CHAPTER FOUR

 

Xar growled impotently at the cave walls. They were spinning like a pup falling out of a tree. Madison was clutching his arm, her nails digging into his skin. He held her tightly, covering her body with as much of his as possible.

His tail was squashed behind him at an awkward angle, but that was something for Zazora to solve. He thought they would all be in need of the healer once they came down from the stars.

They hit the ground with the force of a boulder. Most of the women screamed, but Madison just tensed up against him. It was the wrong thing to do. When you were falling, tensing up would just make the landing worse. Pain shot through his shoulders as he was slammed against the side of the cage.

Finally, the movement subsided. The relief didn’t last long. He smelled smoke. In the home trees, runaway fires were greatly feared. They might not spread as quickly in a cave, but it could still be deadly.

“Madison? Are you all right?”

“I think so.”

He pulled her out of the cage and looked her over. She looked shaken but otherwise unhurt. By the groans coming from the cages, the other women hadn’t fared as well.

“We must leave. The fire will spread quickly.”

“I don’t think that’s a fire. I think it’s the engines.”

Xar didn’t know what these “engines” were, but a quick inspection of the cave showed that his mate was right. There was smoke and heat, but he could find no traces of fire. He also found that the yellow creature was dead. The contraption it had been attached to had detached and been flung against the cave walls. Its brains were oozing out onto the ground. Xar couldn’t say he was sorry.

When he returned to the place with the cages, the others were slowly climbing out, assessing their injuries.

“Now would be a good time to get out of here, yes?”

“Yes,” Madison agreed. “We should find a door.”

Xar didn’t want to wait. Even if there was no fire, breathing in smoke could harm them. Now that they had landed, it was safe. He returned to the spot he’d already made a dent in and threw himself against it.

This time, Madison didn’t protest. In short order, he had a hole in the wall. He used his claws to make it bigger, pulling the sharp bits so that they faced away. The humans were delicate. Such sharp things would tip their skin to shreds.

When he judged it big enough, Xar stepped outside, gesturing for Madison and her friends to join him. He breathed deeply, his eyes taking in his home planet. The air in the cave had been cold and dry. Madison was right to persuade him to let the yellow creature take them home. It was good to be back.

“Welcome to Xenshar.”

He watched the huddled group of humans, who were looking around doubtfully. Xar shared their doubts. He thought of the predators that roamed the ground. No one was safe on the ground for long, not even Xenshi.

His clan had suffered deaths from the fierce vriax before, but even something as small as a gora could kill these women with its sharp teeth and claws. Their bodies didn’t look well adapted to climbing trees.

“Is something wrong?”

Madison came up beside him, and Xar could feel the sweet warmth of her body. He wanted nothing more than to sweep her up in his arms and take her home, but he couldn’t carry all the humans at once.

“Can you climb?”

“Climb? Um, sure, I guess.”

Xar pointed up at some of the taller trees. “This is how we travel. We climb up and swing through the branches.”

As he’d expected, Madison looked downright alarmed. “None of us can climb that well. I mean, we might be able to climb up a tree if the branches were low, but anything beyond that, I don’t think we’d be able to keep up with you.”

“It is all right. I will carry you.”

“What about the others?”

“Give me a minute to decide.”

There had to be a good way to do this. The humans couldn’t travel safely in the trees. The branches were wide apart and many required tails as an aid to climb. If he tried to take the humans through the trees, they would likely either fall or slow him so much that they all died of starvation before they got home. On top of that, most of them were injured.

The women were all waiting, hanging on his words. “It is not safe to travel on the ground. You will all wait here. I will bring my clan back. We will carry to the home trees.”

“If it’s not safe on the ground, will we be safe here?”

The woman who asked looked like she had a broken leg. “You’ll have to go into the cave. We’ll wait for the smoke to clear, then we’ll need to barricade the entrance.”

Xar didn’t say that such a barricade was unlikely to hold for long against a nishalk. Judging from where they had landed, it would be nearing nightfall when he and Madison reached home. They were in a thick patch of trees, many of which had been crushed by the flying cave.

“You all stay here. Madison and I will collect things to protect and camouflage this cave. If anything comes, scream, and I’ll come back.”

“And you’ll protect us?”

Xar hesitated. He couldn’t fight a nishalk alone. Some of them would die.

“I cannot,” he admitted.

Madison spoke up. “If you can carry me, you could carry the others, too. If you could get us to the top of one of those trees, we could hold on to the branches well enough to stay on. Then you can bring your clan.”

It was a good idea, though Xar had doubts. “It will take almost two full suns to get back. Will your bodies twine with the branches so you can sleep?”

“No. You can do that?”

“Of course.”

“We can take turns sleeping.” The one called Sophi looked around the rest of the group for approval. “We’ll take it in shifts. Find the broadest, most comfortable branch, then one person sleeps while the other holds them on.”

It was unconventional, but it might work.

“You will not be able to get down again once I take you up. I will need to collect food and water for you.”

“We can help.”

He snatched Madison’s wrist automatically. “No. It’s too dangerous on the ground. I will take you up now, then I will collect food.” He held out his arms for her. “Come. I will take you.”

Madison stepped into his grasp. Xar looked around, and finding a suitable tree, he leaped up into it. It was harder climbing with his mate in his arms. She was light, but with two of his arms holding her, he only had the other two and his tail.

To her credit, Madison clung to him as well as any pup. He could feel her heart racing, even though she was doing nothing more than holding onto him.

Once they were high in the canopy, he seated her on a wide branch. She immediately grabbed a branch next to it as though worried about falling.

“Are you all right?”

“Fine.” She sounded breathless as she looked around. “It’s just different. I’ve never even seen trees this tall, much less been at the top of one.”

