Marooned - Christie Golden [55]
"Do not drink the water at the base of the fourleafed plants, for it is tainted. Do not eat the fruit of the sonnaibush, for it is poison. The dew found in the heart of the kulip is wholesome, but take care you do not touch the leaves while you are gathering the dew, for they will cause bums on your hands."
Do not, do not, do not. Neelix paused, huffing, and swallowed some water while he glared balefully at the broken dome in the distance.
It didn't look one whit closer.
Up ahead, maybe a half a kilometer, some plants grew halfheartedly about what seemed to be a still pool of water. It was a far cry from a true oasis, but Neelix decided he'd take what he could get.
"Provided," he grumbled aloud, "the water isn't clogged with the four-leafed plants."
Someone laughed.
Neelix whirled, brandishing a sharp stone he'd picked up. It made a pathetic weapon, but then, he knew that at least at this moment he was a pathetic warrior, so it at least seemed fitting. "Who's there?" he cried, trying to sound brave and fierce as any Sshoush-shin but succeeding only in sounding rather frightened.
Silence.
"I heard you laugh," Neelix continued, turning in a slow circle so as to look in all directions. His communicator was broken and he knew it, but it felt better to talk nonetheless. "Show yourselo."
Again, the mirth-filled trilling-light, like sunlight, bumbling, like water. It didn't issue from a humanoid throat, but it was most certainly laughter.
Neelix whirled around again, starting to become really frightened. What if this laughing enemy was invisible to his field of vision? Or even worse, what if he'd eaten something he shouldn't have and was having auditory hallucinations?
Suddenly he heard a faint whumph-whumphwhumph sound and something soft brushed his face. He yelped, but managed to swing with his sharp stone. He struck nothing, but the gesture made him feel better.
The happy sound came again, and Neelix again turned around, searching desperately for its origins. This time, he saw the originator of the sound.
It hovered a few feet away from him, gently flapping its furred wings and creating the whumph sound Neelix had heard. In one forepaw, it clutched a berry of some sort and nibbled at the food with tiny, needlesharp teeth. In another paw, it held a second bright blue berry. As Neelix stared at it, his jaw open, the little creature dropped the berry at his feet and flew a short distance away. It resumed its hovering and finished its own morsel. A bright pink tongue crept out to lick away all traces of blue juice from around its silver-furred muzzle. Its enormous eyes, a beautiful shade of light blue, were fastened intently on Neelix.
Neelix frowned, then, keeping his eyes fastened on the strange little flying ball of fur, bent to pick up the berry. He brought it to his nose, sniffed it, and his mouth began to water. Still watching the creature, he bit cautiously into the blue fruit. Tangy juice spilled over his tongue. It was delicious! Neelix had often found that his body knew best. If something was dangerous for him to eat, it smelled, looked, or tasted bad or off-putting, somehow. But this fruit was exquisite, and it didn't seem to harm the little furball. Throwing caution to the wind, he downed the berry.
Still in the air, the beast did a little flip and chortled happily. This time, Neelix laughed, too. Mffiat a cute little thing it was. When it flipped again, its puffy tall whipping over its head, and headed off toward the small oasis Neelix had spotted earlier, the Talaxian followed with a lighter heart than before. The creature clearly knew how to find wholesome food, and Neelix was more than willing to take advantage of the friendly overture.
By the time Neelix caught up with the little furball, it had found a perch on a large rock and was grooming itself. For the first time, Neelix realized that in addition