by Vivian Venus
Toovah picked up something that was laying hidden behind the rocks, long and wrapped up in broad leaves. He carried it carefully and passed it to Tor with both hands, giving a quick little bow with head. Tor received the package, bowing in return, and then turned to Kaylee who was still trying to understand what was happening.
“And to walk that path, this weapon you have earned.” He held it out to her in the palms of both his hands. Her mouth dropped open and she reached out, hesitating for a moment. Tor nodded encouragingly. She took it from his hands.
“Is this…”
“Remove the wrapping,” he said. His voice was no longer stern and teacherly, now soft with an urgent excitement. He grinned, his ears pricking up eagerly.
A thin cord of fiber wrapped around the package, holding the leaf wrapping together, and she quickly undid the tie and pulled it off like a kid unwrapping a birthday present. She found the end of the leaf and pulled it until unwound from around the weapon that sat inside. Kaylee’s eyes widened. A spear made of polished wood, perfectly crafted, and the length of the shaft intricately carved. She had known what it was from the beginning of course, but the carving took her breath away. It showed her story – her pod, a shooting star, soaring over a sky of stars as an Ulduuk looked up to it. A figure emerging from a flower and saving a child’s life. The escape from the vizers. Learning the ways of the Ulduuk.
“The rest will be carved by you,” he said. “As your journey continues.”
The end of the spear was wrapped in a hide sheath, and she pulled it off to reveal its obsidian blade, which glimmered brightly in the light of the fire. “Wow,” she whispered, and ran her finger along the carvings, which were burnt in with charcoal. “This is amazing Tor,” she said. “I don't know what to say.”
He smiled. “You’ve earned this. You have incredible ability, Kaylee. I never mentioned this, but you’ve mastered skills that typically take an Ulduuk years to learn. You tell me that you weren’t sent by the Great Ones, but everything I’ve seen of you says otherwise.”
Years? Her training had been difficult, but it had all been things she was able to pick up easily. It took years for an Ulduuk to reach this point? “I don’t think I’m special,” she said quietly.
“You may not think so,” Tor said. He came forward and gripped Kaylee by the shoulders, and she looked up at him with mild surprise. She felt that ache in her chest. “But you are. Now. Are you ready to make your first hunt?”
The two of them stood. “Yes,” she said, gripping her spear tightly. “I am.”
They moved through the trees, their footfalls silent as leaves drifting to the jungle floor. Kaylee led, her eyes grown accustomed to seeing in the dim light. Her sense of smell and hearing wasn’t as acute as Tor’s but her ability to see animal tracks made up for it. She spotted what she recognized was the scat left by a krug, and she crouched by it and looked around and saw its fresh tracks. Then she looked at Tor, signaling with her eyes, and he nodded. They proceeded slowly. Their prey was close.
She strained to listen for the telltale grunts the krug made, and then she heard them. She wasn’t good enough yet to know how many there were, but it sounded like a small herd which matched the evidence left by their tracks. Tor crept up next to her, and they moved up slowly until they could see the animals straight ahead, sniffing around absently without a clue they were being watched. Kaylee felt the smooth wood of her spear in her hand. She could feel its amazing craftsmanship, a far cry from the unbalanced practice sticks she had used for her training. Still, it would be her first time throwing it and she felt nervous about missing. And if she did manage to hit her target, she would have perform the killing the blow for the first time too. She realized that she was trembling. Her breath seemed to catch in her throat and her palms were sweating.
Will I be able to do this?
She felt a warm touch on her shoulder – Tor’s hand. He squeezed her reassuringly and nodded. You can do it.
If only Devlan could see me now, she thought. Incapable of doing anything for myself? Then she found herself imagining his face as her target, all wracked with venomous anger and his hand raised to strike her.
Fuck you, asshole.
She exhaled a sharp breath, rode forward and spun her hips. The spear arced forward as solid as if it were on a wire, its obsidian tip flashing once in the last light of the evening.