Xar would dearly love to talk to his mate more about her new home, but he was acutely aware that the others were vulnerable on the ground.

“I must get the rest of the humans.”

She nodded. “I’m not going anywhere.”

 

* * *

 

One by one, Xar brought the women into the tree. Kaylee took the longest. He had to go slowly because of her broken leg. She didn’t complain, but her face was white when he finally helped her sit down. Madison put a hand on her arm, worried she’d pass out and fall.

She couldn’t decide if Xenshar was a tropical wonderland or a death trap. The air was hot and humid, and everything was so green it almost hurt her eyes. It was beautiful, but Xar’s warnings about predators on the ground still made her nervous.

Once everyone was up, Xar went down to collect food and water. She wanted to come with, but he insisted it was too dangerous. Not wanting to end up as something’s dinner, Madison agreed.

The smoke had cleared enough that Xar was able to get into the ship and bring out the food from the kitchen rather than hunting. It was a good decision. Kaylee’s leg was hurting her badly, and Scarlett was having trouble breathing. It looked like she had a broken rib. Xar said they had a healer. Whatever would get them to the healer faster was fine with her.

After the food, Xar was gone for a time, coming back with wide, hollow wooden reeds. Each of them was filled with water.

“You stuff the bottom with clay and overlay it with the bindu leaf, which stops the water soaking in. We have tops for them as well, but those will take too long to make. For now, I’ve just tied them on vines like this so you can hang them up and drink from them when you need them.”

It took quite a while for Xar to bring up enough water for two days, not to mention picking the reeds and collecting the clay and reeds used to turn them into rudimentary water bottles. He also brought a few cups from the ship, but they weren’t nearly enough of them to store sufficient water for what looked like it might be a long time sitting in a tree.

“These are for pain.” He held out the leaves, which were a bright purple. “They are meant to be drunk in a tea, but you don’t have the setup for a fire here. Crushing them and drinking them in water will still work though.”

Kaylee immediately reached for the leaves, while Xar held out short stubby roots that looked like tubers. “These will help you breathe. You do not eat them, but crush them with a rock, and let the juice drip into your mouth.”

He handed Scarlett the roots and a smooth rock. “Thank you.” She immediately began crushing the roots.

Satisfied that he’d done everything, Xar held his arms out to Madison. “Come, my mate. I will take you home.”

“Wait, what? You said you were going to fetch your clan.”

“I am. We will go to the home trees and tell them of this location. They will come to take the others.”

Madison dearly wanted to go with him. She knew nothing about this planet, and Xar would keep her safe. She wasn’t as scared of the possible death trap of a planet when she was with him. She couldn’t just leave the other women though. They were scared too.

“I can’t. I’ll stay here with the others until you get back.”

“No.”

She waited for Xar to argue with her, but he didn’t. Instead, he grabbed her in his arms, holding tight.

“No, let me go!”

He ignored her completely as she pummeled him with her fists. It was like he couldn’t even feel it. Xar started swinging through the treetops. He hadn’t been kidding about traveling. He was like a monkey, moving so fast that Madison couldn’t keep track of all the trees and branches.

“I have to go back, I can’t leave them. Take me back, Xar.”

“I have done everything I can to ensure they will be safe while we are gone.” His voice was calm as he swung easily from branch to branch. “We will hurry and send the clan back for them. I will not leave my mate in a tree for two days when she cannot move around by herself.”

“You left them!”

“I can only carry one of you. Do not worry. We will travel swiftly and bring help for them.”

Madison realized that he wasn’t going to listen to her on this one. On the ship, he had taken her advice, but this was his planet, and he wasn’t going to let her do anything he considered dangerous. She huffed angrily and punched him on the shoulder. Xar just smiled.

They went for hours. Xar never seemed to tire. He was perfectly at home in the trees, like a fish in water. Clinging onto him for dear life, Madison felt like a fish in a hundred-foot-tall tree.

She was acutely aware of how close she and Xar were. It made her flushed and embarrassed and excited at the same time. When she saw all the trees, she’d thought Xar’s skin would stand out, but most of the trees had big, bright flowers in orange or red. He blended in like an oversized flower. She giggled at the thought.

It was getting dark by the time they stopped. The trees here were bigger than any Madison had seen so far, with some branches wider than she was, even so high up. There were wooden platforms built with canopies of leaves strung above.

Xar put her down. “Welcome to the home trees.”

Madison could see how glad he was to be home and felt a pang of sadness for her home. How were they going to get back to Earth when the only one with a chance at fixing the ship was dead?

“It’s beautiful,” she murmured.

“Come, I will get you some clothes. We don’t have anything that will fit right off, but some old things of mine will work until Gulen can make something for you.”

“Gulen?”

“One of the few females we have left. She’s old, though, and will want to pass her skills onto someone before she goes. It’s good you and your friends are here.”

Madison didn’t plan on staying, but she didn’t want to get into that now. “Why can’t she pass it on to one of the males?” It seemed a bit sexist that the men refused to learn to sew.

“We don’t have time. Males need to spend the day hunting for the clan. It’s better to go without clothes than without food.”

She couldn’t argue with that. “What happened to all your females?”

“They were killed in a fire years ago. Many of the men were too, but because we were spread out, hunting, more of us survived. Now, there are hardly any women left, and none who can bear children. We are dying.”

Madison wondered if she expected him to bear children for her. If he did, he was in for a big surprise. She knew he came from a different culture and all, but she wasn’t going to put up with sexist rubbish about women having roles determined by what men said they should do.

She was about to tell him as much, but suddenly, shapes were dropping everywhere from the trees onto the platform. Xenshi. A lot of them.

Madison darted behind Xar’s back, knowing he would protect her.