The Dark of the Stars

Chapter Three

So I realize that these chapters are super short, so I going to update as often as I can :) 

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Everything went black only for an instant, and when I could see again, I was somewhere else. Dixie released me and shoved me to the ground. When I recovered from that I looked around. 

“Where the hell are we?” I asked, seeing a lot of plumping. It was dark, hot and steamy in the room, I couldn’t make out anything but a maze of pipes covering all the walls and ceiling. I wondered where she had taken me. 

“On a rebel cargo ship headed for Augusta for supplies” she said, and for the first time I noticed her slight accent. It was completely foreign, which made sense since she was from Earth. I wondered how she’d come to learn Taun, and how she could’ve learned so fast that she could speak High Taun in a perfect accent that I wouldn’t even notice. She was taking in her surroundings when she spoke, and stowed her dagger on belt, which appeared to be just a rope. 

“How’d we get here?” I asked, trying and failing to keep the panic out of my voice. 

Dixie held up her hand and I noticed something that I hadn’t seen before, a bulky ring that had an alien writing glowing on it. “Teleportation ring. Rare and old technology, but proven to be very useful.

I panted for a minute before I spoke to her again “This was all part of your plan, wasn’t it? To kidnap me?” I asked her.

“Well, your mind may not be valuable, but your name is” Dixie said to me, smiling.

I couldn’t retort, I just sat there with my mouth half open staring at her. Her hair was glowing in the low lighting. She looked like some sort of paranormal creature because of it. 

“Come on princey. Let’s go say hi to the people in charge of this boat” she said and I followed her out of the plumbing room. The ship was small and cramped. We found the captain and he was fine with us as stowaways, only after Dixie introduced who she was and why I was here. The captain was incredibly happy to be providing for the rebel strategist which had captured the good-for-nothing heir to the throne. 

A deck hand showed us to our quarters, which turned out to be a closet sized room that had a bed and a bathroom separately only by a sheet. The bed barely fit two people. I could feel my upper lip curling uncontrollably. I had never even been in a room this small and disgraceful. Dixie thought differently, however. 

“It’s wonderful, please extend my thanks to your superior officer” she said, flashing a warm smile towards the young deck hand, who replied with a shy smile before leaving us alone.

“I wouldn’t really describe it as wonderful” I said casually, as Dixie spread herself out on the bed leaving me standing awkwardly. 

“Who are you to judge?” she snapped back in my direction. Clearly that warmth she extended to a random deck hand was in short supply. I gulped.

“So I take it, you get the bed?” I asked in a small voice, cocking my head. 

Dixie looked at me with furrowed brows “You think I’m cruel? We’re sharing it dip shit”

I gulped again. Dixie had started to get under the covers and I was still standing there, unsure of what I was going to do. When she saw how awkward I was standing she snapped at me again “Do you usually have people carry you to your bed?” 

“No, I-I just...I” I stuttered, my mind mentally shutting down. I had barely ever touched a girl other than my sister. Sleeping in the same bed was completely reserved for married couples. I had also heard rumors about Earthlings and their savage urges. 

“Get in the bed dumb-ass” and she slapped the space on the dingy sheet next to her. 

I slid next to her uneasily. When I laid down I realized that I was still wearing my best suit and knew that it would get ruined by being slept in, but there was no way that I was going to sleep in my underwear next to an Earth girl. I could just buy another suit. 

As soon as I was in the bed, Dixie brought the covers over us and wrapped her arm around me “Woah!” I sat cringing from her touch “What are you doing?” my voice was panicked, I knew she could tell. She looked annoyed, rolling her eyes around.

“I don’t want you running away in the middle of the fucking night, do I?” she muttered some other things in another language and I let her drape her arms around me and get settled against my arm.

I had never been so uncomfortable in my life, in such a small, dirty bed with an Earth girl wrapping herself around me. My skin was exploding everywhere that it was in contact with hers and her claw-like finger tips freezing me as they rested easily on my exposed arm. 

I was paralyzed, listening to Dixie’s breathing becoming slower and feeling her drift off into unconsciousness. I tried to remember if humans were light or heavy sleepers, or how long they slept for on average. I might’ve have an advantage over her if I knew any of that, but I couldn’t recall any of it. I wondered if I had ever known it in the first place. I didn't ever hear Mosa spilling off random facts about Earthlings. 

I took a chance and lightly lifted her fingers off my arm and back over to her side of the bed. She stayed asleep so I managed to get her entire body on to her side of the bed. I was out from her clutch and I sat up when I thought of a shattering question. What now?

Was I supposed to just walk out of this room? I was on a spaceship headed for another galaxy. This was a rebel ship too, and not a single person on this ship was an ally of the crown. If I left this room I was still Dixie’s prisoner. There was no escape. None whatsoever. 

I laid back down on the pillow and sighed with exasperation. Then another troubling thought hit me. Dixie surely must have known that this was a perfect prison, and there was no escape, so why did she throw herself all over me claiming that it was to prevent me from running away?