by C. Y. Croc
A hand slams down on the table, this time it’s Saaxx’s voice that is angry. “What! I swear if anything happens to the Human or my beloved Bupple I’ll make it so that they will never have the need to sniff around females again. I’ll cut their fucking tajas off!”
The male calms his voice. “I don’t blame you for being angry Saaxxatee, but that kind of revenge will only bring more trouble to your dwelling.”
The older woman’s voice is now edged with concern. “Tell me Kerty, what happened to the male there from the other clan who was negotiating a truce?”
“I don’t know. By the time I left, he’d already gone.”
She tries to iron out the concern in her voice and changes the subject. “It’s getting late. Let’s check on Tex and Bupple and eat our evening meal. Then after that, I’ll tell you about the promise Saaxxatee.”
I turn around and hightail it back into the room I’d come out of. Diving into the bed I’m astonished that the pain is almost completely gone from my side.
I don’t feign sleep this time, I keep my eyes open. I want to talk to Saxxatee. I want to make sure she and Bupple are okay.
A few minutes later Saaxx walks into the room alone. Her eyes widen when she sees me awake, but I can see she is hesitant to approach me.
“Tex it’s Saaxx. Do you remember me?”
A huge smile breaks out on my face. “My saviour, of course I remember you.” Her shoulders drop three inches and she lets out a sigh as she walks over to me. “You were delirious earlier and didn’t know who I was.”
I grab her hand forcing her to sit on the bed beside me. “Are you okay? And how’s Bupple?”
Her face crumples. “I’m fine but Bupple is still in a bad way. We managed to get a few drops of balm into him before he slipped into a comatose state so all we can do now is wait.”
“What is balm? Did I have some of it? Is that why I’m feeling no after-effects of being beaten up by three men?”
She nods. “It’s our healing remedy. Very potent but very expensive here on Planet Prushad. I would have purchased some when I got you at the sooq, but after buying you I didn’t have enough credos and the stallholders refused me credit.” She pulls her hand away and the act hurts my feelings. Are we still owner and chattel? Has our intimate time together shifted the dynamics in our relationship? I’m confused. “Are you feeling well enough to come and meet my friends? The ones who helped save you?”
I hide the hurt feeling from my face, smile and nod. “Yes, I am.”
I follow her out of the bedroom and down the hallway to the door I had been standing silently eavesdropping next to minutes ago. When she pushes it open I’m finally able to put faces to voices. The woman is exactly as I’d imagined her. About thirty years older than Saaxx with kind eyes, only hers are green. She has the same upturned crescent-shaped bone just above her forehead, but slightly bigger.
The man on the other hand is nothing like I envisioned. He is a couple of inches taller than me and has shoulders equally as wide as mine. But unlike the small dainty bones like the women have on their heads, his is thicker and larger, a bone that any stag would be proud to bear.
His turquoise eyes bore into me as I enter. I hold my hand out offering it to him. “I want to thank you and your partner for saving my life.” I look to the woman and nod my head. He takes my hand not knowing what to do with it and I shake once.
“We would do anything to help a friend of Saaxxatees.”
The woman points to a seat by the table. “Sit Tex! Join us in consuming our evening meal. You must be hungry?”
“Thirsty more than hungry, but my growling stomach is telling me to get my ass in that chair.”
She laughs and the slightly tense atmosphere softens.
Once we’re all seated Saaxx gestures to the man. “Tex, I’d like you to meet Kerty, he’s Mimette’s mate” then she points to the woman, “and that’s Mimette. They are my very close friends.” She smiles a genuine smile at them. “Well, they are more like my adopted parents than anything.”
I can see that the comment pleases them both no end.
Mimette reaches across the table and grabs my hand. “We want to thank you for coming to the rescue of Saaxxatee with those males. We dread to think what could have happened if you hadn’t been there, Tex.”
“Well, it seems we’ve done each other a favour because she rescued me from the Taraquets too.”
