Still, the leader still patiently says, “They may choose to accept another female they have found, but more times than not, they will keep hunting. It is known that most — if not all — males will not participate in the Mountain Run in the hopes of finding their Xiveri mate, but their Xanaxana may still take a shine to one or more of the females. In this case, selecting one such female will be acceptable…”
“And you say that one of them in particular is going to come for me.” Just like last time. Just like every time. The shakes threaten to overwhelm me. I feel bile shoot up from my stomach and into my mouth. My whole body heaves for a moment, but I swallow, throat burning with the taste of it.
“Hexa, you are his one true mate. His Xiveri mate.”
I’d rather burn alive. I turn to the map, hating the female, and open my mouth to tell her every single thing I think about her precious red alien and what he did to me in the last Hunt, but the bitch cuts in. “She is nothing. She is no Xiveri mate. She hasn’t been claimed yet. She hasn’t done the Mountain Run. She may think she’s something special because she is this human aberration, but a human will never be our Xhea. Least of all this one,” she spits, her last sentence coming out as a nasty, twisted whisper. It almost sounds like a challenge and I almost rise to it until I realize that she and I are in agreement about everything. In fact, she’s the only one I’ve agreed with so far about anything.
I glance at the female whose forehead is as red and menacing as her words are and say, “You’re right, but fuck you anyways.”
“You disgraceful…”
“Shut up,” I bark, loud enough to startle two of the other females, including the slight green one who sits off to the side, looking very small and very terrified. I hate her, yet my protective instincts flare anyways. She’s too young to be here. Just like I was, my first time. “We don’t have time and we need to work together if we’re going to outrun — if we’re going to present adequate chase,” I say through gritted teeth.
“They tag us by scent so we need to disrupt it. Everyone, take off your clothes.” No one moves. Everyone shines. Rising up to stand, I shout, “Take them off!” My voice is brittle and tortured.
My outer layers are bound around me in ties and knots I don’t know how anyone is supposed to be able to get through. They make for slow progress, but I don’t let any of the alien freaks help me. That would require them touching me and my stomach rebels at the thought.
Once the first two of the women are in the nude, shivering and turning blue — well, an even bluer blue — I bark, “Trade. Take each other’s clothes. Tear bits of yours off and give it to someone else. The more people you can trade with and the more scents you can wear, the better.”
I tear off strips of my own suit and hand them out to the females. As I reach the leader, I thrust a strip into her hand and ask, “You get what I’m doing here?”
She grins and nods, her ridges shining a weird funky orange, marred by silver streaks. If I had to guess, I’d say she was excited more than anything. “You are clever. I see now why the Okkari has organized the Mountain Run for you. He wishes to win you. He wishes for you to know that you will be well provided for by your Xiveri mate.”
She drops her tone and leans forward, but I recoil, unwilling to get too close. Her breath forms clouds as she speaks, shocking and white and hovering between us but only for a blink before the wind steals them away.
She says, “He has told tales of you. Of how you are a warrior who battled a khrui. I see such tales are not so tall after all. You also honor us now. For with your scent marking us, it will make us desirable to more of the males. It is said you human females are very fertile. Perhaps the males will scent fertility between us, and perhaps, by Xana and Xaneru, it will be so.”
I bite back the insults on my tongue and the urge to punch her right in the center of her stupid face. The one who pulled me up into a fucking tree like a scarecrow is telling stories about me now? Singing my praise? He has the audacity to run his mouth about me and call me heroic when all he did was destroy who I was? I liked her. I liked her so much better than me, whatever this thing is that exists now.
“Just take it.” I drop the scrap of fabric between us and thrust away from her, turning to the last woman left. The bitch. “Give me your suit.”
Her ridges flare black, but I see the hesitation in her gaze.
“Give me your fucking suit. Your woman here says we don’t have much time. You want the Okkari for yourself, don’t you?”
“How do you know this?” She rasps.
I laugh and she winces, though I can’t fault her for it. The sound of my own laughter disgusts even me. It didn’t used to sound like that. It used to be high and light and draw stares from colony boys and smiles from the elders. It used to infect everybody. Now laughter comes out of me as infected as disease, snarling and hacking.
“I can read your fucking mind,” I tell her, “now give me your suit.”
She falters. “Humans have such an ability?”
I roar out my irritation and lunge for her, dragging her suit away by force. She issues a weak scream and lets me take it, putting up no resistance. I don her suit as quickly as I can and watch her try to fit her much longer limbs into mine. Hers bunches up around my elbows and ankles, which would slow me down if I planned to do much running, which I don’t. No running this time. This time when I see him, he’ll know that only one of us will leave this planet alive. Or neither of us. Both options suit me just fine.
“I’m heading for the swamps. I need to disguise my scent as much as possible. I need two women with me, four need to brave the caves, and four need to head to the trees. They’ll provide the least cover, but are there climbers in this group?” Five of the women raise their hands tentatively.
“Good. You four will go there. You’ll go to the caves,” I say, pointing to the one I’ve singled out. “I need three more to go with her. Make sure you don’t go in a group with someone whose scent you’re wearing. We need to disperse them, muddle our scents as much as possible. Make it hard.” A few more hands go up. “Fine. That leaves you with me.” I point to the leader and to the one alien who hasn’t spoken yet. The green one. Is it a surprise I’ve chosen to bring her with me? To look out for? I feel my insides crumble at the thought, the tower of swords I’ve built around my shriveled mass of a heart, tottering.
I look away from the girl, grateful for the leader and the distraction she presents. “Your plan is to hide in the mire?” She says.
“Just until nightfall. Then I make my way across the forest and to the village. You said there’s a village at the base of the mountain, right?” She confirms and before she can interject whatever miserable tidbit of information she’d like to, I assert, “Then there must be a skyport. Some kind of transportation center to other planets and worlds. I need off this one.”
“We among the Okkari do not believe in such things,” the bitch snaps, stepping closer to me and my little group. As she does, her tone gentles, “But you were brought here on the Okkari’s private transport. He keeps it here,” she says, pointing to a spot on the map at the end of what looks to be a valley. “It is not far, but you couldn’t seek it out now if you wanted to. This is the way the males will come from. You will need to get there under cover of darkness.”