Unlikely Bonds

Chapter 21: Exploration

I jerked awake and was greeted with pain. My mask flickered, damaged by the fall, but still managed to provide me with night vision. I groaned as I sat up, the stinging pain I felt everywhere made me look down at my body. The glass had sliced into me everywhere, but as my mask did a scan of my condition, I was relieved to see most of the damage was surface wounds. The one that needed the most attention was a shard roughly two inches that was sticking out of my thigh.

I tried to call for Volok through the mask, but all I got was a static communication. As I looked up, I couldn’t even see a flicker of light. Just how far had I fallen?

The area I had fallen into was something not within my masks mapping systems, which meant that no Yautja had ever discovered this cavern before. I would have been more intrigued if I didn't have dozens of stinging cuts across my body with no sign of my mate.

The urge to call for Volok was intense, but I refrained from crying out just yet. I needed to secure my location first. As I looked around, I could see I was in some sort of cavern. Stalactites of varying sizes circled the relatively flat, open area which was roughly 800 sq ft.

My mask located what looked like a tunnel that was relatively stable. There was some condensation coming from the opening, but the stalactites seemed to contain some form of mineral that made the liquid gel up along the sides. Water. This had to be where the water from this planet came from. There was bound to be more further down and that meant I could get to a spot where that water reached the surface. There would be a way out of here.

My choice was made. Volok would not rest until he found me so I knew that following that tunnel would do nothing to deter that absolute fact, but first…

I sighed and opened up my medical kit from my right grieve. The smaller cuts would be fine, but that glass shard had to come out. Inside the kit was a variety of tools, but I selected two. The first was a set of pliers which I used to pull the shard out. The second was a temporary skin grafting gun. It wouldn't fix the wound, but it would stop the bleeding.

When that was done, I looked over myself once more to make sure I wasn't missing another area which could cause me to bleed out and put my tools back up. I stood up, placing some weight on my leg, frowning. There was more pain than I thought there would be. I would still be able to walk, but my movements definitely wouldn't be as seamless. It would have to do.

Taking care to mute every step, I started into the tunnel. It stayed a consistent diameter which was reassuring. I hated having to squeeze through tight spots. Every now and then I would hear the faint echoing plop of a droplet, but I couldn't ever seem to catch the sight of it.

The tunnel went on for what seemed like forever, but I continued it, wanting to map out everything I could. There was no reason for me to turn back. Hell, I couldn't even detect a hint of life down in these cool chambers.

Which was odd, wasn't it? Where there was water, there should be life. There was nothing here. There didn't seem to be anything organic in these tunnels. Not an insect. Not vegetation. Nothing.

My thoughts were interrupted as I started to pick up on the faint sound of water falling. Lots of it. I picked up my pace, ignoring the throbbing pain in my leg because if the sound was this far off down the tunnel, that meant this tunnel likely went on for miles.

My mask suddenly connected to Volok and I could hear his frantic voice. “ROSALENE!”

I winced at the explosive volume and scowled at him. “Geeze, Volok. You forget I have human ears. I'm okay. Where are you?”

I tried to send him my coordinates but for some reason they wouldn't go through.

“The crystal cave fell in on itself, trapping the hole you fell through.” Ah, that explained why I couldn't see a damn thing. “I'm in the ship using the direct connection because my mask was crushed in the fall.”

“You were still inside?! Why didn't you get out?” I asked incredulously.

“You fell through a hole. I wasn't going to save just leave you! The only reason I'm here now is because I couldn't lift the pauking things enough to get through! I wasn't about to blast through and risk you getting sliced either!” Volok growled and I heard something loud slam against metal. Probably his fist.

I smiled at his concern, the more human side of me touched that he cared for me. My other side said, “You insult me to be this worried about me. I will not die so easily, Volok.”

He gave a chittering growl of disapproval. Yeah, I knew that wouldn't go over well. He too had ample human in him due to the experiments done to him. Pauk, I loved him. “I'm patching into your video to locate your position. I'll send you to the closest exit points-”

I cut him off, “Or, now that you know I'm not in any danger of being ‘sliced up’ you can ‘blast through’ and catch up to me.”

Volok was silent for a few heartbeats, no doubt fighting with his anger. “You want me to chase you while we are on a hunt already?”

I slowed to look closer at a substance on the wall. It was a purple color which was why it caught my attention. They were veins of…some form of vegetation. I smiled as I ran my fingers over the leathery texture. I knew it. “Don't you find it odd that we couldn't find Anak even though there was evidence of a Yautja being up there? He couldn't have stayed in that heat after all of this time. His shields could not last in this heat, especially after my father stripped the ship he stole from receiving aid which he would need to charge his shields. He had to have had a means of staying cool. He is down here.”

I started moving again, and ignored the frustrated growl of my mate. He knew I was right. “I don't like this.”

I found myself giggling and moving into a sprint, the pain in my leg long forgotten. “Then you better catch up, shouldn't you?”

**AUTHOR'S NOTE***

Another short chapter, but I'm trucking through damn it. This book WILL be finished before New Years.