Chapter 4
Chapter Four
Planet of Vora
Home, the crashed ship, Haile.
The crevice gaped like the dead mouth of an ancient beast. Ziamee studied it from the highest point north of home.
Never had she been this far, nearing the ucdeas’s den, but she had to figure out where her father had gone.
She’d hoped she and Seba would stumble on an opening.
Nothing yet, not even a crack she could stick her hand in.
Screaming into the crevice had gotten her nowhere and no response.
The closer they neared the ucdeas, the more Seba grumbled. A whine escaped him.
“Quit it,” she hissed, rubbing her throat to soothe the sting of her abused voice. “I didn’t ask you to follow me.”
His reply was a mumble, a moan, and a nudge hard enough to topple her.
She bumped into the rock wall behind them.
Meters up was the plateau the ucdeas lived on.
Padya had climbed up, peered over the edge, seen the bones layering the ground, and announced the area was off limits.
That was all he’d revealed to her. She couldn’t say for sure what else was there.
The predators had to survive on something.
When next she saw an ucdeas, it would be her first time.
The low thunder of a waterfall northeast meant nothing when she’d never seen it up close. To the right was the lake, sandpits, and another plateau that had stolen her mother from her. There were too many unknowns for her comfort.
Padya had sent their only drone to circle the valley and past the mountain spires that were like jagged teeth piercing the sky. Endless woodlands lay beyond, was all he’d said.
Where Mudya had gone on the opposite side of the valley was a dense forest, with giant cobwebs weaving between the trees. The tiny skulls littering the forest floor said navigating through there wasn’t possible. And to reach it, she had to cross the sinking sands.
Not once had she seen the creators of those webs.
Twenty-three Vora days had passed since she last saw Padya. He’d jauntily ventured out from Haile in search of poipoi for his ‘studies.’ She’d offered a small smile, knowing full well he was addicted to the sweet, blue fruit.
“I don’t see a way in,” she said to Seba, eyeing west of their position while wiping away tears.
More rocky terrain rolled out, craggy with mini ravines. She rubbed the old injury on her thigh, pain pulsing outward at the idea of climbing down, then up and out. If she got stuck at the bottom, she’d die there. No, she needed another plan.
She dug her fingers into Seba’s fur, finding his presence calmed her erratic thoughts. “I love you, ohara, but even you can’t help.”
He angled his head. Another whine almost thrust her onto her backside.
The low, drawn-out wail hadn’t come from Seba.
Fear shot down her spine and flooded her with the desperate urge to run.
She forced herself to raise her gaze up the cliff to the edge where a row of eyes stared at her.
One creature was frozen, fixed on her. Its front tarsus-like feet tapped the ground.
A whine squeezed out, and in a slow blink, its three eyes rolled.
They were a pretty green, almost yellow.
An extended crest on its head flickered, split into what looked like petals, then reformed. It shifted like an ear would.
The most menacing thing about it was its spindly legs promising speed. But its delicate features, pointed muzzle, and rippling spikey hair in shades of brown, gold, and copper softened her caution. Even its eyes were too large for its face, making it adorable.
It chunked.
Crunching preceded the appearance of more of its kind. Four watched her, whining and chittering to each other.
She narrowed her focus, taking in the intelligence behind their eyes.
Then the first one threw back its head, exposing a throat of protruding bones, and howled. When it gazed at her again, four massive fangs jutted from its mouth.
Those hadn’t been there a moment ago.
She stiffened. The reality of her situation sank into her mind and summoned a rush of adrenaline. Her fingers twitched, tapping her thighs. Her feet wouldn’t budge, though.
Seba leaped in front of her, roaring louder than she’d ever heard from him.
That alone resonated in her, rumbling through her and driving her into motion.
She bolted, screaming Seba’s name hard enough to crack her voice.
The pain in her throat and thighs couldn’t compare to the fear chilling her core.
Seba’s steady thud of paws hitting rock calmed her. He followed.
The ucdeas screeched, but that faded the closer she came to Haile.
She didn’t dare peek to see if they hunted her.
The second she burst into the ship, she spun on the spot, wincing when her leg complained.
Seba skidded to a halt beside her. Their ragged breaths merged in the universal language of shared danger.
“Greetings, Ziamee,” Oz said.
