Chapter 6—Human
(La’el)
I couldn’t stop shaking. I was so cold.
Why was I so cold? I’ve never been cold before.
The soft caress of Sena’s hand over my stomach made a warmth surge inside me, pooling deeper between my legs. Hard, heated skin pressed against my back, rubbing close to my tail. Groaning, I pushed closer to the warm flesh rubbing into my spine. Shuddering, I remembered the taste of his essence as I licked it from his skin last night. It had been unlike anything I could imagine. I shifted my legs to relieve the pressure building between them.
Sena’s hand passed over a sensitive area, making me lose my train of thought. It didn’t matter what happened as long as he kept touching me all over like he was. Another swipe of his hand over my backside made me shudder excitedly, my tail twitching with each pass of his hand. The pressure between my legs had become stronger—it felt good but also achy—I reached down to ease the ache. My hand clasped around my thick warm erection…
Erection!? Hand?!
I screamed—a sound I had never heard breaking from my chest, something close to a pitki yowl and a zanzi’s roar. I flailed in the moss, my body wracked with uncontrollable shivers and unknown limbs. I could see my pale appendages flailing, making me see black spots as I forgot to inhale. I stared at my body without taking in another breath—soft, pale flesh stretched over long, strong appendages, tendrils of assorted blue hair spilling over my shoulders and down my back, and a very erect penis that looked like the one I had licked the night before.
Another hysterical caterwaul rebounded off the cavern walls as I clutched my body in denial. This couldn’t be happening. Where were my scales, where was my…tail? The appendage swished agitatedly beside me against the moss bed. Much smaller than it had been before, it was a pitiful version of the powerful limb I’d had.
This only elicited a pained groan as I clutched my freezing flesh close.
“Senana!” I said in terror, trying to chase the cold from my very human flesh. I was human. How was this possible?
“Holy shit, La’el…?” Sena gasped from the side of the nest, his face distorted in a shocked scowl. He seemed to chase away the confusion quickly as he was soon on the bed beside me, putting his large hands over my freezing cheeks.
“What the fuck happened to you! You’ve got to calm down, La’el. You’re gonna pass out if you don’t breathe.”
I couldn’t—my new body was racked with terror and unfamiliarity. I felt weak and exposed, and his equal-sized body beside me only enforced those feelings. I wanted to keen out in panic, express all of my anguish and fear, but I couldn’t make the sounds. A rush of incomparable terror washed through my now human frame and the shakes only worsened.
“La’el, breathe! Stop holding your fucking breath!”
I could distantly hear Sena yelling near my face. I couldn’t focus; all I could feel was the pain forming in my chest and the cold seeping into my bones.
A sharp force to my face caused my head to whiplash to the left…and wrench a deep inhalation of desperately needed air into my starving lungs.
“Oh thank fuck. You stupid reptile, you have to breathe,” Sena panted from beside me as if he was under as much duress as I.
“I… I can’t…” I huffed out an unintelligible.
“It’s okay. Let it out, La’el,” he reassured me, his strong arms coming to wrap around my waist and pulled me against him. I didn’t resist when he tugged me into his welcoming heat.
“Sena… I can’t… I feel so…weak.” The words were a broken spew set in between gulps of air.
“Breathe. If you don’t calm down, you’ll hurt yourself,” he soothed me, rubbing his hands up and down my arms and legs, trying to work the cold out of my new flesh. I felt the liquid spill from my eyes, blurring my vision as more and more fluid blocked out the light. The droplets meandered down my face to land on Sena’s outstretched legs.
“Easy.” He continued rubbing his hands over every ounce of flesh, soothing the deadly panic with his gentle caresses. We sat like that for a time, him keeping me together with his strong will as my weak human body tried not to shatter into a million pieces.
It was only when my shivers had finally dwindled into small twitches that he spoke. “Judging from your reaction, I can guess you weren’t expecting this,” he said, already knowing the answer. I just shook my head, my tail wrapping around his outstretched leg the same way it used to do to my Nan when I was only a hatchling. It was weak of me, but at the moment, I didn’t care, because I felt weak. I felt like my body was made of glass and the only thing keeping me in one piece was my Tao.
“La’el, your lips are blue…are you still cold?” A tentative thumb swiped over my tear-stained lip and I shuddered at the sensation. This body was more sensitive than what I was used to. I didn’t like it, how exposed it made me feel.
