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love-and-monsters · 3 months

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The Pit and the Serpent

M Naga X GN reader, 11047 words

Content warning: discussions of rape/sexual coercion, sexual coercion described with minimal detail, descriptions of a cult.

You have been sentenced to death. You are going to be fed to the beast in the pit. Unless, of course, the beast does not eat the ones given to it.

Sweat beaded on the back of your neck as you took another trembling step forward. A knife sat against the small of your back. The threat wasn’t that they would kill you- they didn’t have to. A quick slice to the small of your back would have your legs useless. They could leave you to die, limp and pathetic, at the claws of the creature in the pen. The only reason they hadn’t done it at all was that it was a lot less work to have you walk than to drag your limp body in.

The pen loomed in front of you. It wasn’t much of a pen, to be honest. It was more of a pit, with barbed wire fence surrounding it. People didn’t approach it- in fact, there isn’t anyone within a hundred feet. Just you and the soldier nudging you ever closer.

As soon as you were past the gate, the soldier slammed it shut and stepped back, almost a scramble. There was no reason for him to be near you anymore. There was only a tiny strip of land surrounding the dropoff of the pit, and you couldn’t climb back out over the fence thanks to the barbed wire. You probably couldn’t even if there wasn’t barbed wire. You’d never been athletic.

You hunched down on the little area you had, knees tucked close to your chest to avoid the drop. No limbs dangling. The image of letting an arm or leg hang over the opening and something grabbing you, like a monster under the bed, rose in your mind.

You sat on the edge of the pit all throughout the scorching afternoon, dripping sweat into a small puddle in the dirt below you. The sun set and the chill of night against your sweaty skin made you shiver. The thing in the pit hadn’t moved. Was it nocturnal? You’d never seen a feeding before. Maybe you should have. Maybe that would have discouraged you from-

The thing in the pit moved. You heard it shifting before you saw it, the great shadow twisting and slinking until a tendril of it was lifting out of the pit and stretching slowly toward you. You scrambled back until the barbed wire dug into your skin, uncaring of exactly how rusty it was. Of course it didn’t matter. You were going to die, right now, and a little tetanus hardly compared to exactly how this thing was going to rip you to shreds.

Its head dropped into your line of sight, close enough that you could make out some features despite the lack of light. You stared. You had been expecting a mouth- they called it a feeding, after all. Not strange at all to imagine you were about to be eaten. And there was a mouth. It was just attached to a human face. Which was attached to a human head. Which was attached to a human torso. Which was not attached to human hips, but to the body of an enormous snake. Like, a huge snake. Like, at-least-40-feet-long snake.

It yawned. Fangs, long and thin, just where canines would be in a human mouth, glinted in the faint moonlight. Then it slumped downward, flopping to rest its torso on the edge of the pit right next to you.

It blinked at you. The light was dim enough that you couldn’t see the color of its eyes, but the white gleaming in the moonlight told you it was staring right at you. “Hello there.”

You stared back. He didn’t seem like he was going to eat you. He didn’t seem big enough to eat you. You’d been expecting an enormous snake mouth, something appropriate for the enormous thing, something that could swallow you whole. But this was… well, the person-part of the snake was bigger thana typical human, but not by that much. Its mouth was far too small to eat you effectively. Then again, you were smaller than a cow, and you ate those, so perhaps the creature was simply going to drag you into its pit and eat you little by little. You hoped it killed you quickly, at least- getting slowly eaten seemed like the worst possible way to die.

“You aren’t much of a talker, are you,” the serpent groused. His mass of coils shifted slowly, undulating in the pit beneath. You couldn’t make out the individual coils with the distance and the darkness- it just looked like a shifting, twisting mass. The serpent moved closer, practically hovering in front of you, using his muscular trunk as support. “Ain’t much to look at, are ya?” He spoke in a drawling, lazy tone. “Can’t imagine ya did anything impressive to get stuck in here. Are they finally chucking the dissidents down here instead of shoving them into the reeducation work prison?”

“Thievery.” You forced the word up through your dry throat and mouth. The serpent fixed his gaze back on you. “I- I took something that wasn’t mine to take.”

“Huh.” He slumped back to the ground next to you, propping his chin up on his fist. “Why?”

You ground your teeth. “He… took something from me, first. So, I wanted to take something from him. But I got caught.”

The serpent nodded. “A little thief, then? I suppose they would throw you in here for that.”

You eyed him as he stretched. The question was stupid, but you couldn’t help yourself from asking it. “Aren’t you going to eat me?”

He was mid-yawn when you asked, and blinked one eye open to look at you. “Am I supposed to?”

You paused. Everyone called it a ‘feeding’ when people were put in the pit. People who went for feedings were never seen again. What else was happening expect for them being eaten? “I think so.”

“Perhaps,” he said, “I’m not hungry today.” He slumped back toward the pit, slinking down and vanishing in the mass of his own coils.

You stared. And shivered. Your sweat was still drying on your skin in the chilly night air and the hot terror was fading. The creature had emerged from the pit, you’d had a pleasant (if you stretched the definition of the word) chat, and then it had left.

That was… not what was supposed to happen. You’d seen people be taken away to the pit- you’d never seen them actually go in, of course, the pit was nearly three hours away from the town by walking, and you’d never had reason to go in a car until today. Yesterday. Was it past midnight? They never came back. Did the creature ever eat anyone? It must, or they wouldn’t have bothered with the pit at all. They could just shoot people. Or stab them, if wasted bullets were a concern. Why go through the whole rigamarole of taking people out here and then leaving them alive for the creature if it didn’t eat them?

But if it did eat them, why hadn’t it eaten you?

It got late for a while, and then it was so late that it looped around to being early. The sun started to stretch thin tendrils of light over the horizon. Your stomach growled. You had to pee. Your legs were cramping from being in the same position for so long. Were the guards going to come back? Did they come back for the prisoners, if only to see if there were any bones or limbs left? Or were you just trapped out here until you died of thirst or the creature decided it was hungry after all and ate you?

(It had better hurry the hell up, you decided. If it waited until you died of natural causes, t would probably have a tough, unpleasant meal. Your somewhat-delirious mind found that idea funny.)

It was less funny when a hand wrapped around your ankle and hauled you bodily toward the pit.

The entire thing was fast. One second you were registering the warm hand on your skin, and the next you were being dragged down a slope. You caught a glimpse of your captor’s face, too dark to make out expressions, before you were hauled under a mass of coils.

They weren’t cold to the touch, though they weren’t warm, either. You could feel the ridges of the scales, each one nearly the size of your palm. It was heavy, a weight that nearly knocked the breath out of you, though their constant shifting helped lessen that impact. It wasn’t crushing, though, and you could feel the hard-packed dirt under your back. Strange. You would have thought they’d be coiling around you to crush you. Even just being underneath them, you could tell they were powerful enough to do it. You could feel the power of the muscles just from minute movements alone.

“Stop panicking!” The voice came a lot closer to your ear than you’d expected and you struck out. Maybe he’d been expecting it, because your first hit a wall of scaly flesh.’ “I ain’t gonna hurt ya, if you don’t try to hurt me again.”

You stopped moving. The serpent huffed out a breath, and you felt the edges of it against your… temple, on your right side. He was partially concealed by one of his own coils, but he was there. “Sorry for the delay, sweetcheeks. Woulda taken you down here right away, but we’ve had some problems recently. Delays. You’ll find out soon, anyway.”

You didn’t understand, but bemoaning that lack of understanding seemed like the worst possible move at the moment. Instead, you flipped onto your stomach and started army crawling back toward the wall of the pit. The coils were heavy, but not crushing, at least not at the moment. You were going to crawl and get out of the pit, and what you were going to do then could be decided after you got out.

“Woah.” The hand was on your back now, having gotten a fistful of your shirt. Well, it was more of a dress-tunic than a shirt, one of the ones that was both oversized and stretched, and made more out of patches than material. They could have made you go into the pit naked, but you suspected that this made a convenient excuse to get rid of something no one really wanted. You thrashed against the grip and, sure enough, the tunic ripped with ease. Before you could continue your mad crawl, the hand managed to lock around your calf. “Woah, woah! Where do ya think you’re going?”

You try to continue forward at the pace of a determined slug. The hand on your leg is doing a good job of hindering that, though. “Quit freaking out! Sorry I scared ya, but I said before, I ain’t gonna hurt ya, so stop it!”

In fairness, he wasn’t hurting you at that moment. He could have, certainly- his coils could have crushed you by weight alone, if he’d dropped them on you, but he just lay them across your path, effectively blocking your way unless you wanted to crawl over him. The hand around your calf remained firm, a grip tight enough to almost bruise, but not vicious. More like he was just desperate to keep you from squirming away.

Surrounded by coils of snake and held fast by the grip on your leg, you finally went still. You were flat on your stomach, so the dust, of course, immediately went up your nose and you snorted out an awkward sneeze. The serpent’s human part moved forward, almost hovering over you, suspended by its muscular trunk. He folded his arms over his chest, no longer holding onto you. “Didn’t mean to scare ya that bad. S’pose I should’ve been more forthcoming, but ya don’t get much fun out here, y’know?” He shrugged. “Sorry. Kinda a fighter, aren’t ya, though? Most people just curl into a ball and scream.”

You stared at him. He was silhouetted by moonlight, so you could make out his long, somewhat tangled black hair and his dark brown skin. There were a few patches of scales on his belly, creeping up from where his snake body ended. “I thought,” you said, after a moment of thought, “that you were going to eat me.”

He shrugged. “I’m not.”

That had become pretty clear. Unless this was a game, though you couldn’t see the point of it, if it was. “Then what are you going to do?”

He grinned, at that. His canines were still too long and sharp, more like a snake’s than a human’s- though still not totally like either. “Look.”

He turned his body to point at a spot beyond the shifting weight of his coils. In the wall of the pit, there was… a hole.

It wasn’t a big hole. Large enough for a person to fit through, provided they were crawling and not standing up straight. It sloped a little, down into the ground. The idea of it made you shudder. Perhaps the serpent didn’t pick up on that, because he said, “You’re going to go in there.”

“I’m not,” you insisted. The serpent considered you for a moment, not quite irritated, but certainly not pleased.

