Page 8 of Pandora: Alien Games

Then I noticed a creature. I stood and asked Edoo with my eyes and words if I could go over. He nodded.

The thing he called Banoo looked like a wooly mammoth. I touched that fur and it felt soft and warm. The creature turned its head to me. I took a step back when his large trunk moved toward me. He had two pair of long tusks and two pair of eyes. He seemed friendly.

“Hi, there, Banoo.” I tried to keep the shaking and shivering away from my voice. He moved his head against my palm. I scratched him where he showed me. Banoo behaved a bit like a cat, not that I had any experience with cats. Pets were forbidden on the space station.

“You’re a spoiled one,” I whispered.

Banoo started to touch my leg with its trunk, which made me giggle. When I turned my head, Edoo stood behind me, tall and strong. He looked a little bit like Anubis on the ancient scrolls, only his mouth was not that long. His arms appeared wrapped in muscles. Wide golden bracelets decorated his wrists. His body was hairless and covered in pale turquoise tattoos that swirled and danced in the light of the fire, looking as if they had a life of their own under his black, thick skin. I wanted to trace them with the tips of my fingers and see how they felt. I understand now why ancient humans threw themselves on their knees in front of this creature. He looked like a God.

The bracelets that encircled his wrists were encrusted with stones in all colors. This new world was so much more colorful than the space station. I plunged from a grey in grey world into a fountain of color that tickled the senses.

Edoo’s strong muscles made me think he could break me in two like a twig. Still, his purple eyes and the way he leaned his head to each side, watching my every move, made me feel as if he would rather hurt himself than let anything happen to me. There was a level of confidence and trust I couldn’t explain. His narrow waist dipped inside that damn loin cloth, but I could see his muscular legs and the claws on his feet. My eyes slid to the bracelets he wore on his ankles.

This creature was an expression of power, a force of nature. He looked as if he could part the sands by the sheer power of his will.

Banoo exhaled loudly and spit on me in the process. Thick, wet mucus coated my palm.

“Great. Simply great. Yuck. What are you laughing about?” I asked Edoo who enjoyed my predicament. I tried to clean my hands on my pants but gave up. The spittle was too thick and sticky. Instead of getting clean, I picked up sand and dusted off my palms.

“I smell like Banoo now. I really could use a shower.”

Edoo watched me. I felt very much like prey. There was something in the way he nodded and moved his head from side to side. Did these people here have showers? We had limited shower time on the space station and only used recycled water, but every now and then I had the sensation I was clean. What if these guys don’t wash? What if they lived like the people of Arrakis fromDune?

I loved that book series and used to devour it, imagining how it would be to run over the endless sands instead of being trapped inside a small and too crowded space station. My romantic notion of freedom got into the habit of ignoring the fact there were no showers because water was the most precious commodity. My mind started to imagine the smell that would come with an absolute and total lack of showering or body hygiene.

I tried to simulate showering but, let’s face it, I suck as a meme. I even started to hum a song and act out washing my hair. Nothing. Zero. He watched me and laughed.

“Wanora na shaak,” said Edoo. It was my turn to shrug.

I was tired and the image of Van appeared in front of me. How was it possible that I forgot all about Van? I have not forgotten about him, only other more pressing matters asked for my attention. Like the question where the freak I was and what was going to happen to me. If my gut feeling was right, this place was not absent of danger.

“Edoo, listen. Did you find someone else out there? A man?”

Using my hands and my entire body, I tried to act it out, but Edoo kept shrugging.

“Ugh. Two.” I made a sign toward me and then showed up one finger, then toward him and showed two fingers. Edoo looked either focused or bored. I couldn’t tell.

Then he pointed to himself and me and held up two gingers. Then toward me, him, and Banoo and held up three fingers.

“Good, you can count.”

The wind stopped howling. Edoo leaned his hand against his palm and then touched his lips with his finger.

“Sfoor, Sfoor,” he said softly and made himself comfortable on the blanket with his head on the backpack. He opened his arms and said something while gesturing for me to lay my head on his chest. I woke up in his arms, so, in for a penny, in for a pound. What could I lose?

Edoo

Paan-doh–rah Sk-yyyy. What a wonderful name. So unusual, like her. So delicate, soft, and beautiful. I wanted to touch her hair again, allow the thick, black silk to run through my fingers.

I loved watching her. The way she moved was so different. I only ever saw Anubis and Bastet females. The way a creature moves says so much about them. The Bastet have a cat like slowness while the females of my species are like me, hunters. They move fast and sharp, and only when they must.

Pandora moved her head and hands. I presume she moved her hands in the hope it would help her words make sense to me but, sadly, it didn’t. All I gathered from her was her name and that she fell from the sky.

Only gods live in the sky, and she was a daughter of the gods. She was curious and friendly. Banoo liked her. He doesn’t spit on just anyone. Her scent was intoxicating, like spices and sweet things that made me want to like her. Not claiming her as mine was proving harder each second. Relations with Anubis are easy because our females have control over pregnancy. We can enjoy each other without anything happening until a male claims a female and she thinks he is worthy of an offspring.

She tried to explain things to me. I watched the way her soft chest moved and did my best to hide my hard cock from her beautiful blue eyes. I invited her to put her head on my chest. She showed a huge amount of courage and trust, more than I expected. Honestly, I expected her to cry out in fear when she woke up, and even try to run away. Instead, the beauty laid her head on my chest when I offered it to her.

Her scent made me dizzy, but I pushed such thoughts from my mind. The next day would be long. I was out here on a mission. I had to cash the bounty for the Rash heads from the Caliph. How will they react when they see the Goddess? Do I need to hide her before I arrive at the oasis? Will the Caliph try to claim her or buy her? My world is not safe for such a delicate creature like her.

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