by Louise Wise
She wasn’t sure how it happened, but then their lips were level, and his face was very close. Her breath was sharply in-drawn as his mouth shortened the distance, and touched hers.
The kiss was stunning. Potent, and discovering.
“Oh,” Jenny said when they parted.
He touched her lips with his fingertips, looking thoughtful. Then he sat back, and made a distance between them.
Jenny turned to face the front and switched on the engine, her fluid movements were replaced with jerks.
Fly swore in his own language. It was so ferocious Jenny found herself flinching. Then Fly shoved open the door, and walked away.
Jenny sat in the buggy, overlooking the ocean from a cliff top, and pondered on their situation. To her right, in the far distance, were thousands of black-coated animals gracing peacefully on the plains. When they moved the entire horizon appeared to be moving.
The view was fantastic, but her sigh was heavy. Several days had gone by without the other mentioning the kiss, and the discord surrounding them had grown moss. If this had been under normal circumstances, she’d believe Fly was suffering embarrassment at what had transpired between them.
Jenny put the buggy into reverse; swinging it around, she came face to face with one of the yellow-eyed native-wolves. It sat on its haunches, panting heavily. Its flat face was thickly coated with blood, saturating its gaping jaws. Its matted coat held many grey hairs, and its limbs were thin and gangling, unlike the powerful legs and arms of the beasts that had attacked her. Keeping one eye on the wolf, she fumbled for the gun, already knowing it was back at the spaceship.
Becoming clumsy with nerves, she urged the vehicle forward; but the creature settled back to lay on its side with its front legs/arms beneath its head like a pillow.
But it never closed its yellow eyes, and watched as Jenny, weak with relief, drove away. The buggy was slow and the animal, however old, could easily have out-run it and kill her via the missing roof. As she passed its eyes followed her, and she shivered expecting to feel the creature’s great hostility, instead the watching eyes held a kind of friendly wisdom that humbled her. There were times when the animals seemed so familiar, yet so dissimilar.
With a safe distance between her and the creature, she let herself relax. It seemed Fly had been correct in his assumption that the animals wouldn’t harm her if they believed her to be his mate.
She waited for the shudder at the thought, but it never came.
FOURTEEN
The morning dawned as cold as the Arctic. But Jenny was used to the freezing nights and rapid thaws that gave way to lukewarm afternoons.
She spent the morning alone, but Fly returned earlier than expected with six large fish neatly speared on some unfortunate animal’s antler. He announced that after they had eaten he wanted to show her something he had found that morning. He seemed pleased with himself, and Jenny rushed her food like a child who had just been told she could have a special dessert if she finished what was on her plate.
Later, breath shallow and perspiration dampening her skin, she was beginning to wish she had lingered after all. But she followed Fly dutifully, who hadn’t bothered once to see if she were still behind.
Sighing, she glanced to her right, and stared in wonder at the sight of a vast herd of animals grazing in the distance. Occasionally they raised their mammoth heads and swallowed whatever they had gleaned from beneath the dry soil at their feet. She craned her neck to watch, amazed and awe-filled at the sight.
Finally they passed them and Jenny concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other. The ground was like fine, grey sand, so minute that neither she nor Fly left prints. She was amused at the strange reptiles that lived underground. The creatures, the size and shape of a rattlesnake but the texture and color of a worm, were disturbed by the vibrations of their feet, and popped out from beneath the dirt before disappearing, harmlessly and silently, below the surface. Jenny looked back towards the mammoth creatures, and although she could no longer see them, she now knew what they were feeding on.
She continued to plod on. They were climbing steadily, and the air around her was becoming thin; she felt slightly light-headed. She wanted to take a rest, but was unwilling to ask since it had been her idea to walk, after the buggy had temperamentally refused to work.
She pushed onward, head bent. Feeling light-headed was nothing compared to the first hour or so in weightless space, after that hour of space sickness she had always been fine, as if floating in a vacuum was a natural occurrence.
Any higher, we’d be in bloody space, she thought grumpily. She walked on, but wasn’t aware Fly had stopped and almost cannoned into him.
He pointed towards rocky, orange terrain. “Can you see that line of rocks?”
She nodded, her earlier curiosity re-aroused.
“What I want to show you is in there. Do you want to rest?”
“No, let’s go on, we’re almost there.”
“You are walking well.” Praise wasn’t something he gave lightly, and it always seemed so condescending that Jenny felt close to cringing, but he said it with such sincerity she learned, in time, not to take offence.
“Thank you,” she said, straight-faced.
Fly regarded her silently, then turned and began walking again. The walk seemed easier after that, and she couldn’t be certain, but she was sure Fly had slowed his pace.
Even before she entered the cave, the oppressive heat hit her. Fly urged her forward, his large hand on the center of her back, the other hand shining the torch around. Low snorting from a dark corner made her hesitate.
“Go forward,” he commanded, and his voice echoed. Jenny moved grudgingly, her eyes seeking out the snorting animal.
He shone the light at the cave ceiling. It gleamed red and yellow beneath the beam. Her eyes could just make out a huge black shape, curled up like a cat in sleep. The size was big, larger than a wolf, but the animal slept on, either unaware or uncaring that it had visitors.
