Hide And Seek
She ran...one hand held over her mouth to muffle her breathing. Her feet, booted in soft-soled leather, were very nearly silent on the loamy forest floor. Occasionally, she would pause, and listen, her head raised...like a deer pursued by hunters.
Her heart raced, and her pulse beat...so loud at times, it seemed to echo throughout the little valleys. Deep in her belly a little thread, a current of anticipation coiled itself...tingling. It was a tiny warning that he was behind her. Back there. Maybe close, maybe a mile behind. It didn't matter...she had to find a place to hide. Someplace dark, someplace small...a place where he would not seek her.
She ran again. Like any hunted animal she felt an exhilaration: not only from being chased, but from the thrill of having the world opened before her; the promise of freedom shining in the distance. All of her senses were strengthened...powerful. She could hear everything; the brush of leaves against each other, the far off capping of the waves...a twig cracking.
She could smell everything too. The soil, the acrid urine of some animal of the forest,...and ever so faint on the whispered breeze, the undeniable fragrance of cigars and rum.
She bolted forward,loping gracefully between the trees, ducking instinctively beneath the lower hanging branches. Careful to avoid the treachery of the winding vines that reached for her ankles...mindful of stones that might be lurking under the blazing autumn leaves.
Her cheeks were pink, her sleek hair had escaped from its holdings and the tendrils were caressing one side of her face...then the other, as she ran back and forth, criss-crossing her trails...backtracking. Deliberately leaving false trails.
She ran until she could run no more.
Her lungs burned, and her heart threatened to explode from her chest. Her knees trembled, and she lowered herself to the edge of the hill and peered over.
Yes, there it was.
The perfect place. From here, it was only a boulder, but she knew there was a crevice. Just large enough for her to conceal herself inside. It was well hidden from this side of the gully. Only if he were on the opposite bank, and knew exactly where to look, could he see her. But it was growing dark,she would be safe for the night. Maybe after dark...if there was no moon, she could slip out, and away...
Cautiously, so as to leave no trail, she eased herself down. The crevice was uninhabited by anything repulsive or slithery...so she crawled inside. Her dark clothes melded to the shadow, rendering all but her face invisible. Only now did she allow herself to breathe, gulping in air as quietly as she could...willing her heart to still it's painful pulsation.
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He followed her scent. It was rose scented soap, and milk...and the faintest musk. So vague, that the lightest stir of the air could disperse it and he would lose her trail again. Not for long, though. He would find her.
Did she really believe she could escape him in this fashion? Believe that he wouldn't eventually discover her and exact his revenge?
He would find her. If he had to burn every tree...if he had to overturn every stone. If he had to send a party of one thousand men to rip open the very earth, right down to the sea, until she was uncovered, he would find her. Then he would drag her out by the hair.
His eyes narrowed in predatory greed as a thousand cruel ways to repay her for her trouble glinted through his mind. She would wish she had never escaped...because the only thing worse than being captured by the infamous Captain James Hook;
Was to be recaptured.
A faint lilt of milk came to him, too briefly, then was gone. It only caused his blood to boil more fiercely. His eyes to flash more blue. So she thought she was clever? Using his own sheets to escape from the window,swimming all of the way to the island? That taunting note of farewell left on the bed. She had drugged him! Not on any pharmacological substance, but on her very self. All night, until his body was drained and weakened, his heart glutted fat and full, his brain numb and sluggish.
Well, well, he thought. It was a familiar female trick, wasn't it? But not clever. No not at all...my little beauty. Neither clever, nor wise.
She had to be near to exhaustion after the long night of ardor, in which she had been anything but passive. Then her escape, the long swim, and now this; her panicky flight over the uncertain terrain of the island.
He knew she was still running.He still came across these freshly overturned leaves,the lingering aroma of her,wafting back to tease him. She wasn't far away either, he just couldn't determine in which direction.
He froze.
Roses...
The scent was so strong he could almost envision the soft velvety petals of red roses. But it was the heady under smell of musk that he stopped to inhale. The roses could wander,the milk, could wander,...but that smell was near.
So very near.
He grinned and his lips curled into a satisfied and triumphant leer. His teeth gleamed more wickedly than his hook, at that moment. And where could she be? He looked up into the trees...but there were few that would hold even a small child,and none with branches low and strong enough for her to use.
He was at the edge of a gully...had she fallen over? A last and desperate act to avoid recapture? He doubted it. She had a passion for freedom and life,one that had led her to do more than one foolish act. No...she was hiding. Crawled into something such as a hole or a cave, where she thought he would not bend to look.
