The next chapter is posted! Enjoy :)
Natalie didn't know what to make of her new cell mate.
Sure, he hasn't outright attacked her once they put her in with him. But that didn't mean she still felt all that safe around him. He towered over her short frame by at least a good two and a half feet or so and was solid muscle.
It wouldn't take much for him to break her in half if he so chooses to do so.
So far, it just seems like he was very curious about her and probably was just as baffled as to why they put her in his cell. It was apparent that they gassed both their cells earlier to put them out so they could grab ger and relocate her to his cell without a fuss from either of them.
They have only been in together for a short time since then. Probably only a small handful of hours now. And the only thing Natalie got from him was his name.
She repeated it a couple of times. The first time he flinched at her obvious mispronunciation. Then he repeated for her until she got it close enough to the right pronunciation.
Yeyinde did the same for her name until he got it closer to what it sounded like.
But so far, that was all they have really said. Before the language barrier became an issue. And it was clear, they wanted to try and figure out how to better communicate with each other. Especially, if they were now going to be held with each other for the duration.
Natalie was currently still sitting on his cot. While he stood across the room, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed over his broad chest.
To her it was both amusing and fascinating seeing such a human like pose from an extraterrestrial creature.
Every now and then he would sweep his gaze over the room before locking his gaze on her. He really wanted to sit on his cot as well. But figured it would just make the female nervous if he got that close to her.
So, he taken to leaning against the wall directly across from the cot.
For a while now, he's just been giving her space and letting her adjust to his presence. Then he wanted to try communicating with her. He already had an idea on how to do so.
He just hopes she will catch on. Because it will certainly make things a little easier for them.
The silence was starting to become old. And that's when he huffed and pushed himself off of the wall and approached the female again. The young hunter noted that she still tensed up a little when he got close to her.
But he ignored it this time. Surely, she'll soon come to realize that he wasn't going to harm her. Otherwise, she would've been dead a long time ago.
Yeyinde came to a stop right in front of her. He tilted his head to the side as he looked down at her with some inquisitive clicks.
Natalie looked up at the towering behemoth and wondered what he was up to or what he was thinking. She then saw him point down at the floor. He looked down briefly and said a what sounded like a word.
She crinkled her eyes in confusion.
Why was he pointing down at the floor? She briefly looked down and saw there was nothing there. Did he want her to stand up and stand there or something?
He looked at her and repeated the word again.
Natalie just shook her head, "I don't understand. I'm sorry."
Yeyinde tried to keep his patience reigned in. It was clear she still didn't understand what he was asking. After repeating the word a couple times before he tried another area.
She watched as he pointed to the wall and say another word.
Natalie watched as he repeated it again and tapped the wall. Then he pointed to the cot and said another word. At first, she didn't understand why he was pointing to random spots in the room and saying words.
She had a hunch though. And when he continued to point at the cot and repeated a word a third time, Natalie finally spoke.
"Bed?" She inquired.
"Bu'edd." He said.
Then it started to finally click with her. He was pointing out to areas and saying what they were in his language. And he wanted her to repeat the words in her language.
"Bed." She said a little slower and more clearly.
"B'edd." He repeated, this time it sounded better.
Natalie nodded. Then she saw his mandibles move. The two bottom ones pulled in together while the top two mandibles flared outwards. She's unsure why, but it gave her the impression he was smiling or smirking.
Yeyinde then moved over to her side of the cot and pointed down to the floor again and repeated the same word he said before while pointing at the floor beneath them.
"Floor." Natalie said, slowly and clearly.
"Fl'ooorr." Yeyinde repeated.
She repeated it one more time for him. His second pronunciation came out clearer than the first. He then went back to the wall and touched it and looked at her and spoke a word.
"Wall." She said.
"W'all." He repeated.
So far, that word he was able to get more clearly on the first try and she nodded.
Then Yeyinde looked around before briefly looking up. Then he looked at her and pointed upwards and said another word.
"Ceiling." This one she said a little more slowly, because it was a longer word.
He cocked his head slightly, "Ssee'linnggg."
Natalie figures that may be as close as he might get with that one. But she repeated it again for the hell of it to see if he can get the pronunciation a little closer to the actual word.
"Seal'ing." Yeyinde repeated, this time, it sounded a lot better.
She nodded again, signaling he was right, and he got it.
