Soul-Bonded to the Alien(23)

She ran to pick up the biggest stick she could find in the nest, it was long and thick but she managed to lift it. Swinging at the mother bird, she jumped back ready for it to attack. It never even turned its head. The bird acted like it didn’t even feel the strike. The thought of failing hit her like a tree branch, she had to save him.

Stepping back, she picked up several rocks throwing them trying to redirect the bird’s attention. Sighing, she stopped. Of course it wouldn’t work. She may be stubborn, but she was getting the picture. If she wanted to save him it would come from the inside. Closing her eyes she imagined them on the ground far away from the nest. The light she saw earlier was a little brighter, a bit more tangible; she reached for it hoping that it would take them out of the nest and far enough away to be safe.

Opening her eyes she realized it worked, sort of. She was now standing next to him with several small birds trying to take a bite out of her.

“Paige, can you get us out of here?” Cal dodged another hungry bird.

The look of tiredness on his face had Paige snapping out of fear.

“I’m trying, why don’t you just teleport us?”

“I can’t. My talents are bound up tight. Nothing I do will work while we are here.”

“That’s convenient.” She realized this trial was more about her than Cal. His talents had been refined over many years, it was her talents she needed to develop and learn to use successfully. She was the one who needed to prove herself. She was the unknown entity. The fact that his life, their lives, were in jeopardy and depended solely on her would have been enough to send her off to a dark room.

“What’s not convenient is how aggressive these birds are becoming, soon one or several of them will take a bite out of us and we’ll be done.”

“I’m trying Cal, I think I almost got it.” Sweat dripped from her brow, the jumping around combined with the added weight of needing to save him was tiring her out. Stopping to close her eyes, she bellowed in pain as a beak closed over her leg.

She fell even as Cal caught her. Pain shot through her leg encouraging her to retreat from reality.

“Paige.”

“It bit me Cal, I’m sorry I tried to save us.”

“You saved us, Paige. We’re out of the nest. Not sure where we are but there are no mountain peaks or birds in sight.”

“I’m glad now you can go back and find another mate, somebody who loves you.” Her voice faded away as the poison began to enter her system causing her leg to go numb.

“Hush, Paige. I’m going to enter your body.”

“You can’t do that.”

“Watch me, Sunshine.”





*~*~*~*





Cal laid down next to her knowing that to leave his body unprotected even here was against the rules. He didn’t care and would break as many rules as necessary to save Paige’s life. Slipping out of himself, he entered into her body.

A smaller part of his essence moved inside of her. He set off for her leg bypassing the heart and the venom snake that would gladly love for him to get to close to it. Her body was a mass of reds and blacks showing her response to the bite she suffered. He traveled through her blood stream until he finally reached her injured leg. The poison from the bird was dark and oily as it began to spread.

;“Paige, can you hear me?”

“I hear you. Where are you?” Her voice sounded drowsy to his ears.

“Stay with me, Paige. Talk to me about anything.” He frowned feeling concern pulse through his veins, Paige’s body in here was pure essence, if she died there was no coming back. The weakness of her reply had him on edge.

Turning his attention back to the poison, he generated a fine silk that flowed from his body fighting to get ahead of the poison that was trying to flow down her leg. Carefully he maneuvered the web through the affected areas taking care not to come into contact with any contaminated tissue. He didn’t want to chance spreading the contamination in her body by coming into contact with it.

Getting the web in front of the spreading poison, he built a barrier to keep it from going any further. The silk web acted like a sieve allowing the blood to easily pass through but keeping the poison at bay.

Looking at the wound, he shook his head. Poison was still seeping inside. If it wasn’t stopped she wouldn’t make it. It must be replicating, he needed to cauterize the edges of the wound and destroy the poison around it before he could get rid of what was collecting. He was going to have to hurt her. A deep mournful howl came from his Matra at what he would need to do.

Taking a deep breath, he generated a heat that would take care of the jagged flesh around the bite and hopefully stop the poison from replicating. A beam came from his hand going to the edge of the wound. It hovered not moving.