Ittakestwodaysfor Adam to regain enough strength to do something other than sleep and eat. Two local days and two local nights. Judging by how often I need to eat and sleep, I’d say one day here is about fifty hours long and the night around twenty, which makes one full cycle roughly three Earth days.
In Earth time, we spend about a week by the lake while Adam heals and I try to turn the theoretical survival skills I gained from watching TV into reality. It’s fucking difficult, though, especially since I can’t walk, climb, or do dozens of things a non-disabled person can that would make my life infinitely easier. I don’t mean to sound whiny, but it sucks.
After the first day, when I made a hat and a simple loincloth from sturdy leaves growing further down the shore and vines I tore off the trees, I also fashioned myself a vest and a long skirt. Not because I’m cold—I’m most definitely not—but to protect the front of my body from rough terrain as I move around.
The worms are relatively easy to find, or perhaps they’re just abundant here, because I’m definitely not a skilled hunter. I’ve learned to watch for small divots in the sand with a hole at the bottom, which almost always marks a worm’s presence. I don’t know if they use the hole to breathe while they hibernate during the day or to catch tiny insects that fall in, but it makes them easy prey, even for me.
Roasting the worms over a fire I somewhat accidentally started does not improve their flavor in the slightest. It helps a little with the consistency, but they remain as disgusting as when eaten raw. I managed to boil the water, at least.
After my first fire died, my fingers grew too clumsy to hold the black rocks firmly enough to make sparks. Adam took over making it for me, though he’s wary of the flames. He also filled the shell with water for me and moved the hot stones inside, so really, he was the one who boiled the water, not me.
I try to ignore the dread pooling in my stomach as I religiously stretch and exercise my fingers. Every time I wake up, I have less feeling in them, and I’m terrified of the day I'll lose feeling in them altogether. What will I have left when that happens?
My thoughts are bleak as I sit by the lake, watching the sunrise and trying to get my fingers to work. Squeeze the stones. Straighten my fingers. Squeeze the stones. Straighten my fingers. Touch my fingertips to my thumbs. Squeeze the stones. Harder.
“This is stupid!” I toss the stones into the lake with a frustrated scream. They hit the water with a plop and disappear. It doesn’t matter. There are thousands more around me. Stones and rocks by the lake. Moss. A few bushes and trees farther away. I’ve sat here watching the same scenery for days. Well, it was just two days here, but they’re definitely longer than my days, which is incredibly confusing.
A pebble crunching announces Adam’s arrival. He’s regaining strength quickly, considering the terrible wounds he sustained, but he’s still a little clumsy, not back to his stealthy self yet. His arms wrap around me from behind, and he waits for my reaction. When I don’t protest, he pulls me into his lap, cradling me like the useless baby I am.
Relaxing against his chest, I listen to his purr as he strokes my back. For once, I don’t feel the urge to talk. What is there to say, anyway? We just sit there in silence, watching as the bright orange sky slowly turns to its normal shade of lavender. It’s peaceful, at least until that annoying flock of dragon birds arrives. Adam hisses at their loud chirping and barks out a laugh when I do the same.
I don’t think I’ve heard him laugh before. It’s a pleasant sound. I smile at him, aware that I must look like a completely enamored idiot, but not caring in the slightest. It’s impossible not to like someone as sweet and gentle as Adam is.
He rises with me in his arms, carefully, as if testing if he can carry my weight. A few steps back and forth along the lakeside are easy, but once we get between the rocks, I can sense him struggling to find solid footing. Patting his arm, I point down. “It’s okay. Set me down.”
The stubborn oaf continues as if he didn’t hear me, carrying me all the way to the shelter. Only there does he set me on the ground before climbing one of the larger rocks. He goes up and down twice, then performs a series of back-bending stretchesthat would leave a human paralyzed from the neck down. Then he runs to the lake and back.
“You should take it easy,” I tell him on his second trip. I’m enjoying the sight of his muscles bulging as he pumps all four of his legs, sometimes even dropping to all eight when he scales an obstacle, but I can see how it drains him. He might not sweat the way I do, but his breathing grows shallower and raspier, and the barely healed wound on his stomach looks like it’s about to start bleeding again.
“Okay, that’s enough,” I say when he’s about to run off again. “Adam! Stop. Now. Sit.”
He hisses at the finger I’m jabbing toward the ground but obeys and flops down next to me, panting and trembling with exertion. “Good boy,” I tell him, not sure why, and I swear his breath catches. Mine does, too. Why the hell did I say that?
I clear my throat, doing my best to ignore the throbbing in my half-hard cock. “We should really rest now. Especially you. Come, lie down with me.” It’s a dirty trick, because I know that if there’s one thing Adam never refuses, it’s cuddling. Whatever stubborn thought he has stuck in his head, he sets it aside immediately for a chance to curl around me. I’m not tired yet, but I can go for a nap. It’s not like I’m good for much else these days.
It’sadaylaterwhen Adam finally decides he’s healed enough and that we can continue our journey to wherever we’re going. Hopefully, it’s on this plateau, because it seems the alien panther can’t follow us here. I have no doubt it will remember us and come after us the next time we step off the mountain.
After collecting all my belongings, like the crude clothes I made and the large shell full of boiled water, Adam heads away from the cliff and deeper into the mountains. There’s not much vegetation here and even fewer animals, but there is water, with small streams babbling between the rocks.
Suppressing a whimper so I don’t worry Adam, I rub my thigh. It doesn’t help, nothing really does, but it at least makes me feel like I’m doing something to ease the stupid pain shooting through my legs. My completely paralyzed legs. It’s not real pain, at least not in the usual sense of the word. It’s not caused by injury, pressure, or temperature. It’s just my stupid neurons firing off random messages, telling my brain I’m in agony and my brain believing them. Stupid fucking brain.
I must not have been as good at hiding the pain as I thought, because only seconds later Adam puts me down, whining softly as he examines me for injuries.
“It’s fine, Adam. I’m fine. I’m not hurt.”
He examines the nearly healed bite on my calf, then moves up my legs. Pain bolts through me the moment he touches me, and when I wince, he quickly retreats, whimpering as he stares at his hands in confusion.
“You didn’t hurt me, Adam. Really. Please, come here.” I keep my voice steady but I can’t help the pain coloring it. Adam hears it, and his whimpers grow louder, as if he were the one in pain. “It’s okay. I know you want to help, but there really isn’t anything you can do unless you have some painkillers stashed here somewhere. I usually take a hot bath, and it helps some, but there’s no chance of that happening here.” The water in the lake wasn’t cold, but it was definitely nowhere near hot.
Adam freezes, all four of his eyes blinking at once before they become unfocused. I’ve seen him do that a few times before, and it’s a little creepy, like he’s having a seizure, but he never seems to be in pain or suffer any lasting effects from these space-outs.It’s like his mind is too busy for a moment, but I can’t even begin to guess what he’s thinking about.
When his eyes find me again, fully focused and present, he runs his fingers down my cheek in the gentlest caress before lifting me up again and setting off in a completely different direction from the one we were following before.
Chapter 18
Jaime
“Wherearewegoing?”I ask Adam for what must be at least the tenth time. Not because I expect an answer, but because I’m bored, and pestering Adam seems like a good way to take my mind off the pain in my legs, which hasn’t eased at all. I wish we could talk or play 20 questions or literally do anything other than walk in silence, but Adam still refuses to even try repeating words after me, no matter how I coax him.
