19. Chapter 19
Camille
Taylagonia was nothing like any of the other places we had been so far.
When they had said they were behind technologically, I assumed they were talking about like ,Croneatos behind, not stone ages and cavemen behind.
There was no city or town. No village even.
I wasn't even sure there were intelligent life forms here at all.
“Where are all of the people, the Taylagonians?” I said, as we walked out of the ship.
“They are around, but I guarantee they won't be purposely interacting with us,” Jerrod explained.
Suddenly, the area around us grew dark and I looked above to see what could only be explained as a dragon of sorts, flying far above over head. The size alone made me quiver in fear. It soared out of view as it dipped back toward the ground, far in the distance.
“Jesus-fucking-Christ! What the hell was that thing?” I hissed quietly at everyone, ducking back toward the ship.
They all laughed at my reaction to the beast above—like I should know anything about the surrounding beings and vegetation. For all I knew, dragons were at the top of the food chain here and I probably looked like a tasty snack.
“Those things are harmless, Camille. They are probably more scared of you, than we are of it,” Josiah said in a snicker.
”It’s a fucking dragon!” I said in an exaggerated whisper. “I can tell you with absolute certainty, that the beast is not more scared of me than I am of it.”
“Flynsire are harmless. If anything, we should befriend one. It would make a great protector. There are plenty of other things you should be scared of here,” Jade said, more seriously than I liked.
I took a quick survey of the area around us. We had landed in a clearing and were surrounded by more unusual vegetation. The terrain was almost grey washed. The colors were all dull and flat. My mood almost instantly mirrored the listless environment.
The trees circling us were like thin but tall twigs that could easily snap in a gentle breeze.
They didn’t have branches like on Earth, just one single shoot—almost like skinny bamboo—and a single lonely leaf that sat on top of each.
The ground was covered in a black soot looking substance, and little grayish blue blades of new growth were poking out.
“We should probably scout the area—make sure that there is nothing aggressive that has already claimed the land?” Kresh asked softly, sounding withdrawn.
“I bet it would be fun for us to get eaten by something after such a long journey,” Veshkru joked, clearly still mourning the loss of his people.
“Really?” I scoffed, looking at him incredulously.
The pain in his eyes was evident. After losing everyone he had ever known, I could understand the cynicism. It's not like he wasn't already blunt and said whatever was on his mind, so it wasn't really all that unusual. Just a little darker than we were all accustomed to.
Jerrod brushed his hand against my own as he stopped next to me. He smiled warmly at me as I continued to look around the clearing cautiously. After all we had been through, it was hard not to assume that something would just jump out of nowhere and slaughter us all.
He leaned over and whispered, “Don’t worry. I won’t allow anything to harm you.”
His warm breath swept across my skin and an involuntary shiver rippled through my body.
I closed my eyes willing the feeling away.
This wasn’t the time or the place, but as usual, my body reacted to him on its own accord.
After the situation with my violently reacting bond concluded, we tried our best to go back to as normal as we could.
I was still a bit mad that he hadn't noticed or thought about what might happen if we shut each other out for that long.
I was quickly pulled out of the trance as a deep thunderous roar reverberated through the space. I stiffened at the sound and Jerrod’s fingers laced with mine. He tightened his grip around my hand.
“That sounded a little closer than I’m comfortable with,” Jade said.
“What was that?” I asked.
“Riloush,” Josiah answered. “It’s kind of like a cat. I think Kresh and Veshkru should come with me. If that thing is close, we’re going to want to know it.”
“Doesn’t sound like any fucking cat I’ve heard before,” I said sarcastically under my breath.
It was agreed upon that none of us wanted to stay on the ship while we were on the planet.
We had been trapped in that metal prison of a spaceship for long enough and we weren’t sure how long we would be on Taylagonia.
Training was a must and after seeing Croneatos, it was obvious we needed an edge.
An edge, that currently, none of us had.
