The creature stood from his low crouch, turning in one fluid movement to follow the sound of a single rock being displaced by the clumsy steps of a young woman. She gasped stepping back as the large beast stood to his very impressive and if not intimidating stature. She watched as his muscles flexed for a brief moment that wasn't even long enough for her breathe before the large body of the great creature charged at her.
The woman attempted to flee, taking several panicked steps backwards in an effort to turn around and sprint as far away as possible but stumbled over the same clump of hard white rock that had alerted the monster to her presence in the first place. She fell to her humiliation, flailing her arms to save her body from the indignation of landing on her backside but there was absolutely nothing to catch her fall. A small grunt a pain escaped her clenched lips as her back hit the ground rather hard. The large creature was upon her seconds before she even had a chance to reopen her brown eyes to see the impending doom closing in.
Her entire body was snatched harshly off of the ground as the taloned hand of the beast wrapped around her throat ripping her up only inches away from his face. The woman whimpered out of submission as she held her eyelids closed as tightly as they would possibly go. The creature gave a low growl that seemed to emit from deep within his throat before rolling into a full hearted snarl. When she still continued to keep her eyes tightly shut the creature gave a harsh shake that rattled the woman's teeth and caused her to expel another pathetic whine. He snarled again but this time the woman opened her eyes.
Before her, she let her eyes take in the horrifying sight that dangled her high in the air. Four long mandible-like appendages that were armed with what appeared to be very sharp ebony tusks were splayed in aggression exposing the fleshy pink webbing on the inside. She couldn't help but to continue to stare at the monster's mouth and the seemingly second mouth that was nestled behind the mandibles with sharp pointed teeth that screamed carnivore. Slowly she brought her eyes up, following the olive green pebbly skin that was raked with scars to find brown deep set eyes. Despite the overall reptilian appearance of this strange creature, the woman couldn't help but notice the almost ape-like quality of his deep set eyes shadowed by a prominent spiked brow. He rattled again, a quiet clicking growl as he turned her head this way and that, examining her.
Growing seemingly bored, the creature instantly released his firm grip letting her suddenly plummet to the ground, landing once again undignified onto the rock infested ground. She groaned but pulled her uncooperative body into sitting position and scooting back as far as she could giving a whimper and staring wide eyed at the beast. He shook his head causing his long ink black plated hair like protrusions to flail out in a jingling mass. Cocking his head to the side, his mandibles pulled tightly together fitting perfectly against his second mouth. Giving another shake of his head the creature turned in a fluid motion and began an even pace in the opposite direction to the woman.
As she watched the oddly humanoid creature walk away, the woman took a shaky breath realizing that she had been holding her breath the entire time. Giving a manic laugh, she brought her knees to her chest feeling the world spinning around her. It took her a few minutes but she was eventually able to gain her composer enough to at least attempt to stand. Even that took a few tries for it seemed she could not get her legs to stop shaking to support her weight.
After being able to successfully stand on her two legs without threat of falling once again onto her back side, the woman backtracked a few steps where her hikers backpack was cast on the ground. Grasping one of the shoulder straps she heaved it up and rested the weight on her bent leg as she unzipped one of the many pockets. She rummaged, pushing past socks and empty water bottles as she fumble around before finally coming upon the object that she was searching for. With a hum of triumph, she pulled out a small silver camcorder that was held in a purple velvet bag. Closing the pocket and slinging the pack over her shoulders, she placed the corner of the bag in her mouth as she slipped her arm through the other strap.
Pulling out the camcorder, she held it lightly in her palm, looking at the object as she chewed nervously on her lip. Turning her head around, she looked towards the direction to where she could just see the humanoids silhouette. Bringing her attention back to the camera she gave a groan throwing her head back before bringing it back down. Adjusting her pack with a shrug of her shoulders the woman gave a low sigh before turning and following the path of the creature.
"This has to be the stupidest thing I have ever done." The woman said to no one but herself as she felt the dry dirt of the desert crunch under her leather boots.
From what the woman could tell by the position of the sun, she had been hiking for several hours. She wasn't an expert by any means, in fact the opposite. She was hopelessly lost in the middle of a desert in which she had never seen before in her life. Eight hours ago the woman was sitting quite comfortably in a small novel biplane over the great vast of the most beautiful landscape that she had ever cast her eyes upon. She was on her way to stay in a small cabin that was nestled deep within the wilderness of the mountains about a six hour flight away from where she was standing now. In no way did she expect the pilot to start seizing a few hours into her flight.
How she had survived her plummet to earth still baffled the beyond belief. Granted, she was more than grateful to be alive but the longer she walked the further she realized that she was most likely not going to survive this. After all, she was standing in the vast expanse of desert surrounded by intimidating canyons far in the distance and to top it all off she was trailing some horrific reptilian beast that looked very out of place in this world.
