Gavil didn't completely vanish over the next few days, but he spent as much of his free time as he could researching and making calls. While his resources weren't as great as they would've been if he actually worked at a facility with Aprixes, his initial claims were dead on. Despite his status as an "outsider" to the industry, all of the Saumars he contacted at least gave him the time of day, which was a lot more than they'd do for anyone else. In the meantime, Aria and Vim kept each other company. The latter grew more worried as days went by, and while the little Terran did all she could to assuage those concerns she couldn't give him the peace of mind he craved. Most of their time together was spent in the safety of Gavil's room, but occasionally they wandered out into the main living space at the front of the house. Early on they filled the long, dragging hours by talking. Now that Vim could speak, he told Aria about his life on Taullo, and what he left behind. This was the
It took Vim a few days to build up the confidence he needed to participate in Gavil's work. The ever-patient Saumar happily waited, easing any of the physical stumbling blocks in the way and always giving in-depth explanations of whatever he was trying to accomplish. Bit by bit Vim was able to express himself more, a change both of his newfound friends noticed most prominently. Gavil had gone out of his way to keep things simple and the stakes low, but he couldn't dodge around the more demanding jobs forever. He decided to break the news to his "assistants" a week after they'd moved in. Breakfast had just finished, and once Gavil had done the bare minimum amount of cleaning up he turned back to the table. Aria and Vim were waiting patiently for their assignments, actually eager for whatever new twists were headed their way. "I thought we'd do something different today," Gavil said as he rejoined them. "The weeds have been spreading faster than usual thanks to all the rain we've
After finishing their meal in relative silence, Gavil did some light cleaning up then turned back around to face the pair still at the table. His hand appeared beside Aria, sweeping her up in a quick but gentle motion before she could raise a complaint. "I have some work I need to take care of in my office," he announced stiffly, taking a step towards the hallway. He looked directly at Vim, almost daring him to protest. "You should stay inside. Just because you're on my property doesn't mean those Equade fools won't try something if you're alone." Vim straightened up and readied his hands even though he opened his mouth. "Understood." Huffing in confirmation, Gavil trudged down the hall and stepped through the faint barrier that partitioned off the workroom. The office was more cluttered than the rest of the house, filled with shelves overflowing with physical documents and external data storage. Topographical scans and hand drawn maps were pinned the walls, covering the few spots
Vim slept longer and deeper than he ever had before, which made waking up unlike anything he'd experienced. He felt alert in a good way, like he'd properly shut down and reset after everything that had happened the day before. While his eyes fluttered open, he tried to roll over on the chair he'd slept in. The seat was wide enough for him to curl up on, but it wasn't big enough for him to really stretch or spread out. Pushing himself upright slowly, Vim turned his waking attention over to the large cushion that dominated the room only to find it empty. 'They both left?' he gasped, bracing his on the armrests and shooting to his feet. His balance wobbled once he was standing, but he didn't fall. 'Am I alone?' That frantic question was answered seconds later by the sound of shuffling footsteps down the hallway. A moment of panic was blown away by a pitiful sigh of relief. Vim tiptoed over to the door with all of his senses wired. If they'd felt comfortable letting him sleep, then it
Vim needed Aria's help to course correct a couple of times, but he always followed her directions to the letter. There were openings in the trees as he stumbled forward which let him catch glimpses of two very different scenes. Occasionally there'd be a flash of wide, perfectly manicured fields, but right beside that were harsh impenetrable walls and threatening coils of spiked, current-fed wires. 'What is this place?' he wondered. 'I didn't see anything like this when I left the port.' That momentary lapse of concentration tripped him up, and Vim had to catch himself by bracing his hand against a nearby tree to keep from falling over. The hand holding Aria curled into a strong, protective fist. Vim knew he'd scared her, but he couldn't spare the effort to look down and check. Instead, he slowly relaxed his hand and kept her close, desperate to reach wherever she was leading them. While it was in no way true, he swore he could hear little voices rustling in the leaves. Eventually
