by Mara Frost
“Plants? Are you serious? How?”
He nods once. “Their beginnings were from vegetation, just as yours was from an animal. They evolved just as you did, except they get their nutrients and energy from starlight. You would never know that they’re a plant-based life form. Open your mind, human.”
I say nothing back, struck by his words. I just silently sit and watch him finish his grisly job, all while thinking about how insignificant we all are and that we really know nothing about the universe. Like, nothing.
My thoughts then float to a sad place. I think back on the small amount of time that I spent with an equally amazing creature, the Elemental…Yara. My heart drops and my throat tightens. I stare into the glowing fire stick and the warm light begins to blur a little.
I wrap my arms around myself, trying to offer myself some comfort when I think about the dismal fate that she most likely found. She didn’t deserve it. No one deserves that.
Big Blue must have noticed my private little breakdown. I hear him clear his throat uncomfortably, forcing me to look up at him. I gaze up at him quietly, but say nothing.
“What is it?” he asks awkwardly and to the point, probably unsure of whether it’s a good idea to engage me at that moment.
Oh well, too bad for him, huh? Here come the waterworks, big guy!
I sigh. “I’m just thinking about Yara…”
He continues to look at me blankly.
“Oh, she was the Elemental from the dark market. Her name was Yara… Heh, she and I were cage mates…and we sort of…became friends,” I say, my voice heavy. “I’m just thinking about her and what those animals wanted to do to her. I just wish…” my voice trails, trying to find the right words. “I just wish that…there was something that could have been done for her. What they wanted to do to her wasn’t right…”
He listens to me quietly, not saying a word, just nodding his head. “Yes.” He then goes back to work on the dino-rat.
I sigh again, rather woefully this time. “Yep.”
“I think she was very relieved when I released her.”
I look up at him. “What…?”
Without looking up, he replies, “After the auction, I walked by her holding area when I was searching for you.” He stops and looks at me, his face stern. “I released her.” He holds his gaze for only a moment and then goes back down to the animal.
My mouth drops in disbelief and I openly stare at him, but he just ignores me. He saved her? He went out of his way to release her? At the risk of his own life? Even though he didn’t have to? His conscience didn’t MAKE him do it out of guilt because he kidnapped her or something?
Well, I’m just shocked.
As if reading my mind, or maybe he just noticed the very shocked look on my face, he replies matter of factly, “There was only one guard I had to deal with. It wasn’t an inconvenience to free her.”
I smile faintly and nod my head. “Of course. Do you think…she escaped off the planet?”
“Yes. The moment I removed the bindings that kept her locked in her physical form, she transformed back into her Elemental form. She is virtually uncatchable in this form.”
At this my shoulders relax and I let out a strained breath of relief. She made it. She’s alive. I guess sometimes things do work out. Although honestly, I would have never expected Big Blue to be the one responsible for those things.
Now, maybe Yara will find the man that she mentioned, the one that she’s in love with. Maybe, he’s still alive…
Fortunately, before I have a chance to take another trip into Depressing Land, I’m chowing down on some succulent dino-beaver – which is surprisingly not awful. Granted, Big Blue tried to hand me raw chunks first, but I made sure he knew that I was having NONE of that.
He proceeded to mumble something about how my unrefined taste buds don’t appreciate good flavor and then zapped some chunks of meat with the magic glow stick that we use as a “fire”. And then bam! Delicious juicy dinner – which tastes suspiciously like chicken.
Seriously, does everything unidentifiable in the universe have to taste like chicken? I’m not complaining, I love chicken, but what’s the deal?
As grease drips down my fingers and hands, I let out a satisfying moan and plop a piece of meat into my mouth. My mouth bursts with warm flavor as I bite into the tender meat. I didn’t think I was ever going to eat delicious “chicken” again. I think an Imperial death squad could come raining down on us right now and I wouldn’t care as long as my mouth was full of food.
