Текст книги "Alien Tyrant"
Автор книги: Ursa Dox
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Текущая страница: 3 (всего у книги 14 страниц)
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CHAPTER THREE Cece
The next two weeks passed in a fevered blur of eating, sleeping, and trying to decode the language of the planet we were rapidly approaching. After breakfast each day, we were all separated to different training rooms. Mine was a tiny dark office with a single computer and a set of headphones which played snippets of the alien language we’d recorded from our orbiting research vessel. The audio recordings, alongside very grainy photos and videos, had already been analyzed by Earth linguists way above my pay grade, but even they hadn’t been able to make much of it. So far, we had a list of nouns we were mostly sure about, based on where the aliens seemed to be and what they were doing in the accompanying videos and photos. Otherwise, the language was completely without context or clues. I listened, day after day, to the same static-filled recordings, trying to gain some greater kind of understanding of what we were about to plunge into. The aliens must have had fairly humanoid mouths, as I could sort of replicate the sounds, though with some difficulty. The sounds of their language were guttural, many of the consonants clicking at the back of the throat. And their voices were deep and booming. The first time I’d put my headphones in and pressed play, my heart had thrummed in my chest, my skin pricking with goosebumps, to hear such a strange, deep voice, a voice from across the universe, growling in my ears.
When the other girls and I crashed into bed for lights out each night, I remained awake, going over and over the few words I knew, trying to untangle the mess of the rest of the language. Long after the others had gone to sleep, I tossed and turned, anxiety building every day that we got closer to the planet and that I hadn’t made some kind of linguistic breakthrough. Our survival could come down to me and my communications skills. I had to do better. I had to do something.
But the two weeks came to their end, and I’d made very little headway other than identifying what seemed to be a few more nouns the other linguists had missed. Ablik, as far as I could tell, seemed to mean weapon. Or maybe stick. Or shovel. Valok was something on the ground that the aliens looked like they picked up and stabbed, then ate. Maybe a small animal that they sucked the blood and guts out of. Gross. I had about fifty other nouns stored in the back of brain, words I’d memorized with anxious intensity, repeating them over and over as I walked the halls, as I showered, as I ate the crappy space ship food, even as I peed. But that was it. That’s all I had. A handful of nouns to try to negotiate with an alien race. No pressure.
Panic churned in my guts as we rose on that final day, knowing today was the day we’d descend to the surface. Everyone else seemed to feel as I did, and Kat, Theresa, Melanie, and I got dressed silently, shrugging into the plain grey uniforms we’d been given not long after arriving on the ship. Over the lightweight grey track pants and grey tank tops, we put on our solar protection jackets – pale tan in colour, with long sleeves and a hood with an attached visor. We’d been given packs, too, with supplies: rations; water bottles; first aid kits; and futuristic, too-powerful-for-over-the-counter sunscreens that went on thick and blue on our skin.
Chapman and a couple of other soldiers, all wearing solar protection jackets over their uniforms, showed up at our door a few moments after we’d gotten dressed.
“Time to go,” she said, her face blank.
The four of us looked at each other, saying nothing. Because really, what was there to say? Good luck everyone, don’t die.
The four of us were led through the long curving hall to a part of the ship we’d never been in, coming to a stop before a large set of round, metal doors. Chapman yanked some kind of badge from her pocket and tapped it against a small screen beside the doors, causing them to to slide open smoothly.
“Welcome to the bridge,” she said, gesturing us inside.
“Whoa,” Theresa whispered, and Kat whistled, breaking the stoic silence of our little group.
I sucked in a breath. Whoa indeed.
We’d gotten used to the spaceship over the past couple of weeks, and it no longer felt foreign to us. But this? This was something straight out of a science fiction movie set. The bridge was large, curving, with at least twelve different seats and console areas set up, where military pilots and technicians were typing and working with singular focus. Colonel Jackson stood at the front, his hands tucked neatly behind his back, and behind him was a massive open view screen, a gargantuan windshield that yielded us our first glimpse of the planet.
The photos we’d seen did nothing to convey the reality of what we saw now. There as a savage sort of beauty to the planet, its surface a deep, coppery gold, the asteroid belt encircling it like a brutal studded belt.
“I didn’t know we were already so close,” I said, my voice tight. I wasn’t ready. We weren’t ready. This can’t be actually happening.
