Chapter 3: Healing the Soul.
"Wow, look at this place, it's utterly incredible!" Millar said as he walked down the ramp and looked around at the world that Jack and his Yautja wife, Tik, had brought them, it was an utter unspoiled paradise.
Huge forests like the great redwood forests of Earth but with trees that dwarfed them reaching into the sky like living skyscrapers, huge rolling plains filled with herds of weird and wonderful creatures, huge snow capped mountain ranges surrounded by rolling clouds, huge oceans that would be filled with fish and aquatic life, in fact, life just bloomed everywhere, it was a true garden of Eden and Jack and Tik had invited them to come and enjoy it with them, to be a part of this Yautja ideal that Jack seemed to have adopted of forming a clan which seemed to be like a giant extended family but with a kinda militaristic set of values, he wasn't sure that he truly understood it but it seemed to be a good thing, everybody helping and supporting and fighting for one another seemed like a good place to be.
This was a view that was upheld by the way their world took shape very quickly, Humans and Yautja going hunting together and learning to understand each others methods and working to feed the people, humans also showing Yautja their advances in farming to vary everyone's diet, in fact, he simply couldn't believe how incredibly different these Yautja were to the ones they referred to as Bad Bloods.
Then there were the Xenomorphs, and this was the truly and utterly unbelievable bit that he he really couldn't believe, how kind and caring they were, although receiving a dose of royal jelly to allow them to understand them which he thought was kinda disgusting at first but then when he had his first conversation with a huge queen which every fibre of his being told him he should be utterly terrified of, he found her to be utterly intelligent and charming, he actually walked away from the conversation seeing exactly why Cortez had fallen head over heels for her, she was so kind and caring, and not just for their kind, for everyone, she talked about wanting her hive to be a place of care and healing that would look after and take care of everyone equally.
Then there was the queen that was going out with Yoshi, if it wasn't for her they wouldn't have the housing they had, in fact, as he looked around his beautiful little home which reminded him of his little cabin back in Alaska which he used to love spending his down time in, just getting away from humanity as a whole, well, he couldn't get any further from humanity as a whole than where he was now.
He was currently sat at his small dining table looking out of the window made of this incredible glass that Jack made in the forge at the back of his house, he made this incredible glass that could stop bullets but was so utterly clear that you could be forgiven for not believing it was there, plus, it was great at keeping heat in.
There was also a great bean that grew at the edges of the jungle territory which made Earth coffee look like water and given Millar loved his coffee strong he was in heaven as he blew on the steaming cup of black java, this was also something that humans had introduced to the Yautja and the Xenos, plus, watching Yautja and Xenos on a caffeine rush was actually pretty funny, though he bet that Yoshi didn't agree, he didn't even want to even imagine being stuck in a giant house predominantly full of girls zapped off their tits on mega coffee running literally up the walls screeching.
There was a knock on the door suddenly and by the power of the impact on the heavy wood he instantly knew it was a Yautja knocking, mainly because it sounded like they were trying to punch through the door, they really didn't seem to be aware of their own strength at all, a point he saw when he saw Yautja girls getting all huggy with their human male and when they put them down they looked like they'd been through a wrestling match, but then the vast majority of Yautja females were nine feet tall and three hundred pound plus of solid muscle, which was an interesting point, he'd never seen a fat Yautja, they all looked like a mister or miss ripped to fuck body builder poster.
"Come in, it's open!" Millar called, turning in his chair to look at the door as it swung open, there was a blast of clod air and even some of the snow that was falling outside swirled in and dusted his wax polished floor with pure white flakes, a huge figure ducked under the door, dressed in a hooded cloak holding what looked like a large covered ceramic pot, they stomped their feet outside before stepping in, shrugging off the snow covering their shoulders, creating a pile big enough to make a small snow man.
As the figure stepped inside, the heavy boots they were wearing clumping heavily on the wooden floor, the figure closed the door and then turned and dropped their hood to reval a face he knew very well as she had once been essentially his sworn and hated enemy but thanks to the efforts of Jack Mason had been revealed to be an innocent victim of the same thing that had essentially landed in the same or if not a worse position than the humans that had been trapped there.
h'chak smiled at him, drawing her mandibles up into a genuine and warm smile, "Hey, h'chak, how you doing today?" He said with a smile.
"I'm doing well, Millar, thank you for asking," the massive but incredibly shy and quiet Yautja female said, then she seemed to remember the large pot she was holding, "I made you a pie, the last time we went to the group dinner at Jack and Tik's house you really seemed to enjoy the pot pie I made so I thought I'd make you one of your own," she said, holding it out to him with a hopeful look on her face.
Millar's eyebrows went up, "You made that wonderful meat pie?" he asked, sounding surprised, and she nodded.
"Jack Mason has been teaching me to cook ooman dishes, that was the first time I made one for everyone, I was so nervous and I nearly pulled it but Tik noticed and made sure it got put out first so I didn't have a choice," h'chak said, and Millar laughed and nodded.
"Yeah, that sounds like Tik alright, when she has her mind made up you're screwed, but I'm glad she did because that pie was fucking amazing," he said, and h'chak's brow went up in surprise and she appeared to be blushing, she made an adorable clicking purring noise which she immediately stopped and blushed even deeper, Millar smiled at her, if you had said to him six months ago that Yautja could be adorable he'd have laughed at you, stripped you of everything sharp and pointy then locked you in they're finest rubber room with a backwards jacket, but now, here was this gentle Yautja doing just that.
Placing the pie on the table, Millar jumped up and pulled out a chair for h'chak and before she could protest and make her excuses he took the notoriously shy woman's snow wet cloak and hung it up to dry off near his hearth which had a nice roaring fire set in it, she stood there ringing her hands for a moment before he poured her a hot cup of coffee from the pot and handed it to her, "Here, sit down, warm yourself up, I know you guys really don't like the cold, do you?" He said, gently guiding the massive female into seat next to his at the table, he'd purposely made sure that all the seats in his home were Yautja sized, he got quite a few Yautja guests these days, especially since Jack had started speaking about setting up this Guardian Core thing as a way to protect their home and their way of life which to him made a lot of sense.
