Claimed: The Warriors of Nur (2 page)

Erol moved forward slowly. 

It has to be hiding here.

This is where its scent ended.  His heighted sense of smell had allowed him to track it by the scent of the fuel used in its transport.  After arriving at its crash site, Erol was unable to track by sight. 

The ground was hard from months of drought, and there were no tracks left behind for him to determine which direction to follow.  He’d spent precious time trying to pick up its scent, but once he did, it was easy to track to this remote formation of rock and shrub.  Now, he could smell it, but he was unable to find it.

The dark wasn’t the problem.  His vision was better at night than during the day, as it was with all Gwerriera Nies males.  It was using something to hide itself. 

Erol closed his eyes--head falling back on his shoulders-- he drew in deeply of the air around him.  Expanding his chest, his nostrils flared in an attempt to catch its scent again. 

There it was.
 

Turning his head to the left, he lost it.  Jerking back to the right, he inhaled more fully, again expanding his lungs.  He opened his eyes gradually, head turned toward the smaller caves at the base of the rock. 

That’s where it hid.

Leo’s eyes flew open.  Every muscle tensed. 

She hadn’t meant to doze off, but the darkness, along with the stress of the day had conspired against her. 

Straining her ears, she tried to identify what had disturbed her.  Nothing moved.  It was eerily silent.  The animal calls- just identifiable before she’d dozed off- were even absent.  Several minutes passed before she began to relax. 

She brought the scopes to her eyes and waited for the automatic transition to heat vision.  Panning from left to right, she swept the cave for any sign of movement.

God…please don’t let there be a rabid bear living here…

The last thing she needed was to be evicted by the alien equivalent of ‘big foot’.  They lived in caves right?

It was times like this that she wished she’d paid better attention in her IP-Agriculture class.  Yeah, it wasn’t focused on
alien
wildlife, but a bear was a bear. 

There was no movement in either direction, and with a relieved sigh, she moved the lenses to focus on the cave entrance. 

Too late, she saw the large figure land before her.  It came out of nowhere.

Leo froze with the lenses to her eyes, barely breathing.  She remembered the chameleon blanket, reminding herself that she was almost invisible beneath it. 

The small space grew even smaller with the added mass of the thing’s enormous size.  It was definitely humanoid. 

Her focus never shifted as it rotated its head as if in search of…something.  Its head turned towards her.

Leo held her breath, forcing her heart to slow. 

Many of the alien species catalogued, were gifted with phenomenal hearing and sight.  It would suck if she gave her location away because of a racing heart. 

Closing her eyes, she counted to ten, incrementally decreasing her heart rate until it was near normal.  She opened her eyes, jerking back with a barely loosed scream as the lenses were wrenched from her hands.

Erol steadily increased the pressure as he wrapped his hands more firmly around the
Aljeni’s
throat.  It appeared to be formed in the same fashion as his people, so he assumed he could destroy it through suffocation.  He tightened his grip, noting the delicate feel of the bones beneath his hands.  They were almost… fragile.  The skin of its face and neck was smooth, unblemished.  He didn’t feel the raised surface of scales or scars that marked some other
Aljeni
species, and he wondered just what species this small form was. 

It’d ceased to struggle --not putting up much of a fight-- and now lay limp in his hands.  If he continued to apply pressure, he could destroy it with hardly any effort. 

He frowned.  Most
Aljeni
sent to Nur were examples of the strongest of their species.  It would be foolish to send anything else to a planet of warriors such as this, where anyone caught would be destroyed unless physically able to prevent it.  If this fragile thing was an example of its species’ strongest, then Nur had nothing to fear. 

Now curious, he loosened his grip until it slipped from his grasp to lie motionless on the hard packed ground. 

It didn’t stir. 

He pressed his nose beneath its ear, drawing deeply of its scent.  The scent of its fuel predominated, but beneath it was…more.  Something exotic.  Tangeli fruit on a warm day. 

It was still alive.  He could feel a pulse beat steadily beneath the thumb he pressed to the base of its throat. 

He stared into its delicate features.  The eyes were closed, full dark lashes resting against its pale cheeks.  The nose was small, pert and slightly tipped at the ends, with lips full and bow shaped --the lower slightly plumper than the upper.  Dark arched brows winged gracefully across the forehead. 

Erol ripped away the remaining covering. 

This is what it used to hide.

Tossing it aside, he grasped the top of its clothing --his claws elongating to shred it-- exposing its skin to his gaze. 

Again, he inhaled, pressing his nose deep into the scent. 

Here there was no trace of fuel to mask the natural, exotic aroma.

Tasting its scent, he allowed it to linger at the back of his throat before exhaling with a growl.  He pressed the flat of his hand down the concave plains of its belly and into the apex of its thighs, staring again into the delicate features.  He pressed his palm flat, rubbing once, twice before bringing it to his nose.

Female?

