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Ferns crunched, causing Sam to exhale. He dropped down and used Toughen, the motion instinctive at this point. He had been using himself as bait for almost the past three hours, and the hunting human competition was on the verge of ending. As for the insect Ellie and Sam were holding onto to hand in to the judges, well, it was smaller than the sursusu they had caught at the very beginning. Every time Sam used Toughen on himself, inevitably, the bug he was holding would be chewed and eaten by the resulting swarm, and the largest of the batch that came would be selected as the new temporary competition catch.
Sam waited for the insect swarm to crawl over his body. Since his eyes were closed, he couldn’t see the insects coming, but he could hear the droning grow louder as time passed. He focused on his surroundings, feeling the vibrations traveling through the jungle floor, smelling the distinct scent of mold, listening to the scuttering of tiny feet. Then, something—probably giant mandibles—clamped around his waist, and the vibrations he was feeling in his knees vanished as he was lifted off the ground. Had he been captured by a surdock? He couldn’t open his eyes to check unless he wanted to relax his muscles, allowing the mandibles around his waist to pinch him in half.
Instead of the rushing wind that accompanied a surdock in flight, the one that made Sam’s face feel like turning inside out, Sam experienced a violent shaking as if he were pocket change being rattled about inside a metal can. If his muscles weren’t hardened, his limbs given free reign to move about, they would’ve flown off his body from the force being exerted on them. He had once seen a dog catch a rat in its mouth; the dog shook its head like it was drying itself off, and the rat let out a series of cracking sounds before going limp. Right now, he was the rat.
Sam swore he heard Ellie shout, but he couldn’t understand her, unable to read her vibe thanks to the violent sensations his body was undergoing. It wasn’t extremely painful, but it was still unpleasant. His brain bounced off his skull repeatedly, giving him the worst headache he had ever experienced. It was even more nausea-inducing than the riding the surdock’s back, but it didn’t seem like his mastery over his root chakra could help him out of this one. There was no pattern to the madness. Whatever had grabbed Sam was shaking him, stopping to assess the damage, and rattling him some more because it wasn’t satisfied.
“Sam, Sick Attack!”
Sam focused on his root chakra, but it was taking him much longer than usual to gather his concentration. He wasn’t panicking, but he wasn’t exactly calm either. He had also been using Toughen and Sick Attack constantly for the past few hours, draining his stamina. Could Ellie defeat whatever it was that had grabbed a hold of him if he failed to use Sick Attack? What if he couldn’t use it, and Ellie wasn’t able to incapacitate whatever was attacking him? He’d be screwed; Toughen would eventually run out, and he’d be bit in half.
“Sam, focus!”
Sam cast aside his stray thoughts. Ellie was yelling commands at him in English; she knew the situation he was in. All Sam could do was trust her with his life—it wasn’t that difficult; he had been doing it ever since he became Ellie’s pet. Sam’s root chakra pulsed, and a chilling sensation surged out of his body, into the mandibles on his waist. The violent jerking became murderous, and Sam’s brain was rattled around, almost enough for him to disable his usage of Sick Attack.
“Good job, Sam!” Ellie’s voice cut through the fog and dizziness in Sam’s brain. “Keep it up!”
Sam maintained his Toughen technique. What else could he do? If he had learned a technique that hardened his eyeballs as well, he could’ve watched Ellie fight, but he didn’t. All he could do was listen and feel and focus on not vomiting under the vibrations caused by his own attack. Eventually, Sam was thrown through the air, landing with a thump and rolling onto his back. A few seconds after that, Ellie’s voice reached his ears.
“Okay, Sam!” the reptilian said and clicked her bracelet. “Great job!”
Sam relaxed his muscles and opened his eyes. His stomach growled, and he grabbed the treat Ellie was holding in front of his face. He put it into his mouth and chewed before leaning over to look past the reptilian. The largest beetle he had ever seen was lying on its back with a broken horn and several broken legs. The beetle’s black carapace reminded Sam of a crystalline wall, and he blinked at it. “Is that a surclue, sundak?”
