Chapter 8: Unexpected Bonds.
The next couple of days were rather uneventful so they spent the time getting to know each other better. Jack told her a bit about his life back on earth and what he did for a living, "So you hunt other oomans?" she asked sounding confused by the premise of him hunting his own species,
"In a sense yes, but only bad guys it isn't for sport" he said, now she looked even more confused by this, so he thought of a way to make her understand, "I hunt down the ooman equivalent of bad bloods" he said, this got Tik's mandibles clicking rapidly,
"So Ack is like an adjudicator?" she asked, he didn't know what that was but he guessed it was a Yaujta law enforcer so he nodded, Tik clicked happily at this, "Then Ack has a role of honour among his people" she said, it was more a statement than a question, after finding this out about him she seemed to open up a lot more to him and began to tell him of tales from her clan, pretty much every one of them involved a hunter or huntress surpassing insurmountable odds to bring down their prey, but the way she told them with such passion and fire Jack found himself becoming enthralled, to his amazement she was actually quite a good story teller and some of the stories had him totally immersed like the one about a Yaujta huntress who had her cubs snatched by bad bloods and she fought off an entire clan single handily to retrieve them, she told it with such passion that Jack could smell the blood from the legions she disembowelled to rescue her cubs, plus he made a mental not to never piss off a Yaujta mama bear.
After a bit of pushing by the curious huntress he told her a few stories of his own hunts back on earth, he told her how he and his team had hunted war criminals in the middle east and the odds they'd over come to bring them to justice, much to his surprise she was actually enthralled by this, it seemed to him that Yaujta lived through their stories, to them it was like a living history which made kinda made sense.
Tik eleth found Ack's life on earth exhilarating, his tales of his hunts of dangerous and deadly ooman bad bloods were filled with honourable acts and intense fighting and struggle, tracking your prey for miles through mountains and caves to corner your prey and make them answer for the things they'd done, it made her smile as she thought about him tracking his prey to a dark cave in a desolate mountain range and making a swift and honourable kill, this made her wonder though what trophies he would have collected over his years, she would have to talk him through her collection one day and then maybe in return he could tell her of his.
Ack's presence also had an added benefit, now that she had someone to help her she figured she could finally bathe, it would have been impossible with all the threats on this planet to do such a thing as you would be completely vulnerable, but with a seasoned warrior to prevent attack she would be able to finally able to get herself clean, though when she had asked him he had changed that funny red colour again, she still found it interesting that oomans could change colour at will, she wondered what it meant and she wondered if they changed to any other colours.
Jack couldn't believe that he was doing this, he was stood on a rock sweeping the forest with his rifle, behind him he could hear the roaring water of the small waterfall that Tik had brought him to, when she'd told him that she was going to bathe and she wanted him to watch over her his head had nearly burst, in fact it took his addled brain a moment to reconstruct her words so that he realised that she wanted him to watch out for threats and not to actually watch her bathe.
So now while Tik splashed about in the water below him Jack was stood on a rock watching the forest through his scope trying desperately to override his instincts to sneak a peek, he failed miserably and he glanced down at her just as she was bending down to pick some moss to scrub herself with, his head nearly burst again.
She had a massive broad back with strong solid looking muscles running up it, this lead down into very curvy hips and a surprisingly feminine and very pert rear, which led into legs that just seemed to go on forever, her natural camouflage skin totally enthralled him and he found himself studying the swirls and patterns that covered her and his breath caught in his throat, then just as he found he couldn't tear his eyes off her she glanced over her shoulder at him and he snapped his head back to his scope so fast his neck clicked.
Tik eleth felt eyes on her and she glanced up at Ack who was on a rock with his projectile weapon, his head seemed to move fast and she could have sworn that she heard a loud click from him, as she watched him for a second he scanned the forest with his rifle, she smiled at how diligent at his task he was, then the thought that he may have been watching her crossed her mind, but surprisingly it didn't come with the outrage that should have accompanied such a thought, then another thought popped into her head and she chased it right back out, she did not want him to watch her! Did she?
