She continued moving slowly around the room, looking at this and that, the only sound being her bare feet tapping the hard floor as she walked.
When she reached another corridor on the other side of the room, Lauren paused again. There was a window and a door there and she had to go on tiptoes to look out.
When her glance out the window showed no big blue guy, her shoulders set as she moved toward the door.
The door opened with a hiss as she stepped outside and it closed quietly behind her. Outside was warm, surprisingly warmer than she’d thought it would be, and she looked up at wonder at the pink sky as she walked down the little path.
A sound to her left had her freezing for a second before she saw what had made the noise.
It was a tall animal with a neck so long it reminded her of a giraffe—except it was purple with a lighter pattern of purple circles across its skin. Its head was shaped like a brontosaurus’ and its large round eyes blinked at her.
For a moment, she wasn’t sure what to do. Should she run? Would it try to bite her?
But when the animal dipped its head and licked her right from her waist to her head, she found herself sputtering out a laugh.
“Eww! Thanks, big guy.” She wiped the saliva from her face. “Guess that’s you saying hello?”
The large animal looked down at her from its elevated neck.
“Guess you don’t speak much.” She eyed the beast. “A bit like your owner then?”
The animal dipped its head once more and Lauren stiffened. One lick was enough. But it didn’t lick her again. Instead, it rubbed its head against her side.
Tentatively, Lauren reached a hand out and petted the animal.
Its skin was like leather and it let out a soft humming sound at her touch.
She stood entranced by it as she petted it for a few minutes, amazed by how soft and calm such a huge creature was.
It closed its large dark round eyes as she rubbed its head.
“I’m looking for your owner. Any idea where he is?” she asked.
As if it could understand her, the animal lifted its head and looked toward another set of buildings down the path. The large, brown double doors of the building were open and she could hear animal sounds inside.
Patting the animal’s head, Lauren smiled. “Thanks, big guy.”
As she walked toward the building, the warm ground underneath the soles of her feet, she continued looking around.
Now that she was outside, she could see the layout was much different from she’d expected it to be.
It was more like a petting zoo than a farm. She had to pass several enclosures with animals she’d never seen before in her life, some she couldn’t have even imagined, and there was a common theme with all of them.
The enclosures were made in such a way, it was easy to interact with the animals if she wanted to.
And that meant the animals could also escape if they wanted to.
Except, they weren’t escaping.
In each enclosure, the animals all seemed happy. Content.
There was a lot of noise coming from the large brown building, and as she neared it, the noise level only increased. It sounded like…whistling? It was the only way she could describe it in her head—a bit like a cacophony of whistles and wheaks together.
As she entered the building, she stopped in her tracks.
In front of her was enclosure after enclosure of round, furry…no, woolly animals just like the one that had licked her leg on that first day.
The din was coming from the round animals and farther into the building, she could see why.
The big blue alien was there, opening what looked like a bag of grain.
He was wearing his shades and face covering again so she couldn’t see his expression but it seemed he was completely focused on pouring grain into the first enclosure. As he did, the round animals in that enclosure stopped screaming and raced to devour the grain.
The same thing happened for the next enclosure and the next one. The animals were all so eager to get their food that the scene made a laugh bubble within her.
As she moved to the enclosure closest to her, the animals within the space looked up at her, doing their wheak-whistle thing, no doubt demanding that she feed them too.
Stretching down, she patted one of them on their furry head and it paused for a second before whistling at her indignantly.
It wanted food, not love.
Lauren giggled and a deep masculine rumble reached her ear.
Looking up, she realized the noise in the “barn” had lowered considerably now that most of the animals were eating and that Riv had finally become aware of her presence.
And…he didn’t like that she was touching his animals?
Raising her hands, she backed away from the enclosure, only for the little round animals to whistle-wheak even louder.
Riv was glaring at her, she could feel it without even being able to see his eyes, and she could hear him curse as he moved toward the animals and gave them their grain.
He said nothing to her as he continued feeding the others and she kept out of his way, opting to just watch him instead.
This close, it was hard not staring at him—his presence dominated the space, demanding that she keep him in her sight.
She was so caught up watching him work that she didn’t hear the deep rumble behind her.
As the growl sounded again, this time much closer, a chill ran down her spine.
Huge bass speakers.
It was definitely a large, predatory animal of some kind.
Eyes widening a little, she froze. Everything in her being told her not to move and when the blue alien raised his head and looked her way, whatever he saw behind her had him freezing as well.
“Phek,” she heard him mutter.
“What is it?” she whispered. “It’s something bad, isn’t it?”
She knew she should have stayed inside. Staying inside was what had kept
