Alliance: An Intersolar Alien Romance, Book 6

29

The jungle creeped into Dawn”s Razor like the passage of time in reverse. Where the permafrost moss had been an ancient crone with a bent back, overgrowing the rotted trees at the edge of the forest, Darameiza brought color and light to the coniferous trees. Bright pink veins of fungi and mushrooms grew first, bursting from the tree trunks. Then vines choked the proud boughs, weighing them down like pythons climbing for birds” nests. The cold dissipated so quickly that Fásach”s underlayer of fur began to shed in fluffy clumps. He completely discarded his clothing, continuing on in his briefs and bare feet. Roz nearly followed suit in her undershirt, pants pushed up to her knees, and boots.

Fásach was still feverish, but the danger of heat stroke that the jungle presented had lessened significantly. His antlers were taller than his hand now, and his tresses fell like a mane down his spine. After the rut hunt, he”d tumbled headfirst as far down the predatory spectrum as his body was capable, but his rut would continue as long as Roz allowed, antlers growing more and more slowly over time.

Now, rather than pressing on the pedicles above his eyes, he pressed the pads of his fingers above his temples, wondering when—if—he would ever develop the second set his tadau had been blessed with. His booming bark of laughter echoed over Fás”s symphony as he imagined him shaking his head. Perhaps he would remind his newly rutted son that such a development took years, not days.

Regardless, Fás felt a sense of pride. Not many yiwren could say they”d traveled the entirety of their own nature. Darameiza wasn”t the forest he”d grown up in, but he breathed in the delicate balance of life and death in its soil, listened to its breezes and birds, and felt as if he”d come home.He hummed a quick prayer that the spirits of his homeworld would join him on Yaspur and thanked them for the daughters that taught him to be a caregiver and the thuais that taught him how to fight for a better life rather than accept his circumstance.

”Should we stop soon?” Roz asked, letting the needle”s engine stall out. It had half a charge left, being an expeditionary model, and had cut their journey by weeks. Roz had been able to stick to service roads between research stations that were even paths that cut over or around the sponge of the jungle with its many cenotes and pitfalls. They were dangerously exposed if anyone came looking for them, but the speed outweighed the risks. ”There”s a station up ahead... Still has an antenna.”

Fás squeezed her waist with encouragement, easing away the strain in her voice. ”Let”s go.”

They unpacked the vital pods and settled them inside the little outpost with their gear while the girls stretched their limbs. Fásach pulled away old vines to reveal the food lockbox that kept unwanted predators from smelling anything fresh. But the building was useless otherwise. Just two bunks and a foot-pump sink, all overgrown with biria roots and mushrooms. Half the walls had collapsed under the weight of a steaming pile of rotting leaves from the canopy that would become rich jungle soil within weeks, and a hive of some sort buzzed in the far corner of the ceiling. The resident insects seemed uninterested in their business, however, and so Fásach left it alone.

But he did piss on the trees surrounding their site. Just to be sure. Thick, fragrant, and bearing the clear warning that anything substantial should keep away from his nest.

Two streaks of blue and grey flew past him as he latched his pants, giggling and screaming. He chuffed with amusement.

”No running,” he said without any real intent behind the warning. Roz sat atop the snow needle with an uneaten ration block pinched between her fingers. She laughed, watching Safia and Misila as they swung from vines and clawed up tree trunks with absolute feral excitement, and she kicked her bare heels against the battery casing.

”Wow, they”ve got the zoomies,” she awed as Fás sat down on the ground, leaning against the needle. She giggled as Misila jumped from a rotting tree trunk with a roar, tucked her knees to her chest, and fell butt first into a pile of wet leaves that sucked her in like mud. All three of Fásach”s favorite tyrants threw their heads back and guffawed.

Chuckling, one side of his mouth pulled up in a smirk. This was their last chance to give the girls a breather before...

Before things could get very dangerous.

Sobered, Fásach gently took the ration block from Roz”s hand and set it inside the lockbox. ”No rations today.” His smile fell as he pulled out the remnants of dried zai that Gil had shared with them that first day at the Buoy. ”The girls have never tasted fish.”

”That smells good.”

