(I created a lot of this, but not Riddick, as stated in COPYRIGHTS listed in chapter 1)
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Chapter 10
Bells...
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Author's Note: Turn About is a stand alone tale, but it is part of a larger story arc. This chapter makes a brief reference to Joshua Jacobson who was introduced in my story Be Still: Chances, in which Riddick has a chance to get all the bounties on his head dropped. Jacobson is a doctor who makes Riddick's acquaintance and offers him a place to start over.
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There was still a haze hanging in the air when Riddick was ready to move, but the cat had put a whole new angle on things and Riddick was impatient. He intended to put as much distance between them and this camp as they could. The cat would either follow or it wouldn't... although he expected that it would. To its mind blood meant something wounded and wounded was likely disadvantaged, possibly weakened, easy prey... or at least easier. There was always the hope that he'd gotten enough blood off his boot that the cat would lose interest, but if the creature were like most predators Riddick was familiar with, he didn't expect it to give up so easily. Blood wasn't the only scent it could track them by; it was just what caught the thing's attention.
Given more time Riddick knew he could come up with other options for dealing with the cat; pitfalls, traps, the right materials to cover their scent... If he had a preference, he'd hole up a few days till his shoulder healed and take care of it right, but there was no guarantees that they weren't being searched for. He didn't think planetary security would be overly rushed to recover a few dead mercs and their prisoner, but Tangiers' had told Jenner their cargo was earning a reputation. Riddick hadn't survived this long betting his life on assumptions.
The way he saw it both problems had the same solution - move fast, move far. Where the cat was concerned, Riddick had hopes it might shy off if they hit rival territory and that the blood scent would be too faint to catch the new cat's interest. Or, better yet, the cats might become more interested in each other and let the humans slip through while they sorted out who had the bigger claws. Fierce enough fight and neither cat would be a threat till the 'prey' was long gone. But all that meant moving out sooner than later, and that meant limited visibility. It wasn't his preference, but so long as the fog was too thin to provide close up cover and he could avoid walking off cliffs or into ambushes it didn't matter if he could see the distance. Right now he could take his bearings off the compass.
He and the frail finished what was needed on her end, but even so she protested the demise of the fire and expressed a strong disinclination to go anywhere while there was any kind of fog remaining. Riddick hid his irritation and simply started counting. She moved fast enough then. He didn't know if it was the threat implied or the promise she'd made. He didn't care so long as it motivated. He pushed that motivation straight into walking and based on her previous day's performance Riddick set a pace that would cover ground without, he hoped, wiping the little secretary out completely. She had good boots now. He intended to push her envelope.
It wasn't long, however, before he began wondering if he was going to regret his decision... not to push the pace, but to leave her breathin'. Shortly after they hit their stride she began muttering behind him, but surprisingly it wasn't the speed she was complaining about. As her murmurs grew in volume he realized the true culprit was the humidity. It was making her hair go flat, it was making her clothes stick, her legs were wet and it was making her stockings rub... she had a whole assortment. "This is miserable!" she finally exclaimed. "It's not going to be like this all day, is it?"
"I thought you were used to 'thick and muggy'," Riddick growled from ahead of her. He hadn't been enjoying himself either for some of the same reasons, but there wasn't much use in saying anything about it. Conditions had to be endured. Complaining wasn't going to change them. At least he couldn't quite smell her... but then he couldn't quite smell anything beyond wet trees which made her muttering all the more irritating.
"I am," she fumed, "when I'm outside on the streets... but I don't have to live there. I don't have to work there. And it's not like this. It's muggy and humid, but at least I can see all the way down the block. Do you even know where we're going? And everything is so damp and clingy... look what it's done to my hair... I thought it was bad this morning! I don't even want to see it now! This is just impossible."
Stranded in a rainforest with a murderer in front and a cat behind and she's more worried about her hair. He didn't know if he should ghost her or shake her, although, to be fair, she didn't know about the cat. "Just be glad we came down in the dry season."
"This is dry?" she shot back, "You're kidding, right?"
"No," he retorted. "In the wet season it rains..." He turned to stare at her. "...every day. So shut up. You've got nothing to complain about... yet," he added, and he chose a tone that promised if she did, he'd be the source.
She caught her breath, frozen by his gaze, then nodded quickly, "Okay, the weather's fine. No complaints." But he almost got the feeling that some little part of the exchange amused her and that annoyed him.
As the day dried up and the dampness was absorbed into the forest, moods improved. Riddick kept a steady pace, and evidently the cat, if it was following, kept its distance... at least Riddick didn't sense it. It wasn't much to go on, but he trusted it. It was also evident the girl wasn't kidding when she said she worked out and liked hiking programs. True they hadn't hit anything extreme, and the forest's natural ambiance kept her on the edge, but the terrain - so far - was not a struggle now that she was fitted with decent boots. She took it all in stride... as long as she didn't find slugs in her handholds and nothing bolted from under her feet. In fact as they continued, her awareness of the forest occasionally edged past the confines of her paranoia, and a couple times he actually caught her glancing around with something other than fear in her eyes.
It was later when the illumination at ground level began to fail incrementally that Riddick decided it was time to start seriously looking for a camp... a defensible one if such was available. The occasional shaft of light piercing the canopy slant wise only confirmed the lateness of the day. The girl had held up decently. Given a choice he would have rather kept moving and taken his chances, but he doubted the girl's gym hikes had prepared her for what he wanted to do, and he didn't need her advertising 'easy target' later when she got seriously tired... and then there was his shoulder. It was a trade off. If you wanted to be particular about a camp, you had to do your looking while it was light.
In the end it was the girl that found the site, albeit through sheer unprecedented luck. They had pushed on as Riddick slowly loosened the criteria to include sites that could be made somewhat defensible. He wanted something more than a lean-to. There was a glut of lean-to sites in a place like this, but what he really wanted tonight was someplace with something resembling walls... maybe a roof. Something cat proof... but that was a tall order considering.
The general direction of their travels was downward. The civilization they were aiming for was a city built on flatlands stripped of forest just in from the coast - sea level - but the area where they'd landed was much higher. That's what made the whole temperate forest thing work. The heavy wet air from the oceans had to climb hard and fast to make it over the mountains, dropping its load in the process, but this time of the year the weather wasn't going to be a challenge. Nope. He had it easy. All he had to worry about was what was between point A and point B... but with her in tow that was going to be challenge enough.
The land itself between the crash and the town was a smattering of terrains... variations on hilly and steep. Sometimes the topography was relatively easy. The only real obstacles were provided by the forest itself, but there were other areas coming up where the terrain itself would become an obstacle... where the earth was rippled and folded and they'd be forced to deal with steep climbs and valley descents in addition to the vibrant cycle of life around them. He wondered how well the girl's gym programs had prepared her for that, but... unfortunately... that wasn't a current issue.
He actually would have preferred the ripples and folds right about now. Sharp changes in elevation could mean shifts, upheavals and erosion... maybe jumbled rocks. Shifted layers of exposed strata could mean caves. If nothing else it could mean downed trees that couldn't lie flat... might mean a space underneath with your back to good earth. It could mean a lot of things, but that wasn't what they had. The land beneath their feet in this section of green profusion was moderate hills with long down slopes. That'd been great for the "landing", but it was crappy for what he needed now. It didn't mean there weren't some prime spots out there, but it did mean they probably weren't going to be obvious, and he was beginning to think he should have started looking sooner.
