Arlen bowed to the tree-creature as they stopped in front of it and Jarl felt a pulse from the music in his mind indicating that he should do the same, so he obeyed and bowed. He felt another pulse asking his name.
“I’m Jahl,” he said cautiously, not sure who was asking or who he was supposed to be talking to. There was an immediate murmur from the creatures and the tree’s eyes widened. Was he not supposed to talk? He looked around and the other creatures were clearly surprised, but why? Was he not supposed to give his name?
He felt another pulse, asking if he understood, and he looked at Arlen.
“Am I supposed to be answering this?” he asked softly.
Arlen’s lips curled. “If you can understand what is being asked, you should speak. It is our planet speaking to you. We can all hear her. She’s testing if you can hear her.”
“Oh,” he said. “Yes, I understand.”
Another pulse, this one tinged with excitement, asking what happened. He looked Arlen again, because he didn’t know what to say.
“I don’t know what happened,” he said.
A pulse asking how he understood the voice right now and he shrugged.
“I hear music now,” he said. “I can hear you through the notes.”
The creatures murmured again and Arlen looked pleased. Clearly that was a good answer, though he wasn’t sure why.
“You hear our music, child?” a deep voice asked, and he realized the tree was talking.
“Yes,” he said cautiously.
“Have you ever heard it before?”
“When I dreamed under the moon, I heard it and I didn’t have nightmares,” he said. “And when I was driven to the woods, I heard it so loudly I couldn’t hear anything else.”
“He looked at the moon before he regained control,” Arlen said. “Maybe the moon is the key. Jarl, you had never looked at the moon before that night, had you?”
“Not really,” he said. “I’d seen it, of course, but never studied it.”
“Do other humans ever look at the moon? Really look at it?”
“I don’t know,” he said. “It’s only there at night and we hide during the night, but there are people who study it. I don’t know why anyone else would look at it.”
“You must return and teach the other humans to look at the moon,” the tree instructed, and Jarl flinched.
“They’ll kill me,” he said, and Arlen place an arm around his shoulders.
“He doesn’t think the other humans will accept him now,” he said. “Because he survived. He seems certain of it.”
“Won’t they want to know how you survived so they can also survive?” the tree asked, puzzled.
“Maybe, but what can I tell them? If I say I’ve been with creatures they’ll kill me. You’re enemies. You’re evil. You kill people. They’ll think I’m evil, too, and they’ll kill me.”
“Then say you were lured into the woods but you looked at the moon and its light protected you,” the tree suggested, and he considered. Would that work?
“I don’t want him in danger,” Arlen said, glancing at him. “Would you be in danger if you said that?”
“They might not believe me,” he said slowly. “But they would have to. They would want to test it, though, and I don’t know how they would. And what if it didn’t work? What if the moon doesn’t do anything? I’ll be trapped there.”
“You don’t want to be with other humans?” the tree asked, and he paused. Did he? He thought about his people and for some reason, felt distinctly uneasy about going back there. It wasn’t just that he would probably be killed. He might survive if he told them about the moon. But he would be surrounded. He wanted to be out at night now so he could look at the moon but that would make him a target. And he would never be able to leave again, so he would never see Arlen again. No, he didn’t want to go back.
Arlen shrugged. “We can’t stand being around groups of humans, either. Now that he hears our music, I’m sure they’re poison to him as well.”
“We still have to teach the other humans what to do,” the tree said. “He has to return.”
Jarl shivered. Would Arlen defend him and fight for him to stay? Arlen looked at him and he longed for him to stay on his side in this argument. He felt a pulse in his mind but it wasn’t from the planet. Arlen’s eyes widened, as did the tree’s. The other creatures murmured as well.
“You can control our song,” Arlen said in surprise. “You feel that strongly about going back?”
Jarl realized that the pulse must have been him communicating through the music. But was it enough? Would Arlen stay on his side? Arlen sighed.
“We can’t make him go back if he doesn’t want to,” he said to the tree. “Besides, he’s valuable. He’s the only human who’s ever adapted. We can’t throw his life away.”
“If he remains the only human who’s ever adapted, then he’s useless,” the tree said. “He must go back, no matter what he wants.”
The female creature who had approached him in the woods and then tried to lure him earlier in the night stepped forward and Jarl flinched, drawing closer to Arlen.
“We can compel him to go back,” she said. “If he hears us now, he has no choice. We can drive him back just as we drew him here.”
“No,” Arlen said, wrapping an arm around Jarl. “We’re not doing this against his will.”
The female bared her teeth, the fangs flashing in the moonlight.
“The elder is right,” she said. “He has to go back. If he doesn’t agree, I say we make him.”
Jarl shivered and looked at Arlen, who looked angry.
“It’s not your choice,” he said in a low voice. “He’s my intended. I decide what happens to him. If you had your way, he wouldn’t be here at all. You tried to take him from me.”
“He offered himself to me,” she said with a sniff. “Who was I to stop him?”
“They can’t control who they offer themselves to, you know that,” Arlen snapped. “You made sure he saw you first. If I hadn’t gotten his attention so quickly, he would be dead.”