After she was done bathing she felt a million times better, it was wonderful to feel clean again, then after she dressed herself she headed over to Ack, "I am done, now it is your turn and I will keep watch" she said up to him, he looked own at her from his perch,
"My turn?" he asked, she nodded and clicked her mandibles,
"To bathe" she said and watched in fascination as his face went deathly white followed by a bright read and then purple, so oomans could do more colours!
"Umm ok" he said and climbed down from the rock, she clambered up to take the station he had just occupied and he went to the water.
Jack took his clothes off and looked at the water, is did not look warm or inviting but he supposed that he did kinda smell like a three-day old sock, so it was probably a good idea to get some of this off him, but it was still gonna suck but that didn't stop him collecting moss just like she had.
From her perch on the rock Tik eleth watched the forest, she could hear Ack splashing about in the water, he kept saying an odd name for some reason, she didn't know who this 'Jesus Christ' was but he must be important, though she didn't know why he was relevant or related to bathing, just another question she'd have to ask him later on.
She kept having an odd temptation to look at him while he bathed that she kept chasing from her mind, but eventually while she was distracted by some large flying creatures the thought invaded her mind by stealth and over rode her actions and she looked. Ack was well built having a large strong back, his pink white skin was covered in a patch work of scars that ran all over his back in different directions, as her eyes followed this down over his masculine back to his slender hips she noticed that he had a large scar on his left rather firm looking buttock, his legs were stout looking with well-muscled thighs and toned calves that told her that he was not adverse to lots of walking or running, presumably from chasing his prey down, in fact he was very well built for an ooman with a physique that a male could be proud of, suddenly she felt rather hot under the collar again as she realised what she was doing and just as she was about to turn so did he, her head snapped back to the forest so quick her dreadlocks flew around in an arc.
Once the bathing was done both of them returned to the cave as it was getting dark, they'd had a successful hunt yesterday so they had plenty of meat for that night, while Tik prepared the food Jack found himself looking over her trophy collection, she had quite a few varying skulls from the creatures here, but one caught his eye the most, it was like a massive canine skull that reminded him of the wolves they'd fought, but only a lot larger.
"Marabi wolf" Tik's voice said from behind him, for someone so large she really did move like a ninja,
"Bet there's a good story behind him" he said pointing at the skull, Tik nodded and drew her mandibles up into a smile obviously happy that he wanted to hear one of her hunting stories, "I tell it over our meal" she said, he nodded happily, he really enjoyed her stories and actually found himself looking forwards to it.
After their meal and Tik reviled him with how she'd brought down the massive wolf with nothing but a wooden spear and her daggers by getting on its back from a rock and almost riding it halfway across the jungle, they both made themselves ready for bed, as he came back in after letting her change he closed up the cave and got into his bed, Tik was busy writing in her diary again, he found it intriguing that she chose to do this with an old traditional quill rather than use her tech, but he did find it rather endearing, he found himself smiling as he settled down to sleep, "Goodnight Tik" he said,
"Goodnight Ack" she relied before putting her diary away, it had been a good day today and as she lay down sleep claimed her swiftly.
Tik eleth growled loudly and dropped into her fighting stance, then without a warning she leapt forwards grabbing him throwing him over, but with surprising strength he was able to twist and flip her weight spinning her on to her back, then with all his strength he pinned her down pushing her hands above her head, she heard him give a throaty growl in her ear that sent shivers down her spine and she felt his weight pressing down on her body, suddenly she didn't want to fight him anymore and she did something she never thought she'd ever do, she submitted.
She felt him push himself roughly inside her and take her, she felt him begin to move but when she looked up at the male who had claimed her as his, she saw not a male Yaujta, but Ack's bright blue eyes staring back at her.
Tik eleth sat bolt upright in her bed panting heavily, she clutched her hand to her breast holding the skins she used as a blanket to her chest, her heart was pounding as she looked around herself. She was still alone in her bed and instantly she looked at Ack, he was still wrapped in the skins he was using as a blanket and was snoring softly. Her heart gradually slowed its blistering pace in her chest, the dream had felt so real and so vivid that she almost put her hand between her legs to check that she had indeed not been taken. It was at that point she noticed just how hot and bothered she felt, in fact her most sacred place felt like it was on fire and felt like it was leaking, there was also a very unusual sweet smell in the air, it reminded her of terilion spice wine in its sweet spicy smell, for a second she wondered what it was till she realised that it also seemed to be coming from her.
