Servant For An Alien Leader by Roxie Ray
Urul
“See those marks?” I pointed at the tiny tracks hiding under a cluster of brown leaves. “That footprint belongs to a rapuse. Then there’s that broken twig over there. It must’ve snapped when the critters passed through here.”
“What about this patch of grass?” Rita knelt beside a tuft of flattened glass, wrinkling her nose as she eyed it. It was a few feet away from the snapped twig, and it was clear the rapuses had trampled over it.
“Rapuses went through there, yes,” I said, surprised at how fast she was picking things up. I’d been teaching her how to track wild animals for the past two days, and Rita was a fast learner. Most people would have needed a couple of months before they started getting it. Not Rita. “Good catch.”
We followed the trail to a schist outcrop, where the flat and mossy terrain turned into steep inclines and hilly mounds. Luckily, the rapuses had stepped over the muddy flats, and their wet paws had left clear prints on the rock.
Rita walked right beside me as we carefully picked our path through over the slippery trail. Half my attention was focused on her, so when she slipped on a rock, my hand shot out instinctively, and I grabbed Rita by the arm.
“Careful,” I said, my voice coming out as a croak. The moment my fingers touched her elbow, electricity crackled under my skin again. Every time I touched her, every time my eyes lingered on her...it was like this. Suffice to say, these past two days had been torture.
The feeling kept growing as we climbed the terrain. I had to help Rita over a few jutting rocks, and a whip lashed at my nerve endings every time my skin brushed against hers.
In an effort to keep my thoughts from spiraling out of control, I passed the time by pointing out the various plants and animals we came across. Rita repeated the names in a soft tone, committing them to memory like an exemplary student. Her footsteps were also light and careful, barely disturbing the environment. She’d make for an exceptionally good tracker. She still had a lot to learn, of course, but she had great potential.
“What are these?” Rita stopped next to a squat bush. The thorny branches were heavy with pink berries, and she reached for one of them. Before she could touch it, I grabbed her by the wrist.
“I wouldn’t do that,” I said, my voice slightly strained at the zing shooting through me from the physical contact. “Those are poisonberry bushes. The thorns are poisonous.” I pointed at a couple of bushes growing nearby. “See those over there?”
“They look alike.”
“That’s right,” I admitted, “but the leaves are bigger, and they can be turned into a paste that acts as an antidote to a poisonberry cut. Just don’t confuse them with these ones.” I indicated another group of pink bushes, where the only difference was in the veined leaves, which had a bluish tinge to them.
“What are they?” Rita asked, curious.
“Well, they’re part of the same family of bushes, but the leaves have other effects.”
“What kind of effects?”
“Well, uh…” I cleared my throat as my face grew hot, and immediately regretted bringing it up. “They can be used as an aphrodisiac. They’re quite potent.” Once I realized what I’d just said, the heat in my face turned unbearable. If it wasn’t unbecoming of a warrior, I might have fanned my face. “I mean, allegedly. I’ve never tried them. I’ve been told you should only use them with the right person, though.”
“I see,” she muttered, her eyes on mine. The pink of her cheeks bloomed into a deep red, and I wondered what was going through her head. Eventually, she just looked at her own feet. “You know so much about the plants and animals around here. How does someone from Raider know this much about Macros?”
“I first came here to work a couple years ago,” I replied, happy we’d changed the subject. “Just menial labor, originally. I was a farmhand for a kind, elderly lady, which had me out in the fields every day, and I ended up falling in love with the planet. I still miss Raider, of course,” I added with a sigh, thinking about my family that still lived there, “but everything about Macros is fascinating.”
“I’ve heard Raider is also interesting,” she said. “I’ve read about the mounts you guys use there.”
“The warsas, yes. We also have dinosaurs, land-sharks, and a myriad other species. As cool as these species are, though, they never fascinated me as much as the ones on Macros.”
“So you went from farmhand to wildlife conservation expert?” She sounded genuinely interested, which made me smile.
“It wasn’t a straight path from one career to the other,” I told her. “I held a couple of jobs before I settled on this one. For a moment, I even wanted to learn from Wisteria how to read the future.” I chuckled and shook my head, and Rita’s eyes widened.
“In the end, the future just didn’t seem as interesting as the wildlife here, so I decided to help Rahl and Wisteria build this place. There’s something happening with Macros’ ecosystem, though.” My smile quickly faded as my concerns seeped back in. “I want to help the fauna and flora recover from whatever it is. Maybe even trace all this damage to its source.” I grinned sheepishly. “Besides, I’m shit at reading the future.”
