Page 9 of Twin Warriors

They really were huge. Amy was tall by Earth standards, at five foot six, but these guys stood at close to seven feet with bodies built for fighting. Lean, powerful muscles wrapped around their large, daunting frames. Those she had seen in town had metal parts on their face, hands, and legs, so it gave her a good idea of their physical strength. They looked mean as well. They watched everyone with assessing eyes, taking in every detail as though waiting for something to happen so they could fight.

Leaving Emi and Tope to enjoy their treat, Amy unpacked the rest of the supplies. She had liberated more food, some strange looking dark purple fruit that she really liked and more blankets.

The weather was changing, the nights getting colder and her little cot on the floor was not as warm as it used to be. Emi still came to lay beside her every night, making sure she was warm, but after speaking with Tope on their adventure today, she knew he missed having his mate by his side at night.

Shaking out the stunning red and silver blanket she had grabbed from the complex, she moved to her bed and laid it out on top. There was a beautiful image on the soft surface of two swords behind the black silhouette of a huge man.

She went back to her bag and pulled out the last of her supplies. She had grabbed a medical kit, even though Kisma insisted she didn’t need one. Any injuries she got could be healed by the black symbiote much faster than any medical kit. Amy still wanted to keep it close, just in case.

She had also grabbed some new clothes. She wasn’t sure what the complex was, but she had seen a few women walking around and was relieved to find they stocked smaller sized clothes for them. There was no way the men’s clothes would fit her.

Placing the pile of new clothes on the rock beside her, she reached into her bag and pulled out a long silver cylinder. Amy had no idea what it was, but when she had popped the lid off the top in the storeroom, the whole space filled with a wonderful fresh flowery scent that reminded her of home.

Placing the open cylinder between two rocks to help it stand, she picked up her clothes and made her way to her bed. She had taken a few wooden crates on her last visit, that she used as storage for everything she had been able to gather over the last few weeks. She placed the clothes into the crate, leaving a soft black pair of what looked and felt a lot like leggings and a long dark red tunic with the same symbol as the blanket on the chest.

She stood, stripping off her clothes as she glanced to see if Emi and Tope were finished eating.

At first, she had been too shy to get naked around the two creatures, but after countless times of them both telling her that they did not look at her body in any way besides seeing her, and that if she really thought about it, they were always naked, she had gotten past her modesty.

“Emi, I’m going to bathe.”

Emi raised her head to meet her eyes. She gave her a small nod as Tope licked the side of her snout, making her long, thick whiskers flinch.

Grabbing one of the huge towels she had taken on her first visit to the complex from a broken piece of a branch she used as a drying pole, she strode gloriously naked down one of the narrow crevices that led to a much larger pool of water behind the main part of the cave.

When she entered, the sunlight cast a long beam of light over the far end of the pool, she smiled at the beauty of their little home. Dark green vines grew up the walls, reaching up to the opening in the rock ceiling and littering the walls with tiny white and pale pink flowers. The water sparkled in the sunlight, the gentle steam rising in faint waves above the still pool.

The water must be heated from an underground source, she thought for the hundredth time, feeling thankful to have a hot pool to bathe in.

She dropped her towel on a large boulder to the side of the entrance and strode to the edge of the pool. Without pausing, she stepped off the edge and dropped into the deep pool, loving how it enclosed her in a warm, soft embrace. Breaking the surface and taking in a deep breath, Amy swam over to the shallow side in the back until she could stand.

Once again, her thoughts took her to how strange her life was now. Even though Kisma and Maku didn’t speak often, they were always with her. They could change shape and do so many wonderful things. Every day she was shocked by how different and wonderful they were.

Emi and Tope were also just as important to her. They were her friends, her family, her protectors all in one. She loved them and couldn’t think of her life without them.

She knew that if anything happened to any one of them, all would die. It worried her that she would not be able to protect them if a real threat found them. Not because it would kill her as well, but because she had grown to care so much about them in such a short time.

After Amy had agreed to bond with them, they had become whole, making them stronger, faster, and smarter. Only when they were five could Emi, Tope, Kisma and Maku leave the cave. As no one ever ventured so far out into the desert, they had thought they would die in that cave. That is, until Amy came tumbling into their lives.

Easing back to float on the surface of the water, Amy stared out of the opening in the ceiling of the cave, not seeing the trees outside. Even with her life so filled with love and company now, there was still a part of her that worried the woman that made up the five would forever be lonely.

There was no way back to Earth. Kisma and Maku had told her that even though the Korok had brought her here, they had used something called an unstable pathway. From what she understood it was a wormhole that was no longer there.

She had cried when they told her, knowing that she would never see her family again. But, after a while, she had accepted her life on this strange planet and begun to thrive.

Now, she woke up every morning excited for what the day would bring. They all went on adventures in the sprawling forest, hunting and climbing the huge trees. They taught her about the plants and insects, and what she could and couldn’t eat. They showed her the night sky, telling her about the three planets she could see when the suns were not so blinding. They even went back into the desert a few times. Emi had shown her some of the beauty that could be found in the sands.

When they had stumbled on a small group of tiny blue and white fluffy creatures, she thought Emi and Tope would lose their minds with joy. They had chased and played with the tiny creatures for hours, watching them hide in the sand, only to pop up a few feet away and have Emi and Tope pounce on them. Joy filled her at the memory of how happy the two creatures were with life.

With a long sigh, Amy swam back to the shallow part of the pool and stood. She rinsed her hair and washed off her body with the small cloth and bar of dark red soap she had found in the storeroom. It smelled so nice, like a deep, rich woodsy scent.

After her bath, Amy exited the pool and went over to where her towel lay on top of the rock. She had to wrap it around her body twice because it was so large. She left the pool room and made her way back to the main part of their little home.

Emi and Tope lay curled together on the soft bed she had made them not far from her bed, sleeping soundly beside each other. Glancing over at the pool of water to her left, she saw that the thick black ooze of Kisma and Maku also lay still on the bottom of the rock pool.

Smiling to herself, she dried off and dressed into the new clothes.

After making herself a meal of fruit, nuts, and a strange looking green vegetable she could eat raw, she climbed into bed and watched the last of the sunlight creep out of the cave, leaving her in utter darkness.

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