Chapter 4

JAKE

That night and the next morning I examined in my mind the conversation I had had with the beautiful young Alie. She had obviously been very frightened throughout despite her much more advantageous position. However, she HAD given me terms on which I could return and speak with her again. So that was something at least. Her comments seemed a little strange. She seemed to believe that simply because I was a man I would hurt her.

Early in the morning I finally decided to stop turning the events over in my mind and take her up on her carefully worded allowance of another conversation.

I quickly ate my standard breakfast of water and a survival ration-bar. I was only a few days into being stranded and the rations were already starting to grate on me.

After breakfast I began the hour long walk to Alie's camp.

When I arrived in the clearing across the river from her camp, I couldn't see any sign of Alie. There were a few wisps of smoke rising from the fire pit indicating that there had been a fire there in the past few hours but it looked as though she was not present.

"Alie?" I called out to see if she was perhaps nearby or in her dwelling. I called her name a few more times but when it was clear that she was not around I just laid back in the grass to relax, awaiting her return.

ALIE

Alie woke early in the morning feeling unsettled. Her thoughts were chaotic and that was an unfamiliar sensation. Living alone for so many years she rarely felt strongly conflicted about anything. Now she did. Part of her desperately wanted to trust the man but that part was losing a fierce war with the rest of her being that insisted he was a threat.

She knew that she needed to sort out her thoughts before he came back wanting to talk. She silently berated herself for even giving him terms by which he COULD speak with her again. It had been a moment of weakness.

After starting a small fire and preparing a quick breakfast she decided to go hunting for the morning, it was an activity she loved and it always seemed to calm and focus her.

She collected her bow from the hut and took off at a bit of a jog towards the pool and waterfall.

Alie knew she didn't need a large animal as she had just finished cutting and smoking the deer meat the day before. With this in mind she decided to hunt Gebins. Unlike the deer they did not look much like any animal her mother knew of from Earth or the colonies so they had come up with a name for the creatures.

Gebins are fairly small animals, about 15 lbs, with blue fur covering their entire bodies. They possess six extremities, the hind four used for walking and running and the front two for grasping or walking. They eat plants and have only one eye with a small forking antler above it. Their mouth and teeth are similar to that of the beaver on earth as they eat very fibrous plants and even trees on occasion.

For Alie a Gebin is a treat, her favourite food.

She had seen some in the area north of the pool and waterfall so that was her destination this morning.

She walked briskly and after a short time she was standing on the shore of the pool. Her gaze focused on the beautiful waterfall and she smiled, this was truly her favourite place. She shivered slightly as the mist from the falls cooled her skin, prompting her to move along.

Alie walked carefully but quickly around one side of the pool where a break in the brush was visible, as was a steep path that led to the top of the cliff and the forest beyond.

Her climb to the top of the cliff was uneventful and she soon began stalking quietly through the woods, keeping her eyes alert for any sign of her prey.

She kept an arrow nocked as she crept along, as ready for the sudden appearance of a Gebin as she could be.

Alie spotted a flash of blue disappear into a tangle of thick brush just ahead of her and she stealthily stalked around to the other side of the small animal's hiding place, looking for an opening in the bushes to shoot through.

As she rounded the bushes they parted just slightly and she could see the Gebin crouching, munching on the tough branches of the brush that had concealed it. Alie drew her longbow with practiced ease and let fly an arrow that downed the small animal after it leaped once to try and escape the sudden pain in its side.

Alie noted that the animal had already died by the time she walked up to it. She leaned her bow up against a tree just outside the bushes and drew her knife from a sheath attached to her belt, beginning the process of gutting the Gebin. She did not get far in her task.

The young woman heard a soft footstep nearby and her head snapped up to stare into the eyes of a Jungle Lion no more than 10 yards away. Its four long fangs hung from its upper jaw and glinted in the sun. The Lion obviously was regarding Alie as a nuisance. He wanted the Gebin and she was in his way.

Alie quickly realized to her horror that her bow was out of reach and all she had to protect herself was her knife!

She reacted instantly in a moment of panic and broke into a full-out sprint, directly away from the Lion.

The Jungle Lion's instincts kicked into high gear, it felt an irresistible need to chase the fleeing woman.

Alie chanced a glance backward and her heart hammered fiercely in her chest as she saw the predator leap after her and begin the chase. Unfortunately for Alie she was nowhere near fast enough to get away.

Just ahead through the trees Alie saw the rushing river. She knew that the Jungle Lions were not partial to water and if she could just get across the river perhaps she would be safe. She was running all out, jumping over fallen trees and dodging through sparse undergrowth.

She almost made it.

As she took her first long stride into the river the lion leaped through the air, bringing its long claws down on her upper thigh and raking them towards her knee.

Alie let out a piercing scream as her whole body was wracked with unbearable pain and she collapsed into the river, her head striking a partially submerged rock.

The lion paced briefly along the shore, letting out a deafening roar before turning to go back to its stolen meal.

Alie blinked her eyes open and then pulled her head from the rushing river. She coughed loudly to clear some water from her lungs and tried to swim but her leg wouldn't move without excruciating pain. She was confused and disoriented, her vision blurred. She shook her head several times trying to clear her vision but once she did, all she felt was a deep foreboding for a moment and then the sickening sensation of falling, water all around her. She was carried over the waterfall.

As she fell towards the pool she had the presence of mind to point her toes, although even this hurt intensely, and she entered the water of the pool with enough grace as to avoid major injury from the fall. Alie was carried deep under water by undertow from the falls and she felt a pain in her side as her body scraped along the rocks at the bottom of the pool.

Horrible thoughts went through her confused and disoriented mind, 'So this is my death ... alone in my favourite place. Perhaps it is for the best, I can't be lonely anymore if I'm dead, right?' She felt the strength pouring out of her through the deep gashes in her left thigh and cut along her forehead. 'It would be so easy to just give up, ' she thought briefly.

Finally out of the depths of her mind came her instinct and desire to fight for her life.

Despite the deep ache in her head, her blood loss, and her lungs which felt like they were about to explode she found the last sliver of strength left in her and used it to fight.

'I will NOT die, not like this. Not here. Not now.'

She kicked her uninjured leg and began pulling herself towards the surface with her arms. Before she could get to the surface, her body demanded she take a breath and, not thinking clearly, she gave in. One short breath underwater caused water to flood into her lungs.

As she broke the surface Alie was coughing incessantly, water spurting from her mouth as she desperately tried to draw in air and displace the water. The spasms of coughing wracked her body violently.

As her coughing slowed slightly she realized she was nearly at the shore. With all the willpower she had left, Alie crawled up onto the sandy beach and before she could even get her whole body out of the water, her vision went black and she collapsed. The pain, exhaustion, head injury, and blood loss would not allow her to go any further.

JAKE

I blinked my eyes open. I must have fallen asleep. Where am I?

After a few moments I realized I had dozed off while waiting for Alie to return to her camp so I could speak with her. When I glanced at the sun I realized it had been several hours since I arrived. I also noted I was covered in sweat, it was a very warm day.