“Sleep,my heart,” I said, squeezing her tight for just a moment. “Tomorrow is another day, and perhaps the following one we will reach the village. Then at last, the rest of our lives can begin.”
The next morning I refreshed the paste in my Emily’s ranook bites and tried not to let the swollen, red flesh around two of the punctures send me spiraling. We would be at the village by tomorrow morning if I pushed, and my Emily would receive proper healing. If an infection was growing, it was new and would take longer than a day to progress. I’d seen warriors die from small infected wounds on the battlefield. It took little for a wound to become life-ending without proper care, but it did take time.
When my mate tried to refuse being carried, I got firm. “No. Emilyno walk.”
She glared at me, her arms folded across her chest, which made her breasts press together and wasn’t as intimidating as she likely wished. I let my gaze rake over her lovely cleavage, then forcibly tore my attention away. She was smirking mischievously at me and I narrowed my eyes at her. Lovely temptress that she was, I shook my head at her in her gesture for no, and with a little growl she finally relented.
We traveled quickly, stopping only to relieve ourselves, and, as though more subdued than the day before, my mate didn’t try to initiate mating. She was hot, with a slight sweat on her skin, but she had been sweaty before, and it was difficult to tell whether the body heat was unusual for her species.
When we stopped for the night. I built a small fire in the clearing and boiled water, adding purifying herbs to the brew. I let it boil for some time, then took it off the tripod to cool while I set up a second sack of water to boil, this time with dried meat, root vegetables, and some herbs.
When the water was still warm but no longer hot, I guided my Emily to lie down and gestured from the water to her bites.
“Yeahtheydontlookgooddothey?” she said.
I stroked her stomach. “I’m sorry, my mate, but this looks like it will hurt. I promise to be as quick as I can.”
She didn’t know my words, but she understood my actions. She took a deep breath and let her head tilt back, her eyes closed tight. Carefully, I removed the old paste from her bites and gently poured water over some of the better-looking wounds. When I reached the two swollen punctures, her breath hitched. I soaked a few soft leaves in the healing tea, then gently laid them over the wounds. When they cooled, I replaced them with fresh leaves, causing my Emily to hiss, and repeated the process a few times. Hoping the compress helped, I repacked the wounds with healing paste, then lay next to my Emily and held her. Her breathing was a little ragged and there was sweat on her brow. When the stew was done, I urged her to sit up and take small sips before letting her rest.
The next morning, her wounds didn’t look any better, but they also didn’t look worse. I fed my mate and made her drink before lifting her onto my back. I set off at a quick pace, desperate to reach the village swiftly. We were nearly at the edge of the sacred land when a musky scent, sharp and fresh, reached my nose. Fear slid down my spine, not for myself but for the precious creature on my back.
fourteen
. . .
Emily
My side throbbed like a toothache,which I knew wasn’t a great sign, and I had a headache. While I hoped Kex’s village might have someone familiar with treating infection, a small part of my mind was aware my chances weren’t great. Surprisingly, I wasn’t that worried. The last few days had been utter bliss, and while I could wish for a million more days just the same, hadn’t that online quiz said I would be the first to die in a zombie apocalypse? That had to also apply to alien abductions, and I’d already defied death so many times. My only worry was that without me, no one would know about my friends lost in the forest. Even if my chances of finding them with the help of Kex’s family had been low, there was still a chance.
As the morning progressed, I let myself relax against Kex’s back, long past worrying about him carrying me. I only wished each step didn’t send a pulse of pain through my side. After we’d been walking for a few hours, Kex came to a stop, but instead of tapping me to indicate I should drop, he squeezed my thighs, then slid his hands down to my ankles, pulling them tight around his waist. That was his signal for me to hang on while he let go, usually so he could climb over something. Except Ididn’t see anything in our path. Still, I gripped him hard with my legs, and a moment later, he crossed to one of the thick-trunked indigo trees, sank his claws into its bark, and climbed. I squeaked and redoubled my grip.
He climbed about twenty feet to the first wide branch, then carefully helped me sit up against the trunk. I held on for dear life.
“Emily wait,” he said, and my stomach dropped.
“Where are you going?” I asked, a little frantic.
He pressed a finger against my lips. “Wait,” he said again, before running his finger against my cheek, then he dropped to the ground. I held in my gasp and leaned over to watch as he pulled out his spear and crouched down in the ferns at the base of the tree.
Was something down there?
Maybe it was another of those cute little green rabbit things. Unfortunately, as Kex slowly prowled forward, something much larger than the rabbit thing stepped out of the bushes. From my height, it looked small, but so did Kex, and that wasn’t right. I tried not to cry out and distract him. I held my breath as the blue-striped tiger circled my alien man.
Fuckity fuck.
Moments ago, I was just coming to terms with my own potential death, but that was knowing Kex would be by my side to make any remaining days wonderful. If I lost him, not only would I be physically lost, but there was zero chance I would die happy and at peace. There was also zero chance I’d make it out of this tree without breaking both my legs.
There was something odd about the way the tiger walked, its tail long and arched over its back. After circling each other for a long moment, they both came to a stop. Kex shifted his weight back and forth between his feet, his eyes locked on the creature, and then all at once, they both moved lightning fast.The creature tensed and sprang, just as Kex jumped to the side. The tiger twisted in midflight, trying to correct, but Kex’s spear was there, driving into its neck.
The creature crashed to the ground and twisted around, reaching for Kex. Then I realized why it looked off. It had six legs, the front four tipped with sharp claws. As it lunged for him again, Kex reached out and snatched its tail out of the air, and with a quick crack, twisted it down. The tiger let out a growling cry and slashed at Kex. The blow looked like it connected, but Kex didn’t flinch as he dropped the tail and gripped the spear, shoving it deeper. The creature cried out again, and I forced myself not to look away as Kex pinned it to the ground until it stilled.
Kex knelt over the creature and ran a hand over its head before he straightened and turned toward my tree. I gasped at the long red gashes across his chest, but he didn’t stop to tend to himself, instead climbing the tree to my branch. I winced and ran a finger above one of the claw marks. They looked shallow, but dark red blood ran down his chest.
Kex took my hand and pressed a kiss to my palm before pressing it to his cheek, then he carried me down the tree. Once my feet were on the ground, I reached for the pouch where Kex kept the plants he applied to my wounds, but he snatched my hand up, kissed it, and shook his head. He casually wiped some of his blood off with a fern frond, then crossed to the tiger and threw it over his shoulder. Six legs weren’t the only weird things. Now that it was right in front of me, I could see its tail had a sharp black spine sticking out of the end. Was that why Kex had broken it? Disgusting. Not as bad as the monster bird thing, but scorpion tiger was somehow a little scarier.
I grimaced but didn’t protest as he gestured for me to follow. For the thousandth time, I wished we had more words between us so I could question him. Did we need to take the monster tigerwith us? Did he expect us to eat that whole thing? Even if we smoked the meat, it seemed like more than was rational to carry wherever we were going.
We walked only a few minutes before we came upon a stretch of trees painted with thick white bands around their trunks. The marked trees stretched out for as far as I could see in a long line. Kex came to a stop next to one of the trees and placed his hand on the trunk.
