Page Eight Repost, Update 22 and Apologies

So yeah, this update took way too long to do and I'm sorry for that.  I just couldn't get away from my family long enough to do anything and got distracted with other projects.  I apologize for the wait and hope it was worth it.

Several hours have passed since Tesla and Swabbie had ventured out into the darkened fields of snow.  Lily, having risen from her restful slumber, began pacing around the windowless confines of the ships interior; saying nothing to Garrus who had returned to the ship sweating fiercely after examining it all.  Her mind was in a constant battle to remain in control as the longer Swabbie and Tesla remained away from the ship, the more she began to worry.  It wasn’t that she didn’t trust the pair; it was the fact that neither of them knew what was out there.  If anything happened to the Captain, she shuddered at the thought, rubbing her arms weakly as she pondered what exactly to do at this time.  It was as if everything of use that she could be doing had simply vanished as soon as they landed on the planet.  There was no food to be cooked, they weren’t going to washing clothes anytime soon and her knowledge with diplomacy was all but useless at the moment.

Sheepishly turning to Garrus, she noted that their pilot was busy flipping through the pages of some magazine.  After a few seconds of reading, he’d turn to the onboard computer shift through a few pages of information that looked to be manuals of some kind.  Even from the other side of the ship Lily could tell he was irritated, not only that, the countenance that he wore said it all.  The ship wasn’t going to be getting them off this planet no matter how much repair it received.  “Garrus?  Can you tell me how badly the ship is damaged and is there anything I can do to help?” 

The pilot’s head swiveled shocked that there was still someone in ship, having gotten so used to the quiet he had completely forgotten Lily was there.  Grimacing for a moment, he looked back down, trying to regain his footing in reality after his focus had broken.  “I’d rather not say till everyone is here Lily, I’m not a fan of repeating myself or giving bad news.  Plus, I’m just trying to see what all can be salvaged or repaired before I go making any calls;  I’m no mechanic, but I’ll do everything I can to make sure that we get the highest amount of mileage as possible out of this rig.”  Sighing at the end of his statement, he pushed hands up to his face staring at the now blank heads-up display of the vehicle.  It had been designed to pick up anything that regular optics would have missed, plus manufacturing glass for space travel was just plain stupid.  The smallest crack meant death for everyone on the ship. 

His sour mood only grew when he realized that their Captain still hadn’t returned.  Garrus’s head twisted back to the ground where he found his feet to be particularly interesting.  “Lily if really want to help, just don’t panic for me alright?  I’m not like Captain, Swabbie…or whatever the hell you want to call him.  I’m not like him, the guy is great and all, but he is just too calm most of the time; he acts like his choices easy to make, but I can’t do that.  I’m no leader and I never will be which is why I defaulted the position to him; even when he was just the janitor, he had a way about him.  Just always willing to do what needed to be done and make the hard decisions for others.  So right now, I need you to calm down and not panic because I’m about ten seconds from a mental breakdown and if I see you in that same position, I’m going to freak out.”

Those words spilled out from his lips, flowing like a stream at Lily’s feet, who could only bite her lip and nod.  She felt the same way he did, knew exactly what he was talking about and couldn’t help but sympathize with him; she was no leader, just as he wasn’t. Yet, she had to be the mother to these people, she had to care for them, they were all she had left.  Despite not liking Garrus or Tesla that much to be honest, she knew they were her family now and they were all in this together, at least till they got off this accursed rock of ice. 

“Garrus, just stay calm, I’m sure everything is going to turn out alright.  Some on Roshire most likely saw the crash and they’ll send someone out to investigate; all we have to do is keep our wits about us and stay alive.  While you and I can’t do much to secure food or gather materials, we can at least be here to support the two people who can.”  During the time she had spoken, she had moved over to him, placing her hand onto his shoulder lightly.  Having done so, Lily gently rubbed at it, causing Garrus to give her a small pained smile before burying his face into his hands.

“Lily, what the hell did we do to deserve this?  Yesterday, I thought I was just going to be piloting The Thespian for a few more delivery trips before quitting and taking my services elsewhere.  I woke up this morning and thought to myself, it is just going to be another boring day.  Yet, this happened and now, I’m stuck on this frozen planet with three other people and no idea if I’m going to live or not.”  Lily raised an eyebrow slowly, sighing as she tussled his red hair casually.

“You know Garrus, I might be a little more sympathetic with you if you hadn’t used me as a bargaining chip with the Captain.  I get what you are saying, but it is hard to give a damn when your previous actions say contrary to what you are stating; you were likely going to run with a load of money and use either myself or Tesla like your personal sex toy for the rest of our lives.  So…’little man’.”  Lily stated the final part with a chuckle before straddling him and hovering over his body.  Her hands came up grasping both sides of his face as she put on a rather innocent look.  “You should know better than to try to play the pity card on a woman you just treated like an object, because no matter what you say…I’m weary of you now and I’m never going to let you anywhere near my body.  So you can look, but you’ll never get to touch.” 

A giggle left her lips as she finished teasing him, getting up and thankful that he had provided enough of a distraction to get her mind off of Swabbie and her adoptive father for the time.  “By the way Garrus, you won’t die, I’ll make sure of that, just so I can watch you blue ball as penitence for your actions.” 

“Oh come on, don’t be like that Lily.”  Garrus retorted too stunned by what had just happened to really say anything else, his eyes now bugging in stupor.  “I just…well…alright you got me red handed.  I was trying to secure a place for myself in life; I didn’t exactly think this was going to happen.   I wanted a warm body by my side on cold nights and I wanted enough money to start over somewhere and be able to relax and forget about what happened.  So…it won’t do any good for me to lie to you, you were dead on in your observation.”  Garrus stammered at the start, but by the end he was speaking his usual flat tones, leaning over and returning to his bored look as he rubbed one of his arms.

“Well, you’re an honest bastard.  A bastard, but at least you’re an honest one.”  Lily commented back to him, sighing as she turned back around, putting her arms under her breasts with a small pout.  “I can’t believe you would try to manipulate two poor women, one that has been trapped in a box for God knows how long and then another that just had everything robbed from her.  You’re a piece of work Garrus, but you’re one of the people I have to rely on, so I forgive you…for now.”  Waving her hand in front of her face, Lily sat down leaving the pilot not only confused but slightly irritated by the exchange.  It hit him soon after that the point of it hadn’t been to mess with his head, but to take his mind off the current troubles they were facing.

“Smart lass.”  Garrus huffed under his breath before leaning back in his seat, his eyes becoming glued to the ceiling before the lids grew heavy.  It had been about four hours since they landed, Swabbie and Tesla still hadn’t returned and all the excitement and exertion had left him exhausted.  “Just going to close my eyes for a minute and rest….”  He mumbled before slumping over and nodding off.

