Page 98 of Cozy Prisons
Even Palathum was there. At least she had one foot on the ramp leading out of the ferry, but she wasn’t making any move to continue down.
Standing at the end of the ramp, Nataly turned to face them. “Really?”
“Step on the damn planet,” Grace shouted, making Maeve laugh and repeat the wordsdamn planetseveral times.
“Grace,” Merrick admonished. “Language.”
Grace ignored him and continued talking to Nataly. “If you feel anxious, we’re leaving. If you’re fine, we’re staying, so take the last step.”
She could hear bots and voices in the distance. While they’d been en route to Kalor, Palathum arranged for builders to start on their new settlement. At the moment, the port was nothing but a clear field with several dirt roads leading away, but Nataly could already see the potential.
Unlike Arise, with its forests full of massive, tall trees and not much else, Kalor had dense forests full of life and dark, fertile soil. There were fewer mountain ranges, so more room for building, and lots of small ponds and lakes all over the planet's surface.
Arise was nice until it became unstable, but Kalor was better.
The whole thing almost made Nataly giggle. She’d gone from living in the slums to being snobby about living on a gorgeous planet.
Daxus stepped off the ramp and turned to face her. “Nataly?”
She met his eyes and gave a little shrug. “What if it doesn’t feel right?”
Daxus sounded a soothing rumble. “Be at ease. There’s no point in creating scenarios in your head when we can discover the truth with one little step.”
She hated this. Hated that everything was on her shoulders. It was due to situations like this that she rarely told anyone anything she was feeling until they’d ended up on Dandilow II, and there her intuition was the difference between life and death. Everyone knew then and were constantly looking at her for guidance.
It was the worst! She didn’t want to be responsible for the failure or success of everything and anyone.
Several of the crew from the ferry were already on the ground. They’d gathered under it, supposedly to pull items out of a storage compartment, but in reality, they were watching her.
“I heard she was a Conduite,” one of the crew said.
“That can’t be right, she’s a pet,” another argued.
“The ancestors can influence other species," a third said. “It’s not our place to judge their wisdom.”
She tuned out the chatter behind her and focused on Daxus. He was holding out a hand, patiently waiting for her to take the final step onto the planet.
Sucking in a breath, she grabbed his hand and jumped the small distance from the platform to him. Her feet hit the ground.
She could’ve sworn everyone held their breath with her.
Nothing happened. No sense of anxiety. No underlying tension that pushed her to do something like hide things away. No feeling of impending anything.
She let her breath out with a whoosh and looked up at Daxus with a big smile. “It’s fine.”
There were whoops and cries of joy from behind her. Daxus pulled her to the side as everyone flooded out of the ferry to head down the road to their new home.
She and Daxus fell in behind everyone. It was a perfect walk. The weather on Kalor was as temperate as Arise, perfect for the average human. Although it might get a little chillier here at night.
Flocks of large, colorful birds flew overhead, and brush rustled in the forest on either side of the rough road as they passed. It felt a little like the happy fairytales her parents had told her when she was little.
Rounding the last bend revealed their new home. It was a large manor house that was built in the Talarian style. When Palathum told her that, it hadn’t meant anything to Nataly, but now she was impressed.
The place was massive, with obelisk towers reaching high into the sky at the four corners. It looked like it was made from light colored stone bricks that were probably imported. She knew from sitting in on several meetings with Palathum and her contractors that the stone was only on the outside; theinside layers of the building were made from the same synthetic material they used for the outside of warships.
The manor could take a direct hit from a ship in orbit and remain undisturbed. But the material of the building was only a secondary protection. Each tower held a shield generator that linked together to create a powerful electromagnetic dome.
Nataly found it concerning that Palathum didn’t feel the need for these protections when she was settling them further away from her homeworld. She decided not to ask Palathum about it. She’d already dealt with more anxiety than she wanted to for a lifetime. This time, she wanted to be ignorant and blissful.
