He just wants a mate – he doesn’t care that Kira’s eyes are sad or that she feels alone. He’s not right for her.
When the other two hunters ask when we are leaving, I give them the same excuse – our party is full. And then I approach Haeden and tell him that I wish for him to join us. My surly friend is not amused.
“You volunteered me?” he asks, sharpening the head of his favorite spear with a stone. “Why?”
“Because you are the only one I trust not to think with your cock when it comes to the human females.” I cross my arms and watch him, trying to keep my voice casual.
He grunts and glances up at me. “You wish to keep them away from the one you picked out, you mean.”
I laugh, because Haeden has always been able to see through me. “Perhaps. But can you blame me?”
The look he gives me is sour. “Which females are going? Is Joh-see?”
“No, she is not.”
“Good.” He stands and blows the bone-dust off of his spear tip. “Then I will go.”
“Did you want her to go? I can speak to Kira…” My voice trails off into a chuckle at the scowl he gives me. “No? Joh-see is harmless.”
“She talks incessantly,” he says in a curt voice, placing a small, leather protective case over the tip of his spear. “Regardless of whether or not I am interested in hearing her words.”
Amusing. “Perhaps if you spoke to her instead of ignoring her, she would realize what an unpleasant fellow you are.”
“And perhaps I should tell Harrec you changed your mind.”
I raise my hands in surrender. “No need to get testy, my friend. Will you join us? We leave in the morning.”
He gives me a quick nod. “But if Joh-see shows up, you are going without me.”
KIRA
As I pack my bag, the translator in my ear makes it impossible not to hear Aehako’s conversation with Haeden. A hot flush covers my cheeks. He’s chasing the other hunters away because he wants to be the one to spend time with me. I’m flattered, even though I tell myself I shouldn’t be. Aehako has no claim on me.
I just…wish he did.
But now the aliens are coming back, and I guess it’s a good thing that I’m alone.
At my side, Harlow makes a face as she tests out one of her snowshoes she’s made. “This one’s splitting, I think. The wood isn’t green enough. Or, um, pink?” She pulls the shoe off and examines it. It’s made from leather straps and the wood from the pink, whippy eyelash trees clustered outside of the caves. “I need a new branch.” She gets to her feet and dusts off her soft leather pants. “You guys want to come with me? We need to make a pair for Claire anyhow.”
I stand, abandoning my pack. The guilty part of me wants to continue to listen in on Aehako’s conversation, but I shouldn’t. “I’ll go with you.” I already have shoes but Claire rarely leaves the cave, so she does not.
“I’ll stay inside,” Claire says in her small voice, and she busily works on repacking her bag. A quick glance around shows Bek hovering nearby. Ah. I shrug on my fur cloak and a pair of mittens, and then get bone-handled knives for myself and Harlow.
We head out of the cave into the snow and walk a bit further down the path, toward the thick copse of the pink, flippy trees. I hear footsteps crunching behind us and know that one of the hunters is shadowing us. They’re always very careful to keep the humans watched – not out of anything negative, but simply because we’re clueless about this world. They don’t want us to get hurt.
Harlow studies the trees. “I wish they had a lot of branches like the trees at home. That would make this so much easier.”
I nod, moving into the ‘forest’ of trees. Some of them have a split branch at the top where it forks outward, but for the most part, the trees are straight up into the air, with just feathery fronds for leaves that jut out of the bark. They do look like one big eyelash covered by a lot of smaller ones. “Let’s just use saplings, then? It’ll be less cutting.”
Our snowshoes are simple creations – they’re one long piece of wood twisted into a teardrop shape and lashed together at the heel. Leather has been crisscrossed to make a mesh for the center, and they’re strapped on to the foot. The good news is that they don’t require a lot of construction, so we should be able to take care of them easily.
Harlow and I pick out a likely tree. It’s a little shorter than we’d like, but if we cut directly at the root, it should be long enough for Claire’s light weight. Harlow picks out a nearby sapling and we both get to work cutting at the stem. The weather’s colder than usual today, with big fat snowflakes falling out of the gray skies. I worry that they’re going to think the weather’s not good enough for us to travel and delay our trip.