The Ballad of Decker Crane Ch. 02

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All characters are over the age of eighteen

Chapter Two

(Decker)

Decker was woken when a perimeter alert sounded, a small beeping noise. He looked at his watch. Red lines flashed. The briken pen. Falling back, he sighed. "You big fucker," he muttered, rolling and getting to his feet. He walked to stand over the ranch security page on his console. Calling up the schematic, he frowned, enhancing the image. There was nothing wrong with the fences. The alert still beeped.

Something could have gotten into the pen from outside. Something that could climb a fence. Maybe it was a briken rustler. He huffed a laugh, deep in the room, and reached for his jeans. He was awake now anyway. He had the sat-reader. He'd know if Bane and the herd were close. But just to be safe, because it was Bane he'd have to deal with if he had to go into the enclosure, he squatted and got the locker from under his bed.

There wasn't too much energy one could put toward one's own survival. Taking risks should be strategic and planned. It was how he'd stayed alive, the life he'd lived. Putting in the combination, he grabbed a percussion grenade. The colonists had wiped out most of the brikens of Sur with these, disorienting them so they could slaughter them with cannon fire. He'd swear Bane remembered all of it and held it against Decker personally.

The horse tossed his head, not happy about being woken up. Decker looked down at his sat-reader. The briken herd wasn't far. The reader began giving him more clear information as he approached the briken enclosure, a jolt going through him when he saw the figure on the readout.

There was actually a person in the briken enclosure. It wasn't Coby. Decker knew that. A hot ball began to grow in Decker's chest. If some bastard messed with his brikens, Decker would bury him. He'd feed him to Bane alive.

Everything was quiet. He swept the field. Sure enough, a person was in the distance, a figure coming toward the gate, low and walking fast, the image rendered on his screen as blurred green light.

Tension rolled across Decker's shoulders. He was going to kill this space turd. His eyes shifted from the sat-reader to the enclosure. There was a silhouette against the dawn horizon on the ridge behind the figure. Bane was vigilant. He had other brikens with him this time, how he usually ran, a hunting party of five. It looked like that big fucker was going to take care of Decker's problem for him.

On the screen, the figure looked behind himself and then straightened, abandoning stealth and breaking for the gate, running. The brikens immediately chased, being predators. On the screen, Decker measured the distance from the figure to the gate and then the distance from the brikens to the figure. On foot, he wouldn't make it. Not even close. That was fine with Decker. Sometimes natural consequences just worked. Decker watched the show, a half-smile on his mouth.

The figure cried out somewhere in front of him in the real world and Decker's grin vanished. Dropping his sat-reader, he ran for the gate, pulling it open and returning to throw himself onto the horse's back. The gate would close slowly. Before it had a chance to do so, his horse was through it, carrying Decker. They came through the opening to the enclosure at a dead run, the horse blowing. Decker got low and urged Cote faster.

That had been a woman. The brikens had surged at her fear-cry, their feet across the field a distant thunder, their hunting cries floating over.

One of them screamed. Bane had seen Decker.

She was still ahead, a shadow against the lightening sky. Decker was finally to her. A woman, yes. No mistaking the tits as she ran. He blew past her and got Cote turned around. His horse agreed with this idea, running fast as Decker arrived at her side and leaned. She was still fleeing, looking back at him. He lowered his hand as she sensibly reached up for his, given what was not far behind them. Grasping her forearm, he pulled a very naked wiggling woman with wild hair and a beautiful ass onto the horse across his lap.

Behind them, the five broke into their charging gait, a briken attack. Bane was coming for him. In no time, the horse was lathered and panting. Decker was a large man and Cote was carrying two people. The briken were fast once they got going. Decker looked back. They'd make it, sure, but he didn't want to be dodging Bane while he was trying to get the gate open and the woman through. Time to change tactics.

Slowing the horse, who didn't want to slow, the animal tossing his head, Decker turned him in a tight circle and dropped her. She lost her balance and sat down under his horse's feet.

"No," she cried like he was going to leave her there to get eaten while he escaped.

He wasn't going to do that. Well, not while he still had other options. Decker landed on his feet beside her, grabbing her arm and hauling her up. "Hold still."

