My thoughts keep going back to the girls Ingar and I left behind. I want to return, to check on them, but they also aren’t my responsibility…I’m not their keeper. Still, I can’t help but be worried especially when I’m still mourning over Laura’s death.
We’d known each other for five minutes, but that’s enough time to permanently embed the memory of her hand slipping further from my grasp. Her frantically clawing at the wet, wooden floor. Her eyes filled with betrayal and terror as I watched the tentacle rip her away. There’s simply no way she survived that.
Feeling light-headed, I walk back to our camp we haphazardly set up with trepidation racing in my veins.
I’m not sure why I’m so hesitant.
Datu’s head snaps toward my direction, a movement much too fast that it makes me stop and hold my breath. I know he can’t see right now, but there’s an eerie way he stares. The animal in me screams to escape.
I’m hyperaware of the sweat that drips down my body—slow and deliberate—like the juices of a freshly grilled steak. The earthrumbles, and it’s nothing as intense as an earthquake. It feels like the bedrock grinding underneath until it fades to a thrumming. It sounds simultaneously like a racing heart and a growling stomach.
For a second, I just think it’s mine.
“It’s just me, Datu.”
I swear the air whispers my name.
Xiaoyu…
A cheeky smile breaks out of his face as he sits up, beckoning me to sit beside him. Teva looks at him like he’d offended her.
“My brother asks if you would like to sunbathe with him.” She begrudgingly says.
I look at the darkening sky. “There’s not much to sunbathe.” I reply dryly.
The shrubs swish, and I get the crazy idea that it’s nature that speaks for him. It sounds whimsical…magical.
“We savor every minute since nights are very long and cold here.”
My eyebrows draw together. “What do you mean?”
She looks uncomfortable right now. “Nights are twice as long as days. Ingar tells me it is because of the placement of the poles…whatever it means. I believe him.”
I can see Datu’s expression shift from peaceful to detached. It had not been obvious to me before, but now I see Datu has a stick up his ass with Ingar.
Their problem, not mine.
“Oooh,” A shocked breath leaves my mouth. “We are on one of the poles? Which pole?”
She just shrugs while she combs her deep fuschia hair with her sharp claw-like nails—her way of dismissing me.
I consider it for a moment as I watch Datu’s tattooed chest rise up and down. Before Laura was taken, we’d been in the middle of the frigid ocean. I’d been “hired” by Moriarty for an expedition to Tierra del Fuego which is as close as it can get to the South Pole. But still…nights being much longer doesn’t make sense at all. Polar days and nights exist… I hear how ridiculous I sound. Plant people aren’t supposed to be possible either.
A small tapping on my cheek interrupts my internal crisis. Datu has sat up to face me. He taps my temples again and shakes his head.
“He says you should not think much of it. It is the way Esoterra is. Applying human logic is…” Teva seems to be grasping for a word to use. “...pointless.” She shoots her brother a dirty look.
I get the feeling Datu had said something more unceremonious.
“Is there any way I can speak to Datu? Like Terra sign language I can learn?” I’m not sure if it comes off as rude, but I have to ask. If there is an alternative to make my job easier, I am willing to learn.
The female Terra stills and her eyes flick to her brother. There’s that dark, forbidding noise again that makes my bones jangle. The silence that follows makes me uneasy. I wish I had not asked. When I asked earlier by the brook, he had reacted strangely, too.
“Totally fine if I mime though.” I add quickly.
“Being able to speak to Datu is a commitment.” Teva then turns her gaze toward me. “I would not wish that upon even my greatest enemy.”
Is she…joking? I can’t tell, honestly.
