After their short but satisfying midnight chat, it didn't take long before Ellen fell in a dreamless sleep.
Although she felt thrilled to see Vsar again, first she had to talk to her daughter about yesterdays event, she didn't go to Nora yesterday, giving her some breathing space after things had heated up badly, and although Ellen was curious of why that strange giant had followed her duaghter, she knew Nora wouldn't tell her.
But now she had to talk to her, if she wanted to see eachother in the eye again.
Quickly she grabbed some clothes and headed out to her daughters place, after their talk she would dress up for Vsar, but this conversation had priority.
"Nora... Nora? Open up will you...?" Even after she knocked several times nobody opened, eventually Ellen let herself in.
The place was to damn quiet, and with her senses on high allert Ellen walked around the house, finally ending up at her daughters bedroom.
Ellen took a deep breath and knocked on the door, and again and again... no one answered...
Carefully she opened the door and found the place nice and tidy despide all the drawers being open, but no Nora. Ellen stepped into the room and looked around, all of the drawers had been pulled empty... Her gaze fell on a piece of paper, lying on bed just below her daughters pillow, and before Ellen had read a single word, she already knew what it would say and tears filled up her eyes, Nora had left...
Downstaors, she heard a door open and close and Ellen knew her granddaughter came home.
"Mom, I'm home!" But it wasn't her mother, Sasha saw comming down the stairs, but her grandmother and her shoulders sank.
"She's gone, isn't she..." She said as a matter of fact.
"I think so... She left a note, but I haven't read it yet... Maybey you want to?" Ellen said while reaching out the letter.
Sasha shook her head. No, she had no desire to read the bullshit words from her selfish mother.
"No, you just read it, I'm done with her..." And she walked to the kitchen to get her self a glass of water.
Ellen looked at her granddaughter and felt sorry for the young woman, how could her daughter leave this beautifull, smart girl, when had Nora become so bitter? She shook her head and started to read what her daughter wrote.
After she finished, Ellen walked into the kitchen where Sasha was and sat down at the table with her. There were tears brimming in the girls eyes, and her mouth were pressed into a thin line.
"Well nothing we didn't already knew, at least we know where she is, though... She left for Nellie's clan..."
Sasha's eye went wide with surprise. "Nellie's camp? What the hell? I heard they torture Shri'Traccal men before they kill them... and she left us to stay with them?!"
Ellen raised her hands to shush her. "Calm down, Sasha... Those are just rumours, I can't imagine Nellie would allow that..." She met the woman several times and although Nellie didn't have the warmest or kindest personality, Ellen doubed, the woman would torture people.
"Look, now your mom is gone, I want you to live with me. So I can keep an eye on you and you can help me with the plans we have with the Shri'Traccal..." She added as she saw the irritated look on her granddaughters face.
Instantly the young womans eyes lit up. "Do you think I will see Ri'kil soon?"
Despite the sadness she felt at her daughter's departure, Ellen couldn't help but smile at the longing look her granddaughter had in her eyes. "I'm sure you will."
Ellen got up from the table and walked to the door. "Gather some of your stuff, so we can move you in with me tonight, I'm going home and get dressed, I see you in an hour okay? My place.."
Sasha nodded. "He grandma..." Ellen turned to face Sasha again. "You like him, don't you?"
Although Ellen felt her cheeks heat up, she couldn't resist asking. "Who do you mean?"
Sasha gave her a devilish grin. "Yeah, sure ...Ellen..." and ducked when Ellen grabbed the towel that hung by the door and threw it at her.
"No need to answer that question!" While giggling, she quickly made her way out of the kitchen.
Not long after, Ellen, Sasha, Dakota, Milla, Marion, Kirsten, Helena, and Ruby had gathered outside the old police station, the place they'd called their meeting place for a week.
Helena, an older woman, used to be a car mechanic and did all the repairs in and around the clan, Milla and Marion were two sisters and like Kirsten, Sasha's friends, and like her, very curious about the Shri'Traccal men, although Milla never went with them on her friends' night trips, she too was very curious.
In the distance they saw some small flying objects heading their way and once they got close enough they saw the objects land in an open area and six Shri'Traccal men dismounted or got out. How the flying things worked was not entirely clear to the women from that distance.
With a grin, Ellen approached the group of men. "I hope you slept well, Vsar?" And she looked at him innocently.
To mask his grin, he ran his large claw across his mouth. "Certainly Ellen, I assume this also applies to you. You look radiant..." He couldn't risist to give her a compliment, she really looked radiant...
Behind her, Ellen heard a subdued giggle, and her face flushed, quickly she turned her attention to the other men who came with Vsar.
"Rhán, Birgg, good morning to you too..." Both men nodded at her kindly.
Then she turned to the three younger men, one of whom she had already seen at the meeting yesterday.
"Baska, isn't it? Welcome." The young man nodded, and puffed his chest up a little. The female Tároc had remembered his name!
Vsar smiled and introduced her to the other two young men. After everyone was introduced, and Ellen and Vsar briefly explained to the newcomers what the purpose of this meeting was, Birgg left with Dakota and Helena in one of the airgliders in search of, hopefully reasonably intact, vehicles.
Together with the rest of the group, Ellen walked to the lake, and though their conversation was light hearted, she was very aware of the tall man's proximity and didn't dare look at him too often for she was too scared, to start blushing all over again.
