"Where are we going?" Efet whispered.

Deleth wasn't entirely sure, but he wasn't going to admit it. He berated himself for becoming so complacent; he should have found them a hidey-hole to stay in, not camping out in the open as though they were taking shore leave. "Do you remember the waterfall where we first met?"

"Yes. The one with the little grotto hidden behind it. Is that where we're going?"

It was as good an option as any, Deleth supposed. The waterfall would conceal them from view and drown out any sounds they made. The only problem was they couldn't build a fire there, as the smoke would lead others right to them. "It's not so far from us. Once we reach the river, we'll head upstream - ow!" He yelped a little as he lost his footing on a root and went to one knee. Smarting more from embarrassment than pain, he rubbed at his kneecap.

Sighing, Efet took the lead. "Let me go in front," she told him. "It's pitch black and my people see better in the dark than yours."

Deleth had to grudgingly concede that was one advantage Cardassians had over Romulans: night vision. Now, their roles were curiously reversed, with Efet boldly and confidently leading him through the tangle of the jungle, while Deleth lightly clutched the edge of her sleeve between his fingers, dependent on her for the first time. Occasionally, a shaft of moonlight would break through the canopy and he'd catch a glimpse of her, her dark hair outlined in the silver light, her long neck sloping down to her shoulders. They heard the river, then soon enough came upon its banks, and Efet led them upstream and they found the little waterfall, pool, and grotto that had set the stage for their first meeting. They crept over the slippery rocks to enter the grotto, and Efet arranged some loose branches at the entrance to hide it from view.

"Deleth," Efet said to him after they'd bedded down. "Who do you think the poor bastards are who've been brought here to join us?"

"I'm not fortunate enough for them to be more Romulans, so my guess is... no one good."

"But if they're prisoners here like us, then we have a common enemy in the Klingons." He could hear the hopefulness in Efet's voice. "What is that human saying, the enemy of my enemy is my friend?"

"You can't possibly hope these strangers will want to be friends with us?"

"Well, you did."

He was thunderstruck by her statement. Efet had never actually said the words before, said that they were... friends. They had been stuck together by chance, bonded by loneliness, and he had spent the last few days criticizing her, yelling at her, rebuffing her overtures of friendship, and even on one or two occasions, outright terrorizing her. That is, when it wasn't late at night when he allowed himself to imagine touching her hands and breasts and other sexual fantasies. Deleth thought of his behavior, and felt great shame swell in him. He would never have called someone who acted as he had a 'friend', but Efet, it seemed, was more forgiving than he would have been in her place.

"Efet..." he said softly, and for a moment he didn't think she could hear him over the rush of the waterfall, until she grunted softly in acknowledgment. "I-I haven't been the kindest friend to you. I would like to do better."

"Mmm?" she made a sleepy noise. "You've saved my life at least twice a day since we met. All things considered, you're probably the best friend I've ever had."

"You must be joking."

"No, not at all. I have some friends back home on Cardassia, girls I grew up with. Even my cousin Daykor. But I can't imagine any of them surviving all this with me, the way you have. When I make it back to them - and I will make it back, you know I believe it - I'm going to tell my entire family it was because of you."

Some unknown emotion clenched him by the throat. Deleth didn't feel he deserved any of this consideration. I saved her life to save myself from loneliness, he thought, shattered by the realization that nothing he had ever done had been for unselfish reasons. He had even caressed her fingers, all the while she was ignorant of how sensual such an act was to his people. He had, frankly, taken advantage of her. Part of him wanted to tell her so, but he was afraid she would be furious with him, run away and possibly get herself killed, and he was sure he'd lay down and die if that happened. So instead, he said, "Do you remember when you asked me which Romulan women preferred: ridges or no ridges?"

Efet propped herself up on her elbow, curious at the sudden change of subject matter. "Yes, I do." He had been so flustered over her question that she had tried not to ask any teasing or suggestive questions since, assuming it was something taboo in Romulan culture. For him to bring it up now, days later, was odd, not in the least because she now knew it had been on his mind.

He was laying on his back, very still, his hands folded neatly across his chest. The moonlight projected ripples onto his face from the waterfall. "Uhm, it is very much personal preference for Romulan women. I've heard them discussing it. My sister and her friends, the women in my classes at the academy - some prefer facial ridges, others do not. Southerners, who do not usually have facial ridges, are considered... handsomer. Northerners, like myself, we're bigger and stockier and our facial ridges are thought to make us more primal and... some consider that to be sexually appealing. I suppose." He sounded so mortified to be telling her this that Efet couldn't help but crack a smile. It was sort of cute to see Deleth like this, he was nothing like the swaggering and bold Cardassian men she'd dated. If she found out Deleth had ever kissed a girl, she thought she'd fall over from shock.

