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He frowned, a little. “You said you are knowing?”

For fuck’s sake.Tears rose in a wave and I struggled not to drown. “Where am I?”

“We are by the Centre of All,” he said, the words kind. “You have been Called.”

Great. Just fucking great.I wiped away tears. “You better explain that, too, buddy.”

He glanced at one of the moons hanging over my shoulder. I followed his gaze and stared at where the second one sat, low and fat, in the velvety purple sky, the source of the light that let me see with relative clarity. “A Bio-resonant Signal Not Yet Identified In Your Language alerted you to your importance by the Centre of All,” he said, slowly, as if this might help me understand. “This is not phenomena your people are knowing?”

I couldn’t begin to list every phenomenon my people weren’t knowing. I struggled to wrap my head around the fact that I’d somehow crash-landed on an alien planet and the locals were using culty justification to make it all okay.

“What’s your name?” I asked him, survival instincts kicking in.

“It will be not correct to your ears,” he said, passing me what looked like a crutch, made of polished driftwood with pretty, sea aesthetic shit carved into it. It would’ve been fit for a water wizard in a high budget movie on Original. “The meaning maker will shift the words. But it is Dreamdiver.”

Dreamdiver.What the fuck. I scooted to the edge of the table, my whole body aching. “Okay, Dreamdiver.” I could play along. “Where are we going?”

He looked at me with so much patience I damn near swung the crutch at his belly. “You should travel to cot.” He waved a hand toward the side of stone where I could make out some sort of path between the tumble of rocks and purple-tinged plant life. At least the rocks were greenish, to break up all the purple.

I was more interested in his hand, though. And the way his fingers sort of…flowed.I blinked, trying to focus, but he’d dropped his hand to his side.

Regardless of the danger of aliens, if he’d planned to eat me, I’d already have been nommed. My leg wasactuallybroken and my everything hurt. If I was about to be alien chow, then I’d cross that bridge later.

The crutch was ungainly but the moment I touched my foot even gingerly to the ground, agony made my head spin.

He stood silently, watching me try to balance without puking or crying from the pain. I gritted my teeth and it wasn’t enough. Tears itched on my cheeks.

“Can you help?” I demanded, but it sounded more like a sad mewl and Ihatedthat.

He made something adjacent to a grunt that came from deep in his chest, and a moment later the whole world, such as it was, tilted. His arms were barely softer than the table I’d been on, and he smelt like the sea.

LikeOriginalsea, not some weird alien sea, and for some reason that made me relax as he carried me along.

I closed my eyes and let myself enjoy the ride.

Next time I opened them, everything hurt a whole lot more, but I was inside, at least, and he was setting me down on a huge chair made out of driftwood, except with some pretty washes to add color. I leant my upper body against the table and watched him move about the big, airy, boho beach-chic hut decorated with driftwood, strange purple plants, and the odd off-white or dark silver cylinder, stand, or rectangle that I suspected were his tech. He arranged a blanket-adjacent creation in what looked like a sized-up cat bed. I didn’t hate it.

“This is not a superior cot,” he said, and with his back turned I realised the pattern I could see wasn’t a quirky shirt but the texture on his lilac skin. “It has been many rotations since I last met someone similar to your body. I have not the ideal furnishings for your comfort.”

Hypnotised, I watched his hands. Well, his tentacles. Halfway down what would’ve been a forearm on a human, darker purple, tentacle-like digits split out from his arm. Webbing flared between them as he extended one away from the bunch and I watched as they flowed over the covers, suckers the size of the pad of my pinky clutching to some pieces and releasing others as he adjusted it.

I couldn’t remember feeling them on me when he’d carried me. My head spun as I watched this evidence that I was utterly, hopelessly lost.

He straightened and offered me the crutch in mass oftentacles. “Is it best for your comfort if I haul you?”

Haul.I scowled at his word choice. “Fuck you, buddy.”

His chest and neck flushed a deeper purple. “That is a kind offer, but it would be inappropriate for us, as you are in my care.”

I barely heard the words, watching the dark, blotchy purple flush. “Wait.” I held up a hand, wishing my head wasn’t so full of cotton wool. “Wait.” There was no point asking him if he was trustworthy. He’d tell me yes either way.

I was stuck with an alien guy on an alien planet, everyone I’d been transported with was dead, and I was stranded.

No time like the present to remember your survival skills, Eve.

“I’m sorry,” I said, slowly. “I didn’t mean to be rude.” Yeah, better not piss off the locals.

He tilted up his particularly square jaw and waved at his temple, where a series of circles were tattooed in blue. “The universal speaker affordance is not deprived of drawbacks. You were not asking me to fornicate?”