Page 62 of Xefe
Nheenya blinked slowly, and her lilac eyes peered through my soul. “You have lost someone. I feel the hurt.” She placed her hand on my cheek. “I am sorry. But no. You are the first earthers I have ever met. But I will ask around for any new arrivals. This, I promise.”
The tiny spark of hope winked out, and I was once again devastated and happy about the news.
Nheenya waited until we all joined her on the ledge. “Not many know of my treasure. Through here.” Nheenya crouched down and crawled through a hole a little larger than the width of her shoulders.
“She wants us to crawl? In there? No way. I’m allergic to small places. I woulddieif I went in there.” Nieve dusted the dirt off her palms.
I shrugged.A loss I’m willing to take, princesa.It was a well-known fact that Nieve was a hypochondriac. On demand. Whenever she had to do something uncomfortable, she’d instantly become ‘allergic” to it. “Fine. Stay out here.All alone.With these crazy, scary aliens.” Shrieks and moans from below punctuated my statements.
I pushed Querida in front of me and motioned to the hole. She didn’t hesitate, which meant even Nieve’s bestie wasn’t willing to wait out here.
Luckily, Nheenya was larger than us, so we had no trouble following her through the opening. The problem was the tunnel was pitch black.
“Are you at the end?” Nieve called through. “Tell me if you’re not dead, and I’ll come in.” A boom, probably from one of those Guardians, shook the mountain, and I heard a yelp. “I’m coming. Wait for me!”
Typical.
“Just a little farther now,” Nheenya called back to us.
Grit surrounded me. Black dust was everywhere, under my nails, in my nose…This planet is the worst!
A trickle of sound, like a dripping faucet, caught my attention as we made it through the narrow tunnel and came into a cozy room. It looked magical with twinkling golden lights. The illumination came from jungle vines coating the walls. The veinsof the large pink leaves were lined in gold, emitting a faint glow, and giving the area a feel of perpetual twilight.
In the back of the cave, the world’s smallest waterfall, nothing more than a few streams of water, dripped into a small puddle. “Do you see how lucky we are? It is a water source that feeds the plants. So, we have a constant light source.”
Nheenya was a neat, organized plant-person. She had plotted flowers and a sophisticated system of tunnels for her wall plants. She also had shelving, with various bottles of lotions and potions.
Does she have product?Maybe something I could use on the rat’s nest on top of my head.
That would be amazing, but I was uncomfortably numb at this point, reliving the memory of Sunny walking away from me. I slid down the side of the rocky wall, resting my forehead against my bent knees. Exhaustion made my limbs heavy—the adrenaline rush from the prequals long gone.
The girls settled around me as Nheenya popped open our floating supply trunk. Sheoohedandaahedas she pulled out rations, water cubes, rolled-up mats, and a palm-sized triangular device. It gleamed in the faint light, reminding me of Sunny’s staff.
“I… I can’t believe it… It’s…” Nheenya spluttered as she held the contraption in the air.
“What is it?” Nieve asked and jumped up. Querida soon followed, but I didn’t have the energy.
“It’s a mini-force field. For our cave entrance.” When we immediately didn’t fall at her feet at the news, Nheenya’s sweet face beamed at us. “It meanssafety. Sleeping the whole night through. Something I haven’t done since I’ve been here. There is always someone bigger and stronger who tries to take what little I have.” Her smile disappeared as she gripped the device in her hands.
Her words held weight, something we understood too well. On Earth, we’d all been prey for schemers, liars, narcissists—usually men—who wanted to take from us: our hearts, our possessions, our bodies. Querida and Nieve immediately sat next to her and hugged her.
I rubbed her leg. “We understand.”
“Thank you.” It took about three seconds before Ms. Glass-Half-Full reemerged. In seconds, Nheenya disentangled herself from Querida and Nieve’s arms and passed out rations.
Nieve popped a water-cube in her mouth and said, “Spill, Hera.Now.How many ‘best orgasms’ are we talking about and…how is that even possible?”
Well, that didn’t take long. “I don’t want to talk about it.” Which was a lie. I wanted to shout from the rooftops about what apedazo de mierdaSunny was—but I still didn’t completely trust these two.
“Too bad. It’s a matter of life and death.” Nieve elbowed Querida, who nodded in support.
“What can I say? Men suck. Even alien ones.” I sighed.
Nheenya came over and patted my hand. “Suck what?”
Oh man. She got me. A rumble started deep within my chest, and soon I was laughing out loud. Two seconds later, Nieve and Querida were right with me. We were lying on the ground, laughing so hard we couldn’t breathe. It was exactly what I needed.
Nheenya joined in, clearly not understanding but happy to participate.
