by R. R. Banks
Chapter Two
The ground furled away behind Ero like a ribbon as he ran through the forest, his feet pounding into the soft undergrowth with an intensity like fire. Gnarled roots rose up to trip him and branches brushed at his skin, but he was moving too fast to really notice either or for them to impede his speed or his progress. He ran like he had never run before, with a speed that far surpassed any of the other Denynso. A skill that he had learned about when he was still young, his ability to run faster and harder than anyone else was something that he rarely shared with anyone else. He used it instead as his way of escaping when his mind was filled with too much thought or emotion. Even if he didn't have anywhere to go, he would run. His feet brought him wherever they wanted to go, through the dark forest, over the rocky ledges, or through the wide fields behind the village. He ran until he had no energy left inside him, then he would collapse to the ground and let the darkness of sleep make everything go away.
He ran now to escape the confusing, overwhelming feelings he had been experiencing for the last few days. They started after he rescued Leia from the Klimnu attack. At first he thought the aggression and anger had been related to finding the mate of one of his friends terrified and in danger only a short time after she had escaped from nearly two months of imprisonment under the hands of the slimy, vicious creatures. Though he was not as large or powerful as the other warriors of the Denynso, he still had within him the ability to grow fierce and angry when something or someone that he cared about was threated, and even though he and Leia had not gotten off to a great start, she belonged to Gyyx, which meant he had loyalty toward her.
When the aggression and intensity were still there the next day, however, Ero began to wonder if that was really the source of these feelings. He was not accustomed to this level of emotion within him, especially when he couldn't identify a clear source, and he didn't like how it made him feel. He felt confused, on guard, and violent to the point that he had gotten into several scuffles with the other men after he heard them teasing him. He was accustomed to their bullying. At a foot shorter than the other warriors and nowhere near as well-built, he had been the butt of nearly endless ridicule and teasing since he was orphaned as a child and left to be raised by the community. In a way it was his form of interacting with them. Over the last few days, however, he had not reacted the same way as he usually did, laughing off the jokes and keeping the negative feelings he experienced toward the other men concealed. Instead, he had lashed out and fought.
After one particularly intense encounter with one of the other warriors, Pyra had pulled him aside to ask what was happening to him. That is when Ero broke away and started to run. He had been running for hours now and was so far from the village that he wasn't sure he would be able to get back before the families came together for dinner. Not that many of the people there would notice. Pyra and Eden, Ciyrs and Elianna, and Leia and Gyyx, the mated couples, were so wrapped up in each other that they didn't really care what happened around them most of the time. The other warriors were still filled with adrenaline and anger after the battle with the Klimnu days before that had ended with them burning the building where they had brought Elianna after capturing her and where she found Leia after they had kept her prisoner and tortured her for 57 days.
Ero turned back and started running the way he came, pushing himself harder and faster until he could barely see what was going past him. He was nearly back to the village when he heard someone call his name. He slowed and jogged back toward the voice, finding Pyra standing at the edge of the forest.
"Running again?" Pyra asked.
Ero put his hands on his hips and glared back at the tremendous warrior, feeling the anger spiking in him again as he saw the teasing flicker in his orange eyes. The orbs that used to be blue were vibrant, nearly glowing orange now that he was mated to Eden and something about them made Ero feel uncomfortable when he looked at them.
"What are you doing here?" he asked accusingly, and immediately felt bad for the tone in his voice.
He didn't understand what the hell was happening to him. He had never been like this and now suddenly he felt like he could tear anyone who got near him limb from limb just for looking at him in a strange way or saying something that he thought might have a negative meaning. Fortunately Pyra didn't seem to notice his aggressive tone, or was choosing to ignore it, because if he had been offended by it and decided to engage Ero in a fight, there was no way the smaller warrior could have overpowered him.
"I have been sent out into the forest to get some sort of fruit that Eden wants."
"You are all the way the hell out here to get some fruit?" Ero asked incredulously.
Pyra nodded and sighed.
"Yeah. Apparently she is having cravings and says that she absolutely has to have this particular fruit and she won't settle for the cooked kind that we already have. She needs it right off of the bush and she needs it right this second."
Pyra said the words in a tone of resignation that said he thought the venture was ridiculous and wasn't thrilled about having to do it, but that he loved Eden so much he would literally go to the ends of the planet for her no matter what it was she asked of him. This was especially true now that Eden was carrying his child. The pregnancy was still not common knowledge among all of the Denynso and those that knew were approaching the situation with caution. Not only was this first birth among the children of the king and queen, but Eden had been a human when she first came to Uoria. She had nearly died at the claws of the Klimnu and the tribe's healer had brought her back to life. In doing so, however, Ciyrs had somehow changed her into a Denynso. The pregnancy was completely unprecedented and no one, not even the elders, had any idea what to expect.
"That sounds like you are having so much fun with this whole experience."
Laughing softly, Pyra shrugged and nodded.
