by Iona Strom
We hover directly above our spot as Mont’clure lines us up with the top of the swirl and begins a slow descent to the pad, touching down with barely a bump.
Relief comes in the form of light-headedness. I pause to gather my wits, and close my eyes, taking stock of what’s going on with my body. My heart rate is more rabbit than human, and my fingers hurt from digging into the seat. Other than the fact I have a death grip on Nulis’ hand, I feel pretty good.
Nulis rises from his seat across the aisle and helps with my seat’s strap. Released and free to move about, I lunge at him, hugging him tightly. After a moment, his heavy arms circle me. Glad to be on solid ground, I don’t mind that he’s crushing me—the male obviously doesn’t know his own strength.
Nulis pulls away first and bends to look me in the eye. With breath as thick and potent as the stench off of a garbage heap, he asks, “Are you ready for an adventure, Avay?”
Chapter 9
Fitted with a breathing device that attaches to my columella, that bridge of tissue that separates my nostrils, I have short tubes inserted in my nostrils with a stiff chain that hooks around one ear. The shuttle’s door dissolves with a swipe of Natu’s hand, and I step foot onto packed ground. The soothing colors of this world belie the heat of the air that is more like a solid.
Just a few feet away from where we parked our shuttle are acres and acres of tall blue grasses that wave at me to come and touch. Hypnotic in its beauty, I wander away from the group to the edge of the hard dirt. Waist-high frayed tops cease their waving and shift to meet my outstretched hand.
I’m suddenly grabbed about the waist and hefted off my feet to be returned to the group. Spun around to face Natu, he inspects my hands for injury while I’m scolded by all three of the males in my landing party.
“Those blades are razor sharp.”
“You could have been hurt.”
“You were told to stay close to us.”
Despite all of their fussing, my curiosity is screaming to know why the tall, blue grass is dangerous. It looks no more deadly than a wheat field waving in a stiff breeze.
It’s then I realize, there is no wind, no air ruffles my hair or pushes at my clothes. So how is it moving?
“What is that stuff? Why is it dangerous?”
“Nokketava,” Nulis answers.
“Blood grass,” Natu translates the alien word.
“If your female cannot abide by a simple rule, it will be too dangerous for us to continue,” Mont’clure speaks in his foreign tongue, gesturing toward me with a flick of his hand.
“Avay will obey. She will stay close to us. No more venturing off on her own again.” Nulis answers before turning eyes to me. “Isn’t that right, shoulsis.”
“Yes, I promise,” I vow, making eye contact with all three males.
As bizarre as this place is, I’m glad to be off the ship for a little while, to have a sky overhead and ground other than the spongy-ebony-sparkle variety beneath my feet. A sensory overload of colors surrounds me, but all that white on the ship was beginning to drive me crazy.
At Mont’clure’s sideways look, I’m beginning to feel he’s reconsidering my presence on this excursion.
“I swear,” I reassure them all, “I’ll stay right with you guys.”
Natu and Nulis exchange a long look. After a breath-holding moment, they nod in agreement. The heated air I’d been holding punches out of my lungs. After thanking my males, we follow Mont’clure to the nose of the shuttle. Waiting for us is a weird land vehicle that hovers a few inches above the ground. Open to the outside with no apparent doors, Natu lifts me up and into the back seat.
Taking out a handful of white tiles, Mont’clure starts to drop several into a slot in the vehicle, but Nulis bumps his hand out of the way and drops two in before Mont’clure shoulders him aside and adds a few more. Natu makes sure he isn’t left out of the contribution by slipping an arm under Mont’clure’s to add a couple of his own.
The conveyance comes to life, floating higher, and there’s a skirmish won by Mont’clure for the driver’s seat. Hopping into the back with me, Natu settles in, leaving Nulis to grumble some harsh sounding words the translator doesn’t communicate and grudgingly rides shotgun.
I shake my head over their antics, so much like men on Earth, fighting over who is gonna drive.
“So, this blood grass.” I look at Natu as our ride begins to move. “You never said why it’s dangerous. Looks like wheat to me.”
