She had peacefully gone to sleep thinking about him, but oddly enough her dreams brought her back to reality. Liana jolted awake with the sound of her alarm clock, a scream creeping to her lips before seeing that she was back in her bedroom, and not in the clutches of aliens. She was gripping the covers and covered in sweat. Though she had easily dismissed what he had said about rescue coming for him, her mind had obviously not let it go.
She wasn't a match for him when he had a bullet wound to his neck and chest, and had almost been strangled by him even as weak as he had been-and he had been unarmed at the time. Liana certainly would not hold up against another one. If someone came to his rescue, they would be well armed and prepared.
The more she thought about it, the more it worried her. In the movie, E.T. had to call for his rescue, and the alien in the cage didn't have anything to contact his kind with to be able to do the same. However, that didn't mean that no one was aware he was still here. He had said that a beacon would send a signal, and as she didn't know if he had a ship somewhere or had been dropped off, her mind went to that wrist gauntlet. To be on the safe side, Liana considered smashing all of his weapons and gear, or at least getting them far away from her house.
For now though, she went to go check on him, and brought some fruit with her as an excuse to bother him. She hoped that she would be able to bribe him with fruit into saying his name now that she knew he could talk. He was just sitting there against the back wall, holding that rabbit skull. He didn't look over at her. She knew he wanted to be left alone, but she began to peel the orange in her hand anyway.
"Are you hungry at all?"
Of course, she got no response.
Eating in front of him had angered him before, but she couldn't help herself. She took a slice of orange and put it in her mouth, chewing slowly, enjoying its juicy flavor. She ate another, and noticed his head was starting to turn towards her. Liana ate a third slice, and made silly pleasurable noises as she did, then wiped the juices that went sliding down from the corner of her mouth. His amber eyes slowly met her gaze. She turned to walk away then, to leave him, but heard his rumbling growl.
She turned back, trying to hide the smile on her face, and watched him move to the front of the cage. She extended the rest of the orange out to him and he quickly snatched it from her hand. He dissected it quickly using his nails, and she watched him swallow piece by piece and even the peel.
Liana brought out another orange, beginning to peel it, and asked, "Why won't you tell me your name?"
He started to growl at her, but she handed him a piece. Trading with him, info for food, was not going to work anymore. She simply wanted to keep him calm. He eagerly grabbed it from her hand, and ate it. She slowly handed him another.
"What's the harm in me knowing your name?" to keep him compliant, she gave him another piece of orange. He still growled at her, then stuffed it down his throat.
When she offered him another small slice, he grew angry and slapped her hand away, "Ooman do not feed me like a pet!"
"Sorry." She mumbled, and handed him the rest of the orange. He devoured it quickly, peel and all.
The longer she stood there, the more he seemed to puff up, muscles going tense. Even in such a small cage, he started to pace back and forth in it. She sighed, and popped open her can of beer.
She took a swig and then declared, "Don't get all worked up. I'm leaving."
When she turned to leave, he stilled, and then growled at her. When she kept walking away he said, "Ooman."
She stopped and turned back to him, expecting a request for water, to turn up the heater on the back of the cage, or something. Instead, she noticed that his eyes were locked on the can in her hand, and he seemed to smell the air like he was interested in it.
"Oh, no I can't give you this."
His fist slammed into the bars, making rattle, and he boomed, "Female, you will give me anything I request!"
She grit her teeth, wanting to spit back so many comments on how that was not the case. However, one can of beer was not going to do any harm, and she handed it over. His features almost looked smug as he grabbed it from her hand and drank it down. She waited for him to throw the can at her head next, and say it was disgusting. Instead, he hovered it over his mouth, trying to get every last drop.
She stared at him blinking in surprise, "You liked it?"
He sat down in the cage, not seeming to reject. Her mind began to turn out evil ideas again, just as she had when she spotted that can of ghost pepper powder. Liana left him, and went into the house to search through her cabinets. She didn't even know if he would like it, or drink it willingly, but she would try. She found the bottle of vodka hidden in the back behind her Cheerios, grabbed two shot glasses, and walked back out to the cage. Liquor could loosen anybodies lips, and she just wanted to know his name.
He seemed to want whatever she had, so she poured herself a shot in front of him, and swallowed it down. He watched her with a tilted head as she made a face at the taste, and then she poured him a shot as well. She offered it out to him.
"Its not water. Do you want to try it?"
