Page 49 of Planet Zero
And beneath Oh’na’s physically different appearance and a vastly divergent world she inhabited, Addie saw a small child who struggled. By no means timid, Oh’na needed reassurance badly. It showed in Oh’na’s awkward attempts at physical contact, in the covert glances she threw Addie’s way to check if Addie was watching her, and in her intense desire to please.
With a sinking feeling, Addie had to acknowledge that she had developed a fondness for this girl. How did it happen? In her calculated attempts to make friends with For people, Addie’s only goal had been to not feel so alone. Selfishly, she had wanted to find a tribe for protection, for help with survival skills, for occasional company. She had never anticipated seeing soulful beings inside the creatures.
She had never intended to love any of them.
They walked right into the settlement before Addie realized it, so engrossed she’d become in her introspection. She quickly scanned the area for a sign of yellow robes. If he spotted her, Chemmusaayl would kick her ass out, and this time he might not stop at words to do it.
Zoark and Oh’nil proceeded inward, ignoring Addie.
“I think I will go back now.”
“No, wait!” Oh’na ran to Chele’s teepee and dragged the older woman out. “Look at Addie,” she could barely talk for the fits of giggles. “She is sparkling! She's going to sprout seedlings for all this pollen. Like a pearly moss!”
Self-conscious, Addie turned her face, not so much to hide the iridescent pollen as to avoid attracting attention to her person.
Chele wrinkled her shortish nose and smiled. “It will take days to get it off your skin.”
“Great,” Addie muttered.
A Yuux screeched above.
The ground near Oh’na and Melmie erupted in a spray of rocky dirt, peppering Addie’s sparkly skin with sharp shards of gravel, throwing sand into her eyes.
High-pitched screams of women mixed with low, hoarse curses of men. Children wailed.
Everybody ran.
Addie was shoved aside, pushed away from the splintering ground, dragged deeper into the village by someone. Blinking madly to clear the grit from her eyes, she turned in time to see a great gray body slither from underground, its toothy mouth-end wiggling and vibrating, working to pinpoint the closest prey.
Melmie and Oh’na were the closest prey. And they were both already encircled by the Wrennlin’s serpentine body.
Melmie held still, semi-crouched, eyes wide, nostrils fluttering with each indrawn breath. The Wrennlin’s long body continued to emerge in a coiling motion.
Oh’na crouched next to Melmie, her face a mask of terror.
Addie grasped the arm of whoever was near - Chele? - and whispered, “We need to distract it, let the girls escape.”
In response, she was pulled further away from the Wrennlin.
“Be quiet, Addie. Or it will kill us all.” There was a catch to Chele’s voice.
“But Oh’na! Melmie…”
“Be quiet!”
The Wrennlin’s mouth-end pointed towards them, a sensitive monster. Chele went rock-still next to Addie. “Do. Not. Move,” she mouthed into her ear.
Addie held her breath, staring at the creature’s nightmarish eye-less “face” with flappy pinkish-gray “lips.” It wasn’t as huge as the Wrennlin that killed Sathe, but it was big enough. It was alone. For now.
Using the beast’s momentary distraction, Melmie burst into motion, leaping over the serpent’s coils and racing away like a powerful cheetah, legs pumping, feet striking the ground with light steps almost impossible to trace with the naked eye. In a split second, she was gone. Free.
The Wrennlin frantically wiggled its head, emitting a gurgling wail, bending low in a sweeping locator motion.
As if on cue, Oh’na jumped up and tried to rush out of the snake circle the same way Melmie had. But the slithering gray body moved, spooking her and causing her to stumble. Oh’na’s short legs tripped on the uneven ground and she went sprawling, surrounded by the great snake whose head finally pinpointed her.
Chele’s indrawn breath was the only reaction; otherwise, she hadn't moved a muscle.
They aren’t going to help, the thought shot through Addie’s mind like lightning.The Rule of the Fallen.
