by Octavia Kore
“I am sorry, Aquilian. I know it is not fair to lay the responsibilities of their care on your shoulders, but whatever these monsters have done is exhausting me. I cannot seem to keep my eyes open tonight.”
Increasing worry for my twin curls in my belly and I try not to let it engulf me. “Are you sure you are alright?” He nods softly but says nothing. “Kareen has gone to sleep. I will make sure Xia is taken care of tonight.”
Out in the main room, it is obvious that Xia feels just as awkward as I do. She fidgets as I sit down next to her, but she does not move away like I expect her to do. I talk to her through the bond as I stare at the floor, knowing she cannot understand most of what I am saying, but it makes me feel better. “I worry about Ettrian. Every day since we found ourselves trapped here he has become weaker. I do not know what I am supposed to do to make sure he is ok while protecting you and Kareen.”
My hand runs roughly through my crest in agitation and she jumps up suddenly, grasping my arm and stopping me from doing any damage to myself. She shakes her head from side to side so fast it makes the soft strands of red that fall from her head get stuck in her face. The vibration she emits caresses my ilo in the strangest way and I can feel pleasure being sent through the bond. Almost like she enjoys touching me.
I reach out and push the soft strands from her face so that I can look at her better. Only days ago I had found her to be incredibly ugly, but now her unusual features are endearing, beautiful in their own way. I find it comforting that, like me, she is different. Her green eyes pierce into me and I find myself leaning forward to press my crest against the top slope of her head in the way my kind shows affection. Instead of leaning into me, I feel her soft hand on my cheek and a moment later she presses her mouth against mine, making my entire world spin. All too soon she jumps up, her lips curling slightly as she looks down at me. “Night,” she mumbles before running off down the hall to join Kareen.
Setting up the snares to capture the little animal is the easy part, not killing my catch right away is harder than I thought it would be. For Kareen, I am willing to try. If the kit had quills she would have been pulling them out right about now. I’d been thinking of ways to relieve her boredom and lessons in being a proper Dauur kit seem like they might be fun. My papas used to take me hunting when I had too much energy and taught me the ways of our people. Since I cannot bring Kareen out to hunt, maybe I can bring home a live rammit and teach her how to kindly kill and clean it. My hand throbs as the rammit sinks its teeth into my skin for at least the third time, trying desperately to get out of my grip.
The feathered ears beat against the air as if it can just fly away from me. Sometimes I wonder if rammits are really as stupid as they seem. The glowing pink fur is puffed up making it look more like a ball of fuzz with wings than an actual animal. The tree opens with a little prodding on my end and I am nearly taken out by a basket as it sails through the air past my head. “Kareen!” I frown down at the kit as she comes running up to me. The rammit in my hand jerks its body and I hold it up like some great prize. A sharp vibration jolts through my ilo and the kit nearly tackles me in her excitement to see what I have brought home.
“Patience, little one. We will kill it soon,” she bares her teeth in the same way I have seen her mama do and it makes my quills tremble. Perhaps this baring of teeth is different for their people, but to me it is strange. Fierce little things. “Calm down, I promise I am working on it,” I tell her as I pluck a quill from my crest.
I bring the sharp end to the neck of the rammit, crouching down so that she can see how to end its life quickly and with as little pain as possible. She is baring her tiny blunt teeth at me again and, with the way she looks at the rammit, I am starting to worry she may not have gotten enough to eat. Two intense vibrations pulse through me as the kit snatches the rammit right from my hand and Xia clutches the one that holds the quill. Horror rushes at me along the bond from both of them and makes me stumble backward a little. Xia is still holding my hand as she tries to calm Kareen, who is once again leaking fluid from her eyes. “What did I do?” Ettrian laughs uproariously in my mind, his eyes creasing and quills beating together fiercely as he takes in my bewildered face.
“Bunnyfly!” Kareen yells through the bond, her bottom lip sticking out as she runs her hand gently over the rammit’s fur. It snuggles its whole body beneath her chin and peaks out at me.
“By the Sun Father …” I do not even know what a Bunnyfly is, but she seems to think she has found one. Still, she spoke along the bond and that is something that warms my heart. She is learning. “The next time I think bringing home dinner will be uneventful, please remind me of this moment.” Ettrian pats my shoulder as he moves past us, his laughter echoing after him.
Chapter 9
Ettrian
“Do not touch her! No!” Our kit is pulled from the arms of my mate, both screaming loudly as the disgusting green alien wraps his arms around Kareen’s throat. I struggle against my bonds, jerking as hard as I can. “Stop!” I hear myself roar over the sounds of Kareen’s strangled cries as her life is slowly being extinguished before my eyes. I cannot breathe through the pain in my chest as I fight. “Please do not do this.” Her little body falls to the floor and that is when I notice Aquilian is lying lifeless next to her. My brother, my twin, the one who has been with me every single day of my life, is gone. I have lost both of them. My world is spinning and I look up in despair to see that they are now holding Xia.
She is glaring at me in disgust, blaming me for their deaths, and she is right. This is all my fault. I should have done something, anything to save these females who count on me to protect them. I should have done something to save my brother, who has always looked to me for answers. I failed them all.
