Alien Avatar: An Alien Sci-Fi Romance (9 page)

“Hold on,” Marko said, doing his best
not
to be sexy. So unlike him. Normally he hammed it up for her. She loved it so much that she hated him for his melodramatic romance. It made her want to force abstinence on him out of principle, but it was had the unfortunate effect of demolishing any willpower that she had
not
to jump him on the spot.

“What?” she said, trying not to show how frustrated she was.

“I feel something. Arousal.”

“Well thanks,” she said. “I’m glad I can still do that for you.”

“Not mine,” he said. “Someone else’s.”

She felt it too. It was the same sensation she got around the Halians. Well, it hadn’t been
exactly
like this, but it was close enough.

“They can’t have caught up already, right?”

She stood up and looked towards the trail. There was nothing. Nobody. Marko got up and looked around, checking the treeline around the clearing. Something caught his eye.

“What the--”

Two dozen armed Hala appeared from the trees, their weapons raised at both of them.

They weren’t part of Marko’s group. The Hala started shouting. She could feel anger. Biting rage. Marko spoke back to them. He was calm, but she’d seen him enough to sense the edge that his voice took on when he was scared. And she heard it now.

The Hala shouted back, stepping closer, brandishing their weapons.

Marko talked faster, his cool slipping away from him. The Hala kept encroaching, their weapons looming larger and larger. Marko was almost babbling by this point, and Naeesha started to wonder if maybe this was how their adventure ended.

Then, the leader of the Hala group stopped mid step. He was curious, almost in disbelief. He said something to Marko. It was short. A question, she thought.

Marko nodded, and said something brief. Naeesha could feel the Hala’s doubt, but his curiosity overpowered everything else. The Hala all lowered their weapons, and the leader pointed to Marko, then to Naeesha.

              The Halians rounded them up and motioned them to the base of a big tree. They sat down, and a big soldier with a strange weapon stood guard over them while the others dispersed and talked softly among themselves.

“Ok, so what’s all this about?” Naeesha whispered.

Her comment turned the heads of the new Halians, and she froze, hoping that she hadn’t done anything to make them any more irate.

Marko slowly turned towards her.

“They’re from another group. They think that we’re Alderoccan soldiers trying to hunt down Halian tribes.”

“And you uh, told them otherwise, right?”

“No, Naeesha. I told them that we were agents of the Crown and that we would stop at nothing to make sure every member of their race was destroyed in righteous hellfire.”

Marko’s eyes darted around the clearing. He was taking stock of the situation, just as Naeesha had already done. More Halians had come from the brush. They were looking at nearly fifty of them now, and it seemed that only counted the fighters. By Naeesha’s guess, there were probably hundreds more somewhere nearby.

“Ok, but seriously.”

“I told them that we’re scouting a trail for our own clan. Than we suffered a terrible attack, and that we have sick and wounded coming who need help.”

Naeesha breathed a sigh of relief. If she’d learned anything about the Hala, it was that they jumped at a chance to help somebody in need.

“So they want to help?”

“Not quite.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well I told them who some of our elders were, hoping that I could invoke their names as a trusted intermediary.”

“And?”

Marko took a long breath, started to speak, and let out a sort of protracted sigh. It was the sort of sound he normally made when Naeesha was about to beat him at a hand of cards, or right before he gave her a particularly undesirable assignment.

“Well, it turns out that this guy, Rakkan, is mortal enemies with one of our elders or something.”

“Oh well that’s just great.”

“How was I supposed to know? Everybody loves Jintak.”

“Except for the people who happen to have taken us prisoner.”

“Thanks for pointing that out to me.”

Naeesha found the suns through the trees. The first one was setting. The second would be going down about six hours from now. With any luck, they could expect their group to arrive in an hour or two from now.

Not that they’d been able to count on luck, exactly.

“So what do we do? Do we try and escape and warn our people? You could shift and get away.”

