Page 34 of Cozy Prisons (Human Pets of Talin: Origins #4)

Daxus

It wasn’t long until predawn light illuminated the changed world around them. He could see the massive, yawning crevice that not only swallowed the village but also a large swath of surrounding forest and some of the field they were huddled in the middle of.

Looking around, he realized why she’d been so adamant that they stop. At the other end of the field were mountains of rocks and boulders. The earthquake must’ve caused a massive rockfall from the mountain beyond. If they’d continued, both of them would’ve died.

If they’d stayed, they would’ve died.

If they’d gone north or south, they would’ve been swallowed by the growing crevasse and died.

There had been only one path to safety for the two of them, and Nataly led them unerringly through.

“If not for you, all of us would’ve died in our sleep,” he murmured.

Nataly yawned, then gave him a tired smile.

“I feel weirdly vindicated. Not that I wanted any of this to happen, but it’s nice to know that my brain wasn’t going haywire.

I was sensing danger but couldn’t make sense out of it until it was almost too late.

” She sighed and rubbed her face. “If only I’d figured it out sooner.

It would’ve been nice to grab more stuff. ”

“Things can be replaced, people can’t,” he commented as she yawned again.

“That’s a nice thing to say, but not necessarily accurate,” she countered, snuggling her head against his shoulder. “We might’ve all survived the initial disaster, but we still need to survive until help comes. The next scheduled ship isn’t for a long time.”

“The moment Palathum’s office lost contact with the satellite in orbit, it would’ve sent out a distress signal. Someone will show up soon.”

“Someone?”

“According to Talin law, any nearby ship is required to deviate from its course and offer assistance. It could be military, civilian, commercial, or private. There’s no way of knowing.”

She wrinkled her nose. “We’re all going to have to pretend to be good little human pets for whoever gets here.”

“At least they’ll be Talin,” he said. “We don’t have to worry about a Hamlershin showing up and trying to exploit us for passage to the nearest Talin station or outpost.”

“I guess that’s a positive," she agreed. Her words were quiet, and after a moment, he realized she’d fallen asleep.

He wasn’t surprised. They hadn’t gotten much sleep last night. Not to mention, she’d been living with fear and anxiety for some time. She had to be exhausted.

He shifted her a little so he could stretch his legs out. She didn’t wake up at all. He didn’t even know she could sleep this soundly!

His Ident chimed. It was awkward to unclip from his belt without disturbing Nataly. By the time he’d managed it, the Ident was chiming rapidly, indicating someone was desperate to talk to him.

When he tapped the response key, an image of Palathum’s face appeared.

“You’re alive,” she said. He heard voices behind her talking rapidly.

“We finished organizing and assessing, and I realized you and Nataly were missing.

Utharium said you were behind him when he carried Hale out of the village, but he lost you. I feared the worst."

“Nataly guided us to a safe spot,” he whispered. “She’s resting right now. Once she wakes up, we’ll start making our way to you.”

“I can’t believe we all made it out alive,” Palathum said. “Nothing in any of the survey reports indicated instability.”

“You couldn't have known,” he said before Palathum could start blaming herself. “Unless you wanted to take the time to do one of the surveys that takes at least three solars to complete. We needed a place sooner, and you made the best decision you could with the information and timeline you had.”

She sounded a rumble of agreement. “When Nataly wakes up, please tell her that she’s a hero. I’ll never doubt anything she says ever again.”

“I’ll tell her. Hopefully, we won’t need to rely on her strange instincts in the future,” he said.

“I’m no longer astounded that all the humans did as Nataly said. When you first spoke to me about going along with the evacuation, I was highly aggravated. I thought it was a fruitless effort.”

“I didn’t believe her either,” Daxus said.

“I’m thankful to the other humans also,” Palathum said. “Not only did they pack their personal items, but they also included some food. If we are careful with our resources, we should have enough for about ten rotations.”

“Rescue should arrive by then,” Daxus said. “We’re not far from a major trade route.”

“That was one of the reasons I picked Arise instead of the other site I own,” Palathum said.

“You own another planet?” Daxus asked, feeling amused. He’d never known anyone as wealthy as Palathum.

