Caged With The Alien Warrior

39.

Aanya

So this was all a lot to process.

Ronan was Lani's uncle? And her dad was Kier, Ronan's cousin who died, presumably due to some shit the lizardmen did. And then these two people were Ronan's Aunt Mae and Uncle Korath, Kier's parents.

Right. Okay.

Mae was sobbing in Korath's arms. Ronan's cousin, Kallum, went over to them and hugged his parents. I looked away, feeling like I was invading their grief. Ronan stood stoically, looking at his family with sombre eyes.

Through this all, Lani slept, blissfully unaware.

Kier died and so did Lani's mother but they had a grandchild. Lani.

When their tears dried, I shuffled forward a little awkwardly.

"Um, this is Lani." I looked down at the little bundle in my arms. "Your granddaughter."

Mae sniffed, stepping forward. Her long silver grey hair was a contrast to her perfect purple skin. She pasted on a smile, but there was a sadness in her eyes.

"Lani, you said?" Mae cleared her throat delicately. "That's what they named her?"

"Yes. Her mother told me before she passed." I remembered those final, stress-filled moments. "She said, Lani. Leilani, her beautiful little flower."

Korath stepped forward, gruff but gentle with a grizzled look about him. He took Mae's hand, holding her gently. "Leilani?"

"Mhm." I nodded, holding Lani so they could see her sleeping face. "Do you want to hold her?" I offered.

"She's sleeping, I don't want to disturb her." Mae wrung her hands.

I gave them a small smile. "She slept through all this arguing, plus she's an easy baby. She'll fall back asleep."

"Yes, then." Mae took her from me, holding her in her arms.

It felt odd not to have her comforting weight in my arms.

Korath leaned close. "Hello, youngling," he said formally and I fought back a giggle.

Lani opened her eyes and cooed, and the way that Mae and Korath melted couldn't have been more perfect.

"She has the prettiest little wings too. Shocked both of us when they popped up," I laughed.

Mae raised a brow. "She wasn't born with them?"

"No, I take it Rhodinians usually are?" I assumed from their reaction. "Hers grew in a day or so after she was born, if I remember correctly. I thought she was human until I saw them."

"The implications of this!" Krono cut in. "Humans and Rhodinians are biologically compatible– this could save our race!"

"Unfortunately there's no data regarding the human home planet on the data stick." The council lady, Ami sighed. "Do you know where that is, Aanya?"

"Hm? Me?" I looked around. Right, she'd be asking me because I was the one here actually from Earth. "Like coordinates?" I clarified.

She nodded.

"No clue. We're in the Milky Way? In our solar system there's eight planets. We're the third planet away from the sun. I think. I'm pretty sure. It's been a while since I went through the solar system unit in school. We tried to colonise Mars after World War VII but that was an epic fail–"

"You've had seven world wars on your planet?" Ami cut in.

"Actually eleven," Ronan clarified.

"Yeah, we're not the most peaceful. But the last war ended in my grandparent's time! Now we're more worried about staying alive because we treated the planet like shit, pardon my French. But we're not horrible people. Just made some mistakes." I tried to make us seem less horrible.