“Ya are,” he said. “Unless you’re plannin’ on staying here and dyin’ when they come back and find ya completely uneaten.”

You glared. “Fine.” The serpent nodded, clearly believing you meant ‘fine, I’ll go in there.’ His expression changed to plain annoyance when you, through lack of motion, convinced him that you meant ‘fine, I’ll stay here and die.”

“You’re claustrophobic,” he reasoned. You glared. It was true, but you didn’t like it. The idea of close earth, pressing in on you- unbearable. The idea of having nowhere to run, nowhere to go or flee to, no open space within which to seek safety-

“Alright, alright! Don’t- don’t do that, just- Damn, this makes it much harder than I thought it was gonna be.” The serpent patted awkwardly at your shoulder. You squirmed away from his touch and he held his hands up. Your breathing, which had spun wildly out of control for a moment, dropped back to a steady (or at least steadier) rhythm. “Look. The only way out of here is through the tunnel. It’s only twenty feet of tunnel, and once you’re through that, it’s not so tight.”

“I can’t get through the twenty feet,” you ground out. Even three feet, less than your body length, would be close to intolerable. As long as your head and arms were trapped, there was panic.

The serpent heaved a sigh. “Erg… You’re gonna have to.”

“I can’t.” Clearly, he was slow. Otherwise, he would be getting that it was physically impossible for you to do so. You could not, unless under immediate threat of death, force yourself through it. And maybe not even that.

The serpent rubbed his face. “Sonova- If you get caught, I’m gonna be fucked too, y’know?” His coils shifted, lifting and writhing. Above you, through the gaps in his coils, you could see the sky lightening. It was going to be day soon. That seemed to be agitating him. “Okay. You’re not gonna like this, but we’re doing it anyway.”

You stiffened. “We’re not going to-”

The serpent seized you by hooking an arm under your armpits and hauled. You were half lifted off the ground and pulled toward the hole in the wall. Panic seized you and you started to kick your legs. The serpent wholly ignored you. For a moment, you wondered about how he was going to manage to pull you through- there wasn’t enough space for both of you to fit going through at the same time.

It was a question that was quickly answered. As you got within a foot of the hole, he dropped you and plunged in himself.

Within seconds, his human part was gone, leaving only his snake portion, It flowed in and in and in, an endless-seeming mass of scaled flesh moving into the tunnel. It was almost hypnotic. So hypnotic, in fact, that you didn’t register it when the last foot or so of his tail wrapped around your legs and hauled you into the tunnel after him.

It happened fast- one second you were just registering the fact that you were moving, the next you were in the tunnel with the walls pressing close in on you. The press of the walls, combined with the warm squeeze of the serpent’s tail around you was- was- your brain scrambled, sheer terror blotting out every thought you could have summoned up.

And then the walls lessened. Not a lot, but their squeeze was reduced. The tail wrapped around you, so tight you couldn’t move your arms or legs, was still bad, but the walls weren’t so tight. Lifting your head didn’t whack it on the ceiling anymore, and you couldn’t feel your shoulders rubbing against the walls. You felt the movement of air on your legs first, and then you were pulled into a bright, open room.

The made your eyes tear up. You squeezed them shut against it. The tail around your body relaxed, drawing away. The sheer relief was incredible, so much that you couldn’t bring yourself to move. You lay there, gasping and shivering on the floor, eyes squeezed shut. Your brain was so utterly scrambled that you didn’t even question why there were bright lights underground for a few minutes.

People talking, though, that got your attention.

“I’m gonna need to be back out there in a couple minutes, just in case they come lookin’,” the serpent was saying.

“Of course. Though you really couldn’t have thought of a better solution? Or explained more?” The second voice was female, probably older by the sound of it. Kind of weary, too. You blinked your eyes open. The serpent was coiled as tight as he was able, and was bending to speak to an older woman, brown hair shot through with gray, in something like a lab coat.

“You were the ones delayin’ everything.”

“Well, you could have told her in the meantime. You didn’t have to wait for us to be ready.”

The serpent grimaced. “Sure, if I wasn’t so busy prepping the tunnel. It’s not easy to dig that shit back out every time you guys want to-”

“Who are you?” Your voice wasn’t a yell, but it wasn’t quiet. The conversation stopped. Both of them looked at you.

The woman straightened out her lab coat. It was a bit stained and yellowed in some places, and there was a button missing. “My name is Elise Markov. This-” She gestured to the massive serpent-person beside her. “-Is Hana. I apologize for… well, for him.” He clucked his tongue. “Hush. You should be kinder to our new arrivals.”

“Perhaps.” Hana flexed his tail. “It’s not like I get much practice with people, trapped up there without-”

“Speaking of,” Elise said, cutting him off. He fell silent, sulky. “You should go back up. You were saying they might be back soon.”

Hana grimaced but he obediently slipped toward the tunnel. After a few moments, his tail was vanishing into the tunnel. Elise watched him go, then headed over to you. “Come along. I will explain on the way.”

Getting up gave you a chance to look a little more around the room. It wasn’t terribly big, maybe about the size of a single room in a house, and lit entirely by floodlights. Another tunnel, this one much larger than the one you had entered through, allowed you to exit the room. You could stand up in it, and almost extend your arms before hitting the wall while inside, it, so the terror was only a minor scream in the back of your mind.

As you walked, Elise explained. “We have been out here since the, well, apocalypse, for lack of a better term, recruiting as we can. Sometimes we take in runaways, sometimes strays, sometimes people like you- people who have been set to death by the various collectives and compounds that now litter the world. You will stay here now, and work with us. There will be a task you can do, I assure you, be it caring for the assets or cooking food or cleaning.”

You trotted along after her. “I don’t underst-”

“I’m aware. You will.” Elise’s tone was clipped. “For now, just know that you are safe and you will remain safe for the foreseeable future. We have an organization, relative protection, and, the basic necessities of life.”

Well. Good enough for you. It was significantly better to have a place that didn’t want to kill you. At least, not immediately.

The tunnel went on for what must have been at least a few miles. Your legs ached and you felt dizzy. It had been some time since you’d had proper food. You swayed, exhausted, even as Elise kept up her ruthless pace. Eventually, the tunnel opened up into a tall, illuminated room. You hurried toward it, ready for your journey to end, and-

There were people. Many of them wore lab coats, like Elise, though they were all about as dirty as Elise’s as well. But there were also many… things. Creatures. Beasts you couldn’t understand. One of them, a creature with the torso of a human, but the lower body of a massive, pale spider approached. “Ah, Thierry. If you could-”

You were taken to a room and told it was yours. It was a tiny room, big enough for a bed and a hanging rack of clothes. But it was at least nicer than the communal bunks you’d had previously. You didn’t feel comfortable sleeping with other people.

After a full day of resting, and a fairly simple meal of vegetables and a biscuit, you were given the beginnings of orientation. It was fairly extensive, starting at the exact moment the world fell apart, about ten years ago.

The end of the world was something you remembered, though not in any great detail. It hadn’t been an abrupt thing, like it always was in dystopian fiction. It had just been, over the course of a few years, a gradual downturn of things getting worse until you were in a barrack with a couple dozen other people and you realized you had no hope of anything ever getting better. The world had just seemed to get more and more frightened of everything going on, more desperate and sad and clawing until everything had been torn to shreds.

Apparently, that hadn’t quite been an accident.

The details were vague- you weren’t sure if that was because the details were unknown, or if the people in charge just didn’t want you to know them. But the government (or several governments- again, the details were unclear) had been running experiments on fear. Fear was, after all, one of the most effective motivators ad weapons ever known. Enough fear could kill, could make a person commit atrocities. And so, it needed to be studied, understood, and potentially weaponized.

After years of research, they had managed to create… something. Tapped into some collective unconscious, some extra-physical resource, and created, from humans, creatures that embodied the fears of the world.

The outpouring of fear from their initial creation spread the world over. It wasn’t strong, but it lingered, like background radiation in the minds of everyone on the planet. And that fear drove everyone to the brink of madness and destruction. Even after the initial burst of it settled, everyone had already settled into their new lives and routines too thoroughly to go back.

This particular organization had been created by a small group of the scientists who’d escaped the panic-induced deaths of everyone who’d worked on the initial project. They’d managed to gather a small group of the fear-creatures, who worked with them, as much as they could.

You even got to meet a few of them. All of them seemed to embody a specific type of fear, usually a phobia. Thierry, the spider-person you’d met initially was the embodiment of arachnophobia. There was a person who seemed to be entirely made of water that represented thassolophobia, though you saw her pretty infrequently. Her proper body took up a massive swimming pool that had needed to be dug out special. The only time you saw her was when she sent out a segment of her body that was roughly person sized and shaped, something that was apparently difficult and uncomfortable to do. Another person, a hulking figure of dirt with a hole in their middle that seemed to constantly draw your eyes and body, represented claustrophobia. You didn’t go near him often.

Of course, your Hana was representative of a fear of snakes. Never a fear you’d had, but you could see how he would be horrific for someone who was afraid of scaly ropes.

He was apparently a recruiter, of some description. His capture by your old compound was an accident, but given that he was regularly fed a stream of dissenters, he could smuggle people they determined to be relatively safe out of the pit. Apparently your thievery was determined to be a non-harmful pastime that earned you a free ticket out.

You were told all this by the person you were supposed to be shadowing, a middle-aged woman who had been in this little group since just after its founding. You followed her around while she showed you how to do a variety of tasks. Mostly cleaning or fetching things for other people. A day after you’d arrived, she handed you a massive tray of raw meat and gestured for your to follow her.

“This will likely be one of your tasks on a daily basis,” she said. “Along with general cleaning. I assume you’re willing to complete janitorial tasks.”

Her tone said ‘you don’t think you’re too good for this, right?’ with an undertone of ‘because if you do, we’re going to have problems.’ “I’m fine with it,” you said. You legitimately didn’t have a problem with it. It wasn’t any different from the shit you’d been doing at the compound.

You walked through a familiar hall that opened into a familiar, cavernous room. You had to switch the floodlights on. Obviously you didn’t have the power to run them all the time.

“Mind warning me before you do that?” Hana groused, half covering his face with his hand. “Oh, it’s you!”

