Valerie looked around the vorlixx camp. She had nothing to do but watch them go about their business. As she observed their behavior she was impressed as to just how many of the beast there were. The one vorlixx that had given her the "tour" around the camp had continued to hang around. Valerie guessed it was a guard, or simply curious about her. There was a time when it had untied her and seemed to try and communicate. Valerie did the same naturally. She thought that she may have even began to make progress, but wasn't sure, especially after it tied her up again.
Valerie couldn't understand the vorlixx. However, she felt like it vaguely understood her and with the help of hand motions she was able to tell it things. Though she had no way of knowing if it understood her as she could not understand it in any way. The only real thing that made her suspect it could interpret a little of what she was saying, was that whenever she tried to tell it something, it always seemed to growl and snarl in reply. At the very least it knew that she was speaking.
One thing she could not tell was just how long she had been there. Tied to a tree, she had no sense of time. All she could determine was when it would be getting dark soon. Whether or not the vorlixx were as violent as she was led to believe, she wished her friends would hurry up and come get her. She was getting uncomfortable tied to the tree and seriously had to go to the bathroom. Not to mention she just didn't like being a prisoner. Under better circumstances she would definitely enjoy this and would want to be there. This was not such a time. The scientific instinct that drove her curiosity had left and now all of this was just life at its lowest.
She knew that her friends would have noticed that she wasn't with them a long time ago. However there was no sign of them, or that they were coming. Without a clear idea of the time and when they'd have realized her absence, it was hard to say when they'd get there. But she was sure that they should have shown themselves a while ago. Valerie had a sinking feeling that they may have left her behind, whether it was intentional or not. She had a growing feeling of abandonment and despite the vorlixx presence, a feeling of loneliness.
Valerie was temporarily distracted when several of the vorlixx around her raised their heads and looked off into the woods. They stood there motionless, staring off into the trees for a long moment, like cats gazing out a window at a bird. If they had ears like them, they'd be twitching. After a few long moments, several of them lumbered off into the woods, disappearing from view. Slowly and quietly they walked away. The way they moved was misleading. It made them appear like they were not as fast as they actually were. Rather, the impression they gave was slow and bulky. Boy would they be surprised at their speed, Thought Valerie as she watched them leave with interest.
I wonder what has gotten their attention, she thought. I can only hope it's the others. I have no idea how long it'll be before these vorlixx get bored with having me around and decide that I'm dinner.
Valerie waited for several minutes. None of the vorlixx returned, so she soon forgot about them and once again went back to watching the many creatures in the clearing moving about as if it were a military camp.
Not long afterward her little scarred friend had returned to her side. She was slightly pleased to see it and to her pleasure it let her out of her bounds again. Free Valerie now had the opportunity to try something she had thought of while sitting there for so long with only here thoughts to pass the time.
Valerie raised her hand and made a few basic motions, which had she performed before someone who was deaf. They would have interpreted it as saying nice day. The vorlixx seemed to grow wide-eyed and drew clumsily in the dirt. It looked like a tree.
"A tree?" Valerie asked with words and her hands.
The vorlixx seemed to nod then stood upright and grabbing her in its arms and dashed off towards the chief.
* * *
"There is no way we can possibly get in close enough to free her, let alone have the time to untie her," said Alex with dismay. "The vorlixx won't fall for the same trick again, I'm sure of that and we only have half our numbers," he told Ellenah.
"So do we just leave her, it was you're idea to come after her in the first place," replied Ellenah.
"It was not my idea, it was all of us agreeing on the same thought," protested Alex.
The two of them were crouched down behind a big rock a ways away from the vorlixx camp, using the view screen inside the visor to see what was going on. Alex had figured out how to zoom in and out by moving his index and pinky finger, pressing them to his palm then moving one or the other to either zoom in or out. The area upon which they were looking was crawling with heat signatures that looked like vorlixx with a single person amongst them. They assumed it was Valerie as the human shape was up against a tree in a sitting position.
"It would be really nice right now if these suits were equipped with some kind of weaponry," Alex commented as he looked over the rock again down into the forest. "Or how to access them if they do."
"Well they don't and I unfortunately don't have anything with me at the moment. We'll just have to make due with what we have."
"Which is nothing," Alex pointed out. "The biggest thing is going to be getting in close enough to free her. Unfortunately that's also going to be the hardest part," he said focusing back on the situation, going through the layout of the place in his mind.
"If we are to increase our chances of success, then we would be wise to wait till nightfall. That way we would at least have the cover of dark with us," suggested Ellenah.
