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“Oh, that’s much better,” she said as she took a spoonful of the porridge into her mouth. “This is really good!” she exclaimed with a smile, savoring the wonderfully strange but somehow familiar flavors of the ingredients, before dipping her spoon into the bowl for another bite.
He had no idea what she was saying but guessed from her expressions she was enjoying the food. He stood and pointed at his bowl by the fire while indicating with hand motions that he’d return to sit beside her. She nodded in understanding and watched him retrieve his meal and return. He sat beside her in a cross-legged position against the wall and began to eat in silence, not knowing what else to do.
From the lack of solid food in cold sleep, her stomach filled quickly as her body demanded her long-dormant stomach to begin the digestive processes once again. She felt so stuffed after only eating half of the porridge, but she honestly couldn’t take another bite. So she set the bowl down beside her and turned to face her ruggedly handsome savior, determined it was time to make introductions. “Jennifer,” she said to him with a smile while pointing a finger at herself and then turned it to point at him.
Chapter 4
Taric
“Taric,” he replied, tapping his fingers against his shoulder. He then waved his hand toward her and smiled when he spoke her name. “Jenfer.”
“Jen-ni-fer,” she repeated, pronouncing it slowly so he could hear all the syllables before she repeated his name. “Taric.” Pointing to him once again.
Determined to get her name right so as not to offend her, Taric concentrated on the sounds within his mind and repeated what he heard. “Jen-ni-fer,” Taric repeated slowly, seeing her clap her hands with glee while beaming him an amazing smile, so he said it again, but only quicker. “Jennifer!”
“Taric!”
“Jennifer!”
“Taric!”
“Jennifer!”
“Taric!”
They then both burst into laughter at their success, laughing hard and long so that they had to stop looking at each other in order to control themselves. If they did make any sort of eye contact, the convulsive fits of laughter took hold once again. It was uncontrollable; they just couldn’t help themselves.
“Oh God, I gotta pee!” Jennifer giggled while holding her belly to keep from laughing harder as she really did have to go. She was aware of the condition of her leg and knew she’d need some help, so she tapped him on the shoulder, so he’d look at her and then pantomimed her problem using her fingers and hoped he’d understand.
At her tap, Taric smothered his chuckles as best he could and paid close attention to her hand motions. He watched as she walked her fingers across the ground and then pointed outside the cave entrance. She then made her fingers squat in the dirt and, with her lips, made a soft hissing sound trying her best to imitate a falling stream of water. “Sssssssssssssssssssh.” And then she sighed in relief.
Immediately Taric understood her meaning and admonished himself for not thinking she might need to relieve herself. With an apologetic look on his face, he rose only enough to kneel beside her and wrapped an arm around her back and the other under her legs, while being careful not to jar the improvised splint. He lifted her up to his chest as if she were a feather and encouraged her with a nod to wrap an arm around his neck and shoulder for support and stability before carrying her out of the cave.
As he carried her effortlessly out into the long grass, Jennifer had her first real look at the world her escape pod crashed into. When Taric skirted the shallow depression of the trench, she saw the remains of the escape pod at the far end, it then dawned on her; she had forgotten someone and pointing her hand toward the pod. She screamed out her brother’s name, “Peter!”
Taric knew she was screaming the name of the ancestor the land had denied. With tear-filled eyes, she held an anguished expression of guilt on her face as if ashamed to be alive, while she begged the spirits to spare the ancestor called Peter. Sadly, he shook his head from side to side and simply said, “No.”
Jennifer heard his reply, it was flat and final by the tone of his voice. She was supposed to watch over him and protect him from danger, she thought as pangs of guilt tore through her breast for not thinking of her brother before this moment.
Then everything came to the forefront of her mind and she relived those final moments in the pod. Her leg had been squeezed and nearly crushed during the pod’s impact with the planet. As soon as the pod’s momentum stopped, she was the one who reached out and released the hatch. It was too soon. Her action allowed the flames still burning the outer surface of the escape pod to enter their tight confines.
She was unprepared and untrained for the disaster that befell their colonial starship. She and her brother were simply passengers, colonists escaping the terrible wars engulfing the four kingdoms on Earth. She now knew without a doubt that she had panicked when the hot flames entered and swam around her in the air. Adrenaline had surged through her body and she managed to force her leg free, breaking it in her frightening scramble to flee the pod. “Oh, God!” she cried out, sobbing with remorse, condemning herself to hell for it was then when she realized she didn’t even think of her brother in her escape. She had left him to die and never looked back, violating their parents’ trust in her as they placed them into the escape pod and launched their children into space seconds before the starship exploded. Taric let her cry out her grief for the other ancestor. He wondered what their relationship was? Was he family, friend, mate, or stranger? he asked himself as he walked past the trench while carrying Jennifer to the river?
She heard the loud rushing of water splashing over rocks from the river before she saw it, making her need more urgent. Her heart bled from her grief, saddening her soul. Taric carried her to the crest of the river’s embankment and down to the water without stumbling. Before she knew it, Taric had her in the chilly water and swung her onto her back, letting the rivers current lift her as he held on to her arms. The shock of the water drew her quickly out of remorse and almost stopped her need. It was so cold, but she could no longer restrain her bladder and simply let it flow. The relief was apparent on Jennifer’s face as she emptied her water into the river. She smiled up at him and pointed a slender arm toward the shore. Taric chuckled as she unconsciously blushed ever so slightly, then swung her back into his arms and easily carried her all the way back to the cave.
Jennifer studied Taric’s changing facial expressions on the way back and slowly became aware by the arching of his eyebrows and the shifting of his eyes that something other than her was troubling him. She couldn’t imagine the consequences of their encounter on this alien world or the problems of their survival due to her unexpected arrival. Taric’s mind was consumed with worry and tried his best to hide it and act normal. But if anything, Jennifer understood worry lines. Her father’s face had them when he was in deep thought or when he was angry about something, which was often. Taric’s face held the same expression as her father’s as it quietly revealed his inner turmoil.
She didn’t comprehend how dire their situation really was. Her perspective of him was as if he were a Native American Indian who had been out hunting and that his tribe was no more than a day’s walk away. She just assumed Taric’s camp in the cave was a temporary shelter for his people when they went out hunting. “Thank you,” she said with a smile as Taric set her gently down to rest on the piled furs so she could sit with her back against the wall. All the while she was studying his facial expressions trying desperately to discern what was troubling him, but she didn’t have a clue. Was he worrying about her or something else? And if it was something else, then what was it? She silently asked herself as Taric knelt beside her leg. She watched him examine the wet and slightly stiff splint making sure it hadn’t slipped from the flow of the river’s current but determined Jennifer needed to be closer to the fire for it dry out properly.
Even though the