You nodded. “It’s… good to see you again?”

“Sure. Glad you’re doin’ all right,” Hana said. “Ya gonna give me the food or what?”

Your supervisor left at that moment, telling you to bring the tray back to the kitchens when you were done, since she needed to take care of something. Everyone seemed busy all the time. Probably took a lot of work to run the place. You’d probably be busy too, once you were more settled in.

Hana didn’t really chew his food. He just swallowed big chunks at once, like- well, like a snake. It was impressive, but also kind of gross to watch. “Guess you’ve decided to stay,” he said between huge mouthfuls.

“What other options do I have?” you asked back, complete rhetorical.

He decided to answer it anyway, though. “Out there.” He gestured vaguely toward the ceiling with an expansive motion. “Y’know. Anywhere out there.”

“I’d die,” you said. Society might have collapsed when you were a teen, but the past ten years or so, you’d been hopping from little settlement to little settlement. You didn’t have the skills or the tools to survive on your own in the wilderness.

“You might live,” he said. “It’s a lot of scrubland, but I ‘member people saying there’s root vegetables and stuff growin’ out there. You could eat those.”

“Not without cooking them. I can’t actually identify any of them, either. I’d probably eat something toxic by accident. Or get caught by marauders. Or the wild dog packs.” A lot of people had dogs before the apocalypse. A lot of those dogs didn’t have people anymore by the time things settled. And, well, dogs are descended from wolves. In times of necessity, a lot of them just remembered what they used to be. Packs of larger dogs could be a real issue, especially because no one was giving out rabies vaccines anymore.

“Maybe,” Hana allowed. “Maybe not.” He swallowed another chunk of meat. “Maybe ya could befriend a dog and get it to bring ya meat. They can hunt, right? And they’re stupid loyal?”

You laughed a little. “Have you never met a dog before?”

“Nah. Where would I have seen one, huh?” Hana paused, tapping a finger on his chin. There’s a thin line of meat-juice running along it. “Hm. Though I guess I could have seen one and not realized it, ‘cause I don’t really know what they look like.”

“You’ve never even seen a dog?” you asked. “Not even before you were changed into-” You skittered to a stop, not quite managing to pause the words before they’re almost all out. Oops. You didn’t mean to do that. It was probably a rather touchy subject for him.

He shrugged, still eating. “Nah. Don’t remember a thing before I got all scaly.” He gestures to his waist. A majority of his body is still stretching up through the tunnel and out into the pit, but there’s enough there to see his dark scales. “Probably good, though, huh? Can’t imagine turnin’ into this was a fun time for me.” “You don’t remember what it was like to be human at all?” you asked. He fixed you with an irritated look.

“I just said I didn’t. Open your ears. I remember some stuff, clearly. Like, I woke up knowin’ English and what the sky and grass was an’ all that.”

“But not dogs,” you mused. He gave you a wry, somewhat irritated expression.

“No. Not dogs.”

Hm. That was interesting. You mulled that over while he finished his meal. Once he was done, you gathered up the dishes. “See ya around,” he said, waving.

As if turned out, you did see him after that quite often. Your initial tasks seemed to be focused on delivering food to the ‘phobic assets.’ Not all of them were still human enough to eat, but the ones who had fused with animals definitely needed to. Thierry was your favorite. He was typically quite polite, and you’d never had any issue with spiders before, so his spider half was a source of fascination rather than disgust.

Hana was always waiting for you when you brought food to him, and he always stuck around to chat for as long as you wanted. Maybe he was lonely, or maybe he was just bored. But he always listened attentively, and given that everyone else was rushing around all the time, speaking to him was nearly the highlight of your day.

“I mean, it’s nicer being here than it was being there, obviously. I just wish people weren’t so…” You waved a hand. “I don’t know. Rushed? At least I felt like I was a part of a community over there. We all had meals together and we talked and worked together. Here, it’s just different. I don’t think I’ve had a conversation with anyone except a couple people for more than two minutes.”

“Everyone’s trying to save the world. Makes ‘em busy. Plus, you’re kinda an outsider. It’ll take a while to get you on their radar. Or into their precious schedules.” Hana shrugged, gulping down his meal with reckless abandon. “Who’s the second?”

“Huh?” He had a habit of jumping topics like that. It was hard to keep up.

“Ya said there were two people ya could have conversations longer than two minutes. One’s me. Who’s the other?”

“Oh. Thierry.” To your surprise, Hana’s face contorted into a sulky expression.

“Thierry? Really? That pompous spider prick?” He shifted and you could hear distant thumping, like he was slapping the end of his tail against the ground.

“What’s wrong with Thierry?” you asked, creeping back a little. He didn’t seem overly pissed, but it was probably best to get out of the way. Just in case.

“He’s stuck up. Thinks he’s so good ‘cause he’s the embodiment of some massive fear and he’s the one who works the closest with all the scientists.” Hana rolled his eyes so aggressively you were surprised he didn’t strain something.

“He’s nice to me,” you said. Hana grumbled incoherently, tail thumping. One of his hands dug furrows in the dirt. You watched his fingers as they made the scraping motions over and over. Something in your brain itched, drawing up the image of those strong fingers seizing you and squeezing until it hurt as you kicked against it-

The room was large. But the walls felt too much like they were pressing in on you.

The tray was empty and you hurried forward to grab it before jolting back to the door. Hana looked up from his sulking, alarm and maybe concern crossing his face. “Wh- Ya doin’ okay?”

“Yes.” The word came out steady, but mechanical in its steadiness. It almost hissed past your lips. Hana started to lift himself up, pulling more of his massive serpent’s tail in through the hole in order to support himself. You scrambled back from his rapidly more imposing form.

“Woah, easy there. I didn’t mean to startle ya.” He held his hands up, but that made him look even more imposing. “Uh. Maybe you should sit down? Ya don’t look so-”

You turned and fled down the hallway that led back to the relative safety of the entrance room. Hana yelled after you to wait, but his voice was distorted and echoing down the tunnel and you didn’t bother to listen. You just fled.

Perhaps your room was the safest place to go, but you couldn’t bring yourself to spend time there, given its small size. It was fine normally, but you couldn’t manage it while already keyed up. Fortunately, the lab techs could use someone to help them wipe down their equipment, so you stayed in there. There were too many people bustling around for your liking, but it was, on the whole, a good distraction.

For the next couple of days, you didn’t see Hana. It wasn’t terribly hard to pawn your task off onto someone else, as long as you agreed to pick up whatever they were working on. You learned a lot of simple tasks- cleaning, a lot about cleaning, as well as how to operate their computer system, and even a few mechanical skills from repairing things. That had been completely disallowed in the compound you’d spent you life in- at least, for someone as low-ranking as you.

Hana sent you messages a couple of times. Some of the people who did your job of delivering meals came back and told you he’d asked them to tell you that he wanted to talk. You ignored it. There was a part of you that felt bad about it. Then you remembered him getting all pissy about you talking to Thierry and those bad feelings went right back out the window. What had been his problem about all that anyway?

The answer had come to you midway through washing out a series of trays in the cafeteria- he was jealous.

That thought gave you pause. You hadn’t even really been thinking about it, just kind of turning things over idly in your mind. But it made sense, didn’t it? He’d gotten sulky right after finding out that you were spending time with someone else, and that matched up with jealousy. He’d gotten annoyed about Thierry, specifically. Was he just pissed that he wasn’t the oh-so-special fear monster that you were picking to spend all of your time with? Or maybe he was upset because you visited him at mealtimes, when you had to, and you could see Thierry whenever you wanted. People didn’t visit him very often, did they? Even Thierry, who lived in the main compound, seemed surprised to get visitors. Maybe he was jealous because he was lonely.

That idea didn’t make you feel very good. Not that it was an excuse for him getting all annoyed, but… it was understandable. And maybe you’d overreacted a little bit. You had your own reasons for that, of course. But looking back on it, you probably could have handled the whole thing better.

You grimaced, placing all the dishes into their rack and sliding it onto a shelf above your head. Fine. You would go back to him. Apologize. It would be swallowing your pride, but… You remembered him calling after you. His reaching out. The idea of you ignoring him out of some petty hurt feelings? It made you feel awful.

The next day, you went to gather his food from the kitchen and found no tray waiting for you. After a bit of looking around, to make sure you hadn’t missed something, you approached the kitchen head. “Hey. When are we feeding Hana?”

He glanced back at you. “Thought you didn’t want to feed him anymore.”

A nervous prickle wound its way down your spine. “Uh. I’ve been wanting to try out some other jobs, but I am still interested in helping- look, did you give the food to someone else or not?”

He sighed. He was older, and clearly didn’t like you talking back to him and ruining his quiet kitchen. “No. He’s getting a later feeding. We’re inviting someone new in today.”

“What? Seriously?” You leaned over the serving window. “Who is it?”

He glared at you. “You’ll have to ask someone else for that information.”

You headed out, looking for… someone who knew what was going on, you guessed. Fortunately, you only needed to go down a couple halls before running into the very woman who had welcomed you to this place.

“Hello,” she said. “I’m glad to see you. You’ve been settling in well?”

Her voice had that tone to it, the tone of someone asking perfunctory questions out of politeness without really caring about the answers they were getting. “Yes, it’s fine,” you said, another response out of obligated politeness. “You’re going to see the new person?”

“Yes. You’re wanting to come with?” she asked, barely slowing in her step. You continued alongside her.

“Am I allowed to?”

She shrugged. “Certainly. They’ll be from your compound. It may help them to see a friendly face.”

There was a solid chance it would be a face you didn’t know, and even if you did know them, they may not have been friendly. But it got you closer to Hana, and maybe you could stay behind for a bit to talk to him. You tagged along after her, drawing closer to the entrance to the tunnel with every step.

The woman was quick and sure and it took a little time to emerge into the open room lit with floodlights. There was no one there. No one continued to be there for several minutes. You were about to sarcastically ask if you got the time wrong when a small avalanche of pebbles fell down the tunnel.

