Ruth's Bonded (Ruth & Gron Book 1) (5 page)

She drank half of it before lowering
it again, feeling much better. She could almost feel herself rehydrating. The
alien was watching her progress, unsurprisingly. She smiled at him to thank him
for helping her, but he frowned. Her smile faltered, had she done something
wrong? He was staring at her mouth, maybe the juice had done something to her?
Maybe she was having a reaction that she couldn’t feel. She touched her lips
but they felt normal, and her tongue still moved and wasn’t swollen. Movement
to his side attracted her and she saw his tail flicking on the floor next to
him. God, that was still so weird. A tail. She wanted to touch it. Maybe he
would let her, now that they’d broken space-bread together?

Careful of the ball of juice, she put
her hand flat on the floor and slowly edged it towards the tip of his tail,
keeping a careful eye on his expression. She thought she was broadcasting her
intention clearly enough, and indeed he frowned and his tail twitched an inch
further out of reach. She halted her movement but she didn’t immediately pull
back, so he lifted his lip and flashed a canine in half a snarl, then got up
and stomped off back to the opposite side of the cell.

Ruth sighed and sat back. Looked like
it was one step forward then a step right back again. But, she probably
wouldn’t let him touch her tail either if she had one. They’d just met. She saw
that he’d left his loaf behind. Well, she wasn’t as afraid of the stubborn baby
as much as she had been, so she picked it up and marched it right back over to
him, pointedly plonking it down next to him before sashaying back to her side
to enjoy what was left of her berry.

A little breakfast really did wonders
for her mood.

The problem with eating and drinking
is that you then need to go to the toilet. This was something Ruth had been dreading.
Intellectually, she knew that if left in here for long enough, she would lose
her shame. Her cellmate was already walking around naked after all. It was a
natural, necessary, bodily function, but was a screen too much to ask? Her
bladder was making its demands, but she was determined to hold it for as long
as she could. She’d already popped her waistband open. Damn.

The first time would be the most
embarrassing, she knew that. In prisons on TV, the cellmates often only had one
toilet between them in the cell, and nobody had died of mortification as far as
she could tell. The alien must have been using that drainage pipe the whole
time he’d been here. He must be aware she would have to do the same. If only he
would go first and break the seal.

Of course, she was aware that she
could be wrong. Maybe that wasn’t the purpose of the hole in the floor. How
humiliating would that be if she’d got it wrong! But she’d been all over the
cell and not found any other facilities, no buttons or hidden compartments. And
she was pretty confident she’d be able to tell if Tarzan had been peeing in the
corners. She also refused to believe that a being so physiologically similar to
her, able to eat the same diet, didn’t also have to relieve himself from time
to time. An alien he might be, but not that alien.

She was also painfully aware that
there was no flush, no toilet paper, and no means of washing her hands. She
just had to pretend it was a cabin at a festival. She really didn’t have any
other alternative here, other than peeing on herself or rupturing her bladder
or something. With that in mind, she struggled to her feet to try to convince
her cellmate to at least turn around.

He sat a little straighter as she
approached him. She had to be quick because standing made her discomfort worse.
She stopped a couple of feet in front of him, making sure she had his
attention.

“Okay, buddy,” she said. “I’ve got to
pee, so you’re going to turn around now.” He looked blank, as she knew he
would. She pointed at the wall, and he obligingly looked over his shoulder, but
then turned back to her, frowning in confusion. She stirred her finger in a
circle, a gesture which she considered to be universal. Even dogs recognised
that gesture! But not this guy, oh no. He watched her finger, but otherwise
didn’t move. Time to get graphic. Ruth tapped her chest as obviously as she
could, then pointed behind her at the hole.

“Get it?” she said, raising her
eyebrows, her hands planting on her hips as she tried not to do the pee-dance.
He couldn’t be this dense. She thought she saw something like a suspicion in
his eyes and narrowed her eyes at him. “You
are
turning around or I’m
peeing on you,” she threatened. She pointed at the wall again, and he looked
but her message was clearly not getting across. She was getting desperate, she
already
was
desperate! She tapped her chest, pointed at the hole, then
pointed at him and covered her eyes to show him what she wanted. “Come on, I
can’t make this any more obvious for you!” she almost cried. She needed to go,
like,
now
.

He looked at her, then slowly, and
clearly not understanding why he should, he brought his hands up to cover his
eyes.

