Chapter 9
NINE
ELAINA
“Stay here” wasn’t really in Elaina’s vocabulary.
Her blackweed boots crunched against the sand and foliage as she ran after him. Cyan was fast, his silhouette already disappearing into the rolling dunes ahead.
There was another howl. Closer now. Priad .
Elaina broke into a full sprint, determined to keep up. Maybe it was the stubbornness Cyan had joked about earlier.
She ducked beneath the low-hanging branches of some scrubby shrubs, breaking out into a small grove where she finally saw them—Cyan, standing still, and Priad, drenched and triumphant, with a long, sinewy creature dangling from his mouth. The warg’s eyes gleamed with pride.
Elaina stumbled to a stop, catching her breath. The limp river snake’s iridescent scales glinted in the fading light. Priad’s tail slashed back and forth as he looked from her to his master and back again, showing off his work.
Cyan turned, raising an eyebrow. “I told you to stay.”
Elaina shrugged, still panting. “Looks like he caught his dinner. ”
Priad gave a low, proud growl, dropping the river snake at Cyan’s feet with a soft thud.
Cyan exclaimed something guttural and melodic that must’ve been Gaian as he bent to ruffle Priad’s proud cheeks and neck, praising the work.
“Is it edible?” He glanced back at Elaina.
“Oh yeah. River snakes are a delicacy. He’s got good taste.”
Cyan grinned, kneeling to inspect the snake under the warg’s watchful eye. “How do we cook it?”
Elaina sighed. “Well, I’m a vegetarian, but I’ll make it for you. You’ve got to eat a river snake right.”
A flicker of amusement crossed his face. “I’ll gather some firewood.” He stood and made for the undergrowth. Priad stayed firmly in place next to his kill.
Once Cyan’s broad silhouette blended into the fading light, Elaina turned her attention to the tall sandseed stalks near the stream bank. She brushed her fingers through their fluffy purple heads. Their sweet musk hung in the air as she tugged a few free, gathering enough burnt orange seeds for a small meal.
On his return, Cyan worked with purpose, arranging the sticks and dry grass methodically before pulling a flamer out of his pocket. The fire lit fast, and he added more straw until it burned steadily.
From another pocket, Cyan extracted a small knife. He took the snake from Priad’s watchful shadow and splayed it out on a rock.
“I take it we need to gut it?” he asked, glancing at Elaina.
She nodded, relieved that he volunteered to do this part of the job. “Most of the organs are a delicacy, and they get baked in the body. But you need to remove the head and everything from the third intestine down. Just make a cut about there.” She indicated the spot.
Cyan got to work, following her instructions precisely, each movement deliberate as he extracted the third intestine, bowel, and reproductive organs.
“Thanks,” Elaina said, coming to kneel beside him. “I’ll do the rest.”
“You sure?”
“Sure. I can touch meat, you know, just not put it in my mouth,” she grinned.
He flipped the knife in his hand, holding it out to her hilt-first. Elaina took over, cutting the meat into portions and skewering it with a sturdy branch. Normally she’d do this with an electric slicer back at the hab—the primitive prep was kind of exciting.
“Give him a piece,” Cyan said, nodding toward the warg. “But tell him to ‘sit’ first.” He paused. “But he only speaks Gaian.”
“All right,” Elaina said. “What’s ‘sit’ in Gaian?”
“ Sitka .”
“ Sitka ?”
“Try it.”
She turned to the warg, who watched the raw meat in her hand with pure lust. “ Sitka ,” she said, trying to sound firm under the endearing influence of the beast’s hungry gaze.
The warg’s butt plopped onto the ground, sending up a plume of dust. His tail thumped excitedly.
“Good boy!” Elaina exclaimed, then looked up at Cyan. “How do you say good boy ?”
“ Dobro boyak ,” Cyan said.
“ Dobrro bojyak, ” she tried as she gave the meat to Priad, who promptly swallowed it whole .
The rest she roasted, standing next to the fire while Cyan reclined against a boulder a few steps away.
He hadn’t been in his full armor that night. Instead, he wore loose-fitting trousers made of a fabric that seemed both sturdy and lightweight, with subtle metallic threading that shimmered under the firelight. His long-sleeved tunic was fitted at the shoulders but relaxed through the torso, with intricate black stitching along the cuffs and neckline. The muted earth tones of his clothes spoke of practicality, yet there was a touch of a certain craftsmanship that made them different from anything she’d seen on Earendel. Despite their understated appearance, the clothes had an almost ceremonial air that reminded her of how different their worlds really were. He was from the cradle of humanity itself, and she was from the most developed industrial quadrant in the known universe. There was so much she could learn.
Elaina arranged the sandseeds on a flat rock and set it on a small pile of charred coals that still glowed red for light roasting. Then, settling on the ground next to Cyan, she held out a piece of roasted meat. “Here.”
He looked at it, then at her, a mischievous glint in his eye. “Feed me?” he said, the corner of his mouth quirking up.
The request took her aback. Good thing it was too dark for him to see her blush. Elaina cleared her throat, but leaned closer and held the piece of meat to his lips. He took it from her fingers, watching her, and she wondered what he was thinking.
Cyan chewed slowly, the teasing look in his eyes softening.
“Thank you,” he said, his voice low.
Elaina nodded, her fingers still tingling from the brief contact, and turned back to the fire, enjoying the heat brushing her face.
“So…” she started, offering the next piece to him a little more confidently once he swallowed the first. “Do you make a habit of eating things your warg drags out of streams, or is this a special occasion?”
Cyan laughed boldly. “Let’s just say I’ve had worse. This is goddamn delicious.”
“Thank you!” Elaina was delighted to hear a genuine Gaian ‘god’ reference. She’d have to ask him more about that. “You helped.”
“Team effort.”
They let the crackling fire fill the space between them, enjoying the silence of the falling night, and the nebula brightening overhead.
“Have you done this before?” she asked after a while, gesturing to the fire, the setting, the simple, primitive feel of it all.
Cyan nodded slowly. “Many times. My sister and I used to do this, actually. Sit by a fire like this in the forest back on Gaia.”
Elaina smiled softly, picturing it. “It sounds peaceful.”
“It was.” The quiet longing in his voice tugged at something deep inside her.
Elaina hesitated, watching the firelight flicker across his face. “How did your family react? When you told them you were leaving.”
Cyan’s sighed, staring into the flames. “They were sad, but they didn’t question it much. Just not their way, I guess.”
Something inside her ached at the quiet resignation in his voice. She wanted to say something comforting, but she’d never been very good at that, and the words were elusive .
“Here,” she said, taking a fresh skewer of river snake and a handful of roasted sandseeds. “Have more.”
Cyan looked at her hand, then up at her, a whisper of understanding passing between them. His fingers were warm as he took the offering, and the silence between them was enough.