It is odd that this painting looks so like her, but I have never met anyone like her before on Kartak. I will have to find out where she comes from. All will become clear when we are able to speak with each other.
She also spends a few minutes speaking into a device. I can see frustration building on her face as she speaks into it. Another mystery that will have to wait until we can speak.
However, some things cannot wait that long. I wait for her to stop speaking into her device and get her attention. I gesture to myself and speak my name. “Leo.”
Her eyes go wide in surprise, and she speaks excitedly. I can tell by her tone that she is excited but I cannot comprehend why. Leo was the name given me by the Blind Witch when I became a man and she spoke me my prophecy.
She gestures to herself and says, “Astrid.”
I repeat her name, “Astrid.” She laughs softly and nods her head. I know that means 'yes.' I've picked up that much. She shakes her head when she's angry and nods her head when she agrees. And she screams loudly when she feels pleasure.
“Astrid,” I say as I hand her a linen cloth and motion for her to wrap it around her face. She needs to protect her strangely beautiful face against the elements. I put my hand on the ladder and hesitate. I have been given a great gift in finding my fated mate. Do I dare risk losing her?
She pulls me out of my thoughts by smacking me on my ass and pointing to the tunnel entrance. I laugh and begin climbing the ladder.
She truly must be my fated mate.
13
ASTRID
My legs still feel unsure as I climb the ladder, but I comfort myself by staring at Big Blue's hard ass as he climbs to the surface. I guess I should think of him as Leo. Maybe Big Blue is a better name for his cock.
I can't believe I let him eat me out. Rhea would be so proud of me. “I'm going to come get you girl,” I whisper to myself. “You just hold tight.” I'm worried about not being able to get through to her yet. It's been about a day since we crashed. If her landing pod's comms were damaged in the crash, she'd be the one who'd be able to fix them. I hope it's just taking her a while. The alternative is too horrible to think about. The wound in her leg was nasty.
I want to tell her what I've found. Not just Leo's cock, though I know that's the first thing she'll want to know about. But about all the other things I found inside. He has enough artifacts down there for us to buy ourselves a House, a moon to name our own and a fleet of ships to go with it. The whole Merchant Prince package deal.
I need more time to go through it all, but the technology I saw was nothing like what I've seen before. I know valuable technology when I see it. Then there was the art. It looked old too. And so strange, for an alien like him to have a painting of a human. But if that thing is as old as it looked, it will fetch an incredible price.
I feel the weight of the one piece I took when Leo was looking for shoes I could wear. I felt bad stealing from him, after he saved my life, but I figure he wouldn't miss it. I don't think he even knows how valuable these things are. Given the way they are stored. But this one piece alone could likely buy me and Rhea a decade of luxury. I just need to find her and a way off this planet first.
Above me, Leo opens the seal to the tunnel. I follow him out into the elements and am immediately thankful for the scarf around my face. The wind is slower than it was when I crashed, but it's enough to fill the air with sand. My eyes are well protected by my goggles. When I'm rich, I'm going to have to buy Muller Corp and reward them for making them.
Leo takes out the stakes holding a leather tarp over his bike, rolls it up and puts it into a pack on the back of the bike. He stands over the bike, turns it on and it floats up until he is seated on it. He gestures for me to sit behind him. I climb on the bike and lean into his muscular back and wrap my arms around his belly. I hum to myself in appreciation as I feel the outline of his abs through his vest.
He grunts and powers on the bike's engines and we hurtle through the air. I look at my comms to make sure we are going in the right direction, and I see we are going in the exact opposite.
I tap on his shoulder and yell, “stop!” He keeps going so I tap again, and then press my point by tugging on his ear.
That gets his attention and the bike comes to a stop. He looks back at me with a questioning look on his face.
“We are going in the wrong direction. I crashed that way.” I point towards where the comms are indicating. I don't know why I assumed he'd be going back to the crash site. Truth be told I have no idea where he wants to go. All I know is I didn't want to be left behind like I was a captive in some cave. I need to get him to help me find Rhea.
I get off the bike and squat down on the sand, gesturing to it with my finger. I draw a long arc traveling down and draw a circle at the end of it. Then point my finger at me. “Astrid.” Then I draw another arc, ending on the same plane but further out, and draw another circle at its end. “Rhea.”
Then I point at the mark I made for my escape pod and point at where he wants us to go. He shakes his head awkwardly. He's must have picked up that that means no, and points where we were heading.
I shake my head emphatically and point in the other direction, “No. I have to find Rhea.”
He sighs. I can see frustration on his face. Like a father gets when he has to deal with a belligerent child. He takes his skin of water off his belt and shows it to me. It has only a small amount of water left. He points at the water bottle on my belt. I know by its weight that it is nearly empty.
“You don't understand!” I yell, feeling frustrated. “I know it's stupid. But I can't leave my friend behind!” I feel stupid. I can feel myself tearing up.
He squats next to me and gently lifts my chin with a finger. A tear rolls down my cheek and he brushes it off with his thumb and brings his thumb to his lips.
