Chapter 12: Captive

Yuri sat on the deck of his AC and added to the map on his computer terminal. He and Tani had agreed that mapping this world would be one of the most important jobs of this expedition. Since they had left the island of the Likos they had only spotted a few small islands none of which had been inhabited. They cruised during the daylight at the leisurely speed of thirty mph, although the ACs were capable of speeds in excess of two-hundred. They searched with careful eyes and vision glasses on all sides and to the front. At night they stopped formed a circle and slept.

The days passed with nothing sighted only endless ocean. Suddenly the radio crackled to life as Wendy's excited voice on the other end spoke to Storm, "Land, Storm I see land."

The word spread and soon the decks were crowded with observers as the land mass approached. As time passed they began to fly over a large forest that stretched as far as the eye could see. The land rolled below them unchanging until a silvery glint caught Wendy's eye. Inspection revealed it to be a large pond fed by an impressive waterfall, what was unique was there was no visible stream feeding pond and after a short distance the stream below the pond disappeared too.

Ulric in one of the four-seat ACs dispatched to investigate reported that area was very rocky and covered with a thin layer of top soil from which the dense forest and vegetation grew right up to the edge of the pond.

The water came from underground through the rocks above and, after falling over the edge of the ledge to the pond below, sank back underground.

Rania, who accompanied Ulric, added that the whole area was beautiful and suggested they stop and spend some time here.

"I'm not really complaining about rubbing up against my lovers in the close quarters of the AC but I'm ready to stretch out get some sun and if the water is nice do some swimming," Rania said.

After a brief consultation, the others agreed. One of the ACs descended and after heat source and depth testing were performed, the pond was found to be about fifteen feet in depth and no life sources other than small fish were found in the water. The ACs were tied together and two crews at a time took their smaller air cars down to the pond. These they landed in the water and tied off to one side. The eight people stripped down to their bikini bottoms, dove off into the refreshing water, and began to swim and play.

Neona climbed up on a rock on one side and prepared to dive in and join her companions once more. As she poised for the jump a hand clamped over her mouth silencing her scream before it even left her lips. Two massive arms lifted her from her feet and into the undergrowth behind. Neona was held helpless and silenced as her captor raced through the forest. It ran into a cave without slowing and Neona was shocked when the entrance to the cave opened into a large cavern lighted by some type of glowing algae covering the walls and rocks.

Her captor leapt with her in its arms, to the back of a waiting creature. With a, "snick," from her captor it broke into a lope. Her wrists were pulled painfully behind her. She was placed face down across the mount in front of her captor, and as one hand held her wrists, another hand held her in place.

With her mouth, uncovered Neona issued a piercing scream that echoed from the cavern walls and received the reward of a resounding slap across her bare ass that echoed also. Tears came to her eyes at the pain and, in her face down position, Neona could only watch helplessly as she was spirited away at a ground-eating pace.

The mount was some type of lizard like creature and she could only see one leg of her captor from her position. This leg was probably twice as big around as her own and olive green in color. They sprinted on for some time and then exited the cave into the bright sun and the pace increased.

After what seemed like days but was really just hours, her captor stopped its mount, and got off. It lifted her easily to the ground before it.