“N-no. It’s bearable,” I responded while trying to sort through everything in my head. How had this happened? How had I not felt anything? What am I going to do?
“I think you’re just naturally blue where most humans are pink,” Sena pondered. I didn’t hear him; it wasn’t important. Nothing was as imperative as figuring out what was happening to my body.
Sena pulled back, trying to gain my attention. “Wow, you look—” He creased my face.
“Like you?” I lifted my…hands—oh God, I have hands—to my face and examined them closer. The fingers were long and slender and the nails were a dark shade of blue while the skin was a soft off-white that also had an azure tint to it.
How could I defend us in the nest? How would I get us out?
The sound of claws on stone made my head swivel toward the cavern opening just as my Nan’s navy scales came into my sight. The royal blue zanzi stopped and stared at us with wide, unbelieving yellow orbs. I could only stare in return. Nan was huge compared to my new form. That realization made me understand how my Tao had felt surrounded by the zanzi in the mountain, weak and vulnerable with only me to protect him. Seeing my sire made the feelings of helplessness come screaming back to the front of my mind. I suddenly understood so much about my mate’s ordeal.
An enraged roar cracked through the small space, causing my exposed ears to take the full force of the sound. Nan rushed the bed, white fangs gleaming as he aimed for Senana. A scream of protest resounded through the cavern as I completely covered my Tao, shielding him from the deadly teeth bearing down on us.
“NAN ET!” I yelled.
I waited for the slice of hot pain. In this thin-skinned body, I knew those fangs would do more damage than they could have possibly done to my scaled flesh. Sena growled from beneath me, the rumbles vibrating through his chest resonating into my own. I took the chance to look over my shoulder to see my Nan. The royal blue zanzi had stopped mere inches from my back, his warm nostrils flaring as he pulled in my scent. I could see the conflicting emotions running across his face as his yellow eyes stared directly into mine, searching for his child in my new body. Instinctively, my tail unwrapped from Sena’s leg and swept over the side of my Nan’s face reassuringly.
“La’el?” He paused as if absorbing this new reality. “What…what has happened to you?” Nan’s voice rushed over me like a soothing rain, his confusion laced in every syllable. His yellow eyes averted to Sena and another snarl rolled from him. “What did you do to my pho?” His voice was sinister.
“Nan…” I withdrew from Sena in a quick motion and threw my human arms around my sire’s neck, not even flinching when the scales dug painfully into the soft skin. “I don’t know what happened. Sena didn’t do anything, I woke like this.” I felt the panic starting to rush over me again. How was I going to survive in this body? The cold seeped through the skin as if it were nonexistent. “I can’t stay like this. I feel so…weak.” I clutched him tighter, needing the courage and love I knew he had for me.
“La’el, my pho, I don’t know what you did, but I’ve never heard of anything like it.” He chuffed against my small shoulder, his breath hot, instantly warming my freezing flesh.
“Nan… I don’t know what to do,” I said desperately, looking up into his striking yellow eyes. He looked past me at Sena again, who was sitting motionless on the moss, waiting for my next move.
“La’el, what happened before you woke like this?” the older zanzi asked.
I shivered remembering the night before. Sena had tasted so good, unlike anything I could compare. Last night had been special, just as my sires had promised it would be.
“We completed the exchange,” I said finally, pulling myself to the present—the horrible human-body present.
The dark azure zanzi sighed, nudging me so I was no longer holding on like a sea urchin. I didn’t resist and fell (ungracefully) to the moss, Sena staying a good distance from me. Nan did the same, not that I could blame him after this role reversal. Nan’s tail whipped back and forth behind him while his face drew up into concerned lines. I could tell he had come to terms with something, but was far from happy about it. Could it really be so bad? If I had changed, it wasn’t like I could never change back. Dying while in this body was my biggest threat. That and how I was going to keep Sena safe in the nest while I’m like this.
“La’el, during the exchange, zanzi are making a connection, but we are also giving a part of ourselves to our Tao. We are giving a piece of each other so that our forms can become more alike.” Nan paused, choosing his next words. “Our bodies adapt so that we are a perfect fit for our Tao and they are perfect fit for us.”
Realization floored me, making it hard to breathe for a second. I was changing to be more compatible for Sena, but shouldn’t that go both ways? Why was I the only one changing?
“Why only me? Shouldn’t both of us be changing?” I looked at him for answers.
“La’el, he’s not zanzi,” my sire finally replied, pain evident in those large yellow orbs.