"Mr. Riddick?" Coulter interrupted his thoughts from behind. "Are we going to be stopping soon?"
Riddick paused to glance back behind him. No edges today and it hadn't been a lazy pace either. On top of that she'd made through and hadn't tripped up once so far. Amazing the difference decent foot gear made. "Why, you tired?"
She hesitated then shook her head and he saw it in her eyes again... that worried look. Even if she was, she wasn't going to admit it. She was so afraid that she was going to become inconvenient... If she only knew just how inconvenient she was.
"I can go further if I have to," she offered cautiously, "but... I am hungry."
That made him stop and think. He'd been focused on fast and far, and she hadn't lagged. Their stops had been few... It was with mild surprise that he suddenly realized he had pushed her envelope straight through lunch. Hit or miss meals were par for the course in his life. His stomach had no set schedule and it knew better than to complain over one missed meal, or rather his brain knew better than to let it register. If he had food available, he'd eat. If he didn't, he didn't. It happened often enough he'd gotten used to tuning out that "missed a meal" level of hunger altogether. This girl, on the other hand, was probably used to three squares a day. She'd probably been hungry awhile. You keep surprisin' me. You ain't so soft as you look.
"Yeah, we'll be stopping," he answered. "Just need to find a decent place to camp. Somethin' may be comin' in tonight." The last was completely true, but when he glanced up toward the sky beyond the canopy his words took on a different meaning. "I want something more than a lean-to this time around."
"Oh," she glanced up, "That's not good." Then she dropped her gaze and scanned the forest. "So what are you looking for?" she asked. "Maybe I can help."
Couldn't hurt. "Cave, hole, trees leaning against one another... something sturdy with some depth. Hard to say what it'll look like. Use your imagination. Something darker than a shadow might be a clue."
She re-evaluated their surroundings. "Good luck spotting anything in this growth," she grumped. "The perfect place could be 40 meters away and we'd never see it."
"Yeah," Riddick agreed sourly. "Keep your eyes peeled. We keep covering ground we're bound to run across something. Come on." He didn't believe that entirely, but he was hopeful.
She sighed. "You're the boss."
He could tell she'd been hoping they'd take a break... at least long enough to eat... but he didn't want to waste the light. "Damn right," he confirmed. "Sooner we find camp, sooner we can stop," he dug into the duffle bag briefly, "but no reason you can't eat on the way." He tossed her a ration bar. "Think you can figure out how to open it without a demo?"
Her face lit up as she caught the package, too glad to be discomfited by his barb. "I'll manage," she grinned happily shooting one of those smiles in his direction again. "Thanks!"
Riddick grunted as he closed the duffle up again trying to figure out what it was about that word... or if it had something to do with the one who was saying it.
Cover ground they did, eyes roaming the verdant world around them as they went. At every point of elevation with any kind of view Riddick could find they paused to scan even more thoroughly. Searching the forest... actually being forced to look around... seemed to bring a new awareness to Coulter's perspective, and occasionally he would hear her exclaim softly to herself as she was distracted by some detail she hadn't noticed before. He kept track of her and her discoveries just in case they interrupted her feet the way they interrupted her search, but she never fell too far behind.
One discovery was the simple beauty of the afternoon sunlight streaming through the holes in the canopy. The golden shafts sparkled with motes of dust floating in the air and she seemed to find the effect "enchanting." Another was an "incredible" bright blue bird that protested their presence in his territory with a raucous display. That one had stopped her feet until the "incredible" bright blue bird launched itself at her and sent her ducking and dodging after Riddick with her arms over her head.
The last was a huge snail - its whorled shell colored with rich blending bands of ocher, orange, crimson and mahogany - laboriously climbing up a tree trunk just off their path. That one drew an exclamation of discovery quickly followed by one of disgust as she recognized it for the slimy thing it was.
"They're edible, you know," Riddick offered over his shoulder.
"Oh, that's revolting," she retorted. "I'd rather eat melted rations!" and Riddick smiled.
It wasn't long after that she was distracted again. As Riddick scaled a horizontal tree trunk to gain altitude, she had moved the other way focused on a patch of flowers. The foliage was glossy and dark, an emerald three shades toward black, while the flowers were delicate white trumpets edged in a jewel toned crimson. They were pretty, if you liked that sort of thing, but the fact that the girl went motionless three paces from the patch made him stop and look.
He tensed, his hand automatically edging toward Jenner's gun. She sacred? She see the cat? But as he looked the motion of a brilliant little bird smaller than his hand on wings beating faster than he could see caught his attention as it had caught hers. It hovered in front of one of the flowers maneuvering like a high end hover craft making precise diagonal movements as it inserted a long needle like beak deep into the flowers without once setting foot on a solid surface. It was an aerial display of such control that even he was impressed, but it had nothing to do with his search so he finally turned his back on the girl and the bird to resume his scan of the area.
We need shelter; she's looking at hover birds. Should have made her wait to eat. Bein' hungry might've kept her focused. He shook his head. Current primary classification: ditz, he concluded. A tough ditz, but still a ditz. At least she's keeping herself occupied instead freaking out over every little sound now.
He made a careful scan of what he could see, but none of it looked promising. Guess we keep going, then he looked up at the sunlight slipping in, but we are going to loose our light here soon. We don't find something here in the next fifteen, twenty minutes we'll have to take what we can rig, walls or not. That wasn't a happy thought.
He was considering their options if they couldn't find a suitable site when he heard his name.
"Mr. Riddick?" her voice was curious, "What is that?"
It may be small, but it's a bird. I can tell that even from up here. He turned to answer, irritation already flavoring his remark, but it died on his lips.
She wasn't looking at the flowers. She was staring off in the distance and sounding perplexed. "Behind those big ferns..." She pointed. "I'd call it a tree, but what a strange shape. And it almost looks like its been woven. Makes me think of those lace Corolla Gowns from Signess Phi... you know, those ridiculous floor length get ups that make ladies look like they are wearing a bell around their waist with lots of flowey scarves on top." She glanced back over her shoulder to see if she had his attention. "Why people think Signess is part of the fashion hub of the galaxy is beyond me," she rolled her eyes then turned back around. "I wouldn't be caught dead in one of those bell things, but look at that dark shape at the bottom" she pointed again, "... almost like shoes, well, if there were two of them... but it is darker than a shadow. Is that interesting? Is that anything like what you're looking for?"
Riddick didn't care what was fashionable on Signess Phi or any where else for that matter but the description the girl had given was unusual. There were tall silver ferns between him and what ever she could see, but given a direction and a description, he could make out brief glimpses of a strange woven bark through the leaves. He dropped off the trunk and strode over to where she was standing hearing the tiny hover bird give a startled shriek and zoom away at his approach. Its little wings were beating so fast it even sounded like a miniature hover device.
He bent down placing himself at her eye level, and as he did a thin gap materialized between the silver ferns above and the Kelly green ferns below. The plants grew in such a way that you had to be at just the right angle and just the right height to spot the tree behind their foliage... and Coulter was at both. Lucky break? Her tree did indeed have woven looking bark and an odd shape... wide at the bottom and narrowing toward the middle much like a woman's waist. Simply put it was strange, but there was also something familiar about it.
