Chapter 1  :Nauarchus Stranded

	The girl stood on the platform shivering in her slip.  It really wasn’t a slip, which was being generous to the garment.  It was really rags in the form of a small dress that barely covered her slight frame.  She held herself as small as possible trying to hide behind the other slaves that stood on the platform with her.  There were over a dozen waiting for the sale to begin this morning.  Mostly men, a couple women, and her; she was the youngest of the slaves for sale.  

The sale started, the yelling and cursing over the first slave raised a raucous in the morning air.  The males went for quite a sum in these parts.  The Roman’s were bringing back several fine specimens of working flesh from the war in Gaul.  The girl had been captured outside a village being burned to the ground for not giving up enough food to the traveling Legions.  The lesson was taught well, give it up or suffer the consequences.  

When it was the girl’s turn, she fought with the slave master as he pulled her forward.  He swung his sap, hitting her on the neck and she went limp.  There were many who laughed but none who offered a bid.  None of the gathered purchasers wanted a wild girl on their hands.  The slave master was forced to put her back into the pens until she woke up and he could teach her some manners.

She woke up sore and moaned.  She looked around to see where she was and found herself back in one of the cages.  There were no other slaves in the cage with her.  The one guard looked in her direction when she moved and he grinned.  He waved his arm to catch someone’s attention outside the tent and the slave master walked in a few seconds later.  He unlocked the cage and stepped inside.  He grabbed her by the hair and dragged her out of the cage.  She screamed but he ignored the pain he was causing her.

He placed her in the center of the tent and attached a rope through her manacles and pulled her up off the ground.  Her small feet swung through the loose straw on the floor.  She whimpered and begged to be let down, but her cries went unanswered.  The slave master silently walked around her, inspecting her, looking for the perfect place to begin her lesson.  He slid a dagger out of his belt and cut off what little remained of her rags, leaving her small frame naked in the flickering light of the torches.

He picked up a short whip, one that is used to control unruly horses.  He stepped around her until she could see the whip in his hands and she began to cry and plead for him not to whip her.  The slave master squinted in the low light and picked his spot.  The whip whistled through the air and the crack of it hitting her skin sounded in the confines of the tent.  She screamed, of course, but it did her no good.  The slave master continued to select places on her body where it would inflict the most pain without doing any real damage.  He was very good at what he did.  He never hit her in the same place twice and he never drew blood.

What he did do is reduce her to a panting mass of hanging flesh.  The pain she experienced shattered any vestige of humanity she had left.  She was pain; nothing more, nothing less.  The slave master had never uttered a word the entire time he whipped her.  He stopped before she passed out and her body shut down.  That would defeat the purpose of what he was trying to do.  Her breathing was ragged and whistled out of her dry, scorched throat.  He put down the whip and picked up a bucket of water.  Placing it where she could see it.  

Her listless eyes tracked his movement, waiting for the next round of torment to start.  She couldn’t lift her head anymore; she no longer had the energy to do so.  The slave master grabbed a ladle full of water and sipped from it while she watched.  The thirst she was suffering from was almost as bad as the whipping.  The sharp pain in her throat matched the pain from her welts.  The need for water drove her to try and speak.  Nothing but a small squeak issued from her mouth.  Her tongue was so swollen she couldn’t lick her lips.  

The slave master grabbed her hair and pulled her head back.  Her mouth open but no scream came out.  The slave master nodded in approval and lifted the ladle to her lips.  He poured a small amount of water into her mouth and she almost choked.  She swallowed and he poured a little more.  She swished it around in her mouth and swallowed.  She tried to speak again, this time a slight hoarse whisper came out.

“Thank you, master.”

The slave master nodded again in approval and gave her some more water.  When she had finished the ladleful that he had offered, he stepped back from her and dropped in the bucket as he left.  He stepped out of the tent and an older female slave stepped inside immediately afterwards.  The woman picked up a small rag and the bucket of water, and she started washing off the young girl.  She moaned when the old woman pressed too hard over some of her welts but she never cried out.  Somehow she knew that if she did, the whipping would start all over again and she knew she couldn’t handle that again.

When the woman had cleaned her off, the slave master returned with a large, rough canvas sack.  He pulled out his dagger and sliced two holes, one on each side, and then a larger one in the bottom.  He lowered her down onto the floor and she lay there in a heap.  He threw the sack at her and only said two words.

“Get dressed.”

She nodded and whispered.

“Yes, master.  Thank you.”

