by Zara Starr
Strangely, the color of the water seemed darker than usual—as if it were not the typical blue I was used to, leading me to believe that I had somehow found myself in the deepest, and therefore darkest, part of the body of liquid.
A sudden flash of light sparked above my head and I coughed as water filled my mouth.
Snap!
A thunderous sound echoed all around me and the water suddenly ripped up above my head, a tremendous wave lurching me back beneath the current as I struggled to catch a breath.
Bubbles floated all around me and I fought to move my arms—fighting to reach the surface once more as the darkness engulfed me. Finally, after a few moments, I broke through the surface again and sucked in a deep gulp of air.
“Someone, please help!” I hollered as loudly as I could, spitting water from my mouth as the rain splashed my face.
Lightning flashed across the sky again, and I could barely see the outline of something floating closer toward me in the water. Tilting my head, I began to scream in terror.
“What the hell?”
Struggling to move my arms, I fought to swim against the current in a failed effort to get as far away from whatever I had seen and the sudden terror it had instilled in my heart.
I had no clue what the hell it was but it seemed serpentine. From the flickering flash of lightning, I had noted one thing for certain—it was a predator and it had heard my wails, much to my dismay.
I dove down beneath the water as my eyes noted yet another wall of waves heading directly toward me. I began swimming forward beneath the waves as yet another rolling flicker of white seemed to shift past me.
Something is after me. I’m going to die! I’m going to die out here! I thought as I broke through the surface of the water once more.
“Please! Is there anyone out there? Please, someone!” Water rolled over my head from behind me and I tumbled beneath the surface for the fourth time, my body growing more exhausted as I fought to gain a breath once more.
Why is the water so frigid? I wondered. And how in the hell did I end up out here?
Tired and confused, I began to feel my body growing weightier by the moment, my arms beginning to ache as my muscles tensed from the swimming. My clothes seemed to be weighing me down even more, but I knew it was useless to struggle with their removal.
Just as I felt I could no longer hold myself up, my consciousness faded. The last thing I saw was the flicker of pale white teeth—gnashing right in front of my eyes.
This is it—this is the end, just like mom said—I am forever lost!
Two
Karr
The storms had been upon us for the past days, but I was well used to such things. These were usual occurrences on our planet as the winter solstice grew closer.
The rain seemed to be a monsoon again, and the color of the lake had shifted from the brilliant sapphire shade of summer to the dark and nearly black color it undertook during winter.
My eyes darted out across the water, my boat seeming to rock slightly with every tumultuous flash of lightning that sparked the evening sky.
It was just another thing for me to consider when it came to the state of my planet. Oddly, the preceding summer had been wholly cool—much cooler than it usually was.
I held my fishing spear tightly in my hand as I kept the boat atop the water. The flicker of light caught my peripherals, drawing my attention away from the sky as I noted a worm’s belly shifting as it swam through the waters.
My head cocked, my ears seeming to perk—a visible quivering overtaking the tip of my pointed ears as I turned to watch the beast.
“Help!”
I narrowed my eyes, my sapphire locks whipping against my cheek as the wind beat against my flesh. I could not understand what I had just heard, but I was certain something had caused the worm’s sudden appearance—something that must have been food.
I knelt down, my three fingers winding about the rope that kept me from flying into the lake—the waves growing to some twenty or twenty-five feet in height with every passing second. I found no fear being upon the turbulent waters.
The beast which I now pursued posed no real threat to me, as I knew the key way to dispatch it—and the meat it would provide would be more than sufficient for my tribesmen.
Yet, the piercing sound of the screams that were echoing across the water still didn’t make much sense to me. I was certain that it was a foreign tongue—though from where I could not be certain.
“Help! Help! Is anyone out there?” the voice called out again.
By now, I could make out the shape of a person stuck in the water—waves crashing and tumbling as they were drawn deeper into the lake.
I inched forward, my eyes widening as I noticed the worm whirl through the waves, it’s massive jaws parting as it snapped at the person.
“Hold on!” I called out.
I hoped the person could hear me over the uproarious sound of the thrashing waves around us. They had to hold on, or else I wasn’t so sure I’d be able to save them.
I pulled a heavy piece of wood from my raft and tied it off with the rope, running to the edge of the raft as I dove into the currents with the opposing end of rope laced around my hand.
My arms quickly wrapped around the person, rapidly drawing them toward the surface where I draped their unconscious body over the log and began to quickly swim back toward my raft.
“What is this?” I said, my head shaking as I pulled myself up onto the raft and tugged at the rope, drawing the person closer to the raft.
I hoisted their body up over my shoulder and began to shake my head. I could not tell much about the person, but I knew instantly that she was a female simply from the light stature of her body.
“What is this?” I muttered again, taking in her strange appearance.
I could tell this female was still alive as her heart and pulse were still active—I could feel the light pulsing from the female’s skin, which seemed to be much softer than my own, surprisingly.
