Chapter 2

I woke up sometime later in a lot of pain and barely able to move. Most of it seemed to be in my legs, I guess I broke them on landing. I lay there in agony trying to take stock of my situation. With my mind a bit befuddled by the pain it took me some time to realise that I was not outside at the bottom of the cliff. Indeed I seemed to be in some sort of cave. Dim light coming from a small fire in one corner. I looked around, worried by this turn of events. The cave was relatively small but showed signs of occupancy: there were rabbit furs and various nicknack's about the place, a small stack of firewood in one corner. I seemed to be on a makeshift bed made of sticks and an old sleeping bag. I tried to sit up and groaned in pain. I had probably broken a few ribs as well as my legs. One of my arm also hurt a lot I guess I had broken it as well. I painfully levered myself into a more upright position and saw that there were some shelf like dents in the rock to the left of me where who ever lived here kept things. There was a small battered drinking bottle, a disposable lighter, a survival knife, a very worn fire steel, a few candles, and then the strangest item of all: a small very dirty and threadbare teddy bear. It looked like it had been pink at some stage and was missing an eye and the little bow on it's head hanging by a thread.

I noticed some movement in the dark of the cave.

"Hello is anyone there?" I asked.

I turned to look at it straining my eyes to make out what was there in the dim flickering light of the fire. I realised a figure sat crouched in the shadows watching me. I could barely make out it's shape and what I could work out made little sense. The figure moved slightly and the I caught glimpse of it's body in the fire light. It seemed to gleam in like it was slightly reflective. Now that I knew it was there I could see it's eyes clearly, reflective black orbs set in the darkness, visible only by their gleam. As it moved it made the strangest noise, not like the sound a person makes on stone when wearing shoes or barefoot, it made a skittering sound like the figure was wearing metal on their feet.

"Who are you?" I tried a little afraid, even though it was clear this thing had taken me from where I fell and brought me to its shelter, I was still a little unclear on its motives.

It turned and moved off into the dark rapidly with a clattering sound as it moved. As it spun I saw new aspects of it's shape that confused me even more. It was like it had something sticking out of it's back but I couldn't make it out in the darkness. It returned a moment later with the same odd clattering sound. It paused at the edge of the light then inched slowly forward. I could gradually see more of it, its hand came first it was holding a water bottle which looked like the one from my pack. It was covered in shiny black plates like armour covering it's skin. It's fingers had no nails but seemed slightly pointed at the end almost like claws. Its arm was similarly covered, but there was some strange protrusion on the forearm that I couldn't work out. The figure edged closer holding the water bottle out to me. I reached out with my undamaged arm and took it. The creature never got quite into the light so apart from the arm I saw only glimpses. It seemed to be covered in the same armour plates it had on its arm. As soon as I took the bottle it clattered away hiding deeper in the shadows where I couldn't see it.

I took a drink of the water washing the taste of blood out of my mouth. It seemed the creature was a little scared of me or just very shy of the light.

"Thank you," I said. The creature didn't reply merely watching me from the shadows.

It was like that most of the day the figure sat just out of view watching me. I dozed with my body in a huge amount of pain. I really needed some medical care but was in no position to go and get it and my rescuer seemed content just to sit and watch me.

I dozed off and came to some time later to the smell of cooking meat. I tried to move but was too exhausted. I managed to turn a little to see what was going on. I could see what looked like rabbits cooking on a spit over the fire. I took a drink of water and lay there fighting back the pain. I heard the clattering noise as owner of the cave moved around. A moment later one of the rabbits was sitting next to my water bottle on a slightly buckled small plastic plate. I reached down, wincing a little as I moved, and ate the food. Once again thanking my shy rescuer, again there was no response from the figure crouched off in the dark.

After my meal I lapsed into a disturbed sleep waking frequently through the night due to the pain, the slightest shift in position sent pain shooting through me. As a result I didn't get much good quality sleep.

