She walked through the forest alone, with a hell hound at her side. A massive brute weighing one hundred eighty pounds, and covered with spiked armored plates. She heard an engine scream above her head and looked up. A small ship was coming in on reentry at a very bad angle. Hearing it crash, she looked at the hound and muttered, "Another damn merc ship. Come on Radu, time to strip and slash." The hound huffed, shivered and turned bright red.
When they reached the crashed ship she could hear a man's voice, chocked with blood, calling the names of his crew with no responce. Carefully they entered the wreckage. The captain was still strapped in with part of the frame work from the windscreen rammed through his chest.
"Marx, bounty hunter," the man gasped. "Wha wha ever you ddddoo, ddddoon'tt llet him out. Kkkkiller, tri triple mmax slam..."
She sliced his throat without a second thought. "Fuckin' mercs." She looked around the craft, but the rest of the crew were already dead from broken necks, or debris. The man in the cryo chamber had a head wound, and appeared to be unconsious. The dieing gages, however, showed that he should be awake. Opening the door to the chamber, she checked for a pulse, finding a strong one she looked at the hound and said, "Well at least this one's still alive." The man was tall, with a shaved head, hands and feet shackled, and with a bit in his mouth. The cut on his head was right above the band on his goggles.
He heard the woman and the animal enter the ship. Heard Marx speak to her and then a blade silenced him. He heard her check the rest of the crew, and speak to the animal. He lay still when she opened to door to the cryo chamber, felt her gentle touch check for a pulse. Felt her touch the cut on his head, and raise his goggles. He opened his eyes.
As she raised his goggles he opened his eyes, and she jumped back. She looked into his eyes, then Radu's and smirked. Seeing the release button, she hit it and he was free. Removing the restraints, he jumped to his feet, spit out the bit, and replaced his goggles to dampen the light. She studied him for a monent, then said,
"Ya can come with me or stay here. Don't matter to me none, but his kin will be coming for the bodies soon." She turned and started scavengeing the ship and bodies for anything she could use. "Don't these damn mercs ever carry anything useful? Not even a decent blade on the whole lot.."
He watched her for a moment, amazed that she wasn't even a little afraid of him. "Who are you?"
"Areil, Radu," she pointed at the hound. "Who the hell are you?"
"Richard B. Riddick. Excaped convict, murderer." Again he was surprised when she only shrugged. He wasn't used to this.
"Well Riddick, welcome to the Planet of the Dead. Now ya have two choices."
"I suppose you are going to tell me what they are?" The girl was starting to intreague him.
"Yup. Stay here and be hell hound shit, or ya can come with me and get somethin' ta eat. Cryo can make ya hungry. Either way I don't give a good sweet damn." As she walked passed Marx's body she gave it a good kick. "Crummy mercs never carry anything worth the effort. You...I'm still debating on." She said pointing her finger at Riddick. As he walked past the captain, he saw that his throat had been cut to the bone.
"I take it you don't like mercs."
"Not a damn bit."
"My kinda woman," he said with a smirk.
She turned and stared at him, hearing the hounds houling she told him it was time to leave, or be eaten. Whatever the hell he wanted. As they left the crash, Riddick simply smiled and said, "Interesting." They were nearly a mile from the crash site when they heard the hounds hit the bodies.
It took them nearly a hour to reach a dwelling that looked at one time like it could have been a trading post of some sort. When she opened the door the smell of a slow simmering stew hit his nose, and he realized how hungry he was. Darkness had started to fall, and with it the rain. She banked up the fire for some warmth, and lighted an oil lamp. He raised his goggles to get a better look. A table, two chairs, and a bed was about all there was in the room. He also hadn't smelled any other humans since she had freed him.
"Sit down and eat, I can hear your stomach from over here." Ariel set a bowl of stew and a chunk of a dark bread down on the table. She then went to a door in the floor and got out a jug, and poured him a cup of thick, sweet smelling liquid.
"Most people would say that was a stupid thing that you did today, releasing me then turning your back like that."
"I got nothin' to lose Riddick," she shrugged.
"So," he said around a mouthful of stew, "I know why I hate mercs, Why do you hate them so much? And I've never heard of the Planet of the Dead."
"This is Talon 5."
"Talon 5 is supposed to be a trading outpost. What happened?"
"It was up until about five years ago. Have ya ever seen scars like this before?" She raised her shirt to just below her breast, revealing red and black, scale-like scars.
"Somar's Disease?"
"Yeah. Some merc came in to trade, him and his whole crew were infected. We had no immunity to it. Within one week everyone was dead. One thousand people. I buried my family, the children. Everyone else I left. I came home to die, but I didn't."
"So whatever mercs come here you kill them. My kinda woman."
"No, not just mercs, any ship. No one is able to get the landing right since it's gone back to forest. They all crash. Most are killed on impact, the one's that ain't are too badly injured to survive. I don't want the hounds ta kill them."
There was no emotion in her voice, just the hard certainity of that was the way things were. That intregued him even more. He watched her go and stand infront of the fire, with the rain pouring down. He went over and stood behind her, whispering first in one ear, then the other.
"Five years is a long time for a woman to go without the touch of a man." She could feel him getting hard against her back. "Five long, lonely years. With no man to touch you." She could feel him smile as he ran his hand across the scars on her stomach. "I like scars on a woman. Shows she's tough, shows she wants to survive. I admire that in a woman."