He draws a circle away from the escape pods. He points at where we were heading, and I nod. Then he draws another circle equally distant from the escape pods and his destination. He points down at the ground. I nod again. He draws a line from the last point to our destination and lifts the skin, still closed, over his mouth and mimes pouring water all over his face. He looks at me and smiles. I smile back, unconvincingly, and nod. Then he draws another line from the destination to the landing pod.
I smile widely and nod my head happily. “Okay, big guy. You got yourself a deal.” I hug him and give him a kiss on his cheek. He hugs me back and squeezes my butt as we stand up. He really has a thing for my ass. It's okay, cause I got a thing for his. I think I'm getting the better half of the deal.
I get back on the bike behind him and we take off.
It doesn't take us very long to get to our destination. It helps that this thing seems to have a max speed of 400 klicks per hour. Or maybe he's just keeping it slow so I don't go flying off.
He slows down as we approach what appears to be the ruins of an ancient city. The ruins center around a tall tower, at least forty stories high. It was probably a lot taller before but the rest of it is crumbled. It's surrounded by a group of smaller towers in various state of ruins. As we approach we pass a number of much smaller guard towers, built recently, with some sort of weaponry mounted on him.
Leo waves to the towers as he passes, approaching a squat building adjacent to one of the shorter towers. They must know him here.
He parks his bike in a line of vehicles. No two are alike. They all look like they were put together from scrap, beaten down by years of abuse on this harsh planet. A tall, thin man leans against a wall in direct sunlight. His skin is covered in green scales highlighted in gold. His face is round, small and bald, with a wide mouth. I'd be shocked at walking by a literal lizard man, but I guess when you last fell asleep after a big blue alien eats you out, you learn how to accept strange things.
Leo nods at him and he nods back. As we walk past him, I notice his gaze following me. I guess I should expect this. No one here looks like me.
We enter the build
ings through a wide entrance and enter the strangest bazaar I've ever seen. The stalls are setup like any other bazaar I might imagine. But behind them are aliens of every shape and size.
By Peter, if we hadn't crashed. Kartak could be the greatest find in the history of humanity. Never mind first contact. I must be looking at over a dozen different species. And the things being sold. I would love to have some time to dig through the technology being sold here. There must be enough material to reverse engineer into multiple breakthroughs. Never mind having our own House. Our House could be one of the Great Houses with access to this technology.
Leo isn't interested in any of this though. He's obviously seen it before. He's heading straight towards what looks to be a water merchant. I assume that's what is stored in the two huge copper plastic tanks. The merchant is another lizardman. Though, he's short and squat, with a round flat face.
He greets Leo and looks at me fleetingly before turning back to him. I guess it's obvious who's in charge. They begin speaking to each other, though, I think it's in another tongue than what Leo uses when he tries to speak with me. They speak quickly, I assume haggling over the price.
I'm a lot more interested in checking out the other wares in this bazaar, so I leave Leo to his haggling and slowly browse the nearby stalls. I make my way towards a large table covered with a tarp of rainbow cloth. The merchant is hawking what looks to be the components to a power generator.
I gesture towards one of the objects, it looks like a gearbox. The grey merchant behind the stall picks it up with its long thin fingers and holds it up to me. He blinks his huge black eyes at me and says something in a voice almost too high pitched for me to hear. I smile, pretending I understand him and take it from his hands.
I feel someone tapping on my shoulder as I’m examining the gearbox. I turn around expecting to see Leo but find myself staring at a massively built man covered in dirty orange fur. His face is mostly a huge maw and an upturned fleshy nose. His eyes are small black beads and his face is framed by wide fleshy ears.
He presses his finger into my chest and shrieks at me. I back away from him and immediately bump into the stall behind me. I see a small crowd forming around us, watching the commotion. I don't have anywhere I can go.
“Leo! Where are you?” I try to keep the fear out of my voice and look around desperately for Leo, but I can’t see him over the crowd.
The large furry creature shrieks at me again and grabs me by arm, pulling me towards him.
“Leo! Help!” The creature screams at me and the crowd reacts like this is high entertainment. It reminds me of the crowds at the fight clubs you find on far off way-stations. But I don’t stand a chance against this thing. I try to pull myself free but I can’t shake his grip. I remember I have a gun and reach for it at my hip.
His reaction shows he recognizes it as the weapon it is. He reaches back with his other arm and swings at my face.
I cringe, forgetting about the gun, and try to shield my face with my free arm. The blow doesn't land. A large blue hand grabs my assailant's arm from behind.
The furry thing shrieks as Leo yanks his arm back and twists it behind his back. I hear the sound of bones snapping and the thing screams in pain. I take the opportunity to tear myself free of his loosened grasp.
I’m trying to reach for my gun when I see Leo’s other arm come up, holding a sharp knife, and stab it through his neck piercing it through the other side. The creature tries to scream but just chokes on his own blood. His blood spurts out of the wound in his neck as Leo pulls the knife free and stabs him again and again in his side until the creature collapses to the ground.
Leo steps over the corpse and picks me up.
