land in.
“Starships are enormous machines able to sail across the vast distances of our galaxy. We discovered a way to put ourselves into a deep sleep for many cycles of seasons without waking or aging during the long journey. My starship, the Fulcrum, left Earth in the year 2554 and was traveling to another world, much like this one, but no one like us lives there. It’s called Opalla, a world full of natural resources and animal life we can use to create a new home. Our flight was to last one hundred thirty-seven of your seasonal cycles we call years. I don’t know how long I slept to get to this world. I must have been in hypersleep for at least seventy-five years.
“My parents were the senior flight engineers on the starship, it was their task to program the ship’s course and to certify the propulsion systems were ready for the long voyage. Our ship carried ten thousand souls and it seems I’m the only one left alive. I don’t know what happened, but something went horribly wrong. Whatever it was, it caused my parents to abandon their duties and awaken Peter and me. They stuffed us into spacesuits and pushed us into an escape pod before we were fully awake. As my father was closing the escape pod, he told me to watch over my brother, Peter. He promised me, he and mom would be following in another escape pod. It was the last words he spoke to me before launching the pod.
“The ship is dead, and I can’t expect a rescue. I’m what we’d say in my world, a castaway. A person marooned on a deserted isle with no way to get back home. For better or for worse, this world is my home for the rest of my life and all I know about it is what I can see from our cave. You saved my life, and now I’m afraid to face the life fate has given me,” Taric heard her say sadly as she leaned heavily against his side, still stroking the puppy’s soft fur with her fingers as it lay sleeping in her warm lap.
Then as he pondered what she had told him, a spark of hope entered into his thoughts. “You say the lights are stars and not firepits of my ancestors,” Taric repeated and then went on to reason within his mind to accept her words as truth instead of the legends of his people. Therefore, this incredibly amazing girl who fell out of the sky was not an ancestor of his people at all. She was just a lonely girl accustomed to a different way of life on a world forever out of her reach.
“When you fell from the sky, I believed you were an ancestor granted another life on the land. You and I are so alike yet so different. What you say about the sky above us, I believe. Your parents gave you a chance to live by sending you here and I was here to find you. Welcome to my land, Jennifer. I am Taric and I was on a journey seeking out my destiny. I believe my destiny found me when you fell from the sky. I have fallen under your spell and my heart tells me to love you,” he said softly, letting her see into the depths of his soul as he leaned over and kissed her gently on the lips.
Their lips parted slowly from their long, lingering kiss while staring deeply into the depths of the other’s eyes. Mesmerized by Jennifer’s piercing emerald-green eyes, Taric whispered very softly once again, “I love you.”
Jennifer’s heart swelled, feeling the rhythmic beating stop within her chest and sputter to a pulsating, pounding beat as Taric whispered those words. Did he really fall in love with her? she asked herself, unwilling to believe him. She’s been nothing but a burden and yet he did everything, everything for her. He could have run away from the crash in fear and left her to die, but he didn’t. Why? Would anyone else in this land have helped a stranger who fell from the sky? She didn’t know, but he had willingly taken on her care and never once complained.
“Why do you love me?” Jennifer asked, not daring to trust the sincerity in his voice. She knew without a doubt Taric had spoken from the depths of his soul because he was a kind, respectful, and honorable man, but she had to know. The time spent in such close proximity together as her leg healed, day after day, enabled her to accept this unexpected development of her life, but she didn’t expect to fall in love.
“Why is it such a mystery to you?” Taric asked with a full smile radiating from his handsome face as he reached out a hand to scratch the little beast behind the ears with a couple of his fingers, accepting it and her.
“I would never have tried to save the life of this little predator, but you did and made it seem as natural as if tossing a stone into water. You tell me this animal can be taught to help us hunt and become a friend. I’m not sure if it’s possible, but you act like you know this animal’s future and what it will grow into, whereas I still see a wild predator.
“You’re unpredictable, exciting, and beautiful. The things you say and do are beyond my understanding most times, but I believe you. Now that I know you, I can’t imagine my life without you in it. I feel you in my heart,” Taric said softly, tapping his chest with a finger.
She then responded to Taric’s loving decree by setting the sleeping puppy down onto the furs, rolled over on top of him, and began to kiss Taric lovingly and passionately, letting his hands explore her body as she melted within his strong embrace. As they gave in to their mutual pent-up desires under the starlight, Jennifer promised herself, while gasping for air between their kisses, to love Taric for the rest of her life.
Chapter 7
Last Days of Summer
Jennifer walked out of the river’s chilly water and onto the dry, sandy bank only to be eagerly greeted by the playful puppy she had named Jaxx. “Down,” she commanded her rambunctious companion while also indicating with a sharp snap of her fingers for Jaxx to sit beside her. Although the sun was high in the sky, goose bumps covered her cold flesh as Jaxx sat down and watched her. She felt the sun’s heat couldn’t warm her chilled body fast enough, so instead of walking up the bank and around the flat rock where she assumed Taric already lay basking in the sunlight, she reached up to the top edge of the rock and grabbed one of the soft leather hides they used to dry off after bathing. She then noticed Taric’s head poking over the edge of their sunning rock. He must have rolled over onto his belly when she grabbed the hide and was watching her every move.
“There you are,” she said, as his eyes roamed ceaselessly over her slim muscular frame, clearly enamored by her natural beauty and graceful movements. “What are you thinking about?” she asked him with a teasing smile, enjoying the way his eyes followed her every move. Jaxx was looking up at Taric and whined. “Oh, go on,” she said to Jaxx, letting her scamper on ahead to join Taric on the rock.
“I was thinking it’s time to hunt something large,” he suggested with an excited smile as Jaxx poked her head over the edge next to Taric’s grinning face. Together the eyes of human and beast looked down at her as she dried herself off. Without conscious thought, Taric reached out a hand and gave the playful puppy a gentle scratch behind her ears.
“Oh really! You’re such a liar,” she laughingly exclaimed with a wide smile, knowing full well what he was really thinking. Jennifer then surprised Taric by saying. “When I was a child, Peter and I rarely saw our parents because they worked in space. My parents were freighters and pilots of interplanetary cargo ships within our star system. Peter and I were raised on our grandparents’ ranch. My grandmother had this huge fenced-in garden behind her house and rabbits would dig under the fence during the night to get at the vegetables. Rabbits are small harmless burrow dwelling animals and they can destroy a garden very quickly when the veggies are ripe. So I’d wake up before daybreak and sneak out to the garden with my bow and shoot any rabbit I found in the garden. Rabbits are fast runners and I became pretty good at tracking and shooting them on the run. Sometimes we’d roast one over a fire for our meal, but most times the rabbits were fed to the dogs. My grandma was happy about that because their food was free,” she happily exclaimed, but suddenly as if caught off guard, her lovely animated smile slowly faded into the saddest of frowns.
Looking at Jennifer’s frozen, glassy-eyed expression, Taric realized it was the first time she had mentioned her lost family. “I’m sure the spirits of your family are doing well in their afterlife. By your absence in the heavens, they know you survived the fall and are still among the living. Do not frown or dwell on the sadness of your loss, be happy to be alive. Show their spirits you’re safe and doing well in this world,” he said, hoping his words might soothe the pain of loss in her grieving heart.