Page 63 of Uprooted

Elowen

I don’t believe a word Aro said. If it didn’t hurt so badly, I would laugh at how cliché it is. I remember the first time I saw this trope in a vid when I was a little girl.

A boy had a pet wolf he couldn’t keep any longer, I can’t remember exactly why.

Maybe the wolf acted out… Regardless, the boy chased the wolf off, saying horrible and hurtful things.

When the confused wolf finally ran off, the boy fell to his knees and cried.

My mom comforted me while I cried along with the boy in the vid.

I was so confused. How could the boy be so cruel to his beloved wolf? None of it made sense at the time. She soothed my hair down and explained that sometimes people will say things they don’t mean so they can save those they love.

I know what Aro was trying to do. The hurt deep down in my chest is from him not coming back, not saying goodbye and not seeing me onto the lander. That part stings the most.

It’s not long before my yuriOS lights up with a link request from Aro. I quickly decline. I’m not ready to speak with him yet. It’s better if he doesn’t know what I’m up to right now.

For days I’ve been trying to think of anything I can do to help j'Tilak. I hoped that I could appeal to Earth, that as a human I could convince them to come to our aid. Part of me knows it wouldn’t have done anything.

Earth made a calculated decision. They had all the research they needed, research I worked day and night to give them. In my na?veté it never occurred to me to hold back on sending the information over. They play politics when so many lives are at stake.

Betrayal isn’t strong enough to describe what I feel right now. I’m appalled and full of rage. It’s not right and I refuse to be complicit. They happily took the research to help themselves and abandoned their allies when they needed them the most.

My mind kept coming up blank on any other option, until last night. While I lay there waiting for Aro to come back to our room, that tiny little seed of a plan that I’d been brushing away took root in my head.

“I brought you some noodles. They’re probably cold,” Maak says as he slinks into his room.

“Thanks. I’ll eat later. I’m not hungry. My stomach is in knots,” I tell him.

He drops the bowl of noodles on his desk in the corner and turns the chair to face me as he sits down.

“You should eat. It might be a while before I can get away to feed you again.”

“You’re probably wondering why I asked you for help,” I say, guessing at his motivations for sitting down to talk with me. It’s not a secret that Maak has kept his distance from me and Aro since he caught us coming back into the dome that night.

“I am,” he admits.

“I knew you would help me stay. I also know that regardless of what you think of me, you want what's best for your world. And I respect that,” I say.

“You know he will kill me if he ever finds out that I helped you stay.”

“Another risk we all take in service of j’Tilak. You and I both know that if I evacuated the Atorum would just go away and we would never know who was responsible for this.”

“What’s the strategy here? How long do you think you can hide in my room before you get caught?”

“I’m still trying to figure that part out. I’ve got plan A, and if that doesn’t work, we’ll resort to plan B.”

“Do I want to know either one?” he asks .

“It’s probably for the best if you don’t.” I grab the bowl of noodles he smuggled in for me and take a small bite. Maybe it’s the conversation, or the confirmation that I’m eating—Maak turns to leave.

Before reaching the door he turns and says, “Whatever it is you’re thinking. I hope it works. We can only fight them off for so long.”

I do too.