He hadn’t expected this.
Though…there was still time for her to proclaim that he shouldn’t come anywhere near her again.
It could still happen.
“I don’t think these are completely roots,” she finally said.
Ajos’ gaze fell to where she poked with one hand.
“What?”
“I don’t think these are fully roots,” she repeated. “But I don’t think they’re vines either…”
Ajos looked around them.
He didn’t know about that. There were so many.
He’d never seen so many roots above ground before, except in places where the ground was too soft to hold them. They looked more like vines to him, but she was the expert at this on her planet. She’d know more than he did.
“I don’t see any root caps, no root hairs, and these motherfuckers are thick, thicker than any vines I’ve ever seen before, but,” she took a breath, “a vine is a plant on its own. These things…they’re connected to the trees…”
Keh-reh-nah rose and rubbed her hands over her shoulders. “We should go,” she said. “I’m suddenly creeped out.”
Ajos jerked his head in confirmation. “Do you wish for me to escort you back to the ship?”
He was reining in himself but who knew how long he could keep it up. She’d probably feel better being around V’Alen anyway.
V’Alen had the advantage of not having any urges at all.
Keh-reh-nah’s frown was suddenly directed his way. “No. We have to find the source of that signal. I’m not going through all this to just return empty-handed.”
For a beat, he studied her, but her shoulders were set and, somehow, he knew if he pressed, it was an argument he was going to lose.
“Let’s go,” he finally said, rising to his full height.
Keh-reh-nah averted her gaze, looking off into the distance.
He could cut the tension between them with his spear.
“Let’s.”
17
This time, Ajos walked in front. He kept his pace a good few meters ahead of her and she wasn’t sure if that was because he didn’t want to be close to her or if there was some other reason.
It didn’t matter.
She had bigger things on her mind.
There was a niggling feeling at the back of her mind as they trekked through the undergrowth and Kerena frowned.
She could be paranoid, but since she’d woken that morning to find the vine wrapped around her leg, she couldn’t relax.
She was missing something.
Something important.
Coupled with the fact that the alien she was with was confusing her to bits, she just had a lot to think about.
Releasing a breath, she let her gaze roam over the vegetation.
What was it?
What was she missing?
Ajos stopped for a moment to check his communicator before glancing back at her.
He was turning red again, she could see, and she knew he was out of medicine.
Well, that explained why he was walking so far ahead. He didn’t want to touch her.
“The signal is still scrambled,” she heard him say, and that prompted her to look at her own device.
There was a little dot on the screen that kept lighting up now and then, and she assumed that was where the source of the signal they were searching for was.
However, the dot kept disappearing and appearing. They’d be walking straight toward it at one point and the next time it appeared on the screen, it was in another direction.
That and the unsure feeling at the back of her mind had her on high alert as she looked around them.
Kerena eyed the roots along the ground as they continued walking, and the more she studied them, the more she felt disturbed.
They didn’t burrow into the earth, as she’d noted before.
They crept like vines. Kerena frowned, her gaze focused on the vegetation, and she almost bumped into Ajos.
She hadn’t realized he’d stopped walking.
She opened her mouth to ask him if the signal was scrambled again but he was standing so rigidly, she realized there must be something ahead of him that she couldn’t see.
Glancing around him, she decided to take a look for herself.
The first thing she noticed was the fallen trees, snapped in two like a great hand had come down upon them.
But off in the distance was the dark metal hull of a spaceship.
Kerena’s breath caught in her throat.
The enemy ship.
It was mangled, as if something had ripped through it, but even with the damage done to it, it looked huge…menacing.
Ajos blocked her with his arm.
“You should wait here,” he said.
Kerena’s gaze darted to him. “You think they’re alive?”
He stared at the wreckage. “No, but it might still be safer if you stayed here and out of sight.”
Kerena nodded. She understood that.
Only, even though she and Ajos weren’t on the best of terms, staying by herself all alone made her anxiety rise a little—and that’s thanks to the vegetation introducing itself to her leg earlier.
Something creeped her out about this place, and the presence of the enemy ship so close only freaked her out some more.
She’d known what they’d been heading toward, but seeing it big and menacing, the dark metal sticking out against the green vegetation like a bad omen, was something else.
It made alarm bells ring in her head.
Nevertheless, she nodded to Ajos.
“I’ll wait here.”
He glanced down at her and hesitated.
“Keep your comms on.” He turned to her and put a finger over one of the buttons. “Press this one if you need to talk to me.”
He glanced back at the ship. “I won’t be long.”
As Ajos moved off, Kerena settled behind some bushes, her eyes on him as he headed toward the huge ship.
He had his spear poised as if he would attack anything that moved near that ship, and Kerena watched him nervously.
As he neared the vessel, the mere size of it made Ajos look small, and seeing the large alien dwarfed was alarming in itself.
Kerena bit her bottom lip as she cracked the bones in her fingers.
This was what he did for a living. This was his job, something he did every other day.
So why was she so scared?
As Ajos disappeared into the vessel,
