The Darkly Stranger

I went to The Grim to write down the whole experience. Although I couldn't quite find the words. How do you explain your souls actually flying and merging together, and then coming back into you stronger than before?

I wrote for about an hour. Tan still wasn't back. I walked around my house, idly cleaning up and putting away things, and I wondered if moving in with someone, to another what, world, dimension, what? Wasn't crazy. Yep, it was crazy. But I had been so lonely. And face it, there was nowhere in this world I was going to get sex like that.

Still, it seemed weird that I was so attached. I was usually pretty cautious when it came to dating.

And what about love?

This was the thought I was thinking when he came back, all smiles. How many teeth did he have?

"The elders have listened to my plea for your cross-over," he said. "I will go back in a few hours to hear their decision."

"Good, ah Tan, I have a question." He came to me and kissed a sweet peck on my lips, then kissed down my cheek, my jaw.

"Yes, marret."

I assumed that was an endearment for girlfriend from the way he said it.

"Ah..." The kisses were a little distracting. I tried to put my thoughts into words. "Do you emit some sort of pheromone?"

He stopped kissing me to look puzzled. He didn't understand the word.

"Did you"—I made a gesture with my hand—"put out a chemical to make me attracted to you?"

"Of course."

"I mean... ah, do you put out a chemical that makes me want you, like binds me to you."

He raised one shoulder in a move that said to me 'well that should be obvious'.

"Yes."

"I...."

I could see his expression change. The male instinct of wariness where he knew he might be in trouble.

"Da'a." He traced one finger down my cheek, and the texture of his finger was pebbly again. "Surely the males of your species try to attract the females."

I gave up. "Yeah, we have all kinds of attraction. You didn't do anything wrong. I was just wondering, because I like you so much. Want you so much."

He smiled wide. "Then perhaps we should go in the water again now. We have a little time before I need to find out, before we have to get back."

I licked my lips. "What if I pass out again?"

It took him a second to decipher the phase 'pass out'. He smiled. "Then I guess that means I did well, and I will carry you over sleeping."

It sounded good to me.

*

Chapter 3

I spun around my room, euphoria and overwhelm making me dizzy. I was sure he'd get permission, which meant, oh, oh, oh, I was going to live with Tan!

I should pack a bag. Right. Pack a bag. I pulled a big duffle out from the back of my closet. I started putting bras, underwear, and socks on the bed. Jeez. I didn't know how much to bring. He said I could come back didn't he? I mean, how easy was it to "cross over"?

I decided on five days worth of clothes. I got a little hung up on toiletries.

"Yeah, Donna, I don't think you need a hair dryer where you're going," I said to myself when I noticed what I was holding. "Who knows if they even have electricity?"

Some of my euphoria broke. What the hell was I doing? Still, I decided to over pack on the toiletry products side, bringing my favorites of everything from shampoo and conditioner to shaving cream and blush. I rarely wore make-up at home, I couldn't picture wearing it somewhere else, but what the hell. Maybe it would make me feel stronger, knowing I had it.

All and all it took me about a half an hour to pack. I packed a few books, and I packed my computer, even though I didn't know if I'd have a rechargeable power source, and of course, I packed The Grim.

Then I was done, and I started pacing. The longer he took to return, the more insecure I got. It was nuts, going off to who knows where with someone I barely knew. I paced up and down my hallway, having two sides of myself talking to each other, my instincts feeling like going away with Tan was the right thing to do, and my logical part of the brain reiterating over and over again that normal people don't just pair up and drop everything and move in together.

I became more and more of a nervous wreck.

Tan got back and whooshed next to me and scooped me up in his arms.

"Hello, marret," he said.

Immediately I felt different, like a switch had been flipped. I had to go with him, I didn't want to spend one minute without him.

He kissed my neck, finding sweet spots behind my ear and near my shoulder. He raked fangs lightly over my neck skin.

I arched into him, and my chest flooded with a deliciously warm, happy feeling.

I remembered the pheromone thing. Something about having him near made me forget everything but him, want only him, need him. I could tell it was chemical, but I didn't care; it felt divine. Like everything was right in the world.

I thought about the human "love chemicals" PEA and oxytocin. Yeah, I was getting plenty of those all right, but this intense attraction I was feeling to him wasn't that. It was something else. But it had to be okay to let myself go under its sway, because I didn't feel like I had much of a choice to do anything else.