There weren't really that many things in the sparse room to point to. Besides the cot there was the toilet, sink, and shower. Natalie almost laughed at his horrible mispronunciation of 'toilet'.
But refrained because she worried about pissing him off if he saw her laugh at him.
Then afterwards, Yeyinde pointed at Natalie and said a word, she knew she once heard him say to her before.
"Ooman." He said, pointing at her.
At first, she didn't get what he meant. Though when she thought about it, the word kind of did suspiciously like, 'human'.
"Nat'alie, ooman." He said, as he continued to gesture to her.
She raised her hand to her chest, "Human."
Yeyinde nodded, "Sei-i, Nat'alie h'uuman."
It was the one word he understood between their languages because the words did sound a little similar and ended in the same three letters.
He then placed his fist over his chest.
"Yautja." He said.
Natalie squinted her eyes, she unsure what yeowtja meant. Then he spoke again and lightly tapped his knuckles to his broad chest.
"Yeyinde, yautja." He said.
That's when she realized that he was referring to himself. If she was a human, he was telling her he was something called a yautja.
"Yeowtja." She tried repeating.
Amusement flashed through his eyes at her horrible mispronunciation at his race's name.
"Yautja." He repeated a little slower for her.
"Yautja." Natalie repeated.
Yeyinde nodded, when she repeated it better.
'So, apparently his kind are a race of beings called yautja.' She thought to herself.
'Well, at least we're getting somewhere.' He thought at the same time.
It was then there was a noise near the door. They both turned to look and saw a slot open up in the wall and something was pushed through.
Yeyinde walked over and went to retrieve it, knowing what it was.
Natalie watched as he grabbed an object off a flat surface and carry it back over. She noticed it was a trey with food on it. She scrunched her nose when she saw what it was. It looked like raw meat. And next to it was a large cup of water.
There was another sound as what appeared to be another trey being shoved through the slot.
'Just how much did he eat?' She wondered.
Yeyinde slightly tilted his head. Then walked over to the other trey. Normally, they only gave him one trey of food. But when he picked up the second one and observe the contents, it didn't look like something he would eat.
Then he looked back at the female, and it clicked.
'This one must be for her.' He thought.
Then he walked over with the second trey in his other hand and placed it on the cot next to her.
Natalie looked down and noticed what looked like a bowl of soup with a small roll next to it. Plus, a small fruit cup and a cup of water. Clearly, this was her food.
She pulled the trey onto her lap and picked up the plastic spoon. But before she could dig in, Yeyinde spoke again.
She looked over to see him looking at her. He then motioned to the meat on his trey then pointed to the food on her trey and said a word. Guess word lessons were still in session. Not that Natalie minded. It was nice having someone to somewhat talk to again. Even if it was a huge alien creature.
"Food." Natalie said.
"F'oood." He repeated in his deep gravelly voice.
"Food." She repeated.
"Food." Yeyinde repeated perfectly.
Natalie nodded. Then she picked up her cup, and sloshed it around. Before dipping a couple of her fingers in and letting a few drops of water run off of them.
"Water." She said.
He watched as she dipped her fingers in the ju'dha and show him. Then said a word.
"Wa'ter." Yeyinde repeated.
She nodded again. Then picked up her fruit cup and picked out a piece of strawberry and held it up for show.
"Fruit." Natalie said.
"Fruu'it." He said.
"Fruit." She repeated.
"Fru'it." Yeyinde replied.
Natalie nodded again. He really wasn't all that bad with the pronunciations. Hopefully, he was a fast learner.
They continued to spout out random words as they ate. Though watching him eat was rather interesting and gruesome at the same time. He used his mandibles and inner mouth to tear into the meat. Taking off nice size chunks at a time.
While at the same time, he was watching her eat as well. It was still obvious he was just as intrigued how certain body parts work on her just as she noted worked on him.
While pointing things out and repeating them wasn't all that tricky. Natalie wonders how they can start adding in adjectives and verbs into the mix.
It's going to be quite challenging trying to get in words like, You, I, Me, What, Where, When, Why, etc...
But for now, this was a start. And it seemed he was eager to learn her words to better communicate with her. Though Natalie kind of wondered why he wanted to learn in the first place.
It was her kind holding him here. And she figures because of this, he wouldn't want to communicate with anyone here. Yet, he seemed to want to talk to her and learn her words.
