Protected By The Alien Bodyguard by Ella Maven
Two
Mouse
I woke to the sound of moaning. Blinking my eyes, I saw nothing but darkness, until my pupils adjusted and could make out the vague shapes of leaves overhead. Skags was making his worried squeaks, so I shook the sleep from my eyes and pushed myself to a sitting position.
Next to me, the bronze alien was trembling. I immediately lurched to my knees and pressed my palm to his forehead. I hissed at the heat and shook out the sting on my palm.
“No die,” I murmured, smoothing my hand down his chest. His scales seemed to be moving, emitting small clicking noises that made the color shift and shimmer. The white marks on his chest and neck seemed to spark like lightning. His lips tensed and twitched, and few sounds fell off his tongue that could have been words or just cries of distress.
Goosebumps rose on my skin as I watched him helplessly. I couldn’t let him die. Already I felt a responsibility for him.
Grabbing his skin of water, I propped his head in my lap to angle him slightly upright. I screwed off the top and let a few drops of water slide into his mouth. He smacked his lips, and his throat worked as he swallowed. “Yes,” I said, smoothing a hand over his short hair. “Drink.”
I poured in more water, giving him time to swallow small gulps. After a while, he trembled less, and I hoped this was the break of his fever. Already his skin felt a little less hot. Skags nuzzled under the warrior’s hand and licked at his fingers.
Tomorrow I’d find more water. I’d get him clean. If he was still alive now, and he fought off this fever, then there was hope he’d come out of this.
Finally, he took a deep breath, his body shuddered, and then his muscles loosened. The lines in his brow smoothed out and his mouth went slack. I was worried for a minute he’d died, but I felt his heartbeat, strong and sure. His breaths were even, and his skin no longer felt hot to the touch. Content he’d make it another rotation, I closed my eyes and drifted off.
* * *
The next morning, I crouched near the pile of my current possessions. And none were actually mine. I was just temporarily borrowing them from the unconscious alien who was still alive and sleeping deeply.
What I had was a small pouch of food, a skin of water that was dangerously close to empty. A spiked ball weapon. A sharp knife, and a pouch containing various liquids and powders that were foreign to me. As for me, I only had the rags on my body, and those weren’t worth a damn thing.
“Water,” I said to Skags. “Find it.”
I covered the warrior as best as I could with some large leaves, making sure he had plenty of room to breathe, but that no one would stumble upon him. Then, with Skags at my feet, I went in search of water.
There were things I seemed to know, but I couldn’t remember how I knew them, like the sound and smell of clean, rushing water. Trees surrounded me, soaring high into the sky with their leaves protecting me from the harsh morning sun. The ground was covered with a greenish carpet of vegetation that felt nice to walk on. The warrior had thick shoes, and I wondered what those felt like. The only thing covering my feet were thin-soled, crudely-sewn shoes that didn’t provide much protection.
I made marks in the trees I passed so I could get back to my injured warrior. As much as I didn’t want to leave him, we’d all die unless we found more water. His skim wouldn’t last the day between the three of us.
Skags ran ahead with his nose in the air. He had a long snout with two large nostrils, and I’d found his sense of smell was excellent. He always knew when our one meal of the day was coming long before it arrived in our cages.
He stopped, sitting on his back four feet with his two front feet dangling in front of him.
“Skags?” I called.
And then he took off like a rocket.
“Hey!” I shouted, running after him. I knocked branches out of my way and got smacked in the face with a wet leaf or two before we broke out into a clearing, and I skidded to a halt.
Skags sat on the bank of a stream, his mouth stretched into a wide grin, proudly displaying his find. “Wow,” was all I managed to utter as I took in the clear water, babbling over rocks and sticks next to a large cliff that rose in front of me. Ledges and alcoves were etched into the side, and I knew right away that this was where we needed to be. I would get no joy out of dragging the warrior here, but it wasn’t too far. Here, I could clean him, clean myself, and maybe catch some live game for food. Here, we could heal.
With a happy cry, I raced to the bank and straight into the water. Skags let out a happy squawk and joined me, splashing around in the thigh-high water. He swam well, with his front, webbed paws easily keeping him on the surface. After I dunked my head under and gulped as much water as I could—as well as filling up the skim—I knew I couldn’t waste time getting the warrior here. The longer I waited, the hotter the day would get, and I couldn’t travel here in the dark.