I sense it’s time for an interrogation from Kerty. “How did you end up being on a Taraquet ship anyway, Tex? We’ve heard of them taking and selling females before but never males.”
“Well, it certainly wasn’t by choice Sir. It happened maybe a week ago, maybe a few weeks, I have no sense of time for how long they held me captive. All I know is that they didn’t give me anything to drink or eat in the time I was on their ship, and I was taken after being flagged down by a woman back on Earth. I was driving my truck and she was stood in the middle of the highway waving her arms frantically at me. I almost hit her, and it wasn’t until I’d gotten out of the truck that I saw their spaceship, and then them. They held me paralysed in a beam of light which took me up into their ship, and I was there until I was sold to Saaxxatee at the market a few days ago.”
Saaxx’s disdain for the Taraquets is written all over it. “That’s what they do the filthy riffs, they abduct innocent people from different worlds and then sell them off for their own gain, however by law, they are only meant to sell prisoners.”
Mimette’s eyes show genuine concern for me. “Is that what’s been giving you bad dreams? The abduction? Saaxxatee has been telling us of the terrible nightmares you’ve been having since you’ve been in her ward.”
I inhale a ragged breath. It was time to tell somebody about my mental state. It was no good bottling it up and keeping it secret in case I suffered an episode while I’m in their house and now is a good a time as any. I shake my head. “No, I keep having snippets of memories from a life I can’t remember and I’m suffering flashbacks of when I was in a war. I have something called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder caused by a traumatic incident that happened in the war, and I think it has somehow affected my long-term memory. I can’t remember anything before I entered the army.”
Saaxx’s mouth has dropped open. “So, your nightmares are not from the Taraquets?”
I shake my head. “No.” Mimette begins to dish up food on our plates. My stomach growls angrily and everyone laughs. “I guess I’m hungrier than I realised.”
I don’t ask about the males and they don’t offer me any information. All of us are enjoying each other’s company without bringing a dampener to the table by talking about them. When we are finished I’m eager to see Bupple.
“Can I take a look at Bupple to see how he’s doing?”
Saaxx nods with a thin smile.
Mimette begins to tidy the dishes away and stops to place a hand on Saaxx’s shoulder. “We’ll talk about the promise tomorrow shall we?”
Saaxx nods. “Yes. I’m pretty exhausted to be honest. Once we’ve checked on Bupple I want to get my head down. Where am I sleeping Mimette?”
Mimette smirks. “I presumed you’d be sharing with Tex.”
Saaxx’s cheeks deepen to jade green and she walks off through a door. I follow.
In the next room lying down in a basket is a sorrowful-looking Bupple. My stomach convulses when I see that patches of his spines are missing, and the holes are sewn up by intricate translucent thread of some kind.
I drop down onto my knees and lean in close. “Hey, buddy. This is the best thing for you. Peace and quiet and lots of bed rest. Before you know it you’ll be running around chasing after pijjits again.” I begin to stroke him.
Saaxx voice is soft. “I don’t know if that’s such a good idea, touching him with his injuries.”
I look back over my shoulder. “Believe me, when you’re injured and laid up in a hospital all you’re craving for is some physical attention. This one to one contact is bett
er than all the medicine in the world.”
She purses her lips and then drops down onto her knees beside me and we both carefully pet and stroke our injured best friend for the next half an hour until Saaxx starts to yawn.
I get to my feet and hold my hands out to pull her up. “Come on! You need rest. It’s been a very long and traumatic day.”
She grabs my hands and I pull her to her feet, then I lead her back to the room I’d recovered in. Kerty and Mimette have already retired for the night.
I climb onto the bed first and she stands awkwardly by the side of it. I pull her on, not giving her time to overthink it and turn her so that I am spooning her, letting her know this is just an innocent bed sharing night.
She snuggles down getting comfortable, feeling so right in my arms, and before we know it, we are both sound asleep.
7
Saaxxatee
I’m dreaming and I want to wake up. I’ve avoided thinking about those past events every doon in my waking hincs since I can remember, I certainly don’t want those awful events trying to invade my dreams too, but the images won’t leave my sleep.
