Chapter 16
Adam
Everything hurts. Every part of my body hurts, even parts I didn’t know could. My stomach is the worst, pulsing with my heartbeat, but my back and arms are close behind. My legs, my tail, even my damned eyes. Why does everything hurt so much?
A sweet scent fills the sleeping spot. Not fresh, but familiar enough to drag everything that happened back into my mind at once. Terror clenches my aching stomach. Jaime. It’s his scent, soft and sleepy, but he’s not here. Where is here?
Opening my eyes takes effort. They’re gritty and too dry, and so are my maw and throat. How long have I slept?
I’m in a small hollow under a rocky outcropping. Yes, I remember crawling here, barely awake. I couldn’t even carry Jaime anymore. He had to crawl after me, the sharp rocks no doubt hurting his soft skin.
Huge leaves, laid against the rock, shield one side of the hollow. I don’t remember them being there, and I can’t guess their purpose. Not that it matters. Jaime is the only thing that matters, and he isn’t here.
Groaning and whimpering, I crawl out, pushing a few leaves aside. Sunlight assaults my eyes, making me blink rapidly. It’s morning?
The sun was just rising when the venomfang attacked us, but this can’t be the same sunrise.
Did I sleep through a whole day and night?
It wouldn’t surprise me, my body sleeps when it’s hurt, but what about Jaime?
What trouble has he gotten into alone for a whole day and night?
What if he’s hurt and needs my help? What if his venomfang bite got worse and the venom started spreading again?
I don’t think it would. Youngling venomfangs have less venom, but Jaime is small and frail.
Who’s to say even a youngling’s bite won’t hurt him?
He doesn’t know how to find the right manylegs to treat it.
Or how to find food. At least we’re near water, so he won’t go thirsty, but he still has to crawl over sharp rocks to get there.
Oh, no. What if he fell into the water again?
Panic sends me scrambling onto my shaky arms and legs. Even with all eight limbs, I can barely take a step without stumbling. My vision swims, everything in front of me appearing four times over. Shaking my head only upsets my empty stomach.
I’m in no shape to search for Jaime, but what else can I do? He needs me. I need him.
Water first. The water’s edge feels hundreds of body lengths away, even though it’s only two or three. Despite sleeping for a whole day and night, I’m exhausted again by the time I reach the lake and slake my thirst. I can’t give up now, though. I need to find Jaime.
The rocks block my view, and I’m too weak to raise myself to see better, so I sniff the air for a fresher scent than the old one in the shelter.
It doesn’t take long. A soft breeze brings Jaime’s sweet scent to my nostrils, and I inhale it hungrily.
There’s a strange scent mixed with Jaime’s, one I’ve never smelled before, yet it feels familiar.
A memory of dancing orange lights bubbles up through the fog, along with a word.
Fire? Jaime mentioned fire. Is that what this smell is?
Jaime’s scent holds no fear, so I push down my panic and stumble toward it.
Rounding a large rock, I’m greeted by the oddest sight. Red and orange lights flicker and dance over a pile of dry branches. They’re so similar to the sharp light sky colors that I look up in worry, but the orange sky is turning light purple with no trace of green, so we’re safe.
Jaime is sitting by the dancing lights, his bare chest covered in scratches. A bunch of large leaves sit on top of his head, and similar leaves are wrapped around his midsection, hiding his cock from view. He’s holding a bare branch, poking at the orange lights. At the fire.
Two fat wiggletails are impaled on another branch near the fire, the lights licking over their skin.
Gray mist rises from the lights. With that and the leaves on his head, it’s hard to see Jaime’s face, but I think he looks worried.
Is the fire attacking him? Is that why he’s holding the stick, to defend himself?
I have no idea how to fight flickering lights, but for Jaime, I’ll find a way.
As I move closer, I growl at the fire, ready to lunge, but Jaime’s cry stops me in my tracks.
“Stop! Adam, don’t touch the fire.” Then his eyes really take me in, the worry vanishing from his expression.
“Oh my god, Adam, you’re awake! I was so worried.
You slept for so long, but I hoped it meant you were healing since you were still breathing and— Fuck. You’re here.”
He extends his hands toward me, and that’s all the invitation I need.
Giving the fire a wide berth, I drag myself to Jaime.
I don’t have the strength to carry him, so I drop onto the sand next to him and pull him into my arms. He doesn’t protest, curling his upper body against me as best as he can.
I help him reposition his legs so he’s comfortable, then just lie there, basking in his scent and the simple fact that he’s still with me.
“You must still be exhausted, but at least you’re not bleeding anymore.
Thank god for alien healing, right?” Jaime’s hands idly roam my chest as he chatters his nonsense.
The leaves have fallen off his head, and when I try to put them back, he laughs and pushes them away.
