Chapter 3

I tried to get back to my life, put that time behind me. I tried throwing myself back into my work hoping to forget what had happened. But more and more I found my thoughts on Jamie.

As a result, my work suffered, and I was distracted and preoccupied. Friends and colleagues all saw it, but let me be, since I was the sort of person who liked to sort out their own problems. I would often sit staring at the piece of armour thinking about Jamie.

One lunch time I was out with a friend doing just that and he asked me, "What is that?"

Pausing to think for a few seconds, I answered, "I don't know, I found it in the woods."

My friend gave me a 'I don't quite believe that' look, but didn't say anything. He held out his hand, "Mind if I take a look?"

I handed it over. He worked in industrial engineering and did things like stress analysis and material testing. He also had some sort of telesense ability which he could examine things microscopically, which was how he got into that line of work in the first place.

He took a glance at the armour piece and did this focusing of his eyes thing, which I recognised as him using that ability. Then he frowned and brought the plate closer. "You say you found this?"

"Yeah," I replied.

"It's weird! I can make out nano-scale constructions, but it seems to be organic. Mind if I take this back to the lab run some tests?"

Intrigued I answered, "Sure take it. Let me know what you find."

A few days later I saw him again, he was incredibly animated, and within moments he was jabbering away about what he had found. It was largely over my head, something about organic nano tube honeycombing shock absorption, scon heat shunting, and energy dissipation. It seemed the practical upshot was that Jamie was probably armoured better than a tank against pretty much anything you could throw at her. Added to that the fact that she seemed to be a bio elemental, I would guess that meant she was nigh on indestructible, given sufficient time and resources to regenerate.

While my companion continued to talk excitedly, I ruefully reflected that though Jamie might be practically invulnerable to any physical damage, the same could not be said for emotional damage. Someone had hurt her badly and forced her to hide in the woods. She lived out there like an animal afraid to face anyone, yet terribly lonely and almost childlike.

She had saved my life, of that I was sure. I decided that it was up to me to do the same for her. She might not be in any physical danger, for out there she was tougher than anything she was likely to meet, but it was no way to live. I stood up abruptly in the middle of my friend's excited talk about the possible applications of this material if they could replicate it, and told him I had to leave. Taking the armour piece with me, I rushed off.

Deciding to start straight away, I strode back to the office and informed my boss I had to leave for an indeterminate period of time due to some personal problems I needed to sort out. I expected her to request my resignation or fire me, but she told me to take all the time I needed. The company apparently had a policy on such things, and since I had been a valued employee they were more than willing to let me take some time without having to give up my job. I was a bit surprised by this, but she just smiled told me to go and sort things out and only come back when I was ready.

Leaving work, I headed off to grab some gear, I had no idea how long I would be gone for. I got myself a new set of sleeping equipment and some tools, so if need be I could catch my own food. I knew there was always the option to head back for provisions, but I wanted to be able to stay out with Jamie as long as possible. I suspected it would take a long time for her to trust me, and interrupting that to go and get food would slow things down.

I loaded up and headed back to the countryside.

Arriving fairly late in the day, it was much too late to set out to Jamie's cave. I pitched my tent at the camp-site and set up the minimum I would need, I wanted to be away quickly in the morning. I headed into the village for a proper meal.

"Back again!" said the barmaid with a smile as I ordered my pint.

"Yes, it such a wonderful place to visit. I didn't think I did it justice last time," I said.

"Well you know what they say, it's the people that make a place," she replied with a wink.

How right she was, one person in particular in my mind. While I waited at the bar for my drink I saw the old fellow Bob, he was with some rough looking chaps talking. I was close enough to hear without attracting too much attention.

"It's out there in the woods," Bob said. "You've seen the pictures I've managed to take of it!"

"Yeah," said one of the guys, "Real freak show."

"Hmm," grunted the other, "looked a little out of focus and distant to me. Could have just been a person carrying something or some trees and shadows."

