Rise of The Fallen

–Kora–

“You know I can walk right?”

I poked the back of El’s shoulder when he didn’t answer. He hardly reacted, adjusting his hold on my thighs while continuing forward.

“This is faster,” he stated blandly.

I pursed my lips glaring at the back of his head.

“Are you saying I’m slow?” I asked, pushing him to talk more. I’d become bored after wandering the cave for hours. And after climbing that rock wall, Elazar had refused to set me down, carrying me ever since.

With the glowing crystals overhead, it was light enough in here for me to see where we were going, but each time I tried to point out this detail, he came up with an excuse to keep carrying me. Like, ‘we may come across another wall to climb’ or, ‘there might be a dark path ahead’ or, ‘it might be slippery.’

“No, not slow. Clumsy,” he replied.

I rolled my eyes with a small groan, and rested my face against his shoulder.

Stubborn alien.

After a few moments, I couldn’t help but notice how his hands seemed to flex while holding onto my upper thighs, so close to my butt. He did it again, his fingers caressing me so lightly I almost missed it.

I leaned back as I started thinking about all his reactions up until now.

Was this turning him on?

Curiosity started getting the better of me, and I tried pushing myself up a little bit to look over his shoulder, needing to confirm my suspicions.

Elazar stopped walking when I leaned forward too far, and glanced at me from over his shoulder. “Kora! I will drop you if you keep moving so much.”

“Then put me down!”

His eyes stayed on me for a few seconds before he readjusted his hold, facing forward as he kept walking. “No. Be patient.”

His palms lightly caressed my thighs before giving the slightest squeeze. Less than a second later, his tail flicked around in excitement, giving him away.

This bastard thinks he’s sly! He just wants to carry me so he can feel me up!

I glared at the back of his head before an evil idea came to mind.

I’ll just make it so unbearable that he’ll have no choice but to let go.

With a whiney voice that would make a toddler cringe, I started squirming in Elazar’s hold, even going as far as grinding myself against him.

“But Elllll!” He staggered a bit, and his form went rigid from such simple actions. “It’s getting uncomfortabbleee! I know it’s not ideal to have me walk, but my legs are starting to hurt!” I whined more.

I could practically see the internal struggle written all over his shoulders as he stiffened. “Kora–”

“Please, I promise I won’t slow us down. I just need a little break from being carried. I know you’re trying to be gentle, but sitting like this for so long is making me sore! I need to stretch my muscles!”

Although I was speaking in a mix of English and Xandisian, I knew he could understand most of what I was saying. And being carried like that for so long really was starting to get uncomfortable, so I wasn’t completely lying.

With a sigh, Elazar crouched down and let go of me so that I could finally stand on my own two feet again. I hummed happily before stretching my arms above my head, all the while Elazar stood there with his arms crossed over his chest, eyeing me appreciatively.

I didn’t miss how those silver orbs grazed over my body, or how he was trying to keep his front turned away from me. I peeked at his ass and tail, and couldn’t help the stupid smile that played on my lips.

That should do it.

Had I done this at any other time, in any other place, with any other man, I’d probably be thrown into a mental hospital and labeled a crazy bitch. Hell, I’d call myself a crazy bitch! But this wasn’t Earth or Krosa, and this wasn’t a human, so normal physical decency didn’t apply here.

And the best way I could think of to handle a situation like this and to teach an alien native would be through show, not tell.

I stepped over to him and without any warning, quickly reached out, grabbing the base of his tail and his left ass cheek.

Elazar practically jumped away from me, gripping my arm until I released his hindmost part, an exasperated and panicked expression crossing his face.

Bingo.

“What are you doing?! What is the meaning of this?”

I gave him a smug smirk before crossing my arms. “I thought it was customary for your people to grab each other’s asses?”

He reeled back, looking at me like I was crazy before shaking his head.

“This is–we do not touch each other in such ways!”

“Oh really? My bad…it’s just that, with the way you’ve been fondling and groping me as of late, I thought there might have been some meaning behind the action! But now I see it was just you being a perv!”

Elazar’s eyebrows scrunched together as he looked at me. “I have not been ‘phawndooling’ or ‘krophing’ you! I do not even know what these actions are!”

