CHAPTER 7

Camp that evening was somber. The men did not engage in conversation with the women, there was no pool of water in which to wash and no warm evening firelight. Food was distributed by Morkuth while Kenahi and Gorth and the remaining two men conversed in urgent, serious tones at the edge of the forest. Mia's attention kept snagging on the still form of the warrior, laid on several blankets near the hut. She had been assured that the Oltec, the armor the men wore, would be working on healing what it could. Looking at his lifeless form drove Mia's stomach into her throat and pushed her thoughts into a repetitive replay of the man being slammed into the ground. The sound of his bones breaking, and he had been broken in several places, as he hit would be ingrained in her nightmares forever. But he lived, and would continue living. So why did she feel waves of soul eating guilt whenever she looked at him?

At least they were out of the grassland. Mia had never been happier to see the tangled jungle path.

The women, too, were silent. They had all made it, but at what cost? Once they had eaten what they could, Morkuth directed them to another hut. Mia trailed behind. This one was a little more solid than the ones that came before, clearly of newer construction. Mia frowned at the interior as she was ushered inside. Had the huts been built specifically for trafficking women? Reluctant to enter such a quiet space where her mind would find no distraction from the day's horror, Mia turned, intending to ask to sit outside for a while. She caught the tail end of a conversation, or, rather, it looked more like an argument…one which Kenahi summarily pulled rank on. The faces of the others were sour, as if they had been told something they didn't want to hear. Mia stepped toward them, wanting to know what happened.

“Go to bed, Mia. You need your rest,” Morkuth encouraged.

Mia resisted and watched as Kenahi and Gorth exited the clearing, their vests flowing into armor and blades as they did.

“What's going on? They're going back out there aren't they? To look for your missing man.”

“Mia,” Morkuth warned.

“Those things are still out there,” she breathed and the internal vision of the tentacle slamming the cat-man into the ground replayed. She avoided looking at his still form.

“Yes, and Kenahi and Gorth will avoid them easily now that they have only themselves to worry about.”

“And what about whatever else is out there on this god-forsaken world?” she demanded.

A flash of emotion crossed his face, quickly concealed.

“Your concern is noted, and appreciated,” he bowed his head slightly, “but unnecessary. You are well protected here,” he gestured to the remaining men. Their armor had shifted and they each had a blade in each hand. While they seemed collected and focused on the forest surrounding the hut, their ears perked and swiveled in her direction, indicating that they listened to her and Morkuth, as well.

Mia sighed, pressing down the anxious feeling that refused to subside since...well, since she had first awakened on this world, but it had grown substantially after the grassland.

“I cannot rest,” she admitted.

“Do you require more food? Or perhaps some of your wounds cause you discomfort?”

The men had tended her scrapes and bruises promptly when they had reached camp, so promptly she had to snarl a little to keep her dignity intact. Some of those bruises were in areas she didn’t want the men fondling. They had offered several clean white cloth strips to clean the wounds and then a gel-like salve which had brought immediate relief to the stinging cuts. Truthfully, she had hardly noticed the wounds since then.

“No, you misunderstand...I don’t want to rest. I don’t want to think,” she glanced meaningfully at the nearly lifeless man.

Morkuth’s face softened. He reached out a hand as if to offer comfort, but she flinched away from him and he dropped it to his side. He glanced at the others and then the surrounding forest as if debating with himself.

“Come and sit, I will teach you the game of Thangolos.”

Relieved, Mia gladly accepted and followed Morkuth to a small area. He sat himself, cross-legged on the ground near a patch of bare earth. He pulled several pyramid shapes from one of the pockets of his vest, handing one to her. Oddly, the symbols reminded her of the waves on Fifth Element, three rows of lines, and they looked ridiculously similar except that each had a different intersecting line. She listened closely as he explained the rules, and it didn’t take her long to catch on. Each symbol had a value and the goal was to get a combination of symbols that counted for the highest value. It was a little like poker, except with dice. After the third round, which Mia kicked ass in, Morkuth traded off with one of the other men. His name was Phyn. He was slender and a little gangly, as if he hadn’t finished growing into himself yet. She studied him in the fading evening light but couldn’t make out any markings like the others had. Oh, he still had catlike features, but there were no spots, or stripes. Even his pointed ears, dusted in warm tan-colored fur, were free of distinctive spots. He smiled shyly, the tips of his fangs no longer as alarming as she had first found them. He was a better player than Morkuth and she laughed when he beat her for the fifth time in a row. He grinned...it almost made him adorable.

Morkuth appeared by her side and handed her a piece of something. Bark?

“You found some?” Phyn raised his brows in surprise. “How far did you have to go?”

Morkuth shook his head at Phyn.

“What’s this?” Mia asked.

“Copi bark. We’ve found that it enhances calm and promotes sleep.”

Mia passed it back to him, or at least she tried. “I don’t do drugs.”

He gave her a confused look.

“You know, things people put in their bodies that mess with their minds, gets them disoriented and high.”

Both Morkuth and Phyn raised their eyes to the treetops. Mia snorted.

“I still want to be able to think clearly.”

