2. Xax

Chapter 2

Xax

I was hunting along the shore of the lake some distance from where my small Ulistar Clan made their home when something long and glassy blasted across the sky from my right. It smacked into the water and skimmed across the surface before coming to a halt. While it bobbed, I frowned, wondering what in all the fates it might be. Even more important, was it worth risking the jevecks lurking in the muddy bottom of the lake to retrieve it?

Long, serpent monsters who thrived in the mud at the bottom of the lake, the jevecks would reach the object before me, and if they felt me moving across the surface of the water, some would attack me instead.

I wanted to go home, not fight off a pack of jevecks.

But the object . . .

I fingered the crystal I wore on a strand of leather around my neck. A year ago, while walking along this very shore after sunset, a huge, glowing rock fell from the sky. It broke as it hit the lake's surface, and I'd initially dismissed it as nothing worth bothering with. Thoughts of it kept me awake that night, making me return here in the morning. I risked the jevecks and dove into the water to investigate, finding broken, scattered bits of the rock coating the mud. I gathered a handful of the clear crystals and took them to shore.

At first, I thought they were nothing but pretty objects I could share with my clan. But since the jevecks didn't attack me while I gathered them and swam back to shore, I jokingly decided the crystals brought good luck. I strung one on a leather strand and wore it around my neck.

I took the rest of the fragments back to my clan, and we placed them near our fire, gazing in awe as they gleamed in the light of our two moons much like the crystal structures some Zuldruxians chose to live inside. Not us. Who'd wish to live within the carcass of a dead god when a plant god would happily grow a living home for us instead? Our plant homes suited us fine, as did the vegetation we used in our everyday life. Plants were far superior to crystal or wood.

When I visited the Veerenad city to make trades for my clan, one of the lizard merchants noted the crystal and asked me to remove it for him to examine. I'd only been vaguely listening to the conversation around me and thought nothing of the fact that I understood what everyone was saying .

But when I removed the crystal, I understood nothing other than the merchant's words. Yet when I hung the crystal back around my neck, I understood everything once more.

As long as both parties wore the crystals, we could communicate. I traded all the crystals I'd brought with me to the Veerenads that day.

Gifts from the god, Digaray, my adopted mother and clan elder pronounced, when I told her what happened. All of us wore the crystals after that.

The tube continued to float in the water, though a section of it slid off the top and plunged beneath the surface.

Should I swim out to the pod to see if it held anything of value or start home? It would take me more than a day to reach my clan.

Once we'd determined what the crystal fragments could do, the stones fetched an amazing price at the Veerenad market. I'd since retrieved more and took them with me to trade whenever I visited the lizard city.

The floating object could contain something worth selling. With so few younglings born to my clan with each passing year, our numbers were dwindling. Wealth might encourage other Zuldruxians to move to our clan, perhaps some of the clan members living in crystal or wooden structures or even some of the Dastalon Clan who traveled through the sky on the backs of winged beasts.

Since the water remained smooth, with no jeveck surface swirls in sight, I decided to investigate. I stripped off my loincloth and tossed it onto the sandy shore. My low hum called to the vines, and they slithered from the forest behind me, pausing near my feet to look up to me for direction. A slightly different sound told them to join me. I slipped into the water and urged them to gently float me out to the cylinder. Swimming created splashes. Splashes drew jeveck attention, and they'd attack.

Reaching the floating object, I hummed again, asking the vines to watch for jevecks and alert me. While some sunk down into the water, others encircled me and the object.

I tilted the tube my way.

To my amazement, a female with hair of an odd red color and very pale skin slid out of the pod and into my arms. She took one look at me and released an ear-piercing shriek. She flailed, rocking the cylinder and splashing the water.

It began to churn beneath my feet.

At my hum, the vines dove down to intercept the jevecks, but I'd only brought a few vines with me, not enough to fight off more than one or two of the snake-like beasts. I needed to reach the shore and leave the water as soon as possible.

Clutching the flailing female to my chest, I swam toward the rocky bank ahead, leaving the vines to delay the jevecks. Some slipped past the vines, and one whipped its tail against my legs, the only warning these beasts gave before they attacked.

I swam faster, my legs kicking, my free arm scooping water to take me closer to the shore. My lungs were on fire. The woman continued to shriek and hit me, but I held tight, determined not to let the jevecks take her.

"Let me go." The female punched me in the neck hard enough to steal my breath. Gagging, I struggled to reach the shore while she kicked my belly and smacked my head.

I should release her. Leave her for the jevecks. If they were focused on her, they wouldn't come after me.