She was dressed in the strangest of clothing. As my fingers slid over her ankle, her skin felt strange, but I noticed a small tear in her clothes and the exposed skin mirrored that of her face, prompting me to quirk a brow.
What is she? Where did she come from and how did she get into the lake? I thought perplexedly.
Suddenly, yet another flash of lightning struck the sky and I realized the water was no place for either of us to be.
I determined that returning to the tribal cave, or at least somewhere we could take cover, was the best method of action. I could uncover more about what she was in a place where I could actually tend to her without the worms and the waves being a constant battle.
I lifted a thin piece of leather and tossed it over the unconscious female—at least that was what I had determined her gender to be.
But, that still didn’t explain how she had gotten to the middle of the lake—a place even I knew was no place for any female, particularly as the seasons were in the midst of change.
The wind picked up suddenly and I pulled on the rope—my sail falling open as the air filled it.
I moved around the unconscious female as stealthily as I could. I knew that resting as she was would be best considering the predators that were inhabiting the waters—hunting, just as I had been, in preparation for the wintry months.
With the wind in my sails, the boat picked up speed and soon enough, I spotted the jagged shoreline of the beach. I had collected just enough meat before the storm descended upon us and so returning to land seemed like the best solution.
I had saved this female from the lake, but I had no way of knowing if she would be hostile—though I could not see how such a small-statured creature would fare in a battle against me.
She could not have been very tall when standing, from the tiny size of her legs and arms. I did not see her standing much past my own chest when completely erect.
Strangely, her hair was a color unlike any on my planet, and
worse yet, her small hands were deformed!
I was suddenly grateful that she had passed out, or else she would have seen the bewildered expression I was certain had overtaken my face simply from looking at her.
What was even odder, was despite having five fingers—an obvious deformity from the nimbleness of them—the rest of her was favorable to look upon.
The swell of her breasts, rising and falling, with each inhalation and exhalation of breath, was both a comfort and a sign of her femininity as I watched her.
She was incredible—with a pouting lower lip the color of a summer sunrise, faintly pink and yet orangish, still unlike anything I had ever seen before.
But, what I could not get over was the strangeness of her clothes—dark, nearly black skins covered her feet and the backs of them appeared to have hooves like the bovine creatures I often hunted in the valley in the fall.
It was strange, and it made me suddenly realize why swimming had been such a burdensome task for her. With feet like she had there was no way she could have kept herself above the water for too long. She had to be exhausted from the overexertion.
I shook my head, dragging out my oar as I directed the boat toward land. We were nearly there when the worm made a-last-bit attempt to attack the boat and lunged for her.
I pulled her out just before the worm devoured her whole, dragging her and the meat I had gathered to the shore.
It had already formed a taste for her so I was certain that meant if she touched the water again it would do everything in its power to eat her—they were notorious for recalling the ones who got away and for that reason even I was leery of them.
I had never been scarred and I would continue to bear the brunt of my duties as a strong and capable hunter without allowing my flesh to ever be marred by any such creature.
But from looking over the female who I had rescued from the waters I was positive she would suffer a dastardly fate should she ever find herself near the lake again.
I moved quickly to secure my boat after laying her at a safe distance. If I did not pull the boat entirely from the water, it would become a jagged splintered mass of uselessness—and that would put a huge damper in the fish and rays that my clansmen so relied on.
My hands grasped at the boat and I hoisted it back onto the land—tying it to a nearby tree before I returned to the female’s side.
I approached the female with the strange coverings upon her legs and the oddly shaped feet with a perked brow. Bowing down, I tilted my head and studied her for a moment.
She was skinnier than the females in our tribe, though females were certainly a rarity to us. There was a fragility about her that made me feel uneasy.
Someone so small would never make it in our jungle—she would be eaten in one bite!
“This is ridiculous!” I said, sighing as I shook my head.
I refused to move any further with such a delicate creature in tow without protection and so I grabbed my weapons and remained on guard while I secured the meat.
I tilted my head and glanced further down the beach—eyes darting across the forest line. The coast appeared clear—a bird cawing overhead as it warned of the coming storm.
I leaned down to lift her again, from beneath her dainty arms, tossing her over my shoulder. Her hair seemed to flow down from her head and over my back as I began making my way toward the trail I often used when heading out to fish.
There were only a few of us who actually had the skill to fish—and I knew that there were a few other hunters in our tribe who envied my skill. This thought brought a chuckle from me as I carried the female through the underbrush.
A thunderous roll vibrated the ground beneath my feet and I knew the storm was now right upon us—soon to open up the skies with such waters that would draw instant goo from the soil, something I did not want to navigate through with the female on my shoulder.
It was an oozing and terrible aspect of my planet—sucking one in place and refusing to let go. But it was only prompted by certain atmospheric changes that seemed to be occurring more and more often over the past few seasons.
