Chapter 8 A Steep Path
EIGHT
A STEEP PATH
Julia
He keeps the pace deliberate and slow, often holding his tailtip beside me to use as leverage against the uneven, and sometimes steep, rocky ground. It’s the middle of the night and too dark for me to see properly, even with the moonlight casting a surreal silver glow to the wild landscape.
I can’t believe he’s taking me with him. I also can’t believe I’m outside right now when I’d been sleeping in bed mere minutes ago.
There’s smoke in the breeze and with each gust that hits me, the smell of exhaust and burnt wood fills my nose through my mask.
It’s better than the alternative: catching more of Krellix’s musky, unusual scent.
I had gotten enough of it in the bathroom.
And based on everything I’ve learned from the other women, I should be fine as long as I don’t breathe too much of it in…
but I’ll know if it’s beginning to affect me. I’ll be aroused for him. And only him.
Now that we’re outside where there’s a slight breeze, I’m not as worried about breathing too much of it anymore. I only had to avoid my bathroom for hours earlier until it was aired enough out.
Peering at him before me, I wonder if nagas are always giving off pheromones or if I’m being paranoid.
I grab his tail to help me down a small incline.
Instead of descending the mountain the same way I went down last time when I inevitably sprained my ankle, Krellix leads me to the right of Zaku’s home instead and down a steeper, more obscure path I wasn’t aware of.
But spying the lake and water that Gemma and the others live near far below, I assume we’re taking the same path they use when traveling back and forth.
“The other nagas will not know there is a trail down this way,” Krellix tells me at one point when the path gets narrower.
As we get farther away from Zaku’s, sadness tugs at my chest, wishing I’d had a chance to say goodbye to Daisy and the boys. At least a more proper one after the events of yesterday. It had taken Daisy and I most of the evening calming down the children before they would go to bed.
The boys won’t find me in my room in the morning, and that might be hard for them. I don’t want anything to be hard for them…
Krellix pauses right as I hear the sounds of a ship.
Pausing with him, I peer up at the dark sky and look south to where the noise is coming from.
Seeing the lights of a ship flicker soon after, the vessel flies our way.
Eventually it soars over us before turning east and disappearing into the mountains across the gorge the lake resides in.
Shortly after, another ship arrives from the same direction but continues north past us.
Watching the second one slow down and lower, I lose sight of it around the rocky landscape and trees.
Holding onto Krellix’s tail harder, I hop down two steps to get closer to him.
We continue on wordlessly for a few more minutes before he stops again.
When I don’t hear the sound of another ship, I squint at him, noticing his chin is raised like he’s listening for something even if it’s not a ship.
There can only be one other thing he’s listening for…
“What is it?” I ask, my voice barely higher than a whisper. My eyes shoot over the trees on the steep ledges above and below us.
He cocks his head. “I thought I heard something.”
“A naga?” I ask.
He nods.
Gripping my rifle strap harder, I follow right at his side when we eventually continue on.
Sticking to the steep cliff that makes up the west side of Zaku’s mountain, the pathway curves and bends.
Once, when the pebbles roll under my boot, I slip, landing with my side on Krellix’s tail.
He stiffens and coils his tail around me.
Quickly pushing off of him, I wipe my hands on my pants and stand.
Between careful footfalls and a lot of squinting, I stare at his back, curious about his change of heart.
Krellix would have never considered taking me with him during his few visits to Zaku’s before, though I have never pushed it until now.
It doesn’t mean my presence hasn’t always caused tension at Zaku’s but until the arrival of the Boa, and the numerous other nagas from around the land, he’s never wanted me gone more.
I can’t blame him, in fact, I completely understand.
If Zaku asked Krellix to take me, I’m not upset about it, I’m relieved. Krellix is the perfect naga to get me what I want… which is safely away from Zaku’s.
I’m also reasonably certain Krellix isn’t just going to kidnap me and tie me up in his nest.
When the pebbles roll my boot once again, I curse under my breath.
Krellix grabs my arm. “Sssshhhh.”
Steadying myself on my feet, I pull my arm from his grip. “Sorry.”
“We need to keep moving. If another naga has already found our trail, we do not have long before we will know for certain.”
I peer up at him, trying to read his features in the dark. “I would think they would’ve all scattered with the ships.”
“They might have but we can not assume.”
Krellix gives me the end of his tailtip to hold again before going back to clearing out a path for me to follow. One, I hopefully don’t keep tripping over.
Wanting to ask him why he changed his mind, I keep my lips shut even as the minutes bleed together and we distance ourselves ever farther from Zaku’s.
He asked me to be quiet, so I’ll be quiet.
Though I have questions. I’m curious because before tonight, one of the reasons I wasn’t allowed to leave was because they feared I’d give up information on everyone’s whereabouts.
A gust of wind courses swiftly past me and I turn away from it as it blows my hair forward. When it stops and I start walking again, Krellix is facing me.
“Are you okay?” he asks.
Even in the gloomy moonlight, I can see the flare of his nostrils.
“Yeah. I’m fine.”
He studies me for a long moment before turning away.
Confused, I watch him until his tailtip tugs my grip, pulling me after him.
For the next several hours, his over attentiveness doesn’t lessen.
He diligently watches and listens and makes sure I take my time traversing the darkened path.
But as my feet slip for the third time, and his frustrated hissing fills my ears, I become agitated myself.
“We could have waited for morning,” I whisper harshly.
“And be sssseen? No.”
“We could be seen at any time!” I whisper-shout louder.
“We are less likely to be in the dark.”
“I thought nagas hunted at night as well as during the day.”
“Some do but most do not. Hussssh. There is a place up ahead where you can take a break.”
My lips flatten as he leads me off the path and into a patch of forest climbing up the mountainside.
As the world darkens further under the deeper shadows of the trees, we follow the rocky mountain until we come to a cluster of large boulders.
Crawling between two of them, we enter a smaller, tighter space that’s surrounded by other large rocks.
With the cliffside as one of the walls, there’s only one way in or out, and that’s the same way we came in by.
With the night sky above me and the branches of a few large pines hanging over, I peer around the closed-off spot with approval.
Krellix backs out of the nook as I turn to face him.
“Stay here while I make certain we are not being followed. There are a lot of noises, and some of which I can not discern so easily. Do not move until I return. You will be safe here.”
“Are you sure? I can help. I hear things too.” And I have… not just the usual sounds of critters in the forest, scattering at our passage, but very distant explosions and even what I think was gunfire.
“There is little you can do in the dark, female.”
Hence, why we should have waited until morning. “I can still watch your back.”
“Not tonight.” He shakes his head. “There is too much activity. As much as that activity covers the noise we are making, it also increases our chances of running into additional danger. Stay here and I will be back shortly. If Sada is behind us, I will know soon.”
Sada? I step back until my spine hits the mountain face, bringing my rifle forward. Krellix says nothing else as he turns and vanishes around the boulders.
I slide down to the ground and rest my weapon on my knees.
Sinking down into my soldier’s uniform, now smaller in form than when I was active in it over six months ago, I look up at the moon, listening to the same distant noises Krellix and I were just speaking of.
Wondering, if not for the first time, what the fuck happened to The Dreadnaut.