Chapter 27

Angie

The fear of the Larcore never entirely faded. Not a day goes by without me reliving the horrors of the tunnels, or seeing the devastation that the canister effects had on my body.

I don’t think I’ll ever be able to hear the name Larcore without shivering. I wish it wasn’t so, but it was.

STARING OUT AT NOTHING

“Are the Larcore, here, now?” I asked. I couldn’t control the tremor to my voice.

Stevron’s hand pressed against my shoulder. “I wouldn’t have brought you here if they were.”

Stevron’s words didn’t reassure me much. I glanced around searching the ground for the telltale signs of the Larcore. Swirling patterns on the ground where their branch-like tentacles would sweep dirt and stones into gullies and ridges. Again my eyes could see nothing but dry hard packed earth. I raised my eyes to Stevron’s but I didn’t relax.

“If the Larcore can’t be seen in sunlight, how do the fyre crawlers protect the eggs?” Calvin asked.

“By movement. The fyre crawlers pick up vibrations in the ground. They move at lightning speed. Once a Larcore has set down, it’s difficult for the creatures to lift off the ground fast enough.”

“Why didn’t the Larcore capture some of the fyre wings instead of eating them?” Dirk inquired. “You know…try to breed them in captivity as a food source.”

Stevron shook his head. “They tried, but the fyre wings wouldn’t breed in captivity.”

Carter frowned. “Why not? Aren’t the fyre wings both male and female sexes. That each one should be able to mate and lay eggs.”

“They don’t.”

“Why not?” Dirk asked.

Stevron didn’t reply.

“Could be a multitude of reasons,” Calvin interjected. “The most likely is that the fyre wings need some factor that can’t be found in captivity.”

“Such as?”

The elderly scientist shrugged casually. “Sunlight…contact with a certain kind of vegetation…maybe even mating with another species. One that we don’t realize is compatible with their reproductive systems.”

“Or maybe none of that,” Carter voiced. “Maybe it’s something completely different.”

“Well I can certainly understand, Stevron, why your people have been fighting the Larcore,” I commented. “Seems like an uphill battle though.”

Stevron pressed his lips together and again when he glanced at Mylane something passed between them.

My breath suddenly caught. My vision blurred. The sight of Mylane swam in front of my eyes.

The tap, tap, tapping…and then Jake’s voice.

‘You, you, you better save Carter. He’s, he’s, he’s just like our father.’

“Dirk, Calvin, stay here with Carter and Mylane. Angie and I need to get some things from the truck.”

Like a few days earlier I sensed Stevron’s voice rather than heard him speak. His hand urgently gripped me tightly and I followed him as he walked away from the others.

By the time we reached the side of the truck, the tapping had reached a fevered pitch. I lurched forward. My knees buckled. Thankfully Stevron still had a hold of me. I let out a whined groan.

“Easy, easy,” I heard him say as he opened the truck’s door and lifted me up into the truck.

I scurried back away from the opened door and when I came into contact with the storage containers we’d brought with us brought my knees to my chest I put my head between my knees and tried to suck in a breath. My throat was suddenly clogged. I couldn’t breathe.

I felt the truck bounce beneath me as Stevron hefted his weight into the back of the truck and settled beside me. A moment later he forced my head up and gripped my chin. He pushed a bushberry between my pressed lips and then beyond my clenched teeth.

I’d had no time to prepare myself against Jake’s invasion. He pounded fiercely at my barriers. I felt them slipping. I began to shake violently.

“Bite down.”

Stevron’s words were angry, desperate. I rolled the bushberry to the back of my mouth, but I wasn’t fast enough. A crack appeared in my barriers.

“Crunch it dammit. Now!

Through a pained blur I bit down on the hard berry as forcibly as I could. The middle cracked and the bitter taste of the core of the bushberry flooded my mouth.

Nothing. The loud banging increased and the crack in my barriers widened to a large chasm. They were all but gone. I could see the bluish grey haze and the white streaks of light that pulled me closer.

I swallowed the bushberry core. Again nothing happened. “I don’t understand, Jake. What about- No, no, Jake, I won’t-” I wailed helplessly. “Don’t make me. I don’t want-”

“Fight, Angie! Fight!”

I tried. I tried to keep myself from moving forward, but the pull was too intense. My barriers had fallen. There was nothing keeping me here.

I blindly groped for purchase. Anything to keep me grounded. My hands found Stevron’s chest. It was hard and unyielding. I dug my fingers into his pectoral muscles. Still nothing. I was slipping away, being sucked into the Far Beyond. Nothing was going to stop me from going this time.

I reached up and thankfully I found Stevron’s head. I gripped his face and pulled myself toward him. The puffs of air from his harsh breathing guided me. I had to do anything, try anything, so I pressed my lips against his in a last ditch effort to stop myself from going over the edge of the chasm.

The deafening snap in my head as our lips connected acted like the crack of a whip. I felt my body jerk as if I’d touched a live electrical wire.

The chasm slammed closed. The haze and light vanished, and I heard the furious sound of my brother’s echoing rage.

I continued to kiss Stevron and he eagerly kissed me back.

©Legend of the Sapphyre Wings by Janet Merritt