It was starting to become a habit.

Tempest groaned as she opened her eyes and looked up at the vine covered ceiling.

This time she didn’t have to wonder what happened. She already knew that she’d passed out. It had all become too much for her. She’d been so overwhelmed with everything that was happening that she just couldn’t handle it anymore.

She figured she’d wake back up on the floor, but waking up in the bed meant the last part she remembered was real. Dron had come to comfort her. He came to help.

Tempest felt like she was getting whiplash from the alien man’s moods. One second it seemed like he hated her guts, and the next second it seemed like he would step in front of a bullet for her.

Could it be one in the same?

Could he hate her but be so scared of any repercussions that he would do anything to make sure that she was well?

Tempest grumbled and turned over in the bed.

She didn’t want that from anyone. Didn’t want to be anyone’s burden.

But how could she not be a burden when she couldn’t help herself? She felt like a small child trying to navigate the world, but that is what she had to do. She had to get a grip, stop what her mother would have called ’the theatrics,’ and get on with her life.

Tempest sat up in the bed, and instantly felt a wave of heat smack her in the face. While she was lying down she didn’t realize just how hot it was in the house. It had to be at least eighty-five degrees.

"Goodness gracious." She mumbled and continued to kick the rest of the blankets and such off her body. How could anyone be comfortable in a place like this? It felt like she was steps away from a volcano or something.

She still had the same clothing she had on the day before. The long dress was thin but not thin enough. It was just too much fabric. Thankfully she knew how to change it.

"That’s it. Just take things one step at a time. You can learn. You’ve got this." Tempest whispered to herself. She followed the steps she’d seen Mexyn perform the last time she had to change one of the advanced pieces of fabric. Tempest grabbed hold of the seam on her shoulder and activated the tablet on her wrist. She scrolled through a few options that were already programmed within the system, but none of them were right.

At least not for the amount of heat she felt around her. Instead of choosing one of the programmed options, she navigated to the custom tab. There she created a short halter-top mini dress. She kept the coloring the same, but instantly the fabric bunched up and created a beautiful halter top that she would have worn to the beach. She breathed a sigh of relief when the fabric was no longer touching her legs or arms.

Once Tempest was finished with that she took a few steps to the door but stopped short, remembering what the servers that had helped her get dressed the previous time told her. It wasn’t natural for women in Thraqe to show so much skin.

That’s where the problem was.

Tempest was trying to fit in. Trying to act as if she were just another Thraqen. She wasn’t she was an earthling. One from the United States of America at that. No one would bat an eyelash if she walked down the street in what she was wearing now.

Instead of trying to conform to what everyone wanted from her here on this planet, Tempest thought it was time for her to show them exactly what they were going to get if they chose to abduct more earth women.

With a nod of her head she placed her hand on the door and it opened with a woosh.

She stepped out, looking for Dron but couldn’t find him right away. She didn’t know where he could be but she wasn’t going to look for him. He would find her, she had no doubt about it. After all it was his duty to make sure that she didn’t die.

Today she would take her chances and go out into the world. She wasn’t crazy enough to want to go far but she needed to know what her body could handle. What animals were out there. What would happen if she had to run? She had to figure out if she would be able to survive.

She felt more inspired than she had in a long while. She had the very start of a plan. She’d wanted to be independent back when she was on earth, why should that change now?

Tempest took one more quick look around the house and then walked to the front door. The one that Dron had shown her she was able to unlock. She raised her hand, and her holographic tablet asked her if she wanted to exit the property. She swiped yes, and the door popped open.

If only it were that easy.

Tempest grabbed the door and tried to push it open more so she was able to walk through but it felt like the door itself weighed at least two hundred pounds. No one was breaking this thing down. Tempest had to use all of her body weight to get the door open to the point where she could slip out.

She was already sweating by the time she was able to step outside.

She gasped as she looked around the area. She’d seen some of it when they were brought here, but Tempest wasn’t prepared for how vast the wilderness was around the house. She’d seen it from the windows in the house, but nothing compares to being out inside of it.

Tempest walked steadily down what looked to be a worn path. It wasn’t like there was an actual road or anything, but the area looked as if someone had trekked through on more than one occasion.

Tempest was wide eyed as she took in everything around her. As much as she didn’t want to admit it, Ustea was a beautiful planet. She wondered if the other lands, Skoq and Uspanx, were as beautiful as Thraqe.

She was sure it wasn’t possible that she would see either of those places in her lifetime.

