“—dira. I think it’s burning.”
Sam’s voice snatches me from the void I was entering and I pull the stick back.
The fish is smoky and I cough as I try to blow on it and breathe at the same time.
Sam had found a big leaf earlier and I put the fish on it.
We both lean over it, staring at it.
It’s even smaller than it was before.
It seems to have shrunken in the fire.
“Well…” Sam begins, “it’s better than nothing.”
We wait for the food to cool and slowly pick at it with our fingers.
I keep my bad hand tucked toward me as I eat, and my eyes close as the flavor from the fish bursts across my tongue.
I can almost forget the aches and pains in my body.
The source of my injuries seems like it happened so long ago now but the events replay in my head as I watch Sam crush some of the fish and hand feed Mina.
Mina swallows and grants us a smile that doesn’t reach her eyes.
She’s in pain. I just know it.
But either she’s hiding it from us, or she’s hiding it from the aliens around us.
There’s movement on the shore and I squint at it.
Fer’ro is rising from the water. Funny how I know it is him now without seeing his eyes. The water sluices off his suit like the material can’t get wet, but that’s not what causes me to stare.
He’s carrying something.
Over his shoulder, in much the same way he carried me, he’s carrying the biggest catfish I have ever seen.
It is still alive too and it struggles, its tail slapping against Fer’ro’s back.
“Oh…wow,” Sam breathes.
Wow, indeed.
He heads straight toward us and all I can do is stare at him.
“Sustenance,” he says before his gaze drops to the fire.
His nostrils twitch.
The fire isn’t big enough, is what I assume he is thinking but all I can do is stare at his catch.
“Y—you caught that for us?” How the fuck?
He glances at Sam then, as if she was an afterthought.
“Yes,” he says. “Food. You must eat.”
His gaze moves to Mina then, and I stiffen a little.
“She must eat too,” he says, and his nostrils twitch again, the ridges above them folding a little. “I will kill it then make a bigger flame for you so you can kill it again.”
FER’RO
The sea creature is much too big for the females to finish on their own and after they’ve had their fill, Adee’ra once again suggests that we share.
“It is not an invitation to mate,” I growl at my brethren, annoyance riding all along my back.
I do not like that she is offering.
It is innocent but it annoys me just the same.
“The hyu’man does not wish to breed.” I meet their gazes and some of them flatten their ears, signaling shame…signaling they were considering it.
I growl at the thought.
Even as I speak, Ga’Var is leaning against a tree, his ba’clan bristling almost unnoticeably as they sense his annoyance too.
Annoyed at me, perhaps.
Too bad.
Even if Adee’ra wants to invite a male to her bedding feathers, the thought angers me.
I do not know why.
I do not care to know why.
We are not here to mate.
Though, I am not sure if that is the true source of my anger.
That is something I will have to contemplate later.
In private.
When the females are resting and most of my brethren return to the ship.
We have almost completed dismantling the Scrit.
We won’t stay here much longer after that.
One of my brethren, Fi’rox moves forward toward the sea creature meal.
The others bristle as he stops and glances at the females.
Adee’ra looks from him to me and then back. “Go ahead,” she says. “It’s still warm.”
Fi’rox is the bravest of us all.
Once we intake sustenance, we do not have to do so again for several days.
So I know he is not hungry.
I watch as the others glance from one to another.
The sea creature does not look delicious at all.
Its flesh is white. Bloodless.
I imagine it tastes like water.
Fi’rox pokes the flesh with one of his claws and his ba’clan shiver a little.
I can sense he wants to retreat and not eat the thing, but he’s gone too far. Turning back now would be cowardly.
So he picks a part of the flesh and lifts it into his lips.
We all watch him with bated breath.
For a moment, he does nothing, he simply freezes, his gaze on the females.
And then, his ba’clan bristle again.
I can tell their movement alarms the females, Adee’ra, when she stiffens a bit, her eyes going wide.
Then Fi’rox chokes. Somehow, he manages to swallow the thing.
He slaps a hand against his chest as he rises, his gaze darting to me for a second.
“So?” Ga’Var clicks. He’s leaned off the tree now, his focus on Fi’rox.
Fi’rox’s lips pull back a little before he answers.
“It’s…disgusting. How can they eat such a thing? Even now my innards are trying to expel it.”
His back arches a little as he says this.
I believe him.
But…
“We should not anger the females.” My gaze moves over my brethren. “They are being generous.”
Our gazes flick back to the “meal” and an audible groan leaves one of us.
“Fine,” Ga’Var clicks. “For the females then.”
Chapter Fourteen
ADIRA
They have settled around us in much the same way that Sam and I have stooped on the ground.
One by one, they reach forward and take a piece of the fish and though they all put it into their mouths and chew, I get the sense they think it is awful.
I watch them for a few moments.
None except Fer’ro have removed that strange suit from over his face. The others have simply removed the part where their mouth holes are and it amazes me that this suit of theirs is so reactive.
Fer’ro is to my right and I watch him with guarded eyes.
I don’t want him to know I am staring, but I can’t help it.
Now that it’s clear they don’t mean us any harm, I have even more questions.
“That thing…” Fer’ro stiffens at the sound of my voice as if his focus had been on me the whole time, even though he strangely hadn’t been looking my way. I gulp and continue. “That thing by the water. The alien…”
I lick my lips when his lava gaze meets mine. They’re aliens too. That probably wasn’t the right word to use. “That thing that was controlling the machine…”
They all stiffen now and I realize every single one of them is listening to me.
Gathering my courage, I push forward. “What is it? What does it want from us?”
Fer’ro’s mouth moves as he forces down the fish and the ridges along his cheek contract and expand with the movement.
His suit bristles as he swallows as if a bunch of sharp knives just went down his throat.
“They are called the Gryken,” he finally says and I am hushed. I wait for him to continue and after a few moments he finally does.
“They are from a world far away. One that was destroyed eons ago.”
I blink at him. “Their world is destroyed? Is that why they are here. They want to capture ours to make it their own?”