"No, you'll see it's real! With your help we can catch the beast, protect the village and also profit from it!" said Bob.

"Well, there's nothing we like more than a little profit, eh Henry," said the second guy winking at the first, "So assuming this beast does exist, how do you propose we catch it?"

"Well I have an ingenuous plan!" said Bob, then looked around shiftily, "I'll not speak of it here though, too many ears."

They drank up and hurried out of the pub. I hated to think what they had in mind for catching Jamie. I didn't want to clue them in to what she really was, so I would just have to keep an eye out. I had a good meal then turned in early.

The next day I set off, knowing it would take me most of the day to reach Jamie's cave. It looked pretty different on the way back, but I managed to find the way. As the sun began to set I came in sight of the cave entrance. I wanted to go straight in there and see her, but I knew there was a good chance I'd wind up with a stinger through my chest if I did that.

I set up camp in a clear area a bit away from the cave so she would be able to come to me in her own time. I set up my tent and my stove and boiled some water for tea while I waited. As I sat perched on an old tree stump I was briefly worried that she might have moved to stop me finding her again, but I figured she probably didn't think I would ever come back.

I sat there as night fell waiting and watching the stars come out. Some time later I heard the clattering that signalled Jamie moving on stone. It stopped quickly as she hit softer ground, I did my best not to look. I heard rustles in the bushes but waited for her to see me and get accustomed to my presence. I made some tea and got out another cup.

"Would you like a cuppa, Jamie?" I asked.

There was a slight rustling but no real response, I made two cups of tea and then set one on the far side of the area I was camped in, then went and sat well away from it.

"Well if you feel like it, help yourself," I said.

I sat sipping my tea, there were some more quiet movements through the bushes and then the undergrowth on the far side of the camp parted and a familiar face peeked out. She then edged ever so slowly towards the cup and pulled it back into her hiding place.

"There's milk and sugar by the stove if you want it," I said pointing.

She sat there for a bit glancing between me and where I had gestured. She eventually crept slowly over keeping an eye on me and poured a little milk into her tea, then rapidly retreated back to the edge. She didn't go all the way into the bush this time though. She sipped her tea for a while watching me.

Eventually she put her cup down and said, "Why did you come back?"

I looked at her, "I am worried about you," I replied.

She looked away, seemingly uncomfortable with my being concerned for her. We sat there together enjoying the evening.

Eventually Jamie stirred, "I need to go hunting."

"OK, see you later then," I replied with a smile.

She stared at me for a bit, then stood up and moved off into the forest. At first I could make her out by the light glinting off her black slightly reflective armour, but I quickly lost sight of her as she got deeper in.

I listening to the sounds of the forest and watching the stars waiting for her to come back.

Sometime later she returned with some fish she had caught. She went to her cave, pausing briefly at the entrance to stare at me then clattered off inside. I didn't follow, not wanting to push her too hard. Soon the smell the aroma of cooking fish wafting from the entrance to her cave set my tummy rumbling. I decided to make a start on my own meal, I retrieved one of the cans of food from my backpack and set up the stove. Pretty soon I had a simmering pot of chicken curry smelling delicious.

I heard a Jamie come clattering out of the cave then a sniffing noise. I turned to see her sitting with her belly flat to the ground staring at my bubbling pot. I guessed that her normal diet lacked variety and the sort of spices I took for granted.

"Would you like some?" I asked her.

She stared at me a looking a little unsure of herself, "No ... I", she started. I cut her off in mid sentence. "I have more than enough to share."

She still looked doubtful, so I continued, "If you don't like taking food off me for nothing, perhaps an exchange. Some curry in exchange for some of your fish?"

She looked over at the pot again and subconsciously licked her lips, then without a word spun round and dived back into her cave. At first I wondered if I had upset her somehow but after a short while she returned with a plate with a couple of freshly cooked fish on it.

I reached over to my camping gear and pulled out my collapsible stool. Setting it up on the other side of the stove, I gestured to it. "Take a seat it won't take much longer."

