Her cheeks flamed as her words replayed in her head. “Shut up, Remy. You too, Dick!” She stood up and stomped back towards camp.
Schaeffer squashed his comeback. “Listen Kazan, it happened. Drop it.” At least he didn’t stomp off pissed, not that I felt any better.
I felt worse, Batista digging at my conscience. Crisis over, my sides started to turn again. I told Lizzy to have fun with him. I never thought she’d actually get involved.
Remy watched them leave too. “Don’t worry. Actually, this might be a good thing.”
“I don’t know.” Schaeffer caught up with Lizzy and wrapped his arm around her. “She’s the ‘catch and release’ type.”
“Yeah, well there’s always a first.” Remy pulled me from the rock and kissed me, then backed away. “Okay, I’m with Lizzy on the breath mints. Can we go wash off this LR funk?”
“I’ll tell you what, there’s a little cove up the lakeside. You game for skinny-dipping on an alien planet?”
Remy laughed, kissing me one more time.
I replayed the LR strange introductions to the Xeno team. Introducing Remy and Lizzy, as embarrassing as the episode was, revealed their social secrets and sentience. I left out how I reacted to Schaef and Lizzy.
I felt bad about it, but when Lizzy joined us for breakfast, she seemed to have forgotten the way we’d parted the day before.
She sat down bubbly as ever, not even complaining about reconstituted eggs. She just folded them into a slice of bread, a habit she had as a kid. She squirted her sandwich with ketchup as Schaeffer set his tray down.
He wrinkled his nose and she only smirked, nibbling on her egg sandwich. “So, I’ve been thinking. Since they seem to like art, can I do sketches while you do your thing?”
She reached into her backpack and pulled out a sketchpad. “I did these from the videos you were running.”
I opened the book and she reached over to point at a male. I recognized immediately it was Gerret. “They’re markings are distinct. See how his flow almost perfectly along his rib, while Belup’s zags more horizontally. Yinet has a swirl right down the side of her neck. Kenup’s stripes don’t start until her shoulders.”
She smiled knowingly. “I didn’t get how they reminded you of Zebra, but I do now.”
I didn’t feel a twinge, maybe because I didn’t have to explain it to her. I flipped through several pages of drawing, some with names attached, arrows pointing to the markings making each LR unique. “You did these last night? How?”
“Sweetie, I write children’s books, duh! I’m also masochistic…” She reached over and plucked a grape from Schaeffer’s tray, leering at him enough I could swear he blushed. “…about detail.”
She realized it wasn’t a grape as it oozed red liquid. She frowned, touched her tongue to the juice, then nibbled at the berry.
“It’s local harvest. The LR let us pick them.” Schaeffer split his bunch with her. “I guess we know what role Lizzy will fill. She was up half the night doodling.”
“Don’t complain. So were you.”
Remy coughed up some of his artificial eggs, covering his mouth as Lizzy winked at me.
“Shhhh…” Schaeffer darted his eyes around to the other tables around us.
Lizzy grinned through a mouthful of berries, rubbed her shoulder affectionately against his, but looking at me. “We cool?”
“We’re cool.” Or getting there. “The pictures were good.” She had an eye for the little details. “Draw to your heart’s content. Maybe you can translate my ideas into pictures, and do the same for them.”
I pushed my tray away. “We need to get a move on, if that was a real invitation yesterday.” I took Remy’s hand, and reached over to take Lizzy’s. “Ready for a new adventure?”
Lizzy took Schaeffer’s hand. “It’s about time Lizzi and Sharan grew up.”
Schaeffer seemed a bit awkward with the gesture, not the four musketeers’ type, but he shrugged. “I guess I’m game.”
“Ahh, there’s a problem.” Schaeffer raised a brow at me. “Both of us heading off into the deep, dark woods…?” Nada from him. “Protocol. Who’ll be in charge back here?”
“All taken care of.” Down went the brow. “Besides, if your theory on social order is correct, we have to go in pairs. Do you want to risk offending them?”
He had a point, but still, this was weird for me. Remy saved the awkward moment. “Well, since we don’t know what they intend, we should be prepared for an overnighter. To that effect, I already asked the camp manager to prepare four camp packs. We just need to pick them up and add our personals.”
I couldn’t help but be surprised. He must have gone out after I fell asleep. “Okay, channeling your old boy scout?” He shrugged. “All right then, expedition leader is your job. Lizzy is our journalist. I guess that makes you security, Schaef.”
He looked at Lizzy and smirked. “Yeah, someone has to keep Litty in check.”
It all seemed to fit. In less than an hour we hiked out to the rock. We didn’t even have to sit down before the LR slipped into the clearing. Yinet and Gerret were at the lead, giving us the nuzzle greeting, before guiding us towards the forest.
Unlike their usual routine, they didn’t take the long-weaving route, instead headed straight into the trees. Once under a full canopy, all but Yinet and Gerret disappeared.
It took quite a while for me to realize where they went, but when I did, I couldn’t help but stop to watch. The whole party stopped and Lizzy came to my side. “Ahhhh, Sis, you’re seeing what I am?”
“Bear-sized flying Tarsiers?” It was incredible, something that size leaping effortlessly from tree to tree.
“Fascinating! I’d love to get a scan on them. Even if they have lightweight bones, sheer muscle mass should make that impossible. Oh…oh…ohhh!” Remy cringed as a large male missed one branch, did a somersault and caught another, to swing onto a heavier limb.
Schaeffer was speechless.
“We’ve got a lot
