Clementine kept one gloved hand on the cracked wing of her escape pod as she lowered her boots into the hairy blue stuff that passed for grass on this world. Her soles hit solid dirt beneath the grass, and she grinned. At least it's not a swamp. Praise her pirate ancestors for the end of her bad luck.

First her crew's greatship had been disabled by an unexpectedly well-armed merchant ship. Then her fighter was partially melted, and she had to evacuate through a firefight in this rickety old glider pod. Then magnetic damage to the navigation module prevented it from returning to the greatship. It would do nothing except take her safely to the nearest survivable planet. Slowly.

Two weeks later, here she was in a blue prairie. She could breathe without her helmet, but the air smelled like honey and grapefruit. The burnt plastic stink from her damaged pod was the only normal odor.

She glanced around, hoping to see something that could get her off this unknown world and back to the main ship. The useless blue plain was dotted with collossal pink-fronded palm trees and tiny reptilian butterflies.

Near a black brook, the wind fluttered orange weeping willow fronds. Then two strings of leaves parted, against the wind. Blue eyes in a blue humanoid face peeked out.

Clementine called out, “Peace,” hoping the creature would be intelligent, hoping it would understand, hoping it would repair her escape pod.

The creature hummed softly and stepped out of the willow. It was nearly human shaped, and wore a sort of toga woven from blue prairie grass. Behind its arms were giant blue folded wings, which gave it a demonic look. Clementine put her hand on her knife hilt, ready for trouble. But the lizard person waded slowly through the grass, and carried no weapons, only a handful of waxy white flowers.

Clementine kept her knife sheathed as it approached. It stopped in front of her, still calmly humming. It set the flowers in the grass, and then reached out a six-fingered blue hand. Its fingertips touched Clementine's glove. She felt a gentle warmth where its fingers pressed against hers.

She should take off her gloves. Wait, why did she think that? Foolish idea. But she was already removing the gloves.

The creature's fingers touched her bare hand.

Thoughts flooded her mind. “I am a prince of my people. I collect rare specimens and artifacts. You are breathtakingly beautiful.”

“Hah.” She knew her short brown hair and thin face were plain, not beautiful. “I'm a person, not a dusty museum exhibit,” she thought fiercely. “I want to return home.”

“I mean no offense. I will take you to my home, and prepare you a delicious meal.”

Her mouth watered at the thought of food that wasn't dried in packets. “Food would be great, but how am I supposed to get to your home?”

He smiled. “I shall carry you there. May I?”

“I guess so.” She watched warily as he stepped behind her and lifted her, with one arm around her flight-jacketed shoulders and the other arm under the backs of her knees. She put one arm around his neck as he unfurled his massive wings.

“Whoa,” she muttered as he flapped his wings and left the ground. They rose above the blue prairie and soared away from her crashed pod and his abandoned flowers. Above the pink treetops, the air smelled fresher and less fruity. The prince had his own coppery scent, and his skin warmed where her hands and cheek touched it. He was stronger than anyone else she had met, and he carried her easily. She had never felt so peaceful on a planet as she felt in his arms. She wondered if he were telepathically affecting her emotions.

“I'm not,” he thought to her. “Flying is peaceful, usually.”

The prairie below them changed to a pink and orange forest. Then the palace came into view, impossibly tall, casting its shadow over the treetops below. Clay colored towers seemed to be braided together, and were dotted with balconies. Blue bat-winged people soared around it, or stood in dark entrances touching hands, or carried bundles from one balcony to another. As they grew closer, Clementine saw elaborate gardens at the base of the towers, full of bright flowers and trees.

“Rare plants,” the prince thought to her. “I collect them.

”They're beautiful.“

”Agreed. You may see more of my curiosities while I gather food.“ He swooped toward a balcony in the tallest tower. He landed gently, and set her on the clay floor. ”I'll return soon.“ He turned away and glided off the balcony, and down into the treetops far below.

Clementine wondered if any of his curiosities could help her return to space. She stepped into the large tower room. Light from irregular window holes glittered on mushroom-shaped display tables covered with oddities. Fossilized skeletons similar to pteradactyls lay among dried butterfly lizards in every color. Scaly hides and arm-length tusks filled another area. Miniature boats made of bone and grass and wood sat beside a pair of child-sized leather wings attached to a grass harness. Curious how the wings worked, Clementine picked them up.

A small blue hand reached from behind her and brushed her fingers.

She looked back at a small winged person with large eyes. Thoughts said, ”Not touch things. Trouble. Breakable.“

Clementine set the wings back on the table. “Are you the curator?”

“Don't have that here. I'm student. Prince finds things, very pretty. You too. You from where?”

Clementine thought of her birth ship and her current pirate ship. None of that would make sense to a child here. “I'm from the sky.”

