by Maia Starr
I walked onto the porch. It was a very large porch with rocking chairs. It was still very beautiful but needed to be cleaned and dusted. There was a lockbox on the door. I pulled out my piece of paper and put in the combination. It took a couple of tries, and I really had to yank it open because it was sort of frozen, but it finally opened. There was a key inside.
I unlocked the door and went inside. The smell of the cabin hit me. It brought back feelings of my childhood. I went to the windows and opened all the curtains, letting the natural light in. I flipped on the light switch. The lights came on. Good. That meant I did not have to go turn on a breaker. I was pleasantly pleased with the clean surroundings. Everything was immaculate, only with a slight layer of dust on it, as was to be expected.
“Gavonn?” I said hoping that maybe he had to let himself in. I moved into the bedroom. He was not in there. It was a small cabin with only one bedroom, one bathroom, a large living room, and open plan kitchen, so there was no other place for him to hide. He definitely was not in the cabin.
I went to the fireplace and threw a couple of logs in. I lit a match and in moments had a good fire going.
I went back outside and began to unload the supplies and my clothes into the cabin. This was good. I liked having the work to do. It would keep me busy and distracted so that I did not think the worst of what could've happened to Gavonn.
I went through the cabin running the water in order to warm up the pipes. I didn't want to have one of them burst on me. It was just the process of waking up the house that had been asleep for more than a year. Once I did that, I began to clean the dust off of the furniture and floors. I spent a good part of the afternoon cleaning the inside of the cabin. When I was done, I moved to the porch and pushed the snow off of the wooden floorboards, the chairs, and the table.
Then I finally decided to take a break. I went inside and made a hot cup of tea. I took the cup out onto the porch and sat in the rocking chair looking out over the beautiful snow-covered forest. My eyes immediately went to the blue sky. I was waiting to see a weredragon fly out of the trees at any moment.
“Come on, Gavonn. Don't leave me here alone. Don't leave me at all,” I said to myself.
A few minutes later, I was done with my tea. It was getting darker. The sun was starting to head toward the horizon. It would be setting within the hour.
My stomach made a noise. I realize that I had not ate anything since the cinnamon rolls on the ferry boat. I figured I might as well make something to eat. I moved inside the cabin and locked the door, waiting for nightfall.
I unloaded the kitchen supplies. As soon as I began to touch them, I remembered Gavonn loading them into the bags in my kitchen. What I would give in order to see that again in real life right now, I thought to myself. I put away the canned goods and boxed goods and picked out something to make.
“Pasta, that will be easy enough,” I said as I grabbed a bag of bowtie pasta and a jar of tomato sauce. I put a pot of water to boil and added the pasta. A few minutes later, I had dinner made. I looked at the table. It made me sad to make dinner for one. I loaded my plate and sat down and ate while staring at the fire.
“It is just too quiet in here,” I said to myself. I got up and walked to the corner and found an old radio. I turned it on. It was set on a station that played old music that my grandparents listened to. I smiled. This would do nicely because it was playing Christmas carols. It was perfect.
“He is going to show up, Noelle. Don't panic,” I said as I walked away from the radio because it made me feel sad that I was listening to Christmas carols alone when I have come so close to being with the one that I loved for the Christmas holiday.
I sat down and finished my meal. I started to carry the plate to the sink when I thought I heard a loud thud outside.
I froze. If it wasn't Gavonn, then what was it? I started to go through my mind of what it could be. It could be a large bear. It could be warriors that had found me. Crap, why didn't I hide my car better, I thought to myself.
Then there was a knock at the door. “Noelle?”
I knew the voice. I dropped the plate and ran to the door. I couldn't unlock it fast enough. Gavonn stood on the other side. I jumped into his arms, wrapping my legs around his waist. Tears fell down my cheeks. I was trembling with happiness and relief.
“Gavonn, I was so worried that I wasn't going to see you again,” I said crying.
“Noelle, I am so glad that you were here. I was worried that you would not come here,” he said rubbing his large hands up and down my body.
“No, I knew. I heard you in my apartment when the warriors were taking you. I could sense that you wanted me to come here,” I said. “Come inside.”
I called him inside and closed the door. He looked at me with a big smile on his face. All I could do was smile back until I was laughing.
“Gavonn, this is insane.” I hugged him again. He pressed my body against his and breathed in deeply.
“Yes, it is. It feels so good to have you in my arms. I thought that maybe I would never touch you again. Noelle, I will never be separated from you again,” he said.
“I am going to hold you to that promise,” I said.
“That is a promise I will never break,” he said.
“How did you get here? Are you when your ship?” I asked.
“No, I walked part of the way and flew the rest,” he said.
