Pradorian Mate

by C. Baely

  Shock slammed through her when the huge door moved slowly. She got ready to pull again, but the door continued opening on its own. She lost her balance and fell back, her soft butt hitting the hard tiled floor.

  Realizing something else must have caused the door to open, she quickly stood up, not sparing time to rub her sore behind. With the large knife still in her hand, she placed her back against the wall next to a protruding stone. She held the knife ready to take whoever was standing outside by surprise.

  Sara’s heart pounded like crazy in her chest when a big Pradorian male entered the softly lit hall of the cave. He didn’t seem to notice her. It was as if Sara had become one with the wall. She even held her breath to avoid making any sound.

  This is my chance. He passed by and stood with his back to her as he inspected the room. She moved quickly toward the open exit while trying to make as little noise as possible. As soon as she was through the door, she stopped momentarily to adjust her eyes to the daylight before running as fast as she could toward the vast forest.

  * * *

  It was late in the evening when Archail returned to his cave. He still felt foul- tempered and annoyed with his young captive, especially when he considered what he had just agreed with the council to do for her safety. At the same time, a thought nagged at him from the depths of his soul. Maybe he was the one at fault in this situation rather than poor Sara. After all, she only wanted a reasonable explanation for finding herself on a strange world surrounded by a species that was new and unfamiliar to her.

  During his long lifetime, he had always considered himself to be a reasonable Pradorian, but he found this current situation too troublesome for his own liking. Yet he couldn’t stop. Admitting it to himself made him even more upset.

  He was about to enter his cave when he heard footsteps behind him. He turned to see Dar, his second in command, standing there watching him wearily.

  “What is it, Dar?” Archail’s voice was deep and hard and conveyed his annoyance.

  “She is gone, my great Vasil.” Dar’s voice was almost a whisper, yet a glint of satisfaction lit his eyes.

  “Who is gone?” Archail noted Dar’s hesitation.

  “The female you held, my great one.”

  Archail stared at him dumbfounded for an instant before realizing what he had said. Rage surged through him, like an animal ready to pounce on its prey and rip it limb from limb.

  Dar backed away a few steps in alarm.

  “How did she get out?” Archail stepped forward, causing the other man to back away a few more steps. “I am waiting…” boomed his leader’s voice.

  “I… I opened the door, great one.” Dar swallowed hard.

  Archail squeezed his hands into fists, trying to control his anger. “When did this happen?” How long Sara had been gone and what dangers could she be in?

  “This morning, my great one.” Sweat dotted his forehead.

  “You fool!” Archail growled at him as he turned and placed his palm on the stone. The door opened in response, and Archail walked into his cave.

  Archail searched the table in his sitting room, throwing fruit carelessly around in the process.

  When Archail came out of the cave, he barked, “She took my crasher.” He frowned to think of her out there alone with a heavy sharp combat knife, used mainly for hunting large animals and fighting shredders, a nomadic tribe that stalked the forest at night, killing everything they got their hands on.

  When his leader started striding toward the forest with decisively long steps, Dar suddenly jumped into motion and followed him. “My great Vasil, maybe it’s better that she left. Now we don’t have to be responsible for her.”

  Archail suddenly stopped, turning back toward Dar as if in slow motion, he pinned Dar with a vicious stare. He spoke from between clenched teeth. “Pray to the moons she is unharmed, because if she isn’t, I will return and slowly slice you open and display your hanging guts for a week.”

  Dar swallowed hard, not daring to say another word.

  * * *

  Sara had run for dear life all through the day. The ground had proven to be treacherous, and she had tripped over broken branches many times. Her feet kept getting caught in strange grass fibers that took time to get free of, making her escape more difficult and tiresome. As night fell, she moved carefully, slower among the tall trees so she could better avoid the traps concealed in the forest floor.

  She had heard unfamiliar sounds throughout the day, but at night, the forest seemed even more mysterious and unworldly. Long shadows danced eerily around her, reminding her of frightening stories she had heard during her life on Earth. Stories of vicious creatures that prowled in the night, searching for prey and devouring it before it could even begin to defend itself. Now here she was, feeling like one of those trapped animals. The danger could be everywhere around her, and she had no idea which direction would lead her to safety again.

  Sara sat behind some thick bushes to rest her feet, which ached from overuse. Her calf muscles had cramped, and her hands didn’t feel much better, thanks to all the fighting she’d needed to do with the leaves and plants of this planet.

  She needed to find shelter for the night, but a sudden sound stopped her. Something was moving toward her. She tried to remain silent and focus on every sound around her.

  “I smell human meat.” A strange, masculine, throaty voice made Sara crouch lower behind the bush, obscuring her from the approaching creatures.

  “Must be t’stench of them female humans the Pradorians brought,” another voice growled softly, seemingly annoyed at the mention of Pradorians.

  Sara considered for a moment that these creatures might help her. They certainly didn’t seem to like the Pradorians.

  “I wouldn’t mind trying some o’dat human meat myself,” one of the voices cackled.

  She froze.

