29. Onward
TWENTY-NINE
ONWARD
Elena
The next morning arrives too soon.
Grabbing my pack of supplies I carefully put together late yesterday evening, I shove on my jeans and pull on a fresh undershirt, then I throw on an old sweater I won’t mind getting dirty.
Stuffing my feet into my shoes, I tell Lula to open the hatch as I leave my ship and walk into the meadow. I close the door behind me.
Levy and Greg are already waiting outside, and when I join them, Lukys appears from the trees behind them.
“Good morning,” I say.
“Morning, Elena. Hope you slept well.” Greg cants his head at me in greeting.
“Morning,” Levy mumbles, facing Lukys with a blank expression.
Lukys takes me in with his piercing gray eyes, sliding them over my body like he’s judging my ability to attempt this journey.
I straighten as I scrutinize him in turn. He’s holding a spear and tied around his middle is a net and rope. A sheathed knife is within it.
“You have a gun?” Levy asks at the same time I see the firearm in Lukys’s other hand. A pistol of some sort—I think.
“It issss for you.” He hands the weapon to Levy.
Levy startles then frowns at Lukys’s hand. “Me? Why me?”
“You are weaponlesssss.”
“Elena is too,” he argues.
Lukys coils his tail under him as he reaches down and pats the blade at his hip. “She can have my knife.”
Levy squints but slowly takes the gun from Lukys. “Fine.” He palms the weapon in his hands and checks the magazine. “Where the hell did you get a gun?”
“From a soldier I killed.”
I shift on my feet, wishing I can be surprised by how easily he admits to killing another. Instead, I turn away as Greg regards Lukys sharply.
Levy puts the magazine back into the gun and stuffs it in the pocket of his jacket. “I guess it’s mine now.”
“Are we ready then?” Greg grips the straps of his backpack. “We shouldn’t waste the light. I’m not sure how much you know about humans, Lukys, but we don’t see well in the dark.”
Lukys squints at me and, shuffling my own pack farther onto my shoulders, I nod.
He reaches to take my pack and I pull away. “I can carry my own stuff.”
He draws his arm back.
Glancing between Greg and Levy awkwardly, I tighten the strap around my waist. “I’m ready. And no we don’t.” I laugh, agreeing with Greg, trying to lighten the mood. Feeling Lukys’s eyes burn into my flesh, I try not to glance at his bulge, or at his face.
He pulls out his knife and hands it to me. I slowly take it and tuck it in the side pocket of my pack. “Thank you.”
I’m not sure how good I’ll be at using the knife but I’m happy to have it all the same.
“Consider it a gift.” He turns away. “If you are ready then we will begin. My lands are reasonably safe, but I suggest you stay close. If I hear or see something unusual, I will tell you.” He scans us with his narrowed gaze.
“Bears, boars, pigs, and wolves I will frighten away but if we come upon another of my kind, do not hesitate to hide. We are fortunate that territories we will be passing through are protected by nagassss I know or have recently been deserted. Still, I recommend being silent.”
The distant reverberating hum of a spaceship fills my ears. We all pause to search for it in the sky, soon finding it far in the opposite direction we’re going. As it descends, it flies over us and turns north, disappearing over Lukys’s mountain.
I haven’t paid much attention to the spaceships that come and go but since the storm, it seems like there are fewer than before.
“I heard a broadcast from the northern encampment before sunrise.” Levy shields his eyes and squints up at the sky.
“A massive commercial ship is enroute that was originally destined for The Dreadnaut. Supplies are coming and they’re urging people to navigate there.
Too bad our ship can’t fly any longer. Can yours, Elena? ”
I lie and shake my head.
“Too bad we’re heading for the eastern one,” Greg mutters and chuckles, facing Lukys.
Lukys straightens. “I do not know where the northern encampment is located. I can take you to the smoke trails in the east, but I cannot guarantee that you will find what you are searching for.” His eyes drift to me.
He means Jenna.
I… nod. I don’t care what encampment we’re headed for, I just want to look for my sister. She’s famous… Someone will know something—if there is something to know.
I’ve been idle for weeks. At least with this I feel like I’m doing something. When Greg first mentioned they were leaving, I was unhappy, but maybe their leaving will lead me to Jenna.
“If there is nothing more, then let ussss go.” Lukys slips past my ship and into the gorge on the other side.
We follow the river north, in the same direction the ship flew.
A relaxing silence takes over my mind as I breathe in the fresh air and take in the sounds of the wilderness.
Sunlight dapples through the canopy, creating a golden aura of airy light around me and the trees.
Walking directly behind Lukys with Greg and Levy following closely behind, my thoughts, at first eager with the idea of finding Jenna, flow lazily.
I haven’t felt this at peace in a long time.
I’m not burdened by grief, stress, or even my fever.
The air is cool and temperate. The soles of my shoes are sturdy but soft.
And I’m only getting the faintest whiffs of Lukys’s scent.
Earth takes me in and I fall in love with it. The sounds, the flowers, the cute little birds that soar between the trees… It encapsulates me like a warm embrace—a feeling I used to get the few times my dad hugged me.
Everything is… great until Lukys has to drag each of us across the river one by one because none of us can swim.
For the rest of the morning, I’m wet and stuck with the phantom sensation of having Lukys’s muscled back plastered to my front.