But a fierce need to protect her overwhelmed me. I didn't know why, but I sensed this female would mean everything to me. I paused in the water to juggle her around until I could pin her flailing limbs to her sides. With a grunt, I ignored her kicks and swam faster to shore.

When a jeveck burst through the surface in front of me, I pulled my finely-honed vine blade from the sheath on my chest and slashed out, gouging the creature across the throat. It roared and whipped its head around, its dark purple blood spattering the water. The female. My face.

One of my vines slid around me and grappled with the jeveck, dragging it down beneath the surface, but other beasts churned closer. There were too many to fight off.

My feet hit ground, and I rushed up the bank with the female pinned beneath my arm. Determination roared across my bones, giving me the strength to get out of the water despite the female struggling to break free .

She shrieked and gouged at my side with her blunted fingers. Her kicks slammed into the backs of my thighs.

Gritting my tusks, I slogged to the top of the bank, leaving the jevecks thrashing in the water. They wouldn't follow me onto land. Hungry, they dragged their wounded brother down while others engulfed the long cylinder and sucked it beneath the surface.

I reached the thick grass, my body quivering from shock and my breathing ragged. I slid the female down my body until her tiny feet reached the ground, righting her with a hand gripping her upper arm.

While she glared up at me, I scowled at her, taking in her scraggly hair that even wet reminded me of the setting sun. I slid my gaze over her pinched features and dragged it downward.

"You only have two breasts," I blurted out. Both Zuldrux and Veerenad females had four. Had someone cut the others off? Why would anyone do such a thing?

While she sputtered and snarled, I slid my hand down to clutch her wrist. She struggled, hitting my chest with her miniscule hand. If I was smaller and hadn't had considerable training, I suspected her blows would have good effect.

Her heel came down hard enough on my instep to make me bellow.

"Stop," I snarled, lifting her off the ground and pinning her arms to her sides again.

She continued to shriek and flail against me. I should let her go before she drew attacking beasts from the forest. She could return to the water and let the jevecks eat her for all I cared.

While she shouted a long string of indecipherable words at me, I shifted her around to pin her body beneath my arm and lifted my loincloth off the ground, pulling one of the spare crystals I carried with me from the small pouch sewn on one side.

The vines left the water and retreated into the forest as I flipped the female around to my front again and placed her on her feet. I grabbed one of her infernal hands that kept hitting me. Turning her hand over, I laid the stone on the pale surface and forced her fingers to curl around it.

"Speak and be understood, female. And please stop snarling," I said. Actually, I snarled the words. "I rescued you. I don't understand why you're angry with me for battling the jevecks to save your life. Do you think the jevecks would play with you in the water?" My face hot, I fumed. "No, you'd be eaten by now if I hadn't saved you."

"Alien. Naked alien with a big cock!" She spun, wrenching her hand from my grip, and raced across the broad open meadow ahead, nearly falling when she tripped in the deep grass.

I studied the sway of her ripe ass revealed by the thin fabric barely reaching her delectable thighs. The wet material revealed her every curve. Flimsy footwear covered her feet, and they squeaked as she bolted. If her footwear kept making that sound, predators would hear and attack her.

"Run away, then," I shouted after her. "I'm going to . . ." Grumbling, I wrapped my loincloth around my waist and tied it. I hefted my vine blade I'd tossed onto the ground when I reached the shore and slid it into its sheath on my chest before glaring at her retreating back. "Keep running. Watch out for wild hepadons! They enjoy nibbling on tiny females like you."

The gods knew I had enough to handle already. Hunting consumed much of my day, and in the evening, I had to deal with the endless demands of our clan traedor. As his second, it was my role to manage whatever he chose to ignore, which was pretty much everything related to keeping our small clan running smoothly.

I didn't need to deal with a surly female right now.

Something shot from the sky and landed in front of me. I gaped at the bright purple stalk quivering where it had embedded itself in the ground. Before my eyes, it bloomed, its blossom a lighter purple than the stalk.

Not long ago, a number of Zuldruxian traedors traveled to speak with the gods, something none of us had dared do since we abandoned them for killing most of our people. My traedor had scoffed at those who approached the gods and insisted we would not participate in this uncertain event.

Since I occasionally traded with the Indigan Clan and was friendly with their traedor, Aizor, I'd heard about the visit. They'd pleaded for mates and were told they'd soon be gifted with brides. The gods said that when a bride was sent to them, they would receive a sign.

I was the second to the traedor of the Ulistar Clan, the clan with a god of plants watching over us .

A plant had just launched from the sky and impaled itself in front of me and bloomed.

Our god had sent me a plant sign.

With a bellow, I ripped up the plant and bolted after the female.

She was my god-given bride.

It was time to claim her.