“Ah,” Morkuth nodded, as if understanding. “Copi does not alter the mind. It is similar to the tea we drank this morning. In fact, we tried making it into a tea but we found the desired properties were lost when the bark is boiled.”

She frowned.

“You need to rest, Mia.”

She shook her head, but his firm focus remained upon her.

“Mia, I have seen battle. Trust me when I tell you I understand that our minds are our own enemies, but rest will make it better. The Copi will calm you enough to sleep.”

Mia rubbed her eyes. It felt as though there was a whole playground of sand in there. She had to sleep eventually, she knew this. Relenting, she looked at the bark.

“What do I do with it?”

“It can be ingested as it is, but it’s taste makes it hard to eat like that. We have found that cleansing our spirit with the smoke as it burns to be just as effective. I believe humans have a similar practice with incense.” He pronounced incense oddly, as if the device couldn’t quite make out what he was trying to say. But she understood him well enough.

“Alright.”

Morkuth used the light tool he carried to get the bark smoldering and then had her sit, cross legged, rather like a meditation pose. He lay the bark before her, close enough that the scent of the smoke could reach her, but far enough that she wouldn’t be burned if she shifted position a little.

“Breathe deeply,” he told her. “You should feel its effects in a few minutes.”

She did, too. Her worries didn’t completely disappear, but they felt more manageable. Her pulse slowed and the exhaustion that had plagued her became a strong desire to sleep. Morkuth smiled slightly as he led her to the hut and the mattress reserved for her.

“Dream well, brave Mia.”

Morning broke, not with pressing heat like the days before, but the heavy and steady droning of rainfall. A second knock on the door of the hut announced why she had been startled awake to begin with.

Mia groaned and stretched stiff limbs. It only took a few seconds for the horrors of the day before, the last few days, to come crashing back into her. The resulting flood of anxiety nearly made her wish for more Copi bark.

Sora and Lee cracked the door open first, vanishing into the gloom beyond.

“I hate this place,” Ashley muttered. “Every time I think it can’t get worse, it does.” She pulled her hair into an elastic she had been wearing on her wrist. “I’m sick of being tired and scared.”

Mia agreed, but she couldn’t bring herself to speak. She remembered where Kenahi and Gorth had gone and that they hadn’t returned before she’d succumbed to sleep. At least she hadn’t had nightmares.

Ashley frowned, probably at the lack of response her complaints got, and pushed herself from the bed and out the door.

“You didn’t come in with the rest of us last night,” Becky stated when the woman was gone.

Was it a question?

“No, I was too ramped up to sleep. If I had laid down, then I might have crawled out of my own skin.”

“It was risky though, staying out there alone with them. I don’t think it’s smart to be separated.”

She wasn’t wrong and it wasn’t long ago she would have given the very same advice. Mia wondered at what point she had stopped seeing the men as her enemy, as a threat.

“You’re right, I wasn’t thinking very clearly. They were kind to me, though. I’m not sure what the hell their goal is but I don’t think they intend to harm us.”

“Yeah, maybe,” Becky didn’t sound convinced, “but it’s easy to be manipulated into false security. I was really worried.”

Mia sighed. She hadn’t meant to worry anyone, she’d just been lost in her own torment. She looked at the other woman. Becky wasn’t fairing too well. Her skin was sallow and she had gained an unhealthy homeless look to her.

“Come on,” she encouraged. “Let’s see if they have any of that dirt tea.”

With that she rose and headed for the door, rustling behind her indicating that Becky followed.

The scene outside was about what she expected. Rain fell in steady streams, soaking the landscape and those within it. If it bothered the aliens, they didn’t show it. They were, however somber, their expressions belying some bigger issue. Mia sagged a little when she spotted both Kenahi and Gorth next to a morning fire. So they had made it. She looked around. There was no sign of the lost man.

“Morning Mia,” Morkuth offered as he handed her a cup. She sniffed it. Yep, dirt tea. She took a deep sip and grimaced.

“Eat well, we move quickly today,” Keyni announced, his voice emotionless and firm. “We will rest only when needed and shortly. If we are lucky, we will be in Virkaith before dusk.”

The plates of food were filled a bit more than previous meals. The cracker bread was back and Mia found it more than palatable after two days of meager fare. She ate and drank her tea and watched the men.

They gathered at the edges of the group, armor shifting and taking form. Phyn knelt down beside Ashley and offered something in a small cupped leaf.

“For your feet,” he told her. “It will numb the pain and stop the blisters from worsening.”

“Why bother?” she snarled. “What difference does my misery make to you?”

Phyn flinched physically at the words, but he left the cup at Ashley’s feet before he walked away. Ashley ignored it, picking disdainfully at the food given to her, randomly flicking away fruits or nuts she found distasteful.

Anger rose within Mia. She could understand the woman’s bad mood, could she ever, but the attitude still grated. She turned away in time to catch Kenahi’s frown. He had watched the interaction, as well. He didn’t, however, seem inclined to do anything about it. And it was that fact that had her questioning her perception of the aliens. It just didn’t make sense with how bad guys behaved.

So why do something as vile as kidnap women from their homes?

As the women ate, the men paced the forest glade in near silence, their cautious glances toward one another more concerning than any alarm might have been. Something had gone very wrong last night.