PROTECTED BY HER ALIEN MATE

WARRIORS OF THE D’TALI: BOOK EIGHT

AVA YORK

STARR HUNTRESS

CONTENTS

Rojav

Nora

Nora

Rojav

Nora

Rojav

Nora

Rojav

Nora

Rojav

Nora

Rojav

Nora

Rojav

Nora

Rojav

Nora

Rojav

Nora

Rojav

Nora

Rojav

Nora

Rojav

Nora

Rojav

Rojav

Nora

Rojav

Nora

Rojav

Are you a STARR HUNTRESS?

Rekker

Kazan

Rogue Mate

ROJAV

A six-foot-eight-inch slab of light-green-scaled muscle named Toc loomed over me. The sun shone behind him, casting his features in shadow. I squinted against the blinding rays, trying to make out his eyes. I held my breath, awaiting his next words. He spoke in a voice as deep as a bell.

“Today is the day.” Toc tilted his head to one side. “Are you ready?”

I glanced at the iron-barred gate to our large cell.

“I did all the time they gave me.”

The prison of thick stone and iron bars blocked most sunlight beating down on the city of Tahkath. Deep shadows filled our cells most of the day, keeping the prison cool through the heat. When the sun rose, though, rays of her light reached us through the windows set high in the prison’s tall stone walls.

The sun rose past the high windows, plunging Toc and me into a world of near-perpetual twilight. When my eyes adjusted, I noticed Toc watching me, concern pulling at his face.

“You served your time, Rojav. Your release comes with King Dojak’s forgiveness. Your work in Mellida’s prisoner rehabilitation programs earned her confidence.”

But do I really deserve it?

I looked away.

I may have completed my sentence, but I doubt I will ever free myself of the guilt.

“She says Zalko has already made some arrangements for me. I’m supposed to meet up with him at the garden.”

Toc nodded and clasped my shoulder in his giant hand. I looked him in the eye.

“Accept all the help you can get, Rojav.”

I was by no means small for a D’Tali, but Toc towered over most people.

Few but Mellida’s mate, Jarlath, could match Toc for pure size and power. Jarlath worked as one of the prison guards, and had always been fair to the prisoners he guarded.

Then, Jarlath met Mellida. In the six months since, she had entirely transformed our lives.

With D’Tali women so scarce, spending time with one of the human women in any capacity felt special.

I wonder what it would be like to have a woman in my life? No, don’t torture yourself, Rojav. I’m more likely to find a talking rock than a mate.

More than that, though, Mellida had created the opportunity for prisoners to develop new skills with our time separated from the society whose rules we had violated. Many who had stolen to eat before prison now had the opportunity to earn a living.

Jarlath and his fellow guard, Kalan, sauntered up to the gate. Jarlath called into the cell.

“Rojav, Olanth, Madar, it’s your day. You know the drill. Step to the left wall. The rest of you, stay to the back of the cell.”

We prisoners divided ourselves into the requested groups without complaint. We had learned early on that causing trouble was a fast way to lose the chance to do more than sit in a shadowy cell all day.

I stepped to the left wall, lining up between the red-scaled Madar and purple-scaled Olanth. Jarlath unlocked the cell, swinging the door open. Madar, Olanth, and I stepped out of the shadowed cell, free men. Jarlath closed and locked the cell behind us.

I wish it were so easy to lock away my own darkness. If only I could step out from under the shadow of my own crime.

We three newly free men walked through the prison’s entrance and into the light breeze blowing through the courtyard. An old numa turned her head in my direction and huffed. For a moment, I let my gaze roam, taking in the world outside the prison.

I had stepped outside this gate many times while participating in the various programs Mellida and Zalko had made available at the prison—like the garden work or making leather packs for Mellida’s prisoner release kits.

Mellida, herself, walked up and handed me one. “Here you go, Rojav.”

“Thank you.” I looked the pack over. “I think I made this one, too.”

Mellida smiled. “That pack is well made. I saved it for you, since your release day was near.”

I had to admit I enjoyed learning to work with the pafu leather and constructing packs for the newly free.

Now I’m the newly free. Does walking out of a cell really change a criminal into something new? How can it, when my crime can never be undone?

“Thank you. That was thoughtful.”

“There are a few coins so you can get some personal supplies, enough preserved food for three days, a cloak, and a token for the king’s new workforce program. Take it to Zalko at the garden and he will find you a bunk until you find our own place. He will also help you find honest work, if you want it.”

Mellida handed out packs to Olanth and Madar, as well. I waved, then set my feet upon the path to the garden. Olanth and Madar fell in beside me.

I had never intended to make friends in prison, but, once Olanth and Madar had found out the three of us shared a release day, I couldn’t get rid of them.

Madar tossed his token high in the air, snatching it with one hand. “The last time I got out of prison, I slept in a ditch for a week, stealing bread until I could find a gang who’d take me in. This time, there’s a bed to go to.”

Olanth laughed, showing the gap in his teeth where someone had punched him in a barfight.

“Are you going to look for work, too, Rojav? Or do you have a job lined up?”

“Been in prison too long to know anybody to give me a job. I’ll take a sure bet on making coin to keep meat on my plate, and Zalko has always been honest.”

Madar nodded. “Yeah. Zalko’s from the streets, like us. He understands how hard it is to get by.”

Olanth grinned. “When did you ever imagine you’d become a king’s man?”

Madar shook his head, laughing. “From criminals to working for the king. Life’s looking up, boys.”

Olanth laughed. I shook my head. We had walked this route through the city many times on gardening detail, but, this time, we walked it as free men.

Life is supposed to feel different, now. Isn’t it? Olanth and Madar act like children finally let out to play. Do I feel the same spring in my step?

Olanth punched Madar in the arm.

“What was that for?”

“’Cause you’re so ugly.”

Madar laughed. “You’re just jealous of my gleaming red scales. I am the perfection of D’Tali.”

Even I laughed with them.

We passed through the open plains between the prison and the city. Crops stood tall and high, birthing a bounty of fresh summer fruits. We wove our way through the outskirts of the city until Mellida and Jarlath’s cottage greeted us.

Zalko, an old, teal-scaled D’Tali—a fierce fighter, with a lifetime’s experience on the streets— reached many of the prisoners in a way no one else ever had. He listened to our stories and understood us in a way others couldn’t.

Jarlath has been a great guard, but he never had to wonder where his next meal came from or if Dad was coming home drunk again…

I pulled my mind back from the brink of my darkest thoughts.

Zalko was about to speak and proclaim our future. “Glad to see all three of you made it here.”

We nodded and Madar laughed. “Where else we got to go, Boss?”

Zalko clapped my shoulder, smiling.

“Not to worry. Grab any free bunk in the bunkhouse.”

Zalko pointed to a building set away from Jarlath and Mellida’s cottage. Several other D’Tali I recognized from the prison played cards at a table on the bunkhouse’s porch.

“We provide three meals a day. Well, we provide anything you can’t grow in the garden, and you boys do the rest.”

Zalko pointed to the kitchen, a breezy, stone building set away from all the others to prevent any fiery kitchen mishaps from burning down everything. A few men worked in the kitchen, preparing the next meal.

“What about the work?”

Zalko grinned. “I was just getting to that, Rojav. Right now, we have a few options. There are always construction jobs when you can’t find anything else. The foremen come by at sunrise, if you want hard, hot, honest work.”

Madar chuckled. “It’s all hot and hard work, Boss.”

“Most of the time, that’s true…”

Olanth cut in. “What about today, Boss? I know Mellida gave us some coin to get us by, but I’m hoping to save that for emergencies. My problem is, I’ve been dreaming of cheap beer for months, and I’d sure feel better about quenching that thirst with a bit more coin in my pouch.”

I shrugged and grinned at Zalko. “Can’t argue with that logic, Boss.”

Zalko pointed to the kitchen. “All we have today is kitchen work. If anything comes up, I’ll let you know.”

I nodded. “Thanks, Boss.”

Zalko pointed at us. “You three think you’ll stick together for a while? It’s hard to find men who can work together.”

I shrugged. “I suppose Olanth and Madar aren’t so bad.”

Olanth grinned and draped his arm over my shoulder.

“Sure, Boss. We’re buddies. Right, Rojav? I mean, if it will get us more work or coin, we’re best friends and no trouble at all.”

Madar grinned and patted my shoulder. “I can assure you, we are reformed. We’ve learned our lessons.”

“Yeah, Boss. Me and Rojav and Madar, we’re good boys now.”

NORA

Princess Alyna ran through my garden as fast as she could, stark naked and screaming at the top of her lungs. Queen Sofia chased after her, attempting to wrangle the half-human, half-D’Tali two-year old.

“Get back here right now, Alyna! And put your clothes back on!”

I chuckled, remembering my younger cousins. “An I-hate-clothes phase?”

“I swear that child lives to vex me.”

The little princess stuck her tongue out at her mother.

All the human women on this world had arrived the same way. Some nasty aliens called Zarg had abducted us from our life on Earth. The Zarg had intended to sell us, but we were rescued by the D’Tali.

Sofia fell in love with Dojak, King of the D’Tali. At first, the mere thought that a human woman and a dino-man could fall in love threw me for a loop. That was two years, seven human-D’Tali mate pairs, and several babies ago.

Conventional Earth wisdom denied Princess Alyna could exist, yet she rolled naked in my garden while Queen Sofia tried to fit her back into her dress.

Once I had adjusted to the glaring fact that miracles existed in the form of half-human babies, I dedicated myself to finding out what other miracles existed on the D’Tali’s planet.

Since none of the human women can go back to Earth now.

“She’s not hurting anything, Sofia. Leave her be and come tell me why you dropped by. Alyna will entertain herself.”

Queen Sofia looked torn between trying to keep her child in clothes and getting off her feet. Aching feet won and she plopped into one of the wrought-iron, human-sized bistro chairs around the garden bistro table.

Queen Sofia had commissioned the set to be made from the remnants of the crashed starship which had brought us humans to this planet. She released a breath of tension and her body relaxed as she melted into the thick cushions.

Her eyes darted about, but I knew she was looking inside her own head, searching for the perfect words.

“Nora, I know we’ve talked about this before—”

“And I’ve turned you down before.”

“Four times and counting, but hear me out—”

Old tension, born of too many repetitions of the same argument, gnawed at my nerves.

“I’ve already made it clear I am not a good fit for a classroom setting. My specialty is fieldwork. Tethering me to a classroom is like…like…might as well chain me to a stake in the yard, Sofia.”

Queen Sofia raised an eyebrow at me. “And you’re not being even a little hyperbolic, are you?”

“No. I exaggerate nothing.”

I leaned forward, taking her hand. I looked into her face, as honest and open as I could be.

“Sofia, this is an entirely different world. There is so much out there waiting to be discovered…seeking out those discoveries is what I love. Do you realize? No scientist has catalogued anything the way we can. Everything out there is new! That’s what I need to be studying—what we have available to us here on this planet.”

“But Earth knowledge…”

“What good does it do me to try to teach my Earth knowledge to the D’Tali? They will never see a philodendron or poison ivy. They will never see Earth wheat or anthrax or aspergillus or…or a horse.”

“Are you into animals, too? Or just plants?”

“I know some basic zoology, but I prefer plants. Of course, there is always some overlap. Zoology, entomology, geology…all play a part in horticulture… Okay, Sofia, that’s not fair, distracting me with my favorite subject.”

Sofia shrugged a shoulder.

“Don’t be mad just because I made my point that you are a good teacher. And knowledgeable.”

“And all those disciplines require samples to use and teach. Data points, tests, reams and reams of paper, and miles of filing cabinets, in the absence of computers. Not to mention scores of scribes just to write the textbooks…”

“All of which I will work out. Eventually.”

A half-grin tugged one corner of my mouth. “Before I go insane? Knowledgeable plant people are not the best people people, Sofia. Plants, I understand. People…confuse me. I could be discovering the metaphorical cure for cancer during the time I waste trying to figure people out.”

Queen Sofia ran her hands through her dark brown hair as her eyes watched Princess Alyna dig up half of a mound of good topsoil, then turned back to me.

When she spoke, her haunted tone sent chills down my spine.

“Nora, what we have in our heads is all we have of our place of birth, our cultures, our stories, our knowledge…everything our children may ever know of Earth. What we carry in our minds is a treasure more precious than gold. We carry every remnant of a culture more advanced than the one in which we live…hundreds of years of thought and knowledge.”

I picked at a loose thread on the shorts I had talked the tailor into making for me. “I hadn’t thought of it that way.”

“And it breaks my heart, Nora, thinking it will be lost in a single generation.”

We fell silent, watching Alyna play while Sofia wiped a tear from her eye. She sucked in a deep breath.

“I have a question for you, Nora. When did you become fascinated by plants?”

“Uhhh…I guess it all started when I was six or so…”

“What started it?”

“My aunt, Cindy. Like, the most amazing crazy ex-heroin-addict crazy, artsy aunt you can imagine. She bleached half her hair and never wore matching earrings.”

“Sounds like a blast.”

I chuckled. “Yeah, Mom was not happy the year Aunt Cindy gave me a Ouija board for Christmas.”

Sofia cackled.

“Anyway, she read me The Legend of the Bluebonnet by Tomie dePaola. The bluebonnet is such a fascinating flower and the story was so profound. I started looking at the world in a different way.”

Sofia pointed at me, face serious.

“That’s what I’m talking about. I’ve never read that story but, after hearing you talk about it, I regret missing it. Would it inspire Alyna to plant things rather than dig?”

I chuckled. “It might. I was a digger, too.”

“Then there’s hope…”

Sofia and I laughed.

“At least she stripped before digging. You can wash most of that mess off in the rain barrel when you need to leave. There are even clean towels.”

Sofia craned her head around to locate the towels.

“Oh, bless you. The trick, of course, will be getting her out of it, after we get the dirt off.”

“After all that digging, I bet once you get her clean, she’ll be asleep in your arms before you even get her to bed.”

“One can only hope.”

I shrugged. “Mom always said it worked on me.”

“Do you miss her?”

“My mom?”

“Yeah. Back on Earth.”

“There’s only a grave back there to miss.”

Sofia laid a comforting hand on mine. “Oh, I’m so sorry.”

“Don’t be. She went out happy. Snowboarding.”

“What? Really? How old was she?”

“Sixty-two.”

“Wow.”

“I was a surprise baby.”

“I bet you were.”

Princess Alyna sculpted a mound of soil with her little hands, sticking random twigs and leaves into the sides, like trees on a mountainside.

“Could you write that story down? For Alyna? I want her to have stories with humans in them…”

My heart broke for her a little. “Give me some time and I’ll see if my memory holds up. I’m sure I can recreate it.”

“Awesome. Just get me the pages and I’ll have it copied and bound.”

“You really make a great queen.”

Sofia cackled. When her laughter faded, her somber mood returned. She pinned me with her eyes. “Seriously, though, Nora. I want to establish a Department of Science. I need someone to train people on basic science theories and lab procedures. I need every human on this planet writing down everything they know—every story they remember.”

I sighed. “I agree that those things are important, but I can’t deal with a classroom setting.”

Sofia nodded. “Let me think, Nora. I’m certain we can find a way to make this work for both of us.”

We watched Alyna sculpt a mountain and I leaned towards Sofia. “Ever watch that old movie, Close Encounters of the Third Kind?”

Sofia laughed so hard she choked. When she stopped spluttering, she sighed.

“I was thinking the same thing, Nora.”

“My mom was a huge sci-fi fan. We would stay up late and watch old movies. I guess that’s what I’m getting at, Sofia. While I watched those old movies with Mom, she would try to explain what the world was like when those were filmed…”

I held up a finger, asking Sofia to wait for me. I took a sip of water and continued.

“But I will never really understand a time before women could vote or get a credit card or a loan without a husband’s signature. And how do we even explain the context of any of that to Princess Alyna or Camilia’s little Anya?”

Sofia sighed, watching Alyna. “Like trying to explain why Alyna’s mountain made us laugh to Dojak when I see him later.”

“Exactly. And do we even want to bring all of that world with us? No one in D’Tali is going to treat us bad for being women—maybe for being mammals, but not for being women.”

I turned to Sofia and looked deep into her eyes. “Do we even want to introduce the concept?”

Sofia rubbed her forehead with her palm. “I don’t know, Nora. But those are good questions.”

NORA

Sofia’s words hounded me through the remainder of my day. Tired of random people dropping by my little research garden and distracting me with perfectly reasonable questions, I packed my bag.

I scanned the garden. Seeing nothing demanding to be done anytime soon, I slung my bag over my shoulder and walked to the market. On one of my many visits to the garden where the prisoners worked, I had mentioned to Mellida how useful a good pair of work boots in my size would be.

A week later, Mellida had taken me to the best cobbler in town. After extensive negotiations, a wagon load of sketches, and a few false starts, I bought three pairs of the best boots I had ever owned.

I liked the way the thick soles slapped the cobblestones with each step. The old teal D’Tali cobbler tailored them just to me. The iridescent white and green scales of the pafu leather sparkled like club shoes, but I loved them.

I looked at the D’Tali walking the streets with me. One almost never saw a female D’Tali in Tahkath. Few were ever born and the D’Tali mated for life, bonding with their partner in the most amazing ways.

Or so the mated human women claim, at least.

Mom claimed I had been a scientist since birth, and I had no evidence to prove or disprove the mated women’s claims. I did believe the children were miracles, though, so I knew miracles happened.

Delusions also happened, especially to people isolated in bizarre and extreme situations. Being abducted from one’s planet while still unaware of life beyond one’s planet of origin and plopped here qualified as extreme.

I pushed those endless thoughts aside and lost myself in the myriad open-air market stalls. All manner of locally made, and imported, goods covered display tables and filled barrels and crates marked with writings in many languages.

“What we have in our heads is all we have of our place of birth.”

Sofia’s words floated through my head. She might as well have slapped me with them.

Sofia caught on to Maximum Queenage fast.

I pulled a handkerchief from my pocket and wiped sweat from my brow. I tucked the handkerchief away and browsed. My eyes roamed past sheafs of dried plants in shades of reds, tans, and browns.

I slowly passed up the common plants I had already seen and thoroughly studied. More of Sofia’s words bobbed to the surface of my thoughts.

“I need every human on this planet writing down everything they know—every story they remember.”

No, you don’t, Sofia. You think you want us all to write down all we know, but…do we really want to preserve all of it?

I noticed a small bunch of flowers of which I needed more samples. A few coins and a smile later, I carefully tucked them in my bag.

Even if we wrote down every detail we learned about the atomic bomb, should we ever let anyone see it? Would anyone even understand what we were talking about in a generation? Two generations? Would we even want them to, or can the burden of that knowledge die on this planet?

I moved on to the next booth, scanning mounds of earthy-smelling, earthy-colored spices.

“Anything new for me, Tavin?”

An apologetic smile softened Tavin’s blue-scaled face. He spread his hands wide, palms up.

“I am sorry, Lady Nora.”

I rolled my eyes.

What’s with the ‘Lady’ thing?

“Just Nora, Tavin. Being called ‘Lady’ feels very strange.”

Tavin bowed. “Of course L…y Nora.”

I chuckled.

“Mumbling it doesn’t make it better, you scoundrel. Is my order in yet? Or not?”

Tavin’s hand disappeared into a crate under his booth’s counter and retrieved a small crate of exotic spices.

“Arrived fresh this morning.”

I dug out a small handful of coins and laid them on his palm. “Thank you, Tavin. Good doing business with you.”

Tavin bowed. “Anything for the Lady.”

“That’s it. I’m leaving.”

I turned from Tavin, waving away his nonsense. From the corner of my eye, I saw a single preserved bloom sealed into a glass jar.

That’s new.

The rest of the world seemed to fade away. The bloom called to me, demanding I appreciate her full glory. She must have been huge when fresh. Large, beautiful white petals, broad and erect, faded into a cascade of deep mauve petite petals and long tendrils.

“You like? This one is very rare.”

I blinked, noticing I stood in front of the bloom. The thinnest D’Tali I had ever seen smiled at me and gestured to the jar.

“I’ll take it. And any more you have.”

He laughed, his orange scales flashing in the light. “That is the only one.”

I handed him more coins than I had ever spent on a single specimen before and carefully placed the jar in my bag.

“What do you know about it? Where does it come from?”

The merchant gestured away.

“That one comes from far upriver in the jungle. It is said the people who trade it, the Vivutians, are fiercely territorial and vicious warriors. They say the flower is so precious and rare, the Vivutians only trade a few of the flowers at a time.”

“What is it supposed to do that makes it so precious?”

“The Vivutians use it to heal everything.”

“A panacea…”

“Forgive my ignorance, Lady, but I do not know that word.”

“Don’t worry about it. It means a cure-all.”

“Ah! Then, yes. This is said to cure all. But don’t drink it. Or put it in your eyes, though I don’t know why people keep trying that with everything. Why can’t people leave their eyes alone? It’s enough to drive a healer mad.”

I chuckled. “I agree. Leave the experimentation to the professionals.”

“Exactly, my Lady.”

I sighed at the ‘Lady’ but didn’t feel up to trying to explain how weird it felt to constantly be called ‘Lady’ or ‘my Lady’.

“Thank you.”

“Come back next week. I will have new delights.”

I waved and moved on. I looked forward to testing his claims. In a much better mood, I hurried back to my lab to begin the tests which would take the longest to complete.

When the sun set and writing became a challenge, I scarfed down some fruit, crackers, and cheese. I must have fallen asleep on the couch, eating, because I woke in a nest of cracker dust.

I cleaned up my mess and put myself together, then checked my samples. The new bloom, whose label read adhku chung in a thin, shaky script, showed excellent anti-inflammatory properties.

Very similar to turmeric, really…

With no hint of anything I could identify as harmful to humans, I decided to test the adhku chung topically. I had a swollen bug bite on my leg that was irritating the shit out of me.

I mixed a pinch of powdered adhku chung to a rich, plant-based lotion I had thrown together a few months ago and rubbed a tiny bit onto the swollen skin. The powdered bloom gave the lotion a sweet, musky smell.

The bug bite retreated, returning to near-normal within minutes. The pain and itching subsided.

Impressive. I have to show Camilia.

I packed the bloom, the powder, and the lotion into my pack and trekked to Camilia’s new medical clinic. A D’Tali with his arm in a sling walked out the clinic’s front door. He saw me approach and held the door.

“Thank you.”

Camilia’s voice hit my ears.

“Now Sofia is talking about turning this into a nursing school…oh, hi, Nora.”

“Hi, Camilia. Sorry to interrupt.”

“Not at all. Same old gossip. What brings you here?”

“I think I found an anti-inflammatory at least as effective as turmeric or Boswellia, maybe. I’ve tested it topically on a bug bite.”

Camilia’s eyes lit up. “Really? You have a sample?”

I fished the stuff from my bag. “This is the bloom, common name adhku chung. Comes from upriver and appears to be quite rare. I know it cost me. Anyway, I made this powder, ran the standard tests, and check out my bug bite.”

I pointed to my leg, pulling up the hem of my shorts. “Stopped hurting, too.”

“Nice find, Nora. Hand me the lotion.”

I handed her the small pot of lotion.

“It’s the usual base recipe I developed last year.”

“The love butter?”

I slapped my forehead.

“Why you call it that…”

Camilia laughed.

“Because it’s funny. Loosen up.”

“Might as well call it jizz.”

Camilia laughed harder.

“Follow me.”

She wiped tears from her eyes and led me to a patient room. She smiled at the D’Tali who sat there. His red scales had long ago faded with age until he bore the barest shade of pink. Thick, swollen knuckles warped the joints of his fingers.

I hurt to look at him bearing what must be terrible pain, unable to do even the most basic tasks for himself without arthritic agony. I hung back in the doorway while Camilia spoke to him in low tones.

She explained the lotion and he agreed to try it. I felt certain he would have tried anything to find relief. I watched as Camilia applied the lotion in gentle circles. A few minutes later, the old D’Tali gasped.

He carefully moved his shrinking joints, shedding a tear when he finally didn’t hurt. I fought tears. So much emotion overwhelmed me. Camilia looked at me, determination in her eyes.

“We’re going to need more of that.”

I nodded.

“I’ll talk to Sofia. I think I have an offer she can’t refuse.”

ROJAV

Zalko woke us in the early hours before dawn. Olanth and Madar groaned, clutching their heads in a good hangover. I had drunk as much as they last night after the kitchen work was done, but my head still felt clear.

After guzzling water from the barrel, the three of us stumbled to the kitchen to help with breakfast. Twenty men worked as a team to prepare breakfast for all the D’Tali who gathered here, seeking a better life and education.

I had heard it all over the tavern last night, people talking about all the things the human women were up to. I clearly saw their influence everywhere I turned. Young men, who had never had many prospects before, talked of learning new trades and finding new opportunities.

I only know how to read because Mellida sent tutors to the prison.

Zalko strolled up while Olanth, Madar, and I peeled vegetables.

“Cheer up, boys. I have a good feeling about today. I woke up this morning and thought, today is the beginning of a new adventure for you three…”

A small child running up to us at top speed distracted Zalko. He stopped a few feet from us and fell on the ground, huffing and puffing. One of his arms shot into the air, a message tube clasped in his little fist.

Zalko retrieved the tube from the boy’s clenched fist. He opened the end and slid the rolled-up message from the tube. He unrolled the message and read.

“Looks like the human women have a new idea. Says here they want to ‘mount an expedition’, don’t ask me what an ‘expedition’ is, upriver to…find a flower. Looking for a team to man the expedition. Expected duties: doing the hard stuff, carrying the heavy stuff, learning how to… I don’t even know what half of this means.”

He dropped his arm and fished a coin from his pocket. He flicked the coin onto the child’s chest.

“Thanks, Zalko!”

The boy leaped from the ground, the coin already tucked into a pocket. He ran to the stock tank where the numa watered, and stuck his head in. He pulled his head from the water with a splutter, shaking droplets everywhere.

The boy waved and dashed away.

I wish I was still that young.

Zalko turned to Olanth, Madar, and me. A giant smile split his face.

“How about it, boys? Hard work and adventure doing whatever the human women tell you to do while ‘learning new stuff’?”

Olanth cocked an eyebrow.

“How could a D’Tali complain? We’d get to hear her stories…”

Madar cut in.

“And fight off river pirates!”

I looked at both of them, my brows as high as they could rise.

“Have either of you been to the jungle?”

Olanth shook his head.

“No. And neither have you, Rojav. We’ll take it, Boss…”

I balked. “I never agreed to this…”

Madar draped an arm over my shoulder.

“Quiet. We’re a package deal, remember? A team—you, me, and Olanth—and you just got out-voted.”

“I never agreed to this…”

“Don’t worry, Rojav, you get to be in charge.”

“Why does that not make me feel better, Madar?”

Zalko interrupted. “Work it out later, the humans pay great wages.”

Olanth and Madar perked up.

“Do they, now? See, Rojav? You just made a smart decision, taking responsibility for all of us.”

Madar elbowed Olanth.

“Don’t talk him out of it.”

Something caught Zalko’s attention. I turned to look. A group of people approached along the path. Three human women walked with them, but I only had eyes for one.

Soft brown hair framed blue eyes deeper than the river. I gulped. She spoke with two other human women. She wore a small, short tunic and pants shortened far above her knee.

My heart thundered in my chest. My chest refused to draw in enough air. My head spun.

What is happening to me?

I tore my gaze from her. A Lukadian, draped in a dark cloak and mask, followed the women, leading a wagon.

Olanth whispered in my ear. “Never seen a Lukadian before. Do you think they really glow?”

I waved him back. “I’m trying to listen.”

Mellida walked up, smiling widely. She laid a hand atop her evergrowing belly.

“Hi, Zalko. You’ve met Nora before?”

Nora. Her name is Nora.

Zalko shook Nora’s hand.

“Yes, of course.”

Oh, no…I looked at her again…

I felt perched on the edge of a cliff, Nora’s eyes threatening to pull me over. I turned my head and focused on calming the blood rushing in my ears.

“Good to see you again. Did you understand ‘expedition’?”

“No, I did not.”

Nora nodded.

“Great. Gather everyone and I’ll explain.”

“How many men did you need?”

“As many as I can get, but let’s deal with that after I explain.”

Zalko nodded and called us all to the clearing near the kitchen where he had set up long tables and benches to accommodate the workers who found their way to the camp.

A young D’Tali placed baskets of biscuits on the tables and Olanth claimed a heap of steaming biscuits as soon as he sat his butt on the bench. Madar and I joined him, claiming baskets of our own.

Another young D’Tali with blue scales slid a plate of fresh numa butter on the table. Soon, the gathering fell quiet since all our mouths were full of buttered biscuits. I thought I felt normal again. Then, Nora stood and cleared her throat.

My eyes flicked to her face before I could stop them. A new, golden feeling tickled deep in my gut. My blood began to rush. I cursed whatever evil magic had set my veins afire.

Resist!

Her gaze taking us all in, Nora spoke.

“Very nice to meet you all. I’m Nora. I don’t know most of you yet, but I hope we can work together. This is a voluntary mission on behalf of King Dojak, Tahkath, and all of D’Tali.”

One of the other women cut in.

“And humans, Lukadians, Aetamians…”

“Yes, for everyone, thank you, Queen Sofia.”

I blinked, shocked. I was in the presence of a queen. Madar spoke up.

“So, what’s the job?”

“Glad you asked. We are going upriver to find the Vivutians where—I hope—we can find more adhku chung, a plant we have determined to have excellent medicinal properties. I’m looking for hard-working men who can walk, hike, climb, carry heavy stuff, listen to my instructions, and learn to perform tedious tasks.”

She stared each of us down. My stomach flopped when our eyes met.

“Let me be clear, this is a numa-dung job for good pay, but you get to see a bit more of the world, with steady meals. Think about it and get back to me.”

Nora turned back to the human women. They quickly fell into a new conversation I couldn’t hear enough of to follow.

Olanth slapped the table. “Sounds better than digging ditches or building roads.”

Madar nodded. “And I’ve never been upriver before. I heard there’s giant monsters in the jungle who can petrify you with a single glance.”

Olanth punched Madar’s arm.

“You’re full of tayn dung, Madar.”

“I’m serious. My grandpa told me.”

“The one you said wasn’t right in the head since that incident with the spoon?”

“Why must you bring that up? That was completely diff…”

I raised a hand.

“Keep it down. I’m trying to listen.”

Olanth and Madar fell silent. Zalko’s voice cut across the distance.

“Take Lorkot and Dak. Take Madar, Olanth, and Rojav, too. They were released yesterday, but I have high hopes. They have done very well in all our rehabilitation programs.”

Nora looked up at Zalko.

“Can they all read?”

Zalko nodded. “And write, too. Yes, Lady Nora.”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake, stop calling me ‘Lady’. I’m not a ‘Lady’. I’m Nora.”

As I watched her, the world around her began to fade. I felt certain a queen should outshine everyone around her, but only Nora captured my gaze.

She looked serious and…

Admit she’s the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen, Rojav.

