Next
Still, it was not without more than a little trepidation that they resumed their hike down the steep mountainside, approaching the village and their first encounter with the Talisi.
The remaining distance to the village took longer than they had originally anticipated, requiring the crossing of a series of ridges that they hadn't seen from above. It was almost midday when Tillek stopped in the middle of a trail that had obviously been made by humans and looked around. "Something's not right."
"I don't hear anything," Leysen said after straining her ears for a moment and hearing nothing other than the continuous buzzing of insects and a few distant jitkaws --- the same stuff that she'd been hearing for days.
"Exactly. We should be able to hear something by now. The women singing as they worked in the fields, if nothing else."
"In the middle of winter?" From above, Leysen hadn't thought that the fields looked if they had been worked lately.
"There's always work to be done," Tillek replied. "Especially for the females." Leysen didn't particularly care for the sound of that.
"And we should have met at least one sentry by now," Velder added.
"Definitely." He turned to Leysen. "Can you see anything in the village, girl?"
She could still see the smoke rising from the other side of the low ridge ahead of them. Her eyes sparkled as she stared at --- and through --- the ridge. "I... I can't see anything clearly through all that rock. But I don't see anything moving."
"Let's keep going then. But keep your eyes and ears open, girl." Tillek resumed walking.
Just before they crested the ridge, she saw the body and ran up ahead. The men followed her, but it was at least half a minute before they could catch up to her.
The man was lying face down in the grass to the left of the trail --- clearly dead, his throat slit neatly from ear to ear.
"A... a santha?" Leysen asked, crossing her arms in front of her as she shivered, remembering her one previous encounter with the fiercest predator on the planet.
"No animal kills like this, except one," Tillek said. "Only man kills like this. And from the looks of it, he hasn't been here very long."
The reason became clear when they reached the crest and looked down upon the village. Or rather, upon what was left of the village.
The wooden palisade around the village was breached in several spots. Some of the wooden buildings were still smoldering, sending up columns of thick black smoke. "Good thing we didn't come down here last night. We could have walked right into the middle of this."
Cautiously they approached, remaining alert for any signs of either the attackers or of the remaining defenders. They found neither.
No live defenders, at any rate. Dead warriors were strewn through the ruined village, stripped of their weapons. Jitkaws picked at the carcasses while insects buzzed around. The charred remains of the young and the elderly were found inside a building, apparently burnt alive. The stench was horrible. Only the fact that they had approached from upwind had kept Leysen from smelling it earlier.
The storehouses of grain had been burnt down. Everything of value apparently had been carried off. Anything not worth carrying off had been destroyed.
"I've never seen a raid like this," Tillek said.
"A raid? This was just a raid?"
He spread his arms out. "They took what they could and burned down the rest. I don't see any women. Whoever did this came here, overwhelmed the defenders, herded the animals away, and carried the women off."
Even though she knew that she could protect herself against the Talisi, she didn't like the sound of that. "What... what do we do?"
"Right now, this is probably the safest place around."
"But... but what if they come back?"
"Why should they, girl? They've already killed the men and carried off the women. There's no reason for anybody to be here."
"What about our gear? Shouldn't we go back for it?"
"We're better off staying here tonight. We can get it tomorrow."
"Will it be safe? What if they find it?"
"Do you think they can roll that boulder aside like you can, girl?"
"No, but..." She looked up at the sun, gauging how much time remained before nightfall. "I can go back and get it, and be back here before it gets too dark."
"No!" Tillek's shout made Leysen flinch. "I forbid you to go by yourself! Those raiders might still be around."
He didn't want her out by herself? A Prime? What did she have to fear from a band of sword-wielding barbarians?
Or was it that he didn't want her to leave them alone --- despite his assurances that they would be safest in the village --- two unarmed Betas against a band of sword-wielding barbarians?
She choked back a sharp reply. She could see that it really would be best --- for her as well as for them --- to remain together. Even if it meant that she would have to feed them tonight, since their emergency rations had been left in the cave. It was either that or eat some of the dead villagers. And none of them wanted to do that. That didn't leave anything for her to eat, but she didn't mind; she had no appetite.
