by A. G. Wilde
“Um, Sohut…”
“Yes, my flower…”
“Why do they look like they’re going to attack us?”
Sohut paused then looked down at her.
“Not you.” His gaze moved to Wawa. “Him.”
“Great, Raxu. It really is a slizz,” one of the aliens whispered.
“I can’t see well, my eyes are dark. Is it really?” another whispered.
“That’s what I just said Nupak. Are you deaf?”
“Of course, not! … but I am a little blind. That’s what I just said; I can’t see!”
“It really is a slizz, but it isn’t attacking us. The Merssi said it wouldn’t.” One more joined in.
“I don’t trust it.”
“You don’t trust anything, Krior. But you are right, I don’t trust it either.”
“I really can’t see. Is it moving?”
“Phekking Raxu. A guard that can’t see in the dark. It’s unbelievable we haven’t been attacked yet.”
Sohut chuckled slightly. “The slizz won’t harm you. It is…tame.”
There was silence before more whispering ensued, the spears moving as the aliens argued.
“Tame! A tame slizz? I’ll give all my arms if that was possible.”
“But it isn’t attacking, maybe it is true.”
Cleo looked up at Sohut, her anxiety slowly ebbing away. “Do they know we can hear them?”
Sohut shrugged and she could see his smile. “Welcome to the Torian camp.”
Half of his face was in shadow and for a moment it struck her just handsome he was.
There was a gasp from the aliens and then more whispering.
“What is that?”
“I don’t know. Looks like a Merssi female but no horns.”
“Not Merssi then. How many arms?”
“Two. Disgusting.”
“Hideous creature.”
“Very hideous.”
Cleo’s mouth fell open.
The bubble-head aliens were talking about her.
Sohut put his arm around her, pulling her into his side. “Don’t listen to them. They think anything without several limbs or arms is vile.”
One of the aliens took a step forward, four of his eyes darting from Sohut to Wawa.
“You’re sure it won’t attack us, Merssi? I can’t let you into the camp if it is even slightly aggressive.”
Sohut glanced at Wawa and Wawa blinked at him.
“He won’t be aggressive.”
Glancing back at his companions, the alien slowly lowered his spear and the others behind him followed suit.
Cocking his head to the side, the alien peered at her.
“And you are the female the Merssi is escorting,” he said.
Cleo glanced at Sohut, who nodded. Her hands flexed at her sides, still gripping her lucky piece of metal.
“I am,” she said, stepping forward.
The alien’s four eyes darted to Wawa and he visibly shivered.
“Welcome to our camp. You will be safe here. I am Senrit.” His eyes barely moved over her face before focusing on Wawa again. He was obviously perturbed by the animal. Wawa, on the other hand, was busy rubbing his head against her cheek and ignoring the alien in front of her.
“Come,” Senrit said, stepping away, and with a glance at Sohut, their little party entered the camp.
22
The camp was much larger than she’d initially thought and Cleo soon realized they were walking toward what appeared to be a circle of light made by the same type of lanterns that dotted the clearing.
There was music—music that sounded like Irish traditional music but played from wind instruments instead, like a set of flutes.
It was such a strike to her senses that she paused a bit.
She hadn’t heard music in so, so long.
There was chatter too, lots of it.
Realizing she’d stopped walking, Sohut glanced down at her.
“Is everything all right, Clee-yo?”
Cleo blinked. “I—yes. It’s just…” She exhaled. “There’s life out here.”
Sohut studied her face a little before he pulled her closer into his side and they continued walking again.
“Maybe too much life,” he said after a few moments and when she frowned up at him in question, he chuckled. “You’ll see what I mean.”
As they approached the circle of light, Cleo realized there were quite a few of the bubble-headed aliens there, more than she could count. Several of the aliens lifted their heads to look their way.
Most of them looked extremely sleepy, their four eyes heavy as she caught their gazes, and some had wisps of smoke drifting upward from their nostrils.
“We have visitors!” Senrit announced and that made the aliens who hadn’t noticed their arrival till then turn to take a look.
“One female, a Merssi, and a…a slizz,” one of the other guards said and the chatter around the circle of light suddenly hushed. Even the music stopped.
“A WHAT?!” someone in the circle exclaimed.
That exclamation was suddenly followed by a chorus of other exclamations and some of the aliens stood hurriedly, their four eyes darting to the huts at the sides as if they wanted to run to them.
“He won’t hurt you,” Sohut spoke up and several eyes focused on him. “The slizz is tame.”
“TAME! ABSURD!”
Senrit glanced at Wawa again. “To be honest, I’m beginning to wonder if it really is a slizz. It is…loving to the female.” The corners of Senrit’s mouth turned down and Cleo almost chuckled at the absolute disgust on his face.
Wawa continued to ignore them as he rubbed his head against her neck.
“I guess it would have attacked already if it was going to kill us…” said someone. “I’ve never heard of a slizz waiting that long to attack anything.”
There was a collective pause.