She hesitantly approached the stool, seeming nervous to be too near me. Her nerves were warring with her fascination with the bubbling pot though, and that seemed to win out. She lowered herself carefully into the small fabric stool which creaked alarmingly but seemed to be up to the job of holding her for now.

While Jamie looked on with rapt attention, I stirred the pot, wondering how long it had been since she had eaten something other than fish, rabbits, and other bits and bobs that could be found in the forest.

Once the curry was done I turned to her and asked, "How much do you want?"

She looked at me for a bit, as if not sure what to say, so I prompted her with, "Do you want to go half and half on my curry and your fish?"

She nodded earnestly, "OK hand me your plate and I'll dish things out," I said.

When she held the plate out to me, I gently took it from her without getting too near, since she looked very skittish the closer I got. I took out my plate and then split the fish between the two plates then dished out the curry, giving Jamie the slightly larger portion, since she seemed to need it more. When I handed her plate back to her, she looked at the liquid curry quizzically, as if working out how she was going to tackle it.

"Would you like a spoon?" When she nodded, I retrieved a metal spoon from my small set of cutlery and handed it to her. She stared at it for a bit making me wonder how long it had been since she last used a spoon. Just as I was beginning to think she had forgotten how to use it, which seemed unlikely, she began to devour the food. I ate at a more leisurely pace, enjoying the curry with the smoky flavour of the fire cooked fish. She finished very quickly and then licked her plate clean and began eyeing the nearly empty pot.

"Help yourself to any that's left," I said, turning the handle to face her.

She was soon scraping out the pot to get the last remaining morsels of the curry. I suspected she would have licked it clean, if it weren't for the awkward shape. When we were done I wanted to start questioning Jamie on why she lived out here alone, but I knew it was far too soon. I suppressed my eagerness to get to the bottom of the mystery and just rested, letting her get used to my presence. Hopefully, if I was patient, eventually she would open up and not try and run away whenever I went near her.

Once the food was done, Jamie began to appear increasingly uncomfortable, and eventually leapt to her feet without a word, scrambling off into the undergrowth. I knew I had a long road ahead of me to gain her trust.

I was a little tired from the late hour and the day's exertions when I turned in for the night. I slept a bit restlessly being woken a couple of times by Jamie clattering in and out of the cave. It seemed she was mostly nocturnal judging by the times she woke me. I guess that made sense. At that time of day people wouldn't be likely to see her out and about. In the dark, her armour was fairly good camouflage but in daylight it would stand out like a sore thumb against the green foliage.

I woke in the morning and got up to stretch my legs, I packed up my tent, not wanting to attract unwanted attention by having a camp set up. Besides, the fact that it was illegal it would draw too much attention to the otherwise unremarkable cave. I did a bit of exploring around the cave to see what the rest of the area was like, then went up to the disused road on the ledge some distance above the cave. I could see why it had fallen into disuse. It looked very precarious, with hairpin bends some places and sheer drops into the valley that held the lake in others. In some places it was crumbling away to nothing. I was wary of going anywhere near the edge mindful of not taking another tumble. The section overlooking Jamie's cave was the worst, with a hairpin that was collapsing at the edge and the road surface had totally deteriorated. It was a sheer drop of some 20 feet or so onto a fairly steep slope that formed the roof of Jamie's cave, with a shallower incline thereafter. It looked pretty treacherous.

I left the road and headed back into the valley and the area of the cave. I wandered down to the shores of the lake where I spied a stream and filled one of my water containers it was one of the new ones with a fancy high-tech embedded purifying filter. I still wasn't quite sure I trusted the thing, despite the manufacturers claims so I usually boiled the water as well just in case, it was always better to be safe than sorry. I took most of my liquid intake as tea, anyway, so it wasn't really a problem. I spent the morning sitting by the lake watching the water ripple and reading a book.

