Beth awoke several hours later, her head feeling numb and empty, her hand feeling like it was on fire, pulsing strongly with every heartbeat. She glanced at the sky and saw that the sun had long since set and the sky was overcast. She was about to rise when she heard a stealthy shuffling sound a few feet behind her. She held her breath, not knowing whether any dangerous animals were left In this side of the island. She slowly rolled onto her back to see what she was hearing. Her fire had burned very low and she could just make out a humanoid shape looking through her pack.
She was about to protest, thinking that another recruit or someone from the fort was pilfering her supplies when the clouds suddenly parted, allowing some moonlight into her small clearing. The shape looking through her pack looked human at first glance. Seemingly shirtless, long brown hair and arms. When she looked closer, where it’s torso should have ended and it’s buttocks and legs should have started, seemed to be a giant protrusion falling all the way to the ground. She looked closer and realised that the “protrusion” was in fact a giant coiled tail upon which the thing was “resting”.
Beth gasped and, far quicker than what she would have possible, the thing spun around to regard her. The thing carefully started approaching Beth, its arms held out in front of him, palms upturned. Beth knew that she had to be hallucinating and lost consciousness again.
She opened her eyes and saw the ground a few feet below her moving as if she was looking down at the ground from the inside of a car. She closed her eyes again, not comprehending what was happening and being sure that she would awake safe in her bed.
She awoke again, this time lying on something soft. She smiled to herself, believing that she was right about dreaming the whole thing. She lazily opened her eyes and saw a bright fire a few feet from her. She relaxed a bit and closed her eyes again. “Wait!” her mind screamed at her suddenly, “Why is there a fire in my bedroom? Or why do I have a bed in my camp?”.
She opened her eyes fully and sat upright. She was not outdoors and neither was she in her bedroom. She was clearly inside some sort of structure on top of a very old mattress and she got up onto shaky legs. The fire was in what looked like an oil drum, sawn in half down the length and allowed to lay in its side.
She looked down at her hand and saw that it was bandaged with what looked to be a strip of the cloth of her fatigues. She did not remember coming here or bandaging herself. “How much of those spores did I breath in?” she asked aloud to no one.
She heard a sound and suddenly the door in the far wall opened. She saw it again, this time in far more light. She backed away, pressing her back against the wall, terrified.
It approached her slowly and near silently. The fire illuminated it far better than before. She saw the face of a man, his skin tone reminding her of Recruit Mills who had Latino origins. The face was not unattractive. It had the upper body of a man, shirtless and brown from the sun. Well muscled and defined. She could clearly see that it’s bottom half was that of what looked to be a massive snake. He was using his giant snake like body to move towards her slowly. She immediately thought of the mythical Medusa, a gorgon from the myths. She did not know how it had found her again or what he was going to do to her.
She pressed her back against the wall even more, feeling a scream building in her throat. He seemed to have noticed this and held up his hands in an unthreatening gesture. He came forward still. She glanced around erratically but could find her knife nowhere. She had instantly forgotten all of her training and wanted nothing other than to flee. He was right between her and the door and the windows were securely barricaded with wooden planks.
“Stay away! Don’t come any closer! I’m more dangerous than I look!” she shouted hysterically. He ceased his approach, a look of utter confusion and concentration on his features. His mouth moved slightly, mouthing unspoken words.
“Po… Por.. Por favor… Por favor calmate” he finally uttered, a questioning expression on his face. Beth realised that he was speaking Spanish, having been educated in the basics of the most widely used languages.
“I said stay back. Don’t come any closer” she said loudly in Spanish, her voice not being nearly as strong as she wanted it to be. She was breathing ruggedly, her legs were numb and her brain could not comprehend anything she saw. She felt like crying for her father. “Please.”, she pleaded to the creature in a voice easily to be mistakenly identified as originating from a 5 year old, “Please don’t hurt me”.
“Please, be calm” he repeated and after a few moments “I won’t harm you”. His voice was unsure and unsteady, as if he had forgotten how to speak. He held up his hands again in a sign of peace and proceeded to approach her again. Beth had calmed down slightly but was still pressed up against the wall. He stopped about two feet away from her, not looking threatening at all. He held out his one hand, palm upwards, as if asking for something and with his other hand pointed to Beth’s injured hand.
