Intrusion

 

Her focus on the tablet, she bent forward, trapping the tablet before it hit the ground. Clutching it to her, she turned as a deep grunt came from over her shoulder. As she crouched against the wall, a large figure with reddish hair loomed over her. He stood over her, arms akimbo, his face in what looked like a snarl. She noticed that he had brown mottled stains on his upper teeth.

He held out his right hand to her. Did he want the tablet? She held it up to him, but he shook his head. She secured the sacred tablet close to her and held out her hand. Feeling the rough texture of his palm as it wrapped around hers, he lifted her from the crouch and pulled her towards him. She took a step back, but her heel touched the base of the wall.

Her first duty was to the safety of the tablet, the mind that was not mind. She could not reach to put the tablet back where it belonged. Stooping quickly, back against the wall, she slid the tablet along the stone floor. The creature snarled again as he held out his arms to encircle her. Was he the guardian of the tablets? She dodged sideways under his left arm, then felt the tug as he pulled her skirt away from her. When he paused, she shifted her shoulders, shimmied sideways and out of his encircling arms.

Although he was an alien creature, she had no doubt what it wanted. What he wanted. Alien or not, he was the male of the species. Was he in musth? She looked frantically for a way out. He blocked the passage back where she had come so she darted for the doorway where the Fae warrior had gone, shouting as she ran. 

He stepped sideways and lurched for her, catching her leg, and sending her sprawling on the stone floor. She rolled then sprang up ready to face him. She looked to the doorway for a rescue or at least a distraction but the doorway was empty. The creature spoke to her as he came forward, his right hand held down in front of him, palm up.

To work around warriors, she and Alithea had both been taught the kick that disabled a male in musth. As a growing girl, Bebe had been repulsed by it. Tying up a dead Ibik by its forelimbs, the trainees practiced the kick that crippled or tore the muscle between hip and knee. Sulces, their trainer, seemed to delight in the bloody mess. “Animals have different knees. You can’t be certain that you will down an animal with a kick to the knee. But we all have a muscle that joins the hip and the knee.”

They practiced until each muscle was ripped from the bone and they brought out a fresh carcass to hone their skills. Bebe had only used the technique twice with warriors in camp. As soon as she went into the killing crouch, the warrior’s fear overcame their lust and they backed away.

She looked past the creature’s arm at the outside muscle below his hip, picking her spot. He would grab for her leg so she needed a distraction, the very personal part of her that he wanted. From out of her crouch, she stood halfway, legs apart and turned partially to him, jutting out her buttocks at him. Glancing over her shoulder, she saw him raise his arm as he rose into  a position where he could mount her.

Quickly she dropped into the killing crouch. She needed to whip her leg with enough momentum to deliver a crippling blow. Twisting her body, she found her center on her left foot as she swung furiously with the right. Launching off her left foot she sailed through the air two feet above the ground. Her aim was less than perfect; she was out of practice. Her claws caught his leg bone, then her momentum carried her and she held her pressure as the claws tore through muscle and ligament.

He fell toward his wounded leg as she careened across the floor away from him, her head narrowly missing the wall. He bellowed with anger and pain as he lurched onto his right side and curled his body on the floor.

Bebe was distracted by a figure in white rushing from another entryway. She prepared to fight this creature but the white figure bent over the creature and pounded his shoulders and back with her fists.

Bebe jumped up, realizing that she had weakened her foot when making the blow. She rushed forward, gathered up her skirt and turned to the hallway where she had come. The tablet! She picked it up, then raced toward the hallway. From the side of her vision, she saw the Fae warrior rushing from the other doorway.

She ran down the hallway and out to the portico, thankful when she saw that the elephant and the Fae attendant were gone. She turned left, rushing past the colonnade to the corner of the palace that faced the ocean. When she turned the corner, she saw a stairway that disappeared inside the palace. With little choice, she took it. At the bottom of the stairs, she turned and was outside again. Hearing cries of alarm from within the palace, she paused. North or south?

“Think like Alpen,” she thought as she tied her skirt around the tablet. If it broke, the skirt would at least preserve the record. What would a warrior do? They would expect her to not act like a warrior, to go north along the beach and back to the familiarity of the area around the prisoner camp. Clutching the tablet to her, she hurried into the stand of trees to the south. Once inside the tree line, she paused to catch her breath and see if there was any immediate pursuit.

She followed the slant of slope and emerged from the trees near a cliff that was not far above the beach. The dirt was soft and strewn with boulders and rocks that would eventually roll to the beach below. She dug a hole deep enough, unwrapped the tablet and placed it in the hole. She stared at the top line of symbols long enough to see them in her mind, then filled the hole with dirt and set a rock.

Looking north and south along the beach, she stood and used the location technique she had been taught. Hearing sounds from the north, she crouched again. Looking over a scrub bush on the embankment, she saw several Fae warriors clambering down the path she had first come up that morning. Glancing at the sky, she guessed it was midday. Still crouching, she turned and headed south along the steep slope.