Berserker god

CHAPTER EIGHT

Suvi

The alien led me along the riverbank for what felt like hours, never letting go of my hand. It seemed as if he was looking for something but he didn’t even know what it was. Sometimes he would stop and look around, eye bright, as if on the verge of realizing something, only to jerk his head forward again with a deep growl and continue plodding onward. The only sounds were the gentle sloshing of the water, buzzing insects among the rushes, our footsteps, and the heavy scrape of his tail through the sand. I kept pace with him. Walking held the chill mostly at bay and gave me something to focus on. One foot in front of the other. Over and over again.

But I couldn’t keep it up forever. I slowed and started stumbling more often, then limping, pain radiating from where blisters had formed on my heels in my wet boots. The alien noticed and scooped me up into his arms without a word. I should have fought him. I should have wriggled and scratched him and screamed.

But I didn’t.

Adrenaline had abandoned me, left me limp and empty. I was cold and so, so tired. Everything hurt. And for a moment, it was easier to be carried by a monster than to continue being in pain.

But even the alien seemed to be faltering. Tension crept into his snout, and he walked more slowly than before. I thought of how he’d crashed into the surface of the other planet, how he’d created some sort of inter-planetary portal out of thin air, and wondered how much energy such feats would take. It all seemed to be catching up to him, his steps getting heavier and heavier. My heart sped up, my brain instantly begi

And what?

I had no idea where I was or how to survive here. And it was unlikely I’d be able to hide from him for long. He’d pursue me, and even in his current state there was no doubt he’d be far faster than I was. Despair pressed down on me like fog, and I grew even more listless against his chest. I let myself sink into the warmth radiating off of him because there was nothing else to do. And maybe it wasn’t too bad, maybe it wasn’t too dangerous to relieve myself of a little bit of suffering. Just for now.

I must have dozed off for a while, because when I stirred and blinked my eyes, the landscape had changed. The river’s shore had grown rockier, and instead of just reeds there were what looked like massive trees clustered a little ways back from the rocks and boulders. The moons appeared to be in a different position, too, assuming that we hadn’t vastly changed course. I gulped and shifted, earning me a sharp downward look from the alien. I froze under his stare.

It scared me that I’d gotten so comfortable that I’d actually fallen asleep like this. Who knew where he was taking me?

Something told me even he didn’t know.

He paused, turning his head this way and that, sniffing the air but never quite seeming satisfied. Eventually, he turned towards the trees, taking me with him.

The trees were unlike anything I’d ever seen before. They had huge, tall, tapered trunks. But instead of branches or leaves or needles, at the top were giant white puffs streaked with what appeared to be metal, just like the river reeds I’d seen before but on a massive scale. My botanist brain was too tired to try to figure out how the trees might have worked. The fluffy tops of the trees, silver-white and gleaming with hard threads under the stars, gave the grove an oddly dream-like appearance, like I was being carried into the hushed illustration of a fairytale story book.

The alien carried me into the centre of the grove. Shadows pooled here, deep wells of darkness between streaks of light. He put me down, and it was pretty gentle, which I hoped was a good sign for whatever was coming next.

“Now what?” I muttered, crossing my arms over my chest and shivering. Even though it was a relief to be out of his arms, I was already missing his heat. At least, my body was. My wet feet ached, blisters twinging beneath my socks. I rubbed my hands up and down my upper arms, hating the fact that I didn’t even have a shirt anymore.

The alien didn’t answer me. He peered around the grove with what seemed to be a vaguely thoughtful expression, then went over to a tree. He dug his claws into the side of the tree, slicing horizontally and then pulling downwards, tearing away a long, wide strip of what appeared to be a flexible sort of bark. I watched him in silence, lips pursed, as he did it again and again. Once he had several sheets of the stuff, he got to work arranging them together against the side of a boulder. He drilled holes in them with his claws, using long, durable blades of grass to bind the sheets together into a protective sort of lean-to.

Then he stood back and looked at me, something expectant gleaming in his eye.

“I suppose you want me to get in there,” I tossed over, frowning at the lean-to.

He didn’t reply. He simply cocked his head, his one eye locking even more tightly on my face. As if he could understand what I was saying if he only listened hard enough.

I shook my head, reminding myself not to get too comfortable with the fact that he seemed to be mostly conscientious. If he were really someone to be trusted, he wouldn’t have abducted me in the first place.

I’d already been taken from everything I knew once, when Earth forces kidnapped me and forced me into this mission.

And he’d gone ahead and done it again. Only it was even worse now, because now I truly had nobody left. At least on the ship, I’d had friends. Other women in the same situation as me.

Here... I had no one.

No one but my alien abductor, staring at me with a single golden eye and waiting for me to crawl like a dog into the shelter he’d built.

Do I have any choice?

I could refuse, I supposed. I could scream at him, make him take me back to the planet where he’d found me. But even in the thickness of my grief and denial, I had to acknowledge that the ship had been lifting off. The other humans had likely moved on to another world by now, and there would be no way to get back to them.

And even if there was a chance, I just didn’t have the fucking energy. I’d never been a fighter. I’d always been happier talking soothingly to plants than confronting other people. Elvi had been the strong one, the one who’d raised me even though she’d been only eight years older than me. When I’d been bullied, she was always the one who’d stood up for me. She was the one who put me into hockey to try to build some confidence in myself. Paska, even when she was dying, she was the one comforting me.

But she was gone now. And so were the last friends I’d had in this universe.

I choked back a sob and crawled into the shelter.

In the darkness, I huddled into a ball, too worn-out to even take off my soaked boots. I lay on my side, staring at the black underside of the wood wall of the lean-to. It was so dark that I couldn’t even tell if things got blurred when tears filled my eyes. I blinked the moisture away angrily, hugging my knees to my chest.

Exhaustion became so visceral and thick that it was like a force outside my own body. It pressed down on me from above. It seemed like I would sink right into the ground with the bitter weight of it. My whole body hurt with cold.

A sudden sound made me stiffen, jaw clenching and eyes going as wide as possible in the darkness. A scraping sound, then a grunt, then the unmistakable drop of a hefty alien body behind me told me the creature had entered the tent. As he got all the way in, the golden lights scattered across his body cast a warm glow over the dark interior.

No way... he plans to sleep in here with me?!

His scales were as hard as metal. He looked more animal than man. Other than some signs of physical weariness, he didn’t seem bothered by the cold at all.

I assumed he’d stay outside...

So what the hell was he doing in here?

I tried to remain frozen, but a vicious tremor wracked my muscles, forcing a sharp gasp from my lungs. The alien stilled at my back before muttering a sentence I didn’t understand. A moment later, something thick and leathery and so warm I wanted to weep covered my entire curled-up body. He’d draped one of his wings over me like a blanket, and heat was already seeping into my shuddering bones.

I tried to ignore the physical comfort of his proximity. Because he was the one who’d done this to me. The one who’d brought me here, dragged me into the river, and ruined my shirt. He was why I was cold in the first fucking place.

He was the reason for it all...

And he was the only remedy.

Other than a few lingering shivers, I didn’t move. I didn’t speak as he got into a more comfortable position behind me, his broad chest cupping my back, his thighs drawn up under my feet. Beneath his wing, he tossed his arm over my body, his forearm and wrist plastered against my own crossed arms, his fingers coming up to rest at the base of my throat.

Why was he holding me like this? Why had he brought me here when he seemed to have absolutely no idea where to go now or what to do with me?

“What do you want?” I whispered.

He gave me no answer.

And neither did my dreams when they came creeping in.