Vyrathion steps into the river without looking back. Before I can say anything, he keeps walking until he vanishes in the churning, muddy mass.
“Shit,” I mutter to myself. Because none of this is looking good. There’s no sign of the river monster right now, but something hit the island with great force, and it doesn’t take too much thinking to figure out what that roar was.
Yeah. I’m stranded on a small island that keeps getting smaller because some kind of dinosaur is knocking at it. And now my only protector is gone.
A coldness spreads through me. He got what he wanted, and now he’s gone. Like someone leaving right after a one-night stand.
Or maybe he didn’t like it. Maybe I wasn’t good enough.
Clyde waddles over and offers me a rock.
“Mhm. I don’t think you need to look for those things anymore,” I tell him. “Unless you can find some coffee and a spaceship.”
The rain beats down with less intensity now, but I’m completely soaked. Still I crawl back into the hut and embrace my knees.
I’m too cold and too numb to feel much. Being alone on Xren isn’t something I ever wanted, or ever thought I could survive. How am I going to get off this island? Even if the river calms down, I can’t swim across. Not with that monster lurking in the depths.
I suppose I could build a bridge or a raft, if I had any way of cutting down trees. I can’t just tear them out of the ground with my bare hands like Vyrathion.
Another judder goes through the ground.
“That monster still hasn’t given up, I guess.”
Clyde ignores me and puts the rock carefully on the ground.
I absentmindedly pick it up and fidget with it. “No, let’s not be pessimistic. Positive thinking, Clyde. What’s the best outcome here? Ideally we save ourselves and make our way to those other girls or whoever lost that comb.”
Obviously the best outcome would be for Vyrathion to return, but he’s a dragon and he’s been complaining about me following him the whole way here. If he wanted to get rid of me, this is a pretty good way. I can’t follow him if I’m stuck in a raging river.
It doesn't make sense. He jumped into a river after me. He fought that thing twice. He built the shelter.
He… well, that was both of us. And I thought it was great. Maybe none of that means what I thought it meant. Maybe he got it out of his system and got back to his normal dragon senses.
The jungle gets darker fast. When I can’t see much out the opening, I arrange loose leafy branches to cover it. It’s not great camouflage, but it’s better than nothing if that river monster tries to look inside.
It’s the most miserable night I’ve ever spent on Xren, and that’s saying something. At least when I was living with the girls on that beach, we had a dead flying saucer that could keep us safe and give us water and even some kind of disgusting nutrition. Here, all I have is a heap of damp leaves, a dripping hut and a real live Plood for company.
“If you get anywhere near me while I sleep, I’ll kick you,” I tell Clyde. “Just saying. Your kind are not my favorite aliens.”
I curl up on the leaves. The only good thing about this is that Xren doesn’t have small crawly insects to bother me. Of course, whenever the ants do come, they’ll be the size of iPhones.
It’s been a long, difficult day and I feel really tired all through me. And still, every sound from outside makes me open my eyes. Was that the monster? Was that a dactyl? Was that the sound of the island collapsing fully and sliding into the river? Was that a tree falling or a huge dinosaur just casually strolling by, about to put its immense foot on my hut?
Sleep comes in fits and starts and the night lasts forever before morning comes.
Then my eyes fly open in alarm for the fifteenth time. I smell smoke.
Smoke can’t mean forest fire - the rain has stopped, but the trees are still dripping onto the hut.
It can only mean tribesmen.
For a while I stay still. It’s unlikely that there are tribesmen on this island - they would have trouble getting here. And making a camp here would be weird.
So they must be on the shore. But I swear I can hear the crackling from that fire. And the smoke is seeping into the hut through the twigs and leaves.
I slowly turn so that I can look out through the leaves in the opening. I can’t spot movement.
But I hear someone muttering angrily. Someone with a deep voice.