The krug squealed as the weapon hit home, its herd scattering wildly. Kaylee didn’t hesitate. She leapt forward and drew her knife. Devlan’s face was gone forever from her mind now, vanished with the throw of her spear. Now she was only focused on making this a clean kill as Tor had taught her, to release the krug’s spirit back to the Great Ones. She leapt to the creature’s side and quickly thrust the knife in true, and its squealing immediately stopped, its body limp. “Your spirit returns to the Great Ones, your sacrifice will be honored true,” she whispered, and she slowly withdrew the knife and then wiped it clean on a leaf and replaced it.
Tor stood over her, watching proudly. She looked up at him and smiled. There were tears in her eyes. He crouched down close to her and put his hand on her back. “I did it,” she said softly.
“Yes,” he said. Then he brought his lips to hers.
Neither of them had expected it. It just happened. Tor’s tail shivered, and Kaylee drew her hand up around his neck. A great torrent was unleashed inside both of their bodies. They slowly broke from the kiss, gazing into each other’s eyes. “I…don’t know what happened,” Tor said, dumbly.
Kaylee grinned. “Something it seems we’ve both wanted for a long time,” she said, and she kissed him again.
They returned to the village, their prize slung over Tor’s shoulders. Kaylee held on to his tail as she walked, not because she couldn’t see but because she just wanted to touch him. Tor’s ears bristled out happily.
Toovah could tell that something great had changed between the two, and when they shared a kiss in front of him he was beside himself with joy, running around and jumping, his tail swishing with energetic glee. Tor built the bonfire the largest that she had ever seen it and cooked Kaylee’s first kill over it, telling her of the great ceremony that would’ve taken place. He stood up and did a ceremonial dance and Toovah joined him, and Kaylee laughed and clapped, feeling the best she’d ever felt in her entire life.
That night, she lay on her bed of furs in her hut unable to sleep. Despite sharing their kiss, she had decided not to go to Tor’s hut – Toovah was there after all, and she didn’t know what would happen. She closed her eyes and remembered their kiss in the jungle, and was unable to restrain a quiet, giddy laugh.
“What’s so amusing?”
She gasped quietly in surprise, and sat up on her elbow. Tor stood in the doorway of her hut, the stars behind him silhouetting his body. “Thinking of you,” she said.
“And just what are you thinking of me?” he asked, coming over to her. She tilted her head back to look at him as he knelt over her and slowly brought his lips to hers as he had done in the jungle. She sighed and kissed him back. He brought himself down, curling his hand around her slender back and lowering her onto her furs, kissing her all the while.
“Of doing that again,” she said. She was warm down there, and she realized that she was so incredibly wet. He kissed her again, and she felt his big, warm fingers tracing their way down her belly, slowly inching under her hide skirt and then her underwear. She gasped as his fingers made contact, and she let her legs part just slightly to let him curl them up inside her. She was so wet that they had no problem entering her, and she let out a little moan as they explored her. His tail swished behind him excitedly as their tongues probed each other's mouths. Kaylee wondered if Ulduuk women might be different down there, but from the way he knew how to touch her….
And how familiar would he be?
“Do you have a ritual for this too?” she teased him. Tor didn’t answer, but only flipped her over onto her front so she was on all fours. She thoug
ht that he was going to mount her right then and there, but instead he pulled her underwear down to her thighs, drew back her skirt, and brought his face right up to her opening. She could feel his warm breath on her, tickling and teasing her, his broad palms coveting the curves of her behind. She shivered from his breath, waiting with anticipation, but Tor only breathed her in. “Tor,” she whispered, suddenly embarrassed.
Tor drew in a hungry breath, her sweet scent making his head swim and his cock grow stiff and hard. And then he tasted her. His tongue, more textured than a human’s, ran slowly along her, caressing her swollen clit and teasing her delicious opening. Her flavor was incredible to him, she was incredible to him, and he drank her in with all the desire he had kept held inside these past weeks.
