Radiance Ch. 08

Gregory looked up at the large male claw and tried to smile a brave smile but Seven could see easily that he was still pretty scared, suddenly out of nowhere he felt a gentle nudge on his back and the soft clang of metal from his armour, looking up he noticed Visa had appeared to his side also.

"Do not be afraid in here Seven, I will protect you" she said softly but trying to sound confident, this confused Seven as to be fair thanks to his power armour he really hadn't been feeling any kind of fear as that odd sense of disconnection was there, it took him a moment and some quick hand gestures from Wisp to make him realise that she was trying to impress him.

"Umm thanks, Visa I appreciate it, I'm sure with you around nothing is going to try taking us on because who in their right mind wants to tangle with a big strong claw-like you," he said as he caught sight of Wisp miming 'Go on' movements with her hand before doing what appeared to be her version of a thumbs up.

He seriously couldn't believe this was happening, it was like his life had wound up in some kind of sci-fi romance novel or something, I mean where else was a non-corporeal human girl inside a robot's body going to try and help him romance a seven and a half foot tall sentient reptile woman?

But it seemed to work as Visa smiled proudly and puffed out her chest which kinda showed off her chest swells to the point that Seven had to force himself not to look because his headlamp highlighted what he was looking at.

"Indeed and I'm glad you see that Seven, it shows what I believed about you, that you are both a male of good taste and humility, who knows that it is not only a male that can be strong and do the protecting but that females are equally capable in that area as well, this shows your good character," she said proudly.

The group continued into the caves until they found what they believed would be a good campsite, it was a circular hollow with what appeared to be the remnants of human ancestry to it, straight away both Wisp and Seven's headlamps picked out cave paintings like those done by cavemen thousands of years ago, but these appeared to be far more recent, they seemed to depict the bombs falling and destroying everything.

Seven spotted something and pointed to it, "Hey look at this, I think this was done by kids" he said and they all looked at him and then what he was pointing at.

There appeared to be a painting of a large group of small figures about thirty or so and two large ones, all blatantly human, it showed the two large figures taking the smaller ones into the caves when the bombs were falling, it showed them living in the caves and the large figures teaching the smaller one's things, then the large ones seemed to get sick and die.

The small figures then had to fend for themselves, it showed them using the caves and surviving until they got to be big themselves and then it showed them leaving the caves for what they hoped was a bright future by the last picture showing them all walking into the sun.

"Wow the war created a whole new caveman-like civilization," Wisp said.

"I wonder what happened to them, I mean there have always been nomad tribes around here ever since I can remember, the Legion tries to hunt them down to make them into slaves and now and then they succeed but most are really good at hiding," Gregory said.

"Well they certainly made use of this place, there are two sub hollows branching of this one, one leads to kind of pool room which is filled by natural underground river creating a kind of natural bath and water source, the other if basically a natural latrine, its a hole the drops down into the same water source but much further down, so any waste would not only be broken down but filtered out by the rock without either tainting their drinking or bathing water, a smart choice really," Ven said appearing out of one of the two narrow tunnels branching off the hollow.

"Yeah and by the look of that there that makes a natural chimney for a fire to light and warm the cave," Seven said pointing to a natural indent in the side of the main hollow with the remnants of a fire still set into it.

There was more evidence of the dwellers that had lived here as well in the form of old decaying bedding made from animal furs and a variety of grasses that had been left behind when they left, Seven couldn't help but feel slightly nostalgic at this scene, it was like a very old and primal part of his brain had resonated with it, like incredibly distant memories locked within his DNA had come alive at his exposure to this, like a man with a warrior lineage in his distant past who has never held a bow in his life picking one up and his body instantly knowing what to do without instruction, a form of highly evolved instinct.

There was a third tunnel that leads out from the water hollow and they all guessed this had been their escape route if something somehow found them, they appeared to have made some kind of primitive doors to block up the tunnels made from rocks and a wooden support from which could be slotted perfectly into the entry tunnel effectively sealing it but also acting like a kind of camouflage as it looked like a rock slide in a way, it was pretty smart because only getting right up to it would you realise the deception.

It was also pretty heavy and as Seven moved it and he heard his power armour's servos whirring like crazy he found a whole new respect for the kids who had built it and used it to protect themselves.

"How's the power level on that battery going Seven?" Wisp asked suddenly as Seven stepped back dusting his metallic hands-off, he glanced at the guage and found himself rather surprised considering the suit had been in motion pretty much all even and night.

"Not even down to three quarters yet, hell I'd gauge its just shy of having used five per cent of its charge," he said and Wisp nodded her head approvingly.

"Well to be fair it is a nuclear battery, I mean who in their right mind would think that a battery that uses nuclear fusion to produce energy would run out quickly? That's just silly" she said and Seven nodded in agreement, this was true considering the amount of energy that fusion produced even a small thing like this should run for absolute ages.

