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"Try not to breathe it in too deep. Two Quareks spent the night outside camp and came back the next morning. They were troubled by hallucinations the entire day."
"Oh, lovely." I dug into my utility belt for something I could use to tie around my nose and mouth. I ended up with an old microfiber cloth I used to wipe the lenses of my mask. The cloth was better than nothing.
Varus watched me tie it on. "I don’t suppose you have a com link in that belt to call your squad to come get you."
"I would’ve done it back there in the field if I did." My voice was muffled by the cloth. The caustic air could still get in, but at least I was getting it filtered instead of the full-blown assault to my nose and lungs. "This is all so unnecessary."
He heard my uttering. "Then why wear the cloth over your face?"
"I’m not talking about the cloth. I’m talking about...hmph." I secured where I had the cloth tied behind my ears.
Varus’s eyes surveyed me. "Clearly, you’re frustrated by more than the fabric on your face."
I figured we had a long walk ahead of us so I might as well tell him the truth to pass the time. "I am frustrated. Why did you take me away from my squad?"
He hooded his eyes. He did not like this conversation. "You were too close to the flames."
I remembered how he curled his fists, and his body turned the color of flame right before the camp was set on fire. "You made the flames."
"And I saved you from them."
"What do you want me to say?" I flapped my arms in protest, disturbing a low-hanging tree branch in the process. Realizing I impersonated a frantic chicken, I returned them to my sides. "I'm supposed to be glad you pulled me away from a fire I already got far enough away from? The mission was to help you."
He huffed. "I don’t need a little human’s help." We were right back where we started.
The heck he didn’t need me. I decided to use more tactful words than what I had in my thoughts. "With all due respect, this little human helped get you out of the Quarek camp."
"I flew myself out. Is this what you call aid?" He tapped the metal collar on his neck. "You may have had a hand in distracting the Quareks, but this still keeps me under their control."
I hadn’t focused on his collar since we left the camp. I chided myself for being careless and losing focus. "What does it do?"
"Have you ever stood in a field during a lightning storm?"
"No, I could get electrocuted."
"There’s your answer. This was how they kept me from setting their whole camp on fire and escaping."
I winced, horrified at the idea of Varus suffering. "That’s an inhumane way to treat a prisoner."
He gave the collar a tug. It did not move around his neck. "When I got it off the first time, I was able to create the fire to escape. Now I don’t have the ability as long as this is on."
I moved close to him to get a better look at the light blinking on the collar. His body gave off warmth I found comforting. "What’s the light doing?"
"Sending tiny electrowaves through me. It cancels my ability to set fires."
I pushed aside my fascination with this alien technology and Varus’s innate ability to turn his body into a flamethrower. "How’d you get it off the first time?"
"One of the links broke during the fight with the Quarek. He managed to put the collar on me again and it locked."
“There might be a weak spot, then.” I touched the collar. It was cool, with the inner edge at the top warmed by Varus’s body heat. "It’s on pretty good." I tugged on it.
Varus caught my fingers. "Don’t you think I would have torn the collar off already if it were that easy?"
Smart aleck. "Just testing it." I craned my neck to see if I could find more weak spots in the collar. "Would you mind bending down?"
He snaked his arm around my waist and hoisted me off my feet.
"That works, too, I guess." It was hard ignoring the heat my own body created being right up against him. I pushed the thick red sheet of his hair to the side so I could see what I was working with. Wherever the weak link was on the collar, I couldn’t find any signs of it. "I think the collar is magnetized. It made a clicking sound when the Quarek put it on you."