“Yes!” Ellie said and beamed at Sam. She took a stone canister out of her bag and sprayed something onto Sam, and the persistent rustling of the jungle ceased as the insects stopped trying to get to Sam. “Unless someone caught a surdock or a bigger surclue, we’re definitely going to win.” The reptilian’s eyes narrowed. She pointed at the depressed beetle. “Sam, carry!”
Sam approached the beetle, stepping on a layer of insect corpses as he made his way over. He scanned the beetle from top to bottom before scratching his head. It was going to be awkward carrying such a large, round, and smooth thing; he couldn’t get a proper grip on the bug’s carapace. However, he still had to do it. Sam took in a deep breath—coughed out some bugs he accidentally inhaled through his nose—and squatted by the surclue’s body. He shoved his hands underneath it and stood up, lifting the beetle at an angle off the ground, barely able to keep it steady. It was going to be impossible to navigate through the jungle while carrying the bug.
“Drop it here, Sam,” Ellie said, taking a stone tile out of her bag. She held it out towards Sam and released it before he could react, but instead of falling, the tile floated in the air. “It’s a portable levistone.”
Sam balanced the surclue onto the small floating tile, but it turned out he didn’t have to. When the bug’s carapace touched the surface of the portable levistone, an invisible force locked it into place. Sam turned towards Ellie, and she clicked her bracelet before passing him a treat. Sam stuffed the treat into his mouth and chewed, letting the savory taste wash over his tongue. It was finally over; now that they had a surclue to hand in, and the attracting fragrance had been washed off of Sam’s body, they were done fighting insects. Sam didn’t have to Toughen and nauseate himself anymore—a hopeful but naïve thought.
“That’s an awfully large surclue you have there,” a voice said from off to the side as Ellie and Sam were walking back towards the judges. Unfortunately, the portable levistone could only move by being pushed; it didn’t accelerate on its own, or Ellie and Sam would’ve clung to the surclue and ridden the vehicle back.
Ellie turned her head to the side and frowned. “Yeah,” she said to the reptilian and human pair emerging from behind the trees. “It took forever to catch.” Ellie’s eyes narrowed as she scanned the newcomers from head to toe. There was a sursusu strapped to the human’s back, the insect much smaller than the surclue Sam was pushing through the jungle.
“How about our pets fight each other, and the winner keeps the surclue?” the reptilian asked, flashing a smile at Ellie. The reptilian was red with green eyes.
“How about no?” Ellie asked in return. She adjusted her stone weapon and glared at the audacious individual.
“Fine,” the reptilian said. “I guess we’ll have to do this the hard way.” The reptilian reached into its bag and pulled out a green crystal rod. “I really need to win this competition. No price is too great; how much do you want to sell that surclue for?”
Ellie blinked. “No price is too great?” she asked.
“That’s right,” the reptilian said. “How much do you want?”
Ellie turned to look at Sam. She stared at him for a bit before turning to look at the reptilian. “You offer first.”
“Twenty-five thousand,” the reptilian said.
Ellie made a face. “My pet cost more than that.”
“Hundred thousand,” the reptilian said without hesitation.
Sam scratched his head. Wendy had sold him to Ellie’s mom for thirty thousand whatever units of currency reptilians went by. Sam stared at the surclue floating in front of him. It was worth more than three of him combined. Ellie’s mother had been hesitant to spend so much on him, so thirty thousand wasn’t a small sum. A hundred thousand units of currency, could Ellie resist?
Ellie’s brow furrowed, and she opened her mouth. Before she could say anything, the red reptilian cut in with another offer. “Three hundred thousand, that’s the most I can go; take it or leave it.”
“Deal!” Ellie said, her eyes lighting up. “I’ll sell you the surclue for three hundred thousand credits.”
Sam wondered what happened to the reptilian saying no price was too great. It ended up capping the price at three hundred thousand. He had a feeling Ellie could’ve gotten more if she kept pushing, but it wasn’t his job to advise Ellie. Also, he wasn’t sure how she’d feel taking advice from someone who was tricked into being trafficked.
Ellie took out a stone token, and the reptilian pointed the green rod at it. Ellie beamed and pushed the surclue over. “You can keep the portable levistone,” she said.