“Good, everyone’s here and equipped with their packs.” Colonel Jackson nodded approvingly as Kat, Theresa, Melanie, and I stepped forward to join the rest of the women already present on the bridge.
“It will take us about fifteen minutes to descend to the planet’s surface.”
Holy shit. Fifteen minutes? Fifteen minutes until we potentially get blasted off the face of this fucking world? Great.
“Don’t we need to, like, strap in or something?” Someone asked from nearby, but Colonel Jackson shook his head.
“No, our tech is much more advanced than what you’ve seen in the movies. It should be a pretty smooth ride, but I will direct you all to sit against the back wall of the room in case it gets a little bumpy.”
My hands shaking, I took off my backpack and sat against the wall, gripping the grey fabric of the bag between my legs. Theresa gave me a wan smile, her face tinted pale blue from the sunscreen we’d put on.
Colonel Jackson remained standing at the front.
“Now, as we’ve already outlined, when we get to the planet’s surface, we will remain at the vessel until the natives come to us. Based on how territorial they are, and how in tune they seem to be with the land, we don’t think it will take too long. In the area where we are landing, it’s currently about halfway through their sixteen hours of daylight.”
“Love getting ready to greet some territorial aliens without knowing any bloody verbs or adjectives or the way to say ‘friendly humans, please don’t eat us,’” I muttered darkly, and Theresa gave me a comforting pat on the knee. At least, she was trying to be comforting. But I could see that my words had worried her. I wasn’t the only one who thought my lack of acquired alien language skill could potentially fuck us over big time.
The colonel gave a few more instructions, reminding us of things we already knew – no aggressive, sudden movements, only get as close as necessary to communicate – before he took his seat in one of the main console chairs facing the windshield.
“Here we go. Commence descending protocols.”
Descending to the planet’s surface was indeed nothing like the movies. It was about as rocky as an airplane coming down. We got a little jostled, but before we knew it we had landed, clouds of coppery dust rising from the sand was we did so.
The colonel stood, grinning, then shrugged into his own solar protection jacket, turning to face us with triumphantly open arms.
“Everyone, welcome to -”
An ear-splitting crash and an inhuman shriek split the air. Glass exploded in towards us, and something sharp and bloody and black burst through the front of Colonel Jackson’s chest, tearing his uniform and leaving him slumped to the ground when whatever it was withdrew.
Screams rang out around us, as did more of the catastrophic shrieking, like metal grating against metal.
I could barely process what was going on. Colonel Jackson, along with all the pilots and soldiers who had been at the front of the bridge, were on the ground, dead and bleeding. My mouth dropped open in horror as I finally clued into why.
Alien creatures that I couldn’t identify were pouring into the shattered windshield opening. There were like nothing I’d ever seen on earth – a metre tall, at least, resembling some kind of coconut crab/spider/scorpion mashup. Their powerful, armoured black legs scrabbled into the room, stabbing soldiers with their spiked tails as they did so.
I was frozen to the spot, as was Theresa, but Melanie sprang up. Kat quickly followed, and they yanked at our elbows.
“Get the fuck up,” Kat screamed over the sounds, and I shook myself, jumping onto shaky legs.
“We gotta go,” Melanie said. Her voice was strangely smooth and unperturbed.
The other girls were all also jumping to their feet now. The remaining soldiers were firing their guns towards the horrific creatures, but that seemed to do nothing at all. I mean, they were strong enough to crash through a goddamn spaceship’s wall. Don’t see what a bullet will do.
Kat seemed to have the same thought.
“We’re on another planet, on a spaceship out of the goddamn future, and all you guys have are shitty guns?” She screamed her question at Chapman, who was closest to us, standing between us and the creatures, firing her pistol over and over. Her face was pale, her jaw set, as she pulled the trigger again and again and again.
“Dude, open the fucking door,” Kat yelled at Chapman, pounding against the doors we’d entered through just a short while ago. Everyone was now crowding around the doors, scratching and yanking at the smooth surface. A muscle in Chapman’s jaw jumped, but she kept firing. The crab creatures had gotten distracted with their first kills, stopping to start eating the people who’d fallen at the front of the bridge, but they made short work of those bodies, advancing towards us once again.
“We’re gonna be next,” I shouted, grabbing Chapman’s shoulder and shaking as hard as I could. This seemed to startle her out of her gun-happy reverie. Her gaze swung between her fallen comrades and us.
