The tentacle struck out of nowhere, wrapping around Brax and yanking him off the hover craft.
Louisa shrieked, “Giant marsh squid!” and pulled out her gun, which personally, Xarn found scarier than the creature attacking them.
“You’re not funny, Murphy,” Xarn growled, speaking to thin air, knowing the troublesome entity hovered nearby. It didn’t take a genius to figure out he was probably next to get his feet wet. Xarn drew his sword, just in time as more waving appendages sprang from the muddy waters. He sliced them before they could snare him or touch Louisa, but while he kept her unencumbered, he was unable to prevent the chopped stalks from spraying her with a milky ichor.
“Eeew!” She made a moue of distaste, but didn’t faint like many females would. Definitely not weak in spirit, a trait he appreciated. A sense of relief allowed him to loosen his tense poise as Brax’s head popped up from the surface of the pink quagmire. Not that he truly worried about his sword brother. Or so he told himself.
Brax waded to the side of the platform while Louisa clapped her hands, happiness shining on her face at his reappearance.
“Brax! You’re alive.”
Xarn snorted. “Of course he is. You did not seriously think a mere swamp creature could best one of the Dual Terrors? We teethed on creatures scarier than that.”
He should have heeded the warning glint in her eyes. He didn’t, thus he was not prepared for the shove she gave him that sent him over the side, head first into the bog. The bottom proved not far, and he planted his feet and pushed himself to the surface. Emerging from the mire alongside his brother, he spat out a mouthful of gunk and glared at her. She laughed.
“Not funny, human,” he growled.
“Funny depends on where you’re standing,” she taunted. Planting her hands on her hips, she beamed down at them, probably not realizing that in her current apparel—Brax’s shirt and nothing else—they possessed a clear view of what she hid. And it looked enticing.
“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Xarn muttered.
“Most definitely.”
They reached up and each grabbed a hold of a corner. Rocking in one direction, then the other, they wobbled the floating platform.
“Hey, what are you doing?” she yelled.
Xarn, his eye on the prize which kept flashing him as she spread her legs to keep her balance, grinned. “Revenge.”
“Is my middle name,” she laughed before plopping herself onto the deck and crossing her legs tight. “Now, if you’re done trying to cop a peek, can we finish getting to land before some more nasty swamp creatures show up?”
Not wanting to cover her in the same mud they bore, they trudged alongside the raft until they reached solid ground. Striding forth, in gear heavily coated in grime, Xarn grimaced. “We need a bath.”
“Yes you do,” Louisa agreed. “You stink.” She held her nose for emphasis, her eyes twinkling with mirth.
This time, they didn’t even look at each other before they acted. He and Brax sandwiched her between them, rubbing their murk covered bodies against her. Retaliation was the goal, but pressed against her lush body, her laughing shrieks and giggles music to his ears, an urge of a different sort assailed him. And he wasn’t alone.
He could see the same lust on Brax’s face. Oddly, it didn’t bother him as much as it had in the beginning. They’d shared a lot of things over the years, almost everything, actually, except a shared genetic background and women—although given how often they hung out with each other, their parents and family just treated them both the same. Was it truly that insane to think that when it came to a mate the same female would draw them?
“Okay, you’ve made your point,” Louisa laughed pushing at his chest, her eyes bright with amusement. “No more making fun of you guys even if pink is your color.”
Xarn tweaked her nose and left a smudge of mud on the tip. He kissed her quickly before she could squeak. But one kiss wasn’t enough. He possessed her mouth, and it yielded under his touch, opening for him, her tongue venturing forth to tangle with his own. He gripped her hips, pulling her tighter against him, and became aware his friend still remained pressed against her back. He opened one eye to see Brax kissing her neck. Even more fascinating than the fact he found it intriguing to watch, Louisa didn’t seem to mind at all.
Perhaps Brax’s earlier suggestion of sharing wasn’t so far off the mark after all. Did they really need to make her choose? Couldn’t they …?
The rain he predicted chose that moment to come down in torrents, its only saving grace its warmth, and the fact it sluiced the mud from their bodies. But it also ruined the moment. Louisa broke free of the embrace with a gasp, a blush coloring her cheeks.
They let her move away from between them at her gentle shove, but Xarn couldn’t help his mind moving in a different direction, one that no longer involved a competition to make her choose, but one where he shared her with his best friend. A matter he’d discuss with Brax at the earliest opportunity. First, they needed to locate her students, find or create shelter and try to discover exactly where in the galaxy they found themselves.
