Petroglyph

(Warning: This story contains scenes of violence and also contains incest. If that sound like something you wouldn't enjoy, click the back button) Welcome to the Take It on the Run Author Invitational. Thanks to all the authors and readers. Shout out to the hommies over at Sativa Investigations. Randi.

Chapter One

The small brown form hurried down the path under the overhanging rock face, glancing back over his shoulder nervously as he fled. The horror that he had witnessed lent wings to his feet as ran. Only a few hundred yards ahead was safety. A distant howl behind him sent him scrambling wildly along. His breath was ragged in his throat when he reached the hewn tree trunk leaning against the face of the cliff.

He shouted up as climbed the steps notched in the trunk and three faces appeared over the ledge above. He indicated that they should draw the trunk up as soon as he reached the ledge. At last, he reached the top and threw himself on the ground hauling at the ladder. His companions caught his urgency and began to haul with a will. They had the trunk 20 feet from the ground when the howling figures rounded the shoulder of the rock and sped toward the disappearing ladder. The four companions threw themselves into their task and collapsed panting as the tree rolled free on the ledge.

Howls of rage and frustration rose from the group below. They attempted to scale the sheer face of the cliff, fingers and toes turning red and bloody as the rock repulsed their efforts. One managed to gain foot and hand holds, and climbed up some dozen feet before falling to the ground with a shriek. Its head struck a sharp rock. It spasmed and blood flowed from a wide gash in its forehead. In an instant, its fellows were upon it and unearthly shrieks of agony rose from its throat as it was devoured alive.

Its shrieks were abruptly cut off into a gurgling moan as one of its companions tore into the exposed veins of its neck. As the four companions above watched in horror its struggles ceased and the group fed, thought of the escaped quarry above momentarily forgotten in a frenzy of cannibalism. They fought over the scraps among themselves until the last vestiges of anything edible were gone. They crouched, sated for a moment until movement on the ledge drew their attention. They arose, 15 emaciated figures, hardly seeming human to the four crouched above, and prowled about the bottom of the cliff searching for a way up. One of the men on the ledge timed the passing of a figure and dropped a large rock on it. Bones snapped and the figure, a female, was crushed to the ground with a cry.

The orgy of feeding began again but this time the four watchers saw the group stop in the middle of the grizzly feast and look down the ledge toward the direction from which they had come. A slight but sturdy figure wearing a hideous mask rounded the corner and at once the group below slunk to the ground and retreated before the advance of the figure in the mask.

It walked purposefully forward to the remains of the feast and prodded the bloody figure with its toe. It turned its fearsome visage toward the ledge where the four companions crouched and laughed. They saw that it was female. Large, full breasts were bare and a leather girdle clung to the obvious hips of a woman. She backed away and stood with her hands on her hips, staring upward at the four people on the ledge. She nodded as if a decision had been made and turned to the group below. They shrunk away from her gaze, obviously terrified and one, a teenage boy by appearance, crawled forward, belly to the earth.

The woman drew a stone knife from her girdle, dragged his head back by the long, lank hair and slowly drew the knife across his throat. He flopped and gurgled as blood spurted over her breasts. She cupped a hand under the flow down her body until the hollow of her hand was filled. She stepped to a flat rock and dipped her finger into the blood, tracing a symbol on the face of the stone. The four watchers heard her speaking and when she stepped back, she clutched a stone around her neck on a leather string and pointed upward.

With a shriek, one of the four watchers sprang on the man who had given warning, knocking him from the cliff to the ledge below. Horrified, the other two attempted to flee but they were no match for the howling fury of their companion. The last survived to the door of the adobe house under the cliff before a rock crushed his skull. The survivor made his way to the tree trunk and lowered it to the ledge below. The woman climbed up and inspected her handiwork. She gave a signal and the two remaining bodies were thrown from the ledge and her followers began to feast as she sat cross-legged on the ledge and watched in amusement. Her interest waned and she went inside the house. She washed the blood away with water from a stone jar and made her way back down the ladder. Those who had fled her worship had been punished and she was satisfied. Tomorrow she would return to her temple and learn the location of more of the rebels.

