Forty Four
Days passed. Then weeks. The rainy season ended, something Vahn and Kara had prepared for by making nearly a hundred animal-skin water bottles for storage. In the end, they didn’t need them.
As Vahn had predicted, the climate on this side of the hills was more tolerable than the desert area they’d landed in. The river level dropped but didn’t dry out, suggesting there were underground water sources capable of withstanding the drought.
They grew lean from the constant diet of protein and fruit, but not unhealthily so. They had both been physically fit before – now their muscles were stronger and more defined.
They spent a lot of their time hunting or gathering food. Kara taught herself to climb trees to reach the tastiest and juiciest fruit in the topmost branches, becoming limber and sure-footed in the process.
She lost the slight roundedness of her belly which she had always hated (and Vahn secretly adored.) Her hair grew long, reaching to the small of her back. She didn’t mind that, but she did get annoyed by her fingernails and resorted to biting the ends off when they got too jagged.
They tried to keep track of the days by carving notches onto the trunk of a tree. It became known as the Tree of Time; each morning the first one up would take the laser-blade and mark the new dawn. As the weeks passed the bark became more and more scored.
Sometime after the fourth month, Kara realized it must be close to her twenty-sixth birthday. Or maybe she’d already missed it, she wasn’t sure. Vahn was unfamiliar with the concept of celebrating birthdays.
“Vraxians do not have a specific date of birth,” he explained. “We consider ourselves born twice. Once from our mother and once from our father. We do not really mark our years once we reach maturity.”
“And when’s that?”
He touched the bony peak that segmented his forehead.
“We are no longer considered hatchlings when the ridges meet in the middle.”
“You aren’t born with that peak?”
“No. The crest is a sign of adulthood. It usually happens after nine Sol rotations.”
Kara knew that though the length of a day on Vraxos was similar to Earth’s twenty-four hours, a year was almost twice as long.
After much calculation, it transpired Vahn was thirty-four in Earth years but only seventeen on Vraxos. Kara found this hilarious.
“Sweet Jesus. You’re a baby.”
“Our ages are not dissimilar. Just measured differently.”
“I’ve always wondered what it would be like to have a toy boy.”
“We will see who is the toy,” he growled. She squealed as he hoisted her over his shoulder and carried her into the tent.
Weeks stretched into months. Kara and Vahn were seldom apart and yet they never grew tired of each other’s company. They could talk for hours about the most inconsequential things.
Vahn taught Kara how to swear in Vraxian and she taught him human slang. He began to use contractions more often so he didn't sound, in her words, 'like an android' – even though privately he thought swapping words for apostrophes was ridiculous.
They sparred together almost every day. Vahn was reluctant at first but Kara wanted to improve her hand-to-hand combat.
“Come on, spill,” she asked teasingly. “What’s the best way to take down a Vraxian?”
“For someone as small as you? From fifty meters away with a blaster.”
“You know, on my world I’m considered reasonably tall and stocky.”
“You are no match for a Vraxian warrior. My serpetri alone can take you out long before you’re close enough to land a punch.”
“Okay, so I have to disable your serpetri. How do I do that?”
His eyes glinted in amusement.
“ If you can get close enough, it's possible to dislocate them.”
“Like a shoulder?”
“Exactly like a shoulder. It's attached with a secondary ball and socket joint, if you hit it hard enough from below you will succeed in dislodging it.”
“Can I try?”
“No. It’s very painful.”
“All right, well at least I know. What about other weak points?”
“Vraxians do not have weak points.”
“Groin?”
“Not especially.”
“Well, you don’t have balls, I know that.”
“Yes, I understand it’s uncomfortable for human males to be struck on the testicles.”
“And then some. I’ve seen dudes puke when they get kicked in the nuts.”
“Hm. That is worth knowing. Thank you.”
“Your turn. If you were me, facing a big angry snake-guy without a weapon, how would you disable him?”
“Go for the ankle.”
She blinked.
“Huh?”
“It’s obvious. You cannot reach the head. The serpetri protect the body. But a Vraxian’s feet are usually bare. And their ankles are relatively easy to…”
Kara span in a perfect leg sweep, her foot connecting with the front of Vahn’s ankles. He toppled forward like a felled tree. She landed astride his back and put her hand on the joint where his serpetri met his body.
“And now I can dislocate your alien tentacles,” she said gleefully. Vahn sighed in exasperation.
“You are tenacious, kalehsha. But don’t underestimate how violent a Vraxian can be. I’m holding back for obvious reasons. Others won’t.”
“Then teach me.” She rolled off his back and lay next to him so that her nose was nearly touching his. “Train me. Make me stronger. Faster.”
“You’re already strong and fast. For a human.”
“If I practice with you, I’ll get better. And face it, how else are we going to pass the time?”
He raised a brow.
“I have a few suggestions.”
She laughed.
“And we’ll get round to them all, snake-boy. I promise. But I’m serious. I want to train.”
“Very well.” He got to his feet and folded his arms. “Give me fifty push-ups.”
“Oh, come on. That’s not…”
“Fifty! Now!”
Grumbling, she did as she was told.
Over the next few months they trained every day. Kara, already a proficient kick-boxer, learned how to anticipate Vahn’s serpetri by watching the flex of his muscles and the direction of his gaze. Her movements became faster, more fluid.
Rocky watched from the sidelines with his perpetually puzzled expression. He no longer had any puppyish features. His grey coat was short and sleek. Bone-like ridges traced his spine. His jaws were powerful enough to snap necks and on his hind-legs he stood nearly as tall as a Vraxian.
But his black eyes held only adoration for Vahn and Kara, even if he didn’t entirely understand why they were trying to knock seven bells out of each other.
As time went on, Vahn stopped holding back. His mate was a fast learner, increasingly difficult to hit. Her punches and kicks hurt when they landed. His admiration for her resilience soared.
After training Kara would examine her bruises with a sense of satisfaction. She didn’t know if she could actually beat a Vraxian in a straight contest. But she’d sure as hell last a lot longer against one.
At night, Vahn would use his hands and serpetri on her in altogether different ways. Just as they trained to fight together, so they trained in love-making. He learned how to make her body shake in ecstasy. And she learned how to keep him on the brink until he begged for release.
When her period came for the tenth time, she wondered if they’d ever get off the planet. And found that she didn’t mind if the answer was ‘no’.
So it was Sod’s Law that barely a week later as they hiked upriver to check their traps, they heard the distant howl of an interstellar engine directly overhead.