He fed more strips of boar meat into his mouth, then continued pacing. The ooman really was ignorant. Yautjas didn't protect frail oomans, they hunted them. He had killed the boar without much thought. However, the fact of the matter was that he was out of meat, and the boar was food.
He hadn't saved her pathetic life, he was just hungry like he'd said. Keeping her alive for his amusement, and heroically saving her were two totally different things. Her presence when he killed the boar meant nothing. Anunnaki shoved a handful meat into his mouth, more agitated about the oomans presence than ever.
Ariana wandered around the jungle listlessly, finding food where she could. She didn't need a Yautjas protection anyway. So far, she had always managed to escape. She would have evaded the boar too, one way or another. She never wanted to see that hunter again.
She came upon a canyon in the middle of the jungle, distracting her from her thoughts. It looked like a cave had collapsed. Some vines hung over the edge, but they were a long way down from touching the bottom. The sound of running water brought her closer to it's crumbling edge. Ariana grabbed a hold of a thick vine and leaned out, trying to find the source.
The canyon had a rocky lip, but she was sure there was a stream under it somewhere. She shuffled around the edge, looking for a way down. Ariana lowered herself down with vines, and reached the cave wall. It was slick and smooth, giving her no way to climb it. She hoisted herself back up over the ledge of the canyon to try a different spot.
She should have just given up. Her next spot had a steep mud bank. She grabbed a hold of vines and plants, but the mud was so soft, the roots pulled right out. She quickly slid down the mud and tumbled onto the ground. She stood up, brushed herself off, and then stared up at the top. Getting up was going to be harder then getting down.
For now, she didn't worry about climbing back up. Down in the canyon, she could see that the cave still continued underground. One end didn't go on for long. It was barricaded with fallen boulders, but a stream flowed from the ceiling and pooled underneath. She caught some of the water in her palms and drank it. It was fresh water, not salt.
She drank more until she was sick, and then continued exploring. The ground was covered in soft moss rather than dead leaf litter. On the opposite side of the stream was the rest of the cave. She curiously walked over there, but it was too dark for her to comfortably go explore. The fresh water in the canyon and the shade away from bugs was bliss, but Ariana started trying to find a way back up.
She had known getting back to the top would be difficult, but she had underestimated just how difficult. Grey clouds were steadily rolling in, and she wanted to get to her tree before the downpour. Every vine she grabbed snapped. There was a skid mark through the soft mud where she'd come down. Twenty feet down suddenly felt like a hundred feet.
The sky began to crack with lightening, and the rain started. The downpours didn't last long, but she ran for cover. The other side with the stream wasn't back far enough to be shelter from the rain. She headed into the dark cave instead, but jerked to a stop right in the entrance. If she had taken one more step, she would have had the metal tip of a combi stick imbedded in her stomach region.
She slowly glanced up at the yautja hovering in the shadows. His muscles were strung tight and his grip on the combi stick didn't waver. Her first thought when faced with Yautjas was to back down. She wasn't wasn't even close to being in their league. Ariana was sick of being pushed around though.
If he wasn't protecting her from some beastie inside, then he was just hogging the cave for himself. Her heart was thundering in her chest, but she sidestepped and tried to squeeze past him. He growled and held the combi stick horizontal to block her. She quickly ducked underneath it, but his boot hit her stomach and shoved her back out. He loudly tapped the end of the combi stick on the rock, claiming his space. She wasn't done yet though.
Anunnaki enjoyed the females antics, but he wasn't about to let her in his home. She slowly inched her way into his cave, but he blocked her with his body. She tried to dive between his feet then, but he quickly clamped his legs shut, trapping her. He let her struggle and wheeze for a minute, before grabbing her and shoving her back out into the rain.
She eventually stopped trying to get past him, and stood there with her arms crossed in front of her. Her short black hair clung to her face, and her clothes were so tattered they hardly covered her anymore. Something in him wanted to protect her, wanted to help her. Maybe it was because she was female. Maybe it was because she was smaller, like a child.
Her blue eyes looked up at him and all she said was, "Please."
His resolve was weakening-and that made him angry, "Fuck off ooman!"
He conked her on the top of the head with the pole of his combi stick to reinforce what he'd said. She looked saddened only for about a millisecond, and then she just looked pissed off. He saw in her eyes what he saw in every female's: the potential for revenge. She backed up a few feet, then sat in front of him. He could have forced her away, but instead, he saw it as a challenge.
Anunnaki squared himself just inside the entrance, and out of the rain. If she thought that she could out wait him, she was wrong. He only slept half as much, and didn't eat nearly as often as she did. Lightning lit up the sky in bright bursts, and booming thunder shook the ground. He watched the ooman begin to shiver from the cold, and then eventually she got up and left.
She could hardly see in front of her eyes, the rain was coming down so hard. The side of the canyon under a rock lip provided a little more shelter but water still pooled at her feet. She leaned her back against the smooth rock wall and watched the lightning. She knew it couldn't rain this hard for long. Then, she could work on climbing out of the canyon and getting far away from that awful yautja.
He wouldn't be tricked. Anunnaki stayed at the entrance if his cave for some time after she had left, to make sure she wasn't coming back. The heavy rain made it more difficult for him, but he could still make out her shape along the wall of the canyon. He didn't understand why she wouldn't just leave already; her tree wasn't that far away. He eventually slunk back into his cave, but kept his combi stick close in case the ooman got any stupid ideas.
Unlike earthworms, his giant lizards never surfaced when it rained. So, as soon as the clouds dissipated and the downpour stopped, Anunnaki got ready for another hunt. He suited up, and grabbed his gear. He stepped out of the cave and was suddenly reminded of the ooman. She was still there; he could smell her urine somewhere in the grass.
He wouldn't leave his cave to be raided by the filthy ooman, but he didn't want to miss a hunting opportunity either. If the ooman wouldn't leave on her own, he would make her leave. He quickly spotted her by the remains of a mudslide were a section of the cave wall had crumbled. His hands tightened into fists as he stomped towards her.
His temper quickly cooled and his steps slowed as he saw what the female was doing though. The mud wall was slanted, but still steep. She gave it a running start, but still couldn't reach the vines dangling over the edge. He stood back and watched her shove sticks into the mud bank then, and try to use them like steps. The mud was too soft, especially after the rain, and they couldn't hold her weight.
The ooman washed the mud off her body under the stream, then faced the wall beside it. She began to climb, but she was too short to reach the next cracks and footholds. When she tried to jump, the rock was too slick and her fingers were too weak. A rock ledge overhung most of the canyon, making climbing more difficult anyway. The ooman wasn't sticking around to annoy him; she just couldn't get out of the canyon by herself.