Page 19 of The Naga Wanderer’s Wounded Mate

He didn’t reply, still looking furious, those spiky brow ridges lowered over his eyes. The emerald hue was practically glowing with some intense emotion, too. A feeling began to creep down my spine—apprehension, maybe. Had I upset him in some way after all? I began racking my brain and could only come up with the incident with the sleara. It had bitten him, but I really didn’t think that would have angered him this much. Not when he’d gone out of his way to feed Dove on several occasions.

“What’s wrong?” I asked. I was a big girl; I could handle the answer. Besides, we’d built enough of a relationship that I could just ask that, hadn’t we? I actually cared about the answer. His eyes had been on the trees, searching, checking our surroundings. Now they snapped to my face, which began heating because I realized I’d been completely careless myself. I hadn’t checked anything but had relied entirely on Ekkire’s assurance the area was safe. Wow, did I really trust him that much?

“Nothing is wrong, little hunter,” he said. Not the first time he’d called me that, but the first time I heard the petname exactly for what it was: an endearment, not a slight. He called me little not because I lacked skill, but because I really was tiny compared to his massive body and long tail. Why wouldn’t he call me that? His voice had also grown softer, a little less snarly.

When I kept staring, he flicked out his tongue, the split tip briefly tasting the air before vanishing. “I am considering which tree has the best fresh growth to cut a bow rod from. That one seems likely, what do you think?” He pointed with the tip of his tail at a tree to my left. I gazed at it, noting that several new growths were the right thickness and a decent length. Unfortunately, I was not practiced enough yet to recognize if it was even the right tree.

“Okay? I’ve only been here one winter. I’m still learning about the local plants…” It came out sort of angry, and I winced. It wasn’t my fault I didn’t know enough yet. It was hard to get anyone to teach me when snow covered everything. Ekkire wasn’t going to hold that against me, at least, I didn’t think he would.

He didn’t even respond to my tone, well, unless you counted the way his mouth curled just slightly at one corner. “Very well.” He carried me across the rubble-strewn clearing just outside the tunnel toward the tree he’d indicated. Then he explained, in the surliest, gruffest tone ever, what I needed to know about wood selection for bows. It helped, that tone, weirdly enough. Ekkire just didn’t like to talk, and he was always a tad grumpy. He wasn’t put out having to tell me; I was pretty sure he’d sound like that talking to anyone.

When I indicated I definitely knew how to do the crafting part, he cut the branch he’d picked and handed me his knife. “I’ll sort the string,” he announced, and he left me right there, on the edge of the trees, with a knife and a stick of wood in my lap. It made me smile so widely I thought my cheeks might split. No questions, no guarded watching to make sure I knew what I was doing. He took my word for it, and he just went on to do his part. I was so happy right then, I almost broke out into song.

“No, Dove,” I warned when she stuck her head out of my coat and eyed my new bow staff with a glint of avarice in her mercury eyes. “This is my stick,” I warned her, “and it’s way too big for you.” I had to warn her away when she tried to put her teeth on the end, but she was quickly distracted by the curls of bark I began stripping from one side of the rod. Scuttling around nearby, chasing after each strip I cut off, she seemed to have gotten over her fear of the bright outside in a hurry.

When a chirp kee kee sounded from behind my elbow, she froze. We both turned to look and discovered a tiny gray-blue snout peeking out from under a nearby bush. The sleara, he hadn’t left. He looked very wary, something feral glinting in the bright amethyst of his eyes. “It’s okay, boy. I won’t hurt you, promise,” I crooned at him. That made him huff, and he disappeared back under the bush.

Dove had sat down again, with her wings folded and her tail curled. A very pretty, but also closed-off sort of posture. She had her head tilted studiously away from where the blue sleara had disappeared. One paw was perched on the last curl of bark she’d captured.

I thought he’d vanish now, and we’d never see him again, but a moment later he appeared beneath the bush again. A chirp drew my attention back to him, but Dove definitely still didn’t look. He lowered his small snout and nosed a stick forward, rolling it across the dry grass toward me. “Oh, a stick? Is it for Dove?” I asked, surprised. Don’t tell me there were two of them out here who enjoyed sticks. Dove was already being such a weirdo about it. The sleara at Haven all collected shiny things, or edible things.

Dove twitched, but when I said, “Look, Dove. He brought you a stick,” she finally looked. Her eyes grew large at the sight of the mossy, smallish twig, and she pounced on it with an excited skreee. Then she snatched it up and quickly scurried behind my knee for some very satisfied gnawing. I couldn’t be certain, but it looked to me like the small blue male was very satisfied with this.

He disappeared before I could try to entice him with food or perhaps a curl of bark. When Ekkire came back a short while later, there was no trace of him. My green hunter paused, however, and flicked out his tongue. “Did he come back?” he asked, surprised but sounding hopeful.

