Page 8

KAVEN

I sensed the vibration before my fingers registered it. One moment I was deep in meditation, the next fully alert as the soil whispered its warning through my palms. Every Nyxari born on Arenix recognizes this message in their bones—the first breath of the coming storm.

"We need to move," I told Selene, already on my feet gathering our supplies. "The first major tremor of the season is building."

She looked up, startled by my transformation from peaceful healer to urgent motion. "How can you tell?"

"Trust me." I tossed her pack toward her while scanning the horizon. "The earth speaks if you listen. This is the prelude. We have moments at most."

We had just secured the last medicinal herbs when the next vibration rippled through the ground—no longer a suggestion but a declaration. Selene stumbled against me, surprise flashing across her face.

"This direction," I pointed, calculating our safest path. "Stay close."

We barely cleared our campsite when Arenix answered with fury. The earth dropped several feet beneath us without warning. The sound split the air—not merely ground breaking, but a world fracturing.

I caught Selene's arm as she pitched forward, pulling her against me. Trees swayed dangerously, their roots fighting for purchase in the shifting soil. An ancient trunk surrendered with a tortured groan, crashing down mere paces away. Jagged fissures opened across what had been level ground moments before.

My reflexes took command. I swept Selene against my chest, my tail stabilizing our balance as I leapt across a widening split in the earth. Her arms locked around my neck, her breath quick against my skin.

"Hold tight," I ordered, searching for stable ground.

The tremor intensified beyond the minor shakes that had occurred since the humans' arrival. The vibrations grew until maintaining footing became nearly impossible. I braced us against a stone outcropping, curling protectively around Selene's smaller form. Through our contact, I felt her pulse racing alongside the quaking earth.

When the violence subsided, we emerged to find the forest transformed. New ravines cut through once-familiar terrain. Steam vented from freshly opened thermal pockets, carrying the mineral scent that preceded the full storms. Along the distant horizon, dark clouds gathered—the true harbinger of what approached.

"Ancestors," I murmured, surveying the changed landscape.

"How often does this happen?" Selene asked, still pressed against me.

I released her reluctantly, noting how the place where my back had been injured now held only slight tenderness. Her treatment had worked beyond expectations—the integration of her human surgical techniques with my lifelines created healing neither of our traditions could achieve alone.

"The season builds," I explained, checking our supplies for damage. "This is merely the first warning. The true storms bring acid rains and wake the deep predators from hibernation."

Selene brushed dirt from her clothing. "I've experienced tremors since landing, but nothing like this."

"Those were echoes. This is the voice." I pointed toward the sky. "And that is the promise of worse to come."

She examined me with that penetrating medical attention that left me feeling transparent. "Your back—how does it feel?"

"Nearly healed." I rolled my shoulders in demonstration. "Your methods complemented the natural healing of my lifelines. The integration created something new."

Discovery brightened her face. "The hybrid approach accelerated the process beyond what either of our traditions could achieve alone."

"Yes." I found myself drawn to the light in her eyes. The medical discovery excited us professionally, but I couldn't ignore how her care had required physical proximity that stirred something more primal within me. The memory of her hands on my skin lingered.

"We should move. Hammond's camp lies that way," I indicated, pushing aside these distracting thoughts. "The tremor has altered our path considerably."

Selene nodded, her focus returning to our mission. As we navigated the transformed landscape, I pointed out signs of unstable ground she would need to recognize.

"These plants with the blue-tipped leaves avoid areas where the crust is thin," I explained. "Their roots sense heat and instability. Where they grow thickly, the ground holds more strength."

"And these?" She indicated a patch of orange fungi pushing through cracked stone.

"The opposite warning. They thrive on gases released in unstable regions. Their presence means the ground may shift again soon."

She absorbed the knowledge with a healer's precision. "What about shelter? If we're caught in the open during a full storm?"

I gestured toward a ridgeline. "Rock formations with these striations have weathered previous seasons. The natural caverns beneath often protect from both tremors and acid rains."

"And the predators?" Her concern remained practical rather than fearful.

"Some wake hungry from dormancy as the vibrations disturb them. The tremors disorient them initially, making them more aggressive."

A sound caught my attention—voices carrying from beyond the ridge. I pulled Selene behind a fallen tree, focusing on the distant conversation.

"—Commander's orders. Grid search pattern. Anyone found outside authorized perimeters is to be detained."

