Dragon's Isolation - Miranda Martin Page 0,30

break down into a quivering mess.

“Very dangerous,” he says. “Poison.”

“Right.” I take a deep breath and let it out slowly.

Sometimes the planet likes to give us a reminder that our environment is dangerous. Especially when it seems like it’s the least dangerous.

We work together until I’m exhausted. As I try to lift yet another crate my muscles tremble and refuse to pick it up. I drop to the floor and lean back against the wall, huffing and puffing. Shidan lifts the crate I was attempting to and sets it over in the done pile, the ones we’ve explored. After he finishes, he comes and sits down next to me.

“This is hopeless,” I say.

He rests his hand on my knee but doesn’t say a word. He’s staring off into the darkness that’s claiming the medical bay. Already it’s to the point I can’t really see, but I know his eyesight is much better than my own in these situations.

“What are we looking for?” he asks after a while.

I stare at him as my stomach drops. My chest tightens and my throat constricts. I can’t form the words for some time. He turns and looks, waiting for my answer. I shake my head, biting my lip to try and hold back the tears. He smiles but his eyes are empty of understanding. He truly doesn’t remember why we came here.

“We’re looking for a machine,” I remind him.

“Oh,” he says, not showing any sign of the deeper understanding I want him to have. That I desperately need him to have.

“You’re sick,” I say. “Remember?”

“I’m sick?” he asks, surprise in his voice and on his face when he looks back to me.

“Oh, Shidan,” I say, unable to hold back my tears any longer.

I touch his face, tracing the lines I know like the back of my hand. He leans into my touch, replicating it by touching my face too.

“You are very beautiful,” he says softly.

“Thank you,” I say through my tears.

“Why are you sad? I want to fix it,” he says.

My tears choke me, and I can’t answer. I shake my head and scoot over until I’m in his lap and resting my head on his chest. I’m losing him, and there’s not a damn thing I can do about it.

8

SHIDAN

The fog in my head grows thicker and thicker. While we were working, I didn’t notice but when we stopped to rest, and I wanted to ask her about what we’re doing I realize what’s happening. She rests curled up in my lap. I run my hands through her hair, down her back, and then back up.

She doesn’t speak, and I’m grateful for it. My words have hurt her, and that’s the last thing I want. I know I’m sick, but I don’t feel like I am. If anything, I feel fine, if not for the thick feeling in my head. It’s a little hard to think, but I don’t need to think to know I love her.

Holding her in my arms is right. I know it. The dragon stirs in my core breathing its fire. That fire burns through my veins. She is mine. My treasure. We belong together.

She sobs and the sound of it breaks my heart. I don’t understand her sadness. I am here, we are together, and I will destroy anything that tries to harm her. Formless anger surges bringing the cloud of instinct with it, but I push that down. There is no enemy here to face.

“Shhh,” I say, a soothing sound. “What is wrong, my treasure? I would destroy that which bothers you.”

She sobs harder, shoulder shaking as she grabs me tighter and buries her face against my chest. I don’t know how to help so I hold her and wait. Eventually I hope it will be clear what I should do. Nothing does come clear, but soon her breathing evens out, and then she is asleep.

I hold her tight, refusing to move even as my muscles burn from being locked into one place for too long. I’m not going to disturb her rest. She must need it. I look around the room we’re in. We came here for something, though I don’t remember what.

I think I should remember. It seems I know it, but what it is won’t come to mind. So I contemplate that, trying to remember what it was we were hoping to find here. This is the… ship. Yes, she called it a ship.

It was the transport that her race was on. It’s fall