My estimate of easily finding a suitable lush forest for the dryads was... overly optimistic. As we stopped at certain systems and wiped out The Order members there, we would fly close to the planet and the 'mother' dryad would shake her head.

This seems familiar. I thought after we left the tenth system. That seedling I had taken and eventually planted on Earth had been just as picky for a new home. I chuckled. “We have to return home to reload our missiles and devices anyway.” I said. The dryads weren't very happy about delaying the search; but, they didn't have much say in where we flew the ship. They also couldn't argue that I wasn't trying my best to help them.

The trip took a little bit longer for us, mainly because we were using the troop transport's hyperspace generator. I had updated it as much as possible and loaded the same information into the navigation computer, after checking it for previous destinations and future targets of course.

We jumped into the Dizahl System and when I went to check on our passengers, I saw that some of the more lethargic dryads had perked up. I was pretty sure that they could feel that a planet was nearby. There were three in the system and only one of them was inhabitable, the second one, and it was owned by the Bogorim Corporation.

The first planet had a kind of acidic atmosphere and even though it was very close to breathable, they couldn't capitalize on it. The company had tried to drop atmospheric converters on it several times and the acid in the air dissolved the equipment within a week. Self-contained habitats met the same fate even quicker, as did any ship that stayed too long. The visual records of the hull opening up and the scientists getting a face full of acidic air was not something anyone was going to forget for a while.

The third planet was almost the complete opposite. It was twice as large as the second planet and it had all the building blocks to produce a viable planet. It just didn't coalesce together to do anything. It was almost as if something had stopped it from happening or as if it had missed a crucial step in the creation of a perfect world. The worst part about it was that there was no atmosphere to speak of.

It had a manageable gravity of two points lower than standard and that slightly less gravity had let whatever air that was made expand much too far for anything to be breathable. There wasn't even enough of it to diffuse the light when you were on the surface. The company had tried to settle it and they had essentially landed a space habitat. The problem was, they had the benefits of self-containment and the drawbacks of being inside a planetary gravity well.

They couldn't make farms to grow food, so it all had to be shipped in. No ships could land and they only used shuttles to get back to orbit. They still had to worry about space suits and decompression constantly, and that wasn't what life on a planet was supposed to be like. So, they abandoned that attempt as well.

While I was going through all of that in my mind, a vine twirled around my wrist and then a woman's hand grabbed onto mine. I turned to look at the 'mother' dryad and I both felt and heard her desire.

“The Hunter.” She said, her voice was verbal and it echoed in my mind. “You have found us a perfect home.” She said and leaned close and kissed me.

I was surprised by this, since the dryads hadn't shown any interest towards me, except as a curiosity. Her vines wrapped around my legs and my arms as she pressed herself against the front of my body, then she really started to get into the kiss as she felt my body react. I broke the kiss and leaned my head back a little.

“Not that I don't appreciate what you're doing...” I said and she smiled at me. “...but, why are you doing this?”

“You kept your word.” She said. “We all had begun to think that you were just leading us around...”

I felt her pluck something from my mind and she smiled.

“...on a wild goose chase. We thought you might be tricking us and would try to keep us.” She said.

“Keeping you might have happened if I couldn't find a place for you.” I admitted and I let her see all the places I had travelled to find a proper home to plant the sapling. “I didn't start out that way, since I had no idea I would be taking you with me.”

“Then let me thank you as you give me the feeding you want me to have.” The dryad said and her vines let me go as she took a step back from me. Her body shuddered for a second as she grew very thick and became a statue, then there was the sound of bark breaking.

“Ooo! I can't wait until I'm old enough to do that myself!” One of the teenagers exclaimed.

I watched in quiet fascination as the 'mother' dryad essentially broke out of her body's engorged shell and protective armor. She was like a butterfly coming out of a cocoon as she crawled out of her discarded body and a bright and almost glowing lithe form stepped out.

“Good lord.” I whispered, because she looked completely human, except for the long green colored hair and her skin was a milky white all over. “I can honestly say that I've never seen that before.”

“It is one of our deepest secrets.” The 'mother' dryad said.

