Storm World Ch. 03

"I am not inclined to preen like a female," rumbled the larger jZav'Etch.

"Was I preening?" asked TaH 'kiy mTh, setting the brush aside. "Believe me when I say that humidity as heavy as this place has will cause you great discomfort unless you keep your fur in order. The females will undoubtedly wish to use this brush."

"Undoubtedly," grumbled Chep 'Urt vEss. Then his ears turned forward and he rumbled quietly, "Which do you favor?"

"Favor?" asked the Thahn 'Den. "As a mate, do you mean?"

"What else would I mean?" Chep 'Urt vEss replied and gave the smaller jZav'Etch a direct look.

"If I had my choosing, I think Tem l'eth tong would suit me well," TaH 'kiy mTh admitted without embarrassment. Chep 'Urt vEss's look of surprise prompted him to explain further, "I have always liked a tall female with large breasts. I also like her eyes. Those dark lines below them really accent the light green of her eyes. Do you not agree?"

"Ah. The day hunter marks," the dTel'Qohar said with a slow nod. Few jZav'Etch had such small markings below their eyes. Perhaps one in twenty. The markings were a throwback to pre-sentient times when jZav'Etch of all breeds prowled a primordial world and ruled from dusk until dawn. Apparently evolution had determined some should be able to see as well in full daylight as in darkness and had bestowed the darker markings beneath their eyes. The dark fur absorbed a portion of the sunlight making it more comfortable for them to see in the day. "Yes, they are appealing. She is too old for my preferences, though. I would choose Ima' Nef'Tn. Her breasts may not be as large as Tem l'eth tong's, but her hips are wide enough to bear healthy children and she is of an age with us. And her golden red fur appeals greatly to me. Why do you choose a dTel'Qohar, Engineer? Would you not rather mate with Tyem P'tral or the commander? Both are rare beauties. I confess, dark manes such as theirs have always attracted me. Since I was a young hunter and saw a Thahn'Den female and her daughters when they visited my mother, in fact."

"I do find them attractive," TaH 'kiy mTh admitted. "Few Thahn 'Den females are taller than I am, though. I do not know why I find tall females to my liking, Gunner. I simply do."

"I can understand that," Chep 'Urt vEss replied reflectively. "Females with wide hips, firm rumps and strong legs have always appealed to me more than others. They may be nothing worthy of praise above the waist, yet if a female has those qualities she will always attract my attention. To be fair to the commander, for a Thahn 'Den she has quite nice hips and rump."

"She is tall for a Thahn 'Den female," TaH 'kiy mTh mused. "I would say her best features are her stripes. They are neither black nor blue, but somewhere in between. Very striking."

"And the white blaze on her throat!" Chep 'Urt vEss chimed in enthusiastically. "I wonder how far down it goes."

The two males exchanged speculative and good humored looks and then chuckled quietly. It wouldn't do for the females to overhear them. This was talk among males and females would not understand.

Moving on they found most of the other chambers held cots and personal items from the long dead crew of the exploration vessel. There were books they could not read and electronic devices with dead power cells and in one case a framed hologram of a young female Human and some sort of four legged, fur covered animal with long, flappy ears and a long tail. The pair of them seemed to be smiling and wrestling on a mat of foam. A child and a pet.

The last enclosure they inspected contained a small, dense foam pad surrounded by wood shavings and small chips of stone. In one corner a dozen wooden staves twice the thickness of a jZav'Etch's thumb were leaned, awaiting dressing. Across the enclosure from these leaned five completed spears of good make. Chep 'Urt vEss picked one up and examined it closely.

"Well made," he rumbled grudgingly. "The glue is still tacky. I wonder what he uses to make the cord to bind the tips to the shafts."

"It must come from one of the sea creatures," TaH 'kiy mTh said, also picking up a spear. "The glue is likely made from the bones of such a creature. In this humid atmosphere I wonder that it ever sets. Have you ever been to a world so wet as this?"

"Never," grunted the gunner, returning the spear to its resting place. "I prefer a warm savannah or open planes. Even a rolling tundra with game to hunt would be better than this place. I was raised on the planes of Quhor Mhhaana. Lush grassland as I have seen nowhere else. I could run for days, chasing a herd and never see a tree larger than a shrub. It was like a sea of grass."

"I was raised in the jungles of Boahm 'aH near the River Qhiek," said TaH 'kiy mTh. "It was never this humid, though. The summers were like a furnace and we would walk naked among the trees. My brothers and I would hunt the great Sarra with bows. And if we found a nest, we would feast upon their eggs. Once we came upon an unattended nest and feasted upon the hatchlings. Have you ever had raw Sarra hatchlings? A delicacy among my people."

"I have eaten Sarra, but not the hatchlings," said Chep 'Urt vEss, looking at the smaller Thahn 'Den in a different light.

