Tribe Protector

by Stacy Jones

  Unfortunately for the people standing in his way, she missed.

  Drrak, looming a head taller than anyone present and significantly more muscled, began clearing a path. With every trace of tenderness he gifted her notably absent, he shoved his way through the crowd, making a clear walkway for Arruk, with Lily held securely in his arms, to follow. Frrar, Tor, and Trrak were right on their heels.

  There were a lot of growls, exclamations, and complaints as Drrak bulldozed his way through the crowd, but they got to the center without anyone coming even remotely close to bumping her again.

  I can’t say I completely approve of his tactics, but they’re damn sure effective.

  The sight that greeted her when they arrived at the center of the group of people shocked her so much her jaw dropped.

  The winged man was trussed up like a thanksgiving turkey… an angry, cussing turkey that began glaring daggers at her as soon as she appeared, like this whole incident was entirely her fault.

  Well, he’s not exactly wrong, is he?

  Akksha was front and center, with her gaggle of mates spread out behind her. The fierce tribe leader looked like she’d gotten her ass kicked, displaying almost as many wounds as Lily, and her mates didn’t seem to be in much better shape. A few feet away were Sahas, her older brother Atur, and the kids’ three fathers. Each male was sporting the marks of a vicious fight—even Atuk who’d been unmarred when she’d left him in the hollow to go after Sahas. All of them looked pleased as punch and extremely proud of themselves.

  Sahas, however, appeared nearly as mad as the tied-up alien they were standing around.

  Lily caught the little girl’s previously sweet voice over the noise of the crowd as she snarled at her family. Senseless, frrtlk— which Lily knew to be an unintelligent monkey-like creature—and tinsa tak , which was an insult among their people meaning tiny tail , were just a few of the words she could pick out from the heated stream Sahas was growling up at her fathers.

  Lily covered her mouth with her uninjured hand, trying to hide her smile. She didn’t approve of them allowing a child to be so rude, but the sight of such a tiny kid spitting mad was cute as hell. Still, Lily knew without a doubt neither Sahas, Akksha, or the winged man would take her amusement at this predicament well, especially since it really was her fault.

  In another unfortunate turn of events, she failed to muffle her laughter entirely.

  A snort escaped her when the winged man managed to free part of one massive black wing and whacked a few onlookers across the face. Over the yelps and growls, her snort got the attention of the little girl, who whipped around and zeroed in on her .

  Sahas narrowed her pretty blue eyes and stomped right up to Lily, then proceeded to yell up at her in a barrage of rapid-fire demands and angry insistence. Lily could understand the kid’s anger—her rescuer was bound and, if she was reading the expression on Akksha’s face correctly, about to be killed—but when Sahas bared her teeth threateningly, Lily had enough.

  “No,” Lily said sternly, interrupting the child mid word.

  Her tone caught the girl off guard, halting her tirade. Sahas stared up at her with the kind of wide-eyed shock only seen from a child who wasn’t used to being reprimanded. Ever.

  “Cute little alien kid or not, I’m from the South, child, and you won’t be talking to me like that. Are we clear?” she scolded.

  Lily knew Sahas wouldn’t understand her words, but her expression and the sharpness in her voice got her message across perfectly well. She was prepared for the little girl to throw a fit, but instead Sahas snapped her mouth shut with a click and stared up at her, blinking her big blue eyes. A slow, stunned nod followed .

  “Sehr, ” Lily praised, her tone gentle now that the child understood she wouldn’t get away with that behavior.

  Gently chucking Sahas under the chin with a knuckle, Lily smiled reassuringly.

  Turning to the winged man, still writhing and thrashing about on the platform, she took a cautious step closer. She waved her guys off when they reached for her, but didn’t move any nearer, not wanting one of them to snatch her off her feet and ruin her efforts. Standing a short distance from the trussed up alien, she waited until she had his attention.

