Chameleon in Chrome Ch. 03

He turned his head in her direction. "I don't want to harm you, so it might be better if you held that position to me, if you can. I can't see you from here, and I want no accidents."

Looking forward again, Ryan McCallum adjusted his ball cap and walked into the jungle.

As he worked his way along, stepping over and around old fallen and well-rotted trees, Ryan wondered at the female's silence. He supposed that it might have been because he was speaking in the speech of her kind. It might have come as a rather large surprise to her, he didn't know. But then he began to think and it gave him another reason to pause.

There was that old wreck out there as well, miles from here. She looked younger than that wreck must be. Could she have been a child survivor? Was that possible? If it was, then she could very well have grown up here alone, and never learned her mother tongue.

More likely, she was the descendant of at least one survivor and had never learned her own mother tongue.

He listened for a moment to the sounds of a struggle a little way off on his right side. Something was actively engaged in the killing of something else out there as he heard the crashing and the sounds of some form of mortal agony. He thought about her again. How could she have lived here long enough to grow up? She was naked, he knew, since she'd been hiding.

He shook his head at that. A hell of an accomplishment to have lived here with only that as a defence.

He went on for a while, checking his NavPad and making his corrections. It was hot work, but he resisted the impulse to drink for a while yet. He only had the one bottle with him, and though he was sweating, he'd been in more humid jungles in his time. He had to strain to step over one huge trunk in his way. When he got to the other side of it he stopped again.

He'd heard a small splash. He looked around and wondered.

His proxalert showed him that she'd gone ahead a little and was now at ten o'clock and not far off at all. He was a little annoyed for a moment, but then he thought that she might not have understood him earlier or she might have a reason that he didn't know.

He looked that way and saw a rise in the ground in a small clearing. From his proxalert, she was on the other side of that rise, so he walked that way as quietly as he could. When he got near the top of the hump of ground, he froze, staring.

There was a long section of water. The female was crouched cautiously at the edge and was looking around. Somehow, she missed seeing Ryan, but he couldn't miss her, not by a long shot.

She was visible, crouched with her wide feet far apart, down low. She seemed to be intent on the water for some reason. He flicked his gaze away from her for a second before he looked again. Her body looked a little like a human girl's, just a little on the young side, not really there yet in terms of her maturity.

He knew why that was, and it wasn't an indicator of her age. Morgarod females just looked like that. Of the ones that he'd seen, he'd never seen one with what he might call a full figure. Even the ones who had a bit more weight to them had this same look of wistful immaturity to them by human standards, only proportionately larger. This one was the most shapely one that he'd ever seen.

He couldn't tell since she was leaning down to look at the water now, but he knew that her breasts weren't large. In fact, he smiled, this was likely as large as one might ever see them from this angle. Her skin was brown -- a medium shade -- but it wasn't like the corresponding shade on a human anywhere, because there was a very slight greenish tint to it.

She didn't look green, she was brown, but the brown carried the tint. Her face was incredibly lovely to him. He'd been prepared to see at best, the sort of beauty that he'd seen in these females, because no matter what had been said to demonize them in his own nation's propaganda, there was beauty to be seen.

But hers was a little different. She looked somewhat human in her features somehow, and it amazed him. She had the same sort of ears that Morgarods were known to have, but hers were shorter, and he could see a little cartilage there. They were pointed, a little, anyway, but they almost looked human to him. He'd never seen that before. He watched spellbound as she pushed her hair back behind one ear for a moment.

Suddenly, the other dots that he'd seen made sense to him. He couldn't see the ones on her face -- he was too far away. But he was looking at her long dark brown hair now and she'd braided it a little here and there, and the braids ended in bright plastic ties of different colors. Ryan wanted to laugh. She looked a little sweet like that.

He watched for a time, engrossed by her long legs, ending in those wide feet. They looked powerful, even on one as small as she was. When they'd been standing looking at each other, she'd come up to a bit above his collarbones. He looked at her hair again to see the motion, and it was there, her hair moving slowly just a little at the ends, mostly. It was just the barest movement, and since it didn't all move the same way, it wasn't the breeze -- which wasn't in the clearing at all anyway.

But it brought a thought to him and he looked between her long thighs, since he was at about the right angle for it. Her pubic hair was a maybe an inch and a half long at most. He'd never liked a thick bush there on a woman. It was just a personal preference to prefer that Sarah kept hers shaved, since she liked it that way as well. This girl's was thick, and hung down a little, and not because it was hair, because it wasn't. He'd never had the opportunity to think about it much, but he now knew that what she had there was just like the hair on her head.

There was just a bit of a tuft there and on her, it seemed to fit. The thought of seeing that part of her shaved seemed more ludicrous than seeing Sarah with a full thatch in that spot. Ryan wasn't fixated or anything, at least no more than anyone else, he supposed, but the comparison was a little bit of a marvel to him as he watched that tuft move a little of its own accord, just like the hair on her head.

He knew that he ought to look away, but right then, she looked up. Not right at him, but she looked up as though she was listening for something. A second of looking at her expression, and he knew that she was listening for something that she was not hearing and expected to hear. She stood up and looked over her shoulder. Ryan knew in an instant that she was straining to hear him tromping through the undergrowth off that way. He knew that he ought to pull back and hide behind the rise, but it was too late for that.