He smiled and nodded.  He watched as she slowly slid the canvas bag over her head and pushed her arms out the holes.  It wasn’t a good fit, but it covered her down to her thighs.  He grabbed her arm and helped her stand.  She wobbled and stumbled back to her cage with his help.  He closed the door and locked the cage.  He walked out of the tent leaving her alone in the cage.  The older woman knelt at the entrance of the tent with her hands in her lap and her head bowed.  The young girl slowly hobbled over to the corner of the cage and pushed as much of the straw as she could find into a small bed and lay down.

				******

She woke up with a start when the slave master unlocked her cage the next morning.  He pointed to the floor in front of his feet and she quickly scooted across the floor and knelt down with her head bowed like she had seen the other woman do.  The slave master looped a rope through the loop on her collar and jerked it once.  She stood up and followed behind him as he turned and walked out of the tent.  He led her up to the platform and tied her to the corner post with the rest of that day’s slaves.  She was the only female today.

The males sold quickly as it was springtime and the local farmers needed field hands.  When her time came she followed meekly behind the slave master to the center of the platform.  He touched her shoulder and she knelt at his feet and bowed her head.  The bidding was immediate and brisk.  The slave master drove a hard bargain but she was finally sold.  She didn’t look up as her new owner walked up to the slave master and dropped a large number of gold coins into his hand.  She kept her head down even as her new owner approached her.  

She heard a deep voice above her telling her to rise and follow.  She stood and did as she was told.  She looked at her new owners feet as he walked in front of her.  They were the feet of a soldier.  She recognized the caligae of the Legions, the ones who killed her family and put her into slavery to begin with.  She quailed at the thought that she would now belong to one of them, to be used by one of them.

The thought that one of these monsters would have her after killing her betrothed was almost too much.  She had been so happy a fortnight ago, working on her wedding dress and looking forward to living away from her mother and father for the first time in her life.  Then the Legions marched into their valley and demanded all the food.  When they discovered that not everything had been offered up, they taught the villagers a harsh lesson.  They killed all the old men and women that were too weak to work, and shipped off the rest to be slaves.  The small children were left inside the huts as they were set on fire.  She could still hear the screams in her tortured nightmares. 

The memories brought swift hot tears to her eyes and she choked back a sob.  Her new master turned and glared at her when he heard the muffled noise.  He jerked the rope and pulled her along even faster as they walked past the vendors and stalls of the local farmers hawking their wares.  They reached the stalls of the local blacksmith and the soldier haggled over the price of a new collar.  Once the blacksmith started making the requested item, the soldier went over to the horse post and tied her to it.  He walked inside the barn and retrieved his mount.  He inspected the horse and all his belongings and nodding in satisfaction, he paid the blacksmith for the collar and the new shoe for the horse.

When her new collar was finished and secured around her neck the soldier jumped up onto his horse and then reached over and untied her from the post.  He grabbed her arm and hauled her off the ground and threw her over the pommel of the saddle in front of him.  It was a very undignified position, but one that she could easily be controlled from.  She watched the ground go by as they rode out of the village.  The exhaustion and pain overwhelmed her and she slipped into nothingness.

She woke up when she hit the ground and the air rushed from her lungs.  She coughed and sucked in a harsh breath and looked up to see her owner swing down off his horse.  He landed next to her and reached down to grab her arm and yanked her to her feet.  She felt the rasping calluses scrape her arm as he pulled her along.  She struggled to keep her feet beneath her as he strode to the large tent near the fire ring.  He flipped aside the flap and tossed her to the floor of the tent.  She cowered there watching him as he took the end of the rope attached to her collar and tied it to the center post of the tent.

She went pale and started quivering when he started to undo the straps of his armor.  He saw her expression and he laughed, giving her an evil grin.  Once he had his breastplate off, he dug through his pack and produced a jar of oil and a rag.  He placed the breastplate in front of her and then handed her the jar and rag.

“Clean and shine it so you can see that tiny face of yours in it.”

With that he stalked out of the tent, heading for the fire ring and the others that were gathered there.  She listened to their banter and hales as her new owner strode into their midst.  She heard the name Tertius Aeresius Paetus called out and his gruff reply.

“Get your sorry ass’s off those logs and get back to work.”

There was a loud chorus of laughter at this and then it trailed off as she heard a slap and liquid sloshing.  She wondered what the sound was until she heard one of them complaining about receiving poor quality wine this week.  She looked down at her assigned task and opened the jar of oil carefully.  She dreaded thinking what her new master would do to her if she spilled any of the precious oil.  She rubbed the dust and sweat streaks off the breastplate and listened to the soldier speak to her new master.  She gathered quickly that he wasn’t just another soldier; he was a Praetorian.  That meant that she might not be living in a tent for very long, he would have a residence nearby that his family would be in.  She hoped that he was married, that would keep his attentions away from her after they arrived there.

