Princess SOS (11 page)

He touches my hand to his chest, over his heart.

“Mine,” he purrs.

His chest is vibrating so hard, the bones in my hand feel like they’re rattling.

On second thought, maybe I should have stabbed him…

My eyes narrow murderously. He tips his head back and laughs before leading me out the door.

I squint against the bright sunlight as we step outside. The air releases hiss, I sense the doors closing behind us. How many days has it been since I last seen the sun? I’d ask, but it’s not a yes or no kind of answer.

The last time I was here, I was thrown over his shoulder and couldn’t see where we were going. Curiously, I look around. His ship is in the middle of a field, out in the open.

I spin around to look at his ship. Funny, it doesn’t look like it crashed. There are no grooves in the dirt, no visible outside damage to the hull. Given the massive size of the ship, it would have made quite the dent if it touched down or at least left a grassy skid mark. It looks like it landed here, intentionally.

Beast waits patiently for me to have my look and then tugs on my hand. I sigh and turn back to him. My fingers itching to escape his grasp.

“So, which way are we going?” I ask.

He points straight ahead and leads me across the grassy blue-green field.

Maybe it’s because I’m out in the sun, inhaling fresh air, but I feel like I’m in a pretty good mood. Like I could start skipping right now, across this field. It’s good to have something to do, to have a purpose, even though I don’t know what the purpose is. I’ve spent so long, just sitting around, waiting for something to happen, it feels awesome to make something happen.

And, because of this good mood, I feel like talking. I know all I’m going to get out of tall, dark, and purple is grunts and growls, but that’s okay. I can talk enough for the both of us.

“Is your home planet far from here?”

He nods.

“Is that your ship back there?”

He shakes his head.

Oh, that’s interesting. Too bad I can’t just ask whose ship it is.

“Did you steal that ship?

He nods his head.

“Seriously?”

He smirks at me.

“Is the owner going to come looking for it?”

He looks like he has to think for a moment before shaking his head.

“You didn’t kill them… did you?”

He starts to nod and I gasp. He smirks at my reaction and then shakes his head.

Is he teasing me?

I narrow my eyes at him.

“Did you or didn’t you?”

He lifts both of his dark brows then wiggles them playfully. He’d look silly if his eyes weren’t red and glowing.

“Ugh. What’s that supposed to mean?”

He chuckles and then says something in his weird alien language.

I can’t understand it so I just roll my eyes.
If only he spoke Common. Which reminds me…

“Is your homeworld a member of the Transgalatic Alliance?”

He snorts and sharply shakes his head.

“Wow. There are not many planets or species that I can think of that aren’t.” I think out loud.

He says something else and motions dismissively with his hand. I get the feeling he doesn’t think highly of the Alliance.

“Well, my planet has been a member for only a little over a millennia now. We’re a bit late to the party.”

He snorts.

“I know many of the other planets look at us like we’re backwards like we haven’t finished evolving yet. Especially since our women are the rulers.”

He brings us to a stop and for a moment, I think he’s actually interested in what I’m saying. Then he touches his mouth and shakes his head. I take it that he wants me to be quiet.

I sigh and nod.

I can see trees off in the distance. The sun is high in the sky. We have hours before dark. We set off again. The ground is flat and just grassy. It’s easy going until we get to the trees.

The change in atmosphere is striking. Out in the field, it’s warm, bright, and sunny. In the trees, it’s dark and cool with the sun blocked out by the thick cover of leaves.

I shiver and wonder just what exactly are we doing out here. I was hoping he’d lead me back to my pod, or I’d at least get a glimpse of it, to check on it.

He starts to lead me into the trees and I pull back my hand. I don’t want to go into the forest. The forest is full of small, fuzzy little creatures who want to eat me.

Beast looks at me, his eyes questioning.

“Why do you want to go in there?”

Now is one of those times where it would really come in handy to be able to verbally communicate with him. He grumbles something I can’t understand.

“I’ll stay here,” I say softly.

He shakes his head and pulls on my hand.

I stubbornly dig in my heels and pull back.

He grumbles and glares at me.

“I am not going in there,” I glare back.

He pulls on my arm, making me take a step forward.

“No,” I hiss. “There are evil fuzzballs in there who want to kill me.”

Our eyes meet, locked in a silent battle of wills. If his eyes didn’t glow, I would so win this staring contest. I start to see spots, though. I have to look away. It was like staring into a light for too long. Or two burning red suns.

“You’re such a cheater,” I pout in defeat.

He tugs impatiently on my hand. He won fair and square. I bow my head as I follow him in. I just have such a bad feeling about this.

I’m so on edge, each snapping twig has me practically jumping out of my skin. I keep expecting to hear a chirp or see a pair of beady black eyes watching me from the trees. All I want to do is turn tail and run back to the safety of the ship.

Deeper and deeper we walk into the forest. It’s eerily silent and gives me the creeps.

Is there nothing else around but us? Or is everything frightened off because my companion is the biggest, baddest, thing here?

I look at Beast, remembering how I myself cowered in my pod, afraid of him. For days.

A misty fog begins to form around us, making it harder and harder for me to see. I’m going on blind faith as I put down one foot in front of the other. By miracle alone, I don’t trip over anything. It helps that Beast walks in front of me, still holding my hand, kicking everything out of the way.

It feels like we’ve been walking for hours, in silence no less, when the fog begins to clear and I can hear the soft, trickling sounds of water somewhere in the distance. The sounds of water grows louder and louder, and then I see it. The very first pool of water I discovered.

Which means my pod isn’t far from here.

