Rennek
When I next open my eyes I can see that the moons have risen. The forest around us is filled with the milky light of Elysia’s moon system. Kate stirs beside me. I caress her back in the hope that I will soothe my sweet mate back to sleep. I look up towards Da’vi and see he is no longer in his perch.
“No sudden movements,” he whispers to me.
My eyes search in the direction of his voice and I see him on the branch nearby, crouching low. His blade glints in the moonlight. My hand finds my blade as well. I sense Kate stiffen next to me. His words have roused her to awareness.
I carefully roll to my stomach so that I may more easily follow his gaze. Then I see it. There, climbing atop Allison are four arthropod creatures, roughly the size of marsh rakes. They look agitated. They hold long, segmented tails up in the air above their bodies. I can see stingers at the tips. I watch them closely. They congregate near her booted feet. Da’vi makes a few slow and stealthy steps forward and the creatures seem unaware. Kate tilts her head so she can see what is happening. I see her hand fly over her mouth when she sees what is atop her friend.
Da’vi and I both inch forward together. This time however, Allison stirs and one of the creatures climbs higher up her legs and onto her lap. We freeze as Allison’s eyes open slowly and then go very wide. She looks to Da’vi and he motions for her to wait. Da’vi clicks, once, twice, he pauses and on the third click we both pounce. He knocks two of the creatures off and I send the other two flying off the tree limb.
“Holy shit!” Allison exclaims as she moves to get up, a look of relief rushing over her face for just the quickest moment--before pain sinks into her features.
“Agh!” She screams out. She flings the blanket away and there beneath the covers is one more of the arthropods, stinger stuck deep into Allison’s leg. Da’vi does not hesitate. Before I even know what it is happening he has skewered the thing with his blade. Its legs are still writhing when he tears its tail from her calf.
“Ow, ow, ow! Careful, don’t twist it!” Allison begs.
“Sit!” Da’vi commands and he helps her lower herself to a position where we can examine the wound. I move to use my blade to cut her pants, but he grabs it from me.
“I will do it,” he grits out.
Instead I hurry to my pack to retrieve a lantern and the scanner. When I return Da’vi has cut her pants up to her knee. I can see the wound is on her calf. It is red and swelling. I hold the light close, some of the stinger is still lodged in her leg. Da’vi looks angrily at Allison.
“This will hurt,” he tells her, just before jamming his knife against the wound at an angle--this pushes the stinger out along with a spurt of blood and venom.
I turn my attention to the lifeless arthropod and begin running scans on the creature to determine how poisonous it might be and to see if we have any meds to counter the effects. Kate has joined us and sits beside Allison. I am surprised to see Allison grab for my Kate’s hand. She must truly be in pain.
As the results are processing I survey the scene. Da’vi looks down at Allison and Kate loathsomely before stalking over to inspect the dead creature. Its back is hard, it’s color a deep greenish blue, with three sets of legs and a long, flat tail the tapers toward where the stinger once was. He flips it over to reveal it’s under belly. Underneath there are thousands of small legs that are almost hair-like, leading up toward a mouth and a pair of ventral eyes.
It is undoubtedly ugly, but does not look like a creature that poses much of a threat. Appearances can often be deceiving, I suppose. Da’vi seems as unimpressed by the creature as I am. He turns his attention instead to the place that Allison had made her bed for the night. I hear him huffing and cursing under his breath.
“There is a nest here, human! You made your bed on a nest!” he bellows. Allison refuses to meet his gaze but Kate looks at him, incredulous.
“You say you wish to learn skills to survive, but you make such a foolish mistake as to sleep on another creature’s nest! I cannot teach you! Tomorrow you will be as this one--” He waves his hand at my Kate. “I will carry the supplies and possibly you as well. I will feed you and keep you warm by the fire each night. You will not concern yourself with learning any longer.”
“What?!” Allison says as if a blow has just been landed to her core.
“How dare you!” My Kate stands and her tone is enough to level any warrior.
“You are goddesses,” Da’vi stresses. “I should have never attempted to teach this female,” Da’vi tells her.
