Chapter
Ten
N oelle stretched as she roused from sleep, her body instinctively seeking the warmth of Gwum’s body wrapped around her. After so many nights sleeping wrapped safely in his arms, she was becoming far too accustomed to this, and she couldn’t even find it within her to regret it. It was going to hurt her in the end—she wasn’t stupid to think that this had any hope of lasting—but she couldn’t imagine waking up on Xal… no, Kren… without Gwum tucked snugly against her back.
Careful not to jostle him too much, she turned in his arms so that she could admire his sleeping face. He was beautiful. It took her a while to realize it, but there in his arms, with only inches separating his face from hers, she couldn’t deny it. His violet skin, while much thicker than hers, possessed a polished smoothness of uniform color except for the sprinkling of bioluminescent markings sprinkled over his nose, forehead, and cheekbones like freckles on a human. His powerful arms were covered in the same markings, but they were larger on that part of him, as well as his broad chest. They were only small on his face, hands, and feet, though she struggled to imagine what sort of evolutionary advantage that posed. Did they aid in some sort of camouflage in the swamps at night?
Gwum stirred and his eyes slowly opened, revealing the oblong slit pupil and glowing green brilliance of his irises before she had the chance to close her eyes and feign sleep as she usually did when they woke.
“Noelle,” he breathed, sending a tiny little shiver through her. “You are awake early.”
She struggled not to blush. She didn’t want to admit to even herself that every morning she’d set her comm to silently wake her early. She told herself it was so that she could get to the supply drop sooner, but that didn’t account for how she spent the time watching him until he began to show signs of awakening. And she always allowed her eyes to flutter closed so that he could wake her with his hand stroking in gentle circles on her back.
Damn it!
She blinked and turned away with a yawn. “I just woke up myself,” she mumbled as she pushed herself to seated position and brushed her hair out of her face to peer at the lightening sky peeking through the trees. “You’re right. It is early.”
Gwum nodded and sat up beside her. He remained there for several heartbeats, but she refrained from looking at him until she heard him stand. Only then did she dare to glance at him as he studied the tree line.
“We will be crossing into Shoowilp territory soon. I expect that we will arrive at my home shortly after midday.”
Noelle nodded and pushed herself to her feet, her blush returning in full force when Gwum leaned forward to grip her arm and steady her. His touch ignited a warm flutter deep within her belly and her breath hitched slightly in reaction, and it only got worse when he bent and swept her up into his arms. If he noticed her reaction or had any inkling as to what they meant, he thankfully did not acknowledge it. It made her mortification and deep inner turmoil a lot easier to deal with.
Her mother would have been horrified, but then Mom had drunk the whole human purity synthade along with most of United Earth’s planetary nationalist bullshit ages ago. She doubted the woman even had a second thought about her family as she proudly marched off to her colonial assignment, abandoning her family at home. No loss there. Grandma had spirited her away to the swamp to live a life of freedom that few non-gratas would ever know. Grandma wouldn’t have been horrified by Noelle’s reaction to the alien. She would have cackled gleefully.
Noelle buried her face against Gwum’s chest, her lips twitching at just picturing the old woman’s delight as he hauled her effortlessly back down the tree. Grandma had often expressed regret that she had been put into a non-gratas breeding program when young. She’d fancied the idea of illegally being carried off by a powerful alien and had quite a few contraband romances on her datapad. Ninety-five and still going strong, the old woman would love that Noelle was currently living her greatest fantasy.
“You seem happy,” Gwum observed, a smile in his voice as he dropped onto the mass of roots below them, his powerful legs effortlessly absorbing the shock.
“I was just thinking of my grandmother—my mother’s mother,” she clarified as he lowered her to her feet and glanced down curiously at her. “She would have loved all of this.”
The corners of his mouth hitched. “I imagine that she is very much like you then, possessing a great, adventurous spirit.”
Noelle blinked at him, startled by his observation. “Is that how you really see me? Even when I’ve been literally hiding from everything?”
Gwum lifted his hands in a shrug. “Every Bia knows that there are plenty of occasions where hiding is the more intelligent choice… as is necessary caution. But you came here, and you are persevering despite the challenges and dangers in this world. So I see a female with a great spirit.”
