Page 34 of Captured By the Scaled Outlaw
I clench my fists triumphantly, vibrating as I bounce up and down. “That’s amazing. I can’t believe we did it! We’ll have to monitor the Sandpits to make sure that they don’t retreat to the pass once the dust settles. They’re fickle little creatures—”
Lowell’s smile slows to a grimace as he heaves a groan, cutting me off with a raised hand. “Don’t get too excited. We might not make it back to Gaia 4 alive.”
My eyebrows lift, his words not making an iota of sense. “Wait, what? Why not?”
Lowell points to the tent door, his expression obvious. “The sandstorm has been raging for over twenty-four hours, my sandcycle is fucked, and I have no idea where we are. We only have two days of food and water left and are one day away from Gaia 4. My crew won’t be able to reach us until the sandstorm dies down, and by then, you’ll be dead.”
“I’llbe dead?”
Sullen, his lips pinch at the corners. “Lizardfolk can survive without water for much longer than a human can,” he explains, sliding me the only surviving canteen. “And I thought you’d be more shocked by the knowledge that you’ve been incapacitated for twenty-four hours.”
I shrug, uncapping the canteen. “I’ve been knocked out once already this month. It’s stopped being surprising.”
My reply earns a wry smirk from Lowell.
Taking sparing sips of the water, the moisture scrapes against my dry, sand-filled mouth and throat. When I swallow, it hurts.
“How did we get lost? Aren’t we only a short distance away from the main path?” I croak, licking dribbles of liquid from the corners of my lips. I resist using the back of my hand, unwilling to let a single drop go to waste.
He shakes his head. “The strength of the sandstorm gale dragged us far from where we started. I haven’t been able to get a read on the compass.”
I chew my lower lip in worry. “So, we’re lost?”
“Not until I figure out where we are.”
“Which is lost,” I say as my breaths grow shallow, my blood pumping faster. The slapping of sand against the tent grows louder in my ears.
Lowell tosses his head back, strangely relaxed. “We’ll figure it out once the sandcycle is fixed and I determine north. In the meantime—” He points a claw at me. “No panicking. You’ll use up all our good air.”
I smile weakly, carefully pushing the half-full canteen to the side. “It’s difficult not to panic after learning we’re trapped in a flimsy tent with little food or water.” Saying the words out loud only frays my nerves further. Although the full gravity of our situation has not yet set in, I’m already on the verge of a complete anxiety-driven meltdown.
Lowell’s sharp features grow softer after he sighs, jaw flexing. “You have me, so we’ll be alright.”
I scrunch my nose on instinct. “What, are you going to fight the sand? How the hell does that help?”
“You’d rather be alone, then?” Lowell snaps, ruffled. I don’t like that he looks at me as an adult would at a child throwing a tantrum.
I stay silent.
“You may know the desert better on paper, but you don’t know how tosurvivelike I do. You humans think you know everything just because you read it in a book once.” A look of petulance crosses his face as he puffs his cheeks. “If not for me, you’d be buried in a sandy grave.”
I ignore his previous jeering, dismissing it with an eye-roll. “And what exactly do you mean by that?” I ask pointedly. “All I remember is you letting go of the handles when the sandstorm started to form — one that we could have just driven through.”
Lowell lies down on his back, placing a hand behind his head. “We were going to fall no matter what. The beginning of the storm was already leagues ahead of us, and even at full speed, we’d never outrun it. The only variable was whether we would get trampled by the Orageist Giant or not, so I removed the variable.”
I lean closer to Lowell’s face, angered and confused. “By making us fall sooner? Great plan.”
He scoffs, wincing when he does so. “No, by protecting your soft little human body with mine, dumbass.”
My face drops in surprise. I have no memory of the fall, but that was not the resolution I imagined. I knew we’d been launched from the cycle, but I would have guessed that he only came back for my body after the fact, forgetting I was even here.
Protecting me? There is no chance of that reality.
“No chance that’s true,” is all I can say.
Averting his gaze, I swear I see a flush of pink dusting over his scaled cheeks. “I let go of the handles early so I could coil you inside of mybody. By doing that, I’d take the majority of the impact. What else are Lizardfolk scales good for?” he says with a bashful laugh.
“Obviously not a lot,” I reply, motioning to the cut above his eye.