Feeling his body flex and watching his biceps roll in the water while having my legs wrapped around him has firmly reminded me how much of a predicament I’m in being out here with him.
One glance at his bulge and I know he’s not immune.
Eyeing the rippling muscles of his back, I swallow thickly, keenly aware that he had his thumb inside me this time yesterday and that Greg and Levy are walking right behind me.
When we reach the next river, one that Lukys warns leads us between the forest we’re to travel through and the wetlands, we come to our final stop of the day.
“We will crosssss at first light tomorrow.”
Lukys gazes over the water. Standing on the flat, mossy rocks next to him, Greg, Levy, and I do the same.
“Great. So we get to start tomorrow wet too,” Levy grumbles as he wipes his sleeve across his face.
“We have plenty of daylight left. Why don’t we cross it now?” I ask.
He turns from the water and slides his tailtip closer to me before coiling it away. “I would like to have time to catch and prepare your meal. If we stop now, we can have a fire going and something to eat before nightfall. You all need sustenance. Thissss I know.”
Greg and Levy share a look.
“I…” I trail off. “I can keep going if they want to continue.”
“I’m fine with stopping.” Greg shakes his head, facing Lukys. “How long is it going to take us to get to the fires, do you think?”
“Depending on if we need to cross more water as I have never journeyed past the Boomslang’s lands… We will get to where the smoke trails are either tomorrow or the day after. When I last checked, they did not look so far away.”
“Great.” Greg pulls off his backpack. “That’s not as bad as I thought it would be.”
“Like I said, you both could use some sustenance too,” Lukys adds with a hiss, suddenly eyeing Levy and Greg with disdain. “There are other ways to feed yourself outside of hunting if you are bad at it.”
“Trust me”—Levy rolls his shoulders—“we’ve eaten plenty of berries.”
“What about fish?”
“Fish?” Greg walks to a tree next to the river and drops his pack. “What’s fish?”
“The swimmy looking things in the water,” I pipe in, recalling several that Lukys tried to feed me when he’d kept me captive in his nest. After visiting the water with him, I saw them within.
Greg and Levy approach the water’s edge and lean over it, searching for the fish.
I set my pack on a grassy knoll beside Greg’s.
Afterwards, I look around at where I’ll be sleeping tonight, a little concerned to be out in the open.
There are a few bushes interspersed between the trees, and there is plenty of open space for a fire.
“I will gather the fish if you can manage the fire.” Lukys unties and unwraps the net from around his waist. He doesn’t wait for one of us to respond before he dives into the water.
With a splash, he swims across the river.
His tail sways back and forth while his arms circle before him.
Serpentine, darkly outlined, and mesmerizing, he seems like an entirely different creature.
The net drags in the water behind him as he pulls his tail under him and out of sight, lifting onto it and out of the water.
I lick my lips as rivulets course down his skin and over his muscles.
Greg coughs and I jerk, quickly looking away for branches for the fire.
By the time Lukys returns with a half-dozen greenish, spotted fish, we have a small bundle of flames going and Greg is warming up his pan. I keep busy by gathering more wood, afraid if I go idle, my mind will turn to places it shouldn’t be.
It’s going to be dark soon.
Idleness comes for me anyway, and while I watch with Greg and Levy as Lukys fillets the fish and removes the bones, I’m suddenly thankful he’s here and knows how to do things.
His deft hands move with ease as he places the meat onto Greg’s hot pan.
It’s then I catch a glimpse of his bitten-off claws and quiver, immediately recalling how his thumb moved inside me, pressing against and testing my walls.
I’ve never gone that far with someone else.
Sitting on my bent knees, I push them together, holding back a moan.
I watch Lukys out of the corner of my eyes.
Darkness descends as Levy’s and Greg’s conversation ambles into silence as they’re handed their fish. Reaching for the knife Lukys gave me, I tug it from the side of my pack. Ensuring it’s clean, I slice my fish into small pieces. I poke at the pieces before scooping one up and taking a small bite.
I give a pleased moan and scoop up more. Greg and Levy do the same. I’ve been eating nothing but starchy, ultra-processed pasta and the fish is a luxury. It’s to them as well.
I catch Lukys staring at me across the flames. The firelight breathes embers over his lean form, their small bursts of light emphasizing his muscles. His stormy eyes glimmer with orange and red as he gazes at my mouth.
Suddenly, the fish doesn’t matter.
I swallow and hand my plate to Greg. “I don’t think I can eat anymore.
I think I’m going to go to bed. I’m… really tired.
” Rising, they watch as I grab my bag and pull out my biggest sweater, the closest thing I packed to a blanket that would fit without it being Lukys’s hide.
Shuffling awkwardly and finding a spot a short distance away, I curl onto my side after bundling the sweater under my head to use as a pillow.
Luckily, and soon after the fish is eaten, the others take my cue. I don’t fully settle until I hear Greg and Levy ease into their own spaces. Having lost where Lukys went, I remain firm in facing away, refusing to look over my shoulder in case he’s there.
Because if he’s still on the other side of the fire watching me… I don’t know what I’ll do.
I press my arms into my chest and squeeze my eyes closed, hating that even now, even after an exhausting day, I’m aroused.