He surveyed the tree trunks. Not a one was large enough to hold her inside, yet he quickly encircled each of them, searching for a secret hole...a doorway perhaps.
There wasn't one, yet her scent remained, grew stronger. She was warm.Heated from her run, and now hidden from the cooling wind, she was very warm. He could smell the heat from her body. He continued to smile carnivorously.
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She caught her breath suddenly when she heard the tiny step, over her head. Cautiously she took a slow breath, testing the air. Yes, there was the rum, heavy on the breeze.
The cigars.
The smell of the sea and velvet and of a man. Her heart began to beat in her throat, and she tried to curl up as tightly as she possible.
Please, please...she repeated in her mind. Let him turn around,let him go back the other direction. She pleaded with Fate.
Fate did not listen. She could hear him there now,standing over her, one foot resting on the boulder while he surveyed the gully below. How had he found her? What evil had he conversed with that revealed to him her almost exact location. She shivered.
Wicked man...
---
He frowned, suddenly thoughtful, and examined the boulder beneath him. Scuffed the sole of his boot over its shiny surface. Hadn't he seen this one before? Oh yes, you cannot live near an island for so many years upon years, constantly seeking out the whereabouts of your old nemesis, and not know where most every nook and cranny was.
Silly girl.
---
The smell of cigars was strong around her now, and her heart ceased it's furtive beating and plummeted down to her stomach to hide. She was discovered surely. If he was still here, then he knew.
Slowly, biting her lip, she turned her head towards the "cave"entrance, dreading with all of her being to see him there.
She was startled to see that there was still a view over the gully. He had not discovered her yet. Perhaps he was merely resting,biding his time a moment. He was arrogant, perhaps he felt no need to rush after her. She could still escape, and hide in the night.
Maybe...
She cried out suddenly as he leapt in front of her, his face filling up the once empty opening. His expression was murderous, and his hook seemed to be jeering at her. She paled, and began to quake, desperately trying to edge as far away as the narrow fissure would allow.
He raised the deadly instrument, and brought it down again without any warning. It embedded part way in the soft ground of the cave floor, just between her knees, barely missing her skin. She gave a sharp gasp.
For a moment they faced each other.. the hunter and hunted. The carnivorous Captain and the trembling doe.
A moment more, as she tried to hold herself in check.
But she couldn't control it any longer,and with a noise much like a sob of fright...
Wendy began to laugh.
The poisonous look of rage fell from his face to be replaced with one of dry non-amusement. He cocked a dark brow, and leaned against the bolder with his good arm.The dangerous one was still planted between her knees.
" Is this always how it is going to be?" he asked, his tone as dry as his expression.
She leaned forward towards him, but couldn't quite reach him to kiss him, and he wouldn't come closer. So she patted his sleeve.
" You found me sooner this time." she teased.
" Yes, a man can be propelled to great haste when he reads those type of words. Wherever did you learn that sort of language?"
" From a pirate."
'' They are a lot more dangerous being said to a pirate than coming from a pirate, you know." he moved the hook toward her thigh...caressing her lightly with the back of the blade.
" What are you going to do?" she asked, still a little out of breath.
" Take you home and punish you properly." he said calmly. " Get out of there."
" I can't...my legs seem to be stuck." she giggled.
" Then I ought to leave you there until morning!" he said, but his pretense of irritation didn't hide the fact that he loved this game.He loved having someone to play with. Someone of his own.
He reached in and pulled her free, right out into his embrace.
" You and your damn games are going to be the death of me." he growled in her ear before crushing his lips over hers.
She clutched wildly at his coat lapels as he bent her nearly completely backwards...his tongue seeming to want to explore right down to the bottom of her throat.
Only when she began to panic at her inability to breathe, and he was sure her lips were suitably bruised did he release her.
She fell onto her bottom and lay back, laughing and her eyes called to him. He could have taken her right there...the thrill of the hunt was still pulsing through them.
Instead, he pulled to her feet, and threw her over his shoulder.
" And this, is how a pirate takes his prisoner back to the ship, you little wench!" he growled.
" Help...Help..." she called, unconvincingly, between little laughs. '' Whatever are you going to do?" she exclaimed dramatically.
" Quite simply, spank you until you cannot walk for three days,ravish you until you cannot walk for at least three days more,and then I might lock you below so that I can get some rest!"
Well, she thought,as she began to caress his back through his silk shirt,if they made it back to the ship tonight, ( which they had never managed yet, ) she would have to begin planning for her next great escape.
In six or seven days, at least.
Finis.