Chapter six:
Bouvetoya Island
Deep below the Surface
October 10th, 2004
Elaina's scream was cut short when she slammed into the ground that had hardly been ten feet from the hole she had fallen through. The blow to her body knocked the air from her lungs and she felt them constrict as her heart lodged itself in her throat. She hardly had a moment to draw in a breath of air as the ground beneath her shifted under her weight and she slid head over heels backwards. Something sharp nicked her cheek as she rolled down the short hill. Elaina came to a stop on her backpack, its bulky weight preventing her from rolling over again, thankfully as the candy bar she had eaten earlier was threatening to make a repeated visit.
She laid there with her eyes wide open staring up at the ceiling blankly. Slowly she blinked her eyes, and her vision focused on the image she was staring up at. It was the hole she had fallen through. From here it looked about the height of a house, but it hadn't felt like she had fallen that far. Elaina sucked in a breath of air, her lungs drinking it in greedily.
As the dust cleared from the room, Elaina was able to see the light filtering in from the hole above. There was a strange sizzling sound and the smell of burning fabric drew her attention down to look at her body. Seeing the front of her grey jacket bubbling and melting, Elaina tore at the straps of her backpack throwing it off of her before tearing at her jacket. She had just barely gotten the outer layer off before the acid blood had eaten all the way through it. Scared, she checked her second jacket but found it had just barely singed the top lining of the blue jacket over her stomach.
Elaina breathed a sigh of relief and she dropped back down on her backpack which kept her slightly propped up off the floor. It was now as she laid there catching her breath and reining in her fear that she took note of other sounds in the room with her.
There was something hissing and screeching on the other side of the pile she laid partially on. Raising her head, she found the black alien that had tried to kill her was rolled up tight into the fetal position. The net that had ensnared it and in turn saved her life was constricting around the alien's body. The more the alien moved the tighter the net shrunk around it. Elaina had little warning but did manage to roll to her side in time to throw what little contents that had been in her stomach out onto the floor.
Hands shaking and body quivering, Elaina forced her eyes to look back at the alien. There was yellow puss like blood oozing from the grid like pattern being cut into the surface of its skull as the net slowly continued its intent of squeezing the alien to death. The light that filtered from the room above was suddenly snuffed out as a shadow fell over them. Startled, Elaina looked up in time to see the humanoid creature peer down in the hole. He looked at her briefly before he turned his attention on the alien and leaped down into the room with them.
The humanoid landed more gracefully than Elaina had, his legs having absorbed the impact as he landed on top of a skull, his weight crushing it into pieces. Elaina blinked, her eyes zeroing in on the shattered skull under his foot. As she took in the pile he stood on, she realized it was a pile of human bones.
Jesus Christ, she breathed, her eyes widening at the magnitude of what that meant. It's like a fucking boneyard straight out of the movie Descent.
Fear had her scrambling to her feet and backing away as more bile rose up in her throat. Human bones. Swallowing thickly, Elaina backed away from the pile. The sound of bones breaking drew her attention back to the humanoid.
The humanoid reached down to his hip and withdrew a wicked looking dagger from his belt. Eyes widening on the weapon, Elaina grabbed for her backpack that lay discarded on the ground. In the side pocket she found the spear and held the weapon uselessly in her hands. She had no idea how to wield a weapon, let alone a spear of this size. She could only hope that the two monsters would be too distracted and her spear wielding capabilities wouldn't be tested just yet.
Elaina watched the humanoid as he advanced on the screeching alien. He took his time to cross the room to reach it and before he could attack the netting around the alien broke. The black alien shrieked and lunged for the startled humanoid and knocked him to the ground.
Elaina cried out in shock, her body visibly flinching as the two beings made impact with each other. The thud that echoed from the force of the hit told her she probably wouldn't have survived it had she been in his place. When the humanoid hit the ground, the alien's swiping claws managed to knock his dagger free from his grip, disarming him. The humanoid used his brute strength to keep the alien from getting to close as its wicked looking inner mouth shot out trying to impale him.
Oh my god. Elaina looked from the struggling pair to the room around her. She couldn't see any exits within her line of vision but that didn't mean there wasn't one. The hole above was way too high for her to jump up to even if she tried to climb to the top of the bone pile.
Turning her eyes back to the struggling pair she swallowed the lump in her throat and found her mouth dry. Her eyes widened at the intensity, the animalistic noises they made was terrifying to listen to, let alone witnessing the battle before her eyes.
Elaina knew she was panicking but felt entitled to it and for the moment she let it consume her. If that alien killed the humanoid it would come after her, she knew it. The way it had thrown itself at her even with the danger of the humanoid back in the room up above them, told her it was hankering for a bite of her. She visibly shuddered at the thought of being eaten alive. Just by a normal animal it seemed like a horrible way to die and she couldn't imagine a worse way to go then letting that black thing get ahold of her.