But she was as bad as his horse, her eyes fixed on the charging briken and her flight response sending her in the other direction regardless if she could escape or not. She began struggling as he tried to catch the horse's reins. He kept hold of her, but the fucking horse evaded him, backing up and then bolting for the closed gate, voicing a brief trumpet of fear.

There went their ride. "Stop fighting me, dammit," he spat at her.

She didn't even glance at him, crying out again as the brikens came at full speed, their grunts and hoots. Decker put her in front of him where he could see her. Brikens liked to snatch, and he wanted to bring her home if he could. She was a prize. He reached into his duster and pulled out the percussive grenade. Brikens really didn't like these. It messed with their ears. He would pull the pin and toss it and they would scatter and keep going, giving him and the woman enough time to get to the gate and through it safely. Hopefully, since he didn't have a horse anymore.

"Get ready to run," he yelled at her, the thudding hooves of the brikens becoming impossibly loud, the ground shaking. He waited and then put his hand on the pin, releasing his breath and timing it as two brikens reached them and parted.

The smell of them, like incense, alien and compelling, rolled over him. Their great sides were heaving, and if he had stretched out his hands, he could have touched them on either side. A third went by, being Bane, and then a fourth, and a fifth on the other side.

His fingers were still on the pin, un-pulled. They had nothing in front of them. Decker turned them around, both of them in the same position. The brikens were now between them and the gate. He realized Bane wasn't taking any chances. He was an intelligent animal and Decker had escaped him too many times.

Five brikens turned in a tight arc and came back toward them. They slowed to their awkward swaying walk and then they stopped not far, going still, a solid line. Quiet descended except for their blowing, the animals winded.

One briken stepped toward them, the third from the left. He came at a slow amble, his tail and his head high. Bane. They were going to meet up close, evidently.

Pulling the woman against himself, noting absently that she had really pretty tits and was plump in nice places, he put his arm across her shoulders. He had the percussion grenade in his hand, feeling her heart pounding as Bane came closer.

Decker had never been this close to a briken before. He hadn't ever anticipated doing so, since that was pretty much where people tended to die. Somehow, he'd underestimated the heft of the animal, that head as long as a man's leg, with thick, overlapping scales that ran under his horns. Textured and thick skin covered his cheeks. Bane's breathing got deep and he chuffed, entirely hostile. Behind it was a note of malicious satisfaction. He was enjoying the moment, savoring it, the big fucker.

.

Arriving over them, lowering his head to Decker's height, Bane met his eyes and drooled. A long thick line took time to reach the ground and slowly separated. He stared straight at Decker over the woman, a predator, his small red eyes with all sorts of intelligence in them. Decker stared back and slowly smiled. The massive male made a deep and loud stuttering sound and opened his mouth, panting, a tongue that emerged past those teeth, rolling and writhing. He clacked his teeth once, a sharp sound and then chuffed, an explosive release of air, blowing Decker's hat off.

Decker kept his finger on the pin of the grenade. He and the woman weren't as close to the gate as he'd like, but they'd make it, provided he could keep his wits and hold of her. It was going to be loud.

In the meantime, his mind was taking in all sorts of details. The briken's horns were gold at the base and white at the tips, a translucent quality in the center, lines of wrinkles around his eyes and mouth. Another line of scales ran down the edge of his short and thick neck, his shoulder blades prominent, bony there for all his muscled heft. More drool flowed, another exhale sending it waggling under Bane's chin. The briken could simply lean forward and pluck Decker's head from his shoulders, killing him that way. Decker had seen records of a briken doing that to a man. Time to pull the pin.

The woman in front of him began humming like a crazy person. It was a pretty melody. Distracting, a little. He blinked. Decker did think it was an odd time to sing.

But if a briken could have expression on his face, Bane looked surprised. His mouth closed and he threw his head back and stood tall, staring down at her. Slowly, his nose came down again, over her head. He inhaled a series of times, his huge chest expanding, her hair actually rising off her head. Decker fingered the pin. That nose went down her body and stopped, snuffling between her legs.

Decker understood the impulse. Her body was soft under his hands. Bane took a big step back and his huge face waggled side-to-side, exactly like a person shaking his head, a strange, repetitive movement. His lips pulled back from his teeth and he leaned forward and crooned at her, singing back to her, a full and open sound. Decker's brows shot up.