She walked slowly, cataloguing all the trees and flowers along her path, but didn’t dare to touch anything if she could help it. The last thing she wanted was to get too curious about a plant only for it to be poisonous.

A memory of a time past sprang to Tempest’s mind. Her mother and father had been in a big row, and the house felt so stifled. Tempest had just wanted to bring a little happiness home. So she’d gone out into her backyard and picked a wide array of leaves and flowers to present to her parents. It turned out one of the leaves she chose to put into her bouquet was poison ivy.

She could still remember how intense the itching was and how raised and red her skin had gotten. She was in no rush to do that again.

The sun was high in the sky, but Tempest didn’t know how that correlated to time as of yet. It did seem like the nights were longer here, though the heat never really seemed to dissipate regardless of what time it was.

Tempest could feel herself getting happier the further into the woods she walked; the bright-colored leaves just lifted her spirit. Also, the strangeness of the topography kept her wondering. She’d noticed before that the ground wasn’t dirt or soil but instead a coarse sand. Yet trees and other plants she would assume to be part of a rainforest region were all around her.

She just couldn’t wrap her head around walking through ankle-deep sand in the middle of a forest.

A sudden movement to her side forced Tempest to stop. Her first thought was that it must be Dron. He’d finally caught on to the fact that she wasn’t in the house. She wondered if he’d scream at her. Wondered if he’d grab her by her hair, real caveman style, and just drag her back to her large, well-stocked prison. Another part of her wondered if he would just leave her out there to die.

She pushed the troubling thought aside. She’d only walked straight; she looked over her shoulder once and could still see the outline of the house. She could make her way back on her own if she needed to.

The movement continued on her side, and she slowly turned her head so she could figure out where it was coming from. She was dumb for not bringing anything to protect herself with.

Tempest did her best to settle her breathing. She didn’t want to pass out again, not out here.

She nearly chuckled. In all of her time on earth, she’d only passed out once, and it was after a very vigorous athletic display. Here on Ustea, she’d passed out so many times she’d lost count. It was strange to have that as a worry now.

It took a few moments for Tempest to figure out where the movement was coming from, but when she did it was a relief. A small, rabbit-looking squirrel creature appeared, hopping from spot to spot, getting closer to her.

She wondered if it were dangerous, but only for a second.

"Hey there, cutie." She crouched down, still not trying to touch anything, the animal included. She just wanted to get a better look.

The creature was dark brown with a bright blue stripe down the center of its face and down its neck and belly. Tempest wished she had been an artist. She couldn’t draw to save her life, but if she could, she would spend all day just trying to recreate this creature.

More leaves rustled from behind her. Tempest disregarded the sound, it was probably more of the little rabbit squirrel creature’s friends. So far, the animal had done nothing that would suggest to Tempest that it was hostile toward her.

"I think I’ll call you a squabbit." She giggled at her name for this breed of animal. She was sure that she was wrong but since she had no one around to tell her any different she felt it was her duty to come up with names for the local wildlife.

A shadow cast over the small creature and a part of Tempest’s line of sight. It wasn’t a tree or anything like that.

Her heart lurched up into her throat as she slowly lifted her head to look up at what was there.

Dron stood stock still, not moving, not breathing, just staring off into the distance.

Had he really not seen her?

"I wasn’t trying to run away." Tempest offered up in effort to get in front of his anger before it even started.

Dron didn’t reply to her, he simply kept his eyes locked in the distance.

"Dron?" Tempest questioned, but before she could stand to her full height Dron put his hand out to stop her.

"Don’t move." His deep, gravelly voice vibrated through Tempest’s bones.

She looked him over once again. He was still, but there was something intense radiating from him. She couldn’t understand how, but it seemed like the man had grown. His muscles bulged under his shirt, tensed and ready.

No sweat on his brow, but there was a slight shimmer to his skin as if the black markings along his body were somehow sparkling.

Tempest opened her mouth to speak again, but just as she was about to, a monstrous rumbling growl sounded from behind her. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

Right behind her.

Oh...shit.

Tempest slowly turned her head so she could see what was there.

A large animal, part lion, part hyena, part lizard, completely terrifying, snarled. Its eyes locked on Tempest. The beast’s shoulders slowly moved up and down. Tempest remembered seeing something similar on the Discovery Channel. Cats and other feline creatures would do that just before they were ready to pounce on their prey.

It was majestical.

It was also horrifying simply because there was no doubt in Tempest’s mind.

She was the prey.