Chapter 177: Chapter 177
Not much longer after Tempest and Gerax finished eating and she had a little privacy to take care of her morning needs, Aliq jumped down from the ledge with his bag packed and an extra pack attached to it.
"It’s all the verrok meat I can carry. We don’t need much more than that. It’ll go bad before we have a chance to consume it."
Gerax huffed and spoke under his breath, "Not the way Tempest eats."
Tempest narrowed her eyes at him but chose not to retort. He wasn’t lying. She ate those two pieces he brought down earlier quicker than what should’ve been possible.
She looked at Aliq. Waited for him to say something about what happened last night.
"We ready to get on the road? We’re further behind than I’d hoped we’d be by this time." Aliq looked between Gerax and Tempest, waiting for one of them to give him the go ahead.
Tempest wouldn’t bring up what happened last night if he didn’t.
She was more than happy to ignore it. Unfortunately, she couldn’t ignore the fact that Rynax still hadn’t shown up.
She couldn’t blame him, she just hoped that one day she’d be able to apologize to him.
"Yeah, let’s get moving."
"Great, do we have more than enough water? If I’m not mistaken, I think from here on out there’s only one or two more dens. It might be a long while before we can stop and get more." Aliq focused his attention on Gerax this time.
"I grabbed four extra skins. I didn’t want to completely clear out the supplies."
"It’ll be fine. Come, stay against the walls just like yesterday."
With that, they were off.
It all felt wrong. Every step Tempest took without Rynax either right behind her or beside her felt like she had forgotten something important. She got the same feeling anytime she left the house and couldn’t remember if she’d locked the door.
Only Rynax wasn’t just a boiling kettle on the stove or a flat iron left on. He was a vital piece of the group. She wondered what Mexyn would have to say about the situation. Tempest wanted to call her friend but didn’t want to disturb her time with Crilium.
Instead, Tempest just walked alongside Gerax and Aliq. The nonstop talking had resumed, and they were now discussing various agricultural advancements in Skoq.
It was all incredibly boring to Tempest, but Gerax and Aliq talked excitedly like they were discussing going to the moon.
Tempest focused on taking one step after another that is until she heard Aliq abruptly stop talking.
She turned to look at him. He’d gone still. He sniffed at the air and then turned around.
Tempest gulped hard and waited for another monster to come bursting out of the sand or maybe even a wild boar to come charging at them.
Nothing happened. Aliq simply turned back around and continued walking.
Tempest was concerned, "What is it? What happened?"
"Nothing. We can keep going." Aliq brushed it off and went on with his conversation with Gerax.
Tempest tried to put the strange occurrence out of her mind but every so often Aliq would stop and do the same thing over and over. Tempest just couldn’t understand what he was looking at.
Aliq stopped again, but this time he leaned against the wall as if he were taking a break. Tempest couldn’t understand why he was acting so weird. She wasn’t tired so she knew for certain that he couldn’t be tired.
"Something is going on. What is it?"
"We just have to wait here for a second." Aliq said.
Tempest looked at Gerax. She wondered why Gerax wasn’t asking any questions but simply going along with it. Tempest felt like she was missing out on something. Completely out of the loop.
"I saw the den a little ways back, do we need to go there?" Tempest asked, raising her eyebrow.
"No!" Both Gerax and Aliq nearly shouted at the same time.
"Okay, that’s it. I’m not moving a muscle until one of you tells me what is going on. And don’t you think about saying it’s nothing." Tempest crossed her arms over her chest and cocked out her hip, tapping her foot in the dirt beneath them.
Gerax and Aliq looked at each other for a second before Gerax moved closer and whispered. "Trust me. Do not react. If you do, you’ll just make it that much harder."
Tempest steeled herself, doing everything she could to make sure her face stayed blank. She didn’t know what she was about to see but she was grateful for the heads up.
"Follow me with your eyes." Gerax said and he walked around behind her. She kept his gaze. "Now, look over my left shoulder."
Her eyes widened, and she had to bite her lips to stop the smile from breaking across her face.
Rynax.
He was there. Behind them.
She wanted to run to him.
"Don’t." Gerax snapped at her as if he could hear her unspoken thoughts. "Don’t even ask about it. It’s needed."
The distance.
Rynax was at least a hundred feet behind them and not getting any closer.
He needed the distance from her.
All at once, the puzzle pieces started to click together.
The stopping was for Rynax’s benefit so he could keep up with us. The deep growls and shoulder shrugs that Aliq had been doing during the walk were a way to communicate with Rynax from a distance.
Tempest chanced another glance in Rynax’s direction. There was something wrong. His clothes were tattered, and as she watched him take a step, she could see he was limping.
He was hurt. She gasped, unable to keep her emotions to herself anymore.
"Let’s go." Aliq said and started walking.
"Wait... " Tempest looked over to Gerax as they both ushered her forward to keep moving. She knew Gerax had just told her not to question it, but there was no way that she could go along with that.
Tempest also knew if Rynax was able to hear Aliq growl from that distance he would also be able to hear her. If part of his process was to be hidden from her she would allow him to do that. She just had to figure out a way to talk without actually talking.
Text.
She didn’t have to send the message to Gerax. He was standing right next to her. She could just lift her wrist up and let him read the message. Then he could type back on his own device with an answer.
Quickly, Tempest opened up a screen on her wrist device. It was a simple note screen.
She typed as fast as she could while walking.
She showed Gerax the message but he furrowed his brows and shook his head.
"Huh?" Tempest cocked her head to the side.
