I ran back to the others as fast as I could. Once I got there I was greeted with sighs of relief from everyone. I noticed everyone had come back and I felt relief of my own. I looked around, hearing mumbles and conversations inside our group.
"Well?" Bastion spoke up. "You must have found something interesting because you were gone so long," he said with suspicion in his voice.I looked around, just noticing how long I must've taken.
"Yeah about that," I started. "I kind of met someone in the forest," I said nervously waiting for their reactions. Everyone looked up curiously.
"Well where are they then?" Bastion asked. I looked down for a moment before saying the words I was almost dreading to say.
"Yeah, he wasn't exactly... Human," I said looking anywhere but the faces of my friends. Gasps and questions started as I expected.
"What do you mean not human?" Kaylee asked.
I looked at her and said, "You heard me, he wasn't human," I firmly stated, showing them I was not pulling a prank on the group.
I heard a laugh among the group and I looked over at Lizzy, who had laughed a bit more before asking, "What was he? A deer?" causing the rest of the group to chuckle.
I looked down, before saying the silencing statement, "No. He was an alien," I said with confidence. I looked up at everyone, who all looked like deer in headlights.
"What the hell were you doing with an alien? A fucking killer alien might I add?" Lizzy said with anger and hatred.
"He gave me valuable information. He told me that Maddie and Dylan are gone, and so is Garret. He wasn't sure about Bex. He also said we needed to leave this area, and to find the cave system deeper in the forest," I said looking at everyone who had mixed emotions.
Kaylee began to cry as Cade held her. Grayson shook his head, looking angry. Lizzy just stood there in disbelief as well as John. Bastion just seemed confused but was listening to what I had to say intently.
"Well, now what the fuck to we do? Do we listen to crazy killer alien dude Morgan happen to pick up in the woods who probably is telling his entire species where we will be as we speak, or do we stay here?" Lizzy said with anger in her voice. She looked around at the rest of the group to see who was on her side.
"We need to stay here. Liz is right. It could be a trap there, we need to stay here, maybe go into the cave deeper" Grayson said as Cade and John nodded in agreement with him. I rolled my eyes and looked at Bastion and Kaylee. Kaylee looked down, and at Cade and Grayson.
"I agree with Liz and Gray, and I wouldn't leave them anyway," she said, shaking her head in disagreement with me.
"I would not be here speaking about it if I did not think that this could be a good option. I don't know guys, I just felt like he was being honest with me as messed up as that probably sounds," I say with pleading eyes as I looked to my friends for anyone to agree with me.
"Morgan, they're right. We can't trust this random alien and hope he's good. We should stay here and go deeper into the cave," Bastion spoke as he looked at me sympathetically.
I was dumbfounded that nobody wanted to heed Xenophon's warning. Was I simply too trusting? Was the strange feeling of comfort that he somehow produced a facade I had fallen for? Somehow inside my gut I felt as though the mysterious alien man was being truthful, and I was going to stick with that.
I shook my head, eyes wide. A tear fell as I got angry at them all for not trusting my gut instincts which have very rarely been wrong. I did not say another word and I stormed over, grabbing my bag and throwing my things into it. I threw my hoodie on and began to storm out of the cave.
"If none of you are going to trust me, then I am going to trust myself," I stated as I made my way out of the large rock mouth.
Bastion grabbed my arm and gave me a pleading look before I pulled away and walked out. I heard my name being called from behind me, but they had made their choice. I needed to live and if that meant going on my own, I would, though it stung in my heart that nobody trusted my instincts enough to follow my lead.
I began hiking on the trail, I had only an hour or so left before the sun set completely. I was not sure how far I would have to hike before the second cave system would be available for me to sleep in, so I made myself a small camp. I did not take a tent, I was too angry to remember it. I laid my blanket down, and my pillow above it. I pulled my second smaller blanket over my legs and I sat looking up at the stars.
Being alone left a lot of time for me to think. It was not too late to turn back, but I had a feeling Xenophon was not lying when he said I needed to leave. He seemed so sincere when it came to his words. I have always had a way of sensing people's emotions and personalities, and I firmly felt that this man, though he was an alien, was being truthful with me.
Though I was alone I was not defenseless. I was prepared for an ambush or any sort of attack as I had taken all my knives in case I needed them. There was no way I would go down in any way, shape or form, without a bloody fight.
