Page 20 of Beauty and the Alien Beast
My eyebrows rose. She was clever and learning fast. We were trading words at every opportunity, slowly learning each other’s language. Her pronunciation was terrible, and I was sure my attempt at earthling speech was horrible, too. But we had a few shared concepts down now, perhaps twenty words, and a handful of short phrases.
As I watched, she moved carefully past me and crouched at the water’s perimeter to examine some of the jewels. She lifted one precious stone the size of athreepegg and the same bright blue. It took up both palms, and she stared at it in wonder, lifting it to let the light of the single visible moon shine through it.
I moved back a little, and Brax bounded past me and splashed into the shallows, then started to slurp up water. His happy wagging sent up plumes of water we both had to duck. She eeked and laughed. I grinned but kept a wary eye out as I walked over to Brax to dig into his saddlebags for my sword and other gear. Even with the catchers distracted searching another part of the forest, the wildlands were never truly safe.
I felt much more myself when I had my cuirass and cloak back on and my blades at hand again.
I had to keep the energy pistol at the ready, but I felt far better dressed as a Gladiator. Putting away the bits of my disguise Ella was not currently wearing, I reached into the pack, digging out some rations. It wasn’t much—just pressed disks of dried meat and green fruit that was bland but very nutritious. I pulled out the water purifier as well. Once I was done, I came back to the water’s lip to join her.
Ella was looking around in quiet wonder. The evening had deepened enough that all the stars had come out, and as she crouched next to me at the shore, she spoke low and sweetly to me with unknown words that spurred a deep vein of longing inside me again, aching like a wound.
I offered her some disks and then bent to fill the purifier’s cylinder. Flipping on the decontaminator, which bathed the water in bluish light, I let it cycle for a minute. She took an experimental taste of the disks and then proceeded to consume both rations in several large bites. I wondered if the slavers had underfed her on top of everything else, and I handed over one of my own disks without hesitation. She wavered before taking it, then nodded her thanks and devoured that one as well. The water purifier gave a soft chirp, and its light turned off. I retrieved it, then extended the straw for her to sip from.
Apparently, she’s dehydrated, too, I thought as I went back to refill the cylinder under a minute later.
I chewed my disk and drank some water, then turned to her, deciding to use gestures to try to get my meaning across more quickly. Pointing at the sky in the direction the hovercraft had gone, I said slowly, “The catchers will come back if they do not find anything farther on. We can only rest here for a little while.”
The catchers’ expertise was hunting and capturing whoever the Omers sent them after.
Her smile faded slightly, and she gave me that confused look again before nodding grimly. “Slaver scum… search,” she hissed.
I nodded enthusiastically. “Yes.Tagahsearch. We run soon.” I patted Brax’s side for emphasis.
She did understand, enough to hurry through the makeshift meal, sticking close to me while Brax drank water, ate meat disks, and slept for a little while.
After I ate another disk and drank more water, my stomach suddenly felt queasy with mild but all-pervasive worry.
What will I do if she refuses me and does not accept our mate bond? Or gets homesick and wants to go back to Earth?
Not that I had the means to send her back home. The only beings that had the capability were the slavers that abducted her. Asking the Omers slavers to transport her back to Earth was not an option. Knowing the Omers, they would just agree, then take Ella to another planet to sell her to another race of aliens.
No.She would have to understand there was no going back to Earth.But what if she becomes unhappy and turns away from me?
“No,” I muttered to myself. Once she and I could communicate clearly, I was certain I could convince her to stay with me.I have to.She was my mate, and I’d do anything for her—fight, die, kill, even betray my mission.
The mating urge within me was strong. It felt as though I were waiting for a lost limb to be grafted back on, some essential part of me that wasn’t yet returned to me but was at least close.
My Wulfaen was agitated and wanted to claim Ella right now.But how do earthlings recognize their mates when they do not have inner beasts to make the mating selection?Is this why the slavers conditioned the hostesses? To mimic how the Wulfaen choose their mate? Did the Omers worry that because these females did not have a beast, they wouldn’t recognize their one true mate, even if he were brought before them?
Gladiators had been taught that their sheleki would be one of their own—and most males would be disappointed with an earthling as a mate. I didn’t much care that Ella didn’t have an inner beast to bond to my Wulfaen, as long as I could win her heart.
Communicating with Ella would have been much easier if I hadn’t left my all alien languages translator back home.That was one mistake I would never make again.
As we rested by the little creek and Brax wandered around sniffing at everything and occasionally coming over to beg for a ration disk, Ella leaned against me suddenly, laying her cheek against my shoulder. I sat very still for a moment and then dared to settle an arm around her shoulders.
She didn’t pull away, and I caught myself beaming like an idiot. I quickly hid it behind a more serious expression, scanning around again. This forest was full of dangers. I couldn’t afford to focus all my energy on her… as wonderfully easy as it would be.
She was talking. I listened attentively, searching for familiar words, cadences, and tones. Trading languages was almost a lost art on post-translator worlds, and ours was no different. But she was a very expressive human, her face animated, gestures illustrative, and eyes bright and full of emotion. Her dialect was still strange to me, but languages had rules, as I had learned when I was younger during my many grammar lessons. I would have to sort out her Earth words.
Given time, once we had enough of a grasp of the other’s language, we would start to help one another bridge the verbal communication gap. But until then, it would be awkward to get our point across. Fortunately, she was making it easier just by being her.
But I couldn’t really comprehend anything of what she was currently saying. When she had cried in my arms before, I had understood she was overwrought from her experiences. But right now, she was chattering on excitedly about—something. I tilted my head slightly and then noticed Brax had come over and was doing pretty much the same thing.
Ella noticed our intent stares at the exact same moment and stopped midsentence, then started to laugh.
Oh, wonderful, she thinks I’m as stupid as the dog.
But when I sighed heavily, she just chortled harder, gave me a side hug, and then patted me affectionately as she spoke chirpy-sounding words again.