"Thank you, Millar," she said, settling her large frame into the chair with the steaming cup of coffee, it was always interesting watching one of their kind using human style cups because they weren't designed for their mouths, so they tended to grab the cup in their mandibles and tip the whole cup back, looking like they were trying to swallow the whole cup.
The hot coffee seemed to perk her right up and while she was drinking he opened the pot and inside was the fluffiest pot pie he'd ever seen, "Oh, wow, it's gonna take me a fair bit to get through all this but damn, I'm gonna try," Millar chuckled, taking a slice of the meat pie and tucking in while h'chak sat, watching him happily.
The pie was utterly delicious, the meat was utterly melting in his mouth, he didn't know how she got it so succulent or the paste so fluffy but she was an amazing pie chef, "So, how are you settling in to your new place," Millar asked through a mouthful of pie, h'chak had recently moved into a new place of her own after living on the ship for all this time, she'd been nervous at first but Millar had helped not only to move her in but had made furniture for her, he had quite a talent for carpentry that had been in rather high demand as of late.
"It is nice, peaceful, I like it, though it does get lonely sometimes," she said thoughtfully, h'chak was definitely not like any other Yautja he'd ever met, she'd gone from the leader of the biggest, baddest Bad Blood clan and Nightmare Assassin, whatever that last one was, but Jack insisted they were dangerous as hell and that was good enough for him, to shy, quiet, jumps at her own shadow h'chak who apparently likes to bake pot pies and paint.
Millar glanced at the large landscape portrait of the town that was hanging above his couch, next to the polished skull of a large crocodile like creature he'd shot on day two of being here after it wandered into the camp and tried to attack one of the human settlers, literally moments after it was dead it got pounced on by a group of Yautja who insisted on carting it off for trophy preparation, hours later he had a polished and skinned skull, a necklace made of claws and coat and boats made of scales, these guys really did like to celebrate their kills.
Well, all except for h'chak, she'd utterly rejected violence which was only slightly rarer than finding rocking horse shit in the middle of the pot of gold you found at the end of the rainbow after you punched the fuck out of the leprechaun guarding it.
She was strange as Yautja went but not bad strange, she was a supremely gentle soul and after everyone had seen it she had been unanimously accepted, now she was becoming a rather talented artist who's work was being sought by pretty much everyone here, it seemed all the humans wanted to possess an original h'chak painting while the Yautja wanted her to decorate or paint their trophies with hunting or battle scenes, it still amazed him how creative they actually were as a species, even though at first glance their entire culture seemed to be based on or utterly surrounded by death and hunting and killing there was a hell of a lot more to it when you really looked.
Suddenly Millar remembered something, "Ohh, hold on, I got something for you," he said, jumping up and startling the soft spoken huntress who stared at him with wide eyes which, like all of her kind, looked too small for her head but made up for it by the viridity of their bright colors, hers were even more so, a product of her being a Dream Warrior according to Jack, which probably explained why his eyes could either make you feel like you were happier than you'd ever been or scare the living hell out of you with a single glance, she sorta had it to, it was hard to explain, a sort of presence that you felt rather than saw.
he still really didn't understand this Dream Warrior stuff despite Jack's many attempts to explain it to him, all he knew was the things they could do scared the living shit out of him and amazed him all at the same time, she turned her head and her long dreads rustled as she watched him curiously, he opened a cupboard behind his bed and reached in and struggled to remove the large object which as soon as she saw it h'chak's mandibles flared and fell open.
"Word got to me that you broke your easel so I thought I'd make you a new one, I used some of that ironwood that Jack likes to use to reinforce Yautja bed frames, says it's very strong but also flexible, says it Yautja proof, whatever that means, but I figured if it works for your beds then it should work for a new easel, right?" he said, setting it up in front of her so he could show off the inbuilt mixing pallet and the paint holders, not to mention the brush holders and the carving of a forest scene, he figured she'd like that better than a hunting scene motif.
"Oh, my Paya! It-It-It's beautiful, Millar! I-I-I can't accept this! The amount of time it must have taken you to create this! It's a work of artm" she exclaimed, and Millar smiled at her.
"Well, I don't know anyone else who would get any use out of it, h'chak, you're the only only artist I know, and how many times do I have to tell you to call me Frank?" he said with a grin.
h'chak's mandibles clicked and she inspected it closely, "It's beautiful Mill...err, I mean, Frank, and I disagree, this is a work of art, I..." she began, but Millar held his hand up to cut her off.
"Gift, h'chak, gift, no need to worry about reimbursement, I did it because I wanted to cheer you up and I know what your painting means to you and hell, everyone else around here, I don't know a single house around here that doesn't have at least one of your paintings in it, or a painted skull, or both, not gonna take no for an answer, consider it a preemptive thank you for the pot pie," Millar said, smiling, and h'chak looked both happy and conflicted.
Suddenly out of nowhere h'chak threw her huge rms around him and hoisted him off his feet, leaving him dangling in the air with his arms pinned to his sides and squeezing the air from his lungs, "Thank you, Frank," she said excitedly.
"Welcome," he wheezed, and h'chak seemed to realise she was crushing him and put him down quickly, looking distraught.
"Sorry! Sorry! I keep forgetting how fragile oomans are! I didn't hurt you, did I?" she asked, panicking and examining him.
"I'm fine, we're not that fragile," he laughed, lifting his arms up and doing a twirl in front of her to demonstrate his point, her eyes wandered over him and she tilted her big head causing her dreads to swish and bunch up on one side.
"I want to paint you," she suddenly blurted out, and now it was Millar's turn for his mouth to fall open.