Unfortunately, the sound of a snicker snaps me awake from my mouthgasm. I open my eyes and see my dinner companion looking at me with a slightly amused look on his face.
“Whah’?” I ask, my mouth full as I continue to chomp away.
He cocks his eyebrow in a wicked way as he nods towards my direction. “I see you have no problem eating other alien life.”
I stop chewing for a second.
“I-“ I say and then stop, struck by his odd comment.
He shakes his head and snorts again as he continues to eat his meal, clearly amused by the fact that he thinks he caught me in the middle of some sort of double standard. And that doesn’t sit with me well…
I glance down at my delicious alien meat and think about the little guy that it used to be and I’m suddenly struck with guilt. Am I no better than the mean aliens who want to eat me? Am I just a big giant hypocrite?
“No! But it’s different!” I yell out, finally breaking the silence.
He gazes up at me and only nods, as if humoring me.
“No. It’s different. This creature is the equivalent of a rabbit or something on earth. I’m not eating an advanced alien race right now.”
He raises an eyebrow as he puts another piece of raw meat into his mouth. “Are you sure about that?”
My thoughts immediately go back to our earlier conversation about the advanced “plant people” that he mentioned and I feel my face grow hot and red. Oh God, what have I done? What if…? I look down at the food in my hands in both horror and sadness and I suddenly feel like I’m at risk of breaking down into tears.
Nope. Never mind, no longer a risk.
Maybe it’s because I’m exhausted or hungry. Or both. But I begin to cry. Full on crying. At first, only quiet hot tears begin to slide down my cheeks – at least they were silent enough that he didn’t notice that I was crying. But then I hiccup back a sob and make a weird gasping noise and he jumps with a small start and looks at me.
And if I wasn’t so busy being devastated that I just possibly ate some furry alien accountant with a family, I would have totally laughed at the look of horror on his face. His big blue nostrils, flaring violently as he stared at me in confusion.
“What is this? Why is your face leaking? Cease with the leaking right now,” he orders, truly believing that the order would actually yield results. How cute.
But it just makes me sob more. Big tears start pouring down my face as I hiccup and cry over my food. Who am I kidding? I’m no better than these other aliens. I’m not some moral authority. Who am I to judge them for wanting to auction me off and eat me?
“I-I…” Hiccup. “I’m e-ea-ting s-someone’s...” Hiccup. Sob. “I’m eating someone’s f-f-father!” Sob. “Or m-m-mother!”
Realization registers on his face and he looks away in disbelief. I then hear a very distinct growl and he mutters something not translatable. So it must have been pretty bad.
“Dani.”
Sob. Hiccup.
“Dani…”
Violent hiccup.
“Dani!”
“What?!”
“It’s no one’s mother or father.”
“W-what? What do you mean? How do you know? Oh God, did you ask him?” I ask while continuing to cry.
“I...” He pauses, takes a breath and then continues, “I just said that to make a point. It’s not an advanced race. It’s a rodent that is probably lower on the food chain than the plants with the
‘glowing eyes’.”
My tears stop and once his words sink in, anger quickly replaces any and all sadness that I had left in me. With my nose still full of snot and my face puffy and gross, I grab the closest rock and hurl it at him. He dodges it easily enough, but he sees that I’m angry – which is the point.
“What the fuck!! You little bastard!!”
I continue to throw more rocks at him and he raises his arm, just barely shielding himself from my assault.
“I was right and you had to resort to dirty tactics to make me feel bad!” I say as I finally cease with my attack. He lowers his arm and while he isn’t smiling or laughing, he’s clearly amused. Which is profoundly annoying.
“I was only making a point. And now you will rethink your perspective.”
“Not really! I still think that when aliens want to eat me or any other advanced forms it’s a shitty thing to do. All you did was make me rethink what’s considered ‘advanced’.”
He shrugs. “Then I made my point.”
