Survival -Guardians of Vesturon [1] (30 page)

“Well, that probably is not for me to say, but I will tell you anyway. There have been many who have wished it, but you are truly his one and only. I think that is what shocked everyone the most. Rayn has always been so duty bound that we never thought he would take the time to find a mate. And then you came into his life and he completely changed. Maddie, he was crazed when you two were apart. When he was trying to find his way, trying to work everything out with you, he was most senseless. I have never seen him like that before. I never thought I would hear him say he would give everything up for a female. I knew then that it was more than just a physical attraction. That is why I do not understand why our mother is not bending toward him. She usually sees the softer side of things, and knowing Rayn as she does, she would recognize that this is not some whim of his.”

Maddie felt a glow inside of her, a warmth that spread throughout her body. She felt so blessed and lucky to have him in her life.

“When he left with your father, I felt like a part of me went with him. I can’t explain these feelings, but I so hope that you will experience this one day. It is, I don’t know, just unreal. Thanks for sharing all of this with me too.”

“Do not worry about him, Maddie. Just send positive thoughts his way; that will make him the happiest...which brings me to the most wonderful of things. And I cannot take the credit here because this was all Rayn’s idea. Maddie, he wants to talk to you, really talk. However, he is not allowed any communication due to his confinement. So, at his suggestion, we want to try something. It may or may not work, since we don’t know the extent of your telepathic abilities. We know that you can project and receive some things, but since we are so far from Vesturon, we do not know if this will work. But Rayn thinks it would be possible for me to be a medium for the two of you.”

“Explain that. I’m lost in the weeds here.”

“Okay. What we want to try is for the three of us to communicate through telepathy. I have been used as a medium in the past. My abilities are extremely strong, and I am able to project the thoughts of others. In other words, Rayn would project to me, and then I would project to you or speak to you if you were not picking up what I was emitting to you. Then we could do it in reverse. Does that make sense?”

“I think so, but I thought he and I weren’t allowed to communicate.”

“Ha! That is correct. But here is where we would bend the rules. He would communicate to me, and I to you, and then you to me and me to him. So technically, you wouldn’t be communicating directly with each other. A little underhanded, but we think it would work.”

“I’m in. I am
so
in! When can we do this?”

By this time they had reached the mountaintop and decided to take a water break. Sharra continued, “One week from tonight, we will come up here, to this place. We think it will be an easier thing for the flow of thought if we were on a higher point. You and I will come up here and then camp out. After we do this, I will have to wreck because it takes everything out of me. I will warn you, I shall be out for about twelve hours too.”

“I think you mean crash, not wreck. Will it hurt you?”

“Oh no, not at all. It just takes all my strength to concentrate, and then, I am most fatigued. But it shall not hurt at all. The only thing I ask is to please keep it clean, you know, I do not want to get grossed out or anything!”

A totally shocked Maddie replied, “Sharra! I cannot believe you just said that. You know we would never do that. We haven’t even done…well…it! You know! You’re Vesturion. You know the rules.”

“Of course,” Sharra said between huge slurps of water, “I know you have not broken any oaths or vows. But that does not mean you do not think about it or talk about it. All I ask is that you do not think about that kind of stuff when we do this. That is something about my brother that I do not care to learn about.”

“Okay…okay! I promise, plus, I would never do that to you. I’ll just be thrilled to talk with him. Sharra, you know it’s so different here than on Vesturon. Does anyone ever break their oath, you know, cheat?”

Sharra spun her head toward Maddie and said emphatically, “Absolutely not. It is strictly forbidden, and that is one rule that is never broken on our home planet. Maddie, how could you ask such a thing?”

“I guess because it is done so commonly here on Earth. I cannot believe how chaste you all are.”

“Er, Maddie, I truly have no business asking this, but have you ever done it?” Sharra looked over at Maddie sheepishly.

“Gosh, no! That was one rule of mine that I wouldn’t break. I told Rayn about one of my friends. She did it with her old high school boyfriend, and she said it was the biggest mistake ever.”

By this time, Maddie had plopped herself down on a rock and was staring across the mountains at the lovely view.