Another two hours passed before Swabbie and Tesla returned from their hunting trip; the Captain panting heavily as the trudge through the snow wasn’t exactly any cake walk.  His body was sore and he was drained from the loss of blood, grumbling weakly, he nodded at Tesla whom he was leaning on.  The code to the ship’s door coming back to mind as he punched it in hurriedly; he wanted out of this God forsaken cold and back inside the warmth of ship.  Never had the sound of an electromagnetic lock disengaging been so beautiful to him; the buzzing noise growing before the pistons inside dropped straight down.  Immediately the doors opened before him, a small hiss acknowledging the force that was pulling the doors apart before Swabbie was allowed to move inside. 

Tesla watched him enter first and slump down on the bed, removing his coat and laying it down to his side; meanwhile, she busied herself with reclosing the door and carrying the food they had gathered over to the kitchen area.  As she left it in front of the sink, she could already hear the squealing of Lily from the other room; she had hoped they could have avoided the drama of their Captain being injured.  Fate had other plans though, heaving another sigh, she walked into the room and noticed Lily fussing over the impromptu bandages and looking up worried at the Captain.  “Lily, please, I’m fine can you just clean the wounds please, stop kicking up such a fuss.”

Swabbie was clearly trying to calm down the female, who looked like she was about to burst into tears while Garrus looked on, not believing the size of the massive red marks across Swabbie’s chest.  “Captain, look at your chest, it looks like you got into a fight with a bear or something.”

“Believe me, I wish it had been a bear.”  Swabbie said truthfully as he cringed when she tore the fabric off of his chest revealing the entirety of the wounds; causing her to gasp.  Large black spots had formed where it was beginning to heal over, but his skin was still stained bright red from where the blood had been spilled.  The Captain could barely control Lily as she moved around frantically, nearly tearing the medical supplies off of the wall trying to get out the bandage and a wet rag to properly clean the wound.  “Thanks for cleaning these Lily, we didn’t have anything out there we could have cleaned it with.”

“You idiot, you unbelievable idiot.  How in the hell did you get yourself hurt like this?  What could you have done that nearly got yourself cut in half?”  Swabbie looked up, Tesla was already looking away ashamed from behind Lily and out of Garrus’s line of view;  Lily, too focused on Swabbie, was paying her no attention and looking down at him like some sort of mother severely disappointed in her son for some stupid stunt that he had pulled.  Leaning backwards, the Swabbie breathed out slowly before looking dead into Lily’s eyes.

“Yeah, I was a bit stupid, there was some weird animal out in the wilderness.  It saw us and let out a warning growl for me and Tesla to back away; instead of heeding it, I thought I could scare the beast away by rushing it.  It didn’t take the bluff and nearly killed me, if it hadn’t been for Tesla I would be dead right now.”  Lying to the woman, Swabbie found her holding a rag moist with hot water over his chest, the sensation of the heat stung him, but also felt good at the same time.  Hissing at the touch, he let her work without a word, feeling soap entering his wounds and burning like hell, but he didn’t pull away or even bother to do much more than cringe slightly. 

During this entire time, Tesla stared at him wide eyed, biting her lip and nodding thankfully at him.  Slowly, she sat down on the bed across from the pair;  Swabbie meanwhile noticed that Lily had put down the soapy rag and had pulled out a cotton swab and some rubbing alcohol.  “Ahh…fuck.”  Swabbie whimpered as the press of the wet cotton sent a new wave of pain rushing through him; cringing almost violently as he felt the alcohol seeping it across the full length of his chest. 

“Well, maybe this will teach you not to play hero next time Captain.”  Lily answered sternly before beginning to wrap up the wounds in clean bandages, slowly twisting each around his entire body and pressing them down.  Having finished her chore, she brushed her hands off grabbing Tesla’s arm and pulling her off towards the kitchen area.  “And you missy, you’re coming with me, I need some help in the kitchen and I don’t want mister hero cutting his hand off thinking he can scare whatever you scrounged up into cooking itself.”  Grasping her wrist, Tesla squeaked a little bit and shot one last glance at the Swabbie before moving with Lily around the corner leaving only Garrus and their Captain in the room together.

“So, you brought back some food, nearly got yourself killed.  You always find some way to balance yourself don’t you bud?”  Garrus commented as he walked in sitting down next to his friend and huffing a brief sigh. 

“I take it you are going to give me some more bad news huh Garrus?”  Swabbie responded as he brought his hands down between his knees and curled his fingers around each other.  “I kinda expected it to be bad, don’t have much of a clue how bad, but give it to me straight.  I’m tough so I can take whatever you throw at me.”

“I know you can,”  the pilot stated before looking back up, “this ship is never going to fly again Swabbie.  Just about everything was obliterated in the crash.  The engines are near completely destroyed with the only viable part of them being shoved up into the ship and unable to be pulled out.  The other one has been completely broken off, our distress beacon was completely shattered, communications don’t work anymore.  Hell, let me just put it this way.  The only things that are working on this ship right now is the emergency power and water; we can still have lights in the ship, we can still cook and we have heat.   We’re basically living in a glorified trailer right now Captain.”

Swabbie looked up at the ceiling, knowing the girls had heard this, but were at least not getting emotionally about it at the moment.  Sighing, he brought his hands together once again, contemplating on what to do next.  “Alright Garrus, I guess we’ll just have to make do with what we have right now.  We’ll do whatever we can to make ourselves comfortable and survive until someone comes to get us or we find a way to signal to the planet above us.  It just seems like for all that we get done, something brings us back two steps.”  Another sigh left his lips as he pulled off his flat cap, setting it down beside him before running his hands through his hair.  Unable to really think of a next course of action, he just hefted another sigh before rubbing his face.

“No use worrying about it right now, I’m in no shape to go searching for anything and I think it would be best if I stayed off my feet for a little while.  At least until my chest heals a little bit.”  Glancing back up, he could smell the meat cooking in the next room along with the sound of water boiling next to them.  “Garrus, can you tell me one thing though…how long do you think our emergency power supply will last us?”

Garrus only brought his hand up to his chin, rubbing it once or twice before looking back down.  “Well, we have to pretty much constantly run the heat to keep ourselves from freezing to death, plus whenever we have to cook.  I give us a little less than a week’s supply.”   Staring at each other, the two only nodded, Swabbie pulling himself up and almost falling over as the pains in his chest returned when he had to cough.  “Here…let me help you.”  Garrus answered, lifting his friend up slightly and letting him lean on him before walking with him into the kitchen where a rather large pot of stew was being prepared.  Steam continually rising off of the surface as Lily looked like a machine rather than a human dicing up the tubers they had found, expertly pulling away a prickly looking core and tossing it into the trash can. 

