Dzar-Ghan (Alien Barbarians of Vandruk #3)

29. Chapter 29

The next few days were much like the days before, only that we finally reached the Rodruk Mountains. Before we started up a steep path, Dzar-Ghan showed me the plateau that used to lead to the cave. Even from down here, it looked massive. The rockslide was clearly visible, and at the foot of the mountain, I found another small hill full of smaller and larger rocks that had either fallen from the same rockslide or had been thrown down, as Dzar-Ghan explained while the men tried to clear the entrance.

Sadness claimed my heart at the sight. I could only imagine too well how each rock spoke of heartbreak and loss. Dzar-Ghan’s features turned faraway and locked; he didn’t even react when I put my palm on his bicep in an attempt to give him some solace and strength and my heart broke for him. So much loss. And it was all our fault.

So far, I hadn’t thought much about Amber’s words that the cave had collapsed as a result of the portal opening, which had caused an… not really earthquake, we weren’t on Earth. Vandrukquake didn’t sound right either… so… I settled for quake. The quake had buried all these women alive or killed them with a rain of rocks. We had done this. Us. Humans.

It hadn’t been intentional, but in all fairness, I wondered if anybody had given any thought to the possible consequences of opening a wormhole. Oh, there had been outcries from people on Earth, fearing exactly this kind of scenario on Earth , but I didn’t remember anybody ever saying a word about what might happen on the other side.

There were no words I could give Dzar-Ghan to express the guilt eating me inside or how sorry I was—even with my improving vocabulary—words would have been hollow. There was only one thing I could do to bring peace to him: allow the dead to see the light of day, give the Vandruks the bodies they seemed to need, to mourn properly.

My brain birthed another thought, one that didn’t sit well with me. Had one of the women been his girlfriend? Lover? Wife? I dared a surreptitious glance at him through my lowered lashes. He still seemed far away. The idea gnawed a hole into my stomach. I had never experienced jealousy before. Curiosity, but not jealousy. I had wondered why my parents loved my siblings better or why a man I had mediocrely dated was suddenly head over heels with another woman. Not this time, though. This was an angry, hot flare that ate holes into my stomach and burned like hell. Irrational as hell, too, the woman, after all, if she had even existed, was long dead. And yet, here I was. So occupied with this newfound emotion that I didn’t even see the root until I stumbled over it.

Every time before when I stumbled, Dzar-Ghan had been quick enough to stop the fall, but not now. A sure testament to how deep in thought or memory he was, only adding to the ugly acidity in my stomach. I fell down hard, my hand skittering over gravel, my knees hitting rock-hard ground.

“Jenna.” He was instantly by my side. “Are you all right?”

“I think so,” I replied, shaking out my hand and wondering if this was karma’s way of teaching me a lesson for being more preoccupied with jealousy of a dead woman who may not even have existed.

I rubbed my hands and was about to grab Dzar-Ghan’s when my eyes fell on the most curious rock yet. It glittered in deep, dark, green colors like a crystal. It was perfectly egg-shaped and looked even polished. I ignored Dzar-Ghan’s hand and made a grab for it. I should have known better. The rock was slimy and too light to be a rock.

Without any effort on my part, Dzar-Ghan lifted me back to my feet, curiously staring at the object that fascinated me. A grin spread over Dzar-Ghan’s face as he took the rock from my hand. With the use of his knife, he split it in half, and I realized the rock was actually an egg. He offered it to me, but one look at the greenish mass inside that remotely resembled the inside of an oyster made me recoil.

With a sound I might make exclaiming over ice cream, he swallowed the contents whole, wiped his mouth, and put up the universal face of happiness after consuming a tasty morsel while my stomach turned. I shuddered and he laughed, discarding the empty egg. I wondered what creature had laid it and where it was. Would it be looking for it? I pushed those thoughts back, telling myself it was just an egg.

