Page 21 of His Human to Adore
“Toron!” I call his name as light flashes against the ground near me.
“Dath!” He is close, very close.
I wipe the rain from my eyes, trying to see better in the darkness of the trees. Normally it is easy to see during the night, but when it rains this hard, I must wipe my eyes frequently, or the water burns them. I turn around and make sure that I can still see the shelter behind me, but it has long been lost to the trees. I trip and fall into a small den. A loud growl sounds from deep within, but I scramble from the den and beg that the creature is too worried about the storm.
“Dath!” Toron’s voice reminds me I am to be finding him and bringing him to the shelter before the storm kills us both.
“Toron!” I yell. The sound of branches crunching to my left has my heart racing for a moment until I look in that direction and see nothing but trees. “Toron, hurry!” I yell, my eyes never leaving the spot where I heard the twigs snapping. The nights are dangerous, and even with a storm raging, there are creatures that must hunt no matter what.
“Dath!” Toron’s voice is to the other side of me, but I do not look toward him. I must keep my eyes where I think the creature is. I am hoping it will not attack if it thinks it is being watched. Toron’s hands wrap around my shoulders, and he is pulling me into his embrace before I can tell him of the danger. “Where are the others?”
“Shh,” I try to silence him and look back at where the creature would be. I am lost, though. When he pulled me into his arms, I even lost track of which direction the shelter is in. I am spinning in circles, the dagger in my hand trembling.
“What is wro—“ Toron’s words are silenced as a verpar lunges from the darkness and tackles him to the ground. A scream erupts from Toron’s lips as the dark, hairy beast bites down on his shoulder and starts to thrash him about. Light strikes nearby, illuminating the brutality of the verpar’s attack. It is easily the size of me, and its jaw is already unhinged so that it can sink each of its teeth into Toron’s body. Its hind legs dig into the soaked grass and drag into the mud. Its front claws pinning Toron down as it tries to rip his shoulder from his body.
My eyes are wide as I watch the panic and fear in Toron’s face grow as the creature sinks its teeth deeper into his shoulder. I clutch the dagger in both of my hands, knowing that I need to do something, but my body is forcing me to be still. Toron screams again, and then it is silenced with a sickening snap of his bones.
The eerie silence forces my body from its frozen state until I’m running at the verpar with the dagger raised above my head. I scream as I sink it into its bloodied neck, where Toron’s blood has soaked its fur. I rip the blade out of its neck and push it back in. The verpar are dangerous beasts, but their bodies are soft underneath all of their fur. I do not know when it perishes, and I do not know how many more times I sink the dagger into its lifeless body. A fresh crack of light too close to us has me scrambling to push the creature off Toron’s body so I can pull him back to the shelter.
The verpar’s body is heavy, much too heavy for me, and I feel my sobs wracking my body as I struggle to push it off of my friend. The goddess is watching out for me because she gives me one bout of strength that is greater than I should be able to have at such a small size. The verpar’s body rolls next to Toron’s body right as a flash of light ignites its fur and singes it before the rain puts the fire out. I wipe my tears, feeling the sting of blood burning worse than the rain does.
“Please be alive,” I beg Toron. I put the dagger in my waistband and try to drag him back to where I think the shelter might be. I do not get very far before I realize I do not know where I am going, and I do not know how long it will take for me to get there. I am not strong enough to carry Toron’s limp body very much further, and my eyes land on the small den I stumbled in right before the verpar attacked.
I drag Toron toward it and let his body fall to the ground as I peer inside the den. A growl erupts from the creature inside, and I pull the dagger out of my pants. I will kill this creature, too, if I must, but I do not want to at all. I hiss at the creature, trying to imitate some of the older males when they are angry. The creature inside growls louder until it is stalking closer to the edge of the den. Another verpar, but this one is much smaller. A cub and I have just killed its mother.
A snarl forms on the small verpar’s mouth, and its fur is raised on its back, making it look larger than it is. Its front paws are the size of my hand, and its claws are much larger than mine. I am going to die, and if I die, Toron will surely die. I suck in a shaky breath, the dagger still trembling in my hand as I hold it up in front of me. I hiss at the creature again, but it is a pathetic sound that would surely have the creature laughing at me if it had the ability.