For one split second she considered making a run for it. But then what? Where would she run? Where could she hide that either of these things wouldn't find her? Nowhere, her rational mind told her. There wasn't anywhere she could hide or run in this pyramid. Not only did she have to worry about the black thing wanting to eat her, but there was the humanoid that had followed her down in the pyramid. Despite all her efforts of running from him, he had caught up to her which meant he could easily do so again. It wasn't like she knew where the expedition team was. She had been running around down here for hours and she had only been able to just barely catch up to them twice and each time she lost them.
Were they even alive? She knew she had to start thinking that it was possible that she was the only human left down here. She had no idea how many of these things were down here and she needed to start thinking of a plan. Something other than running around blindly.
Elaina tightened her grip on the spear in her anxiety. The weight of the weapon brought a sense of reassurance to her, until the ends extended outward on her. Elaina flinched at the sound of metal against metal, her eyes darting to the spear she gripped so tightly. She drew in a ragged breath of air, finding that her chest felt unusually tight. Slowly she lifted her gaze back to the pair and her decision seemed to be made before her mind processed on what she was agreeing to do. She wasn't even aware that she was moving towards the struggling pair instead of running in the other direction.
Ci'tde could feel his strength waning as he fought to keep the kiande amedha at bay. He could feel drops of the creature's blood landing against his bare chest and a hoarse cry escaped him as the acidic blood ate into his skin. He had his right hand wrapped around the hard meat's neck trying to keep the inner mouth far enough away from him as it tried to use the appendage as a weapon. With each drop of blood he could feel his strength and rage leaving him as the pain grew to be unbearable. His arm buckled under the strength of kiande amedha and Ci'tde stared into the face of his better. He felt shame wash over him as he realized he had brought this defeat onto himself. Like his brother he had lost his life because of his foolishness. This would be his punishment, to suffer the same fate as his brother by the enemy's hands.
Elaina charged across the room as the humanoid lost his control over the situation. She could see him buckling under the alien's strength and the alien leaned in with a triumphant screech. As the inner mouth lashed out for the killing blow, the end of her spear slammed into the side of its head. The inner mouth scratched the surface of the humanoids mask and Elaina stared at the quivering lips as saliva dribbled down from its open mouth. Her weight against the spear shoved the alien to the side and Elaina lost her footing as the bone her foot had landed on shifted and she fell across the humanoid's stomach, an oomph escaping her. She lost her hold on the spear as the alien slid down the pile of bones taking her spear with it.
Elaina blinked as she found herself draped over the humanoid awkwardly. She didn't dare breathe as she lay there, feeling the steady rise and fall of his chest as the humanoid breathed. Slowly Elaina lifted her head, her eyes wide with fear as she looked over at his face. This was the closest she had ever gotten to one before, not that she had very many encounters with them so far. Still this was a lot closer than she ever wanted to be with one.
His face was terrifying. The mask that he wore was expressionless and she couldn't tell what he might be thinking as he stared back at her. Trapped under his unweaving stare, Elaina stared at the mask, taking in all the harsh edges and blunt angles that made up the dark grey metal. There were four long scratches across the forehead and face from where the alien had gotten in a good swipe at him during the fight. The lower jaw of the mask extended outwards quite a bit and the nose was more set inward.
It seemed like he had a serious case of an overbite with a pug like nose and Elaina couldn't stop the bubbling hysteria that came forth as the image crossed her mind. The sound of her laugh seemed to startle the humanoid more than her as he visibly flinched beneath her. Nevertheless Elaina was up and off of him as quickly as her legs would carry her.
She stood a few feet away as he slowly got to his feet and shook himself. He stared at her for a good long moment before he turned his head to look at where the alien had fallen. Elaina looked to and found that it was a few feet away from them with a spear sticking out of its head. She held still as she wasn't sure what to do as the humanoid stared at the now very dead alien. Should she run for it or wait and see what he does? Her mind felt torn as her fear told her to run screaming from the room, while the more stubborn side of her held her rooted to the floor. Instead she studied the dead alien as for once it was holding pretty still. It was leaking its yellow acid blood all over the ground and the sizzling noise reminded her of bacon being cooked, which had her stomach growling at the thought of food.
At the sound of her stomach, the humanoid turned his attention back to her. At his sudden movement, Elaina turned her eyes back to him in alarm. She immediately forgot about her empty stomach as fear spiked within her heart making it lurch painfully within her chest. The humanoid cocked his head to the side as he watched her now, finding something fascinating as he wouldn't look away this time.
If she didn't know any better she would almost say he seemed as confused and unsure of what to do as she was. The minutes crawled by as Elaina barely allowed herself to breathe in fear that any sudden move on her part would get her head detached from her body. She didn't dare look away in case he decided to attack, and she wanted the amount of time it would take for him to try and reach her as a head start in running away. After what seemed like hours he finally seemed to make a decision on what she should do, as he turned back to the alien and walked over to it.