  “Yeah, good‘n roasted of course,” replied the other voice, followed by a deep guttural sound that seemed to Sara like a crazed laughter, or at least a bad imitation of one. Goose bumps rose on the back of her neck.

  She chose to remain hidden until the voices passed, the bush concealing her suddenly parted and before her stood a nightmarish creature she could never have imagined.

  Sara let out an involuntary scream as she saw the filthy form of what seemed to be part animal and part humanoid, in the loosest possible use of the word. The creature stared down at her with wide, pitch-black eyes.

  “Seems the moons answered our wishes,” growled the strange creature. The second creature appeared above the bush. Two pairs of pitch-black eyes now stared greedily down at her.

  “I am not meat for your filthy mouths.” Sara considered how she could escape her current situation.

  “The thing makes sounds.” One of the creatures moved around the bush. It came to stand above her, showing her its full body.

  It resembled an ape. White fur covered its body apart from a hairless ape-like face. Unlike an ape, though, its eyes were extremely large and black, with no iris or pupil within them. Good God. Sara looked at the creature’s teeth. If she thought Archail was scary, this creature caused her to redefine the word. Their mouths appeared deformed, and their teeth protruded sharply out of their lips, as if they were intended to crush everything they bit into. The only thing she could compare them to was sharks’ teeth. When she looked at them, her body shivered involuntarily again.

  “Why don’t ya bash it with ya tamack. That’ll stop it movin’,” said the one standing behind the bush. He still watched her as if trying to assess her capability.

  “I gots a better idea. Why don’ts we just eat it?” The one standing close to her sniffed the air above her, and then raised a furry white hand to its nose. “Pew! It stinks.”

  “We’ds better take it back to camp and decide what to do w’it there.” The other one scratched its head thoughtfully.

  “I’m not going anywhere with you!”

  The creature next to her leaned over to grab
her.

  Her screeching voice made the creature stop again. It looked intensely down at her. “It did it again. It makes them funny noises.”

  Sara then realized that while she could understand everything they said, they couldn’t understand her at all. She considered that might make them think she was some kind of animal. Sara shuddered to think what they had planned for her.

  “Oi! Stop gawkin’ and grab it already before it gets away,” said the creature still standing behind the bush.

  The nearest creature leaned forward again to grab Sara’s arm, not noticing that Sara tightly held the weapon she had taken from Archail’s cave. She swung quickly, bringing it down with all her strength onto the creature’s outstretched arm, slicing through flesh until she hit bone. The creature let out an eerie and unworldly scream as it pulled back its injured arm and held it with its other hand.

  “Kills it! Kills it!” yelled the injured creature, obviously in pain, as it backed away from her.

  Sara saw her chance to escape. She surged to her feet and planned to run, but she didn’t notice the other creature had circled around her. As she turned around, a sharp pain went through her head, making her yelp from the unexpected impact before everything faded into darkness around her.

  * * *

  The forest was dark and silent that night, but Archail knew it well. Every sudden change in the ground, every path leading deeper into the forest, and every sound the forest made was all too familiar to him. So when he heard a scream in the night air, he immediately knew it was her. He was close, and she was still alive. He’d be damned if he would allow anything bad to happen to her.

  The scream had momentarily made his blood curdle, but he reminded himself how feisty and spirited this female had proven to be. He somehow knew she was still alive, and with that thought in mind, he raced to rescue her before she was lost to him forever.

  * * *

  The moons were now high in Prador’s evening sky, glistening like huge pearls from above the thick branches, shining their light down upon the glade and the small lake, glowing now like a precious gemstone.

  The light also shined upon Sara’s unconscious body where she sat propped against a tree trunk. The shredders sat farther away, near the lake, discussing what to do with her.

  Archail stood at the edge of the clearing, assessing what would be the best way to approach her without giving the shredders any chance to harm her further. He knew their kind all too well. As soon as they sensed danger, the first thing they did was kill their prey and make it useless to anyone else. He was tempted to simply storm out and use his speed to protect her, but his sense of discipline restrained him while he assessed the situation more carefully.

  To his annoyance, he realized, he almost forgot how to be disciplined around Sara. He didn’t like this loss of control when she was around, and admitting this to himself upset him even more. He shook off the thought. He didn’t have the time now to dwell on this.

  A path led through the low bushes to the clearing. He crouched and crawled with easy precision and stealth toward her. He then stood up and moved quickly but quietly between the trees, approaching the tree that supported his unconscious mate. Just as he reached her, he saw movement from the lake as one of the shredders stood up and turned to look at her.

  He was ready for the creature when it walked over to Sara and leaned close to her, sniffing her carefully with its repulsive thick nostrils. It opened its mouth and moved its head closer to her. The time to wait was over. Archail’s muscles tensed, ready to fight. He lunged from behind the tree and grabbed the creature by the throat. It only took one sharp twist for its neck to make a horrible cracking sound. Archail let it fall from his grasp.