Efet decided to try her luck. "Oh, then I'm sure the ladies were all over you back home," she said, keeping her tone light and airy. She didn't want him to think she was being sarcastic and get upset.

Even in the darkness, she thought she could see his face flushing. There was definitely a green tinge to his cheeks and ears. "Don't mock me, Efet."

"I assure you, I'm being sincere!" She frowned, worried that he was going to take it the wrong way no matter what. "Listen, on Cardassia men and women love to tease one another. That's how we show our interest. But it's not meant to be cruel or mocking." Really, Efet reasoned, Deleth probably was considered attractive among his own race. He was fantastically well-built, his eyes were dark and expressive, and she liked his facial ridges - they gave dimension to his features, and she'd never liked the flattened faces of some other alien species. And, of course, there were the ears. What woman could resist those ears?

Deleth was silent for a few moments, then he seemed to blurt out, "That was unkind of me. I don't think much of my - well, I pushed my own feelings onto you." He rolled over, which was his way of terminating an awkward conversation.

Ah hah. So there it was, his sore spot. Efet swallowed several possible replies, trying to remember that he was not Cardassian, he would take her teasing and flirting the absolute worst way. Really, she felt a little crazy for even wanting to flirt with him. What did she expect to happen? Best case scenario: Deleth taking her in his strong arms, kissing her breathless, ripping her clothes off, laying her down in this sinfully hot sand and ravishing her? Wow, that actually sounds amazing, she thought guiltily. She was laying less than a meter away from the subject of her fantasies that seemed to come directly from the most disreputable kind of holosuites. Efet felt her neck scales heat up.

She wasn't sure when she finally drifted off to sleep, but she was roused from her sleep by a dream so realistic, it really felt like her dream lover was stroking her skin. Blinking her eyes open, Efet had a single moment of pure bliss, lost in the sensation of hands running up and down her spinal scales, before a jolt of shock and adrenaline propelled her fully awake. Even as she jerked in his arms, Deleth woke, his eyes wide with panic and his mouth falling open a little. During the night, she had rolled towards him or he towards her, and Efet had draped herself over him, while his hands had found their way under her undershirt, where they had been stroking and caressing her with wild abandon.

"Ah!" Efet squeaked, and gracefully flopped over.

If she thought Deleth had looked mortified last night, that was nothing compared to now. Green colored his entire face, spreading all the way down his neck. "I-I am so sorry," he babbled, not able to look her in the eye. He sat up, drawing his legs up to his body rather too late to hide his arousal tenting his underclothes. Efet felt so bad for looking, but she couldn't stop herself. "That will never happen again, I swear it!"

He looked like he was ready to withdraw entirely, and Efet found herself saying, "It's all right, really, it was just... you know, we were sleeping next to each other and, uh, things happen." It seemed a little silly to get so flustered over this, when she'd been just as close before when he had saved her life. During the flood, for example. Of course, her life hadn't been in peril just now...

Deleth swallowed. "I'm gonna go bathe in the pool. Excuse me." He stood rather stiffly and walked out of the grotto, deliberately keeping his back to her. Efet blew a wayward strand of hair out of her face. Just when she thought they had reached some sort of equilibrium, they'd gone and made it as awkward as possible in a way only they could.

Deleth returned with wet hair and an armload of vegetables. He gave half to Efet without a word and they sat facing away from each other while eating, each pointedly refusing to talk about this morning. At last, Deleth cleared his throat. "I think we should do some recon and find those newcomers the Klingons dropped off last night. Better we know what we're dealing with now rather than later."

Efet agreed, more to have something to do than because she was eager to go hunting for aliens. They carefully hid their little grotto, and headed out, Deleth keeping them downwind in case the new prisoners had excellent senses of smell. Efet's sensitive hearing picked up the first traces of them; the newcomers were not the quietest. She and Deleth crept along a thick barrier of foliage, trusting the jungle to hide them as they made their way towards the little makeshift camp. The first thing they saw were several humanoid figures milling about in a clearing; Deleth and Efet dropped to their bellies to creep closer and eavesdrop.

