Metal Wolf (Warriors of Galatea Book 1)

by Lauren Esker

  ... well. Then she'd be where, was the problem. Just as Rei didn't fit into her world, she wouldn't fit into his. She looked at the picture he'd drawn for her every day, as if she could memorize the sketches of his family so she'd recognize them if she ever saw them, but the picture made it clear that regular Earth humans were going to stand out in space just as much as Rei stood out on Earth.

  Just like Rei needed identification to do anything on Earth, Sarah would probably need an ID she didn't have to function in outer space society. Rei hadn't told her much yet about how Galatean society worked, but there was no telling what kind of things she'd need that she didn't have. Maybe you had to get your DNA scanned just to buy food. And what did they use for money in outer space? She certainly didn't have any, or any way to get some if she couldn't get a job without the space equivalent of ID.

  Heck with this. It was a beautiful fall day, and she decided to forget the whole business for awhile and take a ride.

  Princess perked up considerably when Sarah led her to the hitching rail and threw the saddle over her back. Sarah almost never rode anymore; it just seemed like there was always something else to do, and Princess—who had been her mother's horse, once upon a time—was old enough that she didn't need much exercise. But she still had some friskiness left in her, picking up her legs smartly as Sarah took her in a brisk turn around the pasture to check that the saddle was correctly tightened and adjusted.

  "Hey, guys!" Sarah called through the open door of the barn. The radio was playing inside, punctuated with the occasional clang of a hammer on metal or the whir of a lathe. "I'm taking Princess out for a ride. Rei, you want to come?"

  Rei appeared around the corner of the ship. It looked completely fixed on the outside now, all the damaged shielding replaced with new, shiny panels from her father's stash of scrap metal. If it was really as close to flying as it looked, she assumed there would be more of a party atmosphere in the barn—but maybe not. Her dad was a typical Wisconsin farmer, close-mouthed and not inclined toward wild displays of emotion, and he seemed to have found a kindred spirit in Rei.

  "Do you mean on the Hnee?" Rei asked, looking at her as curiously as if he'd never seen someone on horseback before ... and maybe he hadn't.

  "It's called a horse, and no, I don't think she can carry both of us. I was thinking you could run alongside as a wolf. You don't get much chance to do that."

  Rei's eyes lit up. "Perhaps I could take a little time, if Gary doesn't mind working alone."

  "Dad! I'm stealing Rei! You can have him back later!"

  "Behave yourselves," was her father's only remark from somewhere behind the ship, and the lathe started up again.

  Outside the barn—and out of sight of her father—Rei stripped and handed the bundle of clothing up to Sarah. He looked much healthier than the first time she'd seen him, she was pleased to note. By now, the bruises and other injuries were gone as if they'd never been. He had filled out and put on muscle, and his skin gleamed a smooth, healthy (she assumed) shade of blue in the sunlight.

  Farm life, it appeared, was good for him.

  "Ready?" she asked, and he nodded and shifted, flowing into the great blue-furred shape of the wolf.

  Sarah had hoped she could pass him off as a dog if they encountered anyone back in the woods, but she had forgotten that he was quite so ... vivid. And also so huge. There was just no mistaking him for anything other than what he was: a big blue alien wolf.

  "If we see or hear anyone coming, you'll need to hide, okay?" she said, and he nodded, a very incongruous gesture with his shaggy wolf's head.

  Sarah wheeled the mare around and set a course for the upper pasture and the woods beyond.

  It was a gorgeous day, one of those rare north-country fall days that has no equal, the sun blinding in a nearly cloudless sky and the red and gold trees like frozen fireworks. Princess's strong muscles flexed underneath Sarah, settling into a smooth canter. Sarah knew she'd have to rein the mare in eventually, to keep her from overworking and hurting herself, but for now she let Princess have her head. The blue wolf ran beside them, tail flying like a banner. His tongue lolled out of his jaws, not pink like a dog's tongue, but a deep purple as if he'd been eating popsicles.

  When they reached the fence at the back of the upper pasture, Princess's shoulders tensed to jump. "Oh no you don't," Sarah told her, and dismounted to unlatch the back gate and lead the mare through. Princess's coat rippled and she shook herself as Sarah climbed back on.