I knew the tribal cave was the best place to bring her, but I did not want to deal with the elders, questioning how I had procured a female—of any sort—simply by tossing my nets into the lake they all respectfully feared.
It should be feared—especially by females—which made it all the more strange to have this unconscious female creature that I was hauling through the ten-foot-tall periwinkle ferns of my homeland.
It was a beautiful place, but at the time of year we were approaching things changed dramatically, which meant the standard periwinkle ferns were a delight to me in their constant beauty despite the time of year.
Rain began pelting harder upon my skin, though it did not bother me since I was weathered against it and the oils of my flesh had formed a somewhat water-resistant exterior. But the creature’s clothing seemed to continue to seep with fluid that concerned me greatly.
Would she freeze? Could the water cause her flesh damage unlike what it could mine? Would it be corrosive to her?
I knew it was acidic to some of our flowering plants, which was why they now slipped into seasonal dormancy—an evasion of the acid that might have very well obliterated them entirely had they not developed such evolution.
It was not too far of a trek, but the water and weight did make it longer than it usually took me. Still, I could not leave her—the leeches would have leaped upon her delicate skin in seconds and I doubted much would remain after they were through with her.
All the creatures in the jungle were in a state of frenzy from the overextended rains, which meant everything needed to stock up on food that seemed to be growing more and more scarce by the day.
Again, my reason for choosing to brave the waters even as turbulent as they might have been. And, yet, I still could find no good cause for a female to be in the middle of those same waters. Even our best hunter seemed to think me insane for having the courage to procure food from the lake’s depths.
I recalled my last conversation with Arh before I had chosen to go out on the water.
“You are a fool! I procure plenty enough meat for the tribe without having to leave the land ever! A foolish bastard!” Arh had bellowed, his anger rising.
“No, the fish is good now. They are all coming in closer to the land for breeding time. The monlas is here again,” I muttered, shaking my head.
He had called me one of the worst things in our culture, one without a brain and unknown fathers—something he often called me because my mother had been killed due to what Arh believed was her own foolishness. And, for our kind it was.
I shook my head as I sneered, “I am no foolish bastard, you ignorant reject!”
Arh scoffed and shook his head. “Be careful what you say to me, Karr! I have lost no battle yet and am the most virile with the largest knob of all the hunters! You may have the lake monster at bay, but it shall end soon with these storms—just you wait.”
“Your fear of the lake and the worm shows cowardice from within. Even with the largest bulb, your heart has the scars of a gatherer marred all over it,” I whispered.
Arh’s bellowing roar instantly filled the clearing. “If it were not the rainy season I would challenge you to a hand-to-handle battle to the death! Speak ill to me again, Karr, and I shall at the next spring game!”
I rubbed at my jaw for a moment as I hesitated upon the trail. If Arh saw me with a female, he would immediately feel the need to form a triad—and I felt I had first dibs having pulled her from the waters myself.
Yet, I also knew the rules of the mating ritual and I was not even sure if this female would suffice for a triad. She seemed too small to bear children—let alone any sons worth a thing.
Still, Arh’s territorial senses would kick in and he would once again be baring his teeth in my face—antagonizing the hunter within me to dispatch him of his last breath. I respected and recognized that he was indeed one of the
strongest hunters in the tribe.
I changed my course. Instead of taking her to the main cave of our tribe, I headed for my own home cave. It was closer anyway, and I needed to get the female out of the rain.
I inhaled a deep breath, sniffing for any scent trails that might indicate the presence of other animals. The last thing I needed while carrying her to my home was for something to accost us from the back as I struggled to keep her from slipping off my shoulders.
The clothing was just too much. It would have to go the moment I got her inside the cave—the place she belonged. The place she should stay.
I approached my home cave slowly, my eyes darting around the perimeter as I approached.
A warm fire would be enough to rid the female of the shiver her body seemed to give off every few moments. I stepped within the cave and instantly moved to my bedding skins, placing her atop them.
It surprised me that she still had not opened her eyes but I was patient enough to wait for that to happen. I realized that she may need food upon waking and so I began pulling out the smoked monlas I had finished making just the day before.
It was a succulent fish and most of the females that were in the tribe seemed to truly enjoy it—there was a sweet and robust flavor to the flesh that made it quite easy to eat—which was why I was out fishing again, having created the brine for the fish just the day before.
I wondered if fruit and cheese might be good, as well, and moved to my cheese bowl where topas cheese sat with the scrumptious speckles of blue that indicated the amount of time I had been fermenting it.
I had only a few fruits in the home cave, mostly because I preferred fish and cheese, but there were some extra moonlight berries leftover from the bush that had not yet gone into its seasonal slumber from the rains.
I prepared all the foods across a Guayana leaf and pursed my lips. I did not know if sweet water would suffice for the creature but the saltier water was not appreciated by most of the females I knew.