Are we in a relationship? Not really. This is some kind of survivorship, maybe. That’s the only word I can think of for it. We’re all intimate because we don’t know if we’re going to see another day, and all of these relationships are completely unworkable outside this exact context. If my sisters knew I was sleeping with a Vikar jarl, they’d be so upset. That does make it even better.
“Yes,” Drako says. “The opening is tight, but that’s good. Means we should be able to barricade ourselves in efficiently if we need to. It’s not a large interior, but there’s a possibility of hollowing it out, I suppose, over time. Point is, it’d be somewhere to sleep where one of us doesn’t have to stay up all night keeping watch.”
“Did you stay up all night and keep watch?”
I didn’t even realize he’d done that.
“Someone had to do it. The two of you were out like lights.”
“You must be exhausted,” I say, just to annoy Thor.
His snort tells me I succeeded. Drako’s expression suggests he knows what is going on and he doesn’t care enough to stop it.
We go up to the cave, which is tight quarters like Drako said. There is something absolutely incomparably cozy about being tucked away in a small space with rock walls, though. For the first time since our ship obliterated itself against this planet’s surface, I feel safe. Really safe. Animal safe.
I tuck myself into a corner and I could swear I am asleep before I can close my eyes.
I sleep for a good amount of time, but because I fell asleep so early, I wake up in the middle of the night, or very early in the morning. Which, I cannot precisely say.
When I open my eyes, I see that a fire has been set at the mouth of the cave. The flickering sends shadows playing across the inner walls. Male voices are speaking in low tones.
I wonder what they are talking about, these two men who have no good intentions for one another. Drako saved Thor, but Thor keeps saying he will see Drako hang. I understand why. It is easier to cling to duty than to adapt to a new reality. But there are only three humans on this world right now, and there may only be three of us for a very long time.
I’d like to think we will be rescued, but I do not know that much about space faring, and what I do know suggests that we lose ships from time to time and rescue missions are, well, costly.
Drako might be right.
I close my eyes again, and fall completely asleep to the sounds of their conversation. When I open my eyes again, it is morning. The fire has been put to use cooking meat of some kind, and only Drako is in the cave with me.
“Good morning,” he says, turning to face me as I make the scrambling noises associated with getting up. I have spent a night asleep in the sheltering curve of a rock with no bedding at all. I should feel worse than I do, really. Is there such a thing as ergonomic slate?
“Did you sleep?” I frown at him.
He chuckles. “Yes,” he says. “I don’t need as much as you. I am not a woman.”
“Women need more sleep than men?”
“Yes,” he says. “Unavoidable biology. Women from my clan sleep ten hours a day and nap if they want.”
“I didn’t see any of the women in your clan napping when they were helping drag me about the place,” I say. I still have quite vivid memories of the short time I spent in captivity with this man, and I am not going to forget them just because he has been amazing for the last twenty-four hours, or because he’s providing for me, or because he somehow looks hotter every day that passes.
He doesn’t reply to that. He turns his attention back to whatever is cooking on the fire.
“Where did Thor go?”
“He wants to do a mission to the wreckage to scavenge some materials. I did not stop him, because he is not mine to command, and if he gets himself killed then I do not have to tolerate his Frayer cock inside you.”
Drako is blunt as ever.
“So he went without me?”
“Neither he nor I would tolerate you going down there. It’s dangerous, and you are far too precious.”
Someone else might be flattered by that description, but I really wanted to go down to the wreckage too. There’s a chance there are some ration packs left, maybe. I don’t know if the scavenging horde was into freeze-dried things as well as human flesh.
“We should all be down there,” I say. “It’s too precious a resource to waste. And your camp, too. We should be gathering supplies from both places…”
Drako listens to me in a manner I can only describe as almost insultingly patient.
