A Big Shiny Blue Marble Ch. 29

She grinned after a moment the first time. She imagined that it must be a combination of softness and bristles, of light scratches and mildly intoxicating itches, a feeling which begged to be scratched lightly if it became a little much. How that would feel as he kissed her made her almost want to chuckle at the thought and she also saw his luxurious mustache. That would be another first to feel against her skin.

As long as Cha'Khah engaged in this little kissing fantasy, she decided that she might also like to have him kiss her on the mouth as well.

She'd been within ten feet of him, staring and even warning herself that she was beginning to feel rather smitten. That was the thing, she realized. That she was fascinated, and she even KNEW it as it was happening. It might have told her the degree to which it was happening when the tough and hardened Drow warrior that she was almost laughed out loud at the way that she felt herself becoming as besotted over him as any thirteen year-old human female over a boy that she liked.

She had to back away a little carefully then. She was trading on her ability to disappear, but she knew that humans can sense themselves being watched by another. He moved in her direction once, and Cha'Khah had to levitate away quickly and she watched from a safer distance in case she completed her regression and let out the full-blown, adolescent, chest-heaving sigh that she was certain lurked just around the corner in her.

So that evening, she reported that she hadn't quite managed to solve the issue, but that she'd work at it in the morning.

She spent the next day watching him again, noting that for a human, he was uncommonly strong. It caused her to stare at him as he worked in his heavy clothing, and she wished that she knew what this one male looked like underneath them. She even caught herself then, reminding herself that she didn't like human males.

Then she heard him as he spoke to a yearling calf in the snow and she almost melted at the sound.

She wondered what he'd do if she allowed him to catch a glimpse of her. After all, she knew that many humans held a fair number of fears in the current age and they had good reason to in many cases. Cha'Khah felt a pang of regret then when she thought of how many humans feared the Drow. There were a small number of her kind on the surface, and if they weren't feared, they were usually shunned and looked at with severe distrust because of their legendary skills at quiet murder.

Cha'Khah was more than prepared to concede the point, and for maybe the first time, she also felt a little sad over it, whereas up till now, she hadn't given it a thought. She amended that after a moment of introspection – until this moment, she couldn't have cared less.

But she found herself caring about it now, so she allowed herself to be visible where he might see her if he was one who paid much attention to what went on around him. She was careful and allowed only an instant before she returned to invisibility and floated upward. She watched as he looked around and knew that he'd seen her. She also knew that she'd confounded him a little, because other than their ability to hide by invisibility and the way that they could float for a time, the Drow share many common traits with the other types of elves.

Like all of the elder races, Drow can run on the softest snow and leave no mark.

The next day, she'd allowed him a slightly longer look, long enough to hopefully be certain of what he'd seen, but she found that there was something not quite as satisfying to it that time, because he looked a little upset, and she had the impression that it was not because of what she was.

That evening, she'd followed him home again and she was very glad that she did. It felt a little naughty, but her kind was never bothered by something such as this. She'd gotten to see his body, and she was astounded to find that, not only did she find him attractive; she learned that her fascination ran deeper than she'd have ever been prepared to admit to herself.

She stood in the darkness outside and stared at how different he was from Vadren. She saw a bit of soft hair on his chest, and wondered what was wrong with her. She'd never found hairiness to be the least bit attractive, and look at her now, she thought. At least outside where she was, she could allow herself the tiny sigh which came to her when she thought of running her long dark fingers through that. She wondered how it might feel against her face.

She felt a little wet, and she hadn't even really watched lower than the thin line of hair that led her eye down to, ...

This was beyond belief, she thought. She'd seen males masturbate before, never in a setting where she'd been able to watch with anything more than a feeling of boredom. It had usually happened when she'd been sent somewhere to seek information. She'd even had to hide in a room where it was happening – a guard room where a map was to be found, and she'd had to wait while the guard there pleasured himself. Once he'd finished, he'd left to go on his rounds and then she'd stolen the map.

