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The Tarlian Chronicles

Book One: Bondings

Chapter One Agreements

Aren walked quickly through the settlement. His eyes glanced around spotting familiar faces gazing out their windows. There was Mrs. CLARK; alone now! He past his parents home and saw Dee watching him. He remembered how they made certain to tell him he didn't have to do this.

He spotted a figure running towards him and slowed to wait. He sighed a bit. Aren new who the figure was but couldn't bring himself to walk on. He'd lost enough friends to push one willingly away, even if said friend would probably put doubts in his mind.

"Aren, are you sure about this?" Out of breath, the smaller man slid to a stop beside him.

He was Green eyed and Red-haired. Their love of adventure had drawn them together. They had met before leaving Earth. It seemed so many years ago now, much longer than the time that had actually past; they had both been small frightened children unsure what their futures would hold.

"What choice do I have, Jeff?" Frustrated tone bleeding through the calm he was trying hard to hold on to because this was hard enough.

The fear was just not there. He'd expected to feel terror wrenching and soul-deep after deciding. He wanted to take the lack of fear as a good omen but the more cynical part of his nature figured he was just numb.

"I don't know! It's just a totally different way of life. We don't know much about them." The expressive features were scrunched up with worry.

"That's why I'm doing this! If they can help us and they're willing..." If he kept talking about it he might chicken out.

They had stopped walking and moved over to the side of the road. The two old friends looked at one another. It wasn't as if they hadn't been having this conversation for days.

"I'll be looking for you and come by, ok?"

"Ok." Then faster than thought, he leaned over and pressed a chased kiss to Jeff's lips.

He walked away without looking back. There would never be a chance for them. They had both resigned themselves that their careers and family obligations would take them in different directions. They had vowed though that nothing would ruin their friendship. Alana had done her best but even she hadn't succeeded...

He walked out of the human settlement head down no longer interested in looking around. He just wanted to get it over with. The blast of air as he stepped out of the complex felt good against his skin. He walked quickly, already knowing where he needed to go.

His hands didn't even tremble as he tapped lightly on the frame. There was no door to keep out others. It was just an opening covered by a thin gauzy material.

The difference between the human settlement and the rest of the planet was sharp. While his father had tried to simplify human living, he understood that humans had become too dependent on technology to actually want to be without it. This was particularly true in the areas of education and medicine. So there were enclosed sections in the human community that were completely protected from the environment. The hope was to naturalize and do away with these structures but it didn't look like it would happen. It didn't even look like there would be humans around to make the attempt necessary.

By contrast the rest of the planet was a lush garden: a riot of greens, golds and purples, Blues, pinks and reds. It overwhelmed the eyes and ensnared the senses of beings that were used to having nature be controlled or absent from their lives. The flowers and trees were used in every day life by the Tarlians. Like humans, they used their forests to cook, and build but they seemed to have a more natural balance.

The home he was visiting was a prime example. It seemed to be made of some sort of ocean coral. It was a fragile looking yet sturdy structure. It reminded him of the strongest alloys in the human community yet it looked like spun glass. It reminded him of nothing so much as the chimes old healer Mirag had out front.

The brush against his mind was brief, unobtrusive. It carried an overtone of what Aren could best describe as mint usually soothing to him. The Tarlians mind felt like the mint tea he loved. Taking a breath, he stepped lightly into the room. This was it. He would be unable to walk away once he began here.

The being looked up at him. Silver skinned, so different from the humans of his community. A community that was dying out, he reminded himself ruthlessly.

Silver skin and wings and his mind shied away from the other differences. Another part of his mind however continued gleefully listing them, uncaring that it had taken him hours to find the courage needed to come here. Most Tarlians managed to look pleasing to the eye. It was just everything else that was so different.

They flew, didn't have sex, and their children were made. Not even Dr. Hampton understood the process but they adored any child. That was the bottom line, really.

"You have agreed?"

The words were spoken in a resonant low tone. They sent shivers through Aren, A mix of pleasure and terror twanging his nerve endings. Dr. Hampton had explained about frequency and how it was tied into physical reaction. She had been so very gentle with him, acting as though he had been the most fragile thing imaginable. Maybe he had been. She had spoken very gently, using her teaching voice a mix of soft and slow that curled around him easing away the tension. This all still frightened him. He didn't understand how a voice, an alien voice at that, could get him harder faster than any fantasy of Jeff or any other attractive person for that matter. Pitch, tone and body chemistry could take a long walk off a short peer.

He sighed softly; he would never get off again, not with a partner at least. Not that sex was a primary motivator for him, but it was such a primal need of his people; the way to procreate, to find distraction, pleasure. The thought was shallow but he couldn't quite bring himself to focus on what he was agreeing to do. If he did he would run screaming and never look back. He couldn't do that. His people, their very survival depended on this agreement on what amounted to selling himself.

The picture of his step sister flickered through his mind; she had been all bouncy curls, Brown eyes heart shaped face. She was gone now as were so many others. With that final thought as a goad, he spoke.

"I..." He paused briefly knowing that his life would never again be his own and jumped off the cliff before him. "Yes, I will undertake the Tigha Bond."

