Stolen - Nhys Glover Page 0,71

antics of the young Danans, which included Rian, as a fascinating soap opera. I wished I could distance myself from it as he did. But then, I had feelings, and I wasn’t much more mature than the boys, so I was pretty much in the drama, like it or not.

“We aren’t boys!” Rian snapped aloud, his position making his voice come out oddly.

“Then stop acting like you are. You’re facing something unexpected and unheard of. Welcome to my world! Learn to adapt like adults do. Sulking and calling, ‘not fair!’ doesn’t cut it anymore,” I declared, giving Lain a slight slap on the arm to make my point.

For a long time they were silent as they considered my words. The only sounds were their labored breaths and regular footfalls on the soft ground. I intentionally kept my new-found shields up to allow myself some much-needed peace.

When we stopped again much later, we were in a completely different place. Huge cavernous caves lurked overhead and the sky had darkened considerably without me being aware of it.

“We won’t need a fire. There are no predators around. If we spend the night here we need to find a shallow cave. A deep one might house Vargeez. I can’t be sure, because the mountain restricts my sensors,” Nial said, pulling out his gadget to check our location and whatever else he did with it.

Lain had put me down, and it was a relief to feel the soft purple grass underfoot. It amazed me how soft and welcoming the ground was on this continent. In the north, the ground was hard and dusty.

While Meida stood guard, the others went to check out the caves nearby. Even Charsus did his share. I worried that he might not be up to fighting any unexpected attacks, but my fears were put to rest as Rian selected a long, staff-sized stick and hefted it with an expertise that surprised everyone.

“You handle that well,” Lain acknowledged.

“I always was better at Gaian fighting styles than you, brother,” Rian snarked, pleased with himself.

Lain conceded grudgingly and headed off with him to explore the caves nearby.

“This isn’t an ideal location for rescue,” I pointed out to Meida, who was searching through the packs for something.

“The Vargeez are more active at night. We needed to get under cover so they didn’t spot us from the sky. Maybe tomorrow we can find a suitable open space to place the beacon and a good hiding place nearby from which we can watch the skies,” he told me matter-of-factly, his eyes on the pack’s innards.

Finally, he stood up with a bottle in his hand. He offered it to me. All the time he’d been talking he’d been looking for water for me? He should be the one who drank first, as he was carrying the heaviest load, yet he insisted I drink first.

After taking a few small sips, I handed the water back to him. After assuring himself I was satisfied, he drank deeply. When he was finished, he gave a relieved sigh and sat on a nearby rock. The forest here was filled with soft sounds, small creatures and even insects, as well as the exotic flowering trees. This was better. This was the way Eden should be. Not the sterile, silent place we had been before.

“I guess the Vargeez haven’t devoured this spot in a while.”

Meida nodded, glancing around. “Yeah, it feels alive. That’s definitely a sign the Vargeez aren’t encroaching close-by.”

“I haven’t even seen these monsters yet, and I already hate them. It’s just wrong that they should be allowed to destroy the ecology everywhere they go.”

“Like humanity does on Gaia?” Meida commented neutrally.

Ouch! Take that hypocrite! If my logic was followed, humanity should be either wiped out or sterilized. We pretty much destroyed everything we touched. Or we did. There seemed to be a groundswell of people working to right past wrongs. Whether they’d succeed was anyone’s guess. But humanity and its civilization was a lot like a plague of locusts. Or a bunch of Vargeez.

Bunch? Herd? Cloud? What was a collection of Vargeez called?

‘Host. For a mass of them, like a settlement. Raiding parties for the smaller groups that enter our territory,’ Lain informed me sullenly from somewhere inside a cave.

I tried to imagine a host of bat creatures flying at us. My skin crawled and my head became light.

‘You won’t see a host, I promise you. A raiding party or some scouts, maybe. But no great host. We’ll avoid those,’ Rian