Part 9 (2/2)

”No, you will need your coat for warmth.”

”I'm fine. The fire is warm enough. Remember, I'm not as cold-natured as you.”

He nodded, too tired to argue. He pulled his jacket closer, then reached out and laid his hand on her arm when she started to move away.

”I will build a lair for usss,” he said sleepily, yet sincerely.

”Not tonight, you won't,” she said with a smile as his eyes closed and his hand slid away.

Leith gathered the dishes and utensils and took them outside. The cold, damp air made her s.h.i.+ver and break out in goose b.u.mps. It had stopped raining as she'd thought, and the dripping she'd heard earlier was water falling from the leaves of the nearby trees. By the glare of the laserlight she saw the stream was only a dozen meters away.

Leith flashed the light into the trees and beyond the rocks to scare away any unwanted night visitors. She hurried to the stream and scrubbed the dishes clean with white sand from the bank. Her fingers grew numb from the icy water. Just as she finished, a terrible cras.h.i.+ng sounded amid the trees. Then that awful heart-stopping roar mingled with it. The sounds seemed to come from every direction at once. Leith grabbed up the dishes and ran back into the cave.

She careened to a halt inside their living area. J'Qhir slept soundly and had not heard the animal's scream of rage or her own wild rampage through the tunnel. Her heart pounding, she set the dishes near the fire to dry.

Leith gathered an armload of dry wood, some that J'Qhir had collected before it started to rain, and laid several pieces on the fire. She watched it a few moments to make sure it caught, part of her listening for the beast to crash through the doorway and reclaim its den.

Should she wake him? He had done so much in the past few days and needed to rest. She ought to be able to manage keeping an animal at bay the rest of the night. She would tell him in the morning, and then they could figure out what more to do.

As quietly as possible, she carried wood to the inner door and looked down the tunnel. It seemed so narrow and confining at only a meter wide and about three meters in height. The flames flickered as air currents s.h.i.+fted, but there was no other movement. Taking a deep breath, she walked down the tunnel.

She sat facing the opening, no larger than a regular doorway, although she was sure J'Qhir had to bend slightly to enter. She fed the fire until it blazed bright and hot enough to keep her warm even though she wore only the thin cotton s.h.i.+rt. She trembled, but not from the cold and not really from fright. Nocturnal animals feared bright lights and fire. Those on Earth did anyway. She had to a.s.sume animals reacted in the same way on Paradise. And she had the laserlight in her hand, set on high, just in case.

No, she still trembled from J'Qhir's touch. Wouldn't any male's touch have aroused her? Steve's hadn't. She had always been repulsed by his unwanted fondling and never could pinpoint why. He was handsome enough and, aside from his attempts at suggestive humor, he was pleasant enough. Her parents had trusted him implicitly with major responsibilities in the company. Leith knew now that her instincts toward him had been correct, but she didn't know how she had known.

Which brought her back to another problem... Every instinct told her that J'Qhir was as honorable and trustworthy as he appeared, but the facts told a different story. The facts were that he had somehow manipulated her parents into illegal trading and his warring people were bent on the devastation and destruction of their system's other world, Crux.

If her instincts had been at odds over the facts concerning Steve Hanc.o.c.k and were accurate, could the same be true of J'Qhir? Should she continue to believe in her feelings toward him until she could investigate further? Then Leith closed her eyes and laughed bitterly. How could she investigate anything? She was stuck here on Paradise for the rest of her life with no hope of rescue!

She didn't mean to go to sleep, but she kept her eyes closed as her thoughts tumbled and whirled. She tried to relax and clear her mind of everything, and she succeeded all too well. She had no idea how long she slept, but her neck was stiff when a noise awakened her. Her eyes flew open, and all she saw was a huge ursine form filling the doorway. Her mouth opened, but no sound could escape her tightening throat. She pushed back, trying to scramble away from the beast, but the solid rock wall behind her wouldn't give.

Bearlike, it reared on its hind legs and raised its forelegs over her, then its peculiar scream pierced her eardrums painfully. With one swipe of its powerful foreleg, it knocked the fire out through the doorway.

Light! She needed light or the beast would kill her here in the dark. She didn't want to die, not like this, and leave J'Qhir alone. The laserlight! Her hand still clutched the cylinder.

As blinded by the sudden darkness as she, the beast hadn't moved. She held her breath and tried to inch sideways down the tunnel. It heard her movements and grunted as it slashed a clawed paw toward her. She ducked to the side and felt the wind of the paw as it pa.s.sed within centimeters.

There was no point in stealth since the beast could hear her every movement. Its eyes would recover faster than hers and would find her any second. Before she could even think through what she needed to do, she plunged down the tunnel, scrabbling on her back. The beast took a few precious seconds to consider what she was doing, and she gained a meter or so away from it. She brought up the laserlight, hit the switch, and cut a swath where she thought the beast's chest might be just as it turned and rushed her.

