Mari's Mistake - Ruby Dixon Page 0,12

the other tribe was on? The spaceship we were smuggled here on? Earth? Somewhere else in this terrifying universe?

I have no answers, so I cross it out and replace it with “resonance.”

Problem Four—Language. I need to learn how to speak to T'chai. I need to somehow communicate to him that there's a volcano in the very near vicinity and we need to leave pronto. I need to tell him that I'm from Earth. I need to tell him…that I want to be his friend. I make a flustered noise in my throat and rub out the word “resonance” with my foot. Just writing it out makes me feel like a big doofus. I'm a grown woman. Surely I can navigate some casual sex with a hot tropical alien man? We can kick it Blue Lagoon style. Those movies were hot.

Wait. Didn't they die once they had a kid? And if we have sex, there will be a kid.

I mentally scratch Blue Lagoon off of my list of things to compare my situation to. Tarzan. Tarzan is better. I'll go with that. George of the Jungle works, too.

T'chai moves in the water, stabbing hard. I jump to my feet as he surges forward and makes a sound of success.

"Did you get something?" I call, wiping sand off my ass. (Literally. Sand is absolutely everywhere.)

He holds up his spear in triumph, and it's another fish, no bigger than my hand. It might even be smaller than the one I had earlier. He bounds back to shore with his catch—if you can call it that—and says something excited to me. As he does, I can't help but notice that T'chai's incredibly lean. He's gorgeous, his shoulders broad, but I notice when he moves that I can see all of his ribs. That's…concerning.

The waters are empty, except for this one lone, dumbass fish. Then again, of course they are. My cousin had a saltwater aquarium, and I remember it got too warm one day because she lost power in the summer. The tank got a few degrees too hot and all the fish went belly up.

My stomach clenches nervously and I look at the plume of smoke on the horizon. Heat. The water’s heating…and smoke on the horizon. “Oh boy," I whisper. "Ohhhh boy."

"Nih?" T'chai asks me, cutting the head off of the tiny fish and slicing it open. "M'rsl nih?" He gestures at his mouth, indicating eating.

Do I want to eat? No.

Right now? I very much want to hide. This island is tropical, but aren’t most tropical islands built from volcanic activity? Something tells me that we are in a lot of danger.

4

T'CHAI

My mate does not eat the fish I bring back to her. She encourages me to eat it, and when I will not without giving her a few tidbits, she takes them reluctantly and only nibbles, then hands the rest back to me. Her gaze strays to the sky, and she watches the smoke that rises from the Great Smoking Mountain's corpse. It worries her.

"It always smokes and makes angry noises," I reassure her. "It will not help things by not eating."

She just gives me another worried smile and points at it.

"I know. It cannot be solved this day. It will smoke until it stops." I shrug and offer her another tidbit of food. "We must be strong for when it shakes the world again. Me, you, and our daughter-to-be." Just the thought fills me with joy. M'rsl's strange appearance here is a gift to my struggling clan, and I will not worry over things I cannot fix.

I can worry over my mate and nothing more.

After there is no more fish, I gesture that I will head out into the water again. M'rsl shakes her head and tugs on my hand, leading me toward the trees. I let her pull me forward, but I stop her before she goes deeper into the jungle. "You do not want to go there," I promise her. "There are things that bite, and dangerous kaari that can tear you limb from limb. It is safe here on the shore." I reach out to stroke her cheek when she ignores me. "This shore is Tall Horn territory. The trees belong to Strong Arm. Do you understand?"

"Looooooorrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeenn," she howls, cupping a hand to her face. "Yaaaryuuuuliiiive?"

I wince at the sounds she is making. She will call everything in the jungle down upon us. I gently pull her away from the trees. "Come, my mate. It will be