Chapter 20: Taste of Freedom.
Tik eleth stared in disbelief at the space that the bad blood clan ship had only seconds ago occupied, but now all there was just floating debris, they'd done it they hadn't just beat the bad bloods they'd killed the entire clan.
"YEAH!" Ack roared from the gunner's seat behind her, she smiled at the debris under her mask, four whole seasons she'd been stranded on that planet, a play thing for those pauks, hunted mercilessly by everything that walked hopped or flew and now she was finally free, free to go where ever she wanted, then she glanced at her cheering mate in the gunner's seat and her smile broadened, with whom she wanted.
Jack cheered and clapped his hands at the destruction of the bad blood clan ship, the nightmare had finally ended, he looked at the side of his mate's head and he could see her shoulders sag in the pilot's seat, he could almost feel the relief washing over her from here, it had been bad enough for him and he'd only been their prisoner for a short while, she'd been here years, hunted every single day mercilessly by everyone and everything, constantly living looking over her shoulder, expecting attack from any side at any given moment and now she was free. He got out of his seat and walked over to her and just wrapped his arms around her from behind putting his head against the side of hers, he felt her stiffen for a second but he knew that was just her honed hunters instincts, the second she realized that it was him she instantly softened and gripped his hands holding them on her chest, then he said the words that had been bouncing round in his head since he'd seen her on that ship of nightmares, "You came for me" he said softly feeling tears actually welling up in his eyes, Tik turned her masked face to look at him,
"As you would have come for me" she said, he laughed softly,
"In a heartbeat" he said pressing his masked face against hers.
Now came the big decision that they both knew had to be made but both were a bit worried about voicing it, finally Jack broke the silence between them, "So where to now?" he asked, Tik looked at him through her visor,
"I don't know" she said,
"Well I'm pretty sure neither of us can go home here, you can't go back to your clan with me in tow and I can't go back to Earth with you in tow" he said, Tik said nothing just nodded silently in agreement as she thought it over, "But let me just say this, I have to admit that although I am sad that I'll never see my home world again it isn't really my home" he said, this caused Tik to look up at him curiously, "You Tik eleth are my life mate, that means that as long as I'm with you I don't care where I am, being with you means I am home" he said.
Ack's words touched Tik eleth's heart in a way that no-one ever had, she smiled under her mask at this wonderful ooman, he always seemed to know what to say and the best time to say it to her, he truly understood her in a way that on-one ever had or had ever bothered to, suddenly she felt her heart steel and she knew exactly what she had to do, although it saddened her that she would never see her clan again his words reminded her of the pledge she'd taken when she'd claimed him as her life mate, she turned and brought up a galaxy map, with a few presses of a few buttons the ship suddenly pitched and turned, then the engines fired up and they were under way at high speed, Ack looked at her actions curiously and she could feel his eyes turn onto her, turning to look at him, "I am Tik eleth, proud huntress and matriarch of the proud clan Mason, if our clans reject us then that is their loss, from this moment forwards our honor and our glory will be our own, we shall strike out for ourselves and claim a new home and make it ours" she said tapping a few keys on the board, this caused a hologram of a planet to jump up on the desk, the planet looked sort of looked like Earth but with far more water than land mass, Ack looked at it then he turned to her,
"It could be a barren moon for all I care as long as I have you by my side I'm happy" he said, this instantly made Tik eleth purr under her mask, just as she thought just the right thing to say and at the right time.
For the first time since all this began Jack truly felt like he could relax, he stepped back from Tik and decided to take the bloody armor that he'd been wearing off, the first thing he removed was the mask which he threw down on the gunner's seat, then he unclipped all of the weapons he was carrying and put them down before removing the armor over his head, it was now that the pain truly hit him as up until now he'd been running on raw adrenaline and it had blocked it all out, it was joined at the same time by an exhaustion that he'd never felt before, it was like someone had literally pulled his batteries out, the sheer pain combined with this exhaustion actually dropped him to his knees on the deck plate, in an instant Tik was out of the pilot's seat and by his side, at some point she must have removed her mask as he'd had his back to her because the second she saw his face her mandibles dropped open, "Not the looker that you remember eh my love?" Jack said trying to make a joke of the mess of his face, but he could actually see the sheer level of pain in her eyes as the results of the bad bloods interrogation tactics hit her,
"Ack, oh my Ack, this is all my fault!" she said taking his face in her big hands, she actually looked like she might cry.