I’m at the sooq standing alone in shock, red liquid on the ground around me. The clan males from the next township took my mother and father away in a frenzied mob and I was helpless to stop them. I feel empty. A shell of the femey I was mere mids ago. In an instant, my world has collapsed around me. I’m eleven yanas old and I’m alone. I know something bad has just happened to my parents but I don’t want to think about it. I’m blocking it from my mind. If I don’t, I’ll go insane.
Mimette’s panic-filled voice as she shakes me awake is not the kind of rousing I was expecting.
“Saaxxatee! Tex! Wake up! Males from the Troubad clan from the next township are outside demanding that we hand over the Human. Kerty is out there now talking to them.”
I sit up, still half asleep, unsure whether this is reality or still part of my dream. “What! What do they want with Tex?”
Tex is already unfolding himself from around me, swinging his legs off the bed.
Mimette’s walking backward and forward pulling on her skin locks, her face screwed up with dread. “It’s happening all over again. History repeating itself,”
I shake my head, dumbstruck. “Mimette, you’re making no sense!”
She stops pacing and looks at me with worried eyes. “I’ve dropped hints to you over the yanas Saaxxatee.”
I have no idea what she is talking about but I have no time to go into it now, Tex has already reached the door.
I jump off the bed and run after him. “Tex, let Kerty talk to them. You don’t understand what they’re like!” But he’s already out of the front door. I follow him close at his heels.
There are eight of them, all sitting on ewits in a semi-circle around Kerty. All but one, who remains behind the others. All eyes turn to Tex as we walk out of the dwelling.
One of them drags his eyes from Tex back down to Kerty. “Just hand him over and everyone else will remain unharmed!”
“Now we both know that’s not going to happen. Our clan has seen what you do to other species that fraternise with Kimankas. You’ve already pushed your noses in where they weren’t wanted once before. This is our clan and our land. What happens here has nothing to do with your clan.”
“Oh, but it does. We are in negotiations to blend our clans through mating. We don’t want any halfbreeds muddying the pure bloodlines of future Kimankas.”
By the way the male is talking you’d think he was the leader, but the male sitting behind the others wears the emblem of authority, yet he sits in silence.
Tex strides over to Kerty and steps in front of him. “I’ll go with you if you promise to leave all in this house unharmed.” I run over to Tex and place my hands flat on his chest. Images from my dream keep flashing in my mind disrupting my vision.
“No Tex! We’ll go to the township and talk to our councillors. They’ll sort this out!”
He places his huge hands on the tops of my arms and stares intently into my eyes. “Saaxx, you heard from Kerty’s own mouth how corrupt your council is. They wouldn’t have even punished those three men for attempted rape if Kerty and that other man hadn’t intervened. If they aren’t willing to truly punish their own kind for the atrocities they attempted, what luck will I have with them? No! The best way to ensure your safety is for me to go with these men.”
I wrap my arms around him and feel as though all of my insides have just fallen into my feet. The emptiness I felt in my dream consumes me again and the lump is back in my throat, making it impossible to swallow.
I hear a couple of the males behind me dismount and then feel strong fingers grip into my skin and peel me from Tex, throwing me roughly to the ground.
“Get off the filthy riff female! You’ll contaminate yourself with him.”
Tex’s roar of anger rattles my teeth and I look up to see his fist connecting with one of the male’s jaws. Kerty looks momentarily shocked but then he is quick to follow suit and take out the other male.
There is a scuffle of bodies as the males dismount the ewits and blades are drawn. Mimette screams behind me. Her scream ignites something inside me and I want to kill every single one of them with a passion I’ve never known.
Without a second thought, I lunge for a blade and yank it out of the hand of one of the the males and then swing it menacingly at them aiming for their throats but missing miserably.
I feel a sharp pain in my right shoulder and then hear Tex’s voice booming.
“Noooo!”