“Don’t try and eat those…they're poisonous.”  She explained rather quickly before she took the raccoon like creature, now having been sliced into equal portions of red meat were being tossed into the pan to brown before going into the boil.  Swabbie and Garrus, who were pretty much stereotypical bachelors in that they had rarely ever cooked for themselves were amazed, even Tesla had simply moved aside to let the woman work trying to avoid the hand she was holding the knife with.  It only took another twenty minutes before the meal was completely prepared, the mixture of tubers and a few leafy plants that Tesla and Swabbie had picked up now making up a hearty looking stew with ‘raccoon meat’ making up the protein.  All that was left over was the squirrel, which was being roasted with some of the grease from the raccoon fat to add flavor.

“Well enjoy everyone.”  Lily answered pleasantly, though still glaring at Swabbie for his ‘stupidity’ out in the field.  Dinner went over well with some mild conversation about what they would do once they got off this planet, Garrus talked about a new ship, Lily and Tesla giggled and had a little ‘girl’ chat, talking about how a nice hot shower would feel and a chance to go out into the night would feel.  Swabbie couldn’t help but laugh and talked about the club scenes back in his home town.  All of them knew it was a shallow comfort, but it was the only comfort they had.  Swabbie managed to devour two bowls of the stew, finding it delicious, but knowing he had to conserve any food that they had.  Only about a fourth of the pot had managed to be eaten, which was then left sitting on the counter with some plastic wrap over it, seeing as the fridge had been busted in the resulting crash, one of the only signs on the inside that they had crashed at all. 

“Well Lily, that was delicious and all, but I should get some sleep and heal up before the morning.  We don’t know how long that stew will last and we should definitely try to see if we can’t find an outpost or something out here.”  Smiling, the Captain wished everyone good night before retreating to the only other room, aside from the restroom, and claiming one of the bottom beds.   Laying in it, he collapsed exhaustion taking him without any fight at all.  So deep was his slumber that he didn’t even notice when Tesla and Lily joined him in bed; not feeling their weight displacing the mattress, nor their body heat next to his.

Come the morning, the only thing either Tesla or Lily could think about was his body heat.   Swabbie had yet to wake up, despite several hours having passed and he was sweating profusely;  Lily’s hand touched his skull and could feel the fever raging through his body as she pulled the bandages away from his chest and yanked the covers back.  She could already see the problem, bright red lines were branching out from his wounds like spider webs; the wounds having turned darker and now slightly yellow.  It was acting fact through him, Garrus had been woken up by the fussing of Lily and Tesla and now stared stupefied by the condition of the captain. 

“Garrus, I’m the only that knows how to nurse these types of wounds and keep him alive for as long as possible.  The wound must have already been infected when he got in, but it wasn’t spreading like this, we need penicillin and the ship doesn’t have any.  I know there are a few plants that grow naturally on this planet that can supply us with it.  Here, take Captain’s anti-gravity boots and Tesla and go find them.  I’ll be waiting here.”  She stated bluntly thrusting the boots into Garrus’s hands as she looked down at them, doing as she asked without a word and getting prepared for the journey out into the wilderness. 

“Just keep him alive till then Lily, we’ll do what we can.”  Garrus responded unnaturally quickly before taking up the coat and yanking it onto himself and pulling out the velocity knife, still coated in the beast’s blood from yesterday.  “Come on Tesla.”  He called before opening the door and looking out into the wilderness, pondering which direction to go.

A.       Head east toward the mountainous region where a few trees can be seen breaking just out of the snow.

B.     Head west, towards the forested region Tesla and Swabbie explored yesterday.

C.     Head south into the snow where nothing can be seen.

D.    Head north deeper into the field of Dosrochire flowers.

Page 7 Repost and Update 21

Unable to properly process what exactly was happening in front of him, Swabbie stared in disbelief for a few seconds at the nude female in front of him.  Blinking a few more times, he noticed that Tesla’s smile was slowly fading as she pulled back a little bit, confused by the Swabbie’s reaction as he looked down at her.  The once confident red-head was now looking up at him like a pitiful puppy, then down as the male slowly reached forward and put his hand onto her shoulder.  Twisting around, she noticed that the Swabbie was looking down at her, the bill of his flat cap resting just against her forehead for a moment.  Tesla blinked once again before she found her face being closed in by Swabbie’s hands.  She could feel them shaking lightly, most likely still some feed-back from the shock, but she couldn’t tell.

Glancing up at him, she met his eyes, the odd mixture of hazel and green making her think of one of the forests on her home-world.  She could have gotten lost in those eyes if he had let her stare long enough, but she was brought back to reality by his voice.  A slow, reassuring tone escaped the Swabbie’s lips as he stroked the side of her face to calm her down.  “Tesla, you didn’t do anything wrong by expressing that desire; it is just that…we’re hardly in a situation where I can…perform.”  The swabbie was struggling for words at this point, he had never been much of a lady’s man back home, nor had he ever had more than a ‘passing’ interest with women.  Most of the time he would be focusing on his work and trying to make a living rather than bothering with women; his life was one that required long hours and little appreciation, he doubted any girl would have wanted a farmer’s son when there were the rich boys flying around in their fancy cars.

Contemplating what to do with Tesla, he found her still looking into his eyes.  The same pitiful look of regret and apology in them; his heart strings were tugged for a moment, but then a light bulb went off over his head.  “Tesla, I’m not sure what…your society does with sex or the implications behind it; however, let’s just leave the process down to I’ll tell you when I’m healthy enough for it and whenever you want to, I’ll do what I can for you.”  Tesla bit her lip lightly as she rubbed her legs together in response; she was almost shivering as she gingerly wrapped her finger tips against Swabbie’s thighs and kissed him.  Her plump lips were just as sweet as before, only this time it was not a kiss that invaded his very being, it was instead something very gentle.  Taking it as a nod from Tesla that she understood what he was saying, he smiled a little bit, though the pain still throbbing through his chest made him cringe at the sudden movement.

Tesla leaned backward glancing over him for a moment as, a soft sigh left her lips, the air tickling the Swabbie’s chest as he listened to her speak.  “I understand what you’re saying, I was just left in that box for so long on my own; I lost track of time and I couldn’t even touch myself.  I’m so pent up right now and well…I don’t much like Garrus and you did save me.”  Tesla swayed side to side for a moment, shaking her head back and forth before biting her lip glancing back up at the Swabbie and putting a half a meter of distance between them.  “Captain, Garrus didn’t tell you everything when he said that Yor’zvinians serve those who save them.  We…our culture depends on the rules of dominance and submission; we fight those that try to break us and if we ever get captured, we will continue to fight until we can’t anymore.  It is a sign of weakness to have someone save us, but it also forces us to submit to that person.” 