Jarl shivered. Was that true? He had been so sure that he would be drawn straight to Arlen. Was it really true that he would have offered himself to any creature he saw? He had tried to offer himself to her, he considered. He had offered her his flesh. Would he have been eaten if she had her way? Had she wanted to eat him? Arlen put his hand on Jarl’s shoulder and met his eyes.
“But you do have to return, Jarl,” he said. “Please.”
Jarl was silent. Apparently they could compel him to return and while Arlen didn’t want to use that option, the others might do it without his permission. He was only one creature, after all, and they were all determined to drive him back to the humans. And Arlen wanted him to return, too, so maybe he would eventually side with the others. His heart clenched. He had given Arlen his heart and body and now Arlen didn’t want him?
“Let me talk to him in private,” Arlen said, looking at the others. “He’ll return, but I need to talk to him first.”
Arlen took his hand and led him to the edge of the clearing. The creatures parted for them and he shivered as he walked through them. They were terrifying. He didn’t want to go back to the colony but he also didn’t want to live here with them. He wanted to live with Arlen and Arlen only.
As soon as they were in private, Arlen sat down and pulled him to sit next to him.
“Do you still think they’ll kill you if you tell them about the moon, Jarl?” he asked quietly.
“That’s not why I don’t want to go back,” he said, unsure how to explain.
“Then why?”
Jarl shut his eyes, unsure what to say. How could Arlen not understand the reason? Had he been numb while feeding on him? Did he really have no idea what Jarl had offered him?
“I offered you my heart,” he said slowly, opening his eyes. “And now you’re refusing it.”
“You offered me your body, too, and taking that nearly killed you
,” Arlen pointed out. “Only the moon stopped you from giving yourself to me until you died.”
“That might be true,” he admitted, because it was almost certainly true. “But giving you my heart didn’t hurt at all, or drain me, and it wouldn’t have killed me.”
Arlen was silent, then reached out and place his hand on Jarl’s heart.
“I can still feel it,” he said. “You’re still offering yourself to me. But the music isn’t driving you anymore. Why are you still offering yourself?”
“Don’t you have love?” Jarl asked, exasperated that he still wasn’t understanding. “Don’t you know what it means to give someone your heart?”
“Love?” he repeated, caressing Jarl’s chest through the draping cloth. “Is that what that delicious feeling was? No, we don’t have it. What does it mean?”
“It… it means I love you,” Jarl said with a blush, not knowing how else to explain it and incredibly uncomfortable to say it. He hadn’t loved Arlen. He tolerated Arlen, maybe it had even moved to friendship, he could admit, but until the siren’s song blasted through all his inhibitions, he hadn’t realized it was love. The planet’s music had skipped through all of the preliminary emotions and jumped straight to the most extreme and that was what he had offered.
“It felt strange,” Arlen mused. “Like a connection between us, almost like the connection between me and this planet. Like we belonged together in some way, like you were trying to tie our minds together.”
“That’s love,” Jarl said. “When you want to be with someone, when you never want to leave them. When they make up your world. I don’t know why I feel that way about you but I do. I don’t want to leave you.”
“Then it’s not the humans you’re afraid of,” he said in surprise.
“It is,” Jarl said. “They won’t ever allow me out again. Even if I convince them about the moon, even if that works, they’ll never allow me to leave the colony. I’ll never see you again. Don’t you care about that? I thought you cared about me. I’m intended for you, after all.”
“I do feel very… possessive of you,” Arlen considered. “I don’t want anyone to part us. You amuse me. I enjoy talking to you. I would like to see you every day for the rest of our lives. Is that also love?”
“Yes,” Jarl said. “So please don’t make me go back.”
“Love is a complicated thing,” Arlen said, and Jarl couldn’t help but laugh.
“Humans have never understood it,” he said. “There’s almost no point trying. It just happens and you can’t fight it.”
“And you weren’t hurt when you offered me your love,” Arlen said thoughtfully. “Just when you offered me your body?”
“Yes,” he said. “For me, love means sharing bodies, too.”
“Is that true for everyone? Or can some people share love without bodies? Perhaps we can teach other humans to love us and we could feed safely,” he said, clearly deep in thought. “How did I make you love me?”
Jarl blushed. “I don’t know. As I said, it’s complicated.”
Arlen seemed to want a more complete answer and he sighed, trying to figure out why he had fallen for the creature.
“Well, you’re very beautiful,” he started, because that was the first thing that had drawn him. “Beauty is important, but everyone has their own standards of beauty. And you’re kind. You helped me. And I suppose you amuse me, too. I liked talking to you and getting to know you. I wasn’t in love with you, though. We were friends, I guess. But then that music filled me and I suddenly wanted you. I loved you. I don’t know how it happened so quickly.”
Arlen sighed. “We can try similar approaches with other humans, but we only have the chance for extended interactions once a year. In the meantime, you need to return. I don’t want you to return, but you need to.”
Jarl looked away and Arlen placed his hand on his heart again.