The second that Tik eleth saw Ack's face her heart broke, his entire face looked like a giant swollen angry black blue bruise, one of his eyes was swollen shut, both of the fleshy things he called lips was split and scabbed, one of his cheek bones looked like it might be broken and his brow was swollen over his eyes, she knew that they'd done this to him to get him to tell them where she was, her mate her beautiful wonderful mate had endured all of this pain because of her and it broke her heart, suddenly he grabbed her hands and pulled which caused her to drop to the floor at his level, then he took both sides of her face and brought his face to hers so she was staring into his one good eye, she could see the fire behind that sapphire blue, "Don't you dare blame yourself for this you hear me?" he said his voice full of fire,
"But…" she started,
"No, not one single part of this is your fault, they took me because they thought I was a weak pitiful ooman who would give you up to save myself, what they didn't count on just how much this weak pitiful ooman loves you, and how much this weak pitiful ooman was actually glad that they got him" he said, this caused Tik eleth's brow to fly up in surprise,
"You were glad?" she said in surprise, Ack nodded his head in her hands,
"Because if they had me that meant that they'd never get you, because there was no way in hell that I was going to give you up, I'd have died first, and every time they hit me and asked me the same question I knew that you were safe and that they had no idea how much joy that brought me, because if they had got you and had hurt you then I'd have torn the entire ship and them apart with my bare hands, you are my annwyl, my one and only" he said quietly. Tik eleth's heart felt like it was going to burst, she threw her arms around Ack and hugged him as tightly as she could against her chest, for the first time in her life she felt tears leave her eyes as the enormity of what her mate had done for her hit her, his sheer love for her overwhelmed her and she was shocked as the hot tears started to flow, but once they started she couldn't stop them, then she felt Ack pull her head into the nape of his neck and his shoulder, "It's ok, Shhhh now it's ok, just let it all out" he said in the softest voice she'd ever heard and with those words Tik eleth actually broke down, the enormity of it all hit her all at once, her nightmare was over, she was no longer a prisoner, she was free now, free of being hunted like an animal, free of the threat of being killed or raped by the bad blood vermin, then came all the pain and humiliation she had suffered and not just in the last couple of seasons but her entire life, this also hit her all at once as memories all the way back to her childhood where she'd had to fight harder than everybody else and even then for her triumphs to be spat on by her peers and everyone else, then came the pain and hurt this ooman this wonderful, exquisite, passionate, kind, gentle, loving ooman male had suffered on her behalf and he had just told her that he was happy to have suffered it for her because then she wasn't suffering it, for someone to happily take pain from her and to carry it themselves with no regrets really topped it all off, she couldn't take it anymore, Tik eleth broke, she collapsed in his arms and sobbed her heart out into the shoulder of the male she loved more than life.
Jack simply held the woman he loved as she balled her eyes out in his arms, he felt her hot tears soaking his shoulder and running over his skin, he felt her shaking in his arms and he tightened his grip letting her know that he was there for her and that he would from now on always be there for her, he made a silent vow to himself that while he still drew breath no-one would ever hurt this wonderful woman ever again, he would be her shield and her sword, anyone that wanted to hurt her was going through him first.
After Tik eleth recovered she felt mortified that she had broken down like that, she was a proud Yaujta huntress and matriarch and here she was balling her eyes out like a cub! What must her male think of her, but as she lifted her head Ack instantly brought his hand up to her face and dried her tears, in his eye she saw not a look of shame or of disgust but of pure love, he smiled at her broadly showing her his warriors teeth which were partially stained with his blood form his wounds, "Thank you Ack" she said quietly, his smile simply got bigger,
"Any time" he said, now it was her turn to smile at him but then her eyes were drawn to his wounds again,
"Let us get you healed" she said standing up, she offered her hand down to him and he took it, she lifted him carefully to his feet and he nodded at her, letting her lead him to the ship's medical bay.
