Colonies of U'u'kata

***Happy St. Patrick's day! Enjoy this extra chapter while you celebrate a rich culture and heritage that has always, and will always, inspire countless stories and songs worldwide***

The ground slowly went from being hard earth, to some kind of rubbery-feeling substance that made Cali think of walking on meat. The fact that everything smelled like blood didn't help either and she winced with every careful step. What if the knife-wings could feel vibrations through the rubbery strata? If they communicated through scent and pheromones, how soon before they would smell her and her companions pheromones?

The vibration all around them grew stronger as they progressed down the tunnel and the buzzing grew ever louder.

"The bodies are ahead," Kovich whispered loudly enough to be heard over the constant drone.

Cali gulped. She didn't want to see bodies. She didn't care that they were Tovans who wouldn't have done awful things to her. She didn't want to see what the knife-wings had done to them. What they might do to her...

When the dim light from Thenta's floating sphere illuminated a booted foot, she gasped and froze, feet rooting in place as her eyes tracked up from the boot to the leg attached... and where the leg was unattached. She suddenly felt hot. Too hot. Her fingertips oddly cold as she blinked several times. Staring, the muscles in her jaw tingling.

Cali's gorge rose and she spun around, dropping to her knees and vomiting onto the rubbery ground. Her hands pushed into the meaty-feeling substance and all she could smell was blood. Blood everywhere, seeping into the knees of her pants, oozing up through her fingers as she heaved over and over.

Huge hands gathered up her hair, holding it back off her neck as her body continued to spasm. Her eyes watered and her nose ran and another massive hand laid gently between her shoulder blades, easily spanning them.

Finally, the gagging and spasms eased and she breathed deeply through her mouth, exhaling with a shudder as those massive hands picked her up and set her back on her feet.

"Come," Kovich rumbled, massive hands still holding her upright.

Cali shook her head. "I... I can't. I can't see..."

"It's okay. I'll guide you. Just hold onto me and look up."

With a nod, Cali swallowed hard against the bitter taste of bile in her mouth. She looked up, into his hard, sturdy face, taking in his metallic blue eyes and pale hide. He held her gaze as they continued forward, only glancing away from her now and then.

"Okay, a little to the left. You're doing great. Almost there. Lift your foot high here. Yes, just like that. Wait—"

Cali put her foot down on something fleshy that wasn't the floor and she jerked it back up with a whimper, her eyes blurring with tears.

"Yeah, that was too soon. Reach your foot out a little more—"

Her head was shaking and she couldn't get her body to move. She kept seeing Thenta kill that Uu'k'asht in the cave, then she was hearing water and leg floated by...

Cali blinked and found herself in Kovich's arms, cradled against his wide, warm chest as he ran.

Ran...

Why were they running?

Confused, she glanced wildly about, noting Thenta before them with Xal-ii's arm across his shoulders as the two of them ran, the wounded Tilith practically being dragged by the thick Uu'k'asht.

"Wha-what's happening?" she asked, her throat raw and raspy.

Kovich didn't answer, his face was grim and sweat beaded on his forehead as he clutched her to him.