Unfortunately.

He also kept strictly to his side of the bed when we slept, lying on his back on top of the blankets. Without fail when I woke each day, he was already up for the morning, elbow-deep in chores that I’d told him the day before I’d tackle for him myself.

I was glad to have the work on the ranch to keep me busy and wear out my body so much. Otherwise, I might actually have to deal with the fact that I seemed to be falling rather fucking rapidly for a husband who, apart from touching my boobs and coming in his pants that one time, seemed perfectly content to keep his distance from me.

At least, that’s what I thought.

Until the stampede.

And this wasn’t the fun sort of stampede. This wasn’t the Zabrian version of the Old-Earth tradition of the Calgary Stampede.

Oh, no. This was the out-of-control, get-out-of-the-way-or-your-human-ass-will-be-a-pancake stampede.

And somehow, I managed to end up practically right in the middle of it.

The day started normally. It was my thirteenth morning waking up in an empty bed and cursing the fact that Silar already had such a big head start on me. I scrambled into clean-ish clothes (everything I had seemed permanently coated in dust no matter how well I tried to wash them), slammed on my boots, had a quick pee, and washed up a bit. Then I donned my hat and headed out to find my husband.

Only he’d already moved on from the shuldu stalls and barn chores and was likely now patrolling the property on Tarion or one of the other shuldu, checking the fences for places to repair. It was one of the chores he refused to let me help him with. I’d pestered him about it a few times – because there was a ton of property and metres upon metres of fencing to take care of all by himself – but his eyes had flashed bright white and he’d finally laid down the law yesterday.

“You do not go near the fences. Especially any damaged areas,” he’d growled fiercely. It was the only time when his body and voice were actually telling me what strong emotion his eyes were glowing with. And it was anger.

“Why not?” I’d pressed, my own irritation rising in turn. Hadn’t I proved myself useful enough to him yet? How many walls did he intend to throw up at me? Or fences, in this case?

But he’d just taken a menacing step towards me, his tail making the leather of his belt creak audibly when it tightened around the hook at the back.

“No. Fences.” Then he’d softened a little. But only a little. “Promise me, Cherry.” His hands had twitched, like he’d wanted to reach for me. I raised my chin and dared him to do it. Dared him to touch me when he’d been so damn careful not to.

But he’d just curled his hands into fists and let out a tight breath. The whiteness of his eyes dimmed, allowing me a glimpse of those oddly beautiful lightning bolts of blue.

“Promise me,” he’d whispered.

And like a love-struck fucking dummy, I’d promised.

So, no fences for me.

With Silar busy on that job, I decided to get back to the gardens. I’d never gotten a chance to work with plants or soil this way on Terratribe I, and I actually really enjoyed it. I loved the feel of leaves and stems and roots. The way the soil coated my hands. It all smelled so fresh and new to me, and I had no idea if it was because this was an alien planet, or if it was just because I’d had no experience in the botanical realm. Either way, it was completely novel and entirely engrossing. And it yielded results I could actually see with my own two eyes. This wasn’t installing the same fucking part on the same model of engine hundreds of times a day on an assembly line, feeling like you’re stuck in a time loop and never actually seeing the finished product. Nope. This actually made me feel like I was doing something real.

For every weed I pulled, I made more room for the vegetables to spread and grow. For every place I watered, new growth sprouted. It had been just under two weeks since my arrival, but spring was in full bloom now. The garden had green and yellow and reddish-brown shoots popping up all over the place, and the fruit trees were so heavy with buds that their coming blossoms promised to be spectacular.

It was like this, down on my knees, my hands turned red from the soil, that I suddenly felt it.

Trouble.

It was tactile before it was audible. A bizarre and untraceable rumbling through the ground. A shy shiver of sensation at first but growing stronger every second.

Planet-quake?

I’d experienced a couple of mild ones on Terratribe I, and I knew Old-Earth had been notorious for really dangerous ones. But somehow, a planet-quake didn’t seem quite right. Because I was hearing things, now. Things like thousands upon thousands of layers of distant thunder.

Only there wasn’t a cloud in the sky.

I rose, frowning, dusting my hands on my pants and tipping the brim of my hat back a little to get a better look around. Everything seemed normal back here behind the house as far as I could tell.

But the sound and the vibrating roar was only getting louder.

Panic dampened my fists. I didn’t know where Silar was right now. The ranch, with all its various pastures, was absolutely massive. If something was wrong, would he even know it? With his ears, he’d likely be able to hear whatever it was by now.

But what the hell was it?

I hurried up onto the porch of the house and then into the kitchen. Even in here, I could feel the tremors underfoot. Could hear the increasing doom-rattle of whatever was coming our way.

Seriously, I thought. Is this, like, an invisible tornado or some shit? What the hell is happening?!

Finding no answers in the kitchen, and getting more and more worried about Silar wherever he was, I went through the house’s front door and out onto the road, trying to suss out more information on the situation. I looked up at the astoundingly clear, blue sky, then angled my head the way we’d come from the warden’s property on our wedding day. Nothing on the road. At least not in that direction.

I turned my head the other way and…

Ohhhh. Fuck.

It was as if the ground itself had risen up and was rolling in a great, dusty wave towards me. A roiling mass of movement was pummelling itself over the land, dust rising like nuclear fumes. An explosion of sound split through my skull. The moving mass wasn’t limited to the dirt road the way a train might barrel towards me on its tracks. No, whatever this disaster was, it stretched across the landscape in an inescapable crush.

And it was moving fucking fast.

The house!

I had to get back in the house. I had no idea if the structure would even withstand the thunderous force roaring towards me, but staying here in the road, the only living thing around to get smushed, was not an option. I’d never prayed before, but I did in that moment as I stumbled backwards towards the house, pleading to every Old-Earth god I’d ever studied in school and maybe even a few I’d made up. Please, please let Silar be OK. Please. If he’s in the path of this mess, let him at least be on a shuldu and outrun it. Please!

But maybe I should have been praying for my stupid-ass self. Because when I reached the edge of the road and was about to turn and flee into the house, I stepped on a big, fat, very poorly placed rock and I felt flat on my ding-dang derriere.

The impact slammed up my spine, knocking my teeth together. That, combined with the vicious shaking of the ground and cacophony of noise, left me wildly disoriented. So much so that I actually panicked thinking I might not be able to stand up and that I’d have to crawl back to the house.

I would never fucking make it.

Dust filled my mouth, my throat. My lungs burned as I scrabbled into a wobbly standing position. Everything was sound and shaking and fury and for too-long a moment I didn’t even know which way to turn to get back to the house.