“Fuck it. I did not sign up for this,” she muttered, yanking the key badge from her pocket once again and smashing it against the screen at the doors. They slid open, and we all fell through the doors in a tangled mass of panicked limbs. Chapman ushered everyone forward, screaming at us to, “go, go, go!” while she kept her gun trained on the creatures that were almost upon us. Just as one was reaching its barbed tail towards her, she vaulted through the doors while at the same time flipping the key badge against the screen. The doors slid shut, trapping one of the creature’s scrabbling black legs. I had assumed the leg would snap at the force of the doors closing, but rather, it was using its ferocious alien strength to pry those doors back open.
“That won’t hold for long. Let’s go!” Shouted Chapman, brandishing her gun forwards. “Follow me!”
No one had time for questions. We all fell in behind her, sprinting down the hallway. She was the only soldier left. Since she’d been standing at the back with all of us, she’d been somewhat safe. Everyone else on the bridge was gone. Holy fuck. It’s literally just us now.
Chapman led us to the other side of the ship, entering what appeared to be some kind of cargo bay: a large, open room with supplies and boxes lining the walls. She ran over to a keypad at one end of the room and started frantically typing before smashing her key badge against its small screen. A massive metallic click rang out, followed by a loud rolling sound, like a garage door being opened. I gasped to see the far wall of the cargo bay sliding up into the body of the ship. Sunlight poured in.
“Wait, that’s the plan?” I shouted as she ran towards the exit. “We’re going out there?”
Chapman whirled back. We all crowded in towards each other, a crying, shaking group, while Chapman stared.
“You want to stay in here? Be my guest. But those things were powerful enough to smash through our reinforced screens. Screens that can withstand space travel. There’s nowhere in this place you can hide where they won’t find you. I’m not hiding in here and waiting to die. I’m gonna run.”
She used her gun to point to the now open side of the cargo bay.
“Come with me or don’t. It’s up to you.”
With that, she started sprinting. With a curse, Kat followed her, then Melanie, as did some of the other girls.
My stomach churned, and with a sickening ache in my chest, I realized I’d left my pack behind. No food. No water. No nothing.
But Chapman had a gun and maybe some sort of plan. That was something.
“She’s right,” I said to the others, about half the group that were still standing with me in the cargo bay. “Those crab things are going to tear this ship apart looking for us. We have to run.” I didn’t want to leave anyone behind if I could help it, but I had no doubt the sound of the doors opening was going to attract those things to this side of the ship at any second. We had to go. Now.
Theresa sobbed, but grabbed my hand and nodded, her tears tracking watery blue lines through her sunscreen.
“Hope you paid attention in your Alien 101 classes,” she choked out as we started to run, followed by the others. My jaw tightened grimly as we made it out onto the brutally hot sand. Oh, I’d paid attention all right. I’d done my level fucking best.
I just hoped to God that it would be enough.
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CHAPTER FOUR Buroudei
It had been more than fourteen days since the Lavrika had called me to the pools. Fourteen times the sun had chased the broken line of moons from one side of the sky to the other. Fourteen days of coming back to the Cliffs of Uruzai searching for clues. Searching for something. Anything. Anything that might give me more information about the strange vision of my even stranger mate.
It was getting harder and harder to think of excuses to come here alone. Even Galok, who trusted me implicitly, was growing concerned. Every time I told him I was leaving to patrol our borders, or to hunt, he’d look at me strangely. “Let the hunters and guards do that, Buroudei. The Gahn should not concern himself with such mundane tasks,” he’d said, looking at me as if I’d gone half-mad. And maybe I had gone mad. I’d never before been so consumed with such a singular need. The need for answers. The need to see that small, pale face again.
I adjusted my positioning atop my mount, my irkdu, its massive long body moving easily over the sand, as we approached the Cliffs of Uruzai yet again. As we got close to the cliff’s opening, the Lavrikala stationed there eyed me warily, but said nothing. The Lavrikala had grown used to my daily visits. I never dismounted, never tried to enter the caves, and so the sacred guards largely let me be as I stalked back and forth on my animal. It was pointless to try to enter the caves again now. Warriors were only permitted inside at the invitation of the Lavrika. Otherwise, only our female healers were allowed to enter at will, to replenish their supplies of Lavrika’s blood.