With Skags at my side, we walked back to the warrior, who hadn’t moved. Thinking quickly, I knew I would have to fashion some sort of sling to lay him in that I could pull behind me easily. The only large piece of fabric I had was the blanket I covered myself with. All I wore underneath was a band across my breasts and a pair of ragged short pants. Using two large branches, I wrapped the fabric around them, creating a sling. Laying it flat, I rolled the warrior inside and then picked up two of the ends of the branches. The other two dragged on the ground, but it was much easier than dragging a whole body.
The progress was slow, tedious, and exhausting, but the promise of fresh water and shelter was enough to make me cover the ground quickly. When we reached the stream again, I dropped the sling to the floor with a groan and a triumphant yell.
After a quick snack and some more water, I carefully made a little trench near the bank of the stream for the warrior’s body. I removed his shoes, and marveled that he had similar feet to me. But I wasn’t… one of him. I didn’t think so at least. I didn’t have scales or white markings, or the spikes on my shoulders.
I left his pants on but unstrapped his weapons holder. Letting the water gently lap at his feet, I dismantled the sling and thoroughly scrubbed a strip of fabric to clean it. Content it was as free of dirt as possible, I went to work cleaning the warrior. He was covered in various cuts, but most had completely healed. His head was another story. Once I wiped away the dried blood, I was able to get a better look at his injury.
His ear was mostly shorn off, and the scales around it were warped and melted from what I assumed was the laser fire. He’d have a wicked scar, but I was hopeful he’d still have use of his ear. I was able to pour water on it and flush out the ear canal as best as I could. Wiping down the rest of his body, I hummed to myself.
I did that often, and I couldn’t remember why. It was some sort of rhythm and melody from my previous life, the one I could no longer recall. The sound soothed me, and the warrior, despite his unconscious state, seemed to like it too. His expression was relaxed, and when Skags sniffed at his hand, a few fingers twitched.
I sat back in a crouch with my hands on my knees, waiting to see if he’d wake up, but he stayed still and silent. I squinted up at the sun, feeling the heat bake my skin.
Speaking of getting clean… I hadn’t washed myself well. I’d merely done a little joy swim before leaving to get the warrior. I stood and waded into the shallow edge of the stream before taking off the rest of my clothes. My skin was red and itchy in some places, probably from my soiled clothes. So, I scrubbed them for a while before setting them out on a rock to dry. I had various bruises and a few cuts from my captor’s abuse. My head was still a little sore where I’d hit it, and I had a wicked scrape on my ribs from the broken cage bars. But I was alive, so was Skags, and so was the bronze warrior.
I waded in further, feeling freer than I ever had in my life. No one keeping me in a cage or hitting me. My hair hung in matted chunks around my shoulders. I hadn’t been able to keep it clean, and it stunk. With a small gasp, I remembered the warrior’s knife. After grabbing it from our supply pile, I began to hack at my hair. Skags watched with interest from his shaded spot on the bank as hunks of hair began to float away from me downstream. I sawed and sliced until all that was left of my hair was a short length all around my head—not as short as the bronze warrior’s but as close as I could get.
I tilted my face toward the sun. A weight had just been lifted off my shoulders, and I wasn’t sure much could bring down my mood now.
Slowly, I turned around to check on the warrior and froze in place when bright blue eyes stared right back at me.
* * *
Cravus
My feet were wet. I could feel liquid gently lapping at my bare toes, and qua was rushing somewhere, although it sounded far away and muffled. Why did it sound like I was underwater?
My head pounded something fierce, and my back ached. I tried to move my limbs, but they were stiff and protested my order. As I became more alert, my concern grew for my safety, and I forced my eyes open only to immediately slam them shut. The sun was bright, and direct. I could feel it baking my scales. I sought to blank, but I was in pain and too weak. Yerk, when had I eaten last?
I groaned and lifted a hand to my head to access my comm but when I reached for my earlobe, it wasn’t there. It wasn’t there. I patted the side of my head only to feel a mass of ruined scales and only a small part of my ear remaining. I groaned and opened my eyes again to small slits, letting them adjust to the sun before I opened them further. I was in a forest, on the bank of a stream. How did I get here? Then I remembered the ambush. The cudgels in the sky picking off the caged creatures. An army of Gattrix. The small creature I’d given food to had escaped its broken cage, and when a cudgel tried to pick it off, I’d killed it then… well, that was the last thing I remembered. I hoped the small creature had managed to get free or die a quick death.