  The other shredder heard the commotion behind him and dashed over to help, moving as fast as Archail just had. The two warriors slowly approached each other, each calculating their opponent’s strengths and weaknesses. The creature held a weapon Archail recognized as a tamack, a huge club-style weapon made of hard stone with sharp cutting edges protruding from its rounded form. A single hit would be enough to tear through the thickest skin. The two aliens charged each other, jumping in midair and colliding with a thudding sound. They grabbled at each other as they fell back to the ground, getting in as many blows as possible before they hit the ground in a heap.

  The shredder repeatedly tried to strike Archail’s head with his sharp, heavy weapon, but the Pradorian warrior parried each attempt as if he anticipated every attack it made. The creature backed away in a circular maneuver. By the time Archail could interpret the creature’s intentions, it was already heading straight for Sara.

  On realizing what the shredder meant to do, Archail screamed a war cry and moved to intercept it. He was determined to catch it before it could harm the unconscious woman. As it ran, the shredder raised its weapon in preparation to deliver a killing blow to the girl. When it reached Sara, it made the mistake of glancing over its shoulder, giving Archail the extra moment he needed to reach it and bring his iron fist down in a powerful blow to the shredder’s shoulder. The sound of bones fracturing was replaced by screams of excruciating pain from the creature. Capitalizing on his advantage, Archail continued punching the creature and breaking its bones, one by one, until the shredder lay in a lifeless heap of blood and bone at the Pradorian’s feet.

  Archail wasted no time turning his attention to Sara’s pale face. He kneeled next to her and checked her vital signs. She looked weak, but her heart was beating strongly enough. Working fast, he lifted her in his arms and ran back to the caves, determined to treat the wound on her head before things could get any worse for her.

  Chapter 6

  Sara woke feeling lost and confused, her mind still in a haze. She almost jumped from the bed on seeing Archail approach her. Her attempt was cut short, however, as the weakness and dizziness pulled her back, causing her to lie heavily down on the soft bed again as a light of recognition finally came to her.

  “Welcome back, little one,” Archail said cheerily. He was unable to hide his satisfaction with her condition as he smiled broadly down at her, but she continued to watch him warily.

  “Wh…What am I doing here?” She reached up to feel her head.

  “You are recovering from your run-in with those shredders.”

  “Th…The shredders?” Sara inquired, but then she recalled the ape-like creatures with the deformed mouths and sharp teeth.

  “You were lucky they didn’t feast on you the moment they saw you.” Archail approached her with a stone bowl in his large hands.

  “Maybe they should have. At least I would’ve been free from you then.” Anger rose within her at his comment.

  He smiled, still watching her, without responding to her remark, he sat next to her on the bed. Some kind of liquid sloshed around inside the bowl as he held it to her mouth. “You need to drink this. It will make you feel better and help your recovery.”

  Sara regarded the bowl cautiously. “How do I know you’re not trying to send me to sleep again, so I won’t cause any trouble for you?”

  “As strange as it may sound, I prefer you awake, little one. We have things to do, and time is of the essence, so drink this and get better.” He smiled as he looked down at her and brought the bowl to her mouth again, trying to encourage her to drink.

  Sara wasn’t sure why, but she believed him. There seemed to be sincerity in his words and smile, she realized, deciding to take a dose of the strange red liquid from the bowl . She almost choked when she swallowed the concoction. Her throat felt like thousand pricking needles scratched it all at once causing an uncomfortable burning sensation and a terrible sour taste filled her mouth, forcing her to cough. “That stuff is terrible.” She pushed the bowl away still shaking weakly before he could give her any more.

  “It might not taste good, but it is made from some of the natural herbs of my world. It will help you to recover much faster.” He pushed the medicine near her mouth again. “It’s not so bad after the firs
t taste.” He smiled down at her reassuringly as he made her take another mouthful.

  “Eew! Please, no more!” Sara complained, after swallowing more of the awful, sour liquid.

  “That will do for now, but you need to drink some more before you sleep tonight.” Archail stood and left the room, leaving her alone again.

  Sara felt a sense of ambivalence about this alien male. He seemed to have cared for her for however long she had been unconscious. He even acted in a thoughtful, almost human, way toward her. But he’s not human, she reminded herself. Yet he had saved her from those horrible creatures and acted almost kindly toward her. Thinking this way about him made her feel somewhat uncomfortable. It was almost as if she liked him, and that just wasn’t right. Not knowing how she had ended up here and for what reason, she decided she couldn’t be taken in by this sudden kindness. As she pondered this, her eyes felt heavy again, and she was unable to resist falling back into a deep sleep.

  * * *

  Two more days passed before Sara felt well enough to get out of bed and move around the Pradorian’s cave, but all she could think about was how this strange man had looked after her. He had taken good care of her, and she had subconsciously begun to like him. It was as if he had acquired some human qualities in her perception of him, and it bothered her.

  The silence that had fallen between them was deafening in Sara’s mind. She wanted to ask questions and get answers. Above all, she wanted an explanation that might shed some light on why she was being kept here as a prisoner. Why had he persistently ignored her from the moment she had become better? Archail paid little to no attention to her as he ate his breakfast at the opposite side of the dining table. To her surprise, it annoyed her that he was acting as if she wasn’t there.