“How about instead of reprimanding the student for not knowing what you didn’t teach her, you reassess your teaching skills. All I’ve heard you do so far is point out the things you think she isn’t ready to learn. And that’s only half the time, the other half you completely ignore her and don’t even help with the things you have agreed to teach her.”
“You should be working with her, pointing out as much as possible rather than faulting her for not already knowing how to survive in a damned rainforest. If she already knew these things she wouldn’t need your ass to teach her in the first place!” Kate bellows accusingly.
Though the situation is a heavy one I cannot help but smile at how fierce my mate is. This is why she is the queen of her people. Hard headed Da’vi however, only flicks his scales in response.
“I will not be responsible for this foolish endeavor any longer. She is going to get herself killed if I allow it to continue,” Da’vi says firmly.
“Allow it to continue? Who do you think you are? Maybe Allison doesn’t need you to be her teacher anymore. You aren’t the only one with survival skills around here. Rennek could teach her, Rennek could teach us both,” Kate tells him.
“Absolutely not,” Da’vi commands.
“Hello! You don’t own her! If Allison wants to learn it doesn’t have to be from you, and I’m starting to think it shouldn’t be from you!” Kate yells and she jams her finger into Da’vi’s chest as she speaks.
“She indentured herself to me!” Da’vi begins to argue.
“Indentured herself to you? What are you saying, she’s like your slave now?” Kate interrupts, scoffing at him.
“I will not let another male…” Da’vi bellows into the face of my mate, but I have had enough of this. I tackle Da’vi with all my might, catching him off guard and sending both of us careening over the side of the tree limb into the darkness below.
“Rennek!” I hear Kate’s scream from above.
Da’vi and I come crashing down to a branch a few levels below the females. I work quickly to pin him against the tree. He fights hard against me, but is unable to free himself.
“I see what is going on here, my brother,” I tell him in a hushed voice, so the females do not overhear.
“You will not let her continue this! I won’t allow it! She will fail…” He declares ferociously, still trying to fight against me. Finally, his body slacks and he hangs his head.
“If she tries and she fails Rennek, if she is hurt or killed… it would end me. Even now she sits up there with poison in her system…”
“The scanner results finalized while you argued with my mate. It is a mild venom, she will have swelling and pain around the wound for a rotation, maybe two, but she will not even need any meds to counter the effects of the venom. She is fine Da’vi,” I tell him knowingly. “The larger wound is to her pride.”
“Her pride,” he laughs ruefully. “She may be fine now, but she cannot continue like this--I will lose my mind Rennek! She is so stubborn! She will let me do nothing for her.”
I release my grip on my friend and we sit side by side on the branch, our feet dangling into the abyss below.
“I know exactly how you feel,” I assure him.
“You do not, Rennek. You could not possibly know how I feel. Your mate…” he sighs. “Your mate is your mate. She is yours and you are hers. The way she looks at you… Allison will never look upon me with such affection. That female is incapable of it,” he says disheartened.
“You are too quick to give up, my brother. When I first laid eyes upon my Kate I knew in my core she was my mate, that there would never be another for me. Never in my wildest dreams did I dare think she would return my affections. I believed I was doomed to follow her as nothing more than a friend and guardian for all the days of my life. But I would have gladly done just that. Be grateful for what you have and maybe from that, something more will grow.”
“Do you truly see Allison returning anyone’s affections?” He says with disbelief and anger lacing his words.
“Right now, all I see is two stubborn fools. Which of you will be the one to bend first?” I ask. “Kate is correct. You have been a poor teacher, especially if you wish for your student to one day be your mate.”
He breathes a long sigh at my words. “She will never be one to bend, will she?”
“And what of you?”
“I do not know that I can.”
“Then that is something you must consider. Oh, and Da’vi?” He looks me in the eye and I hit him square on the jaw so hard he nearly topples over the edge of the branch. “Do not ever raise your voice at my mate again or I will rip your throat from your body.”
“I apologize, my friend. I have not been myself,” he says rubbing his jaw.
“Yes, you have been even more bad tempered than usual,” I agree. “Take the rest of the evening. Think on where you wish to find yourself and what path you must take to arrive there. I will stand guard over the females,” I tell him.
He nods solemnly and I climb back up to my mate, leaving him to his thoughts.