They regarded the new prisoners with some trepidation. They counted four of them: all over two meters tall, with tusks and facial ridges and wild hair. They were loud and aggressive, quarreling among themselves, and seemed to be discussing some half-baked plan to ambush their Klingon captors. Deleth looked over at Efet and gave her a barely perceptible nod. They carefully backed off and headed back the way they'd came.

"They look like uglier Klingons," Efet said to Deleth as soon as they were far enough away she was reasonably sure they couldn't overhear her.

"Nausicaans," Deleth told her, leading her a ways upstream, intending to double-back to their grotto to make it that much harder for any of the newcomers to track their movements. "Probably pirates." Four gigantic Nausicaans were about the worst possible option to be trapped here with, especially as they were outnumbered. He was armed only with his knife and Efet with her sharpened walking stick. Right now, they needed to put some distance between them and the Nausicaan prisoners, so he led her up to a bridge over the river Deleth had found weeks ago, but suspected Efet had never seen.

He was proven right by the 'o' shape her lips formed when she saw it. "Wow!" she said, and despite it all, he was pleased to see her so impressed. Long ago, a great tree had collapsed, falling across the river to form a natural bridge from one high bank to another. The branches had mostly snapped and broken off over time, leaving jagged nubs jutting from the mossy trunk, a trunk somewhat less than a meter wide and so well-worn, it was easy to walk across, or at least it would've been, were it not always wet from the river spray. On the other side of the bank lay the remains of the tree's roots, great hardened twisted things that thrust into the air. Deleth helped Efet onto the tree bridge and they began to pick their way across, both acutely aware of the crashing river below them, roiling and leaping. "You don't suppose this thing is likely to snap in half anytime soon?" Efet asked.

Deleth certainly hoped not. He stayed right behind her, in case she slipped on the moss, but Efet seemed to be more surefooted than ever, especially with her walking stick in her hand. The distance from bank to bank was perhaps 12 meters, and they were about halfway across when a voice boomed out.

"Oh, don't run away now!" Deleth almost jumped out of his skin at the sound. He turned to find a Nausicaan standing right where they had just been, ambling up onto the tree bridge as though he had not a care in the world. Damn! Deleth berated himself silently. He couldn't believe they'd been followed and neither had known it. Behind him, he felt Efet touch the crook of his elbow.

"What have we here! A Romulan and a Cardassian walk into a bar - that sounds like a bad joke!" The Nausicaan bellowed out an ugly laugh.

"Leave us alone!" Deleth snapped at him.

"Oh, I don't think so." The stranger's tone turned ugly. "You," he said to Deleth, pointing at him, "have something I want."

"There is nothing here for you."

"Wrong! Try again!" The Nausicaan took a step towards them, and Deleth eased a step back, feeling Efet step back with him, like a dance. "You have a woman. And I want her." He eyed Efet with obvious evil intent.

Deleth didn't bother to correct him. He could almost feel Efet's anxiety spiking, but he continued to ease them both backward, keeping his eyes fixed on the Nausicaan. Slowly, he reached into the folds of his shirt and withdrew his knife. The Nausicaan looked visibly thrilled at this; he smacked his tusks together as though relishing the fight and the (no doubt) rape he imagined would soon be his. Deleth was no expert on Nausicaans, but he estimated this fellow to be middle-aged or thereabouts; his croaking voice gave it away. He desperately hoped he had the advantage, if not in reach or toughness, in speed and stamina. He did not hope they'd settle this diplomatically.

"I love this part," the Nausicaan went on, as he closed in on them. He was still bare-handed, but Deleth couldn't be sure he didn't have a crude weapon hidden on his own person somewhere. "I really do. Two dominant males contesting for a female. A primordial struggle, seen on thousands of worlds since time began." The river roared beneath them. "See, I never bothered with courting or sweet-talking a woman. I really love the look in their mate's eyes when he realizes he's lost her to me." He advanced another step. "Never taken one from a Romulan before, but there's a first time for ev-"

Deleth charged him, springing into the air and bringing an arm down in a crushing blow. The Nausicaan blocked it, just as Deleth thought he might, but Deleth's other hand swung around and sank his knife into his torso. A boot smashed into his chest and sent Deleth staggering back several steps. Dimly, he was aware of Efet crying out his name.

"Nice try." The Nausicaan brushed his hand over the knife handle, dislodging it as one might a thorn. It fell to the tree trunk at his feet, and he kicked it into the river. "You've never fought one of my kind before. We have chitinous armor over our vital organs - that little knife won't even slow me down."

