20.

**Alpha Centauri**

**Proxima Centauri (Laxian)**

**Location: Unknown**

**Year: 30552**





Madeleine's legs ached so badly that she swore she was a step away from throwing herself over the deep red grass and starting to weep like a child.

It had to be at least several hours since they've left the ship, yet the light seemed to die out so painfully slow.



*The days were indeed much longer here, on Laxian.*



Her jaw clenched in an attempt to hold in her mewl of pain as she took another step over the bloody red grass, feeling her muscles cramp up in protest after such long time of non-stop walking.

However, she did not dare express the tiniest sign of fatigue or discomfort, for she did not want to be seen as the puny little human this BloodHound currently walking right ahead of her was already considering her to be.



It had finally gotten dark and the sky looked so beautiful, with trails of stars and swirls of distant galaxies, her eyes widening in awe as soon as they stepped into a small clearing.



"You need to rest," She heard Emerick say after a moment, her gaze lowering to find his as he had already turned around to face her, noticing the way his galaxy eyes lowered to trail over her body into an assessing manner.



"Your muscles are inflamed and your energy levels are quite low, you shouldn't have overexterted yourself like that," He commented after a full check-up.



"I apologize for not checking your physical state sooner,"



Her lips mildly parted after his statement, feeling her cheeks heat up a little bit as if she were caught red-handed.

These inhuman abilities of his were already starting to make her feel somewhat uncomfortable. It felt like she had no privacy at all since he could basically smell, sense and hear everything that was happening to her before she could even realize.



"Come here," He told her as he turned and walked straight towards the nearest tree, throwing the backpack somewhere close before lowering himself to take a seat over the lush grass and rest his bare back against the tree's ashy grey and smooth-looking trunk.



Curiously watching him, she took a few hesitant steps in his direction, escaping a small sound as her muscles still hurt like hell.

She stopped just a few centimeters away from him, gazing at his relaxed position, his knees spreading out just a little bit wider as he parted his arms into a silent invitation for her to rest in his embrace.



Her eyes immediately widened as soon as she realized what he wanted her to do, her feet quickly carrying her straight towards the next available tree and all her pains momentarily forgotten as she rather roughly sat herself at the base.



"As soon as you fall asleep, your body will naturally lower its internal temperature and you will die of hypothermia," He told her matter-of-factly as he rather calmly watched her trying to at least get a little bit comfortable, making her suddenly turn to face him and stare in utter disbelief.



“What?”



“But it’s not that cold!” She tried to reason with him. It really wasn’t. Truth to be told, it rather felt like there were at least twenty Celsius degrees outside.



“It will soon get much much colder. The nights are very cold at this period of our planet’s cycle,”



“You will not survive on your own, especially with such little clothing,” He explained, pointedly lowering his gaze over the large sweatshirt and pants she was wearing before raising it to look back into her eyes.



She blankly stared at him for a moment, quickly deciding to ignore his words and try to fend for herself instead.



She had to at least try, otherwise how will she be able to survive on her own once she’d escaped from him?

She had to know her odds, at least until she’d finally found the perfect moment to lose him.

She was already so tired of depending of him as it was.



So she turned her back to him and adopted a crouching position, once again her muscles screaming in protest as she wrapped her arms around her knees and rested the side of her head against the tree’s marble-like hard bark, her lips escaping a tired sigh as she trailed her gaze towards the peculiar-colored foliage.



To say that Laxian was almost completely different from Earth was an understatement.

Even now into the falling darkness, she could still notice how their surroundings appeared to be painted with a dark purple hue as the two pink suns have finally set, leaving a pleasant trail of warmth into the air.



No background sounds could be heard, not even a single tiny cricket, let alone a bird or other nocturnal animals that she was so used to hear and see on Earth.



*Did they not have such thing here at all?*



She casually wondered as she slightly shifted, her palm pressing against the soft grass as her gaze raised towards the sky, unconsciously searching for that familiar star close to her home.

She didn’t even know if she could see it with the naked eye or if Laxian was close enough for that, but she did not care. She wanted to at least pretend that it was possible, so she kept on looking around at the vast sea of stars and celestial bodies until she suddenly heard the BloodHound’s masculine voice again,



“It’s that smaller one,”



Her head immediately snapped in his direction, throwing him a surprised look.



