Chapter 5
DAWN
Damn it! I am sick and tired of waking up in strange places with strange faces hovering over me.
It is always the same. I come to disoriented, my heart pounding, with no idea where I am or how I got here.
Then I see unfamiliar faces staring down at me, hear voices I can’t understand, and instinctively try to get the hell away from them.
This time is no different. The instant I regain consciousness, panic slams into me.
I try to scramble backward, but before I can get more than a few inches, a huge hand plants itself firmly against my chest.
“Easy …”
Easy?
What the hell is easy about this?
The pressure increases as I struggle, pinning me against whatever hard surface I am lying on.
I suck in a breath, but it comes out shallow and ragged.
My lungs refuse to fill properly. I’m suffocating.
I claw at the hand, twisting beneath it, but whoever is holding me down is impossibly strong.
Every frantic movement only seems to make the situation worse.
My chest burns as I fight for another breath.
“Stop fighting! You’re going to hurt yourself!”
The voice is deep, but the words barely register. My ears are ringing so loudly that everything else sounds muffled and distant. I can see a massive, blue-skinned man leaning over me, his face swimming in and out of focus.
Blue.
I try to make sense of what I am seeing, but my brain can’t keep up.
None of this makes sense. The room, the faces, the enormous blue man pressing me down, it’s all wrong.
Everything is wrong, aliens … there are monsters everywhere.
I shove harder. The hand on my chest doesn’t budge.
My lungs scream for air. I suck in another breath, but it feels like trying to breathe through a straw.
My vision narrows at the edges, darkness creeping inward.
Tiny black spots dance across my vision, multiplying until they obscure almost everything.
Panic becomes terror.
I can’t get out.
I can’t breathe.
I’m going to die here.
Then suddenly, the room erupts. Loud voices crash over me from every direction, boisterous and angry.
Footsteps thunder nearby. Someone shouts something that sounds like an order, followed by several overlapping voices.
The pressure on my chest vanishes. Air rushes into my lungs.
I suck it down greedily, coughing and choking as my body desperately tries to make up for every breath I’ve missed.
The blue man disappears from my line of sight. For one horrible second, I think someone else is taking his place. Then I see a familiar face. Everything inside me goes still.
“Hey.”
That voice. I know that voice. Before he can say another word, my arms shoot toward him.
“Easy,” he murmurs.
I grab fistfuls of his fur, holding on like my life depends on it.
Maybe it does.
Tears spill down my cheeks before I even realize I’m crying.
I pull myself toward him, desperate to get closer, desperate to make sure he’s real.
The last person I ever expect to feel safe around right now is the enormous, hairy giant looming over me.
The abominable snowman. He is the most beautiful sight I’ve ever seen.
His expression changes the moment he sees the tears.
Whatever anger is written across his face disappears, replaced by something softer.
“I’m here, Roja. You are safe.”
That’s all it takes. A sob tears out of me.
Massive arms wrap around my body, pulling me close.
For a brief moment, I think he is going to pick me up and carry me away from whatever nightmare I’ve awakened in this time.
Instead, he keeps me exactly where I am.
One arm remains around my shoulders while the other settles across my upper body, keeping me from bolting again.
Normally, I would fight him, too. This time, I don’t.
Instead, I bury my face against the thick fur covering his chest and cling to him with everything I have.
His scent is familiar. His warmth is familiar.
Even the steady rumble of his breathing is familiar.
I concentrate on those things. Anything to convince myself I am not dreaming.
“Breathe,” he murmurs, one enormous hand moving slowly over my back. “You are safe.”
Safe.
The word should be reassuring. Instead, it makes me cry harder.
Because I’m not sure how many times I’ve heard those words before.
And I’m not sure how many times I’ve believed them.
Around us, the voices continue. Someone is still arguing, giving orders.
I catch fragments of words but can’t put them together.
My head is pounding, my ears are still ringing, and every breath scrapes painfully through my throat.
But none of it matters. The giant holding me doesn’t let go. He simply keeps his arms around me while my breathing slowly steadies.
In.
Out.
In.
Out.
I tighten my grip on him.
“Don’t leave.”
The words come out so quietly I almost don’t hear them myself.
He does. His arms tighten.
“I am not going anywhere.”
