Wilderness Untamed
Jessica M. Butler
Copyright © 2021 by J.M. Butler.
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Jessica M. Butler/Enchanting Chimera Publishing
Publisher’s Note: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination. Locales and public names are sometimes used for atmospheric purposes. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, or to businesses, companies, events, institutions, or locales is completely coincidental.
Cover Art: Mirela Barbu
Wilderness Untamed/Jessica M. Butler - 1st ed.
Contents
1. A Matter of Survival
2. The Wilderness
3. Besides and Mantises, Camels and Crabs
4. Family United
5. The Camp
6. A Brotherly Conversation
7. Return of the Spectral Woman
8. Cursed
9. The Bracelet
10. The River
11. Fireside Breakfast
12. To Tri Ce
13. Complications
14. Darkness and Lizards
15. Battling the Lizard
16. The Circle
17. Toxic
18. The Long Walk
19. Preparations
20. Not Like Cats
21. Darkest Night
22. Small Comforts
23. Needed
24. A Choice
25. Conquering Fear
26. Dolmaths
27. To Love and Protect
28. Another Night
29. Beyond the Thorn Trees
30. Battled
31. The Surge
32. Final Countdown
33. In Dreams
34. Brother’s Keeper
35. The Other Side
36. Seen
37. Anteaters, Not Maneaters
38. Confessions
39. A Shade
40. Onion Fish
41. After Darkness Falls
42. The Bargain
43. Finding a Place
44. The Trail
45. Hammocks
46. The State of Ecekom
47. Guilt
48. Trench
49. Close
50. Fire
51. Training
52. Playing With Fire
53. Only a Dragon
54. A Change of Terms
55. The Cliff
56. Incoming Storm
57. Racing the Storm
58. Time
59. Why
60. Stampede
61. Trust
62. The Sunset
63. Euphoria
64. Not a Good Surprise
65. A Pressing Dilemma
66. Searching for Answers
67. Seeking Still
68. No More Delays
69. Strange Paths in Dark Halls
70. Deeper Curses
71. A Call in the Night
72. Setting Up Camp
73. Disinct
74. A Vawtrian Tradition
75. The Dragon’s Canyon
76. Reinforcements
77. Duel of Titans
78. Flight
79. A Bigger Monster
80. The Forest Between
81. Laid Bare
82. Time
83. Strange Visions
84. Journeys in Darkness
85. Broken
86. Beneath the Mask
87. Caverns Deep
88. Return
89. Escape
90. Running Out of Options
91. Night and Day
92. No Dominant Predators
93. Relief
Shifter King Coming Soon
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Also by Jessica M. Butler
Contents
1. A Matter of Survival
2. The Wilderness
3. Besides and Mantises, Camels and Crabs
4. Family United
5. The Camp
6. A Brotherly Conversation
7. Return of the Spectral Woman
8. Cursed
9. The Bracelet
10. The River
11. Fireside Breakfast
12. To Tri Ce
13. Complications
14. Darkness and Lizards
15. Battling the Lizard
16. The Circle
17. Toxic
18. The Long Walk
19. Preparations
20. Not Like Cats
21. Darkest Night
22. Small Comforts
23. Needed
24. A Choice
25. Conquering Fear
26. Dolmaths
27. To Love and Protect
28. Another Night
29. Beyond the Thorn Trees
30. Battled
31. The Surge
32. Final Countdown
33. In Dreams
34. Brother’s Keeper
35. The Other Side
36. Seen
37. Anteaters, Not Maneaters
38. Confessions
39. A Shade
40. Onion Fish
41. After Darkness Falls
42. The Bargain
43. Finding a Place
44. The Trail
45. Hammocks
46. The State of Ecekom
47. Guilt
48. Trench
49. Close
50. Fire
51. Training
52. Playing With Fire
53. Only a Dragon
54. A Change of Terms
55. The Cliff
56. Incoming Storm
57. Racing the Storm
58. Time
59. Why
60. Stampede
61. Trust
62. The Sunset
63. Euphoria
64. Not a Good Surprise
65. A Pressing Dilemma
66. Searching for Answers
67. Seeking Still
68. No More Delays
69. Strange Paths in Dark Halls
70. Deeper Curses
71. A Call in the Night
72. Setting Up Camp
73. Disinct
74. A Vawtrian Tradition
75. The Dragon’s Canyon
76. Reinforcements
77. Duel of Titans
78. Flight
79. A Bigger Monster
80. The Forest Between
81. Laid Bare
82. Time
83. Strange Visions
84. Journeys in Darkness
85. Broken
86. Beneath the Mask
87. Caverns Deep
88. Return
89. Escape
90. Running Out of Options
91. Night and Day
92. No Dominant Predators
93. Relief
Shifter King Coming Soon
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Also by Jessica M. Butler
Dedicated to my husband, James Fry.
It feels only fitting that as this book deals with the consummation of an intense and passionate romance that I dedicate to the man who has my heart and whom I adore more than any other.
Thank you for sticking with me through this long journey, my love. I know you had no idea what you were getting into when you asked me at the start of that long, long, long car trip whether I wanted to talk about my stories
. But you're still here. Ten years later. And hopefully many more.
They say that one of the challenges in marriage is that we all change as the years pass. I love who you are now even more than I loved the man to whom I said "I do" in the Butterfly Rose Garden on that humid June day. And I can't wait to see who you become in the years ahead.
Thank you for all you have done, your constant support, and your unwavering faith in me. There's a lot more to come, and it's going to be incredible. The best is yet to come.
1
A Matter of Survival
The hook-fanged spider lunged at Amelia, its legs splaying through the light of the Tue-Rah.
