Chapter 183: Chapter 183
Dron woke up the next morning in a pile of arms and legs.
The soldiers had all fallen asleep together; all of them had been drinking the night before. Once they saw that Dron wasn’t going to fuss about the gambling, a bottle of drink was brought out. Dron didn’t even ask where they had gotten it from or where they were hiding it. He simply took a swig, and then another, and another.
They all shared from the bottle. Not one of them complaining about having to drink behind Dron. It was as if they didn’t even think about it.
The burning liquid felt good as it went down Dron’s throat. Unfortunately, now that he was waking up, it felt less good.
His head was pounding, and his mouth felt as if a million pounds of sand had been sitting inside of it all night. He turned over and rushed to the small pond where he knew there would be fresh water. He drank freely.
"You all were having the times of your lives last night." Mikael said from where he was sitting. The kid woke up early all the time.
Dron turned his head, "Did I do something that I’m going to regret?"
"No, last I checked you were up at least four hundred credits. I think that’s why they got you inebriated, so you wouldn’t remember."
"Who owes?" Dron narrowed his eyes.
"Krex. He’s not as good at the game as he thinks he is." Mikael made a sound that was something like a chuckle. He was trying to laugh.
Dron stood up. "Don’t mask it. If you’re happy, just let the sound come out of your mouth.
Mikael’s eyes widened a little.
"It sounds funny." Mikael spoke softly.
"According to my mate, everyone’s laugh is different, but if it’s genuine, it’s perfect." Dron nodded and waited for the kid to try again.
Mikael chuckled, and it still sounded forced, then he looked over to the group of soldiers who were still fast asleep. His laugh was a little more free as he shook his head. "Do you remember what Verux did after you’d won your tenth hand in a row?"
Dron tried to think back, but it was still a little fuzzy, "No, what?"
"He was so sure that it wasn’t possible; he swore to the moon goddess that he would run outside naked and offer himself to her if you rolled a perfect eleventh hand."
Dron’s eyes widened. He turned to look at Verux. He was completely clothed now, but there was quite a bit of sand on his person and hair. In a flash the memory of Verux exclaiming it was a miracle and stripping off all his clothes to run out like a wild animal appeared in Dron’s mind. He cringed before he started laughing himself.
Mikael laughed along with him, the sound was higher pitched than the young man’s normal speaking voice. He sounded like exactly what he was. A child.
"What in the great escape is with all the noise?" Kraznek groaned and rolled over.
Dron put a finger up to his mouth to gesture to Mikael that they should be quiet.
Dron felt light. This was the first time in a long while he was really starting to feel at ease.
They’d made great progress the day before in their journey. What he thought would add another two days to their journey only turned out to be one; he should only be a day and a half at most away from Tempest.
Dron stretched, trying to get the remaining aches and pains from his body out before he pulled his hand down and flipped on his wrist device.
He was anxious to see how close the two dots, his location and Tempest’s location, actually were. He was flying on a huge high.
He swiped over to the screen and waited for Tempest’s dot to pop up.
The one that had stayed put the day before.
Nothing appeared. He zoomed out and then zoomed back in. He searched the map trying to locate her indicator.
His finger started to shake when he realized the dot was no longer in the spot he’d last seen it. Maybe she was already on her way back to the stronghold. That was the plan after all. She was supposed to meet him back there.
He focused in on where the stronghold was, but her dot wasn’t there either.
Dron started to breathe faster, his eyes burning from keeping them open so long.
He zoomed out of the map and zoomed back in again, searching everywhere he could for the indicator.
Nothing.
Dread curled around his spine and squeezed tight. What if something had happened while they slept? What if something were wrong?
He thought back on the assurances he had the night before. Someone would have notified him.
He flicked to another screen and tried to call Tempest. The device didn’t even buzz. It wasn’t that he couldn’t get a connection; according to his device, there was no other device for him to get a connection to.
That dread squeezed even tighter, and he found himself stumbling backward until his body collided with the wall.
"Mark Chief?" Mikael questioned, obviously seeing that the mood had changed.
He didn’t respond to the child. Instead, he continued to work with the device and navigated to Mexyn’s contact information. He pushed the call through. Dron half expected his device to tell him that he couldn’t get a connection. After all, they were in a cave. The signal in this part of the planet was spotty at best.
He was surprised when it started to buzz, letting him know that it was going through.
Instead of the voice call that Dron had put through, Mexyn transferred it to a visual call.
"Dron." She answered, and he could immediately tell that something was going on. There were people moving around in the background. From what it looked like, they were soldiers.
He didn’t have time to focus on that.
"Tempest." He said between gritted teeth.
"I’m sorry. I don’t know what has happened. I’m going to find out." Mexyn quickly answered.
Dron’s mouth dropped open slightly. "What are you talking about? What do you mean you don’t know what’s happened?" He shouted his question, no longer caring that the people around him were sleeping.
"She went to the human settlement. She was protected. I made sure that she was protected." Mexyn rambled.
"I know she went to the human settlement. I’d spoken to her, and she told me she was going. Gerax sent me a locator dot. It’s gone." Dron did his best to get his thoughts across coherently.
His mind was racing, and that sick feeling in his gut that urged him to get to Tempest flared to the point he thought he was about to vomit.
Not only thought but did, right there at the back of the hunter’s den. Dron leaned over, and all the alcohol he’d drunk the night before came spewing out. He didn’t waste time, simply wiped the back of his hand over his mouth, and focused back on Mexyn.
"I know, we noticed last night that it had disappeared. The last we saw her, she’d made it to the human settlement. We don’t have a location for Gerax, Rynax, or Aliq. They’re all gone." Mexyn sighed and squeezed her eyes shut. The guilt was clear on her face.
Dron didn’t care about her guilt. He didn’t care about anything besides finding Tempest.
Mexyn continued. "We’re going to find her, Dron. Believe me. Trust me."
"I did!" Dron shouted, his voice nearly shook the walls. "I trusted you to keep her safe. I trusted you to make sure she didn’t do anything stupid, and instead you let her walk off into a foreign territory!"
Mexyn pressed her lips together, if she wanted to argue that keeping Tempest safe was technically Dron’s job, she didn’t.
She didn’t have to. Dron knew it already.
If something happened to Tempest, it would be because of him. He wouldn’t be able to live with himself.
Suddenly, he felt as if he were running out of time. Running out of time to get to the human settlement. Running out of time to save Tempest.
Mexyn continued talking, "We’ve already started gathering the soldiers. No one knows for sure what the humans have in the form of defenses. We’re going to fight if we have to." Mexyn nodded once.
There was going to be a battle in order to save Tempest, and Dron was too far away to do anything about it.
He needed to shorten the distance, immediatly.
"I’ll be there." Dron promised before he hung up the call. He grabbed his bag. He stepped over the people who were still sleeping. They weren’t important.
"Everyone up!" Kraznek yelled and quickly started shaking people out of their slumber. Dron was already out the front of the cave before most of them could get to their feet.
With the group or not, Dron was going to get to his wife.
He didn’t know what he would find at the human settlement, but if the worst had happened, that settlement would be wiped off the map before the night was done.
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⏸ PAUSE■ STOP
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