If I had tried to guess her age before, I would have said she was about forty years old, even with the vines and things around her. Now, she looked to be about twenty five and in the prime of her life. Her previously slightly sagging breasts were now firm and perky, her drooping ass was now lifted up and looked firm as well, and between her legs... well... the little tuft of green hair there was almost in the shape of an arrow that pointed down to her opening.

“Yes, you may touch me.” The dryad said and my hand twitched to do so. “I can hear your thoughts so clearly, now that you are not blocking your desire.”

I looked up at her face. “Your powers of attraction are quite alluring.”

She laughed a womanly laugh and took my hand as a bed of soft leaves formed behind her. “You know perfectly well that there is one affair that we concern ourselves with.”

I was only slightly surprised when my black bodysuit sunk into my skin and left me naked. “Hey!”

The dryad laughed again. “Your magic cloth is smart.” She said and kissed me. “Give me and my people the power we need to restart our lives here.”

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

“I do want to do that for you.” I said.

“Then lay with me, The Hunter.” She said and laid down on the bed of leaves and slowly rubbed her thighs together. The teasing glimpses she gave me of what she had between her legs was very erotic as she kept her knees together and rolled from side to side. “Show me the life we could have, had you not found this place for us.”

“You're assuming I would have slept with you?” I asked and laid down as she opened her legs and her arms and accepted me.

“We both know that you would have.” She said and then moaned as we joined together. “It was only... a matter of time before... you fell in love with me.”

“You're full of yourself.” I said and started to move and she moaned some more.

“No, The Hunter.” She said between moans. “I am now full of you.”

*

“This is what we call cultivation.” One of the other adults said in their own language that could only be heard by other dryads. “The teasing and enticement gets the male ready for pollination, as you saw by his reaction.” She explained. “Most will give you mental images of what they want to see, so don't worry about trying to figure out what you need to learn to do it, all right?”

The teenagers and the children nodded as they watched their matriarch show them how they would be able to gather their own pollen someday.

After an hour, the children grew bored and had gone off to play in the woods. The teenagers were surprised that pollination would go on for that long, when they had learned it was usually only a few minutes, especially after a successful teasing. The adults were shocked that the male still hadn't released his pollen and their matriarch was practically begging him for it.

*

“Hunter?” Noma asked as she came into the cargo area of the ship. “How long are we going to stay in a parking orbit around the third...” She stopped talking when she saw Hunter having some quite enthusiastic sex with a dryad. “...oh.” She said and shook her head as she felt him building up more and more Presence to feed the dryad. “I'll tell the others we're going to be here for a while.”

Thank you. Hunter said in her mind.

I'd tell you to hurry up; but, I know you're trying to make a point. Noma said and smiled. It's not nice to tempt and tease mystical beings, you know.

She did it to me first. Hunter thought and showed her what the dryad had done to tease him.

Noma held in her laugh. Then have fun. She thought and left the cargo area.

It wasn't until six hours later that the troop transport ship opened up its cargo area and a large plot of slightly glowing land came out of it. A shuttle lowered it down into the thin atmosphere at a very slow pace. A hole that was exactly the right size was dug out instantly below it and it settled into the space. The shuttle dipped into the protective barrier and landed beside the beings that stood there.

*

“I'll leave the barrier machine, just in case you need it.” I said to the 'mother' dryad. She was back to her full height and her armor and outer body coverings were back and stronger than ever. “I'll set up an outer barrier, the same that the scaly alien had around his planet, and only people you want to allow in will be able to come in.” I put a datapad on the machine and left it there. “You can message me if you need anything. If you decide that you want a full communications suite, I'll install it for you.”

“Is this your version of leaving us alone?” She asked with a huge smile.

“Leaving you alone and making you feel like you've been left alone are two different things.” I smiled back. “Just because I'm not here, doesn't mean you can't contact me.”

“Do not expect to hear from us for a long time.” She said. “This world needs us.”

“Then I'll leave you to it.” I said with a nod to her and walked over to Monna. A vine wrapped around my ankle just as I was about to step onto the shuttle. “If you want me to promise to come whenever you call, I can only guarantee it if I'm in the same system.” I said. “Anything past that? It may take months for me to get back here.”