I half expect Beast to lead me over to the pool of water, but he leads me instead to a cluster of trees half a span away.

Someone made a little hiding place.

The native foliage has been built up around the cluster of trees to provide cover. Beast leads me around until we’re behind the trees then motions for me to lower to the ground. The way the leaves and vines are woven around the tree trunks, it provides the perfect camouflage.

A blanket of leaves has already been piled on top of the dirt. Beast lowers down to his knees, settling on the pile, then by the hand, he pulls me down beside him.

I bet he’s been here many times before. And I bet he has more than one little hidey spot like this set up around here.

I shudder.
There’s probably one near my pod.

My shudder draws his concern. He squeezes my hand and gives me an inquiring look.

I shake my head at him and whisper, “It’s nothing.”

He nods and touches his fingers against his lips. At least I know what that means. Well, at least I think it means be quiet. I nod, to say I understand. He finally let’s go of my hand.
Hallelujah.

He leans forward. His large purple hands go to the weapons in his belt while he peers through a small gap in the cover. I have to wonder if his glowing eyes are going to scare whatever he’s hunting away. And that’s what we’re doing, isn’t it? We’re hunting something. Otherwise, why go through all this trouble to conceal ourselves? Why outfit ourselves with weapons? Now comes the hardest part, I know, from the single hunt I attended with my father, the waiting.

I’m so sick and tired of waiting. The minutes drag by. I shift and squirm restlessly. I lean forward, peek through a gap, but after five minutes of nothing, I lean back. I have no patience.

Time continues to move at a snail’s pace. It gets to the point where I’m seriously resenting him for bringing me. I almost wish I was back at the ship. At least I could stretch out, jump on the bed,
do
something. Kneeling on the leaves out here and being quiet is killing me. I want to scream just to break the silence.

Then all of a sudden he tenses.
He must see something.

I lean forward, look through the gap, and then I see it. It’s a squat, fat little creature on four stubby legs. It reminds me of a pig.
Is that what we’re hunting?

It’s not that big, I’d say it’s about a fourth of the size of a full grown hog. It could be a baby. I glance back to Beast. He has his guns in his hands now.
He can’t seriously be considering killing a baby? Oh my stars, is that what he’s been feeding me?

I look back through the gap. My pulse has quickened and I’m filled with unease.

The creature wanders closer and closer to the water. From what I can see, it has its head dropped down, and its nose pushing through the leaves.

Should I try to stop Beast from killing it? I don’t know. What if it’s the only thing we can eat for meat?

Sure it’s small, but that doesn’t necessarily make it a baby. The fuzzy creatures I encountered were small too, and seriously evil. They had the cutest eyes but being cute didn’t stop them from trying to take a bite out of me.

Still, I have the strongest urge that I need to protect that creature as if it was a baby. Beast shifts beside me. I flick a quick glance at him, but he’s still kneeling with his weapons in his hands, but he isn’t aiming at it or anything. If he is going to kill it, I don’t know why he’s waiting.

The creature reaches the water. I can’t tell from here, but it’s probably drinking. Still, Beast doesn’t make a move. I almost start to relax, thinking he must not be as heartless as that. I look at him.
Of course he wouldn’t hunt a baby…

A horrible high pitch squeal breaks the silence. Beast jumps to his feet and fires his weapons. It’s all over before I even realize what’s happening. Weapons still in hand, Beast just walks out of the cover, leaving me.

I jump to my feet.
What the heck just happened?
Beast is walking towards the water. I look to the spot where I last saw the baby. It’s not there. There’s just a twitching black blob. I don’t even know what that blob is. Beast fires a couple more shots at it. It stops twitching.

Where’s the baby? Did it get away?

My eyes search and search. I can’t see it anywhere. I guess it ran off. Yet, I can’t shake this feeling of unease.

Beast walks up to the blob and shoots it again. To be sure, I guess. Then he holsters one gun. He bends down and grabs hold of the blob. It stretches as he lifts it. For a moment, the blob reminds me of slime, especially the way the part that comes off the ground thins until it’s more like a dark string. But then, as he starts to drag it away from the water, I can see it’s more like a giant worm or snake. 

I follow the line of the blob as it stretches out behind Beast as he keeps walking towards me. The tail of it is still in the water. That’s when it dawns on me.
He stopped that thing from getting me the first time I came here. That’s why he threw that fruit at me.

How many times did he save my life?
All that time, I thought he wanted to kill me, he was just protecting me.
Even from me…

Beast lets the part of the black thing he’s carrying drop to the ground with a heavy thud. Our eyes meet. There are so many things I want to ask him. If only I could understand the things he says.

He breaks contact by turning away. He walks back to the water and hauls the tail of the thing out. It must be heavy. I can see his muscles straining against his shirt, stretching the soft fabric as he’s working. He drops the tail of the thing on the bank, wipes beads of sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand, then starts to walk back to me.

Something squeals. I gasp. Beast stops dead in his tracks.

The part of the creature left on the bank starts moving. Beast grabs his gun and fires at it.

“Stop!” I cry out.

Beast turns sideways to glare at me. I have to remind myself that he’s not an evil, space demon.
He’s not going to eat me. Maybe.

I gulp then say, “Don’t shoot the baby.”

He looks at me like I’m crazy. There’s another squeal. Part of the black thing on the ground starts to wiggle.

“Please!” I implore him.

Beast shakes his head.

The baby creature emerges from underneath the black thing. I still can’t see its face from here, but its entire little body looks like its trembling. I can hear it snorting.
It needs its mommy.