Rise of The Fallen

–Kora–

Big, stupid, alien pervert!

How dare he put his hand on me? I huffed, irritation lining each step I made away from him as if it was distance was going to erase the lingering feel of his large, warm palm cupping my boob. I was lucky that he didn’t try anything else!

It wasn’t like I had the strength or capability to fight off his advances. Okay, so I had managed to knock him to the ground, but it wasn’t the same thing at all had he tried anything else– I shook my head not wanting to think about it. Maybe I should be running, not walking away.

I don’t even want to think about the fact that I’m bare naked with no idea where my clothes are. Nor do I have any kind of weapons whereas this moron has a bladed tail, claws, fangs, horns, muscles, he’s also 7 foot tall and has a huge c–

I quickly stopped that thought.

No! Bad Kora! Stop thinking about that!

I mentally smacked myself and shook my head, not that it did any good. Attractive or not this was not the time!

I just–...ugh!

I let my guard down like an idiot! But when I saw he’d found my things and my notebook was in his hand, I freaked out, worried he might tear it up and I’d lose an important tool for surviving here! I’d needed to get it back, and of course what did the big alien bastard do? He fucking groped me.

Again!

Whatever. He deserved to get knocked on his ass, and at least my book was safe in my hands. Although, I was becoming acutely aware of how naked I was, trapezing through the forest like a moron.

I grabbed at my hair in frustration, taking a look around. Fuck, maybe wandering off at night was a bad idea…

“Katu! Sevna armu khan! Katu!” the native shouted after me.

I whipped around to face him, glaring at the brute while holding the book close to my chest.

“Now what do you want, pervert?”

He hastily came over and blocked my path with his arms out. He was also still butt ass naked and–

Holy shit it’s even bigger when he’s hard…Focus damnit!

Shaking my head, I gritted my teeth and sent him another death glare. If he thinks he’s going to swing that monster in my direction, I’ll kick his ass!

He must have noticed my attitude worsening at the sight of his erection. He waved his hand, trying his best to redirect my attention away from his shaft as he spoke as if it wasn’t a big deal or something. But I could hardly understand anything coming out of his mouth, not that it would have mattered if he was fluent in English. Unfortunately, his nakedness was extremely distracting.

Rolling my eyes, I turned around, walking away once more. He called after me again before grabbing my arm with a growl.

I pulled away and mimicked a growl of my own. Startled, he let me go but still insisted on trying to stop me by getting in my way.

Getting more irritated by the second, I snapped, “What do you want from me?!”

He grabbed at his head, seemingly unsure what to do in this situation. Had he not been a complete perv before, I might’ve found him kind of cute due to how clueless he was.

He let out a long sigh before suddenly kneeling on the ground with his head down. “Maiya, meru…”

The act itself seemed somewhat…regretful, and I remembered reading something about this in the notebook–that the natives would kneel when repenting for something they did.

Is he apologizing?

He hardly looked up at me as the seconds ticked by, kneeling in front of me with his tail flicking lightly behind him. The sight was enough to give me pause, some of my irritation and indignant fury diminishing with each flick of his tail.

What should I do?

On one hand, if he wanted to truly hurt me I think he probably would’ve done so already, especially when I’d knocked him down. I’d been weakened and unable to move around much since he found me; he could have overpowered me at any time.

On the other hand, we couldn’t even communicate and there was no telling what his real goal was. He could simply be trying to get me to let my guard down so he could use me for something later.

What could that something be? I had no clue but I was, quite literally, in unfamiliar territory. I didn’t even know which way led back home, nothing in the area looked familiar, and I was pretty damn sure I’d remember glowing plants and a sparkly pond.

I was also not a fan of walking around naked, even if no one saw me out here. Holding the notebook tightly, I looked down at the native as he waited for me to respond.

I don’t have much of a choice right now…I’ll play along until I’m able to regain my strength and get back home.

Sighing, I straightened my back to seem more assertive while looking down at the native. “Fine, I’ll stick around for now, and give you one more chance. But no more touching!”

He perked up a bit in response, raising his head.

“Heilu?”

Fuck, I didn’t know what that word meant. I quickly flipped open the notebook, facing away from him while scouring the pages for anything useful.

I didn’t even notice the native getting back up and towering over my shoulder as I skimmed through the little bit of alien vocabulary I had.

Nai meant no. Kei was sleep. Senyu meant to hunt or seek. Aquila was water. Sa’te was…eat?

None of this is helpful!

The book was plucked from my grasp, and my head snapped back to gawk at the native standing behind me, staring down at the pages.

I nearly chewed him out for taking my book again, but I stopped myself, seeing the look of recognition on his face as he poured over the page.