He pulled up his device and typed a message. He raised it and it was then that she realized she’d typed her message in English, while he typed his message in what she could only guess was a Ustean language. He couldn’t read what she’d written.
"Oh for the love of the moon goddess, give it here." Aliq grumbled before he held his hand out for Tempest’s wrist. He pressed a few things before releasing her wrist.
Tempest pulled up the note application again and this time when she typed the note, it instantly translated from English into whatever language Gerax could read.
"What happened to Rynax?"
Gerax took a brief moment to read, before he gave Aliq his wrist device so the same alterations could be made for him.
A moment later, Gerax was typing on his on device and he showed it to Tempest. This time the gibberish from before had been translated to English.
"It looks like he took his frustrations out on some unsuspecting beasts. By the looks of it, he’s been out hunting all night. I doubt he’s even been to sleep."
Tempest slowed; this was wrong, "We need to stop. He needs to rest."
Gerax sighed and typed on his device. "He doesn’t want to stop. He wants to get you to the human settlement. He’ll rest near there if he can."
"How badly is he hurt? He’s limping."
"When fighting in a rage, an alpha can sustain many more injuries before realizing. He must have gone through a lot of animals or really big ones. Only he knows. It does look to be severe, but he’ll heal before the night. He’s not going to die if that’s what you’re worried about."
"You sure?"
"Positive. He’s fine. Just needs some space."
There was nothing more for Tempest to do. She had to go along with this.
As they continued walking and Gerax and Aliq fell back into their utterly not so thrilling conversation, Tempest realized just how hard this was. Several times she wanted to turn around and talk to Rynax. Ask him a question. Complain about the two brainiacs. Anything.
She couldn’t.
She didn’t realize just how much she’d grown used to being with him.
Since she couldn’t go to Rynax. Didn’t want to bother Mexyn. And really didn’t want to rub her relationship with Dron in Rynax’s face by calling him, Tempest decided to spend her time daydreaming.
She was sure Aliq would alert her or any dangers before it could reach her if she wasn’t paying attention.
Fantasizing about what was to come. It was how she got through high school.
Tempest pulled the cloak down lower over her face. It didn’t take her very long to start to think about the human settlement. According to what Aliq had told them earlier there was only one more hunters den that they would pass. That meant they would get to the settlement soon. It’s been longer than a day and a half but she knew that was because of the detours and precautions that they had to take.
If they stayed the pace, Tempest had high hopes that they would get there by nightfall.
Gerax and Aliq might be hesitant because of the skepticism of the humans, but Tempest was getting more and more excited.
She wondered if they were able to replicate any Earth foods. Her mind had stayed on french fries for a long time after she explained them to Gerax.
Tempest wondered if they were all old by now. If Aliq said the woman was first seen seven years ago, would they be in their thirties? How old were they when they were brought here? Tempest assumed they could all be different ages since they would’ve all gotten there at different times.
She wondered what they did for medical care. Amusement.
She wondered if they went into heat too or if it was only her because of her proximity to Dron.
Tempest had so many questions, and as fatigued as she was due to all the walking, she knew the second she was with other people like herself, she would be full of energy.
Finally she wondered just how many there were. Some told her a few; others told her hundreds. She didn’t know what to believe, but then again, she would find out soon enough.
They continued walking and made it to a part of the valley that opened wide.
Tempest knew she shouldn’t, but she just had to check on Rynax.
"Wait, I have to fix my shoe." She said it loud enough that she knew he would hear. Both Aliq and Gerax looked down at her feet only to see that they were just fine.
She shrugged slightly before she turned to the side and kneeled in the dirt, making a show out of fixing a shoe that didn’t need to be fixed.
She took her time, doing her best to see Rynax out of the corner of her eye. With the space opening up, there weren’t really many rocks for him to hide behind, so he just stood there in the open. Clearly exhausted and leaning slightly to one side.
Tempest wished she could tell him to stop being an idiot and just let them take a break, but she couldn’t. She had to give him his space.
Had to stay away.
"Tempest, don’t." Gerax whispered.
She had been down there too long. It was obvious that she knew he was there. Even she couldn’t think that Rynax would believe she was that oblivious.
She turned her head a little more and unintentionally locked eyes with him.
The hurt was crushing.
She’d done this to him.
She’d done this, and now she’d have to live with it.
Tempest steadied herself, ready to stand back up. She kept her eyes on him a little longer, then her eyes flashed behind him.
No one was paying attention.
Rynax was hurt, not at his best. He didn’t realize what was going on. Tempest didn’t process it until it was too late.
Her heart screamed in her chest, and her eyes nearly popped out of the socket as she kept her eyes glued on the area behind Rynax.
It wasn’t a figment of her imagination. She wasn’t hallucinating.
"Rynax! Watch out!" Tempest shouted and took off in his direction before anyone else realized what was going on.
In that same moment, Tempest watched as several figures shot what looked like a net onto Rynax. He didn’t even have time to react. The moment the net collided with him, Tempest heard him bellow in pain.
She kept running in his direction. More people came from the sides, all around. All of them were fully covered from head to toe.
Aliq roared behind, and when Tempest twirled to see if he was in danger, she realized that both he and Gerax had been overcome and were both under nets of their own.
Tempest was once again in a situation where she didn’t know if she should go back or forward.
A sharp crack against the back of her skull took care of that decision for her.
Her world tilted, spun, and then she fell into one of her most frequented places. Unconsciousness.
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⏸ PAUSE■ STOP
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