"Well, errr, that's the, umm, first time anyone's ever asked me that before, so that's certainly a new one, well, I'm flattered, but I'm not exactly photogenic so, well, umm..." Millar said, until h'chak held up her large hand to cut him off now.
"To quote you, not gonna take no for an answer, Frank," she said, a hint of both mirth and defiance in her voice and Millar laughed, causing her to raise her brow.
"I see Tik's how to Yautja lessons seem to be paying off, you're getting more assertive," Millar said with a smile, he'd been friends with her since they'd come here and when they first got here she was utterly terrified of everyone and everything, it had taken both Jack and Tik to take her under their wings to pry her out of the shell she had very firmly planted herself into, it appeared to have worked, granted the progress was slow but it had obviously helped, if someone had said no to her months ago she would have squeaked and vanished faster than a fart in a hurricane, but now she was standing her ground, she clicked her mandibles in a sign of victory.
"Well, then, when you put it like that I guess I have no choice, do I?" he said, and she smiled brightly, drawing her mandibles right up and shaking her head, making her dreads shake.
"Nope," she said.
Millar laughed and shook his head, he knew better than arguing with a woman, especially when that woman weighed a few hundred pounds and had nearly 2ft in height on him, "Alright, when do you want to do this?" he said, and before he knew it his coat was being handed to him and he looked at it, confused.
"No time like the present! Come on, I feel inspired!" she said, grabbing her new easel in one massive arm and then him in the other.
"Hey! What!? Wait..." he began before he was steered right out of his front door carrying his coat in his arms and the cold forced him to put the heavy fur coat on.
h'chak's house was on the outskirts of the growing little town, it was in an area that fringed both the forest and the plains in the high grounds so it kinda had the best of three worlds, above her was the beginnings of the mountains, before her were the rolling plains, behind her the dense forest and her smack bang in the middle in her cozy little home.
There were a few people that were out braving the snow which, given that the Yautja hated the cold, was actually kinda brave, but given that the world was really warm and pretty humid most of the year round this was just a minor annoyance to them, they were very adaptable and very stubborn when it came to showing any form of weakness.
Millar noticed that he was getting some grins from of the humans he passed and he noticed that some of the Yautja actually looked envious, this world really seemed to have become an interspecies love fest, in fact, he'd been fending off over-amorous Yautja since he'd got here and Yautja girls really weren't shy about about what they wanted, granted he'd known plenty of sexually aggressive girls in his time what with having been in the military and all but Yautja really took it to a new level and once you've seen a rather confused looking human boy being carried away over the shoulder of a huge amazonian looking woman you kinda realise that.
Well, at least h'chak was doing that, even if she was dragging him along through the snow by the hand like a child, it crunched and cracked under foot and while he sunk up to his knees in it she barely looked like it worried her at all, they reached her house and she nearly dragged him inside, he couldn't remember seeing her this excited by anything before, did painting him mean really that much to her?
h'chak steered him into his house which basically looked like one big artist studio, she'd really embraced art of all kinds, she did painting, sketching, sculpting to mention a few, there were little polished stone Yautja in heroic poses holding the skulls of their enemies aloft and holding weapons of some variety, some part of Millar felt kinda sorry for her when he saw that, he felt a kinda longing in her, it was like she was trying to capture a part of her cultural heritage for herself, like she was trying to prove to herself that she was just as Yautja as anyone here, like because she could find these images in her mind's eye that her heart was still Yautja.
But Millar also noticed something else as well, there like a battle line drawn here, on one side there were pictures of supreme beauty, of nature scenes, beautiful landscapes like the waterfalls deep in the forest, or the plains covered in greens and golds with little herds grazing, but then there was the other side, darkness and death, there were scenes that were obviously from her past locked away in her mind and now brought to life on canvas.
The big Yautja shut the door to her little home before immediately getting her fire going and stacking it high so that her home would be warm, the pair shrugged out of their coats and h'chak set down her prized new easel in the centre of her room which was covered in sheets and paint pots and mixers, in fact, it was h'chak herself that had discovered what plants and animal fats could be used to mix into paints and dyes.
In the centre of her large table was a bear's skull that appeared to be in the process of being polished and lacquer because it had been painted in a beautiful nightscape with a huge moon having been painted right in the centre of the cranium and it was surrounded by stars, it was odd how she could turn something so grim into something so utterly beautiful.
"Wow, look at this place, it's like a miniature art gallery in here," Millar said, looking around at all the completed works ready to go to their owners, since they really didn't use currency yet everything was dealt with via services or goods, so extra food from hunts, skins to make bed cloths or other things or ready made ones, but there were two that really stood out for him, they were both of the same people, one was of Jack and Tik and their children, the four were stood together like conquering heroes standing victorious on a battlefield of their slain enemies, saving everyone, the other was of Jack and Tik together as simple lovers, Jack was sat in front of Tik with her arms wrapped around him from behind and one of her big hands turning his head and pulling him into a possessive and loving kiss, with her mandibles holding his face, she'd really captured the pair of them perfectly, the love just radiated off the pair of them.
"Thank you, but I just paint what I see and I guess thanks to these abilities of mine I guess I just see more than most, or maybe I just see things differently," she said, smiling as she rushed about pulling paints and custom made brushes and placing them into their proper place in her prized new easel.
"So, what do I have to do? I mean, how do you want me?" he asked, and she actually seemed to jump and stiffen before whirling around to look at him before she seemed to realise that he was talking about posing for her painting which made him wonder what she had thought he had been talking about.
She seemed to relax when she saw him gesturing to her couch that was covered in soft skins and furs, she suddenly looked very thoughtful and nervous all at once and she was wringing her huge hands together, "I, umm, really want, umm, try a type of painting and art that our Patriarch showed me in the ooman database, but I, umm, never found anyone that I wished to try it with before but, umm, I do with you," she said.
