Nyx (Complete✅)

Chapter 58

   It was only after Beth had gotten in bed and nearly drifted off that she realized she'd completely forgotten to ask the Viscordians about wedding traditions. If they even got married. She wondered if they even took permanent partners, or if they even reproduced in the normal fashion at all. But even if they didn't have any sort of customs regarding these things, she was sure they would have some sort of fabric or material that might be used for her purposes. It would be quite something to be able to have the first wedding on Viscordia while clothed in traditional Viscordian clothing. She really did hope they had some kind of tradition, and that they hadn't forgotten them.

   She realized that she was keeping herself awake with all these thoughts, so she forced her mind to be quiet, snuggling deeper into her bunk and changing positions to get more comfortable. She wouldn't be able to stay awake the next morning if she didn't get any sleep tonight.

   She drifted off after a while, but not after reminding herself several times not to go off on trails of thought that had to do with the wedding. There weren't any set dates, but they had told several people to expect it to happen soon, and they were trying to take care of as much planning as possible. She was so excited that it took quite a bit for her to finally calm down enough to sleep, which happened frequently.

   The next morning dawned just like every morning, and Beth slowly stretched in her bed, yawning hugely. Then she remembered that she was going to talk to Kelbar and the others today, and she forgot the morning fatigue. She could finish her work some other time. There were more important things to think about.

   She rushed to get ready and then set out, heading to where she knew the Viscordians would be housed. It was a building identical to the ones surrounding it, but it still lacked a door from before the finer touches had been added onto all the other houses. It had never been finished because it was realized early on that it wouldn't be needed.

   She was delighted to discover that Kelber, Meelah, and Jakam were already up and sitting in a loose circle right outside the door of the structure. She walked over with a cheerful greeting.

   "Hello, Beth!" Kelbar was the first to return her salutations, but the others soon followed suit.

   "I was wondering if I could ask a few questions. You guys aren't busy, right?"

   "No, you can ask as many questions as you want," Meelah spoke this time, gesturing to the empty space on the ground next to her. Beth took a seat.

   "What is it you want to ask?" Kelbar asked.

   So she told them all about her and Liam, trying to explain what engagement was as best she could, and then she finished with a question "Do you have anything like this?"

   Meelah nodded, but Kelbar was the one who actually answered. "We do. What do you want to know?"

   Now she explained her dilemma of not having a wedding dress, and how she didn't want to use bedsheets. She had to pause for a bit to tell them exactly what bedsheets were, but they understood quickly, and she was soon back on track with her questioning.

   "I think I can help, yes," Kelbar said with a smile. Out of the three, Beth had been expecting him to know the least about this.

   "That's great!" she returned the smile. "I can't wait to get started."

  __________

   Finally, Aaron was able to sit up on his own, without the aid of the aliens, though he still felt just slightly dizzy whenever he sat up too quickly. They continued to feed him the same sort of soup, and thought it wasn't unpleasant, it was getting tiring, and he wanted nothing more than to have a nice hearty omelet with extra onions. Now that was a good breakfast. Soup wasn't a breakfast food, for him at least.

   At the moment, the tent was empty. He couldn't hear or see any aliens coming, so he sat up. They didn't seem to approve of him sitting up, but they weren't here now, so he could do as he pleased. He wasn't scared of them anymore, but he didn't want to make them angry. Even the smallest animals could be dangerous when they were angry, and he didn't want to accidentally incur the wrath of these natives.

   He decided it was finally time to try again to stand up. The past couple times that he'd managed to snatch a few minutes between his alien visitors, he'd only ended up flat on his back, blinking stars out of his eyes.

   He carefully lifted himself up onto his feet, still crouched low to the ground with his hands resting against the ground, then he lifted his hands up. Inch by inch, he slowly raised himself until he was standing. He hardly felt dizzy at all, though his legs did seem shaky and weak, that was to be expected.

   Then his head snapped up when he heard voices, but he was too late, and a second later, the two aliens were in the entrance and staring at him. One of them seemed quite unbothered, but the other one—a younger female—seemed quite troubled, and she began spouting off in the strange language. He was shocked to find that the language was now starting to sound almost familiar.

   The female rushed forward, still speaking in the strange language, maybe telling him off or maybe just yelling nonsense. Either way, the words didn't sound the friendliest, and he found himself flinching away when she touched him, but his shaky legs didn't work as well as expected, and he fell backward, only just managing not to fall too hard. He sat there, slightly stunned as the young alien checked him over, her brow creased.

   The alien that hadn't yet left the entrance called something over to the one that was still making sure he was okay. The girl snapped something back, shooting a glare over her shoulder at the other one. He didn't know what they said and he wasn't sure he wanted to find out.

   The alien at the door said something else, in the same tone as before, though what tone it was, Aaron wasn't entirely sure. This caused the girl to stop working altogether and spin around to glare at the male. She uttered one snippy word that sounded hardly restrained from full-on anger, and to Aaron's surprise, this caused the male to leave in what seemed to be a hurry. He watched the girl now.

   She turned back to him with a soft smile, speaking a few words as if apologizing. She sat on the ground near Aaron and without any provocation from him or anyone else, she started rattling off the strange words so fast that he was sure even native speakers would find it hard to understand. Only one word that passed his ears meant anything at all, and that was 'human,' though he didn't know the context.

   The girl continued like this for a bit, then she stood up. With only a couple more words, she turned and left. Aaron watched the spot where she disappeared for a while. It took him a second to realize that he didn't want her to leave. It had been almost pleasant hearing her ramble on, despite not understanding a single thing she said.

   He shook himself out of it. That was stupid. He didn't care about the aliens. He was grateful that they would nurse him back to health but other than that, they were simply a threat to humanity, and for that, he should hate them more than any other feelings towards them.

   The trouble was that he couldn't seem to muster up any hate.