He scanned a few pages as he flipped through them before he stopped. Turning the book around, he showed me an image of one of his kind standing with one palm up, and their head lowered slightly. Next to it was the word heilu with the definition:

‘friendly/peace’

“Heilu,” he uttered more confidently, handing the book back. I glanced over the page before mumbling the word to myself. Slowly, I looked back up at him.

“Heilu.”

He nodded with a small smile and I realized, maybe this compromise might just work out…

We returned back to the pond where our stuff was. This time, I sat a bit closer to the alien as he returned my bag with all the stuff in it.

I was more than relieved to have my knife and canteen but I also spotted the large saber tooth inside with the rest of the items. Pulling it out of the bag, I stared at my companion questioningly as he covered himself back up with his clothes.

Noticing the object in my hand, he sat back down, speaking casually while gesturing towards the giant fang, then to a fur that was hanging nearby on a tree branch.

Was this some kind of trophy?

Shrugging, I placed it back in my bag as he said something else. He pulled out some leaf wraps from his own rucksack. He unfolded one and placed it in front of me. My eyes widened at all the raw meat.

He scavenged food from the dead saber-cat?!

“Sa’te!” he urged, nodding towards the food. My stomach grumbled at the idea of food, but I wasn’t really up for testing my luck with raw meat and getting sick, or contracting an alien tape-worm.

I shook my head, flipping through my notebook for something I could use to show him what I needed. Finally, I found a page with a picture of a fire and pointed at it.

His long tail swished around behind him as he leaned in, confusion on his face. He gestured to the fur blanket he had given me earlier and then back to the page.

Does he think I’m cold?

“I need fire. F-I-R-E. To cook the meat!” I pointed to the food and then back to the picture. “We can’t eat this raw!”

I mimicked eating, and he grabbed a piece of meat. He sent me a silly look before tossing it into his mouth like a piece of candy.

Did he seriously just–you know what, I’m not even going to question it.

He swallowed the piece before gesturing for me to try some. Grumbling, I got back onto my feet and began collecting sticks off the ground. He watched curiously as I brought them over, creating a pile before rubbing two sticks together to make a spark.

After a moment of watching me struggle, he pulled something from a pouch on his belt and came over. With one quick movement he created a spark and the sticks caught on fire.

“Yes! Thank you!”

I grabbed one of the longer sticks, attaching several pieces of meat to it. Once that was done, I started cooking them, ignoring the strange looks I was being given by my alien companion.

After a while, the meat seemed to be thoroughly cooked and I happily tore into it. I nearly moaned as the taste of cooked meat hit my tongue, the 7ft brute beside me watching with disgust.

After eating a few more chunks, I tried offering him some, but he practically recoiled from the cooked meat like it was going to come back to life and bite him. I shrugged, taking another bite.

Whatever, his loss.

I finished off every last piece, laying back on the ground with a happy sigh and a full belly. “I haven’t had a meal that great in ages.”

It was still dark out and the bioluminescent plants and fireflies were illuminating the area around us with a magical glow.

I smiled, just enjoying my surroundings. Glancing over to my companion. He was silently watching me with that same curious expression, and I grew a little self-conscious over the fact I was still naked. Sitting up, I reached for the fur blanket he’d given me earlier.

Realizing my discomfort, he glanced away from me as we both sat there awkwardly.

A deep grunt pulled my attention back to him as he grabbed the notebook off the ground, flipping through the pages carefully. He studied them with keen interest, though he seemed a bit displeased when he reached the end, as if he’d been expecting me to have more of his language written down.

He reread a few pages, finding some things and pointing them out to me. They were notes, going over the different titles or tribe names for his kind. He kept pointing them out while talking nonsense, but he clearly thought it was important for me to know.

He gestured to himself and said something akin to a title. Maybe his name? Was he trying to share names?

“Amu Ely-zar! Sen toku! El-a-zar!”

“El-le-zahr?” I uttered. He shook his head, repeating the word back to me and pausing expectantly.

“Elazar?” I repeated slowly, letting the ‘r’ roll off my tongue like he had. He smiled this time, placing his hand over his chest and saying the name once more.

Elazar? That’s his name?

He then gestured to me encouragingly, enthusiasm shining in his eyes. I bit my lip before answering. “Kora.”

He paused for a moment, mulling over the syllables and mumbling a fragmented version of my name to himself.

“Ko-ah” He said loudly, with a bit more confidence. “Kor-ra!”

With a smile, I nodded. He smirked, quite pleased with himself as he repeated, “Kora.”

I wasn’t sure how or why, but as he spoke my name and we introduced ourselves, for the first time since I arrived on Xanadis I felt a little less lonely…