Perhaps the Lavrika has lied to me. Shown me some falsehood I should ignore.
But no, such thoughts were blasphemy. Generations ago, our ancestors had ignored the visions of the Lavrika. And it had almost destroyed us, decimating our numbers. We were nowhere near recovered from those mistakes.
I sighed, staring first at the sand, then the sky.
Nothing. Nothing new. Everything just the same as before.
Wait.
I squinted, my gaze narrowing in on a strange dark shape in the distance. It was descending from the sky, and as it got closer to the ground, I heard a deep, unfamiliar whirring sound.
My mount bucked and wriggled, its animal senses picking up on the thing in the sky. Wordlessly, I pulled my axe from its loop on my belt, and gripped my spear, leaning forward. The Lavrikala widened her stance, readying her spear, her eyes cast upward, looking worried but determined.
“I will go,” I called to her. Whatever this was, whatever threat, I would put myself between it and the Lavrikala and the caves.
The creature flew, as if it were a krixel, but it had no wings to speak of. And at this distance, the fact it looked as large as it did, meant it was bigger than any krixel, bigger than any creature I had ever seen. It had a round, flat body that reminded me of the discs our cubs threw back and forth for sport. When it landed, the whole ground shook, and my irkdu groaned and tossed its head. I tightened my thighs against its body, keeping it under control, then clicked my tongues, axe and spear at the ready.
My irkdu shot forward, its many legs working swiftly over the surface of the sand. There was no time to return to the tents and to gather my men about me; we were almost at the fallen flying thing. But when I heard the vicious screams of the zeelk, and saw them burrowing up out of the sand and scuttling towards the fallen creature, I stopped short, whistling for my irkdu to heel, wishing that I had my men around me after all. The zeelk were monstrous, brutal things that could tear even the strongest Sea Sand warrior to pieces. With my irkdu at my side, I could handle a few of the things on my own. But there were more than ten scrabbling towards the strange fallen creature. I had no reason to throw myself into that fray, and I held back, watching with keenly guarded eyes, my hands still tight on my weapons.
There was a see-through shelf of bone at the front of the fallen thing, and the zeelk crashed through it, moving into the body of the huge best. The creature did not seem to be alive after its landing, and I saw no blood running from its wounds. The zeelk were all inside the thing now, and I could hear their terrible shrieks alongside terrific crashes. And then more screams – lighter and softer, working deep into my bones. My chest clenched, my grip tightening so hard against my weapons that my knuckles cracked. There were other things inside the great beast. Creatures that were still alive.
Suddenly, the other side of the fallen beast split along an invisible seam, and its shining skin pulled back and up. My irkdu snuffled and growled, but I held it steady, eyes narrowing. I expected zeelk to spill out of that new opening, as if the fallen creature was expelling them somehow. But what I saw instead brought everything around me to a powerful, grinding halt.
A two-legged creature in strange clothing sprinted from the newly opened belly. The hood of her clothing fell back revealing a pale face, and a guttural snarl ripped from my throat. Could it be...?
But no, this creature had hair the colour of flames. My mate had looked different. But there was no denying this fire-haired creature was of the same people as my mate. She stumbled in the sand, pausing and looking back, and more creatures like her followed, all appearing to be female, their hides ranging from the palest pink to deep brown, the hair on their heads coming in all different shades and shapes and textures. One of them seemed to have no hair on her head at all. I scanned the group, but none of them seemed to be the one I’d seen in the Lavrika Pools. Fear, something I had not felt since I was a cub, clawed at my guts. Fear at the thought that my mate could be trapped somewhere in the beast, or murdered by foul zeelk. I gave a cry, and my irkdu charged forward.
Another group of women was running from the fallen beast, now. And at the front of their running line, I saw her. And it was like everything else ceased to exist. There was no sea of sand, no zeelk, no sky or sun or cliffs. There was only her, shining like a single star in darkness. Shining like a beacon, a sign, a glorious explosion of destiny. My mate. Every part of my body pounded with this new reality, sacred strength surging through me, culminating in a vicious scream that tore from my chest as my irkdu plunged forward.
