Savage King: New Worlds - Milly Taiden Page 0,6
nearby.”
A dump? He wondered if they were talking about him.
“I wish we had some water.” Each of the girls was sweating in the heat.
“Let me wring my shirt out for you. I can’t believe how humid it is. And the sun is just coming up. Grandmom is going to be so pissed.”
“How long do think until we find civilization, Wren?”
“Lilah, Daphne, I hate to tell you this,” the one called Wren said, “but there aren’t any jungles in the United States.”
The one with the bigger hips groaned. “Dammit, I knew this felt wrong. What do you think Daph?”
“I feel that way too.” The one who must be Daphne whispered. “I’ve never seen leaves so big and so many plants in one place.”
Big Hips sighed. He guessed she was Lilah. “Let’s port back to Chelsea’s and wait for Grandmom to get us.”
He caught the scent of worry from the group. They formed a circle and stretched their arms out. Something sat in their hands, but he couldn’t see what. Each female touched their fingers together and stood there. After a quiet moment, they looked around. He didn’t see anything. What were they doing?
“Let’s try again.”
He slinked around to a different angle to get closer. Again, they put their hands out, and he noted that each held a small rock they touched together.
“It’s not working! Wren, make it work.”
“Me? I don’t know how it works.”
“You’re the smart one—”
“This isn’t brains. It’s—”
“Calm down,” Lilah said. “We just need to remember exactly what Grandmom did. Did she say any words or make any moves with her hand or head?”
Wren, his female, sighed. He almost felt her frustration. “We didn’t say anything the first time. Why would we now? But I didn’t see Grandmom do anything, but she could’ve done a spell in her head.”
“Great.”
“How are we supposed to know what she chanted? Whose idea was this?”
His striking fae came toward him, her eyes watching the ground as she walked. He lowered to his belly and slinked back. She passed right in front of him. Her scent was sweet and mouthwatering.
“Hey,” she said, “have you noticed the color of the trees?” She rubbed a hand along the bark. Oh, what he would do to be that piece of tree. “They’re black, not brown. I wish I could’ve seen this before we stepped through the portal. I wouldn’t have gone through.”
“Wren,” one of the females said, “now is not a time to be tree hugging.”
He loved her name. Wren. Beautiful.
Wren grabbed a hold of the lower branch and pulled herself up. His jaw dropping, he couldn’t take his eyes from the beauty in the tree. The way her muscles rolled and bulged, her graceful move from one limb to another.
From there, she looked around. He didn’t know what she expected to see. But, hopefully, it wasn’t the snake big enough to swallow his tigron farther up in the tree.
He didn’t think the females would take seeing that too well. If it moved, he’d have to scare them on.
“I don’t see any signs of people anywhere.” She climbed down and slipped on her shoes she’d taken off earlier. He breathed a sigh of relief. What would he have done if she injured herself? “What do we do now?”
He lay in the ferns, watching, wondering where the females intended to go. Could it be they were lost? Why did they come through the portal if they didn’t know where they were? His nose picked up the scent of overwhelming fear. Wren was bent over, hands over her face. Her breathing was quick and shallow. What was wrong with her? Whatever it was, he’d fix it.
He rose to his paws to go to her, but she darted away. The other two females hollered, then chased after her. He followed, wondering what was happening. His head still ached from hitting the tree when dodging a poisonous flower stinger.
He came upon her standing in front of a white flower whose open blossom was as tall as she was. He needed to scare her away before she got too close. That flower would bring her a very painful and long death.
Chapter Three
“Hey, guys,” Wren hollered over her shoulder. Upon seeing the gigantic majestic flower, her panic attack vanished. She’d never seen anything so beautiful or huge. She felt like an ant standing next to it.
The stem wasn’t strong enough to hold such a large blossom up, so the flower itself had tipped to the side, one of the petals resting on the