  "I forgot what a little spitfire you used to be back in the day, lady. She's a nice horse," she said to Rei, who had stopped to watch the whole thing, sitting canine style with his tail curled over his feet. "But she does have a few bad habits. Jumping over things is one of them. She can't do it with these old knees, she'll hurt herself, but she doesn't know enough not to try."

  Rei made a little whuffing sound and stood up, ears pricked as he sniffed the air. The woods seemed to fascinate him, and Sarah realized that he hadn't been in an actual forest in all the time he'd been on Earth, except for their drive through the woods to the lake.

  Not that this was forest primeval, exactly. It was just a little wooded strip that wound between the farms, crisscrossed with bridle paths, deer trails, and the beaten tracks made by farm kids heading to the local fishing holes or biking back and forth between their friends' houses. Sarah remembered when she used to do that, taking her bike over every afternoon to play with the Haverfords' daughter.

  Susie Haverford was married and lived in Milwaukee now. Nothing ever stayed the same. Except her. Stuck in place, spinning her wheels ...

  Sarah shook off the echoes of the past and pointed Princess's head into the woods.

  She kept the mare to a sedate pace on the rough forest trails. They passed in and out of sun-dappled shade, leaf shadows flickering across Princess's silvery neck and Rei's brindled fur. A sudden crashing in the underbrush drew the attention of all three travelers as a startled deer bounded away, leaving a trail of snapping twigs in her wake.

  Sarah took a left turn on the network of bridle paths that led to an old beaver pond. She hadn't been there in years, but she was pleased to see the pond was still there, perhaps a little more sunken and shallow than it used to be, the collapsed old dam a little more overgrown. The trees up here had lost more of their leaves than the ones down in the pasture, which were still at their full flaming glory. Brown and gold leaves carpeted the surface of the pond and lay thick under the trees.

  She dismounted and knelt to feel Princess's legs, checking for signs of warmth or other damage from the unaccustomed activity. While she did that, and then took the bit out of Princess's mouth so the mare could browse a bit, Rei trotted around the pond on a mission of lupine investigation.

  Sarah sat on a sun-warmed log beside the pond and watched him. His body language was doglike— sniffing things, investigating rabbit trails—but with a wild grace like no dog she'd ever seen. She could have watched him all day.

  At least until he leaned down to dip his snout into the leaf-littered surface of the pond. Sarah burst into laughter and called across the pond, "If you're planning on drinking that, don't expect a kiss afterwards!"

  Rei shifted back, on hands and knees. He grinned at her. "It's just water."

  "It's pond water, you fool. Beaver pond water. Do they have giardia on your home planet?"

  "Do we have what?"

  "Apparently not. Look, it's not a good idea to drink pond water on Earth. It can make you sick. Come over here and sit with me instead." She patted the log beside her. "I've got your clothes here."

  He sat at her feet instead, long blue legs stretched out in the meadow weeds. "I'm comfortable like this, if you don't mind."

  "I definitely don't mind. Tell me if you get cold."

  Rei nodded and leaned against her thigh. She played idly with his hair, petted his shoulder and the soft skin above his collarbone.

  It was impossibly peaceful here, the only sound the soft rustling a
s Princess moved about the meadow, lipping at grass. A light breeze rattled the branches of the trees and sent a cascade of leaves showering across the pond, fluttering down onto Sarah's lap and Rei's hair.

  "Your world is beautiful," Rei said quietly.

  "It has its not-so-beautiful parts."

  "Yes, perhaps, but ..." He hesitated and turned his face up toward hers. The tsinde spots glimmered in the sun, gold with hints of green. "I don't think I'm going to be able to fix my battlepod."

  She was afraid to answer, not sure whether he'd be pleased with relief or disappointment. "Oh?" she said at last, noncommittally.

  "It's as I feared. I don't have the expertise and your world doesn't have the tools."

  "You're welcome to stay," she said, running her fingers through his hair, around the back of his ear. "I hope you know that. As long as you like."

