Alien Champion

"I don't know how to win Fiona, but I do know how to fight. And I will fight for her with everything I have..."FIONA When I spontaneously kiss Dalk at midnight during our Deep Sky New Year's Eve party, I become aware of two I may have a crush on the grumpiest alien warrior at our settlement. I may also be ever-so-slightly sexually harassing him. He never mentions the kiss afterwards, and neither do I, except to awkwardly apologize and tell him it will never happen again. But that just seems to make grouchy Dalk even, well, grouchier. I can't figure him out, and all his staring and glaring sure doesn't help. I try to put it out of my mind as we all prepare for a vaklok - a traditional Deep Sky tournament meant to showcase the unmated males' strengths and skills. Oxriel and Zoren are competing, too. I tell myself that I'll cheer for everyone equally... Even if Dalk is the only one I watch. DALK I have watched Fiona, the human with the flowers on her skin, ever since I rescued her from the zeelk that fateful day out on the open sands. I have wanted her nearly as long. So when she throws her arms around me and puts her mouth on mine, hope blooms... Only to be dashed when she tells me it was a mistake she will not repeat. I do not know what I did wrong. I do not know how to win her. But the vaklok is coming. If I can prove myself a champion against Oxriel and Zoren and all of Gahn Thaleo's men... Maybe she will finally find me worthy.