Page 19 of Captured
Yellow eyes turn to me as Rakir finishes cleaning the second prey. Behind him, the blood spreads then disappears in the clear water of the lake.
“Food,” Rakir repeats, handing me the two freshly cleaned and skinned prey. They don’t churn my stomach so much now that they don’t look so asleep.
We lock eyes and for a moment, I don’t need a translator to understand him.
You’re still my enemy. I don’t trust you. I can’t tell you anything.
That’s what his gaze says. It’s only rational that he refuses to give me any information. But it stings. It feels like rejection and it takes all my self-control not to be angered by it.
After all, I’ve done much worse. I blew his fucking ship up just after he saved my life. I haven’t exactly proven myself to be worthy of trust.
“Fine,” I mutter, gathering the precious food and moving closer to the fire. I can see he prepared everything. Long, straight sticks wait on the side while two larger branches are stuck in the ground, a wide V carved in the middle.
A roasting pit, albeit a primitive one. I feel every bit as clumsy as I am as I impale the creatures on the sticks, trying not to get any sand stuck to them, then place them on the roasting pit.
It’s an hour before we eat and when we do, we do it in silence. It’s strange how easy it is with him, this total stranger. We just sit down and eat, with no need to fill the space between us with words. Not that a real conversation is possible anyway.
When the prey are down to dry bones, I sit back, a satisfied smile on my lips. A comfortable warmth fills my belly, chasing the cold of the night away.
At my side, Rakir seems to share my satisfaction. He braces his hands on the rocks as he stares at the starry sky. For a moment, the world seems perfect.
No more war. No more enemies and hatred. Just Rakir and I under the heavens with our bellies full and our minds at ease.
Then something rustles in the forest beyond the shore. I freeze, the hair on my arms suddenly standing straight.
Rakir goes to his feet in a single, fluid motion. He stands, his focus entirely on the deep, forbidding darkness of the forest. I have the feeling he knows what’s out there.
My mind circles back to the small animals Rakir hunted for us. They were prey. And prey means predators.
Not for the first time, a long, deep shiver runs up my spine, but this one has nothing to do with the cool wind over my naked skin.
“What is it?” I ask, but Rakir doesn’t even bother turning to me.
I scan the darkness, as liquid and impenetrable as the void of space. There’s nothing to see here, nothing to hear, even. The hair on my arms stands straight up and my skin erupts in goosebumps as I come to stand beside Rakir. He doesn’t look at me, but I see him tense as I inch closer.
“No,” he finally says. “Safe.”
He points vaguely to the fire, and I know he wants me to wait there, but I don’t move. I can’t see them, can’t hear them, but the primitive part of me can feel them. Predators - or predator - lurking in the shadows, waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike.
I’m suddenly glad I’m here, with Rakir, near a fire and my belly full of food instead of alone in the mountains.
Just then, the night moves in front of my eyes. A black form, large as a horse, detaches itself from the uniform darkness of the forest. It moves like a phantom, a long, fluid body impossibly graceful as its six legs brace on the rocks. Four beady, black eyes reflect the light of the fire as its gaze pans Rakir and me, full of curiosity and challenge.
“Move.” Rakir says, his voice even and controlled, but his eyes blazing with violence and fury.
I don’t have to be told twice. I scuttle backward, refusing to turn my back on the unknown predator, inching as close as I dare to the fire.
Rakir stands his ground, his body powerful and foreboding, his skin exuding raw power. The creature moves like the night itself, its skin as black as a starless sky, stalking closer. It’s not just curious as before, no. There’s a challenge in its posture, an anger at the defiance Rakir’s very presence constitutes.
This is the apex predator in these parts. A cruel tyrant, reigning over the forest and the mountain, ruling with claws and fangs.
And it’s come to wipe out the new competition.