There was another small avalanche of pebbles, then another, then a scraping noise. Then a head and shoulders emerged into the room. It was a person, pale-skinned, with curly blonde hair. She was quite skinny and smeared with dirt, teeth gritted. As soon as she was partially freed from the tunnel, she struggled forward, fingers clawing at the ground. The woman stepped forward, pulling the newcomer out of the hole. A moment later, Hana slithered out, groaning and stretching.

“Cuttin’ it close there, aren’t y-” His eyes fell on you and a look of clear surprise flitted across his face. He blinked a couple times. You felt a bit sheepish under his gaze.

The newcomer coughed as she stood up. “Son of a bitch, that’s rough. You need to have a better greeting system for people arriving here, because getting grabbed by a massive snake is not it, seriously.” She stared around the room, taking it all in, and her gaze fell on you. Her face twisted. “You!” It came back in a rush- she was a familiar face. Not a friendly one, though. One of the ones who’d seen- she knew you. She’d helped get you thrown into the pit. What had led her here, you didn’t know, but she was clearly pissed that you were in the same place.

“What are you doing here?” she said.

“Same thing you are,” you snapped. “Shouldn’t be surprised that you’re here, to be honest. How long until you tattled on the wrong person and got yourself thrown away?”

“Tattled?” Her face grew splotched with red. “That’s what you call it? Because I told people you murdered someone?”

There was the cold shock of silence for a few moments. “Murder?” Hana said. His voice was faintly shocked. “Ya said ya stole something.”

“It’s technically stealing. Stole someone’s life,” you said. “But it- it wasn’t like that, I didn’t just- I didn’t want to, really, but it happened and-”

“While we are willing to accept those who’ve been driven out of the compound for multiple reasons, we are much more hesitant when it involves murder,” the woman said. “That you haven’t disclosed it until now gives us much more reason for concern.” She stepped forward, ushering the newcomer behind her. There was a glint of metal and there was a gun pointed at you. You hadn’t even seen where she was carrying it. “If you’ll come with me-”

“Wait, wait,” Hana said. He slithered forward, pulling more of himself into the room to go almost between you and the woman. “No need for a gun, yeah? S’not necessary. Nothin’s happened, right? No one’s done anything here. And livin’ in that compound- there’s gotta be a good reason for the murder, yeah?”

“Reasons can be determined later. For now- containment. For safety.”

“Containment?” The word made your skin crawl like it was trying to get off your body. It brings to mind the containment you were kept in when you were initially convicted in the compound. It was barely a room. Not enough space to lie down. Barely enough to sit, with your legs tucked against your chest and your arms tight against your sides. Not enough room to move, not even to eat. Not that it mattered. You were kept there for nearly two full days. They didn’t bother to feed you.

“C’mon,” Hana was speaking, his voice wheedling. “Someone just shows up here and you’re gonna take her word? Y’think this one’s gonna kill someone? Really?” He jerked a thumb back at you, and you couldn’t even be offended. “S’not exactly a tough lookin’ piece of work.”

The woman hesitated, lowering the pistol a little. “It wouldn’t be permanent. Just for a couple days, while we review work details and determine if there should be an escort. It’s for safety.”

Hana rolled his eyes, a great, overexaggerated movement. “Sure. Fine. Look, if ya want to do containment, do it here.”

The woman’s gun lowered a little more, out of sheer confusion. “I beg your pardon?”

“Do the containment here.” Hana lifted his hands to gesture at the room around you. “Ya can shut the door that connects this place and the main facility, right? Do that and keep the little killer here.” He waved a hand toward you again.

“I’m not certain that’s a good idea,” the woman said.

“What d’ya think is gonna happen? Little killer can’t get through the door once it’s closed. Not without your permission.” He paused, likely for dramatic effect. “Unless ya think she’s gonna pull something on me.” And then he grinned, showing off his teeth, especially the ones that were too pointed to be a human.

The woman looked at you, then him. Then you, then him again. Then she sighed. “Fine. If you’re determined to keep an eye on her, then I’m not going to stop you.” She placed the gun back under her jacket in a holster you hadn’t noticed before, then grabbed the newcomer by the arm. They walked out together, the newcomer’s eyes locked on you until they vanished down the tunnel. A moment later, the door at the end of the hall shut and locked.

The tension vanished at once, and you sank to the ground. Your heart raced along in your chest, your breathing quick and trembling. You closed your eyes for a moment, trying to calm yourself. Hana didn’t approach, but he didn’t leave either. He just studied a wall, waiting for you to pull yourself together.

You did, eventually. “Thanks,” you mumbled. Hana glanced at you. “I mean it. You didn’t have to do that.”

He hummed, turning away from the wall. “So. Ya kill someone?” Straight to the point, huh? You took a deep breath. “Yeah.” You paused. “Have you ever, uh. Y’know.”

“Killed someone? Couple times, yeah.” He stretched. “Well. Actually. Probably a lot more than that, but I don’t know if they count.”

You stared at him, waiting for him to continue. He shrugged, plucking at some of his hair. It was in really good shape, considering that he’d been outside for ages. Actually, he was also rather clean. Did they give him access to a shower or something? How did he fit? Did he just get hosed down?

“This big ol’ thing,” he said gesturing to his body, “has been around for a bit longer than this.” He tapped a finger against his head. “We were all like that for a while.” You assumed he meant the other phobics. “‘Ventually we woke up, but I killed quite a few before I got there. Wasn’t really me doing the killing, though- didn’t have my sparkling personality.” He threw you a wink. You rolled your eyes. “Not like I remember what happened then, anyway.”

He fell silent after that until you piped up. “What about the other two people you killed?”

“Oh.” He finger-combed his hair, seeming very interested in picking out the knots. “One of ‘em tried to kill me. Came at me with a big ol’ knife. That was before I ended up here.”

“The other?” you prompted when he fell quiet again. He snorted, lips curling up over his fangs.

“The other was after I came here. Nasty piece of work. A criminal from your compound, though I dunno if he was a part of the compound itself. Didn’t seem like it. Asked him about what he did to get sent here.” Hana’s lips curled further. “Don’t think he was in his right mind. Said he was pickin’ off people from the farms, raping them, then chucking their bodies somewhere in the fields to rot.” Hana hissed. It was low, inhuman. It made your hair stand on end. “So I killed ‘im. Don’t think he appreciated being on the receiving end.”

Your chest clenched so hard you couldn’t get in a breath. You remembered that. It had happened a few years ago. You had been so grateful that you worked closer to the inner compound, so that something like that could never happen to you. You’d been so sure it would never happen. So, so sure.

“Woah there.” Hana reared up a little, looking at you with clear alarm. “Easy. I didn’t mean to freak ya out. Take a breath before you pass out, all right?”

The choking sobs eased enough for you to do just that. Hana came hesitantly closer, caution in his eyes. “S’okay. He’s dead now. Did you, uh. Know him or somethin’?”

Your voice was strange, strangled, but you got the words out. “Knew of him, more like. I thought- I thought it was so good when he was gone because- I would never- worry about it-” You kept having to pause to gasp for air. Hana winced.

“Maybe we should talk about somethin’ else now, yeah? Uh. Damn, they didn’t give us water, I think ya could use some…” He scrounged around. “Thought there was a spigot somewhere around here… not that it’d be super clean water, I guess.”

“I’m fine,” you said. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t say you’re sorry about things ya don’t need to be sorry for. It sets a bad precedent.” He finished fumbling his way along the wall and sighed. “Hmph. I don’t see it. Maybe I can bang on the door and make them-”

“Don’t bother. Like I said, I’m fine.” You took in a deep breath. Water would have been nice -your mouth was getting kind of tacky- but it wasn’t necessary. Hana gave you a skeptical look, but he didn’t bang on the door. That was probably for the best- the space was small enough that the sound would have echoed and that would have freaked you out more.

“Suppose it’s a bad time to ask and all,” Hana said. “But, uh. Y’ever gonna tell me why you killed someone? Just seems fair, is all.”

You took a deep breath, and then another. And then another and another. Hana waited, not really looking at you. His tail was still partially in the tunnel, but you could imagine his tail tip flicking idly, back and forth, while he waited.

“It’s not easy to talk about,” you said eventually.

Hana nodded, accepting. “I can see that.”

“I didn’t mean to- no.” You didn’t want to lie to him. “I did. I knew what was going to happen when I went there and I went anyway. I knew.”

Hana remained silent, his eyes flicking over to look at you. Another deep breath. “When I was there, I worked mostly in the town. It was a lot of stuff that I did. Repair work, maintenance, animal care, that kind of thing. Outside, but close to the center of the compound. That’s how you knew how important someone was. How close to the center they were. Eventually, I started getting called for other things. Maintenance on the hall itself, being a gopher for messages from the hall to the other workers or even bringing food into the officials. That was the first problem, I guess. The officials.

“There were a bunch of them, people who kind of ran things in the compound. I mean, I say a bunch. Probably around five or six. We never saw all of them. But Peter was one of the ones we saw, often. He was the… I don’t know. The charisma, maybe. His official job was something to do with assigning tasks and population management, but he really made people want to stay. He could talk to you and make you feel like the most important person in the world, or like the shit under his shoe. Peter could make you feel good about doing the most menial, backbreaking work every day because he could make you feel like you were doing something important.” You paused. You’d expected to feel upset or near tears, but you just felt oddly numb. “He made me feel important. About everything.”

Hana was a short distance away, watching with rapt attention. You couldn’t quite bring yourself to look at him, but you could tell he was paying attention. “He was nice to me, and I thought he was kind. I was so happy when he started getting me to work more in the hall. I thought it meant I was doing well. And eventually he started getting close. Asking me to take meals with just him. I thought it was strange, but I was happy. And then he started to ask for other things. And I thought… I can’t refuse him. Ever.

“The first time he tried to have sex with me, he was drunk. Like, pretty damn drunk. I let it happen because I wasn’t sure if he would remember it. I didn’t want to offend him if he did. I thought it was just a one-time thing. Except… the next time he was less drunk. And then the third time he wasn’t drunk at all. And every time I thought he wouldn’t do it again. By the time I realized it was going to keep happening, I had no idea how I was supposed to stop it. Refusing felt like I was suddenly kicking up a fuss over something that hadn’t been a big deal at first, but it had been a big deal all along!”

