Chapter 10

Kayla

I woke up the next day feeling sore and not at all well-rested. It had been hard to fall asleep after Drovo’s confession. He did like me. His flirtations weren’t empty words after all. Hai was right, boys are stupid, even big blue ones on Valo Prime. Drovo’s intentions may have been good, but his actions had still hurt.

I reminisced over the past month with fresh eyes. I mulled over our every interaction. All the kind things he’d said, all the compliments, all the heated looks, and I tried to will myself to feel flattered by it all, but instead the feeling of disappointment rose up to the surface.

I was disappointed that I hadn’t known his words were true and not just empty flirting. It felt like he had been planning a party in my honor, but somehow I’d never been invited.

All those missed opportunities to flirt back or give him heated looks of my own instead of rolling my eyes were gone and I couldn’t claw them back even if I tried.

I was mad, and flattered, and confused, and happy, and disappointed all at once. Friends. We were friends now. I was relieved about that. If he had confessed he loved me and expected me to return his feelings, I didn’t think I could. After a month of mixed signals, I felt way too many conflicting emotions about the sexy dryad shifter. Maybe after some time as just friends, one or two emotions will rise to the top, helping me clear this tangled web of feelings.

“You ready to find Jelly?” Drovo asked with an easy smile.

He moved the boulder away from the entrance, letting the morning light bath us in the dawn of a new day.

“Yep,” I lied. I was tired. So tired.

Drovo tilted his head to the side as he looked me over in the daylight.

“It might be a while before we find our furry friend. Why don’t you stay here while I retrieve the chariot? That way, you won’t have to walk as we look for him.”

“I can walk. I’ll be alright.” Why am I like this? I am not alright. There was no way I could walk that distance feeling the way that I did.

Drovo stared at me for a moment as if he were assessing what the right thing to say might be. We were friends now. He couldn’t just flirt his way through conversations like he’d attempted to do in the past.

“I’m going to need you to be alert when looking for Jelly. It’ll go much faster if I can scan one side of the forest while you look at the other.”

Drovo looked down at the ground, avoiding my gaze. He was lying, and he was bad at it. He didn’t need me to find Jelly, but it did show that he knew me well enough that I was too stubborn to admit when I’m tired. I would typically make up some vague reason to excuse myself when I was tired and go lay back down in my cave.

Maybe Drovo had been doing more than flirting with me this past month. Had he been observing me?

“Fine, I’ll stay.” I relented, and Drovo nodded in approval.

“Here, you hold on to the extra travel rations and water, and I’ll be right back.”

He handed me a bag of nuts and fruit bars along with a skin of water.

“How long do you think it’ll be before you come back?” I’d be more at ease knowing how long I was supposed to wait for Drovo before I should start worrying if he got hurt or not.

“Oh, it won’t be long. The sun won’t even be high in the sky before I return. Why? Are you worried about me?” His normal sly grin faded as he realized he’d flirted with me and how that might have not been the right thing to do now that we’d established our new friendship.

“Of course not. I just wanted to know how long I should wait before I need to go searching for you in the forest.” Not that I could move the boulder, but I wouldn”t mention that. “You may be lord of the trees, but I’m sure even you could get lost or wounded.”

I softened my words with a smile and he smiled back, letting me know he’d gotten the message. I wasn’t mad at him for flirting. It had been an accident, a mere slip up, and I couldn’t be mad at him for that.

“Oh I see,” he grinned. “Well, this lord of the trees is going to get your chariot, and be right back.”

With that, Drovo left the cave, and rolled a boulder over the entrance, leaving me to sit in the dark that was only broken by small cracks at the top of the rock ceiling. I didn’t mind the dark, I was happy for it actually. It was perfect for falling back asleep.

I woke up to the sound of stone scraping against stone and was blessed with the sight of a sexy dryad shifter looking down at me, holding the empty reins to my beloved chariot.

“Rise and shine, my little lu-” he cut himself off before he could finish the pet name he’d given me.

“I, uh, we’re all set. You can hop in and we can find Jelly.” He rushed on.

“Sounds good.” I yawned and stretched, feeling much better after getting some more sleep.

I sat down on the bench seat of the chariot as Drovo suggested, but then belatedly remembered that without Jelly, my fancy ride had no way to move forward.

I swallowed hard as I drank in the sight of Drovo tightening Jelly’s harness over his own bare chest. It took my brain a minute to catch up to my eyes and realize that Drovo was taking the buffalo’s place.

“Ready?” the blue alien asked over his shoulder, clearly having no idea how much the sight of him in leather straps had on me.

“Ye-yes,” I squeaked out. “I’m ready.”

“I scented Jelly a little downwind from where I found the chariot. I don’t think he wandered far.” He informed me as he began to walk forward with his blue tail swishing behind him.

Drovo normally had a tall, lean muscle look to him, but with the brown straps cutting across his shoulders, he suddenly looked more broad.

Was it hot today? I fanned myself as I nearly drooled over the sight of Drovo’s black glistening in the sun as his legs worked to pull me forward one step at a time.

A cool breeze blew across my face, confirming that it was indeed not hot today. It was just me. Gabby and Julie told the rest of us that the guys could scent arousal. God, I hoped Drovo couldn’t scent mine. I would die of embarrassment if he knew how attractive I found him. Our newly established friendship would immediately be put into jeopardy. Would that be such a bad thing? Ugh, stop it Kayla. Friendship is good. Friendship will give you time to sort out how you really feel about him.

Drovo

Kayla has been giving me peculiar looks and I don’t know why. Every time I turned around, her eyes would dart away as if she’d been staring at me the moment before. It was strange. I’d never caught Kayla looking at me before.

