Page 10 of Raven Blackwood
Fortunately, her injuries were not serious.Aside from bumps and bruises, she had sprained her ankle, and she had a concussion, but no more serious brain injury. She would recover with rest and time. Meanwhile, I could bind her ankle and clean her wounds with supplies from my medical kit.
Although I wasn’t a medic, basic first aid was part of our warrior training. The worst cut was the gash on her head. The rest were scratches that just needed to be cleaned. There were a lot of them, so it took quite some time. She hadn’t stirred the whole time I was tending to her. I could only guess how long she might be unconscious. There was nothing else to do but wait.
Since I had very few food stores available, I decided to go back to my hunt and bring home some game so I would have something to feed the woman I had rescued. When I escaped the Mesaarkan base, I packed everything I thought I would need to survive on my own. That included a night vision helmet that would allow me to hunt at night easily.
Checking on my guest one more time, I gathered my weapons and left her in the house alone. While I didn’t hunt often at night, there was a small meadow along the game trail whereI would most likely find mule deer grazing. Moving with practiced stealth along the trail, I traveled to that field in a short time. Just as I hoped, there was a small deer herd grazing there.
With my bow already notched with an arrow, I aimed and released it without hesitation. It was a good shot and a clean kill of a small doe that would feed us for several days at least. As soon as I emerged from the woods, the rest of the herd bounded away.
Picking up the carcass, I carried it away from the field to dress it. By then, I had done it enough times that I could complete the task in minutes. Back in the house, I took it inside and hung it in a small room off the food preparation area.
After pouring some water from the jug by the sink, I washed my hands thoroughly. Then, I went to check on the female human. She seemed to be unconscious or at least sleeping still. Since it was late, I decided to retire to my nest in what I assumed had been a human sleeping area.
I wasn’t exactly in a hurry for her to wake up because I was sure she would not be glad to see me. Humans called us monsters, and I can’t say that I blame them since my kind bombed their world to ruin and decimated their population. Although that happened before Iwas born, it was my race that did the damage.
Granted, the humans struck our kind first, killing two hundred fifty of our settlers on Procyon Two. Another race might have found a diplomatic solution, perhaps punishing those who had done the deed, but not the Mesaarkans. Their revenge was swift and brutal, nearly a genocide of humans on Earth and every other world we found them.
Had they not made the cyborgs to fight us, we might have succeeded. Our Emperor sent us to Earth to get a foothold here just before the ancient Wholaskans negotiated peace between the humans and the Mesaarkans.
During the war, my people had acquired a taste for human pets. So, my division remained on Earth to capture humans to send off to that world, as it was a very lucrative enterprise. I hated it because I was one of the officers in charge of the human captives, and it didn’t seem right to capture and sell sentient beings to be used and abused by my people.
The following day, I woke up and dressed. When I went out to check on the female, she was awake, and she started screaming as soon as she saw me. Although I’d heard such sounds many times before, her shrieking hurt my ears. I finallybellowed, “Enough! I’m not going to hurt you.”
She gaped at me wide-eyed, but at least she had stopped shrieking. “W-who a-are you? How did I get here?”
“I carried you. I found you at the bottom of a ravine, unconscious. You would have died if I had left you there. So, I brought you to my home.”
“What are you going to do with me?” she eyed me warily.
“In a few minutes, I will cook some meat for your morning meal. You are not a captive, but with that ankle, you won’t get far if you try to leave. Perhaps, later, I can look for your horse. Then, when you’re feeling up to it, you can ride home.”
“No, no, I can’t. I don’t have a home anymore.”
Then I thought about it for a moment. “No, I don’t think I can let you go home because if you tell anyone about me, the cyborgs will come after me, and I will be banished. But I can’t go home either.”
Chapter Seven
Ava
Pain was the first thing I noticed when I woke up the next day. A deep, aching throb pulsed through my ankle, sharp whenever I moved. My head wasn’t much better, and a dull pounding behind my eyes made it hard to focus. But what really sent a chill down my spine was remembering that I wasn’t alone.
A shadow loomed over me, too large, too alien to be human. He wasn’t human. He wasn’t even close. My breath caught in my throat as my vision cleared. There was no way to mistake his reptilian features for human. Fine green scales covered his face, and darker green scales covered the parts of his body that I could see.
As he stood over me, his expression seemed to be one of concern rather than menace. His features were sharp, alien, with amber, intelligent eyes studying me beneath a furrowed brow.
I tensed, my fingers clutching the rough fabric beneath me. I had no weapon or means of defense. But he hadn’t hurt me—at least, notyet. In fact, the fire’s warmth, the bandage wrapped neatly around my ankle, and the soft bedding beneath me suggested the opposite. He helped me.
Still, fear prickled along my spine. “Where am I?” My voice was hoarse, dry, and weak.
The alien’s eyes flicked to mine, his expression unreadable. “My dwelling, not far from where your horse left you. You are safe.” His voice was deep, with an odd, musical cadence. Then I remembered waking up before and the shock of seeing him for the first time.
I swallowed hard, trying to sit up, but the movement sent a sharp lance of pain through my skull. I winced, sinking back down. “Who are you?”
He hesitated. “Koha’vek Draal.”
I tried to commit the name to memory, though it felt strange on my tongue. “I need to pee. Does the bathroom work?”
“I can pump water from the sink to flush it.” Although I could understand him, he spoke English, but with an unusual inflection.
