The Cell Mate

I apologize for the delay is posting the continuation to my original submission. I have a problem submitting my writing. I can't even read comments. Chalk up in immense insecurity and chronic bashfulness. More is coming soon. Thank you.

*

The darkness of the creature wrapped around me was so think I couldn't move, couldn't see, couldn't even breathe. But I felt us fall, that sick plummeting freefall even though I couldn't hear the wind wail past my ears or see the ground rushing towards my face.

I felt a sharp impact and we continued to fall, more slowly now and everything became colder. I tried desperately to pull air into my lungs but couldn't and I thrashed within the body of darkness around me. I was suffocating.

Something pushed past my lips and a rush of cold, wet air filled my lungs and I sucked at it greedily. The Perikos was giving my air -- how I didn't know. There was a strange weightless sensation and I felt like we were floating up again and then drifting slowly tides of icy gunmetal seawater. There were cliffs just over a kilometer away atop which I could see the guard towers and flashing lights from Kragrosa. We made it.

I collapsed on the rocks and watched the shifting blackness of the Perikos push over the rocks to move beside me, a swishing tendril sliding along my neck before settling at my ear.

"

We can't rest long. They know which way we went and they will track us. My escape changes everything for Kragosa

."

My head throbbed at the suggestion of running and my hand came away caked in bright red blood. My stomach turned over again. It must have been when I hit the wall. Or more accurately when the Vlornan threw me into it. I groaned.

"

What's the matter?

" the Perikos asked.

"I'm bleeding. I can't tell how bad it is," I said.

Another dark tendril rose to my forehead. I grit my teeth against its touch but it was surprisingly gentle.

"

The wound is not deep

," said the Perikos, its music careful, measured. "

Does it hurt?

"

"Yeah," I answered. No point in lying. "But if you say it's not a big deal I believe you. Head wounds tend to bleed."

"

Very well. We will go as slow as I dare and tell me if the pain increases. But they will find us if we linger

."

I got to my feet, looking across the dark beach. I couldn't see over the nearest hill but the chalky, flaking earth outside Kragosa seemed to bare close resemblance to what they had us chipping in the quarry.

"Why the ocean?" I asked. I hadn't known there was an ocean outside Kragosa, if an ocean was indeed what it was. But plummeting into the sea seemed, in hindsight, a bit dramatic. The Perikos could have just as easily have expanded in size so we landed softly on the ground, couldn't it? Maybe I wouldn't have worried about suffocating.

The tendril that had followed in my ear played a tune I hadn't heard before but recognized immediately. Indignation. "

Perhaps if you had run the other direction instead of straight towards the sea wall we might have had an easier landing and a swifter escape. And you might have been spared to Vlornan's blow."

I felt myself bristling. "How was I supposed to know which way to run? You just said run, you didn't say which way -"

"

There is ocean on two sides of the Kragosa prison: the west and south side. Had you stayed at the north

-- "

"You told me to run!"

"

-- or ran to the east --

"

"You could have mentioned that before it was too late!" My voice was carrying now and I worried someone would hear. I was naked and alone and hurt on some strange, hostile and barren planet with a creature I didn't know and only barely trusted. They would send out search teams to look for us and the best I could hope for was to be recaptured. Or they might just kill me. And if they had any brains at all they'd send the teams out during the day, when the Perikos couldn't help me, couldn't hide me. I'd fucked up already and if we were going to get caught, it would be my fault. I wiped away angry tears.

"

Are you upset

?" I heard it ask.

"Nevermind. Let's go if we're going. Lead the way."

I followed the Perikos away from the beach and up the hill as we headed roughly north away from the prison. I could already feel tears in the soles of my feet from the jagged stones that made up the Kragosan terrain as far as I could see, trying not to think of trackers following the trails of blood and skin I left behind me. When I wasn't taking in the landscape or checking over my shoulder for signs pursuit I watched the Perikos. Its movement over land was hypnotizing. It seemed to skirt over darkness, barely touching the earth, its gait long and fluid. It didn't leave tracks and I was pretty sure it didn't need to move so slowly either. Each forward movement contained a smooth, muscled tension. It reminded me of a powerful runner slowing so a toddler could keep up. I tried to walk faster.