Your voice broke, rising in volume. Hana bristled, looking alarmed, but uncertain. Should he move closer? Back away? Comfort you? Seeing his panicked bewilderment, you took a deep breath and tried to relax. “It’s- I tried to stop it in small measures. Tried to tell him not now, or another time, or even tried to just cuddle.” You giggled, a little hysterically. “He wasn’t pleased. He got pushier. More demanding and more controlling. I started to get a little desperate. I talked about what was happening with some other people, but those who weren’t jealous or thought I was being ungrateful were scared of him. And then when he found out I was telling people, he was furious. Said I was trying to make other people jealous or get attention, even when I said that wasn’t what I was doing at all. He got more aggressive. Angrier with me. I couldn’t do anything right anymore, and every time I did something wrong, he threatened to send me away. I didn’t want to stay with him, but I didn’t want to leave, either. It was awful.

“I think I went crazy for a while. I was so stressed I couldn’t even think straight for ages. I just wanted him out of my life. I had access to a lot of things in the hall at that point, including the medicine storage. I thought if I slipped something into his wine when he was drunk enough, maybe I could pin it on his drinking, that he’d just had too much. It wasn’t like we could do autopsies. And that’s what I tried. Put a bunch of crushed-up sleeping pills into the wine and brought it too him when I thought he might already be too drunk to notice the taste. I’m not exactly sure what went wrong. Maybe he didn’t drink enough, or I put too little in, or maybe he was just in death throes. But he came at me, and I hit him. I think it killed him, or it was a combination of that and the medicine. So I panicked, tried to hide the body, and then, well. You know what happened after that.”

Hana was silent for a moment. He took in a deep breath, released it slowly. His eyes closed for a moment. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay.”

“It’s really, really not,” Hana said. “It’s gross. And fucked. And horrible. I’m glad ya killed him.” He turned toward the door with a murderous look in his eyes. “And that bitch was going to-”

“She didn’t know. Why would she? It’s not like most people knew what happened. She knows what they told her. I murdered one of our leaders. Honestly, getting thrown into the pit was a mercy for me. I thought they might string me up and have a torture free for all.”

Hana shuddered. It traveled along his shoulders and all down his tail. It was sort of funny to watch. “Fuck.”

“Yeah.” You weren’t sure what else to say. You were just tired.

Hana moved a little closer to you, but stayed out of touching distance. “I’ll talk to ‘em. If you want. Tell them not to- not to have ya here anymore. Ya don’t deserve it.”

“It’s fine.”

“It ain’t fine! Ya don’t deserve it!” There was a thump from outside, Hana’s tail swinging wildly. “It’s about not lettin’ them punish people who shouldn’t be punished!”

“I did kill a man,” you observe mildly.

“Yeah, and ya should have gotten a medal for it,” Hana huffed.

“I don’t really mind being here. It’s not so bad. Company’s nice.” You smiled at him. He frowned back.

“Thought ya didn’t like me.” He wasn’t saying it accusingly. Just as an observation.

“Oh. No, I don’t not like you. I know I freaked out last time I saw you. I got… worried when you were upset about Thierry.”

Hana drooped. “Eh. Yeah. That wasn’t my best moment. I didn’t mean to scare ya. I wasn’t thinking.”

“Running wasn’t my best moment, either,” you said. “I thought about coming back soon after I ran, but I was kinda embarrassed. Sorry.”

Hana laughed. “We both fucked up then, huh? Maybe me more than you. Glad you’re here now, though. S’good to see ya.”

“It’s good to see you too,” you said. “Like I said before.” Hana grinned, eyes crinkling at the corners.

Eventually, he departed back to the surface, but he spent much more of his time down in the cave with you. It was quietly peaceful. After what you estimated to be a few hours, the door banged and Hana perked up as food was slipped through the door. He managed to catch it before it closed completely and there were a few minutes of mumbled conversation. Hana retreated, letting the door close. He seemed smugly pleased with himself.

“I gave them a piece of my mind,” he said. “Not as much as I wanted to, but ya know. They wanted it to be all quick.” He shrugged. “They’re gonna let ya out soon. Didn’t tell ‘em too much, but I did say it was self-defense.”

“They believed you?” you asked, a bit skeptical.

“More or less. Honestly, I think they’d already gotten the idea that you killed someone high-ranking, and they’re more likely to call self-defense for that. When I told ‘em you’d killed someone in self-defense and they were a high-up, they seemed to be content.”

“It wasn’t really self-defense,” you said. “It was premeditated murder.”

Hana snorted. “He was raping ya. Ya stopped him. It was self-defense.”

It was such a simple sentence, but the way he’d said it, like it was obvious and clear, that you should have done it, that it was as simple as protecting yourself- it made you crumble. You dropped your head into your hands and whimpered. Hana froze, then slid closer. He seemed momentarily lost, until you slumped against him. You didn’t hold him back, but you allowed him to hold you while you shivered and whimpered. He was careful, keeping his touch light, but there. It wasn’t restrictive- just a reminder he was there for you.

Once you were done crying yourself out, you lay down and closed your eyes, exhausted. “I’m going to sleep,” you mumbled. “Let me know when they come to get me.”

Hana nodded. “Will do.” He lay down next to you, watching you lazily. “When ya get out of here… come back to visit me, yeah?”

You opened your eyes. Hana seemed… melancholy, tense. He was waiting for your answer. “Yeah,” you said. You slid your hand out over his. “You’re never going to get rid of me after this. Promise.”

Before you closed your eyes again, you saw Hana grinning.

True to his word, you were released from the cell and allowed to go back to your room. The newcomer still glared at you, but she never made any effort to do anything. In fact, a week later, she came up and gave a mumbled apology. You forgave her, at least enough to tolerate her presence.

And you were back on feeding duty for Hana. He was pleased every time you came by, always attentive and waiting. The feedings took longer now- sometimes so long that people had to come get you. It was just nice talking to Hana. The only issue was that it was uncomfortable for him to stay down for a long time. You hadn’t realized it before, as he never complained, but the tunnel was little tight around him, and his tail could cramp if he spent too long in there.

One day, as he was carefully retreating back through the tunnel, (he had to hold his arms out in front of him, lest they catch awkwardly on the uneven walls), you caught his attention. “I, uh. I couldn’t go up there with you, could I?”

He froze, arms still outstretched. “Ya want to?”

You huffed. “You don’t need to sound like it’s insane to want that.” “No, no, s’not what I meant.” He wriggled a little ways back out. “I meant, ya never want to go through here. It’s too tight for ya.”

“It’s tight,” you agreed. “But I want to try anyway.” Your heart was thundering just thinking about it, but you liked the idea of the fresh air and sunlight on the other side.

Hana pursed his lips. “Are ya sure? Not to doubt ya, but if ya get in and decide ya don’t like it, it’s gonna be hard to get back out.”

“I got it. Trust me.” You gave him a pleading look. He squirmed, restless in his worry. Then he sighed.

“I can’t stop ya. Just be careful.” He retreated again, slower this time. You took a deep breath and pressed inward.

You were going forward, instead of in reverse, so your arms were pinned to your sides within a few moments. You couldn’t move them an inch, could barely lift your head. You could kick your legs and wriggle to force yourself forward.

There was panic from the moment the stone walls restricted your arms, but the moment when they pinched in so tight you couldn’t move without some scratches was when it really set in. You tried not to breathe in great, whooping gasps, because that make dust fly up your nose and mouth and only increased the terror that you couldn’t breathe, but it was hard. The walls were so tight. You could barely breathe enough to scream, but you could make little noises of terror. There was a pale light distantly above and in front of you, but you couldn’t reach it. You could see the sun, but you were in the dark and you couldn’t bring yourself to move forward.

The pale light wobbled, then a shape moved across it. A head and shoulders. “Hey!” Hana called out. His voice echoed faintly down the tunnel. “Ya stopped moving.”

You tried to speak, but it came out as a thin squeak. Hana went very still. Then he spoke again, in a soft, gentle voice. “Hey. S’okay. Ya got this. It’s scary, yeah? Being stuck in there. But if ya just move your legs a little, ya can keep moving forward. Ya can get out. Just a little further.”

You groaned. But you kicked. Your legs thrust you forward. And Hana’s shape, backlit by the sun, got clearer and clearer.

His hand reached in as soon as you were close enough and he pulled, gripping your collar until you had wriggled free.

“There ya go!” Hana sagged in relief as you scrambled onto the dirt floor. “Whoo! Was a little worried.” He lowered himself to look into your face. “You’re okay? Nothin’ hurt?”

“Nah. Fine.” You could steady your breathing. “It was tighter than I remembered. But I’m okay now.”

You rolled onto your back, letting the warm kiss of the sun land across your face. “It’s a nice day.”

“Yeah,” Hana said, staring down at you. “It is.” He curled his body closer in around you, surrounding you in snaky coils. He didn’t block out the sun, careful to keep his body to the sides, rather than directly overtop you.

You reached out and tentatively patted his side. The snake body shifted under your touch, the scales slightly warm. Hana watched indulgently as you traced the scales with a finger. Then, finally, he lowered his upper body to the ground next to you. You lay there together for a bit, basking in the sun.

Hana shifted next to you, a little restless. “Are ya goin’ to be up here long?”

“Trying to get rid of me,” you teased. You couldn’t see his face from your angle, but you knew he was rolling his eyes.

“No. ‘Course not. Just wonderin’ if they were missing ya down there.” He was quiet for a moment. “Just thought ya might want to stay up here a bit longer.”

“I’m not eager to go into the tunnel again,” you agreed. “And it’s nice up here. The sun’s nice. Haven’t seen it in a while.” Hana shifted, as if impatient. “And the company is nice.”

“Just nice?” Hana poked. “Faint praise, isn’t it?”

“Well, maybe I could think of someone else I might want to hang out with. Thierry cou-” Hana lifted himself so he was leaning over you, practically pouting. His tail moved, curling even tighter around you. It could have been threatening, but you couldn’t stop yourself from giggling.

“Hey. What did I ever do to ya?” he complained. “I’ve been nothin’ but cordial to ya and now you’re just-”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” you huffed. You reached up and petted his face. He closed his eyes, instantly melting into your touch. You brushed your fingers along his cheekbones. He looked quite peaceful. Happy. You had a sudden impulse.

