Chp 4 David
David began to regain consciousness when he heard a very familiar song playing. Dave recognized it as one of Marina’s, her violin version of Missing. He was unable to open his eyes because of how dizzy and disorientated he was felt at that moment.
“Marina?” Dave murmured.
He tried to orientate himself only to find he was lying flat in his back, feeling nauseous, and a headache that would tumble over an elephant. The first thing he noticed was his hands tightly bound behind his back. Now eyes opened, focusing on a startling sight, three very tall, lean feline looking, women standing over giving a low growl. One had a polearm pointed directly at this throat, just an inch from it. Glancing to his right, he could not miss a bow, humming away with what he recognized as some energized arrow pointed at his head. Glancing to the left, he saw a hooded woman, with a unique chain weapon in her hand. Both ends had blades attached with hand grips. He could tell by how tense she looked that she was ready to strike like a cobra.
“Um…hi? You were listening to my music device, a tune by Marina…um DJ Goldy Rise.”
Their gleaming eyes squinted at him; he saw all the irises in all their eyes narrow to black slits. The three feline women tensed up more. David found it fascinating how human they looked, aside from the twitching cattails, the ears, the sharp pointed teeth that they were showing in an apparent warning and then their very feline looking eyes and noses. His eyes scanned down their arms next, seeing the cat claws gripping their weapons. Fear rolled over him, wave after wave, then they spoke, but not in a language he could hope to understand.
“What did he say?” Amaia hissed at Ryssy and Ko. To David, it sounded like a mix of cat meows and an unfamiliar spoken language.
“I have no idea. I think we should kill him.” Ryssy ‘meowed’ back.
Ko bent down a bit closer to look at this odd humanoid creature that had surprisingly popped into their lives, via a large rhombus. Slowly she raised her hands to her hood, pushing it back on her head till it fell to her shoulders. She stared at him, in her mind, she thought, ‘Who are you? Are you a threat? Startling her, she heard ‘no’ in his mind! The unexpected response made her jump back a step.
“Where is Eric?” David frantically looked around, looked down at himself, shouting out, “and why am I naked!”
A wave of searing pain struck him, sending him into a small convulsion of agony. His chest and head felt like they were burning with the most intense heat imaginable. David did his best to hold back a scream of agony as he arched his back, wincing in severe pain.
“Something is wrong with him. We should kill him before he attracts more Ibits.” Ryssy said in a stern voice as she pulled back on her spear, preparing to deliver a death blow.
In a blur, Ko put her arm out, blocking Ryssy. She hung her chain a belt around her waist. Then she began to sign to the other two. Through his pain, David saw her signing and knew she could not speak like the other two.
“No, stop. You can see this man is in incredible pain. I can help him. We should find out more.”
Amaia looked at Dave, then at Ryssy, finally at Ko.
“Are you sure, Ko? He could be dangerous.”
“I am sure. He needs helps. I am a healer. Besides, you have both seen all the scars on his body. He must be a great warrior to have such scars on him. Ryssy, is that not the honorable action to take?”
Begrudgingly Ryssy nodded yes and relaxed her stance. Just at that moment, another far more intense wave of searing pain ran through David’s body like a shock of electricity. The scream that burst out of him made Ko, Amaia and Ryssy take a few steps back. They watched in silence as he rolled over onto his back. Then the bindings on his wrists started to turn red; a strange glow radiated from his hands followed by a bright orange flash. The bindings were gone!
David rolled over, his body dripping in sweat from the agony he was experiencing. Amaia readied her bow, pointing at him, Ryssy was poised to strike with her spear. He looked up into Ko’s eyes; she could see he was pleading with her. Somehow did he know she could help or did he recognize that she was protecting him.
“Ko…indistigusiable” David reached up to her before face-planting on the metal floor. Now he was moaning, the three of them could feel the heat radiating from him. Ko, Amaia, and Ryssy looked at each other, astonished by what they saw and heard.
All Amaia could muster to say was, “Ko, help him if you can.”
Ko knelt down next to David, gently rolling him over. His body was scorching to the touch, and her first thought was he had some type of sickness, and this was an awful fever. She looked at his face the into eyes, seeing the distraught look Ko began to purr giving him a smile; David did not know if it was a smile or a threat, but at that moment he did not care.
Ko’s hand began to glow with a soft blue color. Slowly she ran her hand an inch over his head, softly purring. David started to relax, her purring, as well as the glow from her paw, was quite soothing. Quickly he began to feel incredibly sleepy, a feeling very similar to how he felt from anesthesia, and then his eyes closed.
Ryssy spoke, “Ko, what did you do to him?”
Ko turned around looking up at her two companions she signed to them, “I put him into a deep sleep. I think he will be asleep for a while, maybe several hours. I do not know for sure. I know there are others such as him on our world, but I have not encountered one. While he is sleeping, I will see what I can do for his pain.”
“We cannot stay here forever, Ko. There could be more Ibits around or other dangers. We have a job to complete. However, we can use some rest too, and can you please remove your spell; he is asleep.” Amaia said to Ko.
