8

- Cori'ax -

For a moment he was worried that she wouldn't follow, and he was a split second from turning around when he heard her walking after him with short steps on the dry grass. He smiled to himself, relieved. She could never survive on her own on Ett without any weapons and without knowledge about the traps that Acerex would use here.

His smile didn't last long on his lips. Why had she brought up the rescue idea? Didn't she trust that Cori'ax would do his best to protect her? Had she forgotten their mating, that magical night when he had felt something thaw inside him?

The mere thought of the memory sent a hard surge to his crotch and his manhood twitched.

That night ... He had never known it could be like that. He'd had women before, of course. His fame for being reckless and strong appealed to some females, as did his size. But the way Charlotte responded to him, the way her body seemed to meld with his and their minds, too ... it was remarkable.

Beyond remarkable. Incredible. Sensational. The closest thing he knew was when he was fighting aliens and he was winning. And even that paled in comparison to seeing Charlotte's supernaturally beautiful face under him when he entered her, feeling her warm, luxurious flesh, her feminine scent, alien yet familiar, hearing her gasp and seeing her eyes go glassy.

He had almost fainted when she'd showed up in his tent as his new pilot. He'd known it was an Earthling, of course. But her? It hadn't crossed his mind. But there she stood, round and delectable and with a slightly uncertain smile on her luscious lips. He could no longer remember what he had done then. Had he greeted her? He must have. But the memory was all a blur.

And then she was his squad's pilot! The idea still made him dizzy. Bandi'ex's idea to accept an Earthling into the squad had been intended as a way to deflect suspicion from them when the attack on the Friendship would take place. It had seemed like a good idea, and the Earthlings did have better dropships than the Acerex did. But a woman? And Charlotte? If anything, it placed the entire operation in jeopardy. Because how could he possibly ...

He shook his head in anger. He'd had no idea how to react and how to deal with her. He'd kept her at arm's length in front of the other warriors, hoping that she would come to him. Why hadn't she? If he had made her feel as good as she'd made him feel, how was she able to stay away? Surely she must understand that she had to come to him?

Probably he hadn't made her feel that good. Probably she regretted it now. Probably she had thought he was more important than he really was, and had later realized that he was not a good target for her alien tricks.

He walked among the trees, reflexively keeping watch for predators and traps. This was not a bad area yet, but the traps would get more numerous closer to the mountains.

Charlotte's light and quick steps in the grass were still following. He would have preferred her closer, but he wasn't going to tell her that.

He had to concentrate to keep from groaning in frustration. His mind was a chaos of thoughts, all in conflict with each other. Was it a trick? Why didn't she trust him? Why hadn't she come to him in the nights and made him feel the same way as before? Why had he thrown himself out of the dropship to come to her aid, barely remembering to grab a parachute on the way?

And why did she make him feel like this?

Cori'ax had no illusions about himself. He was big and crude, burned and ugly. Unsophisticated and low-born. Not very smart. Not very well connected. Not a descendant of the great noble houses, like Ravex'ton or Vrax'ton. Why, their names alone told everyone who heard them that they were someone to be reckoned with. Of course they, destined for greatness since birth, would find their Mahans among the sophisticated and beautiful Earthling women. No one could be surprised about that. Or, by the same token, no one could wonder why the aliens would seek out the leading men of the Acerex to subdue into romantic bliss before they were destroyed, which was certainly what was happening.

Maybe.

But Cori'ax was different. Lucky? Certainly. Admired? Perhaps by some of the younger warriors who were still too inexperienced to know that his recklessness was actually quite carefully calculated. But great? He would have laughed if he hadn't been in this lethal forest. Greatness wasn't for him.

No, of course she wasn't his Mahan. She was an alien, and she made him feel strange. It was no mystery, really. He was simple and easily influenced by alien wiles, probably. But he had long since realized that he would never find his Mahan. Most men never did, and there was no reason why he would be any different.