*What the hell was he talking about?*



“That smaller conglomeration of stars and dust you see right there, that’s Celesta,” He explained himself whilst pointing towards a certain spot on the sky, the girl’s eyes unsurely shifting towards it before trailing back to the BloodHound.



“Celesta?” She raised a brow.



“The Milky Way. Laxians call it Celesta,” He replied whilst still gazing at that small cluster of shining dots and colored dust on the sky.



“We can see it from all the way here?” She quickly asked out loud in disbelief.



“Well, yes. Like I said, Laxian’s air is very clean. It has no impurities hence we have no such thing as smog or anything like that,” His gaze returned to her as he spoke, however being quick to notice that slight tremor her body unconsciously gave away.



“What about clouds? I mean I imagine that here it rains too since you also have water and warmth,” She hurried to ask as her arms wrapped tighter around herself in an obvious attempt to preserve heat, even if she entirely failed to notice that the air temperature was rapidly dropping.



“It’s…different,” He vaguely answered, earning himself a curious stare from her.



“You’ll see,” She watched him try and express the ghost of a smile, that sole image catching her so off-guard that her jaw slacked a little bit, her lips parting as she dumbly stared, totally entranced.



“Do you still think you can survive it?”



“Huh?” She suddenly blinked a few times in utter surprise, weirdly staring back at him as she failed to realize what he was talking about.



"The cold. You're already losing so much heat. I can see it from all the way here," He calmly explained whilst looking over her body.



"You have thermal vision too?!?" She shouted out loud, widely staring back at him as if he'd just grown two heads.



He didn't reply and simply gazed back at her instead, his concern lying elsewhere as he noticed how her extremities kept growing colder and colder.



"What the fuck! What the hell-kind of freaking feline are you?" She rapidly blurted out, her teeth already chattering a little bit towards the end of that last sentence.



"Actually, felines don't have-"



"Yeah yeah whatever, smarty-pants," She hurried to stop him from his smart-ass blabbering as she was starting to feel so annoyed besides the fact that she suddenly started to feel so damn cold *-what the fuck!* Her teeth loudly chattered as she stared around a little bit disoriented before her gaze shifted to her own palms, only now noticing how bad she was actually shivering.



Closing her eyes, she refused to look at him, knowing that she'd already lost the fight as her body kept trembling so hard that some parts of her actually started to hurt, thanks to that long trip they had.



She inwardly cursed this planet’s weather to the moon and back, already regretting it as she begrudgingly raised herself from her spot, barely feeling her feet as she trudged her way back towards him.



"No funny business, you hear me?" She threatened, the BloodHound tilting his head as he weirdly stared up at her, clearly trying to comprehend what she actually meant.



"Do not touch me inappropriately!" She explained herself after a tired sigh, the BloodHound innocently looking up at her as he simply raised up his palms into a surrendering manner.



Blowing out another sigh, she reluctantly lowered herself over the grass and seated herself in between his legs as she was already feeling way too cold and tired to argue any longer, hesitating for a few moments before she slowly laid back, gently pressing her back against his incredibly warm chest.



She unconsciously held her breath as she waited for another moment, bit by bit relaxing into him as he gingerly wrapped his arms around her as if he were afraid of scaring her away, comfortable warmth seeping into her bones like a steadily flowing river as he held her cocooned in his embrace.



*This feels way too nice.*



She quickly realized, feeling her cheeks grow a little hotter as she abruptly became so conscious about the fact that her body was so tightly pressed against his and that she could practically feel every dip and every bump, even that certain part of him.



She awkwardly cleared her throat.



"S-so why are we in a clearing anyway? Are we even safe here?" She suddenly blurted out in a desperate attempt to divert her attention onto anything else other than that.



"Don't worry, you are safe with me. I will know if we have company before they even get a chance to see us," He assured her, once again that vibration in his strong male voice lulling her closer to serenity, her gaze trailing back towards that small galaxy far, far away as she thought about home for a while before she eventually fell asleep.