He sifted through his survival lessons briefly and found the name strangler fig matched against it. He'd never been to Earth Prime, but because it was the original home of life and the base DNA geneticists used to populate their way through the galaxy, a study of Earth Prime's basic ecosystems and climatic environments was the standard introduction to most survival classes. There was absolutely no way a man could study ALL the variations of life that had been on Earth, let alone those twisted and mutated out of the originals, but if you had an overview of what they started with and where it'd come from you might - and that was a relatively big might in some places - be able to make some guesses about what had been developed for any given planet. Predators of certain types tended to have a certain psychology. Prey animals in certain habitats would tend to have the same habits as their genetic predecessors.
There were never any guarantees, but knowing the puzzle pieces might give a man a few ideas toward figuring out a bigger picture. It could be the only thing you had to go on ifyou were dealing with some genetic screw up that got away to breed and/or a place populated by some God-complexed crew of scientists that had twisted stuff together into things that ought never have existed... things better suited to a science fiction vid than real life. His classes had studied a good many examples from those categories as well. Hell, Riddick thought, I've killed a few of those examples. The Spitfires on Sigma were somebody's attempt at a bio-organic mining machine and look what they made instead.
The slimy car sized lizards with acid for spit had not only failed to do what they were designed to do, but without a natural enemy to control their population they had taken over the mines. Mining on Sigma 3 now required advance work by mercs to clear the tunnels before a section could be worked. Riddick had more than one scar left over from Spitfire hunting and his whole experience on Sigma 3 had taught him the single most important rule of survival - take nothing for granted... not your partner, not your squad leader, not your boss, not your surroundings and most certainly not the animal you were hunting... or that was hunting you. But there was a lot in this forest that was somewhat familiar... that was surprisingly Earth-like... and this tree was one of them.
It had, in actuality, been two trees. One had been of a tall thick trunked variety and the other was a vine that, if it were of the strangler variety, had started when some bird or animal decided to enjoy a bit of fig take-out from elsewhere in the forest among the high branches. The inedible seed, of course, was left behind and that was where it began. Riddick remembered the strangler vine from his classes because it was unusual. It wasn't a parasite, although it killed its host none the less, and it did it quietly... patiently... unobtrusively - qualities he could appreciate in an effective killer even if it was a plant.
The other thing he respected was stranglers were survivors that pushed through the hard times and finished strong because after the seed sprouted on its host, it lived on the bare minimums - nutrients pulled from dust in the air, water collected from the fog and rain - as it sent thin shoots down reaching for the earth. It might take a season or two depending on its height, but once the shoots were within a few feet of the ground some inexplicable signal told them to divide into a multitude before plunging themselves deep in the soil around the tree's trunk. Once in the rich earth the vines had all the nutrients they needed to expand and grow merging themselves over and around until the tree trunk was all but incased in a network of thick cords and tendrils. But despite the name, the original stranglers didn't choke their host to death. Over a period of years, perhaps even decades, as the vine became a tree in and of itself, it usurped the sunshine, soil and water from its host killing the original tree much more slowly than strangling ever would, but dead was dead. Over the next many more years the first tree rotted out providing the vine with an additional exclusive food source.
At some point in the life of this particular vine a portion of its host's decaying trunk had collapsed and it had constricted to a degree creating the waist effect, but eventually it appeared this pair would follow the course of the original strangler it was derived from - the tree would rot out completely and then all that would remain to mark its existence would be a thick hollow column of twisted vine... hollow. And there was a dark triangular shadow among the roots... an opening? Maybe she's found something. "More than interesting," he commented then set off toward the tree, "come on."
What Riddick found when they got there was worth the detour. As far as strangler vines and their victims went, this pair was massive... far larger than anything he had ever read about... but with all the genetic tinkering man was capable of you couldn't be too surprised by variations. The exterior of this 'tree' was indeed formed of vines - some of the smallest as thick as his arm - and, better still, the shadow was an opening. The thick layer of shredded bark that mulched the area around the breach for several meters was a clear sign that the opening had been used extensively, but there was no sign it had been used recently.
When Riddick left the girl and her smell outside he quickly figured out why. It was unmistakable. The place reeked of cat - old, stale cat - but cat none the less. What are the odds that we'd find the old king's castle? Or maybe this is just a summer house. Big as they are they may have quite a range. May keep more than one bed... who knows.
Riddick had to crouch to enter, but once inside he found room to stand. In fact the interior of the den was almost twice his height and around 5 meters wide lined with a thick aromatic bark. That was all that was left of the vine's victim and it was nearly as pungent as the girl's perfume. No need to fumigate, Riddick noted the lack of webs and insect activity. Seems what's left of the tree does it naturally. And the source of the bark chips was obviously from the previous occupant's habit of scratching the walls leaving deep vertical furrows like the ones he'd found on the scratch tree.
Up above, where the bark had collapsed allowing the vines to constrict, the strangler's mad weave was visible from the interior. Chinks and holes in the lace permitted streams of light to pierce the dark interior, but Riddick knew that was in limited supply. They needed to push it if they were going to take advantage of what light was left. Tall, walled, limited egress... Riddick look up through the clutter caught in the hole to glimpses of the leaf sheltered canopy above. The clutter would have to go. He wasn't going to take the chance sparks might carry up and catch the whole mess on fire... come down on them blazing. Once cleared, however, it would be more than big enough for a man... or a cat... to come down. Wasn't reason enough to pass it up though. With the heat and smoke of a fire filling the opening there weren't too many animals that would chance it, and he might be able to narrow it down a bit. It didn't take a propulsion engineer to determine they'd be calling it home, at least for the night.
"Looks like you'll be tryin' one of those bell things on for size after all," he teased as he exited.
"What?" she exclaimed, "Stay in there? Are you joking? There has got to be all kinds of bugs in there."
"Why?" Riddick returned scornfully, " 'fraid you'll catch termites?"
Her eyes grew wide as she stared at him aghast. "Will I?"
Riddick stared back, then shook his head. "Not you. They like something with a little straighter grain than you," he growled. "Now sit tight a bit while I clear the chimney, then we're goin' shoppin'. We're gonna need firewood, and we'll throw a door together so you don't feel like you need to climb in my pocket tonight." And so we can keep any company that might come calling on the outside.
It really didn't take long to get their camp prepared. The clutter in the 'chimney' was limbs and small branches that had fallen over the years and gotten caught in a tangle. Clearing it actually supplied a good bit of prime air dried firewood so he hacked it up as he worked and dumped it down the hole, all except one long limb. It was really too thick to comfortably chop into firewood with just a knife, but its length was ideal for another use. Maneuvering its ends through two of the holes on either side of the chimney, he roughly bisected the opening. One side was narrow. The other was less so. He could slip through handily enough, but those paw prints had been pretty big. With any luck - if the cat was the climbing sort, and in this eco-system he'd be surprised if it wasn't - between the narrowed opening and a fire he could make it think twice before coming down to visit. Sturdy green material for the door was only a short climb higher. The entire process only served to aggravate his shoulder, and while he'd be damned if he was going to ask - the animal in him protested at even the thought of deliberately wanting that girl behind him again - he found himself hopingCoulter might offer one of her massages later.
