Page 59 of Tharn's Hunt
Jus-teen snorts, the sound loud in the quiet cave. A clear image flashes from her mind to mine: a creature made of nothing but black lines. Two for legs, two for arms, a circle for a head, swaying with exhaustion, suddenly tripping over nothing and landing flat on its face with a silent thud. The line creature has my distinctive tracker's markings on its back.
“It means you will fall,” Jus-teen projects, her thought laced with deep amusement. “On your face.”
My posture straightens. My gaze shifts to Jah-kee's sleeping form, then back to Jus-teen. My exhaustion is a betrayal I will not admit.
"I will not fall," I project, the vow a solid, steady thing.
A small smile plays on Jus-teen's lips, and she shakes her head slowly. A wave of fond exasperation washes from her mind into mine. “Okay, big guy,” she projects, the words soft with amusement. "Whatever you say."
Rok's amusement ripples through the mindspace like wind over the dust, and I get the distinct impression he approves of how his female teases me. "Come, Jus-teen," he says, rising tohis feet and extending a claw to help her up. "Let us give my brother space to prove he is as sturdy as he claims."
They move deeper across the cave and I watch them go, noting the easy way they move together, the casual way Rok's hand settles at the small of Jus-teen's back.
And I wonder.
What is it like to be so comfortable with another being? To have such ease between you? To feel the light connecting you, strong and unbreakable?
My gaze returns to Jah-kee's sleeping form. Will she ever want that? With me? Or will she, once recovered, wish to return to her own kind, her own world?
I have seen images of her planet. So much water. Why would any being want to remain here, in the dust, where every drop is scarce and precious?
The thought sends a spike of pain through my chest so sharp I nearly gasp aloud.
I do not wish to contemplate such things. Not now. Not while the memory of her burning skin against mine, her fading presence in the mindspace, is still so fresh.
Instead, I settle more comfortably against the wall, my eyes never leaving her face, and prepare for a long vigil.
I must have sleptafter all, for I wake with a start to find the cave dimmer, Ain's light barely streaming through the entrance. My neck aches from the awkward angle, my muscles stiff from too long in one position.
But these discomforts fade to nothing when I see Jah-kee's eyes are open, watching me.
"Hey," she vocalizes, her voice weak but clear. "You look terrible."
The sound of her voice sends a wave of relief through me so powerful I nearly sway with it. My dra-kir pounds against my ribs, the golden glow beneath my skin flaring brighter in response to her wakefulness.
"Jah-kee!" I am by her side in an instant.
“I’m here.” She smiles faintly, the expression lighting her pale face. "Alive, too. Thanks to you." She tries to sit up, wincing with the effort. "Though I feel like I've been run over by a truck."
Faint images. So faint as she vocalizes. A hulking thing of unnatural angles and shrieking metal, rolling on circular limbs that crush everything in their path.Dust. What world breeds such monstrous moving things? One of my hands hovers near her shoulder as if to protect her from it, but I am uncertain if I should touch her.
"Care-ful," I vocalize as best as I can, having heard Jus-teen say the same in the many solmarks that she bent here tending to her. But the human word is still awkward on my tongue.
Jah-kee looks up at me, surprise flickering across her features. "You're getting better at talking," she vocalizes. "I understood that perfectly."
Is that...approval?
Pride swells in my chest, though I know such a simple accomplishment hardly merits it.
Jah-kee's smile widens, and my dra-kir stumbles in its rhythm. Has her smile always affected me this way? Or is it merely relief at seeing her recovered?
"Where are we?" she asks, glancing around the cave. "Is this where Justine's been? Is she here?"
I recognize Jus-teen’s name and lift my head, scanning the cave as if she might appear at the sound of it.
"Did we make it?" Jah-kee breathes, her eyes widening. The hope there is unmistakable, fragile but blazing. "You brought me all the way here. Through the desert. While I was..." She trails off, her gaze dropping to her hands, which tremble slightly against the stone beneath her. "I don't remember much. Just... the fever. And dreams."
I tilt my head, her thoughts still that hazy imprint in the mindspace. Perhaps only facilitated by the fever fog that consumed her. It has not fully cleared.
