by Edward Lang
I let go of my ice axe in my non-roped right hand. It swung like a pendulum from the leash around my wrist.
Then I extended my freezing cold hand to hers and grasped her fingers –
Her warm, almost feverishly hot blue fingers.
What the FUCK?
Not only were her hands a good twenty degrees warmer than my cold hands, she was strong. Really fucking strong, especially for a woman her size.
She pulled me in close enough with no problem until I could grab the ledge of the cave opening with my fingertips. Then, as I hauled myself up over the edge, she grabbed me under one of my arms and helped hoist me up.
Once I was safe inside the cave, I unwound the rope from around my arm and grabbed one of her bare hands with mine.
It was small and slender and soft – and her skin was so hot it felt like she was running a 105-degree fever.
Yet she’d been exposed to the cold air and snow this entire time.
“How the hell are you warm?” I asked in shock as I held her hand.
She took her hand away from me and pulled down her balaclava –
And suddenly I could see her face.
It wasn’t just her hands that were blue.
Her face, neck, and every inch of exposed skin was the exact same color –
And she was one of the most beautiful women I had ever seen.
Her features were delicate – soft and feminine. She had huge eyes that were bright green like emeralds. Her high cheekbones and slender nose contrasted with her sensual lips.
Another thing about her was striking: her long, thick, lustrous hair was white as snow. But it wasn’t from age. Her face was young and her skin was smooth, like a woman in her early 20’s.
She also had long, pointed ears that protruded from the snowy white mane of hair.
She looked like an elf out of Lord Of The Rings – just blue.
I stared at her in shock.
She looked back at me in distrust –
And then peered past me to the fire in the back of the cave.
Her face immediately lit up with surprise and joy, and suddenly she was scrambling past me on all fours.
I watched her go in shock and amazement – and then realized exactly what it was she was after:
The venison roasting over the fire.
She immediately dug her fingers into the hunk of meat.
“Careful, it’s hot!” I exclaimed.
She ignored me as she peeled off strips of juicy meat and shoved them ravenously into her mouth.
“Okay, sure, help yourself,” I said, amused.
She must have been starving, because she ignored me and stuffed her face.
The girl could eat. She wouldn’t have gotten a salad on a date, that was for sure. She would have ordered the bone-in ribeye.
Outside the cave, I heard the frustrated snarls of the wolves.
I peeked over the edge of the cave through the driving snow.
Sure enough, the entire pack was down there, pacing back and forth. They occasionally leapt up into the air, their jaws snapping in savage frustration.
Too bad, fuckers. No food for YOU tonight.
I turned back to my ‘guest’ and watched as she continued to devour the venison.
I leaned over, grabbed my metal water bottle, and offered it to her.
She flinched away from me and growled.
It was kind of cute – a high-pitched, feminine growl. Like what I imagined a female fox would make.
She was definitely a fox, that was for sure.
I put the metal water flask to my lips and drank a little, then offered it to her again. “Water.”
She frowned, probably because she didn’t understand what I’d said. But she reached out hesitantly towards the cannister.
The way her hand slowly inched forward as she kept a wary eye on me, she must have suspected I would double-cross her.
But she finally grabbed the cannister and snatched it way, spilling water on her furs.
“Careful,” I warned.
She sniffed the contents of the container, then dipped one finger inside and licked her finger – which was incredibly sexy, I have to confess.
Her eyes lit up as soon as she realized what it was, and she tipped the container back and slurped the water down. A little spilled down the sides of her cheeks, but she ignored it.
When the water bottle was empty, she examined it wide-eyed – like it was some bizarre, alien technology she couldn’t comprehend.
Judging by her clothes and her spearhead, it was quite possible she had never seen metal before – which would explain her fascination with the new material. She kept running her fingers across the smooth surface, caressing it.
I held my hand out for the water bottle. “Give it here and I’ll melt some more snow.”
She warily eyed me… looked down at the water bottle… then inched forward again, placed the container in my hand, and scuttled back next to the fire.
“I’m Jack,” I said, then put a hand on my chest. “Jack.”
She narrowed her eyes as she stared at me… then said, “Jack.”
“Ja… ack…”
“Jack,” I repeated, nodding. Then I pointed a finger at her and lifted one eyebrow as though to say, And you are…?
She understood what I meant immediately. She put a hand on her chest – which was still bundled up in fur, revealing nothing of the skin beneath – and said, “Lelia.”
Her voice was soft and feminine and beautiful, just like her.
LEL-ee-uh.
“Pretty name,” I murmured.
“Pret… eee… name,” she repeated.
I laughed to hear her mimic me.
She smiled at me for the very first time.
God she had a beautiful smile. Perfectly straight white teeth beneath her sensual lips.
I sat there thinking for a few seconds.
How the hell do you communicate with somebody who doesn’t speak your language?
I didn’t have any paper to draw on, and the rocks weren’t exactly conducive to cave paintings. Plus I couldn’t draw for shit.