Elaina's eyes followed the humanoid as he approached the black alien. She watched him inspect the carcass and even kick it to make sure it was dead. When it didn't move he turned his head to look back at her and huffed beneath his breathe before turning back to the body in front of him.
Elaina took the moment to breathe regularly, her pounding heart slowly its speed somewhat to where she could actually hear over the sound of it beating in her ears. She found herself curious about the humanoid as she tried to peer over at him to see what he was doing. She was surprised that he hadn't killed her for falling on top of him and then laughing at him. Unable to see passed his larger size, she decided to see what he was up to. She approached him cautiously, afraid that any quick movements would end with her immediate death. The humanoid tore the spear from the alien's head and inspected the weapon closely.
His hand tightened over the middle of it and the ends slid back unto itself. It was at this moment that he turned his attention back to her as if to ask her how she came across such a weapon. There was a slow rattling trill that came from the humanoid and Elaina wasn't sure if it was speaking or just making noises at her. Seeing that it might be better to explain herself, she decided to do just that.
"I-I didn't mean to take it," she said at first. "I only took the stick because- well it fell down the tunnel with me and it saved my life, so I figured I could use it." She swallowed thickly and waved a hand at the dead alien, "Obviously I was right."
Ci'tde looked down the spear in his hand. His translator was having a hard time keeping up with all that she said, but he could make out some of the words she had spoken. This was the female that had bested his brother. She had disarmed him and even killed one of the kiande amedha. Impressive, his rumbled deep in his throat. Holding the combi-stick out to her, he tried to give it back to her. It was rightfully hers now.
"Oh-" she blinked at the offered spear. With shaking hands she took the offered weapon and held it loosely in her hands. Thank you."
Pointing down at the combi-stick, he said, "Ki'cti-pa."
Elaina raised her eyebrows at the humanoid, more shocked by the fact that he spoke, then on what he had said. Slowly she shook her head at him unsure what he wanted from her. He repeated the word while pointing at the spear and Elaina shook her head again not understanding.
"I don't know what that means," she admitted. "Look- how about I just call it a spear instead of stick, does that work for you?"
Ci'tde looked at the spear and then turned his head to stare at Elaina again. He nodded his head, consenting to her term as it was close enough and she was shocked once more that he understood her.
"Oh wow," she whispered feeling light headed all of a sudden. "This is just insane. I am talking to a- a- hell I don't even know what the hell you are. Are you an alien? An animal? A genetically altered human?" Elaina groaned out loud, her hands going up to her head as a headache started to form at her temples. This was just too much for her to handle right now. "Or maybe you're a demon and this is hell, it feels like hell- well maybe not hot enough. But hell could be frozen over- who really knows, right?"
Elaina turned her back to the humanoid and she stumbled over to where her backpack laid discarded. She tried desperately to ignore the sound of bones breaking under her weight as she stumbled over the pile that littered the ground. Unfortunately there wasn't a spot that she could avoid stepping on what was once someone's fibula or collarbone, of even the occasional skull which she avoided at all cost.
One bone she particularly stepped on broke under her weight and she visibly flinched at the loud snap that echoed off the walls around her. That does not mean I'm fat, she tried to reason with herself. She always believed she was at a good weight for her height despite that her mother always told her that she could afford to lose twenty pounds. It just means the bones are old and brittle, she said to herself. Old and brittle human bones. She shuddered at those thoughts as more bile rose up in her throat.
Elaina made it to where she had left her backpack and fell to her knees in front of it. She set the spear down on the ground next to her to free up her hands. Unzipping the top, she rifled through the contents inside. She first grabbed a bottle of water, broke the seal with a twist of the cap and downed the contents to help fight back the vomit that wanted to force its way up. Her stomach settled after she drank the first half but still ached from the lack of substance inside it. Sighing as her thirst was temporarily quenched, Elaina capped the bottle and put it back into her bag. Next she riffled through the clothes she had packed and a small triumphant cry escaped her at the sight of her bag of candy. She'd give anything for something more filling but as she hadn't packed any real food, her candy was all she had. Terminator's bag had the RME's in it and that was back on the surface in the truck where he had left it. Elaina stilled at the reminder of Terminator and she turned to look at the humanoid behind her.
She wanted to ask him about her bodyguard but the words failed her as she stared at the hulking form watching her every move. He seemed curious and so far he had refrained from attacking her. She wanted more than anything to get answers but the fear of pissing him off or reminding him that he killed her kind was keeping her silent. Turning her attention back to the matter at hand, Elaina fought the tears as she shoved her backpack aside. She rolled over to sit on her rear and tore into Ziploc bag with a vengeance. She found a king size Butterfinger and tore into the packaging. She needed something to fill her empty stomach and hopefully also might calm her nerves. She feared she was going to pass out from all that had happened to her since Terminator had left her behind in the truck. It was all just a little overwhelming.
