© 2024 YD La Mar
“Ame! You’re out. Do you want me to fly you down?” Loomi called out from the trees.
I covered the top of my eyes to block the sun as I gazed in his direction, watching as he flew in the air. “Oh. I don’t want you to have to carry my weight all the way down there. I’m not that light.”
He was half my size, possibly smaller despite having grown a bit since I first met him. It wouldn’t be fair of me to even consider it.
“You’re not that heavy.” Loomi flew toward me with his little chest puffed out and I told myself to let him down gently. The poor child really wanted to showcase his prowess more and more around me. I didn’t know how I felt about that.
“No, I don’t think it’s a good idea,” I tried again, crossing my arms with a smile.
“What do you mean? I’m stronger than I look! Truly!” Loomi buzzed toward me and extended his arms but I backed away, but it didn’t deter him one bit. “Come on, Ame? You scared? I got you!”
I didn’t anticipate his youthful eagerness as he bolted forward, grabbed me beneath my arms and dragged me off the edge of the treehouse’s walkway. I screeched as he flew us confidently for the first few yards but quickly began descending at a rate that made my heart leap out of my throat.
“Loomi! We’re falling!”
“No,” he gritted. “We’re not. I got this!”
I tried my best not to wriggle until his little hands began to slip. That was when I screeched again, trying to grasp onto what I could before I dropped to my death.
And then I did.
I dropped and I screamed.
I watched at Loomi’s little body get smaller and smaller, crying out for help right before something hard crashed into me, accompanied by angry chitters.
Loomi’s little figure that was coming toward me, deflated and shrank, as his father turned me in his arms and cradled me close to his thorax. With me securely in his lower set of arms, as his upper set animatedly lectured his son.
“H-He didn’t mean it,” I tried to help. “He was only trying to help. I promise. No harm done. I’m okay. You caught me.”
Jurion stopped his flight toward his son and floated in place, glaring down at me with his blood-red eyes. I could feel the tension and fury radiating off his exoskeleton as he slowly enunciated his next chitters with the snap of his lower beak.
My face flushed, knowing I was being chastised along with Loomi without needing to understand his words. His arms tightened around me as he flew me back to their home and ushered me inside, and back into my nest before he stomped out and continued his berating.
It felt like hours before he returned, stomping around his home, his ire never once waning.
“Where’s Loomi?” I quieted my tone, not wanting to further anger him but worried he punished his son too severely for a simple mistake.
Jurion jerked his head in my direction, a shudder rippling through his wings before he snapped them shut and made his way over to me. I couldn’t help my reaction as I scooted back, afraid I was the next to be punished.
He stopped in his tracks, and an awkward pregnant pause passed between us before he let out a few low clicks.
I watched warily as he got on his knees, grabbed my leg and jerked it toward him.
“Hey!”
He tilted his head, his lower antennae wriggling before he began berating me in his language. I was caught off guard, trying to find something to say back in defense when his lower arms gently touched my wound, sending goosebumps up my hips.
“It wasn’t his fault. He was trying to help. He’s only a child and shouldn’t have to be so punished for youthful excitement. I’m sure you were once the same way, wanting to show someone how strong you were when you didn’t know better,” I gritted out, trying to see if I was making my case correctly against whatever it was he was spewing toward me in venom.
He jerked my leg again, raising his tone, the clicks coming out harsher than the last time.
“I don’t know what you’re saying but Loomi better be alright, or I swear to you…”
His gentle touch along my body stopped as well as his speech. We both watched each other, wondering who was going to make the next move.
“Well? Answer me. Where is Loomi? Let me see him. I need to make sure he’s alright,” I threw out with the strongest voice I could.
Jurion’s antennae wriggled slowly before the hand on my thigh began moving again like a whisper along my skin.
I frowned as he began to enunciate something slowly, but I could have sworn I caught the last syllable of E somewhere. Was he talking about Loomi? Was he answering me? Did that mean he understood what I was saying?
Before I could ramble my thoughts out in the open, one of Jurion’s arms shot out to the side toward the underside of their mat. I didn’t catch what he grabbed as he shoved it into his lower beak and began chewing.
“What are you doing?” I blurted.
He didn’t answer. Instead, he firmly pulled me closer by my ankle until my opposite knee hit his body.
I watched with fascination as he leaned in… then down and spat on my wound. I yelped and tried to kick him away but he was too strong, holding me still with his free hands while rubbing the nasty bolus all over me. Nauseum threatened to take over as I shoved at his thorax, cursing him beneath my breath, trying to turn my face away in disgust.
“Stop it! Eww! What are you doing? Oh goodness, what is it? What was that? What if I get infected? Stop!”
“Father!” came Loomi’s frantic voice from the door.
“Loomi! You’re alright!” I kicked Jurion far enough for me to slip through and ran toward Loomi, running my hands along his body to make sure he was truly okay. “Are you hurt anywhere? Where have you been? I’ve been so worried about you.”
“You were worried about me?”
I stopped my hands and stood up straighter. “Of course I was! I didn’t know where you went. And it’s not like I can understand your father. I mean, he sounded angry and I wasn’t sure if it was still over you or if it was over me, but it didn’t help my thoughts as they went through every worst-case scenario—”
Loomi wrapped his arms around me so tightly, I felt the dull spikes behind his arms dig into me, pulling at my clothes. Silence descended upon us and I did the only thing I thought I should, I curled down and hugged him back, resting my head on his.
“I’m glad you’re alright,” I whispered, unsure of what was happening or if I was missing something.
Loomi slowly pulled away and looked at me sheepishly before he scratched the back of his head. “I-I was out there looking for something.” He looked around me at his father before tilting his head back up to look at me. “I-I know I shouldn’t have tried to carry you and that was my fault. I should have known better. I wanted you to know how grateful I was for saving me and I thought I could make your day better by showing you our home the way we see it… through the air. Because, you know… You don’t have wings like we do. So I thought, well, I guess I should have thought better, but I’m glad Father caught you. He’s much stronger than I am and I should have asked him to begin with than try to do it on my own. I was only trying to show you how strong I was, and that I wasn’t taking my life, that you saved, for granted.”
I placed my hands on his shoulders and got down on my knees to lower myself to his height.
“Take a deep breath, Loomi. You don’t have to worry about me. I’m okay. I just want to make sure you are. You and your father are warriors. That’s what you told me, correct?”
He nodded his head, wriggling his little antennae quietly.
I lifted his chin and stared at him. “Then know that I’m already in good hands. You don’t need to go out of your way to show me you’re capable. You just have to grow up and be who you are supposed to be.”
A little chirp escaped before he ducked his head. I kept my hands on his shoulders to show him he didn’t have to be ashamed of a mistake. We all made them. Stars know I was probably the mistake that was bred in our colony, the soft-skinned kukas that was never meant to be able to survive on her own out here in the wilderness.
© 2024 YD La Mar
Wildest Beauty comes out May 20th and will be available through Amazon on day of release.
𝟔 𝐝𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐠𝐨!
Come 
walk on the wild side and reconnect with nature… 
Preorder link: https://books2read.com/u/bQppLv
𝙒𝙄𝙇𝘿𝙀𝙎𝙏 𝘽𝙀𝘼𝙐𝙏𝙔, a collection of unique love stories set in the 𝙋𝙊𝙇𝙇𝙀𝙉𝙑𝙀𝙍𝙎𝙀, is for those dark romance readers who want their science fiction sexy and their monsters otherworldly.