Roz and Fásach both blinked down at Misila, still covered in muddy leaves, one speared on the tip of the spire nub above her left brow plate. Fás”s ear twitched at the glee in her voice, the glistening excitement in those eyes. Safia joined her, visibly swallowing, her mandibles open with the slack of hunger.

Roz cleared her throat and rotated the holowell in her eye forward. She displayed a rotating model of the zai fish swimming lazily through the air, its silver racing stripes and muscular, bullet-shaped body so different now from the dehydrated jerky in Fásach”s hand.

”Our friend Gil hunted these in the sea of ice you guys slept through,” she explained. ”They”re called zai and they”re one of the only universal food animals on Yaspur!”

Both girls ooooo”ed as if on cue. Safia took it in both her palms, then licked it with a pleased vibration through her mouthparts.

”There are some bones, but they”re soft. You”ll like it, I promise,” Fásach urged, trying not to oversell it.

Misila bit down on the zai”s tail with a crunch. It disappeared with a roll of her lips. ”Yum!”

”Thank you, Gil!” both girls said at once, remembering what manners their Auntie and mara had taught them.

”Thank you, Gil,” Fásach echoed quietly. He brushed away a tear before it beaded on the velvet of his cheek.

”Come here.” Roz split her legs open and patted the needle”s fairing, inviting him to sit in front of her.

A pang of lust hit him, but it was calm and not terribly persistent. The afternoon was too comfortable to interrupt. His pups, his thuais... He hoped that more of this was what awaited them in Renata. And if it wasn”t, then he”d sap every moment from this afternoon and cherish it. Fight for it. When the time came.

So Fásach did as she asked and scooted sideways. He took the arch of one of her feet in his hand and pressed his thick thumb pad into her delicate sole, feeling the bones that felt so much like his but not the same. She pushed his shoulders forward to pull his tresses free, then ran her hands through their lengths.

A deep, pleasant huhuhuh built in his chest and he let it go, tempted to close his eyes if not for watching Safia and Misila enjoy their fish. His fingers brushed against the soft black fur growing on Roz”s shins as they sat in silence while the girls chattered. Then she parsed out three sections of his tresses from between his antlers and braided a long plait with slow, diligent care. He lifted his face to the canopy so she could see her work, then swallowed hard.

Roz”s scent reached his nose as she leaned forward, and his nostrils flared. It was changing gradually over time, ripening into something sweet and mouthwatering.

He”d smelled heat before, but not so openly. His mamau and other family members had experienced it, of course, though usually it was something one noticed only in passing and when the discomfort became obvious. Partners would tend to each other in private.

The scent was similar, but distinctly human. Distinctly Roz. She didn”t seem uncomfortable though. No fever or agitation, no abdominal cramps... His mamau”s symptoms had been difficult without his tadau there to alleviate them.

”Do humans experience heat?” he asked as her fingers raked through his fur.

”No,” she said after a pause, her silk falling sideways over one of his shoulders, tangling in his antler. ”I don”t think so.”

”But you have cycles.”

”Well, I don”t. But yes, a lot of humans do.”

She paused again and Fásach squeezed her thigh, ran his claws gently down the top of her foot to make her toes curl from the tickle. Such small toes, all gathered at the tip of her foot, and unwebbed between the digits. Could humans swim with feet like that? Perhaps the toes were simply for balance.

”I don”t know much about it, but Rosy has memories of bleeding between her legs and stomach pain. That”s what a human cycle is like.”

”Bleeding?”Fásach wondered out loud, taken by surprise. ”Is it not heat then?” He faced her, and she let his tresses go unfinished for the moment. Their eyes met, hers filled with confusion. ”Do humans have estrus? It”s a fertility cycle, the partner to a rut. We usually just call it heat, but there”s no bleeding.”

”Humans call it menstruation. The bleeding happens in between fertility windows.”

Fásach huffed, pressing his forehead to her bare knee.”Usually, it wouldn”t matter much. But I”m in a fresh rut, for you, and your scent is stronger than other species. It will drive me insane if you become fertile. If it”s going to happen soon, we might want to wait until it”s over to get close to the colony.”