Millar cocked his head curiously, "Human database? There's a human database?" He asked, and she nodded her head enthusiastically.
"It contains all sorts of collected data and observations on your species throughout history, my kind studied yours very extensively, though primarily for the purpose of hunting them and killing them, but the data is very thorough and a couple of them seemed really fascinated by ooman art so they collected vast amounts of examples, I've used a lot of them in my art but there is one type I've never managed to explore and I'd really like to but only with the right person, I feel that that right person is you, Millar, err, I mean, Frank, you've always been so kind and nice to me despite the fact I don't really deserve it given what I did to you," she said, rubbing her big hands together nervously.
Millar reached out and took her huge hands in his, making her flinch at his touch but he held firm and looked up at the nervous and surprisingly adorable Yautja woman, "I don't blame you, h'chak, I saw what you went through, what was done to you and the pain you suffered, hell, it's still lodged in there among my nightmares, it wasn't your fault, h'chak, you were lonely and scared and you didn't understand what you are, Loki took advantage of that and turned it on you, you weren't at fault, I don't blame you at all, h'chak, otherwise would I be in here talking to you, let alone letting you paint me?" he said, then he remembered something that Jack could do, he tightened his grip on the big woman's hands and she looked at him quizzically.
"Use those Dream Warrior things of yours, go on, take a look, prove it to yourself," he said, and she clicked her mandibles and then her eyes seemed to glow and he swore he could feel her in his head, her eyes widened and her mandibles clicked like she'd just seen or discovered something that amazed her.
"See? No blame, right?" he said, and she shook her big head.
"No, no blame," she said softly, and he smiled and patted her hands, she really was adorable, he could probably travel a billion light years and never find another like her, hell, when you really looked at her she was really rather pretty in an unusual kinda way, her body was incredible, even under her consertive furs she was like an Amazon, curves in all the right areas, in fact, even her face which, while utterly alien, was so expressive and feminine, he actually found himself kinda liking the way her mandibles seemed to relay her throught pattern like human body language, but obviously Yautja body language.
That's when he looked up and saw her eyes had gone huge like dinner plates and he realized she was still in his mind and he realized that she'd probably just heard all that, he let go of her hands as he blushed, feeling his face go hot enough to cook bacon on, he coughed and reached behind his head, looking anywhere but at her, "Ahem, well, err, yes, like I said, no blame, and I trust you completely and to prove it, paint me however you want, whatever this new painting method you want to test is I'll let you do it, as a show of trust and good faith, even if you make me look like a Picasso cube," he said, and h'chak looked even more excited and for some reason very nervous, the way she clicked her mandibles and rung her hands gave that away, perhaps she was worried about messing it up and appearing foolish in front of him.
h'chak finished setting up her easel and by the way she was facing it it seemed to be facing her fur covered couch which he had carved for her himself. one of the Yautja, a male called Telmin, was apparently a very good tanner and had lined them with a very soft leather made from the skin of one of the grazing animals, it was very soft and made a very nice cushion when covered with fur drapes and throws like h'chak had covered hers with.
Once she'd set a new canvas on her brand new easel h'chak stepped back and nodded her big head, then she walked over and threw more wood into her big fire which warmed the room even more, the Yautja really did like it warm, Millar figured that winter must be a bloody nightmare for them, then she closed the inner shutters on the insides of her windows and locked her cabin door, making sure that her lamps were all lit, filling the house with a soft, warm glow, "Ok, now no one can walk in, umm, you can disrobe now," she said, and Millar froze, not sure he'd heard her right.
"Umm, d-disrobe?" he stammered, and h'chak nodded, lifting a couple of glass jars with water and she actually seemed to be twirling a brush in her mandibles as she applied water and mixed paints.
"Like, how far? My shirt? Down to my underwear? Are you going to dress me up in something for this?" he asked nervously.
"No, umm, naked," she said, never taking her eyes off the paints she was mixing.
"N-Naked? You, umm, want me to get...naked?" he stammered, and she nodded.
"Yes, it's a fascinating and beautiful art type that never occured to me before, I saw lots of examples where human males liked to paint many naked females of your species, now I've seen a few example of the reverse but nowhere near as many examples, once I saw that I thought it was one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen, so full of passion and beauty, not to mention such thinly veiled sexuality, I thought it was utterly beautiful and oomans are such odd but beautiful creatures that I always hoped that I'd find someone who would let me paint them like this, to let me see their hidden beauty and try to capture it, to let me see their masculinity and their sexuality and to put it on canvas, I, umm, actually really hoped that my model would be you," she said, trying to sound calm but he could hear her voice going husky and and nervous intermittently.
"Y-You did? You were hoping that I'd nude model for you?" he said, and h'chak met his eye for only a moment before looking away nervously and nodding.
"Y-Y-You are a prime specimen of ooman masculinity, you are rugged and have many scars denouncing you have endured many great battles and emerged victorious, but unlike many ooman males you do not hide them, you wear them proudly, to Yautja this means a lot, you intrigued me and I wanted to capture it, to see your real hidden beauty and to try and put it on canvas for the world to see," she said, sounding proud towards the end.
"Ummm, ok, I know I promised I'd let you paint me however but I'm making a revision here, I'll only let you do this on one condition, that this painting is seen only by you and me and no one else, I really don't want to be put on display," he said.
h'chak looked confused but nodded, "Ok, I agree, but may I ask why? Are you ashamed of your body?" she asked curiously, and he shook his head.
"No, I just don't want everybody to, you know, see me naked, humans are kinda private beings and yes, I know you're going to say there are already paintings like this and obviously exceptions to the rule, but I happen to be one of the privacy liking humans, so, me and you and no one else, please," he said, and h'chak nodded in agreement.
"Thanks," he said, and with that he took a deep breath and began to strip down.