Everything seemed so surreal and scary that her mind was having a hard time coping with it. She was trapped in a pyramid with monsters and aliens, things she hadn't believed existed but she knew now that they were very much real. They were like a nightmare she couldn't wake up from.
To her dismay the humanoid abandoned his stance of just watching her from afar and decided to join her on her side of the room. She had been hoping for a moment of peace while she scraped together the remaining strips of her sanity before she tackled this new turn of events.
Ci'tde stopped in front of the female and mimicked her seated position on the ground, grunting when something jabbed him from behind. He shifted and pulled a nasty looking bone that had been broken in half and the sharp end had small traces of blood on it. He touched the red substance, before looking up at female sitting in front of him. She was staring at him with wide fearful eyes and his eyes studied her image as his mask zoomed in on her face. There was a small cut on her cheek and a trickle of blood soaked the collar of the skins she wore. Grunting, he tossed the bone aside and his eyes fell onto the brightly colored wrapping she had tossed aside. He picked it up from where she had discarded it and turned it over to study the other side of it.
Elaina stared mid-bite at his hands. My god he's got some freaking huge hands, she couldn't help but compare the size of his hands to her own. Each finger ended with a sharp talon which at this moment held her attention as his finger tore into the wrapper by accident, like it was mere tissue paper.
He seemed awfully fascinated by the wrapper and she had to wonder what he would think of an actual candy bar. Curious to see what he would do, Elaina reached into her bag and withdrew a Crunch bar and held it out to him.
"Here," she said catching his attention.
He dropped the wrapper, finding this new item more interesting and took the offered candy. Elaina watched him discreetly while she ate her own meal.
Ci'tde turned the candy over in his hands, noticing that this was not the same as the one he had been inspecting. The texture was different and he wondered what it was used for. Watching the female, he saw her eating and he looked back down at the item in his hands. Food, she had given him food. He chittered beneath his breath, finding her fascinating once more but the sound of his stomach growling told him he needed nourishment as much as she did. Ci'tde set the food aside and reached up to his mask and unhooked the hoses in the back. Carefully he grasped the sides and removed the mask from his face and set it down next to him.
Elaina forgot how to breathe as she stared in horror at the face revealed behind the mask. Holy Jesus-
If she had any inclination that this thing was anything but an alien, those thoughts were gone the moment she saw his face. His skin was pale yellow like the undersides of his arms were. He had a large forehead and the strange appendages at the back of his head were not part of his mask but in fact seemed to be his version of hair. The thick leathery ropes fell like dreadlocks just past his shoulders in length and at the top of his crown and along the sides of his face were small spines sticking out of his skin. His eyes which appeared to be the only thing on him that seemed human were sunk back into his head under the large forehead and their color was the shade of an amber stone. The rest of his face was terrifying to say the least. There was no nose that she could see and the whole lower half of his face seemed to consist of his mouth. Four crab like mandibles spread out into a macabre version of a smile revealing sharp teeth within a pale pink inner mouth.
Ci'tde didn't realize the female was staring at him as he was preoccupied with the knowledge that he was going to be able to supply his stomach with nourishment. He reached over for the food again, studying it closely now with his own eye sight and not of the mask. It was brightly colored he noted and wondered about the purpose of that. Lifting his eyes he turned to study the female to make sure it was actually edible.
Not wanting to be caught staring, Elaina looked away quickly to pretend that she was busy eating her own candy but her stomach was clenched and she felt that if she tried to eat she was going to puke it back up. She found it hard to swallow and each bite was like a rock hitting her stomach. She wanted more than anything to drink another bottle of water as the candy in her mouth had left it feeling like it was stuffed with cotton balls. The chocolate was not as comforting as she had thought it would be.
Elaina was startled from her predicament, when the humanoid spat the candy bar out and it landed in front of her crossed legs. Staring at the candy, she felt her stomach twist as the sight of it still in its wrapping and coated in his saliva. Okay that's just really gross. It took her a few swallows to keep the bile in her stomach from coming out.
For a split second she considered just letting him starve. She had heard his stomach growl earlier and knew he was as hungry as she was if not more so. He was a pretty big guy and she had a feeling he could put away the food. What a waste of a perfectly good candy bar, she thought annoyed. Crunch bars were one of her favorites too. It was the first candy bar she ever ate and it was because of it, she had found her love for chocolate. Her mother didn't let her eat sweets or anything that could be fattening. Terminator had taken pity on her one evening when her mother had sent her to bed without anything to eat because she had refused to eat dinner that night. Fish, she recalled the meal as it had happened many times in the early years of her life. Elaina hated fish and anything to do with seafood. Terminator had snuck into her room with the hidden candy and gave her half to help quench her growling stomach.