It wasn't till Tik helped him take the rest of his gear off she actually got to see the extent of the damage that the bad bloods had done to his body, she stripped him completely naked and for the first time the true extent of his injuries were reveled, he could see Tik's eyes roaming over his body and he could see her expression constantly fluctuating between horror, rage, pity and hurt, Jack decided to deflect it with his customary humor, "Hey I hope you're not getting any ideas about taking any advantages of your naked helpless male here?" he said playfully, Tik's eyes snapped up to his and she saw that he was playing and her expression softened, she placed a massive hand on his chest and gently pushed him towards the medical bed,
"As much as I wish to pounce on Ack I wait until he healed" she said softly with a hint of playfulness in her voice, he quickly gripped her hand and pulled her down to him so that she was face to face with him, he moved his face to hers and she instantly knew what he wanted and opened his mandibles for him, he pulled her into a passion filled kiss, God he'd missed the feel and taste of her, he felt her tongue playing with his now in his mouth before she pulled his from his mouth and in to hers, they stayed locked together loving the feel and taste of one another for a solid two minutes before they broke up, "I must heal you now Ack, or I may not be able to resist pouncing on you" Tik panted playfully but something in her eyes told him that there was actually a hint of seriousness to her statement, he smiled at her broadly and laid back,
"Do with me as you will my love" he said causing her to smile and actually laugh.
The scanner swept over Jack's body and pretty soon a hologram popped up of his body, it was covered in lines and dots indicating wounds, as he watched her fussing about mixing liquids and preparing tools to fix his wounds up Jack couldn't help but smile as an image of Tik in a nurse's uniform swam into his head, as she turned to apply something to his body she noticed him smiling at her and she tilted her head in confusion, then he noticed her glance down his body before looking back at him and this time she was the one smiling.
He glanced down himself to see what she was smiling at and instantly noticed that he now had a massive erection standing proudly up, this actually made him smile even more as given the face that he'd taken more than one kick down there from those bad blood fucks he was pretty glad that it was still working, "Sorry you just have that effect on me my love" he said playfully, Tik walked over to him and began applying lotions and potions to his wounds but she also decided to tease him a bit, she applied most of the lotions to him with tools, but then she began to apply one to her hands and then she ran it over his manhood coating it in the healing solution, the wonderful feeling of her rough warm skin made him hiss, then she looked at him and saw the look in his one good eye and she leaned down to his face, "Later my male" she said with a soft seductive purr to her voice, he smiled at her broadly,
"I'll hold you to that" he said, she returned his smile now,
"A huntress always keeps her word" she said softly before leaning down and drawing him into a kiss.
As she worked questions swam around in Tik eleth's mind, from behind her Ack must have noticed this because he smiled at her, "If you want to ask me something go ahead there will never be any secrets between us" he said, she was surprised that she was so easy for him to read like that, but given he was a Dream Warrior she guessed that it really shouldn't be so surprised as they were famed for being able to see right through people,
"The language you spoke when you attacked the elder, what was it?" she asked, Ack smiled through his broken lips,
"It was Welsh" he replied, this confused her as she'd never heard of this language,
"It's an ancient language from my world and in modern times has been thankfully revived" he said,
"It's beautiful" Tik eleth, Ack waved a hand with a smile,
"Before you ask I don't know much to speak it fluently, that poem I spoke when I attacked the elder was being channeled as I got in touch with the Celtic blood that resides in me combined with the spirit of the owner of that spear I threw" he replied, then Tik thought of something else,
"You called me annwyl before, what does that mean?" she asked, he grinned at her pronounciation of it,
"It means beloved" he said and this caused her to smile broadly,
"As you are my annwyl" she said stroking his face and planting a kiss on his lips, then as she moved away another question came to her mind,
"When you said you met Tan sel eleth…" she began, he started nodding,
"Yeah, nice guy actually, told me to look after you and to promise to protect and love you no matter what" he said, she couldn't believe it, he actually met her great great grandfather the legendary Tan sel eleth who's deeds were sung about and told of in stories told among her people even today, then he appeared to be smiling not at her but at the corner of the room, she looked where he was looking but saw nothing, then he glanced back at her, "In fact he's here right now" he said and her mandibles dropped open again.
