4 - AN ALIEN FAMILY
The embrace lasted an eternity, but not one moment too much. And it was in that moment that he understood what he wanted to do with his life. The moment she had found him, alone and scared, he had already decided that his life was over. His only family was gone, his ship and only way back was irreparably destroyed. There was nothing left worth living for. But she pulled him up from the dark abyss he was falling into. She reached out, offered her hand for him to take, and had rescued him from the scary and lonely place that his own mind had become. She had truly saved him.
And now, he knew that he wanted to live. For her, for the second chance she had given him. He would live and dedicate his life to her. She was his world now.
He looked up at her deep green eyes, and felt like everything else could just disappear around them. He wanted to get lost in those eyes, and he knew he would be happy. He knew he would be happy with her, and her only. She too was looking at him, with a relaxed and warm smile. The very same smile that had warmed his shattered and frozen heart, and that had given him the strength to keep going forward.
“Thank you…” he said, and that was the only thing he managed to say. He had never been good at expressing his own emotions, and neither at reading other people. Back when he still was a captain, he had no life outside of his ship. No friends or family back on the orbital ring. The only people he had ever talked to were his crew, and since they all knew about his ‘peculiarity’, they treated him with utmost care. He did not know whether they did it out of respect, out of fear or because they genuinely cared, but they all treated him with kindness, and warmth. They made him feel at home for the first time in his whole life, and yet… he had abandoned them all.
Noticing the concerned look on the elf’s face, he quickly suppressed his dark thoughts and relegated them to a far corner of his mind. He did not want her to see him in this state, what she had seen back at the ship was already enough. He did not want to appear as a broken man, as a hollow vessel empty of everything but regret and self loathing. He had sworn he would live for her, and he would do that starting now. She did not reply to his words, but that was okay. He understood that she disliked talking too much, and seeing the warm smile on her lips was enough for him. For a moment even the dark thoughts seemed to subside a bit.
She took his hand and led him through the wooden door out in the corridor. The corridor was a circular platform of wood running all around a hole in its center. It looked like naturally grown wood, like a natural extension of the walls. They too looked like tree bark, he noted. The hole was several meters wide, and looking down from it he could see that wooden branches ran across its diameter and formed some sort of stairway leading down for hundreds of meters. There were windows at regular intervals, providing natural light and a pleasant view of the outside. All the data he had made him think that he was on top, no, inside some kind of tree. If this was its hollow trunk, then it must have been impossibly high, defying all kinds of preconceptions he had about trees. He had never seen a real one, of course, since the war had made Earth uninhabitable, but he knew what trees were supposed to look like. To confirm this, he poked his head out of the window to his right, and looked down. There were several layers of branches and leaves, some as thick as a fully grown secular sequoia, but beyond those he could see the bark of the enormous trunk that made up the tree he was in. If the inner radius at this height was several meters, then the outer radius at the base must have been truly gigantic. It was, from what he could tell, at least five hundred meters high. Well above anything else in the whole forest. The next tallest tree around wasn’t even half of the height he was at, and he was sure he wasn’t even near the summit of this tree.
He must have been there, musing about trees and doing silent calculations for a while, because Lunora tugged his hand and motioned him to move forward. He felt his heart skip a beat, both because she had startled him and made him feel as if he nearly fell down the window, and also because he feared she was getting mad at him already. So much for living only for her, he had already managed to piss her off. He looked at her apologetically, in hope that would be enough, and allowed her to lead him forward.
They arrived at the opposite side of the hole. Ahead there was a wooden door, made out of carefully and masterfully carved wood and colored glass. The carvings depicted the natural beauty of the forest like nothing else he had ever seen. There were leaves, trees and clouds hanging in the sky that seemed to have a life of their own. The longer he stared, the less he could see the brown wood, feeling completely immersed in the feeling of natural beauty. The glass was opaque, featuring luxurious golden decorations that created strange reflections. Behind it, he could see two figures moving around in the other room.
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It was finally time to formally introduce her friend to her parents. She had never felt this anxious in her whole life, and despite knowing that it was foolish to be this agitated she could do nothing to calm her nerves. The last time she came even close to this level of stress whas at her coming of age ceremony seventy years ago. She shook her head. It was too late now, he was here and her parents were only a door away from them.
She felt him stop for a moment, and tilted her head slightly as she looked at him. He was hanging his head out of the window, admiring the view as if he had never seen a Tree of Life before. She felt her cheeks flush and grow hot, and her heart beat a little bit faster. She wanted to keep staring at him for a while, observe him get lost in his own little world, but she couldn’t. Now was not the moment. She sighed. Damn it, she really would have liked to keep looking at him a bit longer. Well, she thought to herself, she had been watching over him as he slept for the past three days straight, so she could make a sacrifice. She gently tugged his hand to bring him back to reality, and felt very guilty when he looked at her with his deep blue eyes, wearing an expression full of worry. She hoped he had not misunderstood her intentions.
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Her parents were waiting for them in the living room. Her father had prepared dinner, as it was customary whenever a young girl decided to bring her fiance to meet her parents. This occasion was different, of course, but she found herself thinking these things nonetheless. They sat down, her parents on one side of the table while she sat beside him on the other side.
