Sohut's Protection: A Sci-fi Alien Romance (Riv's Sanctuary Book 2) A.G. Wilde (best way to read an ebook TXT) 📖

Cleo glanced at Sohut, who nodded. Her hands flexed at her sides, still gripping her lucky piece of metal.

“I am,” she said, stepping forward.

The alien’s four eyes darted to Wawa and he visibly shivered.

“Welcome to our camp. You will be safe here. I am Senrit.” His eyes barely moved over her face before focusing on Wawa again. He was obviously perturbed by the animal. Wawa, on the other hand, was busy rubbing his head against her cheek and ignoring the alien in front of her.

“Come,” Senrit said, stepping away, and with a glance at Sohut, their little party entered the camp.

22

The camp was much larger than she’d initially thought and Cleo soon realized they were walking toward what appeared to be a circle of light made by the same type of lanterns that dotted the clearing.

There was music—music that sounded like Irish traditional music but played from wind instruments instead, like a set of flutes.

It was such a strike to her senses that she paused a bit.

She hadn’t heard music in so, so long.

There was chatter too, lots of it.

Realizing she’d stopped walking, Sohut glanced down at her.

“Is everything all right, Clee-yo?”

Cleo blinked. “I—yes. It’s just…” She exhaled. “There’s life out here.”

Sohut studied her face a little before he pulled her closer into his side and they continued walking again.

“Maybe too much life,” he said after a few moments and when she frowned up at him in question, he chuckled. “You’ll see what I mean.”

As they approached the circle of light, Cleo realized there were quite a few of the bubble-headed aliens there, more than she could count. Several of the aliens lifted their heads to look their way.

Most of them looked extremely sleepy, their four eyes heavy as she caught their gazes, and some had wisps of smoke drifting upward from their nostrils.

“We have visitors!” Senrit announced and that made the aliens who hadn’t noticed their arrival till then turn to take a look.

“One female, a Merssi, and a…a slizz,” one of the other guards said and the chatter around the circle of light suddenly hushed. Even the music stopped.

“A WHAT?!” someone in the circle exclaimed.

That exclamation was suddenly followed by a chorus of other exclamations and some of the aliens stood hurriedly, their four eyes darting to the huts at the sides as if they wanted to run to them.

“He won’t hurt you,” Sohut spoke up and several eyes focused on him. “The slizz is tame.”

“TAME! ABSURD!”

Senrit glanced at Wawa again. “To be honest, I’m beginning to wonder if it really is a slizz. It is…loving to the female.” The corners of Senrit’s mouth turned down and Cleo almost chuckled at the absolute disgust on his face.

Wawa continued to ignore them as he rubbed his head against her neck.

“I guess it would have attacked already if it was going to kill us…” said someone. “I’ve never heard of a slizz waiting that long to attack anything.”

There was a collective pause.

“You’re right as usual…but I might have urinated a little from just looking at it,” said another alien.

“Me too.”

“Me too.”

“Yep, me too.”

Another pause.

“So, it’s safe you think?” asked someone else.

“I mean…we’re alive.”

There was another pause and just like that, what looked like a collective shrug of the shoulders occurred before the aliens began chattering again.

“Music!” Senrit exclaimed and the music got louder. “Let us welcome our guests in true Torian fashion!”

Before she could protest, several arms circled her waist and arms and Cleo was pulled away from Sohut.

Her mouth fell open in alarm before she realized she was being carried by two of the bubble-headed aliens.

There was no malice on their faces, only stupid little smiles.

As the music flowed through the clearing, the two aliens holding her took each of her arms and began spinning her from left to right in rhythm with the music, doing the same with their own bodies.

“Dance!” someone exclaimed.

They were…dancing with her.

Horrified eyes found Sohut’s green ones and she found him tracking her movement around the circle.

He seemed amused. Even from the distance between them now, she could see his eyes twinkle. That was, before several arms grabbed him too and he was also forced to dance with the aliens as well.

The utter mortification on his face made a bubble of laughter rise within her and Cleo chuckled. Her laughter only seemed to spur the aliens on and before she knew it, they’d let her go and she was doing their dance on her own.

She would have stopped if the entire clearing wasn’t suddenly dancing too.

It felt…good.

Free.

Laughter filled her throat.

This was not what she had been expecting at all.

It was a funny sight—a crowd of green aliens dancing in the dim light, their bubble heads pulsing as they did, their eyes hooded with sleep.

As she watched Sohut, who was now across from her as the circle of dancers moved, she smiled.

He was staring at her and the light, the ambiance, the music…it all made her feel young again.

She was exhausted from their trek through the jungle, but she didn’t want to take a seat on the raised surface within the circle, lest she offend her hosts.

So when the dancing finally died down and they began to sit, she was somewhat relieved.

Making her way back towards Sohut, she didn’t get far when she was pulled to sit between two of the aliens.

“You are missing limbs, but you dance well,” one of the aliens said and she realized it was one of the guards who’d met them by the jungle edge. “I am Krior.”

“Nice to meet you, Krior.” Cleo smiled.

“Don’t offend the female,” said the alien on her other side. His eyes darted to Wawa before he continued. “Some beings don’t like it when you mention their deformities.” His eyes lingered on her arms. “I’m Nupak,” he finally said.

Cleo opened her mouth to correct them on the fact that having four arms would be a deformity where she came from, but she didn’t bother.

That was a conversation