Jack had noticed the shadowy figure standing in the corner as they'd been talking and his attention had been drawn to him and he'd smiled at Tan in greeting, he stepped out of the corner and placed a balled fist against his chest in greeting which Jack returned, Tik noticed this and spun to look, but again saw nothing, Tan walked over to the side of the bed and stood looking at Jack, "You did well young Dream Warrior, you've done your clan proud as you've done mine proud" he said looking first at him then at Tik who was still searching for him in the room,
"Thank you for showing me the way" Jack replied,
"There is no need to thank me, the power was always within you, it just needed a nudge" Tan replied,
"But without that nudge there's no way I'd have been able to do what I did and I'd have never been able to protect the one I love, so in truth I owe you a debt I can never repay" Jack said, Tan made a dismissive gesture with his hand,
"Dream Warrior or not you have the fire of a true warrior in your heart and I can see why my granddaughter loves you so" he said, Jack looked embarrassed,
"It is a feeling returned" he replied, Tan smiled his mandibles broadly,
"I know I've seen your heart remember?" he replied, this embarrassed Jack,
"But I know what it is to feel like you owe a debt that needs to be repaid, so if you wish I'll show you another element of your gift and in using it you can repay me" Tan said,
"Anything just name it" Jack said instantly, so Tan stepped forwards and placed a hand on the side of Jack head instantly causing his eyes to change color as imagery flashing into his mind showing him what to do, Tik saw this and jumped back looking in him surprise, once Tan was done Jack understood what he wanted him to do and he smiled,
"I know your powers are burned out but if you can do this if only a few seconds for me I'd be forever in your debt" Tan said,
"I'll do it" Jack said and Tan smiled, then Jack turned to look at the very confused and worried Tik who was standing there wringing her hands watching the one sided exchange between her beloved and the invisible entity,
"Do you trust me my beloved?" he asked, Tik actually looked angry at this,
"Of course with all of my soul!" she exclaimed,
"Then come here" he said beckoning her to come to him, she did so instantly and Jack sat up, he reached up and touched the side of her head and at the same time he closed his eyes, suddenly Tik's vision flashed and blurred and her eyes changed to bright ice blue.
For a second Tik eleth was totally confused as to what was happening, but when the figure of the elder Yaujta turned to face her with a large smile she realized that somehow she was seeing exactly how her Ack saw the world, "Greetings my beloved granddaughter" the Yaujta said in Yaujta, suddenly she realized that this was Tan sel eleth and her mandibles dropped open,
"H-H-H-How is this possible?" she replied in a Yaujta, his smile grew broader,
"It's a little known gift of being a Dream Warrior, Jack is able to connect his mind to yours and as long as he maintains his focus and stays in contact with you your beloved Jack is able to use his gifts to augment your vision and hearing so that you can see what he sees and hear what he hears, but this is extremely taxing on his body and his mind, it's made easier by the fact that you two are mate's as your hearts are in tune so he'll be able to maintain the link for longer than he normally would" Tan sel eleth said, Tik eleth looked at the side of her life mate's head and she could see the concentration written on his face,
"This won't hurt him will it?" she asked worriedly, Tan sel eleth shook his head,
"If it would I'd have never asked him to do it, I know what he means to you and I know what you mean to him as I have seen into his heart and I know the strength of the feelings that this ooman male holds for you, he would literally walk into the gates of hell for you with a smile on his face, I've never seen a love so strong in all my years both alive and as a spirit" Tan sel eleth said, these words nearly made Tik eleth tear up again but she held her composure,
"I asked him to do this so I could give you my blessing" Tan sel eleth said, Tik eleth looked confused at this,
"Blessing?" she asked, he nodded,
"As you cannot return to your clan as they would never understand your feelings for each other there is no patriarch available to bless your union, so I am here to do it on behalf of our clan and of true Yaujta, those alive today have become to blind and too narrow sighted to see the true power of love no matter the shape it comes in, so Tik eleth Mason and Jack Mason I offer you my blessing as the true patriarch of the clan eleth and the Shadow Claw clan to pursue your lives together and I wish you both the best for a prosperous life together, may your clan prosper and hunts be prosperous and honorable" he said pressing his hand to his chest and bowing to her, Tik eleth was totally stunned she'd just had her union to Ack blessed by the most legendary hunter in Yaujta history, she clenched her fist to her chest and returned his bow,
"Thank you grandfather" she said, he nodded and then smiled at Ack,
"Thank him for me when he recovers, I am going to leave now I hope you have a happy life together and know that I will always be watching over you both and will always be there if you need me" he said and with that he turned and faded from sight, Tik held out her hand but he was gone, there had been so many questions she'd wanted to ask him, suddenly her vison flickered and returned to normal as Ack broke the connection as his remaining strength gave out and he slumped back down on the bed, instantly her attention switched back to her beloved life mate,
"Thank you for that my love I owe you a debt I can never repay" she said with tears I her eyes as the enormity of what he'd just done sank in, he grinned at her with spectacularly tired eyes,
"You being happy is thanks enough" he replied and Tik eleth threw her arms around him and hugged him tightly, finally her love for him had been validated.
