Chapter 39 #2
“Holly, come on,” Hattie pulled gently on her sleeve, glaring at the two but trying to get her to move along.
But Holly didn’t want to be moved. She could only hear that word, ‘fat’, echoing around and around in her head. That single insult paid to probably the sweetest person she knew was worse than the litany of them that had been lobbed at her only a moment before.
“And you’re here pretending to swipe at me because you know that you’re not capable of getting your position back,” Holly continued, needling her ruthlessly.
“You have to go pick on someone weaker than you because you know you’re never going become a top ranked scholar again.
The only reason you got it before was because someone died, not because you earned it. ”
Thunder boomed overhead, punctuating her statement, rumbling along with Valorii’s growl that had gotten deeper and deeper with every word.
“Forget her,” Hattie said, pulling harder. “She’s not worth it.”
That line, so common on Earth, seemed to be the tipping point for Valorii.
“Not worth it?!” She snarled. “You tell me that I’m not worth it? You humans are weak and stupid and primitive. Good only for your cunts!”
“And yet they still want me more than you,” Holly sneered, enjoying her rage. Wanting her to hurt as much as she had hurt Hattie.
She had forgotten that Valorii came from a hit first society, that she herself was actually weak as hell, and that, as close as her guards were, they were still some yards back.
Valorii charged. Holly brought up her hands to defend herself, knowing that her weak flesh would part too easily under her claws.
Hattie grabbed her by the back of the dress and yanked, pulling her out of Valorii’s wide, downward strike.
But she didn’t stop there, already bent low, she charged forward with scream. She slammed into Holly and Hattie both.
The railing hit Holly’s back, sending a spasm of pain all the way up her spine. She cried out as the world suddenly tilted, her body falling over the railing. Her combot started flashing bright colors as gravity grabbed hold and yanked both her and Hattie down.
As they fell, she saw Valorii’s eyes widen in shock and horror at what she had just done.
At how much trouble she was going to get into for attacking them.
It didn’t matter that Holly was provoking her, not when Valorii had charged at her first and not when Holly hadn’t made a single threatening move towards her.
She only had a few seconds to recognize that before, with a hard splash, she hit the water that had gathered below.
Even as it closed over her head, she was grateful that Valorii had done this during the rainy season.
When it wasn’t the rainy season, the forest floor was dry and hard, and the fall could have killed her.
As it was, it still hurt. The surface of the water slamming against her back drove all the air out of her in a rush and she nearly choked when she took in a reflexive breath only to find that it was almost entirely water.
All the while, Hattie’s grip on her dress remained tight. It pulled against her as both of them kicked for the surface. Holly reached out and grabbed her arm in turn as they dragged in deep breaths through the pain of their fall.
“Ow…” Hattie moaned pitifully, her head bobbing up and down.
Holly groaned, mimicking the sentiment as she looked up.
Brava was still standing at the railing, but Valorii wasn’t there. Brava wasn’t even looking at them, she was looking back onto the deck where, Holly didn’t doubt, their guards were securing Valorii for daring to attack them.
“Next time, just walk away,” Hattie said, wiping her hair from her face. “I’m all for standing up for yourself. Not for poking bears.”
“Yeah, not my brightest moment.” Holly offered her a pained smile in apology. Hattie accepted it with one of her own.
“Now what?” She asked, looking up at the high platform.
Holly wasn’t sure. She knew that there was a mushroom farm beneath the market, but it was almost completely underwater as well. Holly didn’t know how deep the flooding was, but she did know that she couldn’t reach the bottom with her toes.
“I guess we wait for them to throw us a rope or something,” she said, watching as her and Hattie’s combots followed them down. Hers was still flashing, which was weird.
Over their heads, one of the guards looked over.
“Are either of you hurt?” He yelled down, his head darting back and forth between them as though afraid they were going to start sinking or drowning.
“We’re okay!” Hattie promised. “We can swim.”
Hearing that seemed to calm him down and Holly realized that he genuinely didn’t know if they were capable of swimming or not. He told them to wait one moment and that he was going to get something to pull them up.
“They don’t have, like, alligators or something here, right?” Hattie asked, looking around them at the dark water.
“Why did you have to say that?” Holly whimpered, now terrified about the type of animals that might be swimming with them.
“We’ll be fine!” Hattie said quickly, laughing. “They’re going to come get us in just a second. No big deal.”
It was too late. Now that she said it, Holly was pretty sure that she could feel something touching her leg.
Probably just a fish. Or seaweed. Or the equivalent for a forest that was flooded for a few months out of the year. Like a vine or something. No need to freak out. No need to panic. It probably wasn’t even touching her at all. It was just in her imagination.
But then something firm and strong and definitely not her imagination suddenly clutched around her ankle. She had enough time for her eyes to widen in fear and to realize that Hattie’s had done the same thing-
-when they were both ripped under the surface.
Instinct alone kept Holly from screaming as she was yanked by her leg through the water. She had one hand over her nose and mouth, keeping them sealed, the other was flailing in the water, trying to find something to grab, while she kicked out with her free foot.
