Chapter 459

The Prison Planet

By the time they were almost back from the third, half-mile trip to dispose of the remains of the snow leopard, the sun was setting and an uneasy Morales was pushing them to get back to the cave. Although it wasn’t snowing, the gusts of wind picked up the dry, powder snow, blowing it almost horizontally to lash at their faces.

When they arrived at the cave, everyone was tired. Morales turned to Jasmine, “I’m going to wipe the case down so I can get the blood off outside. Why don’t you go on inside and get out of this wind?” Before she could protest, he quickly continued, “You might want to change out of those blood-soaked clothes while you have the opportunity. I’ll change after I get the case taken care of.” Glancing down at his filthy pants, he went on, “I’m gonna need to do some laundry, soon. I only have one clean set of fatigues left. How about you?”

Jasmine realized that her fatigues weren’t in much better shape than his. “I have three sets left, but I don’t want to use everything before I do my laundry.”

“Well, it’s a bitch washing clothes in a bucket, but with the stream frozen, that’s the only option we have left.”

She grinned, but didn’t respond other than to say, “See you inside.”

Back in the cave, she wiped her coat down, washed off and quickly changed, but, like before, she went commando – at least on the top half – telling herself it would soon be bedtime, anyway. Hesitating, she thought about leaving her shirt open until he walked in, and thus giving him a flash of her boobs, but quickly stilled the thought. What’s the matter with you? Tempt him enough and you might well be in over your head before you realize it, Girl.

Fully dressed, she added wood to the fire before beginning their evening meal, and by the time Morales pulled the cleaned case into the cave, she was well involved in the meal’s preparation despite her fatigue.

After cleaning his coat and washing his hands and arms, Morales gathered up clean fatigues. Although the fire kept their living area reasonably warm, at least compared to the outside, the warmth diminished quickly the farther from the fire they got. When Jasmine realized that Morales intended going on farther into the cave to change, she turned to him. “No use your doing that; I promise I won’t peek,” she said while trying to keep the smirk out of her voice.

She lied.

When she heard his thick fatigue shirt hit the dirt floor of the cave, she “instinctively” glanced in that direction. She shouldn’t have, because what she saw made her stomach flutter just as her other brief glance had, and her thoughts turned to things she didn’t want to think about while in the field – or in a cave with a prisoner. But the ripple of muscles across his chest and arms as he reached for a clean shirt was burned into her mind, nonetheless. Oh, crap. His physique is every bit as nice as I remembered, and his flexing muscles make me wet. Snapping her eyes away, Think of something else. Think of something else, she kept telling herself. He’s already told you how hyper his sense of smell has become. You’re only ten feet away, and you’re getting turned on with just that one quick look. Calm down, before he notices, Woman.

Junior, apparently still not fully trusting Jasmine, seemed to have taken longer to adjust to her presence than Gertrude had, and seldom came near. He had continued to sleep with Morales, though, and now that the chick was bigger, he could fly to the man’s shoulder at will, which he chose to do just then. Morales was dressing and thus moving as the chick came in for a landing, winding up sinking his clawed feet into Morales’ neck to keep from sliding off the human’s shoulder.

“Oh, shit,” Morales muttered. But rather than scold the chick, he, instead, petted it.

Morales’ comment caused Jasmine to, unintentionally, this time, glance toward him just as he dropped his pants. He wasn’t wearing undershorts, and when her eyes focused on his equipment, her heart seemed to do a stutter-beat, and she unconsciously mimicked his comment with a whispered, “Oh, shit.” What she said wasn’t loud, but they were inside a cave with no competing noise. In addition, it had become automatic for the man to listen for danger as well as use his sense of smell, particularly when he and the wolves were outside. But those now hyper senses didn’t shut off when he wasn’t thinking about them, so he very distinctly heard her. His head snapped up as she, too late, quickly turned her gaze back to what she was supposed to be doing.

She could feel the flush on her face and hoped against hope that he hadn’t heard her exclamation or realized she had looked.

Eventually, he walked over as she tried to say, nonchalantly, “Uh, I think we need to expand our diet a bit. I know that you prepare a stew occasionally, but we should probably increase the ingredients a little. If you don’t mind, I’ll fix one for lunch tomorrow that should give us a change in our diet.” Then, before she quite realized that she was going to say it, continued. “I apologize for looking. It was just that...”

Chuckling, Morales, deliberately misinterpreting her meaning, said, “That silly little chicken hasn’t quite got the flying thing down pat, particularly his landings. That’s not the only time he’s ricocheted off my shoulder and clung to my neck or head when he’s misjudged his touchdown. All he thinks about is saving himself, and he doesn’t seem to realize that he’s sticking his claws into me in the process.”

