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And I never went back.
I slammed my back against the seat, not willing to deal with the onslaught of emotion.
“Alright?” Fiona asked from her seat directly across from mine, her brows furrowed in concern under her short, blunt bangs.
I nodded firmly, clearing my throat. “Yeah.”
“Alright everybody, we’re landing,” Valeria called from the front end of the shuttle.
I gripped the edges of my seat as we descended, but there was no real reason to be nervous. The descent was smooth and steady, and the landing only a slight jostle.
“Alright, everyone. Here’s the deal,” Valeria said, rising from her seat and striding into the main area where the rest of us sat. “Grim and Tok will go out first just to make sure nothing iffy is going on out there. Both mountain Gahns have agreed to us being here, but you never know, and I don’t want somebody getting skewered by an arrow the second we step out of here.”
The other girls and I cast grim looks at each other. The Sea Sand warriors stood, preparing for their instructions.
“Once Grim and Tok make sure the area is clear, the Sea Sand men will go out next. We’re in a large valley, and we’ll be setting up camp in the caves at the base of the Vrika’s mountain which I’ve landed next to. So, the warriors will go scope out the caves, make sure there’s nothing nasty waiting for us, while I hang back with you guys. Then, only once everything looks safe, we’ll all go out together.”
We all nodded our understanding. At least, us human girls did. The aliens made various grunts and tail twitches of agreement with the plan.
Valeria opened the shuttle’s door and Grim and Tok lugged their huge bodies out. Tok could barely get his shoulders through the doorway, but somehow he managed it. I unbuckled myself from my seat, standing and shaking out my stiff legs. My friends did the same. Taylor jumped out of her seat and hustled over to our area to stand with us four. Even once she was with us, though, she kept her eyes glued to the dark rectangle of the open door, no doubt wanting to make sure her mate was alright.
Valeria kept her eyes trained out there, too, a pistol ready in her hand that I hadn’t noticed her draw. But it seemed she wouldn’t need to use it. Grim leaned into the doorway, bumping his snout affectionately to her temple.
“All is clear,” he growled.
“Alright, you guys next,” Valeria said, nodding at the Sea Sand warriors. They leapt into action, as if sitting for as long as they had had been some kind of torture.
This time things took a little longer, presumably since the group was now exploring a cave system instead of just securing the main open area of the valley. But about 15 minutes later, Ghan Fallo’s man Dalk returned to let us know that everything looked good out there.
We all trundled into a line behind Valeria and then followed her out of the shuttle.
While the men had searched the area, the sun had almost entirely set. The mountains were no longer reflective and brightly glittering but shadow-stained, nearly black.
Our little human group dispersed tentatively, each of us taking a few steps and looking around in awe as the warriors continued to prowl the edges, looking for danger. My boots scuffed on the ground as I walked, and I looked down to see that the ground wasn’t just plain dirt or rock, but some kind of uniform stone that seemed smoother and more translucent, like thick, night-blackened ice.
We stood in a large valley, like Valeria had said. The flat area between the sloped sides of the mountains all around us was pretty large – large enough for our shuttle to land and have lots of room left over to spare.
“There’s the Vrika’s mountain and the caves we’ll be using,” Valeria called over. I glanced her way to find her gesturing into the dark entrance to an exceptionally tall mountain peak.
The Vrika’s mountain...
I tilted my head back, craning my neck to try to see all the way up to the top. But I couldn’t. I wonder if it’s up there, watching us right now...
I almost wanted to call up to it. To tell it that it had made a mistake with this whole mates thing. There was no way Gahn Errok and I could ever mesh well as a couple, and even outside of that, I still wasn’t sold that the mate bond was a real, reliable thing. It certainly seemed real enough in the other couples I’d observed so far...
But how could it ever feel real for me?
I’d already watched one marriage crumble before my eyes. My own father had left my mother, had leftus. If I couldn’t even rely on the love of a parent to be steady, how could I ever rely on the arrogant proclamations of some alien mountain king?
Whatever. He’s not here right now. Don’t let him take over your thoughts.
I sighed. For someone who’d vowed not to care about Gahn Errok, I certainly seemed to be spending a lot of my precious time and energy thinking about him.
That ends now. We have work to do.
I walked over to Valeria, 100% committed to doing my part to get our new settlement ready.
“Fuck me, it’s gone bitterly cold out, eh?” Fiona said as she jogged over. She stopped next to Valeria and me, rubbing her hands up and down the sleeves of her jacket viciously.