"You dork," she muttered weakly. She shook her head of the memory and swallowed one more time before she worked up the nerve to pick up the saturated wrapper. With just the tips of her index finger and thumb, she tore the candy wrapper open. Taking a moment to wipe one hand on the leg of her pants she grimaced at the sight of his saliva coating the fabric there.
"You have to open it before you eat it," she explained carefully to him.
She carefully removed the crunch bar from the wrapper and tried to hand it back to him. She did all of this without looking at him. She couldn't bear to look at him again, not without puking. Her stomach was in knots and the slightly melted candy bar she held out to him was not helping.
Ci'tde looked at the food warily his mandibles pulled in tight to his face. The food had tasted horrible and he doubted taking off the first layer would help it taste any better. He grimaced at the sight as the female tried to give it to him. He growled his displeasure.
"H'ko," he said with disgust. He would rather go hungry and just wait until he made it back to the clan ship to satisfy his hunger.
Elaina looked up at the sound of his growl, the noise scaring her as she had her hand hanging out there in-between them. He didn't look angry but in fact his expression gave her the impression of a petulant child that refused to eat their vegetables after they were told to eat them. She sighed out loud, her patience wearing a little thin. It might have been how exhausted she felt or maybe she was tired of being terrified. Her temper rose with her annoyance.
"Here," she muttered. She broke the candy in half and offered him one half and kept the other half for herself. "We'll share it."
Still he seemed reluctant to try the candy again as he refused to take the offered chocolate from her. She rolled her eyes at him and taking her half brought the slightly melted chocolate to her mouth. It took everything she had not to gag as she took a bite of the candy and chewed. She made a strangled sound of reassurance. "Mmm- it's good, see."
Ci'tde watched her eat for a moment longer before finally taking the candy from her. He brought the sweet to his mouth sniffing wearily at it. It smelled good, he had to admit and he couldn't describe the scent as he had never smelled anything like it before.
Elaina watched, slightly fascinated at the mandibles that took hold of the candy and brought it closer to his mouth. She noticed that at the end of each mandible was a pointed tusk that gripped the candy and fed it to his dangerous looking mouth. After he chewed and swallowed a tongue like appendage came out and licked the ends of his tusks, cleaning away any traces of chocolate. That was one seriously long tongue, she mused to herself. She was just a bit freaked out by the whole display.
Ci'tde licked away any trace of the food as the taste seemed to explode in his mouth. It was sweet, sweeter than any fruit he had ever eaten and he found that he liked it a lot. Finding all trace of it gone, he turned his eyes onto the female again, eyeing the last bit of food she held in her hands. She hadn't finished her half yet. He could feel his stomach rumble in pleasure at being fed but it was nowhere close to being filled yet.
"I take it you liked it then," she commented out loud as he eyed the rest of her of her butterfingers that she hadn't finished yet.
Elaina took another candy out of the Ziploc bag and handed it over to him. She watched as he peeled back the wrapper this time and ate the candy quickly. It appeared this hulking humanoid creature liked sweets. She pegged him more of a meat eater type but that just goes to show, you never can tell about people just by looking at them.
Isn't that the truth, she thought sheepishly. Everything about this guy in front of her made her instincts scream for her to run and here she sat sharing her candy with him.
"It's called a Crunch bar, if you like that, you'll really like the Reese's Peanut butter cup but we'll have to save that for later. I don't have that many left," she said looking at her dwindling bag of candies. She resealed the bad and stuffed it into her backpack.
Ci'tde nodded his head slowly, not understanding what a Reese's Peanut butter cup was but agreed with her anyway. He understood the need to save rations but he found himself more surprised that she was willing to share hers with him. He watched her put away her bag of food. His stomach rumbled in disappointment but he ignored it for now as she had promised him a Reese's Peanut Butter cup.
Reluctantly, he tore his eyes from her bag to study the female before him. She looked similar to all of the other oomans he had come across since his Chiva began. Smaller though, he mused and his eyes gauged her height even with them both sitting. She might reach his chest in height if they were both standing. What little skin he could see, looked soft and delicate, was a cream color. She had exotic coloring, the cheeks on her face were a light rose color as she avoided eye contact with him and they contrasted well with her paler hide. Her long mane of red hair was pulled back from her face into a low ponytail at the back of her neck. The thin strands took on the color of her blood, which he could see trickling out of the scratch on her cheek.
He wouldn't say she was beautiful but had an exotic beauty that only an alien could have. He had never seen a human this close before, at least not one that he hadn't killed or tried to kill and he mused that in her own way she was lovely to look at. He had the strange urge to touch her hair to see if it was as soft as it looked. She was nothing like the females on his clan ship, whom he had only seen from afar aside from his own mother. The Yautja females towered over the males and more often than not were more ferocious. He had seen this female's abilities with the Ki'cti-pa and they were not to be desired. She was small and very clumsy.
