Beneath the Twin Moons of Haldae Read online

  “I know. But there was nothing else I could do. She needed to contact her people, and the Ushias were standing in the way.”

  “So you confronted them while in your human form?” Elder Pala asked, sounding appalled.

  Kris briefly wondered what to answer. He had lied already, but the less lies he professed, the easier to keep things straight. “No.”

  Elder Sarly slapped his hand over the table, startling some of the Elders. “You just said she didn’t know about the shifting! How can it be if you—”

  “She thinks I am able to control animals,” Kris cut in calmly. It was only half a lie; after all, she had believed as much for a little while.

  A snort showed what Elder Sarly thought of that. “Hiding behind lies? You’re playing with fire.”

  Kris didn’t reply. He knew he was playing a dangerous game. By lying to them so that they wouldn’t order Zaren’s death, by placing his faith in a girl he barely knew, by trusting feelings he barely understood, he was putting his entire village in danger. Still, Zaren had made a promise to him, and it felt right to believe her. Necessary.

  He had gone on his journey looking for a sign, and he had found it. It just wasn’t the sign he, or anyone else, had ever expected to find.

  Chapter 5

  Morning by the River

  Waking up was a difficult process. Zaren smelled the burning wood first, and her drowsy mind couldn’t fathom what the scent might be. She then became aware of the hard surface beneath her that a thick blanket did not begin to make comfortable. She groaned lightly, wondering whether she had fallen from her bed during the night.

  Everything came back in a flash. Her eyes opened and she sat up, clutching the woven blanket to her chest. Kris was nowhere to be found.

  For a short moment, loneliness and panic filled her. What would she do, alone on this strange world, with no way to ask for help? Her breathing accelerated until she started to feel lightheaded.

  “Get a grip,” she muttered to herself. “Fear helps nothing.”

  Little by little, she managed to control her heartbeat. She pushed her fear away with determination. Kris hadn’t abandoned her. She refused to believe that he had. She found a proof when she unfolded large leaves that had been woven in a crude bag and placed next to the fire. Several of her favorite fruits lay inside.

  “Breakfast,” she said to herself, and picked one of the golden-skinned fruits. “Nice.”

  In truth, she was growing tired of them already; her diet was starting to be a little monotonous. Still, it was much better than going hungry.

  She ate quickly, expecting Kris to return at any moment, but there was still no trace of him when she finished. She looked around the cave, then glanced outside. She had spent a long time looking at the drawings on the cave walls, and without any sketching or recording materials, she couldn’t do much more here. Maybe she would be safe exploring the immediate surroundings of the cave…

  Just in case, she took the knife with her.

  * * * *

  Longing to fly, Kris jumped from one branch to a higher one. His front right paw slipped on the thin bit of wood. The tree branch creaked ominously. Just in time, he found enough support to jump once more to a safer perch. He sat back on his hunches and raised his head. The morning clouds had dissipated, leaving the sky above him a pale blue, with the moons only a shade paler. It would be a warm day, perfect for walking through the forest. They should be able to cover a lot of ground.

  Shaking himself up, he started his slow descent back to the ground. He had left the cave before sunrise when the need to shift had taken hold of him. He had never felt it so acutely before, and he guessed it meant that soon his body would settle on his final form. He wished he had been able to decide what it would be.

  As he took his final leap down, he shifted, the larger body of his wolf form landing with a muffled thump. He had spent the last couple of hours going back and forth between panther and wolf, unable to remain in one form for more than a few minutes at a time. He loved both of them, just like he had loved his bird form. He had given up on the latter already, and he couldn’t manage to give up on another form again so soon.

  Without hurrying, he trotted back toward the cave. He wondered whether Zaren was still sleeping. He had hesitated earlier, when he had brought food to the cave, wondering whether he ought to wake her up. In the end, he had been unable to. She looked so peaceful as she slept, he had been loath to force her out of her dreams. After all, she had had an eventful day, and she needed the rest.

  Not even a hundred paces from the cave, he slowed down as he met a familiar scent. Stopping completely, he sniffed the air. Zaren’s trail was fresh, no more than a few minutes old. Where could she have gone? Did she think he had abandoned her?

  Troubled, he started following the trail, quickly realizing that it led toward the river. He found Zaren’s clothes paces away from the edge of the water, neatly folded on a large rock. He sniffed at them, then looked around, searching for Zaren. He was surprised to find her in the water, and his first instinct was to jump in, as he had the previous day, and help her out.

  However, he quickly realized she didn’t need his help. The curve in the river formed a small creek, and the water was almost still, small waves rising behind Zaren as she swam with long, leisurely strokes of her arms.

  A shiver ran over Kris. Her skin seemed even paler in the morning light. His fur felt electrified, like it always did during thunderstorms. The need to howl rose in his throat, and he only managed to stop himself when he remembered how scared of his wolf form she was. Howling now would do nothing more than frighten her.