Perhaps, being alone in a cell had gotten to him as much as it has gotten to her. And that could be why he chose to compromise and learn English.
Whatever the reason, Natalie was happy he was making an attempt to communicate with her. Because at the moment, nothing sucked more than this pesky language barrier between them.
As the rest of the evening dragged on, when they could no longer find things around the room to say and repeat, Yeyinde soon went to body parts.
He would point to various places on his own body and say the words. And Natalie would continue to repeat them for him in her language so that he can learn the words.
Afterwards, she started to do something a little similar to Charades.
She laid down on the cot and closed her eyes and said the word, 'Sleep'. He looked at her prone form and watched as she laid there and closed her eyes briefly and repeated the word.
Yeyinde did repeat it. Though he was a little unsure what to make of motion. Since she was laying on the soft surface that one was meant to rest on, perhaps she was imitating the motions for 'sleep' or 'sleeping'.
Natalie tried to pantomime other certain motions and gestures. At first Yeyinde looked at her a little funny when she would go from sitting to standing a few times.
Then he realized the motions she was trying to communicate to him were, 'Sit/Sitting' and 'Stand/Standing.'
The lessons seemed like they were getting a little trickier yet easier at the same time. And like his brother had told him before, the basics to the ooman language really wasn't all that difficult.
Perhaps with a little more time and effort, he will be able to string words together into sentences.
The more they got into the English Lessons the more relaxed she was starting to feel around this large alien. It amazed her how intelligent he was. In a way, he didn't seem that much different from humans in that sense.
After a while of pushing out as much words as they could, Natalie let out a small yawn.
She was unsure of what time it was. Only that she feels like she has been up for a long while now. And was starting to feel tired.
The young woman went to go lay down but paused. It suddenly hit her that there was two of them and one cot. And while this cot was much larger than the one in her cell to accommodate his larger size, it still looked like it was barely big enough to fit the both of them.
Fuck! How do these assholes expect this to fucking work!? If they were to put her in here, the least they could've done was throw in an extra cot for her to sleep on.
Yeyinde may not want her on his cot either. And it would royally suck if he made her sleep on the floor.
The young hunter saw her fidget as she sat on the cot. She seemed nervous about something. Though what, he was unsure of. Especially, since they started trying to communicate with each other, she seemed like she was becoming more at ease around him.
She eventually shifted her gaze to meet his. Then Natalie pointed to herself, then the cot.
"Sleep." She said.
He looked at her and let out a series of clicks. Then Yeyinde saw her scoot back further on the cot and lay down. The female laid down and got comfortable on the cot. She eyed him for a few seconds, before closing her eyes.
He watched as she continued to lay there and didn't seem to be getting up.
He could only surmise that she was tired and wanted to rest or sleep. And perhaps that is what she meant when she pointed to herself and the cot and said the word 'sleep'.
That was fine with him. If she wanted to sleep, he wasn't going to stop her. And he can't understand why she seemed tense about it before hand.
Natalie continued to lay there for a few minutes. When nothing happened, she started to feel relief that he didn't kick her off his cot. Either that or he was going to eventually do so when he started to feel tired and wanted to lay down himself.
She soon drifted off to sleep.
Yeyinde watched as her breathing even out indicating she was asleep. He then carefully sat at the edge of the cot without disturbing her and mulled over the day's events.
It still bothered him not knowing why after all this time here that they would decide to put this female in with him. He couldn't help but feel it was some other kind of little test to the oomans.
Though he was unsure of what they were trying to get out of it. He can only hope they weren't expecting him to kill the little female. He may have been stripped of his dignity and weapons. But not his honor.
His mind then went back to all the words Natalie has been teaching him. He started to repeat as many of them in his head as he could remember.
Yeyinde would look to certain objects in the cell and mentally call them by name in ooman words as practice.
The young hunter did this before he started to feel a little tired himself. Not surprising since he hasn't been sleeping all that much or well since he got here. It was true, that his kind could go for a certain length of time before needing rest.
But while here, he felt like he wasn't getting the appropriate amount of rest his body required.
So, he slowly laid down on the cot next to the small ooman female, trying to not to disturb her as he went. But when he did try to fully lay down, he encountered a small problem.
This cot was barely wide enough for the two of them.
