Page 24 of Invasive Species
Once I'm done, I jump to standing. “Okay, let’s go catch that chicken. I could do with a run, I have to get moving or I'll freeze to death out here.”
Gara’s shoulders bunch, and he gives me the intense glare thing he does. He mumbles something.
“What was that?” I scrub the towel over my shoulders as we walk. It is really cold today, and I need to keep moving.
“I’m warm. In an emergency, you can… Is this an emergency?”
Gara tongue tied again? Is it my birthday? I hide my smile in my towel. “No, I’m pretty well practiced at cold training.”
His shoulders relax. “So I see.”
We walk a few more steps towards Mae before he asks, “Is lowering your body temperature a common human pastime?”
Whoa, he’s chatty. I snort. “Very few people put themselves through this. I love how it calms my mind while I do it, and afterwards? Makes me feel normal.”
His eyes meet mine, the outer irises as green as rust on iron, the inside a brilliant aquamarine like tropical waters. “How does this ‘normal’ feel?”
“Like I’m drunk but my mind is sharp.” My teeth start to chatter, but I can’t feel how cold I am. Uh-oh.
I wobble a little, and Gara thrusts his arms toward me like he’s going to catch me.
I hold up a hand to stop him. “I’m fine.”
Those sharp eyes study me like I’m… well, a new species.
I belong here, buddy. You’re the invader.
“What did you want to talk to me about?” he asks, chest scales making little clicks as they fit together. Is he bracing himself?
“Yeah. Right. I know I’m annoying and all over the place and… too much all the time. I want to check… Are you mad at me, or just mad in general? Because if it’s me, I can try harder.”
And for the third time today, Gara gapes at me. His scales go light green shading to peach on the edges, glinting like an opal in the sunshine.
Just then, Mae spots us and heads toward the yard with abooming cluck, body balanced between her two new long legs instead of plonked on top. Her neck is longer and her beak more curved and pronounced, and while she’s the size of a medium dog, her long legs put her at the height of a small pony.
I speed up, and Gara keeps pace. “We can talk later. Let’s catch that chicken.”
EIGHT
GARA
We cornerthe mutated bird in her own pen as she tries to run into her hen-house. After repeatedly banging her head and wide body on the doorframe, she emits loud shrieks in protest. I get as close as I dare with that wickedly sharp beak hovering in a threatening manner near us and scan her with my bioreaders.
I’m not sure what the punishment is for harming one of the animals here, but Arra-bellah doesn't condemn me. Instead, she asked me whether I was angry withher. It made me take a mental step back to dissect my feelings. While I hate what females did to us, what they still do to clones, I find I don’t hate Arra-bellah. Far from it.
Arra-bellah hugs a post of the fence surrounding the chickens’ home. She seems relaxed. Females could find fault with anything at any time, and this was a big mistake to make, but from all interactions, I don’t think she’s going to punish me.
“While she’s bigger than a typical Earth chicken, she seems healthy enough,” I allow, bracing myself.
“Well, that’s good news,” she says. “I’m loving the violent purple color emerging under her brown feathers.”
No shouting. No punishment. Finally, I raise my eyes to hers.
Her body still shivers, her hair a riot of loose curls and tangles that falls to the middle of her back when they aren’t being blown by the wind. She looks content, glowing as if possessed of an inner light.
I pull her designs from my pocket, rolled rather than scrunched. Perhaps now is the time to help her prioritize them and input them into the visualizer so we can all see them. I open my mouth to do just that.
“What creature is that?” A voice rumbles behind me. Dom, Arik and Nevare are returning to the lean-to nearby, and I blink at the system star halfway hidden by the horizon. It’s time to stop work already and with all the time I wasted today, I couldn’t even give them their instructions, putting us even further behind on Ilia’s schedule.