“Wheeth?” Natu’s accent distorts the word.
“You know. A cereal crop.”
Natu shrugs.
“I guess that means you didn’t grow up on Cream of Wheat as your morning meal, huh?” When he shrugs again, I pat his thigh, which earns me a naughty grin. “Let’s forget about breakfast. Tell me about blood grass.”
“Carnivorous vegetation. Grows in fields and only able to survive in arid, hot climates,” Nulis matter-of-factly tosses out over a broad shoulder.
Stunned at the nonchalant definition, I’m stuck on the meat-eating plant bit. That stuff had reached out for me.
I envision myself being yanked off my feet and folded into a stranded weave of a mouth and devoured much like a bug inside a Venus Fly Trap. My fingers had been an inch away from those wispy blades before Natu saved me from my own stupidity.
Shaking off what must be my over-active imagination, I inquire, “You mean it consumes insects?”
“Anything it scents that has blood,” Natu begins. “Once it latches on, it’s nearly impossible to get free.”
I shiver despite the oppressive heat.
“I once saw it suck a Thesibian Moke dry in a matter of seconsious,” Nulis adds. “Left nothing but a husk.”
Mont’clure nods, adding something I can’t understand. The three males share a laugh, but I find no humor in blood-sucking grass.
Staying glued to my males’ sides on this bizarre planet is right where I need to be. No more wandering off on my own, no matter how intriguing something might appear. Despite the golden clouds swirling overhead and the variety of space shuttles parked in neat rows, I have to remind myself this isn’t Earth. I’m a visitor in a strange land and bound to run into all sorts of crazy things.
Enjoying the wind created by our forward motion, I hold firm to my ponytail. As errant strands of stray hairs begin to whip at my cheeks, I adjust the bronze bands that bind me to my males.
I sneak a glance at Natu. Leaning back with a casual arm slung over the back of the seat, it’s shocking how similar his mannerisms are to a man’s. With slitted eyes turned away and ignoring the shimmer of his sleek horns, I can almost picture him as human.
The air here is so hot and dry, I’m glad for the breathing contraption I first complained was pinching my skin. Without the moisturizing mist being shot into my nasal cavities, I’m sure my breaths would be reduced to dust.
The stretch of parked space vehicles goes on forever. Just as I’m about to swear this planet is nothing but one big parking lot, Mont’clure takes a hard-right turn. Opening up before us is the marketplace.
A multitude of booths lines up along either side of a common path, teeming with an array of beings, some I recognize from the other marketplace. I cringe and sink lower in my seat.
Why had I thought coming here was a good idea? I should have stayed on the damn ship!
Parking our conveyance alongside the last in a long line, all three males jump out, already scoping out the wares of the booths closest to us. When I don’t follow suit, all eyes land on me.
“Let me help you out, Avay.” Nulis leans in to grab hold of me, but I scoot to the opposite side, out of his reach. “What game is this you play?”
“I do not think she is playing a game, Nulis. Look at the terror in her eyes,” Natu says, circling the vehicle. “Come, you have nothing to fear with your males at your side.”
With a quick glance over at the marketplace, I don’t see any females chained to a wall, but that doesn’t dis
count the dangers presented by the foot traffic milling about. Any one of those creatures could make a grab for me.
Vehemently shaking my head, my eyes dart from one male to the next, moving around the conveyance as they try to corner me.
“It isn’t that I don’t believe you can protect me,” I say, dodging the sweep of Nulis’ arm. “But there’s a shitload more of them than there are of you.”
“Avay, you wear the bands of our mating. None will dare touch you,” Natu assures me.
“Even if someone were foolish enough to try, Natu and I would rip their throats out,” Nulis states.
“What about me?” Mont’clure scowls, thumping his chest with a scaled fist.
“What about you?” Nulis smirks.
Natu smiles briefly before focusing all of his attention back to me.
“Avay, we have vowed to fight to the death for you. None here are stupid enough to harm a Nomadican’s mate. This trading post does not welcome those who are known to cause trouble.”
