Page 152 of Gladiators of the Vagabond Boxset

Hina

The indignity of being slung across a shoulder and carried like a sack of potatoes quickly faded.

Fierce was warm and incredibly strong; his pace didn’t falter, even though it seemed like he’d been jogging through these tunnels for hours.

I was chilled on my back—especially any exposed bit of skin—because the tunnels were cold.

My front, however, was toasty warm; this alien was pumping out heat like he was a furnace.

I would never have been able to keep up with him, not in this blasted dark or at this pace.

At first, when he’d just picked me up, I thought I heard something chasing us, but the sound was so faint that it was far more likely I’d imagined it.

The small pet, which I’d decided to call Fluffy, had curled itself back in Fierce’s bag; sometimes, I could just catch the glimmer of her bright emerald eyes as they shone in the dark.

My bladder was starting to make itself known, my throat growing parched from thirst, and my stomach feeling pretty sore from being carried like this.

I wondered if I was going to be one giant bruise if he didn’t pause for a break soon.

Just as the thought crossed my mind, his pace finally seemed to slow, and I caught a glimmer of light.

Had he found an exit? Had all this endless running in the dark led us out of this damn maze?

With a little more light, I started noticing how the tunnel walls had gone from completely black and gray to showing veins of pale pink, like there were streaks of rose quartz running through them.

As soon as I noticed it, I realized that Fierce’s skin was mirroring those colors, with beautiful lines of pink shimmering their way across slate gray, curving over his muscled calves, even his wide back was now decorated in shimmery lines.

Everything in my body rebelled—my stomach lurching, my head pounding—when I was suddenly lifted upright and slid down Fierce’s warm, muscled body until my toes touched the ground.

Everything spun, a dizzy spell hitting me hard.

Automatically, my fingers curled into his chest, grateful that his warm hands cradled my hips.

He murmured something, his long hair sliding over my shoulders as he dipped his head to speak directly into my ear.

I couldn’t understand a single thing he was saying, but the growly, husky cadence of his speech was very soothing.

“Thank you. Are we safe now?” I asked him.

I turned a little to get a look at where we were, still inside the cave, still dark.

But there were a few holes high up in the ceiling that shot shafts of light down to where we were.

We were on the shore of a small underground lake, the floor beneath my feet a pebbled beach.

It seemed like a safe, sheltered spot, with a rock wall curving like a bowl on one side, offering us shelter from three directions, the last facing this beach and the lake.

A very defensible spot, I supposed. Too bad there were no signs of any food, just a layer of algae growing on the rocks that were getting sunlight.

“Safe,” Fierce repeated, his voice rasping as he tried out my word.

I brightened immediately. “So you really can understand me! How is that even possible?” I demanded, leaning back to look into his face.

His bright yellow eyes were fastened to my mouth, staring intensely.

In response, a shiver shot down my spine.

I was suddenly extremely aware of our close proximity, of his warm hands on my hips, which were no longer necessary to keep me steady.

One hand finally let go, reaching up to slide his mane of hair back over one shoulder and expose a round ear much like mine, but with a ribbed, bony-looking edge.

He tapped a spot right behind it, tilting his head a little as he growled a word I couldn’t understand.

His meaning was clear, though: he had a translator, and it had my language in its database.

I was stunned by this knowledge: he had a com and a translator.

Despite his rather savage appearance, he had to be of a space-faring species.

Had the UAR meant to send us to his kind for some reason?

Or was he stranded on this planet too? But if he understood me, at least we could play yes-or-no questions.

“Are you from this planet?” I asked, stepping away from the heat of his body so I could better ignore the temptation.

My sweater had gotten lost in the fall; there had been no sign of it down in the cave where we landed.

Clutching my arms around myself, I rubbed them to get warmer.

If it was going to get much colder when the sun went down…

I was going to be in serious trouble. My eyes fell on Fierce, unless I cuddled up to him, which was not a bad prospect at all.

