Radiance Ch. 24

When Riss had awoken shed found Runs laid out on top of her stroking her scales very gently and the first words out of his mouth when she'd opened her eyes were "You are most beautiful creature I ever see in whole life."

It had made her heart soar on the breeze like a bird, if it felt this good just to simply love someone and to touch them what was it going to feel like to be truly one with them?

All she knew was she utterly couldn't wait to find out.

So while the team had been getting ready to move out with Visa fussing like crazy over Seven and Gregory fussing like crazy over Ven, Runs had quickly checked and changed the bandages on both Riss's hands and feet, this had intensified the happy rattle her tail had been playing all morning, no matter how many times she'd tried to stop it in case it began to annoy the others ten seconds after she made a conscious effort to silence it, it simply started up again.

It also seemed that Runs knew exactly what her happy little rattle meant as well because he just kept smiling his radiant smile at her which only made her rattle even more.

Soon enough though she had to silence it because they were ready to move out and she had to get her game face on, they were on Runs home turf now but the way he described it it was far from safe, they needed to be alert and on guard and it most certainly wouldn't do to have her announcing their approach by rattling her happy arse all the way down the valley.

Once Seven had strapped himself back in his metal suit and given Visa final thumbs up to try and put some of the fussing female claw's worries to rest they exited the cave and Riss instantly had her breath taken from her lungs, this place was utterly beautiful.

In the true light of the day, they could now truly see the sheer radiant beauty of Zion, the contrasts of the red rocks of the canyon walls with all the greens and vibrant colours of the canyon floor was utterly breathtaking.

Insects buzzed from plant to plant seeing nectar and pollen, birds sang happily to themselves and their flock mates in the trees, animals wandered carefree among the trees all around them, in this place it was like the war had never happened and the world was the way it was supposed to be.

Runs took the lead with Riss falling in behind him as he led them through branching valleys of the canyon floor, she could see how easy it would be to get lost in a place like this with endless nature all around you, as beautiful as it was she could also see a distinct danger to it.

They passed a burbling stream which seemed to be coming out of the canyon wall, both Visa and Ven stopped to take a drink from it as to not waste their water supply and both of them looked utterly shocked when they tasted it.

"T-T-This is is incredible! T-This water is pure! No radiation or impurities in it at all!" Ven exclaimed.

"Wait you can taste radiation?" Gregory exclaimed and the big claw nodded his large horned head.

"Yeah we claws have very sensitive taste buds, why do you think you taste so incredibly good to me my sweet human?" Ven purred softly looking at his man with a sultry look that Riss knew would be making the shy little human blush crimson under his suit.

"N-Not what we were talking about Ven" Gregory stammered and Ven growled softly grinning at him.

"Sorry I just can't resist teasing you, pity that damn suit of yours blocks all the pretty colours I know you've gone right now, oh well just more excuse for me to peel it off you inch by inch later on, but in true answer to your question all claws can taste it, it's so intrinsically ingrained into our DNA at this point that it makes it easy to notice if it is missing, it doesn't exactly have a taste par say, more like you simply notice it is not there, like tasting your food and thinking it is missing something like salt" Ven explained.

Gregory nodded in understanding and rubbed his chin thoughtfully, "That could mean the humans that live here not to mention the wildlife could be far less mutated than just about anywhere else, this place could be instrumental in helping the world recover from this one day, once the radiation dies down in future generations scientists could use the DNA of the species here to correct mutations of those from all around here, like an Ark of sorts" he said.

"Is world truly that bad?" Runs asked curiously.

"How far have you gone from Zion before?" Seven asked looking at the young man.

"Just city of dead white men no further" Runs said and Seven nodded.

"Thought so, the world out there is incredibly different from what you know here, what you saw in the city is just the surface Runs, there is a hell of a lot of scary shit out there, the creatures of the world have been changed by the environment and it has created all sorts of things like giant killer hornets or giant scorpions, in short, the world is a fucking scary place but its what we have right now but that's not to say it can't be a lot better," Seven said.

This obviously disturbed Runs who was rather quiet as they continued on the trail through the valley, suddenly he froze and held up a hand to everyone to stop them, "What's up?' Seven asked.

"I hear something," he said before dropping to his knees and planted his ear to the ground, he seemed to rotate around the rock he had his head on until it seemingly lined up with the direction of the sound before he pointed in that direction.

"Something large comes from that way, I's thinks it is a group," he said worriedly.

"Everyone hide let's get a look at who is coming," Seven said and the group quickly scattered into the thick undergrowth, both claws managed to find big enough trees to hide behind while Gregory just vanished from sight by crouching down.

Seven managed to find a large bush large enough to hide both him and Wisp behind it while both Riss and Runs scaled a nearby tree to hide among its branches.

Riss quickly activated her camouflage as she perched herself upon the branch and she flicked her tongue to try and catch the scent of the oncoming strangers and caught the scent of human floating on the breeze this wasn't her own human either, she knew his scent very intimate at this point.

Just moments later a group of eight armed men appeared and they seemed to be leading two bound and gagged prisoners along with them in the centre of their loose circle.

The men were natives just like Runs but unlike Runs they were covered in white paint especially their legs, these must be the infamous White Legs that Runs had spoken of when they had first met him.

