I shook my head. “I can’t do that.”
“You have to. We’ll find you a job in the city where you can work and save up. Eventually, you’ll earn enough for a ticket back to Earth. But that won’t happen. It’s only a backup plan.”
People needed backup plans because there was always a chance the main plan would fail.
“I’m not waiting here,” I said, knowing I likely had little other option.
“We’ll talk more about it later,” he said and lowered his lips to kiss me.
I turned away.
He sighed, not angry, but unsure what to do. “Come. We must pass through the jungle before nightfall. It’s not a safe place to be in the dark.”
Well, there’s a surprise.
I considered my options. I had precious few to choose from. I had to get him to change his mind, to make him see we worked best when we stuck together.
I stepped into the jungle and followed his broad back.
When sunlight failed to permeate the thick overhead canopy, it was like a solar eclipse. Strange creatures hooted, howled, and screeched. Eyes glowed. Some yellow, some green, some red, others flashed every color of the rainbow.
I was definitely not in Kansas anymore.
Nighteko marched ahead of me. He held his sword in one hand but rarely used it to cut the vines and foliage if he didn’t have to. He preferred to keep the blade sharp and ducked and weaved between the dense jungle cables.
Every so often, he said, “Watch your step.”
I was watching every step I took. I danced, pirouetted, leaped, hopscotched, my eyes latching onto every slimy surface and stubby length of wood like it was a deathray.
And snakes. That was what you looked out for in Earth jungles. And if the sea creature we ran into yesterday was any indication, the snakes here could use anacondas as tooth floss.
Just how did I get myself into these situations?
I decided to initiate a conversation. At least that might help take my mind off these surroundings. “I found out why they moved the Challenge a day forward,” I said.
Nighteko didn’t say anything and carefully stepped over an assault course of protruding tree roots.
“On my way to the docking bay to get back up,” I said. “Well, what I thought would be our backup, I passed my room. I had a funny feeling something was up. How could they know you weren’t being poisoned anymore? So I went in my room. I checked under my bed where I left your poisoned food and guess what? It wasn’t there. Somebody had taken it. They must have figured out we knew about the poison. You’d get stronger every day, so they moved the Challenge forward.”
Something flapped past my face and disappeared into the jungle. I swallowed. “Okay…”
I hurried to catch up with Nighteko. “I guess I must’ve been followed.”
Something snagged my foot and I tripped. I rolled over to peer at the thing still attached to my boot. A snake coiled around it. I screamed and slammed my free foot at it over and over.
“Will you be quiet?” Nighteko hissed. “I’m trying to pass through the jungle unnoticed.”
“A snake’s got me!” I said, still flailing.
He looked at my foot. “It’s not a snake.”
“What?”
“It’s an exposed tree root,” he said, crouching down to help release me.
“Oh,” I said. “Well, it looked like a snake when I tripped.”
He took my face in his hands and kissed me on the lips. It was just what the doctor ordered.
“Trust me, snakes are the last thing you need to worry about in here,” he said. “There’s a whole lot worse you should be worried about.”
The good feelings vanished in an instant.
“Like what?” I said, feeling lightheaded.
“It’s best you don’t know,” he said. “Until you have to know.”
I gulped and nodded my head. “Sure. That works. Are you even sure we have to go through the jungle?”
But he was already focused on something else. Boy, I hoped it wasn’t one of these things I shouldn’t know about. He angled his head for a better view between a pair of large leaves.
I did the same with a lower gap in the foliage. He was looking at a beautiful grass clearing. Now that was more like it. Open and clear, I could walk through it all day without a word of complaint. I moved to shove the leaves aside—
Nighteko extended his arm, blocking me. Then he pressed his index finger to his lips. He crouched down to my height and moved me to one side so I could see what he’d seen.
A man dressed in a plain brown robe crouched beside a cart attached to a creature similar to a horse but not as beautiful. When I looked closer, I noticed it had six legs and a broken wing.
Hm. Not at all like a horse, then.
“What is he?” I said.
“A trader,” Nighteko said. “He moves from village to village trading his wares.”
The wheel of his wagon had snapped off and lay in a shallow ditch. He grumbled under his breath and struggled with mending it.
Nighteko stepped through the damp leaves and held it open for me to pass through first.
“Uh, hi,” I said.
The trader straightened up and first appraised me, then the big lug standing behind me. The robe he wore reminded me of the sackcloth monks wore in monasteries.
“Do you need a hand?” I said.
“Yes, if you wouldn’t mind,” the trader said.
He turned to Nighteko and nodded at the broken wagon.
Nighteko crouched and braced the cart on his back.
“On the count of three,” he said. “One, two, three…”
He grunted as he lifted the cart. The trader watched him in awe before hurrying to slip the wheel back in place. Then Nighteko lowered it back down again. He clapped the dirt off his hands.
“Thank you very much, stranger,” the old trader said. “This wheel always has had a habit of slipping