Jasmine smiled, thankful that they had apparently gotten past her checking him out, but her face didn’t seem to realize it yet. Trying to ignore her blush, she blurted out the first thing that came to mind. “How did you ever begin sleeping with a chicken?” Only after the question was out of her mouth did she realize how blunt it sounded. Then, “Oops. That didn’t come out very tactfully, did it?”

Morales sat on a rock to lace his boots. Looking up at her, “I know. I know,” he replied with a self-depreciating chuckle. “It’s stupid to sleep with a chicken, but, well ... I was alone, and as far as I knew, was destined to be that way the rest of my life. When there aren’t any humans to be friends with, well ... I suppose that animals are next in line.” Unconsciously shaking his head, he went on, “You have to remember that these chickens, like the wolves, are far smarter than their counterparts on Earth. Like I said, I fussed at Gertrude just once, and showed her where to sh ... uh, potty. From then on, she did her thing on what became the manure pile, and even made sure her chicks and the other hens did too. Anyway, I usually throw a shovelful of loose dirt on it a couple of times a day to keep the smell down.

“Every few days, I put the manure in a pile outside with the idea that I’ll use it on a garden plot come spring. As far as the training goes, I doubt if Earth chickens could be trained that easily, and, certainly, one hen wouldn’t take it upon herself to train all the other chickens the way Gertrude has. But, that silly little chicken must have imprinted on me. I think that’s the word. He followed me around, and, because he was cute and always hungry, I, of course, fed him extra. Then, no matter what I did, he came over and snuggled up to me at night. At first, Gertrude tried to get him under her wings like the other chicks, but he was having none of that. As he grows, he continues to follow me around. And, yeah, I know that it’s stupid to have a pet chicken, but what the hell...”

When Jasmine giggled, he went on with a grin, “Like I said, the animals are smart as hell here. I’ve mentioned that Gertrude reminds me of a drill Sergeant – and a rather violent one at that. She taught the other hens where to do their business by kicking their asses until I actually began to feel sorry for them, but after her first major set-to with them, they have never messed up again, although for a while she kept an eye on them. I think they’re terrified to piss her off. Even I know that Earth chickens don’t do things like that.”

Jasmine got up to pour both of them coffee and check her cooking. When she was seated again and they had taken their first sips, “On the vids, I’ve seen Gertrude leading the other chickens back from your fenced area. I have to admit that she’s cute as she struts along in front of her little procession. And she did all this on her own?”

He shrugged. “I’ve never tried to teach the chickens anything, well, other than fussing at Gertrude and showing her where to poop. And, well, you know about Lobo and Lila; they go out to use the bathroom, and they’ve never needed any training at all. From the beginning, they just knew. Hell, from the time Lobo was well enough to go to the fields or hunting with me, he’s just picked up on what I need him to do. When you get down to it, I suppose, it’s as much about him training me as the other way around.”

Morales words cut off as his thoughts turned inward. Jasmine saw the look on his face and sat quietly sipping her coffee while his mind seemed to go elsewhere. When his eyes focused on her again, “Care to share with me?” she asked, teasingly. Noticing the frown start, she went quickly on, “Please, I’ll never understand how you communicate if you don’t let me in on your private thoughts about Lobo.”

Morales stared the pretty young woman eye to eye for a moment before pushing out a long breath. “If I knew, I’d tell you. I haven’t lied about that, but ... a thought crossed my mind when I mentioned that it was as much about his training me as the other way around...”

“Go on,” she encouraged.

He took another sip of coffee, then locked eyes with her as he said, “Well, it just dawned on me that, over time, I’ve ... Oh, hell, Woman, it...” he finished, seeming to have second thoughts about whatever he was going to say.

“Mr. Morales, don’t you dare back out on me now,” she hissed out.

“Okay. Okay. But, dammit, it’s hard to explain. I mean, when I first came here, I clumped through the area scaring everything off long before I got within range. Well, scaring them off or alerting them. Some of the animals here aren’t afraid of anything. Anyway, I came up with the idea of first bathing, then rubbing myself with some evil-smelling shrubs, before climbing a tree to wait on something to come near that I could shoot for meat. I guess I got the idea by seeing advertisements back on Earth about tree stands for hunters, and also other advertisements about scents to cover the hunter’s body odor, or to make him smell like a female deer – things like that.

