Chapter 17 #2
She had her flare gun in case something happened, and she knew Tuvo wouldn’t be far.
She had screamed after seeing a spider one day and he had come sprinting out of the forest in seconds.
Keith had called her a coward and him a simp, but Tuvo had shooed the spider away as though she hadn’t terrified him with that stunt.
In her defense, she didn’t know which spiders were deadly in the , so it was safest to assume it was all of them and react accordingly.
The next day, she had made her broom and started her daily sweeping.
Armed with the flare gun, the multitool, and a cautious eye, she ventured out past the plane, following the deep, slightly arced landing path. The plane had been spiraling when it fell – a slow, steady circle that translated into a curved crash site.
Already, the trees were growing to cover the hole, blocking off some of the sunlight that had brightened their temporary home. The forest reclaimed its territory quickly. Very soon the search and rescue team wouldn’t be able to even see it.
All the more reason to keep their fire strong.
Hattie followed the swath of destruction their falling plane made, unable to hold back a wince when she saw just how extensive the damage really was.
But still how stalwart the forest remained.
Because although branches were ripped down and plant life had been razed short, the trees themselves didn’t look any worse for wear. Their trunks had played bumper cars with a jet and maintained their impressive stature with barely a scratch.
And there was the second wing and what remained of the engine. Hattie looked it over, wincing at the amount of damage. The wing looked like crumpled up tissue paper. The engine was just a cylinder-shaped lump on the ground. Both were already being claimed by the jungle.
“Look out.”
She lifted her eyes and took a few steps back, giving Tuvo plenty of room to drop off the tree he had been climbing down and land next to her. He barely made a sound. She was surprised to even see him; she hadn’t heard him approach.
“When did you get here?”
He gave her a cocky grin. “I was there the whole time.”
“Huh?” Her eyes darted between the tree and his brown and green body for a moment before understanding dawned and she started laughing. She hadn’t even seen him clinging to the tree. His camouflage was impeccable. “What were you doing?”
“One of the mushrooms I have been bringing us grows on that tree. I was collecting them.” He patted his hip pouch where the offerings had been stuffed. “What about you? Why are you out here?”
His question was considerably less curious than hers. It almost sounded like an interrogation. He wasn’t happy about her wandering around.
“Just stretching my legs,” she admitted. “Sorry. I’m getting stir crazy stuck inside.”
“Stir crazy. That’s a new one. Is that what you call the human need to constantly be roaming outside of the safety of your den?”
She laughed. “First of all, I don’t think the broken shell of a crashed jet can be suitably called a ‘den’. It might be a bit high maintenance of me, but I require a little more luxury than that in my dens.”
“Noted.”
She hesitated, face heating at the seriousness with which he acknowledged her words, before she continued, now smiling. “Second, yes. That’s exactly what we call it. Humans don’t like being cramped up in our dens all the time.”
“I noticed that when Peony was pregnant. Even Holly was doing it.”
“Yeah. Getting transplant instincts from carrying alien babies can’t fully override our human instincts, and humans like being out and exploring.”
“I see. Find anything interesting?”
“The wing, I guess?” She turned and looked at it, grimacing.
“Really drives home just how bad the wreck is somehow. I don’t know why.
I mean, the body of the plane was cracked like an egg and ripped open like tissue paper in some parts, but it’s seeing the ripped off, crumpled wing that’s making me weird? Doesn’t really add up.”
“Sometimes, during traumatic moments, it’s not the big trauma that really sticks with us. You would be surprised how often it’s little things.”
“I thought domini didn’t suffer from post-traumatic stress?”
“Not when it comes to battle and bloodshed, no. But we can still see things that horrify us to our core. And in those times, my soldiers would often find themselves fixated on the smallest, most innocuous of things. Sometimes, the traumatic thing is just too big. It’s easier for you to see the scale of it in a broken wing rather than the whole plane. ”
“That makes sense,” she admitted, turning her back on the engine. “So, I guess you’ve already looked around this area. Didn’t find anything useful?”
“I found mushrooms. And a large snake that I believe is too big for us to eat. I moved him away, so he didn’t find his way to our de-… camp.”
“Thanks.” She turned and started walking, not at all surprised, or unhappy, when Tuvo fell in step beside her. “Not just for the snake. Thanks for taking care of me. Us. I mean us.”
“Believe me, his care is incidental.”
She chuckled. “I know you don’t like him, so thank you for still making sure that he’s safe anyway. It means a lot to me.”
“Do you still have feelings for this male?” He looked at her with narrowed eyes, muscles twitching, hands clenching, as if the very idea made him mad.
“Sure, I do.” Hattie nodded. “It would be weird if I didn’t have some kind of feelings about him, right?” She smiled reassuringly. “Don’t worry. None of the feelings are affectionate or romantic. At times… I kind of pity him.”
“That’s because he’s pitiful.”
She laughed. He was just so deadpan when he said it, she couldn’t help but find it funny. “I don’t mean like that. I just mean, I see how he’s being self-destructive now. How he attacks others because he’s feeling attacked, and I feel bad for him.”
“Yes. Because he’s pitiful.” He smiled as she broke out laughing again. “I think I found some plant fibers that I can twist into a decently sturdy rope. I’m going to try to make a net from it.”
“A net? Why?”
“So, I can make you a hammock. I’ll feel safer with you up high.”
