Chapter 3

CHAPTER THREE

J anet did her best to keep her hand steady as she tightened her grip on the knife. The weapon didn't make her feel as secure as she would have liked.

The golden skinned stranger – the golden scaled alien – was too big and too strong for her to underestimate. Had he realized that he was handing her a weapon?

The thought that perhaps he had realized and was still completely unafraid was both annoying and terrifying. She did her best to focus on the annoying part and ignore the fear. She would show him that she was not to be underestimated.

Despite her determination, she moved as quickly and silently as possible away from him. He didn't seem to like being out on the sand since he kept dragging her back between the rocks. Perhaps if she could get far enough away, he wouldn't chase her.

She was just at the last outcropping when he looked up and their eyes met.

His were so dark they were almost black, with eyelids that flicked across them in a disturbingly alien manner. His features were not entirely dissimilar to those of a human – two eyes, a somewhat flattened nose, and a wide mouth – but that only accentuated the fact that he was not human. His body, too, was basically humanoid, except bigger and more muscular than that of a human male.

When he had caught her and carried her back amongst the rocks, she had been aware of the overwhelming strength of his hold. Despite that, he had not hurt her. In fact, his hands had been surprisingly gentle, even when she had been kicking him with all her strength. Of course, her strength was probably laughable to him.

The golden scales that covered him were smoother than they looked, dry and almost silky against her skin.

He was studying her now, his head tilted a little to one side and she froze. Her instincts told her to flee, but she already knew that he could catch her.

He said something unintelligible, his voice low and soothing. She had expected his language to be more sibilant given his somewhat reptilian appearance.

Still watching her carefully, he held out her bag. Was he offering to trade back? She almost snorted. As if it was of any use to her.

She shook her head and tightened her grip on the knife handle. She much preferred the weapon, thank you very much.

He held up the sheet of plastic she had found in her bag and then gestured to the one she had discarded from his. For the first time, her impulse to flee subsided long enough for her to really think about the situation.

She had been dumped here, naked, with only the bag. And he was certainly naked, she thought, letting her eyes flick down over his body. That had been obvious when she had been pressed against him. Fortunately, he didn't seem to possess any male genitalia – although somehow she was quite sure that he was male. Given his lack of clothing and the presence of a bag similar to her own, could he have been dumped here as well?

Despite his appearance and the fact that he seemed familiar with the desert surroundings, perhaps he was as much a stranger here as she.

One hand still firmly gripping the knife, she moved slowly back between the rocks until she reached his bag. She had discarded it as soon as she'd seen the knife.

Watching him carefully, she reached inside and pulled out a sheet of plastic that matched her own. He nodded encouragingly but didn't move from his position.

Like her own, the sheet was covered with meaningless scribbles.

"I don't understand. Why is this important?"

He tilted his head, clearly listening to her words, then held out her copy. He obviously wanted her to take it, but that would mean getting within arm's reach of him.

She looked at him, then darted a quick glance back over her shoulder at the vast expanse of desert. Now that her initial panic had subsided, she remembered why she had stayed within the shelter of the rocks to begin with. She wouldn't last long out there at this time of day.

With a resigned sigh, she reached for the other sheet.

He let her take it from his hand – from long fingers tipped with short dark claws – and made no attempt to touch her. She snatched it away from him and scurried back against the rocks.

When she laid the plastic sheets out on the sand in front of her, she realized that they were almost identical. At first she thought they were completely identical, but then she noticed that hers contained a small bluish dot, while his contained a green dot in the same place.

As she looked at them more closely, her heart skipped a beat. The pattern on the blue dot – could that be an image of Earth from space? And if her map showed Earth, did the green dot on his represent his planet?

She looked up to find him studying her, dark eyes intent on her face.

"Is that your planet?" she asked.

After pointing at the blue dot and then herself, she pointed at the green dot and then at him. He nodded solemnly.

"Lisko."

Was that the name of his planet? She pointed to the blue. "Earth."

"Earth," he repeated, his pronunciation surprisingly clear.

Well, that was interesting – but what did it mean?

She scanned the sheets again looking for additional differences. This time she noticed that there were different symbols next to each of the colored circles.

Hers was rather like a rectangle with a gold dot at the top. His was a double-barred line. Neither one made any sense to her.

She shook her head, looking up at him. "I don't get it."

Moving very slowly, he stretched out a long arm and tapped the gold dot, then pointed at her head.

"You think that's me?"

It hardly seemed likely, but then again nothing about this experience was believable. And if the one symbol indicated her, then the other…

She tapped the barred line, then pointed to him.

He nodded, and then smiled for the first time, revealing two distinctly snakelike fangs. She hastily averted her eyes and did her best not to flinch.

"I hope you don't smile a lot," she muttered, then gave him an inquisitive look. "I'm still not sure I understand the significance."

She scanned the sheets again, then realized that the symbols representing the two of them were repeated a second time. Again they were in approximately the same position on the sheet, in an area surrounded by waving lines. "Do you think these represent us as well?"

He had his head tilted again, but he didn't respond verbally. Instead, he tapped on the second image, then walked his fingers across the sheet to the one by the planet. The light finally dawned.

"You think this is a map?"

She mirrored his gesture and he nodded, then repeated carefully, "Map."

Studying the sheet of plastic with a skeptical eye, she shook her head in disgust. "If that's a map, I think I'm going to stay lost."

Her companion resorted to sign language once again. He pointed to her symbol, walked his fingers across the supposed map again, and then tapped on the planet. "Earth," he repeated.

"You think that if we find this other place I could go home. To Earth?" She tapped on his planet symbol. "And you could return to Lisko?"

He raised a shoulder slightly in what could possibly interpreted as a shrug, then added something unintelligible. It wasn't quite the confident response she had hoped for.

"I suspect that means something along the lines of it's as good a chance as any." She sighed and looked out between the rocks at the expanse of desert. "But it's not as if I have another plan. Can you get us there?"

She walked her fingers across the so-called map the way that he had done and gave him an inquiring look. This time he nodded firmly.

"I guess that means we're traveling companions. My name is Janet." She tapped her chest and repeated, "Janet."

"Janet." He said her name almost reverently, and she had the oddest desire to blush.

"And you are?" she prompted, when he didn't supply his own name.

A flash of something that looked like surprise crossed his face, although she didn't understand why.

"What is your name?" she asked again.

"Sabrost," he said slowly.

"Sabrost."

His eyes closed when she said his name and his scales seemed to flicker. Well, that was odd. And a little creepy. Hastily changing the subject, she pointed out at the desert.

"Should we get going?"

To her surprise, he shook his head, and she frowned at him.

"Why not? The sooner we reach this mysterious destination, the sooner we can go home."

He pointed up at the sun, still high in the sky, and then marked a curve in the air, stopping when his finger was just above the horizon.

"You mean you want to wait until the sun goes down?"

Now that she had a destination she was anxious to get moving, but he had a point. The sand had been burning hot beneath her bare feet, and her hand was still inflamed from where it had been in the sun when she awakened. She sighed.

"All right. I suppose we can wait. What are we going to do in the meantime?"