Without her 'protector' nearby the frail had reverted and sat watching the woods with wary eyes. She looked for the source of most every sound she didn't associate with him dropping firewood down inside the tree. Her whole posture was tense and when Riddick let the door materials clatter down the outside she jumped... quite literally. She spun to face the noise as if something were making a sudden sneak attack. In her new boots she was nimble and quick but Riddick noted if it had been an attack she would've still been dead. She was facing the "threat" with empty hands and had completely forgotten she was packing a firearm. When she identified the cause of the noise, and then the source, she glared up at him. He smirked then dropped from view through the chimney.
"Mr. Riddick!" she cried as he disappeared. She rushed the hole as she heard him thump down inside, and she nearly met him head on as he emerged. She hit reverse so quickly she tripped and ended up sprawled in the mulch where her glare resumed.
"Skittish," he observed mildly meeting her glare, "Don't forget you got a gun now." Although he had his reservations about reminding her, he'd decided to have her carry it for a reason. She jerked, looking toward the mousegun under her arm as if he'd just said there was a spider climbing her shirt. The tech in the little holster had reinforced and anchored itself securely to her top and then automatically covered the little weapon with a low energy optical field that blended it into the fabric so it could hide in plain sight, but the little piece wasn't completely invisible if you knew what to look for. Riddick knew. She reached up to touch the camouflaged weapon gingerly but he wasn't waiting. "Come on," he ordered and walked off leaving her to scramble to her feet and follow.
Denise eyed the dimming light levels suspiciously and stuck close as they walked. As Riddick found what he needed he loaded her arms before starting on his own, leaving as much off his shoulder as he could. Clearing the 'chimney' had been strain enough. The frail groaned, but she didn't shirk, and the gyrations she went through with each successive piece as she tried to make sure it hadn't come with hitchhikers was rather amusing. She didn't, however, make any protests, nor did she ask any questions. If it was because she was tired, she didn't let it stop her from being useful. When they got back, she helped use the wire to lash together the spiked framework that would serve as their door with a similar lack of queries. Riddick offered the excuse that something lived there in the past and they were just going to make sure nothing else decided to move in while they were sleeping. She seemed to accept that but at least once, as she cast a wary eye on the darkening green work, he caught her glancing back the way they'd come. She ain't completely oblivious, he acknowledged, she's got the feeling somethings up. Just how much wild you got in you, city girl?
They finished the door in a timely fashion, but even so the sunlight was coming in at an extreme angle by the time they were done. Riddick looked around noting the drastic change. This wasn't a clearing. It was going to go dark fast once the sun dropped low enough and he still had a few things to do. With all the bark on the den floor they needed a variation on the fire pit. Once he was satisfied Denise understood how to adapt it he grabbed the Steribottles in hopeful anticipation and left her to it while he did reconnaissance. He kept an eye on her when the foliage permitted. For all her protest about bugs, she now found the tree much preferable to being outside alone and the parts of her chore that required her to be beyond the walls were done at record speed with many a paranoid glance at the woods.
He counted it lucky when he found a little spring a short distance away. It wasn't much... dried to a trickle with the season, but a little hand engineering modified the flow so he could fill both bottles directly from the source. It was doing things a little backwards... but with these bottles he could get away with it. When he got back the Swish Stick would tell him what sort of purification process he needed, but for now he was just glad to have access to H2O. While the bottles filled he located a suitable latrine. There was question whether Coulter would get to use it.
The darker it got, the more hunted he felt. His neck hairs weren't twitching yet, but they were definitely thinking about it. Considering the alternative, however, he decided to take the risk and went back to the tree. The steady glow of a palm light indicated she had lost light inside and he could hear her working hard inside the cavity. "Coulter. Grab what ya need from the duffle and take a break."
"Just a minute. I'm almost done here."
"Now," Riddick ordered. "I ain't makin' two trips tonight. You don't come, you're doin' your private business in the corner with me for company."
There was a sudden scuffling of bark chips followed by the duffle opening and a short time later she emerged from the opening. "A little impatient, aren't we?" she asked snippily.
"Getting dark and I'm hungry." It wasn't that far from truth. He'd skipped lunch too and it was getting into dinner. "We get settled I ain't goin' out again."
The light level was dropping between eye blinks now, each second getting darker and she was suddenly more than happy to hurry along. Riddick didn't offer her the same degree of privacy he had the previous night, but surprisingly she didn't protest. She watched the forest shapes fading into sinister obscurity with undisguised dread, and jumped at every sound. Riddick chaffed under the restrictions she placed on him. If he were alone he'd be in the trees, he'd be picking up the scents, he'd be tuned into the forest, he'd have covered over twice the distance... maybe be out of cat land by now. "It's so close here," she shivered, and he knew exactly what she meant. The circumstances had changed. He was being hunted again. Unlike the clearing, night falling here made every clump of ferns, every tree trunk, every shadow feel like an ambush waiting to happen. She didn't know the half of it, but for once the two of them were using the same book-card, if not reading on nearly the same page.
She finished quickly and they made a short detour to collect the water bottles then beat feet back to the tree. His shoulder ached with a dull pain that told him he'd pushed the healing tissues further than he ought but the camp chores weren't completely done. He wedged the door in place confident that its spiky exterior would dissuade most animals from trying that entrance, but with what he knew, he wasn't feeling safe... yet.
The girl hadn't been far from right when she said she was almost done with the fire pit and that was after she'd cleared the floor and organized all the firewood to one side of the door first so she'd accomplished quite a bit while he was exploring and done a decent job with both. She held the palm light while Riddick finished up tweaking the pit design. When he was finished, he grunted his satisfaction as she started handing him the ingredients for a fire in the order he'd taught her the night before. He had to admit she picked things up quickly. When he was done putting together the layers he sat back and motioned her to finish. She crushed and twisted the Fire Bug the way he'd shown her before placing it in the tinder.
The little fire that sprang up was welcome. She nursed it under Riddick's direction until it was burning cheerfully and for the first time that evening Riddick began to feel like he could relax.
The girl too, seemed to relax, settling in nearly as far from the door as she could get which put her not quite the other side of the fire from him. "I don't know what used to live here," she said as she looked around in open disdain, "but they had certainly never heard of interior design... I mean, really, vertical grooving in a place this tall? What were they thinking?"
Interior design? She thinks this is a fashion statement? He glanced up from testing the water with the Swish Stick to gaze at the cat scratches. Their deep, even, parallel spacing did create an illusion of deliberation. Nice to be ignorant, he thought as he caught a slither of movement up near the chimney, a faint reflection of the fire light on something with a bit of a dull shine to it... scales? ...up until it kills you. "Doubt decor ever crossed their mind. You still hungry?"
"Oh, yes," she replied eagerly. "After the hike today I feel like I could eat two or three... although I guess that probably wouldn't be smart. You probably didn't pack much more than you figured we'd need, you carrying everything and all." Riddick didn't answer, but she didn't even notice as she pouted thoughtfully.
The Swish Stick flashed green and showed an exceptionally low organism count, but Riddick sealed the bottles and activated the sterilizing cycle on both anyway. It only took one bug to take you down, but if sterilize was the only setting they had to use, each unit would have a good hundred cycles in it if Jenner had kept the power supplies up to date. Riddick didn't figure they'd come near using even quarter that many on this trip so there was no sense taking those kind of chances.