Natalie awoke briefly when she felt the cot move and dip. Her eyes opened just a tiny bit when she saw Yeyinde was attempting to lay down. Though by the looks of it, it was gearing up to be a tight fit.
She kept her eyes closed, trying to make it seem like she was still asleep, as he continued to try and adjust himself on the cot.
The young woman's eyes did snap open though when she felt a pair of large hands wrap around her sides. Then felt herself being picked up by him. She tensed up in his grip, worried he was going to throw her off the cot and onto the floor.
Instead, he lowered her down on top of him. And had her laying on top of the right half of his body.
Natalie was unaware that this was in a way just as awkward for him as it was for her. Mainly because he had never been in such close contact like this with a female before.
The whole point of this hunt was not only to gain trophies. But it was to mark his success in finally being able to return home and participate in his very first mating season with his kinds' females.
And now ironically, he was laying with a female. But not a female of his race. But an ooman female of all creatures.
Yeyinde knew he woke her when he first started to lay down. He noted it in the change in her breathing pattern. But this was a case, it was just not possible not to wake her. The cot was quite small as it was and if he were to lay on it fully, he could end up crushing her with his bulk.
So, he did the only thing he could think of. The young hunter reached over and picked her up, feeling her tense up and letting out a small gasp as he did so.
Then he placed the small, light female on top of him. Now, she was laying somewhat curled into the right side of his torso. Her head rested against his right peck and her body stretched down his side.
It certainly was awkward, but he was still hoping to get some rest.
Natalie laid there, barely moving a muscle, her eyes wide open. She never would've imagined having such close contact like this with this being. Yet here she was laying semi on top of him.
She can feel the rock-solid muscle beneath his odd, yet smooth textured skin. Not only that, but his body seemed to emit a lot of heat. Which was a nice stark contrast of the cool air that filtered the room.
She could also hear the strong, steady rhythm of his heartbeat beneath her ear. It sounded similar yet a bit different from a human's heartbeat.
In a way, it was soothing to her. And after a few minutes, Natalie can feel her eyes beginning to droop shut again, and her body relax. It didn't take long until she drifted back to sleep.
Yeyinde laid awake for a little while longer. It was odd being this close to an ooman, without killing them.
Her body was soft, yet firm. And in a way, he didn't mind the feel of her soft body pressed against his own. He slowly picked up his hand and curiously touched some strands from the mane growing out of her head.
Normally, a yautja would never touch another's tresses without their permission first, especially a female. But Natalie wasn't a yautja.
The strands were extremely soft and pliable beneath his fingers. It was so very different from his own kinds' tresses. They were very flowing and long too, coming down to almost the middle of her back.
He recalls during his lessons on human anatomy that ooman tresses or what they call 'hair' was not fleshy and filled with nerves and blood like a yautja's. Instead, it seemed to be made up of a different material altogether. And the fact that he heard that they 'cut' their hair only further shows that there were no nerve endings of any sort within their manes.
Yeyinde lightly pinched a few strands between the pads of his fingers and rubbed them together. Natalie didn't stir at all when he did this and was still fast asleep.
His hand eventually left her hair and touched the skin on one of her bare arms.
Her skin was also quite soft, and he felt a very minute amount of fuzz on its surface. It was interesting yet a bit amusing at the same time. These oomans sure were a hairy lot. They were practically covered in different layers and lengths of hair from head to toe apparently.
The young hunter continued to run the pads of his fingers very lightly down the length of her arm. But he didn't press into her soft skin. He knew in this case; she would most definitely feel it and awaken.
Yeyinde didn't realize he had begun to purr as he continued to run his fingers through her long hair and her skin.
When he did finally realize it, he abruptly stopped. His cheeks tinged a light shade of green in embarrassment, when he realized he found himself yet again purring for this ooman female.
And it wasn't even out of comfort this time. She wasn't crying, she was fast asleep.
His purring was spurred on by feelings of contentment and enjoyment of the feeling of her softness pressed against his body. He mentally kicked himself for finding some type of enjoyment from it.
Still, after the initial embarrassment wore off, Yeyinde did find himself starting to fall asleep.
After several more minutes, his eyes drifted shut, and he slowly fell asleep. His hand was still in her hair when he passed out completely. One of the last thoughts that popped up in his mind was that he was glad that his brother and friends weren't here to see him now, like this.
Until Next Time ;)