I veered to the left, which would take me off the trail, and down a more treacherous path. I said a prayer to the goddess and picked up my pace as I heard the boar roar behind me and could feel the jagwa’s breath on my legs.
“Thairr eely close nou.”
I did not understand the female's words. Where did she come from? Was she from the other dekes? The thought made my blood run cold. If she belonged to the main dekes and they find out I’d touched her, they would no longer offer my tithe to the goddess. I was cursed enough as it was the thought of losing my one and only connection to the goddess was more than I could bear. I thought of my hunters and how they would fall into despair if they lost the one hope for redemption we had left: a miracle from the goddess herself.
A jagwa’s sharp claws swiped my leg and I grimaced through the pain. The light of the moon illuminated a break in the path where there was a large crevasse that separated one cliff from another. I had not attempted to jump this crevasse since I was a young hunter just entering manhood. I would never take this path if I had any other choice. One misstep would mean the death of me and the female I carried, but there were no other options. The creatures nipping at my ankles could not make a jump like this, but I could. We would be safe once we were on the other side. We would make it.
I picked up my pace as I neared the gap in the path and prepared to jump. I tensed my muscles and pushed up through my legs. My shifter form gave me the strength I needed to propel forward and we made it to the other side.
I stopped and turned to face the creatures who had been chasing us and was satisfied that they had been stopped by the crevasse. But just because I’d outsmarted one set of beasts did not mean we were out of danger. Many brutal creatures roamed the forest at night. We would not be safe until we made it to the mountain.
Gabby
I was going to be sick. Between being upside down, having my stomach battered by this man’s shoulder, and freaking out over the jaguar-looking things with long brown and pink tendrils of fur, I was a mess. At least we’d made it over that big ass cliff, but now where were we going?
My alien savior had slowed down but he hadn’t stopped running. I didn’t have a great sense of my surroundings since I was being carried over someone’s shoulder and I couldn’t see what was ahead. All I could see was the alien’s very muscled back and furry tail and again, I had to remind myself now was not the time to touch it.
I could hear more creatures in the distance and it felt like my alien had been running forever when he finally stopped and set me down at the base of a very large mountain and pounded on a large boulder. Was this some kind of optical illusion? There was no way anyone could move that thing.
I was shocked when the large boulder did in fact move. There was another blue alien on the other side. My guy joined in the effort to move the stone and soon I was standing in the entrance of a dark tunnel feeling very small inside such a tall mountain.
My alien looked down at himself and grimaced. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath and then another. And rightbefore my eyes his fur and paws receded into his blue skin until they disappeared entirely.
My mouth hung open as the male raked his hand through his long brown hair and gave me a nervous smile.
“Savrix, who is this?” The alien who had been on the other side of the entrance frowned, making his very scarred face look even more severe. There was a tingling behind my ear. I scratched the spot at the back of my neck and felt a small hard lump. That must be the translator the alligator men had implanted in me. Was the language of these other aliens already loaded into my translator? Must be, or how else would I be able to understand them?
“This is…” My blue savior looked down at me for a long moment before I realized he was waiting for me to say my name.
“Gabby, my name is Gabby.” Whoa…my mouth was moving, I could understand the words that I was saying, but they were not English. This translator was more high-tech than I’d realized. Not only did it translate their language for me, it helped me form their words so I could communicate with them.
“Gab-bae,” he repeated, turning the y sound into an a.
“Tarak.” The large blue male who’d rescued me placed a fist over his chest and bowed. “I am Tarak.”
“It’s nice to meet you Tarak,” I smiled at him and my heart nearly melted when he smiled back. I’d seen him look concerned and feral, and generally serious, but his smile…I could get lost in that smile.
“Come inside.” The scarred alien requested. We did as he suggested and the two of them rolled the large boulder back into place. Tarak gazed down at me and offered his hand.
“It is safer inside the mountain.” His deep gravelly voice was making me feel some kind of way. Could this male be any sexier? He already resembled Taehyung from BTS.
I placed my hand in his much larger one. My brown hand inside his blue one just felt…right. There was a comforting peace that washed over me when we touched that I couldn’t explain. Tarak studied our joined hands as if he were feeling the same way.
“Eh-hem,” the other alien cleared his throat and Tarak tensed as if he’d forgotten he was there.
They led me down a dark narrow passageway that I hoped would lead to somewhere much bigger.
As I followed my big blue alien I had to ask myself, was this real life? A planet with pink grass, two moons, magical purple water, and blue shifter aliens? It made me feel like I was walking through a dream.
It wasn’t long before we came across a wide cavern full of aliens that looked similar to Tarak. Most of them were males that looked to be around Tarak’s age. There was a natural opening at the top of the cavern allowing the moonlight to shine down. One male who wore a sly grin complemented by his long flowing red hair was standing near a fire grilling some meat. Another was sharpening spears. He turned his head in my direction, but by the milky white tint of his eyes, I wondered if he could see me at all.
A young alien teenager with long black hair and an innocent smile had been drawing an intricate picture on the floor with some chalk. When he saw me he quickly stood and subtly moved behind another male, who was the shortest of the group and looked ready for fight and I wondered if he always looked that way.
Across the cavern stood the tallest alien in the room. He wore an easy smile as he chatted and inspected a complex wooden tool. Had he made that? I wondered if he was the inventor of the group. As soon as he caught sight of me he stood up with his mouth agape.
A second teenage boy, the only other child I could spot in the cavern, smiled when he saw me and his eyes grew wide with excitement. He immediately started to walk in my direction when the inventor grabbed him by the shoulder and held him back.
There were some elders in the cavern as well. They varied in age, some only having a few wrinkles around the eyes, while others had full heads of gray hair and a slight hunch in their posture.
