Citrine (Deliverance #3)

42. Wroahk

42

Wroahk

We should have stayed in the cave.

When has knowing more done anyone any good? It certainly hasn't done her any good. All she does is talk, want to know, want to seek, want to learn, even if what she learns isn't what she wants.

There's nothing but danger deep in the water and I try to tell her that, but she doesn't listen to me. It's like she feels like now that she can swim underwater, that she is capable of anything.

I'm ashamed to admit it, but it is that thought that propels me forward. I am feeling… excited. It's not the usual excitement I get from hunting, but a different kind, the kind I only get when I'm around her.

The satisfaction that she needs me to protect her.

Then she catches sight of one of the gray-green males I drowned.

I have never told her about them, so I'm not pleased to see one drifting right at us. She swims faster than I've ever seen her swim and scrambles onto the shore.

I follow her.

"What the hell was that?!" she exclaims, her eyes wide.

"I do not know."

"You've stayed in this lake the longest. Don't tell me you don't know what they are."

"I do not know what they are. All they do is lurk around the lake and I don't like it, so I pull them in and drown them."

"What do you mean, you drown them? What if they're my way out of here?"

Out of where? Is she planning to leave me by using these creatures? What is she talking about? They don't even look anything like her.

"Can you at least bring it back up?"

"No."

I'm not carrying that thing back up with me. They taste terrible. I have no interest in eating them, so I just let them sink.

"Please, Wroahk. I need to see what it is. I can't catch a live one since you'll just kill it."

"… I don't kill them all."

She cocks her head to the side, her eyebrows furrowing as she looks at me.

She doesn't believe me, but she's not the only one I've spared. There are just some of these creatures I cannot bring myself to kill. Instead, I throw the nearest Many Teeth at them and they run away. It takes much less effort to deal with them, but I prefer not dealing with them at all.

"Oh. That's surprising."

She doesn't say anything for a while and just keeps staring into the water where the thing drowned. I don't know if she'll keep convincing me to try to bring it back up for her, but I won't do it.

"Why don't you eat them?" she suddenly asks.

"Why do you ask?"

"Well, I've seen you eat the Many Teeth before, even though you don't make it a habit. You eat almost everything inside the water, and you've threatened to eat me before, too. So, why do you not eat these things? Are they native to this planet ? Do you make it a habit to not eat other intelligent beings?"

She seems to think it's an important question but there's a simple reason I don't eat these creatures or make it a habit to eat the Many Yeeth.

"They are vile, but you are sweet. I have preferences, you know."

"So… what you're saying is I look delicious to predators?"

"It is not only how you look. The way you smell, the taste of your blood and the warmth of your body are all things predators track to you, and it makes you an interesting prey. Most things in this water want to hunt you."

She squeals and clutches her legs to herself, keeping her body out of the water. How is she just now realizing this? I have told her repeatedly.

She should've known since the first time the Many Teeth attacked her.

"I should have never asked, even though I knew the answer already. So, if it's not worth it to eat them or kill them, have you ever tried talking to them? I have a feeling they're not just a primitive species. I think I saw a backpack on that one down there."

I decide not to respond to her, though I have heard those things speak. It doesn't sound anything like the way I speak. She is the only one I can communicate with, the only one to steal my voice.

"Look, can we at the very least get the backpack? Just swim down and pull it off the body? I'll stop talking about it for the rest of the day if we do."

"Stop talking completely?"

She looks like she wants to kill me. "For today I won't talk about you killing aliens."

I flick a tentacle in annoyance, then turn to go get it.

"No, I want to come, too."

Her words don't make sense considering her response to finding out what hunts her, but I'm weary. Instead of continuing these useless words, I grab her, and move toward the sinking creature at speed.

I follow its vile taste in the water; the pressure increasing as we keep diving lower and lower. She makes a groaning sound, holding her graspers to the side of her face, but doesn't tell me to stop, so I keep moving.

Suddenly, all of my suckers are sending me signals to retreat. Hers must be as well because when I glance at her, she's pointing frantically back up.

I waste no time in reversing direction, whipping my tentacles in a swirling frenzy, my heart racing with rare fear. When she starts screaming out bubbles, looking behind us, I don't look, just urge my body to move faster.

Her screams stop well before we reach the surface, but I don't slow down, moving my limbs in powerful strokes until we explode onto the lake shore. She's shaking, her tentacles wrapping so tight around me now that they won't impede my swimming that she's blocking most of my airflow.

