Nyx (Complete✅)

Chapter 56

  
   Beth squeezed Liam's hand. They were officially ready to teleport to the Viscordian's newly developed village. It was a bit of a journey just to inquire about wedding clothes, but it was worth it. And besides, it wouldn't take much effort with Beth's strange ability.

   "Ready?" she looked over at Liam. They stood on the edge of the colony, to avoid spooking anyone with their sudden disappearance. The lake was a barely visible blue smudge through the trees.

   Liam nodded, smiling, and Beth prepared herself to teleport, but before she could even take a breath, a familiar voice made her freeze to the spot. But it wasn't a voice she heard every day or even every week. It had been a while.

   Kelbar was coming through the trees, with two other Viscordians behind him. They came closer and Beth recognized them as the ones named Jakam and Meelah. People of importance to the tribe of Viscordians. Her first thought was one of bad news, and that was the reason they were here, but all three wore happy expressions, and they were clearly enjoying the pleasant day. Kelbar was the only one that didn't seem absolutely enraptured by their surroundings. And Beth could understand why.

   Even after spending weeks above ground, they were seeing things they had never seen before, or maybe just hadn't seen in a very, very long time, and they were clearly drinking it all it. She felt sure she would feel like that too if she had spent her whole life in some underground pit.

   "Kelbar, hi!" Beth smiled. It was good to see him again. "What brings you three here?"

   "There are more than just three. We have a small camp just on the other side of the lake. We came here to meet your leader." He seemed vaguely different than she remembered. In what way, she didn't know. But there was just a subtle difference.

   "We were just on our way back to your village to ask you some things." Beth laughed. "It's good to see you."

   Kelbar nodded. "And it is good to see you too, and Liam." He switched to English on the last two words, so that Liam could understand, and he nodded slightly.

   "What are your questions?" Meelah now spoke up. "There is nothing wrong, I hope."

   "No, no. Nothing wrong. Just some questions about your customs and stuff." She gave Liam's hand another light squeeze, and he returned it. She knew he understood enough Viscordian to know what they were talking about, at least in a vague sense.

   "We will be happy to answer, but right now we have a job." Now it was Jakam's turn to speak up from his place just behind and to the left of Kelbar.

   "Oh, right! Sorry. We can wait until after you've spoken with the Captain." Beth nodded. "We can take you to him, actually."

   "Will you? That would be appreciated." Jakam glanced over Beth's shoulder into the colony behind her, a flicker of uncertainty passing his face, as if he wasn't quite ready to navigate the confusing human settlement without a competent guide.

   "We'll be glad to." Beth smiled warmly at them.

   "Let's go." Just as Beth thought, Liam knew just what they were talking about, and he was the first to start walking back towards the colony. Both of them knew exactly where the captain's quarters/office was, and maybe Kelbar as well, seeing as he had visited it once or twice before when he was still living with the humans, but for all Jakam and Meelah knew, they were being led in aimless circles.

   But they were following a path, and very soon, they reached their destination. "Here we are!" Beth announced. "Would you like us to wait here for you to finish, or do you want to come find us?" she asked the three who followed behind.

   "We can find you," Kelbar said with a smile.

   Beth nodded. "See you later, then!"

   Still holding Liam's hand through it all, Beth stood there and watched as the three of them entered the Captain's hut, and then long enough to hear the muffled, quiet exclamation of surprise from the captain, and then she walked away. She was confident that the Captain could understand them. He was one of the quickest students to learn the new language, besides Beth, obviously.

   "What should we do in the meantime?" Liam asked as they wandered away with no particular path into the maze of houses and huts.

   She shrugged. As long as she was with Liam, she was perfectly happy to do absolutely nothing.

_________

   Aaron swallowed the dryness out of his throat. He felt extremely weak. It was funny how he felt worse now that he'd actually gotten a few bowls of soup and some refreshing water, but he supposed that he wouldn't simply get better overnight. He recalled the long time he was sheltering away in his hut, neither eating nor drinking anything, and as he lay there, faintly dizzy and famished despite just wolfing down an entire bowl of soup, he regretted it.

   He wished he could understand more of what the aliens said. It would be so much easier that way. Sometimes two or three, or even more, would come into the strange little tent-like structure he was in, and would just talk for so long that he sometimes began to get worried. He wondered what they were saying about him if they were even talking about him at all. Maybe they just wanted to find someplace quiet.

   At any rate, they would talk and he would have no choice but to listen to everything they said without understanding a single word of it. It infuriated him.

   Another infuriating thing was that he could hardly move, and every time he did or even tried, a sharp headache would start up and he would be left feeling absolutely horrible, not to mention dizzy and ready to vomit up all of the oddly tasting, yet delicious soup they had been feeding him. So after quite a few attempts, he just lay still and ate and drank whatever they gave him. Sometimes the water would taste bitter and strange, and sometimes it was warm, but he was reasonably sure now that they had no intention of hurting him, so he just ignored it.

   His eyes started stinging and he realized that he hadn't been blinking enough because he had been too fascinated with the way the wall of the tent was woven together. He had never seen it before, and it seemed to be too tight to have been done by hand, yet too loose to be done on a machine. And obviously the material was new to him, or maybe he had just never seen it used that way before.

   But enough of that. He blinked a few times and then shifted his head on the grassy mat that served as his pillow. He might as well get some sleep while he could because he was pretty sure that he wouldn't be able to once another jabbering pair of aliens came to gawk at him.

   But he couldn't seem to sink into sleep, and it took a good half an hour of restless shifting before he slid into an uncomfortable doze that was filled with half-remembered dreams and constant intervals of wakefulness.

   In the end, he decided to give up. He went back to staring at the ceiling, though this time he remembered to blink.