She woke up early in the morning, around four am even without her alarm clock, as she was so used to waking up at that time. The sun was just beginning to peek over the horizon. Sometime during the night she had situated herself in the chair so that her legs were up over one arm and her head was dangling off the other. She blinked and yawned slowly, then lifted her gaze up to the cage. He was already awake, and as she lifted her head she was greeted with his yellow-orange eyes watching her. Whether it was more creepy or endearing, she couldn't decide.
She stood and stretched, her body aching from sleeping in that camping chair all night, then she looked back at him, "Good morning...I have to go to work now, but do you need anything? Do you have a hangover? Have a headache? Need water?"
"Go, ooman." His words were rude, but his voice had softened.
"Alright." She quickly cleaned up the area, then left with the rabbit skull in her hand.
She got ready, got in the Jeep, tied the skull up to her rear view mirror, and sat there for a moment trying to think. She stared at the smooth white skull, at it's odd shape. After a moment of debating, she went to the garage and grabbed his box of weapons and alien things. She couldn't smash it, and after seeing how strong that metal bead in his hair was, she doubted she'd even be able to destroy them. She knew she would have to let him out of the cage and he would want his stuff too. But if someone was looking for him, she just wanted a few more days with him to herself, and had to get any possible tracking device far away as possible.
She stopped at the first trap, got her work done, and went to the next. She went down the line until she was at the one farthest away from the house, rummaged through her Jeep for rope and the line launcher. It was a professional tree trimming tool like a giant sling shot but she had found it useful for other things, like with setting different traps, and hanging food out of a bears reach. She shot a line of rope over a suitable branch.
Liana put all of his belongings in a bag and hauled it high up into the tree. She had small signs she used to mark her traps, labeling them as conservation depart property. She tied the rope off, and left a small posted sign tacked to the tree where it was tied, hoping a hunter would not find it-and if one did, that they would leave it alone.
When she got back home, a little later than usual, she headed right to the cage to check on him. She walked around to the back of the house, following the worn path in the grass. Her heart was beating faster with every step, worried again that he would be gone. But, he was sitting at the front of the cage waiting for her. As their eyes met, her heart skipped a little beat, but she tried not to look so eager to see him.
"De'aro." She said cautiously, trying to pronounce it exactly as he had.
He let out a soft trilling noise and perked up at his name.
"Are you thirsty at all?" She asked.
He ignored her question, "Pronounce your name for me again."
She said it slowly, "Liana." And she waited for him to say her name, but he was silent.
She didn't want to leave, but felt awkward just watching him now without something to do, so she asked, "Do you want something to eat? Fruit? Chocolate?" She silently begged for him to say yes.
He ignored her again, "They come for me. Soon."
Her heart fell. She put her hands on the bars and bowed her head, "I do believe you."
"Then let me out ooman." He snarled.
She still couldn't bring herself to do it. What would they do if she let him out anyway? Sit at her kitchen table and sip tea? If she were him, she would get her stuff together and leave. What was there here for him anyway? That brought a question to the front of her mind.
"Why did you come here in the first place?"
She didn't think he would actually answer, but he grunted, "Hunt."
"To hunt what? Bears...?" She didn't think he'd come to hunt bears, but wanted him to just say yes.
"Oomans. Humans."
She felt pressure behind her eyes, but held back tears. She didn't wanted him to be a killer, didn't want to accept what she had suspected all along. He'd come to earth specifically to hunt, and if she hadn't shot him in the woods that day...
"Would you have killed me if I hadn't shot you?"
"Sei-i, you were a prime target...but it's not your skull I want anymore."
"You want out of the cage."
He turned his face away, almost seeming to reject her words-but she was afraid to ask what he really wanted from her if he didn't want her dead. They both fell into an awkward silence, until Liana decided to leave. If he was not hungry, all she would be doing is standing and staring at him. She bit her lower lip nervously, then turned to leave.
"Ooman," he stopped her, "bring fruit."
She tried not to smile so big, went to grab him fresh fruit from her kitchen, and immediately returned. She almost started to peel it, but remembered how he didn't like that, and simply handed the orange over to him. She liked watching him eat, mesmerized by the way his claws pulled the pieces apart and how his mandibles moved to feed the fruit down his throat. He seemed to notice she was staring however, and stopped eating to look up at her.
She knew he did not like her watching him, so she turned to head back in the house, "Sorry."
"Stay." He demanded.
