Radiance Chapter 131

Chapter 131: Love and Thunder.

Andrew sat bolt upright in alarm as his dream meshed with reality before finally being pushed back into the darkest corners of his mind where they belonged.

Still, it did take him a minute to remember where he was, he had spent so long being shuttled between settlements and slave sites that they had all begun to blur into one another after a while.

Instinctively his hand went to his throat where his collar of shame had once sat and for the briefest of moments he actually found himself alarmed to find it missing before his memories caught up with his reality and it all sank back in.

"Pretty human has bad dreams again?" a deep resonating yet oddly pleasant and indeed feminine voice said suddenly causing him to look up.

Stood before him was the large Gatorclaw female who called herself Thundertail who had pulled him from the wreckage of the tower that had collapsed on top of him when their leader Seven had smashed through it like an armoured torpedo.

He nodded softly feeling the shame of it burning his cheeks as he did.

Thundertail stepped forward and placed the large tray she was holding down on the table next to the oversized bed that he was currently resting in before crawling herself onto the bed next to him making it sag under her weight somewhat.

"Pretty human no fear, Thundertail is here now and she will make bad dreams stay away, will keep pretty human safe, me's swears it," she said giving him a toothy but rather warm smile.

Andrew still wasn't sure how he felt about her constantly calling him pretty human as it made it kinda clear that she rather liked him in a way that he was rather surprised about.

But as odd as that was, to begin with, he'd actually managed to get a look at the group that had pulled him and the other slaves out of the town and had asked thundertail about them and as it turned out they were a group of humans and non-humans who seemed to embrace the idea, of not only co-operating for a better future but of embracing love together.

But doubts aside Andrew did have to admit that Thundertail was rather charming in an odd kinda way, she was warm-hearted, kind and very caring, she was also highly protective as he had already seen when a small radroach that had managed to sneak in through an open window had scared him.

To his dismay, he had let out a very unmanly scream when he'd gone to climb out of the bath only to find the great ugly insect sat there on the closed toilet lid looking at him.

It had only taken thundertail a grand total of three seconds to burst her massive frame through the door and into the bathroom ready to do battle with whatever had caused his fear to manifest.

Upon seeing the radroach Andrew had learned first-hand why she was so-called Thundertail as she had managed to smash both the roach and the toilet into dust, though she did get scolded by Seven when he'd had to shut off the water and find a new toilet to install in the place, but it had still warmed Andrews heart all the same.

All his life he'd been a slave, as long as he could remember he'd always worn the collar of shame around his throat, he did have brief memories of a time before that was the case, but other than a few flashes of a group of children in a cave like himself he could remember nothing of his family, or his parents, there was simply nothing but blackness.

The first true memories that were burned into his brain like the brands upon his skin from before he was fitted with a collar were the slave cages.

Cages made from wrought iron stacked atop one another filled with people begging for mercy and for freedom only to find none of either.

A place of darkness where humanity and empathy were completely absent, where raiders and other animals came to trade in people like there was nothing more than a box of Sugarbombs.

Torture, abuse, rape and even worse were rife in those hell holes, so much so that they became an everyday numbing occurrence.

He wondered if the reason that his memories were so filled with holes was that he had simply chosen not to remember the darkness of some of those days if they had been so much worse than the stains that were already on his heart and soul that his brain simply could not bare to recall them.

"Me feels the pain pretty human has in heart, he wears it on handsome face like mask of sorrow, this makes me's sad, me's promises pretty human Andrew that Thundertail will help him to pull mask off so he can show handsome and happy smile to world again instead!" Thundertail said softly from his left as she shimmed her large frame closer to him.

Thundertail was a very touchy-feely kind of girl, to say the least, and while at first, it had rather alarmed Andrew, but now after a few days of being tenderly spoon-fed rather delicious soup and even hand-washed down by this large over protective Claw girl he could see there was no malice in her actions or even resentment, she was only too happy to care for him and indeed seem to actually relish the challenge of trying to make him whole again, it was like she had taken on the burden of saving his soul not only willingly but rather happily and for the life of him he couldn't understand why.