Before you could think better of it, you pulled his face in and gave him a kiss on his forehead.

Hana’s eyes flew open. He blinked once, twice, startled. You wanted to giggle, but a flicker of nervousness in your guts stifled it. His tail curled in close, a tight mass of muscle. Despite that, he kept it from tightening so much that it would make you uncomfortable. “Did ya mean to do that?” he asked. You nodded. A slow grin spread across his face. “Then I’m going to have to return the favor. If ya don’t mind…”

No sooner had you nodded than you were covered in enthusiastic kisses from a snake man. Giggling at the ticklish feeling and wrapped in coils and arms, you felt… surprisingly safe. And not even a little afraid.

#exophilia #monster lover #male monster #naga boyfriend #naga #snake man #monster romance #ocxoc #naga lover #romance #sorry i didn't edit this one at all I have a cold and my head is foggy I just wanted to get it out

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love-and-monsters · 7 months

Text

The Ship and the Alien Pt. 4

M alien X GN reader, 6,315 words

The grand finale! In all seriousness, I got writers block on several parts of this and the ending turned out more bittersweet than I initially intended, so. I hope people are okay with this? I really wanted to get this out before October, too. Big Ls all around, I suppose. Speaking of, if you have any ideas for a Halloween-monster story, I'm eager to hear! I'd like more feedback about what people want to see.

Part one Part two Part three

Content warning: Depression, mentions of medical procedures, existential dread

You lay, curled in your bed, for the rest of the night. But no matter how long you lay there, eyes closed, you didn’t sleep. Grove-peace did, eventually, making little snorting noises on occasion. You didn’t move, even when it felt like your bladder would burst halfway through the night. He was clearly exhausted, and he wasn’t even sleeping in a proper bed. Because he wanted to stay with you.

That guilt comfortably settled in with all the other negative emotions you’d been feeling, weighing down your body like a thick, heavy coat.

There’s no natural light in your room, since it’s in the interior, but the lights set into the corners of your room seem to lighten and darken like the sun- they were stronger when you first got into the room, dimmed as it got later, then started to brighten again after quite a length of He time. Grove-peace stirred, ears twitching rapidly before his eyes opened and he stretched.

“Great sunsa,” he groaned, staggering to his feet. “I have got to stop falling asleep lying down. My legs are stiff.”

“Sorry,” you muttered.

“Don’t apologize,” he insisted. “Please, I’ll be fine, just stiff.” He stretched all of his legs, even bending his back legs out in a way more reminiscent of a cat than a horse. “How are you doing?”

You shrugged. His face fell for a second before he hurriedly picked it back up. “Okay. Maybe you should have something to eat, then?”

“I just woke up,” you said. A lie, considering that you’d never fallen asleep, but maybe one that he’d buy. “I don’t really like eating right after waking up.”

He stared at you for a moment, ears twitching. “Okay,” he said, hesitant. “At least get up for a moment, then. Would you like to change your clothes? Shower? Go for a walk? I’ve always liked going for walks in the morning, so stretch my legs.”

You glared at him. How could a person be so prepared to do things right after waking up? It had been like, three minutes. “I’m good.”

It was weird, because a look of near distress flickered across his face for a moment before it was smothered by his ‘eager puppy’ look. “You’ve been lying down for a while. You must be at least a little stiff. I’m sure it would feel good to get up, even if only for a moment.” He shifted his legs, one after the other. “And I’d imagine you have to relieve yourself, too, at least.”

Okay, he wasn’t wrong about that last one. You felt like you were going to explode, and as much as you didn’t feel like getting out of bed, you didn’t want to wet the bed, either. You shifted your limbs and crawled out of bed with an agility that could only be matched by a very drunk sloth.

Grove-peace looked pleased by it, though. He gestured toward the bathroom, practically following you there, thought not in. He respected your privacy at least that much.

Pissing in a centaur toilet was a little awkward- it was clearly designed for someone bigger than you with, uh, bits that were situated in a different position. It took a little maneuvering, but it wasn’t impossible. Whatever. If they were so happy to have a near-extinct species hanging out with them, they could clean up after you.

You fumbled back out of the bathroom, having washed your hand with actual water (thank god for small mercies. Then curse him for the big problems) and headed back toward your bed. Unfortunately, your path was blocked by Grove-peace.

“Do you need something?” you ground out. He stared everywhere except at you, eyes a little too wide, ears twitching, tail twisting back and forth behind him.

“Um.” His ears perked up. “Yes. We have some… ah… you need to go on a tour!”

“You already showed me around a little yesterday,” you said. You moved to step around him and he blocked your path, practically scrambling to stay in front of you. “What are you doing?”

“I just said.” His voice was a little too cheery- the edge of strain was showing through it. “I need to take you on a tour. You haven’t even seen any of the outdoor areas!”

You huffed. “I’m tired. And it’s early.”

“That’s the best time for a tour, though. There won’t be so many people around,” Grove-peace insisted. “Please? I’ll let you go to bed after this.”

You hesitated, grumbled, and considered. But he didn’t seem particularly eager to let it go. Eventually, you sighed. “Fine, fine. As long as it’s quick.”

He beamed at that and gestured with his tail for you to follow him. You did so, slogging along after his steps. It took so much motivation to keep up with him, even when he slowed down.

He led you through the building slowly, though that didn’t just seem to be for the purposes of letting you keep up- he also glanced over his shoulder at regular intervals and paused to peek around corners. Wherever he was taking you, it clearly wasn’t somewhere you were supposed to be.

Well, whatever. He could get himself in trouble, if he wanted to. All you had to do was play the part of an innocent little lamb, being dragged along to whatever he wanted to show you. You were just a poor, little, baby human! How could you be expected to know anything, when you had to depend on all the big, strong aliens around to protect you!

It wasn’t until he was stopping in front of a door to the outside that you realized that if you got caught and he got in trouble, he might get reassigned or something. And that would be kind of a problem, when he was the only centaur you’d met so far who treated you like an actual person more than a fun curiosity.

“Are we supposed to be doing this?” you asked.

“Not technically,” he said, casting another glance up and down the hallway. “But we’re not going to get caught. And you were pining for a bit of nature on the ship, weren’t you? So I think you’ll like…” He slid the door open with a flourish. “This!”

It was a park. Outdoors, but fenced off to make a neat little area. It didn’t quite look well-kept. Plants grew out in all directions, but they seemed to be generally kept off of some paths, and since the paths were designed for centaurs, they were certainly wide enough for you to walk on. There were riots of colors- even a few reddish-green plants popped up here and there, and there was a weird, squat tree-thing that was laden with plump, bulbous yellow flowers. A strong breeze picked up and one of them wobbled just a bit too much, then tilted and tumbled straight off the tree. It exploded into a burst of pollen as soon as it hit the ground.

“Don’t breathe that in,” Grove-peace warned. You slapped a hand over your mouth and nose.

“It’s not dangerous, is it?” Your curiosity really did want to go over there and take a look, but you weren’t stupid enough to disregard the warning. Grove-peace twitched his ears a couple of times, then stepped forward and carefully kicked the flower off the path.

“No, probably not. But we don’t want you having an allergic reaction to something here, either. Probably not good for you to breathe anything in.” He wrinkled his nose a little and shook himself off. “Ugh, those things even give me the sniffles when they explode too close.”

“I’m not allergic to you,” you said, giving his fur a cautious glance. It’s short and close to his skin, like a cow’s or horse’s, so maybe it’s not as aggravating as something like a cat’s would be.

“No, and that’s good. No idea what we would have done if you were.” He sighed. “They’ll probably give you an allergy examination later, as part of the non-emergency medical panels.”

Oh cool, more medical stuff. You wrinkled your nose, but didn’t say anything else. “But that’s not what I took you out here for,” he said, trotting forward with a little more enthusiasm. After following the path a little further, he knelt down next to a particularly large, almost overgrown bush. You knelt next to him, a little confused. His tail twitched excitedly behind him as he bent forward and started to click somewhere deep in his chest. He alternated between clicks and trills for a moment, and then the bush rustled.

A tiny little nose poked forward, followed by the body of a squat little animal. It wriggled on six stubby little legs, the frontmost ones tipped with blunt, spade-like claws. Its eyes were small, almost just little black spots on his face that blinked rapidly in the light of the garden. They reminded you a little of moles. Your centaur lowered his hand and the twitching nose went right into his palm, snuffling around with intense fervor. A couple other little critters poke their noses out of the bush as well, one of them skittering closer to you.

“You can touch them,” Grove-peace said. “They don’t bite- they can’t. No teeth.”

You extended your hand toward one of them and it shoved its little nose in your palm with a tickly sensation. You could feel its little breaths huffing against your skin. “What are these little guys?”

“They’re-” A series of clicks that you can’t physically replicate. Maybe you’ll just call them long moles. “They’re hardy little things, and very good for gardens, hence why they’re here. They always come with us when we terraform other planets, even if other animals don’t.”

You hesitate, letting the long mole wriggle around your palm for a moment before asking, “Where is your planet? Your… home?”

Grove-peace laughed. “Our ancestral home is quite a ways away. I’ve never been there. I’m what people call a ‘ship-hopper.’ I was born in space, I move between ships as work demands, and I only go planetside on occasion.”

“What about your family?” you asked. “Do you ever get to see them?”

“On occasion. It’s easier for people whose families are all on one planet to manage that sort of thing. Most of the time, I prefer to just give them a sensor call- it’s easier to manage that scheduling than it is to figure out who’s going whose ship and what scheduled transfers there are and who has to take what time off work in order to get there.”

“Space travel sounds complicated,” you said.

“It can be. It’s also quite interesting, though. I’ve met quite a few interesting people,” he said. “Present company included.”

He nudged your side, warm and gently, and there was a weird fluttering feeling that swooped through your chest.

There was silence for a little while. The long moles scrambled around, eventually crawling up your arms. They were surprisingly gentle, even when they were grasping at your clothes with long claws. Two of them managed to crawl all the way up to your armpits and nosed around like they were trying to attach themselves there.

“They like warmth,” Grove-peace said. “That’s why they’re so affectionate- that and they’re semi-domesticated at this point.”