"What am I going to do? You know how women can be."
Ero shook his head, feeling the tingling in his legs and the pent up energy and emotion in his belly that had fueled his hours of running over the last few days. If there was one thing that he definitely didn't know about, it was women. He wasn't mated and no female had ever caught his eye.
"Actually, no. I have no idea how women can be."
He saw Pyra take a step back and give him a once-over that made him feel scrutinized and uncomfortable. A strange growl rumbled in his throat and he had to hold back the compulsion to lunge at Pyra. The larger warrior, the biggest and most fearsome of the species, gave a knowing smile and rubbing his own face with one hand.
"You might not know yet, but from the looks of things I think you will be finding out pretty damn soon."
For a moment Ero didn't understand what Pyra was talking about, then he saw his eyes give a brief glance to the front of his pants. Ero rolled his eyes and reached down to the try to rearrange the raging erection he had been sporting most of the time since the day of the Klimnu attack. It was an uncomfortable reminder of the strange, unfamiliar feelings he had been experiencing and he was embarrassed to have Pyra point it out to him.
"Shut up," he said, managing to tuck his hard-on in a way that made it not look so obvious.
"Don't worry about it, buddy. You should have seen me when I was first around Eden. It was not a pretty sight. Well," he got a mischievous glint in his eyes, "I guess it was for her."
"Thanks for that image," Ero said, "It doesn't make sense, though. I haven't met any new women since Leia, and I know all this is not about her. I don't understand what the hell is going on."
"Don't stress about it," Pyra told him, starting toward the path leading into the forest, "With the attitude you've been throwing around and that situation you've got going on there, you're going to figure it plenty soon enough."
The other warrior's words bouncing around in his head and somehow making him feel even angrier, Ero started running again.
Chapter Three
"What's going on?" I asked, staring out the window again, "We landed fo
rty minutes ago. Why am I still in here?"
The flight attendant paced back and forth in front of her, wringing her hands and throwing occasional glances over her shoulder toward the pilot's cabin. She obviously felt the tension and frustration that I was feeling. I didn't like to be kept waiting, especially when I was waiting to be let out of a tiny space ship chamber I had been in for the last five days.
"I'm not sure," the flight attendant said, barely braving a look in her direction, "The pilot just said that there has been a delay. Apparently your escort hasn't arrived at the landing point yet."
"Why does that matter?" I asked, reorganizing my notebooks and papers in my bag again just to give my hands something to do, "I'm sure I'm smart enough to make my way from a space ship to a meeting hall. This planet can't be so primal that they don't have roads, right?"
The flight attendant looked over at her with a touch of desperation in her eyes.
"Actually, I've never gotten off of the ship during one of these flights. I just stay inside and use the sleeping quarters on the top floor to take a shower, sleep, and change between legs."
"You've never gotten off of the ship on another planet?"
"No."
"Your job is to travel around the universe carrying passengers in between planets and you have never once had the curiosity to step outside and see one of them for yourself? You don't wonder what they might look like or what the people living there are like?"
The flight attendant shook her head, suddenly looking even younger and less remarkable as her eyes welled up in tears.
"I'm too afraid."
"Of what?"
"Of what the other species might be like," she said, dropping her tone slightly, "My grandmother always said that we should stick to our own kind and that humans don't have any business running all over other planets intermingling with other species. She says if we were supposed to be interacting with them, that they would already be on our planet and we wouldn't have to travel to find them."
"How incredibly closed minded of her."
The statement should have offended her, but instead the flight attendant just nodded.
"I haven't even told her that this is what I do for a living. She just knows that I work for the university."
I sighed. I will never understand the level of intolerance and ignorance that was still so pervasive. It was as if people got over one hang up that they had and decide that it was awful to have that viewpoint, only to move on to the next one with the same level of intensity and stubbornness. I rubbed my temples, trying to release some of the tension that was building there.
"Regardless, why am I stuck here until some escort comes? That wasn't part of the itinerary the program gave me."
The flight attendant shrugged again.
"Apparently it's against the law for humans who have just arrived on Uoria to travel from their ship unaccompanied. Everyone who visits has to be escorted to the meeting hall where they will meet the king and queen before they are allowed to stay."
I sighed again.
"So who are these escorts?" I asked, "Other academics? Law enforcement?"
"I think they are warriors."
"Fantastic. So between the leading university research department for interplanetary exploration and cooperation and a group of warriors, they couldn't coordinate one meeting. That bodes terrifically for the future of the success of this program."
I was usually calmer and more pleasant than this, but it seemed space travel was pulling the worst out of me. Always described by everyone who met me as headstrong and fiercely independent, I have a very low tolerance for anything that I saw as incompetence, which this level of disorganization and improper handling of a situation definitely was in my mind.
Finally the pilot's voice came over the speaker in the chamber, announcing that the escort had arrived and I was welcome to come to the exit door. The flight attendant looked even more relieved than I felt.