“You’re right as usual…but I might have urinated a little from just looking at it,” said another alien.
“Me too.”
“Me too.”
“Yep, me too.”
Another pause.
“So, it’s safe you think?” asked someone else.
“I mean…we’re alive.”
There was another pause and just like that, what looked like a collective shrug of the shoulders occurred before the aliens began chattering again.
“Music!” Senrit exclaimed and the music got louder. “Let us welcome our guests in true Torian fashion!”
Before she could protest, several arms circled her waist and arms and Cleo was pulled away from Sohut.
Her mouth fell open in alarm before she realized she was being carried by two of the bubble-headed aliens.
There was no malice on their faces, only stupid little smiles.
As the music flowed through the clearing, the two aliens holding her took each of her arms and began spinning her from left to right in rhythm with the music, doing the same with their own bodies.
“Dance!” someone exclaimed.
They were…dancing with her.
Horrified eyes found Sohut’s green ones and she found him tracking her movement around the circle.
He seemed amused. Even from the distance between them now, she could see his eyes twinkle. That was, before several arms grabbed him too and he was also forced to dance with the aliens as well.
The utter mortification on his face made a bubble of laughter rise within her and Cleo chuckled. Her laughter only seemed to spur the aliens on and before she knew it, they’d let her go and she was doing their dance on her own.
She would have stopped if the entire clearing wasn’t suddenly dancing too.
It felt…good.
Free.
Laughter filled her throat.
This was not what she had been expecting at all.
It was a funny sight—a crowd of green aliens dancing in the dim light, their bubble heads pulsing as they did, their eyes hooded with sleep.
&n
bsp; As she watched Sohut, who was now across from her as the circle of dancers moved, she smiled.
He was staring at her and the light, the ambiance, the music…it all made her feel young again.
She was exhausted from their trek through the jungle, but she didn’t want to take a seat on the raised surface within the circle, lest she offend her hosts.
So when the dancing finally died down and they began to sit, she was somewhat relieved.
Making her way back towards Sohut, she didn’t get far when she was pulled to sit between two of the aliens.
“You are missing limbs, but you dance well,” one of the aliens said and she realized it was one of the guards who’d met them by the jungle edge. “I am Krior.”
“Nice to meet you, Krior.” Cleo smiled.
“Don’t offend the female,” said the alien on her other side. His eyes darted to Wawa before he continued. “Some beings don’t like it when you mention their deformities.” His eyes lingered on her arms. “I’m Nupak,” he finally said.
Cleo opened her mouth to correct them on the fact that having four arms would be a deformity where she came from, but she didn’t bother.
That was a conversation that wouldn’t lead anywhere good.
“Nice to meet you, Nupak.”
“Here.” Krior pushed something toward her. It looked like a piece of sugarcane.
“It’s fermented rai,” said Nupak. “It’s delicious.”
She had no idea if it was poisonous or not.
Searching for Sohut, she found his green gaze on her, as if it never left. He nodded and she took a bite of the food, not expecting much.
As she chewed, Cleo paused. It tasted like a salt and vinegar rice cake.
“Thank you,” she mumbled as she took another bite and both aliens beside her smiled.
Around the circle, chatter ensued as if nothing had changed and it didn’t take Cleo long to relax.
Between the rice cakes she was fed and the water to wash it down, she filled her belly while she watched the aliens inhale a strange-looking smoke from glass vases.
“Woogli smoke,” Krior mentioned. “Do you wish to try it?”
As he asked this, she noticed Sohut was being offered some as well, which he promptly refused.
“I’m fine, thank you,” Cleo said.
That didn’t stop the two aliens from indulging themselves and soon the clearing was so thick with the smoke, she might as well have been smoking it herself.
For the next few hours, she watched the aliens smoke, drink, and tell stories and she found herself relaxing as she listened to them.
It felt strange being in society again, even if it was one as strange as this, and it made her wonder about life after they left the jungle.
Would it be like this?
She’d been on her own for so long… There were times she’d wished she had company, but she wasn’t even sure she’d be able to integrate into alien society.
Her eyes found Sohut through the din and he was still looking at her.
He had a life outside of this jungle.
For some reason, she’d forgotten that.
As the aliens continued to party around them, she realized Sohut’s gaze didn’t leave hers.
He was speaking to the aliens who spoke to him, but his eyes never moved.
His gaze was intense and it made her feel as if he was imagining just what they’d done in the trees when the nights came in.
That thought made her forget her ruminations.
“—with Clee-yo.” Her name made her blink several times. Sohut was saying something about her. “She’s had it hard the last few days, trekking through Koznia.”
One of the aliens, she assumed it was Senrit, stood on wobbly legs. Maybe he had sniffed too much of that smoke.
“I’ll take you to your quarters,” he said.
Following Sohut’s lead, she stood and met him at the edge of the circle before they both walked behind a staggering Senrit.
Before long, they stopped in front of one of the huts.
“This is yours for as long as you like,” Senrit said, his four eyes meeting hers. “We have no feminine products here, I’m afraid.”
