Page 9 of Guardian's Heart

"I'll be back soon," I promised.

With my comm in her pocket, transmitting like a beacon, it shouldn't be too hard to find the little troublemaker. I only had to follow the signal.

"What if you aren't?" Nock questioned as I neared the opening door.

I rolled my eyes. "I'm only going to fetch the human female."

I didn't look back as I exited. The doubt on Nock's face would have made me want to punch him. Despite his annoying presence, there was a part of me that liked him. Well, liked might have been too strong of a word, but ever since our paths had crossed, he had awakened something inside me I couldn't quite define. It wasn't the development of a conscience because, besides having had one before, mine was clear despite Nock's claims otherwise. Certain arguments he had made, though, were hard to process and dispute, like the one where I fully relied on the Ohrurs to do the vetting of my next target. I did possess a strong sense of wrong and right, and to me, criminals gave out a certain aura I homed in on. It was a gift all of us Space Guardians possessed and very helpful in our line of work. I had not andnever would hurt an innocent. It was physically impossible for me to do so. Still, Nock's words about vetting the targets by the Ohrurs had made me think.

According to my comm, the female was in the vicinity of the spaceport, which made perfect sense. She probably hoped to charter a ship and return to her planet.Just let her, she's not worth the trouble, the same voice I had shut down earlier tempted.She has my comm, I retorted,and that I can't leave in her hands. I omitted that I could have simply shut it down, no harm done. The thing was though, that I had been hired through the Ohrur to find and free any humans taken by the Cryons. The orders werethe more, the better, but I hadn't heard anything about an end to this mission. The Pandraxian Emperor was paying one billion credits per mission, per Space Guardian. That was a lot of credits. I wasn't privy to their negotiations though, so he might have worked out a different deal with my minders. It had taken me quite a bit of research to discover these nine had been sold to Monrag. My log would show that I acquired nine of them. If I only returned with eight to the Lord Protector Garth of Astrionis, there could be questions from my minder, and I wasn't willing to stand answer for them. Not when I could easily catch that little trouble comet.

A deep grin spread over my face; actually, I was finally starting to enjoy my mission. I might prolong this hunt just for the fun of it.

I reached the spaceport the same way she had taken, but when I arrived, there wasn't a trace of her. Had she already chartered a ship? With what?

The idea of her selling her body didn't sit well with me, even though I couldn't have said why. It wasn't like she meant anything to me other than being my charge for the moment. Why would I care what my charge did sexually if it didn't endanger the mission?

No, without realizing it, I lifted a hand, don't answer that.

I didn't like where my thoughts were traveling, and the way her presumed sex life might be headed bothered me to the very core. The beacon on the comm was still moving, but not anywhere near here. I looked up and forward. This couldn't be right. There was no way in the Galactic Union that this impossible female would have chosen to enter the forest of her own free will.

The image of a vorathrax or some other predator native to this planet pulling her through the thicket of the woods sat even worse in my stomach than her presumed sexual activity.

"Frygg," I cursed and started running.

NOVA

Whoever had called outto me didn't give chase, a small stroke of luck I was more than thankful for. The moment I stepped through the first outcroppings of the forest, the light dimmed as the tall trees and their wide crowns blocked the rays of the sun.

Soon, the fact that my feet were still barefoot, and I was naked underneath the cloak became apparent to me once again. It happened the moment I stepped on a sharp rock, cutting the sole of my foot.

"Ouch." Cursing, I stopped running and sank onto a moss-covered rock. I lifted my foot to take a look at the damage but was suddenly overcome by the beauty of my alien surroundings.

Foot forgotten, for the time being, I stared at a large tree. Its many roots not only twisted over the ground but up the trunk and branches as well, making it impossible to see if the tree even had a trunk or was just a mass of intertwined roots. The end of each branch carried what appeared to be a small bush; well, small was a relative term since the tree's circumference wasat least twenty feet or more. Half of my apartment could have easily fitted inside it. The thickest branches were at least five feet around and made up of tangled roots. The roots were of a dark, green-blue color, while thebushesatop were green.

Ferns that looked like they could have grown in every forest on Earth were also either green or dark aqua. The ground was littered with them. Same with a vine-like plant in orange and red hues.

Something that reminded me of Spanish moss—which made me so homesick, I felt a deep cramp in my stomach—grew off the trees. Trees that all looked like the one I had been studying, mostly smaller, but in the distance, I made out others that might have been even bigger.

The entire atmosphere and the light breaking hazily through the tree crowns reminded me of the forest I had grown up in. All that was missing was a body of water, like a river or swamp.

I listened to get my bearings. I heard something that reminded me of the trickle of a creek, another the rustle of something small going through the fallen leaves. A few shrill squeaks made me think of birds, but as much as I tried, I couldn't make out any kind of animal life.

I wasn't sure if they stayed away because of the spaceport’s proximity or if life was sparse here; either way, I reminded myself that I wore neither shoes nor had any weapons—a situation I needed to remedy immediately.

Hoping to find something useful, I patted the cloak the silver alien had given me. Discovering a set of pockets, I reached inside, and low and behold, I pulled out a small tablet or phone. That wasn't good. If this were anything like the devices at home, he would be able to track me. In my life before the invasion, I had hacked into databases for a living. Something I was very good at and didn't require me to interact with others too much. No matter how good my skills were, though, I doubted I wouldbe able to hack into an alien tablet and disconnect the tracker. It was a pity, too, because this piece of technology would have probably been very helpful, even valuable.

Alright, so back to the task at hand. The head start I hoped I had made with my escape had just shrunk. Still, I needed to make time to fix my shoeless state. If I hurt my feet any worse, I wouldn't be going anywhere, and I might even catch a nasty infection.

I scrutinized a few of the leaves. Some were pretty thick and sturdy; they might do if I could figure out how to tie them around my foot. I checked on the cut, but thankfully, it wasn't too deep and had already stopped bleeding. Favoring my unhurt foot, I limped over to the tree, making sure not to stumble over any of the roots.

Just in case the tree wasn't really a tree but some kind of alien monster, I talked to it. "Good little tree, I'm not gonna hurt you."

I felt incredibly stupid, but hey, I'd watched my share of alien horror movies.

TheSpanish mosswas indeed made up of slender stems, similar to twine. I pulled on one, but it only came loose after hanging on it with my full weight. It was about five feet long, too long, but there was no way for me to cut it into two, so I had to break off another, which was even longer. It did well, though.

Having the leaves on my feet and feeling the unevenness of the twine with every step wasn't the greatest way of getting around, but at least the soles of my feet were covered for now. I would keep an eye open in case I ran into something more useful.

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