She listened to the soldiers talk about some of their concerns for local events as she polished her master’s breastplate.  They seemed to have a minor problem of water-bearers going missing about every fortnight or so.  They hadn’t really started to look for them because they had bigger concerns with incursions from the Gauls.   She heard her master’s gruff voice bark at the others.

“Just where are these boys running away to?”

“We haven’t found any trace, Aeresius Paetus.”

“Then I suggest you start looking harder.  What direction were they heading for when they went missing?”

“To the north, towards AlpesPenninae, Aeresius.”

When she heard the name, she knew exactly where they were talking about.  She had heard some rumors about that place herself.  A flaming ball from the sky had come down there years ago and since then, it was rumored to hold a monster or a god; some said both.  That was a dark, thick, forested area that was almost uninhabitable to all, except perhaps goats and roebucks.  This gave her an idea; it might be better to throw herself to the mercy of a god than to face what her new Roman master was going to do to her.  She held no illusions as to what her treatment was going to be like, the Romans were merciless when they wanted something.  

She looked around the tent for something sharp.  She set the resealed jar of oil on the floor and went over to the pack.  She spotted her way out sticking up amidst the spare clothing stuffed inside.  She looked towards the tent flap; the conversation was still going strong outside.  She slowly pulled the handle out of the clothing, revealing the sheathed pugio.

She glanced at the flap once more and made her decision quickly, she unsheathed the leaf shaped dagger and cut the rope from her collar.  She grabbed one of the large shirts from the bag and went to the back of the tent.  She carefully sliced an opening in the side and slowly looked around to see if anyone was outside.  Seeing nothing but trees, she silently crept out of the tent and padded over to the nearest tree.  Checking again to make sure no one could see her, and keeping the tent between herself and the soldiers; she ran into the forest.

She ran for as long as her legs and lungs could hold up, but eventually she had to slow down.  She hadn’t had anything to eat for two days and her energy level wasn’t up to the task of sustaining that kind of effort.  She listened for any sounds of pursuit, but she didn’t hear anything but birds and insects.  She headed north towards the area that the soldiers had mentioned, where servant boys had gone missing.  She hoped that meant that there was a hidden trail that would allow her to escape the Roman, or that there really was a god in the forest and it would take pity on her.

She half walked, half ran for as long as she was able to keep her feet beneath her moving.  Fear of what her owner would do to her if he caught her, kept her moving even past exhaustion.  It was getting dark and she was having trouble staying upright.  She was dizzy from lack of food and her feet bled from the cuts and scrapes.  She caught the sound of trickling water to her right and she stumbled in that direction.  She hoped it was what she thought, a spring or a creek where she could quench her thirst and rest for a few moments.

She came into a strange oblong clearing where the trees on either side were tilted away from the opening to the sky.  At the end of the clearing was a large pool and a small stream meandered away from it down the hill to the south.  She kept to the edge of the clearing, until she had no choice but to cross open ground to get to the water.  It looked so inviting, clear and sparkling in the fading light of the day.  She knelt at the edge of the pool and cupped her hands in the cool water and splashed it onto her face.  She felt the instant relief of the cool water and she cupped her hands again, this time drinking the refreshing liquid.  

The jolt of the cool water going down her throat and soaking into the parched lining of her mouth sent a wave of relief through her body.  She swallowed it as fast as she could, almost choking in her rush to fill her stomach with the life sustaining liquid.  She sat back on her heels as the rush that the water in her stomach gave her a renewed sense of energy.  She suddenly noticed that there were no bird or insect sounds.  Her nervousness returned full force as she looked around the clearing and listened more carefully.

That’s when she heard the hoof beats coming from the direction of her escape.  The adrenaline rushed into her bloodstream.  She grabbed the shirt and dagger, running for the largest tree in sight.  She heard the voice of her owner shout as he spotted her running across the clearing.  She looked back over her shoulder as she ran and saw that he was almost upon her.  He had a whip in one hand and the reins in the other as he charged across the clearing after her.  She tried to dodge at the last second before the whip he was wielding found her back, but she wasn’t quick enough.  The lash cut her from shoulder to buttock as he passed her.  The shoulder of the horse struck her and sent her sprawling across the ground.

She lost her grip on the dagger and shirt as she tried to catch herself.  Her hands and knees skidded across the grass as Aeresius spun his horse around.  She had just regained her feet and was preparing to run for the large tree again when two long rope-like things shot out from a misshapen tree and yanked Aeresius from his horse.  His gargled scream stopped as the tree suddenly sprouted arms and she heard the loud cracks of bones being broken.  Aeresius’s body fell to the ground in a lifeless heap; the tree suddenly separated and part of it flew through the air in an arc and landed next to the fleeing horse.  The rope-like things shot out from the upper portion of the thing and they hit the haunches on the horse.  The horse screamed and then fell over in a giant spasm and then went still.  