“If everyone is willing, we’ll probably go there next,” Palathum said. Someone called her name. “I need to help. Keep me updated on your progress around the canyon. Be careful, the edges are unstable.”

Daxus made a rumble of agreement, and Palathum ended the communication. He set the Ident down and then worked the mass of canisters loose from his belt also. He tried to be quiet, but they clinked together anyway. Once his belt was clear, he released the clasp and pulled it off.

Now he was able to lie down and draw Nataly on top of him. He wasn’t the softest of beds, but he was better than the cold ground.

Nataly wiggled a little and then settled with a happy, contented sound. He closed his eyes and let sleep take him. A little rest would do them both good.

He woke to Nataly sliding off him and sitting up. The sun was much higher now, and the air around them was full of small bugs buzzing around.

“Ugg,” Nataly said, waving a hand in front of her face. “These stupid things taste horrible.”

Daxus sounded a rumble of amusement as he sat up. “I’m not surprised; you didn’t even let me season it first.”

She chuckled. “Sorry, next time one of them tries to fly into my mouth, I’ll make sure to wave it over to you first.”

She reached for the bundle of canisters.

Dragging them close, she unclipped one and popped it open to drink deeply.

He did the same with a second one. Thankfully, they didn’t need to worry about running out of water.

Arise had plenty of fresh water that was easily cleansed by leaving it inside the sanitizing canister Nataly had grabbed along with the others.

Thinking about her actions last night made him sound a questioning rumble. “How are you feeling?”

Nataly set down the canister and stretched her arms then wiggled her legs a little and twisted her torso. “I feel good. Not even a little sore.”

Daxus pushed for more details. “No anxiety? No panic?”

A beautiful grin spread across her. “None! Not even the low-level buzz that was constantly in the back of my head.”

After she spoke, her smile faded. She picked up the canister. Holding it between her palms, she drummed her fingers on the shiny surface. Her expression and movements weren’t the ones of a happy human.

“What’s wrong? Are you feeling something?”

She was quick to answer. “No. I promise there’s no anxiety or anything like that. I just hope Hale is okay.”

He didn’t think that’s what caused her frown, but let her change the subject.

“Palathum said there were only minor injuries,” he assured her. “We’re going to need to walk around the canyon to return to the others. We might get a little hungry until we get to them, but we won’t starve.”

“I know we won’t starve,” Nataly said with a mysterious little smile.

He sounded a questioning rumble. “What secret do you have to share?”

Closing the canister, she stood up and stretched. “Let me show you.”

Deeply curious, he got to his feet and secured his belt. Then he clipped the canisters, still full of liquid, onto it.

By the time he’d done that, Nataly had his Ident and clipped it on for him. Holding the canister she’d been sipping out of, she turned and led him away from their sleeping spot. They moved parallel to the canyon and eventually reached a tree line undisturbed by the nearby natural disaster.

She paused for a moment before continuing. How she knew where she was going was unfathomable to Daxus. There was no designated path, no obvious markers on trees or rocks, and not a single sign that anyone had been here recently.

Finally, she stopped and looked up. He followed her gaze to see at least twenty large bags hanging from thick, high branches.

“What’s this?” he asked.

“The result of me trying to make myself comfortable,” she explained. “When we first arrived, I couldn’t settle. That was before I started feeling the anxiety. You weren’t here yet, but we were all doing a lot of hiking and exploring.”

“And that led to this stash?” he asked.

“Not directly,” she said. “I was always restless. The hiking wasn’t helping.

I thought it might be because I was unconsciously worried about getting robbed.

I collected a bunch of stuff and stored it out here.

The hiking simply helped me find the right spot.

I didn’t know why it was right, I just knew it was a good spot when I found it. ”

Daxus didn’t know what to say. Her instincts didn’t make any sense in his logical, scientific world, but he couldn’t ignore the facts. She’d saved them and also prepared for the aftereffects of losing the village.

“What’s in the bags?” he asked.

“Tents, sleeping stuff, food, a few med kits, emergency kits, clothes, shoes, information squares, stuff like that.”