Kaylee had to throw her hands over her mouth to silence the moan that tried to escape, and she arched her back to make herself more available to him. She knew Tor’s sense of smell, and the fact that he was so enjoying her like this only made her more aroused. The way his tongue felt on her was like nothing else… His hands squeezed her and his huge thumbs spread her open, presenting all of her for him to enjoy. She had forgotten her embarrassment now, there was no room for it with the pleasure that was coursing through her body. His tongue moved in incredible ways that from her position, she could only imagine. What is he doing back there?!
Her muffled moans filled the hut as she rode his tongue to climax. When the waves of her orgasm had subsided, Kaylee was hungry for him. She turned around pressed her hand on his bare chest to push him down onto his back. He bulged hard against his hides and Kaylee swallowed with anticipation for what he had in store for her. She undid the lace ties of the hide loincloth and drew it off of him, and he popped free, huge and tall. She almost gasped, both from the size and shape of the thing.
He’s ridged! she thought, amazed. His cock is ridged!
He pulsed slowly, throbbing like he was aching for her to touch him. Then she did, and, Tor’s mouth dropped open in a silent groan. Kaylee had to wrap both her hands around him to get a good grip, and she slowly began to stroke him. Then she dropped her head down towards his massive cock and let her tongue glide up from its base up to its very tip, where she circled it and got it nice and wet. The deliciously musky flavor of his pre-come spread on her tongue and she then took him inside of her mouth. It was difficult but she managed, and Tor sighed and watched her with his sparkling green eyes, his ears twitching with pleasure.
Kaylee had never craved sucking cock so badly in her life before, but tasting him and feeling every pulse and every throb of him inside her mouth was maddening addictive. She took him down deep, savoring every reaction she got out of him, watching with satisfaction as his eyes fluttered when she moved her tongue along his head. She felt an ache inside her, the want for him to fill up her void and make her whole, and though she was loving him in her mouth she wanted to be even closer to him, to ride him and make their bodies one. So Kaylee withdrew his length from her mouth and positioned herself over him. She reached between her legs and took his cock in her hand, drawing it forwards toward her, and then slowly moved herself back onto him.
She gasped silently as the tip pressed into her, spreading her open and she eased back, squeezing her eyes shut as his thickness entered her. She rocked her ass on him, sliding him deeper into her, and then back out again. Tor reached up and pulled her hides off her breasts, letting them free, and took them in his hands. Then he grabbed her arms and pulled her down to him to kiss her. She felt so small on his huge body, and Tor began to buck his hips and thrust himself inside her. She couldn’t stifle her moan this time. She cried with pleasure as they kissed and as he fucked her, driving himself deep into her, as deep as he could go. The ribbed curves of his cock teased her clit and every single spot that she liked, and the orgasm gripped her again and again, unrelenting. She sat upright on him, bouncing up and down, riding his muscular frame, her hands pressed firmly on his hard abs as she arced her head back and came again.
When she tightened around him that time it was all that Tor could take, and he gritted his teeth and let out a strained groan. His cock flexed and pulsed with his orgasm, and he came deep inside her.
Her entire body tingled madly, and Kaylee slowly moved off of him and lowered herself to his side. She nuzzled up against him, panting softly, soothed by the steady rise and fall of his chest under her hand.
EIGHT
Kaylee woke the next morning earlier than normal, feeling refreshed and eager for the day. She turned to Tor who was still snoring quietly by her side, and kissed him on the nose. His ear twitched, but he didn’t wake. She slowly moved out from under the furs, pulled on her hides, her knife and her moccasins and went outside. The sun was rising steadily up from the horizon, and the jungle canopy below was covered in a shroud of fine mist.
She went to Toovah’s tent to check on him, but when she ducked inside the furs were empty. “Toovah?” she called. He sometimes liked to wake up early and go out to climb the big tree that watched over the village. She went outside, looking up into the branches high overhead. “Toovah, are you up there?” she called again.
“Kaylee, up here.” She saw him in one of the branches, his legs dangling over the side and his tail swaying slowly below him. He was munching on a piece of fruit. “There’s something weird.”
“What is it?”
“Come look, Kaylee,” he called. “Come look.”