  When his big, almond-shaped, swirling red eyes locked on her, his star-speckled pupils narrowing to pinpoints, Lily gave him the same stern look she’d given Sahas. He went still, with the exception of his impressively muscular, if oddly structured, bare chest heaving with his short angry breaths, and looked just as shocked as the little girl had.

  Unlike Sahas, his astonishment wasn’t followed with deference.

  Instead, the lower lid of one eye twitched and he gave her a look she would label patently disbelieving before it abruptly shifted to murderously angry. At that, she swept her gaze over the crowd then back to him and raised her brows, trying to tell him with her expression alone that fighting at that moment wouldn’t end well. Slowly, something she hoped was understanding crossed his features. His strange, bird-like face was hard to read, but she thought she saw a minuscule amount of tension release from his expression. He didn’t start bucking against his restraints and cussing her out in alien-cockatoo again, so she was taking that as him catching on to what she was trying to convey.

  As subtly as possible, Lily put her least injured arm behind her and waved at her guys, telling them to stay where they were. A chorus of, thankfully quiet, grumbles acknowledged her gesture.

  Keeping an attentive eye on the alien, in case she’d read him wrong and he decided to attack her, Lily took one cautious step closer. When he didn’t make any aggressive moves, she took another and another until she was near enough to touch him. Crouching slowly—with her knees together so she didn’t accidentally flash him her lady parts from under her new leaf skirt—she made pointed eye contact. Using deliberate hand movements, she spoke.

  “If I untie you, will you be nice? You won’t attack anyone?”

  His sharp stare bounced from her eyes to her mouth, down to her hands pointing at the vines hogtying him, then swept over the crowd of wary people watching. To her surprise, he seemed to understand what she was saying without any apparent difficulty. He transferred his gaze back to her, searched her face for a long moment, then dipped his pointed chin in agreement.

  His lips parted and he made a trilling, cooing noise, the sound unaccountably cute, especially coming from such an imposing, fierce-looking being.

  Lily was so taken off guard by the unexpectedly adorable noise, she didn’t have time to stop the short, surprised giggle from escaping her, didn’t even realize it was coming until it was out there, hanging between them like a taunt she couldn’t take back.

  She slapped her hand over her mouth, but it was too late. He was already spewing a string of guttural clicks and hisses from his beak-shaped lips, clearly interpreting her amusement for what it was and not appreciating it one bit.

  “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry. Really, I didn’t mean to laugh. It’s just… you look like a pissed off Big Bird—if Big Bird were the hero of a romance novel—and that sound you just made was… well, it was just adorable,” she rushed to explain, holding her hands palm out in an instinctive move to placate the affronted alien.

  He calmed at her words and the wincing expression she was no doubt wearing, but his red swirly eyes stayed narrowed.

  Deciding it would be in everyone’s best interests if she released him so he could leave before she blundered this any further, Lily unsheathed one of her knives.

  That was when Akksha apparently caught on to her intentions. The big, commanding woman made a startled growl and stepped forward.

  “Na! Raasha ha rrukt! Me vreta tul roaer shevariak, ” Akksha barked, her tone severe and brooking no argument as she told her the alien was dangerous and that she was going to kill him to protect the tribe .

  “Na rrukt, na rrukt . He’s sehr, mek tuuk. Tuuk, ” Lily asserted, trying to keep her voice as calm as possible in the face of Akksha’s
aggression.

  Before the tribe leader could stop her, Lily cut one of the man’s hands free, but only one. She wasn’t an idiot. Just in case the winged man really was a bad guy, she didn’t want to free him entirely. Not yet, anyway. She doubted he had any ill intent since he’d brought Sahas home safe and sound, but there was a good chance defying Akksha that completely would get her killed or banished from the tribe.

  She wanted to save the man’s life, felt she owed him at least that much for saving Sahas when Lily hadn’t been able to. But, she wasn’t willing to put her own life at risk when there had to be a way to free him without the situation getting that out of control.

  Everyone froze when they heard the snap of the vine being cut free. The sudden tension was thick enough to feel like a suffocating cloud and brittle, as though everyone was just waiting for a noise or movement to set them off, prompting them to descend on the winged man en masse .