“Anyway, it worked well enough that I didn’t starve, but truth be told, I would probably have lost a lot of weight if there hadn’t been so many animals here. But the strange part, the thing that just dawned on me, is that somewhere along the line after Lobo came on the scene, I began to know how to place my feet, where I could put them that would make the least noise, how to push through bushes without making them rustle, how to shift my weight, all the things that should have taken a lifetime to learn. I know this sounds stupid, but it was just now that I realized I shouldn’t have that knowledge yet. Maybe ten years from now if I manage to live, but some things have just come... ‘naturally’ that I have taken for granted, I suppose.”

He sat staring at his half-full coffee cup, while Jasmine dared not make a sound lest he change his mind about talking to her. Finally, he looked up at her. “Do you understand what I’m telling you? I walk quieter just strolling along than I used to be able to do when I concentrated on trying to be quiet, and I do it without even thinking about it. When Lobo, Lila and I stalk something, I’m able to be far quieter than I have any right to be. Oh, compared to them, I just blunder along, but until I met Lobo, I was more like a tank crashing through the forest. Until you got me thinking, I hadn’t realized just how much I have changed, and trust me, I don’t understand how I’ve learned it.”

Jasmine took another sip of her coffee, realizing that it was now cold, but she drank it, anyway, not wanting to get up for more and risk breaking the mood.

“So, how?” she prompted.

“Hell, Woman, I don’t know. I suppose I’ve learned from Lobo and now Lila. Somehow, someway, they have taught me ... things. I mean ... now that I think about it, I know how to move through the woods under certain circumstances, but I can’t put the concept into words, at least, not enough to break it into logical sentences. It’s almost like ... Hell, I don’t know, maybe like instinct or something similar. I mean, I know how to swallow,” he said, holding the cup up, “but I damn sure don’t know how to describe the swallowing process. I’m sure a doctor could, but I can’t. I know how to move through the woods, but trying to break it down and tell you how is a different thing entirely. I just ... I just don’t have the words to fit the concepts. I guess I don’t have enough education to communicate what I need to,” he finished, morosely.

“Don’t you dare think that way,” she admonished as she bumped his arm, causing him to almost spill the remains of his coffee.

Darnit, she thought yet again. I wish I had concentrated on Cultural. Maybe I would know how to go from here.

After checking their food, putting more water in the peas and moving the boiler closer to the fire, she sat beside him, Morales on his padded rock, Jasmine sitting in the dirt, their backs against the cave wall, her smile beautiful to him. “Thank you for sharing that, Mr. Morales. Your communication with Lobo and Lila is what mainly enticed me to come here. So, please, don’t lock me out. I know that we can solve the puzzle if we work on it together. The two wolves obey you...” she started, but when his expression began to change and he shook his head, “Okay, the two of them do what needs to be done.”

Morales downed the remainder of his coffee. Slinging out the last few drops from the cup as he came to his feet, “Lobo and I are a team, and Lila has become a part of that team. I trust her just like I do him.”

So how the heck do I become part of that team? Jasmine wondered as she watched him go over and put his cup up.

The peas were done as Morales put the big skillet over the fire before putting in a dollop of lard. As soon as it melted, he tilted the skillet around until the liquid uniformly covered the bottom. After salting the steaks, he put the meat in to cook. Glancing at her, he let out a sigh. “Okay, you keep asking about our communication, so here it is. When the wolves came back from checking this morning, Lobo sat down in front of me and I just knew. Maybe it’s because we have worked together so many times that I just know his habits. I knew that he and Lila would check out the back trail of the beast, and I knew they would search for a second snow leopard or whatever the hell that thing was. You thought there was something else going on, but it might have been just that simple.”

A look of exasperation deepened on Jasmine’s face as she stared at him. “Oh, no you don’t. Not after what you just said. You know there was more to it than that. Why did he come and sit in front of you like that? Not only did he do that, but he stared up at you. That’s not just your knowing what he would do under similar circumstances. It just isn’t. And ... why do you continue to deny it? You just said that somehow you knew how to walk silently in the woods, and darnit, I saw him report to you. I know he did, and you know it, too.”

Morales checked the steaks, then turned them over before turning back to Jasmine. “Don’t make me out to be a mind reader, telepath, or whatever the hell you’re trying to call it. I’m just a guy who was forced to depend on the wolves for protection, and to some extent, me for them, too. In other words, we depend on each other. I can’t explain how I know how to move quietly through the woods, or how I know what Lobo and Lila did this morning. Maybe it’s because we do everything together. We know each other. Maybe there’s no mystery after all – just association.” And I don’t need a deluge of scientist types descending on my ass wanting me to teach them how to mind read, he thought. Particularly when I don’t fucking know how it happens in the first place.