never left her, studying every inch of the female lying there. He debated leaving her there. He doubted it would hurt her any, especially not with the thick layers she wore. But could he be certain?
With a disgruntled sigh, Rhyst moved to her side and dropped to the ground so she could stretch out comfortably against him. His pale fur cushioned her like a halo of light. There was something so special about that moment that it pulled at his soul, against his resistance. He set one furred hand against her cheek and stroked the flesh there, the bare pads of his fingers registering the surprising softness he found.
Hazy blue eyes opened and blinked up at him. “You’re here,” she whispered through her delirium. A frown puckered her brow. “Or are you?” A sigh rattled through her. “I don’t regret it, you know. Even though I’m dead, I don’t regret it for a minute.” Her eyes drifted shut as she wheezed.
Rhyst held her until she quieted, his heart constricting. His grip loosened when he thought she slept again but, out of nowhere, her voice trailed over him like a caress. It was so soft it would have been inaudible for a being with weaker hearing, but he captured every word that fell from her peculiar pink lips.
“Spent my whole life in a cage, exploited. Couldn’t stand to watch you go through that. Freedom is worth it.”
Leaning forward, Rhyst brushed her hair from her face. “It is.” He drew a deep breath, feeling the breath of Inara Tahli fill him and grace him with her bounty. “All things are free on Inara Tahli,” he said quietly. “She shares her breath with us so that we may always know what it is to be unbound. Nothing can control her breath, and she so reminds us to be free whenever we take it within us. Our people forgot it once, many generations ago. We may have been something similar to your people back then. We disrespected the holy laws of the Great Mother En’el, disrespected her with the breath of our words, renounced the heartblood of our world within our veins, and committed atrocities that our histories will not allow us to forget by her will. Yet when we came into balance, freed Inara Tahli once more, and allowed her breath to provide life, all shackles fell away. The breath of Inara Tahli is freedom, Cha’lii. Breathe deep and take her into you so that you are freed, reborn of this world.”
He watched with gratitude as her chest rose in a deep breath, and his heart stuttered with just how profound this moment was. She drew in the breath even though she knew not what he spoke. She followed his lead with her heart open, even as she surrendered to his lead within the colony, no matter how at odds it might have been with her original plan. This female followed him, an a’sankh. The first beyond memory to be trusted by a female with her care. His chest swelled with pride, and he continued to stroke her hair, luxuriating in the softness with every touch.
He whispered stories held in his heart and mind as he gave her what little comfort he could. After a time, he moved her to the floor once more so he could carefully strip away the layers of protective clothing to attend to her needs. Her body was strange to him, different from even a Tak’sin with her lack of a tail and her smooth, furless flesh except for where she had patches of hair. Despite being odd, he found its softness fascinating. He was tempted to reach out and touch the soft flesh, but he drew back in self-disgust. She is unconscious! She required his care, not his inappropriate curiosity. She was a fallen warrior—nothing more.
With that mindset, he tended to her as dispassionately as possible. When he touched her, it was only to assist her. He kept his attention toward caring for her, leaving her side only when necessary.
On one of the occasions he left her side, he removed the skull of the dan’shival, breaking away the frills before bringing it back up into the cave. His voice never changed from his soothing drone as he broke it down further into a bowl and filed the edges against stone. This he set aside for her needs and settled her once more against his fur until her body, wiggling against his own in desperation, relayed her subconscious