal plating.
Something streaked across the path in front of them. They went still, and three more smaller bodies followed.
“Oh, I think those were babies!” Amina said.
“I agree,” Myrum said. “We could follow them off the path. I’m not the best tracker, but they have a distinct scent. I should be able to lead us to their den or nest.”
She went still, interested. “You can track things by scent?”
Myrum sounded a rumble of agreement even as he kept his attention on where the little creatures had disappeared. “Yes. This place mostly smells of plant material, so tracking something like those rodents shouldn’t be hard.”
“Um, what about, uh, tracking something bigger?”
He sounded a questioning rumble. “What do you mean bigger? Gis said there aren’t any larger animals than those little ones we saw. What else would I track?”
“Me?”
His gaze snapped to hers. “You want me to track you?”
The intensity of his eyes made her feel hot all over. “Maybe?”
A low, ticking growl rolled out of him. “Yes.”
She swallowed hard. Was she making a mistake? “Okay, uh, how do we do this?”
He bared his teeth and leaned over to put his face close to hers. “Run.”
With aneep,she sprinted off. She was wearing her normal work boots, which were perfect for ship duties but felt heavy andawkward here. At least she’d left her robe behind. That would've made running even harder.
Myrum sounded a loud rattle with a long beat between rattles. Then he sounded it again without as many beats.
He was counting down.
Excitement and anticipation made her body shiver even as she ran.