But this was different. She didn't mind watching the human. It gave her time to appreciate his body while he was naked for a little longer. She'd almost forgotten about the cold completely.

But it was afterward that Cha'Khah had her epiphany. As he'd lain there and pulled a blanket over that fine body, Cha'Khah the soldier felt a longing in her to go to him and if she could only have the second of her sudden wishes, she'd have wanted to pull the blanket up for him and leave him with a kiss as he slept.

It was the first of her wishes that caused her to turn from the window to return to the mountain where she found a quiet out of the way place to please herself and dream of her first wish, feeling more than a little longing that it might come true, but doubting that it would.

-----------------------

"I do not know why, I just like him, "Cha'Khah said to Shaevre in a soft whisper as they watched him sit through his lonely vigil. The pair sat invisible on the hillside, looking down at Barrett as he froze and did his best to guard his herd. Something such as this was not easily done, given that he was looking at steers, and steers were most definitely not like sheep who liked to graze together. It had taken him most of the day to get them somewhere near to his home and then he kept them there by laying out a lot of hay.

"He is nervous and something bothers him," Shaevre replied, "something more than his missing cattle. I would not mind it, Cha'Khah, but he is armed. From what I know of them, these old weapons that they have are like ours, Arrax' and mine, though they are primitive. As you have said it, they spit death, and ... well. I worry for you, my friend."

"I will be careful," the Drowess said, "but if we leave it to me alone, he will never get his money. I will spend the winter out here only watching him. I have never really had less than absolute faith in the way that I look to males. Now I have the strangest hope that I am enough to hold his interest. I have not felt like this since I was a young girl."

She looked and saw the little grin on the Xer's face as Shaevre laid her assault weapon across her lap and nodded "Oh, I have little doubt that your charms are sufficient."

Cha'Khah rose into the air and she landed some distance from him and began to walk as she became visible.

After a moment where Cha'Khah wondered when he'd notice her, Barrett's head turned very slowly toward her. He'd told himself that he wasn't going to give his position away with a sudden movement this time. If he was going to catch the rustlers, he would do it the right way, by using his brain. No sir, he told himself, he was alone here, but he had to keep enough of his cattle, or he'd starve. That lasted until he saw her in his peripheral vision.

Then he snapped his head the rest of the way around toward her and stared.

She was a hundred yards off and walking, a dark figure in a hooded cloak walking toward him in the late afternoon sunlight at the edge of the woods. To him, she seemed rather tall somehow. At this distance, he hadn't noticed yet that she was not sinking into the snow.

Cha'Khah looked at him from under the darkness of her hood and wanted to grin, though she kept her face impassive and friendly in a neutral sort of way. The way that he looked sitting there on his blanket reminded her of the way that Sariel had stared at her the first time that he'd seen her. She wondered if that was a human trait – the way that the good-looking ones gaped at her in such an endearing way. She found it hard not to laugh a little.

She was the only one who heard the quiet little sigh escape her as she walked.

If he stayed on his backside like that, it was going to be so hard not to tousle his hair the way that she loved to do that to Sariel, but then, Sariel was just a small boy.

She was fifty yards away when she allowed her cloak to fall open, revealing the dark Drow armor that she wore underneath. It had been tailored for her by one of the best fitters in her homeland and it hugged her form tightly while allowing free movement and yet providing protection against blades and projectiles. In the underground, it was dull black, the same as anyone else's armor there, but she'd only learned once she'd seen it in the full light of the sun that in daylight – where it was never meant to be – it was really a very deep and dark blue. That was the color of the material. She doubted that even the maker herself knew of this.

It also bore the markings of her house, though they were meant to be subtle in style. It had pleased Cha'Khah the very first time that she'd cleaned it using human saddle soap that the dye was removed from the markings and what was left beneath came out - again, only in full sunlight – as pale yellow lines which contrasted rather well with the blue, though one had to be fairly close to see them. In the dark, she was as hard to see as ever, but in the light of the sun, seeing it for the first time, Cha'Khah had laughed.