I ignored my own thoughts and pushed myself up from the table. Olanth and Madar followed me.

“What’s next then, Rojav?”

I shrugged.

“I suppose we sign the king’s service contract and pack our things, Olanth.”

I made my way through the crowd milling around Nora and Zalko. I dropped to a knee before Queen Sofia.

“Your Highness.”

Olanth and Madar fell to their knees, too, mumbling their own honorifics.

“Please stand. For humans, all this falling to your knees and bowing feels very strange.”

We returned to our feet.

“Thank you, Your Highness.”

The queen sighed, then smiled.

“The three of you have a chance to make King Dojak, and all of Tahkath, proud. Remember, in distant lands, strange peoples will know us by your actions.”

I gulped, hanging my head.

“That is a heavy weight for some ex-convicts to bear, Your Highness.”

“And, yet, I believe you will make us proud. You have completed your sentences and redeemed yourselves in the eyes of the law. You only have opportunities ahead.”

I nodded. Olanth and Madar thanked the queen. I darted a glance at Nora.

Things will be fine, as long as I can avoid her as much as possible.

NORA

I woke early, before the sun had risen—not that I had slept much on the eve of our departure. Once Camilia and I had demonstrated the effectiveness of adhku chung love butter to Queen Sofia, events cascaded beyond my control.

I stretched and packed the few of my personal things I intended to bring. Back on Earth, an expedition like this would have required months of planning, but Sofia had made this one happen within days.

It’s good to be the queen.

I packed away some of my more precious concoctions in a temperature-controlled crate salvaged from the Zarg ship. Sofia had allotted me four for the expedition, but I had to swear to return them unharmed.

Into a few regular crates, I packed my most precious supplies, like the lab equipment Isabella had made me. I ran a loving finger over the simple microscope and checked my supply of slides before packing them away, too.

A young, yellow-green-scaled D’Tali knocked at the door. I waved him in.

“Good morning, Lady Nora. Zalko sent me to assist you.”

I sighed.

“Dak, right? You signed up for this expedition, yes? You plan on sharing this adventure with me?”

Dak nodded, a giant grin splitting his face.

“Yes, Lady Nora.”

“Well, not if you call me ‘Lady’ again.”

Dak’s eyes grew wide. He gulped.

“Tell your friends.”

Dak nodded, lips clamped shut. I looked around and started pointing.

“We need these crates. I’ll carry my pack. When we load the barge, make certain these are easy to access.”

I looked at Dak and raised an eyebrow.

“If anyone gets sick, I’ll need these crates to make them better.”

Dak’s face brightened like a dawning sun.

“If anyone needs help, I can assist, L…. Nora. I took the first aid class at Queen Sofia’s school.”

“Good to know. I suppose I’m going to have to make a list of what everyone knows…screw that. I’ll just…Dak? Do you think you could teach what you learned to the rest of the crew?”

“Yes…”

Dak’s voice trailed off in a strangled sound, but he managed to avoid calling me ‘Lady’. A smile escaped to cross my face. I decided I liked Dak.

“Excellent, Dak. You are officially my new assistant. Wait—do you know how to write?”

“Yes. Queen Sofia frequently complimented my penmanship.”

At least one helping of stress rolled off my shoulders in relief.

“You just made my day, Dak. Bring the crates. We can use the cart outside.”

With a nod, we piled my supplies on the little hand-drawn wagon outside. With one last look, I slung my bags over my shoulder, and we made our way to Tahkath’s docks. Dawn lightened the skies as we walked through the cobblestone streets.

The sun’s brilliance chased us past the stone homes and bustling early market stalls. The smells of delicious breads wafted through bakery windows and boys chased each other through the streets.

“Dak?”

“Yes?”

“Why did you decide to join this expedition? I thought you were doing well in your studies?”

“I am, but Queen Sofia wanted some of the military students to go. I get course credit for this trip and provide a level of security, along with Lorkot.”

“You’re the ranking military officer, right?”

“Yes. Jarlath and Zalko thoroughly briefed me on the expedition team.”

“That’s great news. You’re in charge of dealing with people. People aren’t really my thing.”

“You don’t say…”

The sun peeked over the horizon as Dak and I stepped onto the wharves. I recognized many who were gathered near the river barge Sofia had arranged for our use. Three of the D’Tali I’d seen the day before at Zalko’s work camp turned to us as we approached.

There he is again, the one I dreamed about all night when I should have been sleeping…

My heart pounded. Every move he made captured my eye and set my mouth to watering.

This is ridiculous. I don’t even know what to do with these reactions. I’m leading a fucking scientific expedition on an alien planet with alien dino-men—not exactly the time to get the hots for Mr. Moody-with-a-great-ass…

I shook my head to clear it, though I felt certain I had simply lost my mind. When I grew close enough, I began to shout, figuring it had worked for my PE teachers.

“Everybody follow me. We have limited time and too much for me to explain every detail, so this is what we’re going to do. I will tell you what I need done. You do what I ask. I will explain everything you need to know when it is a good time to do so. Any questions?”

I scanned the gathered crowd. One of Mr. Moody’s buddies caught my attention. I pointed at him.

“You. What’s your name and question?”

“Hi, Lady Nora. I’m Olanth.”

From the corner of my eye, I saw Dak nearly choke at the word ‘Lady’. My eyes rolled in my head before I could stop them.

“Nice to meet you, Olanth. Before you continue, let me say two things. One, if you want to stay on this expedition, do not call me ‘Lady’. I will dismiss you on the spot and you can find your own way back to Tahkath.”

Many eyes popped as wide as saucers. I suppressed a chuckle.

“Second, I’m terrible with names, but I promise, once we are on the river, I will learn everyone’s name. Please be patient. Now, Olanth, what is your question?”

“People keep threatening to teach us stuff on this trip, but no one has told us what we’re learning. Don’t get me wrong, I like getting paid, and the adventure sounds great, but what more do we need to learn about carrying heavy stuff?”

“You’re right, Olanth. Things have been so hectic, I kept putting that part of the explanation off. I’m going to teach you how to be scientists. It’s a human word for people who study the world. I study plants. I learn their secrets and I’m going to teach you how to learn their secrets, too.”

“Like a healer?”

“Many times yes, Olanth. We found a very powerful plant from which we can create powerful medicines. We travel to find more and learn about it. On the way, we are going to learn as much as we can about other plants, too.”

Olanth grinned.

“So maybe I can find the next powerful medicine.”

I smiled as that thought rolled through the crowd.

“Exactly. But all of that comes later. Right now, we’re burnin’ daylight, as my grandpa used to say. Let’s get this barge loaded so we can start this journey, yes?”

My eyes darted from one face to another, hoping I had appeased these alien men enough to get to work. Most broke off into small groups, chatting till they received an assignment. I saved Mr. Moody’s face for last. I feared merely looking at him would resurrect the electric jolt I felt when our eyes first met.

I took a quick breath and set my face to neutral. I flicked my eyes to him.

Sullen resentment. Pain. Fear. Frustration. Raw grief. Rage.

I shut my eyelids, cutting out the flood of understanding. I wrapped a hand over my forehead and massaged my temples.

All the expressions which drove me to plants in the first place…

People had always overwhelmed me, but Mr. Moody hit me differently.

Strong. Pure. Raw.

“Are you so disgusted with me? Zalko wasn’t serious, if he told you I was a package deal with Madar and Olanth.”

His voice rolled over me like honey. Low and soft, so only we two could hear his words. An instant craving for more reared up inside.

It’s just nerves, Nora. Lots of people lately, big changes, alien dino-men…breathe. Stay calm until this expedition is afloat. Then freak out.

I opened my eyes, dropping my hand. I blinked at him, trying to focus in the light.

“What?”

“Madar and Olanth are only petty thieves—easy to trust. Your look of disgust when you looked at me—I can understand murderers are not so palatable. Keep those two. They will work hard. I will go.”

I held up a hand, silencing him.

“Several people I trust vouched for you, so I don’t care that you killed someone. I was not trying to look disgusted or anything else. I was…temporarily ill…I forgot to eat or something. Don’t take it personally.”

“You don’t care I killed someone?”

“Right now, all I care about is getting this shit on the barge. Shit is human for dung. Why am I teaching you to curse in English?! Look! Just go do whatever Dak tells you to do. I can’t even deal with whatever,” I waved my hand around at him, “this is. You’re not fired, I need every hand I can get.”

I spun around, trying to end the conversation before the situation could get any worse.

“Dak.”

Dak trotted up to us.

“Dak, please get this guy…”

I didn’t even ask his name.

“Rojav.”

“Rojav and his buddies…”

“Olanth and Madar.”

“Olanth and Madar an assignment.”

I pointed at Rojav.

“And I will never get anything done if I have to look at that one again before this barge sails. Don’t make me explain, we don’t have time.”

I walked off before Rojav could distract and confuse me again.

ROJAV

“You don’t know how lucky you got with this job yet. You may have gotten by with a bad attitude in prison, but giving Lady Nora trouble is only going to lose you a real opportunity, Rojav.”

I shrugged off his words.

I didn’t start this. She started it when she looked at me like I disgusted her and lied about it after.

Madar draped an arm over my shoulder and smiled up at Dak.

“He didn’t mean nothing, Boss. Rojav, here, is just rough around the edges.”

Olanth draped an arm over Dak’s shoulder, also smiling widely.

“Yeah, Boss. Rojav’s a great guy. You’ll see. Now, where’s this work people keep promising us?”

Dak sighed, pushing Olanth’s arm off his shoulders.

“Well, don’t I have good news for you then? See that wagon of water barrels? You three can get those on that barge, right there.”

Olanth and Madar responded as one voice.

“Yes, Boss. We’re on it, Boss.”

“Call me Dak.”

“Olanth. That’s Madar.”

“Nice to meet you.”

Olanth and Madar led me to the cart of water barrels, waving at Dak the entire way. Dak shook his head and trotted off to catch up to Nora’s side.

Nora… No, don’t start thinking about her again.

Fresh memories of her flashed in my mind, no matter how many times I chased them away. I grabbed a water barrel from the cart and carried it up the ramp to the barge. I hoped hard work and exhaustion would get me through the rest of the day.

I lost myself in the simple physicality of lifting, carrying, and stowing barrels of drinking water below the barge’s deck. The barge’s Captain, Doren, strolled past. A smug, satisfied grin sat on his weathered face.

“Welcome aboard The Chuckling Numa. Happy to have you all aboard. Especially at the rates the humans pay.”

Captain Doren chuckled. His expansive belly shook. His blue scales had faded to sky blue with age.

“Glad to see you boys like work, but pace yourselves. There’s plenty more work to be done—even after Chuckles is fully loaded.”

Madar stopped in his tracks, a barrel poised on one shoulder. He turned his head to Captain Doren.

“You call her Chuckles?”

“Yeah, and, when you have your own barge, you can name her whatever makes you happy. Now, you better sweet -talk her afore she decides she don’t like your tone.”

Captain Doren winked at Madar. Madar laughed and walked off with his water barrel, muttering to himself.

“Sorry, Chuckles. I swear I already love you. No need to hold a grudge…”

While Madar, Olanth, and I hauled barrel after barrel, Dak and his fellow soldier, Lorkot, loaded crates. The robed Lukadian stowed foodstuffs. Nora walked by, checking documents and taking notes.

My head tried to spin, but I tore my eyes away. I put the water barrel on my shoulder between her and my eyes on the way below decks. On the empty-shouldered return trip, I had nothing to protect me from her blue-eyed glances.

Blood ran hot in my veins and I pushed all that energy onto the next water barrel. She and Dak conferred with an ease which ate at me.

Why does she speak so easily to him? She said she was bad with people, but she’s fine with Dak. Maybe that was an excuse…maybe it’s just me…

A memory of her disgust when she’d looked at me earlier tore open a pit in my stomach.

“Rojav!”

Nora’s voice snatched my breath. I froze, then slowly turned.

“Yes?”

“You look like you’re about to puke. Stow that barrel and get some water.”

She turned and shouted.

“Everyone get water. Pace yourselves.”

I fled below decks, stowing my barrel. Olanth walked up beside me and stowed the barrel on his shoulder.

“Last one, Rojav. Come on, I think we may be done.”

Madar draped his arm over my shoulders again.

“Let’s get that drink. So glad you talked Lady Nora into a water break. That’s thinking like a leader, Rojav.”

I sighed.

I must be cursed.

My self-appointed best friends and I clomped back above deck and clattered over the ramps to a large water barrel set up on the wharf. We drank our fill, catching our breaths. Madar gestured at the near-empty dock.

“Looks like we’re almost done loading.”

Olanth nodded.

“I wonder where we’ll sleep.”

“Ever lived on a boat before?”

Olanth and Madan shook their heads.

“You?”

“My first time, too.”

Madar shrugged and grinned.

“Can’t be worse than prison or starving.”

Olanth laughed. I wondered if the way I felt about Nora was better or worse than prison, but couldn’t decide. My stomach growled. Madar wrapped an arm around his middle and groaned.

“I’m hungry, too. I wonder what’s for lunch.”

I nudged him with an elbow.

“Go tell Captain Doren you’re a cook.”

“Ah, that would be a choice assignment.”

Olanth clapped Madar’s shoulder.

“I’d rather you cook than leave it up to Rojav.”

“I have to agree with Olanth. Everything I cook tastes like old boots.”

“I think I’ll do that.”

Madar trotted off, looking for the captain.

“Olanth, let’s see what’s left to do. And get your arm off my shoulders.”

Olanth laughed. We made our way through men carrying cages of live food birds and small haru. I spotted Dak near a mountain of webbed bags stuffed with fruit.

“Rojav, Olanth, that fruit is the last of it. Get it aboard wherever Captain Doren says it goes and we can figure out lunch.”

Olanth saluted Dak.

“Sir, yes, sir!”

I stuffed Olanth’s arms with bags until he looked like a walking fruit tree. I pushed him toward the barge and grabbed as many bags as I could. We wound a path through the deckhands securing the cargo to the deck, then hopped over the back rail onto the kitchen barge.

Chuckles consisted of two connected barges, with the kitchen on the second. We handed our fruit to Madar, who already wore a cook’s apron. He greeted us with a carefree grin.

“Thanks. Turns out Chuckles needed a cook, after all.”

“I wish I was the cook.”

Dak’s voice behind me surprised me and old instincts kicked in. I barely stopped my elbow moments before it smashed Dak’s nose.

“Don’t sneak up on a man like that, Dak. It’s a good way to get your face rearranged.”

“I’ll keep that in mind. Anyway, Madar, when you need a day off, or if you need a hand and I’m free, I’d love some time at the fire. Which should only exist in the kitchen. No one wants the main barge to catch fire.”

“How are we supposed to see in the dark without torches?”

“Glad you asked, Olanth, excellent question. The answer to which you will hear when Lady Nora decides to explain. Which she promises to do in detail over lunch.”

Madar looked up, then pointed at one of the bags.

“Rojav, take the pel. Pass it out. Everyone can snack on it while I get a quick lunch going. Dak, I could use that help, if you’re still offering. Olanth, I need a barrel of water.”

“Why didn’t you mention that earlier?”

“I didn’t know I was cooking earlier, did I, Olanth?”

Dak glanced over his shoulder at Nora, then turned back to Madar.

“I think I have time.”

Dak and Madar turned to the task of assembling the fastest lunch in the history of the D’Tali for the men who’d loaded the barge in the heat. I drew a deep breath, trying to strengthen myself against Nora’s magical, head-spinning influence.

Don’t look at her. If you don’t look at her, everything will be fine.

My mind lied to me. Nothing helped me escape the painfully acute awareness of Nora. I stared at the deck as I walked up to everyone I saw who wasn’t Nora. I pulled my small knife and sliced an opening in the bag of fruit. I sheathed my knife and grabbed a pel.

I slapped that pel into the first open hand I noticed.

“Have a pel.”

Before he could object, I accosted my next distraction. I grabbed a new pel from the bag and slapped it into the new guy’s hand.

“Hold this.”

I made it around to every hand, passing out pel like a present no one wants but gets anyway—every hand but one.

She doesn’t need a pel. Probably doesn’t even eat pel. She’s human. Who even knows what humans eat? I don’t.

My eyes darted about suspiciously. I tried to pretend my retreat was completely normal.

What if humans take pel as an insult? She could put me off this barge, then where would I be? Away from her. Maybe I should give her a pel. Unless she actually likes pel…

I finally noticed I was about to walk into something and froze. I blinked my mind back to the present and realized that, what I had thought was a something, turned out to be a someone. Which someone happened to be Nora.

In the absence of any ideas or plans, I lifted the half-empty bag.

“Pel?”

“I was beginning to wonder if you would ever get around to me.”

Her arms crossed over her chest and she raised an eyebrow.

I gulped.

“So…is that a ‘yes’?”

NORA

I took my pel from Rojav’s trembling fingers. Before the butterflies flitting about in my stomach could escape as nervous vomit, I turned from him. Without a backward glance at his thick, strong arms or wide shoulders, I found a couple of crates where I could sit.

I took a moment to eat my fruit and take in the scene. About three seconds after I finally relaxed, and a single second since I’d stuffed my mouth with pel, Captain Doren approached.

“All the cargo is stored. Madar and Dak nearly have lunch ready, and I see a king and queen approaching my barge, Lady Nora.”

I swallowed the pel pulp, sighed at the ‘Lady’, choked on pel juice, and coughed. When I could breathe again, I glared at the captain.

“Call me ‘Lady’ again, Captain Doren, and I will throw you in the river.”

Captain Doren chuckled.

“Don’t threaten me with a good time, human.”

I grinned.

“That label, I cannot deny.”

I rose to my feet and walked to the loading ramp, shouting over my shoulder to the workmen behind me.

“If you’ve never seen the king and queen, now’s your chance. Be nice, they paid for this field trip.”

Lorkot raised a hand.

“Yes, Lorkot?”

“What’s a field trip?”

“When your teacher takes you away from the school to learn something.”

King Dojak carried Princess Alyna, who had turned herself upside down in her father’s arms. King Dojak’s skill at keeping the child from a successful escape, regardless of her machinations, impressed me.

Queen Sofia walked beside them, smiling indulgently. She walked up to me with a huge smile, her shoulders scrunched up in excitement. She hugged me and I hugged her back with gratitude.

“I’m so excited for you, Nora.”

“Thank you so much, Sofia. I can never repay all your support.”

“Shut up. Are you kidding? This adventure of yours will benefit us all.”

King Dojak held Princess Alyna to the side and gave me a one-armed hug. He looked down at me, his face serious.

“Sofia tells me this is a proper human greeting among friends.”

I laughed and nodded.

“How can I turn down a hug from a king, Your Highness?”

King Dojak opened his mouth to respond, but Sofia laid a hand on his arm.

“That’s one of those ‘rhetorical’ questions humans are so fond of.”

“The ones never meant to be answered?”

“Right, love. Just contemplate it later. We can’t afford to keep Nora from beginning her journey. Now, say something nice to Nora and her team.”

King Dojak nodded. He spoke to the gathered men. His voice boomed from his chest, drawing the eyes of all those who worked nearby.

“Good people of Tahkath, gather.”

His voice scared the snot out of Princess Alyna, who stopped wiggling and leaned into her father’s massive chest.

“Today, we see off Tahkath’s first exploratory expedition, who seek to learn more of our world and discover many new things. Their pursuit is noble and honors all of Tahkath’s citizens. On behalf of my kingdom, I honor you, Lady Nora, and the men who follow you.”

I plastered a smile on my face and daydreamed of throwing a king in the river over that use of ‘Lady’. Queen Sofia didn’t bother to hide her eye roll.

It’s good to be the queen.

“Lovely, Dojak. Let’s let them get to their business, shall we?”

King Dojak laughed. They moved to the wharf. I moved to the deck of the barge. We all stared awkwardly at each other, waving hands and saying goodbye. The deckhands, whose names I had yet to learn, retracted the ramp.

They lashed the ramp to The Chuckling Numa’s side, unwinding the last of the ropes tethering the barge to the wharf. The Chuckling Numa floated away, pulled downriver by the current.

Captain Doren shouted behind me, pulling my attention from the royal party on the docks.

“Poles!”

Six deck hands leaped to their feet and retrieved long poles from along the side of the barge. They trotted to the back of the barge and sunk their poles deep. With practiced effort and coordination, they used the poles to push the barge upriver against the current.

Most of the deck hands worked stripped to the waist in the heat. The muscles of their shoulders and arms bulged as they pushed the barge along with the long poles.

What a miserable job.

Captain Doren chuckled at our interest in the poles.

“Don’t worry, boys. Everyone gets a turn on the poles.”

I heard a few groans, but they faded quickly. Madar and Dak arrived with food before anyone could fully regret coming along.

Except Mr. Moody…

The memory of the first time my eyes met Rojav’s replayed itself in my head over my objections.

Quick! Find a distraction.

“I’ll answer questions while we eat. Who’s first?”

Every giant dino-man on The Chuckling Numa spoke as one. I waved them down.

“One at a time. Raise your hand. I’ll point at you. Ask your question. Got it?”

The competitive outbursts faded, and I stared at a forest of raised hands. I pointed at Olanth.

“Who’s the Lukadian?”

The robed Lukadian stood.

“I am Zarid, cousin of Venik, the merchant who assisted Amber and Torvok when they traveled to Lukadia.”

Lorkot cut in.

“Didn’t I meet you at the school?”

Zarid nodded.

“Yes. I came to Tahkath to learn at your school. Lady Lanah personally tasked me with becoming a scholar. It is a high honor.”

Madar piped up.

“Isn’t that robe hot?”

Zarid shrugged.

“It’s better than sunburned scales.”

Everyone laughed and Zarid sat. I pulled my legs up on the crate I used as a bench and pointed at Dak.

“What does this flower we’re looking for do?”

Dak asked his question.

“The adhku chung reduces inflammation—the swelling that happens around injuries, more or less.”

Captain Doren leaned forward.

“You mean like my achy knees?”

“Yes, exactly. I don’t have much left, but we can, at least, try it and see if it works. I have a few other things which may help. I just have to figure out where everything is first.”

Dak interrupted.

“Captain Doren has designated a cabin with an office below decks for you, Nora. I put all your personal things there.”

“Wow. Thanks, Captain. Dak, can you grab the medicine chest for me?”

“I will return.”

Dak jogged below decks.

Captain Doren eyed the rest of the gathered men, then gave them the good news.

“The rest of you are welcome to grab a hammock in the crew’s berth. Any fights, you sleep on the deck. Without a hammock. Speaking of rules, anyone caught stealing from their mates gets tossed in the river. Anyone caught drinking all the liquor or eating all the food, gets tossed in the river. Am I clear?”

A chorus of Yes, Captain Doren rolled through the gathered men.

“That’s what I like to hear, boys. At this rate, we may even return to Tahkath with all you boys still alive.”

Captain Doren chuckled at his own joke and accepted the food bowl Madar offered him. Madar handed me a bowl filled with a steaming stew and a huge biscuit. I accepted the food with a smile.

“Thank you, Madar.”

Madar bowed and moved on, passing out bowls. I sipped at my bowl and nibbled my biscuit. I risked a glance at Rojav. He sat eating from his bowl.

Wow, he’s hot when he forgets to put on his grumpy face…

Thankfully, Dak returned with the chest in which I had packed the adhku chung love butter. I opened the crate and retrieved the small pot of lotion. I turned to Captain Doren.

“I need to see your knees. Drop your pants or pull up your pant legs.”

Madar and Olanth cackled, rolling about the deck at the look on Captain Doren’s face. He cleared his throat.

“Uh, I think I’ll roll up the legs of my pants…”

I suppose he’s dreamed of a day when a woman would ask him to drop his pants and that dream never looked like this.

A grin curled the corner of my mouth until the old captain rolled up his pants. His sky-blue knees looked the size of grapefruits and I was pretty sure they weren’t supposed to be that big, round, or shiny.

“That looks fucking terrible, Captain.”

“If by ‘fuh-king’ terrible, you mean painful, you’re right.”

“Uh…it’s a human way of…a word that means…extreme…”

Why am I lying? I could just tell them what ‘fuck’ really means, but…not a conversation I’m ready for.

“So, this adhku chung is supposed to work fucking great?”

I nearly choked.

“Yes. And fucking excellent use of the new term. Great way to learn it.”

Captain Doren nodded.

“Fucking right, Lady Nora…”

“I will throw your old D’Tali ass overboard if you insist on calling me that.”

“You can’t toss me overboard, I’m the captain. Not even King Dojak would back a mutiny.”

“Fine, you can stay, but really, don’t call me ‘Lady’.”

Captain Doren laughed.

“Show us what all this excitement is for. If this adhku chung is as amazing as you say, I will agree to stop calling you ‘Lady’, though it goes against all my instincts.”

A smug grin spread across my face.

“Deal, Captain.”

I dipped a fingertip into the pot, swirling it in the thick lotion. I secured a decent dose and applied it to Captain Doren’s swollen knees. Captain and men held their collective breath, staring at the swollen knees.

The captain released a relieved breath. I pointed at the kneecaps revealed by the retreating inflammation.

“See, here, how the inflammation retreats? The inflammation is caused by a buildup of some of the natural liquids in the body. In the case of arthritis, where the joints are damaged, the area can become too swollen. We just have to help the body calm itself. Then that built-up fluid can drain.”

The men leaned in like first-year medical students. A tear rolled down Captain Doren’s cheek. He spoke in a whisper.

“They don’t hurt…”

Even Rojav paid attention.

ROJAV

Chuckles crawled her way upriver under power of the polemen’s steady effort. Captain Doren has promised us all a turn at the long poles, eventually. For the remainder of that day’s light, however, we rested. We ate and drank and listened.

Nora spent the first hour teaching us human words, the words of her science. She drew my gaze, though I tried to avoid looking directly at her. She shone so intensely in my vision, I feared I would go blind.

She spoke ideas far beyond any I had considered.

I am made of tiny pieces? She promises to prove it in the morning, when the light is strong.

I looked down, examining my hand.

If I am made of tiny pieces, each calls out for her.

I wanted to run, but couldn’t think of a place on the barge free of her. Her voice wound itself into my soul. I sat, listening. Entranced, I lost myself in the imaginings of the bizarre worlds of which Nora spoke.

The second shift of polemen had pushed us far past Tahkath. Signs of settlement grew scarce. Tall, leggy trees crowded the banks, arching graceful branches over the river.

When night fell, Zarid removed his mask and cloak, storing them in his pack with care. Zarid, like all Lukadians, glowed. While Zarid’s glow entertained the others, I unpacked the vap lamps and passed them out among the men.

Vap was a bioluminescent fungus imported from Lukadia Mine. It also doubled as back-up rations in an emergency. A staple food of the Lukadian diet, Zarid snacked from the lamps to keep the fungus from overgrowing. Lamps handed out, I let my gaze drift to the riverbanks.

The exhaustion of the day’s work tugged at my limbs. Nora’s voice soothed my troubles and my exhausted mind. I craved her, but my body surrendered to accumulated fatigue. I rose to my feet and stumbled below decks.

I fell into the first hammock I found and fell fast asleep. I dreamed of Nora all night.

We rose with the dawning sun the next morning. I stretched my sore muscles, but felt lighter than I had in years. After a quick breakfast, Dak and Madar passed out freshly filled waterskins and all the fresh fruit we could stuff in our pockets and packs.

“Why is there a child in my bed?”

Nora’s question silenced the casual chatter of breakfast. All eyes darted around, looking for someone with an answer. Nora’s eyes fell on me as if the root of all her suspicions could be found in me.

“What child? Where did you get a child? Why are you asking me?”

Nora shrugged.

“I’m asking anyone who can explain why I woke up with a child cuddled up to my back.”

Lorkot groaned, drawing all eyes.

“Please don’t tell me…L…Nora, may I check your cabin?”

“By all means.”

Nora waved to the ladder leading belowdecks and Lorkot rushed down. Everyone watched the top of the ladder. Olanth tore off a hunk of dried pafu and chewed. A crash, a few bangs, clangs, and a squeal later, Lorkot returned.

Lorkot’s hand was wrapped around the collar of a blue-scaled boy. Words flooded from his mouth, one atop the other.

“Put me down, Lorkot! I told you I was going with you and I meant it. I wasn’t going to bother the nice Lady, but it was dark and she had the best mattress and the captain snores too much. I left Mom a note where she can’t miss it. You can’t send me back!”

The boy twisted and turned, fighting Lorkot’s grip. Lorkot covered the boy’s mouth with his other hand, muffling the nonstop words.

“Mom is going to kill me, Krenik! This is serious business here. We’re on a mission from King Dojak and Queen Sofia. This is no place for a child.”

With a disgusted cry, Lorkot jerked his hand from Krenik’s mouth.

“Did you lick me?”

“Got you off me, didn’t it?”

Krenik stuck his tongue out at Lorkot and swung a fist, which Lorkot easily dodged.

“Well, it’s too late to send me back! So you’re stuck with me.”

“Then I’ll lock you in a crate below decks until I can hand you back to Mom.”

The child gasped.

“That’s criminal! Holding people against their will? Children? I always knew you were a villain, Lorkot. Ever since you…”

Lorkot got Krenik’s mouth under control again. Anger crowded Lorkot’s features, drawing his face into an ominous mask. Krenik kicked him in the shin.

“I apologize on behalf of my brother, who doesn’t know what’s good for him…”

Nora waved a hand.

“Put him down. Krenik, stop kicking your brother and come here.”

Lorkot placed Krenik fully on his feet. Krenik swung one last kick Lorkot’s way and ran up to Nora.

“You got two choices here, Krenik. We can lock you up, or you can join the crew, draw a wage, and follow the same rules as the rest of the men.”

“How much you paying?”

“Same as your brother.”

“What are my duties?”

Nora shrugged.

“That’s up to Dak. He assigns the tasks.”

“Can I have a pet? If I catch it and tame it?”

“How about you just help me catch stuff and I’ll figure out what to do with it?”

“That’s a real job, Lady Nora?”

“Call me ‘Lady’ again and I’m throwing you overboard. I made that rule on day one.”

Krenik eyed Nora, then held out a hand.

“I believe we have come to an arrangement.”

Nora shook Krenik’s hand.

“Great, now stay out of my bed.”

Being in Nora’s bed… Focus! Don’t go all squishy now.

“Awww.”

Krenik sniffled, then grabbed a pel fruit and ran out of his brother’s reach. Nora grinned. I thought my heart would melt. I hardened my expression, hoping none would notice the way Nora ran off with my thoughts.

Olanth's voice next to me snatched an imagined Nora from my imagined arms and brought me back to the present.

“You said you’d prove we were made of tiny things today.”

Nora nodded.

“So, I did. Dak? Remember the specialty equipment chest I packed in Tahkath?”

“Yes.”

“Would you please bring it up here? I also require a table.”

Nora stood. Olanth and I created a stack of crates which resembled a table…functionally. Nora thanked us. When her gaze fell on my face, she closed her eyes and spun away. The skin of her cheeks turned red and I could only assume her disgust for me had gotten the better of her again.

