Don’t look it in the eyes. It will think it wants to mate you.
Little did I know, I had been looking at its eyes that whole time.
I curl my legs until I’m kneeling on the ground with the gecko draped across my body like a convulsing thing. I grab the knife I had slipped into my boot. The knife I had almost stabbed Ingar with.
The metal clutched in my hand, I prepare to ram it by the neck…until the weight is torn off me. Sudden. So, so sudden that I begin to think I must have imagined the attack.
I’m trembling as I look behind me. It’s dark, but I see the inky violet light of the tree where it had been…I see it move like a throat working to swallow a being much-too large.
I hear muted sounds—crunching bones, grinding rocks. Whatever it is, it reassures me it’s gone.Gone. Just like that.
And as I stare at the enormous tree that bled those luminescent violet light, I see it for what it’s not. It’s not a tree, but a much biggerthingthan the gecko…the gecko that was about to eat me was just eaten by another… It bellows a forceful, violating hunger that I trip over myself running away. Whatever it is, itwilleat me if I stay longer.
The vivid purple goo is my only source of light. My skin itches as my eyes find the other danger. Vines snake my way, slithering like hunting pythons. There’s no rational thought in my mind. Adrenaline surges, and I slice them before they can reach me. It drops to the cracked ground, twitching like a lizard’s missing tail.
I’m blind in my pursuit for safety, and as I trip over the undergrowth, pain is the thing that drives me farther from the forest. When I collide into something hard and warm, I sob.
Relax, Xiaoyu. You’re just panicking.
Yes,justpanicking.
Night has fallen and it’s literally black. I’ve never known utter blackness until now in this deranged, alien forest. The whispers ofnature have silenced, my breathing and thundering heart the only thing I hear.
Something grips me by my shoulders, trailing down my arms. A faint glow interrupts the darkness, and I see Datu. I’ve never been so happy seeing a face, not just a mouth. The purplish speckles on his skin glows as his still-blind eyes seek me out.
Instead of the carefree, smiling face he seemed to usually have, he’s grim. Disapproving. I see it in the way he shakes his head.
You shouldn’t be here, Xiaoyu.
I agree. “Please, get me out of here.” I beg him.
He circles me in his arms, picking me up. A vine twists around my ankle, and I can’t seem to figure out why it is bent the way it is. Had I broken it? I can’t process anything as a sweet rush of euphoria takes over me.
The last thing I hear is the wind telling me to close my eyes.
Datu
“How are you feeling, my brother?”
I cannot see, but I know Sateva is guarded. Watchful. She knows I will never hurt nor harm her. She thinks I will hurt the humans she brought to me. She may think me heartless, but I will never kill anyone who has kept me alive.
“I am reflecting on everything that has occurred.”I reply.
I hear her shift closer toward me. “It has been chaotic, yes?”
I almost chuckle at this. The irony of it. It is no exaggeration at all. I cannot remember how long it has been since the humans first found Esoterra and ruined the peace. A peace I have built to protect my sister and her people alone. I can never understand humans and their earthly impulses to dismantle everything they encounter.
“I know chaos. This is not it. This is needless, greedy destruction—one I can immediately put an end to.”
“Datu, please,” she sighs. “Sometimes I cannot tell what is truth or jest with you anymore.”
Though unable to see clearly, the ring of light in the sky—the one they call sun—is completely gone. Xiaoyu and I had reveled in the majestic sight of the blanket of stars I cannot see in this form.
Crickets, cicadas begin to sing their song—sounds most-soothing to me, but it is nothing compared to Xiaoyu’s voice. For some reason, I found her telling me the story of a creature named Chiron very endearing.
“I do not know what you see in these humans, Sateva.”
“They are not all bad. They are just like us—”
