Nightmares usually end.
At least that is what Tempest had believed all her life. But waking up for a third ti on an alien planet with aliens surrounding her started to make her believe that maybe this wasn’t a dream after all.
Maybe this was her new reality.
She was on an alien planet, and so far she knew of no way to get ho. Not that anyone had even tried to explain to her how she got there in the first place.
"What are you doing to ?" Tempest forced herself to speak.
After she’d woken up the third ti, things had started to move fast. xyn was still in the room, but there were three other aliens there as well. All of them looked remarkably like xyn, as if they could be siblings.
The four of them spoke among themselves in hushed words that Tempest had a hard ti understanding. She could tell their words were being translated to English, but they were being whispered so softly that she couldn’t hear them properly.
The soft words couldn’t break through the intense pounding in Tempest’s head. She had a migraine and was thoroughly convinced that she was going out of her mind.
That would be a fitting explanation.
Not only was she rejected by her longti boyfriend Sam, but she drove herself crazy in the process.
With a deep breath, Tempest cleared her throat and tried to speak again. "I asked a question! What are you doing to ?"
One of the beings standing next to xyn snapped his eyes in Tempest’s direction.
"Why does it speak?" He hissed at her.
"It?" Tempest recoiled back as if the alien had just struck her. "I’m a human woman, not an it." She proclaid, doing her best to stand up for herself.
xyn took a step forward and put her hands up in a surrendering position. "Gerax ans no harm. My species doesn’t have much experience with living humans. I’m pleased to say you are one of the few who have survived this far into the transition."
That did not make Tempest feel any better. Was there really a chance that she would be killed? Was that the end goal to all of this?
"Are you going to..." She gulped hard, desperate to get the words out of her mouth, but nothing followed the gap.
"No, dear girl, we are not going to harm you. Quite the opposite, you might be one of our most prized possessions." xyn offered that tight smile once again.
The word possession hit Tempest’s ear wrong. She didn’t like to think of herself as anyone’s possession.
"No one owns . I’m my own person." Tempest retorted.
"Ah... yes. I’ve read of your people’s history with slavery. You are right. You are not owned." xyn nodded her head, this ti getting the gesture correct.
"You read of my people’s history?" Tempest raised an eyebrow and leaned up further on the hard bed that she had been laid on. "The last ti we spoke, you didn’t even know what Earth was."
"Indeed, we Thraqens pride ourselves on being a progressive civilization. After you fainted again, I used the ti that you were sleeping to do my research and update our database with as many Earthbound customs and histories as I could. I’m sure everyone is going to want to learn about you. The royal court for sure."
Tempest blinked her eyes twice hard as she tried to process what xyn had just said to her.
People are going to want to know about her?
Why didn’t they already know about her?
Tempest groaned, leaned forward, and cradled her head in her hands.
"What is wrong? Will you faint again?" xyn questioned moving further away from the other beings in the room.
"No...no." Tempest replied willfully. Sleeping obviously wasn’t going to make this hell disappear. She would have to face this head-on. See what she really had gotten herself pulled into.
"You are distressed. Please tell what I can do to make it better." xyn placed a hand on the bed next to Tempest but still did not touch her.
Tempest wished there was soone around to hold her. She wasn’t an overly emotional woman, but at that mont all she really wanted was a hug.
"It’s a lot, xyn. I don’t know where I am. I don’t know what you all are doing to . I don’t know how I got here. Now you’re telling that other people are going to want to know about . Who are these other people? Who makes up the royal court? More importantly, what does all of that have to do with ?" Tempest released a deep breath after she finished her spiel.
The air in the room seed to get heavier with the silence as everyone besides Tempest slightly tilted their head and waited for the translation to complete.
"I see, you’re correct. Maybe we have started the process too quickly. You need to be brought up to date on what is going on. Shall we stop all the dical checks and just talk?"
"xyn! We cannot delay." The one called Gerax snapped at xyn.
For the first ti since Tempest had been in the sa room as xyn, she saw a dangerous side to the woman as she slowly turned her gaze to Gerax.
"Her well-being is paramount, Gerax, ntally, physically, and emotionally. We will give her the ti that she is requesting, and I’ll hear nothing more of it."
With that, Gerax snapped his jaw shut and simply turned and walked out of the room. The rest of the company did the sa.
xyn walked over to the wall and pressed her hand against a panel Tempest had not previously seen, and a chair was fabricated out of a small opening. The luminescent coloring of the wall filtered to the chair and wrapped around it like a shroud.
Tempest didn’t understand how the chair ca to be in the first place, but she figured there were more important questions to ask.
xyn pulled the small chair closer to the bedside where Tempest was and sat. She folded her hands in her lap and looked patiently at Tempest. "You have questions? I will do my very best to answer what I can for you." She gave the tight smile, one that Tempest had already begun getting used to. She understood the desire behind it. xyn was trying to put her at ease. It would be hard for her to do, but at least she was giving it her best effort.
"I don’t know where to start." Tempest sighed and crossed her legs over each other.
"The smartest beings always suggest starting from the beginning."
Tempest had heard sothing similar to that back on Earth. That was the best place to start. The beginning.
Tempest’s thoughts were being pulled in a million and one directions. She truly had so much she wanted to know. Though xyn had been nothing but nice to her so far, Tempest didn’t know if she could truly be trusted.
What if she lied to her? How would Tempest be able to tell the truth from a lie?
What if she coerced Tempest into agreeing to sothing that would get her killed? Would she even realize what she was agreeing to until it was too late?
Tempest felt like a fish out of water. She was searching for a lifeline. She glanced at xyn once again, that tight smile still on her face.
Truly she had no idea if she could trust her, but there were no other options.
Tempest had to believe that xyn would be her guide through this planet of horrors, and she had to believe that she would make it out in one piece.
Tempest never really thought of herself as an overly strong woman, but she knew before her ti on this alien planet was done she’d have to learn how to survive.
It all started with this first conversation.
Tempest sucked in a breath and asked her first question.
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