She wasn’t as good a climber as Toovah was, so it took her some time to make her way up the tree, and even then the height made her a little woozy. She didn’t have a nice deep pool of water to fall into if she slipped. She pulled herself up the gigantic gnarled trunk until she reached the broad branch that Toovah sat on. The branch was wide enough that she could sit right in the middle of it and not worry about falling off, so she stood and walked over to him and sat down next to him. He looked up at her and smiled, and offered her a small peach-shaped fruit. “Thanks,” she said, smiling back. “So what are you looking at up here?”
“I saw stars in the morning,” he said. “Stars in the jungle.” He pointed off at the horizon.
“Stars in the jungle?” she asked, her pulse rising. She remembered the light she had thought she had seen while in the baths. “A shooting star?”
He shook his head and swung his legs and munched down the rest of the fruit. Then he tossed the seed up in the air towards the branches above, where it was grabbed by a large winged lizard-like creature that quickly munched it down. “In the jungle. It happened right before you woke up. Watch, you’ll see.”
She bit into the fruit, which was tangy, sweet and juicy, and put her legs off of the side of the branch. “What did it look like?” she asked.
“Stars,” he said, somewhat impatiently.
She was going to suggest that maybe he had just seen the sun glinting off of the leaves, like what she had told herself she had seen, when she saw it.
It was a flash of light, off in the distance, like light reflecting off the surface of moving water. She leaned forward and dropped her fruit, which rolled off the branch and fell. The winged lizard leapt off its perch above them, dove down and snatched up the fruit, and then flew back up to its nest. “There! Did you see it? Did you see?” Toovah exclaimed, excited. He had stood up and was pointing.
“I saw it,” she said. Her heart was racing now. “You’ve never seen that before?”
“No,” he said. “Never.”
Then it flashed two more times. The way it did looked awfully like the sunlight when it reflected off of someone’s glasses, or off a camera lens. “Holy shit,” Kaylee said. It couldn’t, could it? Binoculars? Someone looking?
Maybe someone else had crashed on the planet too?
But if there was someone, why hadn’t they used the flare gun? She didn’t know, but she had to find out if it was actually someone. “I’ll be right back,” she said, and scampering down the branch. She was so surprised and flustered that she almost lost her grip on her way
climbing down the tree, and she jumped when she was nearly down, landing in a crouch on the dirt. She sprinted back to her hut where Tor was still sleeping. In the corner her old clothes lay folded up with flare gun sitting in its holster, and she scooped it up and strapped it to her waist.
“Kaylee,” Tor said sleepily. “It’s much too early to be this excited.”
“Something’s happened, Tor,” she said. He sat up.
“What is it?” The urgency in her voice had woken him up in an instant.
“Toovah and I, we spotted something out in the jungle. A light. Like, ah, like a star.”
“A star? I don’t understand.”
She knelt next to him, her eyes flashing excitedly. “I think there might be other people here. More like me. Someone, at least.”
He frowned. “More like you? How?” He tossed the furs off him, and Kaylee's heart jumped at the sight of his delicious body. For a second she wanted to jump him right then and there and she probably would have if not for the situation.
“I don’t know,” she said. “I don’t even know if that’s what it is. Maybe you’ll know. Come on, come look.”
He quickly dressed and followed her outside to the tree, climbing up after her. Toovah was standing on the branch, walking back and forth, a fruit in his mouth. “What is it you saw, Toovah?” Tor asked.
“Starlight. In the jungle,” he said matter-of-factly. “Look. You’ll see.”
Tor crouched, squinting. Then the light flashed again, a twinkle of sun on a raindrop.
“There!” Kaylee said, pointing. “Did you see it?”
“I did,” Tor said. His tone was somewhat tense.
“My God. Maybe another pod had landed while you were at mine and you never saw it? There could be people out there. And after two weeks… God, I wonder if they have any food? I need to signal them. To see if it’s really other people.”
“How will you do that?” Tor asked.
She pulled out the flare gun from her hip. “I have this. It’s a signaling device.”