War of the Races Ch. 24

As she walked she picked up fallen limbs and set them in piles so that she could carry them back to the cave once she and Alvas were done bathing. It took her another twenty minutes before she reached their little bathing area. Sure enough Alvas was spread out on the flat rock sunning as beads of water dried from her dark brown skin. Her arms were spread wide and her corn silk white hair was fanned out above her head. She had her feet pulled up to her buttocks and her legs spread apart oddly.

It was so odd for her, Hlina loved pulling her feet up and spreading her legs apart. It felt nice to feel the air caress and the son to warm her sex. Especially after a cold bath. What was odd was that Alvas had told her that it was not acceptable. Since they had no clothes, such an intimate place should be sacred, and exposing it a taboo. At least, until she found a man to marry or mate with. To see her mother now exposing herself in such a lude manner. She was going to...

As she climbed up the hill around the flat rock her mother came fully into view. She stared off at an angle, her face expressionless. Her golden eyes sightless. Tears still gleamed on her cheeks, blood trickled from the corners of her mouth. Spikes were driven into the wrists holding her arms spread apart. More spikes were driven through her feet. Blood and sperm dribbled out of her sex. More sperm was sprayed across her belly and breasts, and blood pooled around Alvas from a gash in her throat that had stopped pumping out her blood some time ago.

Hlina screamed as she rushed to her mothers side, and she wailed as she lifted Alvas up into her arms.

Why? Why did this have to happen to her mother? To her? Hadn't she experienced losing enough people she loved?!

How? How did this happen? Who would do this to a woman?

Growling almost ferally, Hlina jumped up and looked around the rock for trace. She found it in a hard heeled sole of a man's boot. Setting a quick pace, she followed the trail back down the hillside and then it turned northeast. Alvas and Hlina hadn't ever hunted. They had no weapons for it. But that hadn't stopped her mother from teaching her how to, or how to track, or how to stalk. It was most especially important to know how to stalk when you had no way to defend yourself against anything. When you were defenseless you had to be a ghost. Unseen. Unheard. Scentless. For that reason Alvas never went far when in her estrus or menstrual cycles. Her mother had warned that both the scent of blood and fertility were especially hard to mask, and some Animals could smell either nearly a mile away.

It was a good thing she didn't have to worry about such things yet.

It took all day and it was night before Hlina quietly stalked up to the edges of a campsite. The skit was dark and the moon had risen though it couldn't be seen this night. Clouds heavy with rain covered the sky. The night was as dark as it possibly could be, and the forest was even darker except for the small fire burning in a rock fire pit between three tents.

Logs were dragged in and three men sat on each one. On the other side of the camp, dangling from a rope tied around one ankle was a small chipmunk female. She was dead. She was skinned and gutted, and one leg was already missing. It had been severed from the body at the hip and then cut into two pieces at the knee. Both thigh and calf were cooking over the fire.

Hlina was horrified!

She had been a baby when her mother took her and ran after killing her father. Since then she hadn't seen another living soul, much less any of these Animals. How could they do this?

She was humanoid!

"We should've gone and found her kid too," One of the men growled.

"Yeah," One of the others chortled, "Maybe she would have been as much fun as her mother was before Jannic slit her throat!"

"The job was to kill the woman," The man Hlina assumed was Jannic replied, "She killed her husband. She was a murderer. She got what she deserved. The child did nothing."

"Who cares," The first man retorted, "We are out here in the wilds. There's no one that would know whether we had a little fun with the girl or not. Then we could leave or kill her as we like!"

"I let you have your fun with Alvas," Jannic growled as he pinned the first unknown man with a cold stare, "I overlooked your behavior because a murdering husband-slayer deserves whatever she gets. However, if you go looking for her child I will kill you and leave you out here to rot!"

"Okay! Fine," The man said as he patted the air to calm Jannic down, "It was just the excitement talking."

"Well the kid might be innocent for the crime of murder," The second unknown man mused, "But she would fetch a hefty sum of money if we sold her to a slave trader, especially if her virginity is still intact!"

Jannic seemed to be mulling the idea over. After a few minutes a slow nasty smile turned the corners of his mouth. Cutting his eyes from the first man to the second he nodded as he said, "In the morning we will go back and find Alvas' child. If she's alive we will take her. If she's a virgin then we will sell her to a slave trader, if she isn't a virgin, well then, we will have to see where we go from their!"

The other two men nodded, then the poor little chipmunk's leg was pulled off the fire and the men set to eating.

Hlina crouched behind a large tree nearly forty yards from the camp and she waited for the fire to burn down low and the men to climb into their tents. She crept to within twenty yards of the camp and then she waited until she heard the three men snoring. It sounded like three saws cutting timber!

How could they sleep through such a racket?