I’ll give him a point – the pointy end of a big rock. I shoot one final scathing look towards his direction before walking far away from him and plopping onto a rock. We then eat in silence for the rest of the meal and that suits me just fine.
Honestly, I’m way too annoyed with myself anyway. I always prefer to be rational and calm, even in the face of alien abduction, so the fact that I’m letting him get under my skin is a bit…frustrating.
After I finished my meal, I glance over at him and watch as he absently toys with his mini light saber while staring into the bright glowing light of our “fire”. My eyes fall on the long scar on his cheek. It’s funny how I barely notice the scar now. I don’t find it daunting or scary anymore, it’s just a part of him. Actually, it’s a damn good that he has that scar, otherwise he’d be way too pretty.
Clearly deep in thought, I see the muscles of his jaw and neck tighten. He must be thinking about something serious.
And for a brief second I allow myself to think about his current situation. He went from a regular ol’ “space smuggler” to public enemy number one in a matter of seconds – specifically the one second he decided to rescue me and attack a high political figure of the Empire. And now he’s on the run, without his ship, without anything to his name…and nothing to show for it. His life is pretty ruined as well I guess.
Don’t get me wrong. I don’t have any sympathy for the guy. It’s his damn fault for kidnapping me in the first place…but he did save me. That has to mean a little something, right? Not to mention the crazy hot sex that we had.
And my goodness, that was amazing sex. Feeling him in between my legs with his magical alien cock...it almost makes all this abduction crap worth it. Almost.
Oh God, is this Stockholm Syndrome? Do I have Stockholm Syndrome? I can’t have that. That would just be dumb. I’m better than that.
I glance over at him again, perhaps trying to test and see if I actually have it, and to my surprise I see him staring directly at me - with an intensity that I’ve never seen. His violet eyes are glowing with a strange yellowish hue, which is another thing that I’ve never seen before. My heart quickens in my chest as my eyes drop down and see him gripping onto his light saber dagger.
“W-what…?”
In the next second, I see him raise his dagger and then faster than I can blink - or scream - he hurls it at me. I close my eyes and wait for the pain.
So imagine my surprise when I feel none. I slowly squint my eyes open and look around hesitantly. He stands up and briskly walks past me as if he didn’t just try to kill me.
I shoot up from my rock and turn around to face him.
“What was that about!? Why are you trying to kill me now!?”
He walks over to the tree that I was leaning against and yanks out the light saber dagger that is now stuck in it.
“If I was trying to kill you, I would have,” he says matter of factly. He turns around and to my surprise I see his glowing dagger in one hand and a horrifying creature that looks like a giant space lobster in his other. He nods towards the space lobster. “But I can’t speak for this creature here.”
Startled, I jump back a few feet. “I thought you said we were safe from intruders while in the perimeter?”
“We are.” He throws the scary looking creature back into the forest. “It was probably already within the perimeter area when I put it up.”
And with that he walks back to his spot by the glow stick fire and sits down like he doesn’t have a care in the world, like an alien lobster didn’t just try to eat him. Which makes some sense since it was trying to eat me.
I shake my head in disbelief.
“Does nothing faze you?”
“Would it make a difference if it did?”
“Well, I suppose not.”
He only shrugs, as if that is answer enough.
Wiser and bit more freaked out, I walk back towards the safety of the light - and his handy dandy glowing dagger - and sit down. I look around casually as I try to stifle a yawn. I haven’t had a good night’s sleep since we were on Maxaya and I honestly have no idea when that was.
“So…uhm…where do we sleep?” I ask, looking around awkwardly.
The big alien stiffens slightly, as if he wasn’t expecting the topic of sleep to ever come up. He then quickly reaches for one of the reserve bags and hastily pulls something out and hands it to me.
I glance down at the black object that looks like a high tech beeper. “Uh…thanks.”
“When you want to rest, just lay on the ground, press on it and a thermal shield will engage and warm you.”
