Cave Alien (Ancient Earth Aliens 1)

I open the door.

Of course, I open the door.

Tres

He’s here.

But I’m not.

I’m not the pretty girl he once knew. The faun legs disgust me, and now he is looking at them, I suddenly feel how gross they are. Gone are the soft curves of my hips, thighs, and calves. Instead I am furred and deformed. I didn’t understand how disgusting I would feel when he saw me again. It seemed so unlikely that I could ever see him again, I forgot about the shame of this half-animal form Lykar has forced upon me.

I’ve changed.

So has he. I do not see the monster who claimed me in the world of the living. I do not see fangs, or horns. I see a man. A handsome, muscular, brave man with a smile which illuminates the room. I have never seen anyone so attractive in all my life, or afterlife. And I’ve never felt so utterly disgusting as I do in this very moment.

I wanted him to come to me. I did not know that having him see me this way would be the most shameful, miserable thing I had ever experienced in any life. I understand, suddenly, what Lykar was saying. My death was the end of my humanity. I called Vulcan to me under false pretenses. He wants the pretty virgin he first made love to, but I am nothing but a stinking animal now.

“Tres,” he says.

His voice has not changed. I would know Vulcan anywhere. He has become human, shed his alien skin. He has given his life for me. And in one overwhelming moment, I know that he could never want me ever again.

“Tres, it is me.”

“It’s you, but it’s not me,” I whimper. “Please, Vulcan. Stop looking at me.”

I try to hide my legs, but he’s already seen them. It is too late.

Vulcan

My beloved Tres is as beautiful as ever. Her fiery curls cascade from her head down over her shoulders, framing the naked beauty of her breasts and belly. But she has been transformed. Her legs and the chalice which once laid between them are gone, and in their place are the legs of a beast, furred and not so much female as animal.

I don’t care. I didn’t expect to find her precisely the same after death as she was in life. I just wanted to find her at all.

“I didn’t come for you because of your legs. I came for you because you are mine.”

“The Tres you know was a weak, pathetic version of her real self,” the faun-king says. “Now you see her as she really is.”

“I’m disgusting,” Tres interjects.

“I wouldn’t care if you were half…” I search for the most ridiculous animal I can think of. “Half-fish! You could have a fish’s tail attached to your waist and I would still want you. You are my mate.”

“I’m not your mate,” Tres says. “I’m a lying monster, just like my father.”

“You never lied to me. You didn’t know the truth.”

“Stop,” she says. “Stop looking at me. I’m a monster.”

“You are no monster. In this place, your form is whatever you see yourself to be. Do not allow this trickster to make you think otherwise. Do not give in to shame, when we are so close to being together forever.”

Lykar is chuckling to himself. I am sure this is his doing, somehow. Some way, this lying little beast is orchestrating this entire mess. I want Tres in my arms, but she won’t come near me. She’s too horrified by how she looks to understand the miracle it has taken to reunite us.

To hell with it. We cannot stay here.

I stride across the room, take my screaming mate by the hand, and throw her up over my shoulder. Her wails continue, but I ignore them. The first time I met Tres, she was singing. The second time, she wanted to die. I have seen her in beauty and in pain, and this little blip in which she has hooves, is just one more obstacle along the way.

“What are you doing!?” Tres and the faun-king cry out at the same time.

There is one way to prove to her I still want her.

It starts with a kiss. A long, passionate, tongue-winding kiss which stops her protests. They trail off into a light moan of the kind I recall so fondly.

“It's me, Tres,” I remind her, breaking the kiss. “And it’s you. Appearances don’t mean anything down here. They’re your worst fears, and your deepest dreams. They're lies.”

“You’re not a lie, are you?” She whimpers the question. She is so afraid, so lost. But I know how to make her remember. I reach down and I pull her oh so very human legs around my waist, pulling the core of her against my hardness. This is where we joined for eternity when we were on Earth, and it is how I will remind her who she belongs to here.