Following the beam, she rounded a rocky corner, and, as if somebody had switched on a light overhead, the darkness vanished. Holes in the rocky walls and ceiling allowed in sunlight, and the light bounced off colored boulders and turned everything amber; and before her was a wide lake illuminated like somebody had thrown in a million of multi-colored fairy lights. Everywhere she looked were boulders and rocks in shiny bright reds, oranges and yellows, and this entire glorious color was reflected in the lake.
Fly switched off the torch, and allowed her to precede him. She stopped to glance around and caught him watching her, as if he was seeking her approval.
And she did approve. It was like being inside a jewel. She stepped forward, her mouth rounding in surprise and delight when the water licked her feet. She stopped and looked down. But it was the warmth, not the beauty that had astonished her. She looked around again for Fly.
He was pulling off his trousers and throwing them alongside his already discarded ragged Itor top. He stood before her completely naked, then bypassed her without a word.
She stared after him in shock. His sculpted physique, even though marred with scars, was beautiful in its savagery. His back and shoulders were a crisscross of scar tissue. She noticed an ugly raised band of scar tissue around his ankle. Wasn’t there a part of him unblemished?
There was no fat on him, only finely shaped muscle encased in a golden skin. There was nothing alien about his body - it was perfectly male. He waded into the lake and struck out strongly, and Jenny watched appreciatively at the play of the rippling muscles in his shoulder and arms.
Hmmm, she thought and unconsciously licked her lips.
Aware that she was staring, she stepped away from the edge and began to walk around the golden water.
Underground rivers must have made the lake, and its heat came from the pockets of magma that littered the black river’s floor, creating the geysers.
Fly disappeared below the ember glow of the lake, and Jenny watched his sha
pe glide beneath the water like a fish. He bobbed up, and looked around for her.
“Can you not swim?” he asked.
Jenny nodded. The swim appealed, especially swimming in heated water. It was taking off her clothes and swimming, semi-naked, alongside him that terrified her. She could remember all too clearly the last time he had seen her naked, and the result of that had been a humiliating and terrifying experience.
So why was she trying to ignore the heat rising upwards from her stomach? She shivered. Tiny sparks had been left to simmer since his kiss, and it seemed only now she was finally able to acknowledge them.
She shook herself, and concentrated on the alien side of him. She looked up, wanting to see his dry, dead eyes, and minimize the effect he was having on her, but the eyes were a dewy brown and had the opposite result.
“How did you find this place?” she asked.
“Hunting. I chased an animal in here this sunrise. Come, the water is warm and clean. “
She sat on a rock, and pulled her knees in to her chest. “We have nothing to dry ourselves with afterwards,” she said, and was surprised to hear a low chuckle.
“I suppose there are special swimming clothes on Earth that you are wishing you had brought with you.”
A smile tugged at her lips. “Sometimes you are quite sarcastic.”
Fly lay on his back and floated on golden sunlight. A small cluster of bubbles surfaced on the water alongside him, and he swam lazily away. The bubbles became larger and larger until a spurt of steaming water was ejected upwards, and harmlessly cooled by the air before falling back down in the lake.
Unable to resist any longer, she peeled off her animal hide poncho, and Itor top. She hesitated on the trousers, but after glancing at Fly, who wasn’t paying her any attention, she slipped them off, and climbed into the water in her ragged long johns.
The feeling of stepping into heated water the color of sunlight was sensational, delicious.
Sensual.
It was like silk against her skin. She had forgotten what hot water felt like, but she was certain it had never felt this good.
She murmured appreciatively, and allowed her body to sink to the floor of the lake. When she resurfaced Fly was swimming towards her.
“You like it?”
She pushed wet hair out of her eyes. “It’s lovely. Thank you for sharing it.”
“You shared your favorite place with me.” His eyes drifted down the length of her body, distorted by the water but still visible, and up to rest on her breasts where the water lapped over them. She sank down immediately to cover herself knowing, as his eyes moved over her, her clothing had become transparent.
Something stirred in her belly. It unfurled, stretched then sat up blinking in the bright light of temptation that was suddenly Fly. She wanted to touch him; to feel the texture of his skin beneath her fingertips.
His eyes roamed her face. “Are you still in the shadow of rape and death?”
Using her exact words struck her as sad, as if they’d inflicted a deep pain on him.
“It isn’t entirely you,” she admitted, and eager to explain. “Here, I find myself vulnerable for the first time since I was a child, and that’s what I find terrifying. I was independent, and in the workplace I had a whole team of people under my control. Some even claimed to be afraid of me.”
A tiny flicker of amusement crossed his lips. “You?”
Jenny smiled back easily. “I suppose that would sound funny, seeing as I’m so totally useless here.”
“You are not useless.” He reached out and touched her hair; wet as it was it appeared like burnished gold. “You are passionate, the fire in your hair tells me so.”
His choice of word made her stomach quiver, but Jenny couldn’t be certain if it was said on purpose or not.
“I don’t have a temper. In general, I’m a very calm person,” she said.