We reached the top of a steady incline which overlooked a valley below. A serpentine creek split the valley in two and on one side it appeared to be the remains of a village, seemingly deserted. Several of the houses lay in ruins, some which looked as though they'd been burned to the ground. On the other side looked to be the remains of a quarry and perhaps also a mine judging by the shadows that seemed to form a sloping cave, though it was hard to tell in the fading moonlight. My stomach growled ferociously and I wondered if there were any fish in that creek. The Perikos moved swiftly towards me then and seemed to expand in size once more, swelling until he was three times as large as I was. I looked around, straining to listen for a shuttle the voices of Kragosi guards. I heard nothing.

"What is it?" I whispered. The tendril slipped into my ear again, its music barely audible.

"

I heard something a moment ago

."

I took me a moment and then I began to laugh. The Perikos turned towards me then and I could read its confusion as clearly as though it had a face. I laughed even harder, so much so my belly began to ache.

"It was me. My stomach."

"

Are you unwell?

"

"I'm hungry," I said, the corners of my mouth sore from grinning.

The Perikos seemed to relax. It shrank back to its previous size, not quite as tall but certainly larger than me. "

If you do not eat you will be too unhealthy to -- to travel when night falls again. That is the best time to make progress

," it added hastily. It was hiding something, though what I couldn't tell. Food first, I decided. If there was any.

"There's a village and a valley with a mine below. Do you know what grows here?" I asked the Perikos.

"

Not the specific species, no, nor could I judge their edibility. There are likely some specimens still remaining by the abandoned village so that is most likely where fauna exists this in area. Come

."

I followed the Perikos down the slope and into the valley, heading towards the village. I asked it how it knew for certain the village was abandoned.

"

There are no surviving settlements within five hundred kilometers of the prison. It was mandated by the Intergalactic Judicial Council

."

Something else I didn't know. But it made hiding out here easier.

We arrived at the edge of the abandoned village. The houses looked like a mixture of stone and something else -- it couldn't have been wood since there were no trees but whatever it was had been set on fire who knows how long ago. There were little clusters of shrubs by what looked like an old ruined well. Movement caught my eye and just as the Perikos had predicted there was an animal there, small and furry with long ears and no visible tail. There was a blur of dark motion of a thumping sound and the Perikos laid the dead thing at my feet. I felt a moment of remorse, mostly because it was cute, but was thankful I didn't have to try and catch it and kill it myself. I was never very good at killing animals.

I bent over to pick it up by its long ears. "Is there any way to cook this do you think?" I was beginning to feel pretty high maintenance but I knew I couldn't eat raw meat and keep it down.

"

The shrub is dry and there is tinder. It is best to light it inside a house since shuttles overhead would be less likely to notice the smoke. We should cook it as quickly as possible and then move away from the village -- they would likely look for us here. We'd be better off near the mine

."

That seemed like sound reasoning. I took my dinner and a handful of dry shrubbery into the house and came back to collect some stones to strike a fire. My father had been one of the first wave of colonists on Ferox 4 and he'd taken survival very seriously with us kids. We knew how to make a shelter, to cook and skin animals (I was never good at the killing part) and how to start a fire for warmth. Of course, that was on Ferox 4. Making a shelter and starting a fire on Ferox 4 had a lot to do with firewood and we had none. I had to try though so I gathered the brush together and began trying to strike a fire. The Perikos hung in the open doorway, perhaps watching the sky.

After close to ten minutes I finally hit paydirt and fed more brush into the growing flames. I found a sharp rock and began skinning the animal and removing some of its organs. I cooked the creature as the moon disappeared from the sky and dawn neared. The Perikos alternated between watching me and looking out towards the valley.

"Do you want any?" I asked, offering it some of my meat. It was lean and actually quite sweet if maybe a little undercooked. A least a thousand times better than what they fed me at Kragosa.

The Perikos moved its body from side to side as though shaking its head no. I shrugged. "What do you eat then? You must be hungry."

It moved across the earthen floor of the hut then, closing distance between us, the tendril at my ear once more. "

I do not eat animals

."

I frowned. "Plants?"

"

No

," the Perikos said.