The female made a squeaky sound at the back of her throat and Ci'tde focused his attention back to see that while in his distraction he had been reaching out to touch her hair. Embarrassed, he clenched his fist and redirected its direction to reach over for his mask. Now that they were done eating, he needed to focus on getting out of here and finding his brother. Skl're was out there somewhere and he needed to make sure he was okay.
Elaina hardly breathed when the humanoid had started to reach out for her. She at first thought he was furious with her for denying him more food. Or hell, maybe he had caught her staring and found it an insult. To her surprise though he stopped what he was doing, which she took as his intent of wrapping his hand around her neck and squeezing the life out of her and instead reached over for his mask.
She breathed a sigh of relief, her eye blinking back the irritation of being left open for so long. With shaking hands, she reached over to her bag and pulled out a bottle of water. She uncapped it and held it out to the humanoid before he could put his mask on.
"Here," she said meekly, her eyes staring intently at her lap. "Its water." She added when he didn't take the bottle from her. She lifted her head to look at him. It's getting easier to look at him, she mused to herself. He had really pretty eyes. If she kept her eyes on his and not look south down to his mouth she could bare looking at him.
Ci'tde looked from the female to the offered drink. Interesting, he thought. First she offered him her food and now she offered him her liquid. She was a strange being, nothing like his Sire had taught him. Taking the offered bottle when she looked up at him and held his stare, he downed the contents in just two swallows. The female seemed amazed by this as she stared opened mouth at him as he consumed the liquid. Surprisingly the water tasted cool and fresh despite the flimsy container it was carried in.
He tossed the bottle aside and pointed to himself. "Yautja," he said answering her question from earlier. He splayed his hand across his chest, to get his point across to her. As she continued to stare at him, he moved to point at her. "Pyode amedha."
Elaina frowned at him as the humanoid repeated the words once more for her and also pointing to himself and then to her respectively. "Does that mean human," she asked him wearily, she wasn't sure what he trying to tell her. Does that mean Yaut-a is his term for what his kind is or is that supposed to be his name? Hopefully this pyode amedha wasn't a pet name for her, because she could not deal with that right now.
Ci'tde shook his head as she misinterpreted what he was saying. He pointed to her again. "Ooman, pyode amedha," he corrected. He suddenly wished he had paid more attention to his Sire when he taught him some of the basic ooman language. He'd never thought he needed to know what his prey had to say as he was going to kill them and take their skull as a trophy.
Elaina blinked slowly as she struggled to decipher his words. It was difficult as his words consisted of a lot of clicks, trills and growls. "Okay human I understand, but this pode meda thing- I'm not sure what you mean by that."
He grunted beneath his breath as the language barrier between them became very apparent to him. Skl're was the one more knowledgeable in ooman words. His older brother liked knowing everything about their prey to give him a better insight on the hunt. Ci'tde didn't see the point up until now. Turning to the wrist guard on his right arm, he opened it up to reveal his computer inside.
Elaina blinked at this and she leaned forward to get a better look at the devise on his wrist and watched as he typed at something on it.
Suddenly a disjointed voice spoke out loud in a computerized human language, "Human- soft meat. Soft meat calls Yautja Predator."
It took her a moment to decipher the meaning, as it didn't really come out in a full sentence but choppy words in a disjointed voice. Elaina's eyes widened with realization to what he was telling her. She stared at him with a horrified opened mouth expression on her face.
"Oh my god you eat humans," she whispered and she jerked back away from him as if excepting him to make a sudden lunge for her.
She tripped over her backpack in her haste to get away and fell head over heels down the pile of bones. She landed in a heap at the bottom, her breath coming out in ragged gasps. Beneath her ribs, her heart raced a strange staccato beat. It a while before she was able to hear anything over the roaring sound of her blood rushing and beating heart inside her ears.
A rattling cough and huffing noise drew her attention from the flare of pain in her knees and wearily she peered up over her shoulder from where she laid on her stomach. Her legs were tangled up in the straps of her backpack that had kept her from making a clean getaway. She stared at the imposing humanoid behind her and noticed he hadn't even tried to chase her but instead stayed in his seated position. She eyed him closely trying to pinpoint exactly the noise he was making and what it meant.
He's laughing at me, she realized. She could tell by the way his shoulders shook uncontrollably and when he drew in a breath of air, he snorted. She glared openly at him.
It's not funny, she fumed to herself.
Her body hurt enough as it was and now she had added even more aches and pains to her list of injuries. Then it dawned on her that it was actually her fault that she had caused herself more injuries and not the humanoids. Relief coursed through her as she dropped her weary forehead back down against the ground and just laid there feeling suddenly exhausted.
Okay so it wasn't like he had tried to hurt her yet or even try to salt and pepper her for flavor so that he could eat her. But what the hell did that mean then, soft meat-? Alright, so maybe that's their name for humans? What the hell else am I supposed to think, when he calls himself a Predator and then calls me a soft meat, dammit? Argh he's still laughing at me- great I amuse the Predator, I guess that's better than pissing him off-.