“Oh,” Cleo smiled. “I’m—I’ll be okay.”
She’d lived in the jungle for a whole year. She doubted going a few more nights without shampoo was going to kill her.
As Sohut opened the door and led them in, Cleo’s eyes widened.
Inside the hut, there was a huge cushion on the floor and she assumed it was the bed. Off to the side, there was another room.
Sohut gazed down at her. “After you.”
Cleo stepped in and Wawa immediately hopped off her shoulder to settle in the middle of the bed.
“Hey!” Sohut frowned at him. “That’s for all of us.”
Wawa blinked at him before, surprisingly, he moved to settle on the side of the bed.
Cleo’s eyebrows shot up. “Well, that’s a first. He listened to you.”
Sohut smiled, a devilish glint in his eyes as pulled her into him.
“A wash before we sleep? I know you’re tired,” he said.
“A bath?” What she would do for one right at that moment.
Sohut nodded before taking her hand in his and leading her to the second room in the hut.
As soon as they stepped in, he pressed her into the wall, his body holding her hostage.
“Clee-yo,” he groaned, as he dipped his head to her neck. “I’ve missed you.”
A chuckle developed within her. “What? I’ve been with you this whole time.”
“Not close enough,” he breathed down her neck, sending a shiver down her spine.
Sohut took her skin between his teeth and flicked his tongue over it, causing her to inhale deeply.
One arm pressed against the wall beside her head while his other arm moved underneath her dress to caress her leg.
“I’d rip this off you if it didn’t mean you’d be walking naked…” he murmured, nibbling her skin as he did. “I don’t want those Torians looking at what’s mi—”
He stopped short and froze suddenly before he lifted his head to look her in the eyes.
There was shock in his as she studied him.
“What were you going to say?” Cleo wet her lips.
Sohut’s throat moved as he stared into her eyes, but he didn’t answer.
Instead, it was as if a switch flipped and he leaned from off the wall.
Cleo watched him move, a ball developing in her throat that prevented her from saying another word.
Because…she was pretty sure he was just about to say…that she was his.
23
“We should get you clean and comfortable. You deserve the rest.” Sohut stepped away from her and moved over to a circular indentation in the ground.
Confused, she watched him and for the first time, she noticed the room.
It was smaller than the room with the bed in it but large enough to hold both of them.
Off in the corner was one of those lanterns with what she was going to assume was alien fireflies. It lit the room in a warm glow.
Sohut crouched over the indentation in the ground and pulled out the stop from what looked like a wooden pipe. As soon as the stop was released, steamy water came pouring through.
“They have hot water here?!” Cleo moved forward, unable to believe what she was seeing.
She hadn’t taken a hot water bath in like…forever.
Sohut smiled as he moved to another side of the room and dug his hand into a bag that was placed there.
“They have more technology here than you would think. Torians can’t resist favors. If a Torian helps you, usually they ask for high-tech favors in return,” he said as he threw what looked like small pellets into the bath.
As the pellets hit the water, they fizzed and produced a sweet smell.
“All ready.” Sohut smiled again but the smile didn’t reach his eyes.
He looked guarded…scared
almost.
As he made to brush past her, she caught his shirt in her hand.
“Is everything all right?”
Sohut inhaled deeply and froze for a second. He wouldn’t face her.
“Sohut?” She didn’t know what to make of his sudden change in behavior. One moment he was saying he’d missed her and the next it was as if he couldn’t wait to escape her presence.
At the sound of his name, Sohut inhaled deeply before tilting his head to the ceiling and groaning.
His arms wrapped around her as he pulled her against him.
“Clee-yo,” he said, dipping his forehead to hers.
“Is something wrong? Are you okay?”
Sohut breathed hard before he answered. “Everything is okay.”
She tried to see his eyes to garner what he was thinking but he held her head steady between his hands so she couldn’t move it.
“I’m not joking when I said I missed you, Clee-yo,” he murmured. “I would take you right here, right now, if I didn’t know you were exhausted.”
Part of her wanted to argue with him about that but he was right, she was extremely tired.
“Then why are you leaving?” The whisper came from her lips before she could stop herself.
Sohut groaned and his hands slipped under her dress again. This time, he didn’t pull away.
Instead, he lifted the ragged hem of her clothing and brought the entire thing over her head.
The garment was deposited somewhere on the floor as he took her in.
Even in the warm, dim glow of the firefly-lantern, she could see the obsession in his eyes.
It melted something within her, made her a little anxious…but most of all, there was anticipation.
“You should—” his voice came out much deeper, hoarser than usual, and he cleared his throat “—you should go in the bath before the water gets cold.”
He was right.
Taking a step toward the bath, she asked, “Aren’t you going to join me?”
There was silence and when she glanced back at him, her breath caught in her throat.
His eyes had bled to black, his pupils completely dilated as he watched her.
Swallowing hard, she stepped into the bath as she watched him and he followed her every movement.
“So…are you?”