Jase looked at me sharply and took a step toward me, almost aggressively, as he saw his ring extended. Then his look softened, and his fingers touched mine gently as he took it from me.
A burst of electricity coursed through us both and bright red sparks burst from the ring as I handed it back to him. I collapsed against the termite hill, my breath knocked from me, blinking rapidly against swollen vision, and light auras circled Jase’s visage. He tumbled backward a little as well and doubled over, breathing heavily, hands on his knees. I tasted the iron bite of blood in my mouth and coughed against it. My hand buzzed and tingled as if I had been shocked by an outlet and there was a sizzling sound coming from the ring in Jase’s hand. It wasn’t only my hand that tingled… There was an intense buzzing inside my chest, my heart was fluttering, my mouth was suddenly dry and yet I felt like licking my lips would be all too obvious.
He looked at it and then at me again as he straightened up, eyes wide, mouth slightly open, in awe.
“I can’t believe you’re still alive.”
“What do you mean?” I gasped out, spitting, surprised there wasn’t actually any blood in the spit. I felt like I might vomit and I was lightheaded. “What is that thing?”
“That’s a story for another time. Right now, we need to get to those caves.”
Without another word, Jase lifted me up with his telekinesis and floated me before him, a few feet off the ground, and he paced me as he sprinted up the game trail. My arms brushed against the tight cliff walls occasionally, but otherwise, it was expertly done, in my opinion. My leg screamed in pain, but much less than when I was putting pressure on it. I was appreciative of floating in the steadily dimming light above him, for it gave me a chance to cry in hidden silence. Something about the ring had changed his mind… he hadn't left me behind, and that was only one of the reasons I was moved to tears.
A small opening appeared, and he set me down. I wiped my eyes while he was digging in his pack. He cracked a flash rock, a type of geode with luminescent properties when agitated that came from their planet’s crust. It started to glow. He tossed it back into the tunnel.
“Can you crawl back in there?”
“How do you know it will open up?”
“A guess.”
“We are set upon!” The cry echoed through our minds from Aimer’s telepathic connection “We found their camp and were trying to steal a transport. We are fighting. I will update. Stay safe.”
Jase slammed his fist into his hand, cursing, and then pointed into the tunnel. So, I crawled, back into the dimness. The geode was right before me. Every time I reached it, I threw it back further.
I was mainly dragging my leg, and I had started to cry silent tears again, trying not to choke or sniffle too much, but the gash was gushing blood down my leg, the bandage bled through, my pants were soaked, and I was lightheaded from more than the mysterious spark of the ring from Jase’s little box.
I threw the rock, and then it lit up an entire cavern, flaring its glow into life around a huge cave, stalactites and mites glowing with mineral qualities never seen on Earth and colors I had only dreamt about. I rolled over onto my back as I reached the center of the cave, seeming to see stars up above me on the roof.
“I can see the sky…” I looked at Jase as he stood over me, the stars framing his blonde head like a halo. His eyes glowed, pinpoints of light. I reached for his gorgeous face and brushed his finely groomed and sharply defined jawline with my fingertips. “I can see your sky.” I tapped his lips and giggled. He stopped my hand, and I giggled again, feeling far too lightheaded, my thoughts fleeing away, like the stars on the ceiling of the sky, and things were spinning, and I couldn’t grasp at the earth beneath me… at the Farian beneath me? Can I use the word like that…? But this is a teacup ride… It is spinning away, too… why are we on a rollercoaster when there were people chasing us… Would the bad guys find us here at Disneyland?
Jase pushed my hand away. “Those aren’t stars. That’s just bat shit and you’re delirious from blood loss.”
“It’s beautiful, but I think the monsters will eat them.” Then a spike of pain echoed so harshly through my body, that I grabbed my leg, buckled forward, clenched my teeth to stop from screaming, then collapsed back to the ground, and passed out.
Six
Jase
I unwound the bandage Vania had tied around her leg and looked at the gash in her finely muscled, lightly tanned high. I grimaced. It was a gnarly slash, jagged, long, and deep. I wasn’t even sure what had made it, but the crash had been brutal and fast. I was impressed she had been able to do as much as she had with this bad of an injury. I hadn’t been giving her enough credit…
Vania shifted around and moaned in pain as I scrubbed out the injury with some antiseptic, but she didn't wake up. She was out from shock and pain. I had placed my cloak beneath her head, so she had a more gentle place to slam her admittedly sweaty and stricken, but still beautiful, head up and back down again when she did—which she was occasionally doing in her desperate, pained stupor.
After cleaning and re-bandaging the wound, I