"Too bad it's so dark now," the girl sighed. "We could have looked for more black berries. Those you found last night were better than the ones Tony had brought in even if they were a bit sour."
"Bars are made to keep you alive, not fill you up. If we want to keep taking chances we might find a few other things to supplement along the way," Riddick answered as he put the Swish Stick away. He pulled out a couple ration bars and pitched one in the girl's lap before he lifted the water bottle to take a drink and keep a surreptitious eye on the newcomer.
"I trust your judgment," she said carelessly as she pounced on the bar. She was so busy ripping it open with careful haste that she didn't catch Riddick stop, lower his bottle and stare at her.
It wasn't so much her trusting his judgment that was surprising. She was doing that just by following him... by doing what she was told. What was surprising was to hear it consciously acknowledged... to hear it said so matter-of-factly. He finished taking his drink.
"Can I have some water too, please?" she asked after she bit into her first mouthful.
Riddick tossed her the second bottle. "So what other fancy stuff has Gallo let you try?" he asked after he finally opened his own bar.
"Well, lets see... there's the Boravine eggs I told you about. They have an interesting flavor, like they've been cooked in butter and garlic with some spices I can't even begin to describe, but they come right out of the shell that way... and somehow they taste more like butter than real butter does."
"You've had real butter?" Riddick asked.
"A few times," she nodded.
It wasn't that real butter was unavailable. It was just expensive. Life on Earth Prime was tailor made for Earth Prime and man had found out just how particular it could be as they started trying to live other places. Case in point: it turned out that a lot of planets weren't what you'd call dairy friendly. There were subtle differences on a molecular level in the soil... in the atmospheric conditions... in the mineral and gas combinations... that weren't found on Earth Prime. This did things to milk production in its earliest stages and somehow altered flavor. It affected the milk and anything made with it in unexpected ways, rarely for the good. The planets that could offer naturally palatable dairy products turned out to be few and far between and so pulled a premium price for their products. There were a few others that had managed to genetically adapt their livestock and feed plants to produce something edible despite conditions, but they had spent a lot of time and money doing so. Genetic adaptation was always a complex and touchy process, but the demand for real dairy was such that planets that had been successful were able to charge prices nearly as high as natural.
The result was real dairy... including milk made butter... was only for the rich. Margarines and part dairy substitutes were a white collar's perk. The rest of the galaxy lived with varying synthesized protein products that pretended to be dairy. And then there was Butter Stuff... at least that was the most common and the most family friendly pseudonym. It was an entirely artificially flavored synthetic substance that could be added to whatever oil was available to create a supposedly butter tasting substance for the common man. Depending on where you lived and how much you paid it might even have organic oil as its base. But she'd had real butter. Must be nice.
"Let's see, there's the Blackberries, of course," she continued. "I've also had Kaladas, a fruit from Styleetus 2 - I've had those more than once, they're good if you like things tart - and something called a Portapa Banana. I don't remember where it was from. I didn't like it very much."
"What kinda meats?"
"Well, bison is really good. Tony says the best comes from some place called Wyoming on Earth Prime and he has a case of steaks brought in every year for his birthday. I've never seen a real bison, but there is a silhouette in the logo on the crates they come in, and they are supposed to be in the new THS Yellowstone Hikes & Climbs collection. I read up on them once - there was a little picture with the article but it wasn't a really good one. I can tell you they are monstrous shaggy beasts with horns and a hump. Can't wait to see one life size on my next hike," she grinned, "but I can tell you first hand they sure taste good when they're grilled. I've also had Deep Reef Blood Crab from Steagra Palto. Oh, and there was the time Tony brought in a Tassaderan Boar for a big old fashion barbecue. That whole affair was interesting from start to finish; the boar was just a complication. Something about stasis affects their meat so it had to be brought in live. Tina and I..."
She stopped suddenly as a fleeting look of pain tightened her features and darkened her eyes. When she continued a moment later her voice had lost some of its animation. "...I was there when they unloaded it. The transportation enclosure looked like it had been through a war... from the inside. Evidently cryo's not completely effective on them either. Next time I saw it though, it was roasting on a spit and that was fine with me. That was not the sort of creature I would want to encounter running loose." She paused, then looked out the doorway as a new suspicion interrupted her brush with melancholy. "You don't think that sort of thing lives here, do you?"
Riddick glanced covertly at their visitor. The scaled creature had wedged itself into a large crack running down the wall and was slowly working its way toward the warmth. The groove was filled with a deep shadow that hid the thing's nature, but Riddick had a good guess. The high point of its back swelled a bit beyond the bark's depth and caught the firelight. A curvy line of soft gleam punctuated with small spikes undulated back and forth terminating in a triangular nose that protruded from the darkness. Riddick caught an occasional faint flicker from the tip of the nose. Air taster? Definitely looks reptile. Something in the snake family is my bet, but what kind?
"Possible," Riddick answered the girl's question off handedly "but I haven't seen any sign of pigs so far." Then again, guess it don't matter either way. I ain't sharing my bed with it.
"Oh, good," she looked relieved. "If other boars are anything like the one I saw, I don't want to run into anything like them anywhere. That thing had a nasty disposition and some wickedly long tusks."
Riddick wanted to shake his head, but that might've spoiled his plans. The girl was worried about wildlife she hadn't even seen and was completely oblivious to what was directly above her head. He figured it would only be polite to point their guest out to her sooner or later. But frankly, he added silently, a boar'd be preferable to what's tailing us. At least a pig wouldn't be huntin' to eat us and I know it'd taste better than these ration bars.
He ate his bar and let the girl finish hers. Then both threw their wrappers in the fire and she quickly added the one she'd stuck in her skirt pocket from her bar earlier that afternoon. The triple play of colors in the flames was particularly intense and she watched as if hypnotized, barely noticing when he slipped his big knife from its sheath. "So," he asked blandly, "ever had snake?"
"Snake?" she repeated distractedly, then her eye brows scrunched as the word really registered and she looked up at him. "No, I don't think I have. Why?"
"Just curious," Riddick smiled. There was a flash of pale and silver in the firelight as his arm extended immediately followed by a solid thunk a short distance above her head. She jerked away, drawing a breath to fuss as she started to look up, then screamed as a tumble of heavy, scaled coils dropped on her from above. She continued to scream as the thing twisted and writhed around her dangling from the knife that had nailed its head to the bark. Riddick clamped his hands hard over his ears grinning despite his discomfort. Nearly forgot about that sonic defense, he chuckled watching as she franticly tried to dodge the twisting reptile with barely a break in her shrill panic. Bark ain't' nearly thick enough to 'sorb that sound.
Her panic grew until her fear overrode her aversion and she pushed her way past the flailing body but she wanted nothing to do with him either. She fled to a point equally far from both of them where she huddled against the wall panting. Riddick chuckled then turned back to the fire. "Hey, Coulter. That question you asked when we started hiking..." She looked at him, her eyes still wide, "...they got snakes here."
Her eyes narrowed, immediately filled with bright anger, "Oh...you... you," she sputtered, then snatched a piece of bark from the floor and sent it hurling broadside in his direction. "You're impossible!"