"Then what?" I asked. We were getting near honesty here. I was fairly confident it wasn't fattening me up since I was sure I was little more than a clumsy animal to it anyway.

The Perikos took its time answering as I finished eating and shifted away from the rapidly dying flames. Finally, it said, "

Emotions

."

I didn't know whether it was joking or not. "What, like sadness?"

Again the Perikos waited to answer. "

More like adrenaline then. Arousal. Fear

."

I tensed and closed my arms around me. "What do you mean 'fear'?"

When the Perikos finally responded it was very quiet. "

Where I am from famine always follows slaughter and then war. Such energies sustain us well

."

"How did you…feed in Kragosa then?" I knew I didn't really want to hear the answer."

The Perikos moved until it was immediately in front of me, less than a foot from my face. Our only contact was through the tentacle at my ear, allowing me to hear the haunting melody it played now. "

Whatever you have heard of death chambers and torture was false. The condemned were given to sustain me. I fed from them until they faded

."

I was frozen where I sat. "Is that what Brogn gave me to you for? Is that what was supposed to happen?" My voice was loud and shrill. I couldn't control myself.

"

No

," the Perikos answered softly, hushing my protest. I needed to hear it deny I was supposed to die that day. "

Yours was not a death sentence. You are the only creature I had touched in Kragosa who was ever supposed to leave my cell alive. Brogn was careless. But perhaps he knew I would die if he didn't give me something soon

."

"I don't understand."

A tendril reach to touch the swell of my breast. I bit my lip; it felt so tender, so good, even after what I'd just learned.

"

Arousal can be just as potent as fear to us. Yours is. I don't wish to harm or kill but my life the most important thing to me. What you have…"

and twisting tendril slid down my stomach to press lightly between the cleft at my mound "

…is a sweeter feast than anything at Kragosa, than anything from my Home. Everything you feel is so potent. So…delicious. You fear because you slow my escape, because you know what I am capable of, you fear that I will kill you or leave you on this planet. But I needed you for more than escaping the prison walls. You are my sustenance and you will fuel our escape. I will protect you from harm. You are too valuable to lose."

I felt the tendril press at me again, harder this time. It was dark, heavy and cool against my searing nakedness. It ground against my clit sending little bursts of warmth through my gut. The Perikos closed the distance between us, two thick black tentacles encircling my breasts, milking their weight and tweaking my hardening nipples. A third tentacle bound itself around my wrists, holding them tightly behind me, forcing me to arch my back and thrust my chest forward. So unnecessary because I didn't want it to stop, I didn't want to fight it. I thought after over a year being tied down or caged up I would hate this, be disgusted or furious but I felt another dark appendage trace my sopping slit and I knew I was addicted to whatever

this

was. But then I felt another slide over my face and cover my eyes, blocking out what little light filled the hollow hut. I tried to twist away, began to panic and buck against the darkness.

"

Be still. Some fear is necessary. Beautiful and potent. Be afraid of the dark if you must, be afraid of the power I have over you

." The tentacles squeezed my body, holding me still as the tip of a hard, thick width I remembered from the Perikos' cell probed my puffy lips, spreading me wide. I felt a cool, coiled weight press against my naked chest, between by swollen, aching breasts and I felt my heart race to meet the touch, unbidden. "

Do not fear me and my hunger, fear your own. I know what you need. I can feel it

."

I felt the full weight and width of its intrusion as the first thrust drove me down to my knees. I wrenched my shoulder pulling from my bonds to put a hand out to steady myself as I lost balance completely and toppled onto my hand and knees. Without missing its rhythm, the Perikos withdrew fully before slamming into me hard, rocking my body forward, ploughing almost painfully past my barrier and stretching me wide open. The tendrils that had released my wrists as I fell forward gathered to spread my thighs wider and wrap themselves around my throat. I swallowed hard as I felt them encircle my neck, press against my racing pulse. I almost screamed as the thick rod of muscle pounded against my gaping wet pussy once more and the tendril forcing my legs apart seemed to grow thicker, wider in the night and began to nuzzle hard against my stiff little clit. The spasmed scream that tore from my throat was too loud for the Perikos, who used the opportunity to plunge another expanding tendril down my throat and stifle my cry.