I hid the wound of her rejection, folding it inside myself. Resentment bubbled low in my gut, but I vowed not to let her bother me.

You know we make that vow in vain…

I pushed away my own thoughts and tried to pay attention to the crate Dak presented Nora. Of a design far more advanced than anything I had seen, the crate, itself, fascinated me. She pushed a few small protrusions Nora called buttons, though they looked nothing like any button I had ever seen.

The crate’s seal parted and Nora lifted the lid. From it she took a device which she placed on the crate table.

“This is called a microscope. It…yesterday, I explained there are many things in the world too small for you or me to see, remember?”

We all nodded. Nora pointed to the microscope.

“This thing lets you see many of those tiny things. It makes tiny things look big.”

Krenik tugged at Nora’s sleeve.

“How is this not magic?”

“Because it’s science. We call things ‘magic’ when we don’t understand how they happen. With science, we learn to understand how things happen.”

Krenik thought hard before asking his next question.

“So, is the mate bond magic or science?”

Nora sat frozen for a moment.

“You, Krenik, may be a philosopher.”

“What’s that?”

“Someone who spends their life trying to understand why.”

“Why what?”

“Why everything? I do not know how the mating bond works, Krenik. Not yet. Perhaps, one day, someone will learn the science behind that magic.”

“So, the mating bond is magic?”

“I suppose it is. Until someone figures out how it works. Then, someone will create a science to describe it.”

We passed several days the same way. We woke, ate, and learned. We took our turns on the poles and at washing the dishes and scrubbing the deck. We took samples of the river, of each other, of everything we could find just to see the tiny things in everything around us.

Nora gave us journals and we learned to take notes and draw little pictures of the things we discovered. At night, around our meals, we listened to her stories and laughed. My life felt so full now, when I had spent so many years feeling hollow.

Most overwhelming to me, though, Nora’s ideas permeated our minds. The way I had seen the world before this trip felt miles away.

Before beginning this voyage, I had never seen a microscope, much less my own cells—or blood. Nora had awoken in me a thirst for knowledge, for new thoughts to carry me away to distant contemplations.

On the third day, we drifted up to a rough dock at a small trading village. Nora insisted on a stop. We shouldered the packs she had shown us how to prepare with our scientific supplies, milling about while the deckhands maneuvered the ramp from the barge to the dock.

Nora stepped onto the ramp. She looked us over, fists on her hips.

“Eyes on me everyone. Thank you. These are the rules for a trip off the barge. Travel nowhere alone. Pick a buddy and stick with them. Don’t touch anything until I tell you it is safe. Don’t get clever. Make sure you have your water.”

A small hand grabbed mine. I looked down. To my surprise, Krenik stared up at me. He wore the purest face of innocence I had ever seen. My eyes narrowed in suspicion.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

“You’re my buddy. Like Nora said.”

“I didn’t…”

Nora’s voice stopped me before I could finish the words.

“Oh, good. You two paired up. That’s great. Krenik, you’re in charge.”

NORA

Rojav woke up on the strong side of moody today.

The tall, muscular, green-scaled hunk of a D’Tali placed the slide on the microscope without breaking the delicate glass.

“Excellent. Don’t worry, everyone breaks a few slides at first.”

“No need to remind me.”

I tired of his sullen embarrassment and sighed. He leaned forward, carefully adjusting delicate knobs. Isabella had made that microscope for human proportions, not D’Tali. Krenik leaned in close to Rojav’s face.

Rojav elbowed Krenik back, careful not to smack the child in the face. Krenik, small and quick, dove under Rojav’s raised elbow and bolted into his lap. The boy’s solid-boned little head smacked Rojav’s lower jaw.

Between Rojav’s physical reaction and Krenik’s clumsy little body, the microscope flew. Rojav and I dove for it. With the D’Tali’s physical superiority, Rojav saved the microscope from destruction.

Unable to reverse course, I slammed into Rojav. We both fell to the floor, me on top. My hands braced against his bare chest. My hair fell around our faces. His eyes lit gold, flashing.

A connection stabbed through us. Golden light wrapped around and through us, intertwining our essences. I struggled to catch my breath.

Rojav wrapped his big hands around my upper arms and lifted me off him. He rose, and lifted me to my feet. My lungs remembered how to breathe, drawing in a ragged gasp. An electric buzz cascaded through my skin, radiating from where we touched.

WTF?

He released my arms. I stumbled back, rubbing my tingling skin. Rojav’s eyes opened as wide as mine. Whispered words escaped my lips before I realized it.

“Rojav…what have you done to me?”

My head spun. My heart thundered.

Maybe I came into contact with a toxin that only affects humans…

A memory of Princess Alyna sculpting a dirt mountain dashed through the back of my mind.

This is no toxin… No, it must be a toxin… Why? Because I don’t have time to do this ‘fated mate’ nonsense. I’m leading an expedition! I never asked for this. I’ve never even thought about it and last night’s dream doesn’t count…

My cheeks flushed. Flashes of Dream Nora making out with Dream Rojav danced out of last night’s dream and into my head. Right before I dove off the deep end and irrevocably into Rojav’s arms, I finally sucked in enough air to think.

Calm the fuck down, Nora. Drink some water. Take a nap. Distract yourself. Wait a minute for the little biting insects to make you more miserable than horny…

Rojav’s shocked face spawned his trademark scowl.

“I…need a break.”

He turned and stomped away, careful to stomp on every flower in his path.

I have to…find something more interesting than Rojav. And hope none of these dino-men understand the meaning of a human turning red.

“I think Rojav has the right idea. We’ve been talking to villagers and collecting samples all day. I think everyone could use a break. And I need a swim. How about you, Krenik?”

Krenik looked up from the microscope, scrunching his nose.

“I don’t know how to swim.”

I smacked my forehead.

“Help me pack up the microscope and I’ll teach you. I’ll show you how to wash that outfit, too.”

“I don’t want to wash my clothes, Nora.”

“Me, neither, but I have to, anyway.”

We packed our things and trudged back to the barge, our samples packed away in crates for later study. Krenik and I stored our things and walked to a shallow riverbank. I didn’t teach him much about swimming, but we had a good time.

The D’Tali in the little trading post where we had stopped watched our antics with good-natured amusement. After the initial wastage of learning all new skills, my students had impressed me today.

We traveled like that for nearly a week, stopping at little villages along the way. Soon, my small army of dino-men worked together like a well-oiled machine.

I sat on a crate, watching the riverbank roll by. The sun hung low on the horizon and my belly grumbled. Madar pulled a bag of carved knucklebones from a pouch dangling from his waist.

“Who seeks a game of bones?”

Olanth and Lorkot shouted, meeting Madar near some crates. Krenik quickly joined in, learning the rules. Relief I would finally get an evening to myself flowed over me.

I retreated to the back of the kitchen barge and watched the wake of the pontoons which held the barge aloft. The sun slipped below the horizon. The strain of dealing with people eased, now that I had found a moment of privacy.

“I just can’t seem to get away from you.”

I gasped. I looked to each side, squinting in the dark. Rojav stepped forward from a shadow.

“Sorry, I didn’t know you were here.”

He shrugged and leaned against a crate. I risked a glance at his face, which I immediately regretted. His eyes captured mine. I blushed, ripping my gaze from his face.

His eyes flashed gold…we all know what that means.

I closed my eyes, trying to order my suddenly chaotic thoughts. I released a shuddering breath.

“Does it really bother you so much to even look at me?”

“What?”

I opened my eyes and looked at his face. Deep, deep pain radiated from him.

“Every time you look at me, you make that face…like you just smelled a fresh pile of dung.”

I gulped, darting my eyes to the river.

“I’ve never had much control over my face. It seems to do things without me sometimes. I am not disgusted with you, I’m just…not great with people. And I have had many, many people to deal with constantly this entire trip.”

“Do you regret bringing us? Everyone works so hard for your praise, surely you can’t be disappointed.”

I looked at him, one eyebrow cocked.

“Do you always jump to the worst possible conclusion? I don’t regret bringing anyone. Except Krenik, maybe. Everyone has been wonderful. You D’Tali learn so much more quickly than humans, we have made progress faster than I expected.”

“So, why the sour looks?”

I shrugged.

“Maybe I just naturally have a sour face. Ever consider that?”

“Numa dung. You fucking don’t have a naturally sour face.”

A chuckle bubbled out of my throat.

“Why are you laughing at me?”

“I can’t possibly explain. It would take years to explain enough about Earth for any of the D’Tali to understand half of what I mean.”

My head fell into my hands. Rojav radiated discomfort and awkwardness.

“You say you are bad with people, but you seem to get along fine with everyone else. Maybe it is just me you have a problem with.”

I snapped my eyes to his face.

“I have no choice but to answer their questions, Rojav. Sofia tasked me with training this lot in basic science concepts and skills. It’s the price I had to pay to get out of teaching in a classroom.”

My eyes drifted back to the river.

“I couldn’t stand the thought of being tethered to a room all day. I prefer to be out here, digging in the soil and fighting off biting insects.”

Silence hung between us until I thought a scream might bubble up from my chest.

I thought I wanted silence…

My mind filled the distance between us with flashes of half-forgotten dreams of Rojav’s arms.

What would his lips taste like… Get a hold of yourself!

“Yet you seem most uncomfortable with me.”

“You haven’t exactly made yourself easy to be around, have you?”

Silence, and snippets of heart-racing, flaming-panties-hot flashes of my dreams of Rojav filled the space between us again. I listened to the river slap a wet rhythm against the barge.

Amphibians, so similar to Earth frogs that I decided to call them frogs, croaked in the background. Crackling vegetation along the banks hinted at night predators moving among the dark trees. Small hoots, whistles, and caws pierced the air.

“Are humans and D’Tali really so different?”

Startled by Rojav’s sudden question, I jumped.

“In so many ways, yes. In so many other ways, no. And I worry how much of Earth I should even pass on.”

For a moment, Rojav forgot to look grumpy. The beauty of his scowl-less face set my heart racing.

“How do you mean? It seems like you humans want to teach us everything. Queen Sofia seems determined…”

“I know she thinks she is, but there are things which humans discovered that no one should know.”

“Why?”

I looked up into his eyes.

“Because we did terrible things to each other back on Earth with many of the things we knew. Understand me, Rojav, every question I answer—I have to think if I should answer it, how to answer it, how to translate it into D’Tali…”

I drew in a deep breath.

“When I learned all this, I was taught the history of how the knowledge came to be recorded, who thought of it, and so much more. None of that means anything to people here. I could try to explain it…but I don’t really want anyone on this world even thinking of doing half of what humans have done to each other.”

My limbs hung as heavy as my heart. Overwhelmed with a deluge of conflicting emotions, I pushed myself to my feet. I turned from Rojav.

“I’m tired. I’m going to bed.”

I left him there, silent and sullen, and made my way to my cabin. Exhausted on so many levels, I wrapped around Krenik’s sleeping body and let the day go.

ROJAV

Lightning speared the sky upriver. Dark clouds tumbled atop each other, blocking the morning sun. Zarid shed his cloak and mask, blessing the overcast skies. All but Nora had given up on tunics days ago. Nora wore a bandage of fabric across her breasts she called a “sports bra”.

The first time I saw her wear the “sports bra”, my lungs seized in my chest. I had feared I would never draw another breath and die right there. My cock twitched, attempting to salute Nora’s overwhelming physical perfection. I had been forced to dive into the river until I could calm down before anyone noticed.

I sunk a setting pole deep into the silty river bottom until the pole’s iron cap hit rocks below. Seeing Olanth and Zarid also set their poles, I barked the ‘push’ command.

“Hup.”

Olanth, Zarid, and I pushed as one. Chuckles surged forward, high enough in the water to slide over the deeper river current. The other deck hands on this shift retracted their eighteen-foot-long setting poles while my team pushed.

I walked my hands down the length of the setting pole, propelling Chuckles further with each hand. My team neared the end of our long poles. The deckhands on the opposite team sunk their poles into the water as one, pushing as soon as they set their pole tips in the riverbed.

My team retrieved our poles and prepared to push again. Every hour, the pole teams took turns stopping to rest and drink. Krenik ran by on occasion, carrying an open basket of fruit in his arms. Grateful men snatched fruit as the boy ran by, devouring the fruit’s sweet, energy-rich flesh before tossing the fruit remains into the water.

Zalko spoke the truth when he promised us hard work.

The work felt good, though. Every time Nora’s voice spurred my heart to racing, I pushed the setting pole that much harder. My muscles strained and bulged. No matter how hard I pushed, though, I could not escape her.

Do I even want to, anymore?

I glanced toward her voice.

“See how the plants have begun to change?”

Madar, Lorkot, and Dak looked at the branches overhanging the river. Krenik dangled from Nora’s arm with his hands. I turned my eyes back to my task, my shift nearly complete.

“The leaves are bigger.”

“Yes, they are, Krenik. Do you remember why?”

“Uhhhhhh…”

To get more light, more of the sun’s radiance. Like I crave the sound of her voice.

I shook my head to clear it. Daydreams distracted me, throwing me off rhythm with my team. Someone placed a hand on my shoulder, seeking my attention. I looked for the hand’s owner.

Captain Doren smiled at me.

“Shift’s over, son. Take your boys and find some food. Nora wants to stop at the last D’Tali village before we reach the jungle proper, and you three will need your strength.”

Captain Doren strode off, chuckling. I noticed his knees moved like a much younger man since the captain began Nora’s treatments. Nora seemed to improve everyone’s life but mine.

I handed my setting pole to a deckhand and he took my place. I stood still for a moment, breathing, feeling the tightness in my sore shoulders. Olanth and Zarid joined me. Olanth draped an arm over my shoulders, letting me carry some of his weight.

“How are you feeling, Rojav? Still gloomy?”

I pushed his arm off.

“I’m feeling better than your face.”

Zarid cut in.

“And I’m fucking hungry. But first, we need a rinse.”

Zarid rushed us, tackling Olanth and me. He wrapped his gray-scaled arms around our waists and pulled us backwards into the water.

I sucked in a breath, holding it at the last second, and let the water engulf me. We spun in the water. I pulled away from the tangle of my legs with Olanth. Zarid surged toward the surface, glowing blue in the dimness.

Olanth and I raced for the light. We broke the surface, sucking in large gasps of humid air. For a moment, I closed my eyes and floated on my back. The wet fabric of my shortened pants stuck to my thigh.

Another of Nora’s ideas, cutting up perfectly good pantaloons… I should be grateful. Nora’s “shorts” make the heat and humidity bearable.

I sighed and swam back to the barge before the polemen pushed her too far to catch. I pulled myself aboard and, looking for food, made my way to Madar on the kitchen barge.

Just as we sat down to eat, the storm broke. Fat drops of rain pelted the waterproofed tarps Captain Doren had ordered raised while I had been working.

And trying to endure the exquisite torture of Nora’s voice.

We ate, drank, and rested. I felt my energy return as the barge slowed. Everyone aboard watched the polemen maneuver the barge up to the wood and stone dock at the edge of the village.

Deck hands jumped from Chuckles to the dock holding coils of heavy rope. They wrapped the heavy rope around the dock’s mooring posts before jumping back aboard. They fitted the ramp into place and stepped back as Captain Doren addressed us from under the dry canopy.

“Go nowhere alone. Be back aboard by dark. We leave at sunrise.”

Nora stepped up. She had strapped one of her smaller metal crates to her back. She wore her long brown hair pulled back. The wet locks clung to her neck, back, and shoulders. I sighed.

“First, you are all doing great and learning really fast. Today’s stop isn’t about science. Captain Doren says this is the last chance to buy supplies before we get to the jungle. I suggest everyone get more boots and socks.”

Nora waved at Dak, who sat at a desk made of crates, with a large chest at his feet.

“Dak will give you your earned pay. Get whatever you need and be back by dark.”

She stared at us, her eyes moving from face to face.

“Well? Go. That’s it. I’m all out of jokes.”

Nora turned and walked across the ramp. Krenik dashed over to Dak, eyeing the iron-bound wooden chest on the deck next to Dak’s foot. He put his hands on his hips and glared at Dak. Krenik held his face so serious, his eyes watered.

“Pay up, and don’t short me no wages or I’ll get Rojav after you!”

My eyes tried to pop out of my head. I closed the distance between us in a few strides and enveloped the top of the boy’s head in one hand. With deliberate care, I turned Krenik to face me.

“Do not promise another my fists without asking me first. You’re the newest, you get paid last.”

I released his head and pointed to the back of the line. Krenik growled, then ran the length of the pay line. I heard Nora shout.

“Stop running in the fucking rain, Krenik.”

My heart sped. Something inside my core pulled me to her.

“Rojav!”

I spun to face Dak, now that his shout had reminded me that anything more than Nora existed. He shoved a handful of coins into my hand.

“Take your wages and move on. You’re holding up the line.”

I wrapped my fingers around the coins and stepped away. I fussed at my belt until I had stuffed the coins in a pouch. I cinched it closed and trudged up the dock in the rain.

Before my eyes stretched a village made of boats tethered together. Nestled in a small lake formed where the river bent and widened, nearly a hundred shallow boats bobbed. Large birds in bright colors perched on roofs, railings, and poles.

People sat under wide canopies, watching us approach. Nora spoke to a merchant who shook his head and pointed at a large boat tethered on the other side of the city. She nodded at him and returned to the long, floating walkway which wound through the boats.

She stopped, making a note in one of her little journals. Our eyes met. My knees quivered, looking into Nora’s bright blue eyes. She pulled her eyes away, her face turning red. I tore my eyes from her.

Do I truly offend her so much?

Anger flared in my gut.

If she would just look at me like…

Krenik ran by, finding Nora. She pointed to the large boat and they strolled through the boats offering foods, plants, and baskets woven from vines and tough grasses. A couple of well-crafted knives caught my attention.

I leaned in to get a better look. The merchant offered to let me hold the blade. I tested its heft and balance, impressed with the knife’s craftsmanship.

A struggling sound behind me sent alarm racing through my being. A golden force I dared not name pulled me around. Krenik flailed beside me, having somehow become entangled in one boat’s excess rigging. Nora tried to help, but the child’s panicked movements ensnared them both. Krenik kicked out wildly.

His foot connected with one of the coils of rope, knocking the top over. No one else noticed the rope sliding into the water. I called out to her, but Nora could not hear me. I ran. My legs pumped hard across the walkways. Nora noticed their predicament and tried to still Krenik long enough to grab the rope.

The last coil of rope fell into the water. A coil which had wrapped around Kranik’s foot dragged at him, pulling his little body toward the water—and Nora’s entangled form with it.

NORA

I worked as fast as I could to untangle the panicked child flailing against my legs. The next thing I knew, the mess of ropes and rigging ensnared us both, pulling us across the walkway. I grabbed at the rope wrapped around Krenik’s leg, but the flailing child kept getting in the way.

He clung to me, his high-pitched screams piercing my eardrums. The weight of the sinking rope dragged us across the deck. My feet scrambled against the wet boards, desperate to stop us before we reached the edge.

I ran out of walkway before my boots could find a grip.

“Hold your breath!”

We plunged into the water. I hoped Krenik had had time to follow my panicked command through his own panic. I clutched Krenik, kicking for the surface, but the rope pulled us deeper. Pain pushed at my eardrums until I stretched my jaw wide, losing a mouthful of air.

My ears popped. My hand frantically pulled at ropes. Something big surged past me, churning the water, buffeting my body.

Yet, I am not afraid…

A calm certainty with the golden flavor of destiny unfolded inside my core. Time seemed to slow. Zarid swam up, reaching for Krenik. I handed the child over and, in the Lukadian’s gentle blue glow, I saw Rojav slice through the rope.

Free of the rope’s pull, Zarid and Krenik shot to the surface. Darkness engulfed me once more. My slow thoughts remembered to swim, but work-hardened muscles wrapped around my waist and dragged me to the light above.

My perception grew hazy. My lungs burned. We broke through the boundary between river and air. My lungs greedily sucked in air and airborne droplets of river. My lungs heaved, trying to force the liquid out while fighting to suck in oxygen at the same time.

I let myself float in his grip, suppressing the instinct to fight. My limbs burned as oxygen flowed through them, as if each suffocating cell had waited until that moment to cry out in unison. My ribs ached from the racking coughs.

Rojav lifted me up into waiting hands which pulled me from the water. Rojav pushed himself up out of the water in a small wave. Some oxygen-deprived part of my mind thought he looked like a seal and wanted to laugh.

He rushed to my side. He cupped my face in his hand, searching me with his eyes. My cough subsided, but my lungs continued to pump, sucking in air. Our eyes met. I feared I might fall into the deep pools of his huge pupils.

He forgot to hide himself…

In his eyes, I saw raw terror. Golden threads of comfort flowed from the arms Rojav wrapped around me. The threads pulled at us, drawing us closer. He stroked my face, his big fingers gentle.

His eyes flashed golden again. His touch left burning, electrified trails along my skin. He leaned in close. His lips hung but a hairsbreadth from mine.

Kiss me, damn it. I want you to kiss me, you grumpy pain in the ass who just saved me from a watery grave. All I need is one clue that I do anything other than irritate you…

Dak arrived, pushing Rojav’s shoulder out of the way so he could get a good look at me. Whatever spell had held us in thrall popped like a soap bubble. The internal wall Rojav put between himself and the world snapped back in place.

Rojav pushed himself back, withdrawing physically at Dak’s arrival. I felt a deep loss for his presence near me, but I had other things to worry about. As soon as I could move, I rolled onto my side and searched for Krenik.

I found him wrapped in his brother’s arms. Tear tracks streaked his face, and he chewed on a thumb, but he no longer cried. His eyelids drooped, his little body exhausted by the ordeal.

I tried to speak, but coughed instead. So I waved a hand at Krenik and raised my eyebrows at Lorkot. Lorkot nodded.

“He’ll be fine, Nora. He held his breath the entire time, just like you taught him. Krenik, here, is just tired.”

I nodded, relieved. I may have fussed about waking up with Krenik cuddled up to me, but I had to admit, I didn’t really mind. I liked the kid.

And Lorkot told you Krenik still slept in their mom’s bed back home.

I sighed.

Please, let me get this child back to his mother in one piece.

I sighed. Though happy to be alive, the weight of responsibility returned, replacing the temporary euphoria of having successfully cheated death.

Please, let me get them all home—every member of my team. I should have sent Krenik back with Lorkot, but I wanted at least two of the King’s Guards…

I pushed those thoughts away—they did nothing to help. I waved Dak and his incessant questions away. I regained my voice but winced at my croaked words.

“I’m fine, Dak. Fine. Let me up.”

The people crowded around me backed up. Dak offered me a hand up and I took it. Once on my feet, I stretched muscles still sore from our dip in the lake.

“Thanks, Dak.”

I looked around for Rojav so I could thank him, as well, but he had already disappeared. Lorkot caught my attention.

“I’m going to take Krenik back to the barge.”

I walked over to him and stroked the boy’s face.

“That was pretty scary, Krenik. We thought we lost you.”

His face peeked out from his brother’s arms.

“I thought I lost me, too.”

“Can we agree not to do that again?”

Krenik nodded.

“I shouldn’t have been running in the rain and I should have let you help me.”

I nodded.

“Thanks. I’m just happy you’re okay.”

“Nora?”

“Yes?”

“Don’t be mad if I sleep with Lorkot tonight. He says I can sleep on top of him in the hammock.”

I smiled.

“I think I may survive the night.”

Krenik nodded his little head and twitched his ears. He nuzzled his budding horn nubs against Lorkot’s chest and his little eyelids closed. In an instant, Krenik hung limp in his brother’s arms.

“Good night. I have one more stop to make, then I’m going to bed, too. I’m so tired, I can’t even think straight. I need a bubble bath, chocolate, and a joint, but I’ll accept an ale.”

Dak blinked at me.

“I don’t know what most of that is but, if you are looking to drink, I’ll make sure your cabin is stocked. You need a night to yourself, for once.”

I chuckled.

“Deal. Now, if you’ll excuse me.”

Dak and I parted, and, with great care, I walked over to the large boat the merchant had pointed out to me before my ‘swim’. My waterlogged shorts hung heavy on my hips, threatening to fall off if only my belt would loosen.

I stopped and tried to wring water from my shorts without removing them. I noticed the afternoon showers had stopped and the clouds above had cleared. Beams of late-afternoon light shone off the water.

I blocked the glare with a hand. Memories of Rojav’s eyes flashing golden popped into my mind. Snippets of conversations with the other human women replayed themselves in my head.

Sofia’s soft voice drifted by.

“Then Dojak’s eyes flashed gold…”

My eyes grew wide. My mind rebelled.

No. No, no, no, no.

Mellida’s voice cut in.

“I thought it was just a trick of the light at first…”

Stop it. Stop that train of thought right there, mind. You’re my mind. I’m in control.

Apparently, my mind thought that was funny. I didn’t think it was funny.

We already know where this train stops.

Tired of my mind pointing out obvious destinations whose existences I did not want to acknowledge, I waved at the very short D’Tali sitting on the large boat. I smiled. They looked at me like I would look at a unicorn were one to walk up to my front door.

Bipedal, intelligent mammals never stopped delighting the bipedal, intelligent reptilian D’Tali, no matter where we went. After the usual presentation of my backstory followed by pokes, prods, and strokes of my long hair, the D’Tali and I got down to business.

“What can you tell me about the Vivutians?”

The eldest, a toothless, pale-blue-scaled D’Tali, wore nothing but a smile and a light fabric wrapped around her skinny hips. Grandmother Prahla smacked her gums at me. She pinned me with her good eye. The other drifted off, making it very difficult to concentrate on her words.

“The Vivutians live deep in the jungle. There are many clans.”

Grandmother Prahla spit a wad of chewed leaf pulp over the edge of her boat. She wiped her mouth with a thin, powder-blue hand.

“The Vivutians are fierce warriors and fair traders. This village has long been good allies with the Vivutians, though we see few this far from the jungle’s heart.”

“I want to meet the Vivutians. Do you know anyone who could help me find them?”

Grandmother Prahla grabbed a wad of leaves I recognized as tlanca, a plant similar to Earth’s coca plant. Chewing the leaves provides a mild buzz, much like caffeine. She stuffed the wad of tlanca in her cheek and chewed.

“My grandson is a guide. Wuhat has traded with the Vivutians many times. He will guide you. You will pay me.”

ROJAV

Long branches stretched over our heads. Broad leaves filtered the afternoon light, dappling the barge with shadows. The river split where a shallow feeder river joined the River of the Ancestress.

The banks of the river grew closer on both sides, crowding the barge. Croakers called to each other, competing with the hundreds of other species begging for a mate.

And, here I am, running from mine.

I glanced at her.

Is she? Is this really…no. Impossible.

My gut flopped and twisted. My spirit yearned for her smile, for the sound of her voice…for her laugh. Nora rarely laughed, so I had only heard the sound a few times aloud. When I closed my eyes at night, her laugh chased me through my dreams.

Or I chase her laugh, seeking her all night. Every night.

I barely ate, knowing I would regret it later. As a compromise, I stuffed fruit and a small wheel of numa cheese in my pack, hoping my appetite would return at some point.

Seeing Nora pulled into the darkness of the lake bottom flashed into my mind. I closed my eyes, rubbing my forehead. I couldn’t remember ever having been so afraid as I was in that moment—until I did remember having been so frightened.

The well-worn, yet crisp, memory of my mother’s terrified face…resurrected itself. It tore from the grave in which I had tried to imprison it for all these years. My fists clenched.

Reality set in—my reality.

I can’t bring her here, even if she did want me. No one deserves to live in the prison of my crimes.

Chuckles glided past the narrow and into a large lagoon fed by a forty-foot-high waterfall. I had never seen anything like it before. The River of the Ancestress flowed over a rocky cliff, crashing into the far side of the lagoon.

All but the captain and his deckhands stared at the vertical river and the churning waters where that river crashed. Strange birds in vibrant colors swooped by, snapping biting insects from the air.

Captain Doren strolled by. He looked like he had lost weight, now that his knees didn’t hurt so bad. His clothes fit looser. His belt hung long where he’d tightened it a few notches.

“Welcome to the end of the line, boys. The deckhands and I will be waiting right here when you return with more adhku chung.”

He plopped his rear into a deck chair and looked ready to wait a lifetime for Nora’s return.

I had almost kissed her…but she looked horrified.

The deckhands maneuvered the barge to an ancient stone dock. Thick vines clung to the worn stones jutting out into the lagoon. Unseen jungle life called to each other in long whoops and grating chitters.

Their calls competed with each other and the thundering waterfall on the far side of the lagoon. I looked down into water so clear, I saw yellow-striped fish swimming below the barge. Insects darted through the air, their iridescent bodies flashing in the dappled light.

A deckhand jumped from Chuckles to the dock with a rope and moored the barge in place. Nora and Dak turned to the assembled men. Nora spoke.

“How many of you have been in a rainforest before?”

The team looked at each other, but none raised a hand. Wuhat laughed.

“Great. That gives me a definitive place to start.”

Nora held one hand high with one finger pointing at the sky.

“Rule 1. Do not touch anything you don’t recognize. Don’t eat it, lick it, touch it, drink it, grab it, nothing. Get me first.”

She pinned Krenik with a fierce gaze.

“Especially you. Assume everything in there is poisonous or may kill you in some other exciting way.”

Madar cut in.

“Fucking extreme, Nora. Real fucking extreme.”

Nora laughed.

I love that sound.

“Yes. Yes, it is. Only drink the water from your waterskins. There are more different kinds of life in each square mile of a rainforest than in any other biome. That includes the tiny life I showed you under the microscope. Your bodies are used to the tiny life from where you lived, but maybe not the tiny life here.”

Krenik tugged on the leg of my shorts. I looked down.

“Yes?”

“What could happen?”

“Lots of things, but I try to avoid the vomiting, diarrhea, and death. There are ways to test for a lot of things, though. So I will show you how to test as we encounter new things. By the time we return to Tahkath, Queen Sofia and I mean for you to teach others what you’ve learned here.”

Olanth laughed then blurted a good question.

“Nora, I’m a thief. What made you think I should teach children?”

“You won’t be teaching children, Olanth. You’ll be teaching adult D’Tali, some of whom will then teach children. The rest will be offered positions and opportunities to utilize their strengths and interests.”

Everyone present fell silent. The deckhands lounged, leaning against walls and crates. The smiles on their faces gave me the distinct impression they found the whole thing hilarious.

Words escaped my lips before I knew I spoke.

“And the queen’s future army of scholars want to learn from…us.”

Nora shrugged.

“That is a consideration for someone else’s plate, Rojav. I asked for a way to stay out of a classroom, and they sent me you. Every one of you has learned quickly and done well. On Earth, there are many opportunities for men with the skills you are learning.”

Wuhat laughed.

“Maybe next time you can be the guide. Grandmother Prahla welcomes more guides. Her protection from the evil spirits is expensive, but no one returns from the Heart of the World without it.”

