The First She ✓

10 : diez

Vrox glanced over his shoulder tiredly, wishing that he could join his brothers. The darkness was almost upon them, and it wasn't a good shade to be under. The night was alive and lonely. It often lured unsuspecting men into a permanent sleep.

He glanced down at Kira who was clinging to his muscles in search of safety. Vrox didn't understand why he was so distressed by the voices of his brothers, but he knew better than to push. The spirited youngling would likely make a run for it.

"We need to seek shelter. The sun will hide from the darkness soon," he told the mess of limbs that were snared around his torso.

The boy trembled, the balls in his chest furrowing deeper into Vrox's flat, healthy one.

"You will hurt yourself. Don't hold me so tightly," he warned, moving a hand down to Kira's butt to support her weight. When the fleshy slit between her legs rubbed against his abs, he seized his walking.

"You will have to walk, or our rubbing will worsen your injury."

He gripped the boy's chin, guiding it up and away from his shoulder. His eyeballs were containing a red war, and his cheeks were wet by a substance that Vrox couldn't recognize.

"Did you touch another strange plant?" he asked.

The sadness in her expression was universal, but the tears were alien to him.

When Kira simply blinked, he skid two fingertips across a cheek, examining her tears. Earlier, when a single line of moisture fell from her eye, he had been sure that it was water.

"Your eyes produce this? How strange. You must be iller than I thought."

Kira didn't fight him when he guided her down to the ground. She threw a forearm over her eyes to wipe the journeys of weakness and then stared at the tan of his shoulder instead of the yellow of his eyes.

"Thank you for not taking me there," she mumbled as she picked at her skirt.

Vrox tossed his head back and squinted at the sun. A protrusion in his neck became more prominent– Adam's apple, she noticed.

An Adam's apple?

The fact that he had two nipples and a bellybutton clicked.

She had been so distracted by the foreignness of his tongue, rowdiness of his face, obnoxiousness of his height, and lack of mercy in his strength. Vrox was so male that the traces of his mother went overlooked.

Vrox looked back at her and squinted at her mouth, focusing more intently on her than the sun he had just been examining. It was when a furrow split his brow that she realized she was smiling.

She dismissed the curve from her lips, realizing that her constant flips of mood were whiplashing the poor guy.

"Ignore me. Lead the way to the next adventure."

She swept a hand forward, and Vrox gave her a final moment of his scrutiny before taking the lead.

They walked uphill that time.

She was used to being surrounded by glass and concrete. But now, the walls that surrounded her were quite literally alive. As she followed Vrox, she actively sought pointy rocks that wanted to stab her bare feet or quicksand that wanted to send her for a swim.

The wilderness thinned out the higher they climbed, and she lost count of how many strange plants she encountered. She had almost jumped out of her skin when she saw a flytrap chomp on a bird. The last thing she saw was blood spraying before she threw herself at Vrox's back.

He hadn't been surprised by her cowardize, still convinced that she was a child. To distract her from the flytrap, he snipped a flower that was fully orange. Its petals were dramatically curled, and although it had been separated from its roots, the petals danced like tentacles when he tickled them with a finger.