The landscape became hilly and her presence behind him was a constant temptation to him. At every second he yearned to turn around and check on her, to go to her and embrace her and feel her scent and the smoothness of her long hair and hear her mild voice close to his ear.

Why didn't she trust him?

He would do his best to keep her safe, didn't she know that? Of course there were no guarantees that he would be able to keep the predators away if they attacked in force, but at least they'd both die with honor if that happened. How was it better to be airlifted out-

The first bran came bounding towards them from straight ahead, and in the darkness he nearly missed it. It leaped easily on its ten powerful legs, and the arrow-shaped head was all fangs and razor-sharp horns.

Cori'ax drew his sword, shouted a warning to Charlotte and sliced the alien predator in half as it pounced.

The warm blood sprayed him down and he scouted around for more. The brans would sometimes hunt in packs and sometimes alone, and if there was a large pack here, then he might not able to fight them off.

Charlotte was crouched down, but she was still alert and looking around, not cowering in fear. “Are there more of those things?”

He looked her up and down, partly to check her for injuries, but mostly because he found it very pleasant to do. “Many.”

She looked over her shoulder. “Shit. That thing's the size of a car. I had no idea they'd be that big.”

He took her hand and pulled her back up, enjoying for a second the cool feel of her smooth and slender hand before he let it go. “The size is one reason they're used here. Very hard to fight brans if you've never seen them before.”

She followed him, much closer this time, almost by his side. He noticed her walking in a respectful arc around the dead bran.

“I totally believe that. Your people got them from somewhere else and then put them here as guard dogs?”

He replaced his blade in its scabbard. “That's the principle. Very few animals lived here from before. Now there are very many, from scores of alien planets, both predators and prey for them to eat.”

“Got to be hard to keep that balance right.”

He glanced at her. “So they say. But any effort is worth it, if it will help us harass our enemies.”

“How about the traps you mentioned? Do you know where they are?”

“Not exactly. I think I know how some of them might work. But I didn't help put them here. Whenever we fight aliens on this moon, we pick areas where there are no traps.”

They walked in silence for a while, Cori'ax without a sound, Charlotte with a soft swish of her flight boots through the grass behind him.

“Cori'ax.”

“Yes?”

“Thanks for jumping out of that dropship to help me out. If you hadn't, I'd probably be dead already.”

I heard no grudge in her voice. She was genuinely thanking him. And that was all it took for his heart to soar. He had to concentrate to not smile too wide. “Perhaps. But Earthlings are full of surprises.”

“Why did you do it? I know a little bit about the warrior code of honor. Nothing there tells me that you're obligated to help someone like this, risking your own life.”

That was one thing he'd been wondering himself. But he didn't want her to know that. “The warrior works in mysterious ways,” he said after a pause. “The less we talk now, the better. The predators are very active at night. But we soon have to stop. I will not enter the lands of dense traps at night.”

He more felt than saw her nod. The darkness was very deep now, and he had been looking for a good place to spend the night. It should be a place where they were covered from at least one side. The side of a cliff would be good, or even by a large rock. But the hills here were soft and grassy. He hated the idea that they might have to climb up in a tree. That would be a very uncomfortable night.

He toyed with the idea of felling ten trees and making some kind of fortress out of them, but his sword wasn't made for chopping wood and would be badly blunted by the dishonor of being used like an ordinary ax.

Then he stopped, and Charlotte did the same. He listened for a moment. “Do you hear that?”

“Running water.”

He turned his head, trying to ascertain from which direction the sound was coming. But the trees made it hard to determine. It sounded like it came from all sides. “Where is it coming from?”

They both listened for a second. Then Charlotte pointed. “That way.”

Cori'ax frowned. That was not the direction he would have guessed. “Are you sure?”

“Wait.” She took a couple of steps to the side, then stood still and listened. “Yep. This way.”

Well, perhaps Earthlings had better hearing than Acerex warriors. Cori'ax shrugged and followed her. Even in the darkness he could see enough of her back to feel the familiar pressure in his pants. That shape, with the roundness and the soft curves further down, right above her thighs, made more so by the tightness of her flight suit ... truly this was a wondrous universe that could contain such things.

