Free Alien Dragon's Mate: Braxan (Science Fiction Alien/BBW Romance) by Juno Wells, Luna Cassini Page B

slightest little noise or movement among the trees and the undergrowth. Her face was pinched and her eyes large and anxious. Sweat was running down her face, which had taken on a grayish quality.
    Braxan was not too familiar with pure humans, because his own human form was one that was used for relaxation and transit in spaceships, not for work or fighting. But if a pure human was similar to his own state when in his human form, her exhaustion was starting to overwhelm her.
    He bent branches and snapped vines and chased away various animals and tried to make it as easy for her as possible to make her way further into the jungle. Then the forest suddenly became brighter, and he could see the orange sun over his head. In front of them lay a patch of dark soil, barren and flat and free of plants or trees or anything that was alive. It looked like exquisitely fine, densely packed sand. It would be easy to walk on it.
    It made him suspicious. He stopped and squatted down to take a closer look, and then his skin crawled with what he saw.
    Amelia walked on past him, just tiredly glancing down. She was too exhausted to notice anything out of the ordinary.
    “Stop!” He pounced and was barely able to grab her and pull her away from the easy ground before she stepped out on it.
    She yelped and glared up at him, rubbing her arm. “What the fuck was that about?”
    He lifted a green insect off a nearby branch and tossed it onto the flat ground. It immediately disappeared, eaten from below in less than a second.
    Amelia's hand went to her mouth in horror. “Oh my fucking stars! That sand is alive!”
    He nodded. “Tiny omnivorous beings that look like sand. Each grain is one ravenous individual.”
    She sobbed once, just one heart-rending sound of hopeless despair. “Everything here wants to kill me!”
    He placed one hand on her shoulder, feeling that it would reassure her. “Forests are like that. But anything that is bad for us is equally bad for the Pirgks. Hopefully this flesh-eating sand will kill many of them for us. If ever they make it this far.”
    She leaned into his hand for a moment, then visibly pulled herself together and straightened. Her resilience warmed his heart. He led her around the murderous, living sand and further into the jungle. 
    They reached a small clearing between the trees. He held up his hand and they both stood still for a moment, just listening.
    He could only hear the sounds of the jungle. There were the screams and noises of various animals and the rustle of leaves. And one more sound that was very welcome.
    But even with his dragon-augmented hearing, he could not hear the Pirgks. They would surely have made a lot of noise if they were close by.
    “I think we have put our pursuers well behind us,” he said softly. “And that means we can take a little rest.”
    Amelia looked around. “Here?”
    “It doesn't look like much, but it is a clearing. At any rate, the trees are slightly less dense here. And I hear something I think we both need.”
    She stood still for a moment, listening. “What?”
    “Don't you hear that tinkling of a running liquid? I think it's a brook.”
    She frowned and listened again. “Really? I can't hear anything like that.”
    He ducked down under a bunch of vines and jumped up to get a grip higher up on a thick branch that was hanging down, making sure to use his right hand. Whenever he used his left hand, the wound stung and ached as a warning that he was not healing.
    He hung there and lifted himself higher with one arm, absentmindedly noticing that some kind of snake-like being was breaking its fangs trying to penetrate the skin on his forearm. Ah. There was something that glittered in the sunlight. He dropped down to the ground again.
    “Only thirty paces that way. You need some hydration.”
    She frowned. “Uh-huh. We're not supposed to drink the water on alien planets before it's been tested and filtered.”
    He shrugged. “We will know if it's good to