Whatever had grabbed her, it was strong and scaled and it swam fast.
The panic of being dragged underwater by an unknown creature, however, was quickly surpassed by the fear of drowning. Seconds ticked by like minutes, each one making the burn in her lungs that much tighter and desperate.
The pressure built up in her chest, in her face, until she was forced to cover her nose and mouth with both hands, holding onto that single breath like it was the last she would take.
And as the eternity of seconds continued to tick by, she was afraid that’s exactly what it was.
She was about to lose the battle she could feel in her throat, the air trying to push out and her brain screaming at her to breathe in, when her head suddenly broke the surface. The sweet chill of air on her cheeks was almost painful as she hastily gulped in air.
Her butt hit ground not even a second later and she realized that the reason she was breathing was because she was being dragged out of the water.
A hacking cough to her left was accompanied by the slick squelch of mud as she was yanked across soggy ground, the grip on her ankle tight enough to bruise.
She opened her eyes and was somehow not surprised but still horrified to see the deep, emerald green ratchi female who was yanking her up onto partially dry land.
She was slimmer than the ratchi males Holly had seen before, but she was still way more muscular than Holly.
She didn’t have the quills on her head that the males did, and her tail was a bit shorter, not dragging as the males’ had, but she was still a terrifying dinosaur alien.
To Holly’s left, Hattie had also been dragged along. The water was only a few inches deep here and it splashed around their hips as they sat up, looking around as Hattie continued to cough. She had clearly lost the battle against inhaling water.
Holly recognized the gently glowing flowers lighting up the area.
They were the same ones that Romival was working on for one of his many projects.
They brought a pale blue illumination to what appeared to be the hollowed-out cavity of one of the massive trees of the forest. The inside was smooth and looked like it had seen its fair share of floods in its life, though this year it had grown enough that the water had only partially submerged it.
Within, there were seven ratchi females.
They were all varying shades of deep blue and green and they were glaring at the two of them with hatred burning in their eyes.
In the back of the hollow, sitting on a rock that was clearly not a natural fixture, was the familiar face of Sizuka.
She snarled, baring all of her fangs at once.
“What is this?” She asked, clearly not expecting them.
“We were watching them when they fell in the water,” one of the females that dragged them here said, no small amount of satisfaction in her face. “We took advantage.”
Sizuka’s eyes narrowed. “Were you followed?”
“No. We went under the water as we swam away. Made sure to keep their heads under as well so they couldn’t track their heat signatures either.”
“Are either of these the Adassani?”
“No, but it was too good an opportunity to miss.”
Finally, a smirk pulled at Sizuka’s reptilian lips. It was an eerie sight. Holly felt a chill go down her spine as all of her human instincts against dangerous reptiles met and enhanced her learned fear of the ratchi in particular.
A soft touch on Holly’s back told her that Hattie had closed the distance between them. She reached around and took hold of her friend’s hand. She put herself between Hattie and Sizuka, trying to hold her head high and pretend to be brave, for Hattie’s sake.
“They are enticing, I’ll give them that,” Sizuka said, something like pride in her face. “My son did well in finding you.”
Having just learned a lesson in provoking someone much stronger than you, Holly kept her mouth closed this time as Sizuka stood and looked them over.
“Did you know my son, females?” Sizuka hissed. She was speaking modern Domtri with a heavily sibilant accent that only made Holly more unnerved.
She didn’t respond, but Sizuka apparently wasn’t looking for an answer.
“I was so joyous when he went out on his siri’iki.
I just knew that he was going to make me proud and find or do something incredible.
And I was right. He not only managed to capture the ruler of an entire planet, but he discovered a new species.
I always knew that he was going to do great things and he did. ”
Her loving, proud expression faded into one of bitterness and hatred.
“And you killed him for it.”
She said it like her son had done some kind of favor for them and they had turned around and stabbed him in the back.
Holly had to bite her tongue to avoid snapping.
To remind this delusional female that being kidnapped was definitely a crime worthy of retaliation and her precious son had to have known that, otherwise he wouldn’t have locked Atem up as tightly as he had been on that ship.
But she kept that to herself as Sizuka circled them in a slow, angry march. Even though she was walking through thick mud, she wasn’t having any difficulties moving. Like she was made to traverse just this kind of environment.
“The Dominani is beyond me,” she admitted on a snarl.
“I accept that. But you weak little things certainly are not. You will pay for the death of my son and the rest of my clavas. We will have our revenge for this. You will no longer have the privilege of being our clavas’ prize. Instead, you will be our sacrifice.”
The others all hissed in unison, sending chills down Holly’s spine as she held onto Hattie. It was a death rattle, promising pain and retribution.
Sizuka stopped in front of them, raising her clawed hands with a smirk.
Hattie whimpered, hiding her face in Holly’s chest. Holly held her close, facing Sizuka with no small amount of fear, but refusing to move as though she still might be able to defend Hattie.
Sizuka roared, slashing down.
There was a flash of light.
A roar of pain.
Holly gasped, her vision filled with beautiful, shimmering iridescence.