“Touching my ass and breasts is considered fondling, Elazar! You wouldn’t do it to your tribe mates, would you? So it’s clear you’re doing it because of that!” I pointed at his erection and he trailed his gaze down to the offending ligament.

“I do not see what my shaft has to do with this phawndooling of yours, but I can assure you I was not attempting to be this ‘purrve’ you speak of! I was simply admiring such parts of your body!”

He turned away slightly, and readjusted his loincloth to hide his cock.

“Well if you get to admire my body, don’t you think I should get to do the same to you? You touch my ass, I touch yours! You grab my boobs, then I’m gonna grab your horns!”

His head snapped back towards me, and one of his hands reached up to cover his horns. “No! You shall stop attacking my horns with your tiny palms! They are sensitive!”

“You touched me! It’s only fair I touch you back!” I lunged for his ass cheek again, and he stumbled back to evade me. With a growl, Elazar grabbed one of my arms, pinning it above my head and pushing me back against the wall before grabbing one of my boobs with his free hand.

What the hell?!

“Hey! What do you think you’re doing?” I tried to pry him off with little success.

Dammit, why is he so strong?!

“You grabbed my horns on four occasions, and I only grabbed these once. By your standards, this is fair!”

My mind reeled for a moment as my cheeks heated up. He was turning this against me!

“You’ve grabbed my boobs twice! And that’s not the point I’m trying to make, you big moron!”

In the midst of our struggles, we both froze at the sound of distant screeching from somewhere in the caves behind us. We both looked in the direction of the jarring sound, forgetting all about our little argument.

“What was that?” I whispered as Elazar released me, and pulled the spear off his back.

“Scalworg. We must go. Now!” Without wasting another second, Elazar grabbed my hand, rushing through the cave with me in tow. I struggled to keep up with his pace in the dark uneven cave floor, but I stumbled on multiple occasions.

The area we were in became wetter, and I could feel and hear the splashing of water as we ran through some shallow puddles.

“S-slow down!”

That same terrifying screech echoed through the cave, followed by others, and all closer than before.

Elazar suddenly came to a halt, and I nearly collided with his back. “Ow, wha–”

The words died in my throat as I looked up to see we’d hit a dead end. We were cornered by a massive rock wall filled with dozens of unnatural holes burrowed into its surface. The ground around us was littered with bones of what must’ve been hundreds of different animals of various kinds.

The skittering sound of something approaching from behind bounced off the walls of the cave, sending a chill down my spine. Reluctantly, I looked towards the darkened tunnel behind us, unable to see anything. But I could clearly hear it, and somehow that felt worse.

“El.” I glanced at him, gulping. “What do we do?”

He seemed just as panicked, looking at all the large burrows in the wall. Cautiously, he approached one, sniffing the air before quickly moving to another and repeating the process.

He stopped under one of the tunnels just a few feet above him, and his eyes widened.

“This way! It leads to the surface!”

I quickly rushed over as he climbed up into the tunnel. He turned around, offering his hand to help me up. With his help, I jumped off the ground and climbed up into the burrow. It was barely big enough to crouch inside of.

“Go!” he hissed, and I quickly crawled through the tight tunnel that climbed upwards with various twists and turns.

A deep scuttering sounded behind us, and I knew that whatever that scalworg thing was, it was trying to sniff us out. I pushed myself to move faster. Elazar stayed close behind, and it didn’t take long before I could see beams of light up ahead.

“There it is!”

Crawling forward, I found the exit that led out to an unknown part of the forest, far away from the twisted trees. With a small boost, I crawled out and looked back as Elazar followed suit, landing on the ground beside me.

We’d made it out!

We’d managed to escape the carnivorous plants, and found a way out of the dark caves. All the events and near life threatening things that happened to us down there flooded through my mind, and a sense of relief washed over me as I looked to the treetops, sunlight kissing my face.

We were surrounded by unfamiliar gray willow trees, with long weeping leaves and branches hanging down to the ground. They were covered in large, thick clusters of beautiful purple, alienish lillies that seemed to bloom all over the place. Behind us was a small, clear pond with some ferns and wild grass growing all around the forest floor. It looked like something in a fairytale.

A half hearted laugh escaped me as I sat on my knees, practically bathing in the warmth of the sun. Fuck, the sun never felt so good!

