Page 20 of Cherished By the Alien Outlaw

“Stay close.” Firion kept his voice low and steady. His tall figure hovered protectively at my side, always alert.He was my only anchor in the horror unfolding around us. He scanned the area, snarling at any lizard that came close, and I appreciated that more than I could say, knowing I was relatively safe as long as he was beside me.

Chunks of black rock littered the cavern floor, jagged and rough, yet the ground was oddly slick beneath our feet. As big as multiple football fields, the cave stretched in a circle ahead of us with passages branching off like the veins of a furious beast.

I hoped we wouldn't be asked to travel down any of them. From the time I was little, I'd feared tight spaces. Claustrophobic, the counselor said when I was ten. Don't push her too hard. Let her work through this with counseling—which hadn’t helped. In my last session, they said if I ever needed an MRI, I might need sedation. My parents were busy with work, so they let it go at that. Now I wished they'd done something—anything—to help me, not brush it aside.

Focus on the now, I told myself. Deal with passages if you have to face them.

Firion's steady gaze met mine, and he nodded as if he’d heard my thoughts and was saying he'd make sure I got through this.

With each moment I spent here, something stirred inside me, a connection to Firion that fueled my determination to hold myself together. My fear was morphing into something too much like hope. It was fragile and flickering like the glowing insects overhead, but it was there. It gave me the strength to hold myhead up and deal with whatever the lizards asked of us next.

They wouldn’t kill us as long as they felt we had worth. Firion, for sure. I’d have to prove I could do whatever they asked of me.

As they pushed us across the stone cavern, the guards nudged us into groups, steering each toward a smaller section of the big open area. Firion remained by my side, assessing everything around us, his body tense and ready to strike. The lizard Firion had spoken with in the cell across from ours was assigned to our group.

Once we'd been sorted, the guards started barking orders. Their voices hissed like serpents, making me shiver.

“They want us to take mining tools,” Firion said.

A bunch of strange objects lay in a pile on the floor: metal picks at least three feet long, buckets that hummed with a faint pulse, and weird devices that reminded me of tire irons. Each was as long as my forearm, blunted on one end and sharp on the other.

We took one of each. The pick felt awkward and too heavy for me to hold long, but I suspected I'd need it. I dropped one of the odd tools into a bucket and gripped the handle tight. Stepping back, I met Firion's gaze, and the steady reassurance in his gave me the strength to hold on.

The guard assigned to my group rumbled more orders and started herding us into one of the many narrow passages leading away from the cavern with a ceiling too low for anyone but me to stand upright.

Firion and the lizards hunched forward, shuffling down the passage.

My pulse slammed in my throat, and it was all I could do to breathe. The stone walls closed in, and panic roared through me, gnawing on what little confidence I'd clung to.

I stopped, and a lizard bumped into me from behind, grumbling as he shuffled past me, his body brushing against the left wall.

It was too tight. The weight of the rock above pressed down on me. I was going to die here; I knew it.

I'd never see my sister again.

Swallowing hard, I struggled to maintain control. The group left me behind except for Firion, who'd paused and was looking back at me.

“Tight spaces,” I choked out. “They make me afraid.”

He rushed back to take my tools from me, juggling them together with his own, then took and squeezed my hand.

“I'm with you. I'm not going anywhere.” He stroked the hair off my face. I'd bound it in a messy braid down my spine, but some had come loose already. “Breathe in and out, slow and easy.”

“I’m trying,” I gasped, my voice barely a whisper.

After placing our tools on the floor, he grabbed my shoulders. “Focus on me.”

I nodded, squeezing my eyes shut for a second and focusing on the warmth of his hands, the steady rhythm of his breathing, and the way he projected incredible strength.

“Think of the crysthron we’ll soon mine.” His low, calming voice soothed me. “It has beautiful, glowing energy, something we might be able to use to escape.”

“How?”

His lopsided smile rose, making my chest ache as if he’d reached in and gently squeezed my heart. “We’ll figure that out soon.”

Lifting my own, though shaky smile, I jerked out another nod. “I'm okay now. Thank you.”

His hands tightened on my shoulders. “Lean on me, precious one. I'm not leaving your side.”

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