Gyft (Rescued by the Alien)

Chapter Three

OLIVIA:

I WAKE WITH a start, the last energy drink I sucked down coursing through my veins. Hours later? Weeks? Years? How long did the trip take?

I can’t believe they gassed me. What the hell? That’s the equivalent of date-rape. Anything could have happened. I could have gotten lost in space. I could have been blown up by their atmosphere entry. I could have slept through my chance to sneak away before alien guards come to retrieve their expensive prize. Hell, the gold I’m wearing alone is worth a fortune.

Leaning forward, I slap my palm on the dash to activate the view. The imagery that flares up makes me catch my breath. It’s a bright, sunshiny day on a strange, tropical planet, yet with a deep, shadowy overcast to the image like I’m viewing through sunglasses that don’t sit on my face. Maybe they don’t need pupil modification here. Trees reminiscent of palm, but much shorter. Like bushes. And yet, other trees have the branches covered in moss and they’re huge. From the information on the screen—they can grow up to two-hundred feet tall. That must be the shade canopy. Gah, I’m so stupid. It isn’t their atmosphere. We’re sitting in literal shade.

Absently, I trace a path on the map to where a city is named. I’m two miles west from the nearest trade city of H’liyio.

Awesome. I’ll find work there. Perhaps teach manners to the upper class. Or I could be a nanny. As long as their offspring don’t have slimy snot or grabby tentacles or something. Those cloaks are obviously worn to mask a frightening sight. That’s a little worrisome. I knit my brows, not even caring about wrinkles.

But best I hurry before someone on this dismal planet finds me.

From where I stay in the upright position, I quickly riffle through the cabinets in front of me. A first aid kit.

Really?

Nothing useful, then. Okay, no problem. I’ll hike it on foot to this city. With my decision made, I unsnap the seatbelt, which sets the shuttle into shut down mode. The dim, stasis lights go off at the same time the door slides open.

And floods the cabin with bright, bluish-white light and the scent of salt and dew. I take a deep breath, letting the heavy, damp air fill my lungs. It smells delicious, like fresh clean rain and ocean. Maybe it smells extra good because I’ve been cooped up in recycled air.

Two miles west of the nearest city.

I look around for the mountains, because the mountains are always west. But there are no mountains anywhere, just the most enormous trees I’ve ever seen. They’re as huge as... as a house. They’re so thick, I can’t even see the sky.

I guess maybe I’ll be able to find the mountains once I leave the trees. Or... maybe the location on the viewing screen was already a plotted-out map. It showed the town as being two miles from the door of the shuttle, so maybe that’s the way.

I nod. It’s what I would do if I was a shuttle engineer. I’d design the map to flip directions according to which way the shuttle lands. I make a note to myself to also make sure the shuttles always land near shopping malls.

Lifting my gown like an ethereal fairy princess, I head through massive wooden trunks, deeper into the forest.

Even though this planet is shady from the huge trees as tall as skyscrapers, there’s a lot of blue-based colors. The leaves are more bluish than they are green. The ground is slightly blue like some sort of rich, glittery metal was deposited into the dirt.

Quick movement flickers in the corner of my eye. A dark olive-colored thing, as tall as me, hops by on one single leg. When it turns to look at me, I shudder at the face. It has eight eyes and the black, hairy face of a spider.

A snap sounds, making me jump. The creature extends two giant arms out and cracks open a giant tree branch—or root, I guess they are, since they grow from the ground into the shape of a cage at the base of the trees. When he breaks the wood open, fluorescent blue gel oozes out. The creature leans down, fangs extended, and a hissing escapes its throat as it sucks up the sap from the branch. The tree itself shudders, and giant leaves fall from the sky. Is it in pain? I don’t want to stick around for this creature to decide it’s still hungry. Picking up my skirts lest they grow dirty, I spin around and run, losing myself between the never-ending trees.

After a time, I begin to wander, looking up occasionally to see a glimpse of the sky. But there’s nothing visible. Not with the thick trees that extend like skyscrapers. With an ear-splitting screech, a vile black, oily creature shaped like a bird with arms and legs sails across the sky under the canopy of leaves, arms extended like batwings. It has a snout which sniffs the air and then his yellow eyes zero in on me. It’s the ugliest creature I’ve ever seen.

Before it gets dinner ideas, I run toward the tree trunk-like cages. Just before I squeeze through the tree’s thick roots, a mist rains down on me. My limbs freeze in a paralysis—the thing is peeing on me. Spraying me. I panic, my breath coming in short, shallow pants but I’m unable to move. Wiggling my core, I insert myself into the exposed tree roots like they’re a protective cage. The creature circles the tree once, looking to see if I’ll come out, and then flits away, disappearing before I can see how high he goes because my neck freezes in place.