Sharra took a seat next to her and touched her arm saying, “How horrible for your friend. That is one reason why we Vesturions wait until we are united. It is much easier on each other then.”

“Sharra…um…are you…”

“Spat it out, Maddie.”

“It’s ‘spit it out.’ Well, this is kind of embarrassing to ask, but somehow I think I’d rather ask you than Rayn. Are Vesturions the same as humans, you know, anatomically speaking?”

“Oh, that. Yes, we are told that the reproductive parts are the same. I know there are differences in other areas. I think our lung capacity is a bit different and because of the gravitational differences, we are stronger. But everything else is relatively equal. Our gestational period is like yours, approximately nine months.”

“Do you know how to…I cannot believe we are discussing this. This is embarrassing.”

“What? What is so embarrassing?”

“I was wondering if you know how to…what to do…how it all works when…you know.”

“Well, we are told during our anatomy classes how it all works, but I do not know firsthand.”

“Does it scare you? It makes me nervous.”

“Maddie, that is why it is so important to wait and do it with the one you have bonded with. I do not think of it much because I am not bonded with anyone, unlike you. But I do not think I would concern myself about it too much. Rayn is only going to have your best interests at heart when your time comes to be together.”

“You know, Sharra, on Earth, I am much too young to be thinking of being married to someone. I do worry about that. Maybe we should wait.” Maddie arose and started to pace around.

“That is certainly something you need to discuss with Rayn. But on Vesturon, men and women unite any time after they reach their maturity. It is different there than here, Maddie. Much more peaceful and tranquil, without all the pressures your society has. I believe it is much simpler. People do not have such high expectations of each other either. Here, women are under such stress to look a certain way. It is not that way on Vesturon. Women do not have artificial surgery so they all can look like each other. Here it is like everyone wants to be a clone or something.”

Maddie snickered, “It’s plastic surgery, Sharra, and I agree. Too much conforming to a certain look. I have never agreed with that. I have always wanted to be me,” Maddie said as she started stretching. “Want to know something? I can feel his presence here. This is the place where we opened up and learned about each other for the first time Sharra, and I can feel Rayn here.”

Sharra stood up and placed her hand on Maddie’s arm saying, “Well, sister, then we must visit this place more often. But I think we need to head on back home. We have ten miles to go, remember?”

The girls got back to the house and headed straight for the kitchen. Their stomachs had been grumbling for the last five miles of the run, and all they could both think about were Zanna’s mouthwatering pancakes. With any luck, there would be enough left over for them in the warming drawer.

Unfortunately, they were disappointed. “I cannot believe they ate them all. Zanna must have made fifty,” Maddie declared.

“You always underestimate the amount of food my brothers can eat. They have bottomless pits for stomachs. I do not know how Zanna keeps them fed as it is,” Sharra said.

The two of them went about trying to decide what to make. Maddie offered, “How about we make up our own batch?”

“Are you sure we can do this?”

Always the optimist, Maddie declared, “Well it can’t be that hard.”

Maddie went to the pantry and retrieved all the ingredients she thought she needed. They started working as a team, mixing up the batter. When it was time to put the pancake mixture on the griddle, Sharra excused herself to go to the restroom, leaving Maddie to do the cooking of the pancakes.

Maddie had poured the grease, and then the batter on the griddle to cook, but unfortunately, she caught a glimpse of Peetar outside planting flowers. This distracted her as she walked out the back door to say hello, forgetting about her pancakes on the griddle.

Therron and Tesslar were down in the security room when the smoke and fire alarms went off. They immediately looked at the camera to see where the fire was, and Therron headed straight up the back stairs that led directly to the kitchen. He was greeted by burning pancakes and a room filled with smoke, but not a cook in sight. He removed the offensive charred globs from the griddle, turned it off, and then turned the exhaust fan on high. That’s when he saw Maddie outside engaged in a conversation with Peetar. By that time, Tesslar and Rykerian had arrived.

“What are we going to do with her, Therron? She is nearly a walking disaster in the kitchen,” said Tesslar, shaking his head.

