Page 66 of Rok's Captive
As I step toward the entrance, preparing to leave, I stop short. Like a hook embedded in my chest pulling me backward, I return to Jus-teen’s side.
Strange.
I try again, but this time, with each step away from her, the feeling intensifies, a growing pain that has no source I can identify. I check my chest, but there is no wound.
“Must be the beginnings of mind sickness.” I should not make such a joke. Mind sickness is truly debilitating.
I cannot imagine not being able to communicate with my clan. To be shut out. To lose the single thing that would keep me connected to?—
I freeze, understanding flooding through me like fresh water.
Jus-teen. The strange stone in her ear. The one I destroyed.
I did not understand her words when I crushed it, but I understood her eyes. The hurt. The despair. The fury. A storm of emotions raged across her face, all because of what I did.
The stone spoke in vocalizations like hers. Was that stone her connection? Was it communicating with her? And did I…destroy her hopes of this communication?
The thought settles like a boulder in my gut. I have lived my entire life connected to my clan through mind-speak, never truly alone, even when physically separated. But she—she is utterly isolated. The lone daughter of Ain. Dropped on a world with creatures she cannot speak to.
And I made it worse.
I still do not trust that ear stone. Still believe it was dangerous, unnatural. But I regret the pain I saw in her eyes. I regret causing her more suffering when she has already endured so much.
The memory of the water flowing freely from her eyes…I do not want to see such a sight again. Anything to prevent that.
I must make amends. Must hunt for her, bring her better nourishment than fire blooms, find water to replace what she has lost. Show her through actions what I cannot tell her through vocalizations or mind speak.
I turn back to the cave entrance, determined now, but the pain in my chest immediately flares again—sharper, more insistent, demanding I return to her side.
Cursed dust.
I pause at the cave entrance and look back again. She has not moved, has not awakened. But the pain grows more intense with each beat of mydra-kir.
This is…not normal. Not right. I am a scout and a hunter. I leave the clan caves for sols, sometimes several at a time, tracking prey across the vast dust. I have never felt this…tether before. This invisible vine binding me to another being. Not even to my brothers.
I try again, forcing myself to take another step into the dust. The pain sears, white-hot now, making my nostrils flare, and the glow beneath my skin rises and flickers erratically.
I try to dim it. My skin does not listen to me.
My gaze shifts back to the female. I…cannot leave her.
I return to the cave, moving silently to her side, and without conscious decision, I find myself sinking down beside her. Carefully, mindful of her delicate form, I gather her into my arms, cradling her against my chest as I did when carrying her through the dust.
The moment she is against me, the pain vanishes. Just…gone, as if it never existed, replaced by a sense of rightness, of completion, that I have never known before.
She stirs slightly, her face pressing against my chest, but does not wake. Her breath is warm against my skin, herdra-kirbeating a quick, light rhythm I can feel through the thin hide she wears.
What is this? What is happening to me?
I have no answers, only questions that pile like dust in a storm, swirling and obscuring any clarity I might find. All I know with certainty is that I cannot leave her, cannot be separated from her without experiencing that strange, pulling pain.
She shifts in my arms, murmuring something in her sleep, her hand coming up to rest against my chest, directly over the place where that strange pain had centered. The glow beneath my skin pulses gently beneath her palm, responding to her touch again without my input.
I sit with her like this for what feels like an eternity, watching her breathe, feeling the warmth of her against me, trying to understand this new reality in which I find myself bound.
The light in the cave shifts as Ain continues her journey across the sky. Soon, it will be dusk. The most dangerous time in the dust, when the day hunters return to their dens and the night predators emerge, hungry for the first meal of their waking hours.
We cannot stay here. The fire blooms are nearly gone, and without water, neither of us will survive much longer. I must hunt. Must find sustenance. But I cannot leave her.