The next day I woke to see water heating in an old can over the fire. My rescuer was crouched just off to the side watching the thing. I could see a little more of the figure: both it's arms were the same covered in black slightly reflective plates with some strange features on the forearm just above the wrist running to above the elbow. I could just about make out the creatures face. Though it was strange like the other parts of the creature I had glimpsed, it was an obviously human face. It was also covered in plating with a small area around the mouth where it was normal flesh though still of a dark colour, the eyes peeking out were black orbs set in black plating. The top of the head had a long shock of what looked like blonde hair sticking out, though it was a bit bedraggled with bits of leaf and twig sticking out. From the face it looked like my rescuer was relatively young and female, but it was hard to tell. I tentatively started calling her a she rather than the pronoun it I had been previously using. Whoever she was she looked very odd. I wondered what had happened to her? Some sort of accident, or a mutant maybe, or maybe she was a MORFS survivor.

"They say a watched pot never boils," I said trying to engage her in conversation.

She started at my voice and scrambled back into the shadows away from me.

"Hey, Hey," I called, "I'm sorry I didn't mean to scare you."

I heard her slowly move back towards the light again, her eyes pointed towards me. Eventually she went back to watching the water though she did so from deeper in the shadows where I couldn't see her. When the water began to boil she edged closer to the fire, her eyes glancing between me and the water. Eventually she turned and reached for the water. Then something strange happened: her black armoured hand reached out and with a sort of snick sound the strange features I noticed on her forearm hinged forwards over the top and bottom of her hand. Snapped into place these sections of armour became a fairly lethal looking pincer. She clicked it a few times experimentally then deftly reached over the fire, grabbed the hot can in her claw and took it off to cool. Once she released the can the pincer snapped back onto her forearm revealing vaguely normal looking hands once more.

I was a bit surprised by this, "That's a neat trick," I said.

Once again she startled a bit at my words and scrambled back a bit out of the light.

"Look there's no need to be afraid, I'm not going to hurt you," I tried feeling vaguely silly. Barely able to move I was no threat to anyone in my present condition.

She edged a bit closer and I could see her eyes watching me.

"Look why don't we start easy," I said trying to sound as friendly as possible. This person was my only hope of survival, I needed to be able to talk to her without her running off each time. "My name is Thomas, what's yours?"

I was rather assuming that she could speak, given her somewhat rough living conditions I guessed she didn't do this for fun. Still, she was obviously reasonably skilled at surviving: she had caught rabbits, cooked them and known to boil water rather than just drinking it as it was. There was silence for a long time, I was beginning to think she wasn't going to talk to me either because she couldn't or was too afraid to.

"J ... J ... Jamie," she said in a soft high voice. She sounded rusty like she hadn't spoken to anyone in a long time, I guess it was possible she hadn't.

"Pleased to meet you Jamie. Thank you for rescuing me," I said. She didn't respond but she had told me her name which was probably a big step for her.

I was feeling exhausted and in some more pain, I would have done anything for some pain killers. A thought occurred to me, "Jamie, do you have my bag?" I asked. I saw her nod, "Do you think you can find me some painkillers from it, there were some in the side pocket."

She went clattering off through an opening deeper into the cave. I could hear her rummaging around out in the dark somewhere. I hoped the side pockets on my bag hadn't been torn open by the slide and the fall. A short while later I heard Jamie come clattering back towards me. She again hesitated on the edge of the firelight.

"It's alright," I said trying to reassure her. She waited there indecisively for a bit then slowly edged further into the light. More of her came into view than I had seen before. All of her body was covered by similar chitinous plating. She was shaped like a fairly attractive girl. She was essentially topless but almost every inch of skin was covered in black gleaming plating even her breasts were covered. Her only clothing a small pair of tattered shorts over her womanly hips. She looked like she was wearing some futuristic body armour or space suit and gave the impression of being fully clothed even though she was in reality almost naked. Her legs were similarly encased in armour, it went all the way down to her feet. I guess that was why she made a clattering sound as she moved, her chitinous exoskeleton clicking against the stone. Her figure was curvy and very athletic looking, I suspected she would have been quite pretty without the armour covering her. She looked fairly young maybe early twenties, though it was hard to tell.