He looked at it, smelled it, but his hand grabbed the whole bottle instead of the small shot. With enough force to end up breaking the bottle he yanked it from her hand and thrust it through the slot at the bottom so he could have the whole thing, as it didnt quite fit through the small space of the bars. It was a new bottle too that she'd just opened, and now she feared he'd be wasting it if he broke or spilled it.
"Hey!" She protested, but he lifted the bottle to his mouth and began to chug, "Oh no no no! Hey! Hey! Don't drink all of that! Are you listening to me! Hey!" He quickly downed the entire bottle of vodka in a matter of seconds.
Liana's eyes were wide as she stared at him. He politely slipped the empty bottle back out through the slot and handed it to her. Then, he picked up the shot glass she had dropped, and handed that out to her as well. She began to shake her head at him. Liana glanced at her phone, taking note of the time, and simply waited to see if he would show any effects. Hopefully, hard alcohol did not have the same reaction with him as it did humans. Maybe his body would filter it out before it did anything.
He sat there silently, seemingly unaffected, just waiting for her to leave. The minutes ticked by. However, when he stood up and hit his head on the top of the cage, she knew she was in for some trouble. He stumbled and sat back down, started to look at his hands, then leaned back looking at the ceiling of the cage too.
Suddenly, he whirled his head in her direction and his mandibles spread out wide as he yelled, "This is second time you poison me!"
Liana scoffed, put her hands on her hips and said, "I didn't poison you. It's alcohol, and you are the one who wouldn't listen when I said not to drink it all...and I don't know what you mean twice either."
He came to the front of the cage again and she took a defensive step away from him, but he said, "Meat burned throat. Poison."
"Oh," she tried not to giggle at him, "that was just powdered peppers. Peppers are a fruit, so I thought maybe, you know, you'd like it…" her excuses were terrible.
He tried to growl at her, but the noise faded off as he started to lean to to side, seeming unstable. She bit her lip, trying not to laugh at him. His beady eyes kept blinking as he looked around, as if this were the first time he was actually noticing of the cage around him. He didn't seem to act like he'd ever had alcohol before. Even on an alien planet though, fermenting fruit would create alcohol. It seemed like such a simple thing.
He tried to stand up again, having trouble that he couldn't stand all the way up without hitting his head, and having trouble with the fact that the ground wasn't flat. He was in a huge tube and the alcohol made him uncoordinated. She watched him try to move around, unsure of what he was doing, thinking that he probably didn't even know. As he shifted though, so did the cage and trailer some. He seemed to start to like the rocking. With his strength, he braced the walls and began to rock the cage back and forth.
He did that until she began to fear that he would actually tip the whole cage and trailer, and tried to gain his attention back. "Hey, can you tell me your name now?"
He froze, looked at her like he'd forgotten she was there, and stumbled forward to her. He held onto the bars for support, almost looking like he might puke. She leaned away warily.
"D...rrr..."
One of her eyebrows lifted at him, "What's your name?"
"Derr...Drr...rrr...de...d..."
Liana shook her head with a sigh. Either his name was incredibly strange, or they had another problem altogether. He couldn't pronounce his own name. Bravely stepping close to him, into a possible puke zone, she reached in to feel his hair. On instinct he seemed to grab her, fumbling with her arm before yanking her wrist closer. But she was still bruised and let out a yelp of pain.
Surprisingly, he let her go instantly, and began to purr again. She found herself leaning closer, liking the calming effect of such a strange noise. Liana felt a strand of his hair, but he shouldn't have encouraged him. His hands reached out to touch her as well, groping at her breasts. She quickly shoved him away, and he stared at her threw the bars.
He rested his forehead up against the metal and began to babble incoherent ramblings that must have been alien words. He was looking at her expectantly though, like he was asking her something.
"I can't understand a word you're saying."
He let out a huff, and let himself lean backwards and flop down on his back, apparently giving up on talking. She watched his chest lift and fall with his deep breathing, but after a minute he seemed to get an idea. He lifted himself up, almost looking like he was getting used to being intoxicated, and grabbed that rabbit skull from the back of the cage. He shuffled over to her then, one arm sliding across the side of the cage for balance.
He grunted, and held out the little skull to her, trying to press it into her hands. She hesitated, but took it from him.
She met his eyes, "What are you giving this creepy thing to me for?"
