Enthralled: Book 3: The Eros Expansion by Prax Venter

Author:Prax Venter
Language: eng
Format: mobi, azw3, epub
Published: 2018-06-28T05:00:00+00:00

- 14 -

Mark coughed and inhaled deeply as he sat up quickly, trying to remember where he was. He looked down and saw Roo's stunningly-beautiful, masked face blinking up at him. She instantly wrapped her soft arms around his back, pulling him back down on top of her.

“I had the most terrible dream. I was... hurting you.”

He nuzzled his face into her soft neck, under her lilac hair, and gave her a deep kiss as they embraced.

“It's okay. We're all safe now,” he reassured her.

Vale sat up and, shook her head clear and then slid over to Roo's side and joined the embrace.

“Are you okay, Roo?”

“I'll be okay. That was quite the shock from those creatures. Nice shot though. Oh! Guys, get off-where's that treasure?”

Ahnix stood up, dusting sand from her fur. “She's fine.”

“The finest,” Mark said, pushing back onto on his knees and helping Roo to her feet as he stood.

“Glad you're alive,” the skeletal crewman, Porter, said from behind them.

“How long were we out?” Mark asked, spinning toward him.

“Out?”

Mark looked up at the sky and saw that the sun was relatively in the same place.

“Never mind. Go collect that treasure of yours, and let's get out of here.”

The skeleton nodded and walked over to the lavishly ornate, blue and gold steamer trunk sitting in the sand where the creatures dropped it.

He was looking down at it when Mark and his girls arrived to watch.

“The traveling merchant that sold the map claimed it was cursed. Appears the bastard was right. If it weren't for you, I'd have never found this.”

Mark patted the man's shoulder bone. “Well, now you have. Open it.”

Porter squatted down, flipped open the front latch and lifted the lid. A moderate amount of essence entered Mark from the environment while everyone leaned in to see what riches had caused them so much trouble.

Mark's eyebrows furrowed when the chest appeared empty, and he leaned in closer.

Porter reached his skeletal hand in and pulled out a handful of papers each covered by a child's crayon drawings.

“This can't be it...” the skeletal crew member said, tossing them over his bony shoulder to search the chest further. Mark bent down to pick up a stack of the discarded works of art. The first one he saw was a side view of a crudely drawn, gray elephant. It only had two legs and one big eye with a large teardrop leaking from it. Mark shuffled through the colorful drawings as Porter tossed more out of the trunk and onto the rolling sands of The Dunes.

“What is this?” Vale asked, picking one up off the ground.

“Someone's treasure...” Roo said softly, looping her arm around Mark's and pressing in close to look at the drawings with him.

The pictures were mostly of various animals, but the last one in the stack he was holding depicted a house with three people. They were clearly a family standing outside together, holding hands.

“It's trash,” Porter said, looking into the empty chest. He stood up abruptly and kicked the hollow, wooden container with his bony foot.

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