“Please, spare her!” I beg.
“It’s too late now.” Xia’s head jerks sharply to the side and she makes no sound as she crumbles.
I shoot up in my sling, panting heavily as sweat rolls over my skin. Squeezing my eyes shut, I try to shake the image of my family lying dead at my feet from my mind, but it continues to haunt me. When I finally look up, Aquilian is staring at me from across the room, concern filling his eyes. “Spare who, brother?”
“It is nothing. Just a dream.” I lie and cut off all access to my mind that he has. Sun Father, forgive me for my deception.
A mostly uneventful week passes without interference from the aliens. I say “mostly uneventful” because Kareen has decided that what should have been our dinner is now a part of our family. I glance over at the kit; her light-colored hair has been pulled back into a braid and she has the rammit lying in her lap, its feet are up in the air and she rubs its soft, fluffy belly while she sings. I’m learning more and more about having hearing and I find that I love listening to Xia and Kareen when they speak aloud or when they attempt to teach Aquilian and I songs from their homeworld. My twin cannot hear them, but he watches intently as their mouths move while I project their voices to him. I know their company has done more for him in mere days than I could have ever hoped to do in our lifetime.
Hope curls deep in my belly that perhaps our captors will leave us be, maybe they assume I am breeding her inside of the tree. Xia has not allowed my brother and I to get too close to her, but she seems to be more relaxed than she was when we first met. Aquilian is sitting beside me repairing one of the baskets that Kareen used to boost herself up on last night. Her foot went clear through it and she had cried huge tears, which was something very new and very terrifying that we were trying to get used to. A lot of explaining on Xia’s part and broken translations on the alien technology in my head taught me what the liquid was. It had taken a comforting embrace from each of us to soothe her and stop the leaking.
“Thank you,” Kareen had whispered against my chest and I had felt my entire being light up. It had been the first moment that she had sought me out for comfort and I knew it was now etched into my mind for the rest of my life.
Xia sit
s next to Aquilian, watching as he weaves dark, flexible leaves into the broken section of the basket. She catches me looking at her and the corners of her mouth tip up as her cheeks start to turn a deep pink. I can feel my cock trying to push past the plating that protects it and I realize I need to leave the tree and get myself under control.
“I am going to scout a bit more. I should not be long.”
Aquilian does not look up from his task. “Grab more tear fruit while you are out. Kareen snuck the last one last night and thought I did not notice.”
“Of course.” my quills rattle softly in amusement.
Leaving the tree is as simple as opening my mind to it, something that only Dauur can do I suspect. Xia has complained that she cannot make it open the way we do, which is a blessing considering what could be waiting outside in the forest. It keeps her safe, though she does not realize it.
Climbing the spiral tree is not as hard as it looks, but reaching the tear fruit is a task within itself. If I did not have my quills to shoot at it, I doubt I would even be able to reach them thanks to the large thorns that surround the fruit to protect it from scavengers. Pulling a quill from atop my head, I send it sailing at the nearest blue treat and grunt triumphantly when it falls. I have had a lot of time to practice gathering these.
A shiver runs through me. The forest grows quiet and even the air feels off somehow. Climbing down the trunk, I ready another quill and cock back my arm as I scan the foliage. The predators that got caught in the dome have become more desperate, coming closer to the tree with each passing day, and the silence makes me worry that a nolfira and its clan may be stalking me. Both Aquilian and I are big enough to usually be ignored by these predators, but Kareen and Xia would make the perfect meal.
Instead of the great white beast I had feared had tracked me down I come face to face with the green alien from before. The same one from my nightmares. My caution does not seem so silly now that I am staring down the disgusting being.
“Have you done as I asked? We have not seen the female nor the kit in quite some time.”
I suspect something on my face gives away that I have not followed through, because he seems to grow agitated. “I cannot do that to my mate.”
“Even with my gift you choose not to speak? If it weren’t for your uncanny ability to procreate we wouldn’t even be here.” A buzz fills my ears as he starts to pace just a few feet from me. He is in the dome this time, I realize. It is the perfect chance.
I move quietly across the leaves that litter the ground while he is distracted, a quill held tightly in my hand. A hissing sound of irritation falls from his unnatural mouth. Pulling back my hand, I strike quickly at his neck, but instead of hitting his skin something stops me in mid-air. It is like I have hit an invisible wall. The wings on the alien’s back flutter as his head turns sharply in my direction.
“You would dare try to attack me? You think that I am stupid enough to come without protection?” his voice grows louder with each word, his tongue licking his lips. “For this you will pay. We know where you hide, Dauur.” The threat in his voice has me backing up, nearly tripping over the overly large roots. “We also know the location of your tribe.”
There is no mistaking what he means. “There are kits!” But I know even as I say it that he doesn’t care. My tribe has many warriors, but even I worry for their safety when he so easily deflected my blow.
“I am feeling generous. I will give you one more day to do as I asked you.” he says before he walks away from me.
Collecting the fruit from the ground I hurry back to our den, scared of what is to come. If anything, Xia is more wary of me than she was the first day and I do not know how I am going to accomplish this. Making my way through the forest in record time, I call out to the tree to open. It is taking too long and the room is not revealed fast enough, this den is not nearly as responsive as the one we have near the village.