Tesla shook a little bit, her fists clenching together for a moment while Swabbie stood there looking at her for a moment.  Already, he could tell that the female was cursing her own weakness and her traditions, but she would not break them.  Looking back up, she met Swabbie’s eyes before speaking once more.  “My people are warriors, everyone is a warrior and relationships are founded not on the qualities of love, but rather who can claim the strongest mate as their own.  Men hunt out powerful women and women hunt out powerful men, when a Yor’zvinian is brought into combat…the loser must yield all rights to the victor and enter into a situation of servitude or be let go.  Being let go is one of the worst shames to my people, it means in the eyes of the opponent that you are worthless, less than scum…that you wouldn’t even be a good slave, let alone a mate.”  Rubbing herself softly now, Tesla scowled and let her head land on one of Swabbie’s shoulders as she turned around.

“My father, back before I was kidnapped…knew I was a strong woman but also knew that there were many people…men and women that were stronger; who would simply beat me and make me a slave to their sexual desires.  He trained me, hired men to train me and even assigned bodyguards to make sure this happened, I was royalty and therefore doubly bound by my people’s traditions, but it didn’t mean we couldn’t protect ourselves from them.”  She sighed, looking back up at the Swabbie as she run her hand against his face gently.  “Yet, our people already gave into those desires…battle is one of the most powerful aphrodisiacs to my race; people would go out and battle until they could scarcely move, return covered in blood and sometimes even missing appendages.  Even in this battle-weary and weakened state, they would clean and they would seek pleasure, they would return to their mates, their whores or whoever and enter into adrenaline filled orgies.  These could rage for days, parties could join in and the lust would spread like wildfire.”

Another soft sigh left Tesla’s lips coaxing Swabbie to shiver once more, the air brushing against the nape of his neck almost seductively.  Yet, the irritation and sadness on her voice was clear; it was clear she was home sick and wondering the differences between his race and hers.  “When…I saw you, I thought maybe your race was much like mine; you have most of the same anatomy, though your eyes are different.  I thought that maybe the fight you had just left, had left you aroused, needing and ready to punish my body with whatever carnal desires you had in mind.” 

Swabbie could only blink for a few seconds as he listened to everything that Tesla had just told him, all of it mashing together in his mind.  The last two minutes just seemed to blend together, the pain that he was feeling not only making it hard to focus, but even harder to listen to catch every little detail.  It was as if someone had ignited a flame just beneath his chest.   As the pain intensified with his gasp, breathing itself was now painful, let alone a deep one.  Trying to return to normal breaths between a few sputtering coughs, each sending new waves of pain through his body, he found himself wondering just how much of the outside world Tesla new about.  It wasn’t exactly surprising she didn’t know what a human looked like or couldn’t identify them by appearance, though that she wouldn’t have been informed of their culture was surprising. 

“Captain,” Tesla broke in between Swabbie’s thoughts, causing him to stop for a moment and look back at her.  During his thought, she had broken away from him, standing about two meters away in the water with her arms crossed over her breasts.  Her wide hips no longer set into a manner that spoke confidence; the beautiful Yor’zvin merely bit her lip for a moment as she started to shake her head once more.  “If I can be frank, I’ve been pursuing my own sexual needs over anything else so that I could be of better use to you.  Right now…it is so hard to focus; back when…that thing attacked us, I was so focused on well…you know that I completely lost myself.  It wasn’t until you went running past that I woke up.  Still, I owe you my life, you had a strength that I didn’t have and you ended up rescuing me from some coward.”

It was Swabbie’s turn to look away, his face turning red as he looked up at Tesla wondering if she realized all he had done was open a box.  Shaking his head again, he put his hands into his pockets and let out one steady sigh.  “I’m not a warrior, I’m not some courageous man that fought tooth and nail to free you from that box.  I’m just a….nobody really.  I opened that box because I heard noises in it, I didn’t know you were in there.  I ran from a battle I knew I couldn’t win and well…the rest is how we got here; I’m not a strong man, you don’t owe me anything Tesla.”

The Yor’zvin merely smiled before putting her finger onto the Swabbie’s nose and shaking her head in response.  “That’s where your wrong Captain, you’ve got a strength that most people on my planet can’t ascribe to.  You’ve got a strength of character, you’re honest and brave.  You threw yourself into harm’s way to protect me when I was proving to be useless to you.  On my planet most people would have just left me for dead, you on the other hand, you would have sacrificed yourself to make sure I would stay alive.  So I owe you twice, once for getting me out of that box and again for giving me the time to think when I was utterly lost in my own mind.  Captain, I’m your slave now, use me as you see fit because I always repay my debts and I already owe you more than I could ever repay.  Now go rest dear Captain, don’t think I didn’t see you cringing in pain while we were talking.”  Giggling and feeling better about herself, Tesla turned the Swabbie around and gave him a loving tap on the ass pushing him away back onto the shore.  Swabbie barely had enough time to chuckle himself before the female was already diving head first into the water and disappearing beneath the surface.

“Well…that was…interesting.”  Swabbie muttered to himself, not wanting to risk the chance that there might be something in the water that could infect the wounds.  Regardless, there was clean water back at the ship and it recycled anything they used, so he could get a hot one back there.  Finally feeling the soreness of his arms and the implausible amount of stress he had put on them; he let himself breathe out slowly pondering what to do next.  It wasn’t exactly good to interrupt Tesla’s bath and he figured she might be caring care of some ‘other problems’ while she was in there.  Sighing, he crept along sluggishly finding himself tracing around the shore line of the spring before coming face to face with the beast from earlier.  Its head tilted towards him in curiosity before slowly rising a paw up.  Once it had leveled itself with Swabbie’s head, it lifted it a little higher placing it on top of the would-be captain’s skull and forcing him to sit.  Blinking for a few moments as he found himself now sitting next to the creature, he let his hands rest over his knees. 

The serenity of the place struck him now that he wasn’t talking or really thinking about anything aside from: “Why the hell did that creature just make me sit down for?”  The swaying of the breeze through his hair, a few flakes of snow brushing through into the little oasis and falling down into the bluish-green grass.  The trees around them, jutting upward and reminding him of the great oak trees he used to see around, existed at intervals.  Each of them presenting shade in various places while their branches ignited into brown and red leaves, making him think of the autumn season on Earth.  It was eerily similar aside from some of the colors, making him feel homesick, just as Tesla had before.  Turning his head slowly to the creature beside him; he noticed that it had laid down beside him, head resting on top of its forepaws. 

It seemed as if it was going to listen to him, as if it was saying:  “Go ahead and talk to me.  I have all the time in the world and I’ll listen to every word you say.  I may not be able to reply in any way you understand, but I will at least hear you out.”  Swabbie smiled a little bit, recalling the collie that his parents used to herd the cattle, it would often lay its head in Swabbie’s lap and just listen to him talk.  Sometimes they’d spend hours at night, just looking up at the stars, he’d talk about what it was like and that collie would sit there, enjoying the petting and the time with the farm boy.

