35 BULLETS

Thann refused to sleep next to me even after I complained about being cold. He just added more logs to the fire and went back to the edge of the forest and stood like some low paid security guard. When I mentioned he needed sleep too, we played the El's mate is Maza game again.

Maza? What the freak kind of name is Maza? Why would I want to date some Matza Ball?

Stupid.

The cool morning brought with it Thann tapping my good shoulder. "Wokuduma?"

Groggy and stretching, I woke. "Hi."

He nodded a solemn greeting.

I collapsed in groans, remembering he wasn't being playful with me. "Are we really doing this? Are you mad at me?"

"Eat," he held open a hand of those stupid batfrog eggs along with some kind of cashew nuts.

"Sure," I said grabbing the handful and downing them one by one.

It looked like he had smoked some of the dragon as now the beast had walls of meat pulled free.

I pointed to the dragon as I munched on nuts. "Should we be getting out of here? I'm sure pandas and whatever would love to come eat a big slab of free meat."

"Meat," he echoed the word staring at the mass.

I couldn't remember his word for pandas, so that wasn't going to help. "Um. Werewolf nose? Can werewolves smell meat? No safe?"

Thann straightened as he considered my words. He nodded.

"Okay. I think I can go." I slurped down a gross egg and tossed the shell to the dying embers. Then painfully pushed myself to a stand.

"No!" He raced over and held on my bicep with one hand.

"Yes," I said steadying myself. "Meat. Werewolves smell. Kill El."

He immediately bared his teeth, canines sharpening. His eyes were fire, even to me. I never thought I'd be afraid of him, but in that instant he was a predator. "No werewolf kill Wokuduma. Wokuduma safe."

"Wokuduma. You keep saying that. What does it mean?"

"Owesifanze Wokuduma." He placed a hand around me and brought my hair down over my shoulder. His fingertips drug through the locks clear to the end.

When I started to smile at the captivating touch, he finally softened his expression, a hint of his lips turning to a smile and he thumbed down my jawline. "Wokuduma. El."

I took my bottom lip in my teeth and grinned. "Thanks."

But as quickly as it came on, he went back stoic and started wandering around the beach gathering our things back into his basket.

I gave him the sign for using the bathroom, shaking a T fist, as I walked into the trees.

Usually, the bathroom sign meant for him to stay the hell away, but he started following me. I turned back and did the sign again thinking he didn't see it, but he nodded and kept after.

I stopped and turned to him. "Uh, hello? Thann. Bathroom. Go away!"

He shook his head no. "No. Thann Wokuduma safe."

"Huh?" My face turned up. "Walkoduma again. I don't know what that means."

When he still didn't move, I pointed. "Go away!"

"No." Bathroom. He pointed at the area just before us and then turned around.

My lips lifted in disgust. "You're just going to stay here and listen? Go!"

"No." Bathroom.

I growled under my breath and finally gave in. I needed to go, so I snuck at least behind a tree. "Don't listen Rambo," I cautioned.

After a very long period of hesitation, I finally was able to go.

He followed me back to camp and I rinsed my hands in the pond.

When I turned around, he was standing before me with a bowl of his white paste. "Hurt."

"Uh.." I stumbled, "okay, I guess." I took off my shirt and turned and he began smoothing the paste over my back. My teeth clenched in pain as his fingers prodded the broken flesh. I kept seizing every time he poked over something exceptionally tender, but as more paste was applied, the pain began to numb to a dealable level. "Thanks," I mumbled and put my shirt back over the wound then hooked my rifle over my other shoulder.

He looked at the mountains to the northwest and began to walk. "Go."

As I realized he was not walking to the sharp peak at the east that we walked to all yesterday, I stopped him, racing up and grabbing his hand.

He pulled his hand from my grasp and spun around.

I pointed to the sharp peak. "Wheelbarrow."

His eyes perked that way and then he shook his head no. "No wheelbarrow. Inkosi Maza." He pointed the direction between two mountain ranges. "Wokuduma yiba yindlovukazi. El mate Maza."

"Maza again? We already talked about this. I'm not sexing up some matza ball guy." I scowled and pointed back at the peak. "Wheelbarrow."

He turned me straight on. "No. Inkosi Maza."

"No," I fired back and turned to the peak and began walking.

Thann was already blocking my path. "Inkosi Maza."

"Wheelbarrow." I tried to dodge around him, and he swiftly stepped in front of my path. Any move I made he blocked before I did it. "Stop it!"

He started walking to the mountains. "Wokuduma go."