Oh my god- this is getting way to out of control, she groaned as her temples began to pulsate with the start of a headache.
Ci'tde climbed to his feet once he regained control over himself. He had never been so amused in his entire life. This little ooman is funny, he concluded. He grunted as one of the bones bit into the palm of his hand as he pushed himself to his feet but he ignored the pain. Carefully, so not to alarm the scared female he slowly approached her. She was making strange moaning noises with her head resting against the ground. Perhaps she's hurt herself, he thought. She's so fragile- he was surprised she hadn't broken yet.
Ci'tde stepped on a bone with enough force to break it and the sound drew the female's startled attention. With a loud gasp she rolled over onto her back, her legs tangling even more in the straps of her bag. Her eyes stared wildly at him and he could scent her fear in the air as she stared up at him. The female had misinterpreted his definition for her kind and he wasn't sure how to correct it without scaring her further. He normally didn't have patience for things like this, but he felt honor bound to find the bit of patience he did have deep within him and exercise it now. He would only disgrace his clan if he killed the female in a fit of annoyance over her fear of every little thing he did or said to her.
Cautiously, he knelt down near her legs. He held her stare and with one hand raised a hand up between them, his palm facing her as if to tell her to wait. He watched her eyes flicker to his hand then back to his face. When he began to move his other hand though, her eyes flew to it, to track its path. Ci'tde approached the situation, much like he would have with a wounded Yautja-hound. With great caution, he reached for her legs and the straps.
"What are you doing," she yelped when his hand had wrapped around her foot. Ci'tde took a moment to compare the tiny appendage in his grasp. He trilled to himself, so fragile. It amazed him she had survived this long without any help from the other oomans. He couldn't see any weapons on her beside his brother's combi-stick. He had scanned her backpack earlier and it hadn't been holding any of the burners the rest of the ooman's had been carrying.
Ci'tde untangled the straps from around her legs before letting her go. She didn't scoot away from him or try to flee like he expected her to. Instead her eyes studied him and then looking down at her free legs, she pursed her lips in thought. She had such a fleshy mouth and he wondered what uses it had as he never seen it on any other kind of species before. He would have the ask his Sire when he returned to the ship or maybe consult with Skl're, he might now the purpose.
Ci'tde stood, making sure to move slowly as the female's eyes darted back to him again. Now he held his hand out to her to offer his assistance in helping her up.
Elaina stared at the outstretched hand and wondered how much of an insult he might find it to be if she refused to take it. She knew from experience how strong those hands could be as she nearly had her wrist broken by one of them earlier. She really didn't want to find out if by not accepting it just might make him change his mind on eating her after all. Elaina reached up and wrapped her much smaller hand around his thumb. He heaved her up to her feet with very little effort.
"Jeeze caveman, just how strong are you," she muttered and wiped her hands down on the leg of her pants to wipe off some of the grime. She had scrapped her palms pretty good, enough to break the skin and bleed a little. There were bits of dust and other things in the small cuts there and she worried for a moment how long she could go before having to worry about infection.
She tilted her head up to look at him suddenly as he had moved in her peripheral vision startling her out of her worried thoughts. He grunted beneath his breath and ignored her comment. He has to be like 7'9 at least, she calculated in her mind, gauging the height difference between them. This guy was nothing but muscle and by the looks of it had something like an eight pack carved into his abdomen. Wow, she thought, her eyes staring at his exposed chest since it was more eye level and she didn't have to crane her head back so far to look. Somebody eats their Wheaties in the morning.
Shaking her head, Elaina took a step back from him needing the room to breathe as she found his tower figure very imposing. "Okay so you're a predator and that black thing, it's something you hunt I take it," she asked him, trying to get back to business here.
The humanoid nodded his head to her. He pointed at the alien that lay a few feet away from them. "Kiande amedha," he told her. Before she could even begin to ask what the hell that meant, he typed something into his wrist device and a mixture of voices answered her silent question. "Soft meat killed hard meat."
Elaina looked in the alien's direction. Soft meat killed hard meat, soft meat killed hard meat- she repeated the phrase over and over in her head trying to figure out what he was telling her now. What the hell is that supposed to- Oh, oh wait-
"You mean I killed it?" she said looking back at him. "Oh wow- um you're right, I- I guess I did kill a- uh hard meat. I guess that's pretty cool huh?" She gave him thumbs up and a crooked smile as she said this.
"Cool," the Yautja growled out, the word coming out butchered but it was definitely English. He cocked his head to the side and tried mimicking her thumbs up.
"Yea, cool means awesome, or good," she explained, trying not to laugh at him. He looked so ridiculous giving her a thumbs up it was hard not to laugh at him.
"Cool," the Yautja repeated the word and gave her a thumbs up.
Elaina hid her laugh with a strangled cough. "Yea exactly," she added, biting her bottom lip to keep from smiling at him. The last thing she needed was for him to feel insulted or something.