He straightened up on his knees in the cage, and his hand went to her hair again. His other hand wrapped around her lower back and jerked her body forward against the bars. She sucked in a surprised inhale, and her free hand pushed at his chest lightly through the bars, unsure of what he planned to do with her there. If he went back to the groping, she would pull herself away.
He had always carried with him a sort of masculine smell, but only now with him holding her there, his body leaning closer, did it smell so strongly. It was a spicy musk, an overly manly smell, and it seemed to surround her thickly in the air. His hand moved from her hair to the back of her head to keep her face close, and his tongue reached out to lick at her collarbone then up her neck. Something about that heady smell made her lean in closer, and his tongue painted across her lower lip.
She stopped shoving him away, and he immediately closed the gap between them, both of their bodies pressed together, but with the metal bars preventing anything further. Her heart was racing, but even with that influencing scent of his musk around her, she turned her face away. He let her go, and sat back in the cage. Liana tried to organize her thoughts and get herself under control. She'd only taken one shot of vodka, but the ideas in her head suggested otherwise. More than ever, she just wanted to let him out, or even crawl in the cage with him.
She shook her head, physically trying to rid her mind of such obscene thoughts. She lifted up the smooth white rabbit skull still in her hand, and turned to leave.
He growled, but she ignored him until he demanded, "You stay...mere...come mere."
"Say your name, and I'll stay."
He bumped his head against the bars, and slurred, "De'aro."
She smiled at him, and went back to stand in front of the bars. His hand immediately went to her belt to drag her closer and his hands went on to explore around to her ass. Liana squirmed out of his reach, and he pouted, but sat down and began touching his own hair. She watched his claws draw through the thick strands and he started to lean backwards before he caught himself and sat upright.
For drinking the whole bottle, he actually didn't seem too drunk. He had to weigh over two hundred pounds, and she supposed that distributed the alcohol through his veins. When his other hand slipped underneath his cloth cover however, she began to reconsider his drunkenness.
She wasn't about to watch him play with it, "Hey, cut that out or I'm leaving."
He let out an indignant snort, but let his hands drop. He sat up again in front of the bars then and said, "I escape. Fuck you."
She wasn't totally sure if that fuck you was meant as the insult or the action, but she watched him hastily take out a bead from his hair and press it to the metal bar. He paused, and she waited for something alien or magical to happen. However, he simply began to viciously rub the metal bead on the bars, as though he was capable of sawing his way out with it.
"Don't do that!" She fought with his fingers to pry the bead away from him, "You'll scratch it and it's so pretty."
Finally, he gave up and she plucked the bronze-colored bead out of his hand. She rolled it in her palm, but with the dim light that the setting sun was providing it looked unscathed. She held it up then, looking for any damage. It wasn't even scratched. Liana reveled at how hard the metal was and tried to hand it back to him.
"Put it back in your hair." She prompted him.
Instead, he leaned his head close, seeming to want her to put it back. She held the bare strand of his dread and slipped the metal bead onto it until the growing thickness of the strand made the bead snuggly stay in his hair. She could help but palm and stroke his hair for a moment more and then leaned away.
"Did you still want me to stay?" She started to back away, and he growled, so she took that as a yes. It was getting dark out and cold though, so she said, "I'll be right back."
Liana grabbed a blanket from inside and then sat in the camping chair infront if the cage. He plopped down, leaning against the side of the cage, but slid sideways onto the bottom of the cage anyway, then rolled to his stomach to stare at her. He looked ridiculous.
"When you going let me out?" He begged.
She let out a sigh, and said, "How can I trust you not to kill me?"
He let out a predatory rumble and said, "I do much more than kill you, but be gentler than other yautjas who come."
"And how do I know you aren't lying? Why would you need me to let you go when your kind is coming to free you?"
"...Look silly, in ooman cage."
"Right."
"Lemme go."
He was drunk and begging, but she couldn't do it, "No."
"When they come, won't be able to stop them hurt you, if I'm in cage."
She nodded, and he shut his eyes to sleep. More than anything, what prevented her from letting him go was a fear that he would just disappear. She worried he would take his stuff and leave just like that. She doubted she would ever see him again, or that she'd ever see another of his kind. It was stubborn, stupid, and wrong to keep him in the cage-yet she couldn't bring herself to let him out. He would contact his kind. He would kill her. Or, he might just leave. Either way, in the cage, she knew she'd be able to see him another day.