“No. As long as we behave honorably and respectfully, I think we’ll be treated well. Doing anything to try their suspicions or their patience will result in rather more unpleasant treatment,” Marko said. “For you, anyway. Obviously I’d be somewhere else.”

“Great.”

“You have a funny idea about what constitutes greatness, you know.”

“Sarcasm, Marko. Learn it sometime.”

At least it didn’t seem like they were in any immediate danger. Their guard wasn’t particularly concerned with them. He mostly paced around with a look that would have been all too familiar for any soldier who’d stood guard or walked on patrol.

“Listen,” Marko said.

“I don’t hear anything.”

But Marko clearly did. Naeesha couldn’t make out what by his reaction, but he was obviously tracking some kind of sound or another. A few minutes later, she picked up on it too.

Singing.

More specifically, Halian songs that she’d hard the night before, prior to the attack. Their Halian captors took note too, disappearing into the trees. The leader came over and shouted at Marko, before vanishing with the rest of the troops.

“What did he say?”

“He told us to act normal.”

“Won’t your people feel their people?”

“These soldiers can control their emotions. It’s why we didn’t notice them at first.”

The singing grew louder, and it wasn’t long before they could see the Halian entourage snaking through the forest, in high spirits and ahead of schedule.

“Do you
ever
remember one of our units making a march on time?” she asked.

“The military can only dream of having Halian discipline.”

The survivors funneled into the clearing, greeting Marko and Naeesha with hugs and happy feelings. It was nearly impossible for her to conceal the fear that she felt, knowing that there were enemies all around, and that her new friends didn’t have the faintest idea.

She glanced at Marko, who was in the middle of a happy swarm of Halians, barraging him with gratitude. He was sweating hard, looking around with quick, piercing glances, his shoulders and back tight. He was nervous.

The sudden burst of fear and confusion hit Naeesha right in the stomach. She turned to see the enemy Halians spring from the trees, weapons drawn. Their leader walked out of their ranks and singled out the man that she gathered was Jintak.

Rakkan and Jintak talked with heated words, going back and forth, their voices growing louder and their emotions turning from irritated, to angry, to enraged. Naeesha could feel their feelings over the entire groups, which ran at a lower grade scared confusion.

It didn’t take long for the argument to reach a boiling point. She clenched her jaw and watched intently. Although she couldn’t not make out how the conversation was going, it was plenty obvious that they weren’t moving towards a resolution. Considering that one side of the conversation was heavily armed and had the other surrounded, she didn’t really like how things are going.

“What are they talking about?”

“I don’t actually know. I can’t keep up with them. Something about a betrayal.”

“A betrayal?”

“Either that or livestock. The two words are very similar.”

“You think this is about farm animals?”

“What? No. That’s ridiculous.”

Naeesha made a note to kill Marko if the Halians didn’t do it for her.

Jintak was small and frail and very, very old. The leader of the other Hala group was tall, strong, and broad shouldered. So it took Naeesha as something of a surprise when the old Halian squared his shoulders to the younger, spoke in a calm and measured voice, and the argument ended right then, with the younger Halian bending knee and bowing at Jintak’s feet.

“What did he just say?”

“I think he said ‘if you had not acted so much like the sand skins, your mother would not lie dead at their hands’.”

“Okay. I think I need another translation.”

“The Hala call our kind ‘sand skins’. It’s a reference to our natural shifting ability. As for the rest of it, I’m not sure. I think that Jintak and the other Hala were part of the same group once, and that Jintak fractured it.”

“And the other Hala’s mother?”

“It sounds like she left with Jintak and didn’t make it back here.”

Naeesha looked back at the two Halians, now locked in a friendly embrace. There was an overwhelming sea of compassion from both groups of Halians. It didn’t make much sense.

“Why would the other leader bow to Jintak after hearing that? Those seem more like fighting words.”

“When a Halian is humbled by the realization of their foolishness, it is customary for them to supplicate, ask forgiveness, and meditate on their mistakes.”