Sitting there in utter confusion Tik eleth tried to figure out what the hell was happening to her, finally she laid back down in her bed and put her arms behind her head, but every time she tried to close her eyes her head filled with images of the strange ooman laid on her floor, what the hell had he done to her? These thoughts were so completely wrong, she could not disgrace herself or her clan like that, she would not, she'd been raised to be a proud strong Yaujta huntress and she would not dishonour herself, but try as she might the maelstrom of thoughts in her head simply got stronger, till only her exhaustion pulled her back into sleep.
Jack woke in the morning to see daylight creeping around the edge of the cave entrance, for a moment he had absolutely no clue where he was, he sat up in his makeshift bed and looked around in the gloom, his eyes were instantly drawn to the large sleeping shape in the massive bed and it all came flooding back to him. Tik was snoring lightly as she slept, as he watched her he saw her grip the skin she was using as a blanket and he heard her mumble something, he couldn't understand what she said as it was in a strange language which he guessed was Yaujta but whatever she said he heard his name being said at the end of it.
As he watched her his head was suddenly flooded with all sorts of imagery, he shook his head to clear it, 'I need some air and a piss' he thought to himself, he stealthily got to his feet and moved to the cave exit, slowly he moved the large piece of wood blocking the entrance as to not wake the sleeping huntress, once that was done he stepped outside.
As he stood relieving himself over the edge of the ledge on to the canopy of the jungle below Jack heard an ear splitting shriek that made him jump so badly he nearly tore his own cock off, then there was series of gunshots that stopped abruptly, this was rapidly followed by another ear splitting shriek, putting himself away he quickly ran back into the cave, this proved to be rather a stupid idea as it turned out.
Bursting into the cave Jack headed straight for his weapons, but before he could even get halfway a massive shape hit him from the side knocking him to the ground and pinning him down on his back with a large weight on his hips and a hand on his throat, an angry clicking noise from above him and the flash of two blades in front of his eyes told him who it was,
"T-T-Tik it's me Jack!" he spluttered through the hand holding his throat shut, it seems that startling a sleeping blooded Yaujta huntress awake was not the smartest move.
Tik eleth released her grip on the throat of the fast moving shadow as it revealed itself to be her ooman ally, "Ack?" She asked to be sure,
"Yeah" he said coughing as his lungs filled with air,
"Why you run Ack?" She asked confused while retracting her wrist blades and sitting back,
"There some shit going down outside, screeches and gunshots which I'm guessing is not a good sign" he said, Tik's brow instantly furrowed,
"How close?" She asked,
"Not far maybe half a mile at the most" he said, she thought about this deeply for a moment scratching under mandibles as she thought,
"Err not to be a mood killer here but if you wouldn't mind" he said patting her rather large thigh gently, Tik's eyes suddenly widened as she realised that she was knelt straddled over him with her weight on his hips.
Tik burst up off him like a live grenade had gone off under her and Jack sat up, "Thanks" he said quickly getting to his feet, Tik said nothing as he rapidly went to the weapon rack and picked up his weapons, then he turned and rapidly picked up his armour throwing it on over his head doing the clips up as he did, to his left Tik was doing the same with her own armour, as he quickly exited through the entrance to the cave he was trying to scrub the feeling of how hot her crotch had felt against his own and also just how comfortable he'd felt underneath her from his mind.
Jack lay flat scanning the jungle with his rifle scope, at first he saw nothing but then as he watched he spotted a series of fast moving black things, at first he thought they might be more of the ugly fucking wolves that he and Tik had fought yesterday, that was until one of them went straight up a tree and jumped, he counted at least four of them and whatever they were they were big.
Tik eleth emerged from the cave with her armour on and her mask in place, she looked at Ack who was laid flat on his stomach with his weapon against his shoulder looking through the large scope on top of it.