Jerrod’s new abilities were unpredictable at best, I was not nearly skilled enough to hold my own against anyone with us on our travels, aside from maybe King Kian, and Kyril had a lot of advantages over us.
Including a large supply of humans with Gilarian running the show.
We set up makeshift shelters outside to stay in.
Even after hours of set up and preparations for nightfall, the sun was out and sweltering.
Half way through the build, a second sun began rising to the east of the first. I thought Croneatos was hot, but this was beyond that.
Jerrod explained that the days lasted for the equivalent of 4 days on earth, and once the second sun rose completely, we would need to stay out of the direct sunlight if we didn’t want to burn our skin off like sitting in a vat of acid.
The shelters would protect us during the short period we couldn’t be outside, and Jade had passed around sensors that would give us an hour warning to find shelter just in case we lost track of the sun's position. We spent the few hours of high sun eating a questionable meal that Kresh and Josiah had hunted. The meat was a strange, grey color with a dull rainbow like sheen that reminded me of steaks that had gone bad. The flavor wasn’t the worst thing I had ever eaten at least. It kind of reminded me of chicken which weirded me out, considering the thing had looked like a slimy blob before we cooked it.
As the second sun passed over head and the sensors beeped loudly to authorize our ability to be outside of the shelters, we got straight to work on training. Jerrod gripped my hand in his and dragged me out to an open area.
I quickly ripped off my top, leaving only my sports bra behind.
I was already leaving behind sweat marks on the material and was thankful that it wasn't white.
It was so hot that we all ended up wearing very little during these sessions.
I might as well have been in underwear with how short these shorts were.
Jerrod stood shirtless with nothing but thin shorts that barely covered anything at all. I eyed him with a hungry gaze.
“Stretch with me?” I asked him, trying my best to sound innocent in the moment.
“Is that really a good idea right now?” he joked with a smirk on his face.
“Probably not, but maybe the eyes on us will ensure I behave,” I admitted as a flush spread through my body. I quickly sat down, legs spread into a split and bent to my right, gripping my right heel. I looked up at him and smirked.
“Keep telling yourself that,” he said seductively, sweeping his gaze across my body the way I had just done to him.
I shivered as I watched his eyes admiring every detail. We did all of the stretching we could on our own to try to extinguish the heat that was flaring between us. I laid down on my back and turned toward him, “Could you help me with this one?”
He sucked in a ragged breath as I lifted my right leg up.
“Are you trying to kill me, woman?”
“Whatever do you mean?” I said virtuously, batting my eyes at him. “I just need you to push my leg up a little.”
He rolled his eyes at me as he moved closer.
His hand slowly trailed up my leg until he gripped the arch of my foot.
My skin tingled as he softly trailed his other hand down my thigh and pushed my leg toward my chest. I held my breath trying to get my damn mind out of the gutter, but the further he pushed, the closer he got to me.
When I felt his hardness against my ass, it was over.
My breathing went from calm to irregular and breathy in the matter of moments.
He slowly moved my leg until it was flush with the side of my head, using his weight to hold it there to deepen the stretch.
He rubbed his length against me, with clear intention.
He smiled at me with a wicked grin as he pressed harder against me.
My core tightened in a longing I couldn’t seem to satiate. A soft moan slipped from my lips.
“Gods, would you two find some privacy, please?” Veshkru said vexed as he walked by us.
Jerrod smiled at me softly and then I slowly watched his gaze grow vacant and empty. This wasn’t the most ideal moment for him to go into a vision, but I awkwardly waited for him to come back to me. After a few minutes and my leg going pretty much completely numb, he slowly regained awareness.
“Welcome back,” I said with a smirk.
He quickly scrambled off of me as he realized he was still pushing my leg upward.
“Camille, I’m so sorry!”
“I’m fine,” I laughed. “What did you see?”
He went still. His face went ashen as he tried to gather his thoughts. “I’m not positive but I need to get in touch with the Council as soon as possible. I think what we’ve been seeing in visions is going to be on Salioes, not Earth.”