“What is he saying?” Sena finally asked. I jumped, slightly unaccustomed to him being so close to my ears.
My ears…
I ran my hands over the top of my head—disappointed to find it barren of my horns—and slipped them down to the side where I found two slightly pointed naked human ears. Another panicked sound escaped me.
“La’el?”
I turned wide eyes on Senana, praying that he had the answer to this situation. I needed him to have a solution to this. I was responsible for his life here; if any of the others were to find out, they’d kill us both.
(Sena)
The royal blue zanzi left after a quick lick to La’el’s cheek. I still hadn’t understood what the zanzi had said, but it was obvious that La’el did. He didn’t say anything when his parent left, just sat quietly on the bedding, staring at the far wall without making any movements. I know he was feeling scared and conflicted in his current body, his emotions written in every tense line.
La’el was a mess. Hell, I can’t say I was much better. What the hell were we going to do? It’s not like either of us could stay in the nest. I know I couldn’t, not with La’el in a human body. He was the same size as me, 6’2 with long blue hair that mimicked his zanzi’s mane falling to the swell of his ass. There were some traits that were undeniably inhuman, his lips, blue as if he had been left out in the cold, and his nipples seemed to be the same shade. His ears were much like my own except for the point at the tips that made them longer. It was his face that set him apart, so beautiful that it was hard to see anything else. He had a sharp jawline with full lips and almond-shaped blue eyes, eyes more luminous than any mortal being. He was magnificent as a zanzi, but he was undeniably the most beautiful creature I’d ever seen as a human.
He shifted back and forth on the moss, running his hands over his thighs in a nervous gesture. It was painfully obvious how out of balance he was with this whole situation. His tail shifted agitatedly behind him and his breathing still remained labored.
“La’el…what did he say?” The royal zanzi had spoken to La’el the same way he had spoken to me in his other form, wordless and through a mental link I couldn’t hear. It was disconcerting watching him talk to his parent with no response. Instead of answering me, La’el hung his head and played with his new hands.
“La’el?” I softened my tone. There was no point in scaring the zanzi anymore than he already was. I moved closer and touched his shoulder, the skin warm and smooth under my fingertips. Slumping, he cocked his head to look at me.
“He said that my body is changing to be more compatible for you. Nan doesn’t know if I can…if I can…” He inhaled deeply, calming the quickly approaching panic. “If I will be able to turn back,” La’el finally said, his voice harder than the husky terror it had been close to seconds ago.
“To…be more compatible. La’el, how is that even possible? You were a freaking fifteen-foot zanzi last night and now you are a humanoid with blue hair. That’s not compatible, that’s fucking impossible!” I ranted, feeling my own reality swirl down the drain.
La’el shrank further into himself, as if trying to disappear altogether.
“I’m sorry, Tao, I do not know,” he said softly.
I sighed, touching his shoulder again. “I’m not mad…I’m just a little overwhelmed,” I said, trying to soothe him and myself. “La’el, I know you’re scared, but we have to get out of here. I barely survived these past few days with you as a zanzi. Like this, we’ll both end up dead.” I paused, watching him closely. His blue eyes widened and blue lips pulled into a taut line, but he stayed silent. “Our best bet is to go back to the natives…er…” I realized then I didn’t know what Edik’s people were called, “…the leeri fields. We’ll be safe there.”
La’el just continued to stare at me as if I hadn’t said a word. The only sign that he had been listening was the slight quiver in his bottom lip and the flare of his nostrils. A part of me wanted to scream and curse at him for making everything so complicated. For dragging me out here into the fucking mountain, licking me until I came, and saddling me with a confused baby zanzi stuck in a humanoid body. It was all La’el’s fault, except I’d been the one to approach him when he’d landed in the leeri fields, and I’d wanted him to lick me and had enjoyed it. Maybe I was starting to lose it. I shoved my hands into my hair, roughly tugging on the strands for the millionth time.
I looked at him again, and his hunched posture and shivering body told me how innocent he was in all of this. Physically, he was older than me, but mentally, he was still a child, and in way over his head. I shouldn’t care what happened to him. I should just make it my goal to get out of this mountain and never think about this weird experience again. Problem was, I did care about him; for some unknown reason, I couldn’t stand the idea of leaving him to die. He was no longer this strong creature that could defend himself against almost anything on this planet. Now he was as helpless, if not more, than me.