She fell backwards as she lifted her arms up to shield her face. The spider's horrible snarling maw filled her vision, its furred mandibles spread wide, ready to bite into her. Though she tried to catch herself, she plunged into the interdimensional portal.
The vague warmth and brilliant light engulfed her. Then her back and shoulders punched against something not quite so hard as marble. Her legs flipped over her head, the world turning upside down as she tumbled down a steep grassy hill.
The wolf-sized spider struck the ground equally hard and bounced upward. Narrowly missing one another, they crashed down the grassy embankment, the spider hissing and howling with each strike punctuating its irate shrieks.
Everything blurred around her. A chaotic panicked haze. She landed in a heap, her head spinning.
Instinctively she flung her arms around her head, bracing against the stinging burn of the spiked hairs and vicious jaws.
Nothing.
Hisses sounded to her left.
Dizzy, she thrust herself up and staggered a few steps toward a ravine. Her knees gave out.
Where was she?
Where was her gun? It had been in her hand a moment ago. The Tue-Rah had cast her out into some temperate wilderness with yellowed and green grass, rough stones, and tall heavily-branched trees.
Staggering, she grabbed hold of a bush to steady herself. The coarse leaves raked her palm, small thorns cutting her. She glanced back.
Where was the spider?
It had rolled to a stop a few yards away. Picking itself up, it shook its entire body, chittering and clacking its jaws.
She drew her breath in sharply through her teeth as the spider drew closer. Her body remained silent despite the screaming in her mind. Move, move! Her balance wavered as she managed a few more steps and then collapsed, unable to find her footing.
The spider lunged over her. It opened its jaws. She covered her face with her arms once more. Then—
An unearthly shriek tore through the air.
Her eyes flew open again as the spider's legs flailed over her, suspended several feet off the ground. Her eyes widened as the hook-fanged spider moved upwards, ever struggling.
A massive creature with grey eagle wings and a black scorpion's abdomen had stabbed the spider through the abdomen. Without a sound, it rose into the sky.
She remained motionless, her heart thundering.
The beast flew higher through the break in the trees as the spider writhed in death throes. Its last wail faded before both predator and prey disappeared beyond the green canopy.
Silence descended upon the forest. Fighting to calm her breaths, she took in this strange place. This had to be Ecekom, and most likely this was the wilderness Naatos had spoken of in such dire tones.
It was similar to the sequoia forests she and Uncle Joe had hiked while searching for information on the Tue-Rah. The numerous trees were gnarled and twisted, jutting out at unusual angles with large growths protruding from the bark. Heavy silver moss hung from numerous branches, and many of the trees and vines had grown over large boulders. The terrain was incredibly uneven as if the forest had overgrown a jagged mountain range. It smelled mostly fresh and clear, though some faint burning odor, in addition to the pungent ichor, kept it from being entirely pleasant.
No other predators were immediately apparent.
That was a good sign. Though it didn't mean some weren't hiding in all this foliage. Her current location was not especially safe.
Something metallic glinted on the hill. Her gun. One of the daggers. She'd dropped them along with some of the contents of her satchel including one of the books, her gun cleaning kit, a small sewing kit, and some other odds and ends.
Gathering these up, she placed them in the satchel and readjusted the strap. At least she had some of her supplies. The Neyeb books were probably the most impractical, given how horrid this place was, but she couldn't bear to throw them away. For now she could carry them.
Dull pain spread through her body with each step. The medication held most of it at bay, but even so she could not bite off the groan that pushed free. If she had to, she could run. The adrenaline and need to survive might even shut off what relatively little awareness of the pain she had.
She adjusted her make-shift holsters, knowing she needed to find a better place. Water and heat were the next important things to locate.
If Naatos could, he would be certain to follow her through, and he would track her. But… could he actually follow her?
She paused over that thought, cautious. Elder Commander Vorec's damage to the Tue-Rah might be permanent. He'd claimed he'd set time ahead by over twenty thousand years. And Naatos had even warned her that they might be weeks away because of Vorec's interference. Survival required preparing for the worst.
Her elmis prickled, the ones on the backs of her knees throbbing the most as a jolt of adrenaline surged through her. All her senses at once focused on identifying the danger.
A predator. But what kind?
She scanned the forest, stopping on a particularly dense section of juniper-green bushes. There. The warnings from her elmis intensified
She reached for her gun. Running could doom her as well as save her, depending on how this creature hunted. At the moment, she was on soft grass so she stepped back, her gaze fixed on the danger point.
A deep throaty growl rumbled from that location. Then, slowly, two orange eyes blinked into view. Each one was easily the size of her fist. The round pupils were little more than black dots.
Her heart hammered faster. She pointed the gun at the head, but based on the timbre of the voice and the size of those eyes, it was too large for her gun to do much more than lightly wound or anger it.
Another growl expanded from the bracken. Slowly a massive white cat with black and gold speckled stripes slunk out into the clearing, its gaze focused intently on her.
She tightened her grip on the gun, studying the enormous feline. It was twice the size of a Siberian tiger with a pronounced skull and brow ridge.
Her instincts warned against risking even an eye-shot. A wounded animal was even more dangerous, and it could reach her in a single leap.
But if it was like most tigers, then eye contact was one of the best ways to keep it from attacking.
Tigers hated eye contact. It took away their element of surprise and often convinced them to look elsewhere for food. Unlike leopards who found eye contact offensive and attack worthy.
At a glance, the feline seemed to share more traits with tigers than leopards from its general build to the pupil form to the markings. So as far as large cats went, she just prayed the physical similarities proved true for behaviors.
The large cat's black ear twitched. It shook its head, its hackles lifted.
"Easy there, Shere Khan," she said. "I'm not a threat to you. So you just go on your way, and I'll go on mine." She stepped back. But before she could move any farther, her elmis burned, warning her again.
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