CHAPTER 10
Eleri
Eleri wanted to melt into the walls or the floors or just evaporate into a haze of blue dust. The rest of the afternoon after S’samph’s departure had been even more excruciatingly uncomfortable than the first part of the shopping trip.
Myla barraged her with questions about her relationship with S’samph and despite Eleri’s best protests that she had only a few chance encounters with him in town, the kyrot female wasn’t easily swayed.
However, despite her best efforts to wear down a more interesting answer, Eleri had nothing of interest to offer her besides the truth.
She retreated from the conversations to the best of her ability, leaving Myla and Talin to talk about the upcoming flood season.
When they’d exhausted that topic, they tried to rope Eleri into local gossip, but it was also a limited avenue given most of the recent gossip had to do with her, their unwilling participant.
She found herself strangely grateful when Minio returned from his errand and offered her a ride back to Laurus.
It had been plenty exhausting for a shopping trip, and she could feel the effects of the midday sun begin to scorch through even her most vigilant skincare attempts.
She gave her farewells to her shopping companions and was thrilled to finally be free of them.
Despite her lack of credits, she found herself caught in a daydream of renting her own apartment just so she could get away from Myla’s constant presence.
It was unrealistic on multiple counts. There weren’t apartments for rent in Laurus, and she couldn’t afford anything even if there were, but at some point, she would have to find an alternative living situation.
“Did you get everything you wanted?” Minio asked her as they walked over to the charging station where he’d left his levibike. “I know my sister can be a bit overbearing, but she means well.” He tucked a small white package into the compartment behind the passenger seat.
“What?” Eleri took a moment to register the question—she’d been so caught up in her own mental calculations.
“Oh, yes! All the essentials.” She raised the cloth bags filled with her purchases as if to further emphasize her enthusiasm for the shopping trip and then clapped a hand over the new broad-brimmed hat on her head.
“That’s good. I heard S’samph showed up when you were shopping.
Hopefully, he didn’t make too much trouble for you.
” Minio offered her the spare helmet for the bike as he hopped into the driver’s seat.
Eleri swapped her hat for the helmet and situated herself on the passenger seat behind him, grateful not for the first time the degree of separation provided by the levibike designed for two.
Unlike when she’d ridden with S’samph the other day and it was clearly built for a single rider.
“Did you get all your errands done?” Eleri asked, more out of politeness than any real interest. She had little interest in talking about S’samph.
The pale blue dress was still folded in the bottom of one of her bags.
She wasn’t a heathen raised to discard perfectly good clothing, but she wasn’t sure she’d ever be able to bring herself to wear it with all the connotations.
“Yes. It was more trouble than I expected, but what can you expect in a place like this? Look, if he’s bothering you again, just let me know and I’ll get him to back off.”
“Oh. I couldn’t ask that of you.” She’d been trying to avoid the pointless macho chest beating between the two of them.
Minio barely knew her. S’samph barely knew her.
Their relationships were hinged entirely on convenience and circumstance.
Minio was kind enough, but there was something off-putting about the way he pressed his intentions toward her without any real effort to get to know her. The engine revved.
“There are many males interested in you, Eleri. You need to choose someone who can protect you from the rest of them. We would make a good match. Kyrot are much larger than most other species, and we have good protective instincts. My sister approves of you greatly. Besides we’d have…
” Minio said something else, but it was lost in the roar of the engine and the billow of the wind.
Eleri clutched tighter at the low-placed handles of the passenger seat on the bike trying to get her thoughts in order.
She was getting awfully tired of people telling her what she should do for her own good.
It was never really about her anyway. It was always about them and what they wanted.
The dreams about finding her own place were going to have to become more reality than dreams, she decided as they whipped down the main road to Laurus.
Perhaps there was a spare cot at the clinic, or perhaps another single female looking for a housemate.
If she continued to rely upon Pyo and Myla’s hospitality, it would only give them more fodder for pairing her up with Minio, a male she knew little about and who seemed interested only in the value of her as a potential mate and not a person.
