Chapter 7

Drovo

The cool breeze of the dark morning greeted me the moment I stepped outside. I fed and watered Jelly in the dark and sat with him outside his enclosure and drank in the morning light as the sun began to shine through the trees.

Kayla”s chariot was packed and ready, all that was left to do was hook Jelly up to it. So I sat and waited for the rest of our group to emerge from the mountain.

Brexl was the first to join me in the clearing. He stretched and yawned before he caught sight of me sitting with the bafilo.

“Morning,” he gave me a curt nod, which I returned with one of my own.

I was both excited and nervous about this trip. I was eager to spend more time with Kayla, and I had been curious about the spaceship. It was hard to imagine a craft that could hold the weight of so many people and fly through the sky.

I was nervous because the responsibility of keeping the females safe in the forest weighed heavy on me. I’m sure it weighed on Brexl too. This was a necessary trip, I reminded myself. If we could find enough food rations, we’d be good for the winter.

The chill in the wind was a stark reminder that with each day that passed, we grew closer to the winter. I could already feel some of the whispering leaves change their tune as their color turned from teal to purple. Their voices grew deeper as the cold season approached and their whispers took on a morose tone. It wouldn’t be long before they would spoke their last words and fell to the ground to start the cycle again.

“Brrr, it’s chilly out here,” Kayla commented as she stepped outside. My heart skipped a beat as soon as I heard her voice, the same way it always did. She looked beautiful in the morning sun. Its rays cast a golden glow on her skin that only served to add to her beauty.

“I can’t have my luna moth being cold,” I teased. “Here, take my fur.” I pulled the shawl from my shoulders and placed it on hers.

“Don’t call me that,” Kayla remarked in a flat tone, but then added. “Thank you.”

“Any time,” I winked and she rolled her eyes at me.

Our journey was thankfully uneventful as we made our way down the well-worn hunting trail that led to Orsu’s den. The plan was to head in that direction until we caught the scent of the ship at which time we’d change course.

Again I walked ahead of Kayla and Taylor who both fit comfortably on the bench I’d replaced the chair with for this trip. I held Jelly’s leash as I concentrated on every tree root along the path, smoothing them out so there would be no bumps along the way.

The sun was high up in the sky now, and the morning chill was gone. I listened for any songs of warning from the trees, but thankfully there were none. We were safe for now.

“I think now would be a good time to take a break to eat,” I informed Brexl and he nodded in understanding.

We have learned to trust each other’s abilities. If I say there are no predators nearby, Brexl believes me. If Axon says he senses danger we heed his advice. If Brexl tells us to run instead of fight, we run even if it means leaving Brexl to fight a pack of beasts on his own. He knows what he can and can’t handle and he fights best alone.

“This looks like a nice spot,” Taylor commented as she sat down at the top of the hill.

“It’s a marvelous view,” she added.

“Is that the real estate agent in you talking?” Kayla teased.

“No!” Taylor pretended to be offended before she let out a laugh. “Look at it. There are teal and purple leaves, a purple river, mountains, rolling hills, sprawling grasslands. Valo Prime has it all.”

Kayla looked out over the horizon and drank in the view with a smile. “Yeah,” she agreed. “It is nice here.”

“What was Earth like?” I asked as I sat down next to Kayla and Brexl sat on the other side of me.

“Earth has green grass and green leaves with mostly dark rivers and lakes, but a blue ocean. I lived in the city. How would you describe a city?” Kayla turned to Taylor to help her describe their planet.

“Hmm, a city has shelters that are as tall as a mountain, but we use materials like metal and glass. Only smaller buildings like houses use wood.”

“Shelters as tall as a mountain?” Brexl could hardly believe it, and neither could I.

“Why so big?” I asked.

“Ego mostly. Males with too much money and time build massive structures in tribute to their manhood. It’s good for marketing too. If you’re the company with the biggest building, then everyone has the impression that you”re doing well even if you aren’t.”

Brexl and I nodded our heads, but most of Taylor’s words were beyond my limited understanding of her world.

We ate our lunch and enjoyed the view until Brexl encouraged us to continue on our journey.

“We’ll make camp soon,” I assured Kayla and Taylor as the sun set in the sky. I had no desire to be out here without shelter when the darkness of night consumed the forest.

