A quiet village on another world

Valkyrie was sprawled back on an admittedly comfortable mattress - if she closed her eyes, she could just about imagine she was somewhere much nicer than a stranger’s ship. There were no bedsheets, the humanoid-compatible room seemed to be more a relic of the ship’s model, but the mattress sunk a little around her, supporting her comfortable.

She rolled onto her front, the faint echo of a headache still lingering, her firm breasts remarkably comfortable to lie on as the mattress adjusted to allow for them. Her legs were sprawled out in random directions, her arms crossed as an impromptu pillow under her forehead.

Then the ship thudded, and jerked. At a guess, that was how it felt when it landed. Valkyrie groaned.

“I am Noot.”

And quickly rolled over to not be showing off her ass. Okay, it wasn’t like she was ashamed of it - she’d put a few centuries into perking it up - but there were normally just very specific people that got to see it, and a talking tree wasn’t on that list.

She sat up, crossing her arms again.

“I want a lift back to Sakaar,” Valkyrie said. “I’m just going to stay on your ship, out of the way. You do whatever you’re doing here.”

“I am Noot?”

“Nuh-uh, not going out,” Valkyrie said.

“I am Noot…”

“You can stop staring now,” Valkyrie said flatly.

The tree walked out of the room. Valkyrie closed the doors behind it, and paced for a few minutes, debating.

All things considered, nudity had never hugely bothered her - there were communal baths back on Asgard, for the Valkyries, even if she tried to think about those times less these days. Plus it wasn’t like she’d ever had the most ‘decent’ of lifestyles. Drunken dares, awkward morning-afters, it happened.

Though going out onto an unknown world without a stitch on, walking outside feeling sunlight and air against her bare skin, that was a few steps further than she’d ever gone. Especially a world she didn’t know, a place that was new to her.

She lay back, trying to pretend she was back on Sakaar, lounging nude in her room. That, at least, was easier to imagine, and way more comfortable.

Instead, the ship shuddered again. Valkyrie blinked, sitting up - that was fast for a take-off. Probably good though. She wasn’t sure what Noot had even wanted here. Had it been a cargo run, a holiday, a taxi service? She shrugged.

Whatever, just so long as she was on her way back to…

The wall came away. For a moment, Valkyrie just sat there and stared. The huge sheet of grey metal that made up half the room she was in, in front of her, was prised away as easily as if this was some 3-D puzzle, detaching itself and being dragged away.

Sunlight streamed into the room through the growing crack, and a warm breeze reached her, tickling her bare side.

She was still half-processing just what she was seeing, when she identified people carrying the piece of the ship away. There were a dozen or so of them, and she could see other pieces of the ship in the distance through the new gaps.

They were disassembling it. Her eyes widened. Wait, this ship was her ticket off this planet, she-

Valkyrie took a step forwards, reached the end of the floor, quickly righted herself and jumped to the light grassy ground, before remembering her nudity. She hesitated.

“Oh, hello! Did they send you too?”

A curious face peered around the piece of metal, and then slipped around it. It was a woman, the same species as the others - her skin was a pale gold, two arms and two legs like most humanoids and even like Valkyrie, with pointed ears that jutted outwards and long, dark red hair that fell past her shoulders.

In many ways, she looked like an Asgardian. There were only two physical traits that were notably different. Her ears, and her eyes - there was an odd light in them, a pale blue ring around the pupil that seemed oddly luminous.

It was a little different being seen by someone so humanoid, to being seen by a tree. Valkyrie hesitated. She shifted her legs, quietly adjusting angle, but honestly would have felt far more embarrassed if she’d started clutching her arms over her body and screaming like a character from one of those old comic plays that one of her old compatriots on Asgard had been so fond of.

Instead, she tried to ignore the feel of grass against her feet, and sunlight on her bare chest, and focus just on the woman she was talking to.

Just one woman. She’d been naked around a woman before. Okay, there were a dozen people behind her, she didn’t know any of their names, had barely talked to them, but… eh, even that wasn’t new, Sakaar knew how to party.

“Did who send me?” Valkyrie said carefully. “And wait, what are you doing with the ship?”

“Taking it, melting it down. That was the deal,” the woman said.

Melting it-

“What?” Valkyrie said.

“We talked to the settler,” the woman said. “This is the ship the development fund sent. Our colony had a little issue establishing independence, so we got a boost - raw materials, and a Flora Colossus that wanted to retire. They didn’t mention anyone else.”

Of course not, she’d technically stowed away. Valkyrie paused, working out how best to reply.

