But I couldn’t and so in the meantime, I had no choice but to be patient.
69
Kaitlyn
I walked around the vast bole of the tree, which seemed to go on forever. It was like one of those giant redwoods out in California, only it was a deciduous tree instead of a conifer. The massive leaves blanketing the ground all around it certainly proved that.
I heard the stream before I saw it—though it was much bigger than a stream. More like a river, I thought, as I stood on its banks and watched the broad ribbon of water rushing over golden stones in its shallow bed. Of course, to someone the Drake’s size, it probably seemed like a little stream.
Big or little, it was a place to wash up and try to straighten out my hair, so I was grateful for it. I knelt in the tall grass—the stems were bigger and thicker than anything I had ever seen back home—and splashed the chilly water on my face and hands.
I considered taking a bath, but I didn’t have anything to dry off with. And besides, the idea of baring my scarred body with Ari so near made me nervous. Not that I thought he would peek at me—he seemed much too honorable for that. But still, I didn’t like the idea of being naked when I had so much to hide.
Of course, I had let my Coven-mates see me wearing only a towel, but that was different. I wasn’t attracted to any of them the way I had to admit I was attracted to Ari. I thought again of how he looked with his shirt off—his caramel-colored skin so smooth and warm and all his muscles on display…
As my thoughts wandered, my eye happened to catch on something going on a little further down the riverbank.
A blur of color caught my attention first—a golden gleam that I thought must be the sunlight reflecting off the water. But as I watched, I realized this was no stray sunbeam—it was an animal or an insect of some kind. The gleaming I had seen was coming from its rapidly beating wings, which were jewel-toned, much like the Drake’s were.
It was hard to make out the rest of the little creature—it flitted around above the surface of the water as though it was looking for something. After a moment, it flew over to the riverbank and I saw what it was hunting for.
Sitting on one of the big, thick blades of grass, was an insect about twice as big as my thumb that looked like a cross between a cricket and a bumble bee. It had the long, bent legs of a cricket and the fat, furry body of a bumble bee and it, too, was jewel-toned—which was what allowed me to see it, since it was the same green as the grass. But the sun shone off its carapace, making it seem to twinkle like a dew drop on the grass blade.
The creature with the gorgeous golden wings came flying suddenly up to the insect and I understood that it must be hunting. I expected to see it snap the shiny bumble-cricket off the blade of grass or maybe shoot out a long, sticky tongue like a frog and grab it that way.
Instead, to my surprise, the shimmering little predator opened its delicately pointed snout and shot out a tongue of flame, about two inches long.
Before the insect could move, it was fried to a crisp. The shining predator snapped it up and crunched it contentedly. I even thought I heard it humming to itself as it chewed.
Well, breakfast is served, I guess, I thought, watching silently as it ate its meal of deep-fried bumble-cricket. I shuddered at the sight, but who was I to judge? I’d just had blood for my own breakfast.
While the little predator was hovering in midair, chomping down its meal, I finally got a good look at it. It had a curved, S-shaped body and a fat little belly, rather like a seahorse but with tiny legs which were curled up under it. It seemed to have tiny arms too, but again they were curled in tight to its body as it flew. Apparently it didn’t use them for hunting. Its snout was long and delicate and its eyes, when it turned and saw me watching it, were large and dark, and intelligent.
Seeing me so close seemed to startle the flying seahorse thing because it took one look at me and darted away at once in the other direction.
I was sorry to see it go—it was a beautiful little thing—like a living jewel. I wondered if its wings were more like a butterfly’s or a Drake’s—it was impossible to see when they were beating so quickly.
But the little creature wasn’t looking where it was going. Startled by my presence, it was still keeping a wary eye on me as it zoomed ahead—right into danger.