Breathing in, the huge briken crooned again, gooey. Then he coughed on her. It was a friendly gesture from a briken, practically affable. He sprayed her all over her naked body with ropes of briken snot-slobber, always abundant, her hair soaked with it. She made a strangled sound, her humming stopping.

Decker stared. He'd never seen a briken behave like that. She was humming again. Bane brought his head up, shifting his angle, ponderous, and began walking past them like he'd forgotten they were there.

Watching the knobby joints of his muscled legs and then his great muscled rump pass like a ship, taller than a man, Decker shook his head. He was struggling to believe it. A briken wouldn't attack a woman?

Then again, if you thought about it, it wasn't exactly anything anyone on Sur would have been willing to put to the test. He went real still as the tips of the spikes on Bane's great tail, each one as long as his hand, brushed through his hair, ruffling it, almost a caress.

"Walk slowly," Decker said, barely audible, nudging her. He leaned real slow and grabbed his hat.

She stopped humming like a loose nut and moved forward, his hand around her from behind under her bare tits. He snuck a glance. Getting out of his own way a little, his eyes dropped to her ass. Son of a bitch. He didn't get just some woman. He'd caught a sexy young slut. He couldn't see her face, but he decided he didn't care if she looked like Cote. Hell, she could have a face like Bane and drool, too. He just had to get her out of the enclosure.

The huge brikens ignored them, individuals shifting out of their way at the last possible moment. They were in a tall sea of wrinkled tan flesh and scales, beards and red eyes. Heat and that incense smell.

A partial spine and a couple ribs connected to a long line of some kind of fresh raw meat hung from a horn, connected to a briken's chest with a rope of thick blood and gristle. Well. That'd be Coby, probably. It was a tad gruesome, to be sure, but nature could be like that. And himself, at times, he had to admit.

She also saw the spine, making a choked sound. A briken's head swung toward them. Decker's hold tightened to warn her. It faced forward and kept going. When he and the woman emerged from the tall forest of them, the gate wasn't far. Decker did not turn around to check if they were following. His horse was pressed against the gate, lathered and shaking.

Putting his hat on his head and dropping the grenade into his pocket when they got there, Decker unlatched the gate, being silent. He put her through and then he caught at the horse's reins, who tried to get through at the same time he did. He pounded the horse on the shoulder as they fought for it, his voice sharp. "Fuck off, Cote."

The horse ignored him. They finally both made it through, the woman watching. She hadn't run from him yet. When the gate was closed, Decker dropped Cote's reins and stepped back, seeing her for the first time in the floodlight. He went still.

Maybe he was asleep in his bed and dreaming something from his imagination. He had a good one in this area. It was quite possible he was smiling at the ceiling with his eyes closed and his own hand on his hard cock, because it seemed to him that she was an unreal sexy little naked beauty.

She just kept coming at him. Delicate all over, up-tilted huge eyes so dark they looked black and messy dark gold-red hair. Full lips and flushed cheeks. She had a swollen mouth on the side where she'd been struck by someone who would hit a face like that, the fucking savage. Freckles on her nose. Gorgeous tits, big nipples and jiggling and curvy. His gut tightened. A sweet little belly with a navel he wanted to stick his tongue into and round hips and her naked pussy. Sweet little bare feet.

She was staring back at him like he surprised her just as much. He had that effect on people sometimes. It wasn't cold, but she was shaking in her whole body, all sorts of interesting things happening, her chest rising and falling. Her hands gestured, graceful, and wasn't she just put together right.

"I think one of those things ate a m-man," she said.

Decker shook his head, distracted. Mystification was always best in matters of murder. "It was a deer," he lied. "I breed them here for meat." He walked around her, her head turning to watch him. She was just too nice to look at. When he got to her ass, he saw the deep red lines, exactly three. Someone had whipped her recently. His cock tightened.

Making a helpless sound, she shuddered. "What were those animals?"

