Echoed Lullabies (Lunar Chronicles x Reader)

Chapter 31

My weapon was in my hand immediately.

The creature balked and tumbled down the dune, blood dribbling from the wound in its side. Cress cried out and fell backward. Thorne pulled her down into the sand. "Cress! Are you all right?"

She was shaking.

"Cress! Cress!"

"She's fine!" I shouted harshly, gun held out in front of me, gaze still trained on the edge of the dune.

A man appeared at the top of the dune, carrying a shotgun.

He saw the animal first, dying or dead, but then spotted me in the corner of his eye. He yelped, barely keeping his balance, and gaped. His eyebrows disappeared beneath a gauzy headdress. His brown eyes and the bridge of his nose were all I could see of his face, the rest of him covered in a robe that draped nearly to his ankles, protecting him from the harsh desert elements. Beneath the robe peeked a pair of denim pants and boots that had long been sun bleached and caked with sand.

His eyes then narrowed and he pointed his gun at me. He shouted something, but it was in a foreign language—the syllables rolled of his tongue, but there was a slight snap in the way he spoke.

"Lower your gun!" I demanded.

"Universal, then?" he said, in a thick accent that still made it a struggle to capture the words.

"The gun!"

He slowly slung it around his shoulders and held out his hands. "I am just a hunter. I mean no harm."

After a moment, I lowered my weapon as well.

He scanned our ragged clothes and sheets. "You are not from here."

"Yes—sir," said Thorne, his voice rusty. "We need help. My...my wife and her sister were attacked and robbed two days ago. We have no more water. Please, can you help us?"

The man squinted. "Your eyes?"

Thorne's lips puckered. He'd been trying to hide his new disability, but his eyes still looked unfocused. "The thieves gave me a good blow to the head," he said, "and my sight's been gone ever since."

"Your wife...why does she have a weapon?"

"My husband stole it off one of the robbers," I lied smoothly, ignoring the tiny jolt that shot through me. "I've been in charge of it while he carried my sister. She has a fever. Help us, please."

The man nodded. "Of course. My—" He stumbled over the language. "My friends are not far. There is an oasis near here. We have a ... a camp."

Cress whimpered.

"I must bring the animal," the man said, tilting his head toward the fallen creature. "Can you walk? Maybe ... ten minutes?"

"We can walk," I replied.

The ten minutes seemed like an hour as we followed the man through the desert, treading in the wake carved out by the animal's carcass. I was beside Cress, ready to catch her in case she collapsed again.

"'Wife?'" I asked Thorne in a harsh whisper. "Really?"

"You have a better idea?" he hissed back. "Stay close. Try not to look like you hate me."

I rolled my eyes but followed.

When I spotted the oasis, like paradise before us, a sudden burst of joy struck me.

We'd made it.

"Describe," Thorne murmured, gripping my elbow.

"There's a lake," I replied, "surrounded by grass and a few dozen palm trees. Seven people. Camels, tied up near the water."