“I feel the way you do, Jarl,” he said in a soft voice. “I love you. I will see you again. I will not let the humans keep you from me, even if I have to sneak into your colony in the dead of night when they aren’t expecting it.”
Jarl started in surprise. “Can you do that?”
“If I wanted, yes,” he said, and Jarl licked his lips nervously. They had all assumed the colony was completely safe. It was why no one in the colony wore a mask, why they were able to sleep without fear for the most part. They had nightmares and some were drawn to the woods, but most slept soundly and he had never thought they were in danger of being overrun by the creatures. But if Arlen could get in, then perhaps he wouldn’t be as trapped as he feared. He shut his eyes.
“Fine,” he whispered. “If you want me to go, I will. I’ll tell them to study the moon, to really look at it. I’ll try to help the other humans become part of this world. But you can’t leave me there forever. You have to come back.”
Arlen leaned forward and kissed him sweetly, just their lips pressing against each other. Something fluttered in his belly and if his body weren’t so incredibly sore, he might have pushed for more. But just the thought of sex made his body clench in pain. It would be a long time before he recovered from that. He wondered if any doctors would try to examine him after he returned. If so, they would almost certainly see his injuries and be able to guess what had caused them. He would be accused of sleeping with a creature and he would almost certainly be killed. There was so much risk in this but he would do it, because Arlen was asking him. He could feel encouragement from the music in his mind and knew that the planet wanted it as well but all he cared about was Arlen. Nothing else mattered.
“Thank you, Jarl,” Arlen said, stroking his cheek as they broke apart. “Now you should rest. I’ll carry you back to the edge of the woods and when you wake up, you can return to the colony.”
“Will you be here when I wake up?”
“No,” he said sadly. “It’s too dangerous for us to be near here when the sun has risen, and you must wait until the sun is up to return.”
“Will you guard me while I sleep?”
The corners of Arlen’s lips curved. “Of course.”
They stood up and then Arlen scooped him up, his larger frame easily able to carry the smaller Jarl. Arlen bent and kissed his forehead, and Jarl let his eyes drift shut. He was barely aware of being carried, barely aware of being laid down somewhere. He felt safe and secure and for the first time, his dreams weren’t marred by any negative emotion. Even when he had dreamed under the moon and only remembered the melody, his dreams hadn’t been positive. This time, they were, and it was the strangest thing he had ever experienced to fall into a slumber where he actually felt good. When he woke, he was alone and naked once again.
Chapter 9
Something prodded him and Jarl opened his eyes, wondering why he was naked again and what was happening. Someone was looking at him and when he opened his eyes, the figure cried out in shock and fell backwards. It was a human from the colony. Jarl sat up and looked around. Other humans were coming at his cry and they were staring at Jarl in absolute astonishment.
“You’re alive,” one of them muttered, and he realized who they were.
When the sun was safely in the sky, a patrol was set out to collect the bodies of those who had been drawn to the woods. They usually had some idea which way the bodies went and it didn’t take long to collect them. Jarl had been on that patrol many times. It was one of the worst jobs and as such, everyone had to do it occasionally. The bodies were usually quite gruesome. Even the ones that looked untouched had that liquid coming from their ears that chilled him. If he had found one of those bodies alive, he would have been shocked as well.
The one who found him knelt beside him and stared into his eyes. “Are you okay? Do you know where you are?”
“I’m in the woods,” he said, a little shaky because the man was looking at him warily and without the warmth he had hoped for. “I survived,” he added, hoping that would help. “I was drawn here and then I-”
“Shush,�
�� the man said before he could tell him about the moon, and he obeyed. “Let’s get you back. Evan, give me your jacket or something. What do we have to cover him?”
Evan grumbled but took off his jacket and handed it to Jarl.
“He must have snuck out this morning,” he said skeptically. “He couldn’t have been out last night.”
“Why would anyone sneak out in the morning?” the first man asked in annoyance. Jarl didn’t know him, though he was familiar. Everyone in the colony was familiar to some degree since he passed them in the streets and worked beside a variety of people. He had probably worked with this man at some point, but hadn’t bothered to get to know him. Since their jobs rotated so frequently, he rarely got to know the people he worked with. Only the other harvesters were exceptions, because their jobs were permanent.
He helped Jarl stand up and he winced. His whole body ached but he couldn’t show it. Why had Arlen stripped him? Now his injuries were obvious to anyone looking. Luckily, no one was looking and one of the woman approached with a blanket for him to wrap around himself. The man kicked the ground nearby and he saw the torn remnants of his pajamas. Arlen must have retrieved them, but there were in no shape to wear.
“A creature must have attacked you,” he said slowly. “Why didn’t it kill you?”
“I looked at the moon, and it felt like the moonlight protected me,” he said. “The creature left.”
“The moon?” the man repeated in a disbelieving voice, but the woman looked impressed.
“The moon is what keeps them back during the peace,” she said. “You just looked at the moon and you were safe?”
“I really looked at it,” he said, unsure how to explain what had happened. “It was like I felt the moon in my soul.”
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