Xarn pressed a button to reduce the platform into a small cube again, and placed it in his sack. It could come in handy again later. As expected, Louisa insisted on carrying something so they handed her the smallest pack with the lightest items. With Brax leading the way, followed by their human, then himself, they set off in the direction the analyzer predicted the leisure section of the ship might have landed. Somehow he doubted the discovery would happen quickly given the heavy jungle they needed to travel through. The foliage seemed determined to hinder their passage. The ground underfoot was treacherous with ruts while the thick brush required careful perusal before stepping in, with the unfortunate chance something hid within its depths. Their boots could handle a lot of abuse—and bites—Louisa however with her wading shoes and bare legs couldn’t. And while he would enjoy sucking her skin, he preferred it not occur because of a need to aspirate poison from her flesh.
Trudging through the tepid downpour didn’t bother him much, but after long galactic units of it, he could tell it taxed Louisa, although she didn’t complain. But as they continued on, walking in the rain, climbing and skirting obstacles, her body betrayed her, with her steps coming sluggishly, her teeth chattering while her breaths emerged in heavy wheezes.
He swept her into his arms.
“What are you doing?” she squeaked. “I can walk.”
“You are tired and unused to this type of atmosphere. This however is nothing to us. We used to train in much worse.”
“But, I’m heavy.”
Xarn snorted. “Not by my standards.”
“What if we come across something dangerous? How will you fight?”
“Are you calling Brax weak? I know, he is not as handsome and virile a specimen as I am, but he is capable in a fight.”
“Of course he’s a good fighter. But—”
Brax chuckled. “Stop teasing her. Fear not, sweet Louisa. I can hold off any attacks long enough for Xarn to put you down and draw his weapon.”
“I guess arguing won’t get me anywhere?” she replied with a sigh.
“No.”
Her body relaxed in his grasp, and her arms curled around his neck. She rested her head on his shoulder. The moment proved strangely intimate and Xarn enjoyed the trust she placed in him along with the lush feel of her body. A mate should know when to depend on her male. And he liked getting the chance to show her he owned the right traits to be that mate.
Quiet for several units, he thought her asleep until she suddenly said, “What are you guys? Because, I got the impression at first you were friends, but I’ve heard you use the term sword brother and brother in arms? Are you related?”
“No, but due to the close friendship of our mother’s, we were more or less raised as if we were. We learned to fight together and drew first blood at the same time. When you are that close to a male, the term sword brother is used.”
“I am the older brother though,” Brax announced.
“By mere cycles,” Xarn retorted.
“It is because my father’s seed was stronger,” boasted his friend with a grin.
“No, it is because mother loved me more and wished to keep me within her longer.” That wiped Brax’s smirk. “And a babe borne of two seeds takes more time to cultivate.
“Hold on a second,” she said, lifting her head and peering between them. “What do you mean two seeds? Was your mother artificially inseminated?”
Xarn couldn’t stop his horrified, “No! Who would forgo the pleasures of sex to let a machine impregnate them?”
“On earth, some women who need help have it done. It’s fairly routine.”
“Not on our world it isn’t. My mother bore me the traditional way by copulating with two warriors, her mates. It is a mark of the strength of my fathers that they both managed to impregnate her at the same time.”
“Your mother slept with two men? At once?”
“According to her, there was little sleep,” Xarn replied with a wink.
Her cheeks turned a bright red color that stood in stark contrast to her pale skin. “I am totally wigged out right now,” she exclaimed, using yet again another human expression that did not translate. Her hair seemed fine, why would she require a wig?
Before he could ask what she meant, the analyzers at both of their waists began to beep.
Holding his up, Brax stopped walking to aim his at the jungle.
“What is it? Did you find something?” she asked.
“I think we might have located a section of the ship. I’m reading a large metallic structure in this direction.”
Xarn set Louisa on her feet. He drew his sword and gun. “Stay behind me,” he ordered as they crept in the direction the analyzer indicated.
Brax went ahead, his movement silent through the thick brush as he sneaked up on the area. At his shout of, “All clear,” Xarn pushed through the thick foliage to see a swathe of destruction. They’d found a section of the ship, its rough landing creating a wide furrow in the ground with ripped up vegetation plowed along its sides.
Jogging to catch up to Brax, who disappeared in an opening in the side, Louisa panted as she ran past him to the broken spacecraft.
“Is it them? Are they okay?” she shouted.
Just as she reached the doorway in the side of the vessel, Brax reappeared. “It’s the leisure section we’ve been looking for, but the little females are gone.”
Louisa dropped to her knees and wailed. “No! They can’t be dead! They’re so young. So—”
“I meant gone as in not here,” Brax hastened to correct, extending a hand to help their human back up. “From what I perceived, they all survived the impact. There is no blood or bodies. They managed to get out of their harnesses and found the compartment with supplies. The sacks are gone as are most of the items. They took supplies and weapons with them it seems before they left.”
“Are you trying to tell me, they’re out there, alone in an alien jungle?” She seemed just as horrified by that prospect as when she thought them fatally wounded.
“With supplies,” Brax reiterated.
“And weapons,” Xarn added.