Waiting for Aria when she got back home was a crowd of her relatives, headed by her parents, who were all overjoyed at her safe return. She didn't have a hard time explaining away the delay, especially once she produced the highly anticipated slips. The other families' slips were gathered up to be distributed that evening, but that was a job for someone else. All that was required of Aria now was to rest. Through a bit more quick thinking, Aria was able to get out of sitting down for a more formal meal, burying her anticipation under faux exhaustion. With a small portion of food for her troubles Aria scurried off to her room to "relax". Once the door was shut, she engaged the lock and jumped into motion. Her rumbling stomach demanded the dinner she'd grabbed as part of her cover, so with a utensil in one hand and her datapad in the other, the real work began. Following the information Cardo had shared was simple enough, but things got very complicated very fast. Aria navigated
Vim had moved as far back into the cave as he could before laying down. He wasn't curled up like he wanted to be, so he simply laid his head on top of his folded arms and closed his eyes. Aria said she'd try to stop by after seeing her friend if she had time, but he wasn't counting on it. She had very important work to do, for him and her family. A little loneliness wouldn't kill him compared to what he stood to gain from her absence. Exhaling through his nose, Vim tried to get comfortable on the smooth stone floor. 'One day isn't all that long,' he reminded himself. 'I've been forced to wait longer for worse news.' Sitting at the helm of her family's cycles old transport was always oddly relaxing, and despite her above average excitement, Aria was cool headed and calm. The cargo bed was filled not quite past capacity, the amateurly repaired engine hummed away with an out of tune beat, and the impact absorbing treads handled the rougher parts of the terrain with ease. No matter how
Sneaking out into the woods the next day after the "incident" was harder than Aria had anticipated. It took her confessing that she wanted to start building an alarm system specifically for larger predators to get her parents and other relatives off her back. While that was something she'd contemplated in the past it wasn't anywhere near the top of her to-do list. However, a project like that would take time and give her a plausible excuse to go off on her own regularly. Aria's brisk jog slowed to a gentle walk as she neared the mountainside cave. Her heart was pounding in her ears, and she forcefully swallowed her nerves before broadening her shoulders and stepping through the foliage. Vim lounged at the entrance of the cave. Like the day before he was lying flat on his stomach, but this time his arms were crossed under his chin. Those sharp silver eyes were dulled under their partial cover of his drooping eyelids, his gaze not focused on anything in particular. What was alert and
Having Vim crawling along behind her on all fours was nerve wrecking on its own, but Aria actually preferred it to the idea of having him towering over her at his full height. Not because he was all that big, even the shortest Saumars and Mantanims had him beat in that department, but because of his potential. There was no telling what an Aprix would do at any given moment, so she needed to have her wits sharp and her senses even sharper to stay ahead of him. 'Stupid as it is to say, I don't think I need to be afraid of him,' she muttered to herself as she walked into a deeper part of the forest. 'I mean, suns above! He let me go after I was basically already in his mouth. That can't just be a coincidence.' Tilting her head to the side Aria stole a glance at the Aprix. Vim's eyes kept flicking back to her every now and then, but their main focus was on the space right in front of him. He took immeasurable care before placing a hand or foot anywhere, which further confused the little
The three suns were a constant presence in Oranot's sky. Their paths were so interwoven that there was never enough darkness to make a true "night", allowing the planet to develop into an agricultural powerhouse. Instead, the triplet suns' positioning and an agreed upon "end of the day" were the main markers for the passage of time. Sprawling cities and vast farming complexes covered the majority of the planet's surface. Massive facilities processed all the fruits of the land, and an endless web of holo-light rail tracks distributed the produce across all of Oranot and even to ports to send it off planet. All of these large-scale operations were run by the numerous Mantanims and Saumars that called the planet home, but there were just as many of the smaller species living alongside them. Tinifts helped all walks of life with their impeccably flexible adaptability, Ornits were ever reliable messengers who could avoid most of the on the ground traffic, and even the occasional L-Class
So , I lost inspiration during 2015 while I was writing this story I've finally got more confidence in my writing. Found the plot for it finally as I have only recently planned out an entire novel indepth with characters, plot etc and its enough to finish writing the short story ? One day once I've finished all of the chapters, I'm going to clean up the grammar and link it all. I have Grammarly now to fix my attrocious typing. I can spell just not well while trying to increase typing speed. Apparently writing on Deviant Art isn't the same as Wattpad or Qoutev, so may take me longer to update chapters. Takes like 4 hours to write a whole 2000+ word page. I used to be faster at typing with my essays 🤣. May have some more old stories to publish. Enjoy!
I have spent forever looking for a story on here about an angel who loves a human and it's forbidden. and then he destroys a city and gets turned into a tengu familiar.