“It’s okay. The sun isn’t up yet, but it was burning yesterday.
No auroras, but damn, I would have gotten sunburn for sure without the hat when I went hunting.
I also made this extremely fashionable loincloth for myself because dragging my bare cock over the ground was not fun.
Don’t worry, I tested the leaves on my calf first. Which, by the way, is now completely venom-free and not even infected.
Yay to the healing millipedes. Oh, wait. I saved you some worms.”
When he squirms, I reluctantly let him go. He crawls a short distance, pulling two big wiggletails from a crevice between two rocks before returning to me. “Here.”
A memory assaults me as he offers me the wiggletails.
An older creature, similar to me. I’m fond of him.
He’s laughing as he carries an incredibly thin, flat rock covered in odd items. Food?
He sets the flat rock in front of another creature like me, also older, but female.
I’m fond of her too, my heart is happy as I watch them together.
“Remember, son,” the male says, “giving your mate food is the most important thing in the world.”
The female laughs and hits the male’s arm in a soft, playful way. “There are other things too,” she says, her voice so familiar it makes my chest ache. “Like love.”
“Oh, but love goes through the stomach, doesn’t it? And other body parts,” he adds, making the female hit him again.
“Not in front of the boys,” she chides.
There’s another creature like me sitting beside me. He’s blue and small, but I think I’m small, too.
“They’re so disgusting,” the small creature whines. “I bet they’ll start licking each other soon.”
“That we are,” the older male confirms. His gaze softens as he watches the female, and he brings his mouth to her neck. Not to bite her, though. He presses his lips to her skin, his tongue flicking out to taste her. Smiling, she leans into his touch.
“See, boys?” the male says. “Food is the way to win your mate over.” At that, the female laughs again and pushes him away.
“Adam? Adam!” Jamie’s voice tears me from the memory, leaving me disoriented. Who were these creatures? Why are they in my head?
Jaime hesitates. “I guess you’re not hungry?
” He moves to put the wiggletails away, but I snatch them from his hand.
Food. He brought me food. My mate brought me food, which means he wants to win me over.
Little does he know he doesn’t need to court me like that.
I’m already his. Still, I’m honored, especially since I have no idea where he got the wiggletails from.
They’re dead, or they would have escaped, but they don’t smell like they’ve been dead for long. Did he hunt them himself?
I devour one whole worm before realizing I should be the one feeding Jaime, not the other way around.
I try to offer him the other worm, but he laughs and shakes his head.
“No, these are for you. I already had one this morning, and now that I finally made fire, I’m trying to roast them to see if it will help with the taste.
I doubt it will, but it can’t hurt.” He gestures at the two wiggletails hanging over the fire, then to the one I’m holding, then to me. He wants me to eat both?
His face brightens as he leans between the rocks to pull something else free.
“Look what else I found!” He holds up a spiraling shell as big as my head.
It’s not from a hardshell, but possibly from something that lives in the lake.
“I found it washed up on the waterline. I thought I could use it to boil water, but I wasn’t really able to bring any water here without spilling it along the way.
Perhaps when you get better, we can try it. ”
I study the shell he’s so proud of. It’s not very pretty and it’s awkward to carry, but if he wants to keep it, I’ll carry it for him. Once I’ve slept a little longer, because now that I’ve drunk some water and eaten, my eyes are closing again.
“Hey.” Jaime pokes me. “Don’t fall asleep here.
The sun gets brutal. Let’s go back to the shelter if you want to sleep.
I put some leaves on the side to shield it because when the sun was setting yesterday, it shone right at you.
I mean, I’m not sure if you can get sunburnt, but it didn’t feel like you’d rest well with the sun beating down on you.
” He pokes me again, gesturing toward the hollow where I woke up earlier.
I reach for him, but once again he refuses to be carried.
It’s probably for the best, because as weak as I am, I’d struggle to hold him safely.
“Go back to sleep, Adam,” he tells me.
Enough words and images have filtered through the fog that I understand my Jaime now.
I don’t like leaving him, but the exhaustion is too great to fight, and sleeping in the shelter will be safer than passing out here in the open, especially if the sharp light comes.
But what about Jaime? I point at the fire, then at the sky and the shelter, desperate to explain that he needs to hide when lights appear.
Frustrated, I open my maw to speak, but the fog still hangs heavy over that part of my mind.
No words come out, but somehow Jaime understands me anyway. Repeating my gestures, he says, “I know, Adam. Don’t worry. When I see the northern lights, I’ll hide.”
Hide. Yes. I recognize that word, and it’s the right one. He knows what to do. Relief hits me so hard I nearly collapse on the spot, but I make myself move. I can’t lecture Jaime about hiding while passing out in the open.
Crawling into the hollow, I don’t even wriggle to get comfortable. Surrounded by Jaime’s scent, I fall asleep at once.