An explosion of light momentarily blinds me followed by static electricity that sucks my breath out of my body. When my eyes finally adjust Tex has disappeared, his clothes are now worn by a Kimanka. I stagger back a step, my eyes unable to comprehend what I’m seeing. He holds his arms out and studies his hands. Then his hands go to his face, next to his skin locks hanging either side of his face, and then up to feel his huge bone crescent jutting up menacingly above his forehead. His head turns to me and he takes a step towards me.
“Saaxx you’re injured!”
But I take another step backward. “W-Who are you? Where’s Tex?”
“It’s me Saaxx! I am Tex!”
My heart is racing. I shake my head. “No... No, you’re not.”
I see the look of disappointment in his midnight blue eyes. They are not the deep brown eyes I’ve come to love.
The male wearing the emblem rushes forward. “Texxari? Is that you my son?”
The male wearing Tex’s clothes spins around on hearing the voice. “Father?”
Everything is still. Everyone is silent in shock as they embrace, until the male who’d been making the earlier demands now orders the other males to seize them.
“Bind them both!”
The male wearing the emblem pulls away from the imposter I’d spent the last few doons with and turns to face the one who’d issued the order.
“I am your council leader! You cannot apprehend me!”
“Oh yes we can. Especially if we suspect you are a halfbreed, which if this male who you are claiming to be your son turns out to be true, then both you and he and maybe your mate will be tried for bekyar breeding.”
The imposter and the leader are bound by their wrists and hauled up onto the ewits in front of the troubad clan males. All the time the imposter’s blue eyes go from his father’s face to mine, a blank look shrouding his face. As if...as if he were fighting to remember.
I watch them ride away, taking my happiness with them, leaving a sinking feeling in both my stomach and my heart. Where was my Tex?
I know Mimette’s arms are around my shoulders pulling me towards the dwelling, but I feel numb. “We need to get that wound looked at Saaxxatee. Luckily there is still a quarter of balm left.”
I let Mimette drag me into the dwelling. I think Kerty comes in behind me. I’m not even sure. I feel like I’m in a dream.
She leads me to the table where we all a
te last night. Me, Mimette, Kerty and...Tex...Human Tex.
A canister is by my mouth. “Drink!” I’m on autopilot and do as I’m told. “Kerty fetch my binding pack! I need to bind this wound because there isn’t enough balm to heal it quickly.”
Something is rubbing against my leg underneath the table. I lean down to see what it is and a surge of love fills my heart. Bupple is up and about.
“Bupple! You’re okay!” I pick him up delicately and place him on my lap. He clicks a noise of affection in the back of his throat and nuzzles into me.
Mimette’s mouth drops open flabbergasted. “I don’t believe it! I really didn't think he was going to make it but I didn’t want to upset you and tell you so while Tex was healing too.”
The mention of his name makes my chest contract. “It-It must have been when we petted him last night. Just as Tex suggested, he needed to feel physical contact and love to survive.”
Kerty comes back with Mimette’s pack and she sets about closing my wound. I grimace with the pain, suddenly aware of how much it hurts now that Bupple is in my arms and has brought me back to the land of the living.
Kerty paces the room, his shoulders tense. None of us want to broach what we just witnessed but in the end, it’s Mimette who braves it by slamming down her hand.
“I can’t believe it. He’s a shifter and not a Human.” She looks me straight in the eyes. “Did you not have a clue Saaxxatee? An inkling that he was...a shapeshifter?”
I shake my head suddenly feeling betrayed, my cheeks heating with anger. “Why would he not tell me Mimette? I can’t believe his deceit, especially after how I’ve helped him too.”
Kerty steps forward. “Hey, by the look on his face I think his shift in forms shocked him as much as it did us. I don’t think he knew himself...or at least I think he might have forgotten he was a shifter. Didn’t he say he keeps having flashbacks and nightmares? Maybe his mind is blocking something painful. Memories that are just too bad to think about.”
“No! That’s ridiculous!” My raised voice unsettles Bupple and he squirms in my lap. I begin to stroke and soothe him. “It’s okay.”