Once all his wounds had been tended and bandaged Tik eleth helped her mate to stand and she took him to the master quarters, she knew these ships well having served on one more than once during her clan hunts, the master quarters were the biggest as it was used either by an Elder or by the ship captain. The room was massive and filled with trophies from a verity of hunts, there were even kiande amedha skulls on the walls, whether they were from the bad bloods hunts or stolen glories from the ship's previous owner was up for debate, but the bed would serve them both well, it was massive being at least ten foot long and easily wide enough to accommodate them both, despite the fact that he needed his rest as she knew that there was no way the bad bloods would have let Ack sleep while they held him there was no way she was going to be separated from him again, she would sleep in the arms of her male tonight, but first she had to check a few things.
As she lowered her naked and heavily bandaged male into the bed he was kind of groggy from the mixture of drugs he had been given as well as the exhaustion of over using his abilities, but he was lucid enough to try and pull her in with him and for a moment she nearly let herself go, but there were checks she had to perform as there was no crew on this ship to do it, so very reluctantly she pried her male's grip from her and placed his arms down on his stomach as she pulled the covers over him, he looked at her with a confused look in his eye, "Worry not my love, I will be with you soon, I must check the ship first and then I will return to you, this I swear" she said, Ack nodded weakly and she could see the exhaustion and the drugs pulling him down and he was asleep even before she had chance to stand back up properly, she smiled down at his sleeping form, after all he had endured a good sleep was the least that he deserved, she also couldn't wait to hold him in her arms again and the nagging ache to hold her male and to be one with him fired up in her, but she knew she must do these duties first, so with one last glance of longing at her male she turned and went to check the ship.
The ship itself was remarkable well maintained and in good shape considering that it had been in the hands of the bad bloods, the never usually bothered maintain their equipment and usually just stole more when things broke rather than choosing to spend time or effort on making things last, this particular type of ship was used mainly for larger hunting parties or for transporting VIP's to and from various clan ships for meetings etc. It would usually have a crew of about twenty hunters on board to run its operations and to maintain it, but now given that it was only the two of them it was going to be a kinda of full time job to make sure that everything worked properly and stayed that way. But this ship while it would be a lot of work for them would be perfect for them, for in this ship they could go anywhere, it was well equipped and very heavily armed for its size, the one thing that Tik had noticed was that the bad bloods had spent the time and effort slapping much bigger guns than these usually had on it, it now had the fire power of a medium cruiser rather than the corvette that it actually was, so combined with the uprated shields and power supply they also slapped on, it would easily be able to hold its own in a fight. Checking the engines over they seemed to be working totally fine and they even had a full supply of fuel, when they'd taken it, it must have been made ready for one of their elders to head out on a hunt or something because from what she could tell it was fully stocked, it had a fully inventory of food, weapons and other supplies.
After an hour of running around checking all of the systems and making sure that the internal sensors had logged both her and Ack as the new crew, Tik used her wrist computer to quickly preform a trick that she she'd learned from one of the engineers of her clan that she'd been friendly with, using the sensors to read both her and Ack she tied all of the ships systems into their DNA codes, this meant that now only her and he could use anything on this ship, to anybody else it was now as much use as a rock, this meant that it could now never be taken from them or used against them.
As the symbols of code flashed up that informed her that the software upgrade was now installed and was now operational and also permanent she smiled, but then a thought crossed her mind that made her smile, she was going to have to teach Ack how to read Yaujta for him to be able to operate anything around here, the thought of them drawing even closer through a deeper understanding of her language made her smile broader and maybe he'd return the favor by teaching her some of that beautiful Welsh language he knew, but it also awoke the ache that had hidden in her while she'd been busy, she needed to hold her male in her arms again, so with one last check on the systems she locked everything down and secured the ship, then she got up and headed for their new quarters.
As she reached it she found Ack sleeping peacefully, he had somehow managed to turn onto his side facing the door and she looked at his sleeping face, the drugs were already having an effect in that some of the swelling was gone but it still made her heart ache at just how much pain he must have endured to protect her, this ooman was as tough as they could possibly come, she quickly shut the door behind her and stripped herself off completely, there would be no sleeping clothes here, nothing but the feel of her male's naked skin against her own would do, slowly she slipped under the covers behind him and moved so that she could gently take him into her arms, as she ran her hands over his chest and stomach she felt both of his hands catch hold of hers, he instantly entwined his fingers with hers and held one on his heart and the other on his belly, she pressed her front to his back and nestled her face in his hair breathing his wonderful scent in deeply till it filled her up, then with a contented exhale she pressed her face to the back of his head, "I love you Ack more than you will ever know" she said in a whisper before closing her eyes and letting sleep finally claim her.