Gingerbread Man:2109; Chapter 3, The First Night
This story is intended only for those 18 years and older.
3: The First Night
Feih stopped and looked up through the forest's canopy at the darkening sky after what had been for Matt a brisk pace over the past two hours. She then looked down at him; "There's a place where we can rest for the night nearby. It shouldn't be much farther." She resumed walking.
He followed as closely as he could and, as he had when they first started their nearly silent journey, took every opportunity to observe and record his surroundings, but his attention always came back to his escort.
Her every movement spoke to him of her body's grace, power and the potential damage she could inflict with her claws and teeth upon any opponent she faced. He also watched how her powerful leg muscles flexed as she moved and saw how Feih did not move her arms as much as a human's would while walking, but they were positioned for any task that might present itself. He was also amazed at how silently she moved through the forest. One glance at her feet and he saw that they were as well padded as an elephant's, who are well known for their ability to silently move about despite their massive weight. This and several other times he felt that she knew he was watching her, but showed no signs of this which caused him to think that she either did not mind or did not care.
His thoughts also returned to what he had felt when she nuzzled him in what she called a Dorzeli formal greeting. It was very similar to what he had experienced when Freerah touched him before she had left Earth when he was young. He searched his database in order to find out more about Dorzeli behavior but he found only the warnings about how dangerous they could be and that one noteworthy incident when she had been attacked by banned anti-matter weapons; all other data on Feih's species was inaccessible or missing. He concentrated so much on trying to discover the cause of this that he failed to notice that Feih had stopped and that he had walked past her.
"Matt?" Surprised that her voice had come from his rear, he stopped and turned around. "Are you all right? You seem preoccupied."
"Yes," he answered in haste when he realized the vulnerable position he had put himself in. "I was just thinking about how I was going to report all of this to my superiors when I got back to my transport ship."
She stared at him as if she was trying to discern if he was telling her the truth. This only served to make him more nervous than he already was, despite the fact that it had been one of the things that was on his mind during their walk.
He saw her emit what looked like a short sigh of disappointment before she pointed to her right. "We're close to where it'll be safe for us to camp." She turned and brought the tip of her left tail to within his reach. "Please take hold; the forest will become very dense and I don't want you to get lost."
He looked at the appendage and shook his head. "No disrespect, but I'll just follow you in." A mental command to his helmet adjusted its visor to display an infrared image of her body. The high degree of warmth he saw in her lower torso surprised him.
She frowned, gave a brief snort then plunged into the thick foliage. He hurried to follow but, within seconds, it became apparent that he should have taken her up on the offer as the lower branches of the smaller fern-like plants slowed his progress to the point that he soon lost her image.
He stopped and shouted, "Feih, where are you?"
He received no answer and prepared to resume his forward progress, but stopped when his proximity sensors warned him that something large was approaching him from the rear. He was astonished that she could have gotten around him so quickly, but when he checked the strength of the signal and found that it was slightly weaker than hers he turned and ran. The target also increased its pace and closed the gap between them.
Matt's brief flight was stopped when he almost crashed into a huge tree that was in his path. With his pursuer so close he gave up and turned to face it. When it broke through the underbrush behind him he saw that it was the same male that was closest to him back at the scene of the ambush.
He pressed his back against the nearest tree the second the Dorzeli broke through the cover of the trees he swallowed hard when he saw that it was the male that was closest to him at the ambush
His heart raced when the male looked down, exposed almost all of its deadly teeth in a grin that reminded him of the Soriss soldier's fate, crouched, reached out with its right clawed hand and lifted him from the ground. The second he opened his mouth Matt activated his self destruct, but when he was licked along side of his face he felt the same sensations from when Feih had touched his face and, for some reason, doubted that decision. The big male's reaction appeared to him to be similar to Feih's when he closed his mouth; he seemed extremely pleased and moved to repeat the act.
"Put him down Daihas!" growled a familiar voice from Matt's left.
Both males turned their heads and saw Feih approach them with slow and cautious steps.
Daihas promptly set Matt down, backed away and bowed to her in an act of obvious submission. She directed Matt, who had just reset his timer, to get behind hir and when he complied she placed herself between them and snarled and hissed at the male in a language that was unknown to Matt's translator.
What followed frightened him almost as much as when she first trapped him: when she finished Daihas asked a question that made her growl out a single word what he assumed was "No!" Angered by her answer he matched her earlier tone and aggressiveness. Their exchange became so vicious he feared that they were about to fight over him and that no matter who won he would ultimately lose.
She snapped at him, pointed in the direction from which he had come and held her position between them. Daihas took one last look at Matt, frowned, then turned and left as fast as he had arrived.
Feih waited almost full minute before she looked back at Matt, who had not moved since the start of the argument, and said, "I hope my brother didn't scare you too much."