Wuhat shouldered his pack and looped waterskins over his bare shoulder. He hopped over to the stone dock. He walked to the riverbank and slathered the exposed portions of his body with mud. Nora lifted another finger.

“Two. The mud keeps the insects off. Three. Go nowhere alone. If you get hurt out there by yourself, we may never find you. Four. If any one of us has an issue, speak up. We will all stop together. Get your packs.”

Madar’s head spun between Nora and the crates on the barge.

“Are we taking them all?”

Nora shook her head.

“No. We’re traveling light. We’ll look at things, but we’re only stopping for really impressive specimens. If this goes well, I plan to come back. Or, at least send more expeditions who can be more thorough.”

Zarid smiled.

“It will bring me great honor the day I can guide other Lukadians.”

Krenik looked up at Zarid.

“Why aren’t you wearing your robe?”

“Little cousin, I will remain out of direct sun and the cloak would get caught on everything in there.”

Nora smiled, then called us all together again.

“Let’s go. Dak will show you what you are responsible for carrying. Wuhat, lead the way. We’re walking. We’re walking.”

We followed Nora and Wuhat off the boat, taking the burdens Dak assigned us. I carried a few of the small, metal crates Nora had brought, lots of waterskins, and my pack. Wuhat unsheathed a huge, wide blade.

He started swinging his arm, hacking at the encroaching jungle plants. He hacked his way through branches, leaves, and vines, trimming back the path as we advanced. Though he had a round belly, his wide back and shoulders rippled with muscle on every swing. The path wound up from the lagoon.

Wuhat’s whacking revealed a path of wide steps cut into gray limestone bedrock. I could still see the marks in the stone from where it had been shaped by hand. Wuhat set an ambitious pace, considering every step we took led us further up.

Snippets of Nora’s voice drifted back to my ears. She pointed at everything nearby, asking Wuhat their names. She held one of her journals and a stubby writing tool in her hands.

She scribbled furiously as he answered. Not looking at her feet, she tripped over a root and sprawled. Wuhat looked annoyed but helped her back up.

“Maybe I should put this away for now…”

Nora stowed her notes and, for the next hour, our team trekked without speaking. I felt like I was suffocating, trying to breathe in the humid air. It clung to me, pulling at my limbs as I stepped, ever up the trail of carved steps.

To our relief, Wuhat slowed. He unslung a waterskin and drank. Grateful for the moment of rest, the rest of us followed his lead. He turned to us. A wide smile spread across his face.

“Rest. Drink. Eat. Piss. We are half-way to the first campsite.”

Sighs of relief erupted as we dropped our packs. I put away my waterskin and started to look for a spot to relieve myself. Madar and Olanth walked up before I got off the trail.

“Don’t go alone, Rojav. Remember Nora’s rules? ‘Go nowhere alone’.”

“Wait for me!”

Zarid trotted up. Krenik ran to join us.

“Don’t make me go with Lorkot. He’s so bossy. No one put him in charge of me! I told him ‘I, Brother, am an equal member of this expedition’...”

“Keep shouting and you have to go piss with Lorkot.”

Krenik’s mouth snapped shut at my words. We found a spot far enough away from the trail and relieved ourselves. I finished up and was buttoning my cock away, when I noticed Krenik.

“Don’t you dare touch that…”

Krenik froze, his finger an inch from a beautiful bloom I had never seen before. His head swiveled until he could glare at me with an evil eye.

“I thought Nora would like it.”

“Yeah, but if you break a rule, she’ll make Lorkot return you to the barge and stick you in a cage, remember?”

“She would never really…”

“What wouldn’t I do?”

“Put me in a cage?”

“What makes you so sure I won't?”

Krenik glared at Nora.

“Because you like me.”

“But are you willing to risk it?”

Nora raised an eyebrow at Krenik. Krenik changed the subject and pointed at the flower.

“I was just going to bring you this sample…”

“Then it’s a good thing Rojav was here to stop you, isn’t it?”

Krenik’s bottom lip poked out.

“But don’t you like it?”

“It’s beautiful.”

How can this moment feel so good?

NORA

“This is amazing, Krenik.”

“I thought it was pretty.”

Krenik beamed up at me. I pointed to the bloom’s vine where it clung to the trunk of a towering tree.

“Look, it’s either parasitic or symbiotic, but we can’t tell which without more study.”

Krenik scrunched his little scale-covered nose at me.

“What’s that mean?”

I answered Krenik’s question.

“Parasites live off other organisms—like how a tayn can get worms in its gut. Symbiotes help each other live. Many trees are symbiotic with other trees. They will even feed and water hurt trees and saplings around them.”

Zarid and the D’Tali looked around at the trees around us. Even Rojav forgot to be grumpy.

He’s almost…pleasant…to be around. Have we reached a turning point?

A small lizard on the tree trunk twitched his head, catching Krenik’s attention. Krenik pointed.

“Look, Nora!”

The lizard raced away. Krenik kicked at the leaf-strewn floor.

“Aww. I could have caught it.”

I sighed.

“You are only allowed to catch anything Wuhat says is safe to catch, but don’t wander off.”

Krenik spun on his heel and raced to Wuhat’s side. To my surprise, Rojav chuckled. Wuhat groaned and stood. He whistled and spun a finger in the air.

“Time to go.”

Everyone grabbed their packs and gathered near Wuhat. He turned away from Krenik’s incessant questions and trudged on up the ancient steps. Krenik easily kept up, somehow dodging Wuhat’s machete-stye jungle knife.

Wuhat, again, set a fierce pace. We all fell silent, trudging through the jungle, concentrating on our steps. Krenik began to flag, his pace slowing. I scooped him up into my arms and kept walking.

Krenik fell asleep. He felt heavier with each step. After half an hour, the sleeping Krenik felt like lead, and my pace began to lag behind.

“Nora.”

I turned. Rojav was walking beside me. He held out his arms. Grateful for the help, I transferred the child to him and took a long swig from my waterskin. I glanced at Rojav, then blushed.

“Thanks.”

A clip reel of the Dirtiest Moments of Nora’s Dreams tried to play in my head, which helped my awkwardness none at all.

Maybe it’s just been so long that I really need to get laid.

My eyes darted between the path and Rojav.

Yeah…maybe I’m just really horny…

That thought helped me even less.

His eyes flashed, Nora. We all know what that means.

Rojav’s green scales flashed in the rainforest’s dappled light. The sun-kissed highlights accentuated the contours of arms and shoulders grown strong working Chuckles’s setting poles. I gulped.

I felt a lot like I stood on the edge of a cliff, my body buffeted by winds pushing at my back. The way he held Krenik made Rojav’s biceps curl. Even slung with a portion of the cargo I’d, basically, forced these D’Tali to carry to the top of a cliff, he held Krenik as if the child were no burden.

I’m not drooling over a topless D’Tali.

My salivary glands ignored me. I checked on the other members of the expedition, hoping to distract myself…but they were all tall, strong, and topless, too.

Nora, we’re being ridiculous…but there’s no wonder why we’re dreaming—we’re surrounded by hot men. Yeah, that’s got to be why…

Realization dawned. I stopped dead in my tracks.

Numa shit, Nora, since numas are the closest thing to bulls—or horses—this planet has.

I sighed and admitted the truth.

I only dream of Rojav.

“Nora?”

Dak’s voice brought me back to the present.

“Hm? Yes?”

“You just stopped. Do you need a break?”

“No. I’m fine now. Just…thinking too much again. Look, I’m drinking water.”

I unslung my waterskin and drank, then smiled, putting on my best “cheerful” face. Dak watched me for a moment, then nodded and we continued our trek. The path twisted around the cliff through dense foliage. I saw spiky bromeliads and soft ferns along the edges of the path.

Of course, they aren’t really bromeliads or ferns from Earth, but they are so close, it is simply easier to think of them in Earth terms. If only I had a DNA lab…

Lost in thought, trying to forget how hot Rojav was, I stopped watching my step. I tripped and fell facefirst. I braced with my arms as I went, scraping my palms on a rough-barked tree root as I landed.

Crashed is more like it.

Frustration and embarrassment flushed through me.

Pay attention to where you’re going, Nora. Stop daydreaming about Mr. Moody.

I pushed myself back to my feet, dusting the debris from my outfit. I took a quick look at my hands. The scrapes didn’t look bad, but I knew they would annoy me for days. I sighed.

“If you are tired, too, I’m sure one of us could carry you the rest of the way.”

I glared at Rojav. Irritated, frustrated, and tired, I snapped back.

“I’m not a child. I just tripped. I’m fine.”

Rojav recoiled. The newly comfortable openness, which I had enjoyed during this hike, disappeared. Rojav closed himself off in an instant. My gut sank. A part of me mourned the loss.

Good job, Nora.

“I’m sorry for snapping at you, Rojav.”

Dak arrived with a waterskin and washed my hands. Wuhat pulled a broad, thick, fuzzy leaf from a small plant growing next to the stone steps. He rolled the leaf in his hands, then grabbed my wrists. He applied the leaf to the scraped heels of my palms.

He smiled and waved for us to follow him.

“Wuhat, can’t we rest for a few more minutes?”

Wuhat turned and smiled at me, shaking his head.

“We must make camp before dark. Too dangerous to travel at night. We must push on.”

I looked up, trying to measure the time of day by the sun, but couldn’t make out the sky above for the layers and layers of leaves. I nodded.

“Very well.”

I put my head down and followed Wuhat, determined to keep up with the D’Tali. I wanted to give none of them an excuse to try and carry me like a child.

Though that would be fucking great, right now. Rojav could easily carry…

I shied away from the one track my mind relentlessly pursued. My eyes darted to Rojav. He was back to radiating sullen gloom.

The inevitable return of Grumpy McGrumperson…who I invited to this party because I was embarrassed. Great.

Rojav refused to meet my eyes—or look at me…while I was looking at him. Every time I checked to see if he was looking at me, his eyes darted away.

I haven’t been this awkward around a boy since Junior High. Except, Rojav isn’t a boy and we’re both adults. And he’s an alien. And I’m not on Earth.

I decided to pay attention so I wouldn’t trip again. I focused on each step. My legs burned with the effort. My knees wobbled. My ass felt like I’d been chained to an elliptical at the gym—or the time Mom convinced me to try her Zumba class at the gym…because the twentysomething instructor was hot.

Mom, you would love this adventure. You would love these dino-men. Wish you were here.

My exhausted leg failed to raise my foot high enough to avoid the next step, catching the toe of my boot. I stumbled, but caught myself before I fell. Then I realized I’d avoided the fall because I had grabbed Rojav’s arm.

My eyes snapped wide. Little electric thrills ran through my hand where we touched. They raced through me. My breath caught in my lungs and refused to move. I snatched my hand back in shock.

My gaze darted to his face. Rojav looked terrified. He shrunk back from me. Anger flared in my gut.

Fine! If I disgust you that much, I’ll take Dak and Zarid to my dreams tonight! I mean, I can get any D’Tali here. And Zarid glows! Imagine that in bed, Nora…WTF am I even thinking?

“Keep moving. We are close.”

I turned from Rojav at Wuhat’s words. I refused to think of anything beyond moving my exhausted feet up step after step. After that last train of thought crashed on a glowing threesome, I feared allowing any more thoughts to birth themselves.

I just need water. And a rest. And an orgasm…which has been really difficult to take care of on this trip, living in such close quarters. I’m just orgasm-deprived. I need to stop reading things into a whole lot of nothing with Rojav.

Wuhat stopped on a broad section of path. He turned back to us.

“We are here. Camp only in the ruins. The Vivutians are very…formal. We do not want to offend them.”

Followed by many sighs of great relief, Wuhat led us down a wide, clear path of ancient stones fitted together with admirable precision. We came to a tall wall and passed through the arched opening in the center.

On the other side lay a large, square campsite of stone slabs. A firepit had been carved in the center of the pavilion. Beyond that and a few open-sided shelters, stretched a magnificent view.

In the distance, the waterfall cascaded to the lagoon below. The Chuckling Numa floated far below us. For a moment, we all stood, watching flocks of birds swirl below. Madar broke the silence.

“Now, that’s fucking extreme.”

ROJAV

Krenik woke as soon as we reached camp. I envied him. He had managed to rest through the most grueling portion of our trek. He stretched in my arms, then realized he hadn’t fallen asleep in them.

“Um…can you put me down now?”

“Can you say thank you for carrying you up the rest of this hill.”

“Sure.”

We stared at each other for a moment. Krenik blinked at me, smiling. I raised a brow ridge at him. His pointy ears twitched.

“Any day now…”

“Thanks for carrying me, even though I have no proof of your claims. I didn’t even get to fully apply the scientific method like Nora taught us. You only presented me with circumstantial evidence.”

“Why do you have to be so clever? Or understand the human ideas so quickly?”

“Why do you have to be so not clever?”

Shocked, I blinked for a moment.

“What are you even talking about, child?”

Krenik speared me with a look.

“Everyone knows you like her. I just don’t understand why you don’t just tell her so you can kiss and bond and make babies.”

I choked on my own spit. I put the child down so I could cough. He kicked me in the shin and ran.

That’s what I get for trying to be nice. What does the kid know, anyway?

I decided Olanth, Zarid, and Madar must be laughing at someone else, so I didn’t have to start a fight. I unslung the load from my burning shoulders and tossed my burdens to the ground. I ignored everything around me for a moment and drained a waterskin.

I wanted to pour the water over my head. My horns and ears helped dissipate the heat some, but the humidity clung to me. I itched everywhere and couldn’t remember the last time I’d felt clean. I didn’t dare pour out the drinking water, though. I opened my eyes and scanned the campsite.

We had dropped our supplies in a wide, flat courtyard. The firepit sat in a depression cut into the stone. Layers of tight-fitting, flat, wide stones surrounded the firepit, creating amphitheater-like seating.

Along the sides, framing the view of the waterfall, stood three-sided buildings on stilts. Wuhat waved at the building’s cane ladders.

“Sleep in the ronjas if you don’t want to wake up to snakes in the morning.”

He laughed. He raised his arm and pointed to a set of narrow stone steps leading away towards the edge of the cliff.

“You must get clean before you sleep or the jungle, she will eat your skin. Very painful.”

He carried his things to one of the larger huts, chuckling the entire way. Madar elbowed me.

“That man’s laugh makes my scales itch. I’ll race you to the shower before whatever is making my balls itch ‘eats my skin’, as Wuhat says.”

“Let’s go, then. Before Nora demands a sample and pulls out the microscope.”

Madar shook his head at me.

“A sample of my balls, Rojav? ’Cause I don’t need a microscope to find my cock.”

Olanth laughed so hard, he tried to die from it. I rolled my eyes and moved my personal pack to one of the sleeping platforms. I passed out some fruit from the bag I carried, eating a few myself. The thick, sweet juices plastered my face as I pulled the delicious fruit flesh into my mouth.

Olanth, Zarid, Madar, and I followed the path Wuhat had pointed out earlier, joining Lorkot, Dak, and Krenik at a set of stone pools filled with water diverted from the river. One basin sat waist-high, and we all tossed our filthy clothes in it.

Naked and filthy, we scrubbed our scales with fine sand someone had stocked near the basin in which we soaked our clothes. We jumped in, splashing each other without mercy. We laughed and splashed, dove in and…played.

When was the last time I’d felt so carefree?

The water refreshed us but also sapped the last of our strength. We grew quiet and washed our clothes. We wrung out the excess water as best we could, gathered the damp fabric in our arms, and walked back to camp.

Delicious smells wafted down the carved stone staircase leading from the bathing pools up the cliffside to the campsite. We hung our clothes to dry. Then I noticed Nora’s face.

She squatted over a steaming pot at the fire, staring at us. She had that look on her face again—that look I always took as horror.

What could possibly horrify her?

I looked around, since this time I suspected that look wasn’t just about me. Her eyes darted to all of us, just as horrified as when she’d looked at me.

I don’t get it. Is she just afraid of men? Or, just D’Tali? But she looked at Zarid the same way, and he’s Lukadian. We’re not the same at all.

I gave up trying to understand human women and unpacked a clean, dry pair of short pants.

Nora calls them shorts. Shut up, mind. Who asked you?

My heart wanted to mutiny, too, and tried to ally with my mind. I objected on the basis that, if my heart and mind decided to agree, I’d be outnumbered.

I refused to acknowledge anything was wrong with my objection.

I am just very hungry and not thinking clearly.

Dressed, I turned to the fire, food, and Nora.

Let’s see if I can stay out of my own way this time. Maybe she is simply afraid. She is so much smaller than we are. We must be terrifying from her perspective.

I decided to treat her like a tayn who had been treated roughly. I arrived at the cookpot…and Nora. I noted she had turned red again.

No one told me humans changed color like Lukadians. Does it mean something? Maybe the redder they get, the angrier they are.

“Do all humans turn red like that? Is it like Zarid’s glow?”

Nora blinked at me like I had magically transformed into a mammal before her eyes.

“What?”

“Why do you keep turning red? I don’t know what it means, and wondering is driving me crazy.”

“Uhhhhh….”

Remain patient, Rojav. Let her think. Smile. Be non-threatening. I am not a threat. I am not scary.

I smiled what I thought should, surely, be a friendly smile. Nora winced. One of her arms raised between us, blocking the overwhelming effect of my smile. I reduced my smile’s…. intensity.

Nora lowered her arm and tried out a returning smile.

So far, I think this is going well.

“Because of the way human skin is constructed, sometimes you can see oxygen-rich blood, if enough blood has collected in one area.”

Pretend like we understood all those words. Impress her with your mastery of human speech.

“Fucking interesting, Nora.”

Nora tried to choke again. I patted her back until she regained her breath. She wiped a hand across her face.

“So, choking makes humans turn red, too?”

Nora sighed.

“Yes. There are many reasons.”

Nora grabbed a bowl from a stack on a nearby crate.

“D’Tali do not turn red like that.”

“You most likely have the same response but can’t see it through your scales.”

She handed me a bowl of steaming food. The earthy scents of root vegetables simmered in herbed broth invaded my nostrils and set my mouth to watering. I accepted the proffered bowl and claimed a place to sit.

“It is interesting how you humans are both so different than we D’Tali and yet sometimes so similar.”

Nora sat near me with her own bowl.

“On Earth, there once lived a creature called a smilodon. Smilodons are like big cats with teeth as long as your finger.”

“Cats?”

“Shit. Fuck. Uh…what on this planet is like an Earth cat? When I find a way to explain…”

“Can you…draw one?”

She slapped her forehead with a hand.

“I should have thought of that…hold on while I find…aha!”

Nora pulled her journal out of a pocket and flipped to the last page. She scribbled for a few minutes while I tried to eat boiling hot food before it cooled without burning my mouth. Hungry from the day’s trek, I had lost all patience for the thick stew.

“Here.”

She handed me her journal, opened to a scribbled picture of the most nightmarish creature I had ever seen.

“Wow. What about it?”

“Smilodons lived long ago, and eventually died out. But they were not the only creatures to use the same strategies. Many times, creatures of similar shape, with similar teeth, came into being and died off when they could no longer survive.”

I nodded, listening. Others had gathered, filling bowls of their own and sitting down to listen as Nora spoke of Earth and what Earth knew of the forms life seems to prefer.

“So, what does that mean?”

“Well, Krenik, that means that, sometimes, you need a creature with the combination of features the Smilodon successfully used for a long time.”

Krenik scrunched his nose at Nora.

“But you said they died out.”

“They did, and so did similar creatures, when their combination of features was no longer the best way to survive. Earth had Ancestors like yours—giant reptiles who walked the world. Your world and mine began a lot alike.”

Krenik stuffed his face with a giant spoonful of food, so I assumed he was satisfied. I decided to move on to the next stage of my plan.

Be calm, Rojav. The plan is working so far. Careful, now…

NORA

“I would like to hear more.”

Stunned, I held my breath for a moment.

What happened to Mr. Moody? Is he…interested? This is new. He’s being nice. Too nice. When has he ever been nice? He must want something. What could he want? What do I want him to want?

I narrowed my eyes at him, suspicious of his motives. I had just become accustomed to Rojav’s ways. I thought we had established the ground rules of our relationship. Rojav is supposed to be all moody and I’m just confused.

And scandalized by your entire crew returning naked from the baths earlier.

My cheeks burned at the memory.

“Uhhh… My point is that certain combinations of forms are so successful that, even when you start from different planets, many life forms end up similar. The numa, for example. They are reptilian. Earth has no reptiles like the numa, but we have mammals which are similar, called horses.”

Krenik wiggled his way onto Nora’s lap.

“What about tayn. Does Earth have mammal tayn?”

I nodded.

“Called dogs.”

“Do Earth horses lay eggs, too?”

I giggled at the thought, shaking my head.

“No. Horses don’t lay eggs. Most mammals don’t. Except the platypus. That is a mammal who lays eggs. They are very strange. Numa are also very strange, laying eggs and producing a substance very much like mammalian milk.”

Rojav spoke yet again. My heart nearly stopped at the shock.

Or the fact that his voice melts me like butter.

“Is that so strange?”

“It’s hard to tell, these days. I’m already trekking through the jungle with you, and people back on Earth would think I had lost my mind if I went back and told them. My concept of ‘strange’ has changed a lot since I left Earth.”

Krenik asked one of the last questions I wanted to try to answer.

“Would you go back? If you could?’

I drew in a deep breath.

“If I could go back, I don’t think I would be able to stay there anymore. I left behind a lot of things on Earth. Some of them, I am happy to leave behind. And there is so much to learn here, I feel like my work has just begun.”

The conversation trailed off and most sought out their beds. Dak agreed to guard the top of the stairs to the bathing pools while I bathed. Clean, and exhausted beyond belief, I crawled back up the staircase and into the hammock Dak had hung for me in one of the smaller sleeping platforms.

The next day, I woke and knew no one was walking anywhere. I declared a day of rest and returned to my hammock for a few more hours. When I dragged myself out of sleep and stumbled out, looking for a waterskin, Madar and Krenik greeted me.

I attempted to stretch. My body threatened to mutiny if I didn’t stop and find water. Madar handed me one before I could wake up enough to look.

“I miss coffee.”

I drained the waterskin and plopped down on one of the stone seats. Krenik crawled into my lap.

“What’s coffee?”

“The only reason to get up, some days. It’s a drink from Earth.”

“What are we going to do today, Nora?”

“Not much. I know I feel yesterday’s climb. Seems cruel to make anyone do much until I feel better. Maybe Wuhat can help you catch some samples to document. Do you have your journal?”

Krenik nodded.

“I didn’t lose it.”

“Good. You can draw pictures of what you catch, and we’ll make a book about it when we get back.”

Krenik’s eyes grew wide.

“A real book?”

“Yep.”

“I’ll be famous.”

Lorkot walked out of the jungle.

“I bet you already are, with as much as Mom must be worrying about you.”

“She’s not worried! I left her a note! My letters are good.”

“Enough. Krenik, bring all the empty waterskins. We’ll need to wash the big cookpot to boil water to refill them. Lorkot, you wash the cookpot very carefully and fill it with water.”

The brothers replied in unison.

“Yes, Nora.”

Krenik ran. Lorkot stomped off. I looked at Madar.

“Any breakfast?”

“You look like you need a stiff ale.”

I perked up.

“Do we have any?”

Madar shook his head.

“No. You said to leave it behind.”

“And you listened? I was sure at least one of you would ignore me.”

Madar chuckled, then handed me some numa cheese.

“Enjoy it. That’s the last until we return to Tahkath.”

I chewed, appreciating that, even on a planet not of my birth, I would not have to forgo cheese in my life. I thought of herds of numas, gathering near their soon-to-hatch clutches. Nadan had explained, once.

“With eight teats, mother numas return to a communal nest where many females lay their eggs and feed all young who survive hatching. The mothers work together to defend the young from predators for a few months. At that point, the young are old enough to wean and the numa looks for a fresh, strong mate.”

Steps swift, Wuhat exited the jungle. Olanth and Zarid followed him, carrying what looked to me like the reptilian version of forest pigs. Krenik chased them, empty waterskins dangling from his arms.

“So, you’ve been hunting, I presume?”

“Yes, Nora…”

Wuhat looked back over his shoulder.

“We met a D’Tali trader on one of the paths. His caravan is coming this way.”

I sighed.

“I suppose I should take the opportunity to make myself presentable.”

I pushed myself to my feet. Stiff muscles groaned. I scanned the site, taking a quick headcount.

“First, Wuhat, let’s move all of our own people to one of the sleeping platforms. Second, where is Rojav?”

Olanth answered.

“He’s still with the traders. Nora, remain cautious.”

I smiled up at him.

“I will. Now, let me go get clean before more trail-dirty D’Tali arrive. And start boiling water so we can get those waterskins refilled. I want to move out at first light.”

Krenik scrunched his face at me.

“I don’t understand what boiling water has to do with it.”

I waggled my eyebrows at Krenik.

“Get the microscope set up and I’ll show you after I’m clean.”

Krenik shrugged his agreement. He turned to his brother with the biggest, saddest eyes I had ever seen a child put on their own face. Lorkot sighed.

“Stop looking at me like that. You know it creeps me out…”

“I’ll stop when you get Nora’s microscope.”

“Fine, just…don’t make me look at your face, okay?”

I chuckled and hobbled my, literally, sore ass to my pack to grab a fresh pair of shorts and sports bra, for which I blessed the tailor back in Tahkath.

It wouldn’t take long to fashion a grass skirt. I should at least make a hat.

My muscles and joints relaxed as I walked. By the time I’d made it to the bathing pool, I barely hurt at all. I jumped in and floated. I watched the rainforest live around me. Birds flew through the air above. Insects buzzed past, dancing and gleaming in stray, unbroken sunbeams.

Random thoughts floated through my head, light as the breeze. They all ended up leading me to Rojav. Not ready to deal with that can of worms, as Grandma used to say, I got myself clean and dressed, washed my dirties, and returned to the firepit.

An older D’Tali, purple scales faded to a light lavender, sat near the firepit. Several unfamiliar D’Tali porters arranged the trader’s goods near one of the sleeping platforms. As I approached, the trader and two D’Tali rose and turned my way.

He spoke in a rough voice.

“I had heard about the mammal women, but I never thought I would live to meet one in the jungle.”

He extended his hand.

“Gorlon. The name’s Gorlon.”

I took his hand and shook, polite smile on my face.

“Nora.”

I retrieved my hand and took a seat near Rojav. Gorlon chuckled and joined us.

“Where are you and your men headed, Nora?”

He tore a piece of bread with his teeth, chewing as he watched me, awaiting my reply.

“We seek to contact the Vivutians. If we can find them. What brings you here, Gorlon?”

A shiny, charming smile appeared on his face. Something about the suddenness of the transition between the two expressions nagged at me. Something felt off and slightly out-of-sync, but I couldn’t identify a specific cause for it.

“Well, we are both in luck, then. We also travel to Vivutian territory. We seek trade. What do you seek, Nora? And let us hope it is not also trade, for I would loathe to be rivals so soon.”

He and his men chuckled. I laughed my polite laugh.

“We seek only knowledge, Gorlon.”

I looked around, pointedly meeting my crew’s eyes.

“Isn’t that right, boys?”

“Yes, it is, Nora. We are scientists. We are on a scientific mission.”

Gorlon looked overly impressed with Rojav’s assertion.

“That sounds important. I’m unfamiliar with the term. Please, tell us your story while we share a fire and a meal. I shall trade you my stories for yours, and we will both be richer, yes?”

I grinned. I could see right away Gorlon was a scoundrel, but so were some of my favorite people.

Hardly matters, at this point. Traveling with Gorlon was inevitable, once he decided we were going the same way. Time to see what I can learn.

“As is the way of travelers on both of our worlds, Gorlon.”

ROJAV

Nora sat beside me, her leg and hip pressed against mine. I sat rigid, afraid to move, lest she notice and separate our contact. Evening fell and, as the light faded, insects flooded the world with their calls. Nora so close and comfortable soothed my soul in ways I failed to define.

My muscles relaxed against her touch. I breathed in the easiest breath of my life. Each ray of light which reached her skin through the leafy canopy shone on her perfect contours. She shook her head. Her beautiful long brown hair shimmered in the light.

The intoxicating scent of her skin tickled my nose. My head buzzed and everything I saw took on a hazy glow, like an old memory. Gorlon’s smoky voice hit my ear like a dark liquor hits the throat.

His was a voice of temptation and seduction, the kind of voice that tells you everything is okay even after you’ve jumped from a cliff. I had met men like that before. Father was like that—easy laughs until the laughing stopped.

Beneath the laughs existed a hard sharpness. Men like that, those easy smiles fell in a heartbeat. I glanced at Olanth. He wore a carefully neutral face. His eyes darted to mine. After years of prison together, and working so closely during the expedition, I knew Olanth’s face.

He doesn’t like it, either. And Nora must be more scared of them than me, to sit so close. It would be so nice to wrap an arm around her…

I wanted to wrap an arm around her, to put myself between her and Gorlon. While the two spoke, I took the measure of Gorlon’s men. His porters said little, keeping their heads down. The other two of his D’Tali, though…they looked like men who would take, and had taken, any job for coin.

With a quick exchange of eyes, I realized all of Nora’s men agreed. Those of us from prison recognized trouble when we saw it. Dak and Lorkot recognized danger from their youths on the streets of Tahkath.

“Feathered?”

Nora had lost herself in Gorlon’s stories of the Vivutians.

“Yes. Bird people. They use their wings like we use our arms.”

Krenik sat close, leaning in. The fire’s light flashed across his face.

“You’ve really seen one?”

Gorlon nodded. He held out his arm, pointing to a long, ugly scar.

“Got into a fight with one, once. The talons of her bird feet scratched me here. Nearly lost my arm.”

Krenik shot up, his back straight.

“Her? You fought a…woman?”

“Vivutians aren’t like us, little man. Their women do the fighting.”

“But…but…how do they have enough women? Women are so precious…”

“D’Tali, Aetamians, and Lukadians have few women. The Vivutians have many.”

Nora nodded at Gorlon’s words.

“That makes sense, actually. Most species have a more balanced ratio of males to females. Humans produce about one male for every female.”

Krenik yawned. Nora yawned. I felt the sudden urge to yawn. Nora stood, stretching. I missed her presence.

“Well, it’s late and I plan to leave at first light. Good night.”

“Good night, Nora. My men and I look forward to our travels.”

We retreated to our sleeping platforms. That night, Nora’s hammock hung surrounded by her men. I took first watch, then dreamed of her when I rolled into my own hammock.

Wuhat woke us in the early light the next morning. We redistributed our supplies to even the load among the men, now that we had consumed many of them during the stop. I loaded myself up with my pack, the crate holding the microscope, and as many waterskins as I could sling from my arms and shoulders.

We’d eaten the last of the fruit we had brought with us yesterday, but I saved the bag. I slung it from my shoulders, too.

“Krenik.”

The boy turned and ran my way.

“What do you want? Are you ready to surrender?”

“I’ll make you a deal. If you can fill the fruit bag while we walk, I’ll carry it for you. I’m sure Nora would appreciate it.”

“You think so?”