Unable to repress the urge, Swabbie’s hand stretched out slowly, finding its way onto the beast’s head.  It looked at him for a moment, quizzical of what he was doing before Swabbie’s fingers scratched lightly at the scalp and began to run down to the beast’s neck.  Still looking up at him, four of the beast’s eyes drooped downward, indicating that it was enjoying the petting and not going to bite his face off at the moment.  Chuckling for a moment, he turned his eyes back towards the beast and stopped scratching, simply stroking through its fur as he started to talk for a moment.

“You know, back home, I would always do something like this with a border collie.  It was much smaller than you…and a hell of a lot less wild.”  Swabbie laughed as the creature gave a small snort retorting to the statement causing the male to raise an eyebrow in confusion, but let it go.  “She would always put her head in my lap and still there for hours, just listening to me talk while I pet her.  It was really something, she was a good dog and always knew how to make me feel better after a long day on the farm.”  Swabbie was looking down for a moment, his fingers scrunching together casually on the top of the beast’s head, which was responded to by the creature slowly lifting its head and planting it down onto the Swabbie’s lap.   “I’m….gonna assume that you can understand what I’m saying…to an extent.”

Immediately, the creature snorted lightly, the three eyes on the side nearest to him looking up as the creature turned over.  It was slightly awkward and a little bit painful because of the size difference; however, Swabbie was just thankful that the creature wasn’t pressing into his wounds.   At that, Swabbie looked back up at the darkened sky, lit only by the lights from the false planet overhead and the so far away they were nothing more than little blips of light.  Sighing as he stroked along the beast’s side and around its shoulders, he started to speak again.  “Back home, there was always some source of light somewhere or another, people would either start a fire or just flip a switch and bam there was light.  Now, all I got is a flash light and whatever light I can gleam from that planet up there; however, those are all so dim that they might as well not be there.  I miss being able to walk through a green field, smell the sweet flowers and put out an honest day of work.  Back on Earth, my home planet, I never felt like my jobs were thankless or punishments.  I would toil in the field and could always see the rewards that the land would return to me.”

Swabbie paused for a moment, letting the beast shift its head lower down towards his knees.  It was obviously aware of the wounds on his chest and doing its best to avoid them, despite being extremely comfortable as it was being petted.  Swabbie could only shake his head slowly and let a small chuckle pass through his lips before continuing to speak.  “I would always look forward to the changing of seasons, when I would watch the orchids and plants that we had planted and tended to beginning to bloom up.  When the our crops burst out from the ground and supplied us with food; I took joy in mucking the pigs and milking the cows.  Everything there seemed so much purer, seemed like everyone was always happy to meet the guy that made sure everything they ate was of quality.  When I came up here, my name suddenly became mud, no one wanted anything to do with me and I was just the worthless kid that cleaned up after other people’s messes.” 

Swabbie laughed for a moment, his chest exploding into pain once more as he began to cough.  “You really did a number on me…you know that?”  He asked, breaking away from his original subject matter as the pain became the only thing he could focus on.  The beast looked back up in response, licking its lips before twisting its head around and licking at his fingers and hand, coating the phalanges in thick saliva.  Shaking his head, Swabbie buried his hand into the creature’s fur and shook his head.  “Don’t think you get off easy because you can do something cute.”  The beast only snorted casuing the Swabbie to chuckle and resume speaking. 

“Well, not like you could understand the life or my problems anyway.  You’re driven by instinct, you simply go out and kill a few things, eat and fuck that’s all you’ve got to worry about.  Your fur protects from the cold for the most part and your body is so huge, you must become like a god damn furnace when your metabolism starts to pick up.”  Shaking his head slowly, the Swabbie stopped petting the beast to pat it a few times, before returning to stroking its fur.  “Honestly, I kinda wish I had your life.  Never having to worry about anything but food, shelter and mating….that would be the life.  Instead, I’ve gotta worry about things like money, prejudice and all sorts of other crap that just isn’t…I guess I shouldn’t call it fair.  I’ve seen recordings about how my own species treated each other in the past.  Not like what’s going on here is any different than what happened in the past.”  Letting out a weak laugh, he only sighed.

“I’ve got no idea what I’m going to do.  I’ve got some crazy ass tiger…thing…chasing me down and he makes you look like a cat from my world.  Not in size mind you, but viciousness.”  He hastily added the last bit when the creature lifted its head to look at him, then laid it back down, seemingly satisfied with the response.  “I have to take care of three people, a alien princess whose culture I know nothing about, a girl who just lost her father and a self-absorbed pilot.  Not a hell of a lot to work with any case.  On top of that, I’m broke, our ship is busted and we’ve got no food aside from what we can gather.  Just seems like life decided to deal me a raw hand on the sudden.  I guess there were some good things that came out of, but over all, it just seems like someone upstairs decided it was time to piss on me.”  Shaking his head slowly, he watched as the beast closed its eyes and slowly began rise up.  It lumbered slowly away from the Swabbie moving over to one of the nearby trees.

“What are you going to do?”  Swabbie asked, not really understanding why he had bothered to do so when the creature couldn’t actually reply to him.  Looking over the massive tree with multiple twisting branches, obscured with a plethora of brown and red leaves, it turned around swinging its tail in a wide arc before smacking the base of the tree.  The responding crack was deafening as bark and bits of wood came hurtling out of the impact zone as the branches began shaking wildly overhead, that’s when Swabbie looked up finding his eyes following the descent of two creatures.  One, the raccoon looking creature he had seen earlier and the other, what looked to be like some cross between a centipede and a squirrel, were hurtling to the ground.

Each of the beasts twisted in the air, spinning out of control as they squealed in horror.  Swabbie could see their faces vividly, the raccoon sized creatures, eyes, the pair of insect-like ocular glands were widening up, nearly covering its entire head.  The sharp weasel-like nose breathing in furiously, the quad-nostrils flaring in box pattern while its prehensile tail swung back and forth.  Black fur spewed upward, silver colored claws attempted to grab hold of anything as its brown underside and mask became visible.  Twisting once more, its head slammed into the ground, leaving it twitching on the ground for a few seconds blood seeping into the grass before it finally stopped moving.  Each third of a meter long arm now laid completely still, as its brain had likely been smashed in by the impact. 

The squirrel like creature hadn’t been so lucky.  It flew like a rock through the air, its two elongated trying to seek purchase in the nearby tree.  It continually aimed back for the main body, but to no avail.  It’s body little over a third of a meter long was split between its tail and torso.  Looking like a rat with a bushy tail, it swung around wildly, its bright red fur making it stand out now.  It managed to get lucky, twisting as its small paws hit the raccoon like creature’s body, bouncing and while disoriented, it was at least alive.  At least until the beast leap onto it, stomping one powerful paw down onto the unsuspecting creature’s body, flattened and dead upon impact. 

