Her Alien Protector: A Sci-fi Romance

Part 39

Ava

Kayla tells me she initially befriended Dylan aboard the Phoenix Borealis by having him help her plant seeds, so she suggests I do the same. Sounds easy enough. How hard can it be to make friends with a little boy?

Rigel drops Dylan off with me in the lab, closing the door behind him. Dylan would have fled the moment Rigel put him in the room with me, but since he hasn't yet learned the hand signal to open the door, he is stuck, silently pawing at the door. Dylan whines and presses his forehead against the door. I feel so bad for the kid. Maybe I should let him out, except...

Stick to the plan. I don't need him to love me, I just need to get him to smile and maybe say a few words. Eventually, he might feel comfortable enough not to need Kayla or Rigel every second of the day.

I line up a row of seeds near the dirt and mesh wires. "I have lots of seeds to plant. Dylan, do you want to help me?"

Dylan sweeps his eyes around the room, looking everywhere but at me. I might as well be a clump of dirt.

Kayla was the one who suggested planting seeds as a bonding activity, but Dylan has no interest in me; I lack whatever magical qualities Kayla or Rigel have.

I take a deep breath. I'm not being fair to Dylan. He is only a small child, probably scared based on how he hasn't stepped away from the door.

I drop a few seeds into the dirt and then glance back at Dylan. He still has not moved away from the door, but he is looking straight up.

What is that kid looking at? I follow his gaze, scanning the high branches and leaves of the tree. Familiar luminous eyes blink at me.

Maybe Dylan and I have more in common with each other than I thought.

"That's Glow Ball. Would you like to meet him?"

Dylan nods.

"Glow Ball," I call, and the rahoni flies straight to me. I hold the peeping rahoni against my shoulder.

Dylan approaches me with outstretched arms, and I put the animal in his hands. Dylan immediately cradles the animal like he is a baby, his stomach facing upward. I expect Glow Ball to squawk at being positioned like that, but Glow Ball purrs.

I roll my eyes. Is Glow Ball preening at all the attention Dylan gives him?

Dylan gasps when the rahoni's belly starts to glow yellow. Now Dylan steps closer to the tree, gazing intently at it.

I don't know much about Dylan, other than what Kayla told me, which was that he is from a group of settlers her former spaceship picked up. What is that kid enamored by now? Maybe there were no trees where he lived before? Or maybe he is like me, enchanted by the fact that somehow, a tree grows in a spaceship.

Dylan lifts Glow Ball in the air in front of him as if is using the animal as a flashlight.

"Dylan, what are you doing?"

He looks up at me and then back at the tree. I crouch down so that I look at the same spot on the tree from his height.

Two tiny eyes look at me.

I stumble backward. Has that been in the tree the entire time? What is it? An animal? An insect?

Dylan holds Glow Ball under one arm, like some sort of fat cat, and with his other hand, he carefully cups the thing in the tree. "Look."

Even I must admit, the animal's body is the size of my thumb with the tiniest little feet and toes. The animal reminds me of a frog. Its eyes are the size of my thumbnail.