Page 19 of There's an Elf in My Cockpit

He grinned, the corner of his mouth turning up on one side more than the other and his neatly trimmed beard glowing faintly red. “Like what you see, sweetheart?” he said, all cocky and smug. He wasn’t wearing a hat right now and I couldn’t understand how he wasn’t freezing his strangely round ears off.

“Yeah,” I said truthfully, “I do, but watch the ice, please.” I wasn’t going to breathe easy until we were back down in the crater with the teens. And I was never going to come near any ice ever again, screw ice skating, I could do without that.

His smile lingered a moment longer before it turned serious and he obeyed, his focus on the walk just like me. I wanted to get back as soon as possible, and I really hoped that Elpherian had given up by now but I sincerely doubted that. That close brush we’d had the day before had only left me with the feeling that he was far more determined than I’d thought.

A good hour into our walk we’d made it to the spot where we’d fallen in the ice. It was impossible to miss the location because big blocks of ice and piles of snow circled the place, drawing your eye to the spot from miles away. When we got closer it was even more obvious that Elpherian’s men had dug a huge crater in an effort to find us. No, me; this was about finding me and I shivered as that realization sunk in once more.

Oliver took one long look at the mess in the otherwise pristine landscape, his face drawn into the deepest frown I’d ever seen. Without a word, he jerked his chin in the direction we had to go and just kept on walking. I didn’t need to be a genius to know that he was raging mad, and I felt warmth fill me in response. I wasn’t used to having someone in my camp, but at this point, it was obvious that no matter what was happening, Oliver was going to have my back. I hoped I was worth that kind of loyalty because so far, most people in my life hadn’t thought so.

I needed to think about it while we continued our long trek back to the teens and the shuttle. I ran all my life because I simply didn’t fit the standard Elrohirian mold; I wasn’t the quiet, sweet daughter of a minor lord. I was that kid who liked to climb trees and get their clothes muddy at every chance. The girl that smiled too hugely, that laughed too loud, and that couldn’t sit still even if they tied her down. I tried to fit the role they wanted me to fill when I was a preteen and I’d been so deeply miserable that I’d ended up rebelling by doing things like dating guys like Elpherian.

As I watched Oliver walk ahead and to my left, I had to conclude that maybe he was like that too. Loud, always laughing, filled with a sense of adventure. He wouldn’t fit as the son of an Elrohirian noble either, but as a male, he’d get away with far more than I had. Maybe it wasn’t me, maybe it was them. The thought washed over me, making me feel lighter than I had in years.

Yeah, it wasn’t me that wasn’t good enough. It wasn’t that I couldn’t inspire loyalty. I was a good person, I mattered, and it was on them for not seeing that. Oliver had, he’d seen it the moment we met, which made him a far better person than my oh-so-noble father of the great honor. A male didn’t have honor if he couldn’t even love his own daughter for who she was and see how hard she was trying.

It was a good thing I was wearing the snow goggles over my eyes or the sudden rush of tears would have frozen on my lashes. Funny how just that little show of anger on my behalf had made me realize all of this. And for the first time in years, I felt like maybe I didn’t need to run any longer.

*

Oliver

My girl was completely lost in thought since we’d passed the hole. Not in a dangerous way, she was carefully watching her footing, her ice axes at the ready, just not open to any kind of conversation. Truthfully, neither was I. The sight of that hole had deeply unsettled me, it had filled me with unholy rage. I was, now more than ever, convinced that waiting for the Elrohirian justice system to catch this bastard wasn’t going to be fast enough. I wanted to erase the threat to my woman as soon as possible.

The violent thoughts surging through my brain didn’t bother me either. I had quickly learned that in the Zeta Quadrant living by the same code as I had on Earth was only going to get me killed. The laws here were different, varied even depending on what planet you were on. So I had embraced the code by which the gladiators on the Vagabond lived by. They were good males, and training with them over the past year had instilled me with the deepest respect for how they treated their mates and their peers.

They would definitely agree that making sure Elpherian never left this moon was the right thing to do. Even Thorin, who was Elrohirian himself, and a former police officer at that, would stand in line to help me cut the proverbial brake line.

I wasn’t going to tell my little elf about the things I was thinking though. She liked it when I was bossy sometimes, but I was certain that hearing me utter such violent thoughts might turn her away from me. She’d been stuck with a vile male like Elpherian and ran for a good reason after all.

A plan was already forming in my mind. Kitan and Da’vi were probably the males who had come down to the surface to help us with the shuttle. I could take the shapeshifter Sune with me, locate Elpherian’s ship, and do some very serious damage. Somehow, I didn’t think our host would be as helpful to the criminal as he’d been to us.

