As for Terra, well she was difficult to read, Rive thought. Had she truly forgiven V’rone for what he had done? Maybe she was just tired—she’d taken quite a pounding. A male Monstrum in rut was not a creature to take lightly. It almost never happened but when it did, the consequences were severe.
By rights he and Tem could ask the Brawn of the colony to leave now and never see them again, but Rive didn’t really want to do that—and he didn’t think Tem did either. The three of them had been together for years, searching for their Queen. And V’rone had been under the influence of the spoors.
Whether Terra forgives him or not, he’s not going to forgive himself, he thought, looking at V’rone again. Poor bastard—looks like he hates himself.
He wished he could say something to defuse the situation, to cut the tension and make things better. But he was the Brain of the colony, not the Soul—he wasn’t good with emotional matters. So he only repeated,
“Are we all ready?”
“Ready,” Terra said, when neither Tem nor V’rone answered. “No—wait.” Reaching down, she took each of them by the hand. “Okay, now we’re ready,” she said, nodding firmly.
Rive nodded back, though he thought that Terra’s generous gesture had only made V’rone look even more miserable. It might have been easier on him if she’d shouted at him, instead of trying to pretend that nothing had happened.
Still, there was nothing to do but unlock the door and go through to the other world. Their quest was still on a time limit and they had spent far too long in the world of the Froozles.
Rive turned the tumblers of the lock and heard the click. Then, grasping the latch, he pulled it down firmly and threw open the door, once more revealing the spinning rainbow vortex that greeted them each time they entered a new world.
He just hoped this last world would be less dangerous than the other two.
FORTY
“Where are we?” Terra looked around herself, frowning.
“I don’t know but I don’t like the look of it,” Tem murmured.
V’rone said nothing. But then, the Brawn of the colony hadn’t spoken another word to her since their last exchange in the cave. Terra was beginning to get worried that what had happened between them was worse than she’d at first supposed.
Tem and Rive weren’t speaking to him either—it almost seemed like that “rutting incident” which was how she thought of the wild sex they’d had together—had somehow driven a wedge or put an invisible wall between V’rone and the rest of them.
Trying to push the worries out of her head, Terra looked around some more, trying to get her eyes to adjust to the strange lighting and sights. They seemed to be in a kind of jungle—there were huge, leafy plants with broad leaves and blooming flowers all around them and the air was humid and dank with the smell of organic matter growing and decaying in the same environment.
The trouble was, the entire jungle was red.
Crimson ferns waved their fronds in the muggy air…scarlet vines hung from maroon trees… ruby flowers sprouted from burgundy bushes. Even the sky above them was a sullen reddish-orange, Terra thought, looking up. As though maybe the star that heated this planet was a red giant without many years left to live.
“Well, this is fuckin’ weird,” she heard V’rone say. But when she turned to agree with him, she could hardly see the big Monstrum.
“Hey—you’re camouflaged!” she exclaimed.
It was true—the Brawn of the colony blended in perfectly with the deep red jungle. Even his black horns and the black tattoo-like markings on his arms only served to make his disguise even more perfect because they blended with the dark shadows cast by the leaves.
“Look, you guys—he blends in perfectly,” Terra said, since no one had answered her before.
But Tem and Rive only looked away.
“I wonder if the plants use something other than chlorophyll in this universe,” Rive remarked.
“Maybe,” Tem said, shrugging. “Or maybe the chlorophyll is just a different color. Maybe it’s red instead of green.”
“Or maybe all three of you need to stop ignoring each other and talk!” Terra said, frowning at all three of them. “It’s over—can’t we get over it already?”
But no one would meet her eyes. They were all just looking around—well, Tem and Rive were. She could hardly see V’rone at all, due to the way he blended in so perfectly to the red jungle.
Terra wondered if she ought to press the matter, but then something caught her eye.
“Look!” She pointed into the distance. “Look—I can already see the door! At least…” She squinted. “I think I can.”
Her vision had been getting worse with age and she knew she needed to get glasses, though she didn’t want to admit it. But she was almost certain she could see the fuzzy golden outline of the door far ahead of them.