With a small packet of painkillers in her hands she gradually edged towards me, still a little fearful that I would leap up and attack her or something. I wondered what horrors she had experienced that made her so fearful of others. I had some guess as to why she lived here, her powerful armoured body scared me probably as much as I scared her though I tried my damnedest not to show it. She had after all rescued me and given me food and shelter. If she had wanted to hurt me she could have easily done so, but I didn't think she had any intention in that regard.

As she came closer I got another surprise: there was something behind her, it took a while to resolve in the half light of the cave and it was black and plated like the rest of her. It was a tail, a huge armoured tail that curved up behind her. At its tip was a vicious looking spike. Finally it all made sense, the armour plating, the pincers, and the tail. The poor woman was a scorpion hybrid, had to be. Scorpions were pretty scary at the best of times to have a human sized one was frankly terrifying. I found myself wondering if her sting carried lethal venoms. If a small scorpion could kill a person what horror could she manage given she was many times the size.

Still she was terrified of me even though I was obviously no match for her. I suspected even at my peak with the wicked sting she could easily dispatch me. I wondered what had happened to the poor girl that a normal human scared her so. She eventually got close and held out the painkillers. She stretched out as far as she could holding the painkiller box by its edge so she was as far away from me as possible. Her whole body was tense and ready to run if I tried to grab her. As I reached out with my hand slowly, the movement caused her to twitch backwards. Eventually she calmed and nervously held out the painkillers again. When she was close she tossed the packet into my hand then bolted like a startled rabbit clattering off to the shadows again. I noticed she was slightly closer than before, sitting slightly in the aura of the light so she was partly visible.

I realised belatedly that this scared girl must be the monster the old man had spoken of.

I thanked her again and took one of the pills. I wanted to take more but I only had a single pack and didn't know how long they might last.

I lay back and rested while I waited for the pain killers to kick in. After a while Jamie busied herself with taking the water she had boiled and topping up various containers she had. She then added a little more wood to the fire just to keep it going. I watched, her movements were all smooth and precise, she would also tend to sit perfectly still for long periods of time moving only when necessary. She came off as careful deliberate, patient, and detached, like a hunter waiting for prey. At other times she was skittish and would move suddenly into the shadows like a startled animal. It was an odd juxtaposition of behaviours, sort of hunter and prey.

She was still nervous around me and kept to the shadows, but not quite so much as earlier.

After a while of laying there and waiting for the painkillers to kick in I realised I had another problem: I desperately needed a toilet.

"Er, Jamie," I asked a bit embarrassed, "I need to get up."

She turned and looked at me for a bit, then said haltingly, "y ... you can't g ... get up. Your legs are broken."

"Well I er ... well I ... I need to use the toilet," I said.

She sat there for a bit just staring at me, then suddenly clattered off into the darkness again. I wondered if I had upset her somehow, but she returned fairly quickly holding an empty can. Which she offered to me, well I guess it was better than nothing. She gave me some privacy and I took care of that problem. She retrieved the can later and disposed of it somewhere, returning the empty can so I could use it again.

As the pain faded back a bit I lay there wondering what to do, since I didn't have anything better to do I watched my strange host as she went about her day. I noticed that she had a habit of walking on all fours. Partly that seemed to be due to the low ceiling in the cave, but even so she seemed more comfortable on the ground than standing. This odd gait seemed to be to do with balancing her large tail, which offset her centre of gravity. On all fours she could move at quite a rate of knots far faster than you would expect and it was quite disturbing to watch. It seemed her hips hinged differently so she could run along with her legs bent up and her belly almost flat to the ground. Alternatively she could stand or move like a normal human.