What she'd paid for had been fighter's armor, and that was what she'd gotten, the finest and toughest that could be made, but it was only here on the surface, after so long that she'd learned the truth.

This armor had originally been commissioned by the Matron of the house herself when she was younger and ready to begin her fight to the top. That had never happened though. The way had been cleared by a little crafty murder instead, and this armor had never been sold. The maker had only kept it along with the commissioning fee, and seeing that Cha'Khah was very near the same size and build as the Matron had been then, she'd fitted it for the young fighter and re-dyed it carefully. Cha'Khah had gotten armor far better than she'd ever have been able to afford and the maker had gotten paid twice for the same armor.

Barrett stared, not really believing his eyes. He'd never seen anything like this woman, and that was before. Now, he was well into being astounded, feeling awe and wonder as well. He wasn't sure, but she looked to be wearing some sort of armor, from the little that he could see. He'd never seen armor before, other than in some really old books one time, and this didn't look much like that. From what he knew, armor clanked and clattered. She wasn't making a sound.

His eyes went to her long legs and then he noticed that she was wearing high boots. His mouth began to fall open as she walked in long strides. The cloak was open, and even so, it hid a lot of her from his view, but he'd never ever seen a woman strut like that- not in his life.

Cha'Khah was having an increasingly difficult time holding her expression as she walked to him. There was a word that she was trying to remember because the way that he looked to her like this reminded her so much of Sariel when he was in awe of something. It wasn't just that, she knew. It was him. He just looked so good to her. She couldn't get over it and that amazed her. For the first time in her life, Cha'Khah just liked a male – who she didn't know at all, really – so much that she was infatuated, and it came as both a shock to her as well as an absolutely wonderful feeling in her breast.

For the most part, Cha'Khah had been like any other Drow female in the way that she'd been raised. Males were little more than annoyances, mostly. They were considered stupid and rather vapid creatures, though their strength came in handy occasionally and she'd found a very few who were good to fuck with now and then – as long as they knew their place.

Her view had changed over time little by little. She didn't like the way that she was treated herself in Drow society, and once that feeling had taken hold in her, it wasn't long before she really started looking around, and then she saw that she didn't like the way that half of the population was kept under the same gritty heels of the few privileged and nasty old cunts who were the only real beneficiaries of the whole show. She might not have had much use for males, other than the one thing, but they didn't deserve to be beaten and whipped if they raised their eyes from the ground.

Once she'd really gotten to know and sleep with her distant cousin Vadren more than a few times, she came to know things about males a little more, such as the way that if they had a brain and a heart, they tended to keep their feelings hidden away. Her revelation that male hearts were the same as female ones had astounded her.

Only the armor that they built over those hearts was different, that was all. But you had to find one whose heart wasn't hidden away completely yet, and he had to have that brain as well, or they were like cattle if they were a little meek, or dull and even cruel brutes if they weren't.

She found her gaze wandering over him as she walked. There were those thoughtful gray eyes again, a little wider, certainly, but that didn't matter. And there was that sandy brown hair that she found herself wanting to run her fingers through – something that she doubted that many females of her kind ever found themselves wanting to do. All Drow had white hair. Since she'd come topside, she'd learned to appreciate the different colors and varieties of the inhabitants.

She still didn't like human males, but she now couldn't imagine one with a nicer shade of hair, well, other than the white-blonde shade of Sariel's long hair, but then he was the child of a pair of half-demons. She sighed to herself again. This one kept his hair shorter. It was a little overgrown now here in the mountains, but she could tell that he liked his hair shorter.

She even liked that.

The word that she'd sought came to her at last. It was something that she'd heard her friend Rachel say now and then and it was sometimes used in appreciation of the appearance of someone of the opposite gender. It could be used as a term of endearment as well and that was how she'd first heard it, when Rachel had used it to address her son, but she'd also used it almost as a form of categorization of the type of male that appealed to her.