She had watched where all three men put their weapons for the night. Each man carried swords, daggers, and something that looked remarkably a lot like a pistol. But all three men had carried their weapons into their tents with them. The only weapon left out was a knife that they had used to cut chunks of thigh meat off the bone stabbed into one of the logs.

The fire was only hot coals by the time Hlina moved from her hiding spot and approached the knife. Two yanks in opposite directions and she freed it from the log. Silently she moved through the camp like a silhouette. She picked the first man's tent, the one that bragged of raping her mother and wanted to do the same to her. Getting down on hands and knees she barely rustled the entry flap as she crawled into the tent on her belly.

The man lay to one side and on the other was his boots and sword belt. She was careful to climb up beside the man but not touch him or his weapons. It was an agonizingly slow crawl with her pausing with every change of breathing or position. Once she was even with him though Hlina froze.

She had never killed anything before, ever, in this life or her previous one. Oh god! Daniel! How long had it been since the last time she thought of Daniel?

No! She chided herself in her head. Daniel could wait. He had to wait! This was about her mother! They killed her mother! And they were going to come for her next...

The man turned on his side facing her. She watched his face but he never opened his eyes. He settled into a quieter rhythm of sleep. She waited.

Eventually he turned back onto his back and Hlina saw her opportunity. Pulling her knees up under her body, she pushed herself up and used all of her weight and strength to drive that knife straight into the man's heart!

He lurched upwards with a gasp and in a panic Hlina pulled the knife out and stabbed again! And again and again and again... until the man stopped moving and his silence was that of death.

She listened for a long time. Wondering if the sounds of the man's gasp and her stabbing him, that sounded so loud in her ears, had woken the other two men. If they had, then she would be dead soon, or worse. The sounds of saws cutting timber never stopped, only paused from time to time when they changed positions. Turning around in the tent she pulled the dagger out of the sheath on the sword belt and left the tent just as quietly as she entered.

Skulking to the next tent, she got down on her belly and started inside. As soon as she put her head inside she saw that the man was lying to one side almost exactly like the last fellow. Retreating back to the first tent she carefully pulled the sword from its scabbard. It was heavy and almost as long as she was tall, well, she was close to five feet tall now and the sword was at least three feet long. It took almost all her strength to pull it out of the tent quietly. Once she was outside with it she lifted it and carried it to the second man's tent. She walked down the side until she was about where she imagined his chest was, then lifting the sword over her head she stabbed down with everything she had!

There was a soft ripping sound as the blade cut through leather. Then there was resistance as sword hit skin, muscle, and bone. The man gave a single gasp of surprise, but Hlina's momentum was behind her as steel punched through his chest and out his back. Grabbing the cross-guards, she used all of her meager weight to push the sword down until the man was pinned to the ground by cross-guards against his chest. He gave a single cough. Hlina could feel him struggle feebly for only a second. Another cough, and then silence.

Slipping into the dead man's tent, she pulled his sword belt out and looked at the weapons he possessed. The sword was different from the first one. This one was longer but the blade was thinner and lighter. Made for fencing. It had an edged blade, it was pointed for stabbing too. She heard the last man, Jannic, rustle and move to leave his tent.

He was coming out!

Dashing into the woods she jumped behind a tree and hoped her breathing wasn't so loud it gave away her position, or existence!

Jannic stumbled out and groggily looked about, then turned and trotted into the forest just past the chipmunk carcass left hanging overnight. He went only a couple trees further and then he pulled down his pants and urinated against the tree.

Hlina pulled the sword from its sheath and dashed across the camp. Her small bare feet barely made a sound, but it was enough that Jannic heard after his piss and turned to face his attacker. He only had enough time to see the glint of steel before the tip a sword ran him through. Just under the ribs, through the liver. He knew it was fatal even as he swung his arm and caught a dark brown little girl on the side of the head, sending her flying sideways to land in a crumpled heap. Staggering to his tent. He managed to crawl inside and pull his sword from its sheath, but when he came back out the dark brown naked girl stood in the middle of the camp and he could see Alvas' strong features in the little girl's face.

"You killed my mother," She hissed.

"Awake!" Jannic croaked hoarsely, "Awake you sons of goats!"

"They are dead," Hlina growled, "I save you for last. So that you would know who killed you!"

"Your fate will be the same as your mothers," Jannic shouted as he lurched forward swinging his sword at the girl who easily jumped aside. He stumbled, and she charged in and planted a dagger in his ribs before darting away again. Gasping, he swung at her again, but she jumped back out of his reach and there she stayed. Just out of his reach until all his strength ebbed away and he finally crumpled to his knees.

She watched him, her face expressionless as he died. When Jannic finally breathed his last breath Hlina turned away from him and went into his tent and found his blanket. She was tired. So terribly tired, but she couldn't bear the thought of sleeping so close to these men, dead or not. Taking the blanket, she walked back out into the forest and found a good place to sleep beneath a tree some fifty yards away and laid down...