"When next we both have leave, I invite you to be my guest," TaH 'kiy mTh said. "I would be honored to show you the paths of my home and share a feast of hatchlings with you. It will be a meal you will never forget."

"I thank you," the larger jZav'Etch said courteously. "And should we survive the war, you must be my guest for a summer on the planes of Quhor Mhhaana. We will hunt and tell tales of legend by starlight."

"Let us then survive and be victorious," agreed TaH 'kiy mTh.

*****

After Commander M'peth qHo and Liat 'del Qha left Benjamin's quarters, Ima' Nef'Tn waited patiently, watching over her charge. She sat on the cool floor with her back against the edge of his cot reading the medical kit's screen until she understood the data thoroughly. The Human was no longer in danger. He was asleep and his bio-rhythms indicated his heart rate was back to normal. She soon grew bored and curiosity got the better of her. She began to inspect the contents of Benjamin's shelf and chest. There was not much to go through. The chest contained little of immediate interest aside from a partially empty box of some sort of projectile, presumably for the weapon they had found. There was little enough on the shelf as well, but under his disused uniform she discovered an electronic tablet. She could not read English and knew only enough spoken words to demand surrender or give simple instructions to prisoners. There was no such worry with this particular device, though. Along its edge were only symbols and buttons. Curious, she pressed the buttons one by one, finally activating the device. The screen flickered and then came on. More symbols appeared and she frowned, wondering what they could be. If this were a jZav'Etch device she would touch one of the symbols and it would open a file or program. She tried this with the first symbol and was rewarded with some sort of text scrolling down the screen. It took several tries, but she finally got the program to close when she touched a small red X in the corner. The next symbol activated a hologram display. She frowned at it for a moment until she realized she was looking at the back of the image. Turning the pad around she discovered it was an image of a smiling Human female.

"How strange they look," she whispered to herself and turned the device back and forth to see the small image from all sides. "No tail. No fur. Ears too small to be seen under all that hair. How do they communicate properly? Luxurious gold mane, though."

She touched the screen and another image sprang up to replace the first. It was of a Human male sitting beside the female from the first image. On close inspection she realized the male was Benjamin, though his mane was cropped very short and he had no hair upon his face. The two Humans were smiling warmly and she found herself smiling in return, though she did not know why.

The next image startled her. At first she was certain it was one of her own kind sitting on his haunches and supporting his torso with his arms in a very odd posture. She assumed it was a male because there were no breasts in evidence, but why was he naked? She narrowed her eyes and attempted to figure out how to enlarge the image. Several tries were needed before she was able to make the image two or three times larger. It was then she understood this was not one of her kind. dTe'Qohar did not have ears so large or even shaped like that. It was not just the ears, though. All of the proportions of the head were wrong and the creature had paws instead of hands.

"Cat?" she chirped softly. It was the English word for the creature she was looking at. She knew Humans usually referred to jZav'Etch as cats and now she understood why. "Amazing!"

There were several more images of the two Humans and a few of the cat in various poses and settings and then one appeared that puzzled her. The female was clad in strange garb and her expression suggested both amusement and serious intent. The clothing, if it could be called such, seemed to serve no purpose. The robe was of a sheer black material too thin to provide warmth or even conceal her prominent breasts. What covered her legs was much tighter and more opaque, but offered no more protection than did the robe. And why would anyone wear shoes with spikes to balance on? That expression, though, suggested something. Something ... passionate.

"Oh my Makers!" she chuckled softly. "She attempts seduction!"

Could Human males really find this sort of thing attractive?

She scanned through the remaining images, finding several more of the female variously clad in other "seductive" garments and one of her reposed across a bed nude. Ima' Nef'Tn purred softly, wondering what it would be like to lay with a Human female. Since she was young she had lain with many of her own kind and from what she saw in the holograms Human anatomy was remarkably similar. She had also lain with Thahn 'Den and Pah'Tht females and had enjoyed the experiences. Males she did not enjoy as much, though she had mated with two. They simply were too rushed in their need and took no time to satisfy her. She did not like that.

She glanced over her shoulder at Benjamin and thought the female in the image must be one of his mates. Had she been a member of his ill-fated expedition? Was she dead, killed by some beast of the forest or in an accident? Though she had just lost many of her friends and several lovers, Ima' Nef'Tn could only imagine what it would be like to lose an actual mate. Her heart went out to the sleeping Human on his cot. She thought, How lonely he must be.

Her thoughts were unexpectedly interrupted by a rumbling of conversation from some little distance. Chep 'Urt vEss was apparently pontificating on something or other.

"That male," Ima' Nef'Tn sighed and flicked her whiskers in exasperation. If she were honest with herself, she had to admit she found Chep 'Urt vEss attractive. His brashness was frequently quite charming. All too often, though, he took it too far. But the gunner was young and young males were normally more confident than wise. A mature male understood how to balance the two attributes.

"Was I preening?" the voice of the Thahn 'Den engineer asked.