Ko nodded. She stood still for a moment before holding her necklace. Her hands began to glow. She moved them through the air, forming a symbol, then with a gentle breath of air the glyph dispersed. Flecks of light spread out, surrounding the three of them and the image that Dave had seen melted away, revealing their actual appearance.
“Thank you, Ko,” Amaia said, smiling at her, revealing sharp, feline teeth. Then she turned to Ryssy.
“Ryssy we are not too far from the entrance. We saw game signs outside where we left out mounts. If you would hunt us something to eat, I will check on our mounts to make sure they are well and fed.”
Ryssy nodded in agreement. Amaia turned to Ko. “He is your responsibility. If you cannot help him, then we leave him as we cannot be burdened by a male invalid.” Ko gave a slight nod. Amaia and Ryssy made their way to the door before Amaia stopped, looking back at Ko, “And Ko, don’t touch anything else!”
Ko responded by gesturing with two fingers. Amaia and Ryssy both snickered as they stepped through the door. She now turned to look at this odd male human unconscious on the floor. She believed he is called Dave, a very unique sounding name to her ears. Hopefully, the gods would grant him understanding as she had many questions for him.
Ko nearly down next to him, her eyes scanning his body, wondering what all the scars were from. She looked at his odd music device. She could tell by the dots that is was a code to unlock. Ko was very interested in hearing more of this strange man's music.
In her mind, she could hear him. She began to wonder if he had the forbidden gift of telepathy, know on this world as mind speaking. She glanced around to see if her friends had come back, she had kept secret her forbidden gift, knowing what the punishment would be from her clan. She hesitated at first to lay her hand on his head, however, her curiosity to see if he could speak to her mind, knowing how to access his music device and trying to find out a bit more about his person was too much to resist.
Ko gently touched her hand to Dave’s forehead, focusing on her mind to connect with his. A wave of intense, searing pain hit her mind like a blow to her head. She pushed her mind through it, running into another mental wall, this one composed of pure rage. It took her a bit to focus and break a hole in this barrier to go deeper into his mind. She was amazed at how powerful each blockage was, and then she sensed he was allowing her to break the obstacles. She moved through another mental wall, this one was utter loneliness. It was so intense she began to cry. At that moment, the wall parted, and she saw in her mind a figure standing in front of her.
“Hello, Ko. You should not be in here.”
“Why? Are you, Dave?”
“Yes, I am. If you stay too much longer, we will be linked. I do not like to link telepathically to anyone, it is excruciating when that person dies, and I lose part of myself in the process. Nevertheless, you are here for a reason, how may I help you?”
“I am curious about you, your music device as to how to unlock it, and so much more.”
“You cannot stay that long in here. We are already blending together. I see in your mind that you are forbidden to do this, in fact, this is your secret.”
She was stunned and then fear washed over her thoughts.
“Do not fear Ko. You protected me from your friends. I have a feeling they wanted to kill me. I am in debt to you.”
Before she could speak to him, Dave’s figure gestured with a finger forming a pattern in front of her. She understands that was the pattern to unlock the device.
“You must go now, Ko.”
“Wait, one more question, who is this Marina?”
She felt her mind surround with a warm glow, pure love, and joy. Dave said nothing, he just gestured for her to leave, but she did notice a smile on his face as the mental image nodded to her.
Her mind experienced a rushing sensation as if she was falling. In a moment, she was out of his mind looking down at Dave. She could feel the tears running down the fur on her face. Ko wiped them away as she stared down at Dave. She gave him a smile as she reached for his music device. Trying the pattern, he showed to her mind the device unlocked. Some of the words on the rectangular object began to make sense to her. She wondered if the gods had granted her his language or if Dave himself gave her the knowledge in their link.
She flipped through his photos, wondering who the people were, the fascinating places she saw, so many more questions for him. Ko realized that Dave was not from this world, it was as some of the old stories said that many beings on their planet were taken from other worlds by the goddess Dreana. Ko shivered a bit at that thought because Dreana is feared by all.
Ko then went to the music section, scrolling through hundreds of songs, some words she recognized and others were in another language! She looked at Dave, thinking to herself, ‘you are a very mysterious man’ as she began to search through song icons. As she scrolled through the long list of songs, she wondered if his taste in music would help her to understand him more.
Ko tapped at one random icon after another just to see if she liked what she heard or not. Her response was evident in how her ears and tail reacted. The songs she did not care for either her ears flattened or her tail gave an angry twitch. The songs she did like her pointed, long cat ears pointed up, and her dance began to sway to the beat of the music. Soon Ko was standing next to Dave. He laid there unconscious as Ko searched through his music, coming upon a song that made her feel like dancing.
She made a mental note of the name, Sia, Move your Body. She did not understand the words, but when Dave was awake again, she would ask him about it. In the flickering light of the fire, Ko began to dance around Dave, twirling around, her tail twitching with happiness. She glanced down at Dave, giving him a smile.
‘Hmm, such an interesting man.’ She thought to herself and then for a moment, she began to feel an attraction to him. The fur on her face changed in color for a few moments, she smiled, her sharp feline teeth glowed in the light of the fire.