I try to shift her, but her grip is surprisingly strong. "What did you see?"

"I-I don't know. All I saw was a giant row of long teeth sticking in all different directions in a really wide mouth. Not like the Many Teeth, much, much bigger. It was gaining on us, but then it just stopped chasing."

My limbs relax hearing that last part. "It's a creature of the deep, then. It won't come up past certain pressure levels."

"Are you sure?"

She's still trembling and I pull her closer, running my graspers through her yellow weeds. "Yes, I am certain of it. We simply need to stay out of this part of the lake."

"But that blocks exploration to find out what's out there," she mutters.

I decide not to mention the other opposite way around the island. I explored all sides of it when I established my territory, though I didn't stray far.

"Yes, no need to explore. Let's go back. We have seen enough."

"No, we haven't. We've only just got here."

I wrap a tentacle around her waist and pull her inside the lake. She squeals again when she hits the water, and I feel her graspers pounding on my torso.

"I need to stay here in case more of the aliens come back. I have so many questions."

"They are not like you. We have to leave."

"No, we do not. Don't you get it, Wroahk? This is our opportunity. We might actually have the chance to leave this place and find better water for us! I mean, I just got your skin and even I know something about this water isn't right. We can't stay here forever."

"There is nothing wrong with staying here."

There is no need for anything to change. I have no desire to leave or be separated from her. I don't know why she has so much hope that nothing terrible would happen if she speaks with the grey-green creatures, but I can sense the danger when I see them.

"We can't leave this spot, Wroahk. I don't know when there'll be another opportunity. I don't want to stay another day with those Many Teeth. What if those creatures you've kept drowning decide to form an extermination force and use whatever type of weapon they have to hunt you down? You can deal with one or two of them, but can you really deal with a whole population of them?"

"That is why we need to go back. They're not anywhere around the island."

"If they have the technology for backpacks , what makes you think they don't have the technology for diving suits or simple harpoons or flying? Think, Wroahk."

"I do not want to think! I have never had so many thoughts in my life, and it only started because I met you. What good has thinking done for you and me? We can just hide under the water for as long as we need."

"That is not sustainable. I don't know why you have such a strong aversion to change, but you have to get over it. I've already changed more than I would have ever chosen. I need you to do some of it for me. There's nothing left to risk than the one thing I have left, my life. I am prepared to risk it to understand what is happening to me and how to get out of here."

Why? Why does her gaze focus only on what is above and not what is below? All my life, I've only ever focused on what is below. Why does this yellow woman want what is above us? Why is she always talking about leaving me?

"… we… we can come back tomorrow," I tell her, my heart constricting.

It hurts something inside of me to see her expression change to happiness. This pain does not come from a physical injury, but it is all-encompassing. I do not understand it, much like I do not understand her.

All I know is it's from her. She might look more like me now, but she is nothing like me inside.

I take her back through the more shallow water on the one side of the island, avoiding catching the attention of the Many Teeth. We make it back to the cave and she settles in the corner, silent. I leave her there and go hunting, wishing to clear my mind of such heavy thoughts.

I have never felt the need to do such a thing, but that is before I met someone so… impossible.

The water is calm and silent, unlike my thoughts. The fish have come out of their hiding spot, all swimming around the alcoves. I return to the cave after finding an appropriate catch and a part of me thinks I won't find her in the cave. However, when I come back, she's where I left her.

She has a stone in her grasper, and she's dragging it across the wall of the cave. I place my kill in the back of the cave so it doesn't float away and swim up to her, curious. She notices my presence and turns around to briefly acknowledge me before continuing.

"Why are you destroying the cave? Is this how you express your dissatisfaction?"

"No," she replies, like my question is stupid and places down the stone. "I've gone prehistoric ."

"… what?"

"When my species was still developing, they used to convey their history and their stories through carving on the wall. I can't send a text or draw a big SOS sign in the cove, those trees are blocking everything. I'm just practicing for the rocks out there."

I decide I don't need to know.

"Eat," I tell her

She turns to check where I usually keep what I bring back. "I'm not hungry. You can have my share."

I study what she's carving, but cannot understand anything and I don't know why I even tried.

She explains, regardless of my lack of interest. "I'm writing in my language. If anyone who knows my language sees it, they'll be able to know where I am. This is my first step to freedom."

My tentacles clench with my desire to pull the rocks apart.