spears of Uu'kata (CLEAN(ish) Version)

Chapter 23 - A Small Creature in a World of Giants

Charlotte watched the warriors disappear through the portals with battle cries and roars of excitement. On the other side of those portals, she saw a sand-blasted warehouse and for just a moment, she was close enough to home to touch it, if she were to just run. Could she make it through a portal before they closed? Even if she did, would she come into contact with her own people before she asphyxiated on the poisonous air of Andora 7?

She had no idea how far from home the Uu'k'asht planet was, but in that moment, it was a matter of feet.

And she couldn't do it. She knew she wouldn't survive it unless her people were already there. The mech suits had exterior panels full of nose-clip air filters. A safeguard in case a fellow soldier had to eject from their suit and couldn't get to their own filter stash in time. But she knew it would be fifteen to thirty minutes before her people landed in response to the Uu'k'asht raid. Even then, they'd be too busy fighting to be able to stop long enough for her to grab a filter.

It was hopeless. Though, if it wasn't, would she have gone through a portal? She thought of her interaction with Ahnekk in the early hours. Of his broad body beneath hers, his tongue on her. He was strong enough to pick her up as though she weighed nothing at all and at nearly six feet tall and muscled, Charlotte wasn't exactly light. Even now, watching the portals close, cutting her off from escape, she remembered his mouth on her and how he'd growled in pleasure, then left her hanging, horny and unfulfilled.

Dick.

"Charlotte, come," Shodara said beside her, taking her by the elbow.

She looked up at the dark female and frowned. Shodara smiled kindly.

"Aren't you worried about them?" Charlotte asked.

Shodara's head tilted, and the corner of her mouth ticked up ever so slightly.

"Are you?" she asked.

Charlotte scoffed and shook her head, looking at the now empty field where the portals and a horde of Uu'k'asht had just been.

"No," she said. "I'm worried that my friends will be there and that they'll be hurt or killed."

"Ah, I see," Shodara said. "Well, all we can do is hope and prepare."

"Prepare for what?"

"The return. Today we will help to cook meals and prepare bandages and other medical supplies. Come, we start by collecting shirini leaves. They must be mashed into a pulp to be spread over injuries to prevent infection."

Charlotte raised an eyebrow. "Can't you just magic away injuries?" she asked, waiving her fingers in the air.

Shodara laughed. "That isn't how magic works," she said patiently, guiding Charlotte to a stack of baskets.

"Why not?" Charlotte asked, snatching up a basket.

"Magic is not something that just takes care of everything, Charlotte. It is like the wind and the water. It is there, then it is not."

Charlotte's mind grabbed hold of that and ran. Maybe she was trying to get her mind off other things, but the magic of the Uu'k'asht was something that had baffled her people for years. They'd rationalized that it had to be some kind of technology that they just couldn't see or comprehend yet because they didn't have enough data. But she'd seen it in action. She knew it wasn't some kind of technology. It couldn't be.

"Can you explain it to me?" Charlotte asked. "Is it something you can all do?"

Shodara sighed and turned to Charlotte, stopping her, and said, "I have been told not to answer such questions. Nothing that is a secret to our people is to be told to you while you withhold how to disable the suits."