She would have liked to have clocked him in the head and her aim was good, but he blocked it easily. There was so much fire in those eyes. He could barely keep a straight face. "You throw anything at me again," he informed her in a low voice that resonated with more threat than he was actually feeling, "you'll be going it alone."
Her upraised arm jerked to a stop mid fling, a second piece of bark clutched in her hand. It jerked back again as her desire warred against the warning, but common sense won out and she finally slammed the bark down to the floor. "MEN!" she fumed uselessly, and then she turned her back on him and wrapped her arms around her knees. Riddick smiled. There was a lot of explosive in that little package.
Several minutes later as the writhing began to subside, and Riddick stirred his large frame toward the snake. "Is it dead?" she asked edgily, cringing away as he took hold of the neck and pulled his knife from the bark. She was still angry, but her desire to know she was safe again was stronger.
"Been dead. Just needed some time to realize it."
"Was it poisonous?"
That was something he was going to check anyway so Riddick looked it over critically, prying open its mouth with his blade. It didn't have fangs or any other characteristics of a venomous snake, not that poison in the head would affect his plans for the rest of it. "Don't appear so."
She seemed particularly relieved at that and Riddick wondered if that meant she thought it was harmless. If that was the case, she was mistaken. It might not have been a big threat, but it was far from safe. The snake was a hefty beast, muscled for constricting, and longer than he was tall. It was colored for canopy living, it's scales shaded a sunlit green broken with symmetrical patterns of yellows and golds, but there were enough browns worked in that an occasional foray to the ground would have been covered too. A row of small spikes ran down its back and protruded from the back of its head. It appeared there might be another set running folded down its sides. The frail was lucky they hadn't deployed while the thing was spasming. They weren't big, but they were relatively pointed. They were probably useful in crack climbing such as it had just been doing, and would make the snake an uncomfortable mouthful to a predator. They could have easily given the girl a few unpleasant gouges.
Denise stared at the creature dangling from his hand, flinching at a left over twitch. "I can't believe your touching that thing."
"I'm gonna do more than that," he grinned, then crouched and brought his blade down some fifteen centimeters behind the head severing it from the body. She jerked back and stared in shock, then when he flipped the carcass and began slitting the belly from the vent to neck her astonishment grew as she recalled his prefacing question.
"Oh no... You don't mean... You can't be thinking... There's no way I'm eating that!"
"Thought you were hungry."
"Not that hungry!" and when he began to remove the innards from the slit in the belly she turned back away quickly.
"Squeamish too?" he assessed dryly.
She didn't look back. "Let's just say the food I usually buy isn't nearly so fresh." She shuddered and put her head on her knees. Riddick weighed her reaction. She wasn't getting sick or out and out fainting, but it still wasn't reassuring. We hit a hot spot, he asked silently, you gonna be of any use at all? Not something I'll be bettin' on.
He finished his chore quickly, making a hole in the bark floor by the wall deep enough to bury the head and the offal. They weren't going to be staying long enough for it to become a problem, and between the bark and the perfume he'd be amazed if anything could smell it, but that ain't something I'm betting on either. Loosening the skin around the neck, he then gripped the bare meat and stripped the skin down, from neck to vent, in a single piece and cut it off with the tail. It was a good skin, but after brief consideration Riddick reluctantly dumped it in the hole too. If he'd been making plans to stay a little longer, he could've tanned it - snake skin had its uses and even value in the right circles - but as it was, he wouldn't have time. Real shame. He chopped the beast into more manageable pieces before rubbing them with a little salt and setting about getting a few nice chunks cooking. Were it a real survival situation he would have elected for boiling for the nutrition that would've been saved in the water, but here he had options. Been a bit since I got to have real wild meat roasted on a fire. Shame I won't be able to smell it cooking.
It didn't take long for the frail to become bored with the wall, and she finally dared turn around to check out the curiously shaped meat sizzling over the flames. Gutted, skinned, pieced and skewered, the snake bore little resemblance to the startling green and gold canopy dweller it had been. In fact it looked a great deal more like something that might actually be edible. When Riddick finally pulled the meat off the flames Denise watched him with guarded interest as he took a piece and sampled it. To a degree this was a bigger chance than the berries had been because Riddick hadn't been able to test the meat any other way, but it was a hedged bet.
As a general rule animals didn't have poisonous flesh unless they were adapted to dining on something toxic, and even then they often had a way of filtering their diet's toxins out of their body or even tucking it away for use in their own defenses, but not all of them. Turtle types could be chancy. The real trick in survival was not necessarily knowing what to eat so much as it was knowing what not to eat - the nots were a shorter list so that made it easier to remember - because if you were going to play with dangerous meat, you better know who had what kind of poison and in which glands exactly before you started skinning.
Another general rule was the flesh of any snake was safe because their toxins - if they had any - were generally localized in the head, and any venom that might have tainted the meat from a bad skin job or bites from itself or another snake would break down under the heat of cooking... as a general rule. That was the problem with a good number of planets... they pitched the general rules out an airlock. But what he'd read tagged this planet as reasonably earthlike and from what he was seeing so far its designers hadn't tried to go too far off standard in their adaptations. That didn't mean everything was 'safe', but it made him more willing to take risks. He closed his eyes looking for tell tale signs of undesired ingredients, but the snake seemed as clean as the blackberries.
"Ready to take another chance?" he raised an eyebrow at the wary secretary as he speared another piece and held it out on the tip of his knife.
Riddick had no idea how much of her hesitation was "could it be poisonous?" and how much of it was "do I really want to eat snake?" but when she finally reached out to take it he couldn't help hearing, "I trust your judgment," in the back of his mind.
The girl handled the meat gingerly. It was hot, but her expression seemed more on the order of expecting it to grow head, tail and fangs. After a moment she took a nibble, and then another, and finally braved a bite. "Its kind of stringy," she commented after due consideration, "...tastes somewhere between fish and fowl but I guess it's not too bad all things considered. It's certainly better than that goo I ate last night."
"Anything would be better than that," he agreed. A faint grin flickered across Riddick's lips as he recalled her reluctant meal sucking up the semi solid gunk she'd made of her supper. "Those bars are decent for rations, but they're made to eat solid."
"Tell me something I don't know!" she said and her statement was so emphatic that Riddick couldn't help but chuckle. Live and learn, girl, at least that lesson only cost your taste buds.
They pitched their bones in the fire pit as they went, and by the time they were finished they'd eaten all four pieces that Riddick had roasted. Almost as much raw snake remained and Riddick set those up to roast. In the mean time they cleaned up themselves and their living space up as best as could be done with their limited resources. It was too late to do much about the blood on his boot, but there was no sense setting themselves up to advertise, "I've been handling meat," cooked or otherwise, if it could be helped. He could see the girl was reluctant as a broad yawn split her face, but she was either honoring her promise or a little clean was better than a little sleep because she put in the effort. When the second batch of meat was done Riddick took it off the flames and sacrificed a piece of the mesh to wrap it.
"What's that for?" she asked through a second yawn.
"Breakfast." he answered briefly and cut a ledge in the bark wall to keep it off the floor. If they heat it up tomorrow, they'd have some extra protein with breakfast. That would be a good thing because the girl had shown she could push through so they'd be covering ground again and he had no idea when lunch would be... if at all.