“I’m glad to see you are finally well.” Her father said. His tone was still stern and stiff, and she knew he was feeling very uncomfortable in this situation. But this needed to be done, it was inevitable. She had brought the man into her home, and now she needed to introduce him to her parents formally. She realized she had been holding his breath all this time until her father talked, and was beginning to sweat nervously.
“Thank you… for taking care of me.” Replied Fenrir, fidgeting with his hands on his knees. She could sense his tension, and grabbed his right hand with her left. She was so happy she wanted to cry. He had taken her hand, and was now holding it into his own, even if he was before her parents. She felt him squeeze as he talked. “I am in your debt. I will do anything in my power to repay you for your kindness.” He added, trying to sound as polite as he could. She tried to give him a reassuring smile, to make him understand that he was among friends, but he was not looking in her direction. His gaze was glued to her father.
“Of course, of course.” He broke into laughter, his deep voice booming in the small room. She was sure even the guys in the training grounds had heard that. “I only ask you that you take care of my dear daughter.” He added. Her face was burning red hot with embarrassment. What was her father even saying? This was way too fast. But, deep down, she couldn’t help but feel a bit happy about what he said, and found herself looking at Fenrir. He too was taken aback by what he heard, and was holding her hand even tighter than before. She felt her head spin.
Before he could reply, though, her mother intervened. Perhaps it was for the better, but for a tiny moment she couldn’t help but hope to hear that he would forever take care of her, and be with her until the end of time. “My dear husband is jesting, of course.” She planted an elbow into his stomach mid-sentence. That was so much her, Lunora though, and already felt more at ease. Just like that, all the tense atmosphere deflated immediately.
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The situation was surreal. He was sitting at the table, holding an elf’s hand into his own, while her father was half joking, half threatening him. And then the mother just went and brutalized the man while looking at Fenrir in the eye and smiling. Whatever, he decided not to think too much about it. He knew he would not make anything out of it, lacking as he was of any kind of social skill. Fortunately the atmosphere became lighter and more comfortable after that, and he released his hold onto Luna’s hand. Damn, he had done it again. He overstepped his bounds and now he was sure she’d be mad at him. He didn’t know when he even got a hold of her hand, but he was certain that she hadn’t said anything just out of respect for her parents. But if they found out, then it would be the end of him. Fortunately nobody saw anything, and he tried to act as if nothing happened.
But wait, this was not the point. Those people here with him were elves, dammit! Real elves, like those of the fantasy novels, but in flesh and blood. Something was not right with this world. Was it a parallel universe, or just some kind of alien planet where life evolved in a way suspiciously similar to that of Earth?
“In any case…” the elf man coughed, albeit it was visibly fake, in an attempt to regain composure. “I am Eldor, the village chief.”
“I am Fenrir.” He replied, somewhat amused by the fact that perhaps his coughing was not really fake, but was a consequence of the elbow to the stomach. In any case, the fact that the man was the chief of the village only added weight to the already difficult situation. “Once again, I thank you for what you have done.” the polite words found a way out, fished from some deep part of his memory. He was surprised with himself. For once he was not randomly speaking his mind and saying the first thing that came to mind. Perhaps he had heard people talking politely in a TV show or something, because this was not the way he normally talked for sure.
“It’s nothing. I know you are important to my Luna, and you seemed worth saving. You do feel different than other humans I’ve met, I must say.”
“Husband! That’s rude.” The woman was already preparing to scold her man again. He instinctively protected his vitals and responded as quickly as he could.
“No, you got it wrong, Fey. What I’m saying is that he feels actually worthy of some respect.” He said, much less dignified than before. He tried to regain his air of authority. “Not like those spineless men, those barbarians that sometimes wander the forest.”
Fenrir felt guilty. In his mind, abandoning himself to die was a spineless act. Abandoning his crew was another. No more, he told himself, while at the same time he tried to find words to say. He didn’t feel like he had anything to add to the discussion, and he wasn’t sure whether to disclose the fact that he was from another world or not. But Lunora beat him to it.
“He doesn’t know, father. He comes from the stars.” She said, looking at her father in the eye. It was moving seeing her speak for him, and even more considering just how little she usually spoke. Her voice was low and composed, but there was a great well of emotion hidden within.
“Oh, the stars. Yes, yes, you come from the fallen star, right?”
“Yes, my ship crashed into this planet after traversing an unstable Einstein-Rosen bridge. Or so it seems at least. I’m not sure.”
Eldor looked at him with a blank expression for a moment, then laughed. “So you are not from this world, right?” His face suddenly became serious, and the cheerful atmosphere immediately evaporated. The air seemed heavy and difficult to breathe, and the very gaze of the man seemed to burn into the captain’s soul.
“N-no I’m not.” He replied, cursing at himself for stuttering. It was embarrassing.
But then, just as quickly as it came, the ominous air disappeared. “Then, tomorrow we shall go visit the oracle. There are things I must know, and you will come with me.”