Aablar the Neanderthal Ch. 08

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Elizabetha’s long and intense training served her well. She regimented her breathing, and slowly began rising towards consciousness. ‘If you stay here, you will die,’ she kept repeating in her mind. The irony was not lost on her. After all the risks she had run and all the dangers she had faced, to be brought down by a misjudgment of a bear!

With her rising consciousness came the pain. Her side was inflamed – she knew that she had at the very least bruised her ribs, if not cracked a few. Crashing through the brambles, she had cuts and lacerations all over, but she determined that she was not bleeding heavily, so they were probably superficial. Her uniform was ripped in several places and her belly and the tops of her breasts were exposed. She felt like she had been heavily punched in the gut. However, her indestructible helmet was scratched but intact and functional. So she had power and communication.

She examined her position. She was in another shallow cave and had fallen in through a hole in the roof that was thickly covered by the brambles. She could see the small cave mouth in front of her and the swirling snow outside. She hauled herself to her feet. The pain in her side was sharp and she gasped and almost collapsed to the floor again. But she steeled herself and it slowly began to ease to a dull ache. She hobbled to the cave entrance, feeling stronger with every step and ducked out into the storm. Outside there was another ledge running along the cliff side.

She open a channel to ‘Andromeda’, but there was nothing but static. Nonetheless, she called in and described her situation. ‘I’m on a lower ledge directly below Lady Sophia and I am moving northward and uphill along it,’ she said. ‘Vector the other dominesses to my location.’

She trudged along the narrow ledge, unmindful of the storm and the swirling mists that obscured the sheer drop to her left. She left her communication channel open and from time to time there was crackling, but no discernable message. Then, through the mist, she saw a dark shape blocking the ledge, about twenty yards in front of her. She stopped and waited, but it did not move. It was about the size of an ice bear, but much too dark. It was stock still, so eventually Elizabetha began to creep forward. She was almost on it when she realized that it was a stone gargoyle with a battle-axe in its claws. She paused and ran her hand over the smooth rock and the exquisitely carved details. Then she saw the opening to the Cavern.

She stepped through it and felt the immediate warmth, as her temperature shield took a few moments to automatically power down. She took in the scene instantly. Aablar sat upon the throne with Leia and Althea at his feet. They were all naked. Aablar saw Elizabetha as soon as she stepped into the cavern and their eyes locked. Then he leaped down from the throne, donned his loin-cloth and advanced towards her. Now Leia and Althea saw Elizabetha and they both screamed.

Then Elizabetha saw Katnissa and a red-hot rage seized her. She lay about twenty paces to the right of the throne and her wrists were bound. She was heavily bruised – the most prominent centered around a conspicuous black eye. One side of her face was now turning purple with streaks of yellow running from it. There was also bruising about her neck, on her upper breasts and around the green serpent painted beside her belly button. Seeing Elizabetha, Katnissa struggled, painfully to her feet.

All dominesses were highly trained in anger management. Elizabetha placed her rage in a compartment and closed it. The pain in her side was forgotten. She was entirely focused on the task at hand. Aablar drew a dagger from his waistband – Elizabetha recognized Katnissa’s missing dagger. It was about a foot long and had a six-inch stainless steel blade with two killing edges and a sharp point.

The Neanderthal warrior matched Elizabetha’s height, even with her boots on. He was the biggest savage even Elizabetha had seen in her long years of raids. His size and powerful musculature together with his blazing, hatred-filled eyes would have been enough to daunt anyone. But Elizabetha was completely fearless. She reached down to the sheath in her thigh boot and drew her own dagger. It was specially made for her and was more like a short sword. It was over eighteen inches long with a foot long blade made of a stainless steel – titanium alloy. It was razor sharp with a needle-point. One end of the hilt tapered into another needle-point. Elizabetha held it in front of her and advanced.

Aablar saw the rips in her uniform and the long lacerations with dried blood. He could see the tops of her full breasts and the perfect set of abs on her belly. There was a round red shield painted on her belly, centered on her belly button. He could see that the dominess was hurt, but he knew not how badly. She gave no indication of weakness.

‘Dominess, I have waited a long time for this,’ said Aablar, through gritted teeth.

Elizabetha did not reply, but circled warily, looking for an opening. Then Aablar led into her with his dagger in a stabbing motion. It was not a good move, but he made up for it by being extremely quick. She darted back and brought her left hand down sharply, knocking the blade aside with her wrist bracer. She slashed at him as he stepped back and caught him with the tip of her blade, opening a thin, superficial gash around his chest and up to his left shoulder. It stung and began to bleed.

Aablar tried a few more stabs, but was more cautious now and did not come near to touching her. Suddenly Elizabetha spun on her left heel and her right leg came up viciously – a move that had served her well in many combats. But Aablar had seen her dispatch Shabor and was expecting it. He leaned back and caught her ankle, throwing her backwards to land on her hurt left side. She grunted with pain, but rapidly rolled away from him and was almost on her feet when he was upon her. His dagger thrust was aimed at her heart, but she was able to grasp his wrist and launch a counter thrust with her own longer blade. He caught her wrist too and held her blade vertical and away from his body. They were momentarily in a stalemate.

At this point, the tall figure of Melania Paulus suddenly appeared in the cavern. She still had her power-chute strapped on her back and her blaster hung between her breasts. Both Aablar and Elizabetha saw her simultaneously.

‘Melania, throw me your pistol!’ Elizabetha rapped out.

Like the well-trained dominess that she was, Melania obeyed automatically and the pistol sailed through the air towards Elizabetha. Aablar knew he was out-matched now and turned and ran back, running low and zig-zagging. Elizabetha caught the pistol, turned and fell into a firing crouch, all in one smooth motion. She fired twice, each time just missing his rapidly moving form. Aablar was about to dive into the pool when Katnissa intervened, stepping in his way. Elizabetha had lined up her third shot, but held up for fear of hitting her.

Aablar drove his shoulder into her belly, sending her flying into the pool with a large splash. Then he dived in himself and caught her around the middle.

‘Take a deep breath, Katnissa,’ he said, urgently. With that he dragged on the chain sunk in the second remaining rock and pulled it into the water. Holding the chain tightly with one hand, with the other wrapped around Katnissa, he sank rapidly out of sight.