What she had taken for a section of the brown tree trunk suddenly shifted color, becoming green like the grass.  It moved with a fluid like motion and it turned to face her.  She was frozen with fear; the only movement she was capable of was drawing a ragged breath to relieve the crushing ache in her chest.  The thing was huge, it was easily twice the height and it’s torso was half again as thick as her former owner’s.  She watched as the rope-like appendages retracted into pouches on the upper shoulders.  It had four arms, each ended with hands that had six fingers that would easily exceed the length of her forearm and there were two elbow joints, not one.  The beast’s head extended from the upper chest on a thick neck, it was flattened and oblong, with two extra large grayish irises, the pupils were vertical slits that expanded and contracted as it approached her.  When it blinked the eyelids came together from the sides.

It stopped a few feet away from her quivering form and squatted down to look at her.  It’s legs bent in two places, folding together like a spring.  She didn’t know what to do, the fear kept her from moving.  A thick black tongue the length of her arm slithered out and waved in the air towards her.  It reminded her of a snake’s tongue, except this one had six prehensile forks that waved around in all directions.  As the tongue retracted back, the beast’s mouth opened slightly, it separated in four petal-like flaps that were lined with several rows of hooked teeth.  The end of each flap had one large fang that resembled the beak of a hawk.  She tried breathing through her nose to keep from making a sound and the strong smell of salty loam filled her nostrils.

She risked a glance at her former owner’s body a few feet away and then she took a chance.  She slowly moved to her knees and bowed before the beast.  She watched it change color as she moved, from the light green of the grass to dark reddish orange, and the salty loam smell changed to hot iron.  The thing didn’t move other than to track her movement.  She prostrated herself at its feet and said one word.

“Master.” 

She looked at its feet, noticing the four long toes that splayed out to the front and two thick toes faced to the rear.  Each long toe ended in a huge hooked claw that retracted and extended as the beast shifted its weight.  She felt its fingers touch her hair and then it pulled her face up to its own.  The long black tongue slithered out and each of the smaller forks touched the skin on her face.  The heat coming from those sinewy waving ends felt like they had just come from the fire.  She fought the urge to pull away, but something told her not to move; that her life depended on her ability to stay still.  The tongue covered her face in a thin coating of slime, making her skin tingle like she had just scrubbed it with a rough cloth.  The flaps of its mouth rippled as it retracted its tongue.  It stared into her eyes, the beast blinked twice and it reached out with its lower pair of arms, encircling her waist.  It uncoiled those massive legs and stood up, taking her with it. 

The upper pair of arms reached out to her and the long triple jointed fingers adjusted her hair away from her face and touched her cheek.  What looked like rough skin was actually silky soft and slightly damp.  She could feel its inner heat coming through that touch.  There seemed to be extra large pads on the ends of its fingers and a slit on the top.  She quickly found what those strange slits hid, its razor sharp hooked claws.  They rotated out like the claws on its feet did, except on the fingers they completely retracted, hidden from view until it flicked them out.  The hands were more articulate versions of its feet, four fingers splayed out to the front of the large palm and it had two thumbs that seemed to rotate on the wrist as it adjusted its grip on her.

The thing’s long strides carried them quickly across the clearing to the edge of the pool.  It placed one of its hands over her mouth before she could move her head and then they were suddenly in the water and the beast was swimming down.  She tried to squirm but its grip was too strong for her to move more than her legs.  She closed her eyes and prayed to the gods to save her.

I have, little one.  Stop fighting me.

She went limp when that strange voice echoed in her mind.  Then it was true!  This was a god!  She was saved from the Roman Praetor by a god; it had killed to save her.  At least, that is what she hoped.  They continued to go deeper into the pool, her chest starting to hurt from lack of oxygen and her ears hurt from the pressure.  When she thought she was going to pass out, they went through an opening at the bottom of the pool and then there was air.  The god removed its hand and she sucked in a deep breath.  She coughed and opened her eyes, at least she thought she did, there was no light.  She heard the splash of its legs and she felt herself being lifted up out of the water.  She heard the strange echo of its footfalls as it walked forward into the dark cave.  She assumed it was a cave from the way the sounds bounced around in the dark.

It stopped walking and she felt herself being lowered onto something soft.  It felt like cloth, but it wasn’t anything she was familiar with.  It was cool inside the cave and it contrasted sharply with the temperature of the god’s touch.  It let go of her and then she heard a metallic sliding sound and then a click.  She couldn’t feel the presence of the god anymore; the strange smell was gone.  She tentatively reached out her hand and touched a cold, smooth surface.  She realized that she was inside some kind of box or cage, one with solid smooth sides.  She felt the soft cushion beneath her and decided that getting some rest was the best thing.  She didn’t know what the god would want when it returned, and since she couldn’t go anywhere, she didn’t have much of a choice.  She curled up and went to sleep.