“And that’s what happened?”

“It seems like it.”

Jintak turned and addressed both groups. A wave of elation swept over the Halians.

“He says that we’ll stay as one family tonight. There are many more Halians on their way here, and they bring food and medicine and will tend to our wounded. We will meet to discuss our actions, eat together, and meet tomorrow as it comes.”

Naeesha couldn’t begin to understand
why
this news made the Halians so happy, but she could not deny the strength of their emotions. The crowd began to disperse, the soldiers joining the survivors to unpack, prepare, and set up camp.

“Well,” Naeesha said. “We’d better get to work.”

              Marko hefted the thick rope line that raised the center support of the tent and watched as the enormous canvas sheet lifted off the ground and sprung up proudly into the air. The onlookers cheered, which seemed unusual, until he realized that nobody was watching the construction of the tent, and that all eyes were turned towards the trail.

A procession of Halians in brightly colored robes was spilling into the clearing. Each of them carried huge bundles and wore warm smiles. There was no suspicion and no fear.

He quickly gathered that most of the two groups knew each other. Their feelings were not that of two strangers meeting for the first time, but of old friends being reunited.

There was some degree of confusion and mistrust as the newcomers walked past Marko and Naeesha. Mistrust that was fairly given based on how the Watchers and humans had treated the Halians over the last twenty-five years. Those feelings quickly faded as members of his tribe vouched for them both, and explained the circumstances of their arrival.

The emotions that did not dissipate were the pangs of grief and sorrow that spread through the crowd like ripples in a pond. Both groups had lost many souls since they’d parted, and everyone was just now learning of friends and family that had died.

Tears came to Marko’s eyes and he had to excuse himself from work. It was too much for him. Naeesha came over and joined him. She didn’t look like she was doing so well either.

“How do they handle it?” she asked, sitting down beside him.

Marko didn’t know. Practice, maybe. There was no avoiding it for them. It was their reality. Their way of life. Still, he couldn’t imagine that it was any easier.

“I wish I knew,” he said.

“What do you think is going to happen?”

“Well,” Marko said. “I expect we’ll learn why the other group is headed the other direction, and we’ll tell them why we’re headed for the Dynasty compound and through the portal there.”

“And then?”

“Who knows. Maybe they know something important. Something that will make everybody turn around.”

“But maybe they don’t. Maybe they join us.”

“Exactly.”

He thought again about how Naeesha had come here looking for him, trying to get him to come back to the capital. And now she’d ended up going further away, following him to who knew where.

“You know,” he said. “This could be a good chance for you to head back--”

“I told you. I’m going with you at least as far as the portal. We can decide what to do next once we get there.”

Her eyes told him that there was no changing her mind on that fact. He was happy for it. He didn’t know where he would be without her. How he could have managed the last few days.

“Why’d you come looking for me?” he asked.

“I told you. I missed you. I was worried about you.”

“But why were you worried.”

“Because I care about you.”

“You’re lying.”

“How can you say that? You’re the most important thing in the world to me Marko. You have been for… I don’t even remember how long.”

“Not about that.”

“Then what?”

“Why don’t you tell me.”

Marko stared her down. It hurt him to think that she would lie to him about anything. What had he done to make her feel like she needed to hide the truth, no matter what it was?

“I just heard that you’d joined up with the Halians.”

“From who?”

“Does it matter?”

“Of course it matters.”

Naeesha withered under his stare. He had a feeling that he knew where her story was going, and he could already feel his hands shaking with anticipatory rage.

“Two officers came to my apartment. They told me that you’d gone AWOL.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Would you have trusted me if I told you that the military had sent me?”

Marko lost control. His anger, his sadness, his loss and longing, it all started to pour out.

“Two thousand people died when the military attacked my camp. You
knew
they’d found us, and you didn’t tell anybody.”

“I’m sorry,” Naeesha said, tears coming to her eyes once more. “I didn’t know what they would do.”