Behind her she heard the girls' soft excited buzz, for the first time they would be able to talk "legally" with a man, a Shri'Traccal man that is.
The young men walked in the back with Rhán, carrying the backpacks Ellen had packed food and drink in, as well as a sketchbook and some pencils just in case. She hoped Milla could get an impression of their shared idea on paper, as the girl had an incredible talent for drawing.
After they reached the lake, they gave the young people a global explanation of the ideas they had in mind for the environment. Now they wanted them to take a look around as well and come up with additional plans for the new communale space.
"What's on your mind?" Without her realising, Ellen had been staring at the interaction between her girls and the young Shri'Traccal men for quite some time.
"Nothing really." She turned around to face him.
Despite his scary, animalistic features, the eyes that looked at her were kind and warm, and she felt a strong urge to follow the contours of his face with the tips of her fingers, but she held back. That would be too soon and she didn't want to put any pressure on the young girls.
The click that she and Vsar felt was probably mainly because they were also open to it, this did not mean that this also applied to the rest of the women whether they were curious or not.
"I am simply delighted that we have taken the first step towards a joint future. Isn't it wonderful to see how those six can talk to each other without fear or hatred?" Her gaze wandered back to Sasha and the rest.
Vsar looked at the small woman standing in front of him and felt a deep affection for her and, disguised as possible, placed a hand on her hip, which was almost immediately covered by her hand.
As soon as Ellen became aware of the claw being placed on her hip, a smile crossed her face and she crossed both her arms around her waist so she could intertwine her fingers in his as secretly as possible.
Encouraged by her gesture, Vsar took a step forward, bringing her back to his body.
Her heart started beating faster at the feeling of his big, hard warm body against her back and a warm glow spread through her loins and she felt her cheeks turn red. An image of his claws caressing the insides of her thighs came to her mind.
"You do know my sense of smell is slightly better than the average person's, eyséah...?" His horns had appeared on either side of her field of vision, and she heard his raucous voice at her ear.
"You make it damn hard for me not to touch you, when you smell so unbelievably arousing..."
Ellen caught his breath at the sound of his lustful words, and bit her lower lip hard to keep from grinning like a maniac. All her life she had read those lame novels about tough guys who could conquer a woman's heart with their words and she had always laughed at that.
Sure, like a guy would talk to a woman like that, but here she was, with her own nearly eight feet tall, tough, alien whispering in her ear like she was the most desirable woman on earth.
Before she could say anything, he withdrew his head and hand, and Ellen turned around to look at him in surprise.
Vsar gave her a devilish grin and he activated the com link on his wrist gaunlet.
"Rhán, you keep an eye on those youngsters, I want to show Ellen something a few miles away." On the other end of the line, she heard an unexpected chuckle.
"I'll keep an eye on those youngsters, you show Tároc Ellen the area..." Before Rhán could say more, Vsar closed the link and looked at Ellen with an apologetic grin.
This situation was so weird, it almost seemed to come straight out of a movie, and Ellen burst out into laughter. "I don't even want to know what you two discussed... But tell me, were where you planning on taking me, huh?"
Without answering her question, Vsar took a quick look in the direction of the youngsters and desided they weren't paying any attention to them. He took a firm hold on Ellens hand and pulled her along with him, back to were the came, the small village.
Standing in front of the small aircraft, Ellen looked at Vsar in horror. "If you think I'm going to sit in 'that thing'..." Pointing at the slender build object. "...guess again! That thing can never hold the both of us!"
Vsar opened the hood of the craft and climbed inside. "I didn't take you for a sissy, Ellen..." He said taunting.
"But 'this thing' can hold both Rahn and Birgg at the same time, so I have little doubt it will have anny problems with getting us up in the air..."
Again, Ellen glanced over the object and, with a deep sigh, stepped carefully toward the plane.
Vsar felt her hand tremble as she accepted his outstretched hand. "Don't be afraid, eyséah, nothing will go wrong..." and instead of putting her around the seat in front of him, he placed her in front of him on his lap with her back pressed to his chest.
Surprised, Ellen looked back.
"These seats are made for our size, as are the seat belts, and since you're already scared enough, I though it would be wise for me to hold you so that you don't slide around while flying..."
With a roll of her eyes, Ellen turned back again. "Sure..."
His grin widened upon hearing her soft grumble.
As the little ship lifted off, Ellen closed her eyes stiffly. Ohhh she hated flying so much... Basically she hated everything that had to do with high altitudes and in her mind she said a quick prayer.
To her great surprise, she felt that the plane started descent after a few minutes and carefully she opened her eyes.
"Are we there yet?"
Behind her she felt the giant's chest shake with laughter. "Yes, Ellen, we're already there..." And he grabbed the hood with both hands and pushed it back.
Cautiously, Ellen rose and looked around. He had taken her to a valley-surrounded lake. Around the lake were a number of tall trees, reeds, grasses and various shrubs that were in full bloom and smelling delicious.
She turned to Vsar, who was still sitting, quietly waiting for her.
"Well? Do you like the surprise?"
Ellen nodded, bent down and took his face in both her hands. "I'd almost think you're a romantic, Vsar..." And pressed her mouth to his.
After they got off the plane, Ellen quickly walked over to the water, kicked off her shoes and stepped into the cooling water, a deep sigh of satisfaction escaping her.
Behind her, Vsar began to grin and reached for something on the floor in front of the other seat. Romantic, huh? He would show her that King Crocodile could indeed be romantic...