The Garden Between Wars

Humans and Lasani people are almost always at war. During the medieval period, the alien Lasani landed and conquered parts of the world, but when their technology failed from depleted energy, both peoples turned to medieval warfare for dominance. Lasani are yellow humanoids with orange hair and eyes who draw energy from beings and food through their mouths. During a campaign, a human knight finds a beautiful, wounded Lasani woman helpless in a valley. Only they survived the encounter. Tired of killing, he carries her to a garden grove, kisses her, and gives her enough of his life energy to heal her. The sacrifice ages him twenty years, leaving him fifty with gray hair, before he collapses. When she awakens and understands what he has done, she must decide whether to kill him or spare him.