She smiled at that. It was well known among the crew that TaH 'kiy mTh liked the way he looked. Of course, she did too. Ima' Nef'Tn did not particularly favor males, but she would make an exception for TaH 'kiy mTh. He was tolerably tall for a Thahn 'Den and his red-orange fur accented with those burgundy stripes went a very long way to make up for his complete lack of scars. One of Ima' Nef'Tn's friends had confided to her that TaH 'kiy mTh, unlike most males, did not rush the mating and leave. He was known to pleasure the female first and supposedly had given the pleasure of the tongue to at least one of the females who had partaken of Chisq' Kah' with him. More than that, TaH 'kiy mTh was very well endowed, having four prominent points that could stimulate even a dTel'Qohar.

Ima' Nef'Tn's ears pricked up again when she heard, "Which do you favor?"

She listened intently to the conversation feeling decadent for secretly overhearing candid talk between males, something as rare for a female as a cold day in summer. She was not particularly surprised to hear the Thahn 'Den declare his preference for Tem l'eth tong and her large breasts. Males did not often choose females outside of their own kind to wed, though it was not uncommon for them to do so for a tryst. Thahn 'Den males rarely chose dTel'Qohar females who were on average slightly taller than Thahn 'Den males and sometimes considerably so. However, TaH 'kiy mTh was known to prefer tall, voluptuous mates.

She had briefly lost track of the conversation when she was drawn back to it at mention of her name.

"I would choose Ima' Nef'Tn," said Chep 'Urt vEss in a musing tone. "Her breasts may not be as large as Tem l'eth tong's, but her hips are wide enough to bear healthy children..."

"My breasts?" she hissed, offended. Looking down at her chest she cupped her small breasts in her hands and pushed them up and together, her tail flicking hard against the stone floor. "And child bearing hips? Am I a p'Thoq*** to be spoken of thusly? My breasts are far larger than you are likely to fondle until we get off this world, Gunner!"

Bearing her fangs Ima' Nef'Tn was about to rise and go to confront the large dTel'Qohar for the slight when she glanced at Benjamin asleep on his cot. Her orders were to remain with him until he woke. She frowned, torn between duty and the desire to confront the Gunner. In that state of mind it took her a moment to realize something was different about the Human. The blanket was peaked in the middle. Forgetting her indignation out of concern Ima' Nef'Tn hurriedly picked up the medical kit to see what was the matter. All readings were normal except that the Human's pulse was slightly elevated. She keyed the kit to run a self-diagnostic, but it came back as in perfect condition. What was causing the peak in the blanket, then? Briefly she considered calling the commander to get instructions, but she thought better of it. Besides, her curiosity was piqued. Carefully she extended her hand and lifted the edge of the blanket until she could see under it.

"Oh my Makers!" she purred throatily, grinning a broad, lascivious grin.

The Human's penis was swollen to several times its original size! She could not help herself. Ima' Nef'Tn stared at his turgid member with disbelieving eyes. Male dTel'Qohar were somewhat longer, but none she had ever heard of was nearly as thick as this! And the Human was smooth! Smooth! There were no points. How did they stimulate their females to make them pregnant? She was very tempted to touch it, but she was far more discrete than that. She did not wish to awaken him and he might not welcome such unasked for attention. She had never teased him, after all, and they were not even acquainted. As carefully as she had raised the blanket, she lowered it, still grinning. Her eyes danced and her whiskers vibrated with mirth and arousal and interest.

She remained silent and still for a time, speculating and musing on Benjamin. He was a striking creature to her way of thinking, virtually covered in battle scars and some of those were quite fresh. She knew it was fashionable among wealthy jZav'Etch matrons without mates to take male Humans as their bond servants and there was talk of what they did with them. Always there was talk in the female quarters. Humans were even the subjects of a large number of recent tales that were technically forbidden, but made the rounds regardless. If you were caught with such scandalous material it could be confiscated and you could be fined, but no one took those risks seriously. During training one of her closest friends had been caught with a story like that. The female officer who had found it had privately requested a copy and told her to be sure the chip was better hidden in case a less lenient inspector came through the barracks.

Her interest greatly inflamed, Ima' Nef'Tn picked up the medical kit and accessed its files on Human anatomy. She read the severely clinical data, enjoying it almost as much as one of the forbidden erotic tales. She cross referenced the data with jZav'Etch anatomy and sighed, pleased with her discoveries.

"So it is possible," she purred softly. A smile spread across her lips and her tail flicked and swished languidly across the floor. "How interesting."

*

Notes:

*Taq'a Mowl (Tack ah Mowl) -- Roughly two and a quarter Earth Standard hours.

**Taq'a (Tack ah) -- .9375 Earth Standard minutes.

*** p'Thoq (pa-Thawk) -- A large, herbivorous riding beast native to jZav. A jZav'Etch horse.