Chapter 7 Don’t Look at the Eyes
Xiaoyu
My thoughts keep going back to the girls Ingar and I left behind. I want to return, to check on them, but they also aren’t my responsibility…I’m not their keeper. Still, I can’t help but be worried especially when I’m still mourning over Laura’s death.
We’d known each other for five minutes, but that’s enough time to permanently embed the memory of her hand slipping further from my grasp.
Her frantically clawing at the wet, wooden floor.
Her eyes filled with betrayal and terror as I watched the tentacle rip her away.
There’s simply no way she survived that.
Feeling light-headed, I walk back to our camp we haphazardly set up with trepidation racing in my veins.
I’m not sure why I’m so hesitant.
Datu’s head snaps toward my direction, a movement much too fast that it makes me stop and hold my breath. I know he can’t see right now, but there’s an eerie way he stares. The animal in me screams to escape.
I’m hyperaware of the sweat that drips down my body—slow and deliberate—like the juices of a freshly grilled steak.
The earth rumbles, and it’s nothing as intense as an earthquake.
It feels like the bedrock grinding underneath until it fades to a thrumming.
It sounds simultaneously like a racing heart and a growling stomach.
For a second, I just think it’s mine.
“It’s just me, Datu.”
I swear the air whispers my name.
Xiaoyu…
A cheeky smile breaks out of his face as he sits up, beckoning me to sit beside him. Teva looks at him like he’d offended her.
“My brother asks if you would like to sunbathe with him.” She begrudgingly says.
I look at the darkening sky. “There’s not much to sunbathe.” I reply dryly.
The shrubs swish, and I get the crazy idea that it’s nature that speaks for him. It sounds whimsical…magical.
“We savor every minute since nights are very long and cold here.”
My eyebrows draw together. “What do you mean?”
She looks uncomfortable right now. “Nights are twice as long as days. Ingar tells me it is because of the placement of the poles…whatever it means. I believe him.”
I can see Datu’s expression shift from peaceful to detached. It had not been obvious to me before, but now I see Datu has a stick up his ass with Ingar.
Their problem, not mine.
“Oooh,” A shocked breath leaves my mouth. “We are on one of the poles? Which pole?”
She just shrugs while she combs her deep fuschia hair with her sharp claw-like nails—her way of dismissing me.
I consider it for a moment as I watch Datu’s tattooed chest rise up and down.
Before Laura was taken, we’d been in the middle of the frigid ocean.
I’d been “hired” by Moriarty for an expedition to Tierra del Fuego which is as close as it can get to the South Pole.
But still…nights being much longer doesn’t make sense at all.
Polar days and nights exist… I hear how ridiculous I sound.
Plant people aren’t supposed to be possible either.
A small tapping on my cheek interrupts my internal crisis. Datu has sat up to face me. He taps my temples again and shakes his head.
“He says you should not think much of it. It is the way Esoterra is. Applying human logic is…” Teva seems to be grasping for a word to use. “...pointless.” She shoots her brother a dirty look.
I get the feeling Datu had said something more unceremonious.
“Is there any way I can speak to Datu? Like Terra sign language I can learn?” I’m not sure if it comes off as rude, but I have to ask. If there is an alternative to make my job easier, I am willing to learn.
The female Terra stills and her eyes flick to her brother. There’s that dark, forbidding noise again that makes my bones jangle. The silence that follows makes me uneasy. I wish I had not asked. When I asked earlier by the brook, he had reacted strangely, too.
“Totally fine if I mime though.” I add quickly.
“Being able to speak to Datu is a commitment.” Teva then turns her gaze toward me. “I would not wish that upon even my greatest enemy.”
Is she…joking? I can’t tell, honestly.
Datu’s mood shifts abruptly and playfully shoves her away, the heaviness in the air receding.
These two were giving me whiplash. She rolls her eyes and stands to leave.
Ingar is building a pyre a few yards away from us.
He smiles, embraces Teva when she approaches him.
It’s…sweet. Too intimate that I turn away immediately.
A feeling scratches inside my chest, bothersome and it fills me with discontent. I actually envy Teva and Ingar’s relationship. They’re so different and yet so in tune with each other’s emotions. I can’t help but yearn for something like what they have.
Datu nudges me and gives me that sharp-toothed grin. I’m not sure if he can see yet, but he’s looking straight into my eyes. The pale coloring should appall me, but it makes him look more fantastical. Unreal.