Nauarchus walked away from the room he had shut the primitive female in.  He hissed through his nostrils at the name he called himself.  Nauarchus meant captain of a ship in the soldier’s language, and it was as good as anything to call himself when he would speak to the primitives.  They either called him beast or god in their minds just before he killed them, he didn’t like the first connotation and the word deus sounded too much like something else in his language and he wasn’t about to call himself that.  His real name was more of a thought image than a word so he didn’t even try to tell them anything when he chose to talk to them.  He thought it rather humorous to speak to them just before killing them.  

He swam back up to the surface slowly, checking for any signs that anything was around his pool.  He didn’t sense any thoughts from a primitive, so he walked out of the pool and onto the grass.  His skin automatically shifted to match the surrounding color as he walked over to the soldier’s body.  He quickly stripped the body with his four hands, he opened his mouth and bit it, injecting the carcass with his special enzymes to dissolve and extract every ounce of trace metals and protein from it.  He left it on the ground to wait out the process and went over to the horse.  The venom he had injected was starting to wear off, and he decided that he didn’t want it going back and leading even more soldiers here.  He let it come out of its stupor and helped it stand.  He walked it over to the nearest tree and secured it.  He would save it for a later meal.

He stepped over to the soldier’s body and picked it up, feeling the softness of the muscles underneath the skin, he knew it was ready.  He bit into the fleshy leg, slicing it open with his hooks and the soft red jelly began to ooze into his mouth.  It only took him a few moments to have the entire carcass reduced to a sack of skin and rubbery bones.  He tossed the remains into the pool for them to finish dissolving away and then looked over the belongings left behind.  The only thing he kept was a few gold coins and then he tossed the rest into the pool to follow the body to the bottom.  He hadn’t figured out what to do with his coin collection, but they seemed to be important to the primitives as bartering items, so he kept them.

He laid himself out in the middle of the clearing and tried to soak up as much heat from the weak star that heated this planet.  He was constantly trying to stay warm and the seasonal changes here were absolutely miserable for him.  The cold season nearly killed him that first year after he crashed on this miserable planet.  Trying to stay warm and hunt at the same time was impossible.  He had managed to survive through the help of the larger wild animals that roamed the forest.  He had taken an entire herd of horned animals in one day and had kept the carcasses semi-frozen in the bottom of the pool for the rest of the winter.  He had almost gone crazy staying cooped up inside his tiny ship.  With no way to fix the dimensional shifter, he had no way to contact his kin or leave this place.  He had already resigned himself to the fact that he would die here.

Now, he planned ahead for the cold times and he hadn’t had much of a problem staying alive.  The only other thing had been the lack of heavy metals in the animals he was eating.  They had some of the heavy metals that his body required, but not all.  Luckily their brains produced the chemical he needed for his skin and its ability to change color.  They didn’t taste very good, but at least he could get some nourishment from it.  He missed the animals and food of his home world terribly.  Everything thing here tasted like iron and sodium, granted he needed both, but too much is just too much.  He had altered his enzymes to counteract the heavy sodium content and so far the large amounts of iron hadn’t affected him.

He laid in the sunlight getting warm after his swim to and from his ship.  This made him think of the female.  He hadn’t planned on keeping her due to her size, but perhaps she would live long enough to give him a snack if other food sources became scarce.  She hadn’t tasted that bad when he ran his tongue over her face.  Some primitives tasted horrible and he just couldn’t eat them, no matter how hungry he might me.  Something they ate, probably, but he didn’t want to find out.  Whatever the cause, he stayed away from them.  

He wondered if it wouldn’t be more fun just to keep her around as a pet.  However, that meant feeding and cleaning up after her.  That was a problem.  These primitives required food several times a day and the stench they made afterwards was enough to make him ill.  Perhaps she could live out here in the clearing and act as bait for other primitives.  Now there was a novel plan.  Instead of being a hunter, he could trap them instead.  That soldier had followed her into the clearing.  Perhaps that would work.  Then another thought occurred to him, she would need some sort of structure to stay in while she was out here.  That was something he really didn’t want to have around his hiding place.  He would think of something, if not, he could always eat her like the rest.

The sun had reached the point where its warmth was negligible and he decided that he would go down to check on his new pet.  He remembered that she would need food of some kind if he were going to keep her.  He went over to the horse and started going through the bags that hung along its sides.  The horse had almost recovered from his venom and it started to shift and get very jumpy with him next to it.  He sent calming thoughts into its simple brain and it quieted down.  He wished the primitives were that easy, but for some reason, they were able to resist the higher functions of his mind output.  Simple speaking was hard enough with them, anything more and it gave him a headache.

