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.