And it felt so good.

"The Elders approved your living permission, and our temporary union, also approved." Tan pulled my arm. "Let's go."

I pulled away from him, got my suitcase and duffle bag from the bedroom, and came back.

"What's that?"

"My stuff," I said.

He looked confused.

"Well, I need my clothes and stuff," I said, and gestured down at myself.

Tan shrugged.

He took my arm again, holding me firmly just above the elbow. We went out through the back door.

I locked up, resisted the urge to triple check everything. We walked across my backyard, and into the woods behind.

We walked for a few minutes, and it seemed quite a long ways, with me carrying both my suitcase and my duffle bag. I was just about to ask Tan to help me when we came to a small clearing, maybe a quarter of an acre across and a few feet wide. We crossed the clearing, and on the other side we stopped next to the tree.

Tan gestured with his hand. "Door portal," he said. Except there was nothing out of the ordinary there.

Tan put his right hand to his left wrist and took something out of his wrist! No, that wasn't possible, was it? Maybe he was wearing some kind of bracelet that was the color of his wrist skin and he had taken the thing out of that? No. I leaned in closer to try and get a good look at what he removed from his wrist. It looked like a piece of jewelry, a sharp, silver arrowhead. He held it up in front of him. For a brief second, I got a better look at it. It was more like a triangular knife, with some curvy places near the tip.

Tan stabbed the pointy tip into the air in front of him, face level, and sliced down. Two halves of scenery separated as if opened by a zipper.

"Holy shit," I said, and stepped back.

Tan stuck his fingers in the small gap and pulled it open. It was almost as if the woods were a curtain and he pulled it back a bit.

"Hurry," he said, reaching his hand out to me.

I blinked. Tan whooshed to me, picked me up, including the suitcase and the duffle, and walked us through. He put me down, turned around, ran the knife down the open edge and it closed, as if he was zipping it up. He put the knife back in his wrist. Yeah, that was definitely IN his wrist.

I looked up at where we had come through. Perfect forest. I was afraid to look around. Instead, I focused on his wrist.

"How do you do that?"

"How do I do what?"

I made the motion he did when he slipped the knife, or key, or whatever it was under his skin.

"We have two layers of outer skin," he said. He simply pulled apart his skin, as if there were a small cut there. The knife was resting on top of another black pebbly layer identical to the top layer. He took the knife out. "We can carry things in between the two layers." Tan put the knife back in and his skin closed up over it. "That leaves our hands free."

"Do that again," I asked.

He did. It was fascinating.

"Do you carry anything else like that?"

Tan opened his other wrist. I bent down to look, he'd revealed a series of tiny darts. He closed it up. He opened a small place on his chest. I leaned closer. There was a very small, colorful oval. What was it? Oh. A tiny painting of two people.

"Your parents?"

"Yes."

Okay. So the skin thing was weird, but kangaroos and other marsupials carried babies in a pouch. We pierced ourselves, and carried lockets, and keys, and knives in our pockets, so I guess it was just something to get used to.

"Marret," he said softly.

"Mmn?"

"Are you ready to see my world?"

Hell no.

"Yes."

He firmly squeezed my shoulders and turned me around. My first thought was that if the world from Avatar was even more colorful, it wouldn't be that far off. Tan pointed up. There were two suns, and four moons, one in partial eclipse.

"Come," he said, and took my arm again.

Nothing looked familiar. I guessed it looked a little like what I thought the Amazon rain forest would look like, except huge. Then a flock of about a hundred butterflies flew by. They were beautiful, but also somehow reassuring. We had the same butterflies.

"Where are we?" I asked.

He said a word, it sounded like "Boo-month." I repeated it. He laughed.

"Close enough."

Then I saw a few houses, most of them looked like very large huts really. I stared at them, but didn't have time to look in-depth because Tan pulled me along. We went through an archway of trees and vines, to an extremely large dirt field. At one end part of it was slightly sectioned off into a sort of center courtyard I guess. Tan kept pulling me in that direction and then we were staring at five, very serious-looking beings on thrones of various sizes.

The Elders. I didn't need Tan to tell me that. He pushed me forward a little. I looked at all five people. They pretty much all looked like Tan, except one had skin that was a dark chocolate brown, and one had skin that was a very dark purple. I didn't know if they were male or female.