When it got towards midday I headed back towards the cave and set up my stove for a cuppa. I sipped my tea and munched on my last remaining sandwich I had brought for lunches then did some more reading. I was really just biding my time till evening, when Jamie would feel comfortable enough to come out. As the sun started to set, I put up my camp again and riffled through my supplies to see if I could find something else new to tempt Jamie, so she would share another meal with me. I found a tin of sausage casserole that might serve. Just as it got dark, I heard voices, I switched off my light and then from the shadow of a tree, had a look. I could see three men blundering through the forest with torches.

I hid and listened it was the old bloke, Bob, and I guessed the two men I had seen. Bob was rambling to his companions, "This way. I'll show you, I have the perfect spot and the beast is quite active in this area!"

I thought about following them, but I wasn't very skilled with moving silently, and I didn't want to alert them to my presence, as it would raise too many questions.

Bob seemed to be walking funny, like he was carrying something heavy and there was a clanking noise. I couldn't tell what it was he had though due to the relative darkness. I watched till their light disappeared into the distance then turned to go back to my sitting place when I came face to face with Jamie crouched in the bushes behind me.

"Are they gone?" she asked.

I let out a gasp of surprise and nearly fell over, I hadn't heard her leave the cave or approach me at all. I guess when she wanted to she could be very stealthy.

"Whoa! You startled me! You're very sneaky," I said with a smile trying not to show how disturbing it was having a large scorpion girl appear behind you in the night.

I moved back to the camp area and sat down on the stump. She quietly followed me keeping to the edge of the clearing, but sitting mostly in the open, rather than hiding in the bush.

"Tea?" I asked.

She cocked her head to one side and looked at me for a bit. Her gaze could be quite unnerving since it always seemed vaguely predatory. She gave me an almost imperceptible nod, then looked away.

I set up the stove and put the water on to boil.

"You were gone earlier," she said quietly. I guess she had peeked out in the day.

"I took a walk down to the lake, I didn't leave the tent set up because I didn't want to attract too much attention," I replied.

This seemed to satisfy her. I made the tea and handed her a mug. She backed up slightly, as if ready to bolt when I approached with the mug, but relaxed when I went back to my tree stump.

We sipped our tea and shot looks at each other for a bit, then, when she was done, she turned and said, "I'm off hunting."

As she turned to go I called out, "Would you like to share food again? I have sausage casserole tonight."

She looked back for a second and nodded. I thought I saw a slight smile on her lips, but she had vanished off into the undergrowth before I could really tell. It was the first time she had even remotely smiled in the short time I had known her.

I waited for her to return before starting on the food. As I waited I heard people again, I hid and watched as Bob and cohorts Henry and his as yet unidentified friend, headed back the way they came.

"Well it's set, come the morning we'll see if it's caught anything," said Bob.

Henry snorted, "If anyone happens to wander into that thing, you better hope no one traces it back to you!"

"There be no one in these woods at this time but that beast!" Bob replied.

"Hmm you better be right, cos if they come looking for you we ain't taking the rap for this," the other man said.

"Yeah," said Henry uncomfortably, "I'm with you on that one, Gavin. I ain't going to jail cos some little kid or halfwit hiker looses a limb or some such."

"No need to get snippy. Now let's head back and have something to eat," Old Bob chortled. I wondered what they had done and why the two men were worried about someone else finding it. I would have to keep an eye out. I didn't want to end up in some trap they had set.

When they had passed into the distance I went back to my tree stump to wait. It had been a while I wondered what was taking Jamie she was usually swift with these sorts of things, I guess either what ever she was hunting was proving elusive or she had hidden while the three men went past and it had slowed her down.

Suddenly there was a high pitched cry of pain from the forest. It sounded like Jamie!

I grabbed my torch and rushed in the direction of the noise careful to look where I was going in case I tripped and broke an ankle in my haste. I kept running into the forest looking around for her but couldn't see her anywhere.

I called out to her, "Jamie! Are you OK?"

I heard a whimpering sobbing noise and headed towards it, I saw a dark shape in crouched over something.

"Jamie?" I said.

"AH!" she cried and her tail swung out in my direction.