What made him so worthwhile to this big Gatorclaw girl to invest so much time in him?

No one had ever seen any other worth in him other than how much grain he could move or how many bricks he could stack before, so for her to ask nothing more of him than to simply allow her to nurse him was rather a system shock to him.

However, it was more of a shock that a member of a completely different species seemed to genuinely care about his well-being, far more than his own species had ever done anyway.

"Thundertail can I ask you something?" Andrew asked turning his head to look at the massive reptilian female who was lying on the bed to his side looking at him curiously with her large golden eyes.

"Of course, you's can ask me's anything!" she said eagerly.

"Why are you doing this for me, taking care of me I mean?" he asked.

Thundertail looked at him oddly, like his question simply didn't make sense to her.

"Because you's was hurt because of us, because of what we's did in freeing you's people, you's was not there to hurt people, you's was slave, you's had no choice but you's still got hurt, is only right that we's make it right and make you's well again," Thundertail said.

"but I'm nobody," Andrew said which caused Thundertail to move faster than he would have imagined a creature of her size was capable of.

She grabbed both sides of his head and made him look at her but she didn't hurt him.

"Now you's listens to me, you's is not nobody, you's is somebody and that means you's is worth something and me's not means in money sense," she said staring right into his eyes with a gaze so intense that it was simply impossible for him to look away from it.

The way her pupils turned from large black moons into narrow pencil line slits and back again as she looked at him was truly mesmerising, it was easy to think that Thundertail was simple because of the way she spoke but the truth of both her keen mind and gentle heart were written right there in the bright gold of her eyes.

Plus to be fair she spoke far better English than he could have ever hoped to speak Gatorclaw, that's if they even had a language of their own, hmmm that was an odd point, he had to ask her that.

"Thanks, Thundertail, you have no idea how much that means to me," he said softly and the big Gatorclaw girl's face cracked into a rather tooth-filled smile.

"You's is very welcome, now get rest, Thundertail will keep bad dreams away," she said softly and to his surprise, she lifted him a little off the mattress and pulled him against her rather large scaley body.

At first, he was startled by this action as the primitive part of his brain screamed things about a vicious predator mauling and eating him, but as he felt his body sink into her embrace and he felt her cool scales against his skin where the gaps in her clothing were that it actually felt balming.

She was a wonderful mixture of soft and hard, she seemed to have a layer of insulating fat directly under her armoured scales, and then under that, he could feel dense muscle that felt like bunched steel cables wound tightly together.

Then there was both her bust and her thighs, it was kinda hard not to notice Thundertail's more.......feminine assets given that each of her breasts was the size of his torso and then her ass looked like you could bounce a grenade off it and the fucker would punch a hole in the moon because of the rebound.

Honestly, it had shocked him the first time he'd caught himself trying to peep under her tail as she'd bent over to move her armour over to the side of the bedroom out of the way but what he had seen had sent rather a lot of blood rushing away from his brain so he'd only felt the surprise when it had finally managed to return.

But now as he found himself sandwiched in between those massive scaly mounds on her chest and he felt one of her tree trunk-like thighs curling over his lower half he felt the blood leaving his head and legging it south again despite how hard he tried to prevent it.

Then there was the softness of her belly scales, all the scales that covered her back and flanks were like a natural dragon scale armour that looked like it could easily stop bullets, but under her chin right down her neck and front were a band of cream coloured scales that were as smooth and soft as silk.

he actually found himself wondering just how low that band of soft, smooth scale went, though by the smooth feeling of her large thigh which now kinda pinned his lower half to the bed he got the feeling that it was more than low enough.

Thundertail pressed her long snout against the side of his head and somehow it seemed to fit into the crook of his neck letting him feel a warm blast of her breath from her large nostrils across his chest.

Honestly, the sleep that came to him under Thundertail's watch was possibly the most peaceful he had ever had in his life, it was like having a dragon guarding your mind and chasing away all your fears back into the shadows that they had crawled out of.

