Page 29 of Found By the Alien Warrior

"Like you're trying to get yourself killed. You can't survive out here by yourself."

"Can't I?" My voice rose in desperation and defiance. "I can’t survive around Korga either. I'm tired of being a chess piece. At least I made a choice instead of letting everyone else make it for me."

"By everyone, you mean me," Aurik stated, his words cutting deep.

"Your way made sense in the beginning. But the longer we try to be careful, the more time we give Korga to come up with ways to wear us down or worse." My sigh was heavy, laden with fatigue and frustration as I resumed walking, my gaze fixed on the horizon.

Aurik matched my stride, though annoyance seemed to fuel his movements. His hand still clutched his shoulder where Korga's poison had struck. "Any idea where you're going?"

"Far away from that ship.” My eyes scanned the landscape for an escape route. “I’ll take my chances."

"Chances," he echoed, his voice low and grim. "You heard Korga. In a half-hour, someone is going to come out here and we need to be ready. Because they will be."

"Guess you’re my muscle. How's your shoulder?" I asked, casting a sidelong glance his way.

"The poison's wearing off." He tested his shoulder. The bleeding had stopped. I couldn't help but admire his strength, even as fear nibbled at my resolve.

"Come on." He motioned to the right, where the chaos of geysers gave way to towering rock formations. "There's a network of caverns and underground springs. Let's make it harder for Korga's enforcers to find us."

"Lead the way. Um, how do you know your way around again?” My voice was almost inaudible above the hiss of steam from another geyser.

“I chased a convict down here once. That had to be on a different side of the planet because I don’t recognize this area.”

“Then how do you know springs are underground to the right?”

“I can smell them.” Aurik's eyes were fixed on the rocky terrain ahead.

I refused to turn and look back at the ship to see how far we’d gotten away. “If there are people on this planet to see the gladiator fights, they’re doing a good job hiding.”

"They have a small population.”

His words stirred a flicker of hope within me. "Then that means we can find help easy."

But as quickly as hope rises, Aurik quells it with a shake of his head. "They’re scattered across the planet. We can't get to them in thirty minutes."

My joy deflated. Still, I walked alongside Aurik. Our pace was relentless as we put distance between us and the ship.

As the geysers fell behind us, we advanced toward the cavern network, our refuge from Korga's promised hunt. The entrance was wide enough, and we entered a winding series of rock formations and natural corridors. The cavern held a soft glow inside with a yellow mineral deposit along the walls.

"Feels like we've stepped into a highlighter,” I noted.

Aurik offered a half-smile that didn’t quite touch his eyes. “I appreciate the effort to lighten the mood.” He scouted ahead, his movements precise and sure. The warmth from the nearby spring made the air heavy against my skin.

"Here," he said at last, finding a spot near the warm spring. He began arranging rocks and clearing ground with an efficiency that spoke to his survival training.

"Looks cozy," I remarked, my attempt at humor definitely weak and falling flat even to my own ears. Yet, there was comfort in the little control we had in the situation.

I sat down on the hard, unyielding surface of the cavern floor and closed my eyes briefly. I allowed myself the luxury of Aurik's presence, a solid, reliable force. We were alive. We were together. In the quiet, I played with the idea that, perhaps, those two facts were all that truly mattered.

"You made things worse by running off” Aurik’s voice cut through my musing. “But it was the only good choice."

I opened my eyes and sent him an innocent glance. "What was that? I didn't hear you." I cupped my hand over my ear. "Are you saying I was right?"

That tantalizing smirk played across his lips as he reached out, gently pulling my hand away from my ear. His touch lingered for a heartbeat longer than necessary, tethering me to the present, to him. "You're impossible.”

“You say all the nice things.”

"Have I told you how brave you are, too?"

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