by Mara Frost
Hrmm…does that mean that there really is a Big Foot too?
My thoughts start to wander to weird places that involve the Bat Boy and the Loch Ness Monster before the old Chieftain’s words suddenly barge into my mind. And her words shake me to my bones as they just play on repeat…
“He’s not your mate but he will be…”
“Hey.”
I blink and then glance up at the towering alien.
“What’s wrong? You have a very uncomfortable and odd look on your face, like you just ate from the wrong end of a Tsuk Tsuk.”
He straightens up and I look at his painfully muscular albeit mildly scarred body and his chiseled stone-like blue face, a stone-like face that morphs into something that melts my insides whenever he smiles.
Nope. The old lady is definitely batshit crazy. I see no mate here. Nope.
Chapter 4
Dakhar
Well, that was unexpected.
I wasn’t expecting to get out of fighting those 20 wooly xer’taks and I most certainly didn’t expect the little human to be the one to get me out of it. Granted, her tactics were questionable and I think I was about to have…I think she called it an “anxiety attack”…after hearing her say that she was with child. And it might have taken me longer than it should have to realize it was only a ploy to get me out of fighting, but her strategy was…unsettling.
But she definitely acted fast and was quick to take the opportunity. Humans are smart and they act fast. I imagine they would be worthy warriors.
“Dum-dum.”
I glance down and see the little war leader who tried to sentence me to death for his own personal entertainment. I could easily twist his little head until it’s facing the wrong direction right now, and no one would even notice, but I hold back. Dani would likely be unpleasant to be around if I ended up having to fight the 20 xer’taks.
I growl. That’s the only acknowledgement that the little man is going to get out of me without me throwing him across the forest.
“You are good fighter. Your entertainment was good.”
His words are unexpected, but I nod once at the war leader.
“But fighting 20 wooly xer’taks better. You lucky, blue dum-dum,” the war leader replies matter of factly as he pats my arm and then walks away. I clench my fist until it feels like my fingers are going to break through my palm.
Run, little man, run. If I ever see you again, I can’t promise that your face won’t become intimately close to your ass, I think silently.
“What was that about? Was he saying bye”?”
“Something like that,” I reply lowly.
“Aww, look at that! See, he’s not such a bad guy after all, huh? I told you,” she replies with a big smile across her face as she slaps my shoulder, much like the little annoying war leader just did.
An “Mhmm” is all that I reply back.
Her smile slowly disappears as she looks around the forest. We were escorted to their city limit and now we’re standing at the forest edge and it’s clear that she is nervous about leaving “civilization”. Although, I use this term very loosely.
“So what now?”
I glance down at her and see her staring into the forest, as if she’s looking for something. She looks so deep in thought. It’s the first time I’ve seen her look…lost. Angry? Yes. Determined? Always. Erotically crazed? Perhaps not enough – and my cock hardens almost immediately at the thought. I shift slightly to rearrange the discomfort.
But lost? This is the first time. I’m not sure if I like it.
“Now we walk. We continue to walk to a clearing. I’ve been told there’s one less than half a day’s walk from here. Once we’re there, it should be easier for one of Maxaya’s shuttles to come pick us up.”
As if being snapped out of a dream, she nods her head and gazes up at me, showing signs of the stubborn human that I’ve been dealing with all this time. It’s oddly reassuring to see.
“And how exactly do we know if Maxaya is coming for us? I mean, are we just going to walk to this clearing and just sit around and hope that she sees us? Hey! Wait!”
I begin to walk into the forest. There’s no point in wasting time talking about what we need to do when we should just be doing it. Once she catches up to me, and without glancing down at her, I reply, “Maxaya will come.”
She snorts. “How do you know?”
“She will come.”
Half skipping half running to keep up with my focused pace, she continues, “Yes, but how-“
She trips. I pause for a second to make sure she’s okay, but she continues on with her questions and doesn’t miss a beat. Her determination never ceases to surprise me.
“But how do you know she’s going to come?”
“Our bond.”
“Oh yeah! Your bond! Is she going to zap us onto the ship or something?” she asks excitedly.
I arch an eyebrow at her. Zap us onto the ship? Where does she come up with such nonsense? Perhaps I should just watch one of her “movies” and see what other ridiculous things humans have come up with.
“No. She is not going to ‘zap’ us onto the ship.”
“Oh.” She pauses for a moment – for a very nice quiet, but all too short moment - and then adds, “Well, then how in the Hell is your bond going to help us?”
“When she is close enough, depending on the strength of our connection, we’ll be able to sense each other and communicate. She will find us.”
“Do you feel her at all?” she asks, with the sound of reserved hope in her voice. I look down at her and see uncertainty and fear flash across her face. An overwhelming need to protect her sweeps through me. Sometimes I forget how terrified she must be. The little human always appears so strong and...such a pain in the ass…that I forget the very obvious fact that she’s lost in the universe. A universe that quickly became much bigger for her only a short time ago.
She is strong, but she is not invincible.
“I’ve been getting flashes of her since last night. Nothing strong and I can’t judge how far she is, but I’ve felt traces of our connection.”