"Forget it, Wakuduma-duma. I'm going to my wheelbarrow. I don't need you anymore." I flipped my hair in his direction as an act of defiance. But my hair caught the wind and went up in my face, negating the cool factor. I growled to myself and tugged it back into a pony, using the band at my wrist to tie it up. I twisted the locks into a bun and used the bobby pins in my pocket to hold it in place. With one final act of annoyance, I even stuck my tongue out at Thann's retreating form. Then I started toward the peak instead.

In three feet he was already in front of me. He was hollering and hands pulled at my bun, practically tearing it off me. "Imisebe yegolide yokukhanya kwelanga!"

When he ripped a strand free, I hollered in pain. "Ow! Freak Dothraki!" I slapped his hands away. "Knock it off. That hurts."

I tried to walk around him again and this time he pulled me flush against his chest and started peeling hair from the bun.

"Hurt! Hurt!" I yelled at him.

He stepped from me and pointed at my hair. "Imisebe yegolide yokukhanya kwelanga."

"Kwellangwa!" I yelled his gibberish back at him and barely moved to half a step around him before he was blocking again.

He reached around my head and got fingers on a bobby pin and pulled it out. He eyed it distrustfully.

"Hey," I complained and tried to swipe it back. "I need that."

He looked at the metal piece a moment more and then pitched it deep into the forest.

My mouth opened in fury. "What the?! That was mine! You can't just throw my stuff..."

He reached around and grabbed another, tossing it another direction.

I grabbed onto my bun and tried to run away, but in an instant I was held against his chest, my back against his front. While I tried to scramble from his welded hold screaming obscenities, he picked every pin out of my bun.

I finally twisted just enough to grab the elastic out of his hand as he began yanking it down my pony. "You throw that and I'm jumping in front of a dragon!" I threatened.

He let me go and I turned to start pounding my fists into his chest. "You jerk! I needed those bobbies and you just threw my stuff into the trees! Freaking A-Hole!"

He just took the blows, watching me indifferent.

I stepped back, my eyes starting to glisten with anger. "Just leave me alone." I started walking to the peak and put the elastic back in my hair. At least it would be sort of out of the way in a ponytail.

Thann's hand was around mine, as he was instantly by my side again. "No. No head."

"Head?" Angry tears spilled over. "I don't understand you Dothraki. I just want my stuff. Leave me alone." I tried to walk again, but he was again blocking my path.

"Cry," he touched down my cheek, gathering the droplet on his thumb.

I turned my face, wishing I was stronger.

Was I freaking crying about bobby pins? That was the worst kind of stupid.

"I just want to go home," I broke down and turned from his gaze and dropped to a squat. "Why am I even here? I want to go home." It was a tear freefall now. I knew I'd held things in too long. It would be that kind of cry that even one thing could set you off hours later.

It didn't matter anyway. I was stuck on a stupid planet that no one cared or even understood me anyway.

I blabbered on until my nose started running and knowing there was no such things as tissues in the dumb world, I just wiped on my sleeve.

Gah I hate this place.

"El?" Thann asked softly, crouching beside me.

"What do you want," I spoke as grumpy as I could and turned my face away from him.

His warm hand palmed down my back and fingers looped in my hair. "Wheelbarrow?"

My reddened and puffy eyes finally twisted to meet him. I sniffled. "Wheelbarrow?"

He pointed to the peak. "Wheelbarrow, go."

"No matza ball?"

"Wheelbarrow go. Inkosi Maza go." His hand guided the different directions.

"I don't want to go to Maza," I grumbled and looked back at my knees.

His arms held over my shoulders, avoiding my cut, and pulled me to a stand. "Wheelbarrow go."

A stuttering breath came to my still sad frame and I looked to the peak. "Okay. Go wheelbarrow."

Thann then guided us toward my wheelbarrow. Secretly, I was glad he decided to come. Sure, I knew that we had been walking towards the east, but there was a lot of give in 'going east'. There was no way I'd know where to go to even begin looking in the area of my stuff. It's not like google maps was any good here and even if it was, I couldn't turn on my phone.

When that wolf jerk carried me away I had even passed out a few times, so I couldn't even suppose the amount of time I'd need to walk to be in the vicinity of our old camp.

I wiped another loose tear away, though the majority of the crying had since dried up.

"No cry," Thann spoke to the trees, still walking in front.

"I'm fine."

But I really wasn't. Everything on this planet was giving me mental breakdowns.

"Will you touch me yet?" I asked reaching for his hand.

When my fingers hooked at his thumb, he dashed his hand out of my grasp. "No."

I sighed and kept my walk behind him. "Why though? I'm not doing it with some guy I've never met."

He didn't answer.

I didn't expect him to.