"I got four fast moving targets" he said quietly,
"Wolves?" She asked,
"Not unless they learned how to climb trees" he replied not taking his eyes of the jungle,
"Wolves not climb trees" she replied crouching down next to him, she started scanning the jungle with her thermal vision but she saw nothing,
"I don't see them" she said,
"About quarter of a mile out in this direction, follow my rifle line" Jack said, pointing forwards, Tik followed his line of sight but still saw nothing but then she heard something that made her blood run cold, a loud screech echoed through the jungle, instantly she flicked her visor to the only other working spectrum and she straight away saw them and her heart sunk,
"Kiande amedha" she breathed.
"What?" Jack asked as he heard her say the name in her own tongue,
"It means hard meat in your tongue" she said, "Hard meat?" He asked sounding confused,
"They are one of the most perfect hunters to exist, they kill everything they encounter, young bloods hunt them to prove themselves to their clan, but how did they get here?" she said,
"Did the bad bloods bring them?" Jack asked, she considered this for a moment, it would explain the larger cages that were dropped along with the others of Jack's kind in fact their inclusion now made sense, as if they bred in the oomans then the resulting warriors would be bigger and faster not to mention harder to kill,
" So what's the plan?" Jack asked her, she looked him and saw that he was looking at her, "We hunt them and we kill them" she said,
"Works for me" he replied.
Jack and Tik secured the cave before making their way down into the jungle, as Tik tracked Jack followed behind and watched her back. As Jack watched the jungle he wondered just what could get someone as powerful as Tik so rattled, even though she didn't show it Jack was beginning to notice subtle things in her body language that seemed to speak volumes to him for some reason, right now he could see the visible tenseness in the huntress and that in turn made him tense.
Whatever these things were for them to rattle Tik he knew that they had to be bad, he kept his head firmly on the swivel scanning the forest and given that he knew that they could climb trees he made a point of scanning the canopy as they moved.
Pretty soon they came across a rather grisly scene, the first thing that caught Jack's attention was a luminous green pile of smoking jelly, as he went to poke it with the gun barrel he was startled as Tik grabbed the end of it, as he looked at her confused she held up a stick, then as he watched she touched the stick to the green jelly and he watched in horror and fascination as the stick fizzed and promptly dissolved.
"Holy shit, nice save" Jack breathed looking from the stick to Tik, she nodded and let go of the gun barrel, they both continued to check the scene and that's when Jack noticed the dead human sat against a tree with a hole through its chest.
Jack moved slowly over to the body, it was the body of a young blonde woman in her mid-twenties by Jack's guess, she was dressed in the uniform of the US military, by the stripes on her arm she was a sergeant and by her shoulder flash a Marine. Jack looked at her face and could see that it was frozen in a twisted mask of pain and fear, what caught his attention the most was the fact her ribs seemed to have burst outward, he figured something big had hit her in the back but then he noticed the wound didn't go all the way through, it was like something burst out of her chest.
On the floor next to the body was a SAW or Squad Automatic Weapon, this little light machine gun packed a hell of a punch for such a small gun, he figured that given that she really didn't need it he decided that he'd be a fool to leave it behind, but first there was something he had to do. Taking his left hand, he gently closed the young woman's eyes,
"Rest well soldier your fight is done" he said gently,
then slowly he removed her dog tags from around her neck and placed them in his pocket, after a moment's respect paid he removed her ammo from her pouches and retrieved her weapon.
Tik eleth watched Jack as he paid respect to a fallen soldier, even though he never known her he paid her respect, this display made her think of how her own kind paid respect to their own fallen, so in that she stayed silent while he did what he had to do as he had shown her customs respect so now she would for his. As soon as he was done he shouldered his AS50 and picked up the SAW and checked it over, then he turned to look at Tik who was watching him curiously, he simply gestured that they should move on, she nodded they indicated a trail of blood and what appeared to be drag marks in the ground,
" Caught second ooman" she said,
"Well then let's see where they went" he said and with that they both moved off.
Following the trail wasn't difficult, it led them on a winding trail through the forest, but finally they arrived at what appeared to be a large cave network, suddenly Tik stopped and Jack did the same, "Whatcha got?" he asked quietly,
"No sounds" Tik said, at first he thought that she meant for him to shut up, but then he realised what she meant, the jungle had gone deadly silent even the insects had shut the fuck up.
