Sohut's Protection: A Sci-fi Alien Romance (Riv's Sanctuary Book 2) A.G. Wilde (best way to read an ebook TXT) 📖

But no matter. If he didn’t find the animal alive, he was sure there’d be something he could use to prove to the Gori the creature was indeed dead.

It’s bones, maybe.

Senses primed as he made his way through the undergrowth, he scanned and noted everything even as he stepped over the twisting vines, shrubs, and small fallen trees in his path.

To any animals peering at him from their nests, he looked like a harmless visitor strolling through their domain.

To anyone who knew him well, they’d know that he was on the prowl.

Nothing escaped him.

Every slight movement of the leaves, he saw.

Every slight sound, he heard.

He was very aware of the tuli birds in their nests above him, silently watching, and the little zideks blending in with the bushes as he walked by. But he made no indication he knew they were there.

They were safe from him.

After all, he wasn’t hunting them. He was hunting something different entirely.

Something that was probably already dead but…

Sohut perked his ears, ducking under some hanging branches as he did. So close to the road, he was probably safe, but the deeper he ventured into the jungle, the more dangerous it would become.

The beasts of Koznia didn’t like intruders. Because of this, the jungle was untouched except for the reckless Torians that lived in its center.

Out here was…freedom.

It was so different from the Sanctuary he called home with his brother, Riv…different from the mines they'd grown up in too. The Sanctuary was free but out here was a sense of natural freedom you could only get if you went out into the wild.

It was unpredictable.

There was no routine to things, no restrictions.

Out here…he could forget for a few moments.

He could be of use.

Out here, he wasn't a mistake.

He could pretend he wasn't the reason his brother had endured so much.

Pretend his very birth hadn't been a curse upon his family.

He could forget he was the reason all things had gone to hell.

It was probably the reason he liked taking these jobs.

Where Riv preferred staying within the perimeter of the Sanctuary tending to the animals they cared for, he liked taking jobs such as this one that took him all over Hudo III.

They reminded him that he was alive, gave him purpose.

Back at the Sanctuary, Riv handled almost everything with precision. Riv didn't need his help or his company. His brother only tolerated him because they were blood.

And so, he spent most of his time away, taking odd jobs all across the planet.

This was just one of them and he’d do what he was hired to do.

He’d hunt the thing, find his evidence, collect his payment, and head back to the Sanctuary he called home.

Repeating the description of the animal through his mind, Sohut kept his eyes peeled.

The Gori said the creature had red fur covering its head, running down its shoulders and its back. Otherwise, it was pale and hairless all over, with long spindly legs, translucent eyes, and a flat face.

It was not like any animal he’d ever seen before.

And, he had to admit, it sounded quite…strange-looking.

He imagined it ran on all four legs and, for that reason, he surveyed the ground as he walked, looking for any strange paw prints in the areas where soft ground was exposed—just in case he was wrong and the thing still lived.

Absentmindedly, his forefinger moved over the single rectangular device that he held in his hand; the dark button at the top glistened whenever it caught the light.

It was a tracker, coded with the creature’s DNA and programmed to restrain the animal with an energy band once activated.

It’d been a long time since he’d seen such a device, and he frowned now as he glanced down at it.

This particular tracker was a device used mainly by the High Tasqals in the Great Wars when the Tasqals had gone about enslaving whole worlds. A master race, the Tasqals called themselves, and they always had the strangest technology.

The tech he now held was rare.

How the Gori got their hands on it was a whole different question.

Never mind that—he reached back and slipped the tracker into his satchel—he doubted he’d need to use it anyway.

Pausing for a bit, Sohut looked up into the leaves and vines strung in their intricate natural patterns above.

He’d been walking for some time now, and the dark cycle was almost upon him, but the farther he went into the jungle, the more a feeling of unease began settling over him—and it wasn’t because of the beasts he knew lurked in the shadows.

Long, long ago when he’d realized his love for tracking things, he’d gotten his nostril sensors enhanced and, now, the entire time he’d been walking, he’d been picking up a scent.

The scent was in such a pattern he was sure it was some kind of animal marking its territory.

The problem was, it smelled like…slizz.

He knew what his nose was telling him…but it was highly unlikely…almost impossible even, that he was right.

Slizz were rare.

They were like myths.

He’d only met one slizz once and it had been on the other side of Hudo III, right before it had killed three men and almost killed him too if it hadn’t been shot down.

He wouldn’t ever forget the smell of a creature that terrible, but he had to be mistaken.

What would a slizz be doing in the Koznia Jungle?

He had to be wrong.

Narrowing his eyes, he swatted some hanging leaves out of the way as he continued walking through the undergrowth.

He was trying to ignore the scent but couldn’t. His instincts wouldn’t allow him to.

Cursing underneath his breath, he began following the trail the scent marked.

Right through most of the dark cycle, he followed the scent around the mountain in a huge circuit that spanned even some flat areas at the base of the elevation.

Like an invisible barrier, it was warning all the creatures that dwelled in these parts that this was its territory.

And it was a clear warning—one he shouldn’t ignore.

But he was Sohut