His purple scales twinkle like the rarest jewels.
“Beautiful,” he whispers, glancing at me after a long moment. “Beautiful like you. I forgot it.”
I blush from the compliment. No one has called me beautiful before. “You forgot the ocean?”
“Yes.” He hums. “A body of water envisioned in my mind is nothing compared to the real thing. I forgot its color, its song, its vastness. I remember soaring over it until there was no land in sight.”
I round my arms around his middle and embrace him. Pressing my face to his back, I wrench my eyes closed. His words sadden me.
“What is wrong, Milaye?” he asks.
“We can take our time. We can take all the time you need,” I say.
His arm rounds over mine. “I do not understand?”
“I know there’s something wrong. I can feel it.” I nuzzle his back. “I shouldn’t have pushed you so soon. Not only have you just transformed, but you recently recovered from a sickness I can’t comprehend. You may still be recovering.”
He turns in my hold and catches my eyes. “I still do not understand. You have not pushed me. I am well now. The poison and its effects are gone… Any time I need now is for selfish reasons. This time, any time with you, it is everything to me.”
I lick my lips. “Then why are you unhappy?”
His gaze goes distant, his lips flatten. But it’s fleeting, and the Drazak I know is staring back at me soon after. He drops his stick and cups my cheeks. “Unhappiness is not what plagues me. Nor is it poison.”
“Then what is?”
“I believe… it is change.”
My brow furrows but my confusion doesn’t last long. He continues.
“Change from what I was to what I am now, from what I believed was my fate, to what possibilities exist now. Everything has changed, and those changes have been good, but…”
“But?”
“But I do not want this to change, us to change.”
My chest squeezes. “It won’t—I won’t let it. I like this and what we are.”
“Though you wish to go back to your tribe? Where there are others?”
“The others will not bother us. They will help us, protect us,” I tell him. “That’s what tribes do—what a family does.”
“I do not need help,” he grunts, straightening. “I will protect us.”
“You will.” I smile. “And they will do so as well… each in their own way.” I pull my hand from his grasp, give him back his stick, and step around him towards the ocean. The sun is descending towards the horizon. “They will make our food when all I want to do is to keep you close and in my cot. They will light our hut’s fire so our home is warm when we’re late from hunting. They will lead me through this pregnancy and take care of us when neither of us can bear to part from our baby. They will make sure we have what we need when we cannot provide it for ourselves, when our need is something they are more suited to provide. You will see. This is also a good change.”
He steps up next to me. “And if I do not want any of that? If all I want is you, and our younglings, and nothing else? If I want to take that entire burden and care for us completely?”
“Then we will leave. If this does not suit you, we will find a new home away from them.”
“You are willing to do that for me? You will keep your promise, and follow me? Always?”
“Always, Drazak. I’ll never leave you.”
“Milaye, my huntress, I will never leave you either.”
At the sound of my name on his lips without prompting, I am relieved.
Though sadness still lingers in my heart, I can sense a lightness coming from Drazak now. I do not want to leave my tribe nor the honor they bring me, but I will. For Drazak, I will do so gladly. My thoughts before about my honor and retaining it were selfish. There is honor in many things, and in many choices.
I head in the direction of home.
“But you will give the tribe a try?” I ask and, reaching down to remove my sandals, I squeeze the sand between my toes. “And I mean it, if you’re not ready, we can find a different place until you are.” I can wait for my answers. “What are a few more days when we’ve already lost so many?”
“No. We will go. I will face this head on.”
I glance at him. “Are you sure?”
“Yes, little human. The sooner this business is done, the sooner I will get to have you again. This human cock of mine does not want to give me a break,” he grumbles.
I cough. “Be happy you did not find me during the red comet’s heat.”
“Hrrmm.”
We walk in silence for a time, enjoying each other’s company during this quiet moment. The sun sinks toward the ocean on my left, while Drazak flanks my right. Only the sounds of the lapping waves follow us as we travel. Birds fly overhead.
It’s peaceful. Golden dusky twilight paints the land, and the jungle falls deeper and deeper into shadows. I know this terrain, this area. We are close to home. I take it all in, breathing it in slowly, because what’s ahead may not be entirely good.
My tribe probably thinks I’m dead. And Haime?
Are they out searching for me? Us?
And Drazak. I love him.
Smoke rises in the distance, we walk around a rocky bend, and in a few yards, the giant rocks rise from the sand and come into view. It is land that long ago broke from the cliffs that led into the jungle, where Sand’s
