by Sky Winters
“What…where am I?” she finally found the nerve to ask.
“I am Malek,” he told her. “You are in Tundra. Where did you come from?”
“I am where?” she asked, even while keeping her eyes trained on the vicious animal that still growled at her.
“Tundra,” he repeated. “One of the many jungles on our planet Xenon.”
“Your what? No, I’m on earth,” Valerie retorted, but even as she did, her mind tried to reconcile what she knew and what she saw before her.
“You are an earthling?” the man asked.
“Yes…yes!” she cried and turned around again, as if to flee. “I am trying to find my way back to the group that I followed into the Copa. I am in Mexico.”
“I thought you said you were on earth,” Malek said, now confused.
“Yes. Mexico is a place on earth. Why am I talking like this is real? Clearly I slipped when I was running and hit my head. This must all be a dream and any second now I’m going to wake up in the back of the bus because someone from the tour found me.”
Valerie started slapping her face, trying to wake up from the dream that seemed too real. Her eyes grew wild, and when she thought she could get away with it, she turned right and started off in a sprint. When she felt them upon her, she grabbed a piece of loose log on the jungle floor. She waved it about, and panted.
“Don’t come any closer,” she heaved. She swung the stick from side to side, warding them off, until she felt something come down hard on her shoulder. She crashed onto the ground, and then everything went black.
CHAPTER 3
There was something tickling her face, and she turned about to get it off, but each side she turned, the sensation returned. She lifted her hand and slapped at it, and then turned again. This time she felt the sun on her skin, and then a cool breeze blowing against her feet that appeared to be bare. Why were they bare? She had on sneakers just before they had started the tour. That’s right! The tour! She shot upright, and looked around her. There was nothing recognizable in sight besides the spear that was held against her neck. Her eyes followed the stick, and met the man’s on the other end of it.
She looked around and realized she was in something that looked like a hut, made from wood, vines and some sort of canvas acting as walls. It had a thatched roof and a flap down the front that acted as the only entrance or exit; she only saw it as the latter at present. She smiled haphazardly at the man guarding her, and because she had nothing else to do, she began her survey of him. He was tall, like the other one, and a neck so long it seemed to be detached from his body. But not in an awkward way; it gave him an aura of power and knowledge. He wore khaki pantaloons, and he had the same fabric covering his upper body. His arms protruded from the shoulder, and his bronze skin flexed and glistened in the rays that escaped through the spores in the covering of the hut, and polka dotted the space.
His face was serious, and he held her there with his eyes and his weapon. “No move,” he told her.
“Okay,” she told him and held her hands up. “So, what is this place?” she asked. It was obvious she was either no longer in the Mayan ruins of Copa, Mexico, or there were some native people running around in the jungle no one else was aware of.
“Masawa,” he told her, and offered nothing more.
“Masawa?” she asked. The name wasn’t familiar to her at all. She was growing more bewildered by the moment, and just when she decided to risk it all and make a mad dash to the door, she heard what sounded like a commotion outside. The man’s face twitched, but it was obvious he was concerned. She waited, giving him the opportunity to leave, and as soon as he did, she sneaked to the slit in the wall. She pulled it back just wide enough to see two men roughing it out in the center of a small gathering of people. The man who had just left was trying to break it up, but he was struggling against the weight of the other two and had his back to the hut just then.
Valerie thought it a fitting time to try and make her escape. She lay low and pulled the slit further open. She kept her back to the flimsy material flapping in the wind, and with eyes searching for an opening, she slipped to the back. Her heart was racing in her chest, so she stopped for a second to calm herself. She had only just turned to make a run for it when she felt someone grab her from behind. She turned and came face to face with the man she had seen on the animal before.
“You need to come back,” he said.
“Okay, okay,” she said and conceded, for she knew she could neither outrun or fight him. Where would she run to anyway? She was lost in the jungle with a native tribe that thought they were on another planet.
“Do not try to leave again, or I cannot be held responsible for what happens,” he told her.
“Why are you keeping me here?” she asked him, and followed him inside the hut once more.
“You are dangerous,” he told her, and sat on what seemed to be the trunk of a once huge tree.
“I am dangerous?” she asked, and then laughed. “I’ve been called many things, but dangerous has never been one of them.”
“You did pull a weapon on one of my men when we saw you in the Tundra,” he told her.
“Why do you keep calling it that?” she asked. “I was in the Copa, not the Tundra, or whatever you call it. And I would like to go back to the hotel now. They must be out looking for me by now.”
“Maybe, but they aren’t looking here,” he told her.
He was wearing the same khaki pantaloons like the other guard, but he had on a green and white tunic at the top instead. Not only was he better looking, and seemed more confident, but he had better command of the English Language too. “So, if we aren’t on earth, like you said, how come you know the language, and better than him too,” she said when she noticed the guard returning.
“English is not the language of earth,” he told her. “I just happened to learn it better than most of my people.”
