CHAPTER EIGHT

 

“We can go fruit picking on the way,” Xar assured her.

Madison sighed. He was holding the fruit under her nose, and she knew that if she refused to eat it, he’d bring it for her anyway.

“Fine.” She took the fruit, biting into its soft, sweet side. It was delicious, and she was hungry. She just hoped they managed to replenish the supplies before the others got back and question what had happened to all their best food.

Xar ate more of the gross, bitter meat. Madison’s nerves from the vriax incident were wearing off fast. She suspected the drink Zazora had given her, which was also making her slightly drowsy. Xar was acting as though nothing had happened. To him, being chased by a mutant dinosaur monster was perfectly normal.

Madison ate quickly, eager to be off. Climbing into Xar’s arms felt natural now. “We’re not going to run into any more vriax, are we?”

“There may be some below, but I will not take you near them. We’ll stay in the treetops like we always do for travel.”

Though he’d told her before about the predators that made it too dangerous to remain on the ground for long, it was something else seeing it for herself.

As they traveled, Xar told her about the trees. Under his guidance, the forest morphed before her eyes to a solid mass of indistinguishable trees to a multitude of different species, each with its own function. Some had flowers with medicinal purposes. Others were poisonous. A few had particularly good wood that they used to make things.

The rarest were the jooma trees. They were thinner than most of the others, their wood a pale color, whiter than the surrounding trees.

It took them what felt like at least an hour to find a jooma tree, and it had no fruits. The next one had one fruit, but Xar examined it and told her it wasn’t ripe yet. They spent the whole morning at it and found only one viable jooma fruit. Madison felt even worse now about emptying the supplies.

“We should start heading in the direction of the crash site if we want to meet up with the others.”

This had the effect of distracting her, which was no doubt Xar’s intention. He continued to teach her as they traveled. There was so much to learn. Madison wished they had paper and pens here. There were plenty of trees, but she had no idea how to make paper. Maybe one of the other women would.

“If I had a rope, I could probably lean to climb these trees. I wouldn’t be good at it at first, but if the rope had knots tied in it and a hook at the top, I could throw it up, get it stuck in a tree, and climb up.”

“It would have to be a big hook, and you’d have to be able to throw it very high. I’m not sure you’d be able to reach even the lowest of the tree branches.”

He had a point. The Xenshi were like cats in their jumps: they seemed able to propel themselves many times higher than their own body length.

“If we attached a stone to the end and swung it around before launching, I’m sure I could get it over a branch. It’s worth trying.”

“It is. We have the necessary materials back at the home trees, but you know that I’ll take you wherever you want to go. No rope is necessary.”

“I don’t want to be a burden to you. I want to be able to do things for myself.”

“You are no burden. Never. But if you wish to be able to move around independently, that is how it will be.”

Xar started pointing out the different types of vines to her, explaining which ones were good for swinging, which ones made good ropes, and the vines that were useful when dried.

“So not all the vines at the home trees have been picked?”

“No. Only certain ones are still good when they dry out. The vines creating different rooms are grown from a point above and hung down in specific ways.”

Madison hadn’t noticed that, but then, there was a lot to notice on this new planet. She realized that she was thinking differently about Xenshar. She was thinking ahead, about her future here. While she still missed Earth, making a home on Xenshar wouldn’t be the worst thing. If they did manage to fix the ship, she’d have a tough decision on her hands.

Xar got quieter as they traveled. Madison reasoned that he might be tired, though she could feel his heartbeat going as steady as it did when he was lying in bed with her. All the tree climbing must make Xenshi crazy fit.

“You all right?”

“I am fine, my mate. Do not worry, we will find them.”

She hadn’t been worrying before, but now she was.

“Is something wrong?”

“The clan would never let anything happen to the human women. You need not fret.”

Despite his reassuring words, Xar seemed tense. Madison knew him well enough by now to realize that he might not tell her everything that was going on in his head if he thought it would cause her undue distress.

To distract herself, she kept an eye out for jooma trees. The “path” they were traveling didn’t seem to have any. Though it just looked like another section of forest to her, Xar could recognize an often traveled area by the smoothness of the bark and the lack of small, spindly twigs and branches at climbing height.

The jooma trees grew near water, while the brex trees, the tall ones with long branches and many vines, which were ideal for traveling, tended to grow further away from rivers, the rain being plenty of water to sustain them.

Xar told her about the frequent rainstorms. It rained so hard that it was almost impossible to travel. Though it remained hot, as it always was on Xenshar, the wet could get miserable. The thick canopy of the home trees protected them from the brunt of it, but the water still trickled down onto the rain covers all over the clan.

“What about fire? Your meat is cooked. Do you go to the ground to do that?” Madison could imagine how badly it could go making a fire when you lived in a tree.

“No, it is too dangerous. We have a fire room. The inside is thick leathers, with only a hole and a long pipe at the top for smoke to get out.”

It sounded like a chimney. Clever. “Why do you bathe on the ground, then? I’ve already seen how dangerous it is.”

Xar nodded, his chin brushing her head. “Many agree with you. Some bring buckets up and wash from their homes, but with a big party, it’s safe enough. The vriax often stay away from large groups, and when they don’t, there are usually enough of us to fight them off.”

The knives Xar wore strapped to his hips looked wicked sharp, but it would certainly take a lot of them to put down the monster from earlier.

Xar fell silent again, moving quickly, unable to hide the tension Madison could feel in his body.

 

* * *

 

He knew something was wrong. They should have run met up with the rest of the clan hours ago. Even taking into account how slowly they had to be traveling, he should have found them by now. The scents were old, indicating the group had traveled this way but not yet come back.

