Sohut's Protection: A Sci-fi Alien Romance (Riv's Sanctuary Book 2) by A.G. Wilde (ebook reader that looks like a book .txt) 📕

6

The teru bird had caught him completely off guard.

He’d smelled the thing, but he hadn’t expected it to go into a rage and attack him.

They were usually peaceful creatures that kept to the trees and often they went on long migratory flights across the continent.

He should have known something was wrong with this one when he’d seen the state of the tree it lived in.

The entire tree had been covered in excrement, as if the bird had been there for a long, long time.

As soon as he’d ventured close enough, the thing had attacked.

It had been vicious, enraged, but only because it was in pain.

He’d realized shortly after wrestling it to the ground that there was a sharp object stuck in one of its wings.

That’s why it had dwelled so long in one spot. It couldn’t fly away.

It’d been injured.

And its attitude was because it was in pain.

He’d had to wrestle the object out even as the stupid animal clawed at him, almost pulling his face off, and it had been enough to distract him.

That was, until the alien creature’s scent wafted into his nose.

The creature he’d been tracking had ventured close.

Close enough that when he’d turned, he was sure he’d looked straight at the spot in which it hid.

And something had struck him immobile.

Something that caused him not to chase after the thing.

He heard the bushes rustle in the creature’s wake as it ran away. Still, he didn’t move.

Blinking, he stared at the spot in which he was sure the creature had been. Several unnerving thoughts blossomed in his head.

The creature had been watching him…scoping him out.

The only reason for an animal to do something like that was if it didn’t want to make its presence

known.

Only something that harbored some intelligence would do such a thing.

Phek.

This wasn’t like the usual hunt.

This animal was different, able to override its base instincts to flee, hide, or attack. It could think…and possibly scheme.

He’d never hunted a creature that watched him like that before without trying to attack, and for that reason, he was hesitant. His usual hunting instinct was giving way to curiosity.

It was a timid creature. He could tell.

Otherwise, it would have attacked him already to stake its claim over its territory.

An elusive, long-legged, pale, hairy-headed creature with a flat face…

It would be a pleasure to finally capture it.

Walking slowly through the undergrowth, Sohut stepped over twisting vines, shrubs, and small fallen trees that blocked his path.

His movements were automatic.

He didn’t even see the flora he was traversing over.

All he could think about was the creature.

Sniffing the air again, he caught the faint scent of spring water, and an idea immediately formed in his head.

The best way to capture elusive creatures was not to actively go after them.

He needed to cut off something the creature couldn’t do without…

There was water nearby and he’d bet his gonads that that’s where the creature quenched its thirst.

If it was going to hide from him, he bet he could coax it out of its hiding spot by cutting off the one thing that it definitely needed: life fluid.

He followed his sniffer, and sure enough, it took him to a spring gushing from the side of the mountain.

It was set in a small clearing, with thick vines running over hard rock.

Years and years of the water beating against the rock carved a narrow pool that filtered through the rock and allowed the water to carry on down the mountain.

Crouching, his fingers brushed over the vines on the floor.

There was a faint indentation there, like a path of some sort. The more he looked at it, the more he could see there were several of these indentations—almost as if the animal took different paths to access the water.

Sohut blinked, his brows furrowing.

He was right about the animal being intelligent.

It didn’t want to leave visible tracks.

Sohut’s brows dived deeper as he ran his fingers over one of the slight indentations.

To the Gori and many other beings, the vines running across the floor would look completely natural—untouched.

But his eyes were trained to see beyond what appeared to be natural.

Tracking elusive creatures was his forte and though the ground looked undisturbed, he could see the signs of regular wear.

The almost imperceptible flattening of the vines in certain parts…

The sprouts growing only in certain areas…

As he surveyed the area, he knew he was right about one thing.

Whatever the creature was, it needed watering regularly and if he stayed by the water hole, the animal was bound to come to him sooner or later.

Pure thirst would drive it to reveal itself.

Standing so he could stretch, Sohut turned his eyes upward.

Visibility was getting low.

Above, the sky was slowly turning to a deep purple and he could see the outline of Hudo III’s double moons as the planet entered the dark cycle.

The good thing about Hudo III was that the nights weren’t too cold. He could sleep outside without shelter. It wouldn’t be the most comfortable, but it would do.

Getting his light-disk from his satchel, Sohut engaged the device and set it in the center of the little clearing.

A dull orange glow lit up the area.

It was enough light for him to see but not too much to disturb the critters in the bushes around him.

With another sniff of the air, he settled in.

The creature’s scent was mostly faded.

Wherever it had gone, it hadn’t run towards the water.

Still, he was betting that it would turn up.

Something told him he was pretty right about that.

7

For the entire night, Cleo sat with the spikes she’d sharpened, waiting by the mouth of her cave…waiting for the alien to appear.

As morning rose, she still gripped them tight.

She had enough spikes to kill the whole coven in Twilight, and even as the sun rose, she gripped the two she was holding.

Unmoving, she remained vigilant behind the curtain of leaves at the entrance of the cave.

Logically, he shouldn’t be