“Your people? So, that means you are the leader?” she asked and the anxiety on her face was evident.
“Yes,” he said and stood then to face the man who had just returned. “Watch her properly this time,” he told him sternly. “Do not leave this spot for any reason,” and with that he turned and left.
Valerie was about to go after him, even after hearing the instructions that were given to the man, but her guard planted himself firmly in her path, filling every possible angle of escape. She backed away and sank into her seat, prepared to sit there until they decided it was fit for her to leave. She had wanted an escape from the drama in her life, back in San Francisco, but she had not signed up for an excursion on another planet. She still thought she must be dreaming, but the glare in the eyes of the man who stood guard over her was making it less of a dream and more of a nightmare.
CHAPTER 4
The only times the slit in the canvas moved was when a woman entered to give Valerie something to eat. Whenever she had to make an excretion, she had a special place in the corner, which was checked regularly. She was feeling hot and dirty, and she was glad when she saw him return.
“Can’t I go outside? It’s been days since I’ve been here,” she said.
“Only one day.” His eyes swept her frame, and then he grunted and went back outside. When he came back in, a woman was with him. “Take her to the river,” he instructed. “Give her a bath.”
The woman nodded and went over to take Valerie’s hand. Valerie shook her off sidestepped her, not sure whether she should be feeling grateful or annoyed. She squinted her eyes when she went out, and she could tell that by the direction of the sun, it was slightly past noon. She looked around the village as she walked, and saw a collection of huts like the one she had just exited. Women and children milled about, and seemed happy and content. She saw a baby playing with one of the giant wolf like animals, and she stopped in her tracks. She was horrified at first that it might harm it, but she witnessed then the gentleness of the beast.
On her path to the river she saw a man and a woman r
eturning; she was pregnant, and he had her in his arms, her weight not seeming to matter to him. He looked at her in an odd way, and his eyes followed her until they passed. There were many more at the river, and the women were seen washing the men, dutifully, but not seeming bothered by it. It was all new to Valerie, though she felt too self-conscious about taking her clothes off. The woman moved robotically, and began stripping Valerie as soon as she stepped into the water. She stood still, and allowed her to work, and while she stood in the river and allowed the cool water to wash over her, she finally opened her mind to the possibility that this world was nothing of Earth.
Back at the hut, she went directly to the man in charge. “Where exactly am I?” she asked him again.
“I told you; The Village Masawa on the Planet Xenon. Come,” he told her and walked off.
“Where are we going?” she asked as she tried to keep up with him and his party. The heavy tunic she wore that practically hugged her ankles obstructed her walking.
“To the place we found you. I want to know how you got here. Maybe there was a vessel we missed,” he said.
“There is no vessel,” she said when she caught up with him. He didn’t seem to hear her, and kept walking. She grabbed his arm then, and he stopped abruptly and turned to her.
“This doesn’t make any sense. If there is no ship, then how did you get here? What were you doing?”
“I was with some people in the jungle in Mexico when I got lost. I tried to find them, slid down a slope and lost track of where I was. That’s when I ran into you.”
He stood there, biting his lips and looking around, and then grabbed her by the arm and led her in another direction. “Maybe Master Shakh will know.”
“Master who?” she asked.
“Master Shakh. He is our wise one. He will know what happened better than any of us,” he replied and tugged her along.
They got to the dwelling place of their wise one and he left them outside while he went in. After a few moments, he emerged with who she had expected to be an old man, but instead, he seemed as young as the rest of them.
“So this is woman from earth?” he asked, and then beckoned to her. “Come, come,” he told her and waited for her to get to him. Then he placed his arm around her and brought her inside the hut. “I never seen earth woman before. My grandfather told me about one he see, but that was thousands of years ago.” He looked at her, and plucked her skin, and then smiled at Malek. “She is nice one.”
“That’s not why we are here. We need to know how she got here,” Malek told him. “Maybe we can send her back.”
“I’m afraid I can give you idea of how she came, but not sure if I can make a way back,” he said and went over to a table he had filled with candles and herbs.
Malek and Valerie shared surprised looks and then turned to Master Shakh again. “You know how I got here? Oh my God!” she exclaimed. “That’s the best news I’ve heard all day.”
“Not so fast,” he told her. “That may not be such good news.”
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“History tells of gateway from this world to yours. A time portal. My grandfather privileged to go through two times in his life. I never did, but would love to see other world.”
“A gateway? But that means if we can find the spot, then I can go back through,” she said excitedly.
“I’m afraid it isn’t that simple. Gateway only opens once every generation, and only when sun and moon come together. I can try and tell when something like that will happen again, but I don’t think it will be soon.”
“An eclipse!” she exclaimed when she realized what event the man referred to. “That shouldn’t be so hard to track, and it may be soon.” Valerie asked and turned about in the hut as she tried to make sense of it, but even with her limited knowledge, she knew eclipses were rare.