Giving a groan she pulled out a plastic water bottle from her the back strap of her pack. It was half full and she had three others in the largest pocket which she knew wouldn't last long here. Even though it was only about eighty-four degrees, which was actually surprisingly cool for being the very start of November. Taking a few slow sips she looked around examining her surroundings. There was no sign of the humanistic beast. She had lost him an hour ago and she hadn't even filmed him yet.
Stretching her sore body, which continued to remind her that she had just walked away from a plane crash practically unscathed, she placed the water bottle back and took another look around. To the left of her a large rock structure jutted out suddenly blemishing the slightly uneven ground. She looked at the promising shade and immediately willed her feet to start moving towards it.
To her pleasant surprise, the rock structure in its amazingly enormous size was in fact not that far of a hike away. When she reached it, as exhausted as she was she immediately dropped her pack onto the red sand and soon followed foot letting her body flop down beside the red stone. After resting her tired and hot body on the sand that was certainly cooler than when she was standing out in the sun the woman was able to regain some of her energy. She sat up dragging her very sore body off the ground and resting her back against the great stone structure.
Stretching, she reached for her backpack but was stopped by a familiar low clicking growl. She froze dead in her tracks, the color draining from her face as she looked up to see a very familiar, very ferocious humanoid beast sitting only about five or six feet away leaning on the same rock structure. She turned her head away slightly refusing to give the creature any attention. The woman continued to reach for her pack rummaging through it to find her less than half full bottle of water. Taking a few sips she watched the creature out of the very corner of her eyes as it continued to examine her. Giving a low snarl the humanoid, seemingly losing interest like the previous time turned his attention to some sort of technology on his wrist. The woman turned her head by the slightest to get a closer look at the strange beast beside her but the creature picking up on her movement turned his head and gave a threatening snarl. She dropped her gaze instantly and continued messing with her pack.
The woman soon learned that if she was quiet and didn't make direct eye contact with the strange beast it didn't pay any heed to her existence at all. It seemed that both of them were just too physically exhausted to mind each other's company. She risked another glance at the strange humanistic beast to the left of her but was yet again rewarded with him turning his large head and stretching out his mandibles and letting out a long dramatic hiss. That was her last attempted at observing the new fascinating creature.
The sun was fading and she knew that she was losing light and fast. Giving a very pathetic sigh she rolled her head back picking up the camcorder in her hands and flipping the small side screen and turning the camera around so it was facing her. Turning on the power, the women was greeted with the image of her face, her caramel skin coated in dust and her black bob cut. She attempted in vain to fix her hair and brush the dirt off of her skin. Pulling her lips into a slight smile she pushed the record button. She knew she had been putting this off since she had woken up crumble on the ground several feet away from the completely destroyed plane.
"To whomever finds this," she started watching her hazel eyes as they began to water. "My name is Alisha Sommers. I am twenty-two years of age. My address is 8241 Oakweed Avenue; please make sure this makes it to my fiancé." Alisha stopped for a minute licking her dry lips and inhaling air roughly. She brought her attention back to the camera and finally began her farewell message to her soon to be husband.
"Hey Mark. Some idea right? Yeah, I know you said going on a plane in the middle of bum fuck nowhere was exactly the best idea two weeks away from a wedding but you know me, stubborn as an ox." She let out a small laugh. "It's really quite beautiful out here, despite the circumstances. I wish you could see what I'm seeing. The sky's are filled with just orange, almost as if the sky itself is on fire." Turning the small camera around and pointing it to the sky for a few seconds before bringing it back to her face.
"besides, I survived a plane crash. How awesome is that? I actually walked away from the wreckage like nothing but now thinking about it, I think I should have stayed with the plane. Now it's going to be harder to find me, huh? Well, I really wasn't thinking much besides about getting the hell away from there. I managed to grab a few supplies though. I say about two days worth of water and maybe three days worth of granola bars. After that, I think I'm screwed." Just then she was interrupted by a low growl and she turned her head to see the humanoid watching her perplexed with his head cocked to the side. She gulped and turned back to the camera.
"The sad part is that I don't even think it's going to be the elements that end me." Alisha continued. "or starvation. You wouldn't believe what I found or rather ran into." She turned the camera slowly, pointing it at the creature being careful not to make eye contact, only watching him through the screen. Returning the camera so it was back pointed at her she began to speak again.
"Him, at least I think it's a he. Looks like a he. That's beside the point. I really hope he is a concussion induced hallucination but I don't think so." Pausing she looked at the sky that was almost completely dark. "I'm losing light now. In case I don't see you again I just want to tell you that I love you. Mark, I love you." She closed the screen and turned the small camera off, placing it on the ground. Bringing her hand to her face she wiped a tear that was slowly escaping her eye. She just told the man she loved that she was dead.
Authors Note: Just a little idea I had and started to write. I kind of wanted to write a story based on how I think a predator aka Yautja would reacted to a human when they were both lost in the desert. Finally an excuse to write a familiar territory. I truly love the desert, wouldn't trade anything for it. Please, review and tell me if I should continue this.
Yours truly
-Dowely