Page 29 of Mates for the Raskarrans #1-6

“It’s not really something that needs fixing, but thank you,” I say, pressing my lips to his knuckles.

“I thought I needed to be out here to find Ellie, but I’m starting to think that was just the excuse.

Really, I think I just needed some time, a bit of space, to work out what I wanted my place to be on this planet. ”

“And you have decided this now?”

I nestle closer to him, unable to help myself. “What do you think?”

He chuckles, his arms tightening round me. “I think I am very happy with your decision.”

“I don’t want you to think I don’t trust Anghar. I know he’s your friend.”

“It is like you being afraid of the situation,” Gregar says. “You did not mistrust Anghar, you just did not trust anything.”

“Exactly, nothing personal.” I look up at him, catch his eye.

“I know we agreed we would head back to the beach tomorrow anyway, but that’s what I want to do.

I want to go back to the others and start our journey home.

I want to trust Anghar to find Ellie and for them to come home, too, when they are good and ready to.

I want to be back on your territory where we don’t have to worry about food and other tribes so much.

If Lorna isn’t well enough to walk, I was thinking.

Where I come from, there’s a thing called a stretcher.

It’s like two branches with material between them.

You use them to carry people who are sick or injured.

Do you have something like that? Do you know what I mean? ”

“We normally carry our sick and injured on our backs, but we are not so small and fragile as your Lorna. I can picture the thing you describe. It would not be hard to make one. I think this is a good plan. We will leave here in the morning, and I will carry you.”

“Because I’m too slow?” I say, glowering at him, even as I start smiling, unable to keep any sort of pretence up for long.

“Because I like to have you in my arms,” he says.

I wake early. I know it’s daytime, because light is breaking through the trees and dappling the tent, but I don’t think it’s long after sunrise. There’s a stillness to the world, as if it’s holding its breath.

Gregar is still wrapped around me, breathing the soft, regular breaths of someone sleeping. I smile at the possessive way he holds me, as if I am the most precious thing on the planet. I suppose, in a way, I am.

I want to slip back into sleep, but I woke for a reason, and the reason is my bladder. I won’t be able to sleep while it’s full enough to burst, so I wriggle free of Gregar’s grip, slipping out of the tent while he’s still sleeping.

I could just go in the clearing, but it feels a little gross, almost like peeing in our kitchen. So I pull on my socks and boots to protect my feet, grab the knife from Gregar’s pile of weapons, and step over the noise makers out into the forest.

I only walk a short distance. I’m not an idiot - I know the trees are dangerous. One of those cat things could be lurking somewhere. But I figure if I keep close, I’ll probably be safe, and I’ll be within screaming earshot if I’m not.

I look around a little while for somewhere suitably private, fully aware of my own ridiculousness.

On the beach, we went behind the escape pod, close to the sea so the waves would take away our business.

The metal structure between me and the rest of the beach made it feel like a private space.

That’s what I’m looking for out here, a gathering of tree trunks that will provide a kind of shelter while I pee.

I’m careful to keep my bearings in mind, so I don’t end up wandering further into the jungle when I think I’m going back towards the tent.

A few moments later, I find somewhere to my liking.

Business attended to, I start thinking about the day ahead.

Gregar said he would carry me most of the way back so we can travel quicker.

We can be at the beach camp before lunch time.

Lorna will be another day and night of rest better, hopefully better enough to travel, but if not we can carry her by stretcher.

We can start making our way back towards Gregar’s village and the life we are going to make there.

The home and the bed that we are going to share.

It’s a notion so pleasant, I’m not fully paying attention as I walk - my mind travelling down the path of waking Gregar up instead, running my hand down the length of his cock, having him completely at my mercy before he’s even fully alert.

Because we do need to get back to the beach, but we have enough time for a little morning fun.

Something quick and passionate. I feel all shivery and needy, and not even a little sore - thank you magic berries - and anxious to be back in the warm cage of his arms.

So I almost don’t notice when a little figure bursts into the path ahead of me. And when my brain does catch up with the message my eyes are giving it, I still can’t process what I’m seeing.

A toddler. A little boy, no more than three years old, with pale green skin and a short, stubby little tail that swishes about behind him.

I think I must be hallucinating, but he looks up at me, a huge cheeky grin on his chubby little face, and toddles towards me, arms outstretched.

I look round for someone, anyone who this little boy might belong to, but see no one.

Of course, I couldn’t even see Gregar in the trees when I knew he was there, so there’s no reason I’d be able to see someone else if they were trying even a little to stay out of sight.

As the little boy gets close to me, I sink down to my knees, setting the knife down a safe distance away, the cool damp ground sending a bit of a shiver through me.

The sun hasn’t been up long enough to warm everything yet, I think, remembering my feeling that it was still quite early.

Perhaps the little boy’s parents are resting, and he’s managed to slip away from them.

“Where did you come from?” I ask, keeping my voice soft.

His smile broadens, and he toddles closer, babbling nonsense as he approaches.

“Ma ma ma ma ma ma,” he says, and my heart melts. He’s so cute and smily and unsteady on his chubby little legs.

I’ve never really thought about children before.

Since Mercenia outlawed procreation without a licence - a licence no one on the bottom tier like me would ever get - I stopped even thinking about it in terms of something I might want.

Why torture yourself? But now, seeing this little bundle of cuteness in front of me, I’m suddenly full of broodiness.

“Where is your family?” I say to him, though I know he can’t understand me. “Where are your Mummy and Daddy?”

He just grabs my face in his little hands, pressing on my cheeks and laughing.

It occurs to me at that moment that Gregar said all the women and children in his tribe died. My brain puts that fact together with the child in front of me, and I realise we must have stumbled on to the territory of some other tribe.

I should go back. Run back to Gregar and warn him.

But leaving the kid behind seems like the wrong thing to do.

For a moment, I’m torn by indecision. Leave the kid to fend for himself, or risk the wrath of his parents, who may not have the same generous disposition towards a lone human woman as Gregar does.

“I should go,” I say to the toddler, drawing back from him, my hand going to the knife. I don’t want him to grab for it. “You stay here, okay? Stay here until your parents come.”

I stand up, and the little boy reaches up to me, opening and closing his hands like he wants to be picked up. I ache to do so, to hold his little body in my arms and smell his hair, but I can’t. I turn away from him. I have to leave before…

A twig snaps behind me. I spin round, heart pounding, adrenaline seeming to slow time down. So I see both the arrow flying out of the trees to my left, missing me by a hair’s breadth, and the raskarran male stepping out of the trees ahead of me.