He stayed close to Charlotte as she slowly led the way through the forest. It didn't really matter who walked in front – danger loomed from every direction. Now he heard that the sounds of the water were getting stronger, so she was clearly right. Hopefully the stream they heard was large enough to be a barrier against predators, so they could make camp on one side of it-

“Stop.” Charlotte suddenly froze and held up one hand in warning.

In a split second Cori'ax's sword was in his hand and he looked around fast. But nothing moved anywhere. He was too much of a warrior to break silence by asking what she sensed – she would tell him. Ah, and there was a slightly different smell on the air ...

“This feels wrong,” she whispered, and the translator adjusted its sound level to hers when it gave it to him in his own language. “It's too good. And someone's been digging.”

He looked down. The planet Bidri had risen over the horizon, and it cast a reddish light that made it just possible to see that the ground looked slightly different ahead. Darker, with less grass. Indeed someone had been digging there recently. That matched the smell of newly turned dirt, an innocuous smell in most places. It was an inviting place to walk. But here on Ett, with all its traps?

“Remain standing,” he said and came up beside Charlotte. He sliced a branch off a tree and threw it into the large dark patch ahead of them. It was sucked down into the ground without a sound.

Charlotte gasped. “Quicksand!”

Cori'ax frowned. “Something like it, anyway. I've heard of this, but I've never seen it. Something we got from our enemies, the Vroks. Particles that look like fine sand and appear to be ordinary ground, but are in fact a shallow pool of tiny living beings that disintegrate and ingest any substance upon contact. This is a new trap.”

They stood there for a second, contemplating what would have happened to them if they'd stepped into the trap.

Cori'ax shuddered, not a normal thing for him to do. If he had seen Charlotte being eaten by those microscopic, but ravenous little beasts right in front of him, he was sure he would have died of grief and shock. How did you fight beings that small? “We'll walk around. Stay on your guard. Traps often come in pairs.”

Now they walked side by side, much slower than before, checking each bit of ground in front of them and examining every tree in the eerie red light. But they found no other traps before they were standing at the bank of a stream that ran fast over rocks and sand.

Charlotte stopped at a respectful distance to the water. “Do you think that whole thing could be a trap?”

Cori'ax pondered it. “I think it could be. But I doubt it is. Stay here.”

He took some careful steps into the stony channel where the water had washed the dirt away, squatted and placed one finger into the liquid. It looked clear to him, and the finger came back up wet and cool, but otherwise none the worse for wear. He sniffed it, then tasted it. “It appears to not be a trap.”

He straightened and looked around. This stream would give them fresh water and decent cover on one side. A determined bran might be able to jump across it, but that was improbable. The ground was fine, clean sand and it was almost level.

He got the parachute out and unfolded it, then placed it on the sand as a floor. Charlotte got the idea and handed him her own without a word. That pleased him – she realized the danger they were still in and the importance of keeping quiet.

He cut some long branches off nearby trees and fashioned a little tent out of her parachute, using his own as a floor. He soon realized that the branches were not needed, because the fabric of the Earth-made parachutes had a stiffness to it that helped it maintain the tent shape. The texture was different than anything he'd felt before, and the canopy was remarkably well suited to use as a tent. So well suited, in fact, that ...

“It was made for this,” he concluded and rubbed the fabric between two fingers.

“That's right,” Charlotte confirmed, whispering. “All our parachutes are designed for several purposes. They're waterproof and soundproof, and they're shaped to function as tents for when someone has to jump out over uninhabited terrain. It will also clean and hold water. It will let in air, but the air will get scrubbed and cleaned on the way through the fabric. It's rip proof and will instantly stiffen to the strength of carbon fiber if attacked by an outer force. Say, a bran that tries to break in.”

Cori'ax nodded. Only aliens could think like that. So different from Acerex. “Seems useful.”