Chapter 11

The hideous insect continued to skitter up Yulia's body, its tiny clawed feet grasping at her tender flesh. The eyes of the two scared women bolted back and forth between the insect and the creatures outside rapidly approaching the entrance to the cave.

Suddenly, Yulia felt a burst of strength; her survival instinct kicking in.

She pushed Tari's hand away from her face and hesitiated for a moment before grabbing the insect around it's middle. The insect began to shriek and squirm, and Yulia threw it as hard as she could out of the entrance of the falls.

The creatures saw the insect hurdling out of the water, and they powered up their shoulder weapons. With a sizzling hiss, one of the creatures evaporated the insect before it hit the ground.

The jig was up now.

The other leapt with a single jump into the air and landed on a large rock at the entrance of the falls. He pushed himself through the water and towered over the women. Yulia was now face to face with the enemy. Fear surged through her and made her freeze in her tracks. Tari didn't move, but reached down for something tied to her leg...

The creature took another step towards the women. Yulia could see his intentions; his groin was erect and hard, and evne though he wasn't human, the pheromones he emitted were thick in the air. He reached out with a lightning-quick move and grabbed Yulia's arm. She snapped out of her fear and tried to pry herself from his grasp.

"MOVE!" Tari yelled. Yulia obeyed and pressed herself to the stone wall, just as Tari had powered up her own weapon; the laser weapon stolen from the creature she had killed. Unfortunately, his grasp on Yulia was too tight. Standing an arm's length away from the women, the force of the blast from Tari's weapon sent the creature, his hand still gripping Yulia's arm, flying backwards out of the cave; a hole burned through his chest. Tari's eyes went wide as she saw Yulia tumble out of the waterfall.

The creature and Yulia landed near the footless companion with a splash. He looked down at his dead friend, and then at the woman who was still in his grips. She was stunned due to the fall, having hit her head on the hard gravel. She moaned in pain. The footless creature couldn't believe his luck.

Inside the cave, Tari turned on her heel as fast as she could and dashed to the pile of scraps where she kept her sniper rifle. She began tossing rags and bits of trash out of her way, and clumsily rushed to load the weapon.

Outside, the footless creature kicked Yulia's arm out of the grips of his dead commerade. He then stepped over her and positioned himself in a way that he was looking down into her face; his legs straddling her as he stood over her. He then slowly placed his hand on his loins, his member filling with blood and ready to perform. He tilted his head back in pleasure as he worked his member to a full erection. Below, Yulia stirred in her unconsciousness, totally unaware of what was about to happen to her.

On her face, Yulia felt a 'plop' of warm liquid. It trickled down her cheek and across her lips. It had a viscious smell to it, and roused her from her blackout. When her eyes focused, she saw a large figure standing over her, naked from the waist down.

His penis was huge. She could actually see the veins throbbing as they pumped blood through it. Out from the tiny fissure at it's head, hot semen was seeping out and dropping onto her face. She tried to get up in disgust, reaching for her pistol, but the creature pushed his footless leg quickly into her shoulder, pinning her onto the hard wet gravel of the riverbed. Pain coursed through her head.

Yulia fought and struggled, desperate to free herself. She tried to kick his leg out from underneath him, but he was just too strong. He knealth down, his body now hovering over hers. Bright specks of light danced across her field of vision. She was running out of energy. Sharp pain flooded her skull. She could feel his hot breath on her neck. He shoved his hands over hers, pushing them up far over her head and pinning them there. She squirmed and tried to free herself. What could she do?

Where was Tari? The bitch had betrayed her.

She stopped struggling, and looked up into the hideous face that was about to violate her.

His hot juice kept flowing out of his member, dripping onto her body. He clicked a few times, and pressed a single hand onto her breast. She recoiled, shrinking in disgust. His hand groped and stroked its way down her chest, over her abdomen, and found her pants. She knew that any moment, he would take her. She tried desperately to remove herself from her body; to pretend she wasn't there...she squinted her eyes tightly shut...

The creature threw his head back and bellowed a scream through the night air. He had curled his hands around the waist of her pants, about to rip them from her body...

The scream stopped.

Silence.