It was a relief to say it, to commit in words' what had already been signed and delivered. The proprieties did have to be followed. He barely kept in the quiet snort. That was what had brought him here.

For Tarlians writing meant little but for the humans it was the other way around. There wasn't any of this, my word is my bond. There hadn't been since the Celts, probably. He forced his mind back on track. He wondered how many more compromises would have to be made.

Warm acceptance and something that might have been delight flowed through him. Don't fear. I will not harm you.

The mental voice was different than the one that had sent shivers through him. It was softer, less powerful. It flowed into him somehow gentling the hurt tattered parts of his mind. The parts that were lonely and guilty. The being rose and walked towards him and he thought that at least it walked like a human but with super-human grace.

********

The human was terrified. It wouldn't work if the human didn't calm. Tigha was a very specific sort of bond. Both parties had to be completely willing. There could be no coercion on either side.

No one was sure how the bond would work with a human. The humans were a new species on Tarlia. Aibhne's people had watched as the human population sharply dropped off. They had watched, anguished, as the Newlings the ` human babies,` had died and the Life Bearers ` mothers,` aibhne made an effert to think in human words, died too.

It was still hard to speak the languages of the humans. The Tarlians didn't often use their vocal cords to make speech as the humans did. They were a tightly nit race in which telepathy and empathy were the main forms of communication.

Sounds were generally used for other things. They were used to sooth or pleasure or to express anger, or joy. A myriad of other non verbal ideas were expressed through sound.

You have time in which you can back out of this agreement.

"I will not."

"You need to start practicing with your mind."

"Yes of course."

Try then!

The Tarlian watched the human male. There was an obvious struggle going on inside. The Tale Spinner forced calmness it wouldn't do to further agitate the human.

Hello ` can't believe I'm doing this. ` Can ` crazy` you ` we don't have choices. ` Hear me?

That was disjointed but it is a beginning.

Aren nodded sharply. "How do we start this thing?"

Aibhne ruffled the colorful wings on its back gently. The Tarlian tried not to show the impatient and worry it felt.

They were trying to outrun time. That would be a difficult race to win. There were humans and Tarlians that did not want this bond to work out. Fear was the prime factor, fear and a lack of understanding. Some humans would rather die out and some Tarlians would see the Newlings No, the ` babies` die. He had to practice as well.

The death of Newlings was truly anathema to any Tarlian. The histories were full of the struggle to survive. How each child needed to be loved and cherished because only then could their people survive.

"How must I prepare?"

"Did you not read the" a slight pause. "Literature explaining what needed to be done?"

"Yes, I did but it didn't translate well." Aren flushed a bit his pale skin glowing a fiery red.

Aibhne was captivated and almost moved to brush the skin. Such beauty, pale skin like the gems worn on festival days. It was not a hardship to picture the two of them together. The young Tarlian did not quite know what that would mean but was certainly willing to try whatever the human wanted. Aibhne had been studying human procreation and thought it was important both parties gave to the relationship. Sex was very important so they would probably be doing a lot of it and the young Tale Spinner wouldn't mind. The human was very pleasing to look at - not as tall as a Tarlian, the human came up to mid chest and every part of the human seemed to perfectly fit, save for the marred skin along the human's face. The eyes were large and seemed to shift color depending on the light and the hair flowed gently - almost lovingly along the human's shoulders and it was as dark as the deep caves.

I will show you. This is what you must do.--

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The human settlement was quiet. People huddled in their homes afraid and wondering; who would be the next to die? Would any help come in time?

Cade Shayne leaned back in his chair. The weight of his failure pressed down on him. The gentle hands that rubbed his back called a soft sigh from him.

"It's not your fault, love." Dee Hampton-Shayne hugged her husband

"I brought us here!"

"You rescued us from a world gone mad."

"I hate the fact that we've been backed into a corner." He pulled away from her hands and got to his feet.

He had lost weight. His 6 ft frame looked almost wasted. His vibrant gray eyes were bruised looking with dark circles beneath them. His proud features were sunken and His shoulders were hunched in protectively and an orra of tiredness clung to him that never left.

He looked at his wife. She was his everything. He saw the circles under her eyes. He noticed a little fearfully how her dark skin was just a little paler. That was how it began. He shook the thought off. Dee was fine she was just tired. They were all just so tired.

"You're worrying about AREN." The words were a statement so he just nodded in agreement.

"He'll be fine." She reached to lay a hand on his arm.

"His loss is so recent. It eats him up that they were over and her last memories weren't pleasant."

"Cade you need to understand that they were both to blame. Their union was arranged and they tried to make it work but they were too different. You know I love that boy like he was my own flesh and blood but I can see that he was as much to blame as Alana."

"She said he always had his head up in the clouds. We keep steeling his dreams. How much more can he stand?" It was one more way he had failed and it was much more important than a planet full of people, it was his son.

"He's a fighter, love. No one else would work for this." It hurt to say that, to admit that they were sacrificing their child for the greater good.

He bowed his head in acknowledgment. He just refused to like it. He couldn't like the fact that he was sending his only child to another loveless union.

Cont in CHP2