She raises her face from my shoulder and looks at my eyes.
“Not at all,” I say. “I enjoy being with you.”
“Me, too,” she smiles. “I need to get off my feet.”
I walk her to the center of the cavern, help her lie down on the ground, and prop her legs up on the rocks. With her head elevated on my shirt, we share a canister of sap. Once we’ve both had our fill, I stretch out on the ground beside her.
“I don’t feel like sleeping yet,” she says, “but I was too tired to stay on my feet any longer.”
“What do you want to do?” I ask.
“Will you tell me more about your world?”
“Sure,” I say.
For the next few hours, we talk about life on Earth. I’ve shared tidbits with her over time, but with nothing else to do right now, I can go into more detail. She’s fascinated by my description of cities, skyscrapers, automobiles, and airplanes. We talk about my family on Earth, and she asks questions about how people date and fall in love.
When her eyelids begin to droop, Tela takes my hand in hers and pulls my arm over her waist. I scoot closer to her so that my body gently presses to hers. After a few minutes pass, she drifts into slumber. Enjoying the calm I feel from being beside her, I listen to the water drip over the rocks by our feet.
My eyes eventually begin to close, so I call out, “Dark.” Curled up beside Tela, for the first time since drinking the wild sap, I fall into a deep sleep.
Chapter 20
Another three morrows pass with essentially the same routine. After I treat Tela’s injuries, we go outside for a walk. Although her motion is understandably limited at first, she gradually gains enough strength to jog up and down the gully. We spend most of each morrow seated on the hillside beside the cavern comparing the life I had on Earth to her life in Krymzyn. Whether it’s on purpose or just by coincidence, neither of us ever mentions Sash.
Whenever Darkness falls, we sit side by side in the cavern and share flask after flask of sap. Near the end of each morrow, I help Tela wash in the tiny waterfall. Maybe because it comforts her after all that she’s been through, or maybe because it’s what happened after the first time I helped her clean off in the spill, we always end up standing in a long embrace.
Twice each morrow, I travel to the transport to replenish our supply of sap. Every time I go, I sit alone on the crest of the hill for a few minutes. While looking out over the somber badlands, I become increasingly dismayed with my decision to live in Krymzyn. Trapped in a shroud of toxic thought, I convince myself that Sash tricked me into coming to this world for her own needs.
She used me to understand the emotions from Earth that she was feeling and never once cared about how difficult it was for me to give up my life in my world. She proved that by wanting to give our daughter away. She’s a master of control, a manipulative puppeteer with everyone in Krymzyn dangling from the ends of her strings. When those thoughts send me plummeting into a chasm of rage and self-pity, my only salvation is to chug down a canister of sap and race back to Tela.
At the end of each morrow, Tela and I lie down side by side. She eventually tells me that she’s tired of sleeping on her back and wants to try on her side. After I place my rolled-up shirt underneath my head, she curls up beside me with her head resting on my bare shoulder. She gently nuzzles my neck and I lightly stroke her hair until we fall asleep.
Seven morrows after the attack at the tree, I wake up early and go to the transport for sap. When I return to the cavern, I scrape my arm against one of the rocks in the tunnel opening. I look down at the cut in my forearm.
Dark purple blood—almost black to the eye—oozes from the wound. My skin is pale and the veins underneath it pulse with the same putrid color as the blood that’s dripping from the cut. Stained with the dirt of the wasteland, my body and pants are filthy. I close my eyes and run a hand through my grimy, stringy hair.
“How could I let this happen,” I whisper in a brief moment of lucidity.
As soon as I’m inside the cavern, I call out, “Light.” The purple glow illuminates Tela still asleep on the floor. I set the flasks, canisters, and spear on the ground and cross the cave to the fall.
Using water cupped in my hands, I douse my head and scrub my hair. Pouring handful after handful over my face and body, I wash until my skin feels clean. After slipping out of my pants, I rinse them off and toss them aside. I lean down and take the boots off my feet. Since they’re caked with dirt inside and out, I clean them in the small pool. Holding them in one hand, I stand upright again and rest my forehead against the rocks.
“Are you alright?” Tela asks, startling me.
I turn my head to her. She’s sitting with her back against the wall and an open canister in one hand. Since nudity doesn’t seem to be a big deal in Krymzyn, I don’t try to cover myself.
“I’m fine,” I answer. “I just realized how dirty I am.”
“You’ve been spending all your time helping me,” she says.
“I don’t know how you could stand to be around me.”
“It’s not hard.” She slowly lowers her eyes from my face down to my feet. “It’s no wonder you’re so fast. You have the perfect body for a Traveler.”
“Thanks,” I say. “How are you feeling?”
She looks at my face again. “The best I’ve felt