“Open!” I growl, just as the hole forms and the sight of Xia greets my eyes. The floor is covered with leaves she had us collect, because she says the wood was too cold for her feet. The sound of Kareen and Aquilian come from deeper inside the den, but I deposit my fruit into the basket we weaved the day before and rush to my mate before the tree even has time to close. I am pulling her against me and rubbing my face along her neck when she speaks in her exotic voice.
“Ettrian? You okay?” She asks quietly.
“Mine.” My quills rattle so harshly that it is almost painful and I run my tongue along her neck. I need to be lost in my mate, I need her to accept me now. Even without the ceremony, I have to believe she will be able to survive it. So much depends on this.
“What was that?”
Satisfaction rushes through me at the thought that between the translator and the bond it is getting easier to understand her. My tongue slides along her throat as my hands bury themselves into the soft strands that curl around her face.
“You are our mate,” I tell her for what feels like the hundredth time, but as with every other time we have spoken the words to her, she only scrunches up her face in confusion. The garments she wears to cover her body have been washed in the water of the tree and yet the same floral scent she had when we first met her still clings to it. A soft whimper falls from her lips as she moves her hands to cradle my head and attempts to dislodge me.
“Ettrian, no.”
I know these words, but they do not stop me this time. Her life, our kit’s life, and even that of my tribe are on the line. I am so lost in her that I do not notice when Aquilian enters. Only when he throws me clear across the other side of the room, quills rattling as if I am a threat, does my mind clear.
“She said no!” He snarls.
“I cannot afford to wait any longer Aquilian! The time for that has passed!”
“We have plenty of time to ease her into this. She is not like us, she does not understand!”
Kareen clings to Xia as liquid falls from our mate’s eyes. What have I done? I should have just told them. Even if Xia couldn’t understand, my twin would have.
“He will kill you all if I do not do this.” Bile rises in my throat just at the thought of it.
“Who?” he asks.
But I cannot find the words to tell him, so instead I replay the memory for him, letting him see for himself the being that haunts my dreams. I know the moment he hears what the alien has commanded I do because pure rage flashes through him, and he pins me against the wall with his hand on my throat.
“You should have told me! We do not keep secrets!”
“Aquilian!” Xia says her hands gripping his arm as she tries to pull it away from where it cuts off my airway. “No!” She pulls roughly at him, the liquid that fell from her eyes begins flowing faster.
It is only the agony that is sent through the bond from her that has him releasing me. “Get out.” Aquilian lifts her up into his arms and crosses the room to Kareen, grasping her hand in his before pulling them both deeper into the den. I stumble back through the opening in the tree and run blindly into the forest, putting as much distance between my family and myself as possible. Being separated from them is agony, but it is preferable to what I almost did. I broke her trust. I would have gone against my own mate’s wishes if Aquilian had not stopped me and the thought turns my stomach.
I am sickened by my own actions and by the fact that I let my fear control me. Aquilian was right, I should have told him everything from the very beginning. Wandering the forest aimlessly, the things I’ve done play over and over again in my mind and shame consumes me. I never wanted to hurt Xia. Hurting a mate was the last thing any male wanted to do; my heart clenches painfully at the memory of the fear in her eyes and the way our kit looked at me. I deserve whatever punishment the Sun Father deems appropriate. A rammit hops across the pathway in front of me before darting into the bushes.
A sharp pain pierces my back, making my steps falter. The world around me grows dark and my vision narrows as I fall heavily to the fore
st floor. Just before unconsciousness consumes me I look up to see the alien standing over me.
“You just couldn’t listen, could you? I see I will need to intervene, after all.” My whole world fades to black.
Chapter 10
Inoxia
In the week since Kareen and I were abducted a lot has happened. I find that I am able to communicate with my two aliens better and better each day, though I still can’t understand them very well, and yet I still sit here wondering how I have given Ettrian the wrong idea for the second time. I have been very careful to not even touch him lately so it confuses me how we have miscommunicated so epically. He’s been a nice enough guy, up until he tried forcing himself on me.
Before today, he had been so caring, so quick to make sure I was fed and felt wanted. Before today, I worried that something was wrong with him. He’d been sleeping more and more, becoming more distant, not just with Kareen and I, but also with Aquilian. The fact remains that I still like him, still find him attractive, and still wish that I knew what was going on. He’d been trying to tell me something for the last couple of days and I just couldn’t understand.
“You okay, Xia?” Kareen whispers as she snuggles into my side.
“Yeah, I’m okay sweetie. Ettrian and I just had a hard time understanding each other, that's all.”
“I want to go outside,” she sighs.
The guys have kept us locked away inside this tree for days and I swear if I have to stay here any longer even I am going to start bouncing off the walls. Being without sunlight for so long is unnatural for the two of us. I’ve already been coming up with a plan to get us out of this tree for at least a little while. The men leave us alone a lot to go get food and supplies and it isn’t like we are actually locked up in here. While they are gone I have been practising “talking to the tree” as they call it. It opens further each day and I think that I am starting to get the hang of this tree whisperer stuff.