Page 43 of Free for Adventure

Orc crouched in front of her. “How are you doing?”

Skaay answered, “Her head injury is healed, her shoulder is nearly done, and the wrist has a lot of small bones in it. It takes longer.”

Orc sighed. “I was asking her.”

“He’s warm. I don’t mind resting. I don’t do it often. So, is the path down to the water to a beach or a drop-off?”

Kayak said, “Drop-off.”

“Cool. Do you have a small boat there?”

Orc chuckled and reached out to stroke her cheek. “It isn’t that small. Same size as the one we were on today.”

She smiled. “Nice. Storm safe.”

He nodded. “Deep enough for us to dive and jump.”

“Please tell me that there isn’t a seal or sea lion colony nearby.” She smiled slightly.

Kayak said, “They are on the other side of the island.”

The other two snapped a growl at him.

She snorted. “I have seen it before. Dad wasn’t fussy about it. He just ripped them in half and got blood everywhere. I am not overly concerned by the death. I just didn’t want to walk through half-chewed mammals.”

Orc blinked. “Oh, don’t worry. We clean up after ourselves.”

“Good. I get that the beasts want what they want. I don’t begrudge them that.” She sighed.

Skaay said, “She’s tired, and I am pulling a lot from her to heal her, so she’s going to sleep. I can’t give her anything right now, but I can just keep her body slowly healing.”

Orc sighed. “Right.”

Kayak asked, “Do you need anything?”

“Just about four hours of quiet,” Skaay said softly.

Orc nodded. “Right. We will keep busy.”

Kayak muttered, “I am going to go to Ahheel’s and try to figure out how to apologize.”

Orc spoke to him for a moment, and then, they looked through her pack. When they were done, they left.

Skaay murmured, “They went to get you something pretty.”

“I live on boats. I don’t need pretty. I don’t charge by the hour.”

Skaay exhaled a laugh. “Good to know. What did you do when your father passed?”

“Oh, I notified people. I got his cremains and started taking photos to make some money. I started working for Ford, and I have done a ton of background shots for his videos and the upcoming movie. I have a lot of credits for second unit and have done some small personal shoots. Staying away from the water was hard.”

Skaay kissed her temple. “We are more than willing to help with a memorial service. We can even help find a place to put the urn, set up a memorial spot.”

“That sounds nice.” She relaxed and drifted off.

The smell of raspberry tea got her attention, and she stretched, surprised when Skaay hugged her. Her wrist felt better, and he had removed the brace at some point.

“They found you pretty things. If you were a full shifter, we would just show up and do acrobatics to impress you, but as bipeds, we have to take different plans of attack.”

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