“Yes! Yes, thank you, just like that,
stay like that,” she encouraged loudly, racing away and pulling down her
slacks. She kept her eyes on him because she didn’t fully trust him not to look
halfway through, and she kept spouting praise at him so he would know it wasn’t
safe to look. “Great, just like that, don’t look yet...”

When she was done, she used a tiny
ball of tissue she had leftover in her jacket pocket, then dumped it in the
hole, knowing full-well that was the last of it.
One thing at a
time
,
she told herself. She might still be rescued.

She redressed and went to let the
alien know he could uncover his eyes. She almost touched him, but then
remembered he didn’t like that. She cleared her throat, and he hesitantly peaked
over the tops of his hands. She smiled.

“Thank you,” she said, pressing her
hands together like she was praying, another gesture she felt translated well.
Or maybe not. He frowned up at her, and slowly pulled his lips back from his
teeth. Ruth’s smile faltered. He wasn’t snarling exactly, and the emphasis was
definitely on the front teeth, rather than when he would show his canines to
warn her away from him. He didn’t look like he was angry, or trying to scare
her, so why was he baring his teeth like that? She decided it was probably best
to play it safe and retreated back to her side of the cell to nibble on her
ration-loaf some more. He rumbled something, but she didn’t understand.

She looked at her watch. She would be
at home now, if it was a normal day. She’d be eating dinner on the sofa in
front of the TV. She sighed. Had she wasted her life? Had this happened to her
because
she’d stayed in every night, moved from job to job, left no mark? She hadn’t
minded her life when she’d had it. She had a few friends that she spoke to now
and then. She phoned her parents every weekend. And it wasn’t like she hadn’t
wanted
a career, that was just where the economy was right now. Would she change
anything if she ever found her way home again? What could she trade God for her
escape? She couldn’t think of anything. Maybe her life hadn’t been great, but
she’d never been a
bad
person. She didn’t deserve
this
.

Could she sleep some more, she
wondered? Nothing else to do, and the food excitement was over. It had turned
out that the outside of the water-fruit had been edible too. It was rubbery,
but refreshing. They hadn’t given them anything that would leave anything
behind, which was why the cell had been totally empty when she’d arrived. The
food didn’t come on trays or plates, and it didn’t require utensils. When the
food was eaten, there wasn’t anything left they could turn into a weapon or a
tool.

Ruth wondered if they were the only
prisoners on the ship. Maybe there were other cells with other humans - or aliens
– inside that they just couldn’t hear. Where were they going? Why? She pushed
away the questions she didn’t have answers to.

She sighed and balled up her jacket
again to sleep on. She hoped it was a short journey to wherever they were
going. She thought she’d snap if she had to live like this for much longer. She
lay on her side this time, facing the wall, her back to the alien trapped with
her.

When Ruth next woke up, the alien was
asleep. At first, she was unnerved by the deep breathing she could hear, but
when she saw he was asleep, she relaxed. He was lying down in a position very
similar to hers, only he was facing into the room. His head was pillowed on one
arm, the other curled under him, propping him up. His face looked surprisingly peaceful,
without the frown he wore when awake.

She realised this was her chance to
study him. He was always staring at her, now it was her turn. Obviously, she
knew what he looked like. The protruding teeth and massive jaw, flat nose and
heavy brow. The dark, almost black hair that spilled from his head, down his
shoulders and the outside of his arms and legs, and the slate of it covering
his chest. She wondered what his back looked like. She knew he had a tail, but
she couldn’t remember getting a good look. He had been pretty careful so far
about not putting his back to her. But she thought she could remember peeking a
strip of dark fur running down his spine, leaving the rest of his back bare. It
was a funny pattern. It must be like camouflage. If the dark fur was hard to
see at night, his body would be cut into otherwise meaningless shapes. She
wondered if it was offensive or defensive. Were they tiger-stripes or
zebra-stripes? With those fangs, she thought probably the former.