I want so hard to believe his words, but my past experiences root me in fear. When Natu curls his fingers for me to come, my anxiety escalates, triggering memories of the time Agris tried to coax me.
Panic becomes a rising tide, lapping just below my chin. Another look at the crowd of weird aliens and all I see is me, shackled by the throat while scary beasts leer down, wanting to fuck me. The feel of grotesque hands pawing is a ghastly echo I must outrun!
I leap out of the back seat, leaving the floating conveyance to bounce and rock. Hitting the ground at a dead run, the shouting behind me grows dim, but the length of my skirting grabs at legs, slowing my breakneck pace. I ball up handfuls of the fine fabric in frantic fists and haul it to my waist, freeing my legs to pump out the distance between me and the triggers to a past I would rather leave behind.
Blurs of alien space shuttles whip past, but all I can see at the end of the distorted tunnel I’ve created with my frenzied run is a royal blue finish line. Although a blood-sucking ending isn’t what I’m after. What will I do once I reach the carnivorous vegetation anxious to make me its next meal?
My option to decide is taken away by strong arms wrapping around my middle. I’m swung around in a wide arch, my feet still peddling in the air as I try to find purchase. The blue field hungry for my blood tilts away, replaced with golden clouds churning in the sky. Hauled in a fat circle, I land hard and face up on a bed of pissed off Nulis as he uses his body to cushion me from the fall. I yelp as the shuttle I never saw departing misses us by scant inches, the hull of its gleaming belly reflecting our shocked expressions.
Underneath my back, I feel the tension in Nulis’ body bleed out onto the packed ground. The fright of the near-miss shakes me out of my senseless need to flee my protectors. Tears well from somewhere deep and vulnerable.
Rolling us over, Nulis swipes with his giant male hands at the torrent of tears wetting my cheeks. The gesture is sweet but clumsy in all his lumbering gracelessness. It’s obvious he’s never comforted a female. The act endears him to me more than the gentle words softly spoken with the rank of his odorous breath.
“Are you hurt anywhere?” Nulis asks, assessing me from head to toe.
“I’m s-sorry,” I stammer out through quivering lips. “I put you in harm’s way.”
“What happened, Avay?” Natu looks down at me, a deep furrow creasing his brow. “Why did you run away?”
“Sorry.” I take the hand offered to me by Nulis, helping me to my feet. “It’s all too much. Seeing all the strange creatures brought back bad memories of my abduction.”
Mont’clure glowers from a few steps away, and I don’t blame him. I’ve proven to be a menace on this outing, a real danger to myself and all the males.
“Maybe I should stay on the shuttle while you make your trades.”
Natu is already shaking his head before I’ve finished speaking.
“You cannot live your life in fear.” Natu takes my arm and leads me out of the flight path, as he explains. “If I could reassure you of your safety with a phoblast on my hip, I would, but weapons are not allowed on Letrutose. You must learn to trust in your males that we will not put you in harm’s way. You are a Nomadican’s mate, Avay. Whatever fears haunt you must be eliminated and facing what scares you is the best way to overcome that.”
Mont’clure’s sardonic grunt gains everyone’s attention. “This is not the place for your female to begin therapy for her issues, Natu. Xuel wants the ship restocked as there are no more outposts until Bromesius.”
What Natu says makes total sense, but I have to agree with Mont’clure’s exasperated posturing. Hands fisted on trim, tight hips, the scaled male has assumed the pose of someone ready to argue their point.
“I understand what you’re saying, Natu, but—”
“Enough with talking,” Nulis interrupts with a boom. “We are your males, vowed to keep you safe. Do as we bid.”
I never thought my eyebrows could reach that high. Stunned into silence, the simmer of my independence bubbles hot just beneath the surface.
The last man who thought to tell me what to do was my father. Hard-won self-esteem—earned from the constant rebuff of his mental abuse that I was, in fact, a person worthy of affection and love despite me being born a female—took years. The last order I obeyed of my father’s was right before I made the decision to move out of my parents’ house. After that, I made myself a promise that I would never allow a man to dictate anything to me ever again.