It only took three days of Thundertail's intense care regime for Andrew to feel better than he ever had in his life and finally, he felt good enough to get up and to go outside.

At first, Thundertail seemed reluctant and worried but he managed to convince her by saying that if she was that worried she could come with him which seemed to cheer the big Gatorgirl right up.

So finally Andrew along with Thundertail ventured out of the tree-top lab which had been his recovery ward for the last three days and what greeted him when he finally stepped into the sunshine again caused his mouth to fall fully open.

It was a town filled with humans and Gatorclaws working together.

He could see large groups of the large reptiles working with humans to make what looked like armour and weapons while others lounged around large swimming pools sunning themselves.

"Ahh you are finally up and about, how are you feeling?' a voice from their left said and Andrew turned to see a young and rather prim-looking human woman with long blonde hair looking at him, but it wasn't really her that caught his eye, it was the large humanoid Cazador stood next to her and smiling at him.

The woman seemed to catch his gaze and nodded with a smile.

"Oh please don't be scared of him, this is Varrel and he's the biggest sweetheart you could ever hope to meet, he might have a sting in the tail but he has sugar in his heart," the woman said linking her arm through to of his.

"S-Sorry I'm just not used to......." Andrew began but the blonde woman smiled and cut him off.

"Let me guess, so many non-humans in one place?' she said and Andrew nodded.

"Yeah I mean I've kinda got used to Thundertail over the last few days and boy has she been fantastic to me, I couldn't have gotten this strong this fast without her, she really is a scaley angel," Andrew said which caused both the Cazador boy and the blonde woman to cast a seemingly knowing smile at the happy gatorclaw stood next to him.

"Don't worry this place does take some getting used to, there are more Gatorclaws than humans here but over at our beta site in Dry Rock Gultch its the reverse, but we are all one community here, I'm Eve by the way," the woman said sticking her hand out to him and he took it and shook it.

"Andrew, Andrew Marshall," he said.

"It's good to meet you Andrew, we were kinda worried about you when we first got you in here but after some patching up and some tender loving Gatorclaw care I can see you are no worse for wares," she said inspecting him closely.

"Me's takes good care of pretty human Andrew, makes sure he is fit and strong again!" Thundertail said proudly as she pounded a fist the size of two sledgehammerheads welded together against her chest making ripples fire out through her feminine scales.

"Yes you have done an excellent job Thundertail you really do make a rather good nurse I must say," Eve said smiling up at the big Gatorclaw girl.

"Ahh looks like Thundertail's not-so-secret crush is finally up and about, we were beginning to worry that she had crushed you in the quite literal sense of the word," another voice from behind him said and Andrew turned just in time to see a human man wearing power armour minus the helmet along with a female super mutant stood next to him.

"C-Crush?" Andrew exclaimed and the man smiled coyly at him.

"Oops did I say the quiet part out loud? Oh well, the cat's out of the bag now but don't worry my new friend, there is little on this earth as wonderful as non-human loving, just look at me I got myself a tower of green muscle to love and nothing makes me prouder, oh and I'm Timothy by the way and this towering pillar of green beauty next to me is......" the man began before the super mutant girl cuffed him across the back of the head.

"Honestly Timothy sometimes you have so little tact it's actually alarming, the name is Shauna and I'm pleased to make your acquaintance, oh and please ignore my idiot another half here, he just likes to wind up the newcomers sometimes, honestly I sometimes wonder if I prefer the old Timothy who wouldn't say boo to a radgoose, but doesn't worry we don't force our way of life on anyone here, love is love and we don't judge it no matter what face it wears, its really that simple," Shauna said somehow making Andrew feel both better and worse at the same time.

"W-Who are you people?" Andrew asked looking around at all the people and Claws working hard.

"We're the Free Peoples of the Wastes, we're a group dedicated to both stamping out radiers and slavery wherever we find them while also promoting interspecies cooperation and also love wherever we choose to tread, we aim to help people to see that there is another way to life than they originally believed and so far I do believe we've been doing a pretty good job if I do say so myself," Timothy said.