“But, you will come.” She said.

“I give my word.” I said and the vine let me go. I stepped into the shuttle and Noma flew us up and out of the barrier, through the thin atmosphere, and back into Hela.

“What are we going to do with a troop transport?” Noma asked.

“The better question is what we're going to do with the thirty shuttles welded to the hull.” I smiled.

“Repair and sell them?” Noma asked.

“I was thinking more along the lines of converting the troop transport into a cruise ship for everyone's families.” I said and she gave me a surprised face. “It'll save me a ton of money on rental fees... eventually.”

Noma laughed and we flew the troop transport over to the space habitat and docked it. Barely. The damn thing was gigantic. My first thought was making it a weapons storage base, then decided against it. Its low speed and poor manoeuvrability was too much of a drawback to be of any use as a weapon loader for our warships. If it had been built with that intention, it wouldn't have been too much of a problem to convert it. As it was, it was better to make use of its slow speed and massive volume for something more practical.

I carried an unconscious Kara and Lashina inside the space habitat and found that no one else was back. Only Sheph and Isabella were there, which meant that I had some time to construct even more special missiles and black barrier machines for everyone, including myself. The first thing I had to do was put Kara and Lashina into the security compartment and Isabella was assigned to watch them. After that, I had to do something very important.

I had to let Monica cook supper for me.

I hadn't been back to the station in a while and I knew that she needed me to act more like a son than I had a chance to be so far. I put off calling the Bogorim Corporation and getting back to work, just so I could spend time with Hailey's mother and let her be a mother to me. I was centuries older than her, and yet, she did make me feel like she was my mother and I felt like her son. She must have felt the connection forming as well, because she had tears in her eyes when she put the food in front of me.

“Mom.” I said and she let out a sob, then she sat on my lap and held onto me and cried. My tears came out to join hers, because we were both happy and sad about it. It was something that we should have been sharing with Hailey and we couldn't. Despite how things had started out between us, we were just as much family now as if we had been born into it.

“I can't... thank you enough... for everything.” Monica said between sobs and leaned back to look into my eyes. She saw that my face was as tear streaked as hers and she tried to wipe at mine.

“I was going to say the same thing.” I said Hailey's ability made both of our tears dissolve and our faces were dry. “If it wasn't for you...”

Monica shook her head. “It was you that...”

“It was the Presence.” Noma said and started to eat. “Some call it fate, or providence, or just dumb luck.” She said. “Me? I think it just happens. Most times it's good and sometimes it's really bad. You won't know how it will be until it happens.”

Monica nodded and stood up. “Hunter, go ahead and eat.”

“Join me.” I said and she sat down beside me and we ate the meal together. By the time we were done, we were in a better mood about everything. Monica went to clean up, despite my protests, and I went to the security station. It was more than past the time for me to wake up my two new guests.

“I don't recommend this.” Isabella said from behind me. She had her modified laser pistol ready.

“Yeah, I really should have done this on a planet; but, I've been putting this off for as long as possible.”

“You? Afraid?” Isabella gave me a concerned look and I chuckled.

“I'll do the easy one first.” I said and used Presence to wake Kara up.

*

Kara woke up and let out a sigh as she immediately felt where she was. Inside a cell. The last thing she remembered seeing was the inside of a shuttle as she was tossed into it, then nothing until now. She tried to put her hands down to sit up and found prisoner restraints on both her wrists and her ankles.

“What is the meaning of this?” Kara asked, angrily.

“Welcome to the start of your not-kidnapped incarceration.” Hunter's voice said from outside the cell.

“Excuuuuse me?” Kara said exaggeratedly as she glared at me.

“Oh, don't mind the current accommodations. Those will change in a couple days when I get a good space set up for you.”

“Hunter.” Kara said and tried to use Presence... and couldn't. “What did you do to me?”

“Nothing yet.” Hunter chuckled. “Soon? I'll be giving you the same treatment that The Order gave me when they first kidnapped me.”

“Wh-what?” Kara gasped and looked at Isabella.

“Yes, she's going to be your babysitter.” Hunter said with a smile. “Welcome to your new home.”