"

As sweet and succulent as you taste, for now at least I must enforce silence

," said the Perikos before delivering a driving, toe-curling thrust. I was close and the Perikos knew it. "

Or perhaps it is too much to hope you will assent to me feeding on you as I am now when we both are safe and away

?" The word 'feeding' made me drool around my gag, and I tried desperately, almost helplessly to thrust back against the creature's massive cock. It thrust into me once more and it seemed wider, longer than ever as though it was set to grow large enough it would stretch so wide I would never recover. Tendrils twisted through my hair, rubbed by puffy nipples and wound themselves between my toes and around my fingers as the Perikos fucked me harder. I felt my knees chafing in the dust as I let this powerful, alien thing ride me hard and fast, pressing against almost every tender inch of my body, feeding on my every stifled moan and murmur. I suckled the tentacle in my throat, treating it like a cock as I laved it with my tongue. The pressure built inside me, fit to burst. I was so close.

A cool, even blow landed hard on the meat of my ass and I fell flat on my stomach, legs and pussy quivering from the electric current that coursed from my arches to the my roots of my hair. I sucked the tentacle harder as I came and heard as much as felt the rod between my legs make its slippery, wet exit. The tendrils withdrew themselves slowly from my body until the one in my mouth and the one covering my eyes were all that remained. I suckled longingly as one in my mouth pulled back and the dimmest flicker of firelight blinded me momentarily. Suddenly I felt shy again, became hyper-aware of my wetness, of my strange perversion, even if it was useful. I felt stupid.

Strong limbs coiled around my waist, righting me as though nothing had happened, as if we were just too strangers standing in a burnt out old building. My feelings of humiliation intensified; I felt my face burn and as my sight returned I concentrated on staring out the window. It couldn't be more than an hour before daylight. I was tired and thirsty and feeling much more anxious and much less sexual. Getting seduced by criminal alien tentacles was not on the agenda if we were going to make it through the next fifteen hours and for that we were on my watch. And I could get us killed.

"What now?" I said, sounding churlish.

"

We need shelter

," said the Perikos, his tendril spouted musically. Pragmatic, survival music. If it noticed my tone, it didn't care. It had its priorities straight from the beginning and just because my species was inclined to complicate the matter didn't mean anything. We were in this together for one reason only: survival. It was time to man up and contribute more than just my girl parts.

"Why not here?" I asked.

"

No, as I said, this will be the first place they look. Traces of settlement. Familiarity. Shelter. Let us check the mine to see if it is suitable. Come. We don't have very long."

So much for contributing. It would have to be a mine, somewhere dark and enclosed. I took the remaining strips of roasted fuzzy animal and followed the Perikos across the narrow valley towards the creek. My mouth felt dry and my lips were split in several places. I noticed my head throbbing again -- it hurt so much I was surprised I had ever managed to ignore it.

The creek was cold and shallow and Perikos crossed it in one graceful stride, barely rising its dark mass off the ground between one shore and another. I bent forward to drink and noticed the scrape on my head. It looked like an area of skin the size of my palm had been scraped away from my head. Shallow, sure, but still oozing, bruised and matted with dust and dirty hair. I splashed it with some creek water and felt the burning coldness wash away the worst of the grime. The water was sweet too and salved my parched throat as I drank as much as I could without being sick. The Perikos waited for me without comment but I thought I could almost feel its nerves as the horizon slowly began to lighten.

I waded into the cold and out the other side, my insides sloshing with glacial water as I hurried through the craggy dust after the Perikos. As we got closer to the rocky overhang above what seemed to be the mine I saw that the underground shaftway had collapsed. The stone had given or the supports substance had rotted out, though I didn't see how they could if they were as inorganic as everything else. Either way, I wasn't sure but the rocky outcropping above only offered superficial shelter. I was actually relieved. I didn't want to hide all day in an abandoned mine on an alien planet. I would have died of fear before nightfall.

"

What do you see

?" asked the Perikos.

I frowned. The Perikos knew which direction we ought to be traveling in, the layout of the prison and the quarry schedules; it knew about the abandoned village and it caught my dinner before I could build a trap. And they were supposed to be sightless.