Chapter 10: Realizations.
Tik eleth woke feeling like she'd been hit by a freight shuttle, every single part of her body either hurt or ached or even both, she tried to force her eyes open by every time she did her head started bursting with pain, so she just laid there trying to get her mind to focus as all her thoughts felt swimmy and fragmented, it was like her head was filled with liquid mush that moved every time she moved her head.
But very slowly her senses started to align themselves and things started to click back into place, firstly her sense of smell came back on and she became aware that something close by smelt heavily of blood, then swiftly her hearing and sense of feeling came back and she instantly became aware of breathing rather close by, she also became aware that she appeared to be laid on something soft, then with a sharp pulse of pain her memory came flooding back and she remembered what was happening to her and Ack.
Tik eleth's eyes snapped open and she sat bolt upright and she looked around in blind panic, her last memory was Ack standing over her protecting her and fighting the kiande amedha, so at first she was confused fully expecting to find herself in the cave where her and Ack had been fighting the kiande amedha, but much to her confusion she found herself in her cave home, she began to wonder if the entire event had been some sort of pauked up dream, then as the adrenaline rush subsided the pain hit her hard and she looked down at herself. Much to her surprise her armour was completely gone and she was just in her under garments, this confused her until she saw all the new wounds and scars on her body that had been patched up with her medical kit, but she didn't remember returning to the cave let alone patching herself up, then fear gripped her mind and she looked over the side of the bed to where Ack would sleep on the floor, the rugs were empty.
For the first time in her life Tik eleth felt fear, raw unadulterated fear suddenly gripped her in a bolt that shot her in the chest and she felt her blood actually run cold, her heart began to hammer in her chest as she began to imagine the fate that had befallen her ooman ally, she went to push herself off the bed but as she reached down to push off her hand landed on something warm and soft, slowly Tik eleth turned around in confusion and there sprawled out on his back on her bed was Ack.
The first feeling to flood through her was one of sheer relief that the ooman had not fallen to the kiande amedha, the next thought to fill her was confusion as to why he was in her bed but this was swiftly replaced with concern when she saw that his body was covered in a multitude of makeshift bandages.
Moving slowly Tik eleth turned around on the bed and ignoring the protests of her own body she leaned over the unconscious ooman to inspect him, he appeared to have removed his shirt to turn it into bandage material to treat his wounds, these were all now stuck to him with dry blood, his lower torso was like a patchwork of bandages covering a load of wounds undoubtedly caused by the razor sharp claws of the kiande amedha which she knew could cleave easily through some of the strongest metals, there were also a load of them on his arms and legs.
She also noticed that his hands were both bandaged heavily and from what she could tell most of the skin was missing from his palms. This was the first time that Tik eleth had been able to see what Ack hid underneath his armour, she had to admit that he was rather easy on her eyes and also she'd noticed that what she could see of his torso was a patchwork of scars which indicated the many battles he'd fought and won, this indicated to her that she'd been right about his warrior status, without realizing what she was doing she reached over and began to run her hand over his exposed masculine chest, relishing the feeling of his soft warm skin which covered his hard toned muscles, it was only when a purr escaped her that she froze up, what the hell was she doing? He's an ooman and she's Yaujta, this could not be allowed to happen, she could not allow herself to have feelings for him, she would dishonour herself and her clan.
But even though her mind screamed at her to stop, her body refused to listen and her hand did not move from his chest it was frozen in place directly over his beating heart, the soft thumping feeling under her hand awoke feelings in her, feelings that no matter how hard the reason part of her brain tried to beat them back would not listen and now flooded her mind.
At this point suddenly Tik noticed something odd, as her eyes roamed over the body of the unconscious ooman they were drawn to his hands, slowly and rather grudgingly she removed her hand from his chest and slowly picked up his right hand to inspect it, the first thing that struck her was how soft it was, it had an almost fragile quality to it. The crude bandage covered some rather nasty wounds in his palms, wounds that sort of looked like burns to her, but it wasn't that that caught her attention, it was the fact that it wasn't only his blood on his hands, there was Yaujta blood mixed with the blood on his hands.
This little revelation really confused Tik eleth, why did he have Yaujta blood on his hands? Deciding that this warranted further investigation she decided to get up and see if she could piece together what had happened after she'd lost consciousness, so slowly and again rather grudgingly she placed Ack's warm soft hand back down to his side, then slowly as the pain was fighting her all the way, she climbed off the bed and immediately nearly tripped on a rather large wooden frame on the floor, looking at it closely she noticed rather a lot of vine rope coiled on top of it, this confused her as she couldn't tell what it was for or even where it had come from and why was there so much rope on it? Tik looked over at her armour and weapons on the stands and she instantly spotted something, it all appeared to be covered in bloody hand prints, but not Yaujta blood, ooman blood.