"So wait, you're telling me you are here to free the slaves of Nuka World!?" Andrew exclaimed snapping around to look at the power-armoured man and he smiled down at him.

"Yup while stamping out the raider clans that are running the place, our leader Seven is currently off at Dry Rock interrogating a prisoner we took in the raid that freed you and your fellows, most of whom are at Dry Rock also but we brought you here so Thundertail could look after you, plus I'm pretty sure Seven was worried she'd start a revolt if he didn't let her take care of you personally," Timothy said with a chuckle.

Andrew glanced up at the rather bashful-looking Thundertail who looked rather embarrassed now.

"Me's would not start a revolt against good humans, me's only wanted to make sure that pretty human Andrew was fit and strong again," she said.

"And I'm willing to bet it has nothing to do with the fact that he's a pretty human eh Thundertail?" Timothy said with a grin as he elbowed the big Gatorclaw in the side playfully.

Thundertail grabbed her left arm with her right hand and rubbed it up and down while looking at her large feet.

"Me's cannot help liking pretty humans," she said softly.

"Oh I'm only teasing you Thundertail, you know you are in good company here with that, I mean look around you, its who were are, this woman right here changed not only my life but my outlook on it before I met her and these good people I could have never even conceived of the notion of a human and a non-human being together romantically, hell the only situation I could have conceived of was some kind of propagandist style horrific rape scene, but after meeting Seven and all of them and seeing how they live and how free they all are, well it changed my life then I met Shauna and my life got infinitely better," Timothy said with a grin that seemed to cheer the big girl up and she bounced up and down before slapping her tail on the ground with such a bang that Andrew suddenly realized where she got her name from.

"Yes! Should not be ashamed that me's likes pretty human Andrew! Andrew is handsome and nice and me's should be proud to call him such!" she said turning to look at him.

"You's is prettiest human me's ever does see, in me's opinion you's is even prettier than Seven and me's always calls Visa lucky Claw Visa because she's has him at her side and he loves her, me's wants to be that lucky too, to have pretty human to call me's own and to love, me's knows we's has only known each other a couple of days, but in those days me's has never been so happy, me's wants to be even happier and to make you's happy to Andrew, so please, be my pretty human," she said while to Andrew's complete shock getting down on her knees right before him like she was proposing to him.

Andrew just stood there in shock for a moment as a baited silence descended on the group and he could actually feel the weight of the stares of everyone there resting on his shoulders, but it wasn't a bad thing in all honesty.

First of all, this was the very first time in his life that someone had actually asked him something, not demanded it from him but asked him.

Secondly, while she was right that they had only known one another for only a couple of days, over those couple of days he really had had his eyes opened as to the reality of sentient non-humans in a way that he never truly imagined.

Thundertail was caring, kind, gentle and truly worthy of love.

While she might be a huge and truly terrifying being she was also a sweet and gentle creature.

He remembered one instance while she had been feeding him soup in his bed, a large orange and yellow butterfly had flittered itself in through the window of the room, it had floated around her head before landing itself for a rest right on the tip of her snout.

But rather than swat at or attempt to kill the harmless and innocent inset Thundertail had simply marveled at it, watching the little fragile creature with fascination before offering it a large finger to walk onto.

She'd then carried the little creature tenderly over to a large group of potted plants that she kept near her window and had helped it to get a drink of nectar by holding her finger up to the largest of the bright blooms and letting it walk off her.

This memory had started a chain reaction within Andrew's mind and his heart, with other examples of her kindness and gentleness bleeding one into the next.

From her holding him when he was scared, to her seating him on her lap in the middle of the night when he'd woken up screaming in fear from a bad dream and simply holding him tightly until he calmed down enough to remember where he was now.

Before he even knew what he was doing or saying he looked up at the massive Gatorclaw girl who despite kneeling before him was still taller than he was thanks to her huge frame, when his eyes met her bright golden ones all he could see there was the purest hope he had ever seen in his life.