In The Lair of the Draca (Book 2)

In the Lair of the Draca (Book 2)-- Chapter 6: Beast

Ziuta blinked herself awake to the drip of something frothy and fetid on her cheeks; drip-drip-drip.

Foul breath puffed into her face, like a hot gale that blasts whorls of cooking smoke upwards. Something straddled her, welling with a deep, throaty growl that turned her insides into jelly.

I'm alive! And something-- something's going to eat me!

For a brief second-- a brief second only-- Ziuta gave in to the feelings of confusion and disorientation. The sights, smells, sounds, and feel of Kiwa saturated her belly with longing. The grass would be so soft beneath her feet, and the ripples of water at the washing Pool  blissfully inviting to her fingertips. She would crouch and touch the surface of the glassy pool just to watch those ripples, and Derak would be beside her. Sweet, precious Derak, who had pledged to love her with as much longing as his immature little boy's heart would permit. He had held her hand, walked closely enough next to her so that their hips brushed, and even swept her hair away from her forehead and back behind one ear, in that absent way of his.

He never minded her gangly limbs, the features that had set her apart from all the rest, or the single blazing green eye that would always give away exactly who her father was. In spite of the coquettish expressions of interest from other girls their age, Derak had loved her, and only her. And not in the way that brothers loved their sisters, either, but in a way that was altogether wonderful.

Altogether different.

For that one wonderful second, Ziuta allowed herself to feel the warmth of Derak's invisible embrace.

Then came the shrill scream that left her eardrums ringing and tore her back to reality.

Steaming breath plastered her face with a heat strong enough to singe her eyebrows. And all at once, the heart-breaking realization came to Ziuta that she was not at home, and nor would she be, ever again. Kiwa was gone, and Derak lost. She had left them all behind in search of that magnificent blue world where she'd finally belong, be happy, and maybe even raise a child of her own. And the people would actually look like her. She was destined for that place-- Erd, Joo-lee had called it. The dreams had confirmed it, whispering to her while beckoning with misty fingers as she slept.

They tricked me. My dreams were wrong! They told me lies to get me onto that ship so I would have a terrible death in the end!

Before she could stifle a sob, a shrill bellow pierced the heavy stillness like the voice of a siren. It was neither a person nor an animal, but the only creatures large enough that Ziuta knew to be serious threats were cattle. Where there cattle here?

A massive paw gripped her about the waist and slung her onto her stomach. For all the force that she absorbed, she might have been a weak reed doll pounded by furious waves. Instinct screamed into her brain that she must lie still and feign death, but Ziuta's blood-- half Nasa'a, and yet not Nasa'a-- resisted. Rather than collapsing, she remained on her elbows, desperately scanning her surroundings with acuminous eyes that probed every nook, cranny, and bit of brush that might serve as a hiding place. Everywhere, there was waist-length green grass. Colossal mahogany tree trunks skewered the alien sky like knives. There was also dense brush speckled with brilliant blossoms of blue, red, yellow, and even lilac. The ground was moist under her clawed fingers, but unlike clay.

This place was not like any she could have possibly imagined. But where were the People? And how could she evade the terrible creature that lurked just behind her, set to rake the flesh from her bones?

Another swipe of the gruesome claw sent her reeling. Down an incline she tumbled, head over heels across what must have been every thorn, vine and pebble in the gods-forsaken place. She was pummeled from all angles while sliding helplessly. Ziuta knew that in the morning-- if she survived-- there would be bruises. Ugly purple ones, like on the faces of some of the women her father used to bring home.