The one in the middle said something to Tan, in a language I couldn't begin to understand. It had lots of rolling r's, and flemy ch sounds, and what sounded like cricket chirps. They went back and forth for a minute until I caught one word I did know from Tan, as he gestured toward me.

"Donna."

I did a little curtsey. God damn it, Tan should have prepared me for this.

"Hello, child." A very deep voice. Once I knew he was a male, I was able to see the tail behind him; I hadn't thought to look for it before.

"Hello," I said.

"Tan has asked for your stay, and we have agreed."

I nodded.

"Until you become a citizen, you are our guest. If you hurt another, or kill an animal, or show violence in any way, you will be banished, and Tan will be punished. Do you understand?"

"Yes," I said.

"We do not violent here," he said.

"I promise."

"You are not to disturb the way."

I looked at Tan. He nodded.

I nodded.

Tan told me the names of each Elder, which were so difficult I try to repeat them or worry whether I'd remember them. Tan said something that sounded in tone like a thank you. We both bowed, and then left.

"Come," Tan said. He took my arm.

He took me to what I thought might be the equivalent of a main town square. A lot of beings were staring at me.

"I did not think this through," I whispered to myself.

"Do not worry," Tan said. We stopped in front of a large hut. "This is my house."

I looked at it. It seemed to be made out of small trees and some kind of large green and purple leaves that were the size of cars.

Tan opened the door, and we went inside. The first thing I noticed was the waterfall. It was a shallow blue and green rock wall and well with a perfect cascade of water over it. Then I looked around the open space. A large red pallet lay to the right, which I assumed was his bed. A hearth and maybe a separate room or closet to the left. I looked up. The entire roof was like a skylight.

I pointed up.

"Those leaves are from the Tetrasaurast plant," Tan said.

That roof is made of leaves? It looked like one big pane of smooth glass.

"They change color slightly with the weather."

"Oh," I said.

Tan moved my suitcase and duffle bag near the bed and ran his hands over my shoulders, my sides, my breasts. He kissed my neck, nuzzling his fangs against me. "I want you to..." He didn't say anything more for a minute, pausing to tweak my nipple. "Be comfortable here. Even though we are not complete, I can sense your discomfort."

Not complete?

"Will stroking you make you more comfortable?"

I don't know, but it will certainly distract me.

"Yes," I said.

He looked at the waterfall. I remembered our shower at my house. Was the waterfall wall his shower? Then Tan looked at the bed. But instead he led me over to a chair I hadn't noticed.

"Marret," he said softly. "Thank you."

Tan sat down, and pulled me down onto his lap, straddling him. He fit my core tightly into his growing erection, and smiled the wicked smile of sexy ownership, possession, and anticipation, that is apparently universal to all males, no matter the species. He nuzzled my neck.

"Da'a," he said softly. "My beauty."

Tan kissed my neck, behind my ear, over my collarbones. He ran his hands over the sides of my breasts. Tan licked his top lip and then smiled with a truly devious expression. He held up one hand, and with a sharp, wthoowhupt sound, teeny tiny bristle spikes burst out of the pads of his fingertips. He slowly brought that prickly fingertip toward me, and touched and rolled my nipple through my shirt. I arched into him with a moan-like scream. It felt fantastic.

"You like that, marret?" he whispered in my ear in a low, husky tone.

I ground against him.

He sucked my other nipple into his mouth. Even through the cotton I could feel the heat, the out-of-this world tongue. I let my head drop back. I felt more than saw the lights between us. He increased the pressure a little, and I came.

Tan laughed. That pleased, contented laugh of a man who knows he satisfied his woman. Apparently that's universal too.

Tan stood me up, and quickly stripped me of my shirt, bra, shoes, pants, and underwear. He stroked himself a few times while staring at me with those amazing foreign eyes, pulling me further under his spell with the most incredibly intense gaze. Then he grabbed me by the hips and lowered me onto him.

"So. Good," I said.

Tan had no problem maneuvering my weight up and down, kissing me until I was wild for another release, making me feel close to him with whatever alien chemical and light show was his way. His tail snaked in between us and found that perfect spot. I came, and then came again when he did.

I slumped onto his shoulder.

"Amazing, Tan. Incredible. Mind blowing."

"Now you are relaxed and happy."

"Yes, Tan. Relaxed and happy."