Not able to bury the bodies, the three Arions gathered them together into a big pile on one edge of the village. Leysen refused to use her heat vision to vaporize them, so Tillek and Velder collected wood from the buildings and built a funeral pyre.
The exercise did nothing to stimulate Leysen's appetite. If anything, it depressed it further. The men however, needed more energy. After feeding, they settled into one of the least damaged buildings --- which meant it still had half of its roof --- to sleep. Tillek did not have to insist that they set a watch for the night.
They were not disturbed during the night. At least, not by whoever had attacked the village. None of them were able to sleep very easily with the jitkaws cawing as they fought over the remaining scraps of flesh.
Velder sat motionless by the fire and watched as a large jitkaw --- braver if not necessarily smarter than its fellows --- landed close by and began picking at something in the dirt. Slowly he reached out and picked up a fist-sized stone. The bird lifted its head at the motion and watched him from about ten feet away. He drew back his arm and then let fly, as hard as he could.
The pilot's skill was as good as his aim. The jitkaw had time for just one startled caw before the stone hit. There was an explosion of feathers. It tried to flee but with a broken wing it couldn't get into the air. Velder sprang up and pounced on it as it tried to run, grabbed up the stone, and smashed in its head.
Taking his knife from his belt, he cut off the broken head and held the bird by its feet, letting it bleed out. Then he gutted it, working slowly and carefully. He'd seen the job done --- though with other birds, not jitkaws --- by the Talisi females, and he'd done it himself during a hunt --- though again, not with a jitkaw. He saved the heart and liver, putting them back into the body cavity, and then tossed the rest of the offal by the corpse of the warrior for the other jitkaws to fight over. Bringing the bird back to his seat by the fire, he began the tedious job of plucking it.
When he was done, he gathered up some wood, built a crude spit, and began roasting the carcass over the fire.
The morning sun did little to warm their spirits. However, Velder's jitkaw did a little better. Roasted --- even though it was not a staple food among the Talisi --- it still provided the men with breakfast, their first solid meal since the start of their trek. And more importantly, it relieved Leysen of the need to feed the men. She still had no appetite herself, allowing the men to have almost all of the bird, only forcing herself to take a bite of the liver. It tasted no better than the liver of any other animal.
They then retraced their path back to the cave where they had cached their supplies.
"So, what do we do now?" Leysen asked after they had been walking in silence for about an hour, leaving the dead village behind.
"We obviously have to keep on going."
"Yeah, but where?" She looked at the mountains that they had just crossed. "Over those? To the east coast?"
"There should be more people closer to this coast, I think. What do you think, old friend?"
"The coast sounds good. There has to be more people around here. If nothing else, somebody had to have done that."
She thought back to the corpses strewn around the village. "I... I'm not sure I want to live among people who do that kind of stuff." She crossed her arms in front and hugged herself tightly to suppress a shiver.
"You mean, among people who burn down simple villages? Instead of destroying entire planets, like we do?"
"I... I..." She closed her mouth, knowing that Tillek was right. Hadn't she spent most of her life training for war? And for interstellar war, not just little intramural stuff like the results of what she had just seen.
That reminder put a damper on all of their spirits, as if the sight at the village hadn't been enough. It was late afternoon when they finally returned to the little cave. After she rolled the boulder aside, they retrieved their supplies and repacked.
Deciding that there wasn't enough daylight left to keep moving, they camped nearby, beside a stream.
After feeding, Tillek took the first watch that night, to be followed first by Velder and then by Leysen in the predawn hours when he judged the danger to be at its highest. Gratefully, Leysen curled up by the fire to sleep.
Sleep did not come easy for Leysen that night. Whenever she closed her eyes, she kept seeing the ruined village. And worse, she kept imagining what must have happened. On top of all that, her breasts were still tingling from feeding the two men. Abandoning sleep she sat up, rubbing the bridge of her nose as she looked around in the gloom.
As she sat up, Tillek looked over in her direction. "Just going for a walk," she told him, standing up and then walking off into the trees in the direction of the stream. Once she was out of his sight she brought her left hand up to her breast, lightly stroking and caressing it.