“Great,” the red reptilian said and slapped its human pet’s shoulder. “Go get it.”
Sam watched as Ellie waved goodbye to the red reptilian and its pet. When they were out of sight—surclue included—Ellie pivoted on one of her stilts to turn towards Sam with a wide smile on her face. “You’re my lucky charm, Sam! Three hundred thousand credits!”
Sam scratched his head. What about his perfect record? Wasn’t that why they didn’t bring Ellie’s mother to the competition? Ellie didn’t want to be late in case she was disqualified, but now, the competition was ending, and she had sold off their winning insect. Maybe the rewards of the competition weren’t worth three hundred thousand credits? Why did that red reptilian pay so much then? Although he was confused, Sam kept his mouth shut. It wasn’t like a perfect record meant anything anyway.
Ellie patted Sam’s shoulder. “Let’s go, Sam,” the reptilian said. “It’s too late to catch another bug, so we’ll just go home directly. You won’t have a score for this competition, but not submitting anything is better than not placing first.”
Sam wasn’t quite sure how that worked, but if Ellie said it was so, then it was so. He followed after Ellie, feeling relieved he didn’t have to use his body as bait anymore, but he did have to increase his pace because Ellie was skipping along and humming without a care in the world. He wondered if stilts allowed one to travel across the jungle floor more easily or if Ellie was simply nimbler than him despite traveling on stilts. He figured it was the latter considering he never once beat Ellie while she was training him.
It took less time to return to the start than to reach the area they had caught the surclue; after all, they weren’t attracting and slaughtering all the bugs on the way. When they made it out of the spectral jungle, Ellie took Sam past the already gathered reptilians and their pets, ignoring their odd looks, and boarded her levistone. “Three hundred thousand,” Ellie said to herself while smiling. She let out a laugh that made the crowd look at her as if she were crazy; then, she slapped her booted stilts against the floor of her vehicle, leaving wet prints on the surface. The levistone rose and zoomed off, the crowd confirming Ellie was crazy considering how fast she was going.
Sam exhaled and relaxed his body, letting the hot sun shine over him. Spending three hours in the damp jungle was enough to drain all his energy and willpower, especially with the repeated usages of Toughen and Sick Attack. He was too tired to use Toughen in case the speeding levistone somehow got into an accident, but Sam doubted Ellie was a poor enough driver to crash a floating vehicle in a desert where there wasn’t anything around but sand.
After rushing for a while, the levistone came to an abrupt halt. Sam tumbled out of his seat and onto the sand, much to Ellie’s delight. She grinned at him and hopped off the levistone before blinking her eyes. She scratched her head while looking at a rectangular prism in front of the pyramid marking the location of Et Serpentium. “What happened to the statue?” she asked. “Was it not there when we left?”
Sam shrugged and shifted his gaze to the side. Raindu had pocketed the statue to hide its crimes of taking the guards’ lives when Sam and Wendy had first arrived in Et Serpentium. Evidently, even after more then two months had passed, the reptilians were still using a placeholder for the statue instead of creating a new one. As for why Ellie hadn’t noticed earlier when they headed towards the spectral jungle, maybe if she hadn’t accelerated the levistone up the stairs out of Et Serpentium to become airborne for as long as possible, she would’ve.
“Weird,” Ellie said and shrugged before going up to the rectangular prism. It shifted backwards, revealing the flight of stairs heading down into Et Serpentium. Ellie blinked before shrugging. “Sam, push the levistone over.”
Sam pushed the edge of the levistone, and the vehicle drifted towards Ellie, wobbling up and down as it traveled through the air. Ellie climbed on top of the levistone and patted the space beside her. Sam climbed aboard the vehicle, and the reptilian clicked her bracelet before passing a treat to Sam. Although he appreciated the treat, he wondered why they had gotten off the vehicle in the first place; well, he fell off, but Ellie was to blame for that.
The levistone shrank, and it zoomed down the stairs, Sam nearly falling off, saving himself by squeezing the bench he was sitting on between his hamstrings and his calves. The murals on the walls rushed past in a blur—not that Sam would’ve understood their contents if they hadn’t—and the vehicle shot through a black screen, arriving in the room with the reptilian guards; the levistone stopped an inch away from hitting one of them. “Hi!” Ellie said. She took out a stone token. “I’m back from the competition!”