He disentangled us and helped me get dressed.

"You are okay to visit?"

It took me a minute to decipher this one. Maybe he wanted to visit someone or to have a guest over?

"Yeah. I'm okay."

He took my hand and led me out of his house, past more of the amazing jungle landscape, and to another house similar to his own. Tan didn't knock. He just said his name, the whole long complicated syllables of it, and waited.

A few seconds later a male opened the door. Very similar to Tan, but with a slight dark-purple tint to his skin. He saw me, and his eyes opened wide.

He stuck his hand out, in the handshake gesture, and I automatically reached out to shake it.

"Hi, I'm John. Come in." His English was perfect. Weirdly so. And did he just say his name was... John?

There were three very human children in his hut. They had light mocha skin and dark blondish curly hair.

"My mate, Donna," Tan said.

"These are my boys, Peter, Josh, and the baby is T.M. Boys, come say hello."

The two boys who looked to me to be about seven and nine came and stood in front of John and me and said hi. They had the same strange multicolor eyes as John.

"Hi," the baby said, freaking me out.

"Ah, hi everyone."

"Your mate is not home," Tan said in a half-question, half-statement way.

"No, she's down by the river. But I called her when I saw your"—he paused here—"wife, and she will be here in a minute."

Wife? Yikes.

It was all taking me a minute to process. He called her? The perfect English. The kids.

"How long have you been here?" John asked me.

"About two minutes," I said.

He laughed. "Would you like something to eat? You must be hungry."

My stomach growled in response, and John laughed again. After the amazing sex session with Tan I was hungry, I just hadn't realized it until John said something.

"How is it your name is John?" I asked.

"That's my human name. My Bumonth name is..." and then he said a word that began with a Ja sound and had even more clicks and complicated sounds than Tan's name.

"John it is," I said.

"All the boys have Bumonth names too."

"Got it."

The door opened. "Hey honey, what—whoa."

"This is my wife, Marie," John said.

"Whoa. Again," Marie said. "Hi." She came and shook my hand. She stared at me for a minute. She seemed even more surprised than John. "Tan. Holy shit."

Tan shrugged.

The baby pointed at me and said, "Human."

"That's right, sweetheart," Marie said. "Human."

"How many of us are here?" I asked.

"In the village, just me, and now you. On the planet, maybe five or six hundred."

I did a double take. A triple take really, as I used my fingers to count my brain's problems processing. First, she called it a planet. I didn't know what it was, I guess I was thinking of it as some magical pocket. Calling it a planet was weird. Second, just her. Third, five or six hundred? What?

I blinked.

"How long have you been here?" Marie asked.

"I just got here."

"Well, I'm sure you have lots of questions. It's overwhelming. But you'll get used to it."

I doubt it.

"How long have you been here?" I asked.

"Twenty-five years."

What? She looked about thirty-five.

John stepped into what I guess was another room, and came out with packets of ...something. He went to a wall and pulled down a tabletop.

"Crato," John said, pointing at the packets of food. "You'll like this."

I came over and looked at what he had. They were about the size of a deck of cards, wrapped in some sort of light green leaf, and tied with a thin vine. I touched one. It was cold.

"You probably won't like the outer leaf," Marie said. She untied her packet, peeled the leaf off the top part and took a bite. I looked at the one she was eating. The inside looked like packed mashed potatoes.

Tan and John each took one and so did I. I unwrapped mine, and bit into it. "Wow, it's really good," I said.

Both Tan and John smiled.

"It tastes kind of like..." I tried to think.

"Mangos, potatoes, tapioca, and spinach all wrapped together?" Marie asked.

"Yeah, that's it. But it's delicious."

"It comes from the manioc root, on Earth. That's why they go there. Grows under mushrooms. Not only do Bumonths love it, over the years they've developed to where they need it to survive."

I blinked as I tried to process this.

"Your yard is rich in root," Tan said.

I felt like my brain was far behind the conversation. I ate the rest of the crato. "I hate to eat and run, but I'm overwhelmed, and tired, and a little... I don't know. I'd love to talk to you more. Can I come back later?"

"Sure, anytime," Marie said. "Don't eat the pahota-click-rrrr. It's poisonous to humans. And don't eat the pah-rrrah stew. It has it in it."

I looked at Tan. He nodded.

"Thank you," Tan said. "I will watch for this."