TAKEN: Journey to a New Home by Taylor Dillion

blue green orbs of fruit. Zabyss latched on to a limb and scurried into the tree easily and settled into a natural pocket made by several of the limbs crossing each other at about four feet in height. She sighed in contentment. Taylor laughed at the Dr. Seuss picture in front of her.
      “So you like this spot for the trip home?” Moz asked her. Looking at Taylor he said, “These trees are from the original home world of the Xydrav.”
    “Oh, yessss. Zabyss happy,” The little creature sighed.
      Taylor brushed a hand across one of the tentacles. “Good night, Zabyss. I’ll see you in the morning.” She and Moz left the little creature purring in her tree. Together they walked the gardens for a while longer.
      “Fazon sent me your quarter assignment, 18-6.” Moz smiled at her and pulled her to stop near what looked a pad of grass but it was soft pastel yellow in color. “Sit with me,” he said pulling her down on the pad and surrounding her with his body.  “Tell me what you’re thinking,” he said cradling her against him so that her head rested against his shoulder and he pressed his lips to her forehead. She smiled and relaxed into him.
      “I’m thinking that I am SO much better off than I was forty-eight hours ago,” she said with a laugh. “I was missing my greenhouse and my plants and everything else good and bad about home while wondering when my friends and I would get eaten. And then you picked me up, literally and figuratively, and made it better.”
      “You know I can’t let you go, right?”
      “I’m counting on it,” she said with a smile. They sat that way for a long time talking and getting to know one another. A comfortable silence finally settled over them. Then after he felt her relax into sleep, he lifted her and carried her sleeping form back up to the quarters she had been assigned. He removed her shoes and covered her with the blanket. At the door he gave her one last look and made himself leave. In the hall, he found a grumpy Fazon.
      “Are they all in for the night?” Moz asked quietly.
      “Yes, and tomorrow they’re your job,” Fazon growled fiercely and poked him in the chest.
      “What happened?” he asked.
      “Blanca, that’s what happened. If she wasn’t pregnant, I’d paddle her bottom till she couldn’t sit down!” Fazon stalked away with this declaration and entered the lift. “I’ll be on the bridge.”
      Moz just shook his head and then headed back to the gardens to do some work and store the seeds and soil conditioners he gotten on the planet. He knew he was too wound up to sleep, realizing one had found the soul mate in his life had that effect on a guy.
    ***
      Rev knew the moment she woke. She didn’t move or change her breathing but he felt the wariness steal over her. He had been sitting for almost another hour with his hands on her. He had one hand resting on her stomach and the other was holding one of hers.
      “I’m not going to hurt you,” he told her in his deep, rough voice. “I’m using my hands to help you heal yourself. We were worried. Your nervous system took quite a hit.”
      She slowly opened her eyes and he saw the surprise on her face and in her eyes. She still didn’t move. In fact, she had become nearly frozen.
      “Nothing to say?” He gave her a sardonic smile. “Okay, I’ll start. My name is Rev. They told me your name is Ashaa. You and I are Zargazians which Vax tells me you probably don’t know but you can explain that to me later. You were purchased along with your human friends from a Truskan merchant on the planet Katowia. He apparently threw in the Xydrav for free. Nice of him wasn’t it,” he explained.
      “I don’t know what a Xydrav is.”
      “Small, fuzzy, orange and lots of tentacles?”
    “Zabyss, her name is Zabyss,” she told him. She still looked a little lost and uncertain. He could feel her confusion. 
      “I know you’re worried and a little lost, but I