Chapter 10 Earthly Wiles
Datu
It’s not long until Xiaoyu’s eyes flutter shut, caving to the exhaustion.
Earlier, she had curled in on herself and faced away from me on the bed.
I know what she’d been trying to do. Shutting me away.
The whole time, I lay next to her on my side, stroking her short black hair until her breathing deepens.
In sleep, she’s not guarded at all. The lines of worry disappear from her face, she even smiles. Her rest fascinates me. Xiaoyu, she…talks in her sleep. Not just a mumble, but a full conversation. It reminds me of my trips to unfamiliar realms.
My lips twist wryly as she squeaks, “Oh my god, why are my heads on a stick?!” to “There’s a cowboy in the basement demanding a cigarette.” It’s obvious she has strange, overactive dreams.
Dreams…they are not my domain, but in times of yawning emptiness, I find myself wandering there.
Humans—despite their apparent self-destructive nature—have the most fascinating minds I’ve seen.
I find the longer I live, the more I seek…
something. I would take anything just to feel something.
I want to feel earthly, physical demands, not just this constant churning.
It was why I had chosen a corporeal form. Nothing good comes from my worsening hunger. Along with Sateva, I have fostered a community…until the humans arrived in Esoterra.
More often than not, I find myself in other people’s dreams. I can choose whose mind I spectate, and I find comfort in…
observing. Living a life vicariously through them.
I have never been in anyone’s dreams more than once—a personal choice.
I have to be detached, indifferent. That is, until I met a companion. A hunger just a speck of mine.
There is lust in the air as soon as I find Xiaoyu’s dream. Her body is craving for release, infected by the burst of pollen my skin began to plume as soon as I licked her neck. It had been inescapable in that form…It needed a mate, and she had triggered the primal reactions of Terra.
Sighing, I distance myself from her, walking to the other side of my altar.
I need to wash the pollen off me before it coats us both.
In silence, I summon the sentry through the wind.
Instantly, the ground shakes, and roots shoot up the terrain before me.
Sharp claws burst through first, then the thick bodies of gentle but giant protectors emerge.
“Our chief, we thank you for calling us for assistance. It has been so long.”
“Keep her safe for me until I return.” I order and they bow their heads.
“We are honored to guard the human.” They did not say her name out loud, but I know they know. The trees have been singing her name all night.
I breathe a sigh of relief as soon as I leave. Her presence makes this body weak to the call of the flesh. Xiaoyu is under the impression that she is here to…collect my pollen. My seed. She does not know the humans have basically thrown her into the jaws of the beast.
She is not just a healer anymore…she is this form’s mate—something I never expected to have parading like it is mine.
The trees make way for me until I see my creek. The water level only reaches my calves now. Before, it had been waist-deep. Hastily, I wash off the pollen dusted all over me. It does not give me much relief, but at least I cannot smell it anymore.
A branch snaps, and I feel her before I see her. Sateva.
“Show yourself, Sateva.”
She emerges from the trees, carrying what looks like Xiaoyu’s satchel. She is without her human.
“You look like you have eaten.”
“I have with Ingar’s help.” She is timid right now. Something must have happened for her to be.
“Is there a purpose for this visit?”
“To leave the woman’s belongings, and to inform you that something…unexpected has happened.”
Everything around us stills. “What?”
“We separated the women. One group went to the east village, the other to the west.”
There’s something crawling under my skin as she continues to speak.
“The group arrived safely in the west village.”
“If the humans died traversing the peaks of the east village, it is not my concern.” I barely leash my snarl.
Sateva snarls back. “These are innocent females, Datu. Do not talk about them like they are infesting ticks. They are here to help our dying breed. My people.”
I am taken aback at her hostile defense of the humans. “If they died, there is nothing I can do.”
“There is no evidence of death…yet. They must be lost or stumbled upon a portal. Please, I beg of you, if you know anything, tell me now.”
No matter how dastardly I dismiss humans, there is a part of me that dislikes harming females.
I close my eyes and call to the trees…but they see nothing.
I see the females in the west village, but none in the east. They are not even around the area.
It is as if they have been plucked out of the island.
“Who was taking them there?” I ask my sister.
“Raiki, and she is missing, too.”
God’s balls, this does sound alarming.
“Who cares for the nursery while Raiki is gone?” The sprouts cannot be left behind by their main caretaker for too long.
“Savi has taken over, but she is just an apprentice.”
I comb back my slick hair and climb out of the creek.
“I cannot interfere, but I will keep looking. I will call on you once I find something.” It is the most I can give her right now.
“This lack of interference is the thing killing us, Datu.”
“One of us has to follow the Vow of Natural Selection, Sateva.” The promise to let things unfold how it naturally should. A gripping philosophy that I have a complicated relationship with.
“This is shocking, coming from someone in a form that is not naturally his.” She says snootily.
My hypocrisy is driven by my selfish desire to keep my hunger at bay. “It is the way of life…if we want it to continue.”
Sateva rolls her eyes at me like a human. It is baffling. “If you start masticating like us subpeople, I think you would see that it helps.”
I scowl in disgust. Masticating, chewing, sounds so discomfiting to me. Ignoring her advice, I tell her, “Do not tell the others that Raiki and the humans disappeared.”
“I have told the east village they have been…delayed.”
“Good. Who else knows of this?”
“Just you, me…and Ingar. He is out searching for them.”
Begrudgingly, I respected the male for that. I will never say it aloud, however.
“This will be between the two of us…and your human.”
“I have been meaning to ask about your human. Is she to your liking?” Her eyes narrow suspiciously.
Apprehension is a swift, hot taste on my tongue. “Why?”
“I told you before you have been talking in your sleep. Do you not remember?”
“I do not sleep.”
“Yes, so when you began, you can only tell how desperate I became.” She replies crisply. “You were babbling nonsensical things with your eyes closed.”
My gaze drops. I hate this barricade I have built around myself. This tower of indifference that speaks too loud with hollow resolution.
“I came to find out that you have been frequently visiting someone you are above visiting.”
I wave off her concern. “It only matters if the visitation upsets the balance. It does not.”
Sateva is drilling holes into my head. “You are not an idiot, Datu, do not act like you are. You know exactly what I mean.”
With one last glare, she drops Xiaoyu’s satchel to the ground and walks into the forest. I sigh and rub my forehead as I lumber straight to the tree where my freshly-made loin cloth is draped.
I’d never had to wear one until now. My slit is starting to come apart and I did not want to frighten Xiaoyu.
Sateva does not understand my legitimate need to separate myself from too much turmoil and emotions. It leaks like poison throughout the island, leaving chaos, disorder in its wake. It had happened once, and that time, the catalyst had been my pain, my anger.
With my pain, however, came a lot of answers that have since dried. Literally.
I knead my bulge as it leaks more luminescent fluid. It should disgust me, but I accept it. My body changes for my mate willingly. It did not have to be suctioned out anymore. She can’t be bred by dust. She needs my cum. The human term is fitting.
She will arrive when I have her.
Squeezing, pushing the swelling shut is not helping. In fact, it worsens my desire. My teeth, my gums…they are hurting as my claws dig into the tree. It crackles under pressure.
The air feels slick, and there’s a call in me. It’s that little flutter I feel in my chest every time my dreamer sleeps. My original form is being summoned. Slowly, I realize why my sister had asked if Xiaoyu was to my liking.
It’s her. My sweet dreamer.