AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Kids wake up to go pee during the night, right?
I mean, I think they do. I don’t have much experience with young children, except for back when I was a kid myself. Zoe woke up, needed to pee, and went to one of the bathrooms in the cells. That’s probably what woke me up. I’ll just ease out of my cozy little bed and take a quick trip to the other room to check on her. She’ll be there and everything will be fine, I assure myself.
Flashes of Zoe becoming supper for the feathery beast that wanted to dine on me and Aria threaten to overwhelm me, but I tamp down those thoughts. Everything will be okay. Zoe will be in the cargo bay, and she will be safe.
I tiptoe out of the medic bay and across the debris strewn floor of the room next door. This room suffered more damage in the crash, and I’m reminded again that we were all incredibly lucky to have survived.
The red lights along with a bright beam of moonlight that streams through a large hole in the ceiling offer enough illumination for me to quickly search for Zoe in the nooks and crannies of the cargo bay and each of the cells and their corresponding bathrooms.
She’s not here.
Flashbacks of the day before when she snuck outside to explore our surroundings intrude into my thoughts. A sick feeling rises in my gut and panic threatens to set in. Then, I remember her questioning Aria about whether there might be any cats and horses here, and I think of the drawings of kittens and ponies that Zoe made when we were all confined to our cells.
Of course, I groan to myself.
I know what I have to do. I don’t want to wake up Rose – she hasn’t been sleeping well as it is, the lines of exhaustion are carved even deeper on her face and purple shadows have made a permanent home beneath her eyes. I’ve tried to convince her to let the med scanner check her over, but she is reluctant to do so. I think she might be scared the scanner will give her bad news about the pregnancy.
She already has enough to worry about, and I don’t want to add more worry to that.
I draw back my shoulders as I make my decision. I’ll just take a real quick peek around the clearing and I’m sure I’ll spot Zoe. She’s probably just outside looking for kittens or ponies or more birds. I’ll find her and drag her back inside if I must, and once I do, we are going to have a serious talk about not wandering around by herself.
I draw in a deep breath and step outside from the shadowy interior into a completely changed environment that is so different from how it appeared in the daytime. My breath stills in my lungs as I gaze around.
The colorful leaves and vines of the jungle have transformed it into a magical glowing world. It’s like someone has taken glow-in-the-dark paint and splashed it all around in shades of blue, green, purple, and pink. It reminds of that algae back on Earth that glows because of bioluminescence or something. A blue glow from the two moons above – seriously, this planet has two freaking moons! – adds to the ethereal dream-like world. It’s spectacular and I just stand there for a couple of minutes stunned at the sight in front of me.
After a moment, I shake my head to clear it and then scan the area around the crashed ship looking for a little blonde head of curls. But there’s no sign of Zoe anywhere.
My heart picks up speed as I walk in a circle all the way around the ship, softly calling out to her. “Psst, Zoe. Zoe, are you here?”
Where could she be?
My eyes land on the mass of trees and vines around me, and my heart sinks with the realization that she must have ventured into the jungle. Children disappear every day on Earth, but here on planet wherever-this-is. . . with a freaking jungle to search? I push down the hopelessness that threatens to consume me. I promised myself I’d try to be more positive and less pessimistic.
I will find her. We’ve made it this far together, and I refuse to lose anyone. I steel myself with determination before taking a few steps towards the intimidating wall of foliage. It looks almost impenetrable and even with the glowing leaves and vines and the moons providing illumination, it’s still shadowy. I feel my pulse begin to pound in my forehead as I study the bushes and trees at the edge in a search for any signs of Zoe.
About ten feet away, I find a section of branches on a flowering bush that are bent over and trampled. It looks as if something entered the jungle here. I’m fairly certain Zoe leaving is what woke me, so if she did go into the jungle, she couldn’t have gone very far. And with the evidence staring me in the eyes, it looks like she did.
Am I really doing this? I take a deep breath to try to settle my stomach that feels like it has a lead weight in it before taking a tentative step into the shadowy recesses of the trees.
Looks like I’m doing this. Oh, shit. This is probably the dumbest thing I’ve ever done, but here goes.
Chapter 11
Draggar
The smell of roasting meat drifts across the air as I walk through the tall gates that stand wide open.
I have arrived back at my village just as preparations for the evening meal have begun, even though the sky has not yet grown dark. Two of the elders are already seated around the central firepit tending to it and swapping stories of their most successful hunts, their muted coloring a testament to their age.
I steadily skirt my way around the village center so as not to arouse their notice. If the older males spot me, I will not manage to escape them until next season. The pounding of my heart urges me to quicken my pace and find Vrenner, the tribe’s tech, to see if he has any solutions to my problem. All without mentioning the aliens to him. For now, at least. There is no hope of keeping the aliens’ existence completely from him – Vrenner will want to inspect their ship eventually to see if he can recover anything usable from it.
But for some reason I still don’t understand, I am reluctant to share their – her – presence just now.
Once I have determined the aliens’ purpose on our planet, then I will tell Chief Daggir about them and he can decide what action we should take about them. I dismiss from my thoughts any misgivings I have about what might happen to the beings and remind myself they are aliens, not Laediriians, and the only safety I should concern myself with is that of my own people.
I make my way past the training arena, empty of warriors this late in the day. I pass the forge next where Maalin is busy hammering a piece of iron forcing it to bend to his will. He looks up as I pass and nods in greeting before plunging the hot metal into a tub of cool water. Next to the forge where he works is the armory where the tribe stores its extra weaponry. It doesn’t take long before I’ve reached the section of the village where the huts are laid out in orderly fashion.
Vrenner’s small hut sits at the edge of a line of other similar dwellings. The black stones that make up its exterior walls – and the other huts – were painstakingly hewn from the mountains that embrace our territory like a protective arm. My stomach twists at the sight of so many of the huts sitting empty. After our settlement was founded, each one was occupied and our village bustled with activity. But that changed.