This news perks her up almost immediately as her eyes burst with excitement and hope.
“What! Really? You feel her in your bond thingy? Why didn’t you say anything?! That’s great!”
I just shrug in response. And surprisingly, that seems to satisfy her. She quickly follows in step and we begin to trek through the forest.
We walk for almost half a day before we reach the clearing – just as the strange little tree people had said. And based on the alien sun, which is still high in the sky, it’s only midday. I glance down at Dani and see her hair matted down on her forehead while her cheeks are flushed red from the hike. It suits her. She looks good.
In between panted breaths, she says, “We’re here?”
I nod. “We’re here.”
She takes two steps and then sits down.
“Good. Let’s eat, I’m hungry,” she announces grandly.
I unpack our gear and then watch in mild amazement as she rips into the food. Our former hosts gave us some food as fresh provisions and Dani is consuming it with the ferocity of a wild kipp-orh. I watch silently while she eats over half of the fresh food.
I’m impressed. How can such a small being put so much food in their body? And then I start watching her lips and tongue move over the food and my thoughts start drift to the night before. I have to fight with my traitorous brain to bring me back and stay away from thoughts of her naked body beneath mine.
Stupid brain. As usual the need to punch something surfaces.
Apparently noticing my slightly bewildered gaze, she asks with a mouthful of food, “Wha’h?”
I fight the urge to smile at the defensive look on her face coupled with the food hanging out of her mouth. I shake my head casually.
“Nothing. I am just impressed by your appetite.”
“Oh. Yeah, I’m a little hungry. I haven’t exactly eaten my da
ily intake of calories since being kidnapped and all,” she replies while roughly ripping into some sort of cooked vegetable. “Not that I didn’t appreciate that green sandwich you gave me that first night,” she adds with a smile.
The corner of my lip lifts slightly, remembering the odd-looking food that I gave her, showing a hint of a smile, but I say nothing.
“Honestly, how did you even get it that color –“
Her words are cut off as soon as I stand up abruptly. I stare into the distant sky.
“What? What is it?” she asks, looking at the sky. But it doesn’t take long for her to see what I’m looking at. The tiny specks in the sky quickly become two ships that are approaching us at high speeds.
“Is…is that Maxaya…?” she asks nervously, while frozen in place. Although, the tremble in her voice would suggest that she already knows the answer to her question.
“No.”
“Sh-shouldn’t we…run or something?” she whispers while staring at the approaching ships.
Without taking my eyes off the two ships, one an Imperial shuttle and the other a free shuttle, which more than likely belongs to a merc or a smuggler, I reply lowly, “No. There’s no point. We can’t outrun an Imperial speeder. And if we run into the forest, they’ll likely blast the trees and us with them.”
Realizing the truth in my words, she slowly stands up and stands next to me and doesn’t say anything. Neither of us says anything while we wait for the two ships to land. I clench my jaw as I slowly reach for my weapon. I have an idea of how this is going to go down, but if I can land just one shot, I would be satisfied.
One shot for a traitorous, dishonorable piece of Tryxack shit.
“Dakhar! It’s good to see you!”
Vorak.
As the laughing smuggler steps off his shuttle and prances over towards us, I fight the urge to raise my gun and vaporize him where he stands. He eyes the weapon in my hand and winks.
Fuck I’m going to kill him. I’m going to rip his smiling lips off and shove them up his grey ass.
“Ah, Dakhar, hello!”
So focused on dismembering Vorak, I didn’t notice the contingent of Imperial soldiers that walked off with the Imperial ship or the fat man that they were protecting. Without taking my eyes off the grey cretin that I plan on killing, I reply evenly, “General, as always it’s a pleasure.”
This makes the fat High Lord laugh.
“Oh Dakhar, I’m not so sure if you’re being honest with me right now. A pleasure? A pleasure was paying for my winnings at the auction. A pleasure would have been able to play with my winnings,” The General’s beady eyes dart over to Dani and they light up with excitement and fire. I have the battle of my life inside as I fight the impulse to shoot him where he stands.
“Dakhar…” Dani’s voice trails as she reaches for my arm. “What are we going to do?”
I don’t say anything. I just silently eye Vorak and Xuraan, trying to decide who I’m going to shoot right before I’m shot down dead.
“I knew I couldn’t trust you, you spineless asshole.”
Vorak shrugs and smiles.
“You put me in an interesting position. I found myself in the position of making some money and what kind of business man would I be if I didn’t take the opportunity?”
“You honorless -“
And then an angry feminine voice interrupts me.
“Motherfucking piece of shit dickhole donkeybitch!”
At this we all stop and look at the little human. She looks back angrily at everyone.
“What?! I call ‘em like I see em’!” she barks back.
Vorak’s eyes widen as he bursts out in laughter.
“Oh Dakhar, what a colorful vocabulary your human has! I must admit, I have no idea what this ‘donkeybitch’ is, but I like the way it sounds! I enjoy her. It’s too bad I can’t keep her for myself.”
My grip on my gun tightens as my finger twitches. The timing has to be perfect.