Kayla

“This is where we’ll stop for the night,” Drovo announced as he looked up at the circle of trees that surrounded a small area. He quickly got to work weaving vines between each tree like a leafy border.

I tied Jelly to a tree and fed him some food and water.

“Good boy,” I cooed as I patted Jelly’s soft dark purple fur.

“Keep this section open until I get back. I’m going to gather some firewood and do a quick patrol of the area.” Brexl informed us with his usual grim expression. I wondered if his jaw ever hurt from how tightly he clenched it every day. He held himself with such rigidity that he moved like an animated corpse, which didn’t help with his appeal any being that in his shifted form he resembled a bony grim reaper.

“Will do,” Drovo agreed.

After finishing the vine border, minus the one section Brexl had requested be unfilled, Drovo started working on our shelters. I watched with utter fascination as he called forth small spindly saplings from the ground. They rose up like the obedient foliage they were and wove together at the top, forming a dome large enough for two people to lie down in.

As Drovo continued to concentrate on his task, I couldn’t help but notice the nearly serene expression on his face. He was willing plants to grow at ten times their normal rate, and yet he didn’t look bothered at all by the effort.

I had to admit his skill at moving the forest at will was sexy. Drovo might annoy me at times, but no other man has forced a tree to bend simply to block the sun from hitting my face. My urge to argue with the dryad shifter was still ever present, but he was growing on me nearly as quickly as the trees he was growing from the ground now.

All I had ever wanted was for him to keep his word and now that he has, I could feel my annoyance with him diminishing. However, despite his flirtations, I sincerely didn’t think he liked me beyond friendship, which was a shame. I would have loved to discover what tricks he could do with those vines in the bedroom.

I pushed those thoughts aside and watched as the spindly branches continued to weave tightly together and sprout small teal buds that turned into a thick coat of leaves.

He quickly created a second shelter, the same way he had done the first. Spindly branches, woven together to make a dome and then filled in with leaves. Once he finished, he inspected his work and whispered words of approval, as if he were praising the trees themselves for their craftsmanship.

“All set,” he announced with a confident smirk, removing all doubt that he knew exactly how talented he was.

I suppressed a grin and quickly looked away. Was there anything sexier than a confident smirk on a man who was truly talented? I had seen the same smirk on lesser men who bragged out of a need for clout and yet they didn’t have an ounce of actual talent to their name. All talk and no game.

“Great. Thanks.” I kept my tone flat out of a need to protect my own heart. Even if there came a day when I was no longer annoyed with Drovo, I would still pretend to be. He didn’t like me and being annoyed with him reminded me of that fact.

“The perimeter is clear.” Brexl came back with a smear of blood on his chest and a dead jagwa on his shoulder.

“Was it clear before or after you killed the jagwa?” Taylor asked, looking intrigued.

“After,” Brexl’s answer was short and to the point. He was the least talkative of all the shifters and I had long since given up hope on hearing him speak more than five words at a time. Even Jax in his muteness had such an expressive face, I could tell what that boy was thinking from a mile away.

“I’ll prepare your kill for dinner if you want to get the fire started?” Drovo offered, and I wondered if he had an aversion to lighting wood on fire. I’d never seen him tend the cookfire or a bonfire.

I watched as Brexl dug what looked like two separate holes in the ground that I later realized were not separate but were connected under the dirt.

He put small logs and tinder inside the hole and used two pieces of flit to start a small flame.

“I’ve never seen a fire like that,” Taylor commented as she peered over to look at the fire below the ground.

“It produces very little light and almost no smoke.” He said no more, leaving us to infer the reasons for ourselves. I didn’t need anyone to explain the importance of not being seen or scented in a dangerous forest such as this one.

“Smart.” Taylor offered him a grin. Brexl attempted to turn up the corners of his mouth to return the gesture, but his smile was stiff at best, as if those muscles hadn’t been used for quite some time. A scar at the side of his mouth seemed to pull at his skin uncomfortably, but he fought through it for Taylor.

To her credit, she didn’t flinch or shy away. His broken smile seemed to light something in her eyes. But that light quickly faded, and she turned away.

Brexl”s face returned to its normal neutral expression and continued to tend the fire. Soon Drovo was adding chunks of meat to a pot of stew he had placed over the fire.