  Even so, he couldn’t stop a whimper from escaping his throat. The glimpses of flesh she revealed as she swam made him yearn to see more, to jump in and join her, to return to his human body and—

  He shook himself out of his daydream, feeling ashamed at having spied on Zaren in this state of undress. He knew better than this. He was better than this. Chastising himself, he returned to the cave and shifted back to wait for Zaren’s return—and tried not to think about what he had seen of her, or more specifically, what he hadn’t seen.

  It proved more difficult than he would have thought. He had flirted with girls before, even kissed a couple of them, but he wouldn't be a man until he settled on his final form, and no woman would take him seriously until then. Having glimpsed at only hints of Zaren's nude body already had fiery thoughts running through his mind. Once again, he could only marvel at her beauty, at her strangely colored hair. Now, though, he also wondered what her skin would feel like under his fingers, or against his own skin, or even if he trailed his lips—

  Thankfully, by the time Zaren returned to the cave, Kris had calmed himself down. But even the small, exposed triangle of skin at her throat where she had failed to fasten her shirt caused Kris’ face to heat up again.

  * * * *

  Zaren was in the middle of the pond when she saw the wolf again. Fur rippling over its body, it was a mere two paces away from where she had left her clothes. For a moment she froze, wondering whether it would jump in the water and come to her again, maybe drag her out—maybe, this time, it would hurt her before Kris had a chance to scare it away. Before the first flash of fear had even finished from coursing through her body, the wolf turned away and left, its head low, its ears flattened over its head.

  Treading water, Zaren kept her eyes over the spot where it had disappeared. She expected it to return at any moment, and she was helpless: naked and without a weapon.

  When the wolf didn’t return, she made her way warily back to the shore. The water was cold, and while it had been invigorating at first, she was beginning to shiver and she couldn’t stay in much longer.

  The wolf seemed truly gone, she realized with a rush of relief. Yet, it couldn’t be a coincidence that the same wolf had been back. And it was the same wolf, she was sure of it.

  Was it following her? Stalking her? Was it playing with her, merely biding its ti
me before it attacked her? Or was it intrigued by her presence on its territory?

  She’d visited an animal planet, once, when she was just a child. She remembered the wolves vividly because they were so beautiful; she had thought they were just like nice big dogs, but the guide said they could be very dangerous in packs.

  Where was this wolf’s pack?

  She dressed quickly, not caring in the least that she had to slip her clothes on over still dripping wet skin. Her suit would absorb the water and dry quickly enough. The shoes bothered her more. They had not been made to trek through the woods, and they were hurting her feet.

  She considered the way back to the cave, the large, flat rocks which created a path. She would stay barefoot as long as she could, she decided. With the knife clenched in her right hand and her shoes in the left, she returned to the cave, attentive to every sound around her.

  She was relieved to discover that Kris was back. He was waiting for her and said her name when she entered. She replied in kind, noticing how pink his cheeks seemed to be.

  Pointing at the shoes in her hand, Kris said something—asked something, Zaren thought. She looked at his feet; she didn’t know how he could bear to walk around all day on the vegetation with nothing to protect his skin.

  “I guess it’s useless for me to ask if you have spare shoes,” she said with a sigh as she sat down to put her shoes on and lace them up. The soles had started coming apart, and she doubted they would last much longer. “I hope the shuttle isn’t too far.”

  “Shuttle?” Kris said, picking up on one of the few words he knew of her language.

  She looked up at him, wondering how to ask how long it would take them to get there. Kris didn’t meet her eyes, but he seemed to understand what she didn’t know how to ask, and he raised two fingers.

  “Two days?” she murmured. “Two more days, or two days counting yesterday?”

  It was probably a good thing she couldn’t ask. This way, when they left the cave with some supplies and blankets, she could fool herself into thinking they didn’t have far to go.

  * * * *

  “Walking through the woods was…”

  Several words ran though Zaren’s mind, and she paused to select the best one.

  Exhilarating? Definitely. Even if her shuttle had crashed, even if she had been in no way authorized to contact indigenous populations, even if, at that point, communication had been difficult, she had been aware with every step that she was on a new world, with a boy whose life was as different from hers as possible.

  Frustrating? Intensely. Every few minutes, new questions had popped into her mind, and it had been sheer torture not to be able to ask any of them to Kris.

  Exhausting? Very much so. While she was in good shape, she had never before attempted something as strenuous as trekking hours upon hours through the dense woods.

  Scary?

  “Zaren?” Loic murmured, leaning toward her and making her realize that she had been silent for too long.

  Yes. She could tell them about being scared. That was her safest bet at this point.

  “It was scary,” she finally finished, and she could see some members of the council give small nods of understanding. Most had been observers when they had been younger, and they might have felt the same way. “I’ve been in woods before, but the trees seemed so different from anything I had ever seen, and I could hear animals even if I didn’t see many of them. I was afraid something would attack me.”

  “You didn’t mention animals in your report,” Brink said, her voice suddenly as sharp as a blade.

  Zaren felt as though she had been thrown into an icy pond. She picked up her glass of water to give herself a few seconds to think. How could she have been so careless…

  “I forgot,” she said, trying to sound contrite. “I only saw glimpses of them, but what I saw resembled animals from terraformed planets.”

  “Such as?” a council member prompted her, his body leaning toward her in interest.