I was happy to find the chariot untouched and in the same spot we’d left it the night before.

We found Jelly grazing in a clearing near where we’d slept last night.

“There,” I pointed to a spot next to a tree where I’d scented Kayla’s pet.

“There?” Kayla looked confused. It was impossible to see the bafilo with one’s eyes when he was camouflaged as he was.

“Call for him, you’ll see.” I assured her.

“Jellllleeeee!” Kayla called out, and the bafilo shifted his fur to its natural purple color and wandered in our direction with his small tail wagging behind him.

“Jelly!” A bright smile spread across Kayla’s face and she ran to the beast.

She gave him a big hug, and Jelly nuzzled against her.

I gave Jelly some food and water and looked him over for any wounds. When I found none, and when he’d finished eating and drinking, I hooked his harness around him and signaled that it was time to go. A flash of disappointment shone on Kayla’s face. Her gaze shifted from the harness to me, then back to the harness again. She caught me looking at her and hid her disappointment behind a bright smile. Was she weary of traveling? I’d have to remember to suggest more breaks on our journey.

“The ship isn’t far from here, maybe just a quarter of a day’s walk. With any luck, Taylor and Brexl will beat us there.” I had no desire to spend the rest of the day wondering if my dekes brother had made it through the night or not. He was strong and capable, sure, but he was still just a male. It would be hard for a predator to kill him, but not impossible, and I had no doubt he’d give his all to protect Taylor from harm.

“Ready when you are,” Kayla called out from her bench seat.

We traveled until the sun was high in the sky and I suggested a break to stop and eat. Once Kayla was settled on a fallen log, eating some dried meat, I settled down beside her with some meat of my own.

“Is your seat still comfortable?” I attempted to start a friendly conversation. “I can make adjustments if you want.”

“It’s very comfortable, thank you.” Kayla grinned and took another bite.

I spied a dying plant next to the log. It wasn’t getting the amount of sun it needed to thrive. I pulled some energy from the surrounding plants and willed its stem to grow taller and its leaves to grow wider. As a result, the tight bud on the top blossomed into a bright purple flower with petals the size of my hands.

“You have a strong connection to the plants.” She said it as a statement, not a question. It was probably obvious to everyone that I had some kind of connection to the planet life of Valo Prime.

“Yes, they’ve always been with me, but even more so after I shifted.” I agreed.

“What’s it like? How exactly are you connected to them?”

Kayla picked up a dead leaf and examined it as if it held the answers to her question.

“It’s the singing, mostly.”

“The singing?” She looked surprised by my answer.

“Yeah, the trees sing, the flowers laugh, the leaves whisper, and I listen. I’m not sure how it works,” I admitted. “I just know that I can hear them when others cannot.”

“Singing,” Kayla said, more to herself than to me. “What do they sing about?”

“Everything.” I laughed. “They like to tell me the gossip of the forest along with which predators are nearby.”

“Gossip? What kind of gossip do trees have to share?” Kayla’s eyes were wide with delighted curiosity and I couldn’t hold back the smile that crossed my face.

When the six of us were first exiled, I felt shame like the rest of them did. Well, everyone but Axon, I’m not sure he ever felt ashamed. But then again, neither of his parents died, and they both assured him over and over that his shifting didn’t cause the stiffness. The rest of us didn’t have parents around to give us such assurances. We were left in the bleak darkness of sorrow with no one to blame but ourselves, and we did so because the Savrix had told us the deaths of our mothers and sisters were our fault.

I would have never believed that one day I’d be sitting next to the most beautiful female on Valo Prime, telling her how my shifting worked.

“Well just this morning I was told that a certain male tree had tried to connect his roots to a female tree for the third time this week and she denied him. Their guardian tree told him if he tries to lock roots with her one more time, she’d block the sun from his leaves.”

“Oh, that is good gossip.” Kayla’s eyes twinkled with delight. “What’s a guardian tree?”

“Guardian trees are the oldest and tallest trees of the forest. They watch over the younger trees that surround them, giving them advice and encouragement on how to weather life’s storms and how to grow tall and strong like them.”

“Interesting. What are the trees singing about right now?”

“This one is singing a song about an annoying bird that keeps pecking her bark for bugs.” I pointed to the tree closest to us, and Kayla chuckled.

“This one is singing about a rodent that’s made a den in the hollow at the base of his trunk. There are three baby rodents that live there now and he says they never stop talking.”

Kayla laughed out loud this time, not holding back her joy of my little stories.

“And this one is singing about a beautiful female with warm brown skin. They keep asking me to make the female laugh again because her laugh is unlike any song they’ve heard before.”

Kayla gave me a doubtful look and asked, “Did they really say that, or did you make that up?”

“Maybe, maybe not.” I grinned at her as I got up from the log and held out my hand to help her up. I was rewarded with another laugh as she placed her soft hand in mine. Brown against blue, it just looked so right, and it felt right too having her smaller hand in my larger one.

I reminded myself that we were just friends, and I loosened my grip on her hand, giving her the opportunity to let go, but to my surprise, she didn’t. We walked hand-in-hand to the chariot, and I felt like I was living in a dream.

“Thanks,” Kayla gave me a shy smile as she let go of my hand and sat down in her seat.

“You’re welcome,” my voice croaked. I cleared my throat and tried again. “You’re welcome.”

I untied Jelly and led him toward the ship. As we walked, I replayed the moment in my mind over and over again. I wanted to memorize everything about it. I would cherish it forever.