“Only if Earth woman lucky,” Master Shakh told her. Then he went over to her and patted her on the shoulder, and with a grin, “Welcome to Xenon.”
CHAPTER 5
Valerie spent the next couple of days in the Masawa, learning their ways and observing their interactions. After a while, she lost interest in returning home. What was she returning to anyway? At least here, she felt like she belonged; like she was a part of something. She accompanied the women when they went to gather berries, herbs and fruits. She helped when the men returned with game from their hunt, and she even taught them new ways to prepare their food. She figured anything that was a bird would require the same preparations as chicken. She even got accustomed to the Tsar, the wolf-bear creature that was nothing more than an overgrown golden retriever at heart.
“Everything is so simple here,” she remarked to Naresh one day. She was one of the women she had grown more familiar with.
“What you mean?” the woman asked.
Valerie smiled when she imagined the girl didn’t understand what simple meant. “I mean, where I’m from, you had to be busy all the time; running to catch the subway to get to work; being stuck in a cubicle all day in a cramped space; smiling at people you didn’t even want to be around; running again at the end of the day to catch the train before it leaves; just to get home to a husband who doesn’t even appreciate that you are there,” she said and sighed.
“What is subway?” the girl asked.
Valerie jumped just then when she heard a twig snap behind her. She was relieved to find that it was only Malek. “You scared me,” she told him.
“There is nothing to be afraid of in Masawa,” he said and held out his hand for her.
“That depends on what scares you. I could be afraid of a spider,” she said and laughed. He chuckled too, and she couldn’t help but notice the sparkle in his eyes when he did, or the way his skin color change from bronze to crimson. She walked next to him, and to the hut that had been a home to her from the beginning. The women had given her clothing, and considering that in this world being oversized was the norm, she fit right in.
“I heard what you were saying to Naresh earlier,” he told her when they got inside and he was sitting on the trunk that seemed to be his personal favorite.
“Wh-what did you hear?” she asked nervously and pulled her golden hair behind her ears.
“You didn’t sound as if you were happy with the life that you had,” he told her directly.
Valerie smiled then, and hung her head. “No, I wasn’t happy,” she told him.
“And you had a husband…is that the word for mate?” he asked curiously.
“Yes, that’s what he was,” she said and heaved an exasperated sigh.
“He wasn’t a good mate?” Malek asked.
“No,” she said, and even though she was far from her ex-husband, and he couldn’t hurt her anymore, his effect lingered enough to tear at the strings of her heart and provoke tears she hadn’t set free in weeks. She quickly brushed them aside, but for each one she did, another would take its place. “I’m sorry, I’m not usually like this.”
“Why do you cry?” he asked her, and the concern was visible upon him.
“I gave him everything, and he left me for another woman because he said I was too fat,” she said and wiped her eyes. “If he had done it for any other reason, I could have understood; but to know that he left me for nothing is what got to me. So, no, at first I thought I would, but I don’t miss being home, and I don’t miss Earth.”
Malek did not know the right words to say that would stop her tears from flowing. Instead, he stood and pulled her to him, and in the silence of the hut he held her, and in so doing gave her more than her ex-husband had in the months preceding their divorce.
“If Master Shakh does find a path home-some miraculous way of reopening the portal to Earth-I don’t think I’ll want to go back,” she sputtered, amidst the tears.
“You only say that now because you are upset,” he told her, and then held her away from him so he could look her in the eyes. “The feeling will pass and then you will want to go back, but you have to t
hink about it carefully. When that gateway reopens, and then closes again, it may not do so for another hundred years, and by that time I will no longer be here.”
Valerie turned then so that she was facing away from him. “Maybe,” she said. Then she spun, as if jolted. “I’ve seen the way the men here treat the women; the way you carry them around like they were made from glass; how you bring them something from every hunt; how they smile and float around without a care in the world because the men protect and provide. I’ve never had that; so why would I want to go back?”
“Well, if that’s how you feel, then you are welcome to stay here, and we won’t treat you any differently,” he told her and sat down again.
She sat there looking at him, and then something occurred to her. “How is it that someone like you, a strong warrior, hunter and leader, does not have a mate of your own?”
Malek smiled to himself and turned his face outdoors. “I’m not sure I can answer that question,” he told her.
“You can try,” she urged.
He lowered his body and took up a piece of stick and played with it between his fingers. “I guess, it has never felt quite right before,” he told her. “But I’m hopeful.” His eyes scanned her curves, and a smile escaped.
Valerie blushed when he spoke, and her mind played on the word ‘hopeful’ as she imagined it might just be her.
CHAPT ER 6
It didn’t take Valerie long to adjust to life in a different kind of jungle. The Village expanded further than the collection of huts nearby, and was but a small part of a very big planet. There were several other tribes surrounding the one she was in, and every couple of days they would host a big feast and have games, and the women would dance and entertain the men and children. Valerie was beginning to feel more a part of this world than she ever did back home.
