Page 73 of Brody
“Your heroism has limits after all.”I grinned.“And here I thought you’d wrestle a Swarmer naked just to impress me.”
He pressed a hand to his heart.“I’d at least wear pants.I’m not a savage.”
Twenty minutes later, we’d packed our gear and stood ready at the dwelling’s threshold.Brody had added a jacket over his Henley, though the memory of what lay beneath those layers lingered vividly in my mind.
“We should reach the COL by midday if we maintain a steady pace,” he said, shouldering his pack.I noticed the tremor in his left hand was more pronounced this morning, a fact I cataloged with clinical concern and something else I refused to acknowledge.
“The sooner we get there, the sooner we can collect samples,” I replied, adjusting my own pack.I’d spent some time organizing collection containers, labeled and ready for whatever plants we might discover growing near the Mother Spring.
“Stay close today,” he said as we stepped outside, his tone leaving no room for argument.“The Swarmer activity yesterday was unusual.They’re normally solitary hunters.”
“Maybe they’re mating,” I suggested again.
His lips quirked in a half smile.“Only you would immediately think about the reproductive habits of venomous predators.”
“It’s a logical consideration,” I said, ignoring the warmth that spread through me with his smile.“Unlike some species I could name, I don’t have a one-track mind.”
“Says the woman who spent five minutes staring at my data point this morning.”
“Oh, please.”I scoffed, hiding my smile as we began walking.“Three minutes, max.I’m very efficient.”
The path grew steeper as we climbed, the forest around us changing subtly.The trees here were older, massive trunks gnarled into shapes that seemed almost deliberate.Moss glowed with increasing brightness, the blue luminescence visible even in daylight.The air felt different too, thicker, charged with potential like the moments before a lightning strike.
“We’re getting closer,” Brody said, his voice hushed with reverence.“The COL’s energy affects everything around it.”
My rational brain screamed that this was impossible, but my eyes couldn’t deny what stood before me.Exotic flowers erupted from the earth in a riot of colors I’d never seen in nature, violent purples, electric blues, and oranges so vivid they almost hurt to look at.Vines twisted up tree trunks in perfect spirals, as if someone had meticulously trained each tendril by hand.
“This isn’t natural,” I whispered, more to myself than anyone else.
The blue moss grew thicker as we ascended, carpeting everything in its path.Its eerie glow synchronized with my racing heartbeat, brightening with each step I took upward.The air felt charged, electric against my skin.
“Look at this,” I said, crouching to examine a cluster of flowers growing in a perfect spiral pattern.“These are arranged exactly like the diagram in Una’s journal, but clearer.”
Brody knelt beside me, his proximity sending an unwelcome jolt of awareness through my system.“Una theorized that plants near the COL grow in concentric circles, each species occupying a specific distance from the source.”
“Like a natural mandala,” I murmured.“I need samples from each ring to analyze their relationship to the water.”
The air grew increasingly still as we ascended, the forest sounds fading until all I could hear was our breathing and the occasional distant drip of water.Even the birds had gone silent.The absence of natural noise made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.
Then I heard it, a rumble that vibrated through my bones rather than my ears.My cheetah recoiled instinctively, hackles raised in warning.
“Brody,” I whispered, muscles tensing.
“I know,” he replied, his voice equally low.“Swarmers.They’re communicating.We’re being hunted.”
The first Swarmer attacked without warning, dropping from the canopy above with lethal precision.The massive beast, easily standing seven feet tall on all fours, landed with surprising silence for something so large.Its midnight-blue fur seemed to absorb the surrounding light, creating a visual void against the forest backdrop.
Brody shoved me aside, rolling in the opposite direction as massive claws slashed through the space where we’d been standing.The Swarmer’s wide maw gaped open to reveal rows of razor-sharp teeth as it roared, the bone-rattling sound causing my vision to momentarily blur.
Five more creatures emerged from the surrounding forest, their movements eerily synchronized.Each stood as tall as the first, with broad, flat skulls featuring multiple pairs of eyes that glowed an unnerving bioluminescent teal even in daylight.I noticed they had no visible ears, but sound-sensitive bristles covered their necks and shoulders, twitching and adjusting with each noise we made.
My mind raced even as I prepared to fight.Six limbs.Retractable, venomous claws.
“Back-to-back,” Brody ordered, his voice dropping to that register that sent shivers down my spine despite our dire situation.I pressed against him, drawing strength from his heat.
“Don’t let their claws break skin,” I said, thinking of the paralytic venom.“Aim for the joint between head and thorax.That’s their vulnerable point.”
The creatures circled us, communicating through those bone-rattling subsonic frequencies that made my teeth ache.I could sense their intelligence in the way they positioned themselves, not random aggression but coordinated strategy.The pack was clearly setting up an ambush pattern, two creatures feinting forward while others moved to cut off escape routes.
