Page 5 of Pandora: Alien Games
“Shh, it’s all right,” I whisper and scratch his head. “I’ll protect you.”
It’s ridiculous for me to say it to a creature that looks like a small mountain, but I’m a hunter, a flesh eater. Banoo is a good soul and would not hurt a living thing. I, on the other hand, find pleasure in hunting bad ones and occasionally sinking my teeth in their throat and ripping out their flesh. The Rash are an exception. Their dry, mummified flesh tastes like poison. I hate to touch it with my maw. I prefer to let my steel slice through it if the Goddess gives me a chance.
Banoo stays put as I drop on all fours. I need to be closer to the ground to pick up a trace. The wind is blowing in my face, making the hunt difficult. My pointy ears pick up sounds. I’m from the line of Anubis. My strength and my hearing are without equal on the surface. As I allow my animal self to guide me, I only regret that the three children of Ra are still up in the sky. I prefer to hunt under the guide of darkness and silence.
The wind picks up the silky sand and turns it into a weapon meant to hold the stranger at a distance. You must respect the desert if you want to survive it.
My heart skips a beat when I see a small form huddled in the distance. The sweet perfume comes from it. There is no doubt. It smells different, in a way I can’t explain. Like the sweetest flowers that open only at night to bless the children of Anubis. It’s a body, and it’s still alive. I can heart its heartbeat and breath under the howling of the wind.
My attention was so focused on the new scent and on the small form that it took me by surprise when a dry, bony hand wrapped around my ankle.
Rash!
Before I had time to react, a few pairs of hands trapped my legs, doing their best to pull me down and hold me captive on the surface of the sand. A few Rash dug their way out from under the surface, close to the small form huddled on the ground. It smelled like fear and pain. I was sure it was female. Something about the way her body emanated this sweet floral scent that made my cock throb under my loincloth, which let me know her sex. I shouldn’t care. The bounty was on the Rash, not the female. I should only want to use her as bait.
However, for some reason, her safety became the most important thing. The need to protect her and claim her bloomed like the flower of flames inside my chest. As I leaned my head back, I released a deep growl. I am a predator. The Rash should fear me. My movements are like the winds of the desert—fast, smooth, and lethal.
I raced forward and used my claws to rip off the head of one of the Rash. The head hurled toward another one, hitting it square in the chest and throwing it off balance as it tried to decide whether to hold or drop the head of its fellow mutant. Three others stared at the decapitated head in shock. They pondered their decision too long. The Rash emitted their typical moaning and groaning as my hand grabbed the short swords that hung on each side of my belt. I lunged at the beasts, cutting and slashing, kicking and ripping through the dry flesh and bandages soiled by time. They didn’t so much die as fall apart, disintegrating under my barrage like a statue made of compacted sand. The fight lasted only a few heartbeats, but it felt so much longer for me.
Four Rash closed in on the female and were about to take her. Her foreign scent threw them off guard and they moved around her, scared to touch her. The hesitation gave me enough time to get rid of my own attackers and before engaging hers. They all were so enthralled by her they didn’t see or hear me coming to end their pathetic unnatural life. I sliced off their heads one by one, doing so in four swift flicks of my sword.
Banoo moaned closed by to let me know he had my back.
“Thank you, old friend,” I whispered under my breath.
All I could do was watch the small body that lay there, exposed to the elements. How did she get here? She smelled like blood. I knew there had to be an open wound on her body.
Kneeling beside her, I turned her face up. That face was like nothing I had ever seen in my existence, except in the painting on the walls of temples. Her face was small and round, with a tiny mouth that would be incapable to rip or maul, so small my finger would barely fit in. A pale, pink, soft skin not equipped for the desert covered her arms and hands. She had two eyes, both closed, and long dark lashes touched her pale cheeks. Her nose was so small. I asked myself how she was able to breathe through it. I couldn’t stop myself from touching her skin. Her shoulder had a deep wound. It was wet with blood, but the blood was only trickling, not pumping.
She was not from here, not part of the folk of Anubis, Bastet, or Ra. She certainly was not one of the snake creatures, either, or anything I had ever lay eyes on. And she was so small.
Her eyes flew open. When she saw me, she called out in fear something that sounded so foreign I didn’t understand. Then she fainted.
It was easy for me to scoop the tiny form into my strong arms. She weighed less than a sack of grains for Banoo. Banoo was close to me and I allowed him to sniff her. His trunk moved slowly on top of her body until it stopped on her shoulder. Her body was like mine in that she had legs and arms and one head. Other than that, we couldn’t be further apart.
“Do you think she’ll make it to our cave?” I asked Banoo.
A sandstorm suddenly arose without warning. It was too dangerous even for desert warriors like me to stay out here in the open. The three sons of Ra made space and the two twin moons appeared. I tilted my head back and allowed a long dark call to fill the night. This was a clear sign that I had found a new creature, and I, Edoo, claimed her.
Banoo leaned forward to allow me to place her on his back while I jumped in a swift move up in the saddle. I held her close to me, trying my best to shake her as little as possible. Banoo headed toward the cave where we had set up camp. The body of the small female was hot and sticky. The temperature dropped fast as night settled over the desert. She still lost water from her body. Holding her close to my chest with one hand, I opened my water skin with the other and tried to give her some. Water should help. All creatures need water.
I opened her mouth with my claw. Her teeth were short and flat, and she did not have fangs. Leaning closer, I sniffed her skin. She smelled sweet and floral. I could barely stop myself from tasting her sweet skin. My tongue wanted to lick her from head to toe, know her, claim her.
As her head tipped back onto my chest, I dripped a little bit of water into her mouth. She swallowed it. She needed more. It warmed my heart to see her drink.
My cock was still rock hard. Her scent and her soft body did things to me that no one ever had before. The small female appeared hurt and weak. Her well-being came first. My hard on had to wait.
She made a few soft noises while drinking. The storm had become worse. I could smell her wound under the strong wind. It was already festering. I lowered my maw to her shoulder as Banoo found his way through the storm. My long tongue pushed the pieces of fabric away that stood between me and her wound. I didn’t get pleasure from what I was about to do, but my saliva had the power to clean wounds and make them heal faster.
I started licking, sucking, and chewing through the pieces of skin that were dead already. Her sweet scent touched my nose as it rubbed against her feverish skin. She remained unconscious. I worried I would scare her if she saw me licking at her wound. It was normal for my people to clean our own wounds in battle or help our comrades if they needed it. I had to remind myself that this small female was from a far away planet. Is she a Goddess? Even her dead skin tasted like the sweetest Ambrosio.
I kept going until I cleaned all the dead tissue from the wound. I kept seal spiders inside my bag in the cave they would close the wound and finish the work I had started.
Banoo had no problem facing the storm. I couldn’t take my eyes from the sleeping beauty’s neck. Why did I find her beautiful? As a purist, I didn’t believe in venturing outside of your species. I never laid with Bastet females. My idea of beauty was an Anubis female, tall, strong, and wrapped in muscles, with long fangs and the typical threads specific to our species. Proud warrior females who could run, hunt, and kill with the best of us. Not like this one. She was small and light, and her skin was pale and soft like a flower petal. She didn’t have a thick hide like the females of my species. I should be disgusted, should consider her prey. But I couldn’t. I wanted her, but in the way a male wants a female.
Only a God could look like this. She smells like heaven and both my heart and my cock desire her deeply.
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