When things were finally tucked away, Riddick went about setting up the fire for the night. His shoulder had been griping him all evening but when he took hold of a piece of wood to place on the fire the angle caught it wrong and it flared. His breath sucked briefly between his teeth at the unexpected flash of pain, and the girl keyed in on it.
"You overdid it up there, didn't you?" she glanced up toward the chimney.
"Had to be done," Riddick stated as he put the wood on the fire then reached up to rub at the ache.
She watched him a moment, then stirred herself from her side of the fire. "Let me do that," she offered, but it was said as less a question than an expectation.
Riddick raised an eyebrow at her boldness. It didn't matter that Riddick wanted the massage she offered. The animal inside had roused itself just as loudly, reminding him that the girl he was thinking to let behind him was packing now. It was enough to make him reconsider.
"What?" she stopped halfway as he continued to stare at her. She looked up and down and around suddenly fearing his reaction might mean another intruder, but when her scan didn't revealed any additional 'guests' a look of irritation took over her features. "What?" Riddick had no answer, not quite sure how to explain the discrepancy between trusting her with a gun, and not trusting her with a gun behind him. "Oh, please, we're not going through that again are we? Like you're still not the only reason I'm here and alive and getting home in one piece? Why...?" Irritation suddenly gave way to thoughtfulness, and thoughtfulness to revelation a mere moment later.
"Oh, wait..." She reached up under her arm feeling briefly, then awkwardly pulled her little mousegun out of the holster. "Is this the problem?" Despite her exaggerated care, Riddick's muscles tensed at the sight of the bared firearm. She squinted at it in the half light, keeping it pointed away from him, then knelt down to use the light of the fire to verify she'd found the release. She popped the clip, separating the gun into two pieces then held them up in separate hands. "Better?" She tossed them both in front of him, and after his big hands engulfed both pieces, he relented and gave her his back. He half expected some wisecrack, but none was forthcoming. Another side effect of working with a crime boss? Understandin' men who shy at other people's guns?
He was coming to know what to expect when she got back there... proximity brought a subtle shift to her stench, teasing him with the knowledge that something much richer, much more intimate, lay beneath it. There was also a pattern to her work... the light easing strokes that warmed her cool hands and asked tight muscles to relax before she started seeking hot spots. Tonight she had him take off his shirt and she found every knot across both shoulders and down his back. She worked his sore shoulder with extra care, getting in just deep enough to work the injury, but not hard enough to set it off again. It was feeling abused, and he winced on occasion, but he let her go because he knew it would pay off in the long run. Her work would help prevent scar tissue from forming and it moved better when she was done, but it felt... odd... being touched this way. Her motives were self serving. There were no two ways about it. She'd nailed it down fine... his job, so far as she was concerned, was to get her out in one piece and he could do that better if he could move. It was that simple... but it still felt strange. Somebody seeing to his need... somebody caring about his pain. It tickled on the notion Jacobson had implanted... the pipe dream of a wife... of someone who could actually care about someone like him... and Riddick deliberately ignored it. Ain't possible... Not for me.
Toward the tail end of the rub down he was hearing the girl yawn, and he didn't need to be looking to tell they were the big jaw cracking kind. She'd put in another hard day and it was catching up with her.
"Do you think there are any more snakes up there?" But she was still awake enough to worry about beasties.
Riddick looked up, picking out a few scattered stars peeking through the foliage far above, and then stretched carefully testing the shoulder. "If they haven't shown up by now, probably not." That cat on the other hand... The massage had done it good, but it wasn't ready for a fight. Massages weren't going to do that, not overnight. He gave her a nod that passed for "Thanks," or a dismissal or maybe both.
"Good," she said through another yawn as she moved tiredly back to her space, then she drowsily added over her shoulder, "because if you think I was loud when that snake fell on me, you don't even want to hear what I'll do if I find one sleeping with me."
Riddick flashed an unrepentant grin. Caught that did you?
The fire lit tree hollow was cozy. Largely insulated from the night sounds by the thick bark it felt isolated from the world outside so the girl didn't instigate the gradual migration to his side that she had previously. Bedding down, however, still wasn't a simple procedure. She was used to something else and it was showing. She lay down, shifted and squirmed a bit before sitting up again. She threw a few offending pieces of bark in the fire, rearranged the rest, then laid back down. She did this three times, each time her actions becoming just a little more lethargic. It reminded Riddick of a canine turning in circles to shape out a nest although her technique was a great deal more laborious. Finally, she flopped down with her back to him and the fire and pulled her bag in close to use for her pillow.
"You know," she murmured sleepily, "you were right about you're being full of surprises."
"Oh?"
"Good hands and a decent cook," she said sleepily with one last yawn in-between. "Who'd have guessed." Minutes later she was asleep and Riddick was left to wonder how anyone could open their mind wide enough to find any redeeming qualities in him... and what other surprises this frail had in store for him.
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A different kind of peace fell over them, disturbed only occasionally by the girl's restless shifting. The give of the bark made a half way decent bed if you were used to worse, but she wasn't... or maybe she was missing her 'security blanket' in the form of a shiv-happy, mass murdering, serial killer. The irony of that still got him. A portion of the forest's sounds drifted down from above and through the door, but there was little to disturb Riddick's dozing. He woke up at odd intervals when it became too quiet... when the faint snap of the fire started to die and the cool of the night began to creep in... so he could add wood and keep the flame alive. Other than that, the night was downright serene...
... until the first faint fading began to touch the darkness above.
Riddick had felt the chill whisper in with the damp of the early morning fog, but their hollow and the fire kept most of it at bay. He had just fed a piece of wood to the dwindling flames and had begun to doze off again when he felt it... his short hairs rippling down the back of his neck as an electric tingle woke him instantly. He didn't move as he sought the cause of the premonition, and hoped the girl would do the same. For the moment she'd gone still. He wanted her to stay that way.
The blend of tree and girl left him nose blind and the shade of black outside was something more than he could see through even without the fire screwing up his night vision so he focused on listening instead. What he heard wasn't much... if the fire had been any more active it might have crowded the faint sound out... but what he heard told him a lot.
Outside the door was the faint padding of big soft feet over the loose bark. Cat? The sound was odd in a way he couldn't quite nail down, but this wasn't the stealthy step of a hunter stalking its prey - he didn't think he would have heard that and this pace was too random. This was a careless, curious pace as the predator explored the area encountering the assortment of scent trails he and Coulter had left as they prepared their camp. It passed by the opening, and Riddick looked, straining to see into the blackness beyond the door's framework for a glimpse of the beast, but saw nothing. A short time later, however, it returned. He heard the bark shift under its weight as it approached and Riddick tensed but didn't move. He stared into the darkness beyond their 'door' and caught a brief reflection of firelight bouncing off the gleaming wetness of eyes a hand's span apart. The thing huffed curiously and Riddick's eyes flicked to the sleeping figure across the fire.
Keep still, Coulter! Riddick thought hard at the girl as if she could hear him, willing her to remain motionless. This thing don't know just how close the prey it's hunting is. The eyes blinked as the creature sniffed the opening. ...but it's tryin' to find out. Suddenly it sneezed fiercely and growled low in its throat. Then the eyes were gone.