My mate was holding onto another female, and that other female stumbled and fell. My mate whipped around, her long light-coloured hair flying around her head in a strange and beautiful cloud, and she called something I could not understand, reaching back for her peer. But then the zeelk were following, screaming and skittering out of the slashed belly the women had just come from. One zeelk was heading right for the two of them, and a fearsome rage unlike anything I’d ever known burst inside me, flooding every limb with dark heat. I hefted my spear, its point made from the barb of a zeelk I’d killed in my youth, the only thing that could damage their black armour. Our ablik weapons were strong and sharp, but they could only inflict damage when aimed perfectly at the zeelk’s exposed joints.
I cocked my arm and my spear shot forward, crashing into the zeelk with deadly accuracy. The miserable creature collapsed, its legs crunching in on its body in the death grip of my weapon. I yanked an ablik knife from the dakrival hide straps criss-crossing over my back, and hurled it at another nearby zeelk. But it clanged off the armour. I gritted my fangs, pulling another knife and throwing it, trying to keep my aim steady as my irkdu charged forward.
This knife found its target, slipping between the zeelk’s body armour and the spot where its leg emerged. It screamed and collapsed, trying to move through the sand with its wounded leg. It wasn’t dead, but close enough for now.
My eyes swung back to my mate. She was pulling the fallen woman. The one who had fallen seemed to be in hysterics. I growled in anger. She was slowing my mate down and hindering her escape. But even then I felt a small swell of pride. My mate was no coward.
I had almost reached the group now, but I had no other plan. There was no way for me to take on all these zeelk alone. I only had a few more blades at my back. My priority now was to get my mate out of the fray and away from here as quickly as possible. But that would mean leaving her kind behind, and that was something that could not stand.
Get her first. The rest comes later.
The fire-haired woman had circled back, helping lift the fallen woman. In her hand she held a black object. It looked like it could have been carved from ablik, with a long, snout-like opening. As another zeelk scuttled towards them I readied myself to throw my axe, but before I could do so she aimed the snouted thing at the zeelk, and a series of terrific bangs clanged through the air. The weapon, or whatever it was, was still in her hand, and yet it seemed like she had somehow gotten a successful shot into one of the breaks in the zeelk’s armour. It faltered, then fell, mere steps from the small group. The other women were running in every direction as more zeelk charged from the fallen beast’s belly.
I was almost upon them, now, almost able to reach my tiny mate, down on the sand, when the fire-haired woman turned and saw me. Her strange-coloured eyes grew wide, and she said something to the others, raising her ablik snout weapon and aiming it directly at my chest. I ignored her. No weapon would make me falter now. Not even a hundred thousand zeelk would keep me from the woman with the long, light hair. I heard the ablik snout thing make a small click sound, and the fire-haired woman gave an agonized scream, throwing it to the sand.
And then they were running. All three of them, along with the others, spreading out and sprinting over the sand, away from the wreckage, away from the zeelk. And from me.
Why does she run from me?
My mate’s tiny, narrow feet sunk into the sand with every step. She would never be able to outrun the zeelk, let alone my irkdu, whose many legs were perfectly primed to skim over the sand with ease. Yet still, she tried, her legs pumping, hair flying behind her. The tenacity was equally appealing as it was irritating. I liked witnessing the fire of spirit that made her run against all odds. But I did not appreciate that she was currently running from me.
My irkdu was at her side, and with a swing of my upper body, I leaned down, scooping her up with one arm, holding my axe at the ready with the other.
“You are safe now,” I said, tossing her across my lap, her small, tight rump high in the air. She was smaller than I’d originally thought, much smaller than I’d been able to tell she was in the vision of the pools. She screamed something, kicking fiercely, rotating so that she was lying lengthwise along the irkdu, her feet colliding ineffectually with my chest as she seemed to simultaneously attempt to buck off of the mount and hold on for dear life.
With my free hand, I gripped the back of her strange clothing and yanked her upright so that she was in a sitting position between my thighs. And still she fought, her short, blunted claws digging into the forearm I’d locked around her torso. Such a show of spirit would normally have been amusing. But here, now, where the zeelk were all around us in the sand, it was... complicating things. Not that it was difficult to subdue her. No, not at all. Despite her fierce energy, she was much smaller than me, and much, much weaker. It was no trouble for me to keep her safely seated with my one arm, her slim back firm against my chest. But it was distracting me. Her flailing kept causing me to lose focus, her hair flying into my eyes, obscuring my view. And I needed to see. I had good hearing, but her screaming and the chaotic sounds of the sands was dulling any extra help my ears would have lent me.
