Page 69 of Stealing the Star Stone
“It’s getting louder,” she said, bolting onward but this time with even more urgency.
He peered deep into the shadows between the trees, the river muted and no longer visible.When a fern twitched, he chased after her.Patter and tinkles pushed him to go faster.He exploded into sunlight, cutting a path in a field of blue grass and white flowers that looked like praying hands.
He skidded to a stop where Nova had and doubled over, trying to catch his breath.
“Heard that, too?”she asked, hoisting the machete and the blaster.
“Yeah, like hundreds of little feet.”
She walked back a few meters, studying the treeline.“Mm, would explain the bells.”
He straightened, hands on hips and gazed across the field.The grass rippled as if God had run his fingers over it.Far in the distance was the shimmer of amber-colored water—the lake.
“I guess we’re heading that way.”
When she didn’t answer, he glanced in her direction.
Ice stiffened every muscle.
Before her stood a man no higher than her knee.His bulbous head had tribal markings.Two googly eyes competed with large pointy ears for attention, but both lost to the wide mouth sprouting sharklike teeth.A fur of some animal covered his top half.A loincloth his privates, and below that were two knobby knees.His legs to his feet were bare, and the longest toe nails coiled over his toes—three per foot.One hand held a spear, chimes strapped to the shaft.In his other hand, he wielded a wicked-looking dagger.
The blades of grass split, revealing more of these…strange men.
“Run,” she whispered.
And Eli did, sprinting at full speed toward the lake.
A horrific ululation drowned his ears, masking her footsteps.But he didn’t dare to check if she followed.He didn’t need to worry when she passed him, caught his hand, and hurried him on.The field gave way to dunes of black sand into a long shore where the amber-colored water lapped at its banks.
She spun, facing their pursuers.
“Think it was wise to run?”he asked, gasping for breath.
“He hadredblood on his dagger.”She raised her blaster, ready to fire.
On the crest of a dune, figures appeared, standing still, watching them.The air thickened with tension.This was it, the moment they’d die.
“We can try and hide,” she said, gesturing to more forests on the opposite banks of the lake.
“Or we can swim,” he finished.
“Yes.”She tucked the machete under her armpit, ran her palm down her thigh, then regripped the weapon.
“You are foolish to swim here,” a super-tall man said, peeking from behind a boulder.“The flesh-eating jedshe reside here.They prefer the calm to the force of the great waters.”
“Stay back,” Nova said, aiming the blaster at him and the two men who gathered behind him—looming like guards.
A fisherman on his own, not scary.Three men on a deserted bank, alarming.One bore a nasty scar from eyebrow to collarbone.She could kill two before the third would reach her or Eli.
Their gold-skin shimmered in the sunlight.It took a moment for Eli to look past that to the low-riding loincloths in woven fabric, falling to their sandaled feet.Their chests were bare except for blue markings similar to his tattoo.Long hair in bronze, copper, and gold fell down their backs, beaded and braided.
They had humanoid features for the most part minus the bridge of a nose.A gem was embedded in the speaker’s temple.
And in his hand was a string of freshly caught eels.
Eli blinked at him, finally registering what he’d said.“You speak galactic?”
“I speak Lethari.”