"Oh, good. I was getting worried we were going to have to stay here for even longer. Is there anything I can help you with before I go upstairs for my break?"
I shook my head, reaching out to squeeze the girl's hand comfortingly. No matter what the origins of the fears she was experiencing, they were obviously very real and I suddenly felt bad for her. I hated to see a person feel so limited by their own minds that they were unable to face any changes in their normal situation or confront anything that may alter their point of voice because it was too uncomfortable for them.
"No, I'm fine. You go on ahead. Maybe I'll see you on my trip back in a few months."
The attendant smiled and returned the squeeze with her hand.
"Thanks. I'd like that. They'll have your bags for you at the door."
Without saying another word, the flight attendant scurried across the room and disappeared through the hatch that led to the small chamber where the attendants spent much of their time during the flight and where, I presumed, there was a set of stairs or an elevator that would bring her up into the staff sleeping quarters overhead. Taking a final glance around the chamber, I walked toward the front of the chamber and through a sliding door to the exit hatch.
The other flight attendant stood at the door, holding my bags in each hand and looking like he was still seeing the images from his beloved game flashing on the backs of his eyes. I reached for the bags and took firm hold of them by their handles.
"I can get these. Thanks," I said.
The attendant relinquished the bags, but I had only taken one step down from the ship onto the landing platform when I felt hands grab at them again.
"I'll help you," a male voice said and I looked down at the platform to see a man reaching up to hold onto my luggage.
He was certainly attractive, but if this was one of the famed warriors of the Denynso people, I found myself a touch disappointed and a bit confused. I had heard tales of enormous, powerful men so breathtakingly beautiful that women couldn't control themselves around them, which, I will have to admit, is one of the influencing factors for signing up for the program. The man in front of me was lovely, but at only around six feet tall and quite slender, he was decidedly not enormous and looked less fearsome that many of the professors who walked the halls of the university back on Earth. I pulled the bags back toward me.
"No, thank you, I can do it myself."
"I'm happy to help."
I gave a final tug, yanking the bags out of his hands.
"I have them."
I stepped down from the platform and when I straightened in front of him I saw the escort's eyes travel over my body in a way that I didn't really like. His gaze stayed on me for just a bit too long and I couldn't quite interpret the look on his face. It was somewhere between shock and an emotion that I couldn't define. Finally he lifted his eyes to mine.
"You definitely don't look like the other human women that have come here," he said.
I shot him a scathing look.
"What is that supposed to mean?"
The man stammered for a minute, obviously trying to come up with an explanation.
"I just mean your hair. The other women have dark hair, except for Eden, but her hair is more red. Yours is…golden."
I wasn't convinced that that was actually what he was thinking. Leaving him still muttering, I pushed past and started down the steps of the landing platform.
"What's your name?" he called after me and I heard his footsteps follow me down the stairs.
"Zuri Hase. Didn't they tell you?"
"No. I'm not the original escort you were supposed to have."
"Oh," I said, some of the bitterness leaving my voice.
Maybe something bad happened and that's what caused the delay. I didn't want to be mean to him if his schedule for the day was thrown off just as much as mine was.
"I'm Ero," he told her as he caught up to her, "It's nice to meet you."
Chapter Four
What the hell was wrong with him?
The one time in his
entire life when he had actually been trusted to do something important, and he was already screwing it up. Pyra was supposed to escort the new professor from the ship just like he had with the other women, but at the last minute he asked Ero to step in for him. Ero didn't know if there was something wrong with Eden and the baby requiring his attention, or if something else happened that took him away from his responsibilities, but he hadn't really cared in the moment. He had just been excited to have been the one that the older and more respected warrior had chosen to take his place.
Not only had he managed to be almost an hour late for the set time that he was supposed to meet her because he tore the lacing on his pants and had to go all the way back to his house to change them so that he didn't greet her with the intense erection that he was still sporting everywhere he went, but he had also offended the woman almost as soon as she stepped out of the ship. He couldn't really help it, though. He was expecting the same type of woman as Eden, Elianna, or Leia. What stepped out of the ship, however, was a shock. Instead of tiny and fragile-looking, Zuri rivaled some of the females of his species in size. She was only a few inches shorter than him and had a body that was lush, full, and curvy. The effect was bewildering. He had become accustomed to the small human women and was startled by someone who looked so different, but at the same time, he was drawn to all of the soft curves and swells. They seemed to have a powerful effect on his body as well, making him twitch and harden even further as the intense, almost animal feelings that built in his chest.
As she took long strides to pull out in front of him so that she walked ahead of him by several feet, Ero got an even fuller view of her body. Wide hips shifted beneath her long, loose skirt, accentuating the deep curve of her waist beneath her tight shirt. Something about her size made him uncomfortable, reminding him of his own size concerns and how small he felt compared to the other warriors. He jogged forward again to catch up with her.
"Tell me about your program," he said.