****

Tobin Draper rose from the crouch that was killing her knees and wiped the sweat from her forehead with the red bandanna around her neck. She returned the brush she had been using to the backpack lying on the ground beside the half-buried rock she was excavating and got out a canteen. She drank deeply and allowed the canteen to spill its cool contents across her face. The coolness soaked the collar of her shirt and she felt it drip inside. She lifted the long, coal black hair that hung down her back and wrapped it on top of her head. She got a pin from her pack and stuck it into the knot. The weight of the knot threatened to overwhelm the pin and she inserted two more. She shook her head a little and the knot held. She laughed to herself and got a hoody out of her bag with Stony Brook University written across the front and knelt on it.

The symbol that was being revealed appeared to have been drawn in a reddish or brown paint. It was badly faded and she took several pictures. She had seen several petroglyphs in this section of New Mexico but not one like this. She covered the rock with a drop cloth and staked it down. It was early afternoon but she had a long hike ahead of her. She picked up her backpack and walked along the ledge leading back to the canyon. The sound of rushing water grew into a roar ahead of her and she soon caught sight of the waterfall. She planned to stop and bathe and soak her clothes for the trip back, so she stopped at the head of the rock fall down to the pool below the waterfall and set her pack down. She took off her boots, shirt and shorts and clad only in her panties she rounded the big rock at the head of the pool.

She gave a shriek of dismay as she nearly ran into the man with the fly rod standing in the edge of the pool. She crossed her arms over her breasts and ran back behind the rock, her face flaming. She quickly put her clothes back on and picked up her pack. She was very embarrassed and dreaded going back around the rock but there was nothing to be done. She walked back around the rock and saw that he had moved around the pool some 20 feet and was battling a large fish. He landed a nice rainbow trout and slipped it onto a stringer hanging from the belt loop of his shorts.

He smiled at her and she felt a little better. He looked like he was in his early 20's and his floppy cloth hat shaded a fair complexion. He removed his hat and shoulder length flame red hair tumbled out from underneath. He tied the stringer to a branch and climbed up the rocks toward her. As he approached, she realized that he dwarfed her. He must be at least six five and he looked nearly as broad as he was tall. His arms were like tree trunks and his brown eyes smiled at her.

"Hello," he called. He spoke loudly over the noise of the falls and his voice was a deep bass rumble. "You've got quite a way of introducing yourself." He laughed and it was infectious. "I'm Marley Dolan and I'm sorry I startled you like that. I didn't expect to see a mermaid up here."

She laughed. "Pleased to meet you Marley. I don't usually introduce myself to people in the nude. Only the ones I want to be really embarrassed around for the rest of my life. I didn't expect anyone to be here. We're a hundred miles from town and I was going to go swimming before I started back to the truck."

"Well, it's not a hundred miles to my house," he told her, "and you're welcome to swim. I'll just sit over here on this rock and watch." He laughed again. "What's your name and what are you doing out here?"

"I'm doing research for my Ph. D in anthropology and I was studying some symbols on the rocks up by the cliff houses. I'm Tobin Draper. I'd like to swim but I think I'll keep my clothes on this time," she chuckled. "Won't I disturb your fishing?"

"No, I won't take any more fish out of this hole. I've got four already, two from here and two from downstream. I was just getting ready to head back."

"Well, apparently there are a lot more people around than I thought," she joked. "You want to watch my backpack?"

"I'd still rather watch you, and I think the backpack is safe. Are you going downstream?"

"Yes, why do you ask?"

"I'm going that way, too, for about half a mile. I'll get wet and walk that far with you."

He dove into the pool and swam up under the waterfall. She dropped her things and followed. The roar of the water was very loud and they swam for about ten minutes without talking. She pointed to the shore and he climbed out. He reached out one huge hand and she took it. He pulled and she was on the rock beside him. He turned away as she followed and she sat on a rock, drying her feet with a small towel before putting her socks and boots back on. She put on her backpack while he retrieved his trout, and they walked down the stream together.

"If we cross here there's a trail on the other side," he told her.

She sat down and reached for her boot strings again.

"I've got on sneakers and I'll carry you if you don't want to take your boots off," he told her.

She hesitated and he quickly reassured her. "I'm not trying to hit on you or anything; just being helpful. I'll carry you piggy-back if you'll hold my fish."

