Citrine (Deliverance #3)

33. Eli

33

Eli

Wroahk's rough and unkind, but at least he solved the mystery of the new bumps and long flaps. Every single move I make, I feel myself gasping for air through my sides.

We move toward the water, the storm building around us, and my panic rises.

How does this make sense? How can I just grow gills? I wake on an alien planet looking so strange and now this?

I'm now more alien than the giant tentacle monster. Alright, fine, that's hyperbole, but it's not like I could blend in anymore if I get back home.

Maybe it's the plants I ate. I only mutated after eating them, after all. Oh, I knew there had to be a catch. I mean, I've been ingesting alien lifeforms for a few days. It was bound to catch up to me.

But what is it? What exactly is this mutation?

Maybe it's something in the air. The only reason I'll ever need gills is to breathe. I groan. It burns so bad, each breath making it worse. It's like I'm trying to smell through my clothes.

If I make the suit recede and don't picture what I want correctly, I might be naked in front of him again. It's already strange enough that I tried to jump his bones yesterday.

Not that he seems to have many of those.

"Are you hurt?" he asks me.

There's concern at the corner of his eyes. Why? Why does he care? Because I touch him kindly? Because I'm the only other intelligent being here? Why does he want to keep me alive?

"Yes, it hurts," I grumble out. "I didn't want your stupid gills."

"You look less pathetic this way. Less pathetic means you're less likely to be abandoned," he responds, his voice cold.

"Abandoned?"

He looks me in the eye, his words unflinching.

"The weak and useless are always cast away, including those who cannot breathe underwater when they are born."

"What? You just abandon your young?"

"It's better for the survival of all of us if only the strong ones grow to adulthood," he responds.

"You can't just do that."

Damn, his species is brutal. That's eugenics. If we cherry-picked and plotted out the survival of the fittest, I highly doubt the human race would have survived.

The wind is picking up now, and we are nearing the edge of the water.

"Your species is clearly intelligent, you have a language, but as far as I can tell, you have a sparse population, don't you?"

"I can't know that," he replies, trying to tug me into the water.

I'm not ready yet, so I let me mind analyze as the wind whips around us.

"Right. I guess not. Your lack of unity must mean you're still a primitive species yet to develop the concept of tribes. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing, given how violent and driven you are. You are strong, Wroahk, and with that strength might come leadership. You have to develop the concept of community first."

"Why? What's that? Wait. It doesn't matter, let's get in the water."

"No. Community is something important. Something very important, and I think you already know it is. It's probably the reason you haven't killed me. It's something every species eventually figures out. The strength that comes from being around others. Community."

"But I am not like you. Why would I need it?"

He pulls on me with his tentacles, but I resist, digging my feet into the sand. I know from the growing wind speed that I'll need to give this conversation up, but there is time yet.

"Think about it, Wroahk. Even plants are rarely alone. For most species to breed, they need a multiple of two. Community is a basic need of every living thing, even if their culture tries to resist it. Sentient beings seek out things like them. If you don't develop this concept as a species, your kind will die out, Wroahk, no matter how many offspring you have."

He just stares at me, silent, like he's computing the words I just said.

I'm not even sure why I'm lecturing him, I just know it's really important that he understands this concept.

Plus, I can't stand the thought of abandoning kids. Humans continue to survive because they choose to care for our young and elderly. Most animals don't abandon their offspring, and I need him to be better than that.

It's crucial.

The pain in my sides worsens, and I start to get dizzy, like I'm suffocating. I tell him this and he urges me to come with him inside the water.

I just shake my head, every human instinct telling me deep water is death.

But the weather doesn't give me much of a choice a few minutes later. The sky rumbles and the earth shakes with lighting strikes. The skies adopt a deeper shade of purple, looking like the Earth's skies before rain.

From the pressure in the wind, it's going to be more than just rain, though.

Just as he wraps his tentacles around me, there's a giant crack of lightning, and a rumble shakes the ground. From behind, I hear something falling. Turning around, my eyes widen as I see one of the giant trees slowly bending, then with a groan, it breaks.

Wroahk stops asking and instead drags us both into the water. My head is still turned to the cove, so when the next rumble hits, I see another tree fall.

I know I can't stay out here, but when I whip my head back to the lake, the image of the Many Teeth trying to kill me pulls up a scream.

We reach the edge of the water and he pulls me in without hesitation. It's cold, and it hits me dead in the face. I gasp, my human instincts kicking in immediately. I scream at Wroahk, kicking and flailing in the water.

Trying desperately to stay in the shallow water.

"I'm going to drown, Wroahk!"

"You are not," his clicks are deeper, echoing in my head. "Believe that you will not drown."

In theory, I have gills so I should be able to breathe underwater. But what if they're not functional? What if this is how I die?

He doesn't give me time to think and just pulls me under. Air escapes me in bubbles and the suffocating feeling is back. I float, suspended in the water, with Wroahk's tentacles still around me. He's still looking at me, waiting for something.

"You are not used to breathing through them, so you'll have to use a different method to breathe down here."

Well, no shit.

I glare at him, surprised I can even understand him.

The itchiness and burning are gone, but they're replaced by a new sensation. I look down and see a pocket of air by them, similar to the one coming from my nose. They're functional but they're being restricted by the black suit.

He makes a click that sounds closer to annoyance and drags me down. I continue to kick out my rage, since I can't scream down here. Above us, I can vaguely see raindrops pelt the water like little javelins. I can't even imagine being out in that. The trees didn't survive it, so how can I?

We reach the bottom of the lake and Wroahk shoves me to a spot and stares at me. The burning feeling of suffocation is still intact.

"Breathe."

I just glare at him because I can't respond.

"If you refuse to breathe, you'll drown."

I point frantically up to the surface as my vision starts to blur at the edges.

He holds me tighter and refuses to move. "Breathe or die."

What the fuck?

The urge to struggle is strong, but I resist it. I'll only run out of air faster that way.

I focus on the clothes. They seem to appear and disappear at will, but there's a pattern. It's just my theory, but if I try to call out what I want in my mind, then…

The sides of the suits open and the ridges on my sides are visible. The feeling of suffocation gradually fades, and air bubbles rise from my side. I don't know how it's working, but one thing's for certain now.

I'm no longer drowning. No thanks to him.

I glare at him again. He can click underwater, but he's not speaking, more like projecting. I've “stolen his voice” before. Let's just see if I can do it again and give this alien a piece of my mind.

I try, but fail, bubbles only communicating my anger, but not the specifics. I thought he was different than my stepfather, but I was wrong.

I let out a breath. No, that isn't fair. They aren't the same. People like my stepfather are cruel because they hate themselves and want to tear you down with them. Wroahk is the most confident person I have ever met.

He's definitely violent. His whole culture is that way, but I don't think he is cruel.

Stupid, arrogant, and a complete asshole, but I don't think he was trying to hurt me. It won't stop me from raking him over red hot freaking coals as soon as I'm able, though.