Deathworlders Should Not Be Allowed To Date! 41 (Patreon)

[Author's Note] Slightly NSFW, but quite tame in the descriptions.

Luna VI query: Set the source to the leaked files of the first reconnaissance operation of Irisa.

Not a problem!

Luna VI query: How did Nathan and Amara sort out their feelings?

***

The first rays of dawn hit the mountaintops in the west, reflecting light and painting the vast fields below in a faint blue hue. In the east, light leaked through the gaps between the peaks, announcing that soon their protection would cease, and high-energy light would flood the valleys.

After a full night of traveling, Nathan and Amara kept pressing onward, following the same track they had taken since nightfall in search of a suitable place to rest.

This lasted until Nathan found something interesting with the drones and sprinted ahead, stopping beside the low-hanging branches of a shrub.

"Look! Another one," Nathan said, plunging his hands into the dense foliage and parting the leaves to reveal a yellow fruit shaped like an avocado. "Biggest one so far."

Hints of gray and green appeared around Amara's black spots. "Spare me from seeing you eat one of those disgusting fruits again!"

As Nathan had come to learn, that pattern on her skin meant she was disgusted. "It's not poisonous to me, Amara." Nathan picked the fruit and used his knife to split it in half. "You should accept my suggestion and rub a little on your lips to test it; two days without eating is not good."

Amara crossed her arms and pressed her tail against her nostrils, showing she was slightly annoyed by how the breeze was carrying the smell of the fruit toward her. "I would prefer to find some prey, dig my claws into its neck, and then drink its blood rather than eating something that smells like this fruit."

Looking at her sharp claws and pointy teeth, Nathan assumed she was not kidding. But somehow he struggled to picture that cute alien girl doing something as brutal as what she had described.

"I'll keep looking for something you can eat, okay?" He felt bad eating in front of her while she was still hungry. "If I find nothing, we can try to hunt something. It shouldn't be too hard to find dry wood to make a fire to roast it."

"No fires! The rebels could spot us." She approached him, and her tail wrapped around his wrist. "We should keep following the track. I hear water ahead. If it’s a river, I could blend in with the rocks and ambush the fish in the shallow waters."

"Oh, I see how this could work." No matter how much time he spent with Amara, there was always something new to learn about the versatility of her camouflage. "Let's go then, I can eat as we walk."

Disregarding that they no longer needed to walk shoulder to shoulder, Nathan and Amara began to climb the not-so-steep but far-reaching slope ahead.

They were halfway through the slope when he finished eating and discarded the peel, leaving only his sticky hand to clean thanks to lingering juices left behind by the fruit he just ate.

Still, his thoughts followed another direction and a silly idea occurred to him.

With a mischievous grin, he wiggled his fingers dramatically, moving his hand slowly toward Amara's face. "What would you do if I were to ruffle your hair now?"

First, her body flashed purple, but then hints of yellow appeared. "This is how you get deep scratches on your face."

"Really?" Her cheerful response to his antics prompted him to continue, putting his hand in front of her nostrils. "I don't think you would hurt the ambassador of the people who can save your planet."

As unlikely as it seemed, he saw the yellow hue on her skin intensifying, but she didn't reply nor did she take his hand away, which puzzled him.

Before he could comprehend her behavior, however, her body blended with the environment. A moment later, he felt the weight on his back increasing as both her arms crossed in front of his neck.

She whispered, "Since you have the energy to play, you can use it to carry me to the top." When she finished speaking, her tail had wrapped around his belly, a gentle yellow coexisting with her black spots.

"You're not the type to take any losses, are you?" It took a few moments for him to realize what he had gotten himself into.

"I am the type who always gets what I want." She added, "Now walk, daylight from the valleys will not be good for my skin."

He sighed, then smiled, petting her head from above his shoulder. "You win this time."

After a full night of traveling on foot, Amara was feeling heavier than she did the day before. Still, the atmosphere was lighter now. So much so that Nathan feared he might float if he was not careful. This made climbing the last half of the slope such an easy task that he barely noticed the time passing.

When they reached the summit, Nathan turned around, getting a glimpse of the vastness of the sight before him.