"Okay, it's a deal." He crouched and she jumped up, wrapping her legs around him. He pretended to stagger and held on to her behind one knee to keep her astride.

"You got rocks in that backpack?" he joked as he handed her the stringer. He reached around and held her other knee.

"You big clown," she laughed. "You could carry ten of me."

"Yeah, you're pretty light," he laughed. He waded through the shallow water. When they crossed, he turned his back to a flat rock and let her down. He took his fish back and they climbed the five feet up the bank to the trail.

They walked along and he chattered to her as they walked. "I live just about five miles from here. I'm a fifth year senior at the University of New Mexico. I wrestled for the Lobo's until my eligibility ran out last semester. I got a knee twisted toward the end of my junior year and missed a lot of classes and they let me make it up once it healed up. I'll graduate next semester. Where are you from, Tobin?"

"I was raised in Buffalo, New York," she told him. "My parents still live there. Were you raised here?"

"Yep, I've lived here all my life. My dad owned a big ranch over east of here. After he died, Mom sold off most of the land and we only have about 1,000 acres now. We run a few cows and horses. There's just Mom and my little sister and me. I guess she's not so little any more. She's going to New Mexico State but she's home for the summer."

Tobin heard a strange sound off to her right up a small ravine and she turned to look. There was an odd shimmering in the air of the draw. A small human figure peered around a rock and she screamed and jumped back. A rock turned under her foot and she fell. Sparks exploded in her head as it struck the ground and the world spun around her. She felt nauseous. Marley was kneeling beside her.

"You okay, Tobin? Jesus, you're bleeding. What happened?"

"I saw someone in the ravine," she told him.

He turned to look. "There's no one there now. Are you sure?"

"Yes, well no, maybe it was my imagination. Damn, my head hurts Marley. What kind of a name is Marley?"

"Dad was a big fan of Bob Marley and the Wailers. He named me after him. Let me look at you, Tobin."

He cleaned the blood off her face with his handkerchief and some water from his canteen. He held her cheeks between his hands and looked into her eyes. Her soft gray orbs appeared normal but he was concerned with the question about his name in the circumstances.

"I think you have a concussion, Tobin. Can you sit up?"

She sat up and a wave of dizziness swept over her. She turned quickly away and he held her head as she emptied her stomach. He took off her bandanna, wet it with his canteen and cleaned her up. He got in her backpack, took out the towel she had used to dry her feet and poured water over it. He sat cross-legged behind her, laid her back against his chest and bathed her face with the cool towel. Her nausea passed but she feared that if she tried to stand up it would return.

"Where's your truck, Tobin?"

"It's down at the end of the road," she told him.

"That's probably six miles. You aren't going to get there. It's about a mile to mine. I drove down to the edge of the canyon across my land. I can carry you that far, but I'm afraid six miles might as well be on the moon. Will you let me take you to my truck? I'll take you home with me and we can decide what to do from there. My mother is a doctor. She's a cardiologist, but she'll know what to do. Is that okay?"

"Yes, I'm sorry to be such a bother, Marley. I don't know what I'd have done if you hadn't been here. I'll make it up to you somehow."

"Now I know your brains are scrambled," he told her. "I get to carry a mermaid in my arms for a mile and you think it's a bother?"

She laughed and then winced. He picked her up and carried her to her backpack. He managed to pick it and his fish up while holding her and started down the canyon. He turned left in a quarter mile and climbed up a ravine out of the canyon. He was breathing heavily when he reached the top. He set her backpack and the fish down, then sat down on a rock and rested, holding her on his lap.

She rested her cheek against his chest and she could hear the pounding of his heart as it struggled to pump oxygen to his depleted body. Her head throbbed to its rhythm and her eyes grew heavy as she started to drift into a comfortable dream when he noticed.

"Tobin, don't go to sleep," he told her. "I heard somewhere that you aren't supposed to sleep when you hit your head."

"Just for a minute," she murmured. "I'm so tired."

"No," he told her. "Wake up, Tobin. I'm afraid to shake you. Remember when you came around that rock and all you had on were your panties? I remember what color they were."

Her eyes snapped open and her face flamed.