He found what he was looking for, a small sack of dried meat and some kind of dried fruit.  That should keep her alive for at least another few days, he thought.  He resealed the waxed cloth packet and headed for the pool.  He leaped into it head first and swam for the bottom quickly, not wanting to be in the cold water any longer than he absolutely had to.  He swam through the airlock of his ship and stepped up out of the water.  He shook himself to get the residual moisture away from his skin; he didn’t want to lose any more heat from his body.  He walked into the control room and turned on the reactor, powering up the environmental systems and the heat.  He only used the reactor when he was down here, he didn’t want to take the chance of something else breaking or burning up on his ship and then he would die the next time the cold season came around.

He switched on the lights, not because he needed them but because she did.  He didn’t want her stumbling around and accidentally touch something and causing problems.  He went over to the room he had put her in and opened the door.  She was curled up and sleeping on the cushion he had left her on.  He reached down and touched her shoulder, gently rocking her tiny body.  She jerked awake and stared up at him with wide eyes.  His tongue flicked out and back quickly and he tasted her fear that was in the air.  He dropped the waxed packet of food on the cushion in front of her and watched her.  

She looked at the packet and then up to him, she nodded her head and spoke to him.

“Thank you, Master.”

He thought about what that word meant to the primitives and he figured that was a fairly correct term for what he was to her.  He watched as she opened it and began to eat the dried meat and fruit quickly.  From the way she was eating, it was obvious that she hadn’t eaten in a while.  If she needed that much food now, he wasn’t sure what he was going to do about her.  He decided he would worry about it later.  Right now he could smell her blood and he looked for the source.  Her feet were cut and she had a few scrapes along her legs and knees.  As she finished the last of the food he had brought her, he also noticed that there were cuts on her hands.  He decided that he didn’t need her leaving traces of her blood all over his ship.  

He picked her up and she made a small squeaking noise when he touched her.  He ignored it and carried her down the passageway and into another large room.  There was a long table in the center and he stepped over to it and placed her on it.    He opened a cabinet door and pulled out the necessary equipment and supplies.  He set them down on a tray and looked her over from head to toe.  He realized he should have done this sooner as spotted several parasites in her hair and her clothing.  He reached over with his lower arm and grabbed a scalpel, and using his upper arms he pulled the sack away from her body and sliced it off of her before she could see what he was doing.  

The look of terror in her eyes at this point amused him slightly, however, when he stepped away from her she calmed down a little.  He threw the rag into the recycler and put the scalpel down.  She was watching his every move but she hadn’t said anything or made a move to run away.  He activated the sterilizing shower and opened the door.  He reached over and picked her up, this time she did say something.

“Please, Master, don’t hurt me.”

He ignored her and placed her standing up in the cubicle and slid the door shut.  He heard her scream as the jets of hot water and chemicals washed off the parasites and foulness that had accumulated on her skin and hair.  It was over in just a moment and then he shut it off and opened the door.  Pulling a drying cloth from a shelf, he quickly dried her off and picked her up again.  He placed her back on the table, and examined her feet.  They were bleeding again after the cleansing cycle, so he sprayed them with a sealant.  None of her wounds required more than a light spray.  She relaxed when he sprayed her wounds.  She watched him carefully and he could see the wonder in her eyes as he used the spray to seal the cuts.

He picked her up again and using all four arms; rotated her around to examine her entire body.  He was careful not to flick out his claws while he did this; instead he flexed the tiny muscles on the pads of his fingers and used the scales of his skin for traction.  This left little strawberry colored circles on her skin wherever the pressure had required him to squeeze a little tighter.  She had relaxed to a certain extent while he did this, but the nervousness and fright didn’t go completely away.  He flicked the tips of his tongue out and could taste the various pheromones that she was giving off.  One particular scent caught his attention.  He had never tasted that one before in his dealings with the primitives.

He placed her standing up on the table, putting her eye to eye with him.  He flicked his tongue out further this time and tried to figure out where that scent was coming from. There were two places on her body that were exuding that scent, one slightly different than the other, but both new to him.  He could also see an increase in surface skin temperature in several places, not just the ones where his finger-pads had abraded her thin skin.  He put the two factors together and it made him laugh.  His mouth flaps opened and closed several times, and his tongue waved in the air randomly.  This display frightened the female and the pheromones changed to pure fear and the warm spots disappeared, the temperature of her facial skin dropped rapidly.

He didn’t particularly care for the scent of fear from these primitives, so he decided that calming her down would fix that.

Little one, do not be afraid of me.  I was merely amused by your reaction to my handling of your body.  That display is what you would call laughter.

