“Are you sure?The kid might not accept it.I don’t think one has ever bonded with a space station before,” Pallas pointed out.
“It’ll accept it.”
Ryan placed a hand against the tree trunk, closing his eyes to concentrate on thekiflowing through the wood.Strong and steady.Just like the woman from whence it came.
After all, whatlenactwouldn’t want access to amycorr?
Thirteen
Gus
Gussnuggleddeeperintothe comfortable bed, the smell of bark and leaves heavy in her nostrils.Along with the scent of sap and tree.A heady combination that, along with the slight rocking sensation, succeeded in lulling her back into a deep sleep.
Dreams came and went as unbeknownst to her, time passed.
A day.
Two.
Longer.
All the while, energy steadily trickled into Gus’s sleeping body.Its origin stemming from the rootlets and vines that had wrapped her in their calming embrace.They strengthened her.Their essence refilling reserves she’d drained dry in a feat of madness.All to protect a Tuann she had no business protecting.Who shouldn’t have needed it.
Gus’s forehead furrowed as that thought tried to intrude.
There was a reason she should be awake right now, but she couldn’t remember what that was.
Her thoughts proved slippery, sliding out of reach as exhaustion rolled her beneath its waves again.
More time passed.
Gus half roused at the tiny chirp next to her ear.Distantly, she became aware of the warm, furred body curled up in the crook of her neck, the creature’s tail draped over her throat as its sides vibrated in a tiny rumble.
The sensation was strange and unfamiliar enough that it cleared the last tendrils of fog from her mind.
“Wh—”
Gus broke off in a fit of coughing.Why did she feel so parched?
Her throat wasn’t just dry.It felt like sandpaper.Her lips uncomfortably chapped.Her tongue swollen and too thick for her mouth.Like it had been weeks since it last saw any sort of moisture.
Uncomfortable, Gus cracked her eyelids to find a chaterling regarding her from inches away.
“He—hello.”Gus coughed again, trying to work up enough spit to moisten the inside of her mouth.“How did you get here, friend?”
What a stupid question.
It wasn’t like the chaterling possessed words with which to answer her.
Gus looked past it, taking in the twilight gloom of her surroundings.Somehow, she’d managed to fall into some type of shaft built from the aerial roots of thedominus orbis terrarum.
Though she couldn’t figure out how she’d managed that.Or why she was dangling halfway down that shaft in what looked an awful lot like a hammock built from smaller feeder roots.
Her surroundings were saved from true darkness by the light trickling through the tiny gaps between roots.
How am I still alive?
Gus remembered the moments right before everything went black.Caius rushing to push her out of the path of the tree branch.The Tuann who’d taken advantage of his distraction.Her stupid attempt at heroism.The sensation of falling as she tipped over the spine’s edge.