She blushed with pleasure, but a laugh startled from her when he suddenly grabbed her hand and tugged her along with him as large butterfly-like insects with multiple petal-like wings exploded from a nearby bush, their poison-green wings shimmering as they caught the sunlight. He chuckled happily as he led her along the root systems surefootedly as if following a well-worn and familiar path.
The Shoowilp territory was beautiful. While the swamp around the camp had possessed an aethereal presence amid its deep fog and all manner of bioluminescent plants and lifeforms, the swamp here was brighter as the daytime fog lightened up enough to turn golden with its rays and the long vines of glowing flowers were replaced with magnificently large jewel-like flowers that caught the sunlight and shimmered regally with it. There were also more rocky rises protruding from the water, providing natural bridges among the root systems of the trees and bushes that sprouted from the debris collected in the larger gaps in the roots.
Gwum pulled melons from low hanging vines in passing and cracked them open so that they would have something refreshing to eat as they walked. At other times they paused to collect berries or nuts that he effortlessly opened with his claws, plucking the meat out for her. Their pace seemed less urgent since crossing territories and yet, for all its distinct beauty, it seemed that the water qualities didn’t differ any because she began noticing that she was fully starting to glow now. Even in the daylight she could see the faintest brightness issuing from her skin. It felt almost freakish, but Gwum assured her it was perfectly natural and in fact was part of what fed Bia luminescence, except they were not as thin-skinned as humans, their thin patches in their markings. That he didn’t see anything amiss about her glow and instead seemed to find it particularly charming made her feel more at ease with it, and she had gradually come to admire it herself over the passing days. How many human cosmetics were designed to give the illusion of glow to the skin? And here she was just doing it naturally thanks to the biochemicals found within the environment.
She giggled privately at that but fell silent in wonder as she spied a large ridge protruding up from a huge network of roots. Masses of flowers and silvery pink mosses clung to it, making it appear almost like a fairy mound.
Gwum, catching the direction of her attention, grinned. “That is my mother’s dwelling. We have reached my maternal pond. It is just a short distance to my home. It is not as pretty, but I am proud of it.”
She saw why less than an hour later. While the ridge marking the entrance was smaller, the entire root system around it was covered with numerous plants that seemed to climb up the tree as well. Many of them flowered but others had distinctive leaves of various shapes and hues that caught the eye. Rather than a lush little decorative garden, she was certain that it was filled with all manner of medicinal plants. It looked like somewhere a healer lived. Noelle smiled up at him as he squeezed her hand and led her excitedly toward it.
“Does everything covering your home have a purpose?” she asked as she entered along a little path carved into the root system and descended into his home with him.
He nodded in reply. “There is much that I need on hand at any given time to help my clan. I have massive storage rooms carved out and reinforced, but the garden is necessary to maintain my supply. Wait here while I find some light,” he murmured, releasing her hand.
The glow of his markings made it easy for her to track his progress. Her own skin was growing brighter in the absence of light but it was still dim. At last, he seemed to find what he was looking for and a flare of light brightened the room as the fire he lit within the hearth grew.
Noelle took the opportunity to look around. The house was constructed in a sort of dugout style, thick roots and packed mud forming the walls reinforced by slabs of rock except for strategic openings. She even swore she saw a shuttered window or two up high near the ceiling. Everything within the house was made of wood and stone and had the appearance of being comfortably worn with several woven blankets and even a few furs stacked in various baskets and bins neatly lining the walls where numerous shelves occupied the remaining space, each filled with jars of unknown substances. It looked cozy, like a mixture of an ancient lodge and a mad alchemist’s house. And it absolutely fit everything she knew about Gwum.
She loved it and felt right at home there with him—damn if she wasn’t in a pitiable situation. She had actually gone and fallen in love with an alien. Her grandmother would have been thrilled if it weren’t such a doomed romance with a male who, however sweet and caring he was toward her, didn’t want her.
“We will sleep overnight here. You should be comfortable enough once the fire eases some of the chill,” he said cheerfully. “Now, would you like to accompany me to my garden while I get these planted?” He tapped the side of his satchel meaningfully, and Noelle quickly nodded.
She wanted to get the most out of every minute because she knew without a doubt that it would all very soon be coming to an end. And that was beginning to scare her as time slowly ran out.