Her head shot back, catching my throat making me cough, just as a long strip of her hair flitted across my eyes, causing me to blink.
“Get your hair under control, woman, or I will be forced to sheer it off with my blade.”
The thought of changing anything about her physically pained me, but as stray strands of her hair got sucked into my mouth, causing me to choke, I realized that it may be necessary.
She screamed something else, and a moment later a slight pain, like the prick of a drizelfly’s stinger, pinged in my forearm.
She was biting me.
I grinned. I’d seen those tiny blunt teeth in the Lavrika pool. They would do no damage to my tough hide. She bit down harder, and I ignored her.
At least with her head down like that her hair is out of my eyes.
Her mouth occupied meant she’d stopped screaming, too, and was now emitting a low sort of grunt as she tried to break through my skin. Now that her voice wasn’t all around me, I could hear more of what was going on, and I sucked in a triumphant breath when I heard a warrior’s call, and the sound of many irkdu roaring as they charged. With a click of my tongues and a shift in my thighs, I steered my irkdu to turn, ready to greet my men.
Only it wasn’t my men. I squinted, still holding tight to my squirming, biting woman, as about fifteen warriors on irkdu charged forward on the horizon, axes raised and spears flying.
Gahn Fallo’s men. A hunting party, by the looks of things.
They were felling zeelk left and right, and scooping up women as they moved through the carnage. I watched the scene unfold, bringing my irkdu to a stop, wondering if I should approach them. But they were just as likely to try to tear me apart as the zeelk would be. Normally I’d relish a chance to clash weapons with Gahn Fallo’s men, but fifteen-to-one was bad odds, even for me. Besides, I had my mate to think of, now, and her safety was the only priority. I watched as the last running woman was yanked onto an irkdu and the remaining zeelk fell. It wasn’t ideal that they were grabbing hold of all the new female creatures, but it was better than those frail small females getting devoured by zeelk. I had my mate, safe in my arms, and had no reason linger. With a cry, I urged my irkdu back on track, and we departed over the sands.
As we got further from the fray, and I could relax some of my warrior instincts, I was finally able to fully take in the sensation of having my mate pressed against me. Even the useless bite of her tiny teeth felt good, and I tightened my arm’s hold on her, revelling in the feeling of her pert ass scooting harder against my groin. There was nothing better than taking a woman after battle, when your body was still on fire with the brutal action, and my cock was already ready, stretching the dakrival hide loincloth to its limits. But my mate did not seem as keen. She had released my arm, leaving an adorably small set of indentations from her teeth, and she was once again screaming something I could not understand, the words falling and flowing, quick and slippery, like blood through my fingers. Though I could not see her face, as she faced forward and away from me, she seemed, by the sound of her soft, high voice, to be angry.
“Why are you upset? Can you not see that I have saved you from the zeelk?”
Another rush of angry-sounding words crashed from her mouth, and I could only assume that she either did not see that, or did see it, and somehow was still not pleased.
It is possible that my mate is more... difficult... than I had hoped.
Either that, or she was foolish beyond measure. Surely she did not want to be left back with the zeelk?
I needed to try to speak to her. To look into her strange eyes. To impress upon her the ferocity of our new connection. The importance of it. To impress upon her that fighting me was futile.
Not here.
Being out on the open sands like this was not a good idea, not when I could see how painfully fragile she was. We headed back towards the Cliffs of Uruzai. The front area held the entry to the Lavrika Pools, but the cliffs were a truly massive rock formation, and around the other side there were caverns and valleys and small patches of valok plants. The krixel nested there, but if we stayed on the ground and did not climb, it would be safe enough. We forged forward and after some time, time marked by continued fighting, biting, and scratching, we reached the other side of the cliffs. I nudged my irkdu forward, entering the narrow valley between this part of the cliffs, the walls jutting up on either side with unfathomable power. Eventually, I steered us into a narrow crack I knew well, a crack that led to a small, hidden, sunlit area with valok plants growing around the edges. In that small, round space, I directed my irkdu to stop and I dismounted, taking my female with me as I did so. I held her tightly – now that she was on the ground she had renewed her fight, practically jumping out of my grasp, her feet flying from the ground as she bucked and wriggled. I could not suppress the thought – will she have this much energy when sharing a bed with me?