Roz shook her head. ”I shouldn”t. I don”t have the—” She snapped her jaw shut then nodded once. ”Let me just check my hardware. I shouldn”t need to pee either.”

She stilled, a light blinking in her eye. Fásach checked on the girls, still eating their zai and tearing fallen leaves apart along the veins in fascination. When Roz returned, she looked sheepish.

”I have a reproductive core instead of a human uterus. Extended channel for safety, ovipository, fluid production, scent and pheromone production... The last part is mimicking a fertility cycle by increasing pheromonal output. I turned it off. I”m so sorry.”

Fás”s brow creased, ears falling back. ”You don”t need to apologize. We just need to plan for it. When, or if, it happens again, we can talk about it. Just like the rut hunt. And if—” He puffed out a quick exhale, preparing to look more civilized than the rut-addled excitement he actually felt, then looked her straight in the eye as calmly as possible. ”If it”s something you want, or don”t, I”m here either way.”

Roz smirked, walking her fingers up one of his antlers. ”I bet these want it though.”

Fás panted on instinct, his chest suddenly blazing hot. ”They can take a hike.”

Roz”s expression spread into playful joy. She sighed, then nodded out at Safia and Misila. ”I”m okay with not having that hardware. But maybe someday, I”d like to be chosen by some children too. Like you were.”

She turned him back around, settling his shoulders between her legs so she could continue grooming his tresses. The girls brought over the zai head, asking Roz first if she”d like to have it. She declined, so he crunched down on it in two swift bites, enjoying the rare treat of bitter, charred brain matter. He wouldn”t have dared eat it two weeks ago, but now it satiated one of his many predatory cravings.

He nodded to Safia and Misila, twirling around and making leaf angels. ”They like you.”

”I like them too,” Roz breathed.

The rest of the sunlight passed quickly, as warm as fruit on the pink and red leaves, filtering through to hazy, pollen-filled air in tangerine rays. The girls begged to stay out of their pods for a night, hugging each of Fásach”s legs like tree trunks. They screamed as he growled playfully and tried to shake them off. Falling in a giggling pile, he wrestled them with gentle snaps of his jaw, jumping and rolling, shivering his hackles. Safia”s talons extended for the first time, and they celebrated by braiding a palm frond into a crown that promptly fell off her head.

Roz prepped the snow needle”s empty sled, padding it with their blankets and bedrolls and parkas. When the girls looked like they”d fall over from exhaustion, all four of them piled on. Roz gave Fás her thigh as a pillow, her head on Safia”s hip. Misila balanced on his leg with her head rising and falling softly against his stomach. The weight of his children and the scent of his thuais filled him up until he felt... peaceful. As if he was back on Byddie with his tadau on that night hill, listening to the grounding chorus of their family in the distance as it danced softly with his symphony.

But the feeling didn”t last.

”Will you be my thuais,” he tried the words out loud with a throat full of gravel. He thought of her as his True North already but hadn”t told her so. He hadn”t even admitted to feeling harmony with her yet. Every moment of their journey had been occupied by thoughts of survival, sleep, uncertainty over so many things. It had never been the right time.

He rolled his eyes at himself. Before the rut hunt would have been a fantastic time.

Now it felt like they”d always been tied.

If Renata didn”t accept her humanity...

He stared at the trees, their silhouettes purple in the night, watching the stars where they peeked through the canopy in the breeze. He carefully moved his forearm from beneath Safia”s face, depositing her on his chest.

He brought up his comms.

Still quiet.

”Vin,” he murmured into his holotab. ”My...” He closed his eyes, deleted the message, and started again. ”Vin, we”re in the jungle now. Close, maybe. My...” He stalled again but kept the message running. She could reject him later. ”Misila, Safia, and my mate are with me. I don”t know if you”ll recognize me anymore—” Misila squirmed, nearly rolling off his leg. She dug her baby talons into his thigh, then settled back into a gentle snore. ”So here”s a snap.”

Fásach widened the view on his holotab, getting all four of their faces in the frame. The holoscreen pulsed, adding light to the scene with a glow that went completely unnoticed. He stared at the aerial image with hope.

Then sent it off into the void.