It’s then that I realize that now Tryk has gone, I’m all alone in the jungle with the guy who - when he was delirious with pain - had quite enthusiastically offered for me to sit on his face.
He’s big, too. And has apparently decided I already belong to him, despite not getting some weird sparkly mating rash or something… whatever it was Tryk had explained to me earlier.
He’s injured, but he’s still strong. If he wanted to-
Aloryk smiles that damn dazzling smile at me and it catches me off guard, and for a moment -just a moment- I think it probably wouldn’t be a bad idea to sit on that face after all.
I dismiss that thought quickly - but don’t quite lock it away, instead flinging it haphazardly in the general direction of that stupid padlocked thought-trunk.
The truth of the matter is that Aloryk doesn’t scare me. I take a breath and allow myself to really explore that. Yes, he’s physically capable of overpowering me. Yes, he’s africkin’ alien. And yes, he seems to have taken quite the shine to me since I woke up in that pod thing.
But hefeelslike a genuine person. A little naive maybe but… the guy endured his wings nearly getting ripped from his back while he was trying to protect me.
Letting out a long breath, I move to sit beside him, trying hard not to notice the way all his little skin-stars race from one side of his body to the one that is closer to me. They bunch and mingle frantically on his shoulder, bicep and one of the thickest thighs I’ve ever seen. Why have I not noticed that before? They’re so firmly muscled I think the guy could crush walnuts between them.
Really, Polly? You questioned about being left alone with this guy and now you can’t keep your eyes to yourself?
Clearing my throat, I feel a little flustered and annoyed with myself. I’ll chalk it up to my long period of celibacy and give myself some grace. It’s not like I’ve just woken up in my own bed on a normal Saturday after all. My mind flashes back tothem- the other girls I saw trapped in the pods, and I’m hit with a wave of guilt again.
“Will they - your tribe - will they be able to rescue the others in the pods?” I ask the question while staring at the fire. It needs feeding, the flames are not as high as they once were. Asif hearing my thoughts, I see Aloryk move to do just that at the peripheral of my vision.
“Yes,” he says, sounding so sure. “High Spear Rynn will come with his finest Protectors, and they will be saved. I am only sorry it could not have been done sooner.”
I don’t tell him how that short flash of a view I saw of one of the trapped girls awakened a memory within me. One that I’ve had buried at the bottom of that padlocked trunk in my mind for so long. It doesn’t really matter, though. It can’t have beenher. That would be absurd. But the mere disturbance of that dormant memory is unsettling in a way that has me thinking Aloryk can somehow see everything playing out on my face like an old movie flickering on a screen. Like he can hear how she’d wanted nothing to do with me all those years back then.
Aloryk watches me for a moment or two more before he comes to sit beside me again and opens his palm. There are a dozen little berries sitting in the center and I’m grateful for the distraction. “Are you hungry?” As if on cue, my stomach growls -loudly. Aloryk grins. “I will set some snares on our way to the river. Hopefully we will catch something to fill your belly.”
I fight the urge to tell him that’s not necessary, that I’m not hungry despite my stomach’s loud protest. As a woman in a larger body, I have always had this hyper awareness around food. My mind can’t help but go down certain alleys and lanes; alleys and lanes where I feel like I’m being watched around food - scrutinized even. Alleys and lanes where I couldn’t possibly order anything but a salad, and I had better not eat it all. Oh! And I should definitely eat more slowly than those around me, because heaven forbid I’m the first one on the table to finish my meal. Even if no one says anything - even if no one haseversaid anything directly to me about my eating habits, as a plus-sized woman, they don’t need to. I can feel it. I’m a fat woman first, a person second.
I open my mouth to refuse Aloryk’s offering of a few measly berries before thinking better of it. Instead, I say nothing and take only a couple of the berries, all too aware of how Aloryk is staring at me as I chew. But I’d better get used to this. I’m stranded on an alien planet and will need food for survival.
“Thank you for spitting on me earlier,” I hear him say around his mouthful of fruit.
I swallow my own and almost choke. “Ew, don’t phrase it like that!”
His grin doesn’t falter, even as he chews, and it makes him look so adorably dorkish, it causes something to zing in my chest. I can’t help but let out a small chuckle as I shake my head at him.You’re going to be trouble, I think to myself.
A little later, the fire is beginning to die down again and Aloryk feels well enough for the trek to the river. I stay close as we trudge through all the weird alien undergrowth, surrounded by strange trees and strange noises. “Tell me about your life in your homelands, Polly,” Aloryk asks after some time of silent trekking. Part of me wonders if he’d asked the question because he’d noticed how jumpy I was getting with our surroundings.
I’d normally brush something like this off with a quick ‘oh, there’s nothing much to tell,’ but right now, I’m grateful for the distraction. “I live alone in a gorgeous little one-bedroom apartment. My friend, Niska used to live in the same block, but she moved across the country for a man. I juggle a few different part-time and temporary jobs to make ends meet; coffee shops, bar work, retail hell, you know the type-”
I glance at him walking beside me and catch an expression on his face that confirms, no - he doesn’t know the type. Poor guy probably doesn’t have a clue what I’m yapping about.
He nods for me to continue before offering a steadying hand out to me as we maneuver over some particularly large tree roots.
“Anyway - Iwassaving up so I could afford this unpaid apprenticeship at a tattoo parlor. I guess that, and a lot of other future plans I had for myself are no longer happening.”
“What plans did you have, my Polly?”
I side-eye the heck out of him for that possessive ‘my’ he just ever so casually dropped in there, but decide to just skim right over it. “Oh, you know, build a career, move out of my hometown, become financially secure. That kind of thing.”
He’s quiet, quite clearly mulling all that over. His ‘skin-stars’ as he calls them are all gathered at his temples, buzzing around like industrious little fireflies. I’m about to turn his question back around on him - ask him about his life here on this planet, but Aloryk abruptly stops walking and quickly grabs for me, dragging me behind his body as he lifts a crude spear he’d whittled back at our little camp.
After a tense moment or two of nothing but my loud breathing, and Aloryk scanning our surroundings, I dare to whisper, “what is it?”
Aloryk doesn’t answer.
It’s only then that I realize all the forest sounds have died, like all the little creatures are collectively holding their breath and even the plants don’t dare rustle in the breeze.