Eventually, you had to put them back. They kept trying to crawl back to you in a piteously cute manner, but Grove-peace insisted on shooing you away. “They’ll go back home once we leave- they’re just all still looking for warmth.”

The pair of you snuck back to your room. “Do you feel better?” Grove-peace asked as you sat down in bed. You shrugged.

“They were really cute.”

Grove-peace nodded, shifting his legs again. His ears twitched anxiously. “You seem to have perked up a little. We could get something to eat now, maybe? Or something else, if you’d like to do that?”

“I just want to lie down,” you said. The long moles had been cute, but now that you were back in your room, it was sort of wearing off. Grove-peace scuffed a fore-foot against the floor, tail flicking back and forth.

“Maybe you can lie down after you eat something? Just a little. Or have something to drink? You’re…” Grove-peace trailed off, his expression stricken. You glanced sideways at him.

“Why are you here?” Your tone was neutral, less accusing and more curious. Grove-peace’s ears twitched and he tilted his head to one side like he hadn’t quite understood the question. “Like, you said so yourself. You’re a ship-hopper. Isn’t it weird for you to be on a planet like this?” “Well, yes,” he said, still uncertain, like he wasn’t sure where the conversation was going and he was trying to brace for a trick question. “But you’re here. So I’m here.”

“Don’t give me that crap.” Your voice was practically a snarl. Hurt flickered across his expression. The flare of guilt in your chest was immediate, but you pressed on. “I couldn’t pick up a lot of what was happening when I woke up, but I could put together the basics. You weren’t supposed to leave the ship, were you? You volunteered. So why are you here? Why did you want to come with me? Because I’m some last member of a species? Because I’m interesting? Be-”

“No!” Grove-peace protested. “Not- I do think you’re interesting, to be clear. But that’s not why I came with you. Well. Not the only reason.” He moved closer, settling next to your bed again. “When we found your ship, it was a momentous discovery. We thought it was completely gone, so we would only be studying corpses and using the ship to find others of your species, should there be any left. But we found you.” His vice got breathy, awestruck. “It was amazing for scientific reasons, of course, and as a xenobiologist, I was thoroughly fascinated by you when we were taking you out of hibernation. But then when we took you out…”

He trailed off, thumping his back feet against the ground. “You were small and alone and helpless. And the instant I saw you, you weren’t some kind of specimen anymore. You were a person, and you were alone. How could I have left you after that?”

He fell sort of miserably silent after that. You stared at him. “You’re still here because you feel responsible for me?”

“To a certain extent. But I’m also here because I think you’re a fascinating person, and I think you deserve to have one person here who’s completely on your side.”

You stared at him for a long moment. There was a weird trembling feeling in your gut and your eyes stung a little. “Thank you,” you whispered after several moments of silence. It felt like a poor response to his big speech, but you really couldn’t think of any way to express what you were feeling. He laughed quietly.

“Don’t thank me. I don’t need it.” He unfolded his legs, stretching as he stood up. “I’m going to go get you some food, okay? I’ll be right back.”

You watched him walk out of the room. There was still that weighted sadness over your entire body, but something in your chest felt warmer. Gentler. Everything was just the tiniest bit brighter.

When Grove-peace came back, you even ate some of the food he offered. And the look of relief on his face made that weighted sadness even less pronounced.

The days blurred together after that. Apparently days on this planet were slightly longer than days on Earth, which screwed with your sleep schedule for a while. Thankfully, it wasn’t so different from Earth that you couldn’t adjust to it. The medical tests continued, from being poked and prodded with needles to just lying down in a big pool for hours. You fell asleep during that one, to the amusement of Grove-peace. He lingered around for most of your tests and acted as something of an interpreter or go-between for the scientists. Not that they wanted him there. They all wanted to talk with you directly. Fortunately, they also caved pretty quick when you just refused to talk without Grove-peace.

In the midst of all that, they started preparing your home.

They’d gotten to the whole thing rather quickly, all things considered. Apparently, they were using human housing blueprints they’d downloaded off your section of the ship to create the building, with some modifications to make it accessible for centaurs. It was set not too far from the facility you were already living in, which you’d discovered when Grove-peace had taken you out to the site. The area had been swarming with centaurs and mechanical building equipment, and you’d been reluctant to go closer. Most people you interacted with had stopped trying to touch you without permission, but you still didn’t appreciate the blatant staring.

“It’ll be built on a shift-frame, so they’ll be able to move it easily, though that also means you won’t have a basement,” Grove-peace said as he examined the building plan in front of him. You had a copy that was translated into English, but you still struggled to understand it. You weren’t an architect. “They’re planning a garden area, though- indoors, but you might be able to grow some Earth plants, with approval. That’ll be nice, right?”

You hummed noncommittally. Yesterday, they’d pinged you an update on the Human Ship Rescue Mission. It was pretty much the same as the last one- nothing. There were some notes about them commandeering a ship to actually go out there and search, but nothing concrete. Super fun. You sure were glad they were taking their time to be thorough about it.

(Okay, yes, objectively it was better that they weren’t rushing into a rescue mission half-cocked and all that because if they made it to the human ship and like, exploded or something, that would make everything worse, but also. It was massively frustrating sitting around and doing a shit-ton of nothing).

“Are you still there?” Grove-peace asked with a gentle nudge to your side.

“Where else would I be?” you mumbled. “I’m just here. Looking into getting a lovely new cottage while the remains of my species drift happily through the black death-void of space. Real good time I’m having.”

Grove-peace fell silent and a worm of guilt worked its way through your chest. Okay, that wasn’t quite fair. It wasn’t like any of this was his fault. He was just trying to make you feel better. Even if all you wanted to do was lie face down in the dirt and let the planet eat you. “Sorry.”

“You’re allowed to be upset,” Grove-peace said immediately, which was his fun new phrase. Every time you got pissy, he was all ‘well, you’re allowed to be upset.’

“Yeah, maybe. Doesn’t mean I should be taking it out on you.” You slouched down into the dirt. Maybe you should have cared more about the clothes you were wearing, considering they were now technically relics of a near-extinct species. But you were also a relic of a near-extinct species and you didn't care about yourself, so.

“Are you tired?” Grove-peace asked, sitting next to you. “I can carry you.”

“I’m not tired. I just don’t feel like walking anymore.” You gazed toward the clearing your home was going into, the little patch of fenced-off framework that had already gone up. “I’m not physically tired. Just heavy, you know.”

Grove-peace nodded. “I wish there was something I could do to help.”

You leaned your torso against his and let out a shuddering sigh. The contact helped. Really helped, actually. Just his physical presence, the reassuring warmth and weight and alive-ness of another person there settled the frantic, painful ache inside you. “You are helping.”

“Something more I could do to help,” he insisted. “Something to take the pain away.”

He sounds mournful, as if your pain is causing him pain, too. Guilt flashes through you, worse this time. “There’s not a way you can do that,” you said. “And I don’t know if I would want you to if you could. I feel like maybe… maybe I’m supposed to feel like this. Like I’m obligated to mourn.”

“That doesn’t seem like it’s fair to you. You’re just supposed to be sad for the rest of your life? Even if you could fix it?”

“If my species is going extinct, I don’t really want to be happy about it. I don’t even feel good being neutral about it. It feels right to be miserable about it.” Grove-peace fell silent for a long moment. You stared up at the sky. Was the sky a slightly darker blue here? Maybe. It was hard to tell. You didn’t’ have pictures to compare it to.

“I still hope you’ll be able to be happy,” he finally said. “Maybe it’ll take a while. And maybe it won’t be the same as it was before. But I still hope you’ll be able to be happy.”

“I spent most of my life with a sword hanging over my head,” you said. “We all knew humanity was going extinct back on Earth. Since I was like, ten, people knew that only a small percentage of us would be saved. And there was nothing we could do. When I was picked, I was still sad, but it sort of… abated, I guess. For a little while. Like I actually had hope that maybe I was going to be a part of something bigger. That my life mattered. And then when I woke up again, everything was gone.” You closed your eyes for a moment. “Maybe this is just the way I’m supposed to be. Mourning everything all the time. Even if things get better, I think there’s still going to be a part of me that’s mourning. I don’t think it’ll ever stop.”

Grove-peace curled his tail around me. “You still matter now.”

“It’s not the same. I matter to you guys, because I’m the last of my species. But I don’t matter to other people. I’m not… a part of something in the same way. I mattered to those people as a part of their community, as someone who was building the future with them. Now I’m… like a museum piece. I matter, but I’m separate. I matter like a fun curiosity, not like a person.”

Grove-peace’s tail curled even closer to you, resting across your lap. “You matter like a person to me.” The little translation bot was pretty close to your head, but even then, it barely projected loud enough for you to hear it. His thumping was, similarly, barely present enough for you to feel it.

Maybe it was a simple, cheesy statement. But it made your eyes water regardless.

There was a long pause. Grove-peace seemed to be deep in thought about something, his hands absently playing with the strands of hair that had finally started sprouting from your head again. They were still short, but they’d earned you some fascination from quite a few centaurs, since their hair was short all over their bodies.

“Do you want to leave?” Grove-peace’s voice was still quiet, almost nonexistent again.

“Leave?” you repeated. “What do you mean, leave?”

“Go somewhere else. I have a basic flight license. That’s enough to get us in the air and out of direct orbit. And then we can bug it off the star routes and head anywhere we want.”

You snorted, lips twitching. “Where, exactly, would we be going? And how do you plan to get me on the ship anyway? I’m precious, you know. Like an artifact. They’re not going to let you just take me.”

“I could smuggle you. You’re not that big. I’m sure I could get you into a piece of luggage.” He smirked a little. “I could pass you off as a big alien pet.”

You elbowed his side. “Yeah, sure. Let’s say you do manage to get me off planet without anyone noticing, which I don’t think you could do. Where do we go after that?”

“Anywhere we want!” he said, then seemed to reconsider. “Well, not anywhere. We would have to avoid major population areas, since they would notice you’re gone eventually and send out an alarm. But we can just move off into the unregulated areas of space, and no one will bother us there.”

“Uh huh. There won’t be any way for them to track down the ship that took off with their most precious endling,” you said with as much sarcasm as you could muster.