Coming around, his brows went up, looking at her. There was that swollen lip again. Some men were animals that should be put down. Maybe she wasn't so bright. His eyes went to her body. Maybe she didn't have to be. "Brikens." It was like she'd dropped from the sky, his eyes resuming their dance over her body, each part of her more delightful than the last. She was so fucking cute. "I'm Decker. This is my land you're on. You're trespassing. Where did you come from?"

"There." She pointed in the direction of the Red Door, Cochrain's land that bordered his. "I didn't mean to. I'd like to ask you to help me to get to the authorities."

"The authorities," he said, giving a small scoff. He didn't know where she thought she was. Maybe she was crazy. But it did seem like she was running from something. Someone, maybe.

Well, she was Decker's now. He didn't care who was after her. He'd never seen such a beautiful woman. And more than that, she was sexy. You just wanted to throw her down on her belly and part those legs and mount her, all curvy with the lips and that skin, nipples, the round of her. His breathing was deep.

His eyes shifted, spotting the sat-reader. Walking to it, he squatted, his mouth tight. It had landed just right, of course. It was busted. He'd need a new one, and these things were expensive. It would take forever to get here, and until then, he wouldn't know where the briken herd was. Standing, he turned to look at her, getting pissed.

His eyes swept her, his anger just kind of disappearing. There it went, just gone. The idea of pushing her down and fucking her dropped his belly out from under him. He could take her here, if he wanted. He was ready, getting hard thinking about it. Looking at the snot everywhere, he decided he'd bathe her first.

"Come on up to the house and get cleaned up." This little beauty hadn't fled into the night alone to take in the evening on Sur, not with those marks on her ass and her lip swelled up. Then there was the fact she was naked. She was so naked. Decker felt a surge. Shit, he might have fought Bane bare-handed for a chance to capture her. He lost time a little, finally recalling himself.

"I'll arrange to get you back where you came from," he said, watching her face, which told him everything he needed to know.

She looked stubborn. "I'm not going back there," she said like it was obvious, touching her lip and wincing. "That man abused me."

"Then come on with me."

"To where?"

"Back to my place."

"Do you have a way for me to contact the authorities there?" She asked the question like she wasn't sure he understood language or knew how to eat with a spoon.

The authorities again. Leaning down to hide his expression, his hands came together, lacing his fingers. "Sure I do. Get on the horse, sweetheart." He looked at her.

She didn't move, eyeing him. "I haven't ridden one before."

Completely transparent. She'd never be a criminal, that was sure. Stalling, trying to get him to talk to see if he seemed sane to her before she put herself in range of his hands again. Trying to figure if he was safe. Of course he wasn't safe. He did have to wonder if everything that had gone into putting together that body had shorted her brains. "I won't let you fall off."

"May I please have your jacket?"

He bent again, lacing his hands. "It's a duster and I'm wearing it. Step on my hand and I'll get you up there. You can't stay here, if you think about it. You've got no food or water and you're naked."

"That's why I'm asking you for your jacket," she said, stubborn.

"It's a duster. I'll find some clothes for you when we get back."

She didn't move.

He straightened, sighing. "Are you cold?"

Frowning lightly, she shook her head. "Not really."

"Then get on the horse. It's the middle of the night. You woke me up when you set off my perimeter alarm. I want to go home to bed. Move it. Let's go."

She looked like she might argue more and then released her breath and did what he wanted, surprising him, stepping on his laced fingers with a sweet foot. He had her now, in his hands. He deposited her on the horse, easy as that, no screeching or struggling. Shit, that'd been easy.

He swung up behind her, almost in the same motion. Her balance shifted, grabbing at the saddle horn as he put his arm around her to stabilize her. His fingers brushed her soft nipple, landing to span her ribs under her left breast. A whore from the Red Door. There was a reason the whores stayed there. There was a reason that when they did leave, they had guards. A woman wouldn't last out here on Sur without a protector.

But this was one was on the loose, out from under, unguarded and unprotected and all alone by herself, available for taking by the first man who stumbled on her. Which would be himself.

She jumped. Over her shoulder, he watched her nipples tighten, rising. The woman was plump and warm as he urged Cote, a pleasant weight against him, her hips alternating with the horse's walk. There was lots of jiggling going on. He leaned down. Wet briken spittle and dirt aside, she did smell good. She smelled so good.