Staying perfectly still, Izara pressed her body into the base of the thick tree and watched as the yautja stalked through the undergrowth below. His head moved slowly from side to side as he scanned the thick jungle for her presence. Izara did not move. She barely even breathed from her perfectly balanced on a branch.
Only after ten minutes did she allow herself to let out a silent breath of relief. Turning her head to the side, she nearly jumped at the small face five inches from hers.
Izara let out a breathless little laugh and smiled at the lizard hanging out on a branch watching her.
"I'm not avoiding him per se," she whispered defensively to the lizard. She knew this wasn't the same lizard she saw when she first arrived on the planet, but she liked to imagine it was. Treating each lizard she came across as the same and picking up her conversations where she left off was totally rational, she mused.
Glancing back down to the ground below, she scanned for the hunter in question. Good, still nothing.
Guiltly, she looked back at the lizard who continued to stare tirelessly at her. "It's just...hard for me to face him right now," she admitted with a groan as the embarrassing memories of the other night resurfaced.
It had been three days since she drunkenly confessed her feelings for Bor. More importantly, three days since she awkwardly forced him to say he liked her too. Izara's stomach churned hot with humiliation. She teetered between the overwhelming want to throw herself into the sea or puke. Closing her eyes, she turned and hugged the tree, pressing her cheek into the scratchy bark.
"Why? Why? Why would I do that?" she moaned quietly. "Now, it's so awkward."
Granted it really only seemed to be awkward for her. Bor didn't seem phased in the least from her cringe-worthy antics. From the moment she woke up the next day until now, he seemed to be his usual monosyllabic self. Well, except for the never letting her out of his sight bit. That was new and odd.
But beyond that, he seemed perfectly normal. Since he decided to stay around the ship and forgo his usual hunting habits, they spent the last three days working on his weapons modifications. With him silently working and her hardly speaking because she was constantly dying every few minutes on the inside due to reliving her drunken confession. It made every minute of each day hell. The progress they made on the plasma capabilities and her period coming to an end were really the only positives Izara could claim for the past seventy two hours.
"I bet he thinks I'm a sad pathetic sack," she whined, staring into the glossy black eyes of the lizard.
Even now she could remember his growled "yes" as he admitted to liking her back all the while backing away. Her stomach knotted painfully and she hugged the tree tighter willing it to come alive and just eat her now.
"Everything had been so perfect until I fucked it up," she cried.
Pulling her legs up to wrap around the tree, Izara knew she resembled a koala bear right now. She didn't care. She needed to think. To somehow squeeze all of her shame into this tree. More importantly, she needed some lizard-therapy.
Pitifully, she stared into the lizard's pitiless eyes. "And do you know what the worst part is?" She didn't wait for a reply. "Bor is being so nice about this. And he says yautja aren't nice," she scoffed. "He is trying to be considerate and keep me company every day... even every minute of the day actually," she mused aloud thinking of Bor's intense presence the past few days.
He must really be concerned for her. He hardly left her side now.
"Izara."
She froze at the rumbling sound of her name. Slowly, she turned her head far enough to see behind her and paled at the sight below. Standing there holding her purposely discarded wrist unit in his clawed hand, Bor stood there looking up at her.
Turning her head back into the tree, she gave it one last pleading whisper. "If there was anytime for you to become sentient and have a taste for human flesh, now would be the time."
The tree did not answer her plea.
Shamefaced she extricated herself from around the tree and turned around to look at him from her branch.
Bor's eyes glowed in the low light of the jungle. "Why do you hide from me?"
"I'm not hiding," she lied. Glancing over to the other branch, she looked for the support of her therapist lizard. He was gone.
The traitor!
Bor made a deep noise in his chest that she was positive was one of frustration.
"I just needed some space to think," she tried again.
"Explain," he demanded curtly.
Feeling put on the spot, Izara nervously scratched at the bark on the tree behind her back. "I...I...I don't want to."
Bor let out a growl that vibrated the air. "Come." The simple one-worded command held a lot of weight and she felt her muscles twitch with the need to obey.
Shaking her head she took a step back pressing herself into the tree. "No. I just..."
Bor did not let her finish. His eyes grew bright as he stared her down. "If you will not come down willingly. I will come to you."
Izara didn't move or speak. Maybe he would just go away and...
Bor stepped to the tree and braced a foot at its base. The thick claws on his toes sank into the bark. He was being completely serious she realized. He was going to climb this tree and come get her!