Deleth sprang to his feet, swinging a rear kick that could (and had) busted reinforced doors from their hinges. But the Nausicaan sidestepped him, grabbed his leg, and flung him back to the trunk. He stepped on Deleth's neck, chuckling at the enraged choke in his throat and the flailing of his arms. Tears sprang to the corners of Deleth's eyes. He felt sure the Nausicaan was going to throw him into the river, where he'd be swept away, and Efet would be -

The Nausicaan cursed loudly and fell back. Taking advantage of the respite, Deleth rolled to a crouched position. Efet had struck with her sharpened stick, catching the Nausicaan in a soft spot on his throat. Now she defended him, jabbing her stick lighting fast and forcing the Nausicaan back a few steps. Grunting, their attacker peeled his hand away from his throat, looking at the blood staining his fingers. "Pretty nice stick you got there, girly," he told Efet. "Do you have any idea how long it's been since I had a woman? I'm gonna love-"

"Die and go to hell!" snarled Efet, and her next jab caught him in the forearm. He grabbed for the stick, but she jabbed hard again, sinking the sharpened end through his hand and yanked it back out. The Nausicaan howled in rage.

Deleth knew Efet could only pick him apart for so long. Her stick enabled her to keep him away from her, but sooner or later the Nausicaan would rush her and either overwhelm her or knock them both into the river to drown. More than anything, Deleth needed to avoid a headbutt from that reinforced forehead; that would probably knock him unconscious. Thinking fast, he dug his fingers into the tree trunk and clambered along the side of the trunk, using the broken branch nubs to brace his feet as he made his way around their attacker. He didn't have his knife anymore, but he still had his hands.

He climbed up behind the Nausicaan, who now seemed to be questioning his own wisdom at getting himself into this situation. With the crashing river below, and an enraged enemy blocking either escape path, he was well and truly trapped. Deleth saw him tense his muscles, and knew their attacker was preparing to blitz Efet, willing to take a stab to the throat, jaw or eye to knock her over and make his escape. He pounced, tackling the Nausicaan from behind and grabbing him by the throat. He wrenched away from him with so much power, Deleth swore his shoulder almost popped out of the socket. Deleth tore at his throat, but he couldn't tear through his attacker's natural armor, so settled for grappling with him, using his bodyweight to drag him down. They sank to a heap on the trunk, the Nausicaan reaching around to rake at his eyes and tear at his hair. Efet closed in, swinging around her stick to smash their attacker in the face with the blunt end, then stabbing him through the knee with the sharp end.

The Nausicaan thrashed wildly, fighting for his life now. "Efet, get back!" Deleth cried over the din, and Efet cleared out of the way. Using all his strength, Deleth wrestled the Nausicaan over to the edge and tried to fling him into the river. He caught a vicious blow to the face that stunned him, but he delivered a punch of his own that busted his eye socket. Ordinarily, this wouldn't stop a Nausicaan, but the impact was enough to send him over the edge of the tree bridge, dragging Deleth with him as he went. Deleth was barely holding on with his nails, only one leg still securely on the bridge.

"Deleth!" Efet threw something to him which Deleth realized was that stupid piece of twine she carried everywhere. The Nausicaan was still clawing at him and they were perilously close to both going into the river.

"No, I'll drag you with me!" Deleth called up to her.

"Grab it! I've got it tied to a branch!"

He planted his elbow in the Nausicaan's face and grabbed the twine. A moment later, both he and the Nausicaan went over the edge, the one disappearing into the raging waters, and Deleth being caught and suspended by the twine. Hand over hand, he pulled himself up, with Efet catching him by his collar and tugging him part of the way. Exhausted and beaten, he collapsed on the bridge.

"Deleth, no, don't die on me!" Efet pleaded, and even though Deleth was nowhere near death, he allowed her to hold him close and pepper his brow with kisses. She felt so soft and smelled so good. He wanted to bury his face in her breasts and never leave. That not being practical, he tried to stand, but swayed on his feet, and let Efet half-drag him to the end of the bridge. He was pretty sure he was not only lightheaded from that blow to the face, but also the knowledge of just how close they came to dying back there. Even through his double vision, he saw where Efet had looped the twine around one of those gnarled, broken old branch nubs. He had never felt so grateful in his life. They staggered along the river bank, Efet doing most of the work keeping them upright, and they made it back to their little sanctuary in the grotto under the waterfall. Deleth let himself sink boneless to the sand.

Efet tore a strip from her already ragged shirt to wipe at his face. "You're so bloody, oh!"