Far away in the mountain from which they had fled, he could spot the very start of the track they had been following. The plain full of mud where he had to rescue Amara from the thorns was somewhere in the middle, far enough that it was hard to distinguish any individual plant. Closer to their current position, he saw the smaller slopes where the shrubs that produced the yellow fruits grew, vaguely remembering where he picked each of the six fruits he had consumed.

"Hard to believe we traveled this distance in a single night, is it not?" Amara let go of his neck and joined his side.

"Yeah."

The view of the valleys with daylight grazing the mountaintops was quite a sight, but even after all those days, Nathan still hadn't gotten over the weirdness of the blue leaves.

This led him to turn around just for a chance of seeing a different color on the plains ahead, but what caught his eye first was the source of the water noise Amara had mentioned.

"I think I found your river, Amara," he said, pointing at a tiny stream. The water, as if leaking from a low-pressure hose, seemed to come from a hole under a rock on the track's edge, making noise only because of the rocky downhill path it traced to descend the slope.

Her gaze landed on the puny stream and hints of gray appeared around her neck. "One more day without food will not kill me."

Nathan said nothing, switching the view mode to the augmented reality generated from the data stream of the drones. With a thought, he changed it from the threat detection mode to the animal life detection preset, intending to scan the area around, hoping the water source would increase the likelihood of finding small animals for hunting.

He considered his chances of finding something to be mild at best, but quickly the undergrowth became transparent to his eyes and a weird protrusion was highlighted under the thick leaves of a shrub.

Taking advantage of his jacket and boots, Nathan parted the undergrowth aside, catching Amara's attention as he left the track and made his way into the truly untamed land.

"Another of those disgusting fruits?" she asked.

Nathan stooped down and raised one of the branches to clear the view.

"Look, it's some sort of nest." Before him was a round nest with four blue eggs. They were shaped like cucumbers, and when he touched them, he found the shells were soft like water balloons. "Think you can eat those?"

Amara didn't reply, taking a few hesitant steps toward him. Unlike him, each of her steps was a challenge to her bare feet, requiring a degree of spatial awareness that he would be unable to replicate if he found himself missing his clothes.

When she finally reached his side, her tail reached for the nest like a hungry snake, coiling around one of the eggs and bringing it to her left hand. With a swift motion of her claw, she made a hole in the shell and raised the leaking egg close to her nostrils.

She sniffed it, and then her eyes widened. Before Nathan could ask anything, the transparent liquid inside the egg was already flowing into her mouth as she crushed the shell.

He couldn't help but smile at the incessant waves of yellow.

When the last drop fell into her mouth, her gentle eyes turned to him. "Each takes half?"

"Nah. You can have everything." Ignoring how unappealing those eggs looked, he had already eaten enough. Besides, he suspected that finding more eggs would be much harder than finding more fruits.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah." He smiled. "Go ahead and eat them before the mother returns."

Given the small space in the nest, Nathan was not really worried about an attack.

Amara leaned and placed a hand on his shoulder, whispering in his ear, "Thank you, my dearest friend."

She didn't contain her happiness after that, showing the same excitement after every egg she devoured. As for Nathan... he couldn't stop thinking about why she kept calling him a friend.

It was this single question that kept his mind busy while they returned to the track, not vanishing from his thoughts even as he tested the water from the stream and determined it was safe to drink.

He hoped he would soon be too busy seeking a place to rest to keep wasting time with this question. But instead of continuing their journey as soon as they drank their fill, Amara requested more time to clean the thin layer of dried mud that had clung to her leg during the night, claiming it interfered with her camouflage and made her feel awful.

He took a seat on the ground and waited for her, yet at some point, he couldn't help but notice that Amara was doing more than she told him she would. Instead of just cleaning her leg, she was bringing handfuls of water to her neck, and letting it run down across her whole body as her tail rubbed against her skin.

It normally looked like she was wearing some sort of body painting, making it easy for him to forget she was naked. Right now, however, this illusion faded, and Nathan became self-aware that he was staring too much, causing him to avert his eyes unnaturally, stealing some glances from time to time.

Amara noticed something was off.