There was no denying he was in shape
either, and being in confinement hadn’t seemed to have done him any harm. Maybe
the gravity was higher on his planet? Maybe the ration-loaf was full of
protein? She’d believe that actually. Every part of this guy was big. Big
teeth, big eyes, big chest, big arms, big legs. And yes, she was looking at his
dick again, but it was kind of hard not to. He was naked! Sleeping, he was kind
of cute though. Ruth hadn’t woken up next to many guys, not ones who weren’t
already pulling their pants on and looking for their watch. She wondered how
old he was. She supposed age in years was relative. His planet probably didn’t
take 365 days to go around the Sun, and it probably didn’t take 24 hours for it
to rotate on its axis either. That would be an astronomical coincidence. She
thought it was safe to say he was physically mature, and adult. And nothing on
him was sagging or grey, so he must not be entering into old age. To her, he looked
like he was in his prime. She wondered how she looked to him. Ruth didn’t think
anyone had ever used the word “prime” to describe her.

His breathing was oddly soothing. It
was a sign of something else being alive in there with her, like sleeping with
a dog in the room. He wasn’t trying to keep quiet. As she watched him, she thought
she saw shadows like bruises on his body, two or three on his stomach and side
and legs. She hoped he’d got them before he was taken, but they looked like
some were more recent than others. Ruth’s heart went out to him. Maybe she was
getting sentimental watching him sleep when he couldn’t growl or snarl, but for
the first time she imagined what it must have been like for him before she
came. His lifestyle could have been even more different to this than hers. She
at least was used to spending her time indoors, and she had technology. Her
species had gone into space and was familiar with the concept of aliens. Maybe
it was the fur and the nakedness and the teeth influencing her perceptions, but
she pictured him in a green jungle somewhere, watching the stars from his
tree-house.

And he had been alone in here, for
who knew how long. If he’d been lonely though, he could have been friendlier,
she thought petulantly. But she wouldn’t be surprised if he’d gone a little
stir-crazy. All things considered, he still hadn’t attacked her, and had even
tried to help her. Okay, he didn’t like being touched. That was his right. She
probably wouldn’t want him touching her either if she thought about it. Maybe
it was taboo in his culture. Maybe he thought she had germs.

She checked her watch. It was the
very early morning hours at home. She’d never been an insomniac, but she wasn’t
prone to going to bed early and taking naps in the middle of the day either.
While her cellmate was asleep, she thought it would be prudent to take the
opportunity to relieve herself again. She then had a leisurely breakfast of
stale ration-loaf and some more space-juice. She had to open her second berry
thing, and wedged it into a corner behind the loaf to keep it from spilling.
She was learning how to get by in her environment. Not bad.

Not being able to wash was going to
become a problem for her though. She’d always been a clean person. She wasn’t
afraid of getting dirty, or taking a day off from showering if she wasn’t going
out, but wearing the same clothes every hour, with no deodorant, and no
hairbrush? Oh yeah, that was going to wear thin real soon. She’d noticed when
she’d first arrived that the cell smelt. Presumably it was actually her
cellmate. She could barely detect it now. She must be getting used to it. It
had been pretty unappealing, but it wouldn’t take long before she was too. She
had to learn not to call the kettle black.

Her thoughts were disturbed by the
man in question jerking awake. He seemed to take a moment to orient himself,
and she wondered how long it would take him to remember where he was waking up,
and how long it would take her. He seemed to have forgotten she was there too,
because he froze when he saw her watching him, before pushing himself into a
sitting position.
Yeah, me too, buddy
, she thought.

He glanced at her awkwardly, then
stood up and walked toward her, making her tense and wonder what he was doing.
He pointed to the wall behind her. She looked but couldn’t see anything.
Looking back at him in confusion, he put his palms over his eyes, and she got
it. She almost giggled. He had to use the hole. She smiled and obligingly
rotated so she was facing the wall. They were working things out, learning to
live with each other, and it had only taken a day.

She heard him grunt behind her and
turned back around. He placed his hands together like she had done the day
before, and bared his teeth. Why did he do that? Then she realised, he was
trying to copy her smile! She wasn’t sure if she should be offended, but
clearly his people didn’t have smiling, and she had to admit, it didn’t work
very well with protruding teeth. He was quite good at copying her, he
apparently only needed to see something once. She warmed when she realised he
was doing it to try to communicate with her.  Not only was he intelligent, he
was being friendly!

He returned to his side of the cell,
but that wasn’t good enough for Ruth. She noticed he had finished his
ration-loaf, so she broke off half of hers to give to him. It was a bit of a
challenge with her burned hand, while also keeping the open berry from tipping
over, but she eventually managed. She took it over to him, sitting at a similar
distance to the one he had left between them yesterday when they ate together.
This time she wouldn’t go for his tail.