The young verpar jumps at me, his jaws unhinging so he can rip me apart more easily when he sinks his teeth inside of me. I do not know why I raise the dagger up the way I do, but I know it is the goddess guiding my hand when the dagger digs into the roof of the verpar’s mouth and lodges itself in its head. The creature’s hot breath warms my cool scales, and its blood coats my hands. Its body falls limp right outside the den’s entrance, and I am quick about pulling the dagger from its mouth and putting it back into my pants.
Toron’s body is even harder to pull into the den, but I know we will not survive if we are caught out in the storm for any longer than we already have been. Light is striking closer and closer to us, looking for a body to jolt and kill. We need to be in a shelter, and if we cannot return to the one with our brothers, we will find it in this small verpar den until someone comes to save us.
“Do not die, Toron,” I cry against his chest when I get us both in the den. It is not deep, but we are protected from the light that strikes the ground. It is all I can ask for, even though it does not give me enough space to help my brother’s wounds. No, we are laid next to each other, with me crying hysterically against him, begging the goddess to send someone to save us because I cannot do any more than I have. “Please, you must live.”
I do not sleep for two days. Thunder shakes the dirt that cocoons us in our den. Toron does not wake even when light strikes so close that I can feel it zing underneath my scales. I cry all of my tears the first night, and after that, I have no more to cry. I stay awake to keep us safe because Toron’s chest is still beating, and he is still breathing. I have to keep my friend safe, and I have to make sure I can signal someone when the storms finally cease.
On the third day, I hear a voice. It is not the first time I have heard voices, but these are the closest they have been since the storm has ceased. The thunder stopped not long ago, but I am too tired to move. My body is weak and exhausted, and I need to sleep, but I cannot until we are safe.
“Dath!” A voice is close, and I know I need to call back. I open my mouth to speak, but my throat is dry, and my voice is silent. “Toron!”
I open my mouth to call out and sob silently when I can’t make any sound. I pray to the goddess that she gives me enough strength to get out of the den. I promise her I will never ask for anything again, so long as she allows me to get my friend help. I move my arms in front of me even though they burn with the feeling of being asleep. I pull myself through the dirt. No more tears fall down my face since they ran out so long ago, and my throat does not sob because it is too dry and raw. I pull myself out of the den, thanking the goddess as I grow closer and closer to the light of day.
“Over here!”
I lay my head in the grass, not caring that I have fallen asleep next to the corpse of the young verpar I killed. They have found us, and I can rest now.
Dath
“Whatdoyouwantfrom me?” I yell at my mother’s grave as soon as I am close enough to see the stone tablet that bears her name. “You want me not to take a human mate? Okay, I have told you I will not. But you are with the goddess now. You see what she is doing to me. How could you be so cruel as to ask me not to take a human mate when you know the goddess is putting one so perfect for me in my life?”
Thunder rumbles above me, but the rain has not started. I have replaced my fear of the storms with anger. Pure and absolute rage. I am being torn in two because the two greatest females in my life besides my Deja just so happen to be against one another. And for what reason? I surely do not know.
“The goddess cannot be happy with how you are punishing me for wanting this human female to be my mate. Deja is a wonderful female. You would be proud that she is your blood.” My yelling softens as I fall to my knees, the grass soaking my pants. Rain has started to fall, but there have been no cracks of light causing fires, so I think nothing of staying out for a few more moments. I know this weather is my mother telling me she does not approve of who I want as a mate, but I cannot understand why.
“If you could just tell me what you want from me. Tell me if there is another female you want me to have, or tell me why the goddess is making this female be everything to me.” Tears of fury and rage stream down my face and mix with the rain as it hits me.
She is acting ridiculous. That is the only thing I can think of. Surely, my mother, the most amazing female who forced the illness back in her veins until she could give birth to me, must be a ridiculous creature since she is so against me mating a human.
“Yes,” I nod my head, deciding that I cannot take anything my mother tries to tell me seriously. She was an amazing female for being so strong and carrying me in her womb until I could survive outside it. That does not mean that she is infallible and that she cannot be wrong about something that she never could have imagined happening.