Seven placed the armour behind the door to further add to the makeshift barricade as the thing could only be pushed into the cave and not pulled out thanks to two large logs that stuck out of either side to act as a brace, so with the extra weight of the armour added to it it would be almost impossible to move.

Seven stretched himself out raising his arms above his head and when he relaxed he found Visa gazing at him and when he met her gaze she quickly looked away before glancing back a few times in what looked like the claw equivalent of shy eye.

Her brother noticed it as well and an evil grin appeared on his face, "You know dear sister after all that trooping around in the dust, sand and dirt it would probably be a good idea to make use of that bathing pool wouldn't you agree?" he said, his statement seemingly caught Visa off guard and she nodded.

"Yes, a bath would be nice, my scales are beginning to itch from all the dust that's working under them," she said and now Ven nodded.

"Good then its agreed, so you go take a bath first and get your favourite human to help you then I'll have one later while me, Wisp and Gregory start preparing a meal," he said both Visa and Seven's heads both snapped around to face him wearing the same shocked look, then at each other than at him again.

"W-W-What!?" they both stammered in perfect unison and now Wisp jumped in too.

"Oh, that's a splendid idea Ven! I saw some candles in that bathing pool room, I'll go light them then those two can have a nice relaxing bath together and Seven can scrub Visa's back and visa versa, hey you gotta take every opportunity that comes right? Wouldn't want to piss fate off when he's offering us such an obvious chance right?' she exclaimed her voice echoing off the tunnel walls as she ran into the bathing chamber to light the candles.

Seven's heart was going a mile a minute, his throat seemed to have closed up and his senses seemed to be miss firing like an electrical storm was going on in his head and by the look on Visa's face the same thing was happening to her, she looked seriously conflicted, but before either of them could muster up enough brainpower to form an argument against it Wisp reappeared having lit the candles and both himself and Visa had been grabbed by both Ven and Wisp and both were steered into the bathing chamber at the end of the long rock tunnel, "And don't come back till every inch of both of you is thourghaly clean and I mean squeaky clean" Ven said and with that he vanished, leaving both Visa and Seven stood alone together in a now candlelit room.

The bathing room was basically a surprisingly deep rock pool fed by what looked like a mini waterfall that ran down the wall of the cave and vented out through another little gully on the other side of it, it wasn't huge and while either of them could fit comfortably inside it both of them would basically be pressed together at all times especially with Visa being so large.

Suddenly the big fiery female claw had gone from large apex killing machine predator to nervous schoolgirl again and was ringing her claws and shifting from one foot to the other constantly, "Well I err umm this wasn't my idea but it umm seems like it would be err a waste of an opportunity to get to know each other err I mean get clean together err I mean if you want to that is if you don't that's fine I'll just....." Visa began to ramble.

Seven couldn't help but be utterly enamoured with her complete flip in demeanour and personality, it was actually incredibly comforting to know that there were things that utterly rattled the incredibly confident apex predator just like simple things seemed to do to him, so sucking up his reservations and inhibitions he decided to take a leap of faith, plus if it didn't work he probably wouldn't live long enough to care anyway as she'd probably take his head off his shoulders with a single swipe of those claws of hers.

So Seven stepped forwards holding a deep breath and place a very nervous hand on the big female claw's arm and looked up at her in the soft yellow candlelight which made her look even scarier than usual as it gave her maw a kind of grinning demonic skull like effect, "I'd be honoured to take a bath with you Visa, I mean how many other humans could say they got to bathe with a strong powerful claw such as you?" he said trying to reassure her as well as bolster her confidence.

"You would!? Err I mean of course you would! Yes! Indeed it is an honour for a human-like you to bathe with me and it is an honour that I being the noble claw that I am will grant you Seven, so please, disrobe and let us bathe" Visa said in a voice that sounded like a machinegun on full auto.

Seven smiled as Visa's demeanour changed yet again and he chuckled softly to himself, but then his heart froze, bathing meant disrobing, that meant naked, naked in front of her.

Seven swallowed hard wondering why in the name of hell he was suddenly so incredibly nervous, it wasn't like he hadn't been naked in front of a female countless times before, but that had always been forced, it hadn't been his choice at all, but now this was different, this was a female he actually liked, this was someone he trusted, someone that he was somehow attracted too, someone who's opinion mattered to him a great deal.

So somehow with her, it made it all different, it was like a little voice in his head was screaming for her approval, like the mere thought of her being disgusted or disliking what she saw filled him with dread.

But Seven sucked it up and with a deep breath, he turned his back to her and slowly began to remove his clothing, piece, by piece, by piece, till there was nothing left to remove and he stood there as naked as the day he was born, with another incredibly deep breath he steeled his jangling and fraying nerves before finally turning around to face her.