TBT - Alien Interludes: Hunted

At the border between the native trees and ytasos, she paused.  The forest before her was more welcoming with its canopy of red, blue, orange, green and yellow leaves.  The blue-gray bark of the trees was smooth and the ground, carpeted by fallen leaves and free of ytaso roots, was soft.  The lovely beckoning of the treescape was a false promise, however.  If her pursuer was behind her, he’d take her in these woods.  And she knew exactly what would happen then.

She knew because he’d once whispered his threats as he pinned her helpless against a wall.

“I would like to set you free in the forest and let you run from me.  I would like to hunt you like prey, to follow your scent, to sense your fear as I draw close.  I will chase you down, throw you to the ground…”

She made herself stop hearing the growling voice in her head.  It threatened to overwhelm her.  Her legs were shaking and she had the urge to sink to the earth and give up.

Amelia swallowed and looked about.  Nothing moved.  No sign of pursuit.  She didn’t trust it though, not one little bit.  But there was nothing to do but continue on and hope for the best.

She entered the cool forest, the castoff leaves rustling softly under her feet.  The going was much easier, but she left subtle traces of her passage, traces the Nobek would follow easily.  She needed to hurry.

Amelia allowed herself to break into a trot.  She was headed upwards now, the incline slight but enough to make her calves burn with the effort.  The forest slid by, and she thought she just might make the harder-to-track terrain of the Dagoonda Plain after all.

Then a growl rolled through the silent wood, a heart-shattering bestial noise that should have never come from any intelligent being’s throat.  It was so deeply primitive that Amelia felt it rumble in her bones.

He’d found her.

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This is the story that started the whole compilation off.  A couple of readers, tantalized by a passage in Alien Embrace, specifically asked for this tale.  I liked the idea, so I went for it.  And once Hunted was written I thought, why not check in with all the major characters in all the books?  A short story collection was born.

Amelia swallowed the panic in her throat as she hurried through the forest.  The choking knot of emotion lodged in her chest, making her heart pound harder than her pace warranted.  She navigated the woods with care but went as quickly as possible.  She had a two-hour head start on the hunter, but when one was stalked by a Kalquorian Nobek, two hours wasn’t much of a buffer.

She’d walked these Kalquorian woods innumerable times with her three mates and their twins.  She loved the patchwork quilt of jewel-toned leaves of the trees overhead, the springy ground that seemed to cushion her feet, the bright cheerful songs of drils, small blue Kalquorian reptiles that nested high in the trees.  But today she was on her own and running from a cunning and ruthless hunter, one of Kalquor’s best.   She knew his savagery, knew him for the predator he was.  She’d seen one of his victims, his throat torn out from the brute’s fangs.

Her Imdiko mate Flencik, as big as he was gentle, had warned her only this morning, “Nobeks are set off by prey in flight.  Never let one see you running from them.  It brings all their primal instincts to the fore.  Stand your ground.  Fight back.  Believe it or not, you’re less likely to get hurt that way.”

And the leader of their clan Rajhir had added, not very usefully, “Swinging big sticks or throwing heavy rocks would help.  Or maybe it will just make him mad.”

Her mates were miles away now, having taken the twins to the pink-sanded beach close to their home.  No doubt laughing at the babies’ cheerful antics while Amelia dashed through the woods with a stalking brute on her trail.