I awoke the next morning with a slight headache, and River in my arms.
I must admit I was very confused at first, as River had made her own bedding some distance away, but here she was, cuddled up towards me in my bed.
Naked, I note.
I must also admit that the feeling of her body next to mine led to some… understandable reactions from my body.
She wakes up from the shift in pressure down below.
She notices my arm around her. She blushes and looks away, but a second later she turns back towards me with a smile.
”Good morning..”
Her dialect was still very tangible. After all, she was still new to the language, but she could make herself understood, and that well.
I smile back at her.
”Good morning.”
Damn, now I really wish I could remember last night.
I decide on a whim to lean in and kiss her. She wraps her arms around me, holding me close.
Good morning indeed.
She never moved out of my bed, and already the next day she had removed her own, and extended mine.
Needless to say, I didn’t complain.
The coming days I taught her a lot of things, a few of which I will not mention here.
A gentleman doesn’t kiss and tell.
Anyway, I taught her the fine art of propperly grilling meat. It seems like the natives do indeed cook their food, but from me observing River, they lack the experienced finesse that I have aquired.
After all, I didn’t become the Adelene system BBQ champion for nothing!
Well, not that it’s much to brag about, since the population there during the championship was a whopping 25 thousand people.
But everything was well for a few weeks.
I woke up one morning, and as normal for me at this point, neither Crusoe or River were in the cave with me.
I stretched, and put a few more pieces of wood in the stove.
After putting on my overals, that at this point were more leather than synthetic fiber, I ventured outside.
The sun was just rising over the trees, and I saw River sitting, dreamily staring towards the horizon while Crusoe rested his head in her lap. She was distractedly stroking his fur.
I put my hand on her shoulder softly.
“What’s the matter, River?”
She snapped out of her ‘daydreams’, and looked up at me.
“Oh, it’s nothing. I was just thinking about my old home.”
She points in the direction of the sunrise.
“In that direction, five days from here, is my tribe’s land.”
I think for a moment, and then I give her a smile.
“You know, we could walk over there.”
It had been somewhat hasty, but River had been eager to begin our journey.
We had packed water, dried fruit and smoked meat for the travel. An amount I estimated would be enough for our trip, and then we set off.
For the first time since I moved into the cave, I let the fire go out. I sealed the entrance tightly, and I hoped no scavenger would find its’ way inside to our supplies.
Then we walked.
River had been eager at first, having to rein herself in not to walk too fast, but within the hour she was getting worn out. She eventually started sagging behind, and told me she needed a rest. It was the middle of the day, and was way too hot for her. Plus, her stamina had nearly run out.
I had hardly even been strained by the walk so far. To me, it had hardly been as much as a morning stroll.
I walked over to her, and for a moment she didn’t understand my intentions.
Then I picked her up, and told her to hold on to my back, as I picked up her supplies as well.
She was so light that it was hardly a challenge.
Even though it had been years since my basic training back on earth, I felt like this was nothing at all.
I kept walking, and walking, while she slept on my back.
When I had finally become tired, I gently set down the supplies, before I set her down on a bed of soft leaves. I gently shook her to wake her up.
As she did, she looked around, and spotted a mountain pass I had recently put behind us.
She sat there with her mouth open.
“What?” I ask, not really understanding her surprise.
“Those mountains…” she pointed at the mountain pass.
“They’re three days walk from where we were! How long was I asleep?”
I shrug.
“Most of the day.”
I look at the position of the sun as I stretch my burning legs and shoulders.
“I’d guess about ten, twelve hours.”
She seemed no less surprised by this. If anything, she was even more flabbergasted.
“Twelve hours?! You’ve carried me, and our supplies, non stop for twelve hours?!”
I chucle.
“Yeah, with this low gravity it wasn’t especially hard.”
She looks at me with a puzzled expression.
“What’s gravity?”
I spend most of the evening explaining Physics to my native lover. It was quite a fun thing to do, and I realized just how many things her people had explained with just ‘the gods want it that way, so it is’.
Then I realize we Humans weren’t much different back in the stone age either. Hell, it wasn’t until a thousand years ago or so that we stopped burning people claiming the Earth wasn’t flat.
I also told her a lot about Earth. I might have told her about Humanity, and the stars, but when I told her about Earth she seemed stuck in a state of disbelief.
She couldn’t believe there was a place with so many dangers, so many poisons and predators as Earth.
Meanwhile, Crusoe was wading through a nearby stream.
I then decided to sleep for the night, and River offered to stay up and keep watch.
She then did something she never had before.
She sang me to sleep.
I slept like a baby.
It took me two days to reach the lands of River’s tribe. It was a pleasant valley situated between some high mountains. I saw a calm river flowing down the middle of the valley, and River grabbed my hand.
She lead me around the village, crafted out of clay huts, which I could see down in the center of the valley.
She lead me to a especially thick gathering of trees.
“Wait here with Crusoe. I’ll go into the village first, and I’ll come back here to signal for you to follow me when I have made sure my tribe won’t, um..”
“Flip shit?” I insert, and she smiles.
“Yes! So that they won’t ‘flip shit’ when they see you two.”
I nod.
“Sounds reasonable enough. But before you go..”
I put my hand on her shoulder, and pull her in for a brief kiss before letting her go.
“I’ll be waiting.”
She nods, and walks away.
I wait in the bushes, crouched with my left hand on Crusoe, and my eyes peering out towards the village.
It was evening when we arrived, so the tribe should be waking up by now.
I wait for what feels like way too long, but then I can see them.
Lithe bluish-gray forms approaching my hiding place. I can recognize River leading them, and the rest of the group seems to be made out of an elderly male and female, a few males with spears – the village hunters, no doubt – and some other people. River stops the others, and walks towards me alone, smiling and motioning for me to come out.
I rise from my hiding place, and step out in the more open jungle.
I can hear the collective gasp of the other members of the tribe.
One of the males looks somewhere in between rage and fear, and he charges me with the spear raised in front of him.
I push River to the side gently, and grab his spear.
He comes to a sudden stop, and I can hear the air being knocked out of his lungs.
I then lift the spear, thinking that it’d make him drop it.
He clings on, now hanging from his hands clasping the spear.
I shake it, and he loses his grip, falling flat on his ass.
He draws a knife, and comes at me again.
I was just about to whack him with the spear when River jumps between us. River and the male spends some time shouting at eachother. I can’t understand more than a fraction of what they say, but I can tell he referred to me as a ‘pale hairy monster’.
I felt quite offended by that.
I had tanned plenty during my stay here, so I wasn’t especially pale anymore.
River then demonstratingly went over to me, and put her arm around me.
I can tell that the male is quite flustered, but he walks away in the direction of the village.
“Okay, what was that about?”
River looks almost ashamed when she responded.
“He thought you were a monster, and wanted to kill you.”
Figured as much.
“So, who was he?”
She looks away a little, seemingly even more ashamed now.
“he is the village’s best hunter. He was trying to make me his mate before I… was taken away.
I’m the only one of five women to be taken that has returned.”
“Huh.”
I didn’t really have much more to add to the topic. After all, she didn’t seem to want to talk about it.
I was just happy Crusoe hadn’t ripped his throat out.
Now that I think about it, why hadn’t crusoe ripped his throat out?
“Crusoe! Heel, boy!”
Crusoe came running out of the bushes, sitting down next to my feet.
Oh, I remember now.
I told him to sit, and hadn’t told him he could get back up. Damn I was happy that he was as obedient as he was.
River then led me towards the others, and I was introduced to the village elder, as well as River’s siblings and parents.
We then proceeded towards the village.