"Night would definitely allow us to get close with less trouble, if we are going to wait till dark," replied Alex moving back down. "Though these things still make a racket. Let's hope vorlixx have lousy hearing. Might I suggest we go and find something to eat until then? If we are going to wait, would seem foolish to rush in there again on an empty stomach," he said as his stomach growled.
"Perhaps you're right," replied Ellenah getting up. "Just follow me, I know where to find some."
"I never doubted such," Alex said and he followed Ellenah as she walked away from the vorlixx infested area.
"Not to ask too much of you, but would it be possible to have something with some meat on it?" asked Alex when they had moved to what he thought a safe distance from the nest.
"It would be possible, but it would attract the vorlixx like kretanas to old bread," Ellanah answered. Alex didn't have a clue what a kretana was, but he got what she meant by it as he pictured wasps swarming a picnic basket.
"Right. So then why are we passing all these bushes full of fruit, they look edible?"
"They are misleading," Ellenah answered.
"But I've seen and eaten these same fruit back at the town. Even in your own home."
"Those were quaba fruit. What you see here, are what we call aba-quaba fruit. The word aba meaning imitation."
"I see, so what makes these inedible exactly? Poisonous?"
"No, something far more dangerous." Ellenah picked one of the delicate fruit and tossed it at a tree. The instant it hit its target, it exploded spraying golden goop all over the trunk.
"They explode when they're ripe. It is their method they spread their seeds. Have to be careful though. If you're traveling through bushes of these fruit and they're ready to fall, you only have to knock one off and a whole bunch will follow, all exploding, causing even more to fall," she explained. "There have been rare cases where some woman have died because they were caught in such an incident."
"I'll be sure not to touch any of them," replied Alex moving a step away from the nearest branches.
"However, when they do fall and if you're at a safe distance. It is quite a spectacular sight. You can feel the vibrations for some distance," Ellenah continued to explain. "There is a festival in the late year where for several days we enjoy festivities and await such a sight. Though many years we do not succeed in timing it accordingly and we must get back to our duties. Some adventurous children however may go out and initiate the effect intentionally for fun."
"Like you?"
Ellenah just gave a slight smile.
"Very interesting. Would they always kill someone who got caught in the fall out?" asked Alex.
"Not always. You'd have to be bombarded pretty heavily, as each individual bursting is not that powerful, but will cause some bad bruising. It's only meant to keep animals from feasting on its branches. They are however useful in the making of many healing oils."
"Have you experience some of these brushings personally?"
"Yes actually. When I was only nine."
"Ouch."
"Yes, I had signs of it for months."
"So, tell me. Why is it a woman so beautiful as yourself, is a warrior, the captain of the guards to be exact?" asked Alex as he ducked to avoid hitting a branch loaded with aba-quaba fruit.
"It was what I was good at and as for why I am the most important warrior. It's because I was simply better than everyone else."
"I find it interesting though that someone as young as yourself is even that important. I would have thought you would still be lower down."
"Yes, I am fairly young for a woman in my position, but still I'm twenty-nine."
"You make it sound as thought that's considered old?"
"I'm not even half as old as we can be, but it means that I'm not exactly a child either, so it's not that odd that I'm in the position that I'm in." Ellenah answered.
"K, got it."
The two of them moved on through the forest for some time till Ellenah led Alex to a place where the trees had thick bushes growing in between them. The trees, along with their smaller counterparts had foliage overflowing with fruit.
"These are safe to eat," Ellenah told him. "Eat as much as you can. You need your strength."
"Great!" Alex replied and immediately started picking the small berries from the bushes and larger fruit from the trees. "Never in my life did I expect to be picking fruit on an alien planet," he said excitedly as he reached up pulling one plump fruit the size of his fist.
"I can say the same about picking fruit with someone from another world," Ellenah replied. "How is it you managed to get here from another world anyway?"
"It's complicated. I still don't know exactly just how it works, but in the ruins in the room where you found us, is some kind of teleporter that sent us here from a similar place back on Earth," Alex answered, almost surprised that he had not had to explain it to her before. Of course he had always believed that technical talk would go over their heads.
"I see. Either you're mad, or there is much more to the ruins than we ever knew," replied Ellenah.
"It could always be both," he replied with a smirk.
The two of them stayed there till the sun started to set. When it was low in the sky, the two of them made their way back to the vorlixx nest. They had only gone a short distance when the flicker of distant torches caught their eye. As they stopped and focused on the approaching light, hundreds of heat signatures began registering on their sensors. So many, that their screens were just a glowing red mass.
"What is going on over there?" asked Alex.
"I don't know, but it's heading this way."