My musings meant I almost missed his answer, but he shook his head no.

So this was not his world, how much would he know about surviving here?

“Have you been here long? Do you have a way off this planet? Are you alone?” My barrage of questions made him smirk, his sharp teeth showing.

He nodded no, yes, and no again. Then he pointed at me, himself, Fluffy, and last at a shadow some distance away.

The moment I looked, two red coals blinked to life, and I let out a startled yelp. Oh, I’d forgotten about the hound.

Okay, so he was as new to this place as I was, but he did think he could get us off this planet, that sounded very promising.

It taught me not to judge a book by its cover.

He looked savage, but he had access to a spaceship and more tech than I currently had.

I was annoyed that he hadn’t understood the final question, though not at him, more at the language barrier.

I wanted to know how many more of his kind were out there. Would they be looking for us?

“What do we do now? Rest here? What about food?” I asked, rubbing my arms more furiously. If I judged the angle of the light falling into the cave correctly, it was late in the day. I was dreading the coming drop in temperature.

Fierce eyed me for a moment, his head cocked at an angle, the bone ridge on his skull catching some of the fading light and glowing silver.

Then, he picked up Fluffy from his bag, ignoring her protesting mewls as he sat her on his shoulder.

Next, he dug out an honest-to-God blanket from that bag, shook it out, and held it open toward me.

I could kiss the guy, I was so grateful to wrap myself inside the soft, wool-like fabric.

It was warmed from Fluffy’s little body and slightly sprinkled with hairs, but that hardly mattered.

Sighing with relief, I found a spot on a rock to sit down, pulled out my flasks of water, and held them up.

“We need to boil this water to make it safer for drinking. Do you think it’s possible to make a fire?

” Fire was always key to survival, which was why I’d searched the wreckage longer than I’d wanted to, hoping to find a lighter of some kind.

I hadn’t succeeded, but Fierce gave me a confident nod and nudged the small cat/ferret in my direction with a few murmured words, then jogged off into the dark.

I didn’t know this guy from Adam, but I still felt a twinge of fear slither through me when I could no longer see him.

As if this alien was going to abandon me now, after he’d risked his damn life leaping off a cliff after me.

The shadowy form of the hound moved closer, settling onto the pebbles that littered the ground.

He sprawled casually on his side, his back toward me, but I felt instantly safer.

Fierce had left both of his pets with me; he was obviously coming back.

Fluffy was sniffing along the ground, occasionally digging handily with her paws until she unearthed some kind of bug, which she then eagerly gobbled up.

I tried not to find that disgusting, but it was a struggle.

Was it even safe for her to eat those? Those were alien bugs, what if they were bad for her?

I drew her attention by tssking and holding out my hand, and she gave up her hunt for bugs to scuttle my way with a purr.

She rubbed her small head into my palm, then, much to my disgust, tried to lick my fingers.

When I pulled them back, she acted like that had never happened, and she crawled into my lap instead.

I was grateful for her slight form, she was warm and soft and made me feel much less alone.

It still felt like forever as I sat in the semi-dark, waiting for Fierce to come back.

At some point, I decided I could at least be productive and dug out a fire pit, which I lined with smooth rocks I found on the shore of the underwater stream.

I dared to approach the water a bit more, trying to determine if there were any fish in it.

Of course, I was far more scared of that dark slate of water than the tiny pet was; she darted to the edge and swatted at the water playfully with her paws.

When she waded in a little farther than I expected her to, there was a low growling sound from the huge hound.

Like a parent chastising a kid, Fluffy hurried back out and ran to his huge head, rubbing against him and purring.

I couldn’t see any fish; the water remained mirror-smooth the entire time, except when Fluffy disturbed it.

I suppose the lack of light made this place rather inhospitable, but that would make surviving down here harder if we didn’t find a way out.

What if we never did? I couldn’t fathom never seeing sunlight or plants again.

But these tunnels were so dark and endless, what if we remained lost in this maze?