Page 29 of Interlude

I look down at myself. I’m starting to get sticky as the juice dries in the warm sun that shines down on us. When I look back up to respond, he’s gone again, back on the other side of the magic barrier and standing over another group of harvesters. Did I imagine that?

“Uh, did you see that?” I fly down and around the bush to Brannock and the basket, dropping the fruit that survived in. He’s moving quickly and already has a good layer covering the bottom of the basket.

He stops what he’s doing and scans my tiny form. “Why are you wet?” he asks, reaching out and swiping his thumb across my lip, catching a stray drip. “And sticky?” He brings his thumb up to his mouth. “You’re supposed to pick it, not play in it.” His eyes sparkle with humor as I watch him suck the juice off his stubby digit, and I think about what other kinds of juices he could be sucking off.

Gah, focus, Lila, I scold myself internally. Rescue Grandma then ride the Aaz’axian to celebrate.

“Ah, the fruit is a little more delicate than I thought. I assumed they would be like an Earth citrus and thick-skinned, but they are more like a grape, with a thin membrane then full of juice on the inside with the smallest amount of pulp to hold it all together, and I just squeezed too hard.”

He chuckles and keeps picking. “Did I see what?” he asks, reminding me of my question.

“That being was talking to me again,” I tell him, and he stops picking and looks around.

“He’s all the way over there. Are you sure it wasn’t one of the other harvesters?” We both look at the bush next to us and the two beings who are working it. They are unusual, and I haven’t seen their species before. Both of them have two heads and four arms on a black-skinned body. Each head has only one eye, but both have a nose and a mouth, with a long mane of pure, snow-white hair mohawked down the middle. Their bodies are large and brawny and seem to move with unnatural speed as they focus on the task of picking the fruit from the bushes.

“Nope, definitely not them.”

“Hmmm, well, let’s try not to draw his attention too much. I’m sure if we just do the job, he will lose interest in us.”

“Okay,” I agree, and then I groan as I look at how much we still have to put in the basket. “This is going to take us forever, and even longer if I keep squishing them.” Manual labor and I do not play well together. I look around to make sure nobody is watching us, and then I hold my hands up. Ever since I came to this planet, I’ve felt power running through me—a connection to the plants. They seem to call to me. It’s this low-key humming in the back of my mind. Focusing on the fruit, I coax it towards me, asking the bush to release its hold on its precious bounty.

I feel the bush’s reluctance to give up its produce, but I continue to encourage it, and one by one, each individual fruit pops off and floats in the air. Once I feel like the bush has given me everything it has, I carefully direct the fruit to the basket, controlling its movement through a form of telekinesis, something I hadn’t managed to produce at all in my Skarrian form.

The fruit lands gently in the basket, and I drop my hands, breathing a little heavily, my power drained, and then I drift down to the ground, my wings too tired to hold me up.

“Phew, that was hard work,” I mutter to Brannock as we both look at the three-quarters full basket.

“Are you okay?” he asks, stepping toward me with a hand held out like he wants to support me.

I nod, leaning against the bush slightly to get my balance. A shadow passes over us, and when I look up to find what’s causing it, I have to shade my eyes. The sun directly above is stopping me from seeing. I’m going to guess it was Tirrian, but I don’t know for sure. I’m hoping it’s not another unknown predator waiting to devour us.

I wave him off. “Yeah, I’m fine. It just took a lot out of me. My form isn’t in full working order.”

“That’s because you spent too much time in space, little one.” The chatty being is back, and Brannock hisses slightly before moving in front of me like he wants to protect me.

“Elementals are not supposed to be without their element for long periods of time. It can damage them permanently. You need to spend a few days here just to absorb what you need to from the surrounding environment. If you take too much at one time, that’s when you suck the life out of things. I will arrange with Elm and Oak for you to stay on the planet overnight so you can heal.”

“But don’t all the predators come out at night? She won’t survive even a few hours on her own,” Brannock argues, and the being turns his attention to him—or I think he does, since we still can’t see any features.

“You may as well drop that glamour, Aaz’axian. I can see right through it. You can tell the warlock the same thing. These creatures are slow and cumbersome, and they will not be a benefit to your harvesting job.”

My mouth drops open in shock, and Brannock and I exchange a glance before he sighs. His glamour shimmers and fades away, leaving the pretty form I’ve grown attached to.

“As for her protection, I will ensure she is unharmed,” the being continues, but Brannock shakes his head, stubbornly crossing his arms.

“No way, for all I know, you will feed her to one of the predators the moment we return to the ship. We don’t even know what you are, so how do you expect us to trust you with our friend?”

“That goes both ways, Aaz’axian. I am not the one who was pretending to be something I’m not.”

Oh snap. I guess he has a point. I wonder if he knows that I am not really an Elementi either, but then again, I guess I am. He hasn’t said anything, so I am not going to bring it up. Maybe this is the chance we need. Maybe if I spend time with him, I can convince him to help us rescue my grandma.

“Okay, I’ll do it,” I blurt out, and Brannock glares at me.

“No, you will not. It isn’t safe. Remember what I told you about nighttime?” I roll my eyes, and Brannock’s glare gets narrower.

“I assure you she will be perfectly protected by me.”

Brannock growls at him. “I don’t care, she’s not staying.”

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