Meeting the New Enemy

Naylee, Wendy and Rafe had made good progress during the first day since they had gotten to know the island quite well during the years. Their route took them a little to the right from a direct route to the hill in front of them. They could jog parts of it and cover more distance and even continue for a while after it got dark thanks to Naylee's and Wendy's night vision.

Only when it became late enough did they stop and set up camp, eating the dried food they had taken with them to avoid setting a fire, and each one of them kept watch as the others slept while snuggling up close.

The next evening they stopped at the side of the southern hill close to the flatter top and set up camp near a cluster of taller trees.

Naylee looked closely at the hill from the top of a tree, then came down. 'No light at the top. Looks like they haven't reached it yet.'

'I'm thinking of climbing up into that cluster of high trees a little further up the hill tomorrow. It's high enough to see the platform on top and hides us from view.' he said and turned to Wendy. 'Unfortunately it means you'll have to stay on the ground.'

She gave a soft whine and flattened her ears.

He pulled her close for a hug and kiss on her muzzle. 'Don't give me that. I'm not going to take a chance on you falling out of a tree.'

She grinned a little and Naylee poked her nose. 'You're just trying to make him feel guilty.'

Wendy looked away innocently and murmured, making Naylee laugh. 'I think she's the most dangerous woman out of all of us.' she said and grinned at Rafe. 'If she was more like us we'd never had a chance to become lovers with you.'

Rafe chuckled and looked Wendy in the eyes. 'Is that so? Would you have kept me all to yourself?'

She rolled her eyes and murmured like it was the most obvious thing in the world and Rafe laughed as he held her close.

'Well, sometimes it does feel like I have three wives.' he said, scratching her ears causing them to prick up.

She gave him a lot of kisses before Naylee protested and competed for his lips.

***

Rafe had made some artificial claws years ago which allowed him to climb up the large trees and followed soon after Naylee had gone up one. It allowed them a clear view of the platform on top of the hill and even provided a partial view of the beach with the boat.

He joined her on a thick branch with enough foliage to hide their presence from anyone looking at the tree. 'Any movement yet?'

'Nothing.' said Naylee, leaning gently back against his chest. 'Looks like they haven't arrived yet.'

Rafe put his arms around her and peered at the jungle but saw no sign of any movement there either. 'Another round of waiting then.'

Rafe stroked Naylee's head after she had taken the opportunity to doze off in his embrace for a while. 'Kitten..' he whispered. 'Wake up, they're here.'

She rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and watched the six figures coming up onto the platform. 'What are they?'

Rafe thought they reminded him of lizard men he'd seen pictures of when he'd come across a comic book store a long time ago. Green-grey skin, long tail and a lizard-like head with their eyes more forward. Four wore just loincloths, the two others also a tunic.

They had put their bags down and surveyed the area, probably just as baffled about the smooth stone floor as Tashee, Naylee and Rafe were the first time.

'I don't think they've ever seen something like that.' Naylee said.

Rafe nodded slowly. 'It doesn't look like they're technologically advanced enough to make a floor like that.'

'Not from the looks of their ship.' said Naylee looking at the beach again, then squinted her eyes. 'Hey, I see a human there.'

'Human?' he asked, trying to see but his eyesight wasn't as good as a Silth's. 'You sure?'

She nodded. 'From the looks of it might be a female slave. The lizards there don't seem too friendly toward her.'

'Damn.' he said, seeing the lizards on the platform gather their bags and looking like they're moving on. 'That group is going further, but I want to know what's going on at the boat.'

'I'll follow the group, you go check what's happening at the beach.' she said.

'Yeah, I had the same idea.' he said. 'Between Wendy and I, I think we can take out the four lizards if we have to.'

She grinned a little at him. 'If you need Wendy's help, I'm mighty disappointed in you as a strong warrior.'

He shrugged. 'I can't hog all the fun for myself. Let her get a little action too.'

'Excuses.' she said and poked his nose.

He gave her a big smirk. 'Promise me you'll be careful and stay out of their sight.'

