TAERIC

The small female walks over to the beast that had tried to attack her and nudges it with her boot. She bends down and shakes her head.

"What on earth?" she murmurs quietly, looking at the beast. Before I can react, she grabs the legs. "I want-" she drew in a deep breath, trying to move the creature, "-to use this!" She let go, and the creature's legs thumped to the ground. "I mean, I am pretty sure you can eat mountain lion. I could use the hide, too."

She stares at me as I jump up, lifting the creature from the ground. "You're gonna help?" she seems shocked for a moment before chuckling. "Thank you."

Help her? Of course. Doesn't she get help from anyone? I did not like the thought of her being alone and vulnerable without help, either.

She looks at me with thankful eyes and a smile. "Here, I will carry your bag."

She holds out her hands, and I looked down at them. I shake my head, but she places one hand on her hip and holds the other out, raising a brow that dares me to say no again. She smiles as I pull my pack off my shoulder and hand it over to her.

I shift the animal in my arms to brush one of the branches out of my face. The small female simply ducks a bit but passes through it easily. Her head only comes up to the middle of my chest. She is much smaller than me. I can't help the feelings that come over me. This tiny, fragile female held the future of my entire race in her hands.

"That is a mountain lion," she says, interrupting my thoughts. "Well... I mean, I'm guessing you don't know what it is."

Shifting the beast in my arms to get a better grip, I nod my head.

"The scent of the animals on my belt attracted it or something..." she trails off, and I watch as she trembles a bit. I am unsure if it is fear or cold. One inhale is enough to tell me it is the former. "You must be pretty dang strong! You aren't even breaking a sweat!" She chuckles awkwardly, but her eyes hold amazement. I can't help but be proud of the fact that she noticed my strength.

She pushes a low-hanging branch out of her face and looks over her shoulder at me, "So..." she trailed off. "Do you have a name? I don't want to keep calling you 'The alien man,'" she chuckled.

My mouth turns up at the corners, admiring her bravery. No doubt she is confused and a little terrified, especially after that creature attacked, a mountain lion as she called it, but she is acting calm and composed. "Tare-rick," I enunciated my name slowly before repeating it faster, "Taeric."

She smiles. "Nice to meet you, Taeric."

"Nay'em?" I ask with a smile of my own, trying to mimic her earlier question. It would have been much simpler if the translator was not broken. I had questions I wanted to ask her. Things to tell her.

The little female pushes a piece of her dark hair behind her ear as she ducks under a branch, and I felt my breath catch over her beauty. "Emara Davis, at your service," she says turning back around to give me a salute and wide grin. "You can just call me Emara, though."

"Emara," I say slowly, letting the syllables run over my tongue. It is a lovely name, just as lovely as her.

"Do aliens have last names?"

"Lass Nay'em?"

She hums thoughtfully, "You know, like an extra name to connect people together? Everyone in my family has the same last name, but we also have our own personal names. They are called surnames, and in some countries, they say the last name first, but here, in America, we say last names.... well, last," she tells me with a laugh. "It's like a name you pass on. You give it to your kids when you have them, so everyone knows they are yours, or like someone you marry... or something..." She turns away from me and back towards the trees.

"Lass Nay'em, Soarek."

"Soarek? What an interesting name!"

I wanted to huff, realizing I wouldn't be able to explain to her more about how the families worked on Dervidix. When a male became a female's mate, she would receive a marking that would claim her as his. After they mated, his scent would be on her as well, making it clear to any other male that she was spoken for. I hope that the signal I sent got through to Captain Deorit soon. And hopefully, he would bring a translator that wasn't broken.

She smiles at me, and my heart beat faster. She is going to save my race. I still couldn't believe it. The trees thinned out, and a small structure came into view. This must be where she keeps her nest, I realized. Emara had used the word "home" when she had first told me. That must be what humans call their rukak'z.

Emara walks up to it, glancing around carefully. One breath is enough for me to detect her worry. Why is she so on edge? Something is obviously bothering her. The instincts that have been so long dormant in males surges through me and I resist the urge to take a step in her direction. She takes a deep breath, calming herself. I admire her courage once again. I can still smell her fear, but it is dissipating a bit. Based on her demeanor, you would only assume she was alert. I take another deep breath and sense something else.