At this point, the beast turned and looked at Swabbie, walking over and licking his face before ushering out a warning growl then turning and marching out of the woods.  Staring down at the meal that the beast had just left for him, the Swabbie pondered just how intelligent of a creature that it had to have been to have devised such a method for hunting.  Scratching his head only for a few seconds, he found that Tesla was already behind him, burying her fingers into his hair with a small, frightened smile on her face.  “I suggest that we heed the warning that the beast gave us and get out of here, it left us some meat and we can pick up some of those tubers I found on the way here.  Maybe Lily will be able to turn that into some stew?”  Swabbie only nodded in response, letting her help him to his feet, sucking at his teeth in pain before sighing at his weakness.

“I honestly can’t wait to heal from these wounds.  Oh man…Lily is going to freak out when she sees the mess I’m in.”  Sighing softly, Swabbie picked up the raccoon like creature’s corpse before Tesla took it from him and handed him the flattened squirrel. 

“You carry the lighter one, you’re not exactly in the proper condition to be trying to strain yourself.  As for what Lily might think, let me deal with her; it is my fault you’re in this condition in the first place.”  Swabbie nodded in return to Tesla, letting her do the brunt of the work as they walked back in the direction they had come through the forest.  It was an uneventful journey.  Neither of the two felt like talking after the events that had transpired; both pondering just how intelligent the beast was that had given them food and had responded to them as if it understood every word they said.  Slipping back through the woods and noticing a few more signs of wildlife, though nothing as big or dangerous as the beast, they managed to find where Tesla had left behind the tubers from earlier.

Collecting the spuds and walking back to the ship, the pair crept through the field of blazing flowers, as Swabbie leaned against the door of the escape pod elated to be back as he began to punch in the code.  Yet, his mind turned to other things, like what to do first when getting inside of the ship.

A.      Immediately get Lily to clean up the wounds, taking the fall for the events that occurred in the woods. Have Garrus tell about the ship’s condition afterwards, then proceed to sleep off the recent events after eating whatever is prepared by Lily, Tesla and Garrus.

B.      Immediately get Garrus’s status report before entering the shower and cleaning the wounds yourself.  Have Tesla talk to Lily, letting her take the fall for the events that occurred in the woods.  Eat whatever meal Lily, Tesla and Garrus manage to prepare then proceed to bed.

C.       Immediately get Lily to clean up the wounds, blaming Tesla for the events that occurred in the woods.  Speak to Garrus about the problems with the ship afterwards and enjoy a meal with the crew before proceeding to bed.

D.       Immediately get Garrus’s status report before entering the shower and cleaning the wounds yourself.  Talk to Lily and take the fall for the events that occurred in the woods.  Eat whatever meal is prepared then proceed to sleep.

Page 6 Repost and Update 20

The rev of the blade in his hand was increasing Swabbie’s confidence levels.  Gradually, his fist tightened around the nylon grip as he found himself staring at the beast in front of him.  Its eyes weren’t on him but rather gazing with a predatory stance on Tesla.  The beautiful, red headed Yor’zinian too lost in her own thoughts as she gazed over the tubers in her hand; Swabbie continued to try to gain her attention, but it was to no avail.  A hot, frustrated burst of air left his nose as he watched the beast’s throat rumble with a warning growl, it was getting ready to charge. 

Swabbie throat ran dry for a moment, his knuckles turning whiter than the snow around him.  He and the beast were in total sync now; feet crunched into the snow, planning out the best attack route.  Thoughts of protecting rushed through one’s head, the other thought of only its stomach.  Their eyes illuminated by the dim glow of the plants around them; Swabbie made the first move.  Lurching into a run, he felt all sense of the world around him leaving him, he didn’t scream instead, he just charged.

His charge was met with the thunderous roar of the beast, which caused Tesla to look up shocked to see Swabbie passing her and rushing directly at the monster.  Swabbie’s body tensed and his hand clung to his knife like it was the only thing that could save his life. An eminent collision with whatever type of animal was in front of him was forging as it reared back with another roar and began to move towards him.  Man and animal charged, the Swabbie running head long at towards a wall of muscle and sharp teeth.  As he got closer, he finally got a good look at his opposition and felt his choice was probably the biggest mistake of his life.

This…thing was an absolute monster, nine feet long and at least six feet tall at the shoulder, it made the bears of Earth look like toys.  Thick white fur was buzzed backwards enraged, while the lithe but powerful sinews of its legs contracted on in instant bursting into a run.  Six feet armed with razor sharp claws were hammering in on Swabbie and the male could do little to stop it now that he was in a dead run.  Chuckling, he merely raised the knife as he didn’t let his fear get the better of him.

“Well, if I gotta die like this, THEN I’M GONNA DRAG YOU TO HELL WITH ME YOU BASTARD MUTT!”   Yelling this as loudly as he could, he clambered up the side of a small rock in the middle of the path.  Leaping off of it and heading into the air, the beast followed his acrobatic act.  Estimating that the creature likely weighed somewhere in the range of seven hundred to eight hundred kilograms, he knew it would likely batter him straight out of the air if they collided directly.   Unable to breathe, their impending collision occurred, the air being knocked out of him as he was pushed upward by the beasts head. 

It felt like he was little more than doll being batted around by a whale, or better yet being gored by a bull.  His stomach caved in as all his air was expelled rapidly; thankful the beast didn’t have horns or he’d be dead.  Though no air was pumping through his lungs at the moment and he couldn’t breathe after receiving the punishing blow; he managed to grasp onto the back fur of the creature.  Twisting in the wind like a banner, he was jerked from side to side as his presence was finally acknowledged.  The beast’s focus shifted to him, fangs being brandished as it tried in vain to snap at the point where Swabbie had grasped.  Jolting up and down repeatedly; Swabbie hung on for dear life, thanking God for all the times he had practiced being a rodeo cowboy back at home.

Being tossed around like this did remind him of bull-riding back on the farm; however , this was likely fifty-times more dangerous and he had nothing to help him maintain his grip.  Swabbie clutched the beast’s fur for dear life with his one hand, the knife in his other having been forgotten for a moment as his life was endangered.   Thankful he had hung onto the knife, he spun it around in his hand gritting his teeth as teeth as it penetrated the flesh of monster’s upper back with a sickening squelch.  A howl of agony escaped the creature’s lips, while Swabbie used the knife as a way to hang on and to steer the beast around, though to little avail.  As the velocity knife continued to vibrate, the damage in the creatures back grew; forcing Swabbie to cut it off if he wanted to keep his position on the beast’s back and not be trampled under its feet.

Still, it was hard to keep himself balanced on the creature’s back.  The constant bucking and the rearing backwards was making him feel more and more like a rag doll.  It was all he could do just to hold on at this point.  Swabbie stared down for a moment, noticing that Tesla was running around the few trees in the area, her red hair sweeping behind her; her fingers testing the branches of a few of the trees as the beast continued to hop around.  “Tesla what the hell are you doing!?  Get out of here!”  Swabbie shouted loudly over the monster, which was now hopping around in small circles pumping its back legs out before Swabbie was sent flying up into the air.  As he flew, his head crashed against a branch causing it to snap in half over him and send him falling straight onto the ground.

