I was up on a little incline, staring down into a brand-new sector. The Ravana Storm had slapped a strip mall down a stretch of the rainforest, carving out the trees in a triangle. It wasn’t a strip mall from Earth, and given the products, it must’ve been from Twankie.


    However, Twankie had to be similar to Earth because there was an asphalt road, concrete sidewalks, and old mossy stoplights, only these looked like they were yellow, green, and blue. If they worked like Earth, it was yellow for stop and blue for go. Green was the caution light. Other dead streetlights had bird nests on top of them.


    I wasn’t sure what two out of the four stores had been before the light had grabbed them, but one was definitely the Twankinian version of a 7-Eleven. That’s not where Khanna lived, though. She’d made her home inside the middle store. On the other side, there seemed to be a laundromat. She set up drying racks, with various pelts and hides hanging there. She’d obviously had been there for a while.


    Beyond the strip mall was a scrubby plain that turned into a marshland where it hit the ocean. Here, there weren’t crashing waves but stagnant water. In the distance, big, monstrous eagles hunted for fish. The rainforest continued to stretch on to the south as far as I could see.


    Walking down the trail, I eventually walked right onto the strip of asphalt.


    It felt strange to be on pavement after walking on so much dirt.


    “Opal, do you have sector information?”


    Sector 1.910.A (Twankie, West Jerrinny, New Fun Boulevard)


    So, it was the same universe and timeline as Earth, and there were similarities, which meant Twankie had to be in the same universe, probably on some farflung world in a different galaxy.


    I approached the strip mall carefully. From the smell, I was pretty sure that the marshlands to the south were filled with saltwater. That meant that Khanna would have to travel to get water, which was probably at Privacy Rock. The concrete walls would offer some good protection for her, though I wasn’t crazy about those big eagles flying around over the marshlands. One might try and fly off with Billie.


    Khanna came out of her little home in the strip mall. The glass front had all been smashed out. She’d replaced it with sticks and mud to create a barrier. However, some of the windows in the strip mall were intact. Was it glass or some kind of plastic? Either way, I’d love to add them to the house I was building.


    Khanna didn’t have her spear or her bow and arrow. She stood there, hands on hip. “Why follow Khanna? We have done sex, and now, Khanna have work to do!”


    I figured I would get this kind of welcome, so I didn’t take it personally.


    “I need to know about the drums in the swamps. Also, I don’t like the idea that you don’t trust us. I want to know why.”


    “Why?” She was scowling so hard it was like her face would break. “If Khanna trust you, Khanna would have to tell you about her life…Khanna’s sorrows and fears. Never! Sid Marshall is ruining everything!”


    “Okay, fine,” I said. “What about the drums?”


    “It is the Sleezenaks. Stay away from the swamps. Sid Marshall has seen moldy dragon monsters. The Sleezenaks are worse. They are thinking creatures. And there is a shaman. He knows sorcery.”


    “Like magic?” I asked.


    She nodded. “Sorcery. I have seen it. The shaman’s voice was in my mind. It is how I know what they are called.”


    “I believe you,” I said. “What’s stopping this shaman and his Sleezenaks from leaving the swamps and finding you here? This is why you shouldn’t be alone.”


    “Sid Marshall is correct. Khanna maybe move farther south. But leaving home…this home…would be hard. Khanna like it here. But maybe ants on the plains be a problem. Khanna doesn’t go there, like she doesn’t go north. And the eagles, sometimes, they come. Khanna fight them before.”Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.


    She showed me her arm, and I watched in wonder as the freckles moved about her skin, thickening as we stood in the sunlight. I also saw several long scars on her arm. So I was right. The eagles were a problem.


    Why hadn’t the shaman and the Sleezenaks come to our house on Lonetree Ridge? Maybe we’d been flying under their radar, or maybe they didn’t want to leave the swamps.


    “What do the Sleezenaks look like?” I asked.


    The huntress paused to think. “Lizards. And people. Tails. Fangs. Claws. Magic.”


    She’s also mentioned something about ants, but I didn’t want to get off track. “You’re not safe alone, Khanna. I don’t know what happened in your past, and I don’t need to know. But I do want you to trust us.”


    “Maybe Khanna trust Sid Marshall,” she said quietly. “But women, pretty women, can be cruel.”