“I should have killed you when I had the chance,” I growl lowly.
Vorak smiles, his eyes laughing. “Dakhar, you have to understand that this isn’t personal. Besides, we’re even now. Don’t forget how I saved you in that one battle in the Antrean quadrant. It’s just business. Besides, as I’ve always told you, you never get attached to the merchandise.”
“This bores me,” the Imperial High Lord says as he nods towards his guards, silently commanding them to get us.
“Yeah, you’re right,” Vorak says matter of factly with a smile.
And then without saying another word, before I have a chance to respond, I see Vorak lift his gun towards me.
And then there’s only darkness.
Although, before the cold darkness completely took me, I could hear the sound of Dani’s screams in the far distance…
Chapter 5
Dani
“You bastards! You dirty bastards!!”
I continue to yell obscenities for a good 10 minutes. And everyone continues to ignore me. I go at it for another five minutes before I start to tire even myself. I look around my cell and sigh as I lower myself to the ground in frustration.
“Screw you guys!” I yell out to no one at all before deciding to give my voice a break. I cross my arms and curl my legs up to my chest, trying to make myself disappear into the corner as much as possible.
And then it hits me. The sudden quietness forces what I’ve been trying to swallow down to surface.
They killed him. He’s dead.
I gasp for breath.
My lip quivers uncontrollably as I think about his lifeless body on the ground. After the vile asshole Vorak shot him, I ran to Dakhar, but it was too late. I barely had a chance to hold him before the General’s men grabbed me and took me onto the shuttle. But I saw enough. There was nothing there. He was gone…
They just left him there on the planet. Like an animal. My stomach tightens and a painful knot forms in my throat as I think of what the animals will do to him once night falls. They couldn’t even bury him properly? He deserved more.
“He deserved more…” I whisper, repeating the painful thought out loud.
Oh God, my chest hurts. I can’t breathe. I feel so lost. I look around frantically, trying to find something…ANYTHING…that will make me wake up from this.
“I could handle being kidnapped. I could handle being sold. I could even handle being lost on a planet…but w-why does this hurt so much?” I say out loud, rocking back and forth.
The second I saw his body hit the ground it felt like I was shot too. After I screamed and fell to the ground, I didn’t even put up a fight when they grabbed me. I just kept my eyes on his lifeless body until they carried me onto the ship and the shuttle bay doors closed. And that was it.
My vision begins to blur as burning tears begin to freely fall down my cheeks. I bat at them angrily. How could he die? He isn’t supposed to die. He was supposed to stay alive. He was supposed to help me. He was supposed to…not die.
Visions of his face flash in my mind – his determined, hard face…a face that showed more emotion than he realized. At least to me. I chuckle/sob thinking about the times that I completely bewildered him or drove him crazy…his face would always change to a pretty shade of purple…but then something odd would immediately happen. His face would sort of soften and his gaze would become warm for a split second.
And then it would quickly turn back to blue stone again, but it was something that I noticed. And I didn’t even realize how much I loved it until now…
I let out a slow breath, trying to control my sobs.
“Get control of yourself, Dani!” I say to myself, apparently trying to pep myself up over the fact that a maniacal evil general has put me in a cage. “After all you’ve been through, it’s going to be the death of a big blue…dum dum…that’s going to bring you down?”
I say the last few words in between sobs, but I still say it.
“My, my, is it very normal for humans to tal
k to themselves? Such a disturbing thing to watch, you know.”
The unexpected sound of the General’s voice makes me want to jump out of my own skin. I jump onto my feet and stare him down, my eyes full of disgust and hate. With a wide satisfied grin on his face, he stands at the center of the room armed with two guards on each side of him.
“Would it matter? Would it make you lose your interest in me if we did?” I spit out, pushing my back against the farthest wall.
The fat little man throws his head back in faux laughter, but no sound comes out with the exception of a weird huffing noise.
“No. Although, if you did it too often I think I would probably have to gag you.”
Visions of being gagged and God knows what else rush forward. I clench my fists in both anger and fear.
“You have no right to do this, you know. You killed Dakhar, you little fuck! And you aren’t supposed to trade humans or go to the uncharted territories! I know my rights,” I say evenly, wiping the snot that’s dripping from my nose.
Hah! I bet I look like a scary mess. I know for a fact that I’m an ugly crier. I’m nothing like those cute little pretty criers. I can always count on my face swelling up, turning bright red like an apple and dripping gross gelatinous fluid from every orifice. Maybe that’ll be a turn off for the little creeper.
The fat High Lord eyes the snot that I just wiped from my face and squints in mild disgust. Score?
“Very good, little human. You know a little bit about our trans-galactic trade agreements. That will do you little good here though. You see, first of all, I did not procure you from the uncharted territories – our dead blue friend did. And no one is going to know that I commissioned him to sell you to the auction. Secondly, I don’t care. It matters very little to me. I’m a High Lord of the Empire and certain rules really don’t apply.” He wobbles forward until he’s only a few feet away from my cage and then looks at me hungrily with his beady eyes. “The laws are merely suggestions to us.”