Madison could tell that something was amiss. He didn’t want to worry her, but he worried for the humans and his clan.

It took many hours for them to get back to the place where he had left the humans. As they got close, Xar breathed a sigh of relief. He could smell them, as well as Rin, Shanax, and Naxar.

“They are still here.”

“Why would they still be here? They need Zazora; they can’t just stay in a tree!”

“I don’t know, but Torox wouldn’t leave them without good reason.”

Rin looked up as Xar swung onto an empty branch, placing Madison down, keeping a hand on her shoulder to help her balance.

“Xar, good, we could use your help.”

Xar’s relief was sloughing away. Some of the women were crying. Rin had scratches all down his arm. Most of the clan wasn’t here.

“What happened?”

“It’s all my fault!” Kaylee cried. “I ran out of those pain herbs. I think I took them too fast. I was hurting so badly, Sophi said she’d climb down and look for more.” She dissolved into tears, clutching at her leg, which was red and grossly swollen. It was definitely infected and causing much pain.

Rin took up the story. “Sophi was resourceful. She used vines to help her climb down. She reached the ground safely, but while she was looking for the herb, a vriax came. She couldn’t climb up fast enough. It took her.”

Xar closed his eyes. Beside him, Madison gasped and started crying. “Shh, all hope isn’t lost.” He pulled her close to him. “I don’t smell blood. She may yet be alive.”

Rin nodded. “That’s what delayed us. We think the vriax took her to its lair. The rest of the clan formed a rescue party, leaving a few of us behind to care for the humans. We can’t travel with them, not missing so many of the clan. They’ll each need someone to carry them. We’re to wait until the others come back, then we’ll go to the home trees.”

It was the best course of action. Torox was always good at handling difficult situations. It was one of the things that made him such a good leader.

“I don’t understand.” Madison sniffed as she tried to stop her tears. “Why would you think she’s still alive?”

“Vriax kill and hunt in two ways.” Xar helped her sit down as he explained. “They are well known not just to us, but to most animals that live here. We all avoid them, which means vriax need to work hard to find prey. When they do, if they are hungry, they will eat it at once. If they’re not, they’ll take it to their lair, sometimes waiting days to eat it.”

“So, Sophi might be in a lair? Alive?”

“It is highly likely. If the vriax had wanted to eat her straight away, we would smell the blood. It definitely took her. However, vriax need to disable their prey, lest it run away. They often play with it as well. If we do find her alive, Sophi will be badly hurt.”

Madison was having no success in stopping her tears. Xar didn’t know what to do but hold her. Scarlett, who was holding Kaylee’s shoulders, yawned. Naxar immediately got up.

“You must sleep. I will hold your friend.”

To Xar’s surprise, Scarlett went willingly into his arms. He held her on his lap while using his other two arms to stabilize Kaylee. Scarlett winced as Naxar carefully adjusted her, drawing breath with apparent difficulty. Kaylee seemed to be slipping in and out of troubled sleep and could not hold herself to the branch she was lying on.

“It’s more comfortable for them to sleep like that,” Rin explained. Shanax was examining the water tubes and food supplies.

“I need to make a trip to the ground. We’re running low on water. Xar?”

Xar hesitated. It was safer for two to go to the ground than one, but he didn’t want to leave his mate when she was upset.

“I’m fine.” Madison disentangled herself from him. “You go ahead and help.”

Reluctantly, Xar nodded and kissed her before taking a handful of water pipes and following Shanax down.

Shanax slapped him on the back as they were descending through the canopy. “Things with your mate look to be going well.”

Xar couldn’t help the smile that spread across his face. “She is perfect. I only wish things were going better here.”

“We are all worried about them. Scarlett is still struggling to breathe, Kaylee gets sicker by the day as her leg worsens, and Sophi is either dead or badly injured. The others are all right physically, but they are stressed and unhappy. These humans are not used to living in trees. They have very little mobility and are unsettled by the lack of flat surfaces to rest on. It will be better when we get them to the home trees.”

“Why have you not started taking them back one by one?”

Shanax checked around carefully before hopping from the lowest branch of the tree to the ground. “We talked about it, but Torox decided it would be better to wait until everyone is together. It’ll be a hard journey, and we’ll likely need everyone we have.”

“How long have the others been gone for?”

“Almost a day.”

That was good. They would have found Sophi by now, either alive or dead. The vriax weren’t hard to track, their bulk leaving huge paths of destruction through the forest. If they had her, the clan would be back with her soon.

“I wish I’d thought to bring Zazora.”

“Torox decided it would be better to bring the humans to her, even if it meant waiting a bit. She can’t possibly bring all her supplies here. She’d better equipped to help from the home trees.”

Xar wondered how Madison would react if Sophi was dead. He knew she felt a responsibility toward the other humans. She couldn’t have done anything, of course, but convincing her of that may be an impossible task.

Once they had the water tubes filled, they quickly leaped back up into the trees. Someone had made crude stoppers for them while waiting with the humans, which made it easier to climb without spilling anything.

Madison was waiting for him and helped disperse water to the other humans. They looked glad to have her back. She spoke reassuring words to them about how nice it was at the home trees and how the clan would take good care of them.

Though she’d stopped crying, Xar could see how upset she still was. When everyone seemed settled, she turned to him. The sun was setting, and she looked exhausted.

“You need to sleep. Come, I will hold you.”

Madison came to him and accepted his embrace but didn’t seem ready to sleep.

“Do you think Sophi is still alive?”

Xar considered the question. He didn’t want to worry Madison, but he wouldn’t lie to her about something as important as this. “There is a chance, but it is likely that the vriax killed her soon after getting her to its lair. I’m sorry.”