She held her head straight, trying to fight how he was making her feel, Why was he making her feel this way? "Not five years Riddick, never."
He laughed. "Ha! A woman like you, the daughter of a trader never had a man come sniffin' around her?"
"There was one. He died 'fore we could be joined."
"That kept you from fuckin' him? I can't belive that."
"Our customs didn't allow two people from laying together before they were joined."
She felt the bottom two fingers of his left hand slip below her belt-line, feeling how far the scars went. He felt her shiver, smelled her arousal growing. He spun her around to face him.
"How 'bout now?"
"They're all dead." She kissed him so fast theat it suprised even him.
They quickly had their clothes off, and he was looking at her scars. The way they wrapped around her ribs, feeling them on her back.
"You have beautiful eyes Riddick."
"It's a animal thing," he growled.
He grabbed her ass and picked her up, and she wrapped her legs around his waist. She could feel his erection brushing against where it wanted to go. She looked down into his eyes and kissed him. He walked over and lay her down on the bed. He broke the kiss and looked into her eyes, looked at the way her black hair encased her face. She reached up and took his goggles off his forehead, and placed them on the floor. He kissed her throat, and ran his right hand down the scars on her stomach, until he got to the slick wetness between her legs. Slipping his index finger between her folds, he found her hot and wet. He slid his finger up and played with her clit until she was on the edge, then he stopped. He stared at her face as he placed his finger back inside her. She was so hot and tight, that his erection got even harder. He began a slow, gentle stroke, adding another finger. He wanted to make her enjoy this. She reached down and grabbed his hand wanting him deeper, bucking her hips for a faster tempo.
"You don't excatly move like a virgin."
"We were allowed to touch each other, as long as we didn't go to far," Areil gasped with moans of delight.
He brought her to the edge again and stopped. "There are two ways I can do this," slowly he pulled his fingers out, and flicked her clit as he did, "fast and have the pain over with, or slow."
"Slow. Pain just lets ya know you're alive."
He smiled and kissed her hard, repositioning himself to make it easier on her. She gasped as he slid into her. Keeping his eyes locked on hers, he felt soft tissue giving away to his body. Finally hardened stomach muscles met scared skin. She closed her eyes for a moment. When she opened them, he was smiling at her.
"This will be the worst one. It will get easier." He kissed her again, but easier. She wrapped her arms around his broad back, and he began a slow, easy stroke.
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He lay there with his hands behind his head, and her body ontop of his. Staring up at the cross beams, he knew he had to tell her.
"You know mercs will be comin' for me."
"No they won't. No they won't, no one ever comes here, unless their ship is already in trouble. They find where the signal comes from and turn around. No one even tries anymore. Everyone that does dies. You're safe here. Ya can stay, if ya want, or leave. It's your choice."
"I might stay for awhile," he said as he stroked her back. "I hope you're right girl. I'm tired of mercs breathin' down my neck."
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Areil awoke the next morning alone. The only sounds were that of hard rain, and rolling thunder. She wondered if it were all a dream, but as she moved the soreness told her that it wasn't. She got dressed and went out. He was sitting there, under the over-roof, with Radu's head in his lap, scratching under his scales. He saw her come out.
"Sweet animal. I thought hell hounds were impossiable to handle."
"They are. I found him in one of my traps one day about six months ago. He's justa baby."
"I know. I've seen the adults. Some of the slam have them. Use them to keep the convicts in line. So no one ever comes here? No mercs huh?"
"No, yesterday was the first one in four, or five months. Could be a year before another one falls, could be tormorrow. Who knows? I wonder what happened to yours?"
"Metor knocked us outta the shipping lanes and into this orbit. "
"How do you know that? You were in cryo?"
"The primitive side, the animal side, dosen't shut down in cryo. I stay awake."
"All animal huh? Sounds like my kinda man. Where were they deliverin' ya to?"
"Butcher Bay."
"Hear it's a hard place."
He shurgged. "Not too bad. Get outta your cell every two or three days for ten minutes. Foods not bad. I'd just be out in a couple of days anyway."
"How many times ya been there?"
"Four. Been in almost every slam you can think of."
"In the mountain behind us, there's a cave with a hanger. There's a ship ready in it. This ain't a slam, ya can leave anytime you're ready Riddick." She hoped that he would stay.
"Who says I want to leave? Kinda like it here. If there's a ship ready, why haven't you left yet?"
She shrugged. "Where would we go? Radu 'n me don't belong anywhere else. This is the only home I know. Everything I could want, or need is right here. Why would I want to leave?"
"Why indeed," he said smirking back at her.
Radu raised his head, and sniffed the rain and took off into the downpour. "Where's he goin'?"
"Huntin'." She walked over to the roof's support and braced her arm on it. "I should be gettin' things ready to go hunt myself when this rain lets up. But I get kinda lazy in this weather."
He stood and moved over behind her. "Why not hunt now? Seems like perfect weather to me."
"The hounds prefer to hunt in this, I prefer not to compete with them. We got enough meat for a day or so. May have too if this don't let up soon."
The thunder rolled as he slipped his arm around her. "I can think of somethin' I'd rather hunt today." Riddick playfully bit her left ear, and she held his arm. Leaning into him she said, "Me too."
He stepped back and held out his hand, "Well, let's go."
They stayed inside the rest of the day, and he taught her how to love him.