    I thought about both Holly and Billie. They weren’t easy to get along with, and after I first started hooking up with the huntress, there had been fireworks. Maybe she had a point.


    “Women are pretty,” the huntress mused. “I remember…”


    Her voice died, and I thought to ask more, but then she came forward. She grabbed my hand. “Maybe Khanna and Sid Marshall do the sex again. Sid Marshall is pleasing to the eye. Come.”


    I found myself being led forward into her little house. She had a door of sorts, thick sticks tied with rope not unlike the rope that Holly had made. I could see where it fit into sticks, so she could barricade herself inside.


    Her room had a mattress made of straw, and she’d found some paper bags to make herself a pillow. She’d slept in leather hides, taken from the tusked deer. There was a rack where she hung her hunting gear as well as sweet smelling flowers. She’d also found a couple of folding chairs from somewhere, and they were in front of a folding table.


    After making a home scavenging from a bus, I loved seeing how she’d taken so much from the strip malls to decorate. That included what looked like a calendar, only there were forty days instead of thirty-ish, and all the smiling people had pink skin and fins instead of hands. Around the crown of their heads were tiny little tentacles. Those must’ve been the indigenous people of Twankie. Would that make them twanks? They kind of reminded me of the illustrations of sea monkeys I’d seen in the back of old comic books that Uncle Marty picked up for me.


    The huntress had been busy. She’d chipped away little crawlspaces into the walls, but they were covered with homemade hatches, hanging off hooks.


    “Can I see what’s in the other stores?” I asked.


    She nodded and we took a tour. The store on the right was the Fun Food Mart, and it looked like a ransacked 7-Eleven from another world. The Twanks must’ve been relatively human-sized, and they seemed to like sugar, salt and fat as much as humans did. That explained where the donuts had come from. The freezer section had been cleared out, though a sour smell still hung in the air. Most of the store had been pillaged, and the windows were gone, and sticks set into place. It was funny seeing different homemade things that Khanna had made amidst the metal shelves and other things. Sure, Khanna would be safer with us, but if we could pool our resources, we’d have a much better chance of making it.


    On a turning carousal hung a collection of eyeglasses, and I wondered if any of them would work for Holly.


    We crawled back into her bedroom and then checked out the store on the right. It looked as if it might’ve been under construction when the Ravana Storm cut it away. Gray bags were piled in the corner next to a shovel and wheelbarrow. My eyes brightened.


    “Opal, tell me those bags are filled with concrete.”


    HOSTNAME: Sid Marshall query. Affirmative. The bags are Twankinian cement, Fun, Fast, and Fantastic is the brand name. Trademarked.


    “Who are you talking to?” Khanna asked.


    “A little voice in my head. Can I have one of those bags of cement?”


    The huntress frowned. “Why does Sid Marshall have a voice in his head? Is it the shaman? Is it an evil spirit?”


    “More technology,” I said. “It’s a long story but Opal isn’t an evil spirit.”


    She harrumphed. “And Sid Marshall expects Khanna to trust him? For the sex, yes. To tie our fates together? Nay. Let us get with the sex in my room. Khanna find tawanee flowers. We can make love under their scent.”


    We went back to her room, and suddenly, she was stripping again. That girl could get naked fast. She was clutching me to her perfect, strong body, and I kissed her.


    While we just had sex, kissing her again had woken me up in all sorts of ways.


    She was so strong and compact…I loved the feel of her body against mine.


    Tasting her, smelling her, made me want her all the more. Her room did smell sweet from the drying flowers, though I liked her perfume better.


    Movement caught my eye outside.


    Khanna hadn’t replaced her door, and standing there, was Professor Kroft.


    She wasn’t saying a word, and her eyes were bright. Not only were her nipples hard, but she had unzipped her survival suit down to her belly button.


    Since I’d been kissing the very naked Khanna, I hadn’t noticed.


    The huntress turned to take in the professor, who stood there, a blush on her cheeks. Khanna sighed, but then, she also had a sexy little smile on her face. “Tell her she can stay and watch. Khanna understand the lust she is feeling. Khanna think watching might help her.”


    “What did she say, Sid?” Holly asked.


    “You’re never going to believe it. She said you could stay and watch.”


    I figured the professor would leave.


    She didn’t.