She must have missed. She crawled backward as fast as she could and cried out as she lost her grip on the laserlight. The beast moved forward, more slowly now. Something b.u.mped the ground near her and rolled into the wall. The beast moved even closer, but much slower, and fell toward her.

With the last of her failing strength, she heaved herself backward one more time as the body of the beast crashed into the floor. Gritty dust filled her lungs as a thick spray of warm liquid covered her.

”Leith!” J'Qhir appeared in the inner door, using a burning piece of wood for a torch.

The light was enough for Leith to see the headless body of the beast at her feet. A few centimeters closer and it might have landed on her feet and broken her ankles. Then J'Qhir was by her side, staring in wonder at the carca.s.s.

”Leith, are you all right?”

She couldn't speak, only nod. She swallowed, but her mouth was filled with grit and a sickening metallic taste. She worked up the saliva in her mouth and spat several times, getting rid of as much as she could.

J'Qhir helped her to her feet, but she was shaking so hard she couldn't stand on her own.

”I-I ki-killed it,” she finally stammered. Bending over J'Qhir's arm, she vomited up every swallow of soup she'd had for supper.

Leith sat in the tunnel with the lifeless remains of the beast until she no longer trembled in shock. J' Qhir sat with her and listened as she related what happened.

”You dealt with the sssituation in a courageousss manner, Leith.”

”Courageous?” J'Qhir had brought her the canteen. She used all the water to rinse out most of the grit and blood and half-digested soup, but her mouth still felt dry and tasted metallic. ”I was scared stiff. I 'm surprised I reacted at all. I just knew I couldn't die and leave you here all alone.”

”Courage,” J'Qhir explained patiently, ”ha.s.ss nothing to do with lack of fear. Only one who isss unwissse would not feel fear. Courage isss doing what we mussst even when every inssstinct tellsss usss we have no hope of sssuccesss.”

”Instinct...” Leith repeated.

”You reacted inssstinctively. You have good inssstinctsss, Leith. On Zi, you would be consssidered a great sssoldier...if you were male.”

Leith ignored the insult. The Zi culture was different, and J'Qhir looked at things in a different way. She would just have to accept him the way he was.

Twice now, her instincts had been proven correct. She looked at J'Qhir as he stared at the head of the beast. Later, she would talk to him about her parents, about Crux. She would find the truth in him because here, as he had said a few days ago, he had no reason to ever speak falsely to her. She had a feeling she was going to hear a very different version of the reason for the Zi-Crux wars. And she hoped she would hear a reasonable explanation for the actions of her parents. Until then, she would go with her instincts and trust in J'Qhir.

After the shaking stopped, Leith asked J'Qhir to bring her jacket to her. She carried it out with her to the stream. She became chilled again instantly, and the water was icy cold, but there was no way she was going to let the splattered blood of the beast remain on her. She held her breath, dunked her head in the water, and nearly screamed from the cold. She scrubbed hair, face, neck and arms as quickly as she could, then squeezed out water from her hair. At this moment, not having hair like J'Qhir would have been preferable.

She removed her s.h.i.+rt and bra, donned her jacket, and rinsed her underclothing with numb fingers. She noticed that the fabric, treated with a stain-resistant compound, really did resist stains, even blood, as advertised.

Leith refused to remove her trousers. They too were stain-resistant and she grabbed up handfuls of gra.s.s, dipped them in the water, and washed down her trousers and boots. Clean enough for now.

When she turned back toward the cave, she saw movement. For a moment, her heart raced. What if the beast had a mate who had come searching for it? Then she flashed the laserlight. It was J'Qhir dragging the carca.s.s closer to the cave entrance. He motioned for her to come to him.

”We have food and another blanket,” he announced as he released the body and tossed the head to the side. ”I usssed your a.n.a.lyzing device. The meat isss good.”

”Can't this wait until morning,” Leith protested. ”You have to rest.”

J'Qhir shook his head. ”Leith, the sssmell of blood will draw other animalsss and the meat might go bad if we wait. I ssslept a while and feel much better. Build the fire again ssso that I can sssee and have warmth.”

”But-”

”Do you know how to ssskin an animal? Do you know how to carve the meat?”

”Well, no, but-”

”Then do a.s.ss I sssay.”

Leith did as he said. By the time her hair and clothing dried and, through trial and error, she erected a spit over the fire in their living quarters, J'Qhir had skinned the beast and cut the first slab of meat. She put the roast on, and soon the delicious aroma of cooking meat filled the cave.

Using deft, quick strokes, J'Qhir sliced the rest of it thin, and Leith used the laserlight to quick-jerk the meat. Soon a pile of jerky nearly covered the flat stone Leith had dragged from outside to work on.

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