"There, that's better," he laughed. "I'm sorry, I can't let you sleep. If you go to sleep I'm going to look at them again."

"I can't believe you'd use a dirty trick like that," she giggled. "Okay, I'll stay awake and protect myself."

He picked up her bag and the fish and climbed the slope of the canyon. In ten minutes, they saw a yellow Jeep and he soon had her inside. He put the top up and started it, turning the air-conditioning on high before throwing her bag in the back and putting his fish in a cooler of ice.

"I can't believe you hung on to the fish," she told him.

"I can't stand to kill something and not eat it," he told her. "It doesn't seem right."

"I agree," she told him. "It was just a lot of trouble."

He drove slowly east and Tobin moaned occasionally as the rough ride made pain shoot through her head. Before long, they hit a track and he drove faster. It was joined by other tracks and soon became a gravel road. They were climbing steadily and the road wound up toward the mountain ahead. Soon pines began to line the road.

She was feeling very sleepy but the thought of her panties kept her awake until they pulled up in front of a huge log structure. It appeared too large for a house. She thought it must be some sort of lodge. Marley parked in front, went around and opened her door. He reached in and picked her up, then carried her up the front steps and into the house. He kicked the door closed and she found herself in a huge room. It was all wood. The floors were a satin dark wood of some sort and the walls were rough logs. Flights of stairs made of half logs went up each wall to lofts on each either side, and another flight led up to a third level. He carried her to a large sofa and laid her down. He got a pillow and put it under her head.

"Mom, could you come in here please?" he called. "It's kind of an emergency."

A door opened and a tall, willowy woman with dark hair wearing a dark gray dress with her feet bare came sweeping in.

"What's wrong, baby?" she said. Her voice was low and husky and Tobin thought she was beautiful.

"This is Tobin," he told her. "She fell and hit her head on a rock. She threw up, she's been talking a little oddly and she's very sleepy. I was afraid to let her go to sleep."

"I haven't been talking oddly," she protested. "You were the one talking about what color my panties are."

He blushed, "See what I mean?"

His mother glanced at him sharply. "Let me take a look at her."

She pushed him out of the way and looked into Tobin's eyes. She felt the bump on her head and asked Marley to get her a flashlight. She flicked it into Tobin's eyes and seemed satisfied.

"I think you have a concussion, honey. I don't think you have a skull fracture and your eyes react normally. It's okay if you sleep. That's a myth, but we still hear it all the time. Marley should know better. We'll wake you up and check on you every couple of hours, but I think you should rest. Do you need to call someone? I think you shouldn't be moved until you're feeling a lot better. Are you in pain?"

"If you could call the hotel, I told them where I was going and when I'd be back," she said. "The number is in my backpack. My head is throbbing and I think it's making me feel sick. I may need to puke again."

Marley ran and came back with a dishpan and she was sick again. He took the pan away and cleaned it. He came back with an ice pack. He broke it and put it on her head. His mother went back through the door she had come out of and soon returned with a syringe.

"This will make you feel better," she said.

She injected it into Tobin's arm and she felt an immediate rush of relief flood through her.

"Thank you so much, Dr. Dolan. I'm sorry to bother you like this."

"Nonsense; you aren't a bother. You can call me Lila. Do you need a bath before I put you to bed?"

"No, we went swimming. That's when Marley saw my panties," her tongue was growing very thick.

"He's a very bad boy," Lila told her. "I won't let him do it again. Is it okay if he carries you to bed?"

"Yes, he's not really bad. He's been so nice to me. It was my fault and he carried me for miles. I'll just rest my eyes for a minute."

"Take her to the autumn room, Marley."

Tobin felt herself lifted in strong arms and she felt that she was rising through the air. She floated on heavenly softness and she felt her clothes being removed. "No, Marley, don't look," she murmured.

"He isn't here, honey, it's just me. I'm a doctor, remember?"

She smiled as the covers were pulled over her. "Could he come and hold my hand while I go to sleep?"

His mother called him and when he came in, Tobin lifted her heavy lids and smiled at him. She raised her hand to him and he came and sat beside her as she tucked her little hand into his. She pulled him down beside her and rolled onto her side with her arm across him.