Page 1 of Married to the Alien Mountain Man

1

OAKEN

It was a hot, clear morning when the sound of a slicer’s engine made my ears twitch beneath my hat. I rose from where I’d been down on my knees inspecting a stretch of fencing, and then strode out of my bracku pasture. Summer-green grass swished around my boots. It felt good to be walking without my cast, even if I did have a slight limp. Magnolia had assured me that, as long as I continued walking and working, my leg should strengthen back to what it had been before.

I could be patient on that front. I’d already proven myself patient in waiting for a wife. And what was waiting for a leg to heal and strengthen compared to something as wished-for as that?

“You stay there,” I said as I passed a newly fenced-in area of grass and rocks near my barn. From beyond the little gate, Nali’s fluffy pink face gazed back at me from among the grass.

“Do not look at me like that,” I said, my fingers already longing to unlock the gate so I could pet her soft fur. “I must go meet Tasha and the warden. And as you have not yet proven that you can reliably choose an appropriate place to defecate, you are not invited to the meeting.”

The young gortu bleated in complaint, her blue eyes shining with affront, as if I had not caught her attempting to shit in my boot this very morning when I’d taken it off to massage the ankle I’d broken in the spring. When I’d made it clear that the boot was not for defecation, the small four-legged creature had tried to eat it instead.

“I must make a good impression,” I said as sternly as possible. Which was difficult, as I did not consider myself a stern man. And it was doubly hard to attempt sternness in the face of the adorable, orphaned gortu that I’d rescued from the mountains and had painstakingly-bottle fed for most of the summer. But in this, I had to be resolute. “Tasha must see what a well-run property this is,” I went on. “So that she may deign to allow me a wife of my own.”

Wife. Even simply saying the word out loud was enough to make my heart feel delightfully lopsided in my chest. Sometimes I murmured it to myself, in the quiet darkness of my bed, just to feel the whispering thrill of it.

The slicer surged closer. They’d be coming upon my property soon.

“Stay here,” I said again, even though Nali was nowhere near large or strong enough to leap out of the fencing of her enclosure. “Jump around on some of those boulders I brought you. You may spend most of your time with a Zabrian, but you are still a mountain gortu. The exercise will be good for you.”

Nali huffed out another bleat and folded her knobby young legs beneath her body, plopping herself down in the grass. I grimaced, remembering how much effort it had taken to limp all the way back here from deeper in the mountains with a boulder on my back for her. It had taken multiple trips, and I’d brought her four of what I thought were very nice boulders. Exactly the sort that should tempt a young mountain gortu to leap upon them.

Not Nali, apparently.

But I was not discouraged. If she did not like the rocks in her enclosure, I could start bringing her on hikes deeper into the mountains. That would be good for both of us. Good for me, as I continued to regain my footing after my injury, and good for her as she developed her gortu instincts and skills without her mother.

A part of me wondered if learning to please a picky gortu could help prepare me for my human bride. She, too, would have desires foreign to me. Tastes and subtle communications I would have to interpret. And if I could not make one little gortu happy then perhaps I did not deserve a human female.

“I will be back for you later. And we shall go on a hike,” I said decisively. By this time, the sound of the slicer was very close. Tasha and the warden would be arriving imminently. This was only confirmed when Killian flew out of the nearby small house that he lived in with Garrek and Magnolia.

“They’re coming!” he shrieked, his body a teal streak as he ran, his white hair flapping behind him. Before he could get too far, though, my cousin Garrek’s dark blue tail shot out like a lasso and looped around the young convict-ward’s belly.

“Drop the rock,” Garrek commanded as Killian squirmed in his hold.

“I don’t have a rock,” Killian shot back.

“I can see the blasted thing! It’s nearly as big as your head!” Garrek retorted as Killian attempted to stuff an impressively large rock down his trousers in an apparent attempt to hide it.

“Why don’t you give your rock to Nali, Killian?” I suggested with a smile as I approached them. “She does not seem to care for the ones I have brought her so far.”

“But I need it,” Killian growled. “Garrek wouldn’t let me have a knife.”

“Empire help me,” my cousin breathed.

“Killian,” Garrek’s wife Magnolia called as she hurried out of the house after them. “Are you listening to Garrek?”

“Yes,” Killian said at the exact same moment that Garrek snorted and said, “No.”

“What in the great blue blazes would you need a knife for right now?” I asked.

“Fighting someone,” Killian replied instantly, as if that were the most obvious answer in the world.

“We are not fighting anyone,” Magnolia said firmly as she came to a stop before Killian and Garrek. “Either give me the rock, or give it to Nali like I heard Oaken suggest.”

Her pretty face softened as she watched Killian. “We’ve been over this, sweet urine. Tasha and the warden aren’t going to do anything to break up our little family. Tasha has already let us know that the bride program is going to continue here. In fact, Tasha herself is staying here now that she’s married to the warden. So you truly don’t need to throw a rock at anybody.”

Killian sighed, sullenly muttered something about Nali, and Garrek let him go. The boy trudged towards the little gortu’s enclosure. I did not supervise him in his interaction with Nali. He may have been an unpredictable and ever-so-slightly feral convict-ward, but Killian had an affinity and deeply-held love for every animal he encountered. While there was a very good chance he’d throw that rock at a Zabrian head without hesitation, I knew he would not do anything to hurt Nali. Even now, I could hear him speaking to her in gentle, soothing undertones as he entered her enclosure.

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