She headed over to it and inspected it and it appeared that all of her weapons and her armour had the prints on them, also her medical kit had a large bloody ooman print on it, as she lifted it up she caught sight of her reflection in the shiny metal and instantly noticed that she had something on the side of her face, holding the cylinder up to the light for a better look she realized to her utter shock that it was a handprint in ooman blood, she had been marked with Ack's blood!
It reminded her of an old ritual that her grandmother had told her about once, where life mates would stake a permanent claim to the other by marking each other with their own blood, this would then show that this person was unavailable to others and was permanently claimed by another, the thought of Ack marking her in this way sent a shiver through her, but not a bad one.
Suddenly she began to realize what had happened but she couldn't believe it, quickly she opened the medical kit and found vials missing and the tools covered in ooman blood prints, then she quickly looked at the large frame again and found it to be coated in places with Yaujta blood, then she noticed the vine rope had rather a large amount of ooman blood on it and also pieces of what looked like skin!
Suddenly everything now made complete sense, it was totally unbelievable but it was the only explanation that fit, somehow Ack had beaten all the kiande amedha on his own when she was felled by them, which fit with her last memory which she had begun to believe was part of a vivid dream but now realized was reality, he'd stood over her shouting at the kiande amedha in pure rage that they wouldn't get her because…because she was his.
The last words that Ack had said before she blacked out came flooding back into her mind and her heart started to hammer in her chest, he had pretty much screamed his love for her at the kiande amedha, then somehow he'd been able to defeat them before he'd made some sort of makeshift stretcher out of wood and vines, he'd then put her on it and dragged her through the jungle back to the cave, somehow he'd been strong enough to use the vine rope to winch her up to the cave had got her onto the bed and had managed to figure out how to use her medical kit to treat her wounds after removing her armour, before happy that she was ok had treated his own wounds in a makeshift way and finally collapsed on the bed next to her.
Looking around she saw the bandages that were covered in her own blood, these were not Yaujta they were ooman, so that meant that Ack had used his own medical supplies on her rather than on himself choosing to fix her wounds rather than his own first.
The reality of what this ooman had done for her finally hit home in Tik eleth's mind and it hit her like a plasma bolt to the chest, he'd fought off the most dangerous prey in the universe on his own to protect her, had dragged her dead weight for miles across the jungle on his own, he'd winched her up a cliff on his own, these feats alone should have been physically impossible for him but somehow he'd achieved them, then finally after getting into bed he had figured out her medical kit with no help and had treated her wounds before finally seeing to his own needs.
Tik eleth turned to look at the unconscious ooman male on her bed, thoughts and feelings were firing through her head at an intense rate, her reason tried to stop them but just couldn't keep up, not once in her life had she encountered a being that had displayed such honour to themselves, not once in her life had she been treated with such respect and such tender care by another, all she'd wanted her entire life was to be acknowledged, to have someone to care for and someone who cared about her, but no one had even tried, this had planted a bitter seed in her heart, it had made her more determined than anything to show them all that size doesn't matter, that looks don't matter, that what a person is is on the inside not the outside, that just because she wasn't tall, that just because she wasn't beautiful didn't mean that she wasn't worthy of love. Then comes this male, this beautiful selfless honourable ooman male and he had singlehandedly proven every point that she'd tried to make to her own people, but he'd proven it to her instead, she'd been looking at him in the wrong way this entire time, he'd managed to do what no Yaujta had managed to or had ever even had the guts to try to, he had claimed Tik eleth's heart.
It was all so clear now, she loved him, she completely and utterly loved him, she couldn't believe it herself but it was true, if another had dared to tell her that she'd have fallen in love with an ooman, a prey species, she'd have removed their spine and used it as a belt for daring to suggest that she would commit such a dishonour, but now the feelings flooded her mind completely, all those years wanting for someone to love and for someone to love her and the male that had chosen her was an ooman and more to her surprise she too had chosen him.
Tik eleth walked over to the bed and slowly she lowered herself back onto the skins that made up the mattress, slowly as to not to disturb him she moved slowly up the bed till she was laid right next to him looking right at him, she studied his face now with unrestricted eyes as the voice of reason in her head was now the one being beaten back with the big stick, she looked at that strong jaw and his rugged exotic looks, he was the most beautiful creature she had ever seen in her life, she felt an overwhelming urge to touch him but at the same time did not want to hurt him and given the extent of his wounds she was hard pressed to find a part of him that wasn't bandaged save for his chest, but that would do just nicely and she placed her large hand down on his soft deliciously warm skin, she drank in the exquisite sensations of actually touching the one she loved tenderly like this, of their own will her mandibles clicked away happily and a purr rose in her throat, but this time she did not stop it, looking back from his chest to his face she made a silent vow to herself, that the debt she owed him would be repaid in full, she owed him her life so her life would be his payment, she vowed that while she lived no one would ever harm the one she loved, because once won the love of a female Yaujta never fades, the now very beaten voice of reason in her head squeaked a question about her clan and her honour, to which the answer was so simple to her now, to hell with all of them, her clan had never done for her a tenth of what this beautiful ooman had, as for her honour, how could a being that had so selflessly defended her and put her needs before his own even though it could have cost him his life ever sully her honour, in fact it would be her honour to reward him with the only thing that could equal the value of such a sacrifice, herself.