The student considered that. “Like ears-tail-whiskers?”

Clementine was puzzled by the unclear thought. “What is that?”

Behind the child, the prince returned through the window with a basket of fruits and nuts. The child thought, "Must go,“ and dropped Clementine's hand.

”Wait,“ she thought, but the child slipped past the prince and flew away.

The prince walked forward and took her hand. ”The children are welcome here. I collect things for their education. I hope they do not annoy you.“

Clementine felt more puzzled than annoyed. ”I'm not bothered.“

”Good. Here is food. We will eat in the garden.“ He moved behind her and lifted her again, without asking. She considered that presumptuous, but didn't complain as he carried her out of the palace and down to the gardens.

They sat together under a puffy maroon tree with a lemony scent. Soon blue lizard people swarmed around them, and the prince introduced her to dozens of palace residents as she ate. The people were confusing and pushy, but the fruit was delicious, some sweet, some tart, some like cinnamon.

After the meal, the prince showed her his musical windchime collection, and his art collection, and more fossils, and historical clothing and jewelry. Then another meal with more introductions. She was exhausted by nightfall, when he brought her to a small tower room with a circular blue grass mattress.

He thought, ”I will return for you in the morning. Sleep well, my love.“

Startled by his thought of love, she almost let him leave. But she needed to know more about things from the sky. ”Wait, please. Is there something like ears-tail-whiskers from the sky?“

”Hmm? Yes.“ His thoughts changed from words to a picture of a running cat, tinged with sadness. ”We can visit this being tomorrow. It fears me, but perhaps you can acquire it for my collection. But we must sleep now, before the sun-heat fades.“ He dropped her hand and left.

She lay on the mattress and eventually slept, but she dreamed of cages and dried specimens coming to life and chasing her. She woke up restless.

Unfortunately, the room had no door except the open balcony, and she hadn't seen stairs anywhere. She had to wait until the prince arrived to carry her down to the gardens for breakfast. She again felt frustrated, but didn't complain. After breakfast, the prince carried her over the forest to visit the cat.

They landed among pink-needled trees, beside a bubbling black lake. She smelled scorched plastic and looked around. A wrecked escape pod was wedged between three tree trunks. She stepped toward it.

The prince grabbed her hand. ”The sky animal will not be there. It has sadness.“

”Relax. I want to look at the wreck. It might have parts I can use, to fix my own pod. Then I'll visit the cat.“

”If you must. I will seek this animal, cat.“ The prince stalked in the other direction, looking up into the trees.

Clementine approached the wreckage hopefully. She needed intact navigation equipment and fuel cells, which were in the back of the pod.  Most of the melted scars were in the front.

She stepped around two long piles of fruit and waxy white flowers, before she stopped and looked more closely. They were human sized piles. Several black worms crawled over the flower petals. Graves. Sadness.

Nobody in her crew owned a cat. This pod must have belonged to the merchant ship. If her crew had won the battle, they might have already scavenged parts from the merchant ship, and they might already be leaving this sector.

Worried, Clementine trudged to the wrecked pod and searched the outside, then climbed into the shadowy interior. She gathered clothing, cat food, a navigation module, four full fuel cells, and a distress beacon that would send her location to her crew if she could place it into orbit.

She considered looking through the personal bags wedged behind the seats, but decided to leave them. She usually thought of enemy ships in terms of hits and misses and valuable cargos. Specially trained crew members dealt with people and death. She didn't want to know anything about these dead people under their flowers, or the sadness would infect her, too.

She threw everything she wanted into a duffel bag that already held a few packets of food. Then she left the pod and went to look for the cat.

Partway around the black lake, the white cat found her. It darted out from an orange bush and ran up to her, mewling. She looked through her bag for the cat food as the cat rubbed its chin against her boots. She found the dry food and poured some onto a gray rock. The cat was gobbling up the food when the prince flew overhead. The cat quit eating and hissed up at him.

Clementine whispered, ”Easy, little cat. I'll get you off this world, but we'll need his help.“

The prince landed and walked toward them. The cat darted between Clementine's ankles. She reached down and picked it up. Its tail tip twitched unhappily, and it sank its claws into the sleeve of her flight jacket, but it stayed in her arms as the prince walked up and touched Clementine's hand.

"Congratulations on collecting the cat animal, my love.” He smiled fondly at her.

"Thanks," she thought, "but the cat is still pretty nervous. If you carry us back to my escape pod, the cat will feel cozier there.”

He looked at the cat's claws. “But I want the cat to live in my palace, so all the children can see it.”

“Later the cat can move to the palace. But first I have to fix my escape pod, so we can move that to your palace too. The cat can live happily in the pod.” She hoped he couldn't sense the dishonesty in her thoughts.