Rita laughed, the sound bright and clear. “Is it true then? Can Wisteria really read the future? I’ve heard stories about Macronite seers, but...you know, it just sounds too fantastical. Kind of like these hotline psychics they have back on Earth. You just call in, pay a few bucks, and they tell you the future.” Her wry grin told me these ‘psychics’ definitely weren’t the real deal.
“I know it sounds farfetched,” I said, echoing her laugh. “But it’s true. Wisteria can see into the future. Whenever she predicts something, it always comes true. Well, except maybe once…”
I trailed off as I thought of what Wisteria had told me. She’d promised I’d find my fated mate this year, and that my mate would give birth to my children... Suddenly, I found myself hoping she was wrong about that part. Rita had confided that she couldn’t conceive, which would mean she wasn’t the woman Wisteria had seen in my future.
“What was she wrong about?” Rita asked, her right eyebrow slightly arched.
I shifted my weight from one foot to the other. I’d fallen into a trap of my own making. “Nothing, really.” I picked up the pace and sped up the trail, all while trying to come up with something else to say. “Anyway, I’m pretty happy here. Back when I was a kid, I dreamed of seeing the galaxy, but I’ve already been to several different planets for work. None enthralled me as much as Macros.”
“Where else have you been?”
“I’ve been to Tracorox, for instance. I used to work for the IEP there, doing welfare checks on the women who’d signed an IEP contract. Ever heard about Tracorox?”
“Tracorox?” She chuckled. “Yeah, I’ve heard about it. An awful place, based on those stories.”
“Tracorox can be scary,” I admitted, “but it isn’t as bad as most people think. And now things are changing for the better. The old king has been deposed, and the new one is turning things around. He doesn’t care about power or subjugating the galaxy...so that right there is an improvement.”
“I didn’t even know Tracorox had kings.”
“Now you know,” I said with a smile. “More than just that, you’ll get to meet Tracorox’s king—and its human queen—soon enough. They’re coming here to visit.”
A human queen? That was unexpected. “Is it a diplomatic mission?”
“Well, it’s not a formal diplomatic mission. King Zandro and Queen Dina are our friends. They’re mostly coming here for pleasure, not business. In fact, it’s not just them who are coming.” I stopped as the rocky incline gave way to a schist wall lined with poisonberry bushes. We’d have to climb over the wall, but first I’d have to cut a path through the bushes.
“Who else is coming?”
“Kain, who rules on Raider, is also coming, as well as his right-hand man, Dordus. I think the Hollander princes are also coming. That’s Crown Prince Niall—heir to the Hollander throne—and his brothers Soren and Aiken. Oh, and they’re all bringing their families.” I laughed, thinking about how crazy it could get sometimes when we were all together. “Fair warning—there’ll be a lot of kids running around.”
Shit. Feeling like an idiot, I bit the inside of my cheek. Rita was infertile, and I didn’t want to be insensitive and ramble about other people’s children. When I glanced at her, though, she didn’t seem uncomfortable. Perhaps she was at peace with it.
“Anyway, how did you end up here?” I asked, wanting to hear more about her instead of talking about myself. “Your file was quite impressive. You’ve worked as a vet and a conservationist, you ran a shelter, and even owned a farm.”
“I kept busy, that’s for sure.” Her subdued voice didn’t quite match the smile on her lips.
“And you were married, too,” I added, unable to resist my curiosity surrounding her relationship with David. “That’s a lot of accomplishments for a twenty-five-year-old, isn’t it?”
She shrugged. “It looks good on paper, I’ll give you that, but the reality isn’t that impressive. Earth’s a mess right now. The economy is a dumpster fire, there’s a political crisis, and our environment is a disaster. It’s hard to own a farm when the ecosystem is all messed up. And as for the marriage…” She sighed, and I almost told her she didn’t have to talk about it, but she plowed straight ahead.
“Our marriage started falling apart a long time ago. Honestly, we probably never should have married in the first place.” She hesitated, like she might say more about that, but then shook her head. “Anyway, we had to remain together because of the farm and animal shelter, even after we divorced. So, to answer your question, I basically just wanted a fresh start. The universe was playing a cosmic joke by David and me both ending up here.”
Before I could respond, a preternatural stillness settled around us. I narrowed my eyes and perked my ears, on high alert.
“What is it?” Rita whispered, her body stilling as well.
I knelt down and placed a hand against the ground. It was faint, but I could feel a vibration coming from near our position. Something huge was heading this way, and there was nowhere to hide.
“Shit,” I muttered, watching as a large male rapuse came barreling around an outcrop. The moment he spotted us, he lowered his head and let out an angry grunt. This was a full-grown adult male, so his quills were as sharp as daggers when bristling. Not only that, but this one was massive enough that he’d tower over me when standing on his hindlegs.