The girl calmed down immediately when he spoke to her.  She looked at him in awe, as his voice filled her mind.  She thought about what her new master had done and how he had cared for her body.  He had healed her using things she knew nothing about and this strange place he had brought her to.  It was a cave, but everything in it was made of metal.  Not even the Romans had anything like this.  Her master was definitely not of this world, so he had to be a god, just not one she was ever told about.  Was he a Roman god?  He?  Was it a he?  There was nothing on the outside of her master’s body to indicate that it was anything.  She knew what a male was supposed to look like, but her new master defied all that.  Somehow, from that voice in her head, she knew her master was male.  Her response to his touch solidified that.

What was she supposed to do when he touched her?  It was strange and yet, the strength of his touch and all those fingers at once, were enticing.  She accepted the changes in her life without qualms.  She had to, there was no other choice.  The day the Romans invaded her village, her life as Sirona ended.  She was now nothing more than a slave and what?  What was she now?  She had called him Master, but he had yet to call her anything other than ‘little one’.  Compared to him, everything was little.  She watched him walk back and forth inside the room while he replaced the items he had used on her.  His legs bent in two places, one going the way hers did, and the other going opposite.  His feet pivoted oddly on his ankles, almost like a bird’s foot did.  His legs rotated outwards and further back than she thought they should, this is what gave him the strange walk.  

She watched his skin shift colors as he passed through the different areas under the glowing spots in the ceiling.  Light without flame; how was that possible?  This was something else that made her think she wasn’t at home anymore; that she had passed into some sort of underworld with a god as her captor.  He had left her standing on top of the table but she felt the urge to kneel before him; he must be a god.  She lowered herself to her knees and prostrated herself as best she could on the strangely curved tabletop.  There really was only one thing she could do to repay his kindness; offer herself to him.  She was frightened of what that could mean for her, but there was also something a little exciting too.

He caught the movement immediately and whipped his tongue out to taste for intent, but there was no fight scent in the air.  Instead there was still a trace of fear, but that other pheromone was back in the air.  Was she offering herself to him?  He scanned her thoughts briefly and found that she was doing just that.  He stopped in front of her prostrated form and tasted the air again.  His proximity to her raised the pheromone levels greatly.  She was offering herself to him as a mate.  Interesting.  He hadn’t thought the primitives were capable of dealing with his physiology in such a manner.  He wondered what his own excited scent and color would have on the female.  He shifted from his neutral blue-green coloring to brown with red lateral stripes.  His scent glands started exuding the mating pheromone. 

With her head bowed, all she could see were his legs, and when the colors shifted, she thought she had done something wrong and he was going to punish her.    She waited for the punishment to begin when she smelled something strange.  She remembered his scent when he had turned red, hot iron had filled her nose then.  Now there was some red on his skin but it was in stripes and the scent that filled her nose now was something that reminded her of cooking.  It was a mixture of yeast and hot stone; it was very strange but not unpleasant.  She didn’t feel afraid anymore after smelling his new scent; it had a calming effect on her.

He watched her reaction and was surprised at how fast she calmed down from her fear.  He thought about what his physical size and shape would do to one of these primitives.  He hadn’t thought about mating since his crash and now he had a somewhat willing female in front of him.  There had been no fight with another male or display on her part prior to this offer, so his level of excitement was less than what it could be.  He let his mating colors fade and picked her up.  He carried her out of the medical lab and headed for her room.  He pressed the room sanitizer button and waited for the room to be cleaned.  Once all traces of the parasites were gone, he opened the door and placed her on the cushion.  He made sure she was watching him as he pushed a button on the wall.  The metal turned liquid and flowed out to make a chair.  He sat down across from her and stared at her.

She watched him move and thought about how all those fingers felt when they touched her skin.  They were silky smooth when he pushed them across her skin but when pulled against they stuck to her.  She looked up at him as he pushed a colored spot on the wall and watched in shock while the wall seemed to melt and then reform as a large chair for her master.  He sat down and stared at her.  His coloring was back to that strange blue-green mottling that shifted with the lighting levels around him.  She didn’t know what to do so she just sat where he had left her.  She started thinking about her lack of clothing but the temperature inside her room had risen to the point where she was just fine without it.  She realized that the longer she sat there the higher the temperature inside her room was getting.  She was almost sweating after a few moments, and the temperature seemed to level off at that point.  It felt like she was sitting in the sunlight on a hot summer day.

