Page 26 of Paradise

Cody

It was hot at the edge of the mountains, out on the dry, rocky expanses of barren soil. Thérèse dotted Cody’s face with sunscreen and watched it spread to cover all his exposed skin before giving him the okay to leave the shuttle, and even then she made him wear a hat. “It doesn’t even have any of the Space Rangers on it,” Cody complained. “My helmet has lightning bolts.”

“And mine is plain old brown. Be happy you get a blue hat,” Thérèse advised unsympathetically. “And no running off. You stay within ten feet of me the whole time. Don’t touch any of the things that you see without checking in with me first.”

“What about a rock?” Cody grumbled, wishing again that Garrett or his daddy could have come with him. Or Wyl. “Can I touch a rock?”

“No. There could be rock spiders.”

“Really?” Actually, that sounded pretty cool. “Spiders that look like rocks?”

“Spiders that live under them. They’re black, and they have eight long legs, and they’re aggressive. Don’t move the rocks.”

“Then whatcanI do?”

“You can stay close to me and ask before touching anything,” Thérèse said. “Now. Where do you want to start?”

Cody stared out at the landscape. Red rocks, brown dirt, and tiny swirls of dust where the wind kicked up eddies. “Are you sure there are actually salamapedes out here? How can anything live without water?”

“There’s some water,” Thérèse said, walking over to a small rocky outcropping. “When it rains, the water seeps into the ground and the cracks in the rocks. It stays there for a long time, and these plants”—she pointed to a small, hard nubbin that looked almost the same as the surface of the rock itself—“grow down to use it throughout the year.” She pulled the small, rough bud free and opened it up with the edge of her nail. Cody leaned in close and saw how the pulpy innards glistened a little. “Little creatures feed on the plants, and other creatures feed on them. Plus, most of the animals that live out here don’t need a lot of water to survive.”

“Oh.” Well, that was neat. “I’m more used to fish stuff.”

“That makes sense,” Thérèse agreed. “Since you live on Pandora. Are there many fish?”

“I think so. Garrett said most of them are too big or live too deep in the ocean to be seen, so I’ve only seen two types. The marine biologist he works with brought the little ones to show our class. One had all these little tentacles that would poke out of a hard shell to cling to the rocks, and the other one was about this big—” Cody held his hands about six inches apart. “And it was round and almost flat with just a little bump on top, and the bump had an eyeball in it! It was really cool.” He grinned.

“It sounds really cool,” Thérèse agreed. “There are some cool things here, though. Let’s look around for them.”

Thérèse wasn’t from Paradise; she came from the same home planet as Claudia, but she was really good at tracking. She identified bug trails in the dirt, they watched a whole colony of linky ants build body chains that stretched over five feet long, and they even saw a fluffy little pikka stick its head out from behind a rock and make a grab for a shiny piece of dirt. “What was it getting?”

“Silicates,” Thérèse explained. “It uses them to lay a trail out in front of its burrow to help attract a mate. I guess the female pikkas like a shiny house.”

“I like shiny things too,” Cody confided. They watched the little pikka scuttle away, so light it didn’t even kick up any dirt. “Once I made my whole room reflective, even the ceiling. Daddy couldn’t even go in, he said it made him dizzy. Garrett liked it, though. He said it showed off his good side.”

Thérèse sniffed derisively. “He thinks every side is his good side.”

“Why don’t you like him?” Cody demanded.

She frowned. “What makes you think I don’t like him?”

“Because you never talk nice to him. You just make fun of him or ignore him. I know you thought I didn’t notice,” Cody added, and he knew he sounded a little like a brat, but his daddy wasn’t here to tell him not to, and it had been bothering him. “People always think kids don’t notice things, but I do.”

“So you do.” Thérèse pursed her lips for a moment. “I admit that Garrett has never been my favorite person, but it’s not really personal. We have very different backgrounds. I tend to … be a bit abrupt with people I don’t understand.”

Cody frowned. “And that’s okay?”

“Oh, heavens.” She rolled her eyes. “We’re through talking about this. We’re supposed to be finding salamapedes.”

“But you said they live under rocks, and you won’t let metouchany of those!”

“I’ll turn some over with my boot.”

They went around to different structures and found loose rocks, small enough for Thérèse to tip over with the toe of her combat boot. Three of them were barren underneath, and one had a small rock spider that curled up into a ball and rolled into a sandy tunnel before Cody could get a good look at it.

The fifth one, though,didhave a salamapede beneath it, a small, flat creature that reared up as soon as the rock was removed. It raised its foremost legs and waved them threateningly, turning from dusky brown to a brilliant crimson color in a matter of seconds.

“Wow!” Cody knelt down next to the rock and leaned in to get a better look. “It’s so pretty! I thought you said the animals wouldn’t be bright colors ’cause that isn’t good camouflage.”

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