by Amanda Milo
Ah. Humans are capable of sarcasm.
“But seriously, where are you from?” he persists.
Gracie forbade us to tell humans, but this orphan is as good as my pup now. Surely she wouldn’t forbid me from preparing him to leave his homeland. “I’m from another planet.”
“You’re an alien?”
I incline my horns in assent. “Well, Levi,” I murmur, watching as Kaylee stretches out my tail and giggles as she runs her hand along the small, smooth scales, “I pledge to care for the both of you from now on. Do you know where I can find a jetpack?”
A look in his direction sees his mouth hanging slightly open before he offers, “A comic book store?”
Finally, someone helpful. “Where is this establishment?”
“We don’t have one anymore. It closed a long time ago. It kept getting robbed. It’s a gas station now, so it still gets robbed.”
Frustration should be welling up inside me, but strangely, my hearts swell instead. I feel warmth on my tail and look to find Kaylee hugging it to her chest, the blade curling carefully over her back.
I release a breath through my nose, and Levi’s eyes widen at the smoke that curls up. “Are you attached to your planet, Levi?”
His mouth opens again “Attached?”
“I don’t want to live in this place. Humans are strange. You seem a specimen of fine character,” I rush to assure him.
I didn’t miss that he was taking the kicks while his smaller female sibling was hiding at his apparent command.
“But I don’t believe I would be comfortable here—”
Really, I don’t believe I could control myself if I were forced to interact with masses of humans. Robbing an aviation store until they closed their doors and changed stations, crite! Humans seem like they need a good beating or weeding out or both.
“—and I’ve heard that many humans profess to have found great happiness on my homeplanet. How old are you?”
“Ten.”
Ten? He doesn’t look ten. “Solars?”
“Years.”
More smoke exits my nostrils and I move to stand. I don’t remove my tail from Kaylee’s hold. Or more like I don’t remove my tail’s hold on Kaylee. She’s wearing it around her middle, across her chest and over her shoulder like a harness now, but both my tail and the girl seem happy, so who am I to get in their way. “Let’s get to the ship that will take us to your new home.”
CHAPTER 2
HOTAHN
I burned their dam before we left.
I wasn’t sure if it was right for them to watch on or not. They decided for me—Kaylee clambered up her brother’s hip, her face buried in his shoulder, and his too-small-to-be-carrying-her-body’s frame stayed turned in the direction of his dam’s body, but he closed his eyes before she was reduced to ash.
It’s been a very quiet walk.
We’re passing through a neighborhood with far less rabble, so it seems extra offensive when we come upon a human male aggressively intimidating a woman by way of vile language.
Kaylee drops my tail.
My spines flatten in unhappiness.
I lift the end of my tail up towards her until she takes it again. She curves it around the back of her mane and presses it over her small, low-set ears with shallow, decorative, whirling external cartilage.
I’d never noticed human ears before. I flick a curious eye to Levi and find his are the same.
And both children’s rather charming little ears are being assaulted by the foul words drifting from the human male.
For some unfathomable reason, the human female has not shouted, spit venom, or struck at him but I’ll wait no longer for her to take action: I’m fed well and truly up. “Women attacking their own children, men harassing women on the street, what is this place? If you had more legs I’d wonder if we’d stumbled into the innerwebs of Krortuvia!” I bellow in disgust.
I grasp him by the lower back portion of his shirt, lift him to catch his leg, and dangle him upside down until his face fills with what looks like all his blood.
I shake him for good measure. “Do you know the difference between a man and a beast? A man knows when to apologize.”
Crite, these aren’t leather pants with the hide left on that he’s wearing. He’s wearing no pants. And he is covered in an excessive amount of bristly hair… everywhere.
Are human women attracted to this?
Perhaps it’s because I’m neither human nor female, but the only reaction his furry hide—including a rather abhorrently impressive thick genital pelt—evokes in me is bafflement.
I give him another shake. “Do you feel remorse for your actions?”
If he’s doesn’t, that’s fine: I am getting rather hungry.
I suppose the children wouldn’t eat him since he’s their own kind.
It didn’t seem like much of a waste for me to leave the other one due to her stench but this male, beyond smelling mildly musky like some buck animals tend to be, is not offensively off-putting. Plus, the xucta buck for example, can be flushed of musk-taste by offering them nothing but nomell water for three days before they are butchered. Or, if you don’t feel that depriving an animal of food for three days is acceptable, you can always boil them in nomell. In the plus column, this rinses furbearer pelts clean.
Hmm.
I raise my arm until his face is nearly level with mine.
“Sorry!” the man hollers before he pisses on himself.
Utterly disgusted, I hold him further away from me. Definitely requires boiling now. “What would you have me do with him?”
I look to Kaylee so she knows I’m addressing her, but she says nothing.
Levi shrugs—then his gaze moves to the adult female.
I look to her too—and her downcast eyes draw mine.
With her gaze fixed low on the human—somewhere around the area of his swelling face—it’s hard to tell, but I think her eyes might be a dusky umber.
Pretty.