“I’m sure I could disable the internal tracker systems,” he said, not sounding sure at all. “And space is big- if we get enough of a head start, we could get away with enough headway for them to miss us.”

“And then what? Where do we go from there?” you asked. He fell silent for a few minutes.

“Anywhere we want, as long as it’s not in heavily populated space.”

“Uh huh. We’re going to land on whatever planet we want and start our own little colony,” you said. Your voice was still sarcastic, but you couldn’t help the undercurrent of longing in it. Grove-peace must have picked up on it, because he shifted to better hold you with his tail and arms.

“Yes. We’ll steal the seeds and food we need and I can get all the information we need. We’ll set up our own little home on some tiny, backwater world, and we’ll live without anyone interfering,” Grove-peace finished triumphantly and a little wistfully.

The pair of you fell silent for a bit. You sighed. “We can’t do that, though. We don’t know how to survive out there. We probably wouldn’t make it to the nearest planet, much less some place in the middle of nowhere in space.”

“We would probably be captured before we even left the planet’s claimed space,” Grove-peace agreed. “Even if I did manage to take the tracker off the ship, they would probably be able to track it by engine pulse alone- it’d be tough, but they’d do it.”

You ran your palm over your head. “I’m honestly surprised they haven’t put a tracker in me yet. Like you do for a pet you might lose.”

“They wouldn’t have to,” Grove-peace said. “You’re noticeable enough that they could rely on word of mouth alone, unless you got caught by smugglers or something. Actually, that’s probably one of the reasons they’re so worried about you going off-planet. They’re not wrong when they say space travel is dangerous on its own, but there are way more thriving smuggler rings in space than planetside, especially if you’re going beyond the major station locations.” “What do the smuggler rings even want with me? Are they going to chop me up and sell my meat to the highest bidder?” you complained.

“Maybe, but I think they’d probably think that’s a waste. More likely, they’d sell you to the highest bidder, and they’d do whatever they want. A lot of people like alien pets, and you would probably be quite a status symbol, seeing as you can talk.” Grove-peace pauses. “And there are probably other people who would like an alien pet for… other reasons.”

“Other reasons?” you repeated. “What, like to bang them?”

It was clearly the answer, because Grove-peace jolted like you’d stuck him with a pin. His eyes, wide as saucers, land on you. Maybe he thought he was speaking too low for the translator to catch, or maybe he thought you wouldn’t pick up on the implications. But the way he was staring at you made you think that he wasn’t just surprised. He looked embarrassed that you’d heard him.

“Wait,” you said, not quite holding back your laughter. “You- you want to bang an alien!”

“That’s not-!” He jolted to his feet so suddenly that you were sent toppling to the ground. It didn’t hurt, and you popped up a moment later. “I didn’t- I was just saying some people might want to, I’ve heard there are communities that find that kind of thing appealing, so-”

“You wouldn’t get so flustered if it was just something somebody else did,” you pointed out. “Let me guess: you know about those communities because you’re in them?”

He stared at you for a moment longer, then seemed to crumple in on himself. “I am so sorry. I- it’s not something- I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable. I swear, I don’t expect anything, I was just- just-” He covered his face with his hands, his forelegs buckling like he was about to drop into a bow. “I know this is probably awkward for you, but I swear, that’s not why I’m here.”

“Ohhh my god.” You covered your mouth with a hand, but it couldn’t quite disguise your laughter. “You’re kidding. You actually want to, uh. You know. Get with me?”

“No! That’s not- I swear, it was never my intention! I- It was something that got me interested in being a xenobiologist, but I would never, ever try to- I’m so sorry.” He looked perfectly miserable, so much so that you took a little pity on him.

“What are you apologizing for? You haven’t done anything wrong,” you said.

“But I don’t want you to think that I was only doing that so you would like me,” he said, miserable. “I was being honest before, when I said I didn’t come with you for any ulterior motives. I mean, I am fascinated by aliens in general, and the first sophont alien is a big discovery, but also…” He trails off. “I don’t know how to explain it. Maybe my, er, fascination with aliens did help, in that it helped me see you more like a person than I think some of the others do. But I swear, I was never trying to get you in my debt or to… seduce you.”

“I’ll be honest,” you said. “You don’t come across as someone who really ‘seduces’ others.”

That was toeing dangerously close to an insult, but he took it in good humor. “Ah, well, no. I don’t have much experience in that department.” He took a tentative step back toward you. “I wouldn’t blame you if you were upset, you know. It must seem like I’ve been your helper under false pretenses.”

“Not really. I don’t think you’re that good at being subtle or manipulative,” you said.

“I could be,” he offered. “You wouldn’t know it if I really was.”

“I suppose not. But I’m gonna trust you. You’ve been pretty good to me all this time, and I’ve never felt uncomfortable or unsafe around you. I definitely trust you more than any other centaurs I’ve met.” Grove-peace came back to your side and you rested a hand comfortably on his side, where his torso met the more horse-like portion of his body. “You’re a good person, you know?”

“I’m grateful you think that way,” Grove-peace said. “I’ll try to make sure I can live up to that.”

You huffed out a gentle sigh. “We should probably be getting back, shouldn’t we?”

“Probably,” Grove-peace agreed, though he didn’t move at all. “Are you, uh. Feeling any better than before?”

You hesitated for a moment, then let out a deep sigh. “Like I said, I’m not sure I’m ever going to feel completely better. But… I think I’m okay right now.” You leaned against him. “Thanks, though.”

“Of course. Always,” he said. “Here, want to get on and ride for the rest of the way?”

“You’re cool with it?” you asked.

“I offered,” he laughed. He knelt and you carefully got on his back before he took off back in the direction of the main building. You leaned against his back, tired, but comfortable in his company.

Months passed. They finished your house. You moved in. It was… nice. It was a big house. They let you grow some Earth plants, provided you grew them in a specific, climate-controlled area and you basically followed hazmat procedures when entering and exiting the area. They even got you a computer that let you access the archives of the computers on the ship, so you could scroll through the instructions and cultural information they had on there. You’d learned more about humans in the time you’d been on an alien planet than in all the time you’d live on Earth. In fairness to you, the ‘everyone is going to die soon’ attitude on Earth hadn’t been conducive to a good learning atmosphere, and there wasn’t a ton else to do now.

Grove-peace had been introducing you to centaur culture too, little by little. You didn’t actually visit the nearby settlement all that often, but when you did, he was there as your guide, pointing out little aspects of their world to you. There were a lot of similarities between them and humans. Centaurs held festivals, celebrated art, had restaurants ranging from fine dining to fast food, and had streets lined with shops to buy things you needed and things you really didn’t But there were some weird aspects, too- their music was weird and discordant, and they could apparently see a slightly different color spectrum from you, so some of their art looked weird, and you couldn’t eat most of their food because at least three of the most common stapes of centaur food were either undigestible to you or gave you allergic reactions.

That said, there wasn’t much of a reason to go into town much. But you did. Because Grove-peace liked walking with you and you liked walking with him.

Most of your time was spent with him, really. To the extent that, one day, you leaned over the arm of your couch to where he was seated on the floor next to you and asked, “Do you wan to move in with me?”

He blinked at you. “What?”

“I mean, you’re always here already. Why not?” You finished off the little bracelet you’d been weaving around your fingers and held it out to him. “Here.”

He allowed you to slide it onto his wrist. It was a friendship bracelet you’d learned to make when you were little, but bringing in some centaur styles of design. Grove-peace twisted it around his wrist, a happy expression on his face.

“I’m going to have to ask, but…” He glanced at your face and trailed off. Something softer and gentler crossed his face. “But I don’t think I care that much what they say. I’ll be here anyway.”

You grinned and passed your hand over his head. He leaned into your touch, expression peaceful. “Hey. Grove-peace?”

He didn’t say anything. You nudged him. “Grove-peace? Are you paying attention to me?”

“Hm?” He blinked at you. “Oh, you were talking to me?”

“Yeah. Of course. Did you forget your own name?”

He rumbled his laughter. “Ah. Well, that’s not technically my name.”

“What?” You sat up sharply. “What do you mean? Have I been calling you a nickname?”

“Of sorts, I suppose. My name means grove-peace. Or, I think a more accurate translation would be ‘peaceful grove’ but it’s the same thing, really. The translators automatically try to translate all words, so if a name has a meaning, it’ll try to translate the meaning.”

“Then what’s your real name?” you asked.

“If I say it, the translator will just translate it,” he pointed out. “But… Here.” He took one of your hands in his and brought it down to his chest.

The rumbling and clicking started up again, vibrating up through your fingers as he said his name. The translator near your ear said “Grove-peace,” but you were more focused on the feeling beneath your fingers.

“You can keep calling me Grove-peace, of course,” he said. Hour hand was still on his chest, his fingers tracing patterns along the back of it.

“If the translators work that way, does my name get translated too?” you asked.

“Sort of. The translations come from all the onboard computers on your ship and there weren’t many name translations, but none of us can really say your name very well, so you do have a sort of nickname.” He shifted, a little embarrassed. “I’m the one who gave it to you, right after you woke up.”

“And the nickname is?” you pressed when he didn’t say anything else. He looked rather embarrassed, but tightened his fingers on yours as he kept your hand on his chest.

The rumbling started up again, and the translator near your head chirped out “Star survivor.”

“It comes from an old story,” he continued. “There were many more stars, once, but a tragedy happened and most of them died. The last star, our sun, eventually managed to have its children, both the ones we see in the sky and the ones on our original homeworld. They say the stars we live beneath now are our siblings, in a way.” He flicked his ears in a centaur shrug. “I thought it was fitting.”

You put your hand over his, tracing your thumb along the back of his hand. “I like it.”

He leaned against you for a moment. “Have you checked the reports from the ship lately?”

Not The Ship, but the ship sent to find it- there’s no other ship he would be referencing. “Yeah. Still no updates. It’s only been a few months. You said it could be years before anything comes of it.”

“Yeah. Probably,” he agreed. You felt a bit chilled by it. Likely the only human around for years, if not forever.

But Grove-peace was warm and holding you. And you, despite the sadness that always sat in your chest, were calm and at peace.

And that was okay.

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