Total pages in book: 48
Estimated words: 44088 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 220(@200wpm)___ 176(@250wpm)___ 147(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 44088 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 220(@200wpm)___ 176(@250wpm)___ 147(@300wpm)
With that, he shows me what he has been working on, and keeping me away from. It is attire like his own, a tunic vest and a skirt, all made from the pelt of the giant cat. It is very finely made, stitched with obvious care, and tailored to fit my body. As I slide it on, I feel the hide snug against me like a second skin. He paid intimate attention to the shape of my body, and the clothing feels like an embrace.
He holds the beast’s skull, similarly transformed and tanned with hide into the shape of a helmet.
“I have turned the head into a helmet, but it would be too large on you,” he says. “Unfortunately, the size of a skull is the size of a skull.”
“I want you to wear it,” I say. “I want you to have something from this journey we’ve made together. I want you to remember me.”
His expression softens. “I do not think I am capable of forgetting you, human.”
He still won’t use my name more often than not, but that’s okay. His love language is skinned, tanned, and tailored prey. Kail is a savage, but in all the best ways.
“I mean I want you to remember me as I am now. When you… before I…”
I can’t finish the sentence. I want to, but I know that doing so would be a betrayal of everything I have ever sworn to uphold.
“I just wish we could stay here forever. Like this.”
“I want the same,” Kail says. “But I promised to deliver you to Alpha Colony, and that is what I will do.”
5
Tarni
The journey to Colony Alpha is far too swift even with my dawdling and reluctance for what must surely be the end.
I smell the settlement before we arrive. It smells like death. I pretend not to notice it. I have to keep up the appearance of innocence. I thought I’d blown it when I killed the cat so it would not kill Kail. For a second, it was as though he saw all the way to the core of me.
We crest a ridge and there it is, laid out before us. The remnants of Colony Alpha. There is nothing left of the place besides the burned-out bones of structures that once stood proud, sheltering human colonists from the elements of an alien world.
I turn to Kail, misery pooling in my stomach. I knew this was how it all had to end, but I hoped in some secret corner of my being that there was another possible outcome.
“What happened?”
The words feel mechanical even as they fall out of my mouth. It is so obvious what happened. This place has been ransacked and destroyed by a savage. Kail himself moved through this place with spear and flame, rendering the high technology of my people completely impotent. He has studied our ways, finding methods to undermine our technologies. He rendered the soldiers entirely helpless with stick, stone, and fire. I feel a certain amount of admiration, as well as a sick realization that absolutely everything I was briefed about Kail was true.
Kail
“What happened?” I grind the words out. “Soldiers from this colony wiped out my entire family. So I returned and I brought the same destruction to them that they had brought to me.”
“Oh no.”
What an understatement that is, even gasped in horror, her hands clasped to her mouth.
“You did this all yourself? Nobody else?”
“There was nobody left to do it besides me. I am the last of my people. My line will die with me. First your species brought plague, then they brought war. I swear, as long as I draw breath, I will eradicate every single one of your kind. You call us savages. I call you animals. I am not solitary of my choosing. I am solitary because your people wiped out every one of mine, and because I returned the favor.”
“Are you going to kill me?” The question comes quivering out of her mouth.
“I should. It would be right.”
Tarni takes a deep, shuddering breath and closes her eyes.
“Okay.”
“Okay?”
I cannot keep the surprise and incredulity out of my voice.
“I have owed my life to you since you saved me from the mantid. I have been dependent on you all this time. For shelter, for security, for protection. If you decide to end me, I can ask only that you do it swiftly. Anything else is too much to ask.”
I snarl, not because I intend to hurt her, but because I know I could never hurt her. She doesn’t know or understand that. She throws herself on my mercy with the very real possibility of meeting her end, and she does it with grace and dignity.
She squeezes her eyes shut at the sound. She doesn’t want to see me kill her.
“Open your eyes,” I order. “I have no intention of hurting you.”