Only Kailla wakes up

Kailla awoke with a start. She took a few deep breaths to calm herself.

It was deep into the night. A massive, not-quite full moon hung above the camp. Beyond the circle of firelight, the jungle surged and chattered with nighttime activity, life continuing its ceaseless churning in the midnight black.

Stren was sleeping a few feet away from her. Somehow, he had managed to get turned around in his sleep and he lay with his limbs splayed out in all directions. Occasionally he would shift and twitch, sniffing the air in his sleep, brows furrowing in concentration for a few seconds before settling back into a relaxed, dopey grin, his default expression so it seemed.

Kailla watched his chest rise and fall for a few minutes. It was hard to believe that this ****, harmless-looking snoring giant was the same creature that had felled a Great Lizard in one strike. She pulled her knees up to her chest and screwed her eyes shut as she recalled the gristly crack of stone on skull, the nauseating wet crunch of the horn being yanked out of its socket, the hiss of blood gushing from the wound, painting the rocks red. She looked down at the sleeping Stren, and a shiver ran down her spine as she also recalled the bulging muscles, straining sinew and cold, merciless fire in his eyes as he had delivered the killing blow.

His savage warcry still reverberated inside her, resonating with her bones and echoing in the pit of her stomach. The sound had commanded such authority and had been filled with such vigour and alertness, the memory so vivid in her mind that she found she was now wide awake. She was surprised to realize that the terror she had felt at the Lizard's **** was quickly fading, even as the memory of Stren's mighty roar sent ripples of fear and excitement dancing across her skin. She had been prepared to cry, now that she was the only one awake, without her father to fawn and worry about her - as if she were still a little girl afraid of shadows on the wall after listening to the shaman's tales of demons and evil gods - but now she just didn't feel the need...

She found it hard to take her eyes off Stren the hunter. The chorus of the nighttime wilderness beyond the camp was drowned out by the sound of her own heartbeat. She swallowed, surprised that the sound hadn't woken the whole forest. The stuffy heat of the jungle seemed to close around her, the world shrinking into a small circle of firelight containing only her and this sleeping beast, more savage and terrible than even the Great Lizards, yet currently as docile as a puppy. She shivered again, though not from fear this time...