“I’ve only ever known the nest. I can’t leave,” he said dejectedly.
“La’el, we don’t have much choice. If we stay, the other zanzi—hell, the one from yesterday—will come and tear us both apart!” I yelled, feeling the panic inside me welling to the surface. “How will we eat? What about water and Oliris? You said you needed the sun to survive, and you can’t get that from here.” Moving off the moss, I paced the confined space, agitated with how vulnerable we really were. There was no way he could protect me, and me him.
Turning back to him, I looked into his blue eyes, the narrow pupils the same as before. “You can’t protect us anymore.” I knew I got through to him when the searing cut of pain formed on his face. His blue lips parted, and a gasp of air escaped him. La’el looked away, taking deep gulps of air as he sat there. We both stayed there unmoving for a long time, me staring at him and him looking at anything besides me.
“You’re right.” Cerulean eyes finally looked into mine, clear and no longer warring with emotion. “I can’t protect us anymore.” Without warning, La’el got off the moss. He stood on weak legs, wobbling back and forth before attempting to step forward. The first step was a disaster and he crashed to the ground in a heap.
“La’el.” I jumped forward and crouched in front of him, trying not to crowd him but also to make sure he hadn’t broken anything. He really was uncoordinated in this form, all long limbs and soft skin.
“Are you okay?” I asked, my hand passing over his bare arm. He shook me off with a slight growl and attempted to stand again, this time slightly steadier.
“You’re right that we can’t stay. To be safe, we have to leave, and to leave, I have to get used to this body.” His voice had strengthened with resolve, as if keeping us safe was enough to bring him back from a complete mental breakdown. Apparently, it was, because he wobbled to the other side of the cavern where he kept his stash of “treasure” and started rooting through it.
I was about to ask him what he was doing when the clicking of talons on the stone behind me alerted the zanzi was back. The navy zanzi from before walked into the cavern, and behind him was the white zanzi with red eyes. I took a step back toward La’el when I recognize the creature from the first day and yesterday as it effortlessly held La’el down by the neck. I could still see those six-inch fangs buried in La’el’s flesh. The white zanzi was slightly bigger than the dark blue one, spikes tracking down its spine and all the way to the tip of its sharp tail. He was the polar opposite of the dark blue zanzi and La’el. Yet I was positive this was La’el’s Aza, his sire.
A warm palm rested on my bare back, sliding over my flesh reassuringly. La’el kept his hand on me as he moved beside me on new legs, looking at the two zanzi in front of us. “Adi’ha, I don’t know why you insist on bringing me here. I don’t want to interact with the thing La’el has brought—” The white zanzi stopped short. Apparently, the fact that I could hear him was enough to make me pause. It was like a radio with a bad connection, low and fuzzy but understandable.
“Idi’ky, you must not—” Nan never finished as the white zanzi shoved past him and closer to me and La’el—who had come to stand protectively in front of me. Red eyes scanned over us in confusion before his huge head dipped down to La’el and took a long gulp of air. He smelled him, just like the blue zanzi had done earlier.
“La’el?” the white zanzi growled before lifting his head and baring his teeth at me. I’m sure this couldn’t be good.
“It’s the human’s fault! What did he do to our pho, Adi’ha? We should kill it!” His growls became more insistent, saliva-slicked teeth bared at me.
“No!” La’el fully shielded me by now, his body blocking his sires from getting any closer to me. “He is my Tao, Aza. I won’t let you or anyone hurt him.” The husky growl of his voice was nothing compared to massive zanzi in front of him, but there was no fear in the stance he took in front of me.
Nan, the dark blue zanzi, nipped at the white one’s neck, making his expression lighten as he focused on his mate. “Idi’ky, you know we can’t kill the human, it is La’el’s Tao. I think that is why he’s changed. I think this is his response to the exchange,” Nan explained with a quiet, soothing tone.
“It is not his Tao! This is human treachery!” the white zanzi snapped, returning his eyes to me.
“Aza—” La’el tried to cut in.
“Are you willing to risk his life if the human is his Tao? If it is his Tao and we kill it, then La’el will die too,” Nan continued as if no one was there besides him and Aza.
“What else can we do, Adi’ha? Look what has become of our pho! He is one of them!” The white zanzi all but roared the last part, his red eyes gleaming like freshly drawn blood.
“Regardless, Idi’ky, there is no hope for our pho if we kill his Tao and this is his Tao; the proof is right in front of you,” Nan retorted. The white zanzi didn’t respond, just looked down at La’el with those deep red eyes.