I’m in shock. I can’t say anything. One moment, I was standing there, thinking I’d get through this, and another moment, I nearly died. The only thing that saved me was a flurry of incredible violence. Leo didn’t even hesitate.
I’d never seen violence like I’ve seen these last two days outside of a flik.
Leo sits me down on an empty seat and looks me over with a look of concern. He is speaking softly to himself. I’m not even trying to make sense of what he’s saying. I can’t help but look as half the crowd disperses, heading back to whatever they were doing before the fight. And the other half that’s stripping everything off the dead thing’s corpse.
I thought I could use Leo for protection, have him help me find Rhea, and then get off this planet with enough riches to set us up for life. But I’m starting to realize that Leo thinks I’m his. He just killed that creature like it was nothing for trying to take something that’s his.
How’s he going to react when he finds out I don’t plan to stay?
14
LEO
I cannot believe I let her get out of my sight. I should have known better! She could have been hurt. I fight the urge to go back to that fucker's corpse and tear its head off. What good would that do?
I cannot even comfort her. She seems nearly catatonic. My little Starling hasn't even said anything since she was accosted.
I squat down so I can see her eye to eye. I put my hands on her shoulder and look her in the eye. “I will never let you out of my sight again,” she looks confused and I can see tears in her eyes. I've never seen anyone give up their water so willingly. “I will never let anything happen to you.”
I realize in the commotion that I forgot what I bartered for her. I take the inoculation out and show it to her. “This will let us understand each other.” I was going to wait until we returned to my shelter before I injected her. But I cannot wait. I need to make her understand how dangerous Kartak is. She cannot go off wondering out of my sight again.
She wipes a tear from her eye and reaches out to take the injector. It's small and made of plastic composites. They normally fetch an incredible price, and the merchant could sense how desperate I am. I am going to have to come back and pay the merchant in full in another trip. But it is worth it. Once I inject her she will quickly learn any language from being near someone else who has had the injection. My mother told me it is like a virus that spreads understanding.
All I need to know is that it will let me understand my fated mate, and that is worth any price.
I take the injector back from her and pull off the needle cap. It has a thin short needle. Astrid seems to understand that I want to inject her and pushes her chair back from me. She nearly tips over before I catch her chair and pull her back.
“Astrid, it's harmless.” I try to comfort her by lowering my voice. It does not work.
She pulls her knees up to her chest and wraps her arms around her legs protectively. She is like a frightened child who knows she has nowhere to run.
Am I such a brute that my fated mate would fear me? No matter. I must do this so I can keep her safe. I cannot let her go stumbling about Kartak from one death trap to another.
I purr soothingly, and hold her leg steady. She has pulled herself back into her chair as far as she can and seems to have accepted this as inevitable. I feel guilt like never before in the depths of my belly.
I press the injector into her leg and she yelps in momentary pain. I press the injector and it releases its payload into her leg.
She looks at me with wounded eyes. I try to explain myself to her, despite knowing the injection takes more than an hour to take effect. As I speak, her blue eyes roll up into her head and she passes out.
15
ASTRID
I wake up with a pounding headache. I'm looking up at a now familiar ceiling, carved from bedrock, smooth and well-polished. I sit up in bed and the sheet falls off me. I'm still wearing my new clothing. I still haven't had a chance to wash up. I don't even know how they do that on Kartak. Water is precious, and I see nothing that looks like a shower here.
Leo is sitting on a stool by the bed watching me. He smiles, baring his sharp teeth. “How do you feel?” he asks.
I rub my temples, trying to relieve a sharp headache. “I don't know
. My head hurts.”
I look back at him with surprise. “Wait, what did you just say?”
“I asked how you are feeling.” He replies, that arrogant smirk back on his face.
I listen to him carefully as he speaks, watching his lips to read his words. “You aren't speaking Merchant's Tongue. Or Kanesian. How do I understand you?”
“Do you remember what happened? In the New Bazaar?”
I shake my head, trying to clear it. My recent memory is in a thick fog. “I don't think so.”
“Do not be concerned. Your memories will clear within the day.” He pulls his stool closer to the bed and rubs my arm gently. “I gave you an injection from this.” He holds up a familiar looking device. It looks like what they use to give you inoculations for visiting foreign solar bodies. “It lets you speak with anyone who has received the same injection. That is why you can understand me.”
My eyes go wide with wonder. I take the device from him and look at it closely. It's made from a strange material, like plastic, but incredibly hard and light. Even the sharp needle seems to be made from the same material. My mind races trying to think what kind of price this wonder would fetch.
“Are these easy to find on Kartak?”
He laughs. “No. That was likely the last one in the New Bazaar. Or at least one of the last. No one has been able to replicate them since time remembered. All that is left is what can be found in the old ruins.”
“Oh. Then, thank you for getting one for me.” I put the injector back down next to the bed on top of my sliced up survival suit. It might be worth it to take it with me. Even though it's used up, it probably has some residue left over that's worth being studied. “I wish there was a way I could thank you.”
Renegade Leo: A Scifi Alien Shifter Romance (Shifter Kings of Kartak Book 1) Page 5