I try to catch them. I stare at them for so long that the male in my grip goes limp.
His body, not his mating member. I think I killed that from fright when I lifted him.
“You should put him down,” Kaylee says.
“I can do that,” I agree easily, and reach for the man’s neck to twist it.
“I think she means drop him!” the adult female shouts.
We all look at her.
“Honey,” the woman says in a tone I’d label as persuasive if her voice wasn’t so strained.
Honey: a sweet Earthen liquid mass produced by small winged insects that feed on the milk of flowers.
Or so my translator supplies for me.
“Honey,” the woman says even softer, and her knees make twin cricking noises as she lowers herself until her face is level with Kaylee’s.
Oddly, I don’t mind that this female speaks slowly and quietly. It’s almost soothing when she does it. I rather like it.
So, it seems, does Kaylee.
She smiles shyly at the woman.
Gryfala will attack other females. I hadn’t considered that, but it’s a good thing Gryfala are not known for attacking children. I need to become vigilant, and quickly—although the humans I’m familiar with coexist in close proximity.
I have heard that they do fight though. Particularly the female by the name of Gracie.
The woman’s body holds a tension that is barely detectable in her words. “Do you want to tell your…”
Her mane is short, and shot with silver on dark grey. This is most likely an indicator of her maturity, like my own silver-tipped quills.
Not that her age or her coloration should be of any concern to me. I’m unsure why my thoughts ventured there.
“Your…”
The mane I’m still admiring moves along with the motion of her head as she darts a glance back at me, her eyes still not quite meeting mine.
A curious frustration blooms under my sternum. My tail raises—or tries to. It
’s still caught fast in Kaylee’s hands.
“Friend,” the woman finally settles on, “To let the man go?”
My spines flick, thoroughly unimpressed. If I’d known she was attempting to coax a child to change her mind from a sound idea, I’d have stopped her. Since I didn’t know, I’m too late.
“Yes,” Kaylee agrees. “That’s what I meant. You should let him go.”
Smoke leaves my nose in great twin trails. Profoundly disapproving of their choice, I drop the male and kick him into the gutter where he belongs.
I’m going to have to sanitize my foot. I decide to do just that: I breathe fire on it until my toenails and scales shine brightly. My hand too, where I gripped his excessively hairy ankle.
I almost hope he’ll get back up so I’ll have a reason to go after him again—I really am growing hungry—but when it’s clear he’s not playing dead and he’s really fallen into some sort of unconsciousness, I turn to my trio of human companions.
...My duo.
The adult female is gone.
“What’s the matter?” Levi asks, looking worriedly up at my expression.
I motion to where the female’s scent lingers like a beacon. “We should have escorted her safely to her destination.”
Her smell sticks in my nostrils and I want to lick the air to get more of it.
“What are you doing?” the boy asks.
I am licking the air to get more of it. “Uh, I believe I’m hungry.”
Famished.
I take up Kaylee’s hand. “Let us go.”
CHAPTER 3
HOTAHN
“You can’t take kids.”
Gracie says the words as if it is the end of the discussion.
If she were a Gryfala, this would be true.
Thankfully, she is a small, easily breakable human. I tip all of my fingers at a hob, Kio, and what is very plainly human younglings grouped around him. “They have taken children.”
Gracie appears thoroughly exasperated. “Take a gander at the woman with them. You see her, you know, mothering them? Those kids are with their mum. It’s a different thing entirely!
Do humans require a dam? I didn’t ask these two, but I’d thought they were beyond weaning age.
If they are, then all that’s left is teaching them how to survive, and not only am I capable of this, I can also protect them until they are old enough to fend for themselves.
What else would they need?
What makes a mother?
Gracie’s words echo in my mind as I gather supplies and unload my crawler-craft for when the children tire. We have some walking to do.
***
I should be furious at Gracie’s order that I, a Rakhii, requires a human in order to successfully raise young. I should be calling infernofire on the whole absurd business.
But I’m not furious at all.
In fact, I tell myself, perhaps Gracie is right. What if humans require the presence of other humans for proper rearing?
I wouldn’t want the younglings to do poorly.
Kaylee smiles up at me, and I set my hand on top of her wispy mane.
Far be it from me to deprive them of a figure so necessary.
We pass many, many females. I even lean down to try and catch their eyes.
Each and every female gives her gaze to me. Most of them startled, some of them quickly turning interested, just like a Gryfala.
I should have an easy time selecting any of them.
Some of them make it even easier by attempting to follow us.
When I can tolerate it no more, I emit a growl at a frequency their ears can detect.
The children stop flinching by at least the fourth or fifth one. I’m so pleased at how well they’re coming along.
“My feet are going to fall off!” Kaylee declares.
I rip her off the ground and check her poorly shod feet.
Levi laughs. “It’s a saying,” he explains. “She’s just tired of walking.”
“Ah,” I rumble, and lift her so that she rides along my side like her brother carried her. If I’d known I’d be adopting young, I’d have brought a pup harness with me. This one is so tiny she’d certainly fit.