I could have tried to pantomime some things out, but I was shit at charades, too.
Finally I just figured I would just go with what had been working so far.
I scooched up closer to her.
She immediately jerked back, alarmed.
“No, no, it’s okay,” I said, soothingly, holding my hands up in the air so she could see them.
She frowned at me warily.
I pointed at the flames next to us. “Fire.”
She glanced over at it, then back at me. “Fi… uhr.”
I nodded. I wanted to nod and say Good, but I was afraid to get into anything too abstract just yet.
So instead I picked up a small stone and said, “Rock.”
She took it from me hesitantly, turned it over in her fingers, then said, “Rock.”
Right on, babe!
I pointed at the venison. “Meat.”
She kind of overdid the first consonant.
“Mmmmeat.”
It was adorable – like watching a child learn to speak.
Although a pretty damn brilliant child.
I pointed at her and said, “Lelia.”
Then I pointed at myself and raised my eyebrows, like, Who am I?
“Jack,” she said, this time saying my name perfectly.
I pointed at the flames and gave her the same questioning look.
“Fire,” she said.
I pointed at the venison.
“Meat.”
I held up another stone.
“Rock.”
I laughed joyously.
She giggled in return – a high-pitched, beautiful sound.
I thought for a second – then took the metal water bottle and scrambled over to the mouth of the cave.
Lelia watched me with consternation.
Night had fallen, and the moons (I was still having trouble believing it
was ‘moons,’ plural) and the stars were covered by thick clouds, blocking out all light. The outdoors were almost completely black. I could hear but not see the wolves down beneath me, and I could only see the driving snow outside because of the reflected light of the fire.
I packed the bottle full of the snow piling up at the cave entrance, then crawled back over to her.
I pulled out a bit of the white powder with my fingers. “Snow.”
“…snow…”
Then I put the snow in my palm, where it quickly melted.
“Water,” I said as I let the liquid drip from my hand.
Her eyes lit up, and she reached out for the container. I gave it to her.
She dug her fingers in and scooped out a small snowball.
“Snow,” she said.
I nodded.
Against her hot skin, the snowball melted within seconds.
“Water,” she said, cupping the liquid in her hand.
“Yes,” I said enthusiastically.
She immediately frowned. “…yes?”
Shit.
I thought for a second, then put on a big smile and nodded. “Yes.”
She pulled the corners of her mouth back into an obviously fake smile and bobbed her head up and down. “…yes.”
“Yes!” I said with a smile. Then suddenly I put on an angry face and shook my head back and forth. “No.”
“…no…” she said tentatively, then frowned with an exaggerated grimace and shook her head like a dog snapping a chew toy back and forth.
I laughed. “Yes!”
She immediately nodded vigorously and gave me a fake smile again. “Yes!”
I laughed again – I couldn’t help myself.
This was going to be fun.
We spent the next couple of hours doing an English lesson as we ate venison. Not only did we cover more nouns, but covered the numbers one through twenty, the simple pronouns I, you, me, and us, and even started getting into verbs.
We got sit, eat, talk, laugh, cry, crawl, lie down, and a bunch of others, which I had to teach her by acting them out.
My cartoonish, over-the-top actions got a lot of laughter from her, but they also taught her a ton of vocabulary pretty quickly.
I guess I wasn’t quite as bad at charades as I’d thought.
She had perfect recall for everything I said. I only had to say a word once for her to remember it, and she quickly latched on to more abstract concepts like ‘near’ and ‘far.’
It was fascinating – she might have been dressed in furs and running from wolves, but she had a near genius-level ability for language and memorization. It was actually kind of humbling. I’d never been anything better than a C student in high school, especially in French, and here she was picking up English like it was nothing.
Things changed a little bit with the next few words, though.
“I run,” I said as I ran across the cave from one side to the other – which, admittedly, was a very short trip.
“I run,” she repeated.
“No – I run,” I said, pointing at my chest as I ran back and forth inside the cave. “Jack runs.”
“Jack runs,” she said, laughing to see me doing the equivalent of wind sprints in a very, very short gymnasium.
“You run,” I said, pointing at her.
She immediately got up and tried to run – but winced as she hobbled.
Her ankle!
I’d completely forgotten why she was here in the first place: because she was hurt!
“Sit,” I commanded, and pointed at the floor.
She immediately complied and sat down.
I gestured for her injured leg, which she compliantly stuck out towards me.
She had bindings around her knees and calves. Above them were other bindings wrapped around her thighs, which were half-covered by a fur skirt that dropped from a belt around her waist.
I fiddled with the fur bindings on her feet, figured them out, and started unwrapping them.
“Jack,” she said, wincing.
“It’s okay,” I said soothingly. “It’s okay.”
To her credit, she let me continue.
When the furs were completely unwrapped, her tiny blue calf and foot were completely exposed.
They were gorgeous. I know that might be a weird thing to say, but they were so small and delicate – just like her hands and her face – that they truly were beautiful.