I struggled to sit up on my elbows, confused how I got here, then went still at the sight before me. I wasn’t alone. Standing in the stream, back to me, stood a human. I’d recognize that flesh anywhere, so unlike any species I’d ever seen in my life. And then the human turned and looked at me with green eyes. I remembered that color—it had belonged to that small creature in the cage, the one with long hair and blunt teeth… “Yerk me,” I whispered. How had I not recognized that creature as human? And most importantly… female?
She was nude in the stream, her hair now hacked off, with small round breasts and beaded pink nipples. Curly dark hair sprouted from between her legs, and I caught a whiff of her scent—the same one I had smelled when she’d been in the cage, but then it had been hidden under stench. Now she smelled fresh, clean, and oh so good.
Then she opened her mouth and let out a vicious screech that felt like a dagger to my brain. She rushed over to the bank, my knife in her hand, and I was terrified she was going to plunge it into me, but instead she dropped it with a clatter on a pile of rocks and went to her knees at my side. Her small hands reached for me, touching my forehead, and prodding at the wreck of my ear.
Yerk, when she was this close my heart drummed in my chest, and my fingers itched to pick at the remaining strands of her hair. It was dark, but now that it was clean, I could see brighter stands in a dark red.
And she was… nude. Not a stitch of clothing on her, when before she’d been completely covered in rags. I sucked in a breath as my gaze dropped to her breasts. When she shifted closer, they moved, and my mouth watered.
“Okay?” she asked in a quiet, raspy voice.
I understood her since my translator implant—luckily installed on my intact ear—was updated with her language, thanks to Bosa’s mate. But she had no implant—nothing but the bare skin behind each of her small ears. I nodded, and her shoulders relaxed.
Why wasn’t she scared of me? I glanced to my right to see my boots sitting by me, placed neatly side by side. My supplies were laid out in an orderly pile.
I lifted my gaze again to meet hers, and even though I knew she couldn’t understand me, I still asked. “Did you bring me here?”
She only blinked at me, then whipped her head behind her to bark out a word I didn’t recognize. “Skags! Come meet.”
A small turret trotted over, and I vaguely recalled that it had been in the cage next to her. Had they both escaped the ambush? And then… saved me? I’d been shot from behind—I could still feel the heat of the burn—and that had been the last thing I remembered. I placed my hand on my body, finding that most of my cuts had been cleaned and were on their way to healing.
A furry ball hopped in my lap, and I jerked, remembering the turret. “This Skags,” the female said, patting his head. “My friend.”
Her words seemed limited, and I wondered what happened that she spoke like that. She was a tiny thing, smaller than Bosa’s Karina. How had she gone from snapping at me with her teeth like a feral animal to this—a peaceful scene on the bank of a stream with a pet?
“You saved me,” she murmured. “So, I saved you. Probably can’t understand me, but—”
I reached for her, and she flinched, but her eyes met mine. I saw the fear then—a quick flash—before I gentled my grip on her wrist and tried for a smile. “I can understand.” I nodded too.
Her head tilted, and she studied me for a moment. “Can you understand me?”
I showed her the implant behind my ear and nodded. Her eyes went wide for a moment. “But I can’t…”
I shook my head, and she seemed to deflate a moment, before nodding to herself. “Okay.”
I had to get her a translator implant, but that was probably the least of our worries right now. I had to figure out where we were and how to reach home to let them know I wasn’t dead. But up first—food. It was clear she’d been rationing our few supplies, and I had no idea how long I’d been unconscious. In fact, I was surprised I was still alive and not rotting out there on the ground, bleeding out from the laser fire or picked to death by scavengers. I had my eyes and fingers—it was nearly a miracle. Or actually, it was all this little human.
“Cravus,” I said, touching my chest. Then I pointed at her. You?”
“Name?” she inquired, and I was happy she seemed to be intuitive to my meaning. I nodded, eager to hear her name, but she only shrugged. “I don’t remember.”
I shot her a questioning look, and her lower lip trembled a moment before she looked downstream. “I only remember waking up in a cage. Being hit. Starved.” She swallowed.
Where had the council found her? Who had been her former captors? I wished I could ask her these questions. I hoped she wasn’t referring to the transport crew, because they were supposed to be her rescuers.