“Everything we need to be comfortable,” he murmured.

“I guess,” she said with a little shrug. She pointed to a lower branch. “If you cut that line, they’ll all drop down. I rigged it so I could get them down without having to climb all the way up again.”

That’s when it hit Daxus that she’d done all this alone. He sounded a surprised rattle that started several birds out of a nearby bush.

“How did you manage by yourself?"

“I took my time and used a small all-terrain mover bot when I could,” she said. “It was a lot easier after we got some of those retracting platforms. All I had to do then was secure one to the base of the tree and deploy it.”

He was still impressed. “I’m not sure I can carry all of them.”

“You spoke to Palathum earlier, right?” she asked.

He sounded a rumble of agreement.

“Great, then contact her again and have them send Grace’s mover bot to us,” she instructed.

“I upgraded the navigation capabilities so it should be able to get to us without getting stuck anywhere. It can’t climb over rocks or through sand, but there’s only grass and trees between them and us.

They can use your Ident as a homing beacon for it. ”

“That will take a while,” he said.

“Longer than you think, it's an old bot.” She grinned at him. “Is there some other place you need to be?”

He sounded a rumble of amusement. “If I’m with you, I’m exactly where I want to be.”

Nataly

After contacting Palathum, they focused on the bags in the tree. It only took Daxus a few minutes to undo what took her weeks to put together. The bags all came raining down and hit the ground in a cloud of dust.

Following them down, Daxus landed with a thump and walked to stand next to her. “Do you remember what is in which bag?”

“I don’t need to. There’s a small information square at the top of each bag that lists the contents.”

“That’s very organized," he murmured. “It’s going to take at least a rotation for the mover to get here. Should we camp in this spot or move back to the field?”

“The field,” she said. “Not because I sense danger or anything, but it’ll be easy to set stuff up if we are there instead of in the trees.”

“Then we should get started,” he said.

Without another word, he grabbed several bags and then started to backtrack. She grabbed one bag, slung it on her back, and followed.

It took several trips, but they got everything moved to the edge of the forest. By now, she was starving. Picking a bag at random, she opened it and pulled out the information square to see if it contained food.

It took three more tries, but she found the bag stuffed full of provisions. She didn’t need to touch the information square; the contents exploded out the moment she undid the top.

“I think I filled this one a little full,” she said with a laugh. There were packets all over the ground around her.

Daxus was using a broken branch with leaves at one end to sweep the area and prepare it for camping. He looked over and sounded a rumble of amusement. “If you were going to overpack one kind of item, that seems like a good one.”

She had to agree. Plopping down on the ground, she searched through the packs until she found one full of the black flat bread Talins ate with every meal. Ripping it open, she ate two full pieces before thinking to offer some to Daxus.

“Hungry?” she asked, holding up the open package.

Tossing the branch aside, he accepted the package and sat down next to her. “I’m not happy for the reason we’re here,” he commented between bites, “but it’s nice to have time together with no expectation of being interrupted."

“Back on Old Earth it was called camping,” she said with a little smile. “Or if you had a portable home to bring with you, it was called glamping.”

“Did you ever go camping?” he asked.

“Never,” she said, thinking back to her childhood.

“We were too busy surviving. Even if we had the time, we didn’t have the credits to spend traveling anywhere.

I can see why my ancestors liked it, though.

No reminders are pinging. No one is contacting us to ask a question or request help.

No tasks that need to get done quickly. It’s peaceful out here. ”

“It is,” he agreed. “It makes me question having everyone gathered closely together as a traditional colony is organized. Perhaps a more distributed model would be better.”

She didn’t feel like thinking about the next colony. She wanted to focus on the immediate future, not that far off.

“Do you think we could have a fire?” she asked.

“Fire?”

“I saw a vid of humans camping, and they would create a circle with stones and put wood at the center to have a fire. We don’t need it to cook, like they did, but I’ve always wanted one because it looks so comforting and enjoyable.”

“Then let’s have a fire,” Daxus said without hesitation. “If you can find something to create the initial spark, I’ll make the spot and gather the wood.”

Joy exploded in Nataly’s chest. “I’ll figure it out!”