“I’ll even tell her it was all your idea and pretend like I didn’t want to do it, but you convinced me to anyway.”

“You make a compelling offer, Rojav. Give me a moment to consider.”

He made it obvious he thought hard about accepting my offer. He made certain I saw him eye me with suspicion.

“I’ll throw in a coin.”

“You have a deal, Rojav.”

Krenik scampered off. I hoped he returned soon with fruit. We trudged along through the jungle. Gorlon walked beside Nora. I walked behind them, keeping one eye on them and the other on the ground at my feet.

Nora’s sweet voice drifted back. I half listened.

“So, how does one make a good impression on a Vivutian?”

“The Vivutians live by complex social rules I don’t pretend to understand. Luckily, they don’t expect outsiders to understand all of it. The males are very…neat. They love baubles, shiny things, anything the females might find fascinating.”

“Sounds like birds of paradise.”

“I’m unfamiliar with those terms.”

“Sorry. Human words. The things you are describing remind me of some Earth birds.”

As we walked, Nora stripped long grasses, fashioning them together. Krenik ran up, depositing another fruit I had no name for into the bag I carried. Wuhat had pointed out a few edible fruits and how to collect them.

NORA

I dozed in my hammock, fully dressed and boots on, with the sleeping Krenik drooling on my shirt. His weight comforted me. The straw hat I’d woven earlier kept the insects from our faces. The hammock swung gently in the breeze.

Thunder boomed through the air above, and lightning flashed. Rain pounded the stacked-leaf roofs Wuhat had insisted we construct above our hammocks before we slept.

Unsure why, my mind floated up to consciousness. I cracked my eyes open, looking for what had awoken me. Rojav lay in a hammock strung next to mine. My eyes met his. For a moment, it felt like we floated together in a golden fog, cradled in a hammock of golden threads.

He barely moved his hand, drawing my attention. In it, he held a knife. I wrapped my fingers around the handle of the knife hidden under the roll of clothes cushioning my head. He nodded. Fear stabbed into me.

It’s time…

This was not my first tense night on an expedition. I was fortunate enough to have accompanied one of my professors on an expedition to the Amazon River. Mercenaries hired by loggers raided a village where our expedition had stayed one night.

I felt the same way now as I had in the moments before the loggers attacked. As much as I loved the adventure of these treks into the jungle, I hated this part. I glanced at the other hammocks swinging near us. Lightning flashed, and I saw the hammocks were stuffed with spare clothes.

My eyes flew open. I looked at Rojav. He winked at me. My heart thundered in my chest. He gripped the handle of his knife and whispered.

“Down. Now.”

Rojav rolled, falling to the floor. I rolled out of the hammock, with Krenik clutched against me in one arm. I landed on my knees, wrapping my body around the child. He wiggled in my arms. I hushed him. He caught on quickly and slid from my arms to the floor.

We crouched, small and quiet, looking for a path out. I heard grunts and the rustling of blankets. In a flash of lightning, I saw Gorlon and his two favorite henchmen stabbing into the stuffed hammocks.

About when Gorlon pulled back one of the blankets to behold his bloody handiwork, my men attacked. Rojav surged from the floor. He grabbed Gorlon’s knife hand and they pummeled each other for control of the machete-sized blade.

Krenik tugged at my shorts. I looked at him. He pointed out a path through the chaos of fighting men. I worried for my crew. I was so happy to know each of them. I hoped they would all survive the night.

I pulled on my pack and the waterskins I had prepared before bed and followed Krenik out of the fight and into the pounding rain. He grabbed my hand, shouting at me. The rain drowned out his words, but I followed where he led me.

A nearby tree towered into the canopy above. Krenik pointed up.

Good idea, kid. Crawl up and wait it out.

I grabbed Krenik around the waist and lifted him as high as I could. He scrambled up onto a wide branch. I unslung my pack and water and handed them up, too. I waved at Krenik.

“Go higher. As high as you can. We need to get the packs out of arm’s reach…”

“Just climb, Nora! Before the bad men find us.”

Krenik pulled the pack and waterskins up and out of my way. I reached up, grabbing at limbs, and stuck the toe of my boot against the trunk of the tree. I pulled myself up. Krenik shouted, pointing behind me.

One of Gorlon’s henchmen grabbed my ankle and pulled. I squealed in fright and kicked at his face. He roared at me and grabbed the back of my shorts. He jerked, and my fingers slipped. I fell, landing on my back, fallen leaves cushioning my fall.

I kicked out at my attacker’s femur, twisting and snapping my foot at the last minute. A kick that could have snapped a human man’s leg landed like a brick—but couldn’t snap the leg of the far larger D’Tali.

Fuck. That’s my best move.

I kicked him there, again, just in case. He roared. Even if my kick couldn’t crack a D’Tali leg, it still had to hurt.

Kneecaps. They’re a weak spot. Let’s try to shatter those.

With a feral scream swallowed by thunder, I kicked at his kneecap until he stepped back. Something moving too fast to identify darted through the air, flashing in the lightning. The D’Tali screamed and twisted. A dagger stuck from his shoulder, trailing blood.

Krenik cackled from the safety of the tree. The D’Tali flailed, trying to reach the knife. I wasted not a second longer, pulling my own knife and springing to my feet. I crouched low, calculating the best plan of attack to take down a six-foot-six-inch dino-man with only a human woman and a knife.

He paid me no heed, obsessed with removing the knife from his flesh. Anatomy and physiology diagrams flashed through my mind.

Tendons. Rojav assured me this knife was sharp—let it be sharp enough…

I darted in, slicing at the big tendons in his legs. He screeched. My knife had been sharp enough. Unable to control his legs without working tendons, his body crumpled to the ground. He would never walk again. I didn’t expect him to make it out of the jungle.

I returned to the tree and attempted to crawl up it again. Another pair of arms encircled my waist, lifting me and pulling me back. I screamed in utter frustration.

“Didn’t I kill you already?”

Smokey voice harsh, Gorlon growled in my ear.

“Many a man has tried to kill me, dear, sweet Nora. And I’m not dead yet.”

He spun me to face him. I slapped him for all I was worth. He slapped me in return and my world went black.

When I came to, the world was still dark, but the storm had passed. Gorlon carried me over his shoulder and my hands were tied. I still wore my clothes, though, for which I was grateful.

“Ah, you have awoken.”

The smug note in his voice infuriated me. He set me down and tied a rope to the ropes binding my wrists.

“Come along.”

“It’s dark. I can barely see. I’ll fall.”

My face hurt where he had hit me. My cheek and eye felt swollen and my jaw was stiff. I glared at him in the dappled light of a dual full moon.

“You can see well enough. I suggest you keep up or I will simply drag you along. Now get moving.”

He snapped the tether at me like I was an animal.

Play along. Be patient. He will make a mistake like the last one did and give me an opportunity. Rojav and my men, my…friends…will find me.

Gorlon tugged the rope, leading me further into the forest. I moved as slowly as I could, blaming the tether for my crawling pace. Blood ran from knife wounds in his torso. I wondered how hurt he was, but he didn’t stumble, so I decided he couldn’t be hurt badly enough.

“You haven’t even asked me what happened to your favorite after you ran away.”

I glared harder into his back. I had no intention of believing a word he said.

“Tell me, mammal, did you simply favor him for some animal rutting? Or do you believe humans can really mate with a D’Tali?”

Gorlon chuckled.

“Wait, did you think he was your mate?”

My eyes rolled without checking in with my brain. He laughed hard and long.

When I get my hands free, you sadistic fuck, I will gut you. You think D’Tali are mean, you haven’t seen a human woman hell-bent on revenge. I will go all human on you, you loathsome creep.

He pulled me along behind, muttering one foul thing after another in the dark. I stumbled every opportunity which presented itself, to slow him down. My shins appreciated my efforts about as much as Gorlon did, but I successfully slowed our progress a little.

On one of my stumbles, I pulled the knife still hidden in my boot and hid it between my hands. My stumbles served a second purpose, as well. I was certain I left a trail anyone could follow.

I worked the blade on the ropes binding my hands while we walked. I stopped my intentional stumbling to focus on cutting my hands free. Gorlon, perhaps relieved I had suddenly learned how to walk without falling, didn’t even bother to look at me.

Arrogance is so easy to exploit.

A deep rumble reverberated through the jungle. Gorlon froze, looking around. I froze, too, though my knife was nearly through my bonds. An answering rumble reverberated to our left.

“Sounds big, Gorlon.”

“Shut your mouth, mammal, before I gag you.”

I shrugged at him, taking the opportunity to catch my breath. Another rumble rolled past us.

“Sounds like they’re heading this way.”

“I said shut your mouth.”

He looked around, then tugged at my tether and led me further on. I returned to working my knife through the ropes until they loosened enough to slip out my hands. I dropped the tether, spun on my heel, and ran back along our trail.

ROJAV

I strained against Gorlon, my teeth bared. Though shorter than I, the old D’Tali proved tough and strong. I gripped his wrist, determined to control where he could put the knife clutched in his hand. He punched my ribs with his free fist. So I punched him in the face.

Gorlon may have been a tough old man, but I fought to protect my mate. I slammed my fist into his jaw again. Gorlon stumbled. We fell in a tangle of limbs and hammocks. His knife fell from his fingers.

Our hands scrambled for the blade’s handle. My fingers touched the handle. Gorlon suddenly reversed his position, swinging his feet at my face and arms. His kicking heel connected with the knife And sent it spinning across the floor.

I leaped for him, but one of his porters tackled me. I lost track of Gorlon in the struggle with the porter, who seemed determined to strangle me. I pushed against his chest, keeping him far enough away to prevent him from getting a good grip on my neck.

I landed a few swift punches to his ribs, hoping to crack one. He grunted, pulling his body back from my fist. Then another of Gorlon’s porters tackled the one cringing from my blows.

Looks like some of his men didn’t agree with this attack.

I snapped my head about, assessing my situation. The two porters wrestled on the floor until my attacker cried out. My rescuer pushed himself to his feet, a bloody knife in his blue-scaled hand. He grinned at me and offered me a hand.

“Bekor. Nice to meet you.”

“Thanks, Bekor. Rojav.”

Bekor pointed at the dead porter sprawled on the floor.

“When he attacked you, Gorlon ran after your mate.”

Fear stabbed into my gut.

Nora…

“Which way?”

Bekor pointed off into the darkness. I grabbed my pack, some waterskins, and one of the bush knives, and raced out to find Gorlon and Nora.

Nora, I will find you.

I dismissed any worry for the rest of the crew. Between our men, and the porters who’d decided they liked us better than Gorlon, Gorlon’s loyal men had no chance.

The men were smart and Dak was a good leader. Wuhat could find us even if we couldn’t find our way back. All I had to do was track Nora and Gorlon and kill that slimy excuse for a D’Tali.

Moving at a jog, I followed the trail of trampled plants and broken twigs to a large tree. One of Gorlon’s henchmen lay dead below it, a blade embedded in his shoulder and his tendons cut.

Impressive.

The tree’s branches jiggled in an entirely unnatural way.

“Krenik?”

Leaves parted and the boy looked out at me, fury plain on his face.

“Rojav! He took her! We took down this one together, but Gorlon grabbed her. He hit her, Rojav! He hit her hard.”

Rage bloomed inside me.

“She passed out and he put her on his shoulder and carried her away.”

Krenik pointed at the jungle. Krenik pierced me with the most serious face I had ever seen. For a moment, I couldn’t breathe for the force of the boy’s fury.

“Rojav, you find them. You find them and you kill that Gorlon. Bring Nora home.”

“I vow on my life, Krenik. I will bring her back. First, I should take you to Lorkot.”

Krenik pushed a pack and some waterskins out of the tree and hopped down.

“Fucking numa shit, Rojav. I’ll make it back to camp fine.”

With a nod, I jogged into the jungle along the trail of broken branches. The pounding rain slowed my progress until the deluge subsided. Nora must have regained consciousness because all of a sudden the trail became obvious.

I followed their winding path through the jungle and past a steep ridge. Signs of their passage became difficult to detect.

What changed? Why go from crashing into every bush to moving so much more carefully? Did she get hurt? Did he decide to carry her again?

I noticed a few handmade fibers along the trail and examined them.

Rope fibers. Sawn apart with a sharp, smooth blade, considering how little the fibers were frayed.

I followed the trail of fibers for a few minutes, smiling.

Clever, Nora. So wonderfully clever.

Something big crashed through the jungle, headed right for me. I crouched, ready to fight. Nora shot out of the leaves. When her eyes fell on me, she began to laugh. I thought she would run directly into my arms, but she swerved at the last moment, running past.

She drew in a deep breath, slowing to a stop. “He’s coming.”

She crouched, her chest heaving and gasping for air. I had never seen any sight more beautiful than Nora at that moment. I unslung my pack and the skins from my shoulder and tossed them to the ground at her feet. She slipped them over her shoulders and crouched behind a bush to recover her breath.

I spun to face the crashing sound of a D’Tali-sized creature running at us through the heavy vegetation. I crouched low, my knife ready. I drew in a fortifying breath. Gorlon crashed through the trees. I swung my long, wide bush knife at his gut.

Gorlon dodged, quick on his feet. He crouched into a defensive posture just out of reach of my blade. His chest heaved. A dangerous light twinkled in his eye. My mind flashed back to that night so long ago…

I sidestepped a slow circle around Gorlon. He turned, keeping his face to me.

He looks so much like Father…

Gorlon lunged, testing my responses. My blade slapped his away. He grinned, sidestepping to prevent me flanking him. I failed to keep the grin from my face.

Arrogance is so easy to exploit.

Nora leaped from behind a bush where she had crouched. She landed on his back, knife in hand, sinking the blade into his shoulder. Gorlon screamed. Nora let go of the blade, dropped to her feet, and scrambled back into the thick bushes.

Gorlon pulled the knife from his shoulder and rushed to follow Nora. I chased after, tackling the tough old D’Tali. We rolled past Nora. Gorlon grabbed her arm, dragging her with us. Then the three of us rolled over the edge of the ravine.

We slid down the steep slope, our bodies leaving huge grooves in the mud as we passed. Gorlon fought my grip around his waist as we slipped and slid in the rainsoaked mud, but I refused to let go.

A rock slammed my back. I grunted but held onto the trader. We landed in the mud at the bottom of the ravine with a hard splat. I grabbed one of his horns. Using the horn as a handle, I smashed his face into a thick buttress-root next to us.

The jungle swallowed the terrible cracking sound Gorlon’s skull made as it shattered around the root. I panted for a moment, then stood. My head swiveled in the darkness.

“Nora! Nora! Where are you?”

I sniffed at the air, hoping to catch her delicious scent, but all I could smell was mud and jungle rot. I looked up the steep side of the ravine to see if she clung to the side somewhere.

She can’t be dead. I would know if she were dead. The golden feeling in my gut still glows, still sings to me. My mate lives. My mate… I can pretend no longer. Nora is my mate and I cannot lose her before I have even told her.

“Nora!”

“Stop that fucking bellowing, Rojav. Gorlon might find us.”

Her sweet voice drifted to me from further along the ravine. My heart soared.

“I made sure he was dead already.”

Nora sighed as she appeared in front of me. Her entire body seemed to relax and nearly melt to the ground.

“That was exactly what I wanted to hear.”

She threw her arms around me. My heart tried to both stop at her touch and pound. I wrapped my arms around her the way I had dreamed of so many nights. She spoke, her soft words muffled by my chest squishing her face.

“I just want to get back to camp, get clean, eat, drink, and pass the fuck out. Take me home.”

I looked up, examining the side of the ravine.

“Nora, I think it is too steep and muddy to make it up tonight. It would be better to find a place to hole up until the men find us. I’m certain they will. Krenik is determined.”

Nora chuckled. A full belly laugh quickly replaced the chuckle. When her laughing fit subsided, she looked up at me.

“You turned red again.”

She giggled.

“I would bet you coin that child gives no one any peace until they find us. Honestly, Rojav, I’m relieved.”

To my disappointment, Nora stepped back and out of my arms. I missed her already, though she stood beside me. She handed me a waterskin, taking another for herself. We drank while our limbs recovered.

“Let’s find a good spot to camp. I don’t want to go to sleep or wake up anywhere near Gorlon’s dead face.”

“Especially after I caved it in. Not a pretty sight.”

We strolled through the jungle, making a clear trail for Wuhat and the others to follow.

“I know I’m covered in mud, blood, and whatever we rolled through on that unexpected mudslide. I’m hoping we find a spring soon.”

And I am hoping you will let me hold you in my arms until our men find us.

NORA

We ARE finding that spring and getting clean, because I’m jumping your bones, Rojav.

I decided not to tell him yet, though. I didn’t want to spook him. I grabbed his hand in mine, and dragged him along behind me.

And because his touch sends the most delicious sparks shooting through my system.

Rojav sliced through saplings and vines as we traveled, leaving an obvious trail. We trekked from the ravine wall downhill till we found a stream. After a quick examination to determine the stream was safe enough, we stopped.

Rojav backtracked up the slope to a flattened area. He dropped the pack and the waterskins. He chopped large fronds of thick, wide leaves. I strung some vines between the three trunks and layered branches and cut fronds over each other to create a, hopefully, watertight roof.

With the roof complete, we layered large fronds on the area of ground sheltered by the roof and the tree’s tall buttress-roots. I lay a blanket from the pack over the top of the leaves. A slightly medicinal, cedar smell wafted up to my nose.

Rojav chose well. These should keep away the jungle bugs…

Our little nest complete, I stood and turned to the stream. Rojav stood before me, a tall, wide shadow in the night. His eyes, though, glowed gold. His big, hard-muscled arm held a branch out of the path to the stream.

Heat rose in my chest. I felt a blush race across my cheeks. My heart pounded. With light steps, I walked past him. He fell in behind me. He didn’t speak, but I could hear his breaths behind me.

Yes, yes, yes. Why did I even fight this so hard?

I wasn’t fighting what my heart wanted any longer. Instead, I pulled my mud-caked sports bra over my head. I sighed with relief as the girls relaxed, free at last. I slipped my shorts over my hips and stepped out of them.

I didn’t bother to look back at the effect the mud-soaked striptease had had on Rojav. I could hear him following and I wanted to get clean enough to enjoy being naked with him as quickly as possible.

Sliding down the ravine wall had shoved mud in all my clothes. Mud covered my entire body from head to toe.

I must look like I have been newly formed from the clay by the Māori people’s Tāne Mahuta. Another reference I can never explain.

I stepped into the cool water of the stream. Mud washed away from my feet. I felt Rojav step up behind me. I could feel the presence of his body just an inch away. I turned, my eyes downcast out of fear I would look at his face and see rejection staring back at me.

His big hand stroked the layer of mud on my upper arm. Without the mud, such a move would have felt super sexy. I looked up at Rojav. All I saw on his face was raw desire. My heart slammed in my chest.

I placed a trembling hand on his muddy, hard-muscled chest. I nodded at his shorts. They looked to be made more of mud than fabric.

“You’re wearing too many clothes.”

Rojav looked terrified but eager. He slipped the shorts from his hips. They splashed into the stream around his ankles. Before my eyes, the most glorious cock I had ever seen stood erect.

Well, the dimensions are right. I assume the rest is pretty, too…underneath all that mud.

I pushed his shoulder.

“You’re too dirty to kiss.”

Rojav chuckled.

“So are you.”

I knelt into the stream, letting the water flow over me up to my neck. Rojav splashed down to join me, pulling his shorts off his feet. He threw them to the riverbank and chuckled. I scrubbed the mud from his scales and he scrubbed the mud from my back.

We giggled, exploring each other, enjoying the touch of our fingertips running along our bodies. Even once clean, we did not stop touching each other.

“You are so perfect…”

My eyelids fluttered at his soft words. Fairly certain I was clean ages ago and just didn’t want him to stop touching me, I cupped his face in a hand. He gasped, growing very still. His huge body trembled. I could feel how much he wanted me. I could smell it.

The golden threads wrapped around us as if making up for lost time. I leaned into him, bringing my lips within a hairsbreadth of his. In a split moment, Rojav’s lips breached the miniscule gap, meeting mine.

We kissed. Only the stream’s cool water kept me from jumping him right there.

“Take me back to our camp.”

Rojav growled when my desperate whisper reached his ears. He stood, sweeping me from the water and into his arms. His legs surged through the stream as he carried me ashore. I refused to stop kissing him and he stumbled a few times on the way back to our nest.

Rojav fell to his knees at the entrance. I ran my fingers over his bulging shoulders. He placed me on the blanket I had spread over the bed of soft, tropical branches earlier. I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him again.

My lips parted and our tongues met. The world faded around us. Only Rojav and I existed, wrapped in the golden mating bonds. I ran my fingers over his horns. His body shuddered under my touch.

A low growl emanated from his throat. We writhed together, our limbs entangled, tasting each other. Rojav’s big hand found a breast and I moaned softly against his lips. I threw my head back, breaking our kiss.

Rojav took my breast in his mouth. His tongue flicked against my nipple, sending delicious, electric shivers through my skin. My pussy dripped, hot and ready. I arched my back, pressing my body against his.

One of his arms wrapped around my waist. The other slid down my belly.

Yes, yes, yes, yes.

“Rojav…”

His growl deepened, hearing his name upon my lips. He pulled his head back, releasing my nipple with a pop. He sniffed, drawing in a deep breath.

“You smell so good…”

Eyes glazed, his nose sniffed all the way to my swollen, throbbing pussy. He spread my knees with his strong hands. He stopped for a moment, gazing down at my dripping snatch. He stroked his fingers down my slit.

I moaned, arching my back. I whimpered, hoping he would take the hint. He lowered his head for a long sniff. His eyelids fluttered. He stroked my labia again. My pussy bloomed under his touch.

He gasped at the sight and ran his fingers over the sensitive, aroused flesh. With excruciating patience, he explored every fold and ridge with his big fingers. My clit swelled, throbbing.

I whimpered, moaning, begging.

“Please…please…”

One of his slick fingers slid into my tunnel, wiggling and exploring. I gasped. Delicious sensations shot through me. Then his big tongue licked, hesitant—almost experimental. I cried out, grabbed his head, and shoved him in. I didn’t think it was the time to be subtle.

Rojav dove in. He licked my slit in long strokes. His exploring fingers found my G-spot. I moaned. My inner tunnel clenched on his finger. He added a second finger to the first and worked my G-spot without mercy. I did not complain.

His big tongue lapped up my juices, then found my swollen clit. My whole body jumped at the pleasure blossoming under his touch. He nibbled at my clit, licking and flicking his tongue. My inner walls clenched on him over and over.

My flailing hands grabbed his horns. He growled deeper, clamped his lips around my clit, and sucked. The tension building inside of my core throbbed hard. I could feel my orgasm approaching. I kept slamming my hips on his hand.

Rojav snuck his other hand up to one of my nipples—and squeezed. I went over the edge. My orgasm crashed into me. Juices splattered his face. He drank me up, licking every inch of me.

I screamed as wave after wave of pleasure rolled through me. I panted, body falling limp. Rojav retrieved his face from my crotch, which glistened in the moonlight. He looked…smug.

Well, after that orgasm, he should.

He pulled himself up to his elbows. He grinned.

“Did I do well, my Nora?”

I chuckled.

“Yes, Rojav. You made me feel so good.”

He seemed pleased.

“That makes me happy, Nora.”

He stroked my face with his fingers, then leaned down and kissed my lips with the gentlest touch. Our lips parted and our eyes met. We gazed into each other, floating in the golden light of the mate bond.

“Should I make you feel good again? I think I should practice and improve my skills for you.”

I chuckled, wrapping my arms around him. I pulled him close, into a long hug.

“As much as I want to encourage this behavior in our relationship, I must admit that I am exhausted and can’t keep my eyes open.”

He looked so disappointed.

“How about I promise you can spend as much time as you like honing your skills after we get some sleep?”

Rojav’s grin returned.

“Do you promise, Nora? Because I vow to be a good student. I intend to master this skill.”

I giggled.

“Do you?”

“Oh, yes. I swear to master making you feel good. And you taste so delicious…”

ROJAV

I held Nora in my arms as we slept through the exhaustion of too many days trekking, fighting, and running through a rainforest.

Don’t forget the making love and what Nora calls ‘bonding’. Whatever that is, I think I like it. All of the ‘bonding’ stuff makes her happy, and I will go to any lengths to keep her happy.

We woke to the fierce, competitive calls of jungle life. A breeze funneled down the tall roots of the tree which sheltered our nest on two sides. Nora called them buttress-roots. She said they helped stabilize the tall tree in the poor jungle soils.

She is so smart.

Pride bloomed in my chest. Then fear tried to drive the pride away.

What if she wakes and decides that she made a mistake with me? What happens when she finds out what I did?

I shook my head, trying to clear it. Nora moaned. She rolled her body, stretching and groaning. I heard a couple of worrisome pops. Nora looked happy about them, though, so I returned to worrying about confessing my crime—my shame.

She pushed herself up, rubbing her eyes. A sleepy smile stretched across her face. I stroked a finger along her cheek, my worries forgotten.

“Good morning,” she whispered, and placed a quick kiss on my lips.

“I have to pee.”

Nora crawled out of the nest and pushed herself to her feet. She shuffled into some bushes.

Is this what it is to have a mate? ‘Good morning, I have to pee?”

I grinned.

I can live with that if it means being with Nora. But, can she live with me? After I tell her…

I crawled out, as well. I stood, stretching in the late morning air. I found a nice bush to water and relieved myself. I wondered if the bush appreciated it.

I wandered back to camp, looking for any of the edible plants Nora or Wuhat had pointed out during our treks. I saw some good-looking fruit just out of reach. Wuhat called them vugkudyoǔ. Nora said they reminded her of something from Earth called a banana, but the vugkudyoǔ has blue flesh.

I gripped a branch, pulling myself into the tree. A few branches later, I shook the vugkudyoǔ bunch. The stem cracked and the bunch fell to the jungle floor below. I swung myself out of the tree, hopping down next to the fruit.

I grabbed my bunch and returned to camp. Nora stood, knife ready, as I approached. When she recognized me, she smiled and sheathed the knife. Our filthy clothes hung from one of her arms.

“Hey, you. I was about to put these in the wash.”

Humans say some things in the strangest ways…

I held up the vugkudyoǔ bunch.

“I brought breakfast.”

“Great. If you’ll get the fire going, I’ll get these started.”

“I don’t understand. What do you plan to do?”

Nora shrugged.

“They’re so filthy, it will take forever for me to scrub them. I was going to thread some twine from the pack through the clothes and tie it in the stream. Let the stream clean them for us.”

“I would never have thought of that. I would still be pounding them with a rock. Angry. Maybe that’s just prison.”

Ah. And we have come to the moment… Time to talk about it.

Anticipation and dread wrestled in my gut.

“On a bad day, I’m all for beating dirty clothes with rocks. Today is a good day, though.”

She smiled and turned red again. Still naked, for which I was infinitely appreciative, she turned and walked to the stream.

She is so happy right now. I will steal that from her, when I tell her…

I busied myself preparing the meal before my fear could talk me out of being honest with Nora.

“Uh oh.”

Nora’s voice startled me. Lost in my fears, I had failed to hear her approach.

“Hmm?”

“You have that look again.”

“What look?”

“The one that happens right before you get all moody.”

“Moody?”

Nora chopped some leaves with my bush knife and arranged them into a cushion near the fire. She plopped her perfect butt onto them, set the knife aside, and looked at me.

“That face convinced me you couldn’t stand me.”

“What? How could I hate you? I thought you hated me.”

“Why would I hate you, Rojav?”

Here it is.

I drew in a deep breath.

“Because I murdered my father.”

My shoulders tensed. The rest of my breath escaped in one huge exhalation. My body felt like it crumpled around the ruins of my spirit.

“I don’t have a lot of control over my face. You…were so…attractive, you just overwhelmed me. I had so many responsibilities when we met, so much to keep straight in my brain, what with planning this expedition and, all of a sudden, there you were, eyes flashing golden…”

“So…the turning red?”

Nora shrugged.

“It happens sometimes when a human really wants to, uh…mate? But humans also mate for fun on Earth, so this whole ‘fated mate’ thing is kinda weird for us.”

“There are no fated mates on Earth?”

“That’s a complicated question to answer in D’Tali. Let’s say, many humans want to believe they can find their perfect partner, but we never have definitive proof the way D’Tali or Lukadians or Aetamians do. No golden threads or eyes flashing gold or anything.”

“Humans are weird.”

“That’s for sure.”

I poked at the fire, turning the vugkudyoǔ so it would cook evenly over the coals.

“You…didn’t say anything about my having killed my father.”

“One of those responsibilities I was talking about, when we rushed to put this expedition together, was picking a crew. I sat down with Sofia, King Dojak, Zalko, Jarlath, Mellida, and Toc. Well, they sat me down, and we discussed who would go.”

“And how did any of you decide a father-killer was the right man for the job.”

I risked a glance at her face, terrified I would see rejection. Her face was serious, but open.

“As it was explained to me, you killed your drunken, enraged father to save the life of your mother.”

That night returned. Rain pelted down on my head. Thunder crashed and lightning flashed. With the lightning flashed memories of Father’s face, twisted in rage—Mother’s face a mask of terror…

I drew in a shuddering breath.

“They also told me after you stabbed him, you ran to the nearest magistrate with the weapon and confessed. Then, when you were taken before the King’s Court, you insisted on pleading guilty before anyone could even step forward to defend you.”

I stared at my hands, lost in a flood of memories.

“I killed him. I am guilty.”

“Insisting on going to prison to punish yourself for a crime committed in defense of your mother should have been enough punishment, Rojav.”

I shook my head, fighting the logic of her words.

“King Dojak made it clear no one wanted to convict you. None wanted to punish you for the choice you were forced to make. You refused to give any of them another option.”

My eyes burned with unshed tears. My shoulders clenched so hard my body trembled.

“Look at me, Rojav.”

I forced my eyes to her face.

“Your father put you in an impossible position. He gave you an impossible choice. Sometimes, there are no good choices. He should never have put you between his rage and your mother’s life. We make the best choices we can. Sometimes, all our options are terrible. We hope to bear the consequences, but only you blame yourself for what your father set in motion.”

Years of pain bubbled up in heavy sobs. I felt her arms wrap around me.

“I…I didn’t want to…”

She held me and I grieved for all I’d lost that night so long ago. When my grief subsided, we ate half-burnt vugkudyoǔ. Fed, and too raw for further conversation, we packed up our things, put on our wet, but clean, clothes, and backtracked to where we had slid down into the ravine.

When we arrived, Olanth dangled halfway down the ravine from a harness someone had rigged up from our rope. He spotted us and waved, a huge smile on his face. He shouted up at the men lowering him down.

“FOUND THEM. Pull me back up!”

His descent stopped. Olanth oofed and began ascending back to the top. Nora and I watched him scramble up at the top of the ridge above. A moment later, the rope harness sailed over the edge, falling down to us.

I turned to Nora.

“You first.”

“I’m not going to argue with that.”