She went on. “I don’t remember… anything. What I am. Where I came from.”
I stared at her, barely able to believe what she was saying. Was my implant translating it wrong? But then she met my eyes with her round dark ones and repeated, “I don’t remember.”
“Human,” I said pointing at her. I spoke the word again, slowly. “Hyooo-munnn.”
“My name?”
I shook my head and pointed at myself. “Kaluma.” Then at her. “Human.”
“Human,” she whispered, and then her pupils flickered, a slight dilation, and she inhaled a quick breath. “That sounds… familiar.” She stared at her thin, short fingers as she said it again. “Human.”
I gave her some time, as I couldn’t imagine how yerking scary this was for her. But I had to admire her. Despite having no memory, she’d survived, saved me, and had a turret as a pet.
“They… my captors… called me Mouse.” Her shoulders jerked. “You can call me that too. For now.”
She began to talk in halting words, describing what happened back at the caravan. There’d been an attack and her cage was broken. How I’d saved her, and then when I was hit, I’d fallen on her, my body a shield. After fending off scavengers, she’d dragged me to the safety of the forest, then used a sling to pull me to fresh water.
I stared at her in amazement as she told her story. She easily could have left me. I wouldn’t have blamed her. She’d only known hurt and pain, but for me she’d shown kindness.
I felt weak, and knew I needed to get on my feet quickly. Now that I was awake, I’d take care of the female and her pet. There was no question—I didn’t care what the council had planned for her. I’d bring her home with me—she’d find a friend in Karina, and a safe place where she could either regain her memories or make new ones. She didn’t belong on this planet, poked and prodded at by the council as they figured out what to do with her.
I slowly rolled onto my side with a groan. Dizziness blurred my vision for a moment, and I shook my head to clear it. The female was right there at my side, her smalls hands gripping me like she could prevent me from falling.
“I got it,” I rumbled at her, but she only blinked at me and stayed there. When I managed to rise to my feet, with her still holding onto me, I glanced down to find her staring up at me with a shaky smile. “Good,” she rasped. “Standing.”
Yerk, I’d never seen a naked human female. I’d never looked twice at Bosa’s mate. I liked her, but that was mostly because of what she did for Bosa, my friend. This female… everything about her made my chest tight and my heart pound. Her scent invaded my nostrils, a spicy warmth that was both new and familiar. The bruises on her thin skin made my blood hot, and the gash on her ribs had to be painful.
She piled some food in my open palm—a few nuts and berries as well as the last piece of jerky. I needed to eat—it’d been so long since I had a full meal. After a sip of water, I pointed to the food and gathered my belt and dagger. I showed it to her, saying. “I’m going to go get us more food.” Then I pointed at the food and mimicked chewing. She bit her lip, studying me for a moment before saying. “More food?”
I nodded, and her lips twitched into a small, pretty smile. Of the few human women I’d seen in my life, I’d never found them attractive or even interesting. But this one… what was it about her? My matz shimmered, and I rubbed at the white markings on my chest. Her gaze dipped to them, and her small fingers brushed along one near my spiks on my shoulders. “Shiny,” she whispered with a little wrinkled nose.
I had to get out of here. I didn’t want to cover her up if she was enjoying her nude, clean, skin, but eventually we’d have to travel to populated areas, and a naked human would draw all kinds of attention.
I tugged a square out of my back pocket—she must have missed it when she searched through my supplies—and tore open a corner with my fang. The packaging dissolved, and the contents swelled as soon as it touched the air. It expanded until it was about the size of a blanket for me—for the human female it would make a nice cloak. I settled it on her shoulders, and she gripped it tightly. She seemed to like it, as she wiggled her fingers and said with a happy voice. “Soft.”
“I’ll be back after I get us some food,” I said.
Even though she didn’t know what I was saying, she nodded and sat down on the rock next to Skags, who had fallen asleep on his back, paws in the air and tongue hanging out of his mouth.
With my weapon strapped to my back and my knife in my hand, I set out through the forest. We needed meat, and I wanted to search the area of the caravan attack. I could still smell the smoldering remains of laser fire drifting in the air. Then after that, I’d have to convince the female we had to leave. We couldn’t stay here forever, the three of us. I had a home. A purpose. And I refused to let her stay on this planet on her own, not with her erased memories.
Also? I needed a name for her. I refused to call her the same name her captors did.