I could see why catching a glimpse of her would lead to people assuming there was a monster in the woods. She could look totally alien at times. Some time later in what my body told me was early evening she ran off out of the cave for quite a while. She came back with fish, some berries, and sort of mushrooms. She cooked the fish and then offered me one on the plate like before. Rather than running off into the shadows as before she sat next to the fire to eat her meal. Obviously getting more comfortable with my presence. I ate my food worrying a little that the berries or the mushrooms might be poisonous. I knew that unless you were an expert it was rarely wise to pick wild mushrooms, identifying the ones that were safe to eat was tricky. However Jamie tucked in with delight chomping them down so I assumed they were OK to eat. I did occur to me after I had eaten them that she might be immune to their poisons because of her scorpion nature.

After dinner and not dying from poison, I tried to engage her in conversation. She was very quiet and said nothing, so hating the silence I just blabbered away about nothing in particular. I told her about my job about the sort of things I liked to do. I had got on to my family and so forth before she said anything at all.

I was just talking about my sisters when she said out of the blue, "I had a sister."

"Really what was her name?" I prompted.

"Francesca, I used to call her Frankie," she said, sounding sad. She reached up and stroked the battered teddy bear on the shelf, "she gave me Pinky Bear."

She sat there for a bit stroking the bear then suddenly clattered off into the dark I heard her sobbing in the distance. Eventually she came back and sat by the fire, wiping off her tears. I wanted to ask her what had upset her so but I felt she might very well run off again if I did. Perhaps given time she would tell me her story.

I tried to examine the damage to see how badly I was injured. Now I was somewhat numbed from the painkillers to make such an examination a less excruciating event. I gently felt my left arm, it had a lot of nasty bruising and possibly a break in the forearm. I had various cuts and bruising on my ribs, maybe a break; it was hard to tell. My legs were the worst. I was pretty sure both had breaks in them, several judging by their condition. I guess they had taken the brunt of the fall.

I turned to see Jamie watching me. She seemed to look right through me, she suddenly said, "You have broken your arm, one rib, your left ankle and shin and your right leg in three places."

"How do you know that?" I asked.

"I see it," she said with a sort of shrug she went back to poking the fire.

I wondered if she had some sort of x-ray vision or something, "I need to get to a hospital Jamie, the breaks need setting and disinfecting," I said.

She looked at me and sadly shook her head, "I'm sorry, you are in no state to move and I cannot go near people."

I hung my head a little, needed help. Just lying here waiting to heal without proper medical care was a bad idea. I could get an infection, my bone probably wouldn't heal right, there were a whole host of problems to deal with. I needed to gain the girls trust a bit then maybe she would be able to get me help.

I tried a few more times to engage her in conversation but she wasn't up for it, what ever bad memory's I had stirred earlier had made her even more reticent.

I tried to get some sleep, she curled up in front of the fire shifting a bit uncomfortably on the hard ground. I guess even though she was armoured all over she liked some comfort when sleeping.

"Jamie," I called, she turned to look at me, "There should be a sleeping bag and sleeping mat in my bag assuming they didn't fall out. You're welcome to use them since I've taken your bed."

She clattered off and came back with the mat and the bag. Before sleeping she grabbed the bear from her shelf and curled up with the bear clutched tight to her chest. She looked like a little girl by her posture rubbing the soft part of her face against the worn fabric of the bear.

She turned slightly towards me, "Thank you," she said then went to sleep holding her bear tightly as if she expected someone might try and steal it from her in the night.

I fell into a listless sleep. Gradually the painkillers wore off during the night and my rest got more and more fitful.

When I woke in the morning the bear was back on the shelf and the sleeping mat and bag were neatly stowed in another of the little nooks in the wall. Jamie was nowhere to be seen. I examined my injuries a bit and debated whether to take another pain killer or save it for when I really needed it. I decided being in less pain was preferable.