each of the men.
Wren couldn’t believe what was happening. But what was happening? How did a tree fight off a person? The men yelped and screamed as they were hit time after time. Someone had entered the area and looked around. His hands raised into the air and the men stopped all they were doing.
When he stepped under the tree, branches swung at him. Raising his knife, he cut off the limbs as they came at him. Each slice tore into her arms. He was cutting it, making it bleed if that could happen.
“Stop it,” Wren hollered. More broken wood littered the ground. “I said stop it!”
The man looked at her with raised brows, and the wind in the tree quieted. What was their problem? When the man started talking, all three girls groaned. Not more of this strange language crap.
“Look,” she said, “we’ve already been through this once. We don’t understand your language even though you understand us. And, no, we don’t know why.”
The new man closed his mouth and looked back at the others. He turned back to the girls, his eyes stopping on Wren’s breasts, eyes widening a bit. She was about over this boob fascination. She swallowed her irritation, brought on by several things, and remained quiet.
The man approached them, his dagger in its sheath, and stared at Wren’s dirty bare feet. He said something and she answered. “I lost my shoes while I was swimming in the creek.” She jacked her thumb over her shoulder. “That’s why my clothes are wet, if you’re wondering.” His brow raised and his head tilted.
He held his hand out to help her up. Wren glanced at the others to get their opinion of this new development.
Daphne shrugged. “I don’t see why not. I don’t think they’re letting us go.”
“And they are all as cute as Zee,” Lilah added.
Wren took his hand, and he pulled her up, doing the same for each girl. The warriors walked away, the girls following.
“Hey,” Daph whispered, “what happened to Zee.”
Ugh. Not what she wanted to talk about. “I don’t know. He ran.”
“That doesn’t make sense,” Lilah added. “I would’ve picked these guys over a water monster any day. And I don’t even mean it that way.”
She didn’t know. He ran away instead of fighting. Even for her. Boy, had she misjudged what was going on between them. Tears stung her eyes. She really had hoped there was a connection.
Lilah put an arm around her shoulder. “It’ll be alright, Wren.” Lilah put her other arm around Daph. “It’ll be us against the world, just like it used to be when we were kids.”
“Dear God,” Daph said, “If we survived that, I guess we can survive this.”
Wren grinned. “You’re still allergic to getting hurt?”
“Damn right, I am. Y’all can fall out of as many damn trees as you want. My ass is not leaving the ground,” Lilah said.
“And that’s a lot of ass—”
“—to keep on the ground,” they finished together. They giggled, arms around one another. The guys glanced at them now and then, but Wren didn’t care. Her heart would hurt for a while, but she’d move on like humans always did. One step at a time.
Ahead, she heard voices and clanging of metals. Was this the civilization the man-who-will-remain-unnamed was talking about?
Coming out of the trees into a field of sunlight, the first thing she saw was a huge-ass garden with several people working it. She had no idea who was male or female. Most wore loin cloth diapers, a few others wore skirt-like wraparounds. And no one wore a shirt. Their cocoa skin gleamed in the sunshine.
Some wore their hair braided down the back, some had it wild and free. When they walked past a female staring at them, Wren understood their fascination with boobs.
“Uh, Wren,” Daph said.
“Yeah, I get it. Compared to completely flat chests, mine would seem quite strange.”
“They don’t even have to wear a bra,” Lilah said, jealousy in her voice. “I would do about anything for that.”
Wren snorted. “You think I wouldn’t?” She watched as a person on their knees dropped a seed into a hole, covered it, then placed their hands over it. After a couple seconds, the dirt moved and a green stem popped up. It kept getting bigger with several leaves blooming from the stalk. The person then scooted over and scooped out another hole and dropped a seed.
“Did you see that?” Daphne almost yelled, turning the heads of those nearby.
“Magic,” Wren explained. Like she thought