Page 50 of Tharn's Hunt
Oh.
I wake with a silent gasp in the predawn dark, the desert air cool against my flushed skin. My pulse thrums in places I'm tryingvery hardnot to think about.
Tharn sits where I last saw him, but something's different. His posture, usually so alert, seems... softer somehow. Less guarded.
He's staring into the dead fire, his expression distant, almost melancholy. The glow beneath his skin is dimmer than I've seen it before, pulsing slowly like a fading heartbeat.
He looks... lonely.
The realization makes something in my chest ache. Of course, he's lonely. He's stranded out here with a being he can barely communicate with, diverted from his path, injured, exhausted. He's probably missing his tribe, his home, his people.
And yet, he's never complained. Never shown frustration at having to care for me, protect me, guide me. He's just... done it. Willingly. Patiently.
Why?
Duty? Honor? Some alien code of ethics I don't understand?
Or something else?
I watch him silently, the question turning over in my mind. His profile in the dying light is striking—the strong line of his jaw, the slope of his forehead, the copper-auburn hair that falls in loose waves to his shoulders. He's unlike anything I've ever seen, and yet, in this moment, he seems so... human. So vulnerable.
I almost call out to him, almost break the silence with his name. But something stops me. This feels like a private moment, a glimpse of Tharn when he thinks no one is watching. A side of him I'm not sure he'd want me to see.
So I remain quiet, my breathing even, pretending to sleep while my mind races.
What am I to him? A burden? A duty?
And the question that makes my own heart ache in the darkness…
What is he becoming to me?
Chapter 15
SHE…THINKS ABOUT MY MUSCLES
THARN
My dra-kir beats too quickly for a hunter at rest.
Many sols have passed since we left the cave of fireblooms. Many sols of constant vigilance, of scanning horizons for threats, of watching Jah-kee's small form for signs of weakness or pain. Many sols of growing awareness that something inside me has fundamentally changed.
The tether between us grows stronger with each passing moment. It is no longer just the light beneath my skin that responds to her presence. It iseverything.My senses heightened to catch the faintest change in her scent, my ears tuned to the rhythm of her breathing, my body instinctively positioning itself between her and any potential danger.
I find myself watching her when she does not notice. Watching the way Ain’s light catches in her head-fur. Observing how her water-blue eyes narrow when she concentrates, how her small teeth catch her lower lip when she's uncertain.
These details should mean nothing to a hunter. Yet I catalogue them as carefully as I would track prey across the dust.
It is... unsettling.
More unsettling still are the glimpses I've begun to catch of her thoughts. Not true mindspeak, but flashes. When she looked at the stars, I felt her wonder. When she stumbled and I caught her, I felt her gratitude. These moments are brief, but I have begun to hunger for them.
And now, as we begin another sol's journey, I find myself searching for more. Hungering for them in a way that makes my instincts bristle with warning.
This is not the way of a hunter. Not the way of the clan.
I push the thoughts aside as I guide Jah-kee through the dust. Ain is already high overhead and Jah-kee moves beside me, her stride shorter than it was at dawn. Her breathing comes quicker. Her skin pushing those tiny beads of water from her pores.
She is weakening, and the waterskin is nearly empty. She will suffer because I failed to provide.