He lowered his hand to trail scarred fingers down the side of her face. “Your presence is not calm.”
She didn’t feel calm, either. Her breath had been in-drawn the moment he touched her. She swallowed. “Please?” she asked.
His hand dropped away. “Relax,” his voice was curt. He laughed, as if amusement rained down on him, but his voice sounded far from happy. “Geyser,” he warned flatly, and together they swam away from the danger.
They trod water, watching as a jet of orange water shot upwards as if from a hidden hose beneath the surface.
Jenny was pensive. She knew he had misinterpreted her and was hurt, and swam away thinking of ways to break through the barrier. She knew she could make - should make - the first move but they weren’t exactly ordinary people, were they?
She lay on her back and floated.
But that’s exactly what we are. Ordinary emotions, ordinary fears and insecurities, ordinary Jenny and Fly in an ordinary, man and woman situation.
She started, and gulped in a mouthful of water. A shape glided beneath her and it took a moment of panic before she realized the shape was Fly. He broke through the surface directly in front of her, grinning playfully.
Jenny’s heart lurched in her chest. His smile was so bright and warm, she found her own mouth twitching, and grinned widely back.
“You had me scared for a minute,” she said. “I thought you were a lake monster or something.”
He laughed, and it was a real laugh. “Maybe I am,” he said narrowing his eyes, and raising his hands, he bared his claws at her before diving under the water again.
Jenny paused, taken aback at his playfulness. She was on the point of swinging around to see where he had gone, when her ankles were seized in a strong grip and she was taken, her breath sharply inhaled, beneath the golden water.
She broke through the surface spluttering, and turned to face her attacker who was about to dive under again.
“Oh, no you don’t,” she said, and kicking her legs she broke into a fast front crawl and out-swam his dive. Turning swiftly, she turned and from beneath the amber water she could see Fly’s legs in front of her. He was standing upright, and it was obvious he was looking around to see where she had gone.
Jenny swam at his legs, hitting the backs of his knees to upset his balance, before grasping his ankles and pulling him down.
Treading water, Jenny laughed loudly when Fly broke through the surface seconds after her, spluttering.
“Let that be a lesson to you, I was the swimming champion at school -” she broke off abruptly as Fly sent a wall of orange water towards her.
Most of the afternoon was spent frolicking like children in the golden lake, and the wariness between them evaporated forever beneath their playfulness. In between the geysers they swam and floated on their backs. Then they lay on the rocks and let the steam dry their bodies, and it was there that they spoke honestly of their own fears and reactions to one another.
And instantly Jenny understood Fly. He was an alien, but first he was a man, not a human being, granted, but a man all the same. She took his hand and squeezed it.
He turned his head and looked at her.
“Thanks,” she said, and smiled. And Fly understood: her fear had gone. He smiled, and raised his hand with hers still cupped inside.
“Ah, Jenny, you are good for me,” he said.
The feeling that they were walking down that familiar road towards a sexual relationship grew. And Jenny wasn’t afraid. She covered her belly with her hands as if cradling a fetus, and nursed it gently with a satisfying smile.
P a r t 2
FIFTEEN
The sky was a carpet of diamonds in which Jenny made up her own constellations. They both watched its beauty in silence after eating a late meal from the newly erected barbecue Fly had built close to the ship. They sat next to its warmth and nibbled on shelled nuts.
There had been a scent hanging around them; an aroma of sexual attraction that had grown and given birth to thousands of erotic thoughts and feelings that Jenny hadn’t known existed before.
It was here, this place. It brought alive the primal feelings and released the wild freedom that her ancestors had taken for granted. In the name of progress, the human race had lost so much.
When the moons rose and the howling began Fly raised his arm and Jenny slipped beneath, as if she had being doing so all her life. The heavy pressure of his hand wasn’t possessive or dominating anymore; it felt good, right.
The howling of the native-wolves became louder and nearer, but it no longer frightened her as it used to. It was just one more thing she had become accustomed to, like the extraterrestrial sky.
He raised his hand from her shoulder and touched her hair.
“I find your hair beautiful,” he said. “Although it looked strange in the beginning.”
Jenny laughed. “I guess we did look strange to each other back then. “
Fly said nothing; he pushed his fingers through her hair, and found the baby-soft skin of her nape beneath.
“I also find you so… fragile.” He spoke in a thickened voice. “You make me feel boorish. Why do you smile? Was that not the right word?”
“Not one that I would have chosen.”
“I can feel you trembling. You are nervous,” he said.
She closed her mouth on a flippant remark. She was nervous, but excited too. His eyes were glittering with a new light, a light that Jenny registered with a quivering stomach.
“We are friends now, yes? There is nothing to be frightened of, least of all me.” His voice was rich and velvet against her ear. His fingers continued to stroke her nape, creating tiny ripples of sensual delight.
She turned her head, a slight, subtle movement of agreement, and looked at him. Her breath had become shallow with the thrill of his obvious desire. His head lowered and his lips lightly touched her mouth. Their lips parted on contact and, hesitatingly at first, they began to kiss with deep deliberation.
