Page 7 of Hunter of the Tide

“Let’s go get this little guy checked out,” Aymee said when she reemerged.

They walked to the infirmary together. It was the most familiar room in the building for Randall, who’d spent his first two weeks in the Facility laid up in one of these beds, receiving daily shots filled with chemicals he couldn’t name to speed along his recovery. Being bedridden for all that time had taken a toll on his body, but the hardest part had been watching Arkon recover from more severe wounds in a matter of days.

Aymee walked to the closest bed and placed a folded blanket atop the sheet. “Go ahead and lay him down,” she said as she swung the overhead scanner into place.

Randall removed Ikaros from the water. The prixxir clamped onto Randall’s hand, trembling in the open air, and didn’t let go once he was down.

“Will my hand be in the way?” he asked.

“Just shift it to the side.” She activated the scanner. “Okay, little guy, let’s see what’s going on.”

The scanner projected numerous thin beams of light onto Randall’s hand and the prixxir within his gentle grasp, revealing intricate webs of blood vessels beneath skin and scale.

As Aymee adjusted the scanner, it displayed more of the underlying anatomy. The damage to the muscles of the prixxir’s hindquarters was apparent, but the nearby bones looked undamaged.

Ikaros made a whining sound and dug his claws into Randall’s skin.

Randall shifted his finger to pet the underside of Ikaros’s jaw. The prixxir angled his head to close his mouth over Randall’s fingertip again, gnawing softly. Was he doing that to comfort himself?

Aymee switched off the scanner and pushed it away. Leaning down, she ran a hand along his scaled back. “Nothing serious. I can clean and seal the wounds, and he’ll be good as new in no time.”

“Will it hurt him?”

“I can apply an anesthetic around the wounds to numb the surrounding area. That should help. I don’t want to risk injecting him in case he has an adverse reaction.”

“All right. Let’s do it.”

Randall held the prixxir in place as Aymee worked. Ikaros clenched his jaw, his little claws and teeth biting into Randall’s skin. Randall got the sense that, despite being wounded and frightened, the prixxir was trying to keep from doing him harm.

After she’d sealed the wounds, Aymee wrapped a bandage around the newly healed skin and looked at Randall. “Try to keep him from scratching or biting the area for a day or two to make sure he doesn’t open those back up.”

“I’ll do what I can.” Randall lifted Ikaros off the bed and gently pried his hand out of the prixxir’s hold. Tiny beads of blood welled where his skin had been broken.

“We should probably get those cleaned up, too.”

“It’s nothing to fuss over, Aymee.”

“I’m not fussing. However small, those were made by a wild animal. Do you really want to chance an infection?” Aymee’s expression communicated her stance clearly —argue with me at your own risk.

Ikaros settled himself along Randall’s forearm, leaning his chin into Randall’s gently rubbing fingers.

Randall placed his free hand atop Aymee’s rolling cart.

“How are you doing, Randall?” she asked as she disinfected the little punctures.

“I’m alive,” he replied, and then hesitated. She didn’t need to be burdened by his troubles, but everything felt so complicated, so confusing. His life spent on the hunt hadn’t been easy, but at least it had been straightforward. This was all new territory for him. “I guess I feel…lost, though. Trapped. And part of me feels like I should’ve died a couple times over by now.”

“I’m glad you didn’t,” she said, setting the disinfectant aside. “I know this isn’t what you planned for, or what you wanted, but think of it as a new start. You’ve earned the trust of some of the kraken, and that goes a long way. You have a place here, Randall, you just need to figure out what you want it to be.”

“Easier said than done, I guess. How did you deal with giving everything up? How’d you just leave your old life and accept this one?”

“Because I have hope.” Aymee stared at Ikaros silently for a moment. “It might be wishful thinking, but I hope, someday, kraken and humans will come together peacefully. I’d like to go back home. I enjoy my time here, but I miss the sun, I miss land, and most of all, I miss my family. I think I put a lot of stress on my father, too. He’s the only doctor in The Watch, and it’s all on his shoulders now that I’m gone.” She met Randall’s gaze. “But if I have to choose, I’ll always pick Arkon. Does that make me selfish?”

The question was harder to answer than Randall might’ve thought. Most everyone he’d talked to in The Watch had said Aymee was a kind woman, always willing to help in whatever way she could. What did it mean that she’d chosen Arkon over everyone and everything she’d known? What was it like to have someone so devoted that they’d give upeverythingfor you?

“If it does, it’s the best reason for selfishness I can think of,” he finally replied.

“That’s good to hear,” Aymee said with a smile. “I better get back to Arkon.” She petted Ikaros before placing her hand over Randall’s. “It might not feel like it, but you’re not alone here, Randall.”

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