She smacked him in the arm and Xarn winced at her yelled, “You idiot! Don’t you dare try and placate me. My girls are out there, by themselves, scared and alone. They could get eaten. Or fall in a swamp, or something else that’s really horrible.”
Xarn snorted. “I doubt there is much that would dare eat those little demons. As for falling into anything, you don’t give them enough credit.”
He didn’t buckle before her glare, and her shoulders eventually slumped. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to yell. I’m just so frightened for them.”
“As any proper guardian should be. There is no shame in caring for them.”
“They can’t be that far ahead of us,” Brax interjected. “We will locate their trail and follow it. You will be reunited with them soon.”
But a quick reunion proved a difficult task. With the rain still pouring, the tracks the halflings might have left were more or less obliterated. He and Brax relied on all their hunting skills to stay on the right path, keeping a close eye for broken branches and crushed foliage. Their careful perusal made for slow going however, and even though they took turns carrying Louisa, eventually fatigue dragged at them all.
“We make camp here,” Xarn announced, dropping his bag in the next clearing they stepped into. Brax didn’t question his decision, despite knowing they could have kept going for many more galactic units, wearied or not. Unused to the atmosphere though, Louisa couldn’t.
“We should keep going,” she panted. “I’ll be fine. Just give me five minutes.”
“You are unused to the thicker air and moisture of this planet. There is no shame in resting. You will become a liability in the search if you collapse from exhaustion or illness.”
She pursed her lips in annoyance. “I’m not a wimp, and my girls need me.”
“They need you alive. We are making camp here,” Xarn replied.
“Fine.” She tossed her sack on the ground and sat on it, her scowl warring with the obvious relief in her body that they’d stopped.
Inclining his head, Xarn motioned Brax to the edge of the clearing, under the guise of collecting materials to build a shelter. Turning his back on her, in a low voice he said, “Louisa can’t go on. She needs to rest. But one of us needs to keep looking for her girls. The longer they are out here alone, the less likely we’ll find them alive.” Despite his earlier claim they were tough, the reality remained they lacked experience and the skills needed to survive on an alien planet.
“Agreed. She needs protection. But which of us should go? It would make sense to leave the one she likes best, which you stubbornly refuse to admit is me, but until she does and crushes your fantasies, how do we decide?”
“You wish she liked you more. Actually, I’ve been thinking about the whole dilemma revolving around her choice,” Xarn replied casting an eye on Louisa as she yanked on the tall fronds growing from the ground and placed them in pile. “I think it’s time we stopped fighting over who gets her.”
“I’m not giving her up,” Brax snarled.
“No one said you had to.”
“You are stepping aside?” Brax stopped pulling on a limb overhead to glance at him.
“Not a chance. I want her as much as you do, which is why I think it is time we do what we do best.”
“Cause trouble?”
“No.”
“Kill something?”
For the smart one, his sword brother could at times prove awfully dense. “No. You idiot. I’m talking about sharing her.”
“Oh. Fine by me.”
The easy, nonchalant reply took him by surprise. “Fine by you? That’s all you have to say?”
Brax shrugged. “I’d already come to the same conclusion. It is obvious she is attracted to both of us and that the fact we are forcing her to choose is what is creating her unwillingness to mate with either of us. Sharing seems to be the obvious solution. But who goes first?”
Not having thought that far ahead because he’d expected more argument, Xarn gaped at Brax. He recovered quickly. “My idea, so it should be me,” Xarn announced.
“I’m older, so the privilege should be mine.”
“You had the last turn, so by rights, its mine again.”
“She’s wearing my shirt.”
Xarn frowned. “What the frukx does that have to do with anything?”
A shrug lifted Brax’s shoulders. “Nothing, just thought I’d mention it.”
“Me.”
“No. Me.”
Standing toe to toe, gathering forgotten for the moment, they glared at each other.
“If we fight, she will know we are talking about her,” Brax said, faking a smile for Louisa who stood watching them with her lips pursed and her hands on her hips.
“Antimatter, supernova or black hole,” Xarn said. A childhood game of chance that had broken up more than one stalemate. Grinning at the solution, Brax nodded in agreement. They each held out a fist and bounced it three times.
“Ha. I win,” exclaimed Xarn, holding up his fingers in a ring, to Brax’s spread fingers. “Black hole swallows your super nova.”
“Frukx. I knew I should have gone antimatter to reverse your polarity.” Brax bundled the broken plantation into his arms. “I guess I’m going to go look for the halflings trail.”
Leaving Xarn alone with Louisa. My luck is finally looking up.
Returning to the clearing, he and Brax dropped their load of materials.
“Took you long enough,” Louisa said. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say you were planning something.” Her stern eye saw right through them, so Xarn avoided it, dropping to his knees so he could rummage through his sack for his cord dispenser. He intended to use it to bind the limbs into a frame so he could create a shelter to divert the rain from their bodies.
