Page 29 of Crash Landing
I rushed forward, putting my hands on her arms to steady her.
“Sam?” I said, concerned.
“I’m just tired. But you’re awake. Thank God.”
I smelled blood and it wasn’t mine. I searched her body to find her hand wrapped in layers of bandages, but that didn’t stop the red from soaking through. I lifted her hand in front of me, turning it over.
“What’s this?”
“One of those fucking bugs jabbed me with his little pokey thing.”
“Bugs?”
“Yeah. There were tons of them. That’s why I brought you here instead of staying on the bank.”
“Youbroughtme here? Sam, I’m more than twice your size. How’d you bring me anywhere?”
“Used the water.” She gestured with her hand in a weird, wavey motion. “We just sort of drifted along. But, um… I’m so tired now. I got these.” She showed me her jar of seeds. “You guys use them for medical stuff. I was thinking it might help with whatever it is I’m feeling.”
“What are you feeling?”
“Out of breath,” she shrugged. “Dehydrated. Cold. All the things.”
“That’s because you probably got stung by a nuk nah.”
“A nuka what?”
“A nuk nah.”
“Am I dying? Is a nick nack bad?”
“No, but their venom keeps your blood from coagulating for a while.”
“Shit, why is every creature here so pokey and poisonous?”
“Venomous.”
“Whatever. Oh! Except for that big monkey giraffe thing.”
“The what?”
“It was tall with a long face and it walked on its knuckles.”
“A kri’kal tal?”
“I don’t know what the words are that you say, Saleuk. It was a big thing with big eyes and it climbed a tree.”
I chuckled at her. The way she spoke so freely was something that hadn’t changed in the time we’d been apart and after seeing her behavior with the researcher, I thought she might have lost that fire. I was glad to see she hadn’t.
I led her over to a slab of stone that was probably once a shiny bench and sat her down. Sitting beside her, I unwrapped her tight bindings to look at the wound on the top of her hand. It was smeared with blood, but no longer bleeding, thank the stars. As pale as she looked, she probably didn’t have much more blood to give.”
“This works on smaller animals to make them bleed out so the nuk nah can feed, but thankfully, you’re not a smaller animal and you’re not bleeding anymore.”
“Oh good. Should I eat these?” she asked, holding up her seeds.
I snatched them away. “No. Unless they’re processed right, they’ll give you a high you probably wouldn’t enjoy. What you need is food and water and rest.”
“I have protein bars. But I’m out of water.”