And unlike human women, her legs were completely bare of hair and smooth to the touch. Well – unlike human women if they hadn’t just shaved.
The soles of her feet were thick and callused dark blue, but the rest of her skin was soft as silk – and just as warm as her hands.
Her ankle looked bigger than it should have been, though.
I immediately started unwinding the other foot to compare.
“Jack?” she asked, frowning.
“It’s okay,” I told her in a soft voice, and she let me continue.
Once her other tiny foot was revealed, I could see the difference was noticeable. Her uninjured ankle was half the size of the other – slender and shapely.
And yet she hadn’t betrayed any discomfort all evening until I’d tried to get her up on her feet and run! She must have had a high tolerance for pain.
I gently manipulated her foot, testing her range of motion. She winced a little, but I was convinced it was only a sprain and not a break.
“Jack?”
“It’s just a sprain,” I reassured her.
“It’s… just… a sprain?”
I realized she had no idea what I was saying, so I went back to basics. I touched first her injured ankle, then her uninjured one. “Ankle.”
“…ankle…”
Then I lightly brushed my palm over her entire foot.
God her skin was soft…
“Foot.”
“Foot,” she repeated.
Then I touched her big toe. “Toe.”
“Toe.”
Then I swiped my finger across all of her toes like I was sliding across piano keys. “Toes.”
“Toes…”
Then I gave an exaggerated grimace and grunted as I touched her ankle. “Sprained ankle.”
She frowned, then tapped her good foot like she was asking a question. “Sprained ankle?”
“No,” I said, and grimaced again as I touched her injury. “Owww! Sprained.”
“Ah… sprained ankle,” she said, understanding at once.
“Yes.”
“Be okay?” she asked, a little worried.
“It will be okay,” I said reassuringly.
She smiled in relief, then yawned.
“Sleepy?” I asked.
She frowned.
I rubbed my eyes like a little kid and fake-yawned. “Sleepy.”
She smiled with half-lidded eyes. “Lelia sleepy.”
I pressed my hands together and then lay my cheek against them, closed my eyes, and made snoring sounds. “Sleep.”
“Ah – Lelia and Jack sleep,” she agreed.
Well, she got that concept, so that was good.
Only problem was, I didn’t really have much of a sleeping arrangement set up. It was my first night in the cave, after all.
As I was looking around, she got up on her knees and unhooked the fur cape from around her shoulders, then laid it out on the stone floor and sat on it.
I looked over at her in surprise. For the first time I could see her bare shoulders. They were petite and slender and beautiful.
Then she undid the bindings around her thighs, exposing all of her legs for the first time.
They were long and shapely, with thin but muscular thighs.
Then she undid the furs covering the rest of her arms, which were thin and toned.
She caught me staring at her and smiled. She pointed at her arm and raised an eyebrow, our shorthand for What is this?
“Arm,” I said.
I was surprised when my voice came out as a croak.
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I hadn’t realized exactly what I was feeling at first, because I hadn’t felt it in over a year:
Desire.
I hadn’t been with another woman since I’d met Katie… and I definitely hadn’t been with anyone since she’d died. Hell, I hadn’t even looked at porn in all that time.
And here there was the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen, slowly getting undressed in front of me.
Well… I mean… partly getting undressed. She still kept on the furs covering her torso and lower body.
But with everything else out of the way, I could see the pronounced swell of her chest even more clearly… and my mouth watered the tiniest bit.
“Arm,” she repeated, then pointed to the crook of her arm and raised one eyebrow.
“Elbow,” I said.
“Elbow…”
She wiggled her tiny, slender hand.
“Hand,” I said.
“Hand…”
Then she pointed and arched an eyebrow.
“Finger.”
“Fingurrrr…”
“Well, uh… wait a second…”
She frowned a little as I joined her on the fur cape and took her soft hand in mine.
I pointed to her index, middle, ring, and pinky fingers one by one.
“Finger, finger, finger, finger… thumb,” I said as I gripped her thumb lightly.
“Thumb?” she asked as she gave me a thumbs-up. She sounded delighted, like she particularly liked saying that particular word.
“Thumb,” I agreed.
“Thumb!”
She laughed, then looked deep into my eyes.
They were so incredibly beautiful… like emeralds…
“Sleep?” she asked.
I nodded. “Sleep.”
She smiled, then lay down on her side atop the fur cape.
In that position, I could see the absolutely amazing shape of her body. The valley of her tiny waist… her hips, wide and sexy…
The curve of her ass beneath her skirt…
And, over her blue arm, the swell of her breasts beneath her fur top.
She bundled up some of the bindings from her arm and put them as a pillow under the side of her head.
When I didn’t move to join her, she looked back at me questioningly. “Sleep?”
“…sleep,” I agreed, and gingerly lay down behind her, several inches away from her amazing ass.
I took some of her fur bindings and balled them up under my head, too. They made a surprisingly comfortable pillow.
I was right behind her, and I could smell her hair as it tickled my face. It smelled slightly sweet… along with the scent of a woman’s clean skin…