3
He points at the ground. “I think its name translates to stone spider.”
I peer at what he’s frowning at. Indeed it does look like a spider, a big one, with three black eyes, ten hairy legs, and it’s the color of the pebbles around it. “Oh…that doesn’t look friendly.”
“It’s not. It has a bite so painful it can make an adult male weep.”
I retreat a step. “We will avoid it then.”
“Yes. Definitely.” He steers me forward and away from it.
We walk in silence. A huge bird with a long neck calls overhead. I glance up nervously. What other unknowns are out here?
“Your head hair,” he says suddenly. “It is a different color to your body hair.”
“I beg your pardon?”
He frowns at me. “Does every Earth woman have pink hair and brown body hair?”
I’m reminded that I am an alien to him too. “No, very few Earth women have pink hair, mine is this way because I made it so.” I run my hand through it, fluffing my bangs. “And I have no idea what color pubic hair the majority of women have but I’d guess at brown.”
“I see.”
“And your breasts. Two is normal?”
“Very normal.”
We use stepping stones to navigate over a small stream.
“As is,” I go on. “One pussy, one womb. We are not considered to be breeding machines needing to grow two babies at once, unless it happens by accident and we have twins.”
“I see.” He is quiet for a moment. “My mate had six children in just three years. Only one boy though.”
“You would have had many grandchildren.”
“I know, that we all found out is another layer to grief.” He pauses. “What could have been.”
We continue in silence. The terrain turns more rugged. Smooth gray boulders higher than our heads. Deep crevices in the track that we have to scramble down and then up. He takes my hand and pulls me on a particularly steep section.
I keep my eye out for stone spiders. I don’t fancy accidentally touching one and having it bite me.
“I need to pee,” I say, eyeing a large bush.
“Pee?”
“Piss. Pass urine.”
“Ah yes, me too.” He nods at the bush. “You go there, I will go by the rock.”
That suits me and I make my way toward it. It has particularly vicious-looking barbs on the branches and the flowers are tiny and yellow, popular with little black bugs it seems.
I quickly do my business. Having no panties actually comes in handy. I step away from the puddle and peer around the bush to see where he is. Maybe I could run away, get back to the canyon, navigate it, and make it to the crop fields and safety.
But when I look around the bush I come face-to-face with a big brown beast.
It’s huge, rhino sized, with a long neck and short legs. Its eyes are black and its nostrils flared.
I gasp and step back. Adrenaline floods my system.
Fuck!
Its lips curl upward revealing blood-red gums and big dark teeth, or rather fangs because they are pointy and sharp. Drool drips from its chin and a strange growling emanates from its throat.
My belly clenches and my breath gets trapped in my lungs. I take a step back not knowing if I should stare it down or look away.
It follows me, a hoof landing on the dark ground.
I whimper and hold out my hands as if to stop it approaching. They are shaking.
And then suddenly it lunges for me. As quick as a flash it is flying through the air, mouth opening, eyes full of murderous intent.
I scream and throw myself to the right.
The creature lands with a thud and lets out a wail. Purple blood spurts upward from its back in a large arc landing beside the bush. In its spine is a long glinting sword.
“Tammy!” Dan-Y is rushing toward me, his muscles bulging and his brow creased. “Are you well?”
I roll to the right, getting as far away from the beast as possible. “What…what is that?”
“A hirion. They are mainly vegetarian but when they are in the breeding season some will eat flesh. This is clearly one who has a taste for blood. Though whether or not he would have liked your alien blood I don’t know.” He reaches for my arm and pulls me to standing.
I am breathing fast and my pulse is thudding in my ears. I close my eyes and try and shake the image of the beast hurling itself at me.
“Is it dead?” I ask shakily.
“Yes.” He steps on its back and pulls out his sword. “Very dead.”
“You are a good shot.”
“I have to be, though this isn’t a spear, as you can see.” He wipes the blood from the shiny length on a patch of leaves. “But I was too far away to take off its head. You would have been dead by the time I got near enough. I had to improvise.”
I shiver. “Thank you for being a good shot.”
His tail is lifted high and is dead straight. “It is how I am trained.” He nods to the right. “Let’s go. And keep your eye out for any more of these things. They can’t usually sneak up, they’re big and stomp the ground.”
“Just my luck then.”
He doesn’t reply and re-sheaths his sword on his belt and then starts walking.
I follow him.
“The sky is angry,” he says after a few minutes.
“Angry?”
“The clouds, they are darkening. The sky god Butan dislikes King Athos as much as the Jakarty do and frequently uses cyclones to vent his frustration.”
“Cyclones?” I glance upward. It is true. The clouds have changed from wispy lavender into a bunch of mauve bruises. “And what will happen if there is a cyclone?”
