The whelp must have felt the same way.
Instantly, it began to wail as if she had set it on fire.
Noxx resisted the impulse to tell her not to talk to it like that. Surely even a Terran would pick up on a clue as obvious as screaming.
“You’re okay,” she told it softly as she cuddled it closer and rocked her body back and forth slightly.
That was better.
But the whelp was still furious. Its face turned red and it kicked its legs as if it were swimming, trying to clamber its way back to Noxx.
“Oh,” the woman said sadly, as if realizing the whelp preferred his company to hers.
He felt a pinching sensation in his chest that he sincerely hoped wasn’t sympathy.
“I’ll get the burden moose,” he said gruffly, heading to the service ramp at the rear of the ship and leaving her with the wailing whelp.
3
Noxx
The dragon roared inside Noxx’s chest, demanding that he return to the woman and whelp at once.
But he managed to shake it off and keep walking.
The first hand-droid was leading a burden moose down the ramp.
“Mine,” he said.
“Yours indeed, sir,” the hand-droid replied brightly. “Shall I help you mount?”
“Nah,” he said, waving it off. “It’s for the woman.”
“I see,” the droid said.
Mercifully, it made no further attempt at conversation.
Since the robot wars, AI had evolved by leaps and bounds. It was almost as bad as having more biological beings around.
Noxx led the way back to the woman and whelp.
The youngling had calmed somewhat, but was still red-faced and hiccuping.
The woman looked relieved.
But when the little one laid eyes on Noxx, it began wailing and reaching for him all over again.
He felt a grim sense of satisfaction that the whelp preferred him, even as he cursed the gods for giving it such lungs.
“Come,” he said, pointing to the burden moose.
“Hello,” Luna said politely to the hand-droid.
“Greetings, fair lady and small child,” the hand-droid said in a tone of obvious delight.
Luna giggled, actually giggled.
Noxx sighed in disgust.
We should be the one who makes her giggle, the dragon grumbled in his chest.
No, they definitely shouldn’t, Noxx was very sure that was the opposite of what he wanted.
“Mount,” he told her.
She eyed the burden moose suspiciously.
It was too busy basking its branching antlers to pay her any mind.
“Why does it have trees for antlers?” she asked.
“To help it hide from predators,” Noxx said patiently.
Her eyes widened. “This thing has to worry about predators?”
“All things have to worry about predators,” Noxx said darkly.
To her credit, she took the hint and went right up to the massive moose.
The hand-droid gestured to the big animal and it slowly lowered its massive head, making it possible for the woman to mount.
She slid one foot into the stirrup, wrapped her free hand around the pommel, and impressed him by pulling herself all the way up in one smooth motion, baby and all.
The moose declined to nip at her heels, as they often did when riders scrambled and struggled.
“Is this for him?” she called down to Noxx, indicating the basket on the creature’s broad back that was designed to protect the baby when riding on rough terrain.
He nodded.
She turned back to the thing and placed the baby in it.
He promptly began crying again, but half-heartedly. The whelp liked going for rides.
Noxx stepped closer, curious to see if the woman would figure out the hover device on the cradle.
The burden moose must have scented his dragon, so much closer to the surface than usual.
It spooked, and jolted sideways.
The woman’s hand slipped, pressing the sensor that enclosed a protective bubble over the whelp, who began to scream in earnest.
The woman screamed also, banging on the laser-proof glass in her efforts to get to the whelp.
Fantastic.
“Oh dear,” the hand-droid said unhelpfully.
“Easy, beast,” Noxx warned the moose, approaching again.
This time it remained steady.
He swung up onto its broad back beside the woman and released the bubble.
Her screams stopped instantly, but without the glass to muffle them, the baby’s screams were even more piercing.
He checked the cradle.
“Do not worry, whelp,” Noxx told it solemnly. “Your basket is secured firmly.”
The young one stopped screaming and beamed at him, chirping out its familiar laugh, eyes twinkling through its forgotten tears.
It was always laughing at him.
And now the woman had seen.
“You might want to hold onto the pommel,” he advised her. “The terrain is rough.”
“Thank you, Captain Obvious,” she said, her eyes twinkling.
“My rank is Lieutenant,” he corrected her. “And my name is Noxx.”
He slid off the moose to the sound of her laughter.
He did not know what was so funny to those two. But he was sure they would be very happy together.
“Come,” he told the moose as he dismissed the hand-droid back to the ship.
They set off on the narrow trail toward the forest they would call home.
4
Luna
Luna clung to the pommel and vowed for the hundredth time not to complain or ask to stop.
The air was cool and delicious here. And once she had gotten used to hanging on for dear life and trusting the pod to hold the baby safely, it had seemed kind of fun and romantic to be riding a giant moose with her baby by her side.
But in the hours since the burden moose had begun wending its way up the trail with Luna and the baby onboard, they had paused just once for her to hurriedly relieve herself in the undergrowth.
And when she scurried back Noxx scowled at her as if she had been gone for hours.
She was tired from a long day of unusual travel, worried that the baby must be hungry, and all Noxx wanted to do was go, go, go.
She had no idea what the rush was.
And the burden moose was certainly the wrong animal for a hurried journey anyway. The thing lumbered along, oblivious to Noxx’s coaxing.
Truth be told, she was pretty sure Noxx just wanted to drop her off with the baby and get away.
She had no idea what she had done to offend the big blue warrior.
Well…
She stole a glance at him from under her eyelashes and felt another frisson of desire excite her senses.
Different races had different abilities and she sincerely hoped he couldn’t read minds or smell attraction. If he could, that might be her answer as to why he was so desperate to get out of her company.
Luna’s body didn’t seem to care what her brain thought of the big, gruff alien. From the moment she spotted him, she wanted him so badly it made her mouth water. Those piercing eyes, and those strong, muscular arms with their iridescent blue scales - it all came together to strike a chord in her that had never been played before.
You’re here to start a new life with the baby, she reminded herself. Don’t get distracted by the blue eye candy.