Page 4 of Resisting the Alien Rider

Stress, maybe. Yes. I could blame the stress. The stress of the fire at my ranch – the one Killian had set – that had destroyed my pastures and forced us into this taxing pilgrimage towards the mountains to keep the herd fed.

Taking care of Magnolia on top of this latest disaster was even more stress. Clearly, the mounting pressure had finally snapped my sanity in two like a dry twig, leaving the broken bits to rattle merrily around in my head where they were now free to come up with such useful and intelligent proclamations as,I’d let her urinate on me if she wanted to.

Empire help me.

The water-sound narrowed to a trickle, then more rustling, and suddenly there she was, picking her way through the bramble towards me. She was rubbing her hands together, the sharp smell of some sort of disinfectant wafting from them.

She did not see me until she’d nearly walked right into me. She stopped short, one of those tiny little hands flying to her chest.

“Holy- Garrek?!”

“Who else would it be?”

“Who else… What? What kind of a question is that? Why would anyone be out here right now besides me?”

“I had to make sure you were safe.”

“Safe from what? Tripping on a root and falling into a puddle of my own making?”

“No. There are genka. Venomous ardu. And a whole host of other dangers.”

“Like what?”

“You could have gotten lost.”

“Lost?” She balked. “I barely walked into the treeline!”

“You didn’t even see me until it was nearly too late,” I said on an impatient growl. “Forgive me if that doesn’t give me much faith in your human navigation skills and sight.”

“Sight… OK. Fine. I’ll give you that. It is really dark out here.” She paused and looked around, as if for the first time realizing how imposing the woods at night could be. She turned back to me. “You’re telling me you can see better than I can out here? You can see in the dark?”

“Reasonably well,” I answered.

“Hold on…” She gasped, then aimed an accusatory finger right at the centre of my chest. “If you can see so well, does that mean you were watching me pee?”

It was an annoyingly reasonable question, especially considering the bizarre turn my thoughts had taken mere moments ago.

I rubbed my knuckles viciously along my jaw.

Something told me this would be a very long night.

Something told me they’d all be long nights from here on out.

3

MAGNOLIA

“If you can see so well, does that mean you were watching me pee?” I squawked the question, my voice climbing higher and higher, spurred on by indignation and just a pinch of humiliation. I knew I screwed up on the whole getting-out-of-the-saddle thing, but Garrek actually thought I needed a babysitter while I did my business? Something I’d successfully been doing on my own since I was two years old?

“No.” Garrek ground it out with a restrained sort of exasperation, as if I’d asked him something patently absurd but he was stoically gathering the energy to answer my dopey question anyway. “I was not watching you. You were not even in my line of sight. I was merely stationed nearby in case I heard anything… go amiss.”

Well. That was hardly any better.

“So you werelisteningto me pee, then?”

“Zabrians have excellent hearing,” he scoffed. “Is ittruly listening if you produce a noise and I just happen to be near enough to hear it?”

“If a girl pees in the woods,” I answered, face hot, “and no one’s around to hear her, does she make a sound?”

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