Page 20 of Asmodel

Ozevroc? Oh, that must be the name of those furry little aliens who forced her into the small spaceship. Wait, didn’t he just say he hadn’t found anything? Izzy glanced around at the thick foliage. Why would he say that?

“Okay, I’ll meet you then.” Jaltaar poked the collar again, and she became the focus of his attention. “Stay here and don’t move. I promise I’m not going far, but if anything approaches you, shout.” He pulled an arrow from the quiver strapped to his back and placed it on the bow with a solid grip of his claws to ready it to use.

Izzy nodded and leaned back against the solid bark. “No worries.” Taking a deep breath, she chuckled. “I’m not going anywhere.”

All at once, the last few moments caught up with her. It wasn’t every day a person survived an alien kidnapping, was held in prison with four other women, got kidnapped again and then woke up on an alien planet getting rescued by a formidable cat-man. She shivered, pulled her knees up and wrapped her arms around them, rested her chin there, and stared at nothing.

The world was silent except for a soft breeze rustling the feather-leafed trees, causing them to sing an exotic song.

Izzy didn’t pay attention to the muffled sound of Jaltaar’s footsteps walking away. She closed her eyes as tears gathered and rested her forehead on her hard knees, trying to grapple her careening emotions.

The back of her neck prickled. She lifted her head and looked around. She searched through the small bushes covered with strange colorful flowers and fruits that mingled with the earthy musk of the moss-covered ground. With a tilt of her head, she strained to hear anything that might be coming close. Glancing left and right, she noticed nothing different. Except… there. In the thick bushes on her left she swore there was a pair of large, midnight-blue eyes sprinkled with lighter blue and silver spots surrounding a vertical black pupil that held the universe in their depths. They peeked at her between the foliage.

“Um, Jaltaar person…” Izzy’s voice came out a rough whisper. She cleared her throat and sat straight. Keeping her gaze locked on those mesmerizing eyes, she didn’t dare blink. Pushing up with her hands behind her, she stood on shaking legs.

The round eyes now were at her level and moved closer. Holy cow, she was being stalked.

“Jaltaar?” Look at her, talking like a normal person. The wobbly terror in her tone was hardly noticeable. Not like someone who was about to be eaten by some vicious alien monster. The darn thing crept closer, making it easier to see pointed ears, slightly larger than a human’s, twitching as they moved. Between those ears was a fur-covered forehead, a lush velvety texture in a deep, rich shade of midnight blue, a perfect canvas for the array of orange strips lining long fur in harmony.

Too stunned to move, Izzy’s mouth dropped open as a wondrous figure emerged from the thick bushes. It was a cat-woman. No, not a cat, but a sleek, graceful panther standing on two legs wearing a form-fitting outfit that enhanced her curvy, human-like figure. A string of coils covered her neck and had to be made of some kind of brass or gold, etched with exotic symbols and figurines. On the outside bottom of her wide, pyramid-shaped ears were metallic bars that glinted against her thick head of dark midnight-blue hair that flowed down her back. Izzy got the impression that instead of decorations, they were some type of communication devices.

And in a tight grip, the cat-woman held a long pole lodged in the ground, the tip of a spiked ball pointed up at the same height as the female’s head.

This was one lady Izzy didn’t want to mess with.

“Talira!”

Jaltaar's masculine roar made Izzy jump.

In a blur, his form raced toward them, his short dark-blue fur gleaming with black-and-deep-green highlights as he raced toward the female.

“Jaltaar!”

The female ran in his direction, sprinting with strong, muscular legs that made the distance between them evaporate. With a joyful cry, she leaped at him, landed with her legs wrapped around his trim waist, and gripped her arms around his thick neck.

Izzy’s eyes widened when she noticed neither one of them had dropped their weapons in their eagerness to be together.

Dual purrs filled the air as the two felines nuzzled and scraped the sides of their muzzles together. A few light licks here and there as they rubbed their faces together and entwined their tails around each other.

The beauty of their obvious heartfelt love brought tears to Izzy’s eyes. That’s all she’d wanted when she left Earth. To find a deep and abiding love like that. Too bad that dream more than likely wouldn’t happen now.

Izzy did her best not to make a sound and interrupt the lovers’ reunion, but her deep sigh escaped as she watched the joyful reunion between Jaltaar and the female he called Talira. Even though the sound was barely a whisper, they must have heard her because they broke apart and glanced at her.

“Golly.” She put a hand over her heart. “I didn’t mean to interrupt.”

The two lovers looked at each other with a smile. A brief nuzzle at the side of their snouts blended their whiskers together.

Talira dropped her legs from Jaltaar’s waist and gripped his upper arms. With one hand she petted between his ears.

His purr rolled louder.

“Is this the human you told me about?” Her voice came out as a sensual rumble.

He preened into her caress with eyes half shut. “Yes, and unfortunately, we don’t have much time.” He took her paw and brought her middle claw to his lips for a light lick. “My team will soon be here, and there’s something I need to show you—” He nodded in Izzy’s direction. “—and her. It’s imperative you both know what’s at stake.”

He pulled a rectangular steel box from one of the side pockets in his pants.

It was a marvel of alien engineering that seamlessly blended art and technology. Sleek and elegantly crafted, its surface shimmered with a subtle luminescence that captured and played in the dappled light filtering through the forest canopy.

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