I look to the boy. “Are you tired?”
“Nah, I’m fine,” he claims.
I point to the crawler-craft I programmed to follow us. “Get in.”
His eyes widen and for the first time, I see him grin. “Cool!”
He clambers into the crawler-craft asking, “Is this a spaceship? Where are we going?”
“I smell that we’re getting close.”
“To…?”
The craft keeps easy pace with me as I lead it around yet another building, where we find strongly-smelling black tarmac and a small, well-kept shop.
“A vet clinic?” Levi asks.
“A puppy?” Kaylee cries.
“No,” Levi says firmly.
I look at him sharply.
He points a small, bony finger at me bravely. “Hey, she’s my sister: I know what’s best for her.”
I think of the litter I was born to. Six brothers, two of whom shared a womb life-sack with our sister and yet our sister—and only our sister—knew what was best for herself. When faced with six bristling slightly overprotective siblings who tended to give out orders first rather than do the smart thing and ask her opinion, she didn’t dally around: she gave out ear cuffs with a swiftness only second to our dam.
Maybe humans are different and females allow this of their siblings.
I settle for a grunt, acknowledging his statement if not agreeing with it, and usher him to this vet clinic.
“Why are we going through the back door?” he asks.
“We’re following where she entered in,” I explain. The door is locked, so I give it a coaxing twist. The sound of it breaking isn’t terribly loud.
“‘She’ who? Did you just break in?! And how do you know…”
The crawler has no trouble fitting through the door, and Kaylee settles into it when I murmur that I might need my hands free.
I guide the crawler bearing the young from the entryway, following the scent into a white-walled room closest to the broken door.
When the female from earlier spots us, she loses her color.
But—and this confirms I was right to wait—her eyes are fixed solidly on me—with a look of horror, but all the same: she has kind eyes.
I don’t hesitate, and I don’t allow her a chance to run. I stalk up to her.
“If your life depended on it, would you mother these children?”
“Mother them?”
Her eyes are umber. Like dark roasted meat—
An image of my sister cuffing me upside the skull shouting, Do you always think with your stomach?!
The suddenly uncomfortable fit across the front of my suitpants says no.
It’s not my stomach making decisions.
But I’m not allowing what hangs between my legs (or at the moment: what’s strangling trapped against my leg) to make decisions for me either. This female’s eyes are windows to a nurturing heart.
A beautiful nurturing heart.
And this is what children need.
She gasps when I reach out—but I stop short of cupping her face. “You will mother these children, do you understand me?”
CHAPTER 4
JENNIFER (aka Doc)
“And you will be a good one,” the creature orders. “You can’t strike them. Never kick them.”
“What—”
“Agree.”
“What—?”
He leans in, and his exhale causes warm smoke to curl between us, obstructing my view of his face—all except for his enthralling blue eyes. Like lake-blue tundra crystal, with darker lapis shadows ringing around the iris.
I bite my lip. I knew I should have called the police.
And told them what? That an aggressive flasher was badgering me and a giant wild monster made him apologize?
His eyes fla
sh to black. He breathes three low, threatening words. “Say ‘I agree.’”
I’m so intimidated that I parrot, “I agree.”
“Very good,” he purrs more than says the words, making goosebumps break out across my skin. “Let’s go.”
With a gentlemanly sweep of his hand, he motions to a half spider, half spaceship that stands just off to the side of him.
But I don’t actually look at it, because I can’t look away from him.
After great effort that surely will result in more grey hairs and years taken off my life, I manage to break eye contact, and my body relaxes a fraction even as my heart continues to beat against my ribs like a trapped hummingbird. “You want me? To go with you?” I manage hoarsely.
What I meant to say is I’m not going anywhere! and I wonder why that didn’t come out of my mouth right up until he crowds even closer—blocking out the light, the air, and all the thoughts in my formerly perfectly-operational logical mind.
The thick muscles in his neck tighten, and I hear the menacing clacking of his spines as he leans over me, and he doesn’t stop until his nose is almost touching mine. His lips peel back from his overly pronounced, overly sharp canines and I expect him to shout—but his voice is low and level when he growls, “I want you. Get in.”
I stall. “You know, I’m not really that comfortable—”
He roars.
Various framed accolades shake right off the walls of my office and crash to the floor.
“Sure thing,” I agree quickly and climb into the tiny craft.
CHAPTER 5
JENNIFER
“Is this your pet?”
Somewhat numbly, I look to where he’s indicating. Under the window of a delicatessen that for a moment, I thought the creature was either going to lick or break, there’s a swollen-bellied cat yowling low and threateningly.
We’re outside of my apartment, where the creature (whom I found out is an alien, although he of course believes that humans are the aliens) made me ransack my own home and store all of my most important worldly possessions in his spider-ship.
I chose to walk beside all of my things, mostly because if I tried to sit still for one more moment I’d have lost my mind. Surely it isn’t lost yet, although it doesn’t seem like things could get any crazier. Maybe this is what going crazy feels like. “No,” I say in answer to his pet question.
