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Zane just nodded again.
I needed to be of some help. Yes, I could hit the bull’s-eye ninety-nine-point-eight percent of the time with any gun I put in my hand, my bow, blade, and daggers, but that didn’t do me a lick of good if I couldn’t hear my adversary coming and they got the better of me.
I crouched down, my hands on either side of my head as my senses started to overwhelm my brain. A buzzing sound drowned out the lapping shore, the bird songs, and the breeze through the trees. Was it all blending together, or was my brain unable to handle all of it? Cats were born wild and adapted to their senses as infants. I was born in a cage, and raised and trained in a simulated world.
None of this was inherent to me. None of this was natural.
A big, warm hand landed on my shoulder. Rix. “Haina, you okay?”
I shook my head fervently. “No. I … I can’t hear anything. I can’t smell anything. I can’t feel your heartbeats or … anything.”
I was crouched down with my butt just hovering over the cold, wet rocks, my hands covering my ears as I squeezed my eyes shut and rocked back and forth.
Something wet dripped from my nose, and when I wiped it with the back of my hand, I realized it was blood.
Was I having an aneurysm? Was my brain literally swelling in my head from the sensory overload and going to explode if I added even one more smell or sound?
I vaguely recalled hearing more gunshots fired and the sound of men fighting. Fists collided with bone before I was scooped up in big, solid arms and held against an even more solid chest. Jorik. It had to be. The arms and chest were too big and broad for it to be Zane or Rix. “I’ve got you. It’s okay.” he murmured, his voice a deep bear-like rumble next to my ear. He also smelled different.
Zane’s scent was more woodsy and smelled like clean sheets. This guy, although still delicious-smelling, had a very subtle brininess to him. Salty but still very yummy, and the desire to press my nose against his neck and inhale deeper took me by surprise. But I didn’t unravel my arms from around his neck as he carefully walked across the uneven terrain of the beach and set me down gently on the wooden bench of the boat. The pressure behind my eyes began to subside the longer he touched me, too.
I inhaled deeply, pulling fresh air into my lungs in an attempt to calm my racing heart.
More fighting and more gunshots echoed through the night.
We were in a small bay, the cliffs forming the inlet causing the cracking sound of the guns to echo to a deafening level. I pressed my hands back over my ears and sank down into the bottom of the boat, making myself as small as I could, pinching my eyes closed to dull my senses.
I wasn’t in the boat on my own for long, and then I felt us being pushed off the beach. We wobbled on the water.
Nobody spoke, but I could feel three other heartbeats in the boat with me.
They’d all made it.
I worked on my breathing. In deep through my nose for four, hold for four, then out for four, hold for four, then repeat. Box breathing.
A hand, not the same ones that had carried me to the boat, landed on my shoulder.
The sounds around me began to fade.
“Haina, you okay?” It was Rix. His smell was different from the other two as well. Milder, still fresh and delicious, but there was a faint metallic tinge to it, too.
I lifted my head abruptly. “You’re bleeding.”
He blinked a few times, and his full lips lifted to one side. “You should see the other guy.”
I smiled small. “Yeah?”
His expression turned serious again. “You okay? What happened?”
I glanced behind him to see Zane rowing while Jorik stood watch with his gun cocked and at the ready, his large frame casting a long, wide shadow across Rix and I in the boat.
Swallowing, I sat back on my heels. “I think…” I licked my lips. Rix’s eyes fell to my mouth, and his nostrils flared. Heat wormed its way into my cheeks.
He shook his head and blinked a bunch before lifting his gaze back to me. “Sorry, what?”
“It’s okay. Um … I think that my senses became overwhelmed. I’ve never been outside like this, and all the sounds, smells, and sensations of the forest were too much. I was trying so hard to tune in to any threats, but those sensations competed with everything in the forest, and my brain couldn’t take it.”
A noise that sounded an awful lot like a scoff came from Zane as he rowed.