He pats the grass behind me and pushes me down so I’m laid on my back, facing the night sky. I gasp at what I see. There’s no moon, but the stars, the constellations…they smatter like iridescent glitter across an endless black sheet.
Datu, laid beside me, makes a self-satisfied grunt like he knew all along I would love what I see. I can feel him looking at me right now as I keep my gaze skyward. I’m not sure what he sees, but I hear a deep fluttering, much like my heart.
“I can see Centaurus from here,” I break the silence with a fun fact.
In my periphery, he rolls over to face me completely, listening.
“It’s a group of stars that are just shaped in some sort of way.
People—humans—like to put meaning and names to everything.
That one is called Centaurus after Chiron, a half-horse, half human creature.
He’s very wise and trained in natural medicine.
He can heal countless others, but ultimately died because he couldn’t heal himself. The paradox.”
He nods as if he understands what I’m saying. Datu sweeps his hand across the sky. I see the trees sway in unison with him. Ominous and majestic.
“It’s called outer space. There might be other creatures out there.”
He taps a finger to his chin, pensive.
“It does make me feel small, insignificant.” I’m not sure where that came from.
He smiles and pokes me, shaking his head. He’s telling me that I’m not insignificant. It hits something deep in me, and before I can thank him again, Ingar calls me.
“Lin! Get over here.”
My irritation spikes, but I hold my tongue.
“Come with me,” I tell Datu, but he politely declines. I grimace and awkwardly wave bye to him. I doubt he sees it at how his gaze is entirely too focused on Ingar. For a blind guy, he seems to know where everything is.
I jog toward them and inhale the delicious smell of meat. God, when had I last eaten? I watched as he roasts what looked like an enormous insect with metallic flesh. It looks like a mix of a centipede and a scarab.
“This is Teva’s. We have our own food. I have to get to the cache, it’s not too far.” He tells me.
I’m absolutely terrified of asking for food—a fear Mother had cultured until it festered—so I acquiesce silently.
“I know you’re hungry, but just wait for me. Don’t eat anything from here.”
My brows pull together. “Why?”
“I hear most of the edible shit here is psychedelic. Don't want to risk it.”
My mouth clamps shut. “Oh, that’s…kind of dangerous.”
“You don’t know danger until you see someone having a psychotic trip and tries to kill everyone.” He tells me gruffly and I get the feeling he’d seen exactly that.
“So, about this work…it’s guaranteed I can go home, right?”
“If you do the job right, I guarantee your safe trip back home.”
I’m beginning to feel weak and sweaty as I reply, “I was hand-picked for the job. Of course I can do the job right.”
Ingar looked away, and I swear a look of guilt crossed his face.
“Of course, you were picked because of your professional achievements and accolades.”
Interrupting his brooding, my stomach growls—loud and insistent. I’m terribly embarrassed but I’m glad he doesn’t say anything about it. Ingar tosses me something long wrapped in brown paper.
“To stave off the hunger. And keep this close, just in case.” He unsnaps a knife off his belt, throws it my way and—before I can jump back—it stabs the ground just a few inches away from my knee.
I can’t hold back my anger. I’m tense and hungry—not a good combination. I grab the hilt and slam the dagger to the ground, just barely missing his shoe by a few millimeters.
“Do that again, and I won’t miss next time.” I snarl. I should be embarrassed by my short fuse, but I feel justified. I’ve been through a lot today. I’m entitled to a little fit, right?
“Look, instead of fighting, can we just agree to work together?” he says as he picks up the knife and holds it out to me, hilt first.
“Agreed.” I swiftly take the knife and turn to walk away. Where I’m going? Fuck knows.
My face is hot with a concoction of emotions I can’t understand.
I’ve learned at a young age I had a capacity for violence, but Mother had severely curbed said capacity.
One curbing method had been starving me.
Perhaps why she always had a tight grip on me.
I’d been ready to murder someone when I was a kid.
Just one person, though. I never felt the need to hurt others.
I’m starting to feel weak so I need to make myself scarce.
“I’ll be back with food.” Ingar calls one last time.
The biodiversity in Esoterra is breath-taking.
I see mahogany trees, palm trees, fruit-bearing trees within my periphery.
It shouldn’t make sense. Mahoganies inhibit growth of fruit-bearing trees, but here, they are healthier than ever.
This makes me worry since this can alter everything I know about plants.
Automatically, I fish out my notebook and pen, writing my thoughts.
Esoterra day 1
Subject is named Datu.
Male, approx. 7 feet tall, mute, speaks through the wind and trees.