Coming to the stream, she lightly hopped across the fifteen feet of water and walked into the trees on the other side, still caressing her breast.
Dellin lay in the grass watching the female walk toward him. What was a female doing out here, alone at night? So far from any village?
Except for Ranture, of course. Had she somehow escaped their attack on Ranture?
Well, she wasn't going to escape this attack.
He lowered his head as she came closer, completely oblivious to his presence. As she neared, he could tell that she was young, just the way that he liked them, though a bit on the slender side.
She was wearing a vest made from a santha pelt. She must have a warrior who really liked her, liked her enough to give her such a gift.
Well, she was going to have another warrior now. A warrior who would give her a completely different kind of gift.
He also saw that she had slid her left hand inside her vest to caress her breast, probably imagining that it was the santha-killer's hand.
Well, she was going to feel another warrior's hand now.
He waited until she walked past him, then quietly got up to his feet. He sprang at her from behind, getting his arms around her waist to force her down to the ground.
Leysen heard something moving behind her. Before she could react, that same something hit her in the back, wrapping around her waist and knocking her off balance, dropping her down upon one knee. Her first thought was that it was another santha, but it didn't smell the same --- not the stench of carrion.
She quickly pried herself free and sprang back up to her feet, prepared to defend herself. Looking down, she was surprised to see a large man at her feet.
She took a step back and forced herself to smile. This was it, what they've been looking for. Their first contact with the Talisi. She spread her arms to the sides in what she hoped was a friendly --- or at least a non-hostile --- gesture.
Even as she was trying to find the right words to say, he sprang back up to his feet and leaped at her again, trying to wrestle her down to the ground. Deciding that his wasn't a very friendly gesture --- or perhaps, too friendly a gesture --- she pushed him away, to send him sprawling down into the grass, landing on his ass more than fifteen feet away.
She immediately realized that she had pushed him with more of her Prime strength than she had intended to do. Afraid that she had hurt him, she leaped to his side, squatting down next to him as he lay on the ground.
She rubbed the bridge of her nose with her right forefinger as she tried to think of the proper words in Talisi. "Did... did I hurt you?"
Now that she could take a good look at him, she saw that he was taller than her two Beta companions were. He was also larger, his physique rivaling those of Primes. He was definitely an impressive man, much more impressive than the Betas, even more impressive than her boyfriend Mellek, who was a bit on the small side for a Prime. It was hard to tell with the mud smeared on his face to keep off the insects, but she thought that he might be handsome.
She reached out with her right hand, lightly running her fingers across his face and wiping some of the mud off of him. When he tried to squirm away from her, she put her left hand on the top of his head to hold it still.
He really was kind of handsome, in a rugged way. A fine face that looked as if it had been carved of granite, a strong chin, though the nose was a bit too broad for her tastes. Dark hair, almost as black as her own, though cropped quite close to the skull. He might be a bit too old for her, but not by much. And he was the first man whom she had seen in quite a while, except for Tillek and Velder, and they didn't really count, being mere Betas.
Releasing his head, she began scraping off the mud on his chest. Remembering her experiences with the Beta midshipman aboard the Empress Jiltan'th, she was careful not to press down too hard on his chest.
He really was built. His huge pecs --- much bigger than those of her two Beta companions --- rippled as he squirmed under her caresses. She pressed down a bit harder --- still only using her fingers --- to stop his squirming as she scraped the rest of the mud off of his chest.
He really was a handsome man. She leaned even closer to get a better look at him.
Dellin stared in amazement at the female. Not since he was a boy had he been thrown like that. And never by a female.
And now she was bending down over him. Worse, she was reaching for him again.
He felt as if his head was going to be forced down into his chest. Then he felt a crushing pressure on his chest as she pressed down on him, pinning him to the ground. He tried to sweep her arm away with his forearm. He might as well have tried to brush aside a tree, for all the effect that he had.
Balling up his other hand he swung his fist at her. That seemed to have no effect on her either. Still lying on his back he swung both fists, repeating hitting her in the sides and on her chest. His hardest blows still seemed to have no effect on her.
No, finally they did seem to affect her. But not in the way that he had expected.
He saw the moonlight glint off of her straight white teeth as she leaned forward and smiled down at him, her eyes half closed.