'I will.' she said and gave him a kiss. 'Make sure you don't lose anything if it comes to a fight.'

He cupped her cheek, scritching it gently with his fingers. 'I will.'

Rafe and Naylee climbed down and Naylee gave Wendy a hug after making her promise to keep an eye on Rafe. Wendy barked her assurance and the three went on their way.

***

Rafe and Wendy made good time getting close to the beach by jogging lightly while Wendy kept her ears and nose open for strange sounds and smells. They moved silently on the last part to the edge of the jungle and hid themselves a little away from the lizard's camp in a cluster of thick bushes. Rafe chose this place because it was unlikely for them to enter or come out of the jungle there.

'We'll observe first.' whispered Rafe to Wendy as they laid on the ground and peered through the low branches at the camp and boat. Things were quiet there now. 'See what they're doing before making contact. If we do.'

Wendy gave a short murmur and they snacked on dry meat to keep their stomachs quiet.

Three lizards sat near a fire at the camp armed with short metal swords, playing a game with dice and drinking something that clearly intoxicated them.

'I guess that's one thing we have in common as warriors.' Rafe whispered to Wendy.

Nothing much happened until the first signs of dusk appeared in the sky and a woman stepped out of one tent. She had her long black hair tied in a tail and judging from her arms and legs sticking out of her light brown long tunic a tanned athletic body.

'Looking good.' Rafe remarked. 'I estimate a little smaller than me, and if she was from Earth I'd have guessed she came from the Mediterranean area.' He looked at Wendy. 'I'm definitely going to try to make contact with her.'

One of the lizards stood up and approached her, speaking in a language Rafe couldn't make out from the distance. The lizard said something to her, she said something back and tried to walk away, but he grabbed her arm. She tried to pull away speaking louder and the lizard hit her face, hissing in anger at her. The other lizards laughed while she tried to fight the lizard who now wrestled her to the ground. One of them called out something to him and the two stood up to get closer.

The woman got her arms pinned down to the ground by them as she struggled to get free and the first lizard cackled as he pulled up her tunic, forcing her legs apart. She tried to kick him but he was too agile and pulled off his loincloth before grabbing her ankles. She shouted at him but he just grinned as he moved up between her legs.

A low rumbling sound came out of his throat and he moved closer to her while his comrades grinned and cackled while rubbing her breasts.

The next moment the lizard saw a flash of light, then sank into darkness from the hit to the back of his head with a thick piece of wood.

Rafe and Wendy both growled as they jumped on the other startled lizards, Rafe pounding hard on the face of one while Wendy tried to bite the other. Rafe's lizard was too slow to react in time and after several hard hits against its jaw stayed down on the sand. Wendy's lizard shouted and tried to keep Wendy back while she snarled and scratched his arms with her claws. Before he knew it he received several hits from Rafe and went down.

Rafe breathed hard and grinned at Wendy. 'Well done, girl.'

Before she replied she pricked up her ears and the both of them looked at another lizard coming down the boat. He shouted something and ran toward them, his sword drawn.

'Wendy, left side!' Rafe said and jumped up with her to counter-attack.

'Iyaa!' shouted the woman and blocked their path, her arms wide.

Rafe and Wendy halted at once and looked confused at her. The lizard from the boat moved next to her, shouting at them first, then spoke urgently to the woman. She said something back and he relaxed only slightly before speaking to Rafe again.

Rafe couldn't make anything out of the partially hissed language he spoke and held up his hands. 'Rafe.' he said and gestured at himself, then at Wendy. 'Wendy.'

The woman and the lizard glanced at each other, spoke for a bit, then she touched her chest. 'Iloma' she said, and gestured at the lizard. 'K'Kess.'

Rafe smiled a little. 'Quick in understanding, girl.' he said. 'I think it's safe to sit down for a moment.' He sat down slowly, keeping his eyes on Iloma and K'Kess while Wendy sat down next to him. K'Kess spoke to Iloma and they too sat down.

'Now, where do we start?' said Rafe. 'It'll be dark soon so we have to decide quickly on what to do next.'

