Page 54 of I Married Amreth

“It will significantly increase their chances of survival, especially if we give them the proper GnRH antagonists. Partial stasis might be required to help those whose illness already progressed too much. But if caught early, administering GnRH antagonists to females will bring their odds of beating back the disease to levels comparable to males.”

“Great work!” I said with a smile. “Amreth will drop by Bryst in the next couple of hours. He went to get his shuttle, and he’ll pick up some berries for you on the way. Please give him some GnRH antagonists so that I can administer it to the females over here who need it.”

“Will do,” Ernst said, his voice bubbling with excitement. “I’ve already started doing some research on a way to permanently eradicate strawberries here. But my tests are based on those from Earth. I can’t wait to get my hands on the local ones.”

“On my end, I’m looking into ways of making the Kreelars immune or at least to significantly dampen the effects. Between both options, we should be able to come up with a viable solution.”

“Perfect. As soon as Amreth returns, we will go directly into the forest to study the soil, surrounding flora, as well as theanimals that feed off them. Hopefully, I will get you some useful data.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Mehreen replied with enthusiasm.

We chatted a bit longer before ending the conversation. While waiting for Amreth, I checked on the patients. To my relief, the treatment we administered was working so far. Obviously, it wasn’t a cure, but it stopped the prions from reproducing. Unless we managed to find a cure—which remained doubtful—there would be no miracle healing. All we could do right now was provide an antagonist protocol for those infected to slow the progression of the mutation long enough for their brains to adjust. This extra time would allow them to survive the changes.

I also worked with their healers to train and teach them natural methods using their current technology to test their food in the future, as well as detect infections early on in patients. The idea was not to further upend their society by dumping a whole bunch of advanced technology so that they could reclaim control over their health. They needed to be able to handle it on their own using methods that aligned with their current technological level.

As soon as Amreth arrived, he launched a series of drones to survey the area in search of smaller animals feeding from the berries. In the upcoming days, the Kreelars would organize a hunt to cull the rabid larger creatures that roamed further north. Aku and his tribemates captured a couple of beasts alive for Mehreen and Ernst to run tests on to see how we could also try to save other creatures of those species, should we fail to fully eliminate the presence of the berries on the planet. Hopefully, it would be something akin to a rabies vaccine on Earth.

Amreth finally spotted the perfect location for us to settle the shuttle. It was surrounded by multiple patches of berries and afew Onei lairs. When he first scanned the area, he managed to capture a couple of images of the adorable little creatures.

They possessed the rounder rump of a beaver, but the more slender body and tail length of an otter. They were masters of camouflage, thanks to their green fur that easily blended with moss and grass, the leaf-shaped fan at the tip of their tails, and especially that adorable head with huge eyes, a mousy little nose with a tiny mouth, and a crown shaped like the leaves of a fern. So long as the Onei remained immobile, you would genuinely confuse it for just being part of the underbrush.

According to Vala, they were relatively harmless little mammals, somewhat comparable to bunnies—at least based on how she described them. They mostly fed off of leaves, fruits, and nuts. Under rare occasions, especially when facing food scarcity, they would go for small bugs instead. They were extremely fast, with very strong and sharp teeth that allowed them to break through the shells of the nuts. So while they usually scampered off when frightened, should you catch them, Oneis could inflict some nasty wounds with a bite strong enough to chop off your finger and claws so sharp they would tear you to shreds.

But I had my special weapon in the form of a very sexy-looking Obosian. I took position near a tall bush, with gloves and paddings around my wrists and forearms for protection. The smug brat didn’t even use a stealth shield to approach the creature hiding between two thick ropey roots of a tall tree. The wide leaves of the wild plants towering over the berry bushes partially hid the Onei. In truth, if not for the scanner on my armband confirming its presence, I never would have detected it or the berries for that matter.

No wonder the fruits escaped notice for so long, especially since they still hadn’t spread far enough south to be in areaswhere young Kreelars might have played and stumbled upon them.

Amreth began blasting hisbakaanin a focused fashion towards the location of the creature. He had circled around in the opposite direction from me so that he could herd the Onei towards me should it attempt to flee. Although the area of effect didn’t reach my position, I instantly felt hot and bothered at the mere memory of how he wrecked me with it last night.

A string of highly inappropriate thoughts started racing through my mind. I clamped down on them, mentally chastising myself for being such a horn ball. The Onei attempting to flee when it finally noticed Amreth’s insanely silent approach snapped me back into focus. The wretched thing was fast. I leapt forward to catch it, but it slipped right through my fingers and kept hightailing it only to suddenly stumble, seeming groggy.

I glanced at Amreth with a hint of outrage and suspicion. He clearly lessened his calming aura, allowing the creature to escape me and only slowed it after I missed. The overly innocent look on his face seemed to confirm it. But before I could speak a word, he gestured in a way that said to hurry before the Onei fled.

I hastened to the little cutie only to see it take off again seconds before I would grab it.

“You son of a gun!” I exclaimed, glaring at Amreth. “Stop it!”

Once again, he took on an overly dramatic expression, but this time displaying the most dishonest air of guilt I had ever seen.

“Apologies, my mate! I got so distracted by your beauty that I forgot what I was doing. Here, let me grab it for you,” he said.

“You do that,” I replied, scrunching my face at him.

I couldn’t decide if I wanted to kick his butt or kiss him. Actually, I wanted to do both. Eyeing him suspiciously, I watched him strut his stuff, his tail slowly swaying from side toside in what I perceived as provoking and mocking. The Onei was still taking the occasional step forward but mostly seemed uncertain as to what it wanted to do, whether to come or go.

Amreth effortlessly picked it up without the slightest sign of resistance. I quickly opened my medical case and retrieved the stylus that also acted as a syringe to draw blood samples. I was just about to reach for sterile cloth to clean the area I would make the puncture in when my mate stopped me.

“Let me get that for you,” Amreth offered.

“It’s okay. I got it,” I replied with a grateful smile that froze seconds later.

“I insist!” Amreth said, before putting the Onei back down on the ground so that he could pick up the round container.

“What the fuck?!” I shouted as the little creature took off and vanished in the underbrush.

“Oops?” Amreth said.

I didn’t know what expression was plastered all over my face, but Amreth didn’t stay to ask for explanations and just flapped his wings, flying backward to a safe distance from me. He burst out laughing as a string of curse words tumbled out of my mouth. But even as I itched to throw a big rock so that it would smack him right on that smattering of scales between his main horns, I also got the urge to laugh.

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