  When he cautiously pulled his arm in front of him, she saw his fingers ended in sharp, black talons like those on birds of prey. That was also the first time she realized he had four arms like her guys. The upper arms were actually his wings, and his lower pair were situated slightly lower on his body.

  Before anyone could move to stop him, he snapped the remaining vines binding him with those wicked looking talons and slowly rose to his feet. He loomed above her and shook out his wings to settle his ruffled feathers. Lily, still crouched, was at eye level with his thighs. Blinking in astonishment, she realized the feathers covering his bottom half weren’t part of him as she had assumed. They were pants.

  Holy shit, he wears clothes.

  The implication behind that discovery stunned her. From the circumstances surrounding her abduction and subsequent dumping, she surmised the fish aliens had taken her by accident. Because of that, and from the appearance of the beings they’d fought against, she automatically assumed anybody taken by the fishes were abducted because they looked like animals instead of people and were later dumped here after somehow being identified as sentient. She hadn’t thought her kidnappers would make the mistake of taking a clearly sentient being, thought she was a one-off, but the fact that he wore clothes suggested he came from a more advanced society than that of the shevari and a lot, if not all, of the enemies they’d fought the night before. Lily didn’t know if that realization actually changed anything, but it felt important for reasons she couldn’t quite articulate.

  When a clawed hand appeared in her line of sight, she followed the arm up with her eyes to find the winged man staring down at her. She thought he was offering to help her up, but it could just as easily be an alien gesture she didn’t understand the meaning of. Still, she took his hand, being careful of his talons, hoping the show of trust would help everyone around them to calm a little.

  Standing now, she had to tilt her head back to look at his face since he was at least a foot and a half taller than her. Bending down, he brought their faces close together so he could stare directly into her eyes. His speckled pupils did a weird kind of dance, expanding and contracting rapidly, while the red of his irises swirled faster. Lily felt like he was trying to hypnotize her… right up until he puffed a hard breath into her face, strong enough to flutter her loose hair, shocking the hell out of her.

  Taken aback and more than a little put off that he’d just blown in her face, Lily blew right back at him. Apparently that was the right thing to do because he trilled what she thought was a laugh and pursed his lips, a darker metallic bronze than the rest of his skin. Unless she was reading it wrong, the duck face he was giving her was his version of a smile, and the stars in his pupils were glittering with mirth.

  Still confused and disconcerted from the exchange of breaths, Lily pursed her lips back at him. She felt a bit ridiculous, but was willing to make goofy faces if it smoothed over the whole forceful capture and hogtying incident. He seemed like a nice enough birdman, and they really didn’t need anymore enemies.

  He straightened and took a step back so they weren’t standing quite so close. Raising one of his hands, he fluttered his fingers in front of his eyes then leaned to the side to do the same to Sahas standing farther behind Lily. With that as a goodbye, he pivoted and walked through the circle of spectators.

  His wings were tucked tight to his body, his back was ramrod straight, and a narrow-eyed look of warning was on his face as he parted the crowd. When he reached the edge, only remaining visible to Lily because he was so tall, he didn’t pause, but took off with a great flap of his black wings.

  I think that went well! I’m getting better at this whole alien ambassador thing.

  That thought crumbled to dust when Lily glanced back to find Akksha glaring daggers at her.

  Well shit.

  L ily expected Akksha to say or do something to match the pissed-off look she was wearing. Instead, she seemed to consider something, staring at her for a long moment, then swallowed her ire. Lily watched warily as the tribe leader turned and whispered something to her mates. Three of them split off and left, only to return moments later carrying the dead bodies of the deceased tribe members lost in the battle.

  They placed the leaf-wrapped forms in the center of the circle of people with infinite care then returned to Akksha. As one, everyone gathered dropped to their knees. Lily hesitated, but when Frrar said her name and waved her to him, she rejoined her mates and knelt with them.

