Rainwater flashed into her face, but the root felt secure.
Heaving upward, she grasped the root and lifted herself off the ground.
Her hands slipped a little, but she held tight.
The rain was making the roots even more slippery and her core muscles strained and protested as she raised one hand to grasp and pull herself higher.
Her muscles strained as her outstretched hand fought to grasp higher on the root.
Gravity was pulling in the opposite direction and her body obeyed, sliding down the slippery root so quickly, she only got the sense that she was falling—the thought didn’t come till after.
Pain rocketed in her buttocks as she landed hard.
“Fuck!”
She swallowed hard and got up, wrapping her hands again.
A second attempt ended up the same way.
“Goddamnit.”
Her body heaved with the heavy breaths she took.
“Keh-reh-nah, do you read?”
Kerena swallowed hard, her fingers trembling as she unwrapped them from her dress and activated the communicator.
“Ajos.” She could hardly catch her breath and she shivered again.
The hole was really cold now, and she was half-naked and wet.
Fuck, this was a bad situation.
“Keh-reh-nah, you are hurt.” Ajos’ breaths were coming hard too, and she remembered immediately that he was ill. Ill, yet he was pushing himself to find her.
“I’m not. Just got the wind knocked out of me. I was trying to climb out. I can’t—” She took that back.
She could.
She would.
“V’Alen has sent me the coordinates of your communicator,” he said, and hope rose within her. “But…” He trailed off.
“But what?”
“The device I retrieved from the Tasqal ship is still messing with the navigation. Even if I leave it behind…it would still…”
Kerena took a breath. She understood.
“It’s okay. I’ll wait. The plants haven’t moved again.”
And she hoped to hell that they wouldn’t.
Her shoulders sagged as she took a step back, looking up at the mouth of the hole.
There must be a better way to attempt escape, but she could think of none.
Her body ached, she was low on energy, and her palm burned something vicious.
Switching on the light on her communicator, she turned the light to her palm.
There was a cut there, probably from when she’d been trying to climb on the vine.
She watched the rain hit her palm, mixing with her blood, and the mixture ran to fall on the root directly below her.
“I’m sorry, Ker-reh-nah. I should never have taken you to this place.”
She watched the blood drip as she pressed the button to talk to him.
“I wanted to come.”
“If you didn’t come, you would be safe on the base.”
She held back a sad laugh.
“I don’t think I’m really safe anywhere…not even on my own planet. I was taken—”
Her words died on her lips as she froze.
There was movement.
“Keh-reh-nah?”
“It’s moving,” she whispered.
Even to her, fear laced her voice.
“Qef,” Ajos cursed. “Move away from it, slowly.”
“I—” Her eyes widened as she watched what was happening before her. “Ajos…it’s…”
Kerena blinked, not believing what she was seeing.
“Keh-reh-nah, talk, please. Let me know what’s happening.” Ajos sounded tortured.
“It’s making a flower,” she whispered.
Keh-reh-nah went silent again and Ajos collapsed against a tree, leaning his shoulder against it as he took a breath.
The rain was helping.
It was cooling his body but not his need.
Still, he had to push forward.
As soon as he got her out and back to the ship, then he could deal with his problem.
“Ajos,” her voice came over his communicator and he released a breath. “Ajos, I—”
“Keh-reh-nah,” he leaned off the tree and staggered forward, “don’t go near the things.”
She chuckled a little and the sound of her laughter surprised him.
“You have no idea how many of them are around me. There’s no way I can avoid them all but…” she paused, “I think I know why they pulled me away.”
Ajos checked the communicator’s nav function as she spoke. It said she was to the west just a few minutes ago and he’d been heading that way. Now it said she was north-west.
Switching his trajectory, he kept searching, slowing down so he could search more effectively.
She said she was in a hole of some sort and he was sure he hadn’t passed her by accident before.
Glancing behind him, he frowned. She’d been pulled much farther away than he’d expected or realized.
“It’s my blood,” she said. “Wherever my blood falls, strange flowers bloom.”
A growl erupted from within him and Ajos staggered a little more before taking a moment to lean against a tree to regain his strength.
“You’re bleeding?”
“It’s okay. I’m okay. It was just a scratch. It’s stopped bleeding now but not before some of the blood caught the root and…well, it grew a flower.” She paused. “I should be terrified but…this is the strangest plant I have ever witnessed in my life.”
Ajos growled again. “It doesn’t explain why the plant pulled you away in the first place.”
He checked his navigator once more.
Qeffing qrak. The direction changed again.
Hauling himself forward, he continued forward.
“It does,” Keh-reh-nah said after a while. “I cut myself while I was running. I guess my blood caught one of the roots or something. Though…” she trailed off, “this doesn’t explain why it had climbed over me while I was sleeping. I wasn’t bleeding.”
“The forest wants your blood?” He didn’t mean to growl but at this point, he couldn’t help it.
“I don’t know. I can’t understand it. I assume something in my blood is a catalyst for this plant, causing some reaction that makes it bloom.”
“Well, I need to get you the qef out of there,” he growled again and winced at the sound of his own voice.
There was silence in his communicator as he stumbled through the forest.
He checked the navigation again and realized the dot on his screen that told him where she was had shifted again. Though not considerably so.
He could only hope it meant he was heading in the right direction this time.
“Ajos…” Her voice sounded soft. So soft and delicate.
Qef him.
He was cursed.
Ajos gulped. “Keh-reh-nah…”
“You don’t have a fever, do you.”
Ajos swallowed hard and continued forcing himself forward. He could hardly see with the