I managed to climb up to my feet, running my hands through my hair before taking a deep breath. I turned to face Elazar with a smile. He relaxed a bit, looking down at me as his tail lazily swayed behind him.

Looking at him in the light, in this place, I could truly admire how handsome he really was, even while covered in dirt, scratches and dried blood. Hesitantly, I reached out to remove a dirt smear from his face, only to stop as the sound of multiple screeches startled us both.

Turning back to the hole we’d just vacated, we watched as over thirty dog sized, feline-like creatures swarmed out of the hole.

Their bodies resembled that of a cat’s but they lacked any kind of fur, and their skin was like black leather. They each had six legs, and their faces had a strange pointed shape to them with blank white eyes, and spiky protrusions all across various points on their bodies. Two thin tails with needle-like stingers at the end swooshed behind each of the creatures as they came further into the light.

Although they weren’t large like other predators that I’d seen around the forest, they seemed to make up for it with their numbers. More and more seemed to clamor out of the hole in endless droves, running toward us as we backed away.

Elazar held out his spear, taking up a defensive posture. As if these things couldn’t get any worse, one ran towards us, and its face split open into four directions like a flower with tons of razor sharp fangs and long thin tendrils that squirmed and failed trying to grasp onto something. I shrieked as it hissed and jumped at us, only to be cut down by Elazar’s spear.

He stabbed the creature in the center of its open mouth. Green blood sprayed the ground as the animal squealed and thrashed for a few seconds before going still. Flinging the creature away into the swarm, we watched as several other dogs piled on top of the body, tearing apart their dead brethren like starved animals.

The rest kept moving toward us, hissing as their faces started splitting open. A few more jumped towards us, only to be cut down by Elazar’s spear and tail as we backed away. Each dead creature was then cannibalized by those around it in seconds, stirring up the swarm in a feeding frenzy.

I was momentarily distracted as I stepped onto the purple flowers, their strange wet texture beneath my feet making my skin tingle. But the weird sensation was overruled by the scalworg threat as one of the creatures came up beside me and snapped at my leg.

I jumped back and the thing stepped into the patch of flowers, only to still for a moment and recoil as if burned.

Elazar backed up even further, snarling and hissing back at the scalworg as they approached, trying to keep himself between me and the swarm as they surrounded us.

Suddenly, they stopped at the edge of the flower patch, unwilling to get any closer. I looked around, noticing how they refused to step on the purple blooms. In fact, as soon as they got too close, they reeled back and shook their heads, gagging in reaction to the scent of the flowers. Slowly, the swarm started retreating back into the hole, losing all interest in us.

As the last few crawled back into the dark depths of the cave, one glanced back at us and growled before disappearing with the others.

Silence filled the air as we stood there, waiting for something else to happen. I didn’t move or say a word until I saw Elazar’s posture relax as he lowered his weapon.

My feet continued to tingle, and I swore I could feel the flowers moving underneath me, sending a shiver down my spine.

“El?” I looked down, and nervously pulled one foot up, wanting to get away from the strange flowers but not willing to risk those scalworgs coming back to eat me. He turned to look at me and followed my gaze, seeing the clear concern in my eyes.

He crouched down and plucked one of the small flowers before holding it up. “Vel’vhe. It’s harmless.”

Looking at the flower more closely, I could see little moving tendrils in the center that only increased my concern tenfold. “If it’s so harmless, why is it making my skin tingle and why did those creatures run away from it?”

“Scalworg do not like the smell. Vel’vhe is safe. We use it in many raikuls.” He stood up.

“Raikuls?” I asked, observing the way the flower moved in his hand. His face twisted into uncertainty as he looked around for a way to explain it.

“Raikuls like–the hunt…or time of new life. It is for happy times when something good occurs.”

“Like a celebration?”

“I do not know that word.”

“It’s when people come together to praise each other or party; when something really good happens, like a birthday or reunion!”

Elazar hummed, looking at the flower. “I want to hear more about these zeelavrations but first we must make camp.” He turned his gaze up and I followed it to see the sky bathed in an orange hue. “It will be dark soon and it will get cold. We need fire.”

Elazar popped the flower in his mouth, eating it like a cherry before securing his spear to his back. “Come, I still wish to show you the sha’vira.”

He walked towards the pond and I quickly followed, jumping away from the creepy flowers.

“What’s sha’vira?”