“Aza, you must not blame my Tao. We didn’t realize this would happen.” He straightened his slim shoulders, blue nipples sticking out with the action. I tried not to notice, but it was too late to dismiss it. He reached his hand out, the other one still touching me as he did. His palm skimmed over the translucent scales on the zanzi’s head, lightly tracing over his muzzle and wide nostrils. A few silent moments passed between the two of them, both looking to the other for answers and reassurance.
“We can’t stay here, Aza.” La’el pulled his hand back, stepping away from his sire and closer to me. “Me and Senana are going to have to leave the nest, at least until we can figure this out.” His voice wavered on the last words, as if he was afraid we wouldn’t find a solution, thinking about the possibility that we would never come back.
“You’d leave the nest for the human?” Aza said with contempt. “Forsake your kind, and your sires?”
“I’d do anything for my Tao Oliris,” La’el corrected, holding his head high to the fifty-foot zanzi.
The zanzi growled in response, hard red eyes glared down at his son. “So be it.” The zanzi turned and left the cavern, not looking back as he did. It was cold and the meaning was clear even to me. His own sire had shunned him and rejected his decision to stay with me. I barely noticed La’el sway before he sank ungracefully to the floor. Awkwardly, I caught him before he could fall completely, bringing us both to our knees, his back pressed to my chest. A pained noise escaped him as he clutched my arm that was wrapped around his waist, holding onto me as if he would float away if he let go.
“Why doesn’t he understand?” La’el he said from behind his curtain of blue hair. “I don’t understand why.”
I could understand his pain. Why didn’t his father understand he couldn’t control the way he felt? Why couldn’t he stand beside him—help him—instead of turning his back on him? I knew the pain of having a loved one turn away from you when you needed them the most, when they were the only one who could save you from drowning in your own uncertainty. “It will be alright.” I laid my hand on his bare shoulder for support.
A gust of hot air moved his blue hair off his face and ghosted over my head. Nan’s dark blue muzzle pressed into La’el’s cheek, supporting his tear-stained face. No one spoke as La’el expelled his pain; we both kept him warm and supported as he cried. Looking up at the zanzi, a dark expression settled on his face, a fierce look at his son who cried against him in a weak human body. He was mourning the loss of a parent, which in itself was not easy, but to add losing his body and home on top of that, I wasn’t surprised to see him cry.
“My little pho.” A large blue muzzle nudged against La’el’s exposed neck, breathing more hot puffs of air into the array of wild blue locks. La’el took a shuddering breath and looked up at his other sire, face red and puffy as he searched the zanzi’s yellow gaze.
“I will always be with you, no matter how far you go. Your fate is taking you on a separate path, one you’ll have to do with your Tao Oliris.” A large forked tongue flicked out to kiss away the track of tears from his face. “Do not be afraid of your destiny.” Emotion filled his voice.
A strangled sob escaped La’el before he threw his strong arms around his sire’s head, holding onto him as if he would lose him if he let go.
We waited until dark to leave.
The blue zanzi left soon after speaking to his son. La’el told me he’d be back when night fell and take us away from the mountain. I had to agree with leaving the nest when the others were asleep; we didn’t need the others finding out about our current situation. La’el spent the day in the cavern walking back and forth, learning how to use his new legs. He didn’t speak much, only nodding whenever I’d tried to start a conversation. After a while, I’d given up and took to watching his sinewy body stride back and forth with rising confidence. His muscles were defined but not as much as mine. He had a swimmer’s body, his upper body tight and compact and his lower body curvacious in the most important areas. My eyes tracked over his bubble butt as it bounced with each stride past me, and his cock—I shook my head to focus on a game plan for later tonight. I had to stop focusing on the now humanoid zanzi.
I had no idea what we were going to do once we reached the leeri fields. I still had a year to my sentence and I couldn’t complete it and help La’el. My only option was Edik and to pray that the native would have some answers. Not that I was looking forward to the encounter.
“La’el, stop pacing,” I said.
“I cannot, Tao.”
“We need to figure out what we are going to do once we return to the leeri fields.”
La’el stopped, his tail twitching agitatedly behind him. “You don’t know?”
“No, I don’t. I still have to finish my prison sentence on this planet before I can return to Earth, and I don’t know if the natives will be able to help us,” I said, grasping my knees tightly.