We got her tied into the harness and the men pulled her up. She scrambled over the top of the ridge and the rope harness sailed over the side for me. It landed about a foot short, tangled in a bush that had survived the mudslide the night before.

I jumped, snagged it, and tied it on. The men pulled me up. I walked along the side of the cliff, helping pull myself up by grabbing bushes and roots. Soon, I, too, scrambled over the ridge.

Nora held Krenik in her arms, his arms clamped around her neck.

“Never again, Nora. Never, never disappear like that. Do you hear me? I was so worried.”

Nora chuckled, hugging the boy.

“It wasn’t really my idea, you know?”

Madar and Olanth clapped me on the shoulder. Lorkot and Dak shook my hand. Wuhat chewed some leaves, randomly chuckling. Nora drew a deep breath and released a relieved sigh.

“Let’s get back to our expedition. We have Vivutians to find.”

I can never push her away again.

NORA

I slipped my hand into Rojav’s. He jumped, surprised. Then he looked at me like I was a revelation, smiled, and we continued on. We packed up our camp and followed Wuhat further down the trail into the jungle. Wuhat pointed at the path.

“No one has traded here in a long time. See how the plants nearly cover the trail?”

I nodded, watching Lorkot and Olanth hack away at the plant growth choking the trail and slowing our progress.

“How long do you think until we enter Vivutian territory?”

Wuhat chuckled.

“Remember the strings of bright feathers, animal bones, and vethoip nuts we passed?”

“At the last rest stop?”

“Yes. We entered Vivutian territory back there.”

“So, those were Vivutian territory markers?”

“For this village. I hear there are many Vivutian villages in the jungle, each with their own traditions.”

“Did Gorlon tell the truth when he said the men like shiny gifts.”

Wuhat nodded.

“Yes. The Vivutian men decorate themselves.”

I nodded, glad I’d brought a small cache of precious gems, jewelry, small mirrors, and other small baubles to trade. Unsure what I would need to open relations with the Vivutians, I’d erred on the side of ‘a little bit of everything’, just in case.

“How do I say ‘hello, we come in peace to offer friendship and trade’?”

“Fâgâ. Oi zǐ zâ ful. Oi âloith vid ǐ chuyzǎ gǐ zhûwpâl, but they speak decent D’Tali.”

“I like to greet people in their own language, but I’m not sure I can learn all that before we run into them.”

“Start with fâgâ.”

“Fâgâ. Fâgâ.”

Krenik ran up to me.

“Nora! Nora! We found them! The bird people! I saw the first Vivutian. Pay up, boys.”

Lorkot turned to Krenik.

“Did you bet on yourself?”

“Of course I did.”

The men groaned around me, digging coins out of pouches and made good on their bets.

“Wuhat, we’re up. Come with me. Krenik, get the box of treasures I showed you.”

I approached the front of our column and the sound of outraged squawking. Lorkot and Olanth stood, panting from their efforts to clear the jungle path. They had broken into a circular clearing. Chopped leaves lay in a mess everywhere on the bare floor of the clearing.

“Chie yoth! Chie ǐ zom e joufǎw.”

The Vivutian rushed to clear the leaves from the bare jungle floor.

What fascinating behavior! Clearing a nesting territory. The effort it must take to keep the jungle floor entirely free of leaves…

I darted my eyes to Wuhat.

“What did he say?”

“You fool. You have ruined my nesting territory. The joufǎw is the area he keeps clear, hoping a mate will choose him for his efforts.”

Krenik tugged at my arm to get my attention. I looked down. He handed me the small box where I’d stored the precious trade goods. I typed in the combination on the lock and the box popped open.

I looked at the Vivutian. He wore a necklace of shiny metal baubles around his neck. I dug through my treasures, looking for something similar enough to possibly interest him.

I decided on a rather simple brooch of silver about the size of my hand, polished to a mirror’s reflection. Set into the center of the mirror sat small copper and turquoise beads spaced by rondelles set with clear crystals.

Mom would have worn this.

I fished the gaudy brooch from the treasures and closed the box. I tucked the treasure box under an arm, just in case the brooch didn’t accomplish my goals.

The fussing Vivutian would be taller than even the D’Tali, were he not crouched over the floor. His long, bird-like legs and feet accentuated his avian heritage. Sharp talons jutted from the tips of his toes.

He hopped about, fluttering his black wings in distress. By the dimensions of his wings, I doubted the Vivutians were still capable of true flight. Long black feathers fringed the backs of his arms.

Thick, scaled fingers jutted from the tip of his wing-arm. His tail and arm feathers kept him balanced as he flitted about his joufǎw, tidying as he went. The Vivutian’s focus on tidying his clearing held his attention so strongly, I directed everyone to step back, out of the space.

Patiently, I waited for him to calm enough for a conversation, while watching him move. I had wanted to see real bird-people since I’d watched Flash Gordon with my Grandpa as a child.

Most of the fussing Vivutian’s feathers were a deep black, except for a patch of bright, iridescent yellow at his throat. Bright yellow rimmed his blue avian eyes. Four long feathers extended from his head. They wobbled as he bobbed his head, grabbing bits of leaf in two hands and his beak.

He cleared the last leaf from his joufǎw and released a great, relieved breath. His head spun toward us. The Vivutian’s neck was so flexible, he didn’t need to turn his body to glare at us. His head swiveled like an owl.

He snapped his head from side to side, giving us a thorough looking over. Words tumbled from my mouth before I had a chance to think about them.

“Fâgâ. We come in peace to offer friendship and trade. Forgive us for damaging your joufǎw. Please accept this token of my regret.”

I held out the brooch in my hand. I jiggled it, hoping it would sparkle in what light filtered down through the thick canopy. The Vivutian’s eyes grew wide. His beak chattered as he watched the brooch move.

He snatched the brooch from my hand, inspecting it with care. His head snapped up and he stared at me. He affixed the brooch to the center of his necklace and preened, stroking his head feathers.

He drew himself up to his full eight feet of height.

“Welcome to my joufǎw. Your gift is acceptable. I am Jayng.”

Jayng bowed low, fluffing his body feathers out into a round skirt. I bowed to match him, though I could not fluff my body out like he could his feathers. My men also bowed.

“I am Nora. I am pleased to meet you, Jayng.”

“I recognize the D’Tali. Your glowing companion must be Lukadian, though I thought they were only myths—lies told by the traders…”

Zarid raised a hand and shouted, “I’m real.”

Jayng fluttered his feathers.

“Yes, you are. But you, Nora…”

“I’m human. A mammal…”

Jayng trilled, his body shaking. I guessed, and hoped, it was a laugh. He leaned in close to me, sniffing and inspecting my long brown hair. He hopped back, trilling and shaking his head.

“Vǐm chûtgesh gambǔ pâz? Râw godhayf! E koisie ǐ shǎz? Follow me. I will take you to the Great Hen.”

I looked at Wuhat.

“He says ‘What could happen next? Intelligent mammals? I must be’…either ‘intoxicated’ or ‘up a tree’, but it is hard to tell.”

“Cool.”

We followed Jayng around his joufǎw and into the Vivutian village. Much of the brush in this area had been cleared away. We passed several joufǎw tended by flashy male Vivutians.

I haven’t seen this much bling since the last time I went clubbing…

Jayng strutted ahead of us, flashing his brooch at the other males as he passed. They chattered at him, scandalized and jealous.

He fluffed his feathers, expanding the visual width of his tall, thin form. The males we passed fluffed back at him, preening and posing.

Complex social structure. Most likely matriarchal…

We stepped up to a central clearing tended by what looked like juvenile males. In the center of the clearing sat a firepit. Along the far edge of the firepit seating lounged several dull-brown Vivutians.

Upon spotting our party following Jayng, the females all turned their eyes our way and fluffed their feathers.

“Great Hen, I have brought rare visitors to our land. I present you D’Tali traders, a real Lukadian, and, rarer still, a human—a râw godhayf.”

Jayng bowed low, fluffing his feathers out into a skirt again. The females sat up, their interest piqued. They chittered among themselves while examining us with their avian eyes.

“Pûf nepyǎw chazh chǎ chie ǐ shâth lâ, Jayng.”

I glanced at Wuhat. He translated.

“This most insane thing you have ever said, Jayng.”

Jayng replied.

“And yet, my words are true, Great Hen.”

The Great Hen turned to us.

“Come, travelers, come. Sit. We will eat and drink and trade stories. Perhaps, after, we will choose to be zhûwpâl godǐrmâ—trade partners.”

I stood.

“Fâgâ, Great Hen. Thank you for your hospitality. We accept your invitation and offer food from our supplies for the meal. I am Nora.”

“Fâgâ, Nora. I am Jithâ, the Great Hen of our village. It would please the Chu Foi Lǐm—as you say in D’Tali, The Great Hen— to learn the names of your men.”

“Certainly.”

I looked back at my men—my friends, students, more than simply companions now, after all we had survived together already. I waved them forward one at a time.

“This is Krenik. He wasn’t supposed to come along, but he insisted.”

“Fâgâ, Great Hen. I am honored to meet you.”

Krenik bowed low, then stepped aside. The seriousness with which children approached some things really tickled me.

“Olanth. Madar, our cook. Lorkot, Krenik’s brother. Zarid, a Lukadian who came with us to learn. Dak is second-in-command of our expedition.”

Each greeted the Great Hen with all possible deference. Then I turned to Rojav. He stepped forward and I took his hand. He smiled down at me and my heart filled with peace.

“This is Rojav, my mate.”

ROJAV

An entire civilization of bird people and I didn’t even know they existed. My world was so small before Nora came.

Nora glowed, deep in conversation with the Great Hen. Over a light lunch of ripe fruit and beetles the Vivutians very much enjoyed, Nora told Jithâ her story of Earth, abduction, and coming to live with the D’Tali.

Many Vivutians gathered to hear Nora’s words. Their feathers ruffled in the scary parts, and they asked many questions. Nora did her best to answer as many as she could, never getting overly frustrated when she simply didn’t have the words to explain a concept from Earth.

I would be pulling my hair out, trying to explain anything in Vivutian, Lukadian, or human.

Flashes of Nora’s body covered in sweat, the sounds she made under my touch, ran through my mind. Had I been human, I would surely have turned red the way Nora did. I shook my head to clear it of some of the best memories of my life and listened to Nora and Jithâ speak.

“Nora, I thank you for a truly unique story. My people have long known there are many worlds. The wisest of the forest spirits explained this truth to Vivutians long ago. I feel truly fortunate to meet proof of such things.”

“And I am fortunate to have the opportunity to meet the Great Hen.”

Nora and Jithâ bowed their heads to each other.

“Surely, you do not travel all the way from Tahkath simply to meet me, though.”

“In part, I certainly would have traveled much further to meet you, under different circumstances. It was, of course, my quest which made our meeting possible. On behalf of Tahkath, King Dojak, and Queen Sofia—another human like me—I come to offer friendship and trade.”

Jithâ bobbed her head and chattered her beak. With a ruffle of her plain brown feathers, she settled and spoke.

“We are currently reluctant to establish new trading partners.”

But they must! We came all this way…how can we leave emptyhanded?

Nora looked thoughtful. I wanted to burst into the conversation, demanding they listen, but I trusted Nora. I glanced at Wuhat, he being the only member of our team I knew who had traded with the Vivutians before. His belly jiggled with chuckles.

One day I will have to figure out what he thinks is so funny.

Nora spoke.

“That is unfortunate, Jithâ. What changed? Wuhat says you have always been fair and welcoming to traders before.”

Jithâ fluttered her feathers.

“The last trader did not trade fair. He insulted our intelligence, offering cheap glass beads and decorations made of copper-coated tin. Why should Vivutians trust these D’Tali?”

Nora nodded.

“This is a serious consideration, Jithâ. I can understand your reluctance.”

“And, human, without trust, no trade can be fair. The forest spirits were clear when they advised caution with the trader. Until the spirits choose to tell us otherwise, I do not see how we can trade.”

“I understand. Broken trust must be regained, even if it was not we who broke it.”

Jithâ squawked, head bobbing. My eyes darted between Nora and Jithâ, worried the Vivutians would soon send us away. Nora drank from a waterskin.

“This trader…did he travel through here recently?

“Yes. Almost a full cycle of the big moon ago.”

I broke in.

“May we know that trader’s name so we, also, may be wary, Great Hen?”

Jithâ’s head flicked. Her yellow-ringed eye pierced me. My breath caught in my chest.

Oh, no. What have I done now?

Jithâ bowed her head slightly.

“His name was Gorlon.”

I nodded.

“Then you will be happy to know I smashed his face into a root yesterday and he will not trouble you again.”

Jithâ looked at me from her other eye.

“Then the Great Hen owes you a debt.”

I opened my mouth, hoping to turn this debt into a trade agreement for Nora. Jithâ held up a winged arm and I fell silent.

“Not enough debt to secure a trade agreement, unfortunately.”

Nora cut in.

“Perhaps enough of a debt to give us the opportunity to earn more of your trust?”

Jithâ flashed her head feathers.

“Perhaps. I must consult my advisors.”

She held up her hand. Several other hens hopped over in a flutter of wings, settling in around her. They spoke rapid words in Vivutian so softly I could not make out the words.

Not that I speak Vivutian. Knowing fâgâ means ‘hello’ does not make me a Vivutian speaker.

After a few minutes of conversation, Jithâ turned her head back to us. She examined each of my party with both eyes.

“Perhaps there is a way.”

Krenik jumped into my lap. With a huge grin on his face, he spoke.

“What way? Our trade mission is very important. King Dojak and Queen Sofia even came to see us before we departed. Tahkath has many good things to trade.”

The Vivutians all chittered at Krenik’s antics. Wuhat leaned toward Nora.

“They’re laughing.”

Nora nodded and pulled Krenik into her lap.

“Is young Krenik your child with your mate?”

My eyes popped open. I sat up, my back straight.

Children… I haven’t even considered having children with Nora. I’ve barely gotten comfortable with a mate!

I spluttered my denial.

“What? No. He snuck on board. We didn’t intend to bring a child this far.”

The Vivutian hens chittered harder.

“Young Krenik, would you speak for all your people?”

“Uhhh… Exactly how do you mean that question?”

Jithâ rose to her feet. She towered above us.

She must be eight-and-a-half-feet tall.

I gulped, fearing the day Vivutians chose war. My estimation of the Vivutian combat capabilities left me in respectful awe. She strode up to Krenik, then bent down to get her eyes level with his.

“You are a brave one, young Krenik. I can see a great golden destiny in your spirit. The spirits of the forest tell me a bold future awaits you. They also tell me you will walk a long path. I ask you again, would you speak for your people? For Nora? For your brother, Lorkot? Would you let your words determine their fates?”

Krenik blinked up at the bird-woman. I could see his thoughts working themselves out inside his head. When he spoke, his voice sounded strong, confident—determined. Krenik nodded once.

“I do.”

“Would you accept a quest on their behalf?”

“Maybe. Depends on the terms of our deal.”

Jithâ chittered a laugh, then settled on the ground in front of Krenik. She extended a hand and stroked Krenik’s head.

“So brave. It will soon be our mating season, but we have a small obstacle.”

“What obstacle?”

Jithâ spread a wing wide, pointing into the jungle.

“Beyond those trees, child, lies the mouth of a cave. That cave is sacred to my people. It is our way for the hens to gather there at the beginning of mating season. There, we pray to the Spirits of the Forest for many eggs.”

Krenik scrunched his nose at Jithâ.

“That sounds very special.”

“It is. Unfortunately, this year, a destructive spirit haunts our sacred cave.”

“This evil spirit stole your sacred cave?”

“Yes.”

“Well, we can take care of that destructive spirit for you. Nora is a scientist—that’s a human word—and I’m sure we can find a way to help.”

Jithâ raised her head to look Nora in the eye.

“Do you believe so?”

Nora nodded.

“One way or another. If there is anything I can do, I will.”

Jithâ returned her gaze to Krenik. She fluttered her head feathers.

“Be certain, young D’Tali. The spirit in the sacred cave is very dangerous and possessed of a magic we have never seen before.”

Nora interrupted.

“This is the first time you have seen this destructive spirit?”

Jithâ bobbed her head.

“This spirit does not belong here. We have tried to fight it, but the spirit is too dangerous. I worry, asking you to do what we cannot find a way to, but helping return our cave to us would put us deeply in your debt, human.”

Krenik cut in.

“Enough to open trade relations, Great Hen?”

Jithâ bobbed her head.

“We’ll do it.”

Jithâ chittered.

“Should you not ask the others, first?”

Krenik glared at each of our party in turn until we all agreed to join the quest. Then he turned back to Jithâ’s feathered face.

“I’m obviously our best negotiator.”

We all laughed. Jithâ hopped up to her feet and turned in a circle, taking in each face surrounding her.

“Let it be known these Champions have come to rid us of the fiem!”

The Vivutians hopped to their feet, fluttering and hooting into the darkening sky.

“Tomorrow we meet the enemy! Tonight, we celebrate! I declare a night of embracing life before we stare death in the face.”

She thrust one feathered arm into the air. Her head feathers crested. The Vivutians spun in circles, chortling complicated patterns of rhythmic notes. Krenik stood, thrusting his arm into the air.

“I know a party when I hear about it. Woohoo!”

Nora turned to me.

“Thank you.”

“For what?”

“For killing that trader.”

Jithâ trilled. All fell silent. She swept her feathered arms wide. The male Vivutians rushed us, pulling the men away from Nora. I recognized Jayng. He chattered his beak at me, then asked me the most terrifying question.

“Oh, but can you dance, Champion Rojav?”

NORA

Once the male Vivutians had dragged the men away, Jithâ invited me over to join the hens. The hens fluffed up and settled into their seats. I walked over and took the seat Jithâ offered. I pulled my legs up and crossed them, getting comfortable.

“Thank you, Jithâ.”

The Great Hen bobbed her head.

“Nora, this is Shǎsh and Etmût, two of my most favored subjects.”

“Pleased to meet you, Shǎsh. Etmût.”

The hens chortled. Jithâ sang a complicated trill and a male Vivutian, whose name I had yet to learn, hopped over, head bowed. He came to a stop before Jithâ and bowed so low I worried he would stick his large beak into the ground.

“Diz, bring refreshments. Nora, is there anything you would like from your supplies? I am unfamiliar with human food requirements.”

“Oh, we’re omnivorous—we consume plants, meat—cooked meat… So far, I have yet to find a D’Tali-safe food humans can’t eat.”

“Fascinating.”

“Great Hen?”

“Yes?”

“This is an awkward question, but part of what brought me out here was to learn new things I didn’t know before. If it is not appropriate, I apologize.”

“You should probably ask your question before you apologize.”

I chuckled, nodding.

“Do Vivutians mate bond like D’Tali?”

The hens chittered so hard, their tails shook.

“No. The entire concept seems strange to us. Vivutian men must earn our time and attention. A Vivutian male must achieve certain standards of perfection before a hen will consider him to be her mate during a breeding season.”

I leaned in, chin resting on my hand.

“I would love to hear more.”

Shǎsh piped in with a flutter of her head feathers.

“His joufǎw must be pristine, for starters.”

Etmût cut in, her excitement clear.

“And he has to sparkle just right. Every year, I look for the most creative sparkles. They get my tail feathers shaking!”

Jithâ covered her mouth with a hand so only I and the hens could see her.

“Did you see Jayng’s new sparkle?”

“The brooch we traded him when we first arrived?”

Jithâ fluttered her tail feathers.

“Beautiful decoration. He sparkles just the way I like it, this year.”

The hens chittered their laugh, fluffing and fluttering in good humor.

“A tidy joufǎw and sparkles? Is that all?”

Shǎsh snapped her head side-to-side.

“Oh, no. A male Vivutian must also construct a comfortable nest in the center of his joufǎw, ring his joufǎw with well-tended moss, and—most importantly—a Vivutian male must dance!”

The hens fluffed the feathers on their tall, slender bodies. They fluttered their head and tail feathers in aroused anticipation.

Eat your heart out, Darwin!

Diz arrived, followed by several other juvenile males. They carried platters of fresh fruits, greens, lizards, beetles, and some root vegetables. Several juvenile males carried long, hollow tubes which reminded me of bamboo.

He passed out the tubes, giving the first to the Great Hen. I accepted the tube offered to me with a smile. I looked into the tube. The hollow inner core of the tube held an orange liquid. Sweet, alcoholic gasses wafted from it, stinging my eyes.

I glanced at the hens—each of which watched me, prepared to enjoy my reaction. Jitha waved at her own tube.

“Yoǔ suthayw. It is fruit wine.”

She stuck her beak into the tube, tasting the yoǔ suthayw. I held the tube to my lips and drank. I coughed as the fruit wine burned down the back of my throat and warmed my belly.

The hens chitter-laughed at the expression on my face as I spluttered. My voice hoarse, I spoke.

“Delicious.”

A chorus of chirps and trills from the tree line on the other side of the fire drew our attention. The hens settled, laying their feathers flat. I leaned forward. Jayng strutted up to us from the cover of the jungle.

He bowed low. Then his head bobbed. He hopped in quick, complicated steps. He tucked his beak under a wing and a few of his iridescent, yellow throat feathers flashed, making his blue eye look like it turned yellow.

The hens fluffed. They leaned their faces toward him, drawn in by his disciplined, precise movements. They inspected each move, chirping at his best moves. Jithâ whispered to me.

“Jayng is one of our best dancers.”

“I can see that, Great Hen.”

Jayng stopped, standing rigid at his full height. He drew in a deep breath, then fluffed out his body feathers into a skirt. He twirled left and right, bowing and flipping his feather skirt back with small bows.

The hens chirped. Their head feathers rose, twitching. Etmût’s taloned toes tapped against her seat. Jayng shook his body, vibrating his feather skirt. He lowered himself into a deep bow, flipping his skirt so his face looked like it floated in the center of a black circle.

Then, with a confident flourish, Jayng flashed his full, iridescent, yellow throat patch at the hens and shook his long head feathers. The hens hopped up and down, chirping and fluttering their wings.

Jithâ fluffed her feathers, trembling.

“Jayng is always such a good dancer. Maybe he will be my mate this season.”

Shǎsh hopped in place, also trembling.

“If you don’t take him this season, I will, Great Hen.”

The hens chittered their Vivutian laugh. Jayng fluttered out of the boundaries of the dance floor and took a seat near us. The hens trilled at him appreciatively and Jayng’s chest swelled with pride.

Shǎsh looked at Jayng.

“I like your sparkles.”

Jayng fluttered his feathers in excitement. Then, to my surprise, Krenik walked out of the jungle and held his hands up high.

“If I may have your attention. For the first, and, let’s all hope, the last time ever, I present to you…five D’Tali and a Lukadian trying to dance. May my mother forgive me…”

Krenik ran to my lap and crawled in. I wrapped my arms around him. He looked up at me.

“Don’t hate me for what is about to happen. I promise you, I tried to help them…”

Motion in the tree line behind the dance floor drew my eye. Out of the jungle walked Rojav, Olanth, Madar, Zarid, Dak, and Wuhat. The Vivutian men had…decorated them.

Wuhat ran to the front of the dance floor. Necklace after necklace of shiny, sparkly things hung about his neck. He stopped in a deep knee bend, his legs wide apart like a martial arts master on Earth.

He grunted and began thrusting his hips forward enthusiastically. Unfortunately, I had been trying to take another sip of the wine when his hips began wildly gyrating. The sparkling necklaces around his neck flashed with his movements while I choked and coughed.

Wuhat stopped, laughed, and joined me where I sat. He grabbed a tube of yoǔ suthayw and drank deep.

Well, at least that’s over.

Jithâ turned to me.

“Is that normal for the D’Tali?”

“I don’t even know what just happened, but I fear for my survival at this point.”

Jithâ chittered. Then Olanth and Madar stepped forward. The two had managed to fashion skirts of dangling sparkles. Of course, they too leaned heavily into the hip thrust move. Unlike Wuhat, these two had worked out some choreography. They thrust their hips in, mostly, the same direction, at more or less the same time.

My face burned. I wanted to blame the blush on the alcohol, but the hot men dancing mostly naked in front of me had me laughing so hard I could barely breathe.

The hens chittered and fluffed. As far as I could tell, making my men try Vivutian customs may have been the greatest comedy performance the Vivutians had ever seen.

Olanth and Madar stopped their simultaneous hip thrusts. Olanth crouched low. Madar leaped, landing on his friend’s shoulders. Olanth stood, Madar still balancing. With a final sequence of choreographed hip thrusts, Madar leaped off Olanth’s shoulders and the two ran to me and claimed their own tubes of fruit wine.

Before the chittering and laughing even stopped, Zarid leaped onto the dance floor. He leaped in the air, rolled a shoulder on the landing, and came up on his hands. Then, body all aglow, he began to breakdance.

Even another world away, people learn to use their bodies…dancing and fighting are not very different. I suppose, in the tunnels of the Lukadian mines, dance had to become confined to a stationary place, naturally leading to the evolution of… Turn off the mind, Nora.

His glowing body flashed in the night, sparkling necklaces swinging with his spins, reflecting the glow of his bioluminescent bones. I began to clap a beat. The gathered audience began to clap and stomp along with me.

Even the hens fluttered. By the time Zarid gave up, looking for water, every member of the audience stood and clapped, shook tail feathers, or hooted into the night.

The fruit wine began to hit me and everything looked a shade more beautiful than before. I felt like that time my first college roommate and I ate a bunch of shrooms for ‘research purposes’.

I wonder if this stuff is hallucinogenic…

I had no time to really think about it, it was Rojav’s turn to dance. He stepped forward, slow and awkward.

He looks terrified! My poor mate! Shut up, mind. I am not already drunk…

Then Rojav began to ‘dance’.

ROJAV

My heart raced. Nora, the D’Tali, a Lukadian, and the Vivutians stared at me. Nora’s face was red again. My heart sighed at the sight of her happy face. I closed my eyes and drew in a deep breath.

Draped in fouruj, the sparkly chains of body jewelry worn by adult male Vivutians, I stood tall and strong. Ten minutes ago, I had no idea what I was going to do out here, terrified I would humiliate myself. After Wuhat’s performance, however, hope bloomed in my chest.

Dancing is just combat to a beat. I can do this.

Lorkot jumped onto the dance floor with a short, barked cry. I spun back and we circled each other. He looked at me, face deadly serious. I winked at him. He grinned. Then, he leaped at me.

I caught Lorkot midair about his torso and spun him overhead. Our audience made excited sounds. I stopped Lorkot with his face above mine. I leaned into a backbend, placing Lorkot’s legs on the ground.

He flipped back and I followed him in a series of backbends. We squared off again when Dak leaped in between. The cheers and jeers from the collected audience faded.

Smiles all around, Lorkot, Dak, and I mock-battled. Lorkot and Dak both benefited from the training they had received since enlisting in the King’s Guard. They fought hard with practiced skill.

I benefited from years in prison surviving close quarters with some of the worst Tahkath had to offer. I surprised Dak and Lorkot with moves they hadn’t been trained to predict. They learned quickly, adapting their responses.

Finally, we tired, having expended most of the energy we had left from the day. We laughed, clapping each other on the back and complimenting the best moves. The cheering of the audience turned my head just in time to see Nora launching herself at me.

I caught her, sweeping her into my arms and spinning. She threw her arms around my neck. Her pupils seemed to fill her eyes. She smelled of sweet alcohol and giggled more than I had ever seen.

She grabbed my face and looked into my eyes.

“You are so beautiful, Rojav! Best dance of the night! My mate! He’s my mate!”

I chuckled. Through the remainder of the night, we danced and drank, ate and laughed. Nora passed out in my arms. I carried her to the Vivutians’ designated guest space. With the help of a drunken Dak, I got the hammock strung, with Nora still in my arms.

I rolled into it, Nora atop me, and the world faded. I dreamed of far-off worlds, of spirits and Nora and golden threads connecting the universe together.

When I woke the next day, my head pounded. I grabbed my head with both hands, groaning. Something hefty landed on my twisting gut.

“No, no, please…”

Nora’s voice fell over my mind, soothing the frayed ends of my thoughts.

“Drink. Water. You’re hungover.”

“I noticed, ahhhh!”

She grabbed one of my hands and placed it on the waterskin. I fumbled it to my lips and nursed it while my head recovered. Nora didn’t wait. She was already gone. When I dared open my eyes to the light of day, I saw her near the large cookpot.

Delicious, unctuous smells of stewing meat and root vegetables started my mouth watering, but I knew I should start with something like bread. I dared to exit the hammock and stand. I wobbled a little, but my head cleared within seconds.

I shuffled my tired legs into the jungle and watered a plant. I hoped it appreciated my efforts. I shuffled back to camp in search of more water. I plopped down near Nora and the food. Nora’s men sat close, few speaking. We all drank our fill from the waterskins.

Krenik handed out fresh, steaming biscuits. I nibbled at one till my stomach settled. Then someone put a steaming bowl of food in my hands, and I sipped at the meaty broth. Feeling revived, we began to chat.

Krenik, of course, took on most of the conversational burden.

“Today will be great. Just wait and see. Today, we’re going to kick the fiem’s ass out of the Vivutians’ sacred cave. Aren’t we? I want to hear a little enthusiasm.”

Lorkot glared at Krenik.

“That’s only because you’ve never had a hangover.”

“I don’t know why adults even drink that stuff. It smells terrible.”

Wuhat laughed. Krenik spun to face him.

“And exactly what are you laughing at? You’re always laughing.”

Wuhat shrugged.

“Such is the jungle wisdom, Krenik. Laugh. Life is hilarious. Also, I laugh because the Vivutian yoǔ suthayw defeated you.”

He pointed at Zarid and the D’Tali sipping their restorative, post-hangover broth. He beat a closed fist against his chest.

“Wuhat strong. Fucking strong.”

Nora giggled, then focused on our quest.

“So, I’m not expecting to defeat this fiem today, so don’t worry that you have to fight through a hangover. To me, that sounds like a disaster waiting to happen. Today, I just want to get a good look at the destructive spirit.”

We released a collective sigh. While I felt certain each member of Nora’s expedition would fight anything for her, under any condition, having to do so after last night’s celebration would be excruciating.

All that dancing wore me out.

Dak stood, stretching. I grinned at him.

“Sore?”

“No, Rojav. What gave you that idea?”

Lorkot groaned. He lay sprawled in his seat.

“I’m fucking sore. Promise we’ll never fight again, Rojav?”

“I wasn’t even trying.”

Lorkot rubbed his jaw.

“My jaw feels like you were.”

“Love tap, Lorkot.”

Dak cut in, bringing us back to the subject of our quest.

“So, Nora, now that we have established that Lorkot wouldn’t make it a day in prison, what do we need to pack?”

Nora smiled at me and winked. A warm, golden feeling filled my chest. Right then, I would have carried the entire camp on my back for her. I returned her smile.

“We will need sample kits, emergency survival supplies—in case of injury, waterskins…”

“You don’t have to tell me the basics.”