My eyes grew wide. “That is such a long way, Gavonn. You must be so tired. Sit by the fire. I am going to get you some food and water. Then we can talk about everything,” I said as I grabbed his hand and pulled him toward the fire. I pushed him into the large plush armchair that was right in front of the burning wood.
“Good fire,” he said as he began to take off his boots.
“Thank you,” I said as I quickly moved to the kitchen and poured water into a giant pitcher. I took it to him. “This is the biggest drinking vessel that I have. If I handed you a regular glass, you would drink it all in one sip,” I smiled.
"Good thinking,” he said as he winked at me. His beautiful light brown eyes seemed to be on fire as he looked at me. I wanted to straddle him right then and there. But I needed to take care of him first.
I moved to the stove in the kitchen and heated up the pasta that I had made. I looked through the canned goods and found a can of green beans and heated them up in a large pan. He needed more than just pasta and tomato sauce that hardly had any nutritious value at all. I put the food on the kitchen table.
“I'm sorry it's not the most nutritious and fresh food; it is just from the supplies we gathered from my apartment kitchen. Tomorrow I can go to the market and get fresh fruit and fresh vegetables. It will make both of us feel better,” I said.
“It smells delicious. Whatever you make is good for me, I just need to settle my stomach. Tomorrow I can go hunting for wild game as well,” he said as he stood up and walked to the table and sat down. I sat down beside him.
“I can't tell you just how happy I am that you are here. I was so worried that I had lost you again, Gavonn. I was worried that I was going to be stranded up here all alone not knowing what to do. I can't believe those Earth warriors came for us. This does not make sense to me,” I said drinking a hot cup of tea.
“It makes sense to me. The warriors told me,” he said between bites of food.
“What? What do you mean?” I asked.
“It seems that Samara filed a report against me. She said that I had abducted the human female that she was working with on a project. Meaning you of course,” he said.
“That is unbelievable. Why would she do that? Doesn't she know our history? It won't make sense to those that know,” I said.
He stopped eating and looked at me.
“No, she does not. I never told her. She does not know that I was registered and that you were my match,” he said.
My eyes grew wide in shock. I couldn't believe it. Why would he keep such a thing from her?
“Se
riously? You kept that from your wife? I don't understand. How could you? How could she not find out?” I asked.
“It is not because I was trying to deceive her, Noelle. It was because I could not talk about you without feeling great pain and sorrow. When the marriage to Samara was arranged by my father, I took it only as that: an arrangement. The Drackon require marriage and mating. I did not think it was necessary to tell her the pain and horror I had went through by losing the love of my life a year before. She wouldn't care, and she would not want to hear it anyway. So I never spoke of it. So no, she does not know that when the Earth warriors and the Drackon officials do some digging that they will find out that you and I were previously arranged to be married. They know your identity, don't they? When you logged in for this trip to Sala for your business, you used your real information, did you not?” he asked.
“Yes, I did. Of course I did; it was through work.” I said.
“Then there you go. They will figure it out soon enough and they will know that I did not take you against your will. But that does not mean that what we did does not make us outlaws; it does. I cannot go back to my home planet,” he said.
“I understand. Then we shall stay here for as long as we can and figure something out,” I said.
“I like the sound of that,” he said as he put his hand on my thigh gently. I put my hand on top of his and gave him a look filled with love and longing. Then he continued eating the food I prepared before it got cold.
Chapter 16
Captain Gavonn Viox
We made love all night in front of the roaring fire. It felt good to be in a safe space for now. This would give us time to figure out what to do next. But I was in no hurry to move Noelle. I did not want all of this taking a toll on her health. I was used to battle and moving around at a second’s notice from one planet to another, but she was not. Humans were fragile, and I had to make sure I paid attention to that. This would give us good time to rest and to just to be together. It was what I had wanted for so long: just to be with her at my side.
The next morning it was a bright new day.
“Tell me more about this Christmas again,” I said as we ate a modest breakfast of hot oatmeal and hot tea.
Her face lit up when I asked her the question.
“It is my favorite holiday of all the holidays. You saw the decorations in the city. You saw the Christmas tree that I had inside my apartment, though I had not got around to decorating it just yet and it was made of plastic,” she said.
“Like the Rockefeller tree?” I asked.
“Yes, exactly like that only much smaller so that it fits inside your home and then you decorate it with lights and ribbons and ornaments or whatever. Then you put presents that are wrapped under the tree. On Christmas Eve, you have a nice roast dinner, a feast. Then on Christmas morning, you open the presents under the tree, the very first thing you do. You don't eat breakfast you don't do anything other than go straight to the presents. It is a Christmas tradition,” she said. Then her smile faded. “It was the one that I was hoping to celebrate with you at some point.”
