Inodded and turned around.
It’s going to be something completelydifferent keeping me safe. And definitely not the HighZlathar Priest.
Iwalked through the doors.
Iwandered inconspicuously around the tree village during the morning hours,scanning the ground and fields trying to find J. It was funny of me, really,because if I did find him, I would probably hide, not knowing what to say to himor how to act.
Itwas stupid. I definitely wasn’t showing qualities of exquisite geneticmanipulation here. But here on Earth, with J, I found it difficult to be thecalm, wise Senthien. Neither my brain nor my body responded in the way I wasused to. I kept thinking about him. It felt as if he was always there, rightbehind me, and I just needed to turn around and he would be standing less thanone IP away, smiling, lifting his arm and opening his hand to take mine, as I’dseen him doing in my Visions.
Howwas it possible for one person to be so ever-present in another’s thoughts? Myhigher brain centers seemed incapacitated, and that was truly distracting. Themost disturbing thing of all was that none of these symptoms were recorded onmy nanoprobe encyclopedia, so I couldn’t even find out what this was all about.
Annoying!
Ihad just left the fields, happy to be in the forest and away from the heat ofthe sun, when I saw a group of men talking a few IPs from the climbing tree. Jwas standing at the edge, and I could see him from the side. None of themnoticed me, so they continued talking. I stopped and moved slightly sidewaysbehind a thick tree. Like this, I could look at him unobserved. Perhaps it wouldgive me a better understanding of why he was constantly on my mind.
Hisscruffy hair was falling on his forehead, and his shoulders and broad back madea shadow over the rest of his body. I leaned with my hands on the tree to bend furthersideways while my eyes glided down his tall frame. The thin shirt was tucked insidehis beige trousers, which hung loosely on his hips and fell down all the way tohis bare feet.
Mymouth felt dry and I needed to swallow. I wiped the sweat from my palms on thetree bark and continued looking. He ran his fingers through his hair, and then crossedhis arms on his chest. I could see him breathing, his chest moving slowly, ashe listened to the person in the front. He moved his weight from one leg toanother, and that made his buttock muscles shift.
Ilicked my lips, trying to moisten my dry mouth.
“What are you doing here?” I heard a loudvoice coming from the side. I pushed away from the tree and looked at her. Itwas Julie, the woman I had seen at the Boolean Institute, again. She walkedtoward me, stopping less than one IP away. “Why are you sneaking around? What areyou looking at?”
Shelooked sideways at the men. All of them were now looking at us.
“I…I wasn’t sneaking.”
Shenarrowed her eyes, then looked at J and then back atme. And then she laughed in a most unnatural way. “You were looking at J, weren’tyou?”
Iswallowed. “No. I wasn’t.”
Bythis time, J was coming toward us. He stopped one IP away from me, then touchedJulie’s shoulder with his hand and gently pushed her away from me so that shewas more than one IP away as well.
“So,ladies,” he said looking at her and then at me, “is there a problem?”
Juliesnorted. “She—” She raised a finger toward me. “She was watching you. Shewas eyeing you!”
Oh, no, no, no, this is not good! I wanted to say something, I wanted to defendmyself, but my voice was gone.
“Really?”J looked at me, surprised, his confident composure gone.
Mybreath was locked in and I could not say anything. I had completely lostcontrol over my body.
“Whatdo you mean, ‘really’? Yes, really,” Julie said and moved forward, but Jinstantly raised his arm to stop her from moving closer to me. “And I can’teven imagine why! They”—shepushed her chin toward me in a disgusted way—“can’t even do anything! They are completely incapableof it.”
Iclenched my hands into fists and brought back the Senthien. Though my heartbeatwas loud under my rib cage, I said in the calmest of voices, “Humans are aninteresting species to observe.”
“Bloodyhell! Observing. She was looking atyour butt!” Julie spit out.
“Hmmm,game-spotting, ey?” J said, arching his eyebrow. My Senthien was gone yet againand I was speechless.
Hishead tilted, a mischievous smile on his lips, he was looking at my eyes. Then heslowly shifted his gaze to my lips. And this did something unexplainable to me.My heartbeat sped up instantly and a new indescribable craving rose deep, deepinside my belly. All of a sudden, I was lacking air.
I need to get out of here.
Ilet out a shaky breath and said weakly, “I’d… better leave.”
AndI walked in between J and Julie to the climbing tree, hoping I still had the strengthto climb up and get back to my hut.
Ilooked outside. Night had fallen, and it was soon time to go to the meeting atMike’s hut. I folded my day clothes in a cupboard as Tania had showed me and thenput on an evening dress. I had started to like it, the new clothes. Though somewhat distracting on a sensory level, it made me feel… free.
Ilooked at the dimming light of the fading day with a contented smile on mylips. I felt serene now, though it had taken me a long time to reach this levelof calmness after the small disaster this afternoon. I understood now what hadhappened. It was very clear to me: I was simply gathering information. It is abasic Senthien feature—we need to observe in order to project accurate Visions.And that’s all there was to it.
Istood and walked to the door, but just as I moved the curtain aside, I froze inplace. The breath I took in a moment ago stayed locked in.
Jwas standing right in front of me, slightly taken off guard himself.
“Dora.”
“J.”
“Ahem,I was… I was just about to get you. The meeting