  "I know. I ..." A sigh escaped him and he leaned his head on her thigh. "I want to. And I also want ..."

  "To find your friends. I know." She petted his hair, fingers separating the coarse outer strands to reach the soft, thick underfur. "I want to go to space with you, Rei. I want to see all these places you've talked about. I want it so much I could cry. But I can't leave Dad. And I want you to be able to find your friends and get back to your life, and ... and I know it wouldn't be much of a life for you here on Earth, but I—I wish you could stay."

  He laid a hand on her thigh. She put her hand over it, and Rei laced their fingers together.

  "There's no rush," he pointed out. "None of this has to be decided tomorrow. Maybe there's someone on your world who could help me fix the pod. Someone at the school where you study, perhaps?"

  "Oh, I hadn't thought of that." She had been so careful about keeping him out of sight, so worried about anyone finding out, that the thought had never occurred to her that widening their circle of spaceship mechanics beyond Rei and her dad might be a good idea. The idea of introducing Rei to her professors caused a tiny twinge of proprietary jealousy. She firmly squashed it. He wasn't hers. And he was right, there was a lot more scientific and technological know-how on Earth than what was represented by Sidonie, Wisconsin.

  "That's a good idea, actually. I can start looking around on Monday. Or—no—if we're going to talk to other people about you, especially someone with connections, we should give it a little more time and wait until those government people give up and go away."

  "I don't mind waiting."

  "Yeah, well, I mind. I don't deal well with uncertainty," Sarah admitted. "I try to make myself take life one day at a time, but I've always had my life planned out in detail. The plans keep changing, but I always hated not having them."

  "And I've always tried not to think beyond tomorrow. You can't, when everything about your life is decided for you by other people."

  She pressed a kiss to the top of his head. "Maybe I could use a little uncertainty in my life."

  "Perhaps I need some stability."

  Sarah rested her cheek on top of his head and closed her eyes, listening to the rush of the wind in the trees, the faint jingle of Princess's saddle buckles as the mare moved about the meadow. Rei's thumb swept back and forth across the back of her hand.

  "I had a crazy thought earlier," she said into his hair. "Have I told you about Halloween?"

  "I know it's a holiday of your people and it's coming up soon."

  "It's only a couple of days away. One of the ways we celebrate it is by dressing up in costumes. There are going to be lots of people out on the street in costumes, pretending to be monsters and fictional characters and all kinds of things." She hesitated. "You see where I'm going with this, right?"

  "You think I could go out in public without causing alarm."

  "All we have to do is add a couple of fake-looking touches so people dismiss it as a costume and don't look too closely. And then we can do anything at all. We could go out on a ... on a date." She could feel her cheeks flaming. "Do you know what those are?"

  "Not in the sense you're using it."

  "It's a—a courting ritual of my people."

  "Oh?" he murmured. "What do you do?"

  "You just spend time together. Often there's food. We could eat at a restaurant. And you could go shopping, if you want. You can pick out your own clothes this time." It sounded so banal, so unworthy of the risk of going out in public with him. And yet she wanted it more than anything. To be able to walk down the street with him, hand in hand ... "You wouldn't have to hide," she finished in a rush.

  "I would very much like to see more of your world," Rei said.

  "It would be a risk, though."

  "My entire life is a risk."

  "That doesn't mean it's a good idea to take more risks for very little reward."

  "But there would be a reward." He tipped his head back, looking up at her. "I'd get to see more of your culture. And it would make you happy."

  Her heart brimmed over, spilling happiness like a tipped cup. "It would make me happy. It would make me very happy. But only if you want to, Rei, do you understand? If you don't think it's worth the danger, then we won't do it."

  "It's only one day." He reached up to trace her lips with the tips of his fingers. "I would like very much to go on a date with you."

  14

  ___

  “Y

  OU THINK I WILL attract no notice if I go out in public like this," Rei said, eyeing his reflection in the mirror in Sarah's room.

  "Absolutely," Sarah said. Her eyes danced with suppressed laughter as she carefully worked on his face with her little paint-stick. "It's from a movie, like I said."