“Yeah,” I said. “He brought Dove a stick. Do you think he’s trying to court her? Aren’t they both still a little young?” Dove was so small compared to Kiwi and Buzz back at Haven. The blue fellow was only slightly bigger than her, definitely young as well.

Ekkire shrugged. “Juveniles, yes. They are both from nests hatched during winter. They’re both alone, though, and sleara like to flock. He’s probably trying to entice her to be part of his flock.” Hmm, interesting. Too bad Dove seemed more interested in the stick and my presence than anyone else. Poor fellow. With a pang of guilt, I realized I hoped he wouldn’t actually entice Dove away from me. I really liked her company, though it was probably better for her if she was with her own kind, wasn’t it?

“Here’s your string. Do you want to twist it into shape yourself?” He offered me the gathered fibers but didn’t quite lower them into my lap yet. I considered that, but in the end decided he’d done a perfectly fine job last time. We’d be quicker if he did that task.

“How’s your finger?” I tried after we’d worked in silence for a little bit. Dove had settled with her gifted stick, taking far longer with it than I’d ever seen her take with one. Like she was savoring this one a little extra. “The sleara bit you, didn’t he? I saw blood.”

Ekkire froze, eyes dropping to his lap, the string that was beginning to take shape draped across the glimmering green coils of his tail. Then he lifted his hand and flexed it in front of me. “I’m fine. It was a small nip that broke the scales on my thumb, but it will heal.” He showed me the wound, and it was indeed a very small cut straight through the paler green along the pad of his thumb, partially covered by the sharp black claw jutting from it.

“Okay, good. Do you know where we are? What’s our course of action now?” I pointed at the sharp, rising flank of the mountain next to us. We’d come out of it from deep below, having traveled a significant portion through the ancient tunnel system. There was no sign of the wetlands or the crashed ship. The mountain peak Ekkire had been anxious to reach, however, was much closer. It loomed beyond the trees and would perhaps only take us another day, at most, to reach.

“I think,” Ekkire said slowly, his busy hands stilling as he focused on my face. “I think we should travel to the outpost together, look for survivors first. Sun Fang would have sent help too if they could spare it; a healer will be with that party.” I knew why he said that, but I bit my lip and wasn’t reassured. Hadn’t Sun Fang been part of the gathering attack force? Hadn’t they switched sides to join with Thunder Rock to destroy the ship?

And what about the people from Haven? A very large part of me just wanted to stay with Ekkire, to keep this easy company with a man—a male—who didn’t coddle. That was so selfish, though, when Jolene and those at the crashed ship would be so worried. Worse, I hadn’t even checked again to make sure that everyone had survived. I should have asked that when we discovered he could understand me after all.

“I would like that,” I said carefully. “But what about the hunters at the crashed ship? I don’t want them to think they have to search for me.” Zsekhet and Joxra would be worried; Corin would have communicated with Zathar, and then everyone at Haven—especially Jolene—would be distressed. I did not want them to think I was dead.

“Oh, I sent them a message; they know you’re with me,” Ekkire said casually. “Ready? Shall I string it?” I wordlessly handed him the bow I’d just carefully carved. I hadn’t quite finished tapering the ends, but it bent right, I thought. Much heavier than the bow Ekkire had made for me before, but not so heavy I couldn’t work it while injured. He’d sent a message? What was he talking about? I couldn’t quite picture it, because in my book, sending a message tended to involve a device, and I was pretty sure he didn’t own anything that complex.

“I made a kite with a note and sent it up where they’d see it. They must have found it by now. Don’t worry. Unless…” He hesitated, and something dark flashed in his eyes. “You wish to return to Joxra?” he asked. The possessive growl curling through the air between us instantly turned the mood dark, laden with untold things. Claims.

“Joxra?” I sputtered, confused. “No, I barely know the guy. I just want to make sure my friend, Jolene, isn’t super worried about me back at Haven.” It felt nice to call her my friend, that’s what she called me, wasn’t it? The more I thought about it, the more certain I became that Jolene considered me one of hers. I really didn’t want to cause her stress; she’d just been through so much herself. I wanted her to make her home at Haven with the guy she’d fallen in love with and his adorable kids. She needed to do that, guilt-free. She deserved it.

“Oh… He’s not your, uh… He was very concerned for your safety, so I thought…” Very abruptly, he cut himself off and shook his head. His hands had worked even as he’d struggled to speak, carving the ends of my bow and attaching the string. He tested its pull, then handed it to me with a grimace. “Never mind that. If you are not opposed to traveling to the outpost and perhaps accepting healing from the Sun Fang Shaman, we will do that.”

“Ekkire,” I said, that smile, that bright burst of happiness from earlier, coming back. “I’d love that. And for your information, there’s nothing and never has been between me and Joxra, okay? He was probably feeling guilty because he allowed me to come, knowing Zathar forbade me… He’s a bit of a rebel, you know?”

“Oh… I see.” The small section of tail he had curled around my ankle squeezed, just the slightest bit. He still frowned, but I was pretty sure my answer had pleased him.