She chuckled. It was kind of funny watching his domini instincts come to the fore. Just like he found it strange that, as a human, she couldn’t handle being trapped in one, small spot, she found it strange that he was drawn upwards into the trees.
Their different instincts ruled them and, although there was a clash at times, the fun part was learning to live around each other.
“Did you see any new aircraft today?” She asked, trying not to be too hopeful. She was eager to get back home, but she didn’t want to sound like she didn’t appreciate his efforts in making this more comfortable for her.
And, honestly, things weren’t so bad. If boredom was the worst thing she faced, they were doing very well.
But she missed a proper shower or, even better, a long, bubbly bath. Air conditioning. Variety to her diet. Coffee. All the best things of modern living.
“They’re circling out from the area I first saw them. They’ll probably fly over us in a couple days. When I think they’re getting close, I’ll climb up to the top of one of the trees and wave them down to be sure they find us.”
Hattie laughed. “Maybe you should wear one of your brightly colored shirts for that so they can actually see you.”
Tuvo looked down at his bare chest, grinning. “Not a bad idea.”
They were just walking now. Chatting. Meandering around between the trees. Tuvo made sure she didn’t touch anything in case there was a biting insect or a poisonous frog on it. Both things he was immune to.
The snakes could probably still bite him despite his thick skin. It was unknown if their venom would affect him or not, so he wasn’t being careless with them. But she knew without even asking that he would prefer a snake to bite him than her.
The care and devotion to her made her steps feel so light and brought a smile to her face. No one besides her parents had ever put her first like this. Certainly, none of her exes would have gone through this much trouble for her.
Tuvo did it without asking. Without making a big deal of it. Without even drawing attention to it. He just did it.
Walking through the untamed, uncharted rainforest, she felt as safe as she would on a well-trodden hiking path in the middle of a peaceful, small town.
She was just explaining her idea of using her broom handle/stick and tying a red shirt to it to make a signal flag to wave down the search and rescue team when something caught her eye.
She came up short, looking back at the tree she had very nearly walked past. In all other ways, it was a tree like any other around her.
A pale brown bark with an ashen gray cast over it crawling with little plants that made their homes around and on top of the tree itself.
Tiny insects moved up and down through the rough highway of bark.
A whole ecosystem contained in a single tree.
And three, oddly familiar overlapping circles, like a Ven diagram, roughly cut into the side, right at her eye level – about chest height on non-short people.
“Hattie?”
Tuvo turned back after she stopped and came to join her at the tree. He didn’t ask what she was doing, just stared at the marks on the tree with her.
“That’s the symbol on that card you found,” he said.
Oh. Right. That’s where she had seen those before. They weren’t gold or shiny, and they were, of course, a lot bigger. Rougher – not a perfect circle. She could see the marks in the tree where the carver had messed up.
Because those had been carved there.
Meaning, someone had been there to carve them.
And the marks weren’t old. The tree didn’t appear to have healed around them yet. They were fresh. A couple days old, if that.
But from here, Hattie could see the plane. It was right there. Within shouting distance, easily. Someone had been close enough to see their plane, had carved this symbol, then just… left.
Tuvo reached over her shoulder to run his fingers over the markings. A few pieces of wood that had been broken flaked off and fell to the ground.
“This is new,” he said softly. “This wasn’t here before.”
“You’re sure?” She asked softly, hoping he was wrong. Hoping that maybe she just didn’t know what a freshly cut tree looked like. That maybe it was a coincidence that their plane had crashed beside a tree that had been randomly cut up in the middle of the .
“I’ve been walking around this area for days. I know these trees. I know all the markings on these trees.”
“Maybe… it was from the wreck?” Even she knew the suggestion was weak, but she needed to have some kind of innocuous explanation.
Because the alternative was too threatening to be considered.
Tuvo pulled his hand away from the markings, but instead of dropping it back by his side, he wrapped it around her and pulled her back against his chest.
“Do not fear, Hattie. I’m here.”
“You’re not invincible, Tuvo.”
He growled.
“You know I’m not wrong!” She grabbed his arm with both hands. “You’re incredible. Amazing. I know that. But even you can get hurt. Even you can be overwhelmed. What if… What if something happens?”
“Nothing will happen to you.” He leaned over her, hunching around her, holding her tight.
“And if something does, I will avenge you. If you are taken, I will find you. You will have the entire might of the Coalition behind you, Hattie. You aren’t an Earthling by their standards.
You are a citizen of Turv, a representative of the Coalition, and no one on this planet will ever put their hands on you and not experience my wrath. Understand?”
She nodded, closing her eyes, burrowing into him.
He held her until her heart settled again. Until she was calm.
“Go back to the plane,” he ordered, pushing her away just far enough that he could turn her around to face him – to face away from the marking on the tree. “I’ll check the perimeter. Make sure everything is fine. I’ll be back with my hunt soon, all right?”
She nodded and he smiled, pleased.
“That’s my female.” He leaned down and kissed her forehead, making her smile despite the unease crawling in her belly. “Go on now. I’m always within earshot, okay?”
She nodded again, more assuredly this time, and stepped back from him.
Returning to the plane, she looked over her shoulder every so often. Every time, he was still there, blending near seamlessly into the foliage so that only his blue-green eyes seemed out of place, watching to make sure she got back safely.