Aliens: My Alien, Daeus

Chapter Seven

Edited: 5-19-24

Void's POV

I woke disoriented and frozen in pain. My body was screaming like a teapot on a stove. I was burning up, yet my feet and hands felt ice cold. For several agonizing minutes, I was frozen in place, unable to move. Unable to respond. My eyes were void of sight until the pain went away, but my body wasn't completely free. I was awake, but unable to move. I was concious, but in an 'out-of-body' type of way. The pain that started in by back reached all the way to my toes and my head ached as I tried to move, to wake up, to do anything that would symbolize that I was still alive or something. My body wanted to be alive. Somebody wanted me alive. But I was unsure whether I wanted me alive.

"Void . . ." Whispered a soft voice. A voice that took me a moment to recognize. It was like listening to the deep meowing of a big lion or . . . . the growling of a tiger. My mind couldn't place it until my vision started to clear. When I saw the single braid black hair and the vibrant green eyes, my body was no longer immobile.

'Daeus!' I thought to myself and I struggled to lift my arm. I realized I wasn't lying on my back, but sitting upright. My wings were laid out behind me and my tail in a soft cushion. A part of me yearned to be touching Daeus, to be in physical contact with the Honeycomb. My whole body yearned to feel safe, to feel protected. He saved me whether I wanted to or not and I didn't want to spend a single second away from him. What if the Bugs came for me? What if something else took me away that he couldn't stop? What if I was hurt again? What if . . . . What if?

Too many!

My mind was overwhelmed as it tried to run in so many directions at once. I wasn't even focusing properly. I wanted to move, I wanted to be able to pain free for once in my life. I was at the whims of this gigantic alien, but I felt so safe and secure in his arms; so close to his heart. 

I didn't realize I was hyperventilating until I felt a giant hand on my chest and one pressing in between my wings, leaning me forward. Another hand was petting my hair and I slowly started to calm down. I was safe. I was safe. I am safe. 

Tears blurred my vision and I started to choke up as I tried to produce words. I felt like a child who had heard the voice of their mother for the first time after years of being deaf. I just wanted to be held and it hurt so much not to be in his arms. The vulnerabilty I felt just sitting on a cushion and not in my savior's arms was like a pressure on my chest that slowly kept getting heavier and heavier the more I was away from him. 

"Void! Hey, shhhh, it's okay." I looked up into Daeus' four eyes. "Don't be scared!" He sounded worried, desparate to make me feel better, but I just didn't want to be away from him. It was too much, all too soon. I was hurt. I was lost. I was broken and in the midst of my pain-filled broken mind, Daeus had saved me, but I was far from having my peices put back together. Although my hyperventaliting and crying made him pick me up in his four arms and immediately the pressure was released from my chest. I was safe. I was safe. I am safe.

Once I was calmed down, Daeus kept making 'shushing' sounds and petting my hair. He held me with one hand in between my wings, letting the less damaged one hang down and the more damaged one that I only just know realized was in a sling rest on his arm. Another arm was under my legs and holding up my tail. My chest was pressed into his torso and he was gently carressing me, trying to make me feel safe, but I was safe. He was my safety. He wouldn't hurt me. And maybe I was being naive, but if I was wrong about him, I was wrong about life.

Another bought pain shot through me and I tensed up. I curled my hands in to my chest and took a deep breath. I could feel Daeus walking and I finally took the time to observe my surroundings. 

The area I was in could have probably been considered a room, if it didn't just feel like a straw hut. The walls seemed to be made of mud and clay and straw, but the furniture was modern. There was a couch - if you could call it that. It was a low-sitting, couch-like furniture that the Honeycomb probably used a couch and when Daeus sat down on it, that confirmed it. Although he sat his back end down and his front feline part curled up with his paws under him while his human-like half was sat up. There was a very oval-like, nest boarded bed with the same modern material flattened in the middle which was probably what he slept in. The room was so big it could probably fit two whole human houses. 

Beside the couch on either end was a wooden-like table. Behind the couch were shelves with books. There were also two doors, neither of which I could think of where they led to. The only other empty space in the room was set up with a small pen. The pen had a lot of blankets and pillows that covered the natural, flattened grass ground that had obviously been walked on a lot. Maybe that pen area was my space? It was so small compared to everything else in the room, it just had to be.

"Do you like it in my arms?" Once again I was caught by Daeus' voice. He shook me from my stupor, probably having noticed I was examining the room and let me be or had been observing me. "Are you like a baby Rasorine? You calm at the sound of another's heartbeat?"

I stared up at him, not understanding a single word he said, but glad he didn't sound hostile. I was completely at his mercy. I wouldn't be able to walk for a while and I didn't even know what my wings were for. Where they like an eagle's and I could soar through the clouds or a penguin's and I could glide through the water? "Or maybe you like my voice? It does rumble through my chest, doesn't it? You know Ehkad children often fall asleep to their parent's voices." His head bent closer and he peered curiously down at me. "You're the first human we've ever been able to study this close. I hope this silence means you like me, or did humans use their tongues for speech as well." He tilted his head. Was he asking me questions? I couldn't understand him. Did he think I could?

"I brought the bottle you wanted? Do you really think -"

"Shhh!"

Startled, I froze. My heart beat sped up and my body twitched like it wanted to flee. I barely noticed Daeus' hold tightening on me. When I looked up, another Honeycomb was standing in the doorway. I hadn't noticed the door had opened, nor another presence until she spoke. The pastel green Honeycomb looked at me with wide, light blue eyes as she slowly took a few steps back until she was on the other side of the door. She was holding a tiny object in her hand, but it probably only looked tiny because it was in her hand. She stared at me for a few more seconds before she lowered her head slowly, still keeping her eyes on me.

"I brought the bottle." The Honeycomb spoke in a softer, gentler voice, but I just couldn't relax. My brain was flooded with fear until the only thing I could think of to do was flee. I was in Daeus' arms, yes, but I . . . I couldn't control it. She was so close. She was so, so, so close. I panicked, struggling to get out of Daeus' arms despite the pain, struggling to get as far from the other Honeycomb as I could. 

I wasn't joking when I said these things looked like deadly beasts that could kill you without a second thought, like a fly under their paw.

"Shut the door, Yupo! Shut the door! You're scaring him! Out, out, out!" Daeus' voice was frantic as he tried to keep me in place. He didn't move at all, his body language could have said calm and relaxed, but his voice was tense and loud. It made me panic even more even though somewhere in the back of my mind I knew that wasn't reasonible. But, maybe it was. All my life I'd been subjected to loud noises and they always meant bad.

I'd grown up learning that loud meant that I would soon be getting hurt. Learning that if I made a noise then it would alert my parents and I would get in trouble. Coming to realize that everytime my dad yelled or mom started raising her voice then it could mean I would be on the short end of the stick and get the slaps or the kicks that my parents didn't want to take out on each other so they took it out on me. And when I'd finally escaped them, loud meant that Quill was in a terrible mood and would use me as the outlet for that terrible mood. 

I closed my eyes and clung to Daeus, praying for the only 'loud' thing to be the sound of his steady heartbeat. I forced my body to stop trying to panic and get away from him. The way all four of his arms were securing me to him felt like a restraint meant to keep me from fleeing to safety, but pressing my ear to his chest and finding the sound of his heart beating meant that he wasn't preventing me from being safe, but that he was keeping me safe and I would need to trust him if I was to ever be okay again.