My eyebrows rise in surprise. “A thermal shield that will warm me? Is this like a blanket?”
He nods.
“Cool.” Impressed, I glance down at it. Okay, so some alien stuff is pretty cool. Granted, there’s nothing like burrowing into a warm blanket on a cold winter night, but this? I could get used to this.
I look up at him and begin to fidget with the high tech blanket awkwardly. I swallow and feel my cheeks burn a slight pink before I even say a word.
“So…do we…uhm…share this?”
He matches my gaze and his fierce violet eyes darken. If I were an animal I would say that his stare looks almost lethal or predatory. And it could still be predatory - I would just be a different type of meal for him. My heart quickens and my stomach tightens unexpectedly at the thought.
Oh God, please tell me you want to share this with me, I think silently.
I feel my cheeks burn hotter as I think about our naked bodies pressed against each other under the open alien night sky. Feeling his lips on my body, filling me…pushing into me until I cry out…
Without realizing it, my lips part slightly and my breath becomes heavy as the ache in my stomach travels to the area between my legs. I unconsciously squeeze my legs shut, causing the unexpected wetness in my sex to slip out. He remains completely silent though, as if silently waging his own internal battle.
Don’t fight it. Come to the dark side.
But I say nothing. We just continue to have the sexiest silent staring contest ever.
And then he breaks.
“No, I need very little warmth. I will be fine.”
Damn. This guy must have balls of steel. I let out a slow breath, trying to get control of my body and racing heart. I nod my head and force a nonchalant smile, trying my best to not look like a horny minx – which is difficult considering I was about two seconds from licking my palms like a cat in heat.
I clear my throat. “Yeah, cool! I imagine it would probably get a little snug sharing one of these things anyway.” Snug and hot and wet and…
He says nothing and just stares at me with his crazy purple eyes. Then the corner of his sexy mouth curves up ever so slightly as he cocks an eyebrow. So he’s trying to kill me. Great.
“Great! So I’m beat. I guess I’ll just get some rest now.”
I abruptly look away. There’s no way I’m going
to let him get the better of me. Just because he has insane bedroom eyes doesn’t mean I have to act like I have no self-control. I look around and quickly decide that it’s probably best that I lay in close proximity to the light.
I find what looks to be a relatively flat surface and lower myself down. He then hands me a reserve pack to use as a pillow and I accept it without looking him in the eye.
“How do we know that we haven’t trapped any other creepy crawlies in the perimeter?”
“We don’t know that.”
My heart sinks as I quickly realize that I’m probably not going to be getting any sleep tonight.
“But I’m going to do a quick life sign scan of the area and see what’s in here with us, so we will be fine. Sleep now. I’ll take care of it.”
“Mhmm…” I mumble, already half asleep before he finished his thought.
My heavy eyelids were already closed, so I didn’t see how he activated the thermal shield for me. Or how he watched over me while I slept for half the night before finally stepping away to do the life scan check.
***
Dani
Crap. I have to pee.
I open my eyes and I see nothing but darkness. Well, darkness and blurry bright light. After a few good groggy blinks, the blurry light quickly becomes the faint reassuring glow of our artificial “fire”.
I stretch, and aside from a few aches and the overwhelming need to pee, I’m immediately struck by how incredibly comfortable and warm I feel. I don’t even remember when I fell asleep. I must have been more tired than I realized.
Groggily, I sit up and feel a difference in temperature immediately; the cool night air hits my face while the lower half of my body still feels cocooned in warmth. That’s when I notice the thermal field gadget sitting next to me on the ground. I guess I activated it without even realizing it? I guess I’m getting the hang of this space technology stuff.
I look around and it doesn’t take long for me to find the big blue Terminator. At first I thought he was actually still awake and being creepy and staring at me, but I soon realize that he’s just sitting up and leaning against a rock with his arms crossed. He probably fell asleep without even planning to. Poor guy must be tired. And in pain.
