The Final Showdown - The Moon Trilogy - Book 3

Chapter Twenty-eight:

   When Clarity woke up, the same grey light was streaming through the windows.

   A sudden thought occurred to her almost immediately. Why hadn't Johnny shared the bed with her? She definitely would have appreciated the extra warmth. Plus, the cot had to be more comfortable than the stony floor, and it was plenty big enough.

   Speaking of Johnny, she couldn't see him.

   She sat up, and she scanned the room, but that only confirmed what she already knew: he'd left.

   Clarity was only just about to sink into the state of panic that came with being completely alone on an alien planet when she heard footsteps coming down the hall, and she looked up, expecting it to be Vax again.

   Johnny was walking down the short hallway.

   It was a welcome realization. He was carrying a tray, similar to the one that Vax had been carrying when she'd first woken up. However, the only things on Johnny's tray were the food and the water, leaving her with the guess that the rest of the things on Vax's version of the platter had been medical supplies if some sort, to keep her alive while she slept.

   Without a word Johnny set the tray down on the cot beside her. Feeling the knot of hunger in her gut, she ate the food, then drank the water. Both of them were cold, and they sat like chunks of ice in her stomach, doing nothing to warm her.

   "I tried to get them to make some warm food, but they're understandably terrified of fire, and there's nothing very warm here in the middle of the cold season." He said, noticing her shivers after consuming the chilled mush and even colder water. "They don't understand why you would even need warmth in the first place, because they've never really needed it to survive." He added after a second had passed.

   Clarity nodded, her mind drifting to the conversation that they'd shared the night before. She was slowly getting a patchy network of information that gave her a small clue about Johnny's life before she'd met him, but the memories and stories felt incomplete. There was something missing—a lot of somethings, actually—and she wanted to know what they were.

   Another question rose up. Why was Johnny more sensitive to the mental bond he'd mentioned than she was? Shouldn't it work equally both ways? Or was it just something to do with the fact that his... race was, and always had been, more sensitive to it?

   After another few moments of silence had passed, Johnny chuckled, almost to himself.

   She tossed him a questioning look.

   "Cat got your tongue?" he asked, surprisingly able to keep his face straight. But she wasn't nearly as skilled, and a smile broke out on her lips. The twinkle in his eye was practically contagious. "And by the way, Vax has invited us to meet his family."

   "Sure, sounds fun." She shrugged. And it would probably be rude to refuse. She added silently, but she didn't dare say it aloud. She understood why Johnny wanted them to stay a few more days, she just didn't like it.

   She would never want to underestimate or devalue the competency of her team back home, but they still needed all the help they could get to find Eric. They were wasting time...

   "Okay." He nodded, and immediately headed for the door. He looked back when she didn't get up. "Are you coming, or are you frozen to the bed?" he teased.

   She rolled her eyes before following. She simply hadn't known they were going so soon.

   Once again, their journey from the house to the village was silent. Johnny led her in a zig-zagging path through the houses, and she was amazed that they hadn't gotten lost. He seemed to know exactly where he was going. There was a definite purpose to his steps.

   Clarity couldn't help but wonder how he'd gotten to know the place so well, but once again, she kept her mouth shut. She'd been asking him a lot of questions lately, and it was only fair to let him have a least a little bit of peace before the next interrogation.

   After a while of walking, they finally stopped in front of one of the huts. It was the same in appearance as the ones to the left or right, but as they stepped up to the entry-way, Vax appeared to greet them. There were three younger trees behind him. He rumbled something to Johnny, and as he did, he pointed to each of the children, in turn.

   Johnny turned to her. "This is Yex, Ix, and Hax." He said, pointing to the little trees in the same order that Vax had. Clarity had a sneaking suspicion that every tree had an X in their name. No particular reason for that one.

   They went through the door, and then into the room beyond. There was tree slightly shorter and stalkier than Vax, crouching in a corner. She or he—probably she—was kneading something on a wooden board. It looked like the blue mush that Clarity had been fed.

   When she saw the newcomers, she jumped to her feet and rushed over, rumbling a greeting at a noticeably higher pitch than Vax's purring.

   "This is Bex." Johnny translated, gesturing towards the shorter tree. "She's Vax's... wife." He added.

   Clarity nodded.

   The rest of the day passed in the same way. Vax called over all of his friends for Johnny and Clarity to meet, and through the process, she learned that her hunch had been correct. Every tree that they met had at least one X in their name. It was almost painful to hear Johnny trying to translate the ones that had more than one X, but he managed well enough.

   Some of the visitors brought gifts; Clarity's favorite being a sweatshirt made of woven grasses. It looked as if it had been tailored specifically for a human, because the sleeves were far too short for it to fit one of the trees. Her second favorite gift was a necklace. There was a lovely flower carved into a small chink of stone, and the little pebble was hung on a length of hairy, fibrous string. She put it on right away and smiled her gratitude at the young tree it had come from.

   It was nighttime by the time the visitors stopped coming, and Clarity was exhausted by the sheer amount of X-filled names she'd heard in such a short time. She could hardly remember a single one. The day had seemed extra-long, almost like two days crammed into one, but that was probably due to the continuous line of visitors. The whole village must have come to see the alien guests.

   Vax, upon realizing that the day was up, escorted them back to the hut that they were currently staying in. Clarity gladly sat on the cot. Her feet were sore from standing up nearly the whole day. There was a small, dark pile in the corner of the room, consisting of the gifts that they'd received. Most of them would probably have to stay on-planet when they teleported off, to keep as much weight off as possible.

   Clarity was just about to invite Johnny to sleep on the cot with her, but she dozed off before she could form the words. She must have been more tired than she'd realized.