“Nearly? And you came by that, how? I would classify her as a
monumental
disaster. We need to change her name to Katrina, as in the hurricane. And to answer your question, I do not know.” He pulled his hand through his hair, stopping to rub his temple. “Someone needs to be around her all the time when she is in here cooking. I will go out and speak to her about this,” Therron said. “I just hope she does not end up burning the house down.”

* * * * *

Rykerian had been restless all day. He’d come in from patrol last night, hoping to get some badly needed rest. Every time he’d close his eyes, visions of Maddie would appear. He simply could not stop thinking about her. He was so envious of Rayn; he would gladly trade places with him at any time.

Rykerian knew it was hopeless for him. When he was home, he had a hard time restraining his thoughts. If any of his siblings ever discovered this, he would never be forgiven. Sharra would go berserk, given how close she and Maddie had become. It was becoming increasingly difficult to hide his feelings though. He acted like a tongue-tied moron whenever he was near her, like an adolescent seeing his first female. Dear Divine Being, how did this ever happen?

How could he ever forget that day when he was in the recreation room and Rayn strode in with Maddie on his arm? Rykerian truly felt like an idiot then. He could not tear his eyes off of her. He was sure he looked like a dimwit, staring at her with a befuddled look in his eyes. She was simply the loveliest thing he’d ever seen; and the way she looked at Rayn. If only he could be so lucky, Rykerian thought.

He’d been blessedly absent for the last three weeks, but his presence was required in the next few days for the beginning preparations for their trip to Vesturon. He was sick of dealing with his emotions; he needed to just let it go and move on. Trouble was, it was nearly unthinkable with Maddie living under the same roof, agonizing really.

Rykerian massaged his temples, trying to calm himself. How in the world was he going to get through the next few days here? He knew he was going to be in close confines with her. How was he going to mask his feelings? Right now, he felt like he all but had a sign painted on his back that said, “Maddie, you have bewitched me!”

He’d been tossing and turning in his bed, trying frantically to grab some badly needed sleep when he heard the alarm system activate.

Now what has she done
, he thought?

He knew the source of it was Maddie. Ever since she had moved in the house, they had experienced one mishap after another. He chuckled to himself. One thing he knew for sure was that Rayn was going to have his hands full with this female!

He hastily threw on some clothes and headed downstairs to find out what the issue was this time. He and Tesslar met up on the stairs and Tesslar declared, “Kitchen, again!”

They barged through the entrance and found Therron already removing the blackened items from the griddle.

“I am going to have a talk with her. Divine Being, help me, please. I cannot hurt her feelings, but I am beginning to think Rayn may have brought her here to test our endurance and patience.”

Therron headed outside to have his little discussion with Maddie.

Rykerian stood there, observing the scenario, with an admiring expression on his face. Tesslar, noticing this, cleared his throat to get Rykerian’s attention.

“Is everything okay with you?” he quizzed.

Rykerian turned his attention back to Tesslar and felt the discomfort of his prying thoughts, trying to penetrate his mind. He immediately blocked the intrusion and harshly responded, “Er, yes. I have to go,” leaving Tesslar with a bemused expression on his face.

Rykerian headed up to his room and made short order of changing into his workout clothes. He needed to get to the gym right this minute. He had to vent before he exploded, and he knew he could take out his frustrations on the treadmill. He was determined to exhaust himself, even if it took all day and fifty miles of running. He put on some rap music to drown out his thoughts and went to town. He’d been going at it, and yes, still thinking of Maddie when Therron’s thoughts slammed into him.

Therron entered the gym and couldn’t hear himself think because of the loud music. He looked around and saw Rykerian on the treadmill trying to destroy himself, or the treadmill, or both. Rykerian didn’t have a clue that Therron was even in the same room with him. Therron hung back and observed him for several minutes trying to understand what Rykerian was attempting to accomplish. He tried to connect with him, but everything kept bouncing back. Rykerian was undoubtedly blocking everything right now. The only thing he was emitting was a sense of anger and hopelessness. Therron knew there was a problem here and a huge one at that, so he blasted his thoughts out with all of his strength and finally penetrated Rykerian’s mind.