They were speeding by a curved stretch of road when Eleri spotted a trail of skid marks on the paving track below. She followed them to a downed levibike beside an outcropping of scraggly trees.
“Stop!” She called to Minio in the driver’s seat.
“What?” He called back to her.
“Stop the bike!”
Minio made a strange noise but complied and the bike slid to a stop.
Eleri leaped from her seat as soon as the bike slowed enough for her to avoid injuring herself.
Someone was injured on the side of the road, slumped against their damaged bike.
In this heat, damage from the suns was a concern along with dehydration.
She fumbled in her bag to see if she’d been clever enough to bring any hydration pods or first aid supplies with her.
All she could find was a single dusty hydropod and a tiny pack of bandages, which would be useless for a wreck this size.
Well, she’d have to do the best she could with what she had.
“Hello? Can you hear me?” She called to the injured person and received no response.
“I’m an IA healer in training, and I’m fully certified in universal first aid.
I can help.” Eleri tapped at the interface on her wrist to display her medical badge and rushed forward despite Minio’s distant protests.
She rounded the damaged bike to find S’samph slumped beside it with an enormous section of his left shoulder torn away.
He lay with a puddle of coagulating green blood.
Stones below and stars above, this was far more than she was equipped to handle with a paltry box of bandages and a hydro pod.
She knelt beside him and fished in her bag for a stretch of fabric, pulling free the dress he’d bought her.
At least she could put it to good use. Eleri burst open the hydropod and sprayed the contents on S’samph’s face, trying to see if she could get a reaction out of him.
Nothing. She set to work tearing the dress into neat strips to use as bandages.
It was far from sterile, but they’d have to wait until they got back to Laurus to run a proper diagnostic and perform the necessary repairs.
With practiced hands, she wrapped the wound as best she could, tying tight at the junction of his shoulder to form a tourniquet and stop the bleeding. He might lose the arm if they didn’t hurry.
Minio finally made his way over, clearly realizing he was of no use by the bike. “Eleri what happened to him?”
“Help me get him on his bike.”
“His bike?”
“Yes. I’m going to ride tandem with him.
I need to be able to stabilize him if anything happens.
” Eleri leaned closer to his chest to hear the thundering of his six-chambered heart.
It was a good sign. He was strong enough to make it back to Laurus by her judgment.
She didn’t know as much about latil’e anatomy as she should, but they were clearly more resilient than most. The amount of blood staining the hard-packed dirt below would have killed a human, no doubt.
“But you don’t know how to drive his bike.”
“And you don’t know how to do first aid. I like my odds better.”
“I think this is a terrible idea.” Minio furled his wings tighter against his back as he examined the state of S’samph’s bike.
“We don’t have time for this. Are you going to help me or not?
” Eleri snapped back at him. She might have trouble commanding anyone for her own purposes, but when it came to her patients, she would move the stars themselves out of the way.
Minio seemed shocked by her tone and kept his mouth shut as he helped her right S’samph’s bike and got the other male situated in front, stabilized against the steering column.
“You go first, and I’ll follow you. Keep me in sight?”
“I dislike being asked to participate in this.” His expression was strange, but Eleri had little interest in taking the time to parse his reaction.
“Well, unless you have a better idea, this is what we’re doing.” She slung herself behind S’samph’s limp form in front of her on the bike. He was considerably heavier than her, but as long as she managed to keep the damn bike moving in a straight line, it should be fine.
The vehicle sputtered and protested as she ignited the engine, but she managed to wobble her way to the road.
S’samph’s breathing was steady if somewhat labored as they made their way down the main road.
He stirred slightly and Eleri placed her dominant hand on the steering column while using her other hand on the back of his neck to steady him.
He wasn’t bleeding through her makeshift bandages, which was a relief.
Not only was it a good sign for him, but it meant the skills she was learning were no doubt coming in handy.