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“What are you doing?” Now, her voice was even more shrill.
I looked up at her. “Uh, bandaging myself?”
“B-but you said we had to move the speeder!”
“Yeah, before we sleep.”
“But what if they come for us?”
“They’re afraid of fire.” I pointed at it.
“So, we’re just going to sit here in the woods while they’re stalking us and expect this little fire to protect us?” Her voice was very shrill now.
“Tilt your head back and really project your voice there,” I said. “I’m sure you can get evenlouderif you try.”
“Fuck you.” But this was a venomous whisper.
“Sit down.” I nodded to the other side of the fire.
She stared at me, shaking her head. Then, I realized her lower lip was starting to tremble. Her eyes were welling up.
I winced. Shit, I did not mean to make her cry—
But she sniffed very hard, bit down on her bottom lip, and it stopped. She sat down hard on the other side of the fire. She was quiet.
“Look, I’m…” I sighed. I made my voice as gentle as possible. “In the best of times, I’m not really good with people.”
“No?” she said. “Well, never would have guessed that.”
“I’m trying to apologize,” I said.
“No, it’s fine,” she said. “I mean, you saved my life from the big, bad vvoln, I guess. But you also apparently brought down the rage of her pack—”
“We’ll move the speeder, our trail will go cold, and that’ll be that,” I said.
“Okay,” she said, letting out a bitter little laugh. “I’m not going to point out that I’m the one who said that getting naked in the river was a bad idea or anything.”
I shook my head. “I think I was against the idea of us doing it at the same time,” I said. “If you’d just bathed by yourself and then come back to the fire—”
“You neglected to tell me they were afraid of fire.”
“What’s not afraid of fire?” Now,myvoice was getting too loud. I gestured at the sky with both hands. “Everything is afraid of fire.”
“Oh, okay, Mr. Outdoorsy Hunter Guy,” she said. “I guess that’s a thingyouknow, butIdon’t know anything about predators in the woods, especially not on this planet!”
“Well, if you don’t know things, ask questions.”
“How am I supposed to know what to ask?”
I groaned.
She made a tsking noise.
“Just… accept my apology. Can you do that?”
“You’re forgiven,” she said in a voice dripping with sarcasm.
I huffed.