For the first time since I opened my eyes, I believe someone. Then I panic; he doesn’t know how much danger we are in.
“OH, thank God for a familiar face, HaL! We have to get out of here; there are big blue four-armed monsters everywhere.”
“Shush, Dawn, you’re safe. No one here is going to hurt you.”
“No, we are not. I just saw one … he was holding me down.”
“Little Roja, that was me. I was simply trying to keep you from hurting yourself.”
He tries to lay me back down, but I press my face into the thick fur on his shoulder, refusing to let go, only for me to feel the pressure of a smaller hand on my back. Then a woman’s voice.
“Little human, you are safe here. No one would ever dare harm you, but we need to get you well, and right now, you are in danger of tearing out the healing ports I so have carefully put in.”
I feel his head move, and then they are talking over me.
“Troza, she is afraid.”
“I know, HaL. It will take time for her mind to realize she is safe.”
He doesn’t force me to let go, only stands there holding me at this odd angle. After a few minutes, I ease back and slowly look over my shoulder, only to find a female yeti … snowman … woman, person.
She’s older and her hair is not as thick as HaL’s, as I can see her pale blue skin in places. Even though she’s smaller than HaL, she is tall and broad-shouldered, and will still be much larger than I am. She carries the same features as Hal, with a slightly flattened nose and silver eyes…
“You have beautiful eyelashes.” I have no idea why that slips out of my mouth.
“Thank you … your name is Dawn, is that correct?”
“Yes. Dawn Elenor Higgins.” I still have a death grip on HaL, who is so warm he feels like a furnace all around me.
“Do you know where you are?”
“No, ma’am.”
Her kind, silver eyes have me relaxing slightly, and I don’t resist this time when HaL lays me back down, but I do grab onto his hand so that he can’t leave.
“Dawn, you are on Hallister … I am Troza and, thankfully, it seems like you already know HaL. You crash-landed a few risings ago. HaL found you and brought you back here.”
I grasp HaL’s hand tighter, pulling him closer without meaning to. “Did they get away? The … what did it call itself… a Korgon … Did the man who helped me out of my cell get them?”
“Yes, SiN, along with a few others, disabled their ship, and the Korgons on board were destroyed. You are safe; no one knows you are here, Dawn.”
“Safe … that’s a deceptive word HaL, no matter how many times one is told so. Why do you look like you’re sweating?” My mind seems to be shifting from one subject to another.
“It’s quite warm in here for Troza and me, but we were trying to make it as comfortable as possible for you.”
“Oh, I’m sorry. If you want to get me some more blankets, you can turn the temperature down. I’m used to being uncomfortable. I’ve spent most of my life that way, especially with all my allergies.”
A growl leaves Hal’s lips, and I flinch and lean away from him, only to feel bad when I swear the expression on his hairy face looks like I just hurt his feelings.
“Forgive me, Little Roja. There are sounds I cannot control that are simply natural to this form, and the thought of you being uncomfortable is unacceptable to my beast.”
“Who is this beast that you’re referring to, HaL? You act as if there are two of you.”
I don’t resist when he steps away from the bed.
Lying back, I let my eyes wander over him, taking in all the things I had found so compelling the first time I saw him on ANDI.
HaL had always possessed a strange kind of beauty, even when I could barely see the man beneath the creature he called his beast. Now, with nothing hiding him, I finally understand why I’ve been so drawn to him.
His body is unmistakably humanoid, with high cheekbones, a strong jaw, a slightly flattened nose, and soft, pale lips. But his eyes are unlike anything I have ever seen. They are a piercing silver, almost luminous in the dim room, as though some light exists inside him rather than around him.
But if I hadn’t witnessed this for myself, I would never have believed it possible.
The thick hair that had become so familiar to me begins to recede before my eyes.
It doesn’t fall away. It seems to sink into him, as though his body is absorbing every strand.
His silhouette changes with it, narrowing, becoming leaner and more defined.
For one breathless moment, I think he’s shrinking.
Then I realize it isn’t his size that’s changing; it’s everything surrounding him.
The fur that has covered him from head to toe disappears, revealing pale silverish blue skin beneath. He is still hairy in places, but not enough to obscure the man underneath. And that man is still enormous.
Six and a half feet of him, at least.
Two legs.
Two arms.