Page 32 of Resisting the Alien Rider

He leaped off the ground and started climbing the nearest tree.

“Oh, no you don’t,” Garrek growled, his voice so deep and cutting with authority that I felt my nipples harden in response.

No. It’s just cold and I haven’t warmed up from my dip in the creek yet!

Killian paid that bossy baritone no mind. He scrabbled up the rough, bark-lined trunk of the tree. When he reached the first big branch, he easily hoisted himself up onto it and kept on going.

“Climb as high as you want, Killian,” Garrek barked from below. “My tail may not be long enough to lasso you from down here. But my rope is.”

“I’m not so sure the lasso thing is a good idea now that he’s, er, left the ground,” I said uneasily. Killianwas already at least five metres up and getting higher every second. “Won’t he fall?”

“Yes,” Garrek replied instantly. “He will.”

“Garrek!” I gasped. No matter how much stronger Zabrians were than humans, a fall from that height would do some major damage to Killian, if not kill him.

“He’ll fall,” Garrek repeated with disappointed impatience, as if he couldn’t even believe that I was pressing him on this, “but it won’t matter.”

“How can that not matter?”

“Because,” he said slowly, his whitened gaze boring into mine, “I’ll be there to catch him.”

“Oh,” I said, a little breath of sound, barely a word at all.

“Killian,” Garrek roared in warning, “I’m getting my rope. If you are not descending by the time I’ve tied the loop, I’m going to haul you back here like a runaway bracku. Your choice.”

Killian’s choice was, apparently, to ignore the warning and keep on climbing.

The tree Killian had chosen was a big one, and almost entirely bare of the dark leaves or needles or fruit that some of the other trees had. It was a pale, knobby trunk with large but sparse branches. Which meant my view of Killian was unimpeded.

It also meant my view of something else now moving against the trunk of the tree was unimpeded.

“Um, Garrek? What’s that?” I asked, squinting at the tree and trying to make sense of what I saw. It looked like the bark on the trunk of the tree was moving.Killian had already gone past that spot and had paused for breath on the branch above it.

“What?” Garrek asked distractedly. I glanced over to find him working an impressive length of rope between his claws, looking as psychotic with dark purpose as an Old-Earth hangman who really, really loved his job.

“That thing on the tree.”

Garrek didn’t seem so distracted now. His head snapped up and he instantly rose from where he’d been crouching, closing the distance between us with ground-swallowing strides.

“What thing?” he asked, so sharply it made my heart jump into my throat.

“I don’t know! It looks like the bark of the tree is peeling off or something.” I pointed to the spot. “Is that normal for trees here?”

I was starting to worry that the bark sloughing off meant the tree was too old or dead to hold up Killian’s weight near the top.

Garrek’s eyes followed the pointing line of my arm.

His eyes blazed suddenly brighter, and his breath rushed out of him, guttural and jagged.

And then he was sprinting. Exhaustion forgotten, rope forgotten.

“Killian!” Garrek’s voice was desperate thunder in the camp.

It finally got Killian’s attention. The boy looked questioningly down at Garrek, who was now scaling the side of the tree with a determined, fierce-limbedspeed I wouldn’t have thought him capable of after busting his ass for so long trying to capture Killian.

“What?” Killian called, oblivious to whatever the hell was happening on the trunk so near to him.

Whatever it was, it wasn’t good.

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