“Right. Then, just the sample kits. Please, no fighting today. No noble gestures or taking unnecessary chances. I don’t want anyone hurt before I even know what we’re facing.”

The men nodded. The broth had perked us all up. Fed and watered, we quickly bathed and washed our clothes. Nora had explained how important daily bathing was in the jungle to prevent the jungle from eating us the way Wuhat had described. I didn’t doubt her.

Clean and refreshed, we gathered near the firepit dressed and ready for the trek. Shǎsh and Etmût joined us as both guides and guards. After a quick greeting, we followed Etmût into the jungle.

I reached out and slid my hand around Nora’s. I loved the feel of her skin. With Nora, I felt calm, content—maybe even happy. So many new feelings all at once threatened to overwhelm me…until I held her in my arms.

With Nora in my arms, all is right—as if she is the other half of my soul and I have been only half a man my entire life.

We trekked for close to an hour, though time was difficult to measure with an entire jungle canopy between my eyes and the sun above. Clouds rolled on the horizon, promising more rain.

“How can there be so much rain?”

Nora looked up at me.

“That’s a good question. A large enough rainforest creates rain. Rainforests are like the lungs of a planet. They keep the air breathable.”

“How can trees create rain?”

“That is also a good question, but it will require me to try to draw a few charts before I can explain scientifically.”

Like the entire world is connected…

Before I could explore that thought further, Shǎsh called a halt. She spun her neck about to speak with us without turning her body. Nora said it was normal for birds to do such things, but seeing a head spun all the way about made my skin crawl.

“Careful. The cave is close.”

Nora stepped forward. She parted a clump of tall grass and examined the area.

“I need to get closer. I need samples of everything around. Lorkot, you make good diagrams. I want you to sketch a few pictures of everything here.”

She waved in the general direction of the cave mouth. Then we heard a rumble. The ground shook. From the entrance of the Vivutians’ sacred cave crawled a huge, flat, bumpy-skinned, worm-like creature with two stalks on the top of its eyeless face.

Many pairs of legs, which looked a lot like the head stalks, lined the bottom of the fiem’s body. The ground trembled under its steps. Its eyeless head moved left and right, as if scenting for prey, though I saw nothing I recognized as a nose.

It turned Shǎsh’s way. She burst from the bush, fluttering and squawking violently. She poked at the creature’s pink side with a long spear, then leaped into a nearby tree. Shǎsh never stopped moving.

Madar’s mouth hung open. Olanth voiced the thought I believe we all had.

“That thing is fucking huge…”

Nora cut in.

“That thing has got to be thirty-feet long!”

Then the fiem released the true horror. A thick, clear liquid shot out of its head stalks. The liquid shot across the distance. Shǎsh narrowly avoided being drenched in the stuff.

Shǎsh had led the fiem’s attention away from Etmût, who dashed in to collect a sample of the worm’s excretions. Nora stood, her jaw hanging open. She blinked a few times, turned to me, and spoke.

“Well, fuck.”

NORA

Rojav, his eyes huge, whispered to me.

“What are we going to do about that?”

“I don’t know yet, but we need to get back to my equipment.”

I cupped my hands around my mouth and shouted.

“Regroup! Retreat—safely.”

The fiem turned its head toward the shout.

“Run.”

I turned, backtracking along our path. Once I was certain I was out of the fiem’s range, I jogged to a stop. I braced my hands on my knees, catching my breath. The remainder of our party joined me within minutes.

“Etmût, Shǎsh, are either of you injured?”

The hens shook their heads. Etmût handed me the sample she’d collected, her chest feathers fluffy with pride.

“I got your sample.”

“And you were magnificent doing so. Thank you. Let’s get back to your village, so I can analyze this.”

Etmût and Shǎsh bobbed their heads and we returned to the trail. Etmût hopped up next to me.

“Why did you not bring your equipment here? Seems like a long walk.”

“Oh, it is very delicate. I didn’t want to run the risk of the fiem damaging it.”

Shǎsh also fluttered up. She thrust the shaft of her ten-foot-long spear at me.

“My spear is stained with fiem. Would that help?”

“Ooh, yes, but that spear is taller than I am. Could you carry it until we return to the village?”

Shǎsh’s head bobbed.

A few minutes later, we arrived at the Vivutian village. Without delay, my team set up a small laboratory with our crates. Krenik brought me the microscope case and I set it up.

“Olanth, I’ll need some of the boiled water, if we have it. Shǎsh, may I see your spear tip?”

Shǎsh bobbed and hopped over. With care not to smack anyone with the butt of the spear, Shǎsh brought the tip to the table. I noticed blood and skin tissue on the spear’s tip. I took a few samples, handing each over to Rojav.

“Rojav, would you mount these on slides for me?”

“Of course. Anything for you.”

I turned my gaze on him and smiled. I landed a quick kiss on his lips, then returned to our task. I took out the sample of the fiem’s projectile substance stuck to a large leaf. I turned the leaf about, looking at it closely.

“What are you looking for?”

“Anything, Jithâ. Everything. Color, texture, smell, weight…every possible detail we can determine.”

Jithâ flicked her head, looking at me with her other eye. She took a seat not far away and watched the activity like a play we performed just for her.

Rojav began mounting the first slide, but Jithâ interrupted.

“Rojav, can a few of our juveniles watch you as you work?”

Rojav nodded.

“Certainly, Great Hen.”

Jithâ trilled. Juvenile males ran up, bowing low to the Great Hen.

“Diz, Chǎyzǔ, and Fieng. You will watch. You will learn.”

The three juveniles bobbed their heads low, then crowded around Rojav to watch. I repressed a giggle watching Rojav try to mount slides with three young bird-men staring over his shoulder.

I had to smile, though. He tried so hard to explain the steps to them, to remain patient. While Rojav worked to manage his students, I turned the fiem goo sample around in my hands. Etmût leaned her head in, watching me think.

“Nora. What are you thinking so hard about?”

I raised the sample so she could see, then dropped it lightly on the top of the crate. The goo sample landed with a thud.

“This was clearly liquid when it exited the fiem.”

Etmût bobbed her head.

“Yes. It becomes hard very fast. That is how we lost so many hens.”

She, and the other Vivutians, stretched their heads back and trilled a mournful cry as one.

Must be a grief ritual. That fiem moving in has hurt this community so deeply…

New determination pushed me for an answer.

“Nora?”

“Yes, Rojav?”

“The slides are prepared.”

“Wonderful, let me have a look.”

The Vivutians’ heads followed me as I walked over to the microscope.

“Don’t worry. Everyone will get a look.”

The Vivutians fluffed their body feathers in anticipation. I placed the slide under the microscope and leaned in to adjust.

“Interesting.”

“What is interesting?”

I stood straight and waved Rojav over to the microscope’s eyepiece. Rojav leaned in.

“It looks different than D’Tali, human, or Lukadian blood.”

“Exactly.”

Jithâ’s head shot up straight.

“How can you know such a thing?”

“I can show you, Great Hen. If you will join us?”

Jithâ stood and walked over. She trilled again. Jayng ran up, bowing low.

“Yes, Great Hen?”

“Bring yoǔ suthayw. I feel like we all need a drink.”

Rojav’s eyes bulged at the mention of more alcohol. Wuhat, mouth stuffed with leaves, chuckled and raised a hand.

“More yoǔ suthayw here, too, Jayng.”

Jayng hurried away.

“Rojav, please get three more slides ready for samples.”

Rojav took slides out of the box and laid them out on the crate which held the microscope. I unsheathed my knife and poked the tip into my finger. A small bead of blood grew on my fingertip.

I smeared it on a slide. Rojav topped the drop of human blood with one of the delicate coverslips. I wiggled my eyebrows at Rojav. He unsheathed his knife, poked his finger, and smeared a drop of his blood on the second slide.

Zarid volunteered a drop of his Lukadian blood, and Jithâ offered us a drop of hers. Four slides mounted, we took turns looking at each. Krenik managed to join the line of Vivutians examining their first look into a microscope.

“I remember when Nora first told us we were made of tiny things. I didn’t understand until she showed us the tiny things everywhere.”

Rojav’s words warmed my heart and filled it with golden warmth. I placed a hand on his arm. He turned his face to mine and smiled.

“There are even smaller things than this, but I have no way to show you.”

“I believe you.”

Jayng returned and passed out more tubes of the Vivutian fruit wine. Jithâ skewered me with an intense look.

“Nora, can you teach us such things? Can we trade for this device?”

I laughed, shaking my head.

“Sorry, that is my only one, but I can have another fashioned in Tahkath. As for learning, King Dojak and Queen Sofia have founded a school and education program. Perhaps some of your people would be willing to travel back with us and learn there?”

Jithâ bobbed her head.

“That is acceptable. Diz, Chǎyzǔ, and Fieng. You will travel with Nora. You will work hard. You will learn. You will, one day, return to me with your knowledge.”

The three juvenile males fluttered in excitement, bowing low and bobbing their heads. The three seemed to speak in unison.

“Thank you, Great Hen. We will bring this village honor.”

Krenik leaped to his feet.

“This is great! Don’t worry, I’ll teach you the rules… Follow me. I will help you pack!”

Krenik ran. The juvenile Vivutians hopped and fluttered in the fuss. Krenik bumped against Jithâ. The Great Hen’s tube of yoǔ suthayw flew, twirling in the air. Time seemed to slow.

The yoǔ suthayw splashed onto the slide of hard-set fiem goo.

The goo melted.

Everyone watching gasped. Wuhat started laughing again. I looked up at Jithâ, grinning ear to ear.

“Looks like you found our solution. Now all we need is a plan.”

Jithâ bobbed her head and stepped back.

“Then let us discuss that. While we eat. I’m hungry.”

Several male Vivutians sprinted off at the Great Hen’s comment. Wuhat whooped and drained his tube of fruit wine. Most of the crowd followed Jithâ to the firepit. Rojav and I cleaned up all but the slide of Vivutian blood. That one, I stored in the slide box.

“You did well with the young Vivutians, Rojav.”

He smiled, turning to me. He slipped his arms around my waist and gazed down into my eyes.

“You, my Nora, were amazing today. Every day you impress me more and more. I worry that you deserve better than me.”

I laughed.

“What makes you think you know better than the mating bond?”

He blinked at me.

“I never thought of it that way.”

I leaned my head against his hard, fit body. I lost myself in the comfort of the golden mate glow.

“I never thought about really finding a mate fated for me, but here we are. In a jungle. Preparing a plan to defeat a thirty-foot long creature who shoots glue from its head.”

Rojav chuckled. He stroked one of his big, strong hands down my hair.

“I never thought I would find hair so beautiful, soft, and shiny as yours.”

“You really like it?”

“I do. Your hair…it is a part of you. How can I not love it, too?”

I rose up on the tips of my toes and cupped his face in my hands. I pulled him down until our lips met. We lost ourselves in that kiss while the rest of the world drank fruit wine and partied.

Our lips parted when I ran out of air. I slid my hands down to his.

“Come, mate. Let us plan how to defeat this evil spirit.”

ROJAV

Since we began drinking so early, we decided to confront the fiem early the next morning. Although, due to early drinking the night before, we didn’t get started until nearly midday. No one complained, however. Jungle life moved at its own pace.

We trekked to the Vivutians’ sacred cave in good spirits, carrying a month’s supply of the Vivutians’ fruit alcohol, supplies Nora called important, and a plan.

A plan designed by drunken partiers.

I shrugged. Nora seemed to think the plan was still good, even in the sobering light of day, and I trusted her. Trusting the equipment we’d made last night while enjoying the best of the Vivutian fruit wine was another matter.

“I hope Krenik stays with Jayng. Confronting the fiem is far too dangerous for a child.”

“I think he will, Nora. We made a deal.”

Nora chuckled.

“What did he get out of you this time, Rojav?”

“The child loves coin…”

Nora sighed.

“Keep track of how much coin the child has squeezed out of you and I’ll reimburse you.”

I shook my head.

“I don’t mind so much. It keeps the child cooperative, and I’ve made plenty of coin on this journey.”

I pushed a large frond out of Nora’s path.

“What are your plans when you return? What did you want to spend the money on?”

“I hadn’t really thought about it.”

“You didn’t have a dream in prison? To keep you going when things were dark?”

I shook my head.

“Not really. At the time, I didn’t want to leave prison. I didn’t really think of life after release. I didn’t…think I deserved anything good. I felt…undeserving of even pleasant thoughts or hopes. I felt like my life should have ended when my father’s did.”

We trekked in silence for a few moments.

“Yet fate disagreed with your self-loathing.”

A small smile spread on my face.

“You have certainly made it easier to see myself as something other than a father-killer.”

“Let me ask you a question, Rojav. If he hadn’t been your father—say, had you seen a stranger treating a woman that way, would you have behaved differently?”

I thought for a moment.

“I suppose I would do the same. Women are sacred.”

Nora nodded.

“So, you killed your father defending your mother. You killed Gorlon defending me. Was your father that much different than Gorlon?”

“No. No, he wasn’t.”

The sound of Shǎsh’s trill brought us to a halt. She rustled her feathers and shook her head.

“We approach.”

Nora nodded.

“Ok, great. Let’s drop our packs here.”

She unslung her pack with a relieved sigh, dropping it to the leaf-strewn jungle floor. The rest of us also dropped our packs and stretched. Nora took a deep breath and spoke.

“I’m not sure how much of the plan any of you remember…”

A chorus of chuckles and chitter-laughs interrupted her for a moment. She smiled and continued.

“Shǎsh, Etmût, you two are the most mobile. You two will distract the fiem while the rest of us work. Remember, we don’t want to kill it, if we can avoid it. The fiem isn’t evil, it is just out of place.”

Etmût and Shǎsh hopped, bobbing their heads. Nora turned to Olanth and Madar.

“You two are on wine duty. By ‘wine duty’, I mean douse anyone trapped in the fiem goo, not drink the wine.”

Olanth and Madar grinned. Madar wore the yoǔ suthayw harness we’d constructed last night—drunk. To my surprise, the harness hadn’t fallen apart. Yet. The harness strapped a large vat of fruit wine to Madar’s back.

Olanth held up one of the yoǔ suthayw tubes the size and shape of an ale mug. Olanth grinned, holding up his mug.

“Ready, Nora.”

“Great. Dak, Lorkot, and Zarid—you will flank the fiem. Since I saw no eyes, I’m working off the theory the fiem is blind. Which we will soon prove or disprove. By the way the fiem reacted yesterday, I believe the fiem is sensitive to vibrations and sound.”

Zarid held up a handful of fouruj chains. The Vivutian males had tittered at the thought of losing their decorations, fearing the hens would no longer find them desirable. A hearty dose of sparkly baubles from my treasure box changed their minds, however.

The long chains of sparkles and metal plates tinkled with Zarid’s every move.

“Ready, Nora.”

“Thank you, Zarid. And, Rojav, yours is the most important job. Once we lure the fiem out of the cave, you build the fire. That should keep it from retreating back into the cave.”

Nora stopped for a moment, thinking. She nodded to herself, seeming satisfied with her thoughts.

“Ok, let’s do this.”

Nora smiled at me, then turned and made her way to the edge of the fiem’s goo-shooting range. I pulled a waterskin from my pack. Rather than water, Nora had filled it last night with a thickened, slimy yoǔ suthayw-based concoction she had mixed up last night.

Nora assured me the substance in my pack would burn. At the time, I understood very little of her explanation on how one could ignite a liquid, but I believed her when she warned me to handle the stuff with care.

She waved her hand at me, telling me to take my designated position. I laid a quick kiss on the top of her head and snuck through the jungle undergrowth. I neared the cave entrance slowly and quietly, crouched, and waited.

Etmût and Shǎsh fluttered in with their spears. They jumped and cawed, making as much noise as they could. A deep rumbling emanated from the cave.

The fiem was on the move.

I drew in a breath to prepare. I saw the fiem’s goo tubes poke out of the cave. The fiem’s head followed the goo tubes, moving side-to-side, then snapped toward the Vivutian warriors’ noise.

It walked out on its little legs. It walked into a shaft of light and I saw the fiem’s body was translucent. I could make out vague outlines of the fiem’s organs, but most of the fiem appeared to be one big sack.

I wanted to dash at it and slash into it, but Nora had a plan and I meant to follow it. I waited for the next move.

The Vivutians hop-glided from tree to tree, just out of the range of the fiem’s gluey goo. They hooted and shouted, making as much noise as they could. They drew the fiem halfway out of the sacred cave.

The fiem reared up, waving its many feet in the air. Ten feet of fiem undulated in the air. Shǎsh and Etmût dashed through the trees, diving at its head, trying to entice the beast further into the jungle.

The fiem convulsed, then shot streams of goo into the air. Shǎsh flipped out of the goo’s path, landing hard on the ground. The hen rolled across the ground, leaping up as soon as she could.

Etmût, though, glided into one of the streams. She cried out, her feathers tangling painfully in the fast-hardening glue. She fell to the jungle floor. Dak dashed from his cover near the Vivutians. He shook his chains loudly, shouting insults.

The fiem swayed away from where Etmût lay in a painful tangle of constricted limbs. It followed Dak forward as he dashed back into the jungle. Olanth and Madar sprinted from the jungle to Etmût. Olanth poured mugs of yoǔ suthayw over her, dissolving the glue.

Lorkot dashed to Etmût and dragged her into the brush while the fruit wine worked against the fiem goo. Olanth and Madar ran for the bushes. The fiem turned their way and began to convulse again.

Lorkot and Zarid popped out of the leaves, shaking their chains, drawing the fiem away from Olanth and Madar while they found cover.

Shǎsh swooped near the fiem’s head, shouting and drawing it fully from the cave. I ran in behind the creature, pouring Nora’s thickened fruit wine concoction on the jungle floor between the fiem’s rear end and the cave entrance.

I pulled flint and steel from my pocket and smacked them together. Sparks flew from the impact, landing on the concoction. Flames leaped into the air, and fire raced the length of the fruit-wine trail.

Nora watched our progress from the edge of the engagement area. With the fire lit, she waved me over. I sprinted for her, ecstatic with our success. The fiem fled the fire, spinning around, convulsing and shooting glue randomly.

One of the streams flew wide and splashed against Nora. She fell with a cry. I ran harder. The others shook their chains, swooped, and yelled. The fiem, in the face of the commotion and the heat of the fire, fled into the jungle.

Dak, Lorkot, Zarid, and Shǎsh continued to harass the fiem into the jungle. Olanth and Madar ran for Nora, dousing her with yoǔ suthayw. The fiem glue dissolved off her, but she only screamed harder.

I finally reached them. I grabbed Olanth’s shoulder, pulling him out of my way. Nora lay on the ground, glistening with fruit wine and liquified fiem goo. Angry, red welts had risen on her skin.

I fell to my knees beside her. Her eyes had sunken. Large bumps swelled on her neck and armpits. I looked her over as best I could, but had no idea what I was even seeing. Nora raised a weak, trembling hand. She spoke in a heartwrenching whisper.

“Adhku chung…”

ROJAV

I scooped Nora’s limp body up in my arms and raced along the path back to the Vivutian village. Nora’s skin swelled an angry red where the liquified goo had struck her. I had never seen such a thing. Worry for Nora drove me near to madness.

I glanced at her. I didn’t want to let her out of my sight, but I feared taking my eyes from the path too long. Tripping over random roots or vines would help no one. Her eyelids fluttered. I could only see the whites. Her body felt like a furnace against my scales.

Why? No one else swelled up like that… Oh, she was the only human in our group. We are so alike, but the differences…could kill her.

“Don’t leave me, Nora. Hang on.”

Nora, I just found you. I wasted so much time afraid of you…of me…of becoming like my father…

“Nora, my mate, my love, make it through this and I vow I will never hesitate again.”

The trail which had taken nearly an hour to trek at a walk flew past as I ran. I felt her soft breaths against my chest.

Have I ever been this fearful since…since Mom?

“Live, Nora. Fight. We’re almost there…”

I leaped from the jungle into the Vivutian village. Wuhat, sitting near the firepit with the Great Hen, turned at the commotion. At the sight of Nora limp in my arms, Wuhat ran for the supplies. I ran directly for the Great Hen.

Startled male Vivutians hopped, squawking and fluttering their feathers. I fell to my knees before Jithâ, clutching Nora to my heaving chest. My heart pounded. Tears hung in my eyes, ready to run down my face.

“Great Hen!”

Jithâ squawked, jumping to her scaly, taloned feet.

“What is this? What happened? Is she…”

I shook my head.

“She yet breathes.”

“Lay her down, Rojav.”

Wuhat hooted. We turned. He had set up a series of crates like a table. I stood, hurrying over. The crate of medical supplies sat open nearby.

“The fiem goo got on her. It seemed to burn her skin. She has a high fever.”

I spun to face Jithâ.

“I beg you, Great Hen, for adhku chung. Those were her last words.”

Krenik ran up, Jayng trying frantically to catch him.

“WHAT HAPPENED?”

I scooped Krenik into my arms before he could get to Nora.

“PUT ME DOWN WHAT HAPPENED TO MY NORA…”

Jithâ whistled loudly. Krenik slapped his hands over his ears. When she stopped, she pinned Krenik with one serious look.

“Stop shouting, young Krenik. It will not help your Nora. Now, come to me. I will hold you so you can see while Rojav works to save her life.”

I placed Krenik on the ground and he backed over to Jithâ, not taking his eyes off Nora, and she took him in her arms.

“Krenik, Nora asked for adhku chung before she passed out.”

“But we’re out! We used it all on the journey.”

Tears began to leak from Krenik’s eyes. Jithâ patted his back, then spoke.

“Fear not, little one. Jayng, bring the dried adhku chung.”

Jayng bowed low, but more quickly than I had ever seen. He sprinted out of sight. Wuhat brought water and a cloth from the packs. I dampened the small cloth and did my best to remove the fiem goo from her limbs.

Jayng returned with a large trunk. He placed it on the ground near the crate-table where Nora lay. He opened the trunk’s lid. I rushed to the trunk and stopped short.

“How do I prepare this?”

Krenik pushed his way out of Jithâ’s arms and ran over, understanding all over his face.

“Love butter!”

“Love butter?”

“Yep. Go be with her. Talk to her. Keep her with us. I know what to do.”

Krenik ran to the crate of Nora’s medical supplies. I returned to Nora’s side. I stroked her sweat-damp hair. I dunked the cloth into the clean water again and wrung out the excess, then stroked Nora’s forehead and limbs with it.

Krenik dove through the medical supplies, retrieving a small pot. He opened it.

“Empty. Okay, we need to make more. WUHAT!”

“Stop yelling, young Krenik. I am next to you. I can hear you.”

“This is not the time to complain about the fact that I am a CHILD. We have to SAVE NORA. More importantly, I need a human-safe lotion. Like, I needed it twenty minutes ago. Move, old man. Be mad at me later.”

Wuhat ran to our supplies, digging through them until he found what he sought. He pulled out a few sacks, then ran back to us. The rest of the fiem-hunting party ran into the clearing. They crowded around Nora, demanding information.

The Great Hen whistled again until everyone shut their mouths and listened. Then she gave them the same treatment she had given Krenik.

“Stop shouting! It will not help your Nora. If you wish to assist, remain quiet until you are given a task.”

Everyone present replied in one voice.

“Yes, Great Hen. Sorry, Great Hen.”

Wuhat dropped a handful of vethoip nuts and a blue vugkudyoǔ fruit on a crate near Krenik. He grabbed the fruit and peeled it.

“I need someone to mash those nuts to a pulp.”

“I will.”

Zarid ran to the supplies and pulled out two heavy stone objects Nora had called a mortar and pestle. He placed two vethoip nuts in one of his hands and squeezed. Under the pressure of his grip, one nut cracked the shell of the other and he peeled the nut’s shell from the inner meat.

He dropped the fatty nut meat in the mortar and cracked another. While Zarid worked, Krenik continued with his plan. He took a large, polished-stone bowl, ran to the trunkful of adhku chung, and scooped up some of the powdered flour.

With great care not to spill any, Krenik walked the bowl back to his workspace. He threw the peeled vugkudyoǔ fruit into the bowl. Then he shouted over his shoulder.

“Zarid!”

“Coming!”

Zarid dashed over, smashing and stirring the nut butter the entire way. When Zarid reached Krenik, Krenik pointed at his stone mixing bowl.

“Scoop it in there.”

Zarid pushed the smooth, aromatic nut butter from the mortar into the mixing bowl. Krenik stirred the concoction. It smelled good enough to eat. Then he returned to Nora’s side. He held the bowl up to me.

“Love butter. We have to put it everywhere she swelled up.”

I nodded to the boy who thought so much faster than any of us adults did. We scooped the love butter out with our fingers and began to smear it all over Nora. Madar stepped forward, scooping up some of the love butter and applying it to her arm.

More stepped up. I lost track of who all helped. I think some even took turns. Everyone in our little jungle community seemed to step up to help. Dak removed Nora’s boots to check her feet. They, too, were swollen, so he applied more love butter.

I gasped as I watched the angry, red swelling subside as we worked. The Vivutians began a low, chanting song. I didn’t understand their words and had no interest in asking Wuhat for a translation at that moment.

Their song made its way inside me and calm descended upon me. I wondered what kind of magic that was during the moments between worry for Nora and exhilaration at the effectiveness of the love butter.

Nora released a small sigh. Her body relaxed. Her breaths seemed to come more easily by the second. I held my breath, stroking her hair. Except for Krenik, the others stepped back. For a small eternity, Krenik and I held Nora’s hands.

Her eyelids fluttered. I gasped.

“Nora? Nora, my love? Can you hear me?”

Nora’s lips barely moved, and she spoke in the barest whisper, but she responded. Relief washed over me.

“Yeah. I can hear you. I can smell you, too. I love you, but you stink. Or, do I stink? Hard to tell.”

She tried to rub where the fiem goo had hurt her, but her fingers hit the love butter which had yet to absorb into her skin.

“It’s me, isn’t it? The one who stinks?”

“My love, I think everyone stinks right now.”

Nora released a weak but determined giggle.

Krenik leaned in.

“What happened, Nora? Do you know why this happened?”

“Ana…”

Nora smacked her dry lips.

“Water…”

Wuhat handed me a waterskin. I gently raised Nora’s upper body so she could drink. I placed the waterskin in her rapidly strengthening hands. She lifted the waterskin and drank half before stopping.

“Ahhh, that’s good. Anaphylaxis, Krenik.”

“What does that overly complex human word mean? Nearly DYING?”

Jithâ chirped at Krenik.

“Sorry, Great Hen. I won’t shout anymore…for a while. Near you. I swear…”

Jithâ chitter-laughed. Nora smiled at the boy.

“It means that I had an allergic reaction. There must be something in liquified fiem goo which causes the tiny parts of me to fucking freak out.”

Krenik nodded. I wrapped my arms around Nora and kissed the top of her head.

“I certainly agree that was extreme, love. I am so thankful you didn’t die.”

“Me, too, Rojav. Me, too.”

NORA

“I appreciate your concern, Great Hen, but I already feel so much better.”

“Are you certain, Nora?”

I nodded, smiling.

“I really feel much better, Jithâ.”

Jithâ bobbed her head. She stepped back, spreading her feathered arms wide.

“Time to celebrate. Time for fruit wine and a feast.”

Cheers and hoots rang out into the jungle. Male Vivutians scrambled to and fro, preparing food.

“First, I must wash myself. I’m…filthy, at this point. I will return shortly.”

The Great Hen bobbed her head, waved a hand, and walked over to the firepit. I turned to Rojav and wiggled my eyebrows at him.

“Wanna…get clean with me?”

“Yes.”

I chuckled, took Rojav’s hand, and we jogged over to our supplies. We grabbed fresh clothes from our packs and made our way to a nearby stream. We washed each other, giggling and splashing.

Rojav slid his arms around my waist. I wrapped my arms around his neck. We kissed and nearly jumped each other right there, but I didn’t really want anyone to walk up on us. I pulled back and smiled.

“I love you, Rojav.”

He stroked my hair and cupped my face in a big hand.

“I love you, too, Nora. I can’t be perfect, but I will always make you the most important person in my life.”

“That’s sweet and silly. How about we make each other the two equally important people in this relationship?”

“I hope to deserve such a thing…”

“Before you go all mopey, I think you’re worth it and who else do you need to impress? Also, we have to get back. There’s still trade to negotiate.”

“It is so unfortunate we must dress. I was hoping for more kissing.”

I chuckled.

“I bet you were, and I promise many more kisses as soon as I have accomplished the goal of this entire expedition.”

Rojav sighed dramatically, then grinned.

“I do not know how I will survive the wait, so let us get started so I can get you naked again.”

A huge grin took control of my face. I laughed and ran for the clean clothes. Rojav chased me, scooping me up into his arms. I giggled and squealed, loving it. Reluctantly, we dressed and returned to the village.

We sat with the Great Hen. She smiled at me and spoke.

“On behalf of my village, I wish to open trade relations with Tahkath’s representatives.”

“We very much appreciate that. We came seeking the same flower which saved me from the fiem’s goo. I found one adhku chung blossom in Tahkath’s market. After discovering adhku chung’s powerful healing properties, King Dojak and Queen Sofia sent me to find more.”

“Your preparation method, the one Krenik followed, produces an excellent medicine. I would have our village learn it. Then we could prepare love butter here to trade.”

“That would seriously simplify the trade process. I will teach Chǎyzǔ, Fieng, and Diz.”

Jithâ bobbed her head.

“It is a burden to provide for three juvenile male Vivutians?”

“Not at all, Great Hen.”

“Hear me out. I offer, in exchange for educating Chǎyzǔ, Fieng, and Diz, some of your men stay and I will teach them about the jungle.”

I sat bolt upright.

“Really?”

Jithâ bobbed her head.

“It will be my pleasure.”

I stood, calling out to my men.

“Who wants to stay with the Vivutians and learn about the jungle while the rest of us return to Tahkath?”

Olanth, Madar, Wuhat, Zarid, Lorkot, and Krenik all ran up, talking over each other.

“ME!”

“I WILL STAY!”

The Great Hen whistled again. Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at her.

“Stop shouting or no one stays. Young Krenik, you are a delight and I feel blessed to have met you, but you must return to your mother. She must miss you so, and you must miss her, too.”

Tears began to well in Krenik’s eyes. He sniffed and nodded.

“I do. I miss Mom.”

Lorkot scooped Krenik into his arms.

“Come along, little brother. We will see Mom soon.”

Lorkot kissed Krenik on the top of his head, sat, and rocked. Krenik’s overly tired eyelids began to droop.

Poor baby is exhausted…

Lorkot looked at me.

“Dak and I must return. Our orders were to accompany you here and all the way back to Tahkath.”

The Great Hen bobbed her head. Olanth, Madar, Wuhat, and Zarid stared at each other. I cut in.

“Wuhat, I need you to get us back to the dock. After that, what you do is up to you.”

The old D’Tali looked thoughtful. Then he nodded.

“Perhaps the Great Hen would be willing to trade for fruit wine?”

Jithâ chitter-laughed and bobbed her head.

“We have many goods to trade, including yoǔ suthayw.”