She smiled and held out the loaf. She
knew he didn’t understand the smile, but he seemed to get that it wasn’t
aggressive, so if she kept doing it he’d hopefully learn it was a good thing.
Not that she could stop doing it, anyway. It was reflex. She didn’t have as
much to smile about as she used to, but that didn’t mean she was going to give
it up completely.

The alien looked at the loaf in her
hand and growled. Ruth wiggled it about, trying to get him to understand that
she meant for him to take it but he wouldn’t, so she put it down in front of
him.

“It’s for you,” she said. No
response. “Okay, well, I thought it was time we try to learn each other’s name,
now we’re being friendly.” That longer speech got a reply, and she politely
waited for him to finish even though it meant nothing to her. He punctuated the
end of his complaint by pushing the loaf back to her.

Was he not hungry? Did he disdain her
loaf? She’d given him the half she hadn’t been nibbling from, but apparently he
still didn’t want it. Maybe he just didn’t want to take food from her. There
might be more coming later after all. But this was about building bridges, not
sustenance. She pushed the loaf back to him.

“Take the loaf. I see you don’t have
any loaf left. I still have loaf. I’m sharing my loaf with you,” she insisted.
She wanted to stop saying loaf, but she couldn’t. Maybe this was cabin fever.

He tucked his hands against his sides
and pulled his knees up like he was building a fortress of his limbs and
pulling the drawbridge up. He levelled a defiant stare at her. She sighed, and
tore the half-a-loaf in half again. She planted the new quarter-loaf in front
of him. “You’re going to eat the loaf,” she promised him.

She didn’t know if he was copying her
or if it was something his people also did, but he sighed, and tore a small
part off the piece in front of him and quickly ate it.

She smiled. “Good. Thank you. Now,”
she lay her hand against her chest and began enunciating like she was teaching
an infant. “I’m Ruth,” she said.

He clearly didn’t get it, or even
what she was trying to do.

She began tapping her chest and
pointing at herself. “Ruth... Ru-uth...”

If his species didn’t have individual
names he was going to think she was crazy. She watched him for any glimmer of
recognition, and sighed. Okay. She began pointing at things around the room and
naming them to give him the idea. There wasn’t much.

“Wall. Hole. Hatch. Ceiling. Floor...
Loaf.
Ru-uth
.”

Nothing. She pointed at him. “Alien?”

He stiffened at that, apparently
taking affront, and rattling of another string of growls. Ruth didn’t know if
would even be able to pronounce his name when she heard it if that’s what his
language sounded like.

“Then tell me what your name is,” she
said. Silence. She went back to tapping her chest. Honestly she had nothing
else to do and unending hours in which to drill this into him.  “Ruth...”

“...Gru...”

“Yes! I mean, no, but you’re
responding and that’s great, we’re getting somewhere. Okay,
Ruth
...”

“Grute...”

“Ruth.” She was leaning forward,
ridiculously exaggerating the movements of her lips and tongue and speaking at
a fifth of the speed. She could only draw a single syllable word out for so
long.

“Gruse.”

“There’s no G.
Ruth
.” 

“Gruse?”

Okay, maybe every word in his
language started with G. Maybe that was just something she’d have to live with.
It might not have
Th
either by the sound of it. So, did she want to be
Gruse or Grute?

“Gruthhhhhh.” She put her tongue
between her teeth and hissed at him like a snake. He looked a little alarmed,
but he copied her.

“Gruthhhhh?”

“Yes! Gruth! Practice, but... Gruth.”
Finally.

She pointed at him, looking enquiring.
He tapped his chest and grunted.

She blinked.

“Gron.”

“What?”

“Gron.”

A pause. She tried to copy what she
was hearing as best she could. “Hm,” she grunted.

He gave her a look as if to say he
didn’t think she was trying. “Gron.”

“Grr?”

“Gron.”

She did her best bark.

“...
Grrron
.”

She took a deep steadying breath, and
channelled her inner gorilla. “Gron,” she grunted. His face brightened, even
though she wasn’t sure what she had just said. She would have to practice too.
He said something further, but it was just noise to her.

“Gruth,” he said, as if
congratulating himself on bridging this language gap.

“Gron,” she agreed.