"Whoa! Easy it's me," I said softly shining the light on my face so she could see me, "What's happened?"

"It hurts!" she sobbed. Her hands were down by one of her legs.

"Easy there sweetheart, I'm going to take a look now." I cooed gently trying to calm the obviously very scared girl.

I lowered the torch and took a look. she was caught in some horrific metal jawed man trap. it was the sort of thing that had been illegal for centuries. Its metal teeth had dug in around Jamie's knee where she had less protection. Although the armour on her leg had taken the brunt of the impact with no damage, some of the teeth had hit the gaps between her lower leg armour and her thigh armour that allowed her knee to bend. It was tearing into the flesh and causing a lot of bleeding.

"Oh that looks nasty. Try to stay calm. We'll get you out of this," I said and examined the mechanism to see how to get her out. It looked like it just hinged back and locked into place but I guessed it would take a lot of force to do that. I really needed some sort of pry bar to open it.

"We need to get this open and I'm not sure I can do it on my own I need you to help me. Do you think you can do that?" I asked gently.

She nodded, tears streaming down her face, I felt rage stirring in my heart at the sort of person that would leave something like this lying about for anyone to step into. I hated to think what might have happened if someone without armour on their legs had stepped on this. I reached down and gripped the jaws.

"Ready? On three we push together. The moment your leg is free, pull it out. OK, one ... two ... three," I said and we heaved against the spring.

Jamie was a lot stronger than she looked, but her awkward position meant she couldn't really get a lot of leverage. Even so, we managed to open the jaws and she pulled her leg free. I used all my body weight to push the jaws back till they locked.

Now she was free, Jamie threw herself against me in a vicious hug, nearly knocking me over, bawling her eyes out like a hurt child. I held her and gently stroked her hair and said calming things. It was very strange being this close. Her body was mostly hard and smooth due to the armour but she was warm, and her body very shapely and athletic. The few bits of her that were not wrapped in armour, the small patch of soft skin around her mouth, the soft slightly tangled blond hair sticking out of her head, were in stark contrast to the rest of her. It was a bit like being hugged by a stone statue of a near naked attractive girl that was at body temperature. I shone the light on her damaged leg and watched amazed as the exposed torn bloody flesh swiftly stopped bleeding, then healed, over, and within seconds any sign of injury was gone.

She stopped crying and looked confused wiping the tears from her eyes. She let me go, sat down, and rubbed her leg, "It doesn't hurt now!" she said.

I wondered if this was the first time she had realised she could heal rapidly, her armour usually deflecting any damage she might otherwise receive. As we both sat there marvelling over her regenerative capabilities the trap's lock gave way again. It was old, rusty, and I guess not in very good condition. I rather foolishly reached to stop it, the jaws snapped shut on two of my fingers the force crushing through them so they were severed above the bottom joint.

I sat there staring at my missing fingers for a bit in a state of shock, it was one of those delayed action things where I didn't feel pain for a short while. Eventually my body caught up and I was in quite a lot of pain. I gritted my teeth and let out a grunt of agony.

Jamie looked at me in a strange thoughtful way then hunched down and grabbed the severed ends of my mangled fingers and firmly took my bleeding hand in hers. She pressed one of the mangled fingers onto the corresponding stump and then gripped it staring at my hand with a look of intense concentration.

"Make the wrong right, like before!" she said quietly to herself

I felt the same skin crawling feeling I had when she fixed my legs the mangled flesh of the end of my severed finger felt like it was twisting stretching. I suddenly felt a searing pain in my finger as if it was part of me again, but being crushed in a vice. This continued with the weird twisting pulling sensations and agonising pain for what seemed like an age. Eventually the pain faded and Jamie opened her hand to reveal a blood covered but reattached finger with no sign that it had ever been damaged.

"Now for the next one," Jamie said with a slight smile as if pleased with herself.