As he laid there, his skull on fire with pain and his eyes out of focus as he noticed the beast growling viciously at him for a moment.  Swabbie used all of the strength he could muster, pushing himself up as he panted, arms now sore and burning from the work out he was just put through.  He’d estimate that was a good thirty seconds on the back of that monster; at least double his last run with a bull, but he had used both hands this time.  Grunting as he saw the beast charging at him again, he thrust the thin tree branch that his head had collided with in the path of its vicious jaws.  Each chopping down repeatedly and crunching through wood like it was nothing, leaving Swabbie holding nothing more than two wooden clubs. 

Standing there for a moment, with the enraged creature now glaring at him like a fresh meal; the male only reared back and smacked the creature in the head with one of the broken bits of branch.  It didn’t even seem to register to the creature, he pulled out its claws and swung.  Swabbie screamed as pain blossomed a new across his chest, streaks of bright red running out from three slash marks that had formed. 

His eyes began to lose color, his body feeling a little bit colder as the chill of the air infiltrated around him.  Looking down, he could see where he had been slashed and in that panic, he hadn’t even realized that he had been flung several meters to the side and halted by a tree.  Swabbie’s jacket had been ripped open in three spots once over his stomach, again over his solar plexus and once again over his pectorals.  Blood streamed from these openings as he could see where the monster had cut him; raising up one arm, he applied pressure with a handful of snow.  Just like he had always been taught back home, cold compression could slow down the bleeding process, but he would need proper medical treatment soon enough.  Panting as he scrambled to sit up fully, barely able to rise up before the monster began to walk towards him.

“So…I’m gonna die like this huh?  Always thought, I’d just die of boredom on that ship…so I suppose this isn’t what I bargained for, but it was a hell of a lot more interesting than what I thought would happen.”  Chuckling as it hurt to breathe, he heard Tesla yelling at him just as the beast began to charge at him. 

“Captain!  Catch!”  She screamed at him, running in from the side some fifteen meters away before she threw a branch at him.  As he watched it hurtle at him, he found his hand closing around the end in reflex where he noticed the sharper end of one side.  Panting, he guessed she had been looking for something that could be used as a natural spear and she had gotten damn close with this one.  Grunting, he noticed the beast coming down to tear his head from his shoulders with its jaws.  Pushing his arm directly up, Swabbie closed his eyes, waiting for death to take him; instead, all he heard was a low growl.  Waiting a few seconds, he slowly opened his eyes looking up to see the monster standing over him; mouth still wide open as if it was going to bite him.

Confused, he suddenly realized that the stick was inside of the beast’s mouth long ways.  If it chomped down on him, it would penetrate its own brain and kill itself.  Swabbie could see that the beast was intelligent enough to recognize this and was no longer enraged or territorial at the moment.  Glancing at it, he knew he’d lose a fight of endurance, his arm already felt weak as he continued to bleed from his chest.  The monster’s savage claws having torn into him enough to cause a good bit of blood loss, not even counting the cold that was decimating his body.

A few slow pants left his lips, it was all he could do just hold the stick up and watch the beast for a moment.  Grunt, he saw Tesla now standing next to both of them; her hand grasping Swabbie’s and taking the stick, allowing him to rest for as she took control of the situation.  Suddenly, the ice beneath the monster began to crack and snap beneath him; almost immediately, it fell into a pot hole in the ice too steep for it to climb out of and too high for it to jump out of.  Yet, it could get just close enough to the edge to nearly grasp the edge.  Still panting, Swabbie stood up trying to get his footing as Tesla pushed him back into the ground.

“You idiot! Hold still or you’re going to bleed out, we need to get you bandaged up.”  She stated with a little bit of venom in her voice; already she was stripping him of his coat and tossing it aside for later as she tore what was left of his undershirt up and used it to bind his wounds.  “As soon as we get to the ship, have Lily give you some proper bindings you idiot.”  She stated placing her hands on her hips before shaking her head with a sigh.  “Though, what you did would be considered brave even on my planet, very foolish but brave none the less.”

“Yeah…but…what about the beast?”  Swabbie stated without much care to his own body at the moment as he looked toward the hole.  Already he could hear the mournful cries of the creature as it tried desperately, but to no avail to get out of the hole.  It reminded Swabbie of the old videos he used to watch about hunter’s trapping the now extinct tigers in holes like that; he was lucky they had managed to hit a pot hole in the ice.  Still, he felt…odd as he looked over the hole and pondered what the hell was going on inside of it.

“What about it?  The beast is trapped down there, it will die and something bigger might come along and eat it.  It isn’t our problem anymore, we’re safe for right now.”  Tesla spoke happily stroking the side of the Captain’s face as he sat up and slowly got to his feet.  Walking with her, carefully leaning against her as he felt the weight of her jacket slip onto his shoulders, the warmth was invigorating.  Breathing heavily, he noticed she had put on his old jacket, probably with the intentions of preserving it for later.  He didn’t much care at the moment, he could see the beast down below, staring up at them; its eyes speaking of an intelligence that its inability to speak belittled.  It stretched up, the six legs trying to claw into the ice, but they found purchase; instead finding itself about a meter short of its target. 

There was no space for it to get a running jump out of the hole and so crammed that it could only stretch up and try to reach and pull itself out.  Swabbie already felt sorry for the thing as he looked at it.  Back legs trembling as they tried to push up and leap out of the hole.  Only for the beast to rise up about a two thirds of a meter and crash back down.  Sighing, Swabbie stumbled over to the creature, looking down on it as he laid down in snow in front of the pit.  Already he could see that the knife he had put into his back, was one of the primary reasons the creature couldn’t get out. 

“Tesla…we’re going to help it get out.”

“Excuse me?”  Tesla responded in shock as she stared at the Swabbie like he was a madman.  Giving him a quick once over to make sure he was serious; she found that he was and shook her head in utter disbelief.  “That thing nearly killed you and you want to let it out of the cage that nature put it in?  Are you out of your mind!?”  Her voice nearly cracked as she swore she could punch the man in the face for his stupidity; however, it was clear that Swabbie wasn’t interested in her exclamations at this point.  Rubbing his right arm slowly and getting a feel for how much pressure he could exert, he merely looked back at Tesla.

“You are under oath to do whatever I ask right?  Then help me do this; I’m not just going to leave something that was defending its territory to die.  I’m not going to become Faulkner and blindly kill things for no reason other than to sate my own anger.    Nor am I going to be so cruel as to leave some poor creature in a pit to die of starvation!”  As he finished talking, he held his stomach as a fresh surge of pain passed through him, glancing back up at Tesla; he noticed her concern before she nodded to him slowly.