A male. Did she have a mate? My heart aches at the thought of her having a mate already. I shake my head, dismissing the ridiculous thoughts. However, they become dark as I adjust to the beast in my arms.

How could a mate leave her to fend for herself with danger so close? My anger flames again at her lack of safety. He wasn't there to help her when she needed it and she could have died had I not been there. She could not even carry the creature on her own. She had been planning to drag it the whole way!

The little female makes her way to the door of her den, pulling out a small piece of metal. My anger begins to subside as curiosity takes over. She inserts it into what looked to be the handle and turns it. There is a click, and she swings the door open. She peers around and motions for me to come inside.

I duck my head as I come inside. Once in through the door, I realize that the ceiling of her den was relatively high and fit my frame better than I was expecting. I look around curiously.

The place is rather nice. Lacking in technology, but still practical. It smells like her and nothing like the odor of the male from earlier. I take a deep breath.

My senses detect something else that seems almost familiar, but I do not know what it is. It was more than likely the creature I have been carrying for the past 15 kemiask's. Maybe my own wishful thoughts about having a connection to this small female have even begun messing with my senses.

I watch as she walks into a smaller part of the room we were standing in. Emara grabs a small bar of something slippery and rubs it across her fingers and palm before dunking them into the water. I realize she must be cleansing them.

The small female looks back at me over her shoulder. "Oh goodness! Just set that by the door. I will get to it soon." She dries her hands and reaches up above her head, pulling open a cabinet. I set the beast down by the door as she instructed.

Emara has to stand on the tips of her small feet to reach what she wants. She grunts a bit as she searches around for whatever it was. I walk over to her and can easily peer into the shelf above her head. I reach forward and pick up the small case she seems to be trying to grab.

The female stumbles backward, shocked by my presence, and her back falls into my chest. I catch her arms to stabilize her.

"T-thank you," Emara mumbles as she takes the case from my hands, setting it on a small table. She pulls out a chair and motions for me to sit before walking back to the room she had just been in. She grabs a small round container, filling it with some water. A small piece of cloth balanced on her forearm as she grabs the bar of cleanser again. After setting it all on the table, she sits across from me and reaches to grab my arm. I moved to be better in her view.

I watched with interest as she dug through the case and pulled out a container of liquid, setting it in front of me. She hops up from her chair and walked back over to the kitchen, grabbing another round container and putting it on the table.

The little female sits down before standing up again and moving closer to me. She lifts my arm and sets it over the container and begins to pour the liquid onto my arm.

Emara grabs the rag off the table and dunks it into the water, and rubs the bar inside it like she had her hands. She is careful not to touch the wound itself as she cleans but then pours water over it again, flushing out the dirt that had gotten into it during the fight with the mountain lion.

"Do you know where you are?" she blurts out suddenly. "Oh I mean, did you mean to land here? Or... did you crash?"

I shake my head. I have been wondering where on earth I had crashed, but things have been happening so fast that I did not have a moment to bring it up, especially since any conversation is hindered by the broken translator.

"Oh, well, you are in America. I am assuming you know this is Earth. You are in a specific part of America called Colorado. Welcome!" Emara reached back into the case after she finishes cleaning my wound and pulls out a roll of bright white cloth. She wraps my arm and then makes a tight knot with the end pieces, securing it. She pats the part of my arm that isn't wounded and smiles at me. "All good now! Gotcha patched up. You should be good as new soon. It is a little strange... these scratches seemed more like gouges 15 minutes ago...."

"I can heal rapidly," I say. Her eyebrows shoot up in confusion as she stares at me. I curse the language barrier under my breath. Pulling out the translator, I ask for a simple translation to let her know I heal fast. It pulls up exactly what I needed, or at least hoped so. "Aye hel faust," I say deliberately, hoping I was pronouncing it correctly.

"You can heal fast? Oh wow, lucky! I wish I would have had that when I was a- Oh my goodness, the kids!" Emara hops up from her chair.

I watch as she races to the wall of her den by the stairs. She makes a quick rhythm on the wall and moments later I hear the click of something opening. There are hushed whispers and then something clacking along with the floors.

Curiously, I peer up the stairs. I watch and wait when something large and hairy comes barreling down the stairs.