He started by drawing a crude map of the island, marking the point where they were by a boat, pointing at the visitors, then marking a cross on the centre hill and gesturing at Wendy and himself. The woman and lizard nodded. Rafe was glad they understood and drew a short and long line above the cross, indicating Wendy and himself again, then added two longer and two shorter lines. Iloma and K'Kess nodded again, Rafe drew six lines under the boat, an arrow to the centre of the island with six lines at the tip, and opened his hands toward the others.

K'Kess hesitated for a moment but Iloma put her hand on his arms and spoke softly at him. He nodded and drew two arrows to the left and right along the island and three lines at each tip. He looked at Rafe and gave him a nod.

Rafe smiled a little more, convinced that the lizard wasn't exactly hostile and was honest to him. It was still a risk, but with darkness coming and the knocked out lizards waking up at any moment now he had to take the chance. He beckoned at them and pointed at his home. 'Come?' he asked.

Iloma and K'Kess spoke frantically between each other and came to an agreement after a few moments. Iloma nodded as she pointed from them to Rafe and the cross in the sand. 'Ha.' she said.

'Ha it is then.' Rafe said and nodded back at her. He pointed at the setting sun and back at the jungle.

Iloma gestured at her tent and Rafe nodded. She hurried to it while K'Kess went into another tent, both coming back quickly with sacks tied to their waist.

'Let's go.' said Rafe, quickly erasing the drawing in the sand and following behind their new friends while Wendy led the way into the jungle.

***

Naylee moved silently between the trees at a short distance to the left and behind the group of lizards. They didn't talk much and she couldn't clearly hear it, but so far it seemed the lizard in the dark red tunic was the leader and the one in the brown tunic his right hand by the way the brown one ordered most of the time while the red one only spoke on occasion to the brown one.

She followed them by ear, the density of the jungle wouldn't allow her to get a visual on them on the ground without getting very close and revealing herself. She could only see them on a few occasions where the trees had thinned out due to the rocky ground.

The lizards had halted for a moment and took a moment to eat. Naylee took the opportunity to eat one of her rations and sat down while she kept her ears open. The lizards seemed to be in a good mood, laughing on occasion and she started to learn the subtle differences in their voices to tell them apart. It differed mostly in frequency and duration. Some spoke a little slower, and not just a few, but every word.

After a while she heard them pack up, the brown one giving a few orders, and they continued their trek through the jungle. Naylee took her backpack and followed them again.

She had only moved a short distance when she sensed something was different and stopped to listen.

A couple of lizards were talking to the right and in front of her at the distance she kept from them. They were moving forward. There were the usual sounds of insects and birds, a rodent shot through the bushes left of her, wind rustled leaves high above her. Despite hearing nothing out of the ordinary something made her uneasy. Sniffing the air didn't help either. There was nothing in front of her that smelled unusual. She held her breath and stared at the trees and bushes in front of her, her ears focused.

"Crap!" she thought. "There's nothing in front of me! No sound of small animals." Quickly but silently she moved to the nearest tree next to her and climbed high enough to hide in the foliage lying in wait.

Nothing stirred for a while until she heard faint footsteps.

Closing her eyes to concentrate on her hearing she could make out two lizards moving slowly toward her position. She opened her eyes and kept a look out.

Soon enough two of the lizards from the group appeared among the trees, searching left and right. One of them halted and signalled the other to stop.

Naylee concentrated on her breathing, timing it with the wind moving through the leaves to mask any sound she made while breathing. If those lizards suspected they were followed she suspected it would be because they had heard her. She just hoped they only thought it might be a predator or other large animal and not her specifically.

The lizards used sign language to communicate, then moved back into the direction of where they had stopped to eat. Naylee waited for a while after the sounds in the jungle around her turned back to normal, then climbed down and gritted her teeth. These weren't just a bunch of dumb creatures but had actual skill at hunting. She thought about her options and decided to take a long way around the lizards and head to the bunker, informing Tashee about what's coming.

She looked back, hoping Rafe and Wendy were okay and would come back home to them soon.