  Four men crawled into the center and surrounded one of the bodies, while two women and their groups of mates and children made their way to the innermost line of people. Lily assumed they were the families of those who’d died.

  The men in the center began to make a sound, low and full of sorrow. It wasn’t a noise she had a name for. It was beautiful, like a song with only one note, but it was also raw and powerful, heartbreaking and awash with pain. They started quiet, but gained volume, their voices rising and blending into one. The two women with their men and children joined, adding to the haunting call.

  As one, the rest of the tribe joined, her guys with them, until the hollow tree was full with the voices of many. Even Trrak, his vibrating howl melancholy and unearthly, mourned with them. The chorus of grief felt thick in the air, suffocating her with their shared pain, as if the eerie sound had weight.

  Lily knew she was crying, but she couldn’t make the tears stop. Eventually, she quit trying.

  Letting her lids fall shut, she tipped her head back and sang with them, adding her pain to theirs. She voiced her guilt that what she’d done hadn’t been enough to keep everyone safe. She wailed her sorrow over knowing Sahas’s and Atur’s fathers would die without Skaa, and those innocent children would be left parentless, a loss she knew all too well. She cried out her fear from the night before, her terror at thinking she would lose her mates.

  Slowly, as if it was cleansing her heart of the ache it had carried for so many years, her cry shifted from one of hurt to one of hope. Reaching out blindly, she touched each of her men, feeling their steady warmth beneath her fingertips.

  Lily sang of the hope building within her chest, her joy at finding her soulmates across the stars, and her gratitude that she’d finally found the place she belonged.

  She didn’t know how long they keened, how long their voices echoed into the forest, telling the world of their loss, but gradually, one by one, they quieted until the only song left was that of the fallen woman’s mates.

  The tribe rose up, lifting the bodies of the deceased with them, and moved together to the platform surrounding the outside of the hollow tree. Arruk picked her up, held her tenderly to his chest, and took off with the tribe, staying within the mass of people as they jumped down from one branch to the next, following the massive tree all the way to the forest floor.

  When they reached the ground, Lily was struck speechless at what she saw. Purple grasses covered the floor in a thick layer, but raising above it were flowers the likes of which she’d never seen, stranger even than the flying flowers she’d danced with. Th
ey stood at least two feet tall, and the blooms themselves were at least a foot across. The deeply frilled, pure white petals radiated a gentle glow, giving off their own illumination like hundreds of tiny moons.

  They didn’t cover the ground and didn’t grow in the random patterns she was used to seeing in nature but were instead in perfect circles. Within those circles were small trees, unlike any others she’d come across during her time on the planet. Each had a unique, black and white pattern on the bark—a pattern she suspected perfectly matched that of the shevari buried beneath them.

  Lily knew immediately this strange, otherworldly place was the tribe’s cemetery.

  At first, she thought the soft, trilling hum she heard was coming from the people gathered. It took a long minute to realize it was coming from the flowers themselves.

  They’re singing.

  Overwhelmed astonishment gripped her. She had a moment of stunned realization where she understood the plant life in this world was alive in a way she struggled to comprehend.

  As soon as everyone was on the ground, Akksha walked to a clear section of land, raised her spear above her head, and stabbed it into earth with a cry. Dropping to her knees, the tribe leader dug past the purple grass into the dirt underneath, clawing deeper and deeper. She didn’t stop or pause, and nobody moved to help her.

  Some time later, when she had dug a shallow grave using nothing but her hands, the men cradling their dead mate’s body walked forward and set her gently into the waiting earth. They helped Akksha bury her, chanting together as they slowly, lovingly covered the body one handful of dirt at a time, until it was sheltered completely within the ground.

  Lily watched in disbelief as tender buds erupted from the earth before her eyes, encircling those within, like a video on fast forward. When the last bloom sprouted, Akksha and the widowed men halted their invocation and stood, stepping out of the ring of new flowers.

  “Shakti hun shevariak ,” the tribe called out as one.