Fer’ro reaches for me at the same time.

“Take her where? Where are we going?” As I ask this, my eyes are on Mina.

San’ten reaches for her and alarm goes through me. But he simply lifts her limp body toward his chest.

He’s all darkness but there’s a snarl on his face. I can see his white teeth in the dark.

I hesitate as Fer’ro lifts me.

“He will not harm her,” Fer’ro speaks low near my ear before lifting his head once more.

“We go away from here,” Fer’ro says before clicking a command to his friends. “We leave. We hide.”

FER’RO

Adee’ra is against my chest and I can feel every beat of her blood organ.

Her fear scent is almost overpowering but I hardly notice it now.

Every instinct within me is focused on the great danger in our midst.

The Scrit is steadily approaching…and we are running toward it.

I don’t think Adee’ra realizes this yet, but it is the way we have to go.

The Gryken is not likely to return from whence it came. Safety is behind, not in front.

Keeping to the trees, we move quickly over the surface and I sense the big machine around me even before I catch sight of it once more.

Every symbiote on my being bristles.

Ga’Var growls his frustration but we cannot attack.

Not yet.

Our ship is not ready to.

And so, we will have to let the Scrit go. We will have to watch it walk away while hiding like cowards.

Small hands grip me and I glance down at the hyu’man in my arms as we move.

Her wide eyes are focused far ahead. Her gaze rising to the Scrit.

Her chest heaves in distress.

“You’re heading the wrong way!” She grips me tighter. “It’s in front of us!”

There is no time to explain as I slow down, my gaze darting around to find a good spot.

There’s a little area that’s without many flora.

“Fer’ro,” she’s staring at me now, “tell me you know what you’re doing.”

Her gaze is frantic as I put her down so she’s laying on the ground, back against the dead leaves.

The Scrit sounds again; its warning call.

It senses the hyu’mans.

But it doesn’t sense us.

“Adee’ra,” her name slides off my tongue easily, as if I have been saying it for eons. Her breathing staggers as she stares up at me. “Do you trust me?”

Off to the side close by, Ga’Var and San’ten are also putting their hyu’mans down.

“Are you leaving us?” she asks and I cannot read the look in her eyes. “Are you leaving us here?”

The Scrit sounds again and trees split and break as the ground shakes far too close to our location.

It will be right above us soon.

“I’m about to do something that might…terrify you.” I sense her fear rising but I continue. “Do not raise an alarm. It already knows you are here.”

At my last line, her blood organ palpitates.

There is no more time.

I only see her eyes widen as I settle over her and the shroud covers us.

Suddenly, the world around us is no more.

The dark sky, the trees, my brethren close by…everything disappears.

We are…cocooned.

Adee’ra glances around but she doesn’t move. “What is this? What’s happening?”

“Hiding,” I say. “It will not sense us like this.”

The ba’clan thin a little so I can see and the moment the Scrit comes into view above us, a breath hitches in Adee’ra’s throat.

My ba’clan bristle but keep their form around us.

It has been a while since I’ve had this sort of view. Small and looking up at the terror towering above us.

I am reminded of just how mighty the Gryken make themselves appear.

The shiny orb hovers above as it raises one of its legs and for a moment, the light of the stars is blocked out as the leg descends.

It’s coming straight at us.

“Fer’ro!”

The earth shakes, shockwaves going through it as the leg slams down around us and Adee’ra grips me, her small hands digging into my skin.

Her eyes are the widest I have ever seen them as she stares at the leg that’s now beside us.

We are in between its claws. So close.

If I stretch, I can touch it.

But I am not focused on that.

What catches my attention is the sudden silence.

The Scrit is not moving.

The ridges across my body are slowly rising as the seconds tick by.

The Gryken should not be able to sense us. They can sense the hyu’mans but now all three are protected by our ba’clan.

In the last days of the war, it had been by mere chance that a Vullan child had somehow removed its energy signature as a Scrit had approached.

It is a useful effect of the ba’clan, one we discovered far too late, one that might have saved us if we had discovered it earlier.

Now, I am praying it saves the last few beings alive on this planet.

But the Scrit is still standing still.

My ba’clan ripple as energy passes over them.

Scanning.

The Gryken is scanning.

It would have picked up energy signatures of three humans that have now suddenly disappeared.

An impossible occurrence as far as it knows.

But I wait, hoping it thinks it’s been a mere error.

Across the clearing from us, I can see my womb-mate stiffening underneath the cover of his ba’clan.

I can almost feel his tension…

Something is wrong.

I am seconds away from mounting an offence when I sense movement.

My ba’clan bristle as another loud thump shakes the earth again.

One huge leg of the Scrit rises and falls.

It is continuing on.

Heading to the water.

It is a good thing the body of the one we killed is no longer there—transported to the ship along with the materials we scavenged.

We will be okay for now.

But I remain cocooned.

Not one muscle in me moves till the Scrit has gone far away from us, and then, I breathe.

My eyes meet Adee’ra’s.

There is water in hers, but she blinks it away.

“Thank you,” she whispers.

I want to ask her what she is expressing gratitude for when she inhales sharply.

Her gaze flicks down me and catches.

I do not have to look down at myself. I already know what she is seeing.

In order to create the cocoon, my ba’clan are no longer wrapped around my being.

I am bare.

Adee’ra’s throat moves and her body warms. I can feel the change in temperature beneath me, against my skin.

There’s a curiously strange scent coming from her.

Faint.

Very faint. But there nonetheless.

It is different from her fear scent. Sweet as well, but not as powerful.

Instead, there’s a spice to it and I sniff, trying to determine where it is emanating from, for it doesn’t seem to be coming from her pores.

She makes a grating sort of sound in her throat that makes my ears perk and she shuffles against me a little.

“Is it gone now?” She isn’t meeting my gaze. “Are we safe?”

There is something wrong with her.

Her skin is warming even more and her cheeks are flushed.

It is a healthy color, one that makes her skin glow in the star light and I wonder what she looked like before the Gryken invaded.

Is this a preview of what she is supposed to look like all the time?

“You are warming up…”

Her gaze darts to me and then away, the warmth in her skin increasing.

“Um…it’s just that…you’re naked and you’re on top of me.”

I don’t understand what she is trying to say.

If she were on all fours, it would be more understandable.

That is the mounting position.

Or…it could simply be because I am bare.

I call my ba’clan back to me and the shroud around us disappears.

I’m left looking into those strange brown eyes as she stares at me.

“You’re going to take some getting used to,” she whispers, before her gaze turns to the area around us.