They both started scanning left and right with their weapons? "I smell a trap" Jack said quietly as he turned his back to her to scan behind them,
"I also sense a trap" she replied quietly, it happened out of nowhere, in the blink of an eye about ten or twelve of the ugliest looking creatures he'd ever seen burst out of the forest instantly followed by another load out of the cave.
"Ambush!" Jack roared opening up on the ones coming from the rear with the SAW, he heard Tik's plasma cannon going hell for leather behind him as she opened up on the ones coming out of the cave, they were instantly surrounded, the bugs were stupid fast and were running circles around them as they fired, Jack got a few hits in dropping three in quick succession and Tik got another four, but they were closing fast from every angle, Jack's mind raced, but then he had an idea, it was crazy but it might just work, "We're gonna be overrun! Run for the cave, funnel them to us!" He yelled, Tik started running for the cave entrance swiftly followed by Jack.
Once inside they both turned and fired on the bugs as they scrambled through the narrow cave entrance, the bugs were shredded as they tried to enter the cave, suddenly out of no-where Tik got knocked forwards but instantly she whirled around and drew her wrist blades, the bug turned to jump at her again only to be cut down by Tik's wrist blades, suddenly another six of them came out of the dark, everything seemed to go into slow motion, Jack stopped firing as his weapon ran dry, instantly he dropped to change the belt, as he watched he couldn't believe his eyes, Tik was swinging her sword and wrist blades left and right in what could be described as the most graceful and amazing display he'd ever seen, she cut through them left and right as she whirled and twisted, it was almost like she was dancing and he almost stopped to watch her, but then his mind slapped him to get back in the fight and bloody help her, he'd just finished loading when disaster struck.
Three of them got in a few rapid hits on Tik from all sides drawing bright glowing green blood from her, then one smashed into her back hard enough to knock her down hard, Tik's head bounced off the stone with a sickening thud which put a nice dent in her mask, the three of them went to grab the stricken huntress suddenly upon seeing this all those strange thoughts and feelings he'd been having flooded his mind in one go, he knew that it was happening so very quickly and he'd only known her for such a very short period of time but this had been lurking in the back of his mind since he first clapped his eyes on her, most people would have scoffed not only at this situation but also what he was feeling, but he realised that he just didn't care anymore, everything made complete sense to him and he wasn't going to fight it anymore, something in Jack snapped completely.
Tik eleth tried to move but her limbs refused to co-operate, she saw the three Kiande amedha closing in on her with their fangs bared and their jaws dripping their foul saliva everywhere, she prayed for a swift death, the alternative was too horrifying to contemplate and she would not be host to one of those abominations, her vision was pulsing in and out and she knew she would lose consciousness soon, but then something completely unexpected happened, there was a massive roar of pure rage that echoed around the cave but sounded oddly familiar to her,
"GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM HER YOU SICK FUCKS!" Ack's voice roared in a guttural roar of primal rage, then two of the three Kiande amedha were shredded in front of her eyes falling dead on the ground before her, the third turned to look for the assailant only to be picked up by its tail and swung like a club, it was promptly thrown down the cave towards the others, suddenly Ack was standing over her with one foot planted on each side of her body protecting her, his face was twisted into a mask of pure rage, those sharp warriors teeth of his were bared in a vicious snarl, his eyes were burning in the purest sapphire blue she'd ever seen but with pure hate, he was firing on the rest of the Kiande amedha at the entrance to the cave, "You won't get her you fucks! You fuckers won't take the woman I love from me! SHE IS MINE!" he roared in a voice of pure primal rage, Tik eleth couldn't believe it, this ooman, this beautiful amazing honourable complicated ooman had just declared his love for her! Not one of her own kind had ever seen her worth, not one had ever so much as paid her a compliment, not one male of her own kind had ever even looked at her twice, but not him he'd looked at her once and instantly knew her. In the shortest space imaginable somehow this ooman had fallen in love with her and had just declared it to the world for all to hear, now he was stood over her fighting not to survive himself but for her to live!
A bubble suddenly sprung up in her chest and it grew rapidly, it was a feeling so rare to her that she almost didn't know what it was, but it was joy, pure joy.
That was the last thought that entered her head before her world went black and she lost consciousness.