  The white dots she was painting on his face were, at least, similar to the tsinde. It was the ears that were deeply bizarre, pointed animal-like ears that stuck up through his hair.

  "These ears are not very convincing," Rei said, reaching up to poke at one of them. She'd made them out of painted cardboard, cut from a box that had contained crunchy bits of breakfast food.

  "That's the whole point. They're not supposed to be convincing. People are supposed to be able to tell at a glance that it's a costume."

  Her phone was propped on top of the chest that contained her clothing, with a picture of the creature she was trying to emulate. It did actually look surprisingly similar to someone from Rei's homeworld. She had explained that the movie was called Avatar and it was about blue aliens.

  "Are you sure it's a good idea to dress me as someone from another planet, even a fictional one?"

  "It's called hiding in plain sight. Anyway, I figured it was this or a Smurf, and dressing you like a sexy Smurf would have given me nightmares for weeks, either that or a really disturbing Smurf fetish, so an Avatar alien it is." She put the cap back on the paint stick and looked around. "Where'd I put the wig? Let me see how it looks on you."

  She had purchased a very cheap black wig and had spent an evening carefully stringing beads onto clumps of the wig's plastic hair. Now she settled it onto his head and arranged the hanging beads around the cardboard ears.

  "Oh, yeah. Perfect."

  "I still look very much like myself."

  "That's the point. Just don't tell people that. Actually, you probably shouldn't talk at all if anyone can hear you, since all they'll hear is an alien language." Sarah smiled and gave the beaded hair a twitch over his shoulders, settling it into place. "If you do say something by accident, though, we can just tell people that you're trying to stay in character."

  "The image on your communication device isn't wearing very many clothes." Rei grinned playfully at her. "Do you want me to walk around your town wearing a loincloth?"

  Sarah's expression glazed for a moment. "I—uh—I'm sure that's a terrible idea. A very bad idea. Very bad." She shook herself and reached for the piece of blue rope dangling off the top of the clothes chest. "Let's put your tail on."

  "I do not want the tail."

  "I worked hard on the tail." She tied the rope around his waist and draped the tail over his arm, fl
uffing out the ends; she'd made a knot in the rope and then unraveled the rest of it to create a tuft. "You'll probably have to carry it like this to keep it from getting tangled with your legs. Sorry about that."

  "What's one small embarrassment at this point, more or less."

  "You could've been a Smurf, buddy. Here, help me with my wings."

  Rei helped affix the wire-and-gauze wings over her soft flowered dress. She tucked her real hair under a pink wig, and adjusted a pair of little curling antennae, cutely fuzzy on the tips.

  "How do I look?"

  "Not like any species I've ever seen."

  "No fairies in outer space, huh? Too bad."

  Her lips were as pink as the wig. They'd made love before putting on their costumes, and though they had both taken showers, he could still smell it on her, a delicious feminine perfume of sex and sweat.

  When he touched her chin, tipping her face up to his, her pink lips parted. He leaned down to taste her, and himself on her.

  "Ngghhh." She stretched and shook herself, and opened her eyes. Somehow the pink wig made her eyes stand out more brightly than her usual sand-colored curls. "If you keep that up, we're never going to get out of here."

  "Would that be a bad thing?"

  "Yes," she said firmly, picking up a little bag with a shoulder strap that matched her dress. "Got your spear?"

  Rei sighed and retrieved the fake spear from the closet. Sarah had made it from a broom handle with a clumsily cut out cardboard blade. She grinned and reached to straighten a cardboard ear.

  "Perfect. Let's roll."

  Rei took a final look at himself in the mirror. He was wearing the red sweater and dark leg-coverings she'd bought for him. He didn't look like himself, but he definitely didn't look like an Earth-human, either.

  Though, according to Sarah, that was the point.

  They descended the stairs. Gary was on the couch, watching the entertainment screen. "So you two are really set on doing this, huh?" he remarked, looking up from a replacement part he'd milled for the jump drive to replace a mounting bracket that had bent in the crash. The original was sitting in his lap; he was comparing the two as he meticulously filed the replacement with sandpaper and a brush. "You really think nobody's gonna notice his blue doesn't rub off?"