Millar was nervous as all hell as he stripped down to his bare skin in this little log cabin owned by this giant, gentle Yautja woman, normally he wasn't nervous to be naked in front of a woman, he wasn't ashamed of his body but with her it was different, maybe he was just used to being the big one, h'chak, as gentle in nature as she was, could crush him flat just by falling on him, "Well, umm, I'm ready, I guess," he said, and h'chak turned and froze as solid as a statue, he immediately saw her bright eyes dilate wide like moons in her head and they scanned down his body and he saw her long thin tongue play over her spiky teeth.
"Oh, wow," she breathed softly and that sent a warm flush through his entire body including to a part of him that he was trying to keep hidden below his hands right now.
"Umm, so, how do you want me?" he asked to break the tension and to try and steady his pulsing and jangling nerves, he'd gone into battles all over Earth and for some reason right now he felt more nervous than setting foot in any of those battlefields had ever made him.
h'chak seemed to snap out of her teeth licking trance, "Oh, yes, right! Of course!" she exclaimed, and then she gestured him over to the couch and he sat down, "Umm, lie down and place your arms above your head" she said, and Millar swallowed hard.
"A-Above my head?" he stammered, and she nodded, he sighed heavily and feeling utterly exposed and supremely vulnerable he did as she asked, leaving his entire scarred and marked body exposed to her and he actually shivered as he saw her running her eyes over him, "Like this?" he asked, placing his hands above his head.
"Umm, may I?" she asked, stepping up to him and his heart began to race hard in his chest and he was willing to bet if he looked down his chest was jumping like a hammer was striking it, he nodded silently, h'chak knelt down next to the couch and after taking a deep breath she reached out and placed her hands on him.
Her skin was rough but not painfully so, it was like a soft sandpaper and she ran her hands over his belly and up his chest, "Y-Y-Your trembling! Are you frightened? Do I scare you?" she asked, her hands freezing in place on his chest, she could undoubtly feel his heart hammering in his chest, but he suddenly realized that he'd heard a note of what sounded like hurt in her voice and that made him feel awful.
"It's not you, h'chak, not you at all, it's just, I feel, umm, inferior," he said before he could stop himself, it was like the words just tumbled out of him and she cocked her head and suddenly her eyes glowed and the words just flowed out of him like water, it was like a warm ribbon wormed its way into his mind, "I'm worried you won't be impressed by me, Yautja males are just so much bigger than me? Why would someone like you ever look at someone like me and think of me as anything other than a weak small prey creature, even if you do think I'm pretty is it the way a person thinks their pet is pretty?" He said, and suddenly the warm ribbon vanished and he shook his head and looked at her in amazement.
"W-W-What did you do to me?" He stammered, and she shook her head.
"I let you say what you wanted to say, nothing more, I swear, and for the record, I do think you are very pretty as a male and while we're on the topic, ooman males are not smaller than Yautja males in every area, in fact, in one specific one you are often bigger, like you for example," she said softly, and his head snapped down to look at her in surprise.
"Really?" he exclaimed and she nodded.
"Besides, do you think size is a problem really? Do you think Tik eleth worries about size when she stands up in the middle of dinner and proudly declares that she is going to ravish her male and scoops him up over her shoulder and runs off with him?" she asked, and Millar suddenly burst out laughing as he remembered the last time she'd done that, that girl really was as far from shy as you could get, though, at least she had the good taste to take him to bed first.
"I guess not," he said, and h'chak smiled.
"And do you think that the oomans who are happily allowing Yautja to take them as their life mates are worried their size is an issue when they see the effort that those hunting them are going to for them?" she said, and it hit him kinda like a slap.
"No, you're right, thanks, h'chak, that's actually rather illuminating and I feel a lot better, thank you," he said, and she smiled brightly.
"You are most welcome," she said happily.
"So, are you ready to paint me like one of your French girls?" Millar joked nervously, and when she looked confused he just laughed.
"Don't worry, it's a human thing," he said, and with that she placed her hands back on his body but this time the trembles were replaced with warm, beautiful shivers as he allowed her to arrange his limbs and his body into a pose she wanted him to hold for her, the feel of those hot, beautiful, powerful hands gliding over his skin was incredible, it was like nothing he'd ever felt in his life before.
"I knew you would be the perfect model, you're perfect!" h'cahk said, looking very happy, Millar didn't break the pose she'd arranged him into.
"Really, you think I'm perfect?" he said in surprise, and she looked momentarily embarassed but owned it and nodded.
"You are a very beautiful special of ooman masculinity, your musculature is sculpted beautifully in that wonderful way that males have, flat and toned, like it was carved or sculpted rather than grown, plus, the way your skin is so smooth and soft while your muscle is hard and resisting, plus, all of these beautiful scars that show your strength and resilience marking you as a seasoned warrior, it's such a beautiful contrast, a contrast that you only find in you oomans," she said.
"Oh, I disagree, just look at you for example," he said, and she glanced around her canvas at him.
"Me?" What about me?" she asked.
"Well, most Yautja are scarey as hell but you aren't, yes, you're powerful and strong and incredible, you're like a freaking real life walking, talking Amazon right off human mythology, but you're the softest, gentlest, nicest Yautja, hell, person that I've ever met, you're a beautiful contrast yourself, you could snap me in half without being able to do that Dream Warrior stuff you and Jack can do, but you're just a nice, kind, gentle, wonderful person who likes making people happy and that is utterly rare and wonderful, h'chak," Millar said, smiling at her and even hiding behind her canvas he saw her blush.
Millar felt such a mixture of emotions flowing through him as he lay on h'chak's couch in such a provocative pose, so fully and utterly exposed and vulnerable, naked as the day he was born with alien female eyes roaming over him admiring him, it felt so strange but wonderful to be so blatently admired in such intimate detail, especially by being so different to him.
