Page 116 of Citrine

"Please do," Ree says, her voice letting me know she's just as excited as I am.

My throat hurts again. "Thivoll said there is someone over there." I point the same direction. "But it isn't an enemy. They could—"

I don't get to say more because he is moving us through the water at speed. I really need to figure out how use the echo voice without harming my gills at this speed. Because repeatedly pummeling him with my fists is doing nothing.

Just like I know it won't, but I still do it anyway.

Then we are moving so fast I can't easily use my fists or my gills and by the time he stops, I'm dazed. But when he releases me, which is a shock in and of itself, I kick my way to the surface.

I hear screaming as I break the top of the water. I take a moment to clear the water from my eyes and I see why. Wroahk flung a Many Teeth onto the shore and a giant purple man is running away from it. The scene doesn't make much sense at first because he is clearly large and powerful enough that even a snapping Many Teeth shouldn't be much of a threat.

When he jumps up onto a tree, still screaming, I get a hold of myself. "The purple man is part of our community."

I start moving toward the shore, yelling it several more times just in case it didn't penetrate Wroahk's thick skull the first time.

He pulls himself up out of the water at the same time I do. His face promises violence, but I know it isn't directed at me. It might be becauseof me, but never at me.

"Fine. But don't go near him until you have talked or I will throw another Many Teeth. Not everyone can be trusted, Eli."

I scoff. "You think no one can be trusted."

"It is safer that way."

"I won't live like that, Wroahk. It wouldn't be living, actually. It would be a slow death. You would be killing me."

I can tell I pushed him just that one step too far, but he already agreed to let the purple man have a chance, and so his rage finds an outlet in the Many Teeth currently trapped by one of his tentacles. He lifts it and violently slams it onto the ground.

I jump, then cringe when he does it again. I make myself turn away, ignoring the sounds of continued assaults on the creature.

The purple man is clinging to the tree, his row of three bright teal eyes wide and terrified. The muscles under his enormous arms are bulging with the effort to keep him up, though he didn't make it far. His shorter legs are scrambling to find purchase on the bark below him.

He's muttering incoherently, but it must be enough for my translator to work with because I feel the telltale shift and pain.

"Hello. My name is Eli."

His language feels mostly like grunting and so I'm not sure if I'm properly infusing it with a trustworthy, bright tone.

I will just have to try harder. "I am so very, very sorry Wroahk scared you. He has problems containing his anger sometimes. It's alright, though! He promised me to give you a chance to talk and won't attack you again as long as you are peaceful."

The man's three eyes shift behind me. The sounds have enough squelching mixed in that I know it must be pretty gruesome back there.

"I think it's probably best if you just focus on me. Yes, like that. Can you tell me your name?"

"R-R-Rannek."

He stutters out his name, still trying to climb the tree and clearly not designed to do so. His back feet are large and look heavily calloused, as does the one hand I can see gripping the bark in front of him. Each of his limbs end in three thick, flat digits without visible nails. The skin there is a lighter color purple but the rest of him is covered in a dark, shining coat of short purple fur.

Wroahk must have gotten it out of his system because the sounds stop. "It is so great to find you, Rannek."

He blinks several times, darts his eyes behind me and then back. "I'm sorry. What did you say your name was again?"

I let out a sigh of relief. "Eli. You can call me Eli. Did you get taken from your home planet, too?"

"Yes. And I have been running away or hiding ever since. This place is terrible. I have seen so much violence. Like nothing I knew ever existed."

He takes another look behind me and I cringe. We are not exactly looking like friendly poster children for peace and harmony right now.

"Yes, I know what you mean. Wroahk came from a place where all he knew was violence, but it wasn't like that for me. I'm still working on teaching him what it can be like to have friends."