  Zaren thought fast. How much could she say? Could she trust herself not to slip again and reveal too much? Could she simply refuse to answer? If she did, it would only raise more questions. No, it was safer for her to answer, and try to shift the conversation to a safer topic as soon as she could.

  “I saw several kinds of birds,” she said very slowly. “One that looked like a falcon. Several smaller ones, some very colorful. A few small mammals. One of them looked like a squirrel, I guess. And then…” She swallowed hard. “There was a bigger animal that looked like a big dog, or a wolf, even.”

  She held her breath, waiting for someone to realize how important these last few words were, how much they hid.

  “Hmm, birds and mammals… Anything that looked reptilian?”

  Zaren replied before resuming her faulty retelling of the trek back to her shuttle. She felt no guilt about lying to the council: she had no choice if she wanted to keep her promise to Kris. She did regret, however, not being able to give him credit for all the help he had given her, not being able to share his mere existence with anyone.

  She missed him so much...

  Chapter 6

  Through the Woods

  Zaren’s second day of trekking through the woods was easier in some ways and more arduous in others. She was now used to the terrain, the protruding roots and branches that hung low, and so didn’t stumble as much as she had the first day. On the other hand, even after a good night of sleep, she was still exhausted, her body unaccustomed to the demanding walk.

  Breathing hard, she stopped for an instant, and used the tooth knife she had taken from the cave with Kris’ approval to cut down a certain kind of vine he had showed her the previous day. Pulling one end to her mouth, she sucked on the sap that instantly started to drip out, letting its coolness soothe her throat. Ahead of her, Kris had stopped too and looked back at her, waiting patiently as he always did.

  He came back toward her, holding out his hand and saying what she had learned was his word for the knife. She gave it to him, expecting him to cut down a vine too, although he usually ripped them with his bare hands. Instead, he crouched down and started digging into the earth at the foot of a tree, uprooting a small plant. Zaren watched him curiously when he pulled out the bulbous root of the plant.

  “Food?” she asked, and he nodded as he stood again.

  She looked at the bulb in his hand, and couldn’t help grimacing. She was tired of eating fruits and would have enjoyed this change of menu, but covered in dirt the root wasn’t all that appetizing. Kris caught her grimace and grinned.

  “Walk,” he said gently, and they started again.

  Rather than walking ahead of her as he usually did, however, he stayed by her side and showed her what he was doing. In his expert hands, the knife seemed to fly over the root, shaving off the skin along with the dirt. In a few minutes, all that was left was the whitish flesh of the root. Its smell was sweet, almost candy-like.

  Kris cut a slice of it and handed it to her. Their fingers touched as she took it. She glanced up at him, surprised by how fast he pulled back. He didn’t meet her eyes and gestured at the food in her hand. It was very moist and a little sticky. When she hesitated and did not take a bite right away, he cut a second slice and ate it as though to show her it truly was edible.

  “I guess there isn’t any water to wash it, huh?” she said to herself, sighing softly. “I suppose if I haven’t gotten sick by now…”

  She looked at him again, and he smiled encouragingly. She took a small bite of the root—and could have moaned in delight. She had thought the sap trickling from the vine was refreshing, but this… She took a larger bite. Juice and flavor flooded her tongue. She finished her slice in no time. When she turned to Kris to ask for more, he handed her the knife, and showed her a plant a few paces away. She eyed the already prepared root he held.

  “Why can’t I have this one?” she asked, pouting a little, as she pointed at his hands.

  Still smiling, Kris shook hi
s head. Undoubtedly, he had understood her tone, if not the words. With a sigh, she crouched over the plant and, a little clumsily, tried to repeat what she had seen him do. It took her a little more time than he had needed, but eventually she had a dirty root in her hands.

  They started walking again, and she worked on cleaning the food as he had. Her work wasn’t as precise as his had been, but she was pleased with herself when she ended up with an irregular but clean ball of flavor in her palm. Rather than slicing it as Kris had, she bit into the root. Sticky juice trickled down her chin, but she didn’t care. The food tasted even better for the time she had taken in preparing it.

  A quiet laugh drew her eyes to Kris. He said a few words which, of course, she didn’t understand, but the spark in his eyes made their meaning clear anyway. She smiled back, a hint of heat warming her cheeks. At times, she could have sworn he was flirting with her.

  They went on, picking up speed again now that neither of them needed to focus on their knife work. Zaren once again forgot to think about how strange her situation was, or about the difficulties that lay ahead of her. A training mission might not have been much different, or even a recreational trek to one of the newly colonized planets. Some people paid a lot of money to experience what video brochures claimed was a return to a long gone past, before mankind had soared into space.

  Zaren could admit this was one of the many reasons why she had wanted to become an observer. Just the same, she would have enjoyed this supposed return to the source a lot more if she had been able to communicate with her guide. Each time she tried to tell Kris something, or ask him a question, it hit her. She couldn’t call off the walk because she was tired, couldn’t ask for a ride to bring her back to base camp. All she could do was hope that they would find her shuttle, and that the communication systems would be functional enough to send a distress signal.