Captured (24 page)

“Little human, you are not afraid of the teeth and claws of the giant durra but you fear a small reptile?”

“Yes.
 
It was gross, with that venom dripping off its fangs.
 
Ewww!”

“What is this
gross
?”

“Disgusting.
 
Sickening.
 
Makes me want to puke.”

“Yet you didn’t shoot it.”

“I was afraid I’d accidentally shoot you.
 
The pepper spray scatters and a perfect aim isn’t as critical, besides, it’s nonlethal.
 
If I hit you, which I did as you recall, you wouldn’t die.”

“You would prefer that I return and kill them all?”

“No,” Mari snuggled closer to Ekkatt in the sleeping bag.
 
“They have as much right to live as we do.
 
I just don’t want one of them crawling in here with us.”

Ekkatt wrapped his arms around her and tucked her head into his shoulder.
 
“They live in the rocks.
 
You do not have to fear them.
 
We must have stopped very close to the nest.
 
They are not usually so aggressive.”

“If I hadn’t opened my eyes when I did, you could have died.”

“But you did open your eyes, and I did not die.”
 
Ekkatt chuckled.
 
“I am very impressed at the lengths you went to, to save me, despite the
grossness
of the sephatha.”

“You’re welcome,” said Mari, and she leaned over to brush her lips across his.
 
Her hand slid across the front of his trousers.
 
“I feel something stirring here.”

“You wish me to use it?”
 
Ekkatt teased.
 
“The process would be complicated in this bag.”

“Oh, no,” replied Mari, “Easy as pie.
 
Let me show you.
 
I just need access to the one part.”
 
Her head disappeared for a moment as she kicked off her panties and unfastened Ekkatt’s trousers.
 
She climbed on top of him, tossing her shirt aside.
 
Ekkatt took the hint and cupped her breasts with his palms, pinching her taut nipples.
 
“This is what we humans call a
quickie
,” Mari breathed.
 
She reached down and positioned his shaft between her legs.

“Mmmm, warm,” mumbled Ekkatt.
 

“Very,” replied Mari as she slid his length into her, inch by inch.
 
She rubbed her clit against the base of his cock.
 
“There’s something about a sephatha attack,” she moaned, “that makes one very horny.”

“What is
horny
?” murmured Ekkatt, his hands roaming her buttocks.
 

“It means,” panted Mari, arching her back, her hips moving up and down as she rode him, “I want to fuck your brains out.”

Ekkatt growled and flipped her beneath him.
 
He plunged deep, as Mari whimpered like a kitten.
 
“When you use these words, I cannot control myself.”
 
Ekkatt voice was rough.

“Then,” Mari gasped as he thrust again, “don’t.”
 

* * * *

Mari pulled the sleeping bag up over her shoulders.
 
She tried to slip off Ekkatt but he held her in place.

“Stay,” he said in a soft voice.
 
“I like your body on top of mine, and I have not finished licking your shoulder.”

“I’m not too heavy?”
 
Mari felt her body bounce as Ekkatt snorted.
 
“Good answer,” she said.

“This saying,
to fuck the brains out
, where does this come from?”

“I don’t know,” Mari laughed, pressing her face against his chest, “but it’s quite colorful and definitely says what it means and means what it says.”

“I will remember it the next time I am, as you say,
horny
.”
 

Mari giggled at his words, while Ekkatt replied by squeezing her bottom.
 
“You humans use much colorful language when it comes to matters involving physical intimacy.”

“Yes we do.
 
We can be rather crude.”

“But the crude language arouses me greatly.”

Mari hid her grin.
 
“I’ve noticed,” she said.
 
“Ekkatt?”

“Hmmm?”
 
He licked at the bite mark he’d made.

“You sleep.
 
I’ll take first watch.”

“No, little human, you do not see well in the dark. Besides, your sense of smell is not so acute.
 
I will take watch in a moment.
 
I merely want to lie with you for a time enjoying the comfort of your warm body.”

“I’m wide awake though, and I want to look at the stars,” said Mari.
 
“Remember, these stars are all new to me.”

“Ah,” Ekkatt scooted over and Mari shifted onto her back.
 
“Then look, Mari.
 
The stars are beautiful.
 
It is why I fly.
 
I love to look at the stars.”

“Do you name constellations?
 
Do you know what constellations are?”
 
Mari saw Ekkatt close his eyes for a moment.

“Star groupings?
 
You name star clusters, correct?”

“Yes.
 
We name groups of stars for heroes, mythical creatures, and ancient gods.
 
Our constellations move, or appear to move. You understand?
 