Reaching up from his chest Tik eleth stroked the side of Ack's face and enjoyed the feeling of his warm breath on her hand, she smiled down at him, she was planning on what she would do and say when he finally woke up, the first thing she would do would be to claim him as her own, he had done her the honour of claiming her back in the cave of the kiande amedha and she realized that even though they were spoken in anger she had never heard such beautiful words spoken, so she would repay this and claim him as her mate.
Suddenly Ack turned over in his sleep and much to Tik eleth's surprise and also sheer delight he wrapped his arms around her torso, she was amazed that he could even move in his wounded state, or that the pain that this must have caused him hadn't woken him straight up, but she found her breath now caught in her throat as she lay back down on her back, the feeling of this wonderful oomans embrace was incredible, it was like nothing she had ever experienced in her life, the delightful feeling of his skin against her own, the sheer warmth of him over whelmed her, these oomans were such a wonderfully intimate species, Yaujta never rarely embraced or touched in this manner outside of rutting each other, but then pretty much every male wouldn't be seen dead expressing their feeling of love for even their life mate if they'd been lucky enough to win a female's heart enough that she had dedicated herself to him, but these oomans did it so naturally, it seemed to be like breathing for them and she loved it, or at least it was for her Ack, slowly she wrapped her own arms around his wounded torso and pulled him gently closer, holding him as tightly as she dared against her, she couldn't wait for him to wake up so that she could declare her feelings for him and claim him as her own, then she could truly repay his love with her own.
Then much to her utter amazement a feeling of calm washed over her mind, she'd been fighting against these thoughts and feelings so hard that to just give into them like this felt amazing, she'd felt so resentful towards the males of her own kind and her own clan for rejecting her so completely despite her many victories for them and the 'honour' of her clan just because she was seen as a weakling because of her height, that to finally find someone one who saw her for who she truly was and gave her the respect that she so badly deserved was a wonderful feeling, it was such a nice thought to find a male that didn't just look her way when they could find no-one else for a quick rut, only then to shower her with insults when she rebuffed their self-absorbed claims to her body, she was seen by many of her peers as a prude for saving her honour for a male that she believed truly deserved it, but she would have never in a million life times have believed that the male worthy of this honour would be of a totally different species let alone one that was considered a stupid prey species by her kind, but she knew different, she knew the total worth of the male laid next to her, now she knew it was up to her to prove her worth to him, she would prove her love to him no matter what the cost.
It all became so clear to her now, for so long she had felt bitter that no male in her clan wanted her, that they were too scared of ruining their social status or their peers ridiculing them for associating with a 'runt' or 'Dwarf' or 'Halfling' to name but a few of the wonderful names her peers had given her, so instead of looks of admiration or at the very least recognition when she made a successful hunt they would instead ignore her and give the glory to the clan as a whole. Just once she'd wished someone, anyone would look at her and see her for who she truly was, but they never had, not until now, it turned out that she'd been looking in the wrong place the entire time, so to hell with all of them, they could take their honour and their glory and shove it up their pompous bigoted collective arse, she had what she needed right her in her arms and she was never going to let go, never.
Suddenly a feeling of extreme tiredness overcame Tik eleth, she fully laid down on her back and as she did she instantly felt Ack snuggle even closer into her side, his arms were encircling her waist and now her rested his head on her shoulder and she felt the delicious feeling of his warm breath on her neck, she placed her left arm around him and placed her hand on his arm and held it in place, her right hand she placed on the back of his own which was now right in the middle of her stomach, to her delight his fingers spread and entwined with her own in a sort of knot, she marvelled at the contrasts of their skins together like this, his pink while flesh standing in near perfect contrast to her dark brown and green skin, his so soft and smooth to hers so rough and firm, right now she didn't want him to move, this was the first time she'd ever been held by a male in her life and because it was Ack she didn't want it to end, but in a rush her exhaustion caught up with her again and she felt sleep pulling her in, slowly she placed her head against his and her rapidly failing eyes studied and drank in every detail of his face in close up, as she was in the arms of the one she loved she let sleep claim her and went willingly to the wonderful dreams that she hoped awaited her.