He checked to make sure Daihas had truly left before he responded; "I was, but when he..." unsure, or better yet, fearful of what he had felt he could not finish,.
She looked nervous which caused him to doubt her sincerity when she said, "He wouldn't have harmed you." She turned back to the direction from which she had come. "Come, our camp nearby."
He followed her, but occasionally looked behind him even though neither his natural or electronic senses indicated that they were being followed. Two minutes later they came to a large clearing.
Feih walked to the opposite side and sat facing him with her back against a large tree. He stopped, scanned the area and found that it was a frequented campsite by the lack of plant growth and the compacted condition of the soil. He looked up and saw that the interlaced nature of the higher branches of the surrounding trees provided a good deal of cover from aerial surveillance, but allowed a decent amount of light to get through to the ground. He continued his detailed scan to cover the edges of the clearing to his left and right.
"Don't worry; he won't return and the others will be sleeping off their meal, so they won't arrive for at least another day." She closed her eyes and leaned her head back against the tree. "By then you should be back with your people."
He thought he heard a note of sadness in her voice and wondered if it was real, and if so why, or if he had mistaken it for some other emotion. It pained him to think that he may have been responsible and he tried to return her to her previous mood by explaining that; "I'm just checking for other predators." He panicked when he realized he may have insulted her.
She was unfazed by his explanation. "You don't have to concern yourself with the Virze. We have a mutual understanding in matters such as this. As long as you are with me you'll be safe."
With no knowledge in his system of what they were, might look like or their habits he asked, "What are the Virze?"
Feih seemed pleased and eager to answer him when she looked at him; "They were the dominant predators on this planet before my peoples' arrival and are similar to the ancestors of the Soriss at about two to three times your size."
Matt, familiar with the widely known fact that the Soriss had evolved from tree dwelling cougar-like felines, concluded that these animals were about the size of African Lions. "Are they sentient?"
"Not quite like you or I, but they do have a rudimentary form of communication that my people can understand."
Still cautious he continued to scan the area until he came back to Feih's body. He looked at her abdomen and wondered why he could not penetrate it. He thought back to the two soldiers he had confronted and the one from the captain's video and was amazed that she could still look so relatively trim; even a warm-blooded animal, as the database indicated all Dorzeli were (backed up with what he felt when she pinned him and her brother had picked him up), could not metabolize that much protein in so short a time, but it did reveal that meals of that size were not uncommon. He was surprised that this information was still accessible, which only added to his many worries. He again hoped that his system was not about to go down.
Feih opened her eyes and saw that Matt had not moved, looked to her right and pointed to a spot some distance away from her. "I've prepared a spot for you and I made it far away enough from me so that you'd feel safe."
He again felt sad when he heard disappointment in her voice at his not trusting her and judged the distance to be out of her reach. He walked in that direction, but stopped when he saw that the ends of her twin prehensile tails were in the way. He lost any guilt he had and stared accusingly at her.
She frowned and moved them out of his way and hissed. "If I really wanted you I wouldn't have let you regain consciousness."
She sounded so insulted and hurt by his silent accusation that, for a brief moment, he wanted to apologize. Instead he remained silent and resumed walking to the area she had indicated. Once he arrived he removed his pack and saw that she had turned away from him to stare at the forest in front of her.
Matt could see that she was disappointed that he still did not trust her. Even though that was true he could not shake the feeling that neither she nor her brother had meant him any harm. The fact that she reminded him so much of Freerah could have explained it, except that Feih was smaller, wingless and was brown instead of light blue.
"If Feih's people didn't have such a bad reputation I'd believe her and..." He stopped that train of thought, afraid that if he let his guard down to investigate a hunch he had about her behavior he might wind up having to detonate his power packs, his only means, without his rifle, of guaranteeing some measure of revenge if she should attack him.
He sighed and dropped his heavy backpack onto what looked like a nest; a collection of shredded leaves, branches and what looked like hair (hers?). He knelt down, placed his hand on it and found it very soft to the touch yet supportive when he placed his weight on it, so much so that he felt that he would not need to use his inflatable bed roll.
"You made this for me?" he asked, amazed that she had made such an intricate structure in the brief time they were separated.
His question seemed to lift her spirits. "I knew you had to be tired after what you've been through today so I wanted to make sure that you'd be well rested. It'll be a long walk for you tomorrow."
"I'll definitely need it. Thank you."
"You're welcome." She rested her head against the tree, closed her eyes and said; "Until the morning greets us with new hopes."
Matt said, "Good night," sat down and removed some military rations from his pack.
When he finished eating he looked back at her, smiled and thought, "Feih's so much like her. I only wish that she wasn't so...dangerous."
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I thank everyone who has commented on this story and for those who may recognize it: this is the first story I every had published in a fanzine (under my real name), but this version can be considered the "director's cut" as it will have some story elements that were cut out in that version but were in the original draft. They will begin in the next chapter.
Drakeil