We call it precession, the apparent movement of the constellations in relation to a fixed point on earth.
 
So, a constellation rises at a different point on the horizon over spans of time.
 
Does that make any sense?”

“We have constellations,” Ekkatt replied.
 
“We call them
kohavae tuchan
.
 
Star spirits
.
 
They rise and set like your constellations.
 
In ancient times, my people used the kohavae tuchan as seasonal guides, as a calendar.
 
We use them as a directional guide in the wilderness.”

“Our constellations were used as calendars also.
 
Sailors still navigate by the stars,” said Mari.
 
She crossed her arms behind her head.
 
“Show me some star spirits.”

Ekkatt pointed directly above their heads.
 
“There are twelve stars there, see if you can find the shape.”

Mari followed his finger.
 
“I’ve never been very good at this, except for Orion’s Belt and the Big Dipper.”

“Look at them with soft eyes.
 
See them all together, not as individual stars,” Ekkatt instructed her.

Mari gazed upwards and allowed her eyes to lose focus.
 
She stopping picking out stars and instead looked for patterns.
 
She turned towards Ekkatt and grinned.
 
“It’s a giant durra.”

“Yes, it is the ancestor of all feline species on my planet.
 
Its name is Matu, the first durra.”

“And I suppose there is a sephatha up there?”

“No,” Ekkatt pointed to Mari’s right, “but there is what you would call a giant water reptile, that cluster of stars rising above the cliff,
Hakonitt
, the man eater.”

“Like our crocodile,” Mari yawned.

“Sleep, little human, I will show you more kohavae tuchan tomorrow.”
 
Mari allowed Ekkatt to pull her close. She fell asleep cradled in his arms.

Chapter 19

Ekkatt pulled out the last of their dried food.
 
He added water from the nearby stream, sealed the bag and shook it to rehydrate the protein supplement.
 
Mari had finished the vitamin and mineral powder three days before.
 
He took a hard look at her.
 
His woman was too thin, especially now.
 
It couldn’t be helped.
 
He’d had to cinch in his belt too.
 
He would hunt the next day.
 
Mari needed food, and they would need a permanent shelter soon.
 
The nights had grown much colder and the days shorter.
 
Ekkatt wondered why they hadn’t come across an abandoned settlement or a hut, anything to indicate the Attun had once lived in the region.
 
It was as if the area had deliberately been allowed to revert to its natural state.
 
Ekkatt knew that before the plague the region had been populated, not heavily, but populated none the less. Surely they’d left something behind. If so, he and Mari hadn’t discovered it yet.

They’d reached the hill more than a week before.
 
They’d climbed to the top, hoping to find a sign of civilization on the other side, but there was only more forest that stretched as far as the eye could see.

Ekkatt glanced over at Mari.
 
She stood at the edge of the clearing with her eyes closed and her head tilted at an odd angle.
 
He wondered if she felt sick again.
 
Her queasiness had increased now that they’d run out of the supplement.
 

“Mari,” he called.
 
“Come and eat something.”
 
She didn’t reply.

“Mari,” he repeated. “Come.”
 
Again there was no reply so he carried the bag to her.
 
Perhaps she was
asleep on her feet,
a concept she’d explained to him a few days before.
 

“Ekkatt,” she began, her eyes still closed, “you said you don’t have any canines on your world.”

“We do not have that species, no.
 
Come, Mari, you must eat.”
 
She opened her eyes and looked at him.
 

“If you don’t have any canines then why do I hear a dog barking?”
 

Ekkatt stopped in his tracks.
 
“That is not possible.
 
I think you have been too long without sleep and have eaten too little food.
 
Eat.
 
You must have heard the crack of a branch.
 
Perhaps a tree fell.”
 
He opened the bag and handed her a piece of the protein concentrate.
 
He watched as she chewed the leathery stuff with a thoughtful expression on her face.

“No,” she said. “It was definitely a dog.
 
I heard a large dog barking.
 
It may have been more than one dog.
 
The sound came from that direction.”
 
She pointed through the trees to their left.
 
“Do you smell anything bad in that direction?”

Ekkatt sniffed the air.
 
He opened his mouth and inhaled, trying to gauge the various scents of the forest.
 
“Nothing bad.”

“Then I want to go that way,” she said.
 

“Mari, I do not know what you…”

“There,” she interrupted, “there it is again.”

Ekkatt found himself mimicking Mari’s posture.
 
He closed his eyes, tilted his head, opened his mouth slightly and listened.
 
She was right, the distant noise did sound like the bark of a dog.
 
He’d heard dogs many times.
 
On Earth, the animals had seemed to sense his presence when humans could not.