Page 29 of Alien Barbarian's Little Human

“I’m listening.”

“I’m serious, Gog. Look at me.”

I turn to face him at last. His face is swollen, his eyes red. He’s been weeping.

“Yes, the whole village weeps for Micah. You are not alone in your grief. But that is, in the end, irrelevant.”

“Irrelevant? My heart lying broken before me is irrelevant?”

“If you wish to save her, yes.”

“Do not mock me, my Chief. I know there is no coming back from the dead.”

“Her body is gone, yes, but her soul lives on. The Life Tree sees the future as well as the past and present. She will be born anew, and she will need your help.”

“I don’t understand.”

“That monstrosity that stole her from you is essentially immortal. It’s going to find some quiet place to hide and wait for her. And then he will slay her again.”

“No! I will not allow it. I will track that thing down and annihilate it.”

He shakes his head sadly.

“We lack the means to destroy such a demonic foe. Perhaps, in the future, our descendants will come up with something more potent. But there is still a way you might help.”

The Chief explains it to me. The Life Tree can send my soul into the future, here I will be reborn anew.

“Remember, my boy,” Ral says, his face grave. “This is a one way trip. You will be giving up everything about your life here. And you may not even remember having lived this life, except as a half-forgotten, fading dream.”

“My life is a fading dream without her. I am certain this is what I want.”

He nods, then gives me a long, stern look.

“You must be certain you understand the full import of the sacrifice you must make. We are alone in the galaxy, the Drokan the sole sapient species in this era. But in the future, that may not be the case. You may not be reborn as a Drokan at all.”

That doesn’t give me pause, but it does frighten me a little. No matter. I will find my love, no matter the cost.

The wise men prepare an elixir for me to imbibe. I drink the bitter agent, and then lay down in the roots of the Life Tree.The roots move, entangling me like forest vines, taking me deep inside the tree itself.

There, my body will be consumed by the Tree but my essence will be set free to fly, unbound by the constraints of time or space.

Wait for me, my love. I am coming. And this time I will save you.

BOOK II

CHAPTER 8

CHLOE

His agile fingers glide along my hip before diving insistently between my thighs. I gasp, straining against him, feeling the hardness of his horns under my palm. My horned lover lifts me up as light as a feather and places my back to a hide covered wall. I pant and sweat, writhing against him as we seek a perfect synchronicity--

“Ambassador Kuul?”

I ope my eyes to see a humanoid woman with green, scaled skin. Of course, the thing most people notice about Shorcu like my assistant Jode is the third eye in the center of their forehead.

“What is it, Jode?”

“I’m sorry to awaken you, but the captain says we’re nearing Ishani space.”

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