As I’d feared, the male charged, and I didn’t even think, acting on pure instinct. I grabbed Rita, wrapping my arms around her tiny body, and hurtled us both backward into the nearest bushes.
Poisonberry bushes, but I didn’t have many options here. So I threw myself on top of them, keeping the largest branches as a cover, and hoped I could keep Rita protected. We’d be stung by the thorns, but that was better than being mauled by a rapuse.
Rita pressed her body against mine as the rapuse charged past, and I curled myself tighter around her, hoping she’d be assured that I would protect her. Her chest was pressed against mine, and I could feel her heart hammering.
Instead of looking at the rapuse, who had stopped just down the trail and was sniffing some flowers, I looked at her. Her golden hair cascaded over her face, and her parted lips looked so damn ripe...she also felt warm against my body, her skin kissed by the sunlight, and we fit together so perfectly that I—
“What the hell is going on?” Rita asked all of a sudden, her brown eyes finding mine. She kept her voice low so the rapuse wouldn’t hear it.
“It’s a grown male rapuse,” I replied, trying to keep my voice steady, trying to clear my head of all the things I so desperately wanted to do with this woman. “The pups are cute, but the grown ones can be quite dangerous. I pulled us into the bushes so it wouldn’t attack us. It knows we’re here, but the poisonberry will keep it away.”
“Yeah, I know that.” She pressed her lips together, and we were so close I could feel her heart beating against my chest, even faster than before. “But that’s not what I’m talking about, Urul. I want to know what the hell is going on between us.”
My breath caught in my throat. “What do you mean?”
“There’s a monstrous creature out there,” she replied, her voice so quiet I had to strain to hear her, “and all I can think about is how much I want to kiss you.”
I couldn’t say I saw that one coming, but I was thrilled to be blindsided by her desire. “Then that makes two of us,” I whispered, my voice strained with the need now coursing through my body. “I want to kiss you so damn much, it’s unbearable.”
“It doesn’t have to be.”
Her breath became shallower, her lips parting like an open invitation, and her eyelids fluttered.
I went for it. Our lips met in a glorious firecracker of an explosion, as if this was what I’d been waiting for my whole life. As if nothing that had come before this moment meant anything. I groaned against her mouth, and she arched up into me, and I thought I might lose my mind entirely. Spurred on by her responsive moan, I slid my hands down the side of her body, and—
Rita winced.
“What is it?” I asked her, immediately pulling my hand back. “I’m sorry. Did I do something that—?”
“It’s not that,” she hurried to say, and then shifted her legs. I moved back slightly, glancing down. Her jeans were torn, and her left leg had been cut in two places. One was a sharp scratch that looked to be from a poisonberry thorn; the other was more concerning, deeper and gushing blood. Her jeans were already stained dark crimson as the blood soaked into them.
“That’s not good,” I muttered, moving to better inspect her wounds and appraise how serious they were. “I can do something about the poisonberry cut, but there’s little I can do about the other one. We’ll have to go back, right away.”
“But the rapuses!” She sucked in a sharp breath, clearly unhappy about leaving the pups behind. It had taken us a long while to pick up their trail, and I understood how she felt.
“We’ll come back for them,” I promised. “If those cuts aren’t too serious, we might even come back today.” We’d have to see about that, though. She would be okay once I got her to a clinic, but Rita’s safety was my foremost concern. If she needed to rest up before going back out, that was what we’d do.
I poked my head out and looked for the male rapuse. I only caught a glimpse of him as he rushed back into the woods, far in the distance. “All right, the coast is clear.”
Quickly, I helped Rita out of the bushes and started gathering a couple of the large leaves we’d spotted earlier. I used some as a makeshift bandage to stop the bleeding, tying them in place with thin vines.
“That will just have to do for now,” I muttered. “Now for the poisonberry antidote.”
I didn’t have a grinder on me, but I showed Rita how to make an antidote paste. It was easy to do, as the leaves released a soothing balm when crushed. I applied it to the nasty cut, and then to the few other places where she’d been stung.
“Thank you,” she said, and I could feel her gaze on me. “I’d be lost without you.”
“You’ll know even more than I do soon enough,” I replied with a grin, but I still enjoyed her little compliment. Then again, there was nothing about Rita I didn’t enjoy. “Hop onto my back.”
“Are you serious?” She laughed, hands on her hips as she looked at me. “I think I can…” She trailed off when she tried to stand, wincing at the pain on her leg. “Okay fine, maybe a piggyback ride could be fun.”
I knelt so she could climb onto my back. As we made our way back to the rover, my cheeks started hurting from the stupid smile on my face. That kiss had made me a happy man, and even though neither of us brought it up, I was still sitting on top of the world.
