Page 78 of Heart’s Prisoner

Slowly she rose from the bed and went to the door. Hesitant, she listened for any sound but didn't hear movement from outside. Regaining her composure, she opened the door and walked back out into the main room but found it empty.

"Xerus?" she called. She went through each room and hall but he was nowhere. He must have left while she was sleeping. She slipped back into the original bedroom then into the bathroom where he had bathed and found the water drained from the tub. Something shiny glittered on the surface at the very bottom. Frowning, Lana reached down and found a sharp, blood-red scale in her hand, a little smaller than her palm. It must have shed from Xerus when he bathed. She clasped it in her hand and found it oddly cool and smooth. Like a thin, yet hard gem. She flipped it in her fingers, realizing she still didn't know everything about him. Only the finest of details. Their sessions together had been cut short. But now, with her waiting for the parasite to be destroyed and for them to escape, she might still have her chance before he likely left her for good.

Lana squeezed the scale determinedly then left the bathroom. She put on a t-shirt and a pair of pants then hid the scale in one of the pockets before leaving the room.

***

"I just think since we are here for an unknowable amount of time we could continue where we left off," Lana said to Xerus as he dropped a few bags on the ground, searching through them. "And since it doesn't matter anymore, we could learn the things we didn't get to before."

Xerus huffed. "Siv xia essira nika li." Something about how he didn't care to be studied anymore. Lana quickly protested.

"No, no nothing like that. I was only ordered to try to study you. I just want to talk, is all. I just want to know more."

"Why?" he asked.

"For...for personal reasons. Because I'm curious."

Xerus took out more cans of food and set them on the bar, then he brought out a set of tools from the bag and laid them on the ground, looking over them carefully. He didn't show any emotion about the other night. In fact, he barely looked at her.

"I'll tell you anything you want to know. Okay, maybe you don't care. But I'm saying you have no reason now to keep anything from me," she said, vying for his attention.

Xerus did look at her then. "What makes you so sure?"

Lana opened her mouth then closed it firmly. Xerus let out a short hiss of breath.

"Reasi, if you must know." He mumbled something about humans and their damn insatiable curiosity. Lana didn't care, she grinned from ear to ear.

"But one condition," he said. "You have to listen in my language."

***

They made a spot in the main room to settle. Xerus worked on the parts to some unrecognizable device she couldn't yet identify as he spoke slowly, answering her questions. Now with the newfound power to ask anything she liked, Lana took complete advantage, nearly bursting with questions, many she had since the beginning.

The first she asked was what his race was called.

"Xil Vrisha," he said.

"The Vrisha," Lana repeated. "Is that the name of your planet also?"

Xerus shook his head. "Tryth."

Lana leaned forward. "And what's it like?"

Xerus stopped what he was doing for a moment to look over at the fake scenery at the back wall, still showing a luxurious ocean coastline.

"Essa vi nek." Not like that, he said. He described a scene more like a tropical wilderness with deep caves and dark jungles. Black and red deserts and bottomless craters.

"Sounds...a little scary." Lana laughed. Xerus grunted.

"Feela ni Vrisha." It fit his people. He then told her a story about a time when he was younger and he and his brothers went into the jungles to catch what he called aGris.A giant, squid-like creature with tusks. Its deadly poison was one of the few things that could kill a Vrisha almost instantly. And for that they saw it as a formidable foe worth respect. They even gave it tribute at one of their festivals.

"You praise an enemy?" Lana asked, bewildered.

Xerus nodded. "Veradis taught to praise those with strength and power, especially if they nearly equaled our own.Teris xi vreesha."Strength is survival.

"So you fought it and what?" Lana asked.

He told her they had found one after five days and killed it then brought it back home, turning its poisonous barbs into weapons. They then each fought in a ritual battle against others of their pack using the weapons. Those who lost died, those who won were given their first ranks.

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