They spent hours with him laid there naked and h'chak beavering away diligently at her canvas, only pausing every so often to put more wood on the fire to keep them both warm, but eventually she sat back on her stool and sighed happily, he glanced at her and noticed that her face had a few smudges of paint that really stood out against her pretty hide, "I'm done," she said, looking anxious.
Millar's muscles felt like they'd all gone to sleep, he'd been holding the same pose for so long but he stiffly got to his feet and stretched out, he noticed her looking at him but somehow despite the fact that he was still naked it didn't bother him now at all, probably because she'd just spent the better part of a day doing just that.
He stepped around her to look at her work and what he saw left him speechless, "Oh, wow, is this how you see me?" he breathed, turning to look at her, she looked down shyly and nodded.
"D-Do you like it?" she asked, nervously.
Millar couldn't help himself, she looked so nervous and hopeful, out of nowhere he reached up and placed a hand to the side of her big face, "It's utterly beautiful, just like its creator," he said, and her face turned to one of surprise.
"Y-Y-You really think I'm beautiful?" she exclaimed, flaring her mandibles in shock.
"Well, let's just say most people would have had a rather difficult time persuading me to get my kit off and lie on their couch for a few hours as naked as the day I was born looking like I was in a French bordello, but you managed it, so that's gotta say something, right?" He said.
h'chak looked at him in shock and her mandibles flared and her eyes widened, "Truly? You think it's beautiful?" she exclaimed, then her mind seemed to click onto what he'd really just said.
"Wait, you called me beautiful!" she exclaimed, and he laughed and nodded.
"Yeah, I know, trust me, it surprised me as much as it does you, after all I've been put through by your kind I never in a million years thought that I'd ever look at one of your kind the way I look at you, h'chak, you are a kind, gentle, beautiful and incredible woman who is thoroughly deserving of someone to love them and to make them happy, I've spent the last couple of hours feeling your eyes on me and I've realized something, you like what you see, don't you?" he said, and h'chak looked both embarassed and surprised.
She nodded gently and looked down at him, "Well, you're not the only one who's been looking and realized that as different as the other is you still like what you see, it took time for me to put my bias aside and to truly see you for who you are but what I've realized is you're more beautiful than any woman I've ever seen before, human or otherwise, and not just on the inside, on the outside to, you're what we humans called sexy," he said with a devilish smile.
h'chak looked both stunned and hopeful, "Truly? Y-Y-You think I'm sexy?" she stammered.
"In my culture we have a saying that actions speak louder than words," Millar said, and before the big female could make any kind of response he reached up and gripped her dreads in both his hands and even before he could actually realise that there was a pulse ebbing very quickly through them he pulled her down to his highest and took advantage of the fact that her mandibles flared in surprise to plant a kiss firmly on her mouth.
The huge female froze solid before turning into a living puddle of Yautja shaped mushy jelly, Millar held her head in his hands as his tongue darted into her mouth and his senses were assaulted with a blend of alien newness, her taste, her feel, her smell, everything was utterly new and alien and beautiful.
When they parted she stood there breathless and stunned, "So, what do you think of your first ooman...whoa!" Millar said before being cut off by his head being seized in huge clawed hands and a pair of mandibles while a long tongue wound its way halfway down his throat, "Mmmmmph, mmmmmmm," Millar moaned softly as her long tongue tasted every single tooth in his mouth and her hands and mandibles held him in check.
Her hands left his head and moved to his chest, sliding over his skin, trailing tingles in their wake where her blunt claws marked him with little red trails, they slid right down to his hips and lifted him up in the air, holding him at her height now and pulling him into the deepest kiss of his life, it was like he'd unlocked something in her, that all the passion bottled up in her beautiful wounded soul just came flooding out like someone popping the cork of a champagne bottle.
She walked the length of the room, carrying him in her hands like she was moving a box or a life sized doll, when she reached her bed she practically fell on him, though thankfully she didn't or she might have squashed him, instead, as he landed flat on his back she landed above him with both her knees on either side of his hips and her hands on either side of his head, for the first time since she'd been free he saw a predatory look in her eyes and she growled deeply before as his hands found the dreads that flopped down around him like a load of rubbery snakes, little did he know how sensitive the things were, so when he gripped them to pull her down into another kiss a purr exploded out of her that morphed into a growl before turning back into a purr again as he nibbled on one of her mandibles and letting his human tongue run over her tusks.
"I've never done anything like this but-but I can't stop myself, I've never imagined being with an ooman, let alone that one would actually look at me, but ever since I've met you I couldn't stop myself looking at you, your exquisite pink skin that changes color depending on your mood, the way your green eyes sparkle like emeralds in your head, the way you smile, but I never imagined a warrior like you would look at a poor excuse for a female like me, I'm not a warrior, I'm not a huntress, I have no trophies or walls of accomplishments to chronicle my triumphs and victories, who would want me? But you don't think like that, do you?" She said, and he nibbled on her tusks and then on her dreads, sending a flurry of tingles through them as her purr escalated as the sensation traveled like lightning up the sensitive nerves.
"I don't need all those things, h'chek, all I need is a beautiful woman I can lavish my love on, I've seen war, I've seen battles and hunts and now I know what I want, I want beauty, I want joy, I want peace, I want to be happy and to have someone I can make happy and I know in my heart that is you, my sexy amazonian artist," he said, and her purring grew only louder.
There was just something incredible about how Yautja females purred, it was so low that it seemed to vibrate through his bones, sending shivers and tingles chasing each other throughout his body before they seemed to unite in his chest and overloading his nervous system, his whole body went stiff and limp all at once, he'd never felt anything like it in his life before, no human female could have ever made him feel like this and they hadn't even done anything other than kiss and flop on the bed yet.
h'chak was straddling him and she lowered some of her weight down onto him to pin him to the bed, she pressed his shoulders into the soft fur and enveloped his entire face in her mandibles, sending her tongue questing into his mouth and throat again, making his head fuzzy and his senses spark like a broken wire, "I want you more than anything I've ever wanted in my life, you're like a force that I cannot understand and truly don't want to either, you pull me to you like a magnet and I can't and don't want to resist you, please, please, please, I beg of you, beautiful ooman, let me have you, let me taste your beauty and your passion," she growled, and Millar felt a thrill pass through him like electrical fire.
