(This is a sequel of sorts to my previous story 'Intergalactic Sexy Scientist' as they both feature the same David character. You do not really need to read that story to understand this one but there will be some references to it.)
It had been three days since David had returned from the USA and with the thought of his collaboration with Ruta, the visitor from the stars, still fresh in his mind . Already, it seemed like he was going back across the Atlantic. Prof. Moore, the archaeologist David had been employed by during his previous trip, recommended him to Dr. Morrison, a zoologist who was based in the same area. David did not have any major commitments at the time so he agreed to go with him. Instead of going to the desert this time though, David was going to the forests of West Virginia with a climate much more like Britain.
They arrived in the states via aeroplane and would be getting a lift to the woods just on the outskirts of the city they landed in. The first thing David noticed when getting out the airport was that the atmosphere was much cooler than that way down south and the two rendezvoused with their ride soon after. The sun was beginning to set when they arrived at the beautiful but ominous forest as David carried a very large and very heavy rucksack out from the car. They were greeted by an elderly man among a small gang of other people at the entrance. The doctor greeted the man with a handshake.
"Good to see you, Tim!" The doctor said.
"Pleasure working with you again, Alan." Tim said in a thick American accent. "Do you know the plan?"
"Of course I do. My group is taking the east, correct?" The doctor asked just to confirm. David had heard nothing about a plan and was just told to stick with the doc.
"Yup. The sooner we get started, the better."
"Best of luck, Tim."
"Same to you. If you need anything, we'll just be about a few meters away to the west." Tim said. The crowd then split into two as David followed the doctor into the forest. The walked for about an hour before finding a clearing among the trees.
"Well, better get comfortable, lads. We've got a long night ahead of us." The doctor said to the group. They began to unpack various pieces of camping equipment and set up the tents. David threw his heavy sack on the ground with an audible thump then took out a bunch of apparatus as the doctor carefully set it up. Eventually, the camp was complete and a fire was started in the middle of it. David had been tasked to keep an eye on some sort of meter and alert the professor if the needle moved a certain amount but it got really boring really fast, so David's mind turned it's attention to the other scientists and apprentice's conversations. There really was not anything of note except one exchange between two young assistants:
"Hey, dude, you ever hear of Mothman?"
"The hell is that?"
"I heard about it today from an old lady working at the diner. She was saying that a monster can be seen around these parts that looks like a half-man, half-moth."
"Probably just some dumb urban legend started to attract tourism."
"She was saying it was seven feet tall with red eyes and black wings."
"Don't tell me you believe in that shit, man." David had heard about the Mothman but hardly knew anything about it. Truth be told, he was genuinely terrified when in came to urban myths like that, no matter how silly. Stuff like the melon heads and the bunny man used to keep him up all night. His imagination began to run wild as he thought of what would happen if the Mothman came out tonight, managing to scare himself over nothing.
"Any luck, David?" The doctor asked, coming out of his tent. David jumped with fright, being suddenly brought back to the real world once again.
"N-not a peep, doc." David replied.
"Here, I'll take over." The doc pulled up a folding chair and sat next to Dave. "I've got another job for you anyway."
"What is it?"
"You know the oxymax geolocator?"
"Uh, sure." David had no clue what the doc was on about.
"Well, it seems that I've gone and forgotten to bring mine. Could you see if Tim has any spares?"
"Seriously? You want me to walk through a forest in the middle of the night?"
"Here, take this." The doctor handed him a torch.
"Gee, thanks." David said sarcastically. He got up from the wooden crate he was sitting on and made his way into the depths of the woods.
David wandered practically blind in the woods and hoping he was still heading west. He tripped over the occasional tree root, walked into thorny bushes and got startled by a hooting owl. He eventually saw the glow of the other camp's fire and brushed past some low-hanging branches to get to it.
"Hey, there. I'm with Dr. Morrison. Do you guys..." Before David could finish, he saw they were all sound asleep, lying back on their chairs or in their tents.
"Lazy bastards." Dave muttered under his breath. As he was about to poke one of them awake, he noticed that their shirt had many large holes even though it was pretty new. David looked all around to see the other researchers all had similar holes on various pieces of clothing. At first, David thought a wild animal must have attacked them but they looked otherwise unscratched and they probably would not all be sleeping so calmly if that was the case. David ears perked up when he heard scrunching on fallen leaves. The noise was coming closer and closer towards him from behind a nearby tree. David turned around towards it and shone the torch in its direction.
"Hello?" David said. There was no reply.
"I'm from Dr. Morrison's group." There was still no reply but instead something slowly stepped out from behind the tree, David could vaguely make out a silhouette. It appeared to be a very slim person with no clothes on. David shone the torch in their face as the shadow lit up, David gasped out in surprise as the figure initially flinched when the torch suddenly turned on. It was a woman, or at least, their face looked feminine. Her skin was white, not just pale, pure white like snow. Her hair looked like a puff of white fluff and, the most striking thing of all, her eyes were solid black. She silently and timidly walked closer into the light of the fire, while keeping a close eye on David with her staring dark eyes and keeping a reasonable distance from him which allowed Dave to get a good look at this odd girl. Like her face, the rest of her body was the same pearly colour and, as David suspected, she was totally naked despite being in the middle of the wilderness. Well, maybe she was not exactly in the nude as she had pieces of fluff, resembling the small afro on her head, on various body parts such as her chest, genitals, wrists and ankles. As David eyes adjusted even more to the darkness, he saw that she had no visible ears but instead had two antennae poking from her 'fro and large insectile wings behind her that started from the back of her shoulders all the way down to the back of her knees.
"Holy shit! A Mothman! Suppose she's more of a Mothwoman..." David said to himself. He probably should have been more shocked but he did meet aliens no less than a week ago so anything by this point is not going to surprise him much. The Mothwoman inched herself closer to David, seemingly more afraid of him that he was of her. Unlike what the two chuckle-heads back at his camp were saying, this moth-person really was not intimidating at all. In fact, she was quite cute and even a bit on the frail side. When she got within reach, David gently raised his left hand with the palm facing upward, as a sign that he did not mean any harm. The Mothwoman jumped a little when he began to move and stared at his hand for a moment before putting her own dainty hand on it and smiled at him.
"Nice to meet you, I'm David. What's your name?" David said. The Mothwoman just looked into his eyes and blinked.
"Do you even understand what I'm saying?" She nodded.