As she faltered, more and more of the ship was being taken away. Even if she somehow fended off all the natives, she doubted she’d be able to re-assemble the whole thing.

Okay, so Noot was supplying some struggling colony, including letting its ship be melted down for parts, and had probably just been having a last goodbye party in a Sakaar tavern before settling down here. That… fit together. She could see the tree a little way in the distance, quite literally having put down roots, contentedly waiting in among a few small huts.

“Um, I don’t suppose you have any other way to contact this… development fund?” Valkyrie said.

“Oh, no, we want to be independent,” the woman said.

“Which I guess means no other ships,” Valkyrie said tiredly.

“No, no, none,” she said. She paused. “Well, the fund said it’ll send someone to check up on us-”

“Finally!”

“In two to three years,” the woman said.

Valkyrie slumped. Of all the ships to drunkenly wander onto…

“So I’m stuck here,” Valkyrie said.

“You didn’t want to be here?” the woman said.

“Didn’t plan on it, no,” Valkyrie said.

A warm breeze brushed by her again. Her cheeks warmed slightly, and she looked around. There was barely any of the ship left - the local species had taken it apart almost completely. There were a lot of huts around, and sporadically place tall trees stuck out in among the village. The metal seemed shockingly out of place.

Most of the inhabitants wore similar things too - a dark, black-red sheet almost like a toga, wrapping around their chests and with a couple of layers that descended varying lengths down their thighs.

Valkyrie sighed. Well, first order of business…

“Don’t suppose you can tell me where I can get one of those, while I’m here?” Valkyrie said.

She brushed the woman’s shoulder, and the black strip that crossed it - a lot of garments lacked those, but the woman she was talking to seemed to have them.

The woman frowned.

“One of what?” she said.

“Dress-toga-whatever-thing,” Valkyrie said. “Not really my style, but it’ll do?”

“What?” the woman said. She looked down, and then laughed playfully. “Oh, I see! No, no,I don’t think we can help.”

Valkyrie blinked.

“What?” she said.

“Oh, you don’t know?” the woman said.

Her eyes shone for a moment. The luminous band brightened, shifting colour to a spectrum of shades, and the dress that clung to the woman’s body flickered. A patch in the side vanished, then reappeared, and the red under-layer darkened a little.

Then her eyes returned to normal. She smiled helpfully.

“Psychic protection,” the woman said. “It’s just something our species… does. Mostly involuntary, but we can shape it - make it more practical, sometimes. You can’t do that?”

“No. No I can’t,” Valkyrie said.

She stared, adjusting her legs again, struggling to find words. So she’d ended up on a planet full of people who dressed with psychic powers. Sure, why not?

“So,” Valkyrie said slowly. “Do you have any actual clothing on this planet that isn’t a psychic creation?”

“Why would we need anything like that?” the woman said.

Valkyrie stared.

“Sorry. Drank a lot last night, still dealing,” Valkyrie said. “So you’re saying I’m on a planet with no actual clothes, completely naked-”

“You do look that way. I didn’t know how to bring it up.”

“And there’s no way off, and no way to get dressed, for two years?” Valkyrie said.

“Two to three,” the woman said helpfully.

Valkyrie swallowed. Then, she did cross her arms, trying to look as dignified as she could, face warm. Oh. Okay then.

Well, it wouldn’t be two years, surely? At the very least, not two years naked - she could figure out a way to make clothes. Probably. Okay she didn’t know what animal hides there were on this would, and she’d never figured out how fabric was meant to be made, but still.

She fidgeted a little. The alien woman looked her up and down, in a way that would probably have been flattering in any other circumstances. Valkyrie adjusted her arms, trying to keep her pose looking as natural as possible, but better hiding her breasts, accidentally pushing them up and accentuating her cleavage.

“Okay,” Valkyrie said. She took a deep breath. “Okay. Two - two to three - years naked on an alien world. Great. I can deal. I can deal.”

She paused.

“I need a drink,” Valkyrie said.

“Oh, the forest spring is that way,” the woman said, still sounding like she thought she was being helpful. “Look for the blue mushrooms, they purify the water.”

“I was kinda thinking something a bit stronger,” Valkyrie said.

“Oh! Melgron in the village can make a few teas if-”

“Where’s the booze?” Valkyrie said. The woman looked at her quizzically. “Moonshine? ****? Beer, whisky, wine, whatever, I’m not fussy.”

“I don’t think we have that,” the woman said.

Valkyrie stared at her in horror.

“Are you okay?”

“Look, expecting me to spend three years naked I can understand,” Valkyrie said. “But without booze?!”