The creature loosed his grip on Yulia. She felt the fingers grasping at her pants loosen, then fall from her body completely. Had the creature changed his mind?

More hot liquid spilled onto her body, but it was gushing this time. Tons of it...

Yulia's eyes flew open to see the bloodied end of a blade hovering above her head. Her eyes were wide as saucers.

The creature straddling her was impaled cleanly through the stomach, his blood spilling out all over Yulia. The blade then quickly retracted, and he slumped into the water with a splash and floated slowly downstream.

Yulia didn't blink, her eyes fixed now on what, or who, was standing in front of her.

She saw a leg wound, tightly bound with a strip of shining silver bark.

Slowly, Yulia's eyes traveled from this leg, to a torso, a neck, and then the head of Jehdin. He looked down at her, breathing heavily.

Yulia knew that this was the creature she had first encountered.

Her nose filled once again with the familiar smell...not of carnal hunger, but of pure wild untameability, and of the forest. For a moment, all they did was look at each other.

Yulia finally had the chance to see him. The same spot on her leg where the droplet had touched was tingling again. Despite the horrifyingly strange events that had nearly just unfolded, Yulia felt calm in this new prescence.

She slowly got to her feet. She kept her gaze with him, unblinking.

His shoulders were wide and muscled. His arms were like tree trunks. She couldn't believe how tall he was...she took a step closer to him.

Jehdin flinched as this female took a bold step in his direction. They both waivered, then froze again. Yulia's curiosity was now getting the better of her. His smell was so masculine, it was almost too much to bear. She wanted to touch him...so badly...

Jehdin was amazed at her boldness. No female had ever approached him like this before. Her fear seemed to vanish, even though she had just gone through quite a lot in a short span of time. Once again, he felt his loins quiver. It would be so easy to take her, right here, right now. But something inside him stopped his carnal rush. He wanted her to want him. Anything else would make him no better than the animals he shared the prison planet with. He noticed that there was a wound at her forehead, and very slowly lifted his hand.

Yulia backed off slightly at this gesture, but held her ground when she remembered her injuries and realized his intentions. Again, she felt the air displaced by his movements. His smell flooded her nose. Her body relaxed. Jehdin's hand was nearly brushing her skin when suddenly, a single laser beam appeared at his temple. Yulia snapped out of her delirium and realized that it must be Tari still in the cave, taking aim with her sniper rifle...

"NO!" Yulia screamed suddenly, and Jehdin jumped back, just as a bullet when sailing in between them. Yulia was so startled that she flailed for a moment, then fell into the river.

Jehdin was nearly clipped. He was astonished that he let his guard down that much! He quickly cloaked himself and dashed back into the forest.

Yulia sputtered and stood up in the freezing river, soaked to the bone.

Tari then came boundind down out of the cave like a stealth panther towards Yulia, who was clearly taken aback.

"Jesus Christ, I'm sorry. I fucking missed him. Dammit." she whispered, helping Yulia out of the river. Yulia fired back in a hiss.

"Fuck! What the hell? Took you long enough! And why the hell did you try and shoot ME?" Yulia spat as she trudged out of the river.

"Shoot YOU? I was aiming for the fucking other one! Are you blind?" Tari hissed back, grasping Yulia's arm and escorting her back to the cave.

"HE didn't do anything! He SAVED me! He killed the other one...didn't you see? He helped me..." Yulia explained. Tari wasn't buying it.

"He saved you. Yeah, right. Looked to me as if he was about to have his turn with you. And sorry, no I wasn't watching. I was loading my WEAPON so I could SAVE YOUR ASS. You better watch yourself. You're becoming more trouble than your worth..." Tari began tirading.

But Yulia wasn't listening. She was looking out into the woods. Squinting, straining for any signs of rippling air reflecting the moonlight.

Jehdin watched from a low-hanging tree branch as the two women headed back towards the entrance to the falls. He saw that one of them was looking nearly straight at him. Zooming in with his helmet, he studied the details in her face. He would burn that face into his mind. Finally, he had found her. And now, she was safe.

Moving into a comfortable sitting position on the branch, he fixated his gaze on the cave entrance, and vowed to keep watch over her until dawn.