“I’ll be right back,” Drovo announced after all the meat had been added.

He walked out of sight behind a cluster of trees he’d kept inside the wall of vines. I stood up to stretch my legs and thought about checking out the shelter Drovo had made, but as I drew closer, I could hear the dryad shifter talking.

“Hey little fella. Don’t worry, I’ll fix it.”

I walked past the cluster of trees to find Drovo in his shifted form, looking like a sexy ent from Lord of the Rings, and he was absolutely covered in what looked like sparkly purple moths.

God dammit, how was I supposed to be annoyed at a male who was essentially a Disney Princess?

I watched as Drovo picked up a piece of bark off the ground and placed it back on the tree. If he’d been any other person, that piece of bark would have simply fallen back down again as soon as he removed his hand, but this was Drovo. With the use of his woodland abilities, he was able to reattach the bark. Then he placed the moth back on the tree.

“Is that his home?” I couldn’t help but ask.

“It is. He was feeling lost, and the tree was feeling naked, so now they’re both happy.” A warm smile spread across his face. He genuinely liked taking care of the forest.

“You want to hold one? They’re luna moths, just like you.”

I rolled my eyes but drew closer despite my irritation.

“Do they bite?”

“Do you think I’d hand you one if they did?” Drovo purred, taunting me.

“I don’t know, would you?” I quipped.

“Never.” He wore an overly dramatic, appalled look on his face that made me laugh.

“Here, put your hand in mine.”

I did so and loved the warmth that emanated from Drovo’s blue skin.

He lowered his other hand to my palm and one of the tree moths that had been resting on his bark covered arm walked its fuzzy little body onto my hand.

“They’re so cute,” I whispered, afraid to scare it off.

“Not as cute as you,” he smiled and for a moment he looked sincere, but that couldn’t be right. Drovo didn’t like me like that.

“Right.” I rolled my eyes and refocused my gaze on the moth with the fuzzy body and fluffy looking wings.

The little bug walked up my thumb and flew away.

“Thank you. That was nice,” I conceded.

“You’re welcome. Shall we return to eat some dinner?”

Drovo shifted back to his Sirret form and led the way back to the fire.

When we returned, the stew was cooked, we ate, chatted, and made plans for the next day’s travel.

“Did you ever go camping back on earth?” I asked Taylor, as she irritably swatted away another bug.

“No, I was more of the indoors type back at home. I went hiking a time or two, but only if there was an air-conditioned restaurant at the end of the trail.”

I let out a hushed laugh. We’d been keeping our voices down ever since the sun went down.

“What about you?” Taylor inquired.

“Me? No. I like the outdoors, but not that much.”

“What’s camping?” Drovo asked.

“This,” I gestured at the fire and the shelters Drovo had made. “Camping is choosing to sleep outside when you have a perfectly good house or mountain to sleep in.”

Taylor laughed at my joke, while Drovo and Brexl just looked thoughtful.

“It would not have been safe to make the trip all in one day,” Brexl offered as an apology.

“Oh, no. I wasn’t implying that camping is bad.” Taylor tried to ease his worries. “It’s just not something I would have done on earth.”

“This is nice, though.” I added. “The shelters we use for camping on earth aren’t nearly as good as these.” As soon as the words left my mouth, I regretted it. I knew better than to compliment Drovo.

“I’m glad you like them,” he smiled smugly, as if he’d won some on-going fight. “You know,” he continued with his grin growing ever wider. “It might get cold tonight. You and I can share a shelter and I can keep you warm.”

There it was. Give him an inch and he’ll take a mile. I was growing irritated by his empty flirtations. Why did he insist on flirting with me when he didn’t like me?

“No thanks,” I replied in a flat tone as I got up and dusted off my pants. “I’d prefer Taylor’s company if that’s alright with you.”

“Sure, sure, but I don’t think she’s as warm as me,” he grinned again and I rolled my eyes.

I spared a glance at Brexl, who looked horrified. I couldn’t imagine him sharing a shelter with Taylor. He looked at her like a spiked gift, something he wanted but couldn’t touch.

“I’m ready for bed if you are.” Taylor yawned, and we both ducked into the domed tree structure and laid out our furs.