She managed to croak, “Oz, shields up.”
A shimmer formed at the entrance. And in the silence while she studied the horizon, not daring to blink, hers and Seba’s breathing slowed.
Maybe the ucdeas couldn’t reach her? It made sense since she couldn’t get to them unless she climbed.
But she didn’t know the area as well as they did.
Padya’s drone scan had them on a flat rock, mirrored to the right with the waterfall and lake between them.
She sank her fingers into Seba’s fur, scratching behind his ears as they waited. “Oz?” she asked.
“What you suspect is chasing you is not showing on the sensors.”
She slumped, releasing an exhale with a muffled chuckle. “Good,” she rasped, kneeling beside Seba. She threw her arms around his neck, giving him a kiss on his cheek. “My guardian.”
He grumbled but leaned into her embrace, resting his full weight against her. She fell, her aching legs unable to keep her balanced. With a squeak, she landed on her backside, then laughed, exuberant, no doubt from being alive.
“Guardians deserve ceaza; you hungry?” What she wanted, no, craved, was a hot tisane.
His ears perked.
“Come.” She grinned. “Lower the shield, Oz.”
As she headed to the lake, Seba padding behind her, she couldn’t help but glance north every few minutes. She half expected a pack of ucdeas to be chittering at her. Even while cleaning and cooking the ceaza, her senses stayed alert. And that night, she and Seba slept behind the shield.
Just in case.
It took courage to head out to the crevice days later. This was as far as Ziamee dared to go. She didn’t venture as north as before but kept checking the cliff’s edge in the distance. Seba was nervous since he prowled back and forth, keeping between her and the ucdeas’ den.
When she peered into the crevice, the foul air blasting her braids back stank worse than Seba due for a bath. No matter where she searched, there wasn’t a way in. So how had her father disappeared into the caverns below? He could’ve tumbled in, but she tried not to think like that.
Her voice had yet to recover, made worse by her mad dash home post-meeting a few fanged ucdeas. She stroked her throat, trying to soothe the constant tickle.
“Padya,” she rasped. “What have you done this time?” Of their home, they had yet to explore the mountains north of the lake. If only she could climb, swim, or descend. “Padya,” she whispered. “What do I do?”
If he didn’t return— No, she couldn’t dwell on the worst possible scenario.
Clattering stones had her scanning the craggy rocks. A white shape shifted, almost blended with the pale rock.
She smiled. “Seba, what are you doing?” She hadn’t heard him venture off.
He mewled, balancing on a tiny pinnacle without a hint of fear. His agility knew no bounds.
“I’m heading back,” she said. “Would you like ceaza for evening meal?”
He growled and leaped across to a narrow ledge before shimmying along it.
Swiveling on her heel, she clambered down the rock face, using a natural crevice for added support. The odd angles she had to place her feet made her thigh throb, sending twinges of sharp agony up her leg. And she’d run helter-skelter down there, endangering herself even further.
She pinched her lips and pushed on. The view before her showed metallic twinkles of where the engines had rested, now overgrown with plant life.
Hidden by the trees, she couldn’t see her home, but the pathways leading to it were clear.
Anyone smart enough could find her…when she was most vulnerable.
She’d talk to Oz about how best to bolster their security.
Each step was excruciating. She wished she had a sliver of poipoi to ease the pain, but she hated how it scattered her wits.
Instead, she sucked on a taisra petal while unpacking her weapons onto Padya’s untouched desk.
Stacks of notes gave her pause. Not once had she documented anything since his disappearance.
Doing so without him was like giving up hope of ever finding him.
“Greetings, Ziamee,” Oz said.
“Any changes?” she asked him.
“No, not for the weather or from any sensors Amet planted.” He cleared his nonexistent throat. “No sign of him either. Nor a call for aid.”
“And you’re certain he headed northwest?” She’d asked him this a thousand times.
“Yes. The last known location of his marker was near the crevice.”
The endlessness of her existence loomed if she didn’t find him. Alone on a dwarf planet…
She squeezed her eyes shut, then with a cry, yanked on her braids, trying to shake herself out of it.
Grabbing the closest dagger, she headed out to check the traps.
Seba liked fish, lots of it. Food and water equaled survival.
Padya had taught her that, and until she found him, she had to keep things safe, running… Keep living.