"I'm already yours, h'chak, all you need to do is reach out and take what's already offered to you freely," he said, softly nibbling on her mandibles one after the other, she growled so deeply she sounded like a tiger in heat.
His hands lifted from the bed and slipped under her clothes, running over her belly and making her pur, suddenly h'chak, in a fit of unbridled passion, literally tore her clothing off, every single stich gone in less than ten seconds and what he saw lit his very heart on fire, she climbed onto the bed on all fours at the edge and began to slowly and very, very sensually crawl towards him on her hands and knees.
She was utterly exquisite, like a living, breathing goddess crawling over the bed towards him exuding the confidence and predatory confidence of the apex predator that her species were and the look in her eyes was the one that a tigress gave a suculent looking gazelle and less than a second later she showed that hidden part of her nature when she pounced forwards, pinning him to the bed under her bulk of solid muscle, right before his eyes were a pair of huge breasts nearly the size of his head covered in beautiful swirls, but Millar wasn't content to lay there and be prey, just like the mouse that got cornered by the cat, he fought back and he grabbed one of those huge breasts and sank his fingers into her flesh and pulled it forwards and latched his mouth onto the dark, large nipple.
h'chak let out a squeal a purr and a growl all rolled into one, it was the cutest noise Millar had ever heard in his life and it came from such a wonderful creature, oh, by the end of this night she was going to be making a lot more noises just like that one, he wanted to bathe this incredible female in pure love and passion, to flood her heart with pure love and mend her broken soul with his.
Her whole body trembled and for a moment she lost focus and he seized that moment to flip her over by sweeping her knees and flipping her onto her back, she looked up at him in surprise and Millar launched forwards and began nipping her neck and shoulder, causing her to gasp and moan, "Bite me! Bite me, my male! Make me yours! Mark me as yours for life!"" h'chak howled in a strained voice, without even thinking about it, Millar sank his teeth into her shoulder and her blood hit his teeth, he had no idea what was happening but it was like something primal had seized control off his brain, a sharp pain pierced his brain and overloaded his senses as he realized that she'd sunk her mandibles and teeth into his shoulder to match his mark, he tasted her blood as she tasted his, it sent a flash of pure adrenaline through his body and the primal part of his brain seized full control of him again, it made him want to ravish her with all his might, to make her roar and howl with pleasure.
Millar grabbed handfuls of flesh and the roughness of her sweat dampened skin made him growl as he began to plant kisses on her hide, making her gasp and growl as he moved down onto her huge, quivering chest, feeling the trembles passing through her flesh, her nipples were standing proudly erect on her heaving chest and like a hungry baby he latched onto her right one and it nearly filled his mouth, swirling his tongue all over her burning hot sensitive flesh.
After spending a few minutes driving h'chak crazy by working her nipples until they were so hard that they looked like missiles ready to launch off her chest, working lower he lifted her huge breasts up and kissed under them, working down onto her chiseled abs, it was amazing to him that every single Yautja looked like they were chiseled from marble, like they were Greek gods.
He ran his tongue over her chiseled abs, leaving glistening trails of saliva over her stomach and as he looked up he could see her mandibles flaring in pleasure as he raked his teeth over her flesh, he moved lower, moving across her wide pelvis, one thing he took great care to do was to plant long, loving kisses on each of her scars, running his tongue over the puckered and smooth flesh to let her know that they were as beautiful to him as the rest of her and by the purrs escaping her she definitely appreciated the sentiment, even more so when he found a rather long one on her right tree trunk like thigh.
Even though his primal brain was utterly in control, his love of teasing somehow managed to worm its way into his mind, he moved down her long legs to her huge feet, lifting each of them up to run his thumbs up the soles of her feet, causing her to roar in surprise and pleasure before he couldn't take it any more and he moved his way back up, parting her huge thighs as he went, now he realized he was getting his first glimpse of her womanhood, it was a rich green color and it glistened with the dew of her arousal that was dripping out of her.
Very tenderly, Millar ran his fingers over the large, swollen lips, making her snarl and growl as she thrust her womanhood at him, obviously aching for his touch, he teased his fingers over the incredibly soft, rubber like flesh, her dew clung to his fingers and instinctively he lifted them to his mouth and tasted them, it was like fresh berries and he couldn't wait to taste her, he plunged his face between her huge thighs and ran his tongue between her ultra sensitive lips, tasting berries all over his tongue.
The roar that h'chak gave off was incredible, "What are you doing to me, beautiful ooman!?" she roared, but rather than answer her he placed his mouth so that his lips latched to her and he ran his tongue all over her 'till he was able to dig her cliterous out from its fleshy hood, h'chak utterly exploded in pure joy and pleasure, under his delightful torment h'chak didn't last long at all, she was thrashing around and he was having to cling onto her thighs to hold on and he had change his angle somewhat to ensure she didn't crush him between them when her very first orgasm tore through her like a nuclear explosion going off in her belly.
As Millar crawled up the huge body and looked into her face she looked utterly uncoordinated and lost in her own mind, her eyes tried to focus on him, "W-W-What did you do to me, my male?" she panted.
"Human love, my amazonian artist," he purred softly, leaning into the kiss she was aching for by the way her mandibles were straining out towards him, they clamped his head and her tongue invaded his mouth and with a single move she flipped him onto his back.
"It's time for me to show you my love now, my ooman, you have hunted my heart and caught it, now I show you that heart in its purity," she growled as she pinned him down to the bed by the hips and the shoulders.