I narrow my eyes on Nulis, and open my mouth, prepared to explain, mated or not, did not give him the right to order me around.
Before I can stand my ground, I’m shouldered like a sack of potatoes. I rail against the audacity of being manhandled by Nulis, and his heavy hand to my backside springs fresh tears to my eyes. I stiffen in rage while I indignantly bounce along with his heavy strides.
We reach the edge of the parking apron, and Nulis sets me on my feet away from the others, a fat finger lifting my chin to meet his eyes. Watery with anger and humiliation, I blink hard to keep what I don’t want witnessed fall.
“Will you be walking on your own, shoulsis, or shall I carry you through the market.”
I study the harsh planes of his handsome face. Nulis’ ferocity leaves no room for argument. Dick move on his part, but at least he’s giving me the option of retaining some pride.
After a moment to regain some composure, my bottom lip still quivers when I give my answer, “On my own.”
“Good,” Nulis gives me a firm nod. “Follow, Avay, and stay close.”
Natu brings up the rear as I’m sandwiched between my two males with Mont’clure off to one side. Swallowing the bitterness that is my pride, exasperation drives my feet, one in front of the other, as we enter the marketplace.
Glaring daggers at the breadth of Nulis’ back, the black cloud of his self-appointed superiority casts my earlier regard for his gentleness in shadow.
I can’t deny these males are a force to be reckoned with. There’s a delicate balance between yielding when I have to and standing my ground to better manipulate them when I broach the subject of returning me to Earth. I must be smart and pick my battles.
Chapter 10
The market is a wondrous place, full of the mysterious and strange. Never have I seen such a collection of wonderous and mindboggling paraphernalia.
Natu has proven himself a master negotiator. Although the equivalency of the jewels used to trade compared to that of the dollar is lost on me, Natu has stood his ground against many a merchant and won. With only a small pouch, he’s managed to stretch the sparkling gems to purchase many crates of goods. Our shuttle is being loaded down with a ton of crates, full of fruits and vegetables, by small yellowish creatures begging for rillium—that strange white tile used as currency—in exchange for hired hands.
Remaining mostly hidden from the unusual and beastly species milling around the marketplace, I stay sandwiched between my males. I’ve been able t
o peek out from under a heavy arm or peer around a broad shoulder without being seen while getting a look at all the merchandise. The longer we’re here, the more comfortable I’m becoming around so many that are so different. With no females tethered to walls, my earlier fears have somewhat subsided.
Coming up on the last few booths, my feet are looking forward to a long rest—it feels as if we’ve been walking for days.
We skip the booth selling cloth in every color imaginable, but as we’re about to pass the hairy gnome peddling long chains of gleaming silver, I hear a whimper. I poke my head out between my mountain of bodyguards to find the source—a tiny bundle of fluff in a wooden crate at the edge of the merchant's table. Another whimper stops me in my tracks. My kryptonite has always been a furry face in need.
Nulis mistakes my impromptu halt for interest in the length of shiny chains. Lifting a delicate looking piece from a hook, he dangles the precious metal in front of me. With a raised brow and diffident quirk of his lip, I know he’s trying to make amends.
Annnd…just like that, the ball is back in my court.
“Coaxing forgiveness for your boorish behavior with a trinket, Nulis?”
Nulis sucks his teeth, with an insolent tilt of his head. “A simple peace offering, shoulsis. The bore of your stare is hurting my back.”
“Was it?” I can’t stop my chuckle. “I wasn’t stopping for the chains.”
Crouching down to the wooden crate, I get a better look at the ball of fur. Large frightened eyes stare back at me, and I know I must save this tiny being. Not more than a handful of caramel-colored fur, its uncontrollable shaking is all the begging required for me to ask my males for help.
“Oh, you poor thing.” Looking to my males, I stand and plead, “May I please have this… tiny creature.”
“You should have said you were hungry, shoulsis, we could have stopped at the taverios for the second meal of the cycle.”
“Not to eat, Nulis!” I drop back down next to the crate in alarm, prepared to grab the furry animal, crate and all, and make a run for it.