Thinking of our strange host made the fine hairs on the back of my neck stand on end and I lifted my head to look uneasily over my shoulder. Since we’d left the ice castle, I hadn’t quite managed to shake the feeling that someone was watching us. I hadn’t seen the strange shadow that Vi had described seeing twice, and I had wanted to dismiss it as a figment of imagination, brought on by exhaustion. I couldn’t though, Vi had been too earnest in describing it, with very consistent details. And I just felt it in my bones, that it was true, and that even though we couldn’t see it right now, it was still watching us. Him, our strange, beastly host.

It made me set a faster pace than was comfortable and when the edge of the crater came into sight I realized that might be a mistake. We’d burned a lot of energy just on that intense eight-hour hike just now. It was a bad idea to make the climb down when we were both tired. I knew my own limits and I was certain I was still good enough to do it, but was Vi? I didn’t really want to ask her. I could already tell by the red in her cheeks and the determined tilt of her pretty pink mouth that she was still walking due to sheer willpower. She had that in spades though, and I couldn’t be more proud.

“I’m going to try and see if I can hail Darth or Kitan on their com,” I said, making a decision right there. We were close enough, that they could spot us from the sky, Kitan would be able to pick us up from here. I halted, and with just a tug on the rope tethering my elf safely to my waist, I started to reel her in.

Darth answered almost immediately and this time the connection between us was crystal clear. The deep rumble of his voice was tinged with a hint of excitement, “Are you almost back, Olly? Is Vi with you?” I wanted to growl at him and ask him why the fuck he was so interested in my girl. She was none of his business. I reined myself in because Darth was just a teenager and Vi wasn’t interested in him, there was no need to be jealous or territorial.

“The two of us are near the edge of the crater but dark is coming, we don’t want to make the descent now. Did Kitan arrive with help? Can he fly up and fetch us with the second shuttle?” Vi had reached me now and I wrapped her up in my arms, tugging her as close to my body as I could. She came willingly, resting her head against my chest beneath my chin and I cherished the feeling of the escaped strands of her hair that clung to my beard, tying us together.

“We’ll be right up,” Darth said, and then the connection cut before I could tell the male that he didn’t need to accompany the pilot. We had gotten back to the crater without any incident, but that didn’t mean I trusted it. Elpherian had made his crew dig a huge crater to locate Vi’s body, he wasn’t giving up and would be watching for any sign of life.

With that feeling of unseen eyes on me, I couldn’t shake the thought that I was mistaking what I thought was our host for spies for the Elrohirian criminal. As long as we were exposed out here, I wouldn’t breathe easy and the last thing I wanted was an over-eager teenager to show up and possibly get caught up in some kind of attack.

I tightened my grip around the ice ax I was still holding and then actually tucked that in the loop on my leg and grabbed the pistol instead. Vi didn’t comment but I knew she saw me do it, she just turned her sharp, glowing green eyes on our surroundings, keeping watch as much as I was while we waited.

The flap of wings came first, and I turned, raising the laser pistol and then lowering it again with a curse. The Tarkan teenager hadn’t even hitched a ride, safely, with Kitan on the shuttle. No, he was flying out of the crater on his own, his huge leathery wings beating quickly in the frigid air. Dumbass, he had to be freezing his wingtips off right now, considering he had no pelt or coat to protect the thin leather membranes from the temperatures.

Rising higher, he circled three times before his eyes landed on the two of us. Then he darted in our direction, wings outspread as he soared in a graceful arc to the ice near us. Vi was enthusiastically waving at him, but she kept herself tucked against my body. When he got closer I realized there was someone clinging to his back and my stomach went cold. I recognized that blue color; had Darth taken Belal up here?

Darth’s feet touched the ice and Belal leaped off his back and ducked around the wings to peek at us. I could see hesitation in those big yellow eyes, his weight pitched a little more to the side, leaning on the leg that hadn’t been broken a few days ago. “Belal! You’re up!” Vi exclaimed, and now she did push herself out of my arms and headed for the young Hoxiam.

Her warm welcome was all the invitation Belal needed to scuttle across the ice toward my elf. He briefly dropped on all fours for greater speed and then he accepted a warm hug from Vi while she babbled happily about how glad she was to see him and how good he’d healed. As a Hoxiam, Belal was probably the only species down on the planet (except our host) that was made for this kind of weather The thick blue pelt had several layers with different types of hair to insulate him from wetness and cold, this probably felt like nice weather to him. Which was why he was only down to a pair of shorts while the rest of us were all wrapped up in parkas and snow boots and such.

The glowing expression on the kid’s face was enough to make me swallow any reprimand for Darth about taking him up here. It also helped that Darth wasn’t even looking at Vi, he just headed directly for me to clasp my wrist in greeting. “Good to see you, Olly. We were worried you guys weren’t going to make it before dark. Kitan was ready to start searching for you.”

As if his words had summoned him, the nose of one of the Vagabond’s shuttles rose over the edge of the crater. A spotlight blinked on to illuminate us in the fading evening light. The night here came on quick, and though the sun was still hovering on the edge of the horizon, painting the ice in beautiful shades of pink and orange right now, it wouldn’t last very long.

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