I feel like prey with the way he looks at me. Not just him either…all of them.
It’s like looking into the emotionless gaze of an apex predator.
Some deep-set instinct within me is telling me to run.
Run, right now!
But my mind is wrestling with the logic of it all.
A breath shudders through me as I try to lean on the arm of reason.
Even if I run, he’ll catch me, and if he wants to hurt me, there’s nothing I can do to stop him.
I’m not in a power position.
Forcing away the fear that’s giving me heart palpitations, I continue putting one foot in front of the other.
I can focus on what I can control, and right now, I’m being given the chance to find food.
I’ll do my best to procure some for the three of us.
So, I focus on walking.
The shore of this lake is a bit rocky, which doesn’t help, but when I glance in the direction I’ve come, I’m surprised at my progress.
I’ve walked some distance away from Sam and Mina and, it may have been a subconscious effort, but I’ve walked away from where I think the orb fell too.
There’s a rocky area near the shore that leads into the water. Broken wood sticks out of the surface and some of the planks are still nailed together.
The remnants of an old pier.
I head toward it, searching for something I can use to try and catch some fish.
Shit.
I don’t even know how to fish with proper tools much less with what nature provides.
But my brow furrows as I search the ground.
I spot a branch as I hobble along and I grab it.
It’s about as long as a walking stick and thin.
I don’t have a knife so I use the next best thing I can think of.
My teeth.
Lifting the edge to my mouth, I bite and gnaw at the branch to sharpen the end as best as I can.
I huff as I work.
It’s hard doing things with one hand.
Behind me, Fer’ro watches. I see when he moves toward me to help but when I stiffen, he pauses.
I don’t know if he was trying to help or not.
I’m not so sure I want to get unnecessarily close to him.
By the time I reach the pier, the branch is pointy enough to poke something.
As I step upon the rocks and begin to hobble across the pier, there is a click behind me.
I pause and turn my head to the side so I can see him.
Fuck. What’s gotten over me?
I can’t even face him fully.
“That does not seem like a stable hunting spot.”
His voice is such a deep baritone that the inflection makes the words sound foreign to my ear.
But I nod. “You’re right. It’s not really. But it will hold.” I think.
He clicks at me again and this time I meet his gaze.
Secondary eyelids slip across his eyes before disappearing again.
The sight has me frozen as I stare at him.
“And if the female falls in?”
For a second, I don’t realize he’s speaking about me.
I blink at him.
He’s not moving at all. And I realize now that when he does move, his movements are measured and calculated.
As if…as if he is being cautious around me.
I frown a little as I glance down at the water.
It laps against the wooden pier peacefully and the sound is calming.
“If I fall in, I’ll survive.”
When I look back, those fire eyes are still on me, studying me, and his ears twitch as I turn and continue along the pier.
He doesn’t follow.
Guess he’s going to stay there then.
No problem. Having him so close unnerves me still.
I can get it done quicker too if he doesn’t come any farther.
Something moves on the rocks behind me that makes me pause, my gaze snapping to the location of the movement, and I turn to look just as a small bird hops on top of the rocks.
A robin.
Surprise makes me hold my breath.
“Oh my God,” I whisper. It’s the first animal I’ve seen in so, so long.
It’s a tiny little thing and I wonder what it’s doing all the way out here.
It looks at me, twisting its head in that strange way birds do, before it tweets at me.
Happiness fills me so much I choke on it.
But that happiness quickly diminishes as I see a dark shadow in the corner of my eye.
Fer’ro moves toward the bird, his arm outstretched.
“No!”
He pauses.
“It’s just a bird. Leave it alone.”
He eyes me.
“Please.”
“A…bird?” he says in that strange way of his.
I nod.
“A bird,” I repeat.
“Not sustenance?”
I gulp at that. “Yes…but no. I don’t want to eat it.” I couldn’t imagine killing and eating such a beautiful thing.
The bird tweets again and I watch the alien’s ears twitch with bated breath.
The little bird must have suddenly gotten the cue because it flies off.
I release a sigh and watch it go.
When I look back, the alien is staring at me so intently, I forget what I was doing before.
Oh.
Right.
“Hunting.”
Turning, I continue making my way gingerly across the broken pier.
The wood is rotten in some parts and a bit slippery but I will not allow Murphy’s law to get the best of me now.
As soon as the thought crosses my mind, I slip.
There’s a single moment of my eyes widening as I realize I’m going down and the next, there’s a strong hand against my back, steadying me.
My surprised gaze shoots to the alien who’s suddenly by my side.
How the hell did he move so fast?
My heart does a big thump.
I was right. He’s calculating his movements so he doesn’t scare me.
Why else?
If he can move like this…
Fuck.
Well, there goes my instinct to run away.
Now I just want to hide.
I straighten as soon as I have my footing, but not before his touch sends a lightning bolt down my spine.
“Th—Thanks.”
He doesn’t reply but his ears twitch toward me almost comically.
I turn from him and continue moving along the pier. More careful this time.
The wood creaks as Fer’ro follows close behind me.
I can still feel his eyes on my back and it’s making the hairs along my arms rise.
The pier leads into the water a fair bit and soon we’re standing over water deep enough for sizeable fish to be lurking in.
I crouch and Fer’ro watches me for a second before he copies me.
I find myself staring at him in disbelief.
He’s so huge, he looks funny crouching the way I am.
A nervous laugh huffs from my nose and his ears flatten against the side of his head.
It’s almost…adorable.
I snap my gaze away from his at that thought.
This is a being whose people destroyed a machine not even our missiles could take down.
There’s nothing adorable about a demon.
Trying to ignore him as best as I can, I eye the water.
It’s murky. I can hardly see anything.. But I grasp my stick and I wait.
And wait.
And wait.
My bones are aching and I’m about to give up when I see a fish.
It darts through the algae and disappears for a moment, it’s silvery skin appearing catching the light.
Grasping my stick tighter, I hold my breath, waiting to see it again.
And then I do.
There!
I’m so excited, too excited, that I shriek and stab my stick in the water too quickly.