“As a matter of fact, we were talking. While you set up the shelter with Xarn, I will continue to scout and look for clues as to your charge’s location,” Brax announced.
“Alone? Are you sure? I’m good to go,” she said.
“Stay here and rest. I’ll use the communicator if I find anything.” Brax lightened the load in one sack, leaving a pile on the ground. “But I’ll expect a warm dinner and bed when I get back.” He winked and grinned, replying with a waggle of his fingers to Xarn’s rude gesture done behind her back.
In a bold move, Brax twirled Louisa into his arms and plastered her lips with a kiss. When he released her, her eyes shone with desire, and while a smidgen of jealousy nipped him, Xarn consoled himself with the fact, he was the one staying behind with her. Brax slapped her buttocks in parting before strutting off quite pleased with himself. Xarn didn’t care. He was now alone with their human. And I get to be first!
Louisa continued to stare after Brax long after the foliage of the jungle swallowed his shape. “Will he be alright all by himself?”
A snort escaped him. “I’ll pretend you didn’t ask that.” He lifted the frame he’d created and covered it in a waterproof tarp.
She whirled to gaze at him, a smile tugging her lips. “I didn’t mean it like that. It’s just there are obviously some big nasty creatures out there, not to mention those guys who shot us down. On earth, there’s an expression; safety in numbers.”
“You are worried about his wellbeing? You care for him?” he asked it nonchalantly even if he was anything but. As he waited for her answer, he used a longer pole to prop the frame at an angle, forcing the rainwater to run down and away from the shelter. The leaning wall covered a space large enough for the platform which he popped opened and floated into place.
“I care for both of you, even if you’re macho and annoying.”
“What is macho?”
She struck a pose and flexed her arms while raising a brow. “Look at me. I am so strong and sexy.”
He grinned. “You think us attractive?”
“Well duh. I’m not dead. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to choose one of you.”
“So have us both,” he replied casually as he piled the foliage she’d gathered on top of the platform for a cushion.
“What?”
He peeked at her from his spot on the ground where he spread the blankets over the makeshift bed. “It seems we both bring you enjoyment. And since the decision to choose is taxing you unduly, then perhaps, the best solution would be to not choose at all.”
“Wow. I wasn’t expecting that. I thought you guys were one on one type of fellows.”
“Usually we prefer to keep our females separate, but we are willing to make an exception in your case.”
“Why?” She cocked her head when she asked, curiosity in her eyes.
He stood from the shelter he’d created. “Because you are special.”
She made a funny sound. “So I’m a novelty you both want to bang.”
“If you mean copulate, then yes, that is one of our goals. But, you also intrigue many of our other senses. For me at least, I quite enjoy your brave nature, and wayward tongue.”
“I like you too, but…”
“Shhh.” He held a finger to his lips and pulled out his gun, his eyes scanning the foliage. The sensation of eyes watching made the skin on his nape prickle. Louisa didn’t cower, although her face took on an ashen hue. Trepidation or not though, she pulled out the knife they’d given her and held it in front of her, her pose useless but brave.
A rustle to his left, made him spin on a heel. He saw the glow of eyes before something charged, snarling and slavering as it barreled at them. He fired once, hitting the creature between the eyes and it dropped. But it wasn’t alone.
Xarn whirled as another beast lunged from the shadows, this time aiming for Louisa. Quickly, he wrapped an arm around her waist and reeled her to his side while he fired with his free hand. She trembled, clutching at him, her knife dropped in her fright.
“What the hell were those things?” she squeaked. “Did you see all the freaking teeth it had?”
“Forget the teeth, it’s the poison that would have killed you,” he replied, recognizing the ugly beasts having seen them in the marketplace in the past. Their venom was much prized by assassins. He’d make sure to get some of it when she wasn’t watching. It could come in handy later.
“I am so reassured,” she snapped.
He peered down at her, saw the fright that still clung to her, and raised a hand to gently brush a strand of hair from her face. “I would not let anything harm you. Ever.” I’d give my life for you. A true thought, and one that made him realize that she truly was his mate even though he’d yet to claim her. More than fornicating, or winning, he wanted this female, at his side, bearing his little warriors, being his companion for life. And he’d wager, Brax felt the same way too.
She buried her face against his bare chest, the warmth of her breath tickling his skin. He brought his arms around her in a hug, feeling her shivering ease. Danger averted, awareness took its place. He noticed the lushness of her body pressed against his. The warmth of her skin. The things he wanted to do to her body…
First though, he needed to finish securing the camp lest more visitors arrived to interrupt. Something I should have done in the first place. He placed sensors forming a hexagon around the clearing. They would notify him of motion within thirty paces of the border. Plenty of time to grab a weapon and protect his female.
But beware to the entity that dared to interrupt before he’d taken his pleasure with his human, because Xarn’s need was great. And I am done waiting.