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They would circle our camp during the day while we slept to keep others at bay—although no one else actually came upon our camp—and at night, along with their exoskeletons that glowed fluorescent in the moonlight, their tails would light up and blink, providing a road for us to travel between.
The lightning tails were a surprising detail to learn. “I had no idea your tails did that,” I exclaimed in delight. “How amazing. Now we can clearly see the words you form and talk while we ride.”
“Yeah. Joy,” Farrow grumbled moodily from his mount.
We are the only tribe with blinking tails, the scorpions explained. As we were cross bread with litning bugs.
“Oh, for the love of God,” Farrow muttered. “Crossbred is only one word and doesn’t contain an A. And lightning—”
“Farrow,” I hissed.
He scowled at me. “What?”
“What is your problem? These are our volunteer guides, and they’ve been nothing but kind and gracious to us. They certainly don’t deserve such attitude.”
He sniffed. “Well, they made me picture lightning bugs tupping scorpions, and it wasn’t a pleasant vision.”
“Omigod, shh…” My eyes grew wide with mortification even as I slapped a hand over my mouth to muffle a laugh because now I was picturing lightning bugs and scorpions together too, charming each other over a candle-lit dinner in the sand with a plate of freshly roasted insects between them.
When he lifted an eyebrow as if to say, See, disturbing mental image, isn’t it? I rolled my eyes and begged, “Please, just try to behave and get along.”
“I wasn’t raised in the art of courtly decorum like you were, my lady.”
“I’m aware. But as long as you try, that will be good enough for me.”
With a grunt, he relented with, “Fine, I’ll try,” before he clicked his tongue and had Mint trotting up ahead toward the front of the glowing scorpion line.
I shook my head, trying to figure him out.
I’d never seen Farrow on the outright-cheerful side, but he’d been exceedingly cranky since the scorpions had joined our expedition. I knew they hadn’t earned his trust yet, but honestly, the scorpions had been very welcoming since we’d met them. I had no idea what Farrow’s issue was, and he’d been so closed off, irritation was the only mood I could glean from him.
It was all so baffling. I must be missing the key piece of a puzzle that would help bring the whole picture together because I certainly didn’t understand all the parts he showed me.
Letting him stew in his mood, I focused my attention on my new friends, learning about their lifestyle throughout each night of travel, enjoying the stories they shared about their tribe, and telling them stories of my people in return. Farrow kept his distance and usually stayed silent, until the third night when the front line of scorpions made an arrow that pointed right, letting us know they thought we should turn there.
“But that’s south,” Farrow argued. “We don’t need to go south. We need to go east.”
He broke through their ranks, making them scatter across the ground to keep from getting stepped on by his horse, and he kept heading in the direction we’d been going all along.
I trotted up to ride next to him. “Are you sure we shouldn’t turn here? The scorpions haven’t steered us wrong yet.”
“Well, they are now. That’s south. And we need to go east.”
“But it’s dark. What if we got mixed up in the—”
“We didn’t get mixed up. I know where we’re going, and it’s east.” He pointed forward and sent me a stern glance. “This way. So just—” He waved me off dismissively. “Go back to talking to your new friends and completely ignoring me, why don’t you?”
My mouth fell open, not expecting him to say that last bit, and definitely not so bitterly either.
“Oh my goodness,” I gasped in sudden realization. “You’re jealous. Of the scorpions.”
“What? No!” He snorted and more forcefully repeated, “No.”
“Is that why you’ve been so moody? You think I’ve been ignoring you?”
He cast me a half-offended, half-incredulous frown. “I have not been moody. And I didn’t say you’d been ignoring me.”
“Yes, you did. That is literally exactly what you just said. You said I’d been completely ignoring you, in fact.”