“I need to find a way to turn back. I cannot stay like this.” Desperation lined his tone as he fidgeted.
“What’s wrong with you like this?” I said defensively.
La’el’s lips tightened and his face became pinched. “I am weak and ugly in this body. I don’t want to remain this way.”
Surprised, my mouth gaped slightly. “Ugly? You are far from—”
The tell-tale sound of claws scraping on the stone enterance made us body turn toward the intruder. La’el’s Nan walked back in, a determined glint to his yellow eyes. La’el and I both relaxed when we identified the zanzi. “La’el, it is time to leave.”
Getting out of the nest wasn’t that difficult with the blue zanzi’s help. We both climbed onto his back, sitting in the soft flow of his mane that traveled down his spine. La’el sat in front of me, clutching the dark blue strands with white knuckles. I didn’t say anything as I wrapped my arms around his chest and pulled him back against me, sharing our warmth.
The flight out of the mountain was quiet; none of the zanzi were awake when we flew out into the main cavern and past the roaring flame. Out in the night sky, the cold air brushed over our skin. It would have been too much for me and La’el to bear if Nan hadn’t warmed the air every so often with his flames.
Flying this time was so much different than before; every move and flap of the zanzi’s massive wings jolted through my frame. I could see every star in the sky and every tree below. I brushed La’el’s hair forward over his shoulder and leaned in toward his ear. “This is how it feels for a human to fly,” I whispered into the pointed shell. Bright blue eyes caught mine over his shoulder and a small smirk pulled at the corner of his blue lips. I forgot to breathe in those few seconds, his smile causing me to forget about everything except his radiance.
We flew the rest of the journey in silence, the landscape passing under us, fields of liquid green a blur beneath us. I could see La’el stroking his sire’s mane, curling it around his fingers and tugging. I couldn’t tell if they were speaking through their connection. I still couldn’t figure out how I could hear it sometimes and not others. Somehow, it was all connected to La’el, but I couldn’t pinpoint to what extent. With his hands tangled in his sire’s mane, it was as if he was remembering everything he could about his parent before we arrived at the leeri fields. I couldn’t fault him for that, especially not after his other sire turning his back on him today.
The journey took us an hour. By the time we landed in the leeri fields, the Niptik moon was a full red orb at the top of the sky. Its lights made the leeri glow crimson; it was an eerie sight to see so many flowers glowing red. There was no one in the fields when we landed. Complete silence enveloped the area. Slowly, I climbed down the zanzi’s back, dropping the last few feet to the ground below. La’el didn’t follow. He leaned forward on the large body and lay in the long mane, burying his face into the strands. I could tell he was giving his goodbye to his sire, taking as much with him as he could. Moments passed before the zanzi turned its large head and nudged his son’s still form. Words must have been spoken between the two because I saw La’el nod before laying his hand on his parent’s muzzle and slowing getting down from his back.
I caught his hips as he slid the last few feet to the ground, letting his weight fall against my chest. Steadying him, we both looked up at his sire who looked down at us. His large head tipped down to our level to stop right at La’el’s heart, warm breaths soothing his cold flesh and my hands.
“In life, we have to make journeys that don’t always make sense when we begin them, but in the end, they can define who we are, and who we will become.” The large zanzi’s snout brushed across La’el’s chest right above his heart. “You are strong and will make me and your Aza proud as you always have. Become something amazing, never look back or have reason to regret.”
Nodding sharply, La’el wrapped his arms around the zanzi’s head. “I promise I will make you both proud.” With a sigh, he pulled back and watched at the zanzi pulled away, head rising high above us. “I love you, nan’eske,” La’el whispered as the navy zanzi turned and moved farther away. We watched as the large wingspan spread across the field and the zanzi used the force of its wings and legs to launch back into the blood-red sky.
We stood in the field, watching the sky until the clouds swallowed the blue zanzi in the distance. La’el stood motionless, gaze still locked on the sky. “Come on, La’el, we can’t stay here.” I turned to walk toward the tree line when my wrist was caught in a tight grasp. Looking down, I was shocked to see the blue-tipped tail wrapped around my wrist like a vise.
“Wait,” he said, still looking at the sky.
It wasn’t long before what he was waiting for came: the distant roar of a zanzi breaking the deep silence of the night. La’el turned to me, his tail falling from my wrist as he faced me, a sad smile gracing his beautiful face.
“He would never leave me without saying goodbye.”