With a single hand she reached behind herself and found his aching, throbbing manhood which seemed to have managed to draw every single spare drop of blood from his body, it was straining and pulsing like it was trying desperately to tear itself from his body and make its way towards her body and its natural home, like a snake desperately seeking shelter from the cold of the desert night in its tight warm burrow.
His sensitive glans brushed her soaking lips which kissed it and sent a flurry of tingles throughout his body, in one slick movement h'chak found her entrance and sank his entire length into her depths and Millar's mind utterly exploded, her internal muscles were just as powerful as her external ones, it was like having your manhood dipped into hot liquid silk while being sealed inside a fleshy vice, "Holy shit! Oh, god, wow!" Millar roared as h'chak's insides gripped him, rippling along his shaft and caressing his tip, above him h'chak threw her head back and roared in pleasure, making her insides tighten up again to an impossibly tight level.
h'chak began to move, raising her hips up and down, milking his shaft with her hot, impossibly soft Yautja womanhood, "Ohhhhhhh, Frank! Ohhhhh!" h'chak screamed in ecstasy, the top of his shaft dragged along her clit, scraping her flesh against his, he gripped her hips and began to thrust into her, matching her pace perfectly and she released him and he sat upright and threw his arms around her, gripping her and digging his fingers into her flesh and hanging on as the pair of them moved together in perfect sync, their gasps and moans filling the air along with the wet slaps of their flesh meeting over and over again, each of them utterly lost in the other.
That's when it happened, he suddenly felt h'chak in his mind and his mind was filled with an utterly alien pleasure, he felt everything she felt and she was feeling everything he was feeling, the pair of them were melding into one, they swirled together into a being of pure joy and they could feel each others love and pleasure swirling together into one until there was one gigantic explosion of pure joy that was like a fire made entirely of pleasure that consumed the pair of them.
It took two hours for them both to come around from the mutual orgasm so powerful that it knocked them both out, when he woke up Millar found himself now laid atop her body with her huge arms wrapped around him tightly and she was purring in her sleep and smiling, which he found infecting him and he laid his head back down on the most perfect pillows ever created, feeling h'chak shift under him and her grip tighten on him, he'd never in his life imagined a love like this, so pure, so intense, so wild and yet so tender, the soul mate he'd searched a life time had been waiting out there among the stars for him and now here she was, laid purring contentedly under him, as sleep reached and dragged him back into its warm embrace.
This night was the greatest in his life and the beginning of a life filled with joy and happiness for them both, h'chak had claimed her soul mate and Millar had claimed his, when Jack and Tik formed the Guardian Core Millar claimed his place training the next generation to defend their way of life while his wife captured that life in oil, graphite and water colors.
Thier thirty children were captured on canvas which decorated their home, it was amazing how they spilt as well, half of them became soldiers like their father, joining the Guardians in a number of roles, they even contributed two new Dream Warriors to the Core, one who went on to became a Tamer and and the other a Soul Knight, the other half became artists of all kinds, some were painters, some sculptors, even writers and story tellers, it was said that your home wasn't complete unless it had at least one piece of art from the gallery of h'chak Millar.
Thier two eldest daughters even designed the statues that were standing in the gardens of Jack and Tik's home, they depicted the unity of all races coming together in perfect unity and harmony, all of them standing in a circle placing their hands together to hold a planet upright and protecting it, they made another very similar and much bigger one to stand in the very centre of the blossoming city.
Frank lived four hundred blissful years, he took great pride in seeing the many Gaurdians that passed under his command and his training, they became proud warriors and Guardians of the homeworld, of their way of life.
When the day came for him to leave those he loved he was surrounded by his most beloved ones, he looked back on the life he'd live alongside the utterly incredible woman sat at his side holding his old wrinkled hand, even as he'd aged and gone grey those eyes that burned forever bright with love and passion never dimmed even for a second, even now as she looked at him the light in her shone like the sun, "Don't fear, my beloved one, I know your frightened but you don't need to be, you are going to the eternal hunt, to take your place at Paya's side, she will welcome you with open arms for loving one of her daughters and for raising all of these wonderful cubs who do both us and her proud, living jewels showing the joy and love and pride of both the Yautja and oomans, when the day comes for me to stand before her I will hold my head up high and proud knowing that we leave behind all these wonderful cubs to carry on our love into the future, so, stand tall and proud, my love," she said, but he could still see and feel her sadness.
But given that she was a Dream Warrior when Paya came to collect his soul she saw them both standing and h'chak fell to her knee and bowed to her, "Please, Lady Paya, take care of my most beloved one, keep him safe," h'chak said, and Paya smiled deeply and warmly at her as she glanced at Millar who now looked exactly as he had in his prime.
"Worry not, my beloved daughter, he will be waiting patiently for you to arrive at his side, untill that day happens he will watch over you and all of his beloved cubs, you have made me proud with the life I returned to you," she said softly, and with that she took hold of Millar's shoulder after he shared one last loving embrace with his wife and with that they were both gone and h'chak felt both proud and alone, so she did what she always did when her emotions got the best of her and she got out her easel, the one he had made for her all those years ago and painted the most beautiful painting that she had ever made, one that embodied the entirety of her love for that ooman man who had swept her off her feet and captured her heart, who had given her the confidence to be who she was always meant to be all the while standing proudly at her side.
A painting that still hung above her bed on the day that she drew her final earthly breath surrounded by their beloved cubs and she found herself walking through rolling fields of golden grass, walking towards a small cosy cabin exactly like the one that they'd spent their first night together and there, standing at the open door waiting for her, was Millar, he'd waited two hundred years for her to join him, so when she lost control and ran straight through the field and into his waiting arms, clamping her mandibles over his face and drawing him into a deep kiss before he took her hand and led her into their little forever home and pulling her straight to their little fur covered bed, he'd waited two hundred years to touch her again and so had she, they had a lot of time to make up for.