"Okay fine. I'm...I'm just embarrassed, okay!" she relented. Running a hand through her short curls she looked up to the sky through the dense leaves. "I'm embarrassed that I admitted my feelings to you while drunk on that very delicious wine you made. And I want to just die when I think how I forced you into telling me you liked me too."
Bor didn't respond.
Izara tried not to look at him, but every second of the building silence sent her nerves buzzing until she practically vibrated off the branch she was standing on. Reluctantly she gave up the fight and looked back down at his unreadable face. With his mandibles perfectly still over his mouth and his naturally fierce beady eyes trained on her, she wasn't sure what he was thinking.
Eventually, he spoke, his words abrupt and forceful. "Your shame is ill-placed. Come. We will continue our work."
Izara wanted to throw something at him. Here she was baring her feelings to this crocodile-crab-warrior after he interrupted her important lizard-therapy session and he won't even say anything about her embarrassment!
Annoyed she crossed her arms and shot him a mean smile. "And if I were to say no--Aaah!!" her words were cut off as the branch she stood on shook with the sudden weight of Bor pulling himself up with one clean overhead pull.
Pulling himself up and standing up to his full height balancing easily on the narrow branch, Bor reached out above her. With one hand at her waist and the other embedded into the tree's bark above her head, he leaned over her. In this position, she could really appreciate the intricate details of the new armor he finished. The new black armor gave off a deep purple sheen when the light hit it just right.
"I will not accept that answer," he growled darkly.
Izara didn't say anything and she followed the hunter back to their side of the island. There was something unspoken in the air between them that seemed to grow heavier with every minute of silence that passed. What could she even say? She already felt foolish and exposed. If she said anything more it would be the one thing she was desperately trying to avoid. Because even though Bor might have been forced into saying he liked her that night--her confession was completely real.
Back at the camp, Izara pushed the thought from her mind. With the weapons parts scattered on the large makeshift rock table, Izara sat down and got to work. The sun was falling below the horizon. The deadly ocean seemed to swallow the fiery orb as it sank beneath its terrifying dark waters. She watched as the last remaining shafts of warm light fought valiantly across the shining surface before losing its nightly war to the dark. The exterior lights on the pod brightened above them allowing them to continue to work. Occasionally, Izara found herself glancing up at the yautja sitting across from her, and her heart couldn't help but ache. His clawed fingers were so big and deadly and yet they worked deftly with the fine material. She loved that about him, his gentleness that somehow complimented his overall intensity.
Not for the first time Izara remembered their situation. Any day they could be "rescued." Taken back to the Black Mountain base station where she would once again be a social pariah and all alone. While Bor would most likely break out from any sort of captivity and go back to living his life free amongst the known and unknown galaxies--without her.
Izara suddenly stood up from her spot on the ground. Bor looked up from his work and stared at her. "I don't want to go back to the Black Mountain," she blurted out.
Bor stared at her unblinking.
The awkward tension returned to her gut and Izara looked away as she tried to force out the words building up inside of her. "Before I...I thought I had to go back, because where else would I go? The base is all I know, but now after being here and meeting you...I want to be strong. I want to have some of your courage. I don't want to go back," she finished in a whisper.
Bor stood up. Izara tilted her head back and watched him as he fixed her with a determined look.
"You will come with me," he announced. "Back to my planet, Ojibwe."
His words left her stunned and confused. "But what about your mission?" she reminded him. "You didn't get to complete..."
Bor shook his head once. His red eyes gleamed at her in the dark like rubies. "You are my mission," he said, his voice heavy with certainty.
It felt as if her heart was blooming while the world around her was expanding. All the dark parts of her mind that had been filled with dread and uncertainty were crumbling away and exposing the light. Was he going to just abandon his mission, just like that? Would he really let her go with him?
Stepping closer to him, she grabbed his clawed hand in both of her hands and held it while meeting his gaze intently. "Do you really mean it? You're not just saying that to be nice, right?"
Bor tilted his head and gave her a long considering look before nodding once. "Where you go, I will go."
A warm giddiness rushed through her like petals scattering on a breeze. She looked at him and could see the seriousness in his steadfast gaze and knew he meant it, but she could hardly believe it. Unable to contain the pure joy running through her she smiled up at him. His dark pupils widened as he watched her stand on her tiptoes.
With her arms out wide, Izara had every intention of hugging the quiet yautja. She wanted to squeal in happiness and jump up and down in his arms and share her excitement, but the pressure of something wrapping around her waist stopped her. She only had a second to look down in horror at the dark tentacle wrapping tightly around her and one second to look back up at Bor's fiery glowing eyes.
Her scream was lost in the wind as her body was yanked backwards and everything around her went black.