Well now, Cha'Khah thought that it certainly applied to this male, if she understood the terms of its use correctly and she hoped that she might get a chance to hear Rachel's appraisal.

The way that Rachel would say it, he was 'a cutie, pure and simple'.

Cha'Khah decided that she was close enough now to maybe try to use what she'd been given in a way other than to stop an opponent in his tracks so that she could kill him. That was the furthest thing from her mind now. She just hoped that he might like her enough to get past their differences. She reached up and pulled her hood back, giving her head a shake to free her hair as she smiled at him.

He jumped to his feet and sank to his knees in the snow.

He was amazed that this apparition could make a sound at all, never mind the slightly saucy bit of laughter that he heard from her now.

She was so beautiful, he thought. He blinked over and over, but she still walked on, getting closer. His heart seemed to have hit his ribs and he was sure that the snow up over his knees was all that held him up now. Her snowy white hair was in a topknot, and even so, he could see from the front where it spilled over her apparently armored breasts that it must hang past her backside if the topknot were undone. But that wasn't what held his gaze now.

It was her long ears.

They protruded through her hair like an elf's ears would. He'd seen elves before, and none of them - male or female - would even give him the time of day. Why in the world would she smile at him? This one was black. He'd never met one of those before, but he'd sure heard tell of them. He tried not to let what he'd heard get in the way, but as far as he knew, the only time that they smiled was just as they were killing you.

His eyes flicked to another detail in this. She'd been far off when he'd first laid eyes on her and he hadn't looked away the whole time.

She hadn't made one track in the snow.

He had his old rifle in one hand and his other hand was in his pocket, holding a thin object. Looking it over and given the spotty second-hand talk that was all the information available to him, he didn't like it one bit. He didn't want to, ... Lord, he really didn't want to do this, but he was all alone here, and all that he knew was that these people moved quicker than lightning and could kill a man silently as soon as blink at him.

Barrett Ransom cursed himself again. It came to him as only fitting somehow that he'd seen his own personal goddess now, right here in the flesh. She was wearing some sort of armor, right down to well-articulated gauntlets which plainly showed him that inside them were long and probably lovely graceful and slender fingers. She had long legs that a part of him now wanted nothing more than to feel around his body in the dream that he knew would never happen to him.

He'd seen his goddess and she was here to kill him for his cattle.

"That's close enough, Miss," he said, trying his very best not to sound like the asshole that he thought he must appear to be to her. But she didn't appear to have understood him. That forced his decision.

The fingers of his right hand released what was there and he moved his hand to hold the gun with both. He knew full well that he was probably being stupid again, but that was alright, he decided. It was likely going to be the last time in his life that he was going to be stupid.

He felt a little relieved about that as he raised his Daddy's old rifle and worked the lever. Maybe she'd understand this. He sure hoped that she'd stop.

He watched her pretty oval eyes widen in alarm as her mouth opened.

"No!" she said, "No please, wait!"

He was nowhere near getting the old Winchester up to his shoulder yet. In the sticky slowness of this, he knew somehow that he wouldn't have time for it. He saw her lovely arm move to her cloak, one of two arms that he'd have loved to feel around his neck a little tenderly in that stupid daydream of his, the stupid thoughts of a backwoods idiot who was going to die over some cows.

He heard a strange shout and a metallic sound come to him from up the slope to his left, not far off. The words of the goddess changed slightly as she disappeared into thin air. It didn't sound so much as though she was saying 'no' anymore.

Cha'Khah was running out of time. She'd heard Shaevre cock her assault weapon and knew with chilling certainty that would come next. She'd seen for herself the way that Shaevre had fought down six of her own kind and one demon in only a few minutes.

They'd been in different places and had fought different wars, they looked nothing like each other, but there was one deadly trait that they shared. Just like Cha'Khah, ...