Suddenly she heard a soft growl from her beautiful male, "Those two women are from my village!" he hissed in a low voice that only Riss heard, instantly this set Riss's anger surging and her tail began to rattle.

This sound the group did catch and they stopped dead to begin looking around themselves before they had the chance to even blink Wisp and Seven burst out of the bush both levelling their weapons on them.

"Get your fucking hands up and get on the fucking ground NOW!!!!!" Seven roared levelling his laser rifle right on the head of the nearest White Leg to him.

Riss noticed both Ven and Visa moving now as well but they were moving a lot slower and quieter as they circled around behind the group, so she followed suit jumping down and closing the gap to the nearest one to her in only a few strides.

The man that Seven had his weapon trained on didn't even hesitate, he draw his bowstring and fired at Seven who simply didn't even flinch as the arrow bounced harmlessly off his power armour.

"Seriously dude? Well ok then" Seven and without a shred of pity for the kidnapping, fuck shot him right between the eyes.

Riss was honestly shocked by this reaction, she'd seen Seven fight before but this was basically an execution, the man's head snapped backwards as the laser bored a smoking hole clean through his skull vaporising his brain as it passed right through causing his eyes to burn to red ash which was taken away by the slight breeze.

"Anybody else?" Seven said to which all of them drew their bowstrings while aiming at him, this time none of them hesitated, Riss grabbed the arms of the man nearest to her and struck forwards to fast he never had the chance to flinch before she sank her fangs into his neck and hit him with a full dose of her venom which caused his eyes to roll right up into his head and he dropped to the ground frothing at the mouth, Riss knew he'd be dead in less than two minutes after a dose like that.

Both Visa and Ven impaled a pair of them from behind with their claws and hoisted them into the air as the long claws punched right through them, to her right Runs struck fast and without mercy sticking his long obsidian knife right through the throat of the man nearest him.

Wisp opened fire and before the rest of the group even had a chance to move a muscle her twin Gattling guns utterly shredded the lot of them save for the prisoners who were the only ones left standing and by the fear written all over their faces they had absolutely no idea what they were witnessing.

To his credit Seven never even hesitated, he strode forwards to them holding his now empty hands up to them to show he meant no harm to the utterly terrified human females, "It's ok, it's alright we're not going to hurt you" he said.

But both were utterly terrified and began to back away from him but both Visa and Ven who had cleaned their claws quickly secured them as the pair began to scream into their gags, well that was until Runs stepped out in front of them and began to speak to them rapidly in his native language as he cut their bonds.

Whatever he said managed to calm the two young females down, the pair looked no older than their mid-teens which infuriated Riss and by the sickened looks on the faces of the others in the group them as well, it didn't take a genius to work out what the men had intended to do to their captives.

"They understand that yous is friends and will not hurt them now" Runs said finally after he spoke to the pair at length.

"Wassss thosssse the White Legsss of which you sssspoke my love?" Riss asked and Runs nodded solemnly.

"Yes, theys is evil, they kill my people, steal our women, defile and kill them if they will not come willingly, kill our men and boys without mercy and defile our dead so they not know the peace and joy of the spirits" Runs said bitterly.

"Don't worry Runs we've put a fucking stop to these bastards, these kidnapping, murdering fucks are going to pay for this I swear to you" Seven said in a very dark sounding voice.

The two females were both incredibly scared and stuck close to Runs as the group headed back to their village, they were constantly glancing between the strange group all around them, but to be fair Riss could understand their fears, it was every day you get saved from raping murdering fucks by two Deathclaws, a sentry bot, a NightStalker and a power armoured human.

The village was atop a large hill that had good sightlines all around it was hidden from view by the plethora of trees encircling it, Riss could smell the humans long before they began to appear out of the bushes and the trees.

"Alright, people-friendly faces on and keep your hands out and up so they can see we mean them no harm, Runs if you wouldn't mind please," Seven said and her beautiful male nodded and as their group stopped dead at the edge of the village wall which was made up of huge logs sunk into the ground he walked forwards taking the two girls with him.

Armed men and women came flooding out of the village to surround both the girls and Runs, as they did Riss felt her heart began to beat faster, even though she knew these were his people Riss didn't like not being able to see her male and it put her very much on edge, suddenly a huge clawed hand appeared on her shoulder making her jump.

"Easy sister your human is fine, he is home here remember this, we are the strangers in this place but worry not he will be back in your arms where he truly belongs before you know it," Visa said softly which actually made her smile.

"How did you know what I wassss thinking?" she asked a little surprised that the big claw had so easily picked up on her fears.

"Two ways, one its exactly how I would be feeling if that were my beloved human up there and two......" she finished by pointing at her tail was rattling away worriedly which gave it all away.

Suddenly like a phantom Runs just appeared right in front of her and before she knew what the hell was happening she was utterly surrounded by curious humans who all seemed utterly enthralled by her, suddenly out of no-where she was being taken by the hands and led forwards towards the village by Runs who was utterly beaming at her.

"Worry not my beautiful one they think that you are a spirit come to protect us and that you bring mighty warriors with you, please come," he said and with that, the whole group was led towards Runs village-like honoured guests.