“How could you not have known? You’ve seen what they do. What they’ve done a hundred times!”

All that loss. All that suffering. It could have been prevented. He could have stopped it. If only he knew.

“I thought we’d be gone before they came. I didn’t know they were coming so soon. I didn’t know…”

Marko cleared his eyes and looked into the treeline, watching as the second sun disappeared behind the green crown of the horizon. What made him think that he could ever escape from the Alderoccans and the death that followed them? What made him think that Naeesha’s arrival had been a coincidence or that suffering would not come with her also?

He got up and turned towards the trail. He needed space. Needed to clear his head. Naeesha got up and started after him, but one look was all that he needed to turn her away.

The forest swallowed him, and he breathed easier without the crushing weight of the Halian’s grief hanging around him. Just because he’d gotten
used
to feeling everything that they did didn’t make it any easier.

Music and song carried through the forest. He smiled. It didn’t take the Hala long to start celebrating. It was their way of letting go. They grieved fast and hard and turned their energy towards moving on. Their people had always been nomads. Loss had been a part of them since the times of their first songs.

They always found a way to move on.

Marko lost himself in the beauty of the forest. He hadn’t been able to enjoy it earlier. To take in the wonderful splendor of all the light and the color. The strange smells and faint tastes that the wind carried through the trees. All of the sounds, a symphony of life that never stopped playing.

He’d spent many nights wondering what it was that he was fighting for. What he hoped to achieve by running or fighting or just trying to survive. He still didn’t know, but moments like this had to be worth something. Moments like this, and moments like the ones that he’d shared with Naeesha. Not just now, but before.

They were spread out over so long, mixed in with so much darkness and evil. But just like he could pick a birdsong out of the cacophony of noise in the woods, he could still pick the happy memories that he’d made with her from all of the suffering.

Even the times that had been tinged with regret - like the last night they’d spent together before he left - were still beautiful.

All the long nights, the urgent encounters between shifts or when they find an unused bunk room. The sex, the fights, the tears, and the laughter. He’d somehow lost all of it in the vast sea of memory, and every once in a while he’d be lucky enough for a little piece of it to float up to the surface where he could scoop it up, turn it over, relive it, and set it free again into the ocean.

That’s why he liked walks like this. The memories came easier, the stayed longer, played in brighter colors, the picture so much clearer. It was like he was there again, in a lean-to tent a few miles away from the airbase where they’d both been stationed. Instead of flying into the capital for their leave, they’d packed up a few days of supplies, walked out into the lush forest, and stopped at the first beautiful place they could find. As it happened, it was a small moss-covered landing just beside a waterfall where a little stream plunged down thirty feet of worn river rocks and kicked up a fine, warm mist that settled over everything.

The feeling of Naeesha’s soft skin, coated in that mist, it was something he’d never felt again. It was a sensation that belonged to that one fleeting moment in time, tied to that one particular point in space. But he was free to remember it any time pleased.

How had he ever forgotten?

He found himself nearly in tears, standing on a small hill, looking around at the beautiful country all around him. The sun was finally going down. He missed Naeesha. He wanted to go back and apologize. To make things right. To hold her and tell her that it was okay. That
everything
was going to be okay.

Taking his bearings, he turned back towards the camp and set off. But something caught his eye. A soundless blur in the near distance. A swarm of black, barely visible against the encroaching night. He knew right away what it was, but he strained his eyes, hoping to find some clue that would prove him wrong.

Part of the blur broke away from the frenzy and flitted across the forest, swooping just a few feet in front of him before pulling up and bursting through the canopy into the night sky.

Ten feet of leathery wings, a long snout that concealed three-inch long fangs, claws that could rip flesh from bone as easily as a child could pluck flowers from a petal. It was a vicious predator, eating its own weight every night. Strictly speaking, everything was part of the wolfbat’s diet, and just one of them was a serious threat to any person or creature that couldn’t contend with its strength or ferocity.

And by his count, a few hundred had just taken to the air.