Wuhat laughed and stuffed his mouth with the leaves he liked to chew.

Olanth looked at Madar.

“That leaves you, me, and Zarid.”

Olanth and Madar hooted, leaping into the air. I looked at Zarid.

“Lady Lanah will not be angry?”

Zarid grinned and shook his head.

“I will write her a letter. She will love this. Next thing you know, she will insist on visiting.”

“Lady Lanah? One of the Lukadian rulers?” the Great Hen inquired.

Zarid nodded and replied.

“Yes. I’ll tell you everything you want to know while I am here.”

“I would enjoy that. There will be many new stories around the fire. Include in your message that Lady Lanah is always welcome in this village.”

Zarid bowed respectfully low.

“I shall, Great Hen. She is quite elderly, however. I do not know if she would be able to make the trip. But you never know with Lady Lanah.”

Jithâ chitter-laughed.

“I like her already.”

I laughed.

“I met Lady Lanah once. You will like her, Jithâ. The two of you will be nothing but trouble.”

Laughs rang out all around. We drank, we ate, and we vowed to leave for Tahkath at first light. We finally managed to leave two days later on the excuse we had to celebrate the trade agreement.

Trekking out of the jungle and back to Captain Doren’s barge was far easier than trekking in. We cheered at the first sight of The Chuckling Numa. Those of Gorlon’s porters who had defected to our side during the fight with the gristly old trader sat on Chuckles’s deck with Captain Doren and his men.

Captain Doren seemed thoroughly grateful for more love butter, immediately applying it to his knees. With the help of the rested porters, we loaded our goods onto the barge and were soon on our way back to Tahkath. Traveling downriver took very little time, and we docked in Tahkath within days.

King Dojak and Queen Sofia must have had someone watching for our return because a crowd cheered us when we arrived. I joined them, my men behind me. Sofia smiled at me, little Alyna in her arms.

Alyna stopped wiggling as soon as the Vivutians came abovedeck. For that matter, no one within sight range of Chuckles could look at anything but the juvenile male Vivutians.

“King Dojak, Queen Sofia, may I present Chǎyzǔ, Fieng, and Diz, three Vivutian youths who have come to attend your school.”

King Dojak’s eyebrow ridges shot up his forehead, but he turned to the Vivutians and spoke.

“Well met, Chǎyzǔ, Fieng, and Diz. This is Queen Sofia and our daughter, Princess Alyna.”

The Vivutians immediately bowed low, fluffing their body feathers into a skirt. Diz spoke for the Vivutians.

“We are honored and humbled, Great King Dojak and Great Queen Sofia. The Great Hen extends to you the hand of friendship and looks forward to a long future as Tahkath’s friend.”

Princess Alyna giggled, then reached out for the Vivutians—with her entire body, nearly falling from Sofia’s arms. Sofia wrangled the child like a circus performer. I had to be impressed. Once the princess no longer ran the risk of jumping out of her mother’s arms, Sofia spoke.

“Where are your other crew members? Please tell me we didn’t lose anyone.”

“No, no, no. Olanth, Madar, and Zarid stayed behind at the Great Hen’s invitation. They are supposed to be learning about the jungle and Vivutians, but I suspect they may be drunk most of the time.”

Sofia laughed. I grinned.

“It sounds like you have many stories to tell, Nora.”

“Yes, but first, I must return young Krenik here, to his mother. He has been an amazing asset, and he should be in school, by the way, but he was also a stowaway.”

“I see.”

“I also have an announcement.”

I turned to Rojav, holding out my hand. With a small smile, he took it in his.

“I would like to introduce you to my mate, Rojav.”

Sofia’s eyes grew wide.

“Really?”

I nodded. She handed the princess to her father and hugged me around the neck.

“Congratulations! I’m so happy for you both.”

Sofia took our hands, beaming like a proud mother. King Dojak raised his voice so all could hear.

“This calls for a celebration. I declare a feast.”

Cheers went up around the dock. Krenik threw his hands up into the air.

“This is the best fucking day ever! I can’t wait to tell my friends.”

Queen Sofia nearly choked. I put up my hand, trying not to laugh.

“I ‘explained’ it means ‘extreme’.”

Sofia burst into laughter as tears streamed down her face. The gathered crowd looked at her like she had suddenly grown a second head.

“Oh, Nora. You’re killing me. Let’s fucking party.”

ROJAV

Nora and several of the human women clustered together, chatting and laughing. In my eyes, she glowed, radiant. She recounted parts of her journey yet again. It seemed like everyone wanted to hear about our adventures.

From prison to partying with the king and queen.

I shook my head. Had anyone told me I would be a welcome guest in King Dojak’s castle one day—ever, really, I would have laughed in their face.

Yet here I am…watching a king approach me…

I bowed low, averting my eyes.

“No need for that, Rojav. We’re practically family now.”

King Dojak clapped me on the back.

“Uh…thanks?”

“Besides, these human women are so clever, I need all the help I can get just to keep up with them.”

I chuckled.

“Yes, Sire. Though I suspect keeping up with the human women is a lost cause. I know Nora can run circles around me before I even know what’s going on.”

King Dojak laughed.

“You speak the truth, Rojav. I try to think of what Princess Alyna will inherit, what we will leave to our children. Tahkath will never be the same.”

“Perhaps it will be better. I know Nora has made my life better.”

“As Sofia has improved mine.”

The king and I watched our mates. Nora noticed my attention and winked. She said something to the others. The humans all hugged each other. With a wave, Nora left the group and approached us.

“Evening, King Dojak.”

“Hello, Nora. I wanted to tell you once more how much Tahkath appreciates all your efforts.”

Nora’s face turned red, but she smiled.

“Thank you, Sire. I’m very grateful I’ve found a way to be helpful and stay out of a classroom.”

King Dojak laughed.

“So Sofia has told me.”

“Sire? As much as I appreciate all this, I’m quite fatigued from the journey and the excitement.”

Nora slipped one of her hands in mine.

“I think I’ll take my mate, here, and go to bed.”

My stomach fluttered. I smiled. King Dojak chuckled.

“You deserve at least a week off after all that.”

Nora grinned, and started dragging me away.

“I’ll take it, Sire. Come on, Rojav… Let’s get dirty…”

Scandalized, I didn’t know what to say. The king chuckled all the way over to Queen Sofia. Nora dragged me from the room by the hand.

“Want to get dirty?”

“What did you mean by ‘dirty’?”

Nora giggled.

“What do you want me to mean by ‘dirty’?”

I chuckled. Nora flashed me a devious grin and wiggled her eyebrows at me. My cock twitched. My mouth watered. The urge to make love to her thudded inside my skull like galloping numas.

“I believe that, no matter what planet one is from, actions speak louder than words.”

I slid my arms around her waist and pulled her to me. My lips sought hers. I tasted her exquisite flavor on my tongue.

Nora moaned into my mouth. I cupped her buttocks with my hand, squeezing and kneading the pliant flesh. I pulled her cheeks apart and slid my finger between, teasing her pussy and dark star.

“Oh, Rojav… You bad boy…”

Nora moaned as I explored her body.

Bad? I wasn’t doing bad, was I? No, it must be one of those human phrases.

The clink of armored guards in the adjacent hallway caused us to break apart, grinning at each other and giggling like adolescents nearly caught playing a naughty prank. Nora grasped my hand in her own and tugged me along to her quarters.

We reached the darkly stained wooden door. She tried to open it, but I made that somewhat difficult for her by kissing the back of her neck and shoulders. Nora shuddered, her body leaning back into my own as if in sudden relief.

She spoke, her voice a throaty whisper.

“You’re not making this any easier.”

She ground herself against me. I nestled my fingers between her cheeks through the thin fabric of her shorts.

She got the door open at last, and we spilled into the room like water from a broken dam. I kissed her deeply on the lips. My hands tugged the hem of her shirt, insistent. Nora put her arms over her head, aiding in her own disrobement. My eyes fell upon the magnificence of her bosom. I could barely hear my voice over the pounding of my heart.

“You’re so fucking beautiful.”

That made her laugh. I loved the way her eyes glistened and crinkled with merriment. I knelt down before her and slipped my fingers into the waistband of her shorts, slowly tugging them down. Her shapely legs revealed, I couldn’t resist kissing her perfect thighs.

The smell of her musky arousal reached my nostrils. I felt my heart kick into overdrive. My cock throbbed into an almost painful erection. On my way back to my feet, I thrust my face into her crotch. My tongue slid through her dripping wet pink folds. She tasted as good as she smelled.

Nora made the most beautiful high-pitched cry, borne purely of pleasure.

“You like that, my love?”

“Yes, Rojav. Please do it again.”

I’d never dream of denying a request from my fated mate, anything to make her feel good. If it was within my power, it would be done.

Plus, I was dying to taste her sweet pussy again.

I picked her up and carried her to the bed. Nora let out a delighted squeal, kicking her legs playfully.

“Oh no, I’m about to be devoured by a beast.”

“Yes, Nora…just the way you like. I promised to be an excellent student.”

Nora giggled.

I thrust my tongue out to its full length. With eager, yet lingering, laps, Nora and I created a symphony of sweet cries and undulating moans. Her body trembled against me. My hands pressed her thighs further apart. I took her labia in my mouth. I suckled the sweet drops of Nora’s delicious juice.

Nora’s body lurched into my face. Her hands snapped to the back of my head, her fingers grasping my scaled flesh. I thrust my tongue inside of her, worming it into her ever-widening hole.

I lost myself in the essence—the taste—of my mate. I stroked her swollen nub of sensitive flesh with my upper lip and wormed my tongue ever deeper inside of her. She grabbed my horns, drawing me even further into her sweet love mound.

“Oh Rojav…”

She moaned my name, grinding her sweet pussy against my face. That only encouraged me to greater efforts. I took her swollen nub in my mouth and gently suckled. Nora’s body writhed about on the bed. Had I not pinned her down with my weight, I fear she might have fallen right off. I lifted my mouth from her body for the briefest of moments.

“Your pussy tastes so good, Nora.”

Her body trembled at my words. Her cries grew sharper. I suckled that precious nub, stroking her slick folds. I wormed my fingers inside her, searching for her most sensitive spot.

“Rojav…oh…”

She spoke in desperate gasps, her head whipping side to side.

Her delicious cries split the air. I held on, though her body writhed.

Nora’s nails dug into my scales, her hips rearing up like a bucking numa. A deluge of her delectable pussy juice shot out and washed my scaled face like a cleansing rain.

Her inescapable scent surrounded me. With each breath, I drew her perfect scent into my lungs. My cock throbbed. My head spun. The world faded around us. Her body fell limp as Nora panted.

I stood, dropping my shorts. My hands trembled with urgent need. Nora gazed up at me through heavy-lidded eyes. Her face was flushed a bright red again. I grinned. This time, she’d turned red for all the right reasons. Her gaze fell on my erect member. She bit her bottom lip.

“Bring that over here, Rojav…”

I pointed at my erection.

“This?”

“Yes, silly. Bring that perfect, beautiful cock over here.”

“Oh, so you want this cock?”

She nodded.

“I don’t know…depends on what you plan to do with it.”

She chuckled.

“I’m going to teach you something new.”

She pushed herself up to her knees and crawled over her bed to me. She wrapped her hands around my shaft. I thought I might die of pleasure right there.

“Oh…what are you going to do to me, human?”

She stroked my shaft from head to base. My knees trembled.

“Here, let me explain…”

Then, to my surprise, she licked the head of my cock. I gasped.

“You don’t have to…”

“Do you want me to stop?”

She licked me again. Pleasure ran through my entire body.

“No?”

She giggled.

“Better sit down before you fall down then.”

I plopped down on the bed, propping myself on my elbow. Nora ran her tongue around my cock’s head. My eyes rolled. My head dropped back, my neck suddenly limp.

“Do you like that?”

She spoke in a soft, smoky whisper.

“Yes…”

Then she slid her lips over me, drawing my throbbing cock into her mouth. I moaned. She bobbed her head, drawing me in and licking the whole way as she moved out. She pulled my cock from her mouth, the head escaping with a pop.

“Oh, Nora.”

Then she engulfed my cock in her mouth again and I could think of nothing but the pleasure of Nora’s touch.

NORA

I stretched my body out next to Rojav. I drew his perfect, beautiful cock into my mouth over and over, gripping and stroking the shaft. Rojav was almost too big to fit, but I was determined.

He will feel so good inside me, stretching me wide.

I wiggled at the thought. My orgasm-happy pussy leaked and throbbed in anticipation. Rojav moaned, his body trembling with pleasure.

I repositioned so I could stroke his balls with my free hand. I assumed he liked it, considering the way he pulled my legs apart and drove his face back into my folds.

His hands roamed over my skin while he licked and nuzzled his face in my pussy. I felt blessed that my mate enjoyed pleasuring me.

And Rojav does pleasure me. He hungers to bring me to orgasm over and over. He never complains, he simply enjoys every moment.

Time lost all meaning. The world faded away around us. The more passionately he ate my pussy, the more passionately I sucked his wonderful cock down my throat.

I loved the way his body trembled at my touch. I loved the way he tasted…the way his scales felt against my skin. Most importantly, I loved the way the golden warmth of the bond surrounded us, binding us together.

We existed in a place of pure love, pleasure, and mutual appreciation. My core clenched. Electrified tendrils of pleasure shot across my skin. My inner walls clenched again. I moaned on his cock.

He slid his big fingers between my folds. He found my G-spot and stroked the sensitive bundle of pleasure nerves. An orgasm broke over me. My legs twitched and wobbled. I came on his face, shoving my mouth over his cock as far as it could go.

As the orgasm retreated, I pulled Rojav’s cock from my mouth and panted. He fell on his back, his chest heaving with deep breaths.

“I love you so much, Rojav.”

The words tumbled from my mouth in a bare, breathy whisper.

“Oh, Nora. I love you, too. I want you so bad. My body aches for you.”

“Well, I would hate for you to suffer…”

I opened my thighs wide. A devious grin spread across my face. I wiggled my eyebrows at Rojav, then crooked a finger, inviting him closer. He grinned.

Rojav repositioned himself between my knees, his bobbing cock rock hard. He wrapped his fingers around the shaft and spread my pussy lips wide with his other hand. He shuddered at the sight of my inner pinkness.

Rojav rubbed the head of his cock through my dripping folds. Soft whimpers escaped my lips.

“Rojav… Please… I want you. I need you…”

He pushed that big, fat, perfect cock into me slowly, sliding in inch by inch.

“Oh! Oh, yes…fill me, Rojav.”

He gasped as my tight pink walls enveloped him. He slid in until his balls slapped against me. I gasped, then sighed and relaxed under him.

He drew back and thrust into me again. I gasped louder. He drew back and stopped.

“Am I hurting you? I'm so big and you feel so tight…”

“No, not at all. You just feel so good inside me. Please don’t stop…”

I rocked my hips on his cock, enjoying the blissful pleasure of Rojav stretching me wide.

“Oh, Nora…”

He thrust into me, the rhythm of my rising hips matching his strokes. He felt so good. I reached for him and he leaned down. I wrapped my arms around his neck, pressing myself against his body.

Rojav wrapped an arm around my waist, drawing me close, clutching me to him. I found one of his horns and stroked it. A deep growl rumbled from his core and he thrust harder. We lost ourselves into a chorus of grunts, growls, and moans.

The golden threads wrapped around us entirely, more rapidly than ever, binding us together forever. Joy rose in me, filling me.

“Rojav…”

His hands roamed my body until they found a breast. He wrapped a big hand around it and drew the nipple into his mouth. He flicked it with his tongue and pleasure shot through me. I threw my head back, writhing in his arms.

He released my breast and cupped my face. He thrust his big cock in me and leaned in for a kiss. Our lips met and parted. Our tongues found each other and danced, tasting. I felt complete, entirely connected to Rojav.

The boundaries between us faded. For a short eternity, we existed as one entity. My inner walls clenched over and over. Rojav broke our kiss and threw his head back. We rolled together until I sat atop him.

I could feel my orgasm draw closer with each clench of my inner walls. So close, I rode Rojav, grinding my hips on him. He grabbed my hips with both hands, helping to slam my body down on his cock.

“I’m going to…”

I came. A raw cry tore from my throat. My inner walls clamped down on him as each wave of orgasm slammed into me. I threw my head back. My body went limp with pleasure. For a moment, my mind floated in a state of pure bliss.

Rojav caught my limp body in his arms, laying me on my side next to him. His cock was so big and deep, he didn’t even have to pull out. We lay, facing each other. I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him with all the love in my heart.

He kept thrusting into my pussy—still sensitive from the last orgasm. I felt another so close. I writhed against him, matching each thrust. He gritted his teeth, his pointy ears twitching with his struggle to hold on.

No, no, no, Rojav…

I whispered to him.

“Fill me…”

His cock swelled bigger than I thought possible. He thrust deeper than ever and came, shooting rope after rope of hot cum inside me. I came again with another scream. We held each other so close while our mutual pleasure washed over us.

“Nora…”

He thrust again, setting off another orgasm before the last had even faded. I lost my mind. My entire world was made of Rojav and pleasure. I was made of pure pleasure. I floated in his arms, my body and mind drifting in bliss.

With huge sighs, we collapsed in each other’s arms, our chests heaving.

“Nora…”

“Rojav…”

“You’re fucking amazing.”

I began to chuckle, causing Rojav’s cock to slide out of me. I missed Rojav being inside me almost immediately.

“I have a confession.”

His eyebrow ridges rose and he pulled his eyelids open wide.

“What is that?”

“Fucking means having sex.”

“What?”

“To fuck means to have sex.”

“But…you said…”

I giggled.

“I know what I said. It’s not exactly a lie. We use the word to mean ‘extreme’.”

Rojav blinked for a moment, falling to his back. He cocked his head to the side. I watched him think. A deep laugh rolled from his belly and up his throat. Then the laugh escaped his mouth.

He laughed so hard tears streamed down his face.

“So…that’s why the other humans laughed so hard.”

“Yep.”

“Fuck.”

I giggled.

“It’s just fun to say, Rojav. Of all the things of Earth I wanted to leave behind, I just couldn’t give up that word.”

He tried out the word, exploring the feel of it.

“Fuck. Fuck, fuck…fucking.”

I couldn’t resist chuckling.

“I think you’re right. It is fun to say.”

I snuggled up to his bulging muscles. I traced a finger over the smooth scales of his body. They felt a lot like the scales of a ball python my mom kept as a pet when I was a child.

“I wish you could have met my family.”

“Oh, Nora. I’m so sorry. It must be so hard to be unable to see them.”

“No, don’t worry. Dad died when I was young, trying to climb Mt. Everest. That’s Earth’s highest mountain above the sea. Undersea mountains are much taller. Mt. Everest is so high, it is hard to breathe at the top.”

“Why did he need to climb it?”

“Oh, humans like to do extreme things just to see if they can.”

“What about your mother?”

“Oh, she was such a cool mom, Rojav. She traveled the world and took me with her. We saw so many things and met so many different people. I was very privileged.”

Rojav smiled. “That sounds wonderful. But I meant to ask how she died.”

“Snowboarding.”

“And that is…”

“You strap your feet to a special board and ride it down a snowy mountain. She was really good at it and loved it.”

“Did she crash?”

I shook my head.

“Avalanche.”

“What’s that?”

“When a big bunch of snow slides down the mountain.”

“Wow. Humans sound…wild.”

I chuckled. “Wilder than taking on a fiem?”

Rojav laughed. “I suppose not, but now I at least understand why you were so comfortable out there in the jungle.”

We fell silent for a moment, simply enjoying each other’s presence, then Rojav turned to me.

“Will you want to raise our children the same way?”

“Oof. Now that is a question. Can I answer that later, after I have a kid to worry about?”

Rojav chuckled. I pushed myself up on my elbow and looked into his beautiful eyes.

“As long as you are with me, Rojav, I think we can find a way to be happy anywhere.”

“How could I ever be unhappy again now that I’ve found you?”

ROJAV

“I wonder how Olanth, Madar, and Zarid are.”

“We will find out soon enough, Nora. Though I doubt we need worry. None of the regular trade missions Dak led have mentioned any trouble.”

“True. I suppose I just miss them. Half a year is a long time.”

I chuckled.

“What you should worry about is how the Great Hen will feel about Chǎyzǔ, Fieng, and Diz.”

“Are you joking? Jithâ will love their progress. What you should worry about is how Zarid will take his surprise.”

I chuckled, looking behind me. Chǎyzǔ, Fieng, and Diz walked behind us, hopping in anticipation of returning home. Between me and them, four big Lukadians carried a finely made, richly decorated palanquin.

On the luxurious cushions inside, reclined the oldest Lukadian I had ever seen—not that I had seen a lot of Lukadians. Lady Lanah tried to watch everything at once. She sucked at her now toothless gums, taking in the beauty of the jungle.

“Venik!”

The Lukadian walking alongside Lady Lanah’s palanquin spoke to her with reverent respect.

“Yes, Grandmother?”

“Fetch me some water.”

“Yes, Grandmother.”

Venik unslung a waterskin from his shoulder and handed it to Lady Lanah. I glanced at Nora. She looked affectionately amused. Nora turned her head, calling over her shoulder.

“We approach the Vivutian village.”

Lady Lanah sat upright with more ease than she had in years. Nora’s love butter had done wonders for her joints. When she insisted on joining this journey, she claimed to want to see as much as she could while she still could. I only hoped to be like her when I grew old.

Nora huffed with each step. She held one of her hands to her back.

“Nora?”

She smiled up at me.

“I’m fine. Just tired. I’m only three months pregnant, Rojav. I’m huffing ’cause we’ve been walking for what feels like forever.”

“I just wanted to be certain.”

“Just don’t start any of that ‘delicate condition’ crap.”

“I get the feeling there is more meaning to that statement than I could guess.”

Nora smiled.

“You would be right. I’ll explain later. We’re here.”

Chǎyzǔ, Fieng, and Diz hopped, fluttering their wings. They trilled in excitement. Trills from the other Vivutians replied through the trees. Unable to control their excitement any longer, the three juvenile male Vivutians ran into their village, fluttering their wings and tails.

Lady Lanah began to chuckle.

“Venik! Venik! Quickly, bring the gifts.”

“Yes, Grandmother.”

Etmût and Shǎsh sprinted toward us, fluttering their feathers. They trilled a complicated series of notes. They ran directly at Nora. Nora laughed. The hens fought over which would hug Nora first. Nora ended the argument by hugging both.

They peppered Nora with many rapid-fire questions. Nora chuckled.

“Calm down, calm down. I will tell my stories by the light of the firepit so all can hear, okay?”

Etmût and Shǎsh calmed themselves, for we had arrived at the center of the village. Jithâ sat near the fire. We dropped our packs, leaving them for the porters to tidy, and presented ourselves.

“Welcome back, Nora.”

Before anyone could say more, Madar and Olanth burst from the trees. They rushed me, clapping my back and making a great racket until Jithâ whistled.

“Sit down. Everyone come sit. So we may all hear each other.”

Olanth and Madar immediately complied, waving. Wuhat, Jayng, and Zarid appeared carrying tubes of fruit wine. Wuhat and Jayng began passing theirs out. Zarid saw Lady Lanah’s palanquin and fainted.

Lady Lanah stuck her head out the side, looked at Zarid, and huffed.

“He’ll be fine.”

She waved at the firepit.

“Take me over there, boys.”

The four Lukadians carried the palanquin near the fire and placed it down with great care and gentleness. Lady Lanah waved vaguely at her porters.

“That stuff Zarid spilled smells like alcohol. Go get drunk or something. I’m going to speak with this Great Hen.”

Her Lukadian porters bowed low, then peeled Zarid from the ground, trying to clean the fruit wine off him. I took a seat next to Nora. Once everyone seemed to have settled, Nora made introductions.

“Great Hen, I present Lady Lanah of Lukadia.”

Lady Lanah smacked her toothless gums at Jithâ.

“Forgive me for not standing, Great Hen. I’m fucking old.”

Nora and I nearly choked. Nora shook her head, muttering, “What have I done…?”Jithâ stood to her full, regal height. She approached Lady Lanah and bowed deeply.

“I am honored, Revered Elder.”

“That ‘revered elder’ stuff is a load of numa shit. I’m too old for that, too.”

Lady Lanah winked at Jithâ. Jithâ chitter-laughed, returning to her seat. Wuhat stuffed his mouth with leaves and started chuckling. I grinned.

Who knew elders were so much fun?

I vowed to be at least half as much fun as these three when I grew old. Lady Lanah sniffed, then waved Venik over.

“This is my grandson, Venik. He has proven himself to be a smart trader. I hope we can establish trade. Nora’s love butter has changed my life and I wish for the rest of Lukadia Mine to have access. We will talk business later, though. I’m certain many of you have much catching up to do.”

Jithâ bobbed her head.

“Agreed, Lady Lanah. For now, we must celebrate! Jayng! I declare a feast.”

Jayng bowed low, fluffing his feathers into a skirt, then hopped away. The Great Hen turned to Nora and me.

“Where is young Krenik, and his brother, Lorkot?”

“Krenik began school. He is doing well and seems very happy, though his mother was livid when he finally returned.”

The hens chitter-laughed. Jithâ replied.

“That one may be one of my favorites. He will go far. And Lorkot?”

“He received a promotion and is now instructing others at the school.”

Jithâ bobbed her head.

“How were my young Vivutians?”

“They brought you great honor. Chǎyzǔ, Fieng, and Diz studied harder than any of the other students. They learned quickly and were so very precise. King Dojak and Queen Sofia thoroughly enjoyed their company and hope I will return with others.”

The Great Hen’s chest feathers fluffed with pride.

“You shall.”

“How have Olanth and Madar been for you?”

“Very helpful. Those two really know how to party. I do not know if they wish to return, though.”

“That is something to worry about after we celebrate. Before we get any further, Rojav and I have news we would like to share.”

Nora turned to me. A beatific smile spread across her face.

“Would you like to tell them?”

I smiled, nodding. I stood and took Nora’s hand in mine.

“Nora and I are expecting a child.”

Pandemonium erupted around the firepit. So many people tried to speak at once, I lost track of who said what.

“What?”

“Congratulations!”

The Vivutians leaped to their feet, fluttering and hooting. After a solid minute of utter chaos, the Great Hen whistled. Everyone calmed themselves. Lady Lanah cackled with glee. The Great Hen bowed low. Wuhat clapped my shoulder. Olanth and Madar grinned like I had told them I found them mates.

Jithâ spoke.

“Then this truly is a celebration.”

Jayng, followed by several juvenile male Vivutians, returned with platters of fruits, nuts, vegetables, greens, and beetles. Wuhat demanded another round of fruit wine.

Zarid came to and presented himself to Lady Lanah.

“Grandmother, forgive me for fainting. Seeing you in the jungle was very surprising.”

Lady Lanah patted his hand.

“Bring me some of that fruit wine and I will forgive you.”

Zarid chuckled.

“Yes, Grandmother.”

We laughed and drank and ate and danced long into the night, celebrating life and family. I had lost my own family so long ago and carried such terrible guilt and self-loathing for so long, I didn’t know how to live before Nora.

Nora insisted on drinking only water. She explained that getting good and drunk was bad for the baby. I didn’t argue, I simply felt gratitude for her. For the first time since my father started drinking far, far too much, I felt like I had family.

Don’t blame the ale. Father always had that edge, even before he started drinking too much. The alcohol simply brought out the worst in him.

At first, I had worried I would be like him, but Nora showed me that I choose how to act. I choose to bring happiness into the world. And I hope to do so with as much vitality as Lady Lanah.

Nora told me that, in only half a year I will meet my child. I hope our child is a girl, though I would love a son just as much. I don’t know how I could ever love anyone more than I love Nora, but Nora tells me I will.

Then we shall travel the world together, showing our child wonders.

Nora grew tired before the other revelers. We said our goodnights and rolled into our hammock. We were almost asleep, side by side, gazing into each other’s eyes.

“I love you, Nora.”

“I love you, Rojav.”

“Nora?”

“Yes, love?”

“Life cannot get more fucking perfect.”

ARE YOU A STARR HUNTRESS?

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REKKER

Rekker wasn't expecting to be matched.

On the eve of being sent to retrieve a mysterious artifact, he's sent something just as enigmatic.

A HUMAN WOMAN, lush and curved.

His mate.

Even worse, she wants nothing to do with him.

His blood burns for her, but the need to make her happy overrides everything.

He'll find a way to set her free, even if it means he'll be alone. Forever.

But when danger comes from an unexpected source, they're thrown together. And when his mate turns to him, he'll protect her.

KEEP HER.

Claim her.

Lila Kanes never wanted any thing but a quiet life on her family farm. She certainly didn't want to be claimed by a massive alien mate.

THROWN INTO THE STARS, she'll do whatever it takes to find a way home.

BACK TO EARTH.

Back to her family.

SHE COULDN'T POSSIBLY WANT to stay with the hot, horned alien with the amazing body, who made her feel like the most precious thing in the universe, could she?

RIGHT?

REKKER IS the first book of the Warriors of Vaznik, a stand alone series in the Warlord Brides universe. There's no cheating, and a guaranteed HEA for each couple!

CLICK HERE to keep reading Rekker, book one of the Vaznik Warrior Mates!

KAZAN

An alien warrior resolved to return to battle. A woman determined to get back to her life.

They'll fight the match, but can they fight fate?

A MATE IS the last thing on my mind.

Especially one as sassy as the human female they say is my match.

Even if her lush curves call for my touch, and her fiery spirit is equal to my own.

I will endure the thirty days demanded by the Protocol.

But with every look, every word, I can feel us bound closer together.

Will I be able to leave her, even for her own safety?

KAZAN IS the first book of the Jorkan Protocol Mates. Spend the night with this perfect steamy, funny science fiction romance escape. There's no cheating, and a guaranteed HEA for each alien warrior and his mate! Hot, steamy alien yumminess!

CLICK TO GET IT NOW!

ROGUE MATE

Science fiction romance is the destination of the Rogue Star…. Hop on board!

OUR RESCUERS ARE a group of pirates. Or smugglers. They're not exactly answering questions, either.

More importantly, they're giant, golden skinned aliens...

And their rogue of a captain seems very interested in the little human commander.

Me.

ROGUE MATE IS the first in the Rogue Star science fiction alien romance series. Click now to start the adventure!

Copyright © 2020 by Ava York

All rights reserved. These books or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the Author except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

This book is a work of fiction. Any similarity between the characters and situations within its pages and places or persons, living or dead, is unintentional and co-incidental.

Table of Contents

Title Page

Contents

Rojav

Nora

Nora

Rojav

Nora

Rojav

Nora

Rojav

Nora

Rojav

Nora

Rojav

Nora

Rojav

Nora

Rojav

Nora

Rojav

Nora

Rojav

Nora

Rojav

Nora

Rojav

Nora

Rojav

Rojav

Nora

Rojav

Nora

Rojav

Are you a STARR HUNTRESS?

Rekker

Kazan

Rogue Mate

Copyright