“Alright, alright, I’m under oath and I can’t disobey what you asked me to do; though I think you’re incredibly stupid for doing it.”  Shaking her head, she went off on a tangent of muttering lined from her own language; Swabbie didn’t understand a word of.  Yet, he had a pretty good idea what she was saying about him.  Looking around for a moment, he found that the tree that was at the hole was wavering as its weight drifted back and forth.  Looking at it, he doubted that he and Tesla could do much with it in that state; glancing up though, he found himself almost over joyed to find that it was tilting in the opposite direction of the hole.

“Any good at climbing trees Tesla?”  Swabbie asked calmly, pointing to how the tree was leaning and the fact that its roots could be seen bursting out of the ice where the creature was still mewling for release.  At his statement, Tesla merely nodded and walked over to the tree slowly climbing up the side; grasping around the center to get a foot up before she darted up the majority of it like a squirrel. 

“My planet is covered with trees, some many times the size of these, it is a rite of passage to climb to the top of one without aid captain.  So in short, yes, I’m good at climbing trees.”  She shouted down at him before she began to pressure all of her weight against the small tree resembling an oak.  It gradually began to bend, the roots snapping upward as they freed themselves.  As the descent of the tree accelerated, more and more of the roots began to snap free until finally the tree slid down into the pit.

Leaping up onto its newly formed platform as it emerged, the tree trembled for a moment; Tesla feeling its weight reversing before she jumped from the tree.  Tumbling into the snow, she looked up just in time to see the beast leaping up and getting its front two legs up.  It struggled to hold itself up before her eyes widened in terror at the Swabbie grasping the fur around either side of its head and beginning to pull backward.  A small trickle of red could be seen running down the side of his leg as he tugged while the beast pushed up finally, its back legs escaped the pit before  Swabbie fell backwards in front of the monster.

Landing on his back, he propped himself up on his arms as he noted that the beast was now standing directly over him, hovering like Death’s avatar.  Leaning over, it exposed a row of teeth to the Swabbie, each one glistening with saliva and seemed ready to tear him to shreds.   Tesla was already getting ready to charge in and save the wounded man’s life, when she noticed him stretching out his hand.  The Captain’s shaking hand touching the brown spot on its head and rubbing it slowly, standing as he danced his hands through the thick fur. 

Tesla couldn’t believe her eyes as she watched the murderous beast slowly relax and allow itself to be pet by the captain, as if it understood that he had just saved its life.  In awe, she watched as the man’s hands crawled around to its back and retrieved the knife slowly from the muscles there.  Once he was finished, she noticed the creatures head pop up, before it turned around swiftly.  She was going to scream as it looked like it was going to bite Swabbie in half, but then watched as it tossed him onto its back before rushing at her.  At that point she did scream in terror as it did the same to her, plopping her down just behind the Swabbie who had already leaned over and grasped onto the creatures fur as if his life depended on it again.

“Tesla, wrap your arms around my neck and just hang on.  I think it wants to show us something.”  At that, the creature seemed to acknowledge the statement by letting out a grunt, then beginning to run through the forested area.  Tesla could only watch as they were made into cargo by this animal; the forest growing thicker as they moved further and further away from the ship.  Yet, she didn’t complain as her arms wrapped around the Swabbie’s neck and she found herself close to him for the moment.  Her people treated anyone who saved them as not only heroes, but as lovers.  Even if he would never see her as a lover, she would please him with her body or through other means until he either didn’t want her or died. 

A soft sigh escaped her lips as she noticed the beast was now just walking, its body lumbering along slowly through the woods, that while much thicker than the previous region, could still be seen out of with ease.  Yet, a major difference was there was now a fragrance on the area; the smell of flowers blooming as she noticed Dosrochire’s burning brilliantly at her side, along with several breeds that she had never seen before.  A few were letting out small pink puffs of gas, that quality dissipated but left the place smelling like as fragrant as the floral shops on her own planet in the spring.  Giggling like a school girl for a moment, she caught sight of a small raccoon sized creature, scampering about through the overhead branches of the trees.  Though she couldn’t make out most of the details of its body, she noticed that it was eating a dosrochire plant.

“It must have a rather powerful stomach….”  She whispered to herself, but found that the Swabbie was busy looking at everything else around him.  Every plant glowing with its own unique signature; one was stretched out like ivy across the base of several trees glimmering in a slight purple before small, flashing pink flowers in a star like pattern flickered their own hue repeatedly.  Others merely grew like regular flowers, but their bases glistened before their pistils ignited into soft beacons of white.  It looked like a carnival rather than the grounds of a forest; then, a sudden crystal clear blue caught her attention.

Turning her head back to the front, she noticed that everything in front of them was living off the massive hot spring directly in front of them.  The area growing warmer by at least twenty Celsius as small geysers blew up around them, but the chill of the wind still struck hard.   Lowering its head near the edge of the water; the beast let both Swabbie and Tesla off its back before sitting down and staring at the pair for an instant.  Acknowledging them before turning and dipping its head into the water, slowly lapping at the heat pool to rehydrate itself; too enthralled with the beauty of the place, Swabbie didn’t noticed Tesla stripping down till she was naked again.  It wasn’t until he saw her half submerged in the water did he finally realize what had happened.

“Tesla!?  What do you think you’re doing!?”  At his shock and surprise, she merely giggled before turning around, letting him get a full view of her plump breasts.  Tesla’s pure black eyes were oddly expressive despite lacking an iris as she leaned back and floated along in the water, speaking to him from that position.  “Oh come on Captain, I haven’t been able to clean myself since I got thrown into that crate, maybe I just want to freshen up a little bit?  I got a sponge bath every now and then, but I’d like to just be able to rest in some warm water for a while.”  A mischievous grin came to her face as she sauntered back up to the edge of the water, noticing that Swabbie’s gaze was situated on her breasts. 

“Come on Captain, why don’t you get in the water with me.  I’m sure you’d like to clean up a little bit and relax after what just happened.  I could even help you let off a little ‘steam’”  She chuckled lightly, her wet hand grasping the Swabbie’s as he paused to think about what she had just asked him to do.  Yet he could barely hide the erection that was now poking through the confines of his regulation pants.  His arousal was clear to Tesla, whom reached down slowly with her other hand.  Shaking it off lightly before she did so, it grasped the thickness of the Swabbie’s manhood through his pants; she gasped in surprise at the size that she felt, then looked him in the eyes.

“So…you going to join me?”

Luck deactivated.

A.       Swabbie agrees to join Tesla in the water.

B.     Swabbie orders Tesla to help him ‘blow off some steam’ while on dry land.

C.     Swabbie refuses the offer to ‘blow off some steam’ but enters the water to clean his wounds.

D.     Swabbie refuses the offer  to ‘blow off some steam’ and goes to communicate with the beast.

E.     Swabbie orders Tesla to get dressed and take off back to the ship with the food they’ve gathered.