"You humans are strange," she said, "Do you not know your eyes do not bother me?"

"I doubt your species find it normal that friends stare at some places." His gaze landed on her breasts and stayed, mostly to prove his point. At least, that was the excuse he told himself.

"Looking anywhere is normal." Amara was unfazed. "Mates, friends, strangers, enemies. All have reasons to seek traces of emotion anywhere they can."

It didn't sound like she was lying, but Nathan wouldn't go back to silence now that the subject had been brought up. "What is the difference between friends and mates then?" Realizing his question was revealing too much of his thoughts, he added, "I mean, from a cultural exchange perspective."

Amara stopped washing herself and spoke a single word. "Touch."

Nathan raised an eyebrow. It was unlike her to reply like that.

"What do you mean by touch?"

"I do not believe you are prepared to know."

"Yes, I am," he pressed.

"Friends can touch tails. You humans might not notice, but a lot of non-verbal communication can happen when our tails are linked." A hint of purple flashed on her neck, but she closed her eyes and made it disappear. "As for mates, it is different for each couple."

Amara paused her speech and took the first of many of steps toward him. "It could be as simple as playfully ruffling your mate's hair, or more intimate acts such as sleeping in each other's arms in the rain."

His heart skipped a beat at what she was saying. "Amara, I-"

Her tail shut him up as she took the final step.

"From a cultural exchange perspective." Towering over him as he sat on the ground, her tail coiled around his wrist, then pulled his hand upwards until his fingers were pressing against her brestes. "It could be touching places that are not appropriate for friends to touch."

Time nearly stopped, and only now did Nathan realize what he had done. By pressing her for an answer, he had pushed her into expressing her feelings again.

Unlike the other time when Amara was acting pushy, this instance was all his fault, just because he had been bothered by her repeatedly calling him a friend.

What would he do now?

All the reasons why they couldn't be together were still valid, and now it was even worse. By the time they reached the weather station, he feared he would contact the space station only to find that the mission had been canceled because of the war.

Those days of traveling the valleys might be the last time he would see her.

Hints of purple began to appear on her body as Nathan neither took his hand away nor replied.

Her eyes were demanding an answer, and Nathan was about to give in and say the first thing to come to mind when the unthinkable happened.

The ground trembled beneath their feet and a powerful explosion assaulted their ears, coming from the direction of the mountain they had abandoned.

Her tail lost strength; Nathan stood up. They exchanged a look and ran together to a place where they could see the mountain.

From there, they saw a group of fast-moving ships shooting a salvo of missiles into the forest. The action only lasted a few seconds, and Nathan could barely believe his eyes when the ships simply stopped shooting and repositioned in a flash, blending with the environment seamlessly, just like the Irisians themselves did.

"This is what happens when you are spotted by the enemy." She explained.

"Do those ships belong to the rebels?" He was fearing for the worse.

"No, they belong to the elders." She squinted her eyes, trying to get more clues about the current situation in the mountains.

Nathan sighed with relief because the danger had nothing to do with them for once. But then he noticed that the track was looking different than what he remembered.

In the middle, close to where he had rescued Amara from the thorns, the previously brown ground had been conquered by shades of blue—and the blue part was slowly moving towards them.

He pointed with his finger. "Amara, is that-"

"The explosion caused the herd to stampede!" She turned purple. "We need to hide!"

"What if they decide to stay here for some water?"

Purple intensified, and seconds later she jumped on his back and ordered, "Run!"

Things were happening way too fast for Nathan's liking. Yet, thanks to Amara, there was no lack of adrenaline in his blood to help his tired legs.

His initial outburst felt easy, the gravity helping his long steps as he followed the track downwards, descending the slope from the opposite side that they had climbed.

Upon reaching the plain ground below, he began to feel Amara's weight as he pressed forward, the track feeling like a never-ending road that his legs could never defeat.

He had pulled a decent distance from the slope when his breath started to come in ragged bursts and his speed began to decrease.

"They are close," she said, "We must hide now."

"Where?" The undergrowth was thin on both sides, with spread-out brushes and vines that rarely grew taller than his waist.

