“Well, what does that mean for us now? More living off the grid? Because I gotta tell you, girl, this planet kinda sucks,” Jen said, gesturing around us, and others nodded or spoke their agreement.
“Don’t worry,” I said. “The whole planet isn’t like this. They have plumbing in the city. It’s all a long story, but for now this means we are under Kex’s protection, and he is going to keep us safe from any slave-trader-type people while the protectors work on integrating us into their society. We’ll have a home there, in real buildings.”
“Who are the protectors?” Harper asked.
“The two guys who have been here.” I gestured to the lavender and green aliens Kex had been speaking to. “They are Monai’s Protectors. Monai is the name of their goddess and also the name of this forest. We’re kind of in the middle of a nature preserve, and they are tasked with keeping this forest sacred and tech-free, and our very presence here makes their jobs harder. As much as we all want to leave, they want to get us out of here just as much.”
Jen snorted. “That explains a lot.”
“What does being integrated into their society mean?” Isabel asked. “Are we all getting alien husbands whether we want them or not?”
“Absolutely not! Or at least, kind of not? It’s a long story.” I shrugged.
“Well, you can’t stop there,” Cindy said, indignant.
“Yeah, start with the long story and maybe make it short,” Jen said.
“Okay... So aliens know a little bit more about the universe than the rest of us. Can we all agree that’s true?”
The women nodded or shrugged, and I took that as agreement. I was a little nervous about how this would go.
“So soulmates are real,” I said with a shrug. “Cool, right? Every sentient species has a soulmate, but we don’t always find them. I found mine. That’s that guy right there, the big gorgeous teal guy.” Kex grinned and lifted a hand. “So he’s my soulmate, which is why we are basically alien married. So if you find your alien soulmate, you might also want to be alien married to them, but no one is going to be forced into any kind of relationship. Make sense?”
A few people looked concerned, others horrified, and some intrigued.
“How do we know if we have an alien soulmate?” Cindy asked, her eyes alight with interest.
“Unclear,” I said. “But they will probably know. As I understand it, most species learn how to identify their soulmates but some don’t. So we humans haven’t really figured that out. That’s why we consider soulmates to be legends. The ormonai here, they know their soulmates because they get tingly and their hearts beat fast and they feel a tug in their chest. The cat guy has some kind of purring issue that happens, I’m not exactly clear on that.”
“Fucking hell,” Rainair growled. And a few girls flinched.
“Ignore him, he’s just embarrassed. He’s basically a giant fuzzy marshmallow cat. Honestly, I haven’t met any mean aliens yet, everyone’s been really nice.”
“Well, bully for you,” Jen said.
I made a mental note to have a conversation with her later and turned to Kex. “Anything to add, sweetie pie?”
“Perhaps the soap,” he said with a funny expression.
“Oh yeah, we brought soap! Lots of it!”
Cheers and hell yeahs rose around the group, and I laughed, feeling like the coolest kid at school. I crossed over to Kex. “I think that means we’re gonna go get clean, will you tell the protectors so they don’t wander over?”
“Yes, my mate,” he said, the “yes” in English, and handed me the sack of soap from his bag.
Someone gasped. “He does speak English?”
“Yeah, he knows a few words, so feel free to ask basic yes-no questions if you wanna verify anything I said.”
The girls scrambled to Willow’s side, her leg in a brace, trying to help her stand so Olive could carry her to the river, but it looked painful and I stopped them. “Willow, would you be okay with Kex carrying you? He’s really strong and basically carried me all the way here because I’m slow and I think he just likes to. It might be less painful if he does it.”
She was grimacing already from the effort of standing, but looked nervous and glanced at my alien. “Would that be weird?” she asked me but Kex replied.
“No,” he said gently.
Willow smiled and then nodded. “Okay, if you really don’t mind.”
Kex leaned down and scooped her up, one hand behind her back and the other under her knees. She gritted her teeth but didn’t complain as the others led us along the river to a spot with some privacy where the river was wider and deep. Deep enough for bathing, though not as wonderful as mine had been by the waterfall. Kex set Willow down at the edge of the shallow water.