He watched her body adjust to the increased temperature, and he could smell the salt and other chemicals start to accumulate on her skin.  He didn’t mind it so much, the salt scent reminded him a little of his own pheromones that he put out when hunting.  They stared at each other for a few more minutes and then she adjusted herself to be on her knees with her hands in her lap.  He recognized the posture as the one she used with him earlier, acceptance of his ownership of her.  He leaned forward and tasted the air again, searching for that other pheromone, and found it.  It was there, but just barely.  So, he thought, she is still mildly interested and isn’t afraid of me sitting this close to her.  He reached out with one hands and hooked one finger in her hair.  It was tangled from the cleaning and didn’t look right in that mass on her head.  He flexed a certain muscle and his claws rotated out and he began to pull them slowly through her hair.  She winced a few times but otherwise stayed silent while he combed out her hair.

She didn’t know what to think when he reached out and started running his claws through her hair.  Since she didn’t have a comb, she couldn’t do it herself.  She watched him carefully and when he was done detangling her hair, he sat back and flicked his tongue at her.  She heard his voice again.

Why did you offer yourself to me?  Are you in season?  You seek a mate?

She thought about his questions and tried to understand what he was asking.

“Yes, I offered myself to you as repayment for saving my life.  The Romans killed my intended husband before we could be together.  I didn’t know if you would want me for that.”

Nauarchus watched her as she spoke to him.  He was intrigued by the fact that she was pliant and willing to accept her situation.  The fact that she was willing to offer herself to him in exchange for saving her life, that was something new to him.  His people would never do that; they would fight to the death and never submit.  The females of his species were much more aggressive and they would definitely never allow themselves to be subjugated like this.  Having a submissive and pliant sexual partner might be interesting.  Would his physical size and shape work with one of these primitives?  He hadn’t really looked that closely at her sexual orifice to see if it would even work.  

Show me your opening.

She was surprised at the command but she did as she was told.  She shifted off of her knees and lay on her back, spreading her legs.  She was frightened that he would now do to her what she had offered.  The fact that she couldn’t see his sexual organ was the most disturbing thing.  What would it look like?

He leaned forward and examined her closely, seeing that she had fur growing over the opening.  He did not find this fact aesthetically pleasing; the fur reminded him of food not sex.  He thought about how to remove it effectively.  He really didn’t want anything that reminded him of food on a potential mating partner.  He knew he could cut it off even with the surface of her skin, but it would grow back and probably quickly looking at the fur she grew out of the top of her head.  No, he wanted it as smooth as his own species skin would be, that would be a more pleasant experience for him.  He had one tool that might do what was required.

He rose from his chair and walked out of the room, leaving her laying on her back with a very confused and apprehensive expression.  He went into the cockpit and opened the maintenance bay door.  He retrieved the tool he wanted and began to adjust the output settings.  He was going to have to test it first.  He wouldn’t want to try it out on her first.  It could lead to a very unpleasant outcome if the settings could not be lowered to the appropriate level.  He walked back past her room and headed for the airlock.  He pushed one last thought towards her before diving into the water.

Stay.  Do not leave your room.  I will return shortly.

She didn’t know what to think now.  She had thought that he was going to use her body for mating, but after he had looked at her and abruptly left the room her apprehension level started to fade.  Now he was leaving the cave and he had told her not to go anywhere.  This was very strange to her.  She wondered if she disgusted him in some way.  He wasn’t all that pleasant to think about in that way for her either.  His face was nothing short of ugly and frightening; especially with those mouth flaps that were lined with miniature razors and a giant hook.  There would be no kissing that thing.  The tongue wasn’t pleasant either, it made her skin tingle after it had touched her.  No, having sex with her master would be an ordeal, she was sure of it.  

Nauarchus reached the surface quickly, shooting out of the water and landing on his feet.  He crouched, and swiveled his head around, looking for heat sources. There were smaller predators in this forest, but they gave this clearing a wide berth, not wishing to come any closer to the thing that had marked its territory with that strong of a scent.  The only thing that was large enough to be a threat was the horse, and it was still tied to the tree.  He walked over to the horse and sent a calming thought to it so that it wouldn’t make any noise.  He kept two hands on the horse just in case it decided it didn’t like the feel of the plasma laser.  Since it was designed to fuse silicate fiber wiring, it should remove fur.  He tested it a few times and decided that it would work on her since it appeared to do no damage to the outer skin at all.

He left the horse tied to a different tree so that it would have enough to eat and stay healthy until he needed it for his next meal.  He loped back to the pool and dove in, swimming as fast as he could for the airlock.  When he shot through and landed on the deck, her squeak of surprise brought his attention to her doorway.  She was standing on the threshold, apparently waiting for him to return.  He looked at the floor in the hallway and tasted the air.  She hadn’t left her room, just as he had told her.  So, he thought, she can follow directions and isn’t repulsed by my presence.  He stared at her for a few moments and noticed that she flinched and then dropped to her knees and prostrated herself before him.