43. Kira

43

Kira

I am struggling to stay afloat as the current rapidly sweeps me downstream. Drasuk is surprisingly not too far behind me, maybe twenty feet. He uses his powerful arms and legs to propel himself through the water, trying to get to me as quickly as possible.

I throw up my arms to make sure he can see me struggling to stay afloat.

"Kira! Hold on!" he shouts over the choppy water.

He keeps shouting my name as my body twists and turns in the turbulent water. I think I see a glimpse of him behind me, trying to swim over to me against the currents.

"Drasuk! " I yell, only to start coughing as water splashes into my mouth.

I am starting to tire and lose my breath as the current continues to pull me through the water. Every now and then, the choppy waves come crashing over my head, and I find myself completely submerged. The roaring water is loud beneath the surface as I continue to get pulled in every direction like a piece of flotsam.

I briefly see Drasuk again before the waves block my vision and another current pulls me under. This time, I am down longer.

I feel lightheaded from lack of oxygen, and my movements become sluggish as I try to claw my way to the surface. Just when darkness starts creeping in at the corners of my eyes, I feel a strong pair of arms wrap around my body.

My broken ribs scream out a protest as he kicks us hard against the current.

Once we break the surface, I greedily suck in air and start coughing my lungs up, each hacking cough a new agony.

I throw my arms around his thick neck, using his spines to help me keep my grip, and he continues to push his way through the current. Drakonids may be strong, but even he is getting thrown around by the current.

He shifts us around until he has me above the water, then curls up into an approximation of an upside-down armadillo. Just in time, too, because we enter a section of the river with giant boulders and his tough hide takes the blows instead of my skull.

He has more surface area than I do, and so the river pushes us at alarming speeds.

"Hang on tight," he tells me, while also keeping a protective arm tight around my waist.

I don't respond but tighten my grip as much as I can without passing out from the pain.

As we continue to rush downstream, I spot a downed tree up ahead off to our left.

"Do you see that tree?" I yell over the sound of the water.

He pushes us more toward the left side of the large, thundering river. I assume his tail must have something to do with it. Now we are on a direct path toward the tree trunk lying halfway in the water, its large branches jutting out in every direction.

After a few more minutes of being carried through the current, he latches onto one of the thick branches with his free arm, his chameleon-like hands digging his claws deep into the bark.

I grab onto one as well.

"Use the branches to start pulling yourself closer to the river's edge. I'll follow right behind you," Drasuk instructs.

"I don't think I can," I yell over the rushing water. "Broken ribs."

"This will hurt, then," he yells back, then I feel his tail go around my waist and tighten.

It does fucking hurt, but it also makes me a lot more confident.

I start the slow and challenging process of pulling myself to shore. It's hard because the strong current keeps knocking my body forward into the jagged branches and rough bark of the tree. I'm once again thankful for my new tougher hide, since only my chest, face, and palms take damage as I drag myself over.

Drasuk stays right next to me and makes sure my grip doesn't slip. I try not to think about just how easy it would be for the current to suck me beneath the surface and under the tree trunk. I'm not sure I would avoid drowning a second time.

It takes some time, but eventually my hands reach the pebbled ground right next to the water's edge. My feet can also touch the bottom here. I crawl out of the rough water and collapse onto my back, huffing out rapid, painful breaths.

A few moments later, Drasuk makes it out and sits beside me.

"How serious are those bleeding wounds?" he asks me.

"Nothing all that bad."

Mostly, I'm just exhausted and winded. I lay there for a couple of minutes, just inhaling and exhaling, trying to get more oxygen back into my body. My dazed eyes lazily move to the big blue lug.

He's breathing hard, too.

Once I feel some of my strength return, I push myself up into a sitting position next to him.

"Thank you, Drasuk. That would have killed me. Pretty sure you grabbed me right before I drowned."

Drasuk makes his pleased rock grinding sound. "I should start keeping a tally of how many times I need to save you because you aren't strong enough," he teases between breaths.

I weakly huff out a laugh. Even now, he's still making jokes at my expense.

The big jerk. I like his style.

Then I look around. We are still surrounded by dense foliage, but I also see what looks like a mountain range in the distance. "Excrement, how far downstream did we go?" I inquire.

Drasuk looks around. "The current took us far. We are quite a distance west of where we entered the water."

My head snaps in his direction. "How do you know that?" I ask.

"Wind," he replies simply.

I stare at him longer for clarification, yet the meaningful look goes over his head. Or he just ignores me.

Probably that.

"So, where do we go from here, then?" I ask.

"I'm not sure at the moment. Either way, we are definitely being hunted right now, and not just in the more general sense. Now that Xar'Ar'ax is aware of my presence here, he will continue to track us."

Too bad I lost both my daggers to that fucker with him. The first one when he grabbed me, and the second to get away from him. The gun is smashed against a tree somewhere, the imprint of my body probably in the bark like those Wile E. Coyote cartoons after getting tail-tossed into it.

A tail is a stupid advantage.

As a testament to their over-confidence, they didn't even bother to completely disarm me.

