He grinned back and sat on the bed next to me. I reached out and tugged on the sack he was filling. He lifted it and showed me some of the things inside, but they didn’t answer my questions. I sighed. “Kex Emily walk,” I mimed walking. “Kex Emily sleep here,” I pointed at the bed. “Kex Emily wait here,” I pointed at the bed, hoping he would understand. His eyes seemed to brighten.
He mimed walking as I had. “Walk?” he repeated.
“Yes, walk.”
He nodded and straightened. “Kex Emily walk. Kex Emily sleep.” He pointed at the bed. Then he pointed at the sack. “Kex Emily walk,” he said, and followed it with a word I didn’t understand. I tried to repeat it but he just snickered, and I hit his chest.
He dug around in his sack and pulled out a small bag. Untying it, he dumped it out, and a bunch of nuts plopped onto the bed. He took two nuts and set them to the side, then moved the others into a cluster. He pointed to the two lonely nuts. “KexEmily,” he said. Then he pointed to the other cluster of nuts and repeated the other word again.
I frowned and pointed to the cluster. “Family?” I asked.
Kex shrugged and nodded. “Family,” he repeated. Then he pointed to the first two nuts. “Kex Emily walk.” He took the nuts and danced them across the bed until they were by his knee. “Kex Emily sleep.” He moved the two nuts against each other in a way that was definitely not sleeping. I snorted, and he grinned, then continued dancing the nuts across the bed toward the cluster. “Kex Emily walk family.”
Okay, so he wanted me to meet the parents. I could deal with that. And more people probably meant an easier time surviving such a primitive way of life, right?
I stared at the cluster of nuts, and an idea came to me. I took the big cluster and split it into two, spreading them as far apart as I could easily reach.
I picked up one nut. “Kex,” I said, and set it in the middle. Then I picked up another nut from the farthest cluster. “Emily.” I placed it back with its cluster. I pointed at the other nuts in the pile. “Jen, Olive, Harper, Cindy, Morgan, Bonny. I gestured at the whole cluster. Family.” I met his eyes, and he nodded solemnly.
I picked up one of the nuts again. “Emily.” Next I lifted my other hand and made a swooping motion and screeched like a giant monster bird. Swooping down, I picked up the Emily nut and flew it around the bed for a moment, screeching and screaming until I dropped the Emily nut right next to the Kex nut. His lips tipped up in a grin and he reached out and slowly stroked the Emily nut. I grinned and picked up our two nuts. “Emily Kex walk family.” I brought them over to the cluster symbolizing his family, then I pointed at the lone nuts all the way on the other side of the bed. “Jen, Harper, Cindy, family.” I said sadly.
I met Kex’s eyes, and I knew he understood. Carefully, he fished two nuts out of his family’s cluster and moved them back to the center. He pointed at the sack in his hands, then picked up our nuts. “Kex Emily walk family.” He brought our nuts to his family cluster. “Kex Emily wait family.” Kex scooped up a handful of nuts and brought them over to my friends. “Kex Emily family walk. Yes?”
I smiled sadly and nodded. Kex reached out and pulled me onto his lap, he held me tight against his chest and I took a deep breath. We would go to his family, and then maybe with more people we could try and find my friends. It felt impossible, and Kex likely knew how hard it would be to find my family on this vast planet, but he’d offered to try, and that would have to be enough.
twelve
. . .
Emily
My new leafskirt and tube top were even better than my old ones. The leaves were softer and more flexible than my previous garments, and if a part of me felt a little guilty that my alien lover was providing literally everything I needed to survive, well, it’s not like anyone was around to judge me.
As we left the hut behind and set out on our trek to what I expected was Kex’s family, I tried really really hard not to whine. I was so tired. Would spending a week in bed really have been too much to ask for? I suspected Kex would have enjoyed that time just as much as I would have, but something was making my teal alien man very motivated to keep going. He’d tried to start our hike with me on his back, but I insisted on walking for a while, regardless of how tired I was.
It was clear from his nearly constant erection all morning he would have been very willing to spend more time horizontal, but some greater force than sex seemed to compel him forward. Maybe I could convince him we needed an afternoon delight. I was still very interested in spending some up close time with his dick in the light of day. I had a feeling he had better night vision than I did, and that just wasn’t fair.
I stumbled over a branch, and Kex stopped and turned back to me. “Yes?” he asked.
“Yes, I’m good,” I said, giving him a thumbs-up.
“Good?” he asked with a small frown.
“Good,” I replied, shooing him on. I thought about the other times I’d used the word good and could understand his confusion. But I really was good, if a little distracted. Kex’s new leaf diaper that he made for himself was a little thinner in the back than his previous one had been, much to my delight, and I was trying to decide if that had been intentional on his part or not. Was the man trying to get me to walk off a cliff? His cheeks stretching and flexing as he traversed the landscape were truly what dreams were made of.
Throughout the morning, Kex handed me little snacks as we walked: nuts, jerky, and fruit. He frequently encouraged me to drink and pointed out pretty birds or insects we passed. One of my favorites was the little violet squirrel-like creatures we sometimes encountered. He tried teaching me their names, but they were really hard to remember. He laughed frequently at my bad pronunciation, which only made me pronounce them incorrectly on purpose, and then I really couldn’t remember the correct names.
Spending time with Kex was easy. I knew I didn’t have anything difficult to do other than keeping one foot moving in front of the other, but my stumbling and neediness never seemed to get him down, and I couldn’t wait to see what life might be like with Kex when we weren’t always moving from one place to another. Would we have peaceful days when we reached his family? I thought I might like weaving and some of the other crafty tasks if I had time to learn and make mistakes without the pressures of survival.
I stumbled again. It wasn’t really my fault, as Kex had to take a big step up over a log, and his whole cheek slipped out of his leaf covering. Kex came to a halt.
“Walk wait,” he said, pointing at the log he’d just climbed over.
I shook my head. “No. Emily walk. No wait.” I approached the log, and he lifted me over it. He tried to set me down, but I wrapped my legs around him. He frowned down at me, then grinned, and his hands slid down my body to hold me up by my butt. Maybe it was time for a new word. “Emily Kex sex,” I said.
He frowned and repeated the word slowly. “Seex.”
I nodded. “Sex.”