She eagerly turned back to him, and leaned her arms through the bars casually. He sat up, inching towards the bars, seeming to react like a magnet every time she was near like that-only wanting to get closer. He pulled another piece out from the orange, but did something she didn't ever expect. He held it out to her, and her face lit up with a smile. When she went to reach for it though, he playfully jerked it out of her reach, and instead brought the orange slice to her lips himself. She felt the nervous fluttering invade her stomach, feeling so strange as he fed her, but her body felt warm.
He watched her chew, then fed another piece to her lips as his chest rumbled with a soft purr. Her cheeks lit up with red. He could be so sweet at times. And it was just yesterday that he was yelling at her for feeding him like a pet, but then he did it to her.
She licked her lips and leaned away to assure him, "I won't tell the government or anyone about you, and I will let you free. I promise."
"Now." He pressed.
She felt the guilt wash over her, "Soon." She said sadly.
He growled, "Soon be too late. Why not now?" She could tell he was growing tense.
She shook her head at him, "I just..." she tried to grasp for any reason to give him, any excuse at all, "...I just...need to do a little more research on you."
"That what I am to you? Just an experiment?" He growled.
She immediately regretted the words. He threw the rest of the orange at her, hitting her stomach then it went bouncing to the ground. It was a terrible excuse, but before she could try and reword it his anger took over. His fist slammed into side of the cage as he growled, then his nails wracked down the side of the metal, making her cringe. He whirled around and began to tear apart the towels, then wadded them up and threw them out the bars in the back at the heater, making it topple down off the chair. He beat his hands on the side of the cage and then came to kick the front bars.
His chest was heaving, "Let me out now ooman, or when I get out there will be pain for you!"
Her hands went to the door, her fingers on the cold metal of the latch. Her heart was racing. His muscles tensely coiled, he crouched near the bars his eyes set on the trees behind her. She hesitated, so many thoughts racing through her mind. When she barely started to lean away, his hand reached out to grab her wrist, his grip painfully tight.
"Open it!" He growled.
Her fingers pried at his, "Let go of me!" She began to shriek in pain as his sharp nails dug into her wrist. She tried to pull herself away from him but he only held her tighter. "Let me go!" She begged.
She felt his nails slicing through her skin, and the gush of warm blood that ran over her hand. She screamed with the jolt of pain, but he quickly drowned out her pathetic cried with a deafening roar. She was so close to him, she felt even the booming vibrations from it. Liana cringed, her eyes closing and she turned her face away but she could not escape it. Her ears quickly gave out, throbbing with intense pain, yet there was only static. His mandibles were still splayed out wide, exposing the slick pink insides of his mouth, yet she couldn't hear it at all.
Eventually his grip vanished, and she crumpled to the ground. Pain jolted through her wrist and up into her arm, and the pressure in her ears was agonizing. Her blue eyes lifted up to his as he tilted his head at her and then said something. She could tell he was talking, as his jaw and mandibles moved, but loud ringing was taking over in her ears and she didn't hear a word of it. He almost looked sympathetic, but her wrist was a shredded mess, was bleeding profusely, and she only hopped that it was a temporary deafness, and not permanent damage.
Liana tried not to cry in front of him again, tried not to look so weak, but the pressure behind her eyes spilled over. She let out a choked sob, and scrambled to her feet. She ran from him, into the comfort of her house. Her wrist left a dotted trail of blood on her carpet, and with blurry tear-wrought vision she began to clean the wound and wrap it up. The gashes were so deep however, she knew she was going to need stitches.
For now though, she did her best to stop the bleeding and crawled into bed to cry herself to sleep. She did her best to ignore the pain, and pulled the covers up around herself. The warm tears would not end, and they ran down her face and soaked her pillow. She hated him.
Just like the grizzly bears she loved so much, she had to remind herself not to get too close, not to trust them. He was temperamental and unpredictable. How many bruises had he left on her? She should have seen something like this coming, yet she had to let him slice open her wrist, and could have killed her again. She was foolish in every way possible.
She was foolish for putting him in a cage, foolish for not letting him go sooner. Once he was healed, she should have sedated him, dropped him out in the wilderness, and forgot she ever saw an alien. Even now, she could still let sedate him, open the cage, and go on a spontaneous and far away vacation. However, she would rather deal with his temper every single day then have him vanish from her life. Her biggest fault was falling for him, for allowing him to work a soft spot into her heart.