Still, we lost too much. The water tore the pack off me, though somehow the sword is still in its sheath, thanks to me having the foresight to add a loop to keep it in. I did it because I thought I would lose it while being tossed around. I hadn't imagined near drowning as part of that.

Redundancies are always part of the plan, though, which is why I can feel the pressure of a medkit, ammo, and rations against my body. Damn useful, this suit.

"What makes you so sure he will want to keep pursuing you, though?" I ask as I wring water out of my shoulder length hair.

Trying to cut it with a sword should be fun.

Drasuk snorts. "You don't know him as well as I do. Before he became a sullied traitor, we were bitter rivals. Always trying to best each other. Whether it be in a fight or who could obtain the most impressive accolades."

"Oh, look at you, an overachiever."

"I don't have the energy to figure out what you mean by that, Kira. As I was saying, no matter what the occasion was, we challenged each other. Whenever we fought and I won, he always took it personally, even if he won the fight before."

I let out a disgusted scoff. "I served with some of those. Everything they don't like about themselves is somehow your fault."

"Yes, exactly so. When I began rising swiftly in status, he became resentful. I believe he knew that the elders were planning to elevate my status to Elite. It's something he strived for but could never obtain because of his shaky morality and dirty fighting. It tipped him over some sort of edge and a lot of good draks died because of him."

I don't like how tired he sounds, or the haunted tone in his voice, so I try to lift his spirits by being mouthy. "Are you going to make me call you Elite Drasuk now? If so, you'll have to start calling me Corporal Kira."

He lets out a grunt. "I would, but I hadn't earned the title yet by the time I left. It takes many years."

I take a slow breath. "They'll just keep coming?"

"He'll not call off this hunt. Not only for the entertainment, but it's personal now. His main goal now will be to find me, engage me in combat, and kill me."

None of this information makes me feel better.

Not only is that giant red devil insane, but he has a personal grudge against Drasuk. And now it seems he will be relentlessly pursuing us until one or both of them are dead.

Great. As if the rest of this planet didn't already suck enough as it is.

I hate that I'm involved in this feud between them, but that's just my exhaustion speaking. That bastard had me involved from the moment he put his hands on me. Drasuk can have the red guy. I'm taking down his toady.

"Who was the one holding me?."

"That was his brother, Mar'cte."

"He's so dead when I see him next."

Drasuk lets out a subdued laugh but doesn't call me on my shit. Damn, he must be exhausted.

"How many did you smell?"

"They were covered in xyxis floxis blood to cover it, so I don't know."

"Are we talking hundreds here?"

"No, I doubt that. There are plenty of draks I wouldn't trust, but very few of them would fall this low. Xar'Ar'ax must provide enough financial incentive for the genali to outweigh the cost of his crew's body parts. If he had hundreds of draks he would be a target."

"Well, that is good news, at least. For all we know, they've been here a lot and know the terrain. Maybe even enough times to have found their own personal little caves or hideouts. But that can be to our advantage too. There are a lot of places for him to look, so we could keep moving and gather weapons again."

Drasuk lets out a grumble. "I don't plan on running or playing his games. While he's tracking us, I will track him in return. It's better this way and will keep us on high alert."

Why wouldn't we be on high alert, anyway? It's weak reasoning for someone who is usually so calculating.

There's history there, sure, but it doesn't his current state of uncharacteristic distraction. I'm still unsure because Drasuk refuses to tell me the reason why. A part of me believes it goes further than the two hunters being bitter rivals and Xar'Ar'ax turning to crime.

"Drasuk, I know you don't want to talk about it, but I need to know. What else happened between you and him? Because I can't help but feel this goes beyond what you've mentioned. Help me understand. If we are going to continue traveling together, I don't want there to be any secrets between us."

I pause for effect. "I need answers," I push.

He sighs and looks away from me. I hear a few clicks leave him before he slowly turns his gaze back to me. "Alright, I'll tell you. But not here. We're out in the open. You may not have noticed, but I have. There is a severe storm coming. And judging by how fast it's moving, it will be over us very soon."

He stands up and reaches down with an offered hand. I grab it, and he helps me off the wet, gravelly ground as I brace myself for a lot of pain. Instead, there is just a dull ache. Odd, but I'll take it.

I guess when I think about it, there's been a repeated pattern of my pain levels diminishing when I calm down.

Should have learned more yoga, I guess.

I look up and around and notice dark clouds upriver. We leave the banks, picking our way through the boulders and slippery rocks, and back into the foliage.

A gust of wind blows, making me shiver and I ponder the possibility of snuggling up for warmth to stave off the cold.

Best not to ask until he offers, I guess, but I admit that the thought of his hands on me is not the least bit repellant.

In fact, there's a pain in my chest that lets me know I don't just want it, but I need it. Fuck.

Whatever.

I suppose I should be irritated that I want to ask for reassurance at all, let alone anything more, but I'm over all the angst.

Everyone needs comfort sometimes and now I know laying against him is surprisingly pleasant.