"The markings the Commander described?—"

"You'll know them when you see them. Silver patterns that glow. Anyone with them is to be brought in immediately."

I turned to Selene, who had gone rigid beside me. The patrol would intersect with our path within minutes. From our position, four humans advanced through the broken terrain, weapons ready.

"Martinez," she whispered, recognizing the lead figure. "Hammond's second-in-command."

I studied their approach, calculating. "We cannot avoid detection."

"We need to reach the camp with the medicine," Selene said, her hand touching the pack containing our hard-won remedies.

"Then we engage." I removed my healer's satchel, setting it carefully aside. The transition came too easily—the shift from healer to warrior that I'd spent years trying to suppress.

"Non-lethal," she urged, as if sensing my internal conflict.

I nodded once. "Stay behind me."

We waited until they drew closer, within range where retreat became impossible. I stepped forward deliberately, positioning myself directly in their path.

"Halt!" Martinez raised his weapon. Recognition flickered across his face when he spotted Selene behind me. "Carter! By order of Commander Hammond, you're to return to the settlement immediately."

"I'm bringing medicine for the sick," Selene responded evenly. "People will die without it."

"Stand aside, alien," Martinez ordered, ignoring her explanation and focusing on me.

The warrior long dormant in my blood rose to full awareness. I moved with speed that once earned respect among the hunting bands, ducking under the weapon and redirecting its aim skyward before the human could fire.

All my training urged lethal efficiency, but my healer's restraint held firm. I needed only to disable, not destroy. The dissonance of these opposing instincts created strange clarity as I knocked the weapon from Martinez's grip, then swept his legs with my tail.

The three other humans fired, but predictably. I twisted away from the energy bolts, using Martinez as a shield before tossing him aside. Their lack of coordination made them easy targets. I disabled each methodically—a precise blow to the nerves at a neck's base, pressure against the right vascular point, a sweeping kick to destabilize.

In moments, three lay incapacitated but breathing. Martinez alone maintained his footing, drawing a secondary weapon. He aimed not at me, but at Selene.

A cold fury, sharper than any battle instinct, surged through me.

Mine.

"The Commander was right," he snarled. "You've been compromised."

I moved to intercept, but Martinez fired wildly as I approached. The bolt missed Selene but struck one of his own men who had begun to rise. The human collapsed again with a cry of pain, clutching his shoulder.

The sound arrested my advance more effectively than any weapon. The healer in me responded instantly to suffering, despite the danger. I knelt beside the injured human, assessing the wound even as Martinez retreated into the forest.

"He's hit the subclavian junction," I told Selene as she joined me. "These energy weapons cause tissue damage beyond the entry point."

She nodded, already opening her medical kit. "I've treated similar wounds before."

Together we worked to stabilize the injured man, my knowledge of pressure points complementing her surgical approach. The two remaining conscious humans watched in confusion as we treated their companion.

"Why help him?" one finally asked.

I didn't look up from my work. "I am a healer before I am a warrior."

"Not how Hammond describes your kind," the man muttered.

Selene applied a final seal to the wound. "Your commander doesn't know everything he claims to."

The man's eyes darted between us with uncertainty. "So you're not taking us prisoner?"

"No," I confirmed, sitting back. "Once your companion is stable, you may return to your camp."

"Martinez will tell Hammond you attacked us," the other human warned.

"And you will tell him we saved Reyes," Selene countered, indicating the wounded man.

I watched the conflict play across the humans' faces—the challenge to their preconceptions visible in their expressions. This small moment of understanding might mean nothing against Hammond's rhetoric, but it existed nonetheless.

As they departed, supporting their injured comrade between them, the contradictions within me collided with new force. The warrior's pride in protecting Selene warred with the healer's distress at causing harm. I had chosen healing long ago, turning away from the hunting bands my father expected me to join.

Yet now, watching Selene gather our supplies again, I confronted a troubling truth: protecting her might require embracing the warrior side I had spent years suppressing. Not just protecting a fellow healer, or a valuable ally.

Protecting Selene .

The distinction settled deep within me, troubling and undeniable.

"Martinez will reach Hammond first," Selene said, interrupting my thoughts. "We need to alter our approach."

I nodded, retrieving my healer's satchel. "We will find another way."

The distant rumble of continued seismic activity punctuated my words, a reminder that greater dangers approached. I looked to the gathering storm clouds and then to Selene, the conflict within me unresolved but my path momentarily clear.