Leysen felt his hands on her breasts, caressing her ever so lightly. It reminded her of how it had felt to have the two Betas feeding at her breasts earlier that evening. She brought her right hand down, running both hands across his broad muscular chest, continuing to brush off some of the dried mud that he had apparently smeared on to keep the insects at bay, even though they had thinned out enough that the three Arions weren't bothered by them enough to smear mud on their own bodies any more.
His hands felt so good. She leaned even closer, intending to kiss him.
She suddenly realized what she was doing, and with whom. And what he was doing to her. How dare this man --- a total stranger --- fondle her breasts? Taking her hands from his chest she grabbed his right arm with her left hand and pulled his hand away from her breasts.
His scream of pain reminded her again that even though he might look like a Prime, he wasn't. She immediately released his arm, trying to think of the right words to apologize. At the same time the flesh on his arm seemed to melt away as her eyes sparkled, looking for any breaks in the bone. Relieved to not find any, she stood up.
Dellin screamed as the pain shot up his right arm.
As the female released him and stood up, he pushed down with his hands and tried to stand up, but his right arm wouldn't respond. He used his left arm to scoot backward. When she started to follow him, he pushed harder with his legs and increased his pace --- not once thinking about the ignominy of retreating from a mere female. He increased his pace when she bent down and reached for him again, until his back came up against a tree. Unable to retreat any further, he used his good hand to grasp the hilt of his sword. It was clumsier than his right, but he managed to draw the sword.
When he started crawling away from her, Leysen walked after him, bending down and reaching out with her right hand to help him up to his feet. That only made him crawl faster, until he stopped with his back against a tree. As she approached him again she saw him reach for his sword and draw it. She stood up and started to turn around, before she realized what she was doing. She was facing a simple iron sword, something that couldn't hurt her. She started to turn back to face him.
Seeing the female turn away from him, Dellin sprang to his feet, thrusting his sword at her retreating back just as she started to reverse her turn. Instead of plunging into her back, the end of the blade hit her chest, sliding along her front and slashing her vest until it nestled in the valley between her breasts.
As Leysen completed her turn, the end of the blade stayed wedged between her breasts. The man's one-handed grip proved to be no match for her no-handed grip, as the hilt flew out of his hand. She grabbed instinctively for the falling sword, her right hand closing about the naked blade.
They stood motionless, staring at each other. Again she saw that he was a large and well-muscled man, his physique rivaling that of a Prime.
She shook her head. This was not the time to be thinking such thoughts. Not wanting to alarm him any further she discarded the sword, tossing it aside with a flick of her wrist. Spreading her arms out to her sides again, she took a step toward him.
Dellin stared as the female took and held his sword in front of her, with her hand on the naked blade.
Ever since he had become a warrior many seasons ago, he had never had his sword struck from his hand by another warrior. And yet, this, this female had done it. And an unarmed female, at that.
He would have sworn that he'd thrust the end right into her chest. But if he had, she wouldn't be standing in front of him, would she?
No, he had thrust it into her chest --- he could see the jagged rent in her fur vest. But then, how could she still be standing? Even if the blow hadn't killed her, it should still have felled her. It should have felled a warrior, and he wasn't facing a warrior, but a young female.
He continued to stare in amazement as she casually tossed the sword away. No warrior would ever treat a weapon in such a disrespectful --- even disgraceful --- fashion. But then, this was no warrior in front of him, but a young female.
He was even more amazed to see the sword embed itself up to the hilt in the trunk of a tree. He couldn't have driven the blade that far if he'd put all of his weight behind it. The female had just done it with a toss? A one-handed toss?
She then started walking toward him.
Enough was enough. He turned and went into the trees, running as fast as his legs could carry him, gritting his teeth as each step sent fiery pain lancing up his injured arm.
Leysen stopped and watched the man run off into the trees. Her eyes sparkled as she watched him through the trees, knowing that she could easily have caught him, but if he didn't want to talk with her, she wasn't going to go after him. She looked around but didn't see any other Talisi.
After watching him run for about half a mile, she turned and headed back to the camp, wondering whether she should tell the others about the Talisi whom she had just met. She still hadn't made up her mind by the time that she hopped back across the stream and approached their little camp.