Damn if that perfume didn't come in handy after all, Riddick thought briefly, and then he was moving with quiet focus... sitting up silently, his hands reaching. His shorthairs were standing on end. He knew where the beast was headed next as clearly as if he could see it. It was circling around to where he'd climbed the vines and Riddick grabbed the tinder without even needing to look for it - knowing exactly where it was thanks to the girl's obsessive need to organize - and thrust it into the flames. It flashed to brightness instantly and he added a handful of sticks and bark slivers to it before it could die off. As they caught fire he heard a soft whump against the outer wall and the girl shifted, but he hadn't time to pay her any attention.
His knife was in hand and he grabbed one of the green sticks left over from making the door and began shaving strips of bark into the fire with short rapid movements. The strips of green bark curled and blackened even as the fire began to smoke. It wasn't as much as he wanted, but it was evidently enough. Riddick heard the scratch of claws on the bark above and dared to look up. On one side the stars he had glimpsed through the foliage were blocked - a large dark shape interposed between the chimney and canopy - then another sneeze resounded in the little hollow and the shape was gone.
Within minutes Riddick felt his shorthairs stand down. It - whatever it was - was gone. He played with the fire for a few minutes setting it up to burn a few hours longer. The effects of his adrenaline rush were beginning to ebb while across the way the frail continued to breathe soft and even... continued to sleep oblivious to the little drama that had just occurred. Go ahead, sleeping beauty, he growled silently, enjoy your rest 'cause today we're picking it up another notch.
Riddick then, very deliberately, set about releasing the tension that had built up in his muscles. Their visitor was gone, and he knew better than to let an event done and over with continue to cause stress, not when he had a chance to grab some much wanted shut-eye instead. Their 'defenses' - such as they were - seemed to have held and he wasn't expecting the visitor to return again this morning. He threw what was left of the green stick in the flames then finally put his back to it and consciously slowed his breathing... consciously relaxed... and consciously let himself sink a little deeper than he had previously into that realm he called rest. He was going to take advantage of the moment. When he woke up it would be time to get busy, but until then he had a chance to actually sleep and those moments didn't come around very often.
-oOo-
WRITER'S THANKS, NOTES & NEWS:
THANKS:
Shaden - Massive apologies for the delay in updating. Hopefully you won't have to reread again but it has been a long time. No excuses beyond life in general. Well, if you didn't like the distance they covered in the last chapter, you really aren't happy with me now - LOL - but I'm working toward something, and your chapter is coming up soon(?).
Yeah, I kind of like how Denise is coming along... not the stereotypical 'bimbo', I believe someone called her - LOL - that she started out. Hopefully she will continue to round out believably. I also know just how far her and Riddick's relationship is going to develop, but I'm not telling you - ;oP - you'll just have to wait and see. Only a few chapters to go :0). Thanks for the kind words and the prayers. You're still in mine too.
NotAfraidToLive - You're welcome for the update and sorry for making you wait again. I have no intention of dropping any of my stories, but thank goodness I'm not trying to meet any deadlines to earn a paycheck :o), of course if I was maybe I could devote more time to writing - LOL. Oh well. Thank you for the praise. I can't ask for better than LOVED it! Hope this one still holds to the bar.
Brimseye - From "haha, loved the perfume" to "don't buy it" in three chapters. Bummer. No offense taken though... I'm just sorry it's not working for you. I agree, whole heartedly, that Riddick would be highly unlikely to put any effort into saving a gal he'd never met before... not for free anyway. That's why the 25,000 credit bounty that he could collect on, but I think there are times Riddick is starting to wonder if that's enough - LOL.
As for Denise not running off into the jungle, well, she sorta tried, but had some sense knocked into her - rather literally. Think about it from her point a view when she woke up the second time. She realized he had saved her life, he hadn't acted hostile and he hadn't taken advantage of her even though the opportunity was there. Under those circumstances might you not decided to take the chance of possible survival, however risky, over the prospect of certain death? I know I would. Survival is a powerful motivator, but you'll have to decide whether that flies for you or not.
Thanks for the other compliments though. It's good to know Turn About has some redeeming features ;o). And Logan, yeah, he's one of my fave X-men (although I haven't collected for quite awhile). Maybe that is where I picked up 'frail' - :oD - I was wondering. I really appreciated your review. Thanks again.
Blade for Hire - Thanks! I am trying very hard to keep him in character, and it's not always easy considering Denise is not the sort of personality he normally interacts with so, for the most part, I'm having to wing it - LOL. Your comments give me hope I'm not straying to far :o). Let me know what you think as this odd couple continues to make their way through the forest :oD.
Starnyx - Where do you think you need to apologize for a late review... look how long it took me to update! Sauce for the goose I'd say - LOL. Thanks, for the characterization praise. Who'd have ever guessed I could have so much fun trying to think like an air headed secretary.
Vinbabe - Thanks SO much! Such high praise is a real encouragement, and I hope you've enjoyed this update as well. This story has been a challenge because the plot is so 'atypical' and I am thrilled it is keeping your interest. Let me know if it continues to do so. Thanks again.
Anna's pastime - Welcome aboard - you know how to make an impression! GRIN Two juicy reviews in the space of two chapters. Talk about making a writer feel special - LOL. I appreciate the "Romancing the Stone" comment, but it has been too long since I've seen it to groan. I do remember the two main characters having disparagingly different personalities... I'll have to try to remember to find it next time I rent movies.
Thank you for the characterization kudos. A writer can't help but "make the canon character their own" in the course of writing, especially back story because to a great deal our past shapes who we are, so, yes, I did do quite a bit of research before I started and I'm trying hard to keep Riddick believable. As you indicated, he's complicated, so I am pleased you are enjoying my portrayal of him in Turn About.
Speaking of research, you prompted me to go do a little more. I went back and watched a few scenes and pulled out the First Edition script of PB I found and not a "yer" in sight so I've gone back and edited not only Turn About, but my other stories as well. Thanks for the critique. As for the other little mistakes, let me know if I've got anything else I'm doing consistently. I just started with betas last chapter and they are definitely helping me catch some things :o).
Thanks so much of the review. Yours is the kind that falls in my "love to receive" category - Letting me know the specific things you're enjoying, but not afraid to point out specific things you think I'm doing wrong. Thank you for taking the time to do so. You'll never realize just how much it is appreciated!
MY CONTINUING PROMISE:
As much as I hate it when other writers get 'distracted' by other stories and don't update the one I'm reading as fast as I'd enjoy, I have discovered that there are times other stories insist on being written. The result? I have four stories currently 'in progress' for your perusal – as they are all of a 'back story' nature in Riddick's timeline they would occur thusly: Saved by Grace, Be Still: Chances, Turn About and Nigh Unto Christmas.
The good news is that each story has been generally plotted and outlined, and only ("only" LOL) needs to be fleshed out. The bad? That takes time, especially when divided between 4 stories, 3 kids, (2 six and under), 1 husband and the life that contains them all and more, so writing time comes at a premium. What it means for my readers is that updates to this story may be intermittent. I do, however, promise it won't be abandoned barring death or other equally drastic life change. Updates will come, please be patient, (and, of course, be aware that feedback is an incredibly powerful motivator ;o) but until then, may God bless you all the time in-between.
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