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The ship is landing on a shining disc attached to a castle which is unlike any building I have ever seen. It is not Disney spires, or Gothic buttresses. It is a gleaming, glowing series of orbs set amidst the most massive tree I’ve ever seen.
I am wearing a green gown which matches Brawn’s hue. He chose it for me, which is just as well because the last gown I wore on Earth was my confirmation gown. This dress feels elegant and regal. It makes me match him, though I am still so small compared to him. The top of my head doesn’t even reach his shoulder as we stand side by side and wait at the exit to the ship.
Slowly the door opens and the ramp extends. Brawn takes me by the hand and leads me down to a whole new world. I am nervous and shy, because I can see the crowds now. They are gathered on the various branches of the other trees of the forest, like oversized, fang-heavy elves.
There are screams and cries, a whole cacophony of celebration rising from the throats of his subjects. I know instantly that Brawn is loved. And I know just as instantly that I am being welcomed along with him.
“What are you doing!?” I half-squeal, half-laugh the question as he grips me under the arms and holds me aloft like that scene in the movie where all the prey animals celebrate the birth of an apex predator.
“Showing you off as my mate, showing my subjects the woman who holds my heart.”
There are booming cries now, a sort of primal, guttural cacophony which reverberates across the tree castle.
“What is that?”
I ask the question while clinging to his neck so that he can’t hold me up again. I have never been one for fronting crowds. They make me nervous and they make me feel naked even when I am fully clothed. I guess that’s where the advice to imagine your audience as being naked comes from, the extreme vulnerability of being seen by many thousands of eyes.
There is some intention to the sound which I don’t entirely understand, but I feel it calling to me. It is insistent. It demands… something.
“What do they want?”
“That is the royal mating call,” Brawn tells me. “When a king brings his bride before the people for the first time, they must see a mating.”
“That is something you might have mentioned before we left the ship.”
“You would only have worried,” he says. “And I did not want you to worry. I want you to feel this moment. The sounds of my people are sounds of welcome and worship.”
I look around again, and then wish I hadn’t. There are so many of them, and though they may be at a distance, I am still exceptionally vulnerable here, one human amid a thousand aliens.
“I don’t think I can do this, Brawn…” I glance back toward the relative safety and sanctuary of the ship. I miss that much smaller world, where I knew everyone and nobody made the hills come alive with the sound of sex.
I feel his hand under my chin, tipping my face back toward him. He commands my attention completely, reminding me why I am here. It is for him. Because of him. I chose him, and I guess, indirectly, I chose all this weirdness as well.
“You can do this. It is not as it is on your planet. This will not be an act of debasement and shame. This will be a public display of the most sincerest affection.”
“Still sounds like a sex show,” I mumble, somewhat unconvinced, even as the touch of his hand calms me. “Can I… maybe if I had just a little of your seed?”
That would make this easier. I could just get super high and not give a fuck what is going on while I am being fucked. But he shakes his head. The protein of his seed will be forever denied to me. The addiction is too dangerous.
“Only like, a drop,” I wheedle.
“You know I am incapable of producing merely a drop. You know I would fill you all the way up, flood your stomach and send you down a path that only ends in ruin. This is a mating you must undertake with a clear head.”
I am so nervous. My mouth is dry and my palms are sweating. I want to run away and hide, but what would that gain me? You only get one chance to make a first impression, and I do not want Brawn’s people to think of me as a timid coward.
He looks down at me with those golden, slitted eyes, and speaks with calm authority. “Kneel before me, Ariel. Take your palms and put them to the ground. Put your knees in the same place. Show all those who gaze on you what you are capable of, how beautiful you are, and how regal you are. When all the world sees you taken, then your position as my mate will never be questioned.”
