22. Chapter 22

Lexi checked on Amber's wound, indicating how the black lines were slowly retreating, and I took a mental note of her ingenious idea. I thanked the gods for Amber's recovery. Not many people survived a rotburn bite, particularly if the bite hadn't been treated right away. I wasn't sure if humans might be more immune to the poison or if it was just Amber's stubborn nature that helped convalescence. It could have been Dhor-Van's skoff too. Either way, I was grateful.

The last two days had been torture while she lay unconscious on the furs. Every so often, I took her down to the creek to cool her burning body down, feeding her when she showed any signs of life and pouring water down her throat every opportunity I got. I was sure the pills Lexi had provided must have added to her recovery .

To distract myself from worrying about Amber, I took a closer look at the humans' weapons. Interestingly, it was Lexi again who helped me figure out how they worked.

The guns, as she called them, were ingenious and deadly. There wasn't much honor in how they killed, but I admired their stealth and superiority. If this was how the humans were going to fight us, we would need to adapt. Hopefully, it wouldn't come to that, though. Tzar-Than had foreseen our need to adapt and deserved more credit than he had received so far. He was right; the humans had come, and there was no way to stop it now. We could only hope to come to some mutually beneficial agreements. We only needed to find out what the humans wanted.

Pondering this kept me occupied during Amber's unconsciousness, at least some of the time; most of the time, I was worried sick about her. I didn't know how she had become so important to me in the very short time we had spent together, but she was the most impressive gallis I had ever met. My desire to spend more time with her was only matched by my physical attraction to her.

After Lexi left, I picked Amber carefully up and carried her back to the creek, tightly wrapped in a blanket of furs. The path was now so familiar to me that I could have navigated it with my eyes closed. Stepping over the boulder I had tripped on once; I unwrapped my precious bundle.

"Are you ready? It's cold," I warned, unsure which words she understood.

She nodded against my chest, and I laid her, naked, into the flow. She let out a gasp, followed by a sigh of contentment as the current cooled and washed her body down. I pulled out a piece of cloth and soap to wash off the sweat as I had before, but with an impatient hiss, she took the cloth from me and began rubbing her flesh.

"Are you going to watch the whole time?" she snarled. I grinned, getting that she wanted me to look away.

"Nothing I haven't seen before," I replied with a deepening grin. From the red hue filling her cheeks, I gathered that she understood enough of my words.

"Pervert," she grumbled, a word whose meaning eluded me, but I was sure it wasn't meant as a compliment.

She was obviously regaining some of her strength back as she cleaned herself, but when she reached for her matted hair, I swatted her hands away and knelt in the cold stream to do the deed. The way she leaned into me made it easy to see that her short burst of energy was quickly wearing off, so I hurried up to get her dry and carry her back to the tent.

There was only one way to warm her shivering body, as I had learned over the past couple of days. I stepped out of my wet pants and laid down next to her, wrapping her in my arms. I rubbed her body with my hands, not liking the feel of her ribs underneath my palms. She was getting too skinny. Her fight with death had taken a toll on her. She needed more food besides meat and the gruel of herbs and wheat I had been feeding her. As soon as the sun rose, I would tell Dhor-Van to find a boarsh, a small, very fatty animal whose meat provided the nutrition needed for a healing body. It was usually too fatty to eat, but it could be added to the gruel and would help Amber regain her strength and put some flesh back on her bones.

Her body relaxed against mine like it had done so many times over the last few days, filling me with even more pleasure because I didn't have to worry about her so much anymore. Instead, I could concentrate on the effects she had on my body. Besides the obvious, my erect cock, my flesh tingled wherever we touched. This position quickly became my favorite of all time. Her all wrapped up against me, my leg over hers, her head on my shoulder, my arms around her. It gave me a newfound peacefulness that defied my usual alert nature. Even my sleep was deeper with her and more fulfilling. Yet, the movement of the tent flap woke me with a start from a dream where I had flown over my demesne like a bird. Looking down, I observed couples working in the fields and walking down the streets. Couples made up of human gallies and Vandruk males. I was sure that Vorag had sent me this dream to tell me that I was on the right path.

But it had already dissipated when I recognized Dhor-Van, sticking his head in to check on us. Since I hadn't dared to move from Amber's side, he had been stuck with the brunt of the work as well as guard duties. He had only slept for a few hours during the day while I kept my ears peeled for any trouble outside.

Lexi had helped tremendously, too, from preparing food to washing dishes and helping me care for Amber. She was the only one out of her group lifting a finger, though. The scientists continued collecting their samples, and the gallies mostly sat around, waiting for someone to bring them food and complaining about the delay. Now that they had resigned to their fate of returning to Earth, they were impatient to do so. Words like coffee, chocolate, and bread reached my ears, but I didn't have the first clue as to their meaning other than that they were telling each other what they were looking forward to.

We were still a good two-day march from the red fog. They would have to be patient until Amber was strong enough to walk.

The first morning after the human's betrayal, Dhor-Van made a headcount of the dead to ensure none of the guards, besides Willis, were alive to cause any more havoc. He reported that he had left them where they had fallen. Their duplicity didn't deserve a proper burial. Like me, he had been impressed by Amber, calling her Amira Gallis, echoing the pet name I had given her. I nearly snarled at him the first time he did, and his amused expression told me that he understood more about my emotional attachment to her than I was willing to admit, even to myself.