Chapter 14
Tuvo
Hattie was sleeping.
Immediately after a harrowing experience that left her near breakdown, her arms and legs bleeding from the fall, her feet blistered from her shoes, soaking wet and sweating from the weather, in an unknown location with an unknown future, she still felt safe enough to sleep against his back as he trekked through the forest.
That fact alone would have given him the strength to keep moving even if he had broken both his legs in the fall.
He hadn’t escaped unscathed. His fingers were throbbing in time with his heartbeat and his legs and spine ached from the force of the landing. But Hattie had survived and that was the only thing that mattered.
Tuvo’s tail kept sliding over her legs, swiping away the little biting insects that Keith kept slapping at and who buzzed around them. They occasionally landed on him, but their little noses weren’t strong enough to penetrate his skin.
So long as they kept off Hattie, that’s all he cared about.
This forest was humid and hot and, strangely, reminiscent of home in the early days of the rainy season on Turv. Before the hot season’s lingering heat abated and before the temperature dropped, heralding the cold season.
He was strangely comfortable here. The colors were different, and the trees weren’t as big, but this was just like the wilds of the Home Forest – a place he had lived and trained in for many years. And since he was familiar with this place, he could keep Hattie here until rescue came.
And rescue would come.
He imagined that the humans already knew their plane had crashed, but even if they didn’t, they would realize something was wrong when they never reached Hattie’s home country.
And even if the humans, somehow, missed their absence, the Jutiron Stor would be suspicious if they didn’t check in and, eventually, would send out a search team.
Tuvo just had to keep Hattie safe until then. And after that, he would never allow her back on this planet. If she wanted to see her parents again, he would bring them to her. They would be welcome in his family home.
Krik, he’d move them there now if it made her happy, but he was not putting her at risk by being on a planet going through the tumultuous days of initial contact anymore.
It wasn’t until nearly a quarter mark later that he realized he had mentally moved her parents into his home, not the palace where Hattie currently lived as Atem’s sister.
Don’t pull away from me because you’re afraid of hurting me.
Was he doing it again? But she didn’t really mean it like that, right? She-
Smoke.
Tuvo came up short, sniffing deeper at the air as the familiar, acrid scent of freshly burned plant life hit his nose. There was a fire around here somewhere. Or there had been.
“This way,” he called back to the human male, knowing very well he couldn’t understand him – though he seemed to get the message regardless as he panted from keeping with Tuvo’s renewed speed.
“Mm…”
His hurried movements pulled Hattie from her sleep, and she lifted her head from his shoulder, her arms re-tightening around his neck.
“Wha’ is…?”
“I smell the wreck, vi kyrya,” Tuvo said, pausing to get his bearings, then continuing forward again as he caught back on the scent trail.
Hattie grumbled. “Ew. I smell it too. Burning jet fuel. Oh! Crud, do you think it’s still on fire? What are we going to do if it’s on fire?”
“After that rainfall? I doubt it’s still on fire.”
Something metallic flashed through the trees as the area brightened considerably. The hole punched through the canopy was large enough to let sunlight bathe the area.
And the shattered remains of what had been their aircraft.
The formerly slick, rounded body had buckled and cracked at its various weak points.
The cockpit had snapped off and looked like it had become buried in the dirt from the force of the jet’s body driving it into the wet soil.
The body of the plane had broken into three large segments – two of which had their sides peeled away.
One of the wings was missing, the other one was broken and dented, driven into the side of one of the trees and now just a lump on the ground.
The tail seemed to be the most intact, though it rested at an odd angle at the back of the scene.
Keith made a sound of shocked amazement as Hattie drew in a stuttered breath.
Tuvo could just imagine how traumatic the sight was to them. To know that they had been seconds away from being part of the mangled wreckage.
Tuvo turned and set Hattie on what appeared to be a part of the roof that was resting face down on the forest floor.
“Put on your shoes,” he said. “I’m going to check to make sure nothing dangerous moved in.”
Hattie nodded and proceeded to do just that. He hated to ask her to do it, but he needed her distracted, because if he was right…
And he was.
Just inside the piece closest to the cockpit, little more than a mangled lump of meat, were Rodger’s remains. Insects had already landed and were working on consuming his body. He had been bounced around in the crash and left smears of blood and viscera all around the front.
Tuvo growled at the dead male. Dying while unconscious was too good for him.
But he quickly put it out of his mind as he kneeled beside him.
Rodger had been planning to jump. Which meant he had been planning to live. Which meant he had to have some kind of plan for survival in these trees.
Tuvo found what he was looking for on the male’s back.
A pack that must have been under the parachute that Keith removed.
A bag with an assortment of items inside that Tuvo didn’t recognize but certainly seemed important.
He set it aside and went through his pockets – ignoring the black insects that, angry at his disturbance, tried to bite and sting at his flesh with about as much success as the flying ones.
Tuvo flicked them off his hands and continued his work. He found two more, smaller packs in his pant pockets, as well as his wallet. He added them to the pile then gathered his mangled body.
He left out the other side of the broken plane, making sure to stay out of Hattie’s line of sight, and took the corpse into the trees. A decent enough distance away that he didn’t have to worry about any potential predators stumbling upon them while enjoying their feast.