“If that is your wish, my love.” He lifted her carefully, while she held the cat and the duffel bag.

Despite the cat's miserable meowing, Clementine savored the comfortable feeling of being in the prince's arms one last time as they flew back to the blue prairie. As soon as they landed, the cat squirmed free and raced over to Clementine's pod. She followed it, and opened the entry hatch.

The cat leaped inside and huddled on the seat.

“Soon, now,” Clementine muttered. She grabbed her emergency tools and started work on the navigation system.

The prince watched her but didn't interfere.

As she finished the repairs, a shadow drifted past the pod. She looked up. A second lizard man landed near the prince. He was wrinkled but large, and wore a toga made of some red material finer than grass. If she remembered her introductions correctly, this was the king.

The prince touched the king's fingertips. The king scowled at Clementine, and the prince looked unhappy.

Nervous, Clementine slotted the fuel cells into the correct compartments and unhooked the smuggling box which she usually carried in place of a distress beacon.

As she set the other pod's beacon into the launcher, the prince pushed the king away and growled at him, sounding furious.

The king flapped his wings and jumped toward Clementine. She pulled a knife, but he grabbed her hand and pushed thoughts into her mind.

“Bad woman. He loves you too much. You are useless as queen. You can't lay eggs. He fears you will leave him, shatter his love. Bad monster woman. Go away.”

Clementine backed away, and the king dropped her hand. The prince was still growling, flexing his wings in an aggressive stance. Clementine glanced at the cat, who lay on the seat, watching the lizard men.

She felt sorry for the prince, but neither she nor the cat belonged here, and the king's wishes were brutally clear. She climbed into the pod, closed the hatch, moved the cat aside, and strapped herself into the seat. The cat climbed onto her lap and curled up there.

She pressed the ignition button, and said clearly, “Return to space, far orbit, this planet.”

The escape pod hummed and began to swivel backward. The view through her front windows slid from blue prairie to reddish sky.

The engine roared. Something blue smacked against her window as the pod rose upward. Clementine swore as the prince's face peeked in at her. He was laying over her windows.

She shouted into her outside speaker, "Get off of there.“

The cat jumped from her lap to the floor.

”Not you, him.“

The prince looked unhappy but remained on top of the pod as it began to accelerate toward space.

”Idiot,“ she shouted, unsure if he could understand her. ”You're going to suffocate.“ She put her hand on the window next to his face, but couldn't hear any thoughts.

The pod rose faster. She had already used enough fuel that a second flight would be impossible.

The prince seemed to realize his danger. He struggled to get up, but the pod's acceleration held him trapped.

Clementine thought of his love for her. His affection for the castle children. His concern for the cat. He was so gentle and kind compared to the ruthless space pirates she had hoped to rejoin.

Unhappily, she hit the button that canceled her planned flight off the planet. The engine's roar changed pitch, the cat glared at her, and the pod tilted downward into gliding position.

The prince flapped his wings as he almost fell off the pod. He managed to stay just outside the windows as the pod returned to the blue prairie and landed.

Through the window, Clementine saw that the king had picked up the white flowers which the prince had left here yesterday. The king flew against the prince, and hugged him.

Clementine wondered if the king was going to attack her for nearly killing his son. She opened the hatch and stepped out of the pod.

The prince reached for her hand.

She grabbed his fingers and thought, ”You idiot. You could have died. You couldn't live in space. Now I'm stuck here where I don't belong, for probably the rest of my life.“

He smiled. ”Be calm, my love. You do belong here, with me. That was a very exciting flight. Can we fly like that again?“

”Once, maybe, to get the pod to your palace. If I'm still welcome there.“ She glanced at the king. He was shredding the waxy petals and tossing the pieces into the wind.

The prince pulled on Clementine's hand and touched her fingers to the king's waxy fingertips.

He thought, ”Thank you for not killing my foolish son. Perhaps you are not such a monster as I thought. But you cannot be queen.“

”I don't want to be a queen.“

The prince thought, ”My cousin can become queen, and her mate can be king someday. We shall spend our lives exploring and collecting, and you shall be our expert on everything alien.“

The king thought, ”I suppose that is acceptable. If you, alien lady, want to stay with my son.“

Clementine smiled sheepishly. ”I do actually like him a lot. In time, I'll probably grow to love him.“

The king smiled too. ”Then you are welcome in our palace. And I shall order mechanical wings made for you, so you can fly properly.“

”Thank you.“

They brought the pod and the unhappy cat back to the palace. Over time, the cat grew comfortable with the attention and the small treats brought by the lizard children. Clementine eventually fell in love with the prince, and married him. By the time the old king died, and Clementine helped gather the waxy white flowers for his burial mound, she felt completely accepted by the blue lizard people. The prince adored her, and only jokingly called her, ”My beloved alien curiosity.“