Chapter 3
Iave
Kalani passed out in my arms after ten minutes in the frost melt river.
Her dark red lips had turned as purple as the scales of a Copper Tooth Clan Naga, and her body had stopped trembling.
I knew that was a bad sign. At least, with my own species it was, and I had no reason to think she was different in that way. Hypothermia was setting in.
I didn’t feel like we’d created enough distance between us and the Bitter Storm warriors, but I had no choice.
Angling my body for the riverbank, I set out in a diagonal fashion, not fighting the current, but getting us closer to the edge at a steady pace.
I hauled us out of the freezing water with a groan.
My shoulder burned in pain, the blasted spear with its nasty hooks still embedded in my flesh.
When I raised my head to appraise our surroundings, I realized the fast-flowing river had carried us down much farther than I had realized.
Maybe we were in the clear after all; we were almost down to the edge of the wetlands that Copper Tooth inhabited.
Knowing that I decided I had to risk lighting a fire. I needed to warm up my mate.
On the bank, I placed her against some large boulders, which offered shelter from the winds.
I couldn’t reach the damn spear blade stuck in my back, so I ignored it for now while I rushed to gather dry wood for a fire.
From one of the pouches on my belt, I yanked the Sparker that Corin had given me.
It was wet, just like everything else I carried, but it would still work.
With just a flick of the switch, fire sparked from the tips, sizzling into the dry wood.
I repeated that several times until I was sure I had a good blaze going.
I eyed my mate, still passed out on the sand, and then set to stripping her of all the wet things she wore.
Those would only cool her further, she needed to get dry.
Once stripped, her luscious, dark skin shone in the Serant sunlight.
She was beautiful and my eyes wanted to linger on the abundant breasts and the dark thatch of curls at the apex of her legs.
That was all mine, and flicking out my tongue, I eagerly drew in her spicy, tasty scent.
She was starting to tremble, which I hoped was a good sign. If she were a Naga it would mean that she was warming up. On her skin thousands of little bumps had raised, which was very un-Naga like. They were everywhere, and I wondered if it was a function that helped her get warm.
My arm was going numb from the still steadily dripping wound but I had no time to sit down and rest. With my ax, I cut down as many of the waving fronts of the nearby ferns and started making a nest right next to the fire.
I kept feeding more dry wood into the flames until it was blazing high and hot.
Once the nest was big enough, I placed her on it, so that her thin, fragile skin was protected from the cool sand of the riverbank.
Then I started covering her with the leaves because I was lacking any warm furs.
She was shaking violently when I was done but her lips were no longer that alarming shade of dark purple.
My body felt ten times heavier than normal but my heart felt lighter, she was going to be okay; I hadn’t failed her.
While I wanted to lay down next to her, just collapse and close my eyes for a little while, I forced my sore body to keep moving. We weren’t safe yet. I had to do more.
Just thinking of the possibility of failure made my tired mind flash back to the one time I had, catastrophically.
The attack of feral outcasts when my family and I had simply been traveling from one hunting spot to the next.
The screams as my father and mother fought them, as my sisters fell to their claws and fangs.
The bitter taste of my fear when I ran instead of fought, hiding myself in the tall reeds.
The utter shame I felt when I finally stumbled upon Thunder Rock Village after weeks of desperate searching.
Then the discovery that nobody had even gone looking for them.
Nobody had raised the alarm except for Zathar and Corin.
But the Queen hadn’t listened to her firstborn youngling, barely through his third molting at the time.
My world had shifted during that attack, and then my loyalty shifted just as fundamentally.
From then on I was not Iave who liked to make pretty carvings, I was Iave the warrior.
From then on I was not Iave of Thunder Rock, I was Iave of Zathar and Corin.
And now, as my gaze was drawn to my mate, huddled beneath the leaves I’d piled on her, the firelight flickering across her beautiful features.
Now, I was Iave of Kalani, her mate, her protector, her everything.
Groaning as the pain grew worse, and the blood loss made me sluggish, I set out to secure our makeshift camp.
Only when I was certain we’d be alerted to any enemy arrival, protected by snares and traps, did I surrender to the need for sleep.
I curled my body around my mate so that even as I slumbered, I could care for her by offering her my own heat and my own body as her shield.
***
Kalani
I woke up because I was sweating; my body was feverishly hot.
My eyes felt crusty and dry when I blinked them open, the glowing embers of a dying fire casting a soft light to combat the encroaching darkness.
Where was I? What had happened? My entire body felt sore and achy as if I’d run a marathon without the proper training.
For a moment I thought I was back on the desert planet, Exrata. Where my whole world had ended with my defiance. The days had been this sticky with heat too, the training intense, and the boredom even worse.
Naked beneath a thick layer of big, palm tree-like leaves; I was sweltering hot, my skin sticky and damp from perspiration.
It didn’t start coming back to me until I saw the curl of a long snake coil draped on top of the leaves over my hip.
Shimmering dark blue scales, glinting with millions of dancing flames reflected off the glossy surface.
Normally, my response at seeing something snaky would have been to scramble out of the way, maybe scream.
I knew that was girly, but snakes could be venomous; they were scary.
The sight of these scales instilled none of that primal fear.
I actually felt myself relax a little into the soft leaves that made up my bed.
The midnight-colored Naga was sprawled against my back, several of his coils crisscrossing over my belly and legs.
In the dark, it was hard to make out how exactly he was lying, but he didn’t protest or stir when I sat up and shoved some of his coils off my body.
With a nearby stick, I stirred the coals of the dying fire and then I discovered my clothing, spread out over nearby rocks for drying.
My things were still a little damp, but it was better than sitting there butt naked when my companion could wake up at any moment.
Once I was in my clothing I felt a bit more human, the cramped aching of my muscles fading as I moved.
I was no longer so warm either, my body chilling again from the cold night air.
Nearby, wood had been stacked. I was pretty sure my snaky friend had gathered that for the fire and I eagerly grabbed some to feed to the flames.
As soon as they caught fire, more light spread too and I gasped when what I thought was moss on the river bank turned out to be dark smears of blood.
I was unharmed, so that could only mean one thing.
Spinning around I sank back down to my knees on the leafy bed to get a better look at the sprawled-out shape of the Naga male.
He was face down and his dark scales had hidden any sign of it, but now that I was looking, I could spot the blood.
It had dripped from his shoulder and pooled around his flank.
Somehow it was all on the other side of where I’d lain so I hadn’t noticed a thing.
The worst part was the spear that stuck up from his shoulder.
The shaft had broken but it was still a considerable length dangling from his flesh.
That was a fearsome wound, especially in these circumstances when we were without any kind of medical supplies.
I’d seen those spears made of shimmering black obsidian, with sharp barbs along the edges.
I couldn’t just pull that free from him, it would tear out a huge chunk and probably cause him to bleed to death.
“Fuck, this is bad,” I said out loud. My hands slippery from his blood when I reached for his neck; was he still alive?
It was not nearly as easy to find a pulse when his skin was covered in thick scales.
He was cool to the touch too, but he was half-snake, so maybe that was normal. Please, let that be normal.
I found that I wasn’t so angry now about his choice to abandon Naomi when we went into the water without her.
He had to have known that with an injury like that, he was going to lose.
I felt a little ashamed for fighting him when he swam even, I must have made things much harder for him and this injury was horrible.
How had he even made a camp as neat as this when he was bleeding like a faucet?
A deep, rumbling groan rose from his chest and I let out a sigh of relief. He was alive, thank God. I wasn’t sure what I would have done if he’d gone and died on me. It was a thought that made me feel surprisingly sad; it would be a crying shame if a male as magnificent as him would cease to exist.