Guess we're not rafting out of here.
Alice doesn't pay much attention to the water, though. She's too busy staring up at the sky, a look of wonder on her face. "This is so bananas," she breathes, her hand tight in mine. "Look at that view."
I try to see it from her perspective. I've seen similar stuff before, but to her sheltered human eyes, this must be new. I don't remember a lot of stuff about Earth, but I do remember no one lives on their moon and it's pretty far away from the planet itself, so the view must be fascinating to her. The moon we're on is a lot closer to its mother planet and we're close enough that the green and blue landscape of V'tarr covers the majority of the sky. Swirls of clouds are visible, and along with that, the thin silvery ring that surrounds the planet itself. The ring cuts through the afternoon sky, like a strange silver rainbow, and I know that up close, it'd be nothing but space debris, satellites, stations, and storage shuttles. Ugly shit that looks like so much clutter.
From here, though, it's pretty.
Alice is entranced. Her eyes are wide and shiny as she gazes up at it. "It's so beautiful."
I squeeze her hand. "You're not going to cry again, are you?"
"No," she says, and she absolutely sounds like she's about to.
"Think of your reputation," I whisper, and nod at Gloom, who's poking at the edge of the riverbank.
She swallows hard and sniffs. "Right. No. It's cool. I'm fine. I just had a moment." She beams up at me. "And speaking of moments, I need to go pee."
Again? She just went not that long ago, I could have sworn. "You all right?"
"I'm pretty sure it's a pregnant lady thing, like the crying." Alice gives me a rueful look. "Get used to this for the next nine months." Then she pauses. "At least, I'm pretty sure it'll be nine months. That's how long it takes for you mesakkah to have babies, too, right?"
"Oh, absolutely." I am not about to tell her that our females gestate the young for three years. That seems like a “later” conversation.
"Okay, cool. I'm going to go find a convenient bush, then." She beams up at me and then lets go of my hand. "Be right back!"
"Stay close," I remind her as she trots away. "I want to be able to hear everything."
"Gross," she calls back.
Maybe it is. She can't blame a male for being protective, though. She's my mate, and carrying my child. Of course I'm protective. Kef, I want to remain right at her side and watch over her while she squats, but I know Alice wouldn't be a fan of that. Humans are rather squeamish when it comes to bodily functions. Then again, so are mesakkah. But…she's my mate. That changes everything.
"Hey, Killer, come look at this."
I watch after Alice for a bit longer and feel better when Sterre lopes after her. The carinoux is relaxed, which makes me relax, too. I turn toward Gloom and head to his side. He squats on the muddy riverbank, staring at the ground. "What are we looking at?"
"What makes these kinds of tracks?" he asks, pointing at tiny little presses in the dirt. The tracks look like stars, a little, and are about the size of my thumb.
I shrug. "Probably a bird of some kind. There's a lot of them around here."
"A bird," he says in awe. "Amazing. Look at their little feet marks!"
"Great," I say and pat his shoulder. "Glad we had this talk." I straighten and look for Alice again. I don't see her head amongst the bushy ferns, but it just means she's still squatting.
Gloom straightens and then makes another noise of excitement. "What bird is this one?" He points farther down the bank.
I glance over where he's pointing, and it takes me a moment to see it. There in the mud is the barest hint of an impression. Four deep toe-marks are dug into the mud, and at the edge of the embankment, there's a rounded impression, as if a big, heavy heel dug into the mud for a brief moment. It reminds me of the print I saw back when we first arrived.
The heavy one with the wrong number of toes.
My senses prick.
A moment later, Sterre makes a miserable sound and darts off into the woods.
No.
No no no no.
I race after the carinoux, my heart pounding. My lungs are tight and I can't breathe. I need Alice to tell me to take deep breaths, to listen to my chest and let me know everything's all right. I run up to the carinoux, and she's got Alice's skirt between her teeth, holding it gently, her tail lashing back and forth as she stares into the trees.