Page 8 of Treasure of the Abyss

He cocked his head. His down-facing, tubular ears shifted toward her. He advanced through chest-high water. Anything below the surface was lost in thedarkness.

“Can you understandme?”

His brow lowered. “Why would I not understand?” The creature’s voice emanated from his chest; deep andrumbling.

Macy’s eyes widened — not solely at the sound of his voice, or that he spoke English, but because she glimpsed sharp, pointed teeth in his mouth. She wrapped her arms around her legs again. “You’re not going to hurt me, areyou?”

His gaze dipped to her legs. “Not unless you give mereason.”

Dread flowed through her, but she swallowed it back. “You savedme.”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because I have never seen one of you upclose.”

“One of…me?”

His eyes roamed over her again, pupils flattening further as he moved fully into the light. His muscles rippled beneath his skin, and his torso angled forward as heapproached.

Was he walking along the bottom or swimming? There was an unevenness to his movement that Macy couldn’t place, an oddness to his rhythm she’d neverseen.

“Human.”

“You’ve never seen…never seen ahumanbefore?” she asked, trailing her gaze over his broad shoulders and chest. His skin was a few shades darker at his shoulders, sides, and waist, naturally drawing her eyeslower.

“I said I have neverseenone of you up close. Aren’t those things on the sides of your head forlistening?”

Macy narrowed her eyes. “They’re called ears. How do you know English if you’ve never been aroundhumans?”

“What isEnglish?”

“The language we’respeaking.”

He narrowed his eyes, mimicking her expression. “It is the language my people have always spoken…in theair.”

Macy frowned. How was it this creature knew her language? The old records had reported no sapient life on Halora before the colonization; had they missedsomething?

“Who are yourpeople?”

“They are of no concern toyou.”

Shifting onto her knees, Macy crawled closer to the water. “Do you have a name, atleast?”

His wide mouth turned down in a slight frown. “I am called Jax, human. TheWanderer.”

Somehow, she found a touch of humor in the situation and smiled. “My name isn’thuman. It’s Macy. TheGardener.”

A scintillating flash of red-brown rippled over his skin. “You mock me,human?”

Macy stared at his body in stunned fascination for several seconds before forcing her eyes back to his. “N-no. Why would you think I’m mockingyou?”

“Wanderer. Gardener,” he said through bared teeth. The black stripes on his head and shoulders shifted to a vibrant indigo. “You are creating words to insultme.”

She retreated from the edge of the island. He spoke the same language as she did, and many of his features were humanlike, but hewasn’thuman. Clearly, a communication barrier remained betweenthem.

“I didn’t make it up. A gardener is someone who tends to plants. That’s what Ido.”

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