She had just entered the circle of the firelight when a slight noise made her look around to see Velder stirring in his sleep. That reminded her of how she had first met him, and of what she had done to him.
That hadn't been all that different from what she had started to do with the Talisi.
Tillek was still sitting on the other side of the fire. He looked up as she crossed the fire and sat down on her bed of leafy branches. "See anything out there?" His tone was quiet, as if he was just seeking conversation merely in order to help stay awake.
"Nothing much." She lay down on her side, facing him. "But I did see a man."
"What?" Tillek sprang up and all but leaped over the fire, squatting down next to her. "Where?"
She propped herself up on an elbow. "Didn't you hear all the noise?" It had taken place not much more than a hundred yards away; surely even a Beta would have heard it.
"Hear what, girl?"
Apparently, he hadn't heard a thing. "Some sentry you are," she snorted in disgust. "A whole pack of santhas probably could have come into the camp and you wouldn't have heard them."
"What happened, girl?"
She still hadn't decided just how much to tell him. "I... I saw a man on the other side of the stream."
"A Talisi?"
"No, another Prime." She snorted again. "Of course, he was a Talisi."
"What was he doing?"
"He was running. I thought about going after him, but I didn't know where he was going."
"Just one?"
"That's all I saw, but I don't now how many more there might be, wherever he was going." So far she wasn't telling any lies.
But then she wasn't telling all of the truth, either. She was still too embarrassed to tell him what she had been doing out there, before she met the Talisi, let alone what she had started to do with him. Or rather, to him --- he hadn't appeared to be a willing partner.
"Just what was he doing?"
"I... I don't know." She rubbed her nose nervously. What if Tillek had heard --- or even seen --- the encounter? "I... I just saw him running through the trees."
Even though the camp was already stirring --- the warriors taking down their tents and saddling up their hurjas --- the sentry heard the noise long before he saw the cause for it, not even a rampaging santha would make that much noise. The entire camp was already alert when he escorted an out of breath warrior to the circle around the fire, who promptly collapsed onto the ground, gasping for air and cradling his right arm to his stomach.
"Dellin?"
Dellin didn't answer, just lying there gasping for air, cradling his injured arm against his stomach.
"Where's your sword?" one of them asked.
He had already decided that he couldn't tell the others that he had lost his sword in combat. If it could even be called combat, against an unarmed female.
"I... I ran into a raiding party. I... I got away. I... I..." He drew a breath between clenched teeth as he cradled his injured arm. "It was all I could do to save myself and come warn you." He winced as one of the others started to tend to his arm.
Even as one of the men got a wet cloth and began cleaning off his arm, the questions continued. "How many of them were there?"
"I... I don't know." It wouldn't do to let the others know that there had been only one of them, a female --- let alone that he had fled from her. "I saw at least two hands of them. But there had to be more of them around." They couldn't fault him for running away from that many men.
"Where?"
"By the river. Just above the ford. I... I don't think they were coming this way."
"Are you sure they didn't follow you?"
"I left a false trail." He had done no such thing, coming straight to the camp. His only concern had been getting away from that female as fast as he possibly could. But he wasn't about to tell them that.
He couldn't get the female out of his mind. She was as mighty a warrior as any he had ever encountered. Yet for all that she appeared to be an attractive female, a very attractive female.
In the morning --- after she had fed the men --- Tillek insisted that Leysen show them where she had seen the Talisi the previous night.
"Why? You don't think he's come back, do you?"
"No, but we might be able to find out what he was doing, and where he came from. He might be from a nearby village."
"There's nothing there to see."
"Come on, girl." He stood up. "Where did you see him?"
"If he's one of the people who did what we saw, I don't really want to meet them." However she stood up and led the way to the stream.
She hopped across and turned around, putting her hands on her hips as she watched the men crossing slowly, jumping from rock to rock. She stepped to the side as Tillek made the final leap to the bank.
As Velder made the final leap the rock shifted under him. Deprived of his launching point at the moment that he needed it the most, he sprawled forward.