Leo drifted into consciousness.  Her throat felt swollen as if she’d gone weeks without water.  Her head throbbed thick and clouded.
 

Did I hit my head during the crash? 

Blinking into the surrounding shadows, she tried to remember what had happened.

This isn’t the pod…

She bolted up as memory flooded her.  Hands to her throat --she prodded anxiously-- the area tender and swollen, her posture defensive in search of her attacker.

Dust motes shimmered in the dim light.  Night was gone, and with the dawn came the realization of just how alone she was. 

The stone interior showed itself to be gray-black and cold.  The ground was brown-black dirt, packed tightly until it mimicked the stone of the walls; those jagged, smooth curves no different from those found on Earth.  Red veins marbled from wall to ceiling, the color bright enough to glow.  Lava painted deep into the thick walls. 

Careful perusal assured her that she was alone.  No one was there.  Her attacker…had vanished.  If she didn’t know better, she’d think it had all been a dream.

Her sore and aching throat was the only evidence that it’d even happened. 

Her shaky hands trailed her throat, her fingers snagging in the shredded material of her flight suit.  Her suit was destroyed ---ripped from neck to waist--- exposing her breasts. 

Designed to be a one-in-all, with supportive structures sewn in to make underclothing unnecessary, its’ destruction left her exposed, the cool air puckering her nipples to large goose bumps. 

She searched the ground to find her equipment was gone as well.  Her scope, blade, blanket, pack…all gone.

“Shit!” she swore, “Shit…shit…shit!” Even her wrist unit was missing. 

“Oh no…no…no…no…nooooooo.”  She cried, head shaking in denial. 

Without the unit, she’d be virtually untraceable.  The distress beacon inside was the only way R&R would be able to find her once she left the EP.  Without it, she had no choice but to return to the crash site and wait for rescue.

Pressed against the wall, she slid down into a crouch, elbows resting on her knees.

Now what…?

Breathing deeply, she closed her eyes. 

“Don’t panic, Leo.  You just need a plan.  You’re trained for this.” 
Avi’Nyla Zesiro sounded in her head. 

“Find water.  Find shelter.  Find food…in that order.”
  Her inner Avi coached.

Dehydration would be the first problem.  The thirty-six hour days would be unbearable without water. 

Shucking her sleeves, she tied them above her breast and  bunched the material for modesty, then pulling the sleeves tight, tying them around her neck like a halter.  It left her shoulders and arms naked.  It was definitely time to go.

Leo’Nya edged cautiously towards the entrance; she didn’t relish the idea of baking in the sun.  The blanket would have provided
some
coverage during the hottest parts of the day, and without it, she would be completely exposed. 

Stepping out, she shaded her eyes, waiting for them to adjust to the neon rays. 

Before long, she could focus, and she took stock of her surroundings.  So much for being alone.  She wasn’t.  That certainty overtook her before she even spotted him.  The sense of ‘being watched’ made the hairs on her neck stand at attention.

  He rested in a squat on the balls of his feet, head tilted, and completely focused.  He reminded her of a gargoyle perched atop one of those old churches in a picture she remembered seeing from the early 21
st
century on Earth.  His utter stillness reminded her of stone.  Unmoving and indestructible.

Slowly he uncurled, stretching his frame to what had to be at least 6’4” tall.  He didn’t move; he just stood there letting her look her fill.  He had to be packing no less than 300 pounds of muscle, creamy brown skin stretched tightly, creating peaks and valleys across his stomach, chest, and shoulders.  There was no question that this was a body used to work.  One forged, formed, and strengthened through hard physical labor. 

Leo allowed her eyes to roam from his shoulders and chest, down his flat belly, to his narrowed hips.  Nothing hindered her view except for the brief scrap of animal fur wrapped snugly at his waist. 

Her eyes snapped up when a deep growl emerged from the back of his
throat.  Eyes narrowed, his nostrils flared as he inhaled.  His eyes were the lightest shade of grey she could ever remember seeing—they were closer to white than a true grey.  They reminded her of a wolf’s eyes.  A predator’s gaze. 

His hair hung past his shoulders—a deep rich chocolate brown-- with warrior locs at either temple to keep it from his face.  Each loc was weighted with small pieces of silver, allowing them to swing freely.  Black ink adorned his left side from wrist to shoulder.  Scrolling swirls danced up his neck to cover the left side of his face, before ending at his hairline.  There was nothing weak, nothing uncontrolled, about him.  She trembled to think what all of that leashed power could do.  What it
had
done. 

Her hand crept nervously to her throat in an unconscious gesture of defense.

Erol didn’t move.  It had seemed like a lifetime had passed as he’d waited for her.  Staying within the rocks’ small confines had proven to be too much for him with her lying near enough for him to scent her with every breath he took.  He hadn’t wanted to touch her in her unaware state, hadn’t wanted to harm her any more than he already had.