?? CHAPTER 17 ??
Ryle
I add “migrate” to our dictionary. One of my mate’s friends says that the sea creatures look like they’re migrating. They aren’t like any animal I’ve ever seen before. They leap from the sea and spread membranous wings to glide over the water, only to drop below the surface again. It’s hard to judge their size from afar, but I’m certain that one could completely cover our traveling pack if it dropped on top of us with its wings spread. They’re huge. And they’re flowing along the coast away from us, further from our camps.
Good. They’re so enormous, we would barely be a snack to them, anyway.
I help the humans prepare their nighttime campsite. I wonder if it’s wise at all to stop, but I remember how much more rest they need than us.
So my crew and I will keep watch. The humans huddle in their small tents and chatter for a while, but slowly fall asleep. I look out to the sea and watch another pod of six of those flying sea creatures migrate. Zoxsym watches the cliffs, and Amcyth watches the beach.
I smell my mate approaching before I even hear her. Not that I need either sense to know where she is. I’m aware all the time. She kneels next to where I crouch and settles back on her heels.
“You do not draw?” I ask her, gesturing at my CommPad.
“Not tonight,” she says.
“I miss...” I wrack my brain for the word. It’s a small victory whenever I learn more of her language and don’t need to use the translator. “Touch.” I draw my fingers down her arm. “You sleep on me.”
“I miss it, too,” she says softly, and she leans her cheek on my arm.
Even that light contact warms my aching heart. The mating pulse is only growing stronger with time. I know I’ve won her over, at least a bit. I know she’s no longer afraid of me, and I think she may even enjoy my company. And we’ve gotten familiar with each other’s sex parts.
Is it the presence of the other humans? She doesn’t exactly avoid me around them, but she doesn’t let me hold her hand. Doesn’t let me lift her up. We’re learning their customs as we learn their language - perhaps this is one of them? Mates only act like mates when they’re alone? It seems sad, though. I want my crew to know that she’s mine. I want them to know that she’s under my protection. And I want to share my joy.
“Why are you here, Ryle?” she asks.
“Here?” I look back out to sea. “To aid and protect my mate. And humans. We help.”
“No, I mean, why are you on this planet?”
“We crash.” I don’t have enough words to explain my theory about the planet itself. That it wanted us here, that it pulled us here. What a miracle it is. I’ll explain one day.
“We crashed, too. We were meeting more humans. Wrong planet.”
I nod. “Wrong planet.”
“Where were you going?”
“Tola-1. The first sun.”
She’s silent for a moment. “Why?”
“To die.”
She jerks away as if I’ve startled her. “To die? Why?”
I don’t have the words for this explanation, either. I fire up the translator to try, though. “We are built soldiers. But no good. We... are defect. Too many problems. So. Trash goes to suns. We go to suns.”
She wipes her eyes. “But instead, you crashed here.”
“I live. I find my mate. I...” I can’t explain how lucky I am. So I lean down and kiss her. She’s still bewildered, still leaking from her eyes, but she lifts from her heels and kisses me back. Her delicate little hands find their way to my neck and my horns and she pulls us even closer.
I have won her over. I know it. It’s just a matter of time. I will mate with her, and then, who knows? I believe this planet wants us here, but if she wants to go somewhere else, I’ll go.
“Sleep,” I tell her. As wonderful as it is to kiss her, I know she needs sleep. I also know my cock is growing painfully harder every moment. I brush sand from my knee and pull her across my lap. Just as she slept when we were together in the caves. “Sleep,” I tell her again, but her eyes stay wide open, staring up at the stars. She says something that I don’t understand at all. Smiles up at me.
My heart is lost to her. It hurts to recall our doomed trip to the sun, but her smile soothes that pain. Her kiss makes it all worth it. I smooth her hair back and whisper to her to sleep again, and finally she closes her eyes.