I got thinking about Xenophon again, and how he was in my dreams before I had even met him. Did he put himself into my dreams or something? Perhaps it was my own psychic abilities that put him into my mind, as well as made me feel I could trust him.
As I was lost in thought, I heard a rustle in the bushes. I reached down to my boot which had my longest knife in it, watching where the rustling was coming from. I slowly stood up waiting to see what would come out of the bushes.
Suddenly, out hopped a small rabbit. His fur was a cute spotty brown like a baby dear. I sighed and took a deep breath. Just as I was about to sit back down, a hand touched my shoulder. I turned at the speed of light, my hand with my knife in it, defensively facing the person now in front me. Somehow not surprised by his presence, I see Xenophon looking worried behind me. I sighed in relief as I placed my hand over my speeding heart.
"Fucking hell, you scared the shit out of me!" I said to him, making him smirk. I rolled my eyes at him before he took a look around as I put my knife back into my boot.
"You left alone?" he asked with a worried tone in his voice. I nodded and looked away. "You shouldn't have, why didn't they come with you? You're not safe enough alone!" he said, increasing concern in his tone.
"They wouldn't listen. They thought you were lying and setting up a trap," I said looking down at my feet while shaking my head. I heard him sigh.
"I'm not surprised they would not trust me, but I thought they would've trusted you. You were brave to leave alone though," he said with a reassuring smile.
I sighed and sat down on my blanket. I patted the spot on the blanket next to me as I pulled my small blanket over my legs again. Xenophon sat down next to me and smiled gratefully.
"So, when can I know why you're protecting me?" I asked curiously looking up to the purple eyes of the alien next to me. I looked at him but I soon realized he was blushing and thinking about his answer.
"Well do you really want to know just yet?" he asked awkwardly. I nodded and he sighed before rubbing the back of his neck as though he were about to say the most awkward statement ever. I gave him a look as if to tell him to spit it out and he cleared his throat.
"Okay. Well something my race can do is detect who we will fall in love with as you humans say it. It's like an instinct really, once we see the person it's like we know they're the one we will be with forever," he said awkwardly. His awkwardness made me smile a bit.
"When we find this person, we know they're going to be ours so we protect them and watch over them until we meet and really fall in love," he rubbed his neck some more as I began to put the puzzle together. Then it hit me.
"Wait! So you're trying to tell me you think I'm this person you're looking for?" I said with a squeal as I lost my breath from speaking so fast. He looked down and nodded as if he just ruined something. He looked almost sad, or worried I would run away.
We sat there for several minutes before I burst into laughter. He couldn't be serious! I was human, he was whatever he was. His species toasted humans for lunch for fuck sake! He must be kidding! I looked over to him, only to see his serious expression. I stopped laughing and looked down at my blanket and began to play with it.
"You're serious?" I asked quietly, almost ashamed I laughed at him. He nodded again before looking toward me.
"You had the dreams, didn't you?" he asked softly. I nodded.
"We were there together. In one dream. Did you feel that pull in your chest?" I nodded again before biting my bottom lip.
"That is one way to tell someone is your mate, or as we call it, your connection," he explains.
I looked up to see he was already looking at me, making us make eye contact. I saw his eyes turn into that beautiful dark red they turned in my dream.
"Your eyes," I said softly, keeping eye contact. "They change color," I stated. He smiled lightly.
"Yes, they do change based on my emotions. They're normally purple as you may have noticed. Black when I'm angry. Blue if I'm sad or hurt. Red if..." he paused, blushing again. "Well let's just say red when I like something, or a connection is made," he said breaking eye contact and looking down. I followed suit, looking at my blanket as well.
We stayed quiet for a while before I began to shiver and yawn. He looked over at me with a little concern in his eye.
"Are you cold, Morgan?" he asked. I nodded lightly. He moved closer to me, pulling me into his lap. He was like a heater, the heat from his body seemed to be rolling off of him.
Though I was uncomfortable being in his lap, I felt safe and warm. I cuddled into him as he wrapped his arms around me and covered my legs with my blanket. I was unsure why I had this deep feeling of comfort and trust with this alien man, but I was going to go with my gut on this one. I smiled at him, causing his eyes to turn bright red. I closed my eyes and leaned my head to his chest. In minutes, I had fallen into a deep comfortable sleep.