Beth looked back at the creature and only then realised how tall he stood, or sat, or whatever he was doing on his coiled snake body. He stood more than 7 feet high, his head just barely clearing the ceiling. He had wide shoulders and well muscled arms. Beth could sense the potential of great strength in his body and decided against initiating any violence. She was not sure she could win anyway. She hesitantly raised her hand from her side and lightly put it into his upturned palm. She was terrified and peculiarly intrigued at the same time. She decided that complying would be safer, as she might inadvertently set the creature off by refusing. His hand was huge and far warmer than she had expected. He gently removed the wrapping and she noticed strange leaves underneath. He gently took off the large leaves and wiped away the sap, inspecting her palm.
“Poison thorns” he explained simply, pointing at the tiny wounds. “Mushroom just makes you sleep, thorns kill” he explained with a great amount of stuttering. “Thank you” was all that Beth could manage. He reached for a bowl on a nearby table and scooped some fresh leaves onto her palm before wrapping her hand in the fabric again. She was amazed at the gentleness of his massive hands. He looked up at her with a half smile on his face. She looked up into his face and saw the kindness in his eyes as he smiled. For a moment she forgot that this was not a man she was looking at and she felt her face turning red with embarrassment.
His facial features were that of a European; round, beautifully blue eyes and full lips. He had a strong jaw and perfectly straight teeth. She felt a strange turn in her stomach. His top half was decidedly human, and quite attractively so, but she was immediately reminded of his bottom half the moment she looked down in embarrassment. She instinctively tried to back away from the creature; unsuccessfully. She was already backed up against a wall, literally, and she had nowhere to move without making any major movements.
Her being unarmed, alone and without even an inkling of what type of creature she was facing, every instinct, honed after a lifetime of intense training, was screaming to her to run, to scream, to fight if need be. She could not do any of these things. Her legs would not move, apart from the involuntary trembling that seemed to have taken up permanent residence there. She could not make a fist, and she was sure that she would not be able to manage more than a whisper should she attempt to call for help, much help that would have been even if she could manage it. She looked back up at the creature’s face, attempting a calm smile, failing miserably, and tried to gently withdraw her hand from the creature’s palm.
He closed his hand around hers seemingly at the same moment as she started to move hers. Her arm twitched in alarm, but her hand did not move as much as a hair’s breadth. His grip was firm; strong. Incredibly strong. The fact that he was so strong without any visible effort only increased Beth’s impending emotional outbreak. She decided to attempt a change tact.
Taking a few deep breath to calm herself, she softly said “Thank you sir. I owe you my life, if what you said about those thorns is true.”. She attempted a grateful smile at the creature before continuing “I feel a lot better now, so if you would let me get passed you I won’t bother you anymore.”. She considered for a moment before hastily adding “I promise I won’t tell anyone about you”.
He smiled down at her, his deep blue eyes penetrating hers for several moments. Beth kept his eye contact, intent on not glancing away and possibly admitting weakness. The longer she stared into his eyes, the more calm she felt. The trembling in her legs began to lessen the longer she stared. She no longer felt the persistent burn of her hand. Her thoughts were starting to blur, her head feeling light. The way someone would feel after laughing with pure joy after several seconds. The creature’s smile deepened.
“Wha- what are you doing?” Beth stammered in a half conscious voice. “What are you doing to me?”.
“I am calming you” he said, his words coming through clearer than before. He smiled again, and there was not a trace of malice in his gaze.
Beth considered his answer for a moment and realised that she no longer felt afraid. When she really thought about it, she COULD still think, clearly, but the calmness that had descended on her made it feel unnecessary to think. The creature slowly lifted his hand free hand towards Beth’s face. Beth calmly considered attempting to withdraw again, but decided against it. ‘What would be the point?’ she asked herself. ‘He is far stronger than I am, and if he wanted to hurt me, he could have done so ages ago’. His hand reached her face and he surprised her by gently brushing a few strands of red hair away from her eye and putting it behind her right ear.
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