Amara's hands carefully moved to his shoulders and she raised her head above his. "There." Her tail pointed at a shrub where the branches had spread around, giving it a round shape. "That is the only place we have a chance."

"But..." He couldn't understand her choice. "That's right beside the track."

"Trust me."

Nathan hesitated a moment but decided to trust her judgment. He took a deep breath and pushed for one last sprint, taking them in front of the round-shaped plant.

"Inside." With her bare hands, she parted the leaves aside, revealing a cluster of stems with plentiful room for them to hide.

Nathan followed her, his breath too fast to reply. Amara's eyes scanned him from head to toe, and then she pushed him in the middle, close to the stems.

"Your clothes are not terrible, but your white skin will stand out." She grabbed his wrists, lifted his hands to his neck, and jumped, locking her legs around his belly. Her tail wrapped around a branch for support, holding Nathan in place. With her back facing the track, her body morphed into a shade of blue, her black spots turning into leaf shapes. She stared into his eyes and whispered, "Do not dare to move or make noise! They are coming."

Her chest blocked his view. But out of the corner of his eyes, he could see how thin the wall of leaves was. If he could see outside, wouldn't the Oczoils be able to see inside?

Yet, it was too late for a change of plans because the ground was trembling as the herd approached.

Each step was like a drumbeat, growing louder and louder until Nathan could even hear their grunts and roars.

The world seemed to blur as the few individuals leading the group passed in front of the shrub, creating a rush of wind that brushed against Amara's hair, sending a shiver through his body.

This marked the start of the now longest minute of Nathan's life, where those giant and careless creatures flooded the path of their own creation. In many instances, he believed they would uproot the whole shrub in their fight for space. The vibrations of their accidental touches would travel down the branches until they were felt directly on Nathan's back which was pressed against the stems.

Each time a side horn peeked through the leaves, he would flinch and stare at Amara's eyes as she held her camouflage, not turning to look or showing a single hint of purple.

Nathan's wariness didn't decrease even when the bulk of the herd had already moved past them, as if his mind refused to believe everything would be fine. It took several seconds after hearing a distant noise from the last straying animal for Nathan to release a long sigh, staring deep into her orange eyes.

Maintaining eye contact, Amara released her legs from his belly and jumped to the ground, and only then she allowed purple to take over her body.

"We are alive," she said.

"We are," he replied.

Silence ensued again, but no deep contemplation happened inside his head. He only glanced at her long ears, hidden behind her not-so-long hair, and let his gaze land on her delicate lips. They seemed to shine just for him.

Just like before, she noticed his staring. Still, she hesitated a moment before jumping back into his arms, her eyes like a predator testing the waters.

There was no conflict in Nathan’s mind. His arms passed below her armpits, crossing on her back and locking into position. He then pressed her against the stems before he went for a kiss that was only the first of many.

Amara returned each one of them, her body softening as his hands traveled on her skin, and a hint of a color he'd never seen before began to appear around her belly and neck—a pinkish orange that reminded him of fire.

After seeing this, his hands became even more daring, one venturing in the softness of the front, while the other reached downward below her tail. This was when that same tail got in the way of the kisses, leading Nathan to belive she wanted to stop, which caused him to place her on the ground as he wondered about the reason.

Instead of explaining, her hand quickly traveled around his chest area, moving until she found the tiny metal piece she was looking for, unzipping his jacket in one swift motion.

They exchanged a gaze, and Nathan smiled.

Being on the same page made things easier.

With the help of two sets of hands and one naughty tail, pieces of clothing fell to the ground one after the other, leaving nothing on the way as they too fell over his jacket.

All the bottled-up longing and lust exploded for several minutes, burning with passion with little regard for anything else.

The leaves protected then as the shadows of the peaks shortened and dangerous daylight finally made its way into the valleys. When tiredness finally caught up to him, Nathan found himself smiling, watching the golden hue that lingered on her body as she lay on top of his jacket, waiting for him to set up the drones and join her for some long-overdue rest.

***

This was an account based on how Nathan and Amara sort out their feelings. The previous narrative is based on the events of the twenty-first day of the exploratory mission of Irisa. According to your current settings, no queries will be suggested.