“The wind will be as fierce as a raging herd of hirion. The rain will be freezing cold and lash at us like whips. We will not want to be in it. There is also a risk it will suck us up into the sky and drop us in a lake or on the mountain ridge.”
“No, we definitely don’t want that.”
“So go a little faster, Tammy, and let’s get to safety.”
I hurry along. How come the dreaded cave is suddenly a place of safety?
We round a lake and then past what appears to be an abandoned camp. I frantically keep watch for hirion and stone spiders.
Dan-Y keeps looking up at the sky.
A rumble of thunder rolls overhead.
“We have a canyon to get through,” he says as we skirt the side of a cliff. “There are high walls either side, and it can be…”
“What?” I ask, not liking the way he is tensing his shoulders. “What can it be?”
“Dangerous.”
“Dangerous? Like how?”
“But not always. Let us go quick and hope for the best.”
“Hope for the best?” Panic grips me. What else have I got to face today? “Isn’t there another way around? So we can avoid it.”
“Not if we want to get to the cave before this cyclone hits.”
I stop and shake my head. “I can’t do this.”
“Yes. You can.” He turns to me and cups my face, draws his close to mine.
I can see every eyelash, every dot of stubble on his jaw and the flecks of black in his purple eyes.
I shake, fright holding me hostage.
“You are a brave strong female,” he says softly.
“You told me I was feeble earlier.”
His frown deepens. “I take that back. You willingly traveled to another planet, that is brave. Don’t you agree?”
I nod within his touch on my cheeks. “I was scared when we got on board.”
“As you are now, yet you still did it.” He comes closer, stooping until his nose almost touches mine. “And you can do this. We have come so far. Soon we will be safe from the hirion and the cyclone. One more push and we will be on the track to the cave.”
“We are almost there?” A small nugget of hope grows inside me.
“Yes. I promise.”
“Once we get through this canyon?”
“Yes.” He strokes my cheeks with his big warm thumbs. “You go first, set the pace. I will follow.”
“But…don’t you need to go first? You have a weapon.”
“No.” He shakes his head. “It is best if you are in front. And run, if you need to, run as fast as you can.”
“But I—?”
“No more talking.” He releases me and looks at the sky. “We are wasting time.”
I swallow, my throat tight with fear. “Are you sure there is no other way? We can’t go round?”
“No?” He shakes his head.
The unknown is as terrifying as the hirion was. Why won’t he be more specific about the canyon?
Why did he have to kidnap me in the first place? I should be at the farmstead with Mel. Working it out with El-Frankin.
Around the next boulder I see the narrow crevice he calls a canyon. It’s probably only just wide enough for his thick shoulders to get through and it is so tall the light doesn’t penetrate more than a few feet into it.
“Through there?” I gulp. I’m not prone to claustrophobia but still, I have no idea how long it is or what’s lurking in there.
“Yes, and don’t go slow, go fast, let’s do this.” He prods my back. “I’ll be right behind you.”
I take a deep breath. It seems I have no choice.
“Hurry. Now.”
I slip into the shadows and an acute sense of being surrounded by solid rock envelopes me.
My vision adjusts to the gloom and I hurry along. The packed ground is a little damp and the air is musty.
“Good, keep going.” He is close behind me. I can hear his breaths.
I stay alert for danger though I don’t know what I am looking for.
The trail twists to the right and I have to avoid a low bulge in the rocks. I reach out to touch the gritty walls, trail my fingers along it.
“No, don’t do that. Keep your hands away…fuck!” His instruction is sharp with insistence.
I snap my hand back.
“Run!”
“What?”
“Just run.”
I glance behind myself and see him drawing his sword. A slicing sound accompanies it.
“What is it?”
“Go, Tammy. Go!”
I break into a run, my heart clattering and fear popping as sweat on my brow and under my arms. “What is it?” I ask again.
But he doesn’t need to answer, because sliding from a seam in the rock to my right I see what is coming.
“Fuck!” I yell, speeding up to get past it.
The snake like creature has two heads and bulging yellow eyes, it slithers toward me as though it can hover most of its body in the air.
I get past it only to see another emerging this time on my left.
I scream and dodge it, then leap over one slithering on the ground. It lunges for me with both heads but I am quicker than it.
There are more.
He is close behind me. His sword swipes through the air. It clangs off the rocks, and smashes onto the ground over and over as though chopping and squashing.
“Don’t stop!” he yells.
I have no intention of stopping and swerve and jump and duck to avoid the two-headed snakes. There are so many. Long and fast and creepy.
“Keep going, nearly there,” he shouts.
I spot a ray of light—the end of the track and open land. “I can see it.”
“Hurry. Don’t get bitten.”
A sliding pressure on my left shoulder.
I let out a scream and bat it away. The snake is hurled against the rock and falls to the ground.