He leaned forward, reaching for her delicate body. How clever for her to hide there in exhaustion where she was sure to be safe from most predators. The trick now was to remove her without waking her. He did not want her to begin struggling as they dangled over a pit. It was not too much to hope that she would continue to sleep until he removed her fully from the crevice.
Ever so carefully, he looped an upper arm around her chest as his lower arm tucked around her thighs. She did not so much as sigh as he pulled her free. That did not concern him until he pulled her to safety and happened to glance down at her face. Her mask was a mess of cracks, her lips turning blue from the lack of air. Her helmet was broken and not supplying the air she required to survive, or admitting the divine breath of Inara Tahli.
Growling oaths at the stubborn female and her refusal to remove it as he had indicated many times, Rhyst gripped the helmet between his hands, his fingers searching out the mechanisms that locked it into place. One by one, he popped them open until finally the helmet dropped free. He tossed it away with disgust before turning the entirety of his attention on his offworlder.
Setting a large hand over her chest, he massaged it, forcing air into her lungs with compressions, taking care with his far greater strength and size not to hurt her. When she did not respond, he stopped the compressions to share his breath with her. Sharing breath was sacred and typically only done between mates for that reason, but he refused to allow the spark of her life to be forever snuffed out.
As he breathed into her, he felt no distaste in sharing this sacred intimacy. Releasing her mouth, he massaged her chest again, and a smile pulled at his lips when her chest heaved. A rattling cough came from her before she drew in another deep breath.
He knew the moment that the breath of Inara Tahli entered her. It was exactly as their ancestral knowledge told. Her body stilled first, mouth gaping as if she couldn’t draw in a deep enough breath, as if all the essence of Inara Tahli rushed within her. Her body trembled, and a gurgle bubbled up from her lips. Rhyst turned her on her side as she heaved, expelling the acids from her stomach as her body worked to adapt.
A frown pulled his brow low. There were some instances where offworlders did not survive the gift. There were gentler methods to adapt other species to their air, but all the technology was at the city—too far away to save Cha’lii. He shook his head, throwing that thought to the wind. Cha’lii would survive the gift of divine breath. She would live and become the first among the offworlders bonded to this place rather than hiding within their domes and behind their helmets.
He held her in his arms until the last of the tremors had left her before he carried her up the slope, her body a familiar weight in his arms. The flaking of mud all over his fur was a nuisance, but one that he could easily live with. His entire focus was consumed by the need to get her back to the shelter of the protected cavern above the flat resting rock.
Eager to get her someplace safe, he bounded up the remaining distance. An opportunistic scavenger hopped along the rocks, searching for a way to get into the cave, but it fled with a panicked titter when he voiced his irritation with an angry snarl. As it cleared out of his way, Rhyst leaped into the cavern overhanging the rock, Cha’lii nestled against him.
Despite the frantic mutterings of his mind insisting he deposit her and regain his distance and control over himself, he did not put her down when he slipped inside. Instead, he nudged the dan’shival to the far side of the cave with one paw and glared at the rocky ground, loath to set her upon it while she was recovering.
Finding a smooth patch of ground, he laid her there for the time it took him to drag the dan’shival to the rocks below to butcher it. The fresh meat he brought back to the cave and spitted over a fire to roast until it was fully cooked. As he ate, his eyes