Until something slithered in the bushes. I yelped and jumped back as the world’s longest, ugliest snake thing I had ever laid eyes on appeared. It being green tipped me off that this might be the egg’s momma, and she looked pissed. A split, yellow tongue lapped forward, making me yelp again. Her tail split in two at the end. Both were viciously clacking. Not rattling like a rattlesnake. It sounded more like rocks hitting rocks. Its open mouth exposed vicious-looking fangs, ready to pierce skin and inject some terrible poison. In my imagination, I saw myself or Dzar-Ghan or both of us writhing on the ground in pain, while acid spread from wherever the snake bit us.

Once again, I had underestimated my alien barbarian. His sword came out with lightning speed, and before I could blink, the snake’s head came off.

He kicked the head far into the bushes before he switched his sword to his knife and cut the snake vertically. Out came three more of the green eggs. Not a momma snake, then. Something gross followed next, making me turn and barf my breakfast into another bush.

Instantly, Dzar-Ghan was by my side, holding my hair back, rubbing my back, and whispering soft words. He was being so sweet that I felt like crying. When I was done, he handed me the water bottle and I rinsed out my mouth before I took a deep swallow, hoping it would stay down.

“Are you all right?” he asked again.

I nodded but refused to look when he did whatever it was he wanted to do with the snake. I caught a glimpse of green skin going inside the fur bundle he carried while another shudder moved through me. Better toughen up . I sighed. This was why I studied rocks and not biology. The thought of hurting living things in the name of science had never sat well with me. My dad was a wildlife biologist. He only took me once to bring your kid to work day. When he went into the bathroom, I set all those little rats and mice free but hesitated at the cage of a leopard, which probably saved my life. My father was furious. Whatever little furry creatures they managed to catch, they had to put down because, despite the cages being numbered to allow the scientists to keep track of their experiments, the animals were not. So they had no clue which rat had been given the little blue pill and which the red.

That day, I learned a few lessons. By trying to save the animals, I had doomed them to death, but it was arguable if I had given them a quicker end. On the other hand, I had caused other animals to take their place. I also learned that my father had a rather nasty temper and that I wasn’t cut out to become a biologist, which I had kind of sensed before.

I was so deep in thought that I didn’t see the gnarly tree with its long branches reaching like tendrils for me. Dzar-Ghan was already a few feet ahead of me, and I missed how he had ducked under the branch. I didn’t exactly face-plant into it, but my hair got caught in the many mini branches, making me cry out when they pulled on my hair.

Dzar-Ghan was instantly alert. Sword out, he was the epitome of an ancient warrior, heating my blood and flooding my pussy. It took him a moment to realize what had happened. With his sword out, he stepped closer.

“You’re not gonna hack my hair off, are you?” I asked, looking skeptically at him. An amused expression flitted over his face as he shook his head, followed by a low rumble in his chest.

“Don’t you dare.” I wagged my finger. I would have shaken my head or stepped to the side, but the branches were not giving me an inch.

I let out a sigh of relief when he sheathed his sword, but all my fears of him giving me a jagged haircut returned when he pulled out a knife.

“No, no!” I stomped my foot. “Nek!”

I clung to his bicep, trying to stop him, but he was too strong. The knife moved in a wide arc, and I was readying myself to hate him for the rest of my life when I stumbled free, with some added weight to my head. He had only cut the branch off.

“Oh.” I looked sheepishly at him while he chuckled loudly.

By a rock outcropping, we sat down, and I munched on leftover meat from the night before while he tenderly and patiently freed one strand after another from the branch. Sitting on his lap, leaning into his warm chest while his hands moved through my hair. It felt like heaven. Warm happiness overcame me, dispelling my dark thoughts from earlier. Even if he had had a girlfriend, betrothed, or wife in that cave. She was long dead, and we were not. I was here, sitting on his lap, while he tended to me. Still, I couldn’t fight the ominous sensations rising in my stomach. I had never been a person giving in to intuition. Science was what I believed in. Things I could prove, hold, and see. But that nagging sensation in the pit of my stomach grew sourer with every minute we made it closer up the mountain.