The closest guard took a step back, distancing itself from the vehicle. If the levistone had stopped a second later, perhaps the guard’s legs would be horribly bruised or fractured. The reptilian guard cleared its throat. “That was quick,” it said. “You’re the last to leave Et Serpentium and the first to come back. How’d you do?”
“Great!” Ellie said. “We got last place.”
The guard blinked. “Oh,” it said. “Congratulations?” It tilted its head. “You sound happy for obtaining last place?”
“Oh, I’m not happy about getting last,” Ellie said. “But sometimes you have to make tough choices in life. That’s what Mommy told me.”
“I see,” the guard said, lying through its teeth. It took a step back and gestured towards the other black screen of light. “You’re good to go.”
Ellie slapped her boot against the floor of the vehicle, and the levistone surged forward through the light. Despite not being able to see what was behind the light screen, Ellie went at full speed, and the vehicle almost decapitated a reptilian while going down the stairs. “Sorry!” Ellie shouted at the reptilian who had ducked in time and was now glaring behind itself. Ellie turned towards Sam. “Don’t tell Mommy.”
“Yes, sundak,” Sam said. “What if your mom asks about the competition?”
“Mommy will ask me, not you,” Ellie said. “When we get home, I’m going to put you in your room for a bit, so rest up! You worked so hard today; you deserve it.”
Sam exhaled. “Yes, sundak,” he said. Although, technically, Ellie’s mother was his owner, Ellie practically took full responsibility for him, so he didn’t mind following her words to deceive her mother.
Ellie beamed at Sam and leaned from side to side, navigating the levistone through the streets. When they neared her home, Ellie slowed down, acting as if she had always been driving slowly before coming to a halt in front of the cubical structure. She tapped on the levistone, and it dropped to the ground before sliding towards the side of the building, acting like a particularly wide and long step. “Mommy!” Ellie said as the wall of the residence slid open to create a doorway. “I’m home!”
Ellie grabbed Sam’s hand and stepped inside, pulling him through the entrance. They took two steps before coming to a halt; Ellie’s mother was staring down at them with her arms crossed over her chest. “You’re back,” the tall reptilian said. “After going without waiting for me.”
Ellie blinked. “I made it home safely, didn’t I?” she asked. “We were super careful, right, Sam?”
Sam thought back to the speeding levistone. It was certainly safe; no one could kidnap him or Ellie with how fast the vehicle was going, and Ellie’s mother’s primary concern was the missing reptilians that may or may not have been related to Raindu. “Ellie was very careful,” Sam said, staring at the ground as he spoke.
Ellie’s mother sighed. “And how did the competition go?” she asked. “First place, I assume?”
“Uh, it was a tie,” Ellie said.
“A tie for first in a hunting human competition?” Ellie’s mother asked. “That’s rare.”
“No, we tied for last,” Ellie said. She continued talking before her mother could react. “But we caught this surclue that would’ve gotten us first place!”
Ellie’s mother frowned. “And you placed last because someone ambushed you and stole it?”
“No,” Ellie said and shook her head. “I sold the surclue to someone for three hundred thousand.”
Ellie’s mother froze. “Three hundred thousand?” she asked. “Ten times more than what we paid for Sam?”
“Yeah,” Ellie said, bobbing her head up and down.
“Who did you sell the surclue to?”
Ellie shrugged. “I don’t know,” she said. “It was a red stranger. I left as soon as I got the money, so they can’t do any take backs.” Her eyes gleamed as she beamed at her mother. “I did a good job, right?”
Ellie’s mother nodded. “You can do a lot more with three hundred thousand than you can with a victory,” she said. “As long as you know what you’re doing, I’ll support you.”
Ellie’s smile widened even further, and she turned to look at Sam. “You hear that, Sam? We’re not in any trouble!” She blinked before turning to look at her mother. “Right?”
“Don’t think I don’t know about your speeding,” Ellie’s mother said, causing Ellie’s posture to wither. “But I’ll overlook it this time.”