Free Soul-Bonded to the Alien by Serena Simpson

way to tap into your talents, right now we celebrate that and keep moving.”
    She nodded her head before throwing a glare at Voyager who was standing on unsteady legs.
    “You look tired, Voyager, maybe you should go home, get dinner.” She added a smile to take the sting out of the comment. The tension of the last minutes and then the relief were making her unbalanced.
    “Are you telling me eating is more important than watching to see how you do in your trials? I’m disappointed in you, Girly.”
    “I’m really not that interesting,” she mumbled.
    He gave a rusty laugh, “Where to now?”
    “Cal?” Paige turned to look at him.
    “Pick a direction, Paige. I don’t really think it matters what direction we go in.”
    “I say straight ahead then, at least we will be able to back track if we need to.”
    They moved on with Paige staying close to Cal. The landscape became bleaker.
    “Do you think night is approaching? Do they have night and day in this inner space?”
    “Not sure. Voyager, did you hear Paige’s question?”
    “I heard her. They have what you need here, nothing more, nothing less.”
    “Do you think you could be less vague?” She stopped to glare at him.
    “No, Girly, I’m sure I can’t.”
    “You might want to stop watching me and try to catch your male.”
    Cal was in the claws of the biggest bird she ever saw. It was black with a red beak and yellow beady eyes. Its wings looked like they covered ten feet, she hoped that was her imagination. It was flapping its huge wings trying to lift him, while he twisted and turned, doing his best to break free.
    “Cal, I’m coming to help you.”
    “Stay away from its beak, Paige, it’s poisonous,” he called down to her.
    The bird gave a massive flap of its wings, the wind knocking her off her feet. It rose swiftly in the air taking Cal with it. It flew off into the sun heading for a distant mountain peak.
    “Where did the mountain come from?” she asked in a slow measured voice.
    “I told you, this place gives you what you need.”
    She turned on him. “I didn’t need a huge bird to carry Cal off and I definitely don’t need a long arduous walk to a mountain.”
    “Maybe you should find your male and tell him that. He’s the one who brought you here.”
    “He’s not my male,” she ground out between her teeth.
    “Then why are you here?”
    Turning she began stalking across the land thankful the sun wasn’t out making her thirstier than she already was.
    “Do you know anything about that bird?”
    “It was big?”
    “Let me rephrase, do you know anything helpful about that bird?”
    “Why didn’t you just say that in the first place? When he gets hungry he’s going to take a big chunk out of your male. That poison he told you about on the beak, it’s going to run through his system in no time and paralyze him. That bird likes his food living when he eats it. Your male will die a slow painful death.”
    “His name is Cal, you could use it.”
    “I thought you didn’t care about him.”
    Clamming up she concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other.
    “You know we’re not going to make it at this pace”
    She wanted to scream at him, she was biting her tongue to hold back the words, but he was right. The more she walked the further away the mountain got. It made no sense, either she was walking away from it or it was moving away. Either way she wasn’t going to get there in time.
    She dropped to the ground panting, she felt like she had been walking for hours. There was a stitch in her side and her legs ached. If she ever got them out of here…she dashed a tear from her eyes…she promised him she would prevail. The most important thing to her was saving him like he tried to save her.
    What was it Voyager said? Why was she trying to fight a spiritual battle with physical tools?
    When Cal pulled her into her body he didn’t use a long process, one minute she was in her reality, the next she stood in her