“And when is this Christmas?” I asked.
“It is less than a week away,” she said.
“Well then. There is time. There are plenty of trees outside that look exactly like the one in your apartment. I can cut one down for us. I will bring it in here and together we can put the stuff on it,” I said proudly.
Her face lit up. “Yes. I guess we can do that. I forget that we are in the middle of a pine forest. That is exactly what a real Christmas tree is,” she said.
“That does it. Get dressed. We are going for a walk, and we are going to find a tree of your liking,” I said.
“Really?” she squealed.
“Absolutely. I'm going to put my boots on now,” I said delighted that there was a big smile on her face and that I was the one that was able to put it there. It was astonishing that something as simple as a tree with making her heart warm. I'd take it.
“I will get ready!” she said, and she ran to the bedroom. I could hear her from going through her bag, and she put on layers of clothes. Minutes later, she reappeared in boots, and a scarf and hat to complete her outfit. She grabbed her coat and threw it on.
“You look warm,” I said.
She looked at me and frowned.
“You do not have a coat or hat. You only have your synthetic material suit,” she said.
“You forget, my lovely Noelle. I am a dragon. I breathe fire. I am always warm and heated on the inside. I can never get too cold. All I have to do is call forth the fire in my belly,” I said.
“Yes, that is true. In that case, let's go!” she said as she skipped to the door and went outside on the porch. I followed, laughing at her enthusiasm.
Minutes later we were crunching through the snow toward the tree line of the thick forest. She was enthusiastically holding onto my arm, and I loved having her so close to my body. She made me hot immediately. We entered the forest and searched around for a tree. I pointed one out.
“Noelle what about this one?” I asked.
“No, it does not have enough branches. What will we put the decorations on?” she said.
“I am new to this. You will have to teach me how to pick out the perfect Christmas tree,” I laughed.
“Come, look at this one. It is perfect, but it is too tall. It will not fit in the cabin. If we find one that looks like this but smaller…” she said, looking at the tree she considered ideal.
“I understand. Let us go this way. There is sunlight breaking through the forest here, and there will be new growth trees for I think that is what you were looking for,” I said grabbing her hand. She bounced at my side excitedly. I wanted to take her right then and there in the snow. Perhaps later.
“There! That's it!” she shouted as she let go of my hand and ran into the sunny clearing. There was a tree about two feet taller than I was, with many branches and many green pine needles. She danced around it.
“Are you sure that's the one?” I asked.
“Yes, absolutely!”
“All right. Stand back so I can wield this ax,” I said. She cleared the area moving far away from me. Then I took the ax and began to chop down at the base of the tree. It only took me three swings to cut it down. The tree fell over onto its side. I looked at Noelle, and she jumped up and down, clapping her gloved hands.
“There, we have done it. We cut down our own Christmas tree.” I picked it up. It was very light. I shook the snow off of it and threw it over my shoulder. She looked at me with awe.
“I cannot believe you can lift such a heavy thing so easily,” she said.
“Can you not? You have seen how strong I am. This tree is nothing. Now come, let us get it inside the cabin,” I said as I put the ax over my other shoulder and began to walk back to the cabin. She walked at my side excitedly telling me everything about Christmas. I could listen to her all day.
As we walked back, I noticed that she was gathering things from the forest. A long vine of red berries. Mistletoe hanging from a branch easily snapped off into her hands. She gathered long vines hanging them over her arm. She looked at me and smiled. I didn't question her. I know she knew what she was doing.
We returned to the cabin, and she laid her goods on the table.
“Where should I put this masterpiece?” I asked.
“Over here in the window. You always put your tree in the window,” she said. “Let me grab a bucket with water. We will need to set it up in there somehow,” she said.
“I am sure I can figure something out,” I said as I leaned the tree against the wall and followed her to the kitchen. Together we set up the tree and secured it in the water bucket.
“I think that I need to go to the market while it is still light. I passed a very small one on the way here, a country store. They should have fresh fruit and food,” she said.
“That is a good idea. While you are gone, I am going to hunt. I'm sure I can rustle up a
few game hens for us,” I said.
“I am sure you can, dragon,” she said.
A few minutes later, we each went about our own responsibilities. She went into the small village to the market, and I made my way out into the snow.
“One hour,” I said to her, kissing her as we stood on the porch.
“One hour?” she asked.
“That is the amount of time you have before I start to get nervous and I am forced to go look for you. I never want to lose you again, Noelle, and can only be away from you for an hour,” I said.
She smiled at me. “I feel the same way. When I return, I hope that you will be back from your forest plundering. I don't want to have to worry that you have been impaled by a deer or a wild boar,” she said.