Promises by Kacey Ezell

Author:Kacey Ezell [Ezell, Kacey]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Beyond Terra Press
Published: 2020-06-13T22:00:00+00:00

* * *

They didn’t get far before both stars set and it got too dark to keep going, but Mara figured progress was progress and tried not to stress about it.

Ozendi hadn’t wanted to stop for the night. She couldn’t blame him; it had to be hell knowing that the raiders were out there, close to the vulnerable settlement of his people. She could feel the tension singing through him as it got steadily darker under the canopy of the R’Baku polar forest. She’d managed not to say too much, but their progress slowed to a crawl as he peered through the trees, straining to make out the landmarks that would point the way home.

“Ozendi,” she said softly. “I think we need to stop. It’ll take us longer to get back if we get lost in the darkness.”

“I am not lost,” he said sharply, almost snapping at her. “I am just making sure. We must just get up and over this ridge…” He trailed off, but kept walking, pushing through the undergrowth. Branches whipped back at her, requiring her to keep one hand raised up to protect her face.

“Ozendi,” she said again, a bit more steel in her tone. She stretched her legs in order to push up beside him. “This is stupid. Let’s just find a place to cam—”

The ground crumbled beneath her right foot as she stepped down. Mara tried to throw her weight to the left, but it was too late. She felt the slope collapse under her weight as her ankle, and then her knee, buckled. A strangled scream ripped itself from her lips as she tumbled. She tucked her shoulder into a roll and barely managed to keep the back of her head from hitting a fallen tree trunk. Her face hit the forest floor as she spun. Something sharp stabbed her cheek just below her right eye.

“Mara!”

Ozendi’s voice followed her down the slope. Mara skidded to a stop against a piled-up mass of tangled branches and needles that had built up next to a largish rock—almost a boulder, really. She groaned and pushed herself over onto her shoulder, then blinked twice to clear the dirt from her eyes.

“Wh-what?” She coughed, spat out some of the dark, R’Baku forest loam, and squinted up the slope in time to see Ozendi stumbling down the hill in patent disregard for his own safety.

“Are you all right?”

“Mostly,” she said, spitting again. She grunted and shrugged out of the straps of her backpack, before pushing herself up to a sitting position. Electric pain shot up from her knee and ankle, and she pressed her lips together to keep from screaming. “That fucking hurt.”

“I am sorry,” he gasped out as he reached her, sending more of the loose dirt and forest detritus up into the air as his feet slid to a stop. He grabbed onto one of the branches in the deadfall and steadied himself before crouching beside her. “I am so sorry. This was my fault.”

“Yep,” Mara said evenly.

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