I braced myself as I went through the agony of feeling my other finger being reattached it was weird, like it being chopped off slowly in reverse. At the end of it I was exhausted I lay on the ground recovering. Jamie might be good at putting people back together, but by goodness, she needed to work on her pain management skills.

"Thank you," I said weakly as I lay there clutching my still throbbing repaired hand.

She turned and glared at the now closed man trap her pincers deployed and she grabbed the thing and with seemingly little effort smashed it to bits leaving the pile of broken parts and twisted metal for Bob and his gang to find. I wondered what they would make of the mangled pile of bloodstained bits.

Jamie reached over to the bushes and retrieved some rabbits she had caught. then began heading back to the cave. I staggered to my feet and hurried after her. She glanced back briefly to see that I was following then picked up the pace. I struggled to keep up with her but eventually made it back to the cave just as she dived in to deal with the rabbits. I left her to that and started preparing my part of the meal. Her sudden shift from crying scared girl that needed to be held to her usual skittish distant persona surprised me a bit, but I hoped this rather painful event for both of us, had formed some trust between us.

Soon the air was filled with the smell of cooking rabbits and casserole. I set up the stool for Jamie, and when she emerged with her cooked rabbits she sat in it nervously. She seemed slightly less skittish around me, as she barely flinched as I held out my hand to take her plate, I guess my helping her out of the man trap had made her trust me a bit. though I wasn't sure she had really needed my help judging by the way she tore it apart afterwards. I guess she had been more shocked by the pain than anything else.

After we had eaten, I tried to engage her in conversation again with limited success.

"I can't believe some would leave that hideous thing just lying around," I said.

Jamie nodded.

"I mean, the way it damaged your leg and my hand, what if a kid had stepped into it! It doesn't bear thinking about," I said shuddering.

"I've never seen one before. Who do you think put it there," Jamie's voice was edged with anger.

"Maybe those men. I think they might be looking for you. I overheard one in the pub in the village talking about seeing a shape that sounded like it might be you," I replied.

At the mention of the village, Jamie pulled her knees up and wrapped her arms round her trying to make herself look small.

"Are you OK?" I asked. When she turned her head and looked away, I changed the subject, "So what did you think of the casserole?"

She looked back at me again, "Nice," she rested her head in her hands as she looked at me.

"I'm glad you liked it," I said with a smile and sat back enjoying the evening. "Your rabbit was nice, too, very tender."

"It's the poison, it dissolves the flesh," she said. I looked at her in horror and after a moment she giggled, "It's not that sort of poison, at least I don't think so. Besides I used my other non toxic venom just in case you aren't immune, and it doesn't get cooked up."

"You have non toxic venom?" I asked.

"Yeah, one temporarily paralyses most things, even people," she said, looking away.

I filed this information away, wondering how she knew that it would paralyse a person.

We sat together for a bit enjoying the evening, but eventually she got bored or nervous at staying out like this and dived back into the cave. I went into the tent and turned in for the night, wanting to be up early, so I would need my rest. I had bad dreams of losing my hand, though this time it was to Jamie. She paralysed me with her sting then snipped off my fingers one by one with her pincers, then a bit like Prometheus with the liver, she reattached them and started all over again. I awoke in a cold sweat, still feeling a tingling in my fingers, I had to look to make sure they were still attached.

I got up remembering my task, packed up my camp and hid my backpack near the cave. I then went over to where the trap was and hiding myself nearby, watching to see who would come to retrieve it. Sure enough some time later Bob and his two friends returned.

"WHAT!" screamed bob on seeing the trashed trap.

"Hmm looks pretty buggered," mused one of the men.

"That monster! This has been in my family for years, and the beast just destroyed it!" whined Bob.

"How do you know it was the beast," said the first man.

"Well, what ever it was it bleeds," said the second man holding one of the parts of the ruined trap, "Come on let's get this lot out of here, it'll do us no good for someone to find the parts."

"But my beautiful trap, it was an antique!" moaned Bob.

"Cheer up, this goes a way to proving your story. No mere man could do this," said the second man with a nasty smile.