She reached out, caught his outstretched arms, and pulled him in. It wasn't enough to keep him from getting wet, but it did save him from a much worse dunking. Setting him down on his feet, she turned around and went into the trees.
"This is where he was," she said. She then pointed down the trail. "He was running that way."
As she had known, there wasn't anything to see. Maybe a bit of flattened undergrowth where the warrior had crawled on his back, but most of it had already straightened out during the night. The bits of dried mud that she'd taken off of his face and chest were no longer visible.
That didn't stop the two men from looking around. She wondered whether they had picked up much tracking experience during their previous stay on Talis. She knew that the Talisi could be quite stealthy in the forests --- she hadn't even known that the warrior was there until he attacked her. Did they also have ways of detecting them? She looked down at the undergrowth, trying to pick out any signs that two people had met her the night before. She knew that she hadn't dropped anything. She rubbed the bridge of her nose, trying to remember whether the warrior had dropped anything while he was running away from her.
"Hey, what's this?" Velder called out, before he started walked over to a tree beside the trail.
Tillek went to where Velder stood. Leysen followed behind, looking to see what it was about that tree that had drawn their interest.
That was when she remembered the warrior's sword.
Half the way through. One month finished, one more month to go.
This was not what Senior Lieutenant Tarrin Krilti had expected when she and her team had received their new posting. Not at this time.
Not so soon after she had gotten married.
Granted, a marriage might not have been the smartest thing that the two of them could have done at this stage in their careers. Especially given their choice of careers --- careers whose paths seldom crossed. They'd barely gotten back from their honeymoon before they both had received their new orders.
For he was in the Marines, recently promoted to Captain and given command of his own infantry company. Even now, he was somewhere at the front --- where, the security regulations prevented her from knowing --- no doubt winning glory for himself.
While she was stuck out here on a remote communications relay station --- again --- with no human company. Well, no real human company, just the six Beta technicians in her team.
To go for so long without seeing another human face. To go for so long without feeling the touch of a man's hands on her body.
Keeping her eyes closed she brought up her left hand and lightly caressed her left breast. She then slowly increased the pressure, until she was applying not quite enough pressure to crush steel.
Oh, but to feel the touch of a man's hands on her body again! She gradually increased the pressure on her nipple.
Oh, but to feel the body of a man under her hands again! She pinched her nipple hard enough to pulverize steel.
A choking cry caused her to open her eyes, just in time to see the head raise itself from her right breast.
"Tarrin... please..." it gasped out.
"Sorry, Kelnik," she murmured, immediately relaxing the right arm which had been resting across his back.
The apology didn't come from her heart. It was just so damn frustrating, having to be so damn careful to be gentle with the fragile Betas. Sometimes she got a little carried away. So far, she had avoided causing them any serious injuries, just some bruises. And a couple of broken finger when she pressed a man's hand against her breasts. Nothing recent though, she had gotten better with practice.
He tried to push himself off of her. She kept her arm rigid, preventing him. "You're still on duty, Kelnik."
"Yes, Lieute..." The remainder was cut off as she brought his mouth back down to her breast.
He knew his duty --- even though it was not in any of the manuals --- and knew it well, suckling at her breast, occasionally biting it, as his hands surrounded it and squeezed with all of his strength.
When she was ready for more, she lifted him up off of her, and spreading her legs, placed him between them. Relaxing her inner muscles, she allowed him to penetrate. She carefully wrapped her arms lightly around him, not wanting to interfere with his enthusiastic thrusting.
But as enthusiastic as he was, it just wasn't enough for her. Lightly grasping his hips she lent him some of her strength, increasing both the force and pace of his thrusting. Relieved of the need for other action, his hands came up to her breasts, again squeezing them with all of his strength.
She never thought of herself as being unfaithful to her new husband. How could she be unfaithful with Kelnik and the other Betas? It was simply one of the few things that they could do to pass the time during these assignments.
Still, it was something that she had never told him about. It wasn't in any of the manuals, but it seemed to be an effective method of ensuring the loyalty of the men in her team. All of these men had been with her for over a year, and not once had any of them put in for a transfer.
After all, she was responsible for the morale of her team. Not just the morale of the men in her team, but for her own as well.