After tossing him away, and brushing off the insects, Tuvo returned to the plane. He was grateful he had left because, in the time he had been gone, Hattie had wandered into the plane and was now frowning at the dark, smeared bloodstains on the wall.
She turned as he stepped in and noted the similar stains on him.
“Did you remove his body?” She asked softly.
“You didn’t need to see that,” Tuvo said in response.
She let out a low breath and nodded. “Thank you.”
“Check out those packs,” Tuvo inclined his head to the things he had pulled off Rodger’s body. “See if we can use anything in there. I’ll check the wreck. Where’s Keith?”
“He found my phone. He’s trying to see if he can get a signal outside. It’s a long shot, but we figured it was worth the attempt.”
Tuvo grunted in agreement and turned to head to the kitchen.
The small area was at the back of the plane and, like the tail, had suffered the least damage.
Everything was broken, some of the cabinets having been cracked open like eggs, and there were scorch marks where the fire must have been before the storm, but there were still things to be scavenged.
The contents of the refrigerator were banged up, but the cold box itself hadn’t been penetrated and the food inside was still good.
Tuvo brought Hattie some and, because he knew she would want him to, he set some aside for Keith before eating the remainder himself.
The food would spoil soon, so it was better that they eat it now.
By the time the human male had returned, grumbling a failure that needed no translation, Tuvo had managed to find and set aside ten bottles of water, four cans of the fuzzy, sweet beverage they called soda (there had been twelve, but the others had all busted open), a can of fruit, multiple packets of nuts, and their suitcases which, on the whole, seemed to have survived intact.
He couldn’t locate his phone or the comm.
“What did you find?” Tuvo asked, returning to Hattie. She had set up one of the chairs and spread the contents of the packs out before her on the small table they had just been eating at a few hours before.
“This!” She beamed, holding up a tube.
“And this is?” He took it from her, turning it around curiously.
“Worth three times its weight in gold. That’s a drinking straw specifically made to drink untreated water so that, by the time it gets to the other end of the straw, it’s safe for consumption. An absolute must for lost humans in the wilderness.”
Tuvo grinned, pleased. Her species might be weak, but they were clever. His own people would never need to come up with such a thing since they only needed to drink the blood of their prey to get the water they needed.
“Excellent. What else?”
“These are food packets,” she put her hand on a stack of pouches.
“Ready to rip open and eat. Also good for hiking humans. But only three of them. We got nylon rope, a multitool, a tent – probably not big enough for more than one person though. That was a satellite phone I think, but it didn’t survive the crash.
Er, this card. Not sure what it’s for.” She lifted a plain, white card, about as long as her finger and barely half as wide, with three, golden rings intersecting over each other printed across it, some dried blood, and nothing else.
“Er, let’s see. That’s a flashlight – it still works if you press the back of it forward really hard. Bug spray. And this!”
She turned, brandishing more paper. It was bigger than the last one and unfolded revealed what he realized was a map.
“I was right,” she said with a sad smile. “We’re definitely in the .”
“Can you read it?”
“Kind of? I have no idea what direction is which though. He marked something over here in the corner, but I honestly couldn’t tell you how to get there. I’m, er, not really an ‘outdoorsy’ type of girl, you know.”
Tuvo grunted, folding up the map. He couldn’t read it and he wasn’t entirely sure he wanted to go wherever Rodger thought was safe for him. But it was something to consider. For now, he set it aside.
“Your suitcase is there. Do you have more practical clothing?”
“Yup! Thanks a lot, Tuvo!”
She jumped from the chair and rushed over to it.
While she was digging through for something more appropriate for their situation, Tuvo was re-packing everything she had removed.
The food and water straw were definitely important.
The light and tent probably less so. He unfolded the multitool and figured out what it was before putting that in his pocket.
He also kept the rope secured around a belt loop, so he had access to them both if he needed.
A short time later, Hattie reappeared, her arms laden with clothes, and she set the dagger he had given her on the table.
“You carry this,” she said, smiling. “I feel like it will be more useful in your hands than mine.”
He grunted and tied the sheath onto another belt loop. Without a thigh belt, it was the best place he could put it for now.
Hattie walked towards the back of the plane. She struggled for a moment against the door to the little privy before Keith snapped something at her. She flushed, a hurt expression crossing her features that she quickly concealed, and Tuvo growled.
“What did he say?”
“Er, he said that it’s not the time to think about modesty.”
“That is not what he said.” Tuvo narrowed his eyes on the male who was digging through his own belongings. “You wouldn’t get that look on your face for that. Tell me what he said.”
She sighed softly before admitting, “He said to just change because it’s nothing he’s never seen before, and you definitely aren’t interested in my body.”
Tuvo snarled, surprising Keith who stood, his own clothes in hand.
Marching over to him, Keith started to stumble back but he didn’t get far. Tuvo grabbed him by the neck and, holding him up so he was forced to balance on his toes, forced him to look towards the front of the plane.
He looked the same way and called back, “Go ahead and change. We won’t look.”
He heard something that sounded like muffled laughter as Keith struggled against his hold. For all the good it did him. He was like a pup protesting against being led around for being bad.
He was just about tired of this male. If he kept pushing it, Tuvo wasn’t going to be able to resist challenging him as a proper domini.
And Keith likely wouldn’t survive that encounter.