"So what do I call you," she asked him. "I'm sure you don't want me to be like 'hey Predator', or 'what's up Pred', or something asinine as that."
The confused look he sent her made her chuckle. "Um- do you have a name, something I can call you? Like, I'm Elli," she said pointing to herself. She splayed her hand out across her chest like he had done to himself earlier. "My name is Elli." She reached out and touched his chest, feeling the scales that felt smooth to the touch, just as she thought they would be. "What's your name?"
He looked down at her hand on his chest and a deep rumbling purr burst forth from him. It was so intense that she could feel it all the way to her toes. Startled, Elaina pulled her hand back wondering what the hell that was all about. He had sounded like a well sated kitten or like an idling diesel engine. She had felt the vibrations of that purr right down to her core and it left her fingers feeling rather tingly. When she pulled her hand away, his purr stuttered and abruptly stopped as he lifted his head back up to stare at her.
"I- I'm sorry," she said quickly, tucking her hand behind her back and looking up at him. "Are you okay?" she asked after a moment of silence. His expression told her as much as a brick wall would as to what he was feeling inside.
Instead of answering her though, he looked back down to his chest with a tilt of his head. Great, she thought, I've created some kind faux pas with the guy. Elaina watched as he lifted his hand and touched the spot over his chest where she had put her hand. His fingers splayed out for a moment before he tightened his hand into a fist.
Her eyes widened in alarm, immediately thinking he was pissed at her for touching him and she was quick to apologies. "I'm sorry big guy for uh, whatever insult I might have done- that was not my intention at all," Elaina began to ramble nervously with a wide display of her hands to indicate how immensely sorry she was over the matter. She would just avoid touching him all together from now on if he chose to spare her life for this one mistake.
At her words his head snapped back up to stare at her. A rumbling growl escaped him that had the hairs on the back of her neck rising up in warning. She felt as if she was digging her own grave the longer she stood there in his presence. Maybe it was be just be best if they went their separate ways? She would give him the spear back and they could go their own ways and everyone, that being her, would be left in one piece.
He made the sound again and she realized that he was actually talking to her instead of just growling at her. Maybe she hadn't pissed him off, because his eyes didn't look angry now that she took the time to study them, if anything he looked annoyed with her for some reason. Oh, she realized with a flush to her cheeks. He's trying to tell me something.
"I'm sorry what did you say," she asked him while leaning in closer to hear him. He could try speaking a little bit louder in her opinion.
He growled it the word out again, "Ci'tde."
Her brows furrowed together as she tried saying the word in her head. What she came up with made no sense to her and she tried thinking back on their conversation. Oh!
"So wait your name is Celtic," she asked him, her lips pursed together into a frown. That is a very human name for an alien, she mused to herself.
Ci'tde cocked his head to the side. He seemed reluctant at first but then nodded his head confirming what she said. He touched his chest and with some difficulty said the name, "Celtic."
As he said it, Elaina realized that wasn't exactly the name he had given her. She frowned up at him, trying to recall just how he had said his name, but with all the clicking and growling it was really hard to hear the exact pronunciation underneath.
"Celtic," he repeated a little easier this time and she figured he didn't want to play the guessing game with her any more. She would admit she was kind of tired of it as well.
Ci'tde reached out and touched Elaina's chest much like she had done to him. She felt her heart stutter in her chest at the warmth that flowed from just the touch of his hand on her chest. She straightened her spine and sucked in a sharp breath of air. Her eyes widened a little as she stared down at his hand that easily splayed across her whole chest. Any further down and she could accuse him of copping a feel.
"Elli," he growled her name.
A small hysterical laugh escaped her as she lifted her head to look at him. She liked the way her name sounded when he said it. His tusks clicked together when he spoke and his voice was deep and gravelly sounding. She wondered if it hurt for him to speak. His voice sounded like he gargled nails. It sounded painful to her and could only imagine it wasn't comfortable or easy for him to speak her language.
Placing her hand over his, she wasn't nearly startled as much this time as before when he started purring again. The intensity of the purr though was a little distracting. She bit her lip to keep her smile small as she stared at him.
"Yea that's right, I'm Elli."
AN: Alrighty here is Chapter six, I hope it is to all of your liking. It was really tough, I think I've written and rewritten this chapter over and over again. I'm pretty happy with it, but I feel like I am missing something in there but oh well.
I don't own AVP but Elaina is mine.
So if there is any confusion on Celtic's name here is my brief explanation on it. Now I connot even begin to claim that I can speak Yautja words, but the way I've been pronouncing Ci'tde's name is like Ce'ty, so I was thinking with him talking in a real gravely voice and with the clicking of his tusks and trills while he talks, well I can see Elaina mixing his name up and calling him Celtic by mistake. Hope that clears that up ^.^
Talk to you all in the next chapter then,
Inky out.