She spun around, listening and looking hard around her. It took her only a half a second to see him and then she was blending into the background as quickly as she could. Another half a second, and she was running at that unreal pace again away from him, a half-silver girl whose large invisible feet left huge splashes behind her until she was out of sight in some trees.

He'd seen that sort of running speed before. But all of those times, it had been Morgarod warriors and they'd been running AT him. It usually marked the start of where his day was about to tank. This one was running away from him and although it made him feel a little bit of regret for that, he was still grinning to himself.

Mirrored as her body tried to imitate a background to hide against, even the way that she looked semi-chrome plated didn't change his opinion. She had the sweetest-looking ass that he'd ever seen.

Ryan walked down the slope to where she'd been crouching, wondering if she'd been looking at her reflection or what. That didn't make much sense, but then the last full day of his life had been a little odd. It took him a second, but he did see something in the shallow water there. They looked like some form of small black fish. Their shape was a little unusual too. There was a large head and a pair of fins right behind the gills. After that, the whole thing looked a little like a stubby little eel about four or five inches long. What could there be here to interest the girl? He shrugged and walked out the way that he'd come before he carried on.

His side-trip near the standing water and the lovely floral scent that he carried mixed with his sweat had aroused the interest of more than a few insects and it didn't take very long at all to decide that at least some of these things were the equivalent to Earth's mosquitoes. He pulled a can of repellent from his pack pocket and applied it to his exposed skin. It seemed to work, but not in the way that the manufacturer had perhaps intended. Ryan wasn't certain, but it seemed to confuse them more than anything. Still, they seemed to want to leave him alone.

About ten minutes later, he found her again, visible this time. What caught his eye was that she wasn't moving. She was standing stone still in one place in a slightly awkward-looking pose. He headed that way slowly.

She was standing still, looking at something. As he crept closer, he saw that it was a large snake. Well, it was large for the average suburban garter snake. By the standards of an Amazon anaconda, it was about right, though its open mouth showed a pair of fangs and it's attitude was more along the lines of an aggressive rattlesnake than a constrictor. Ryan watched the mouth close and its long tongue slide out and back in before the mouth opened again. He looked around and found a rotted branch.

He tried to toss the branch onto the part of the snake's body away from her, but he missed. It landed very close, though and that brought the snake's head around quickly.

"Run!" He yelled in Morgaron and she was gone.

Before the snake could determine the nature of this new threat, Ryan's battle rifle was singing its song, thudding against his shoulder heavily at its slow rate of fire. He fired three bursts of three and four rounds and then he was backpedalling as well as the snake thrashed. By the time that he was forty feet away, the snake was still.

Ryan moved closer cautiously, but only close enough to see that there wasn't anything recognizable left of its head. The thrashing had been reflexes apparently. He looked around for her.

He was alone.

He got back on course and continued. It wasn't long before he came to blackened and burned areas, and then he was walking in a sea of burned growth. He'd entered a brand new clearing, created by the fire of the crash. Some of it was still smoking as he walked on, but he didn't stop.

He had to know.

It took him a little while, but he found the remains of the flight deck section. It was on its side and still warm to the touch. The windscreen was smashed and he looked inside. There wasn't much to see, but he did see the little of Mandy that remained. There wasn't really enough there to scrape up and bury. He saw a little of the shape of a burned human body, but it was mostly ash and some of that had blown away or disintegrated already. He stepped back and stood for a moment.

Eventually, he walked away and tried to get a look at the rest. Overall, it was pretty much a write-off -- a burned out frame and not much more, but he did see two sections of fuel cell containers. Out of the twelve that the ship carried, ten were obviously destroyed completely, but there were two that looked at least a little hopeful. Ryan wasn't about to investigate today. He didn't want to get too close in case they exploded, since he could feel the heat there even now, but it was something to think about. He looked around a little more and then he turned to leave, setting his NavPad for a reciprocal course.

The trip out was uneventful and Ryan spent most of his time just keeping an eye out for any wildlife which might have been stalking him. He checked his proxalert often but there was nothing near him at any time. When he'd walked a few hundred yards away from the edge of the forest, he stopped on the rocky incline and, after making sure that there was nothing around him, thought about eating his lunch. But walking around sweating had soaked his shirt and it was stuck to him uncomfortably.

It wouldn't have been so bad, but since had been stuck to him for most of the day under his pack, some of it had bunched up here and there under the straps and it was past uncomfortable, since the bunched parts were under the pack straps. He took his ball cap off, along with his pack, before he tried to peel the soaked shirt over his head. He sat down.

That was the moment that his proxalert began its cheeping in his ear. He looked down.

Two o'clock, seventy yards and closing slowly.

Ryan looked off in that direction. There was nothing in the way of cover or obstructions out that way. He sat and looked steadily.

He had a sense who this might be.

Eventually, he noticed a shadow on the rocks getting closer. From looking at it, he determined that she was walking to him a little slowly but steadily. He waited until the thing in his ear screamed its tone steadily before he looked up and tried to smile.

The smile faded as she stopped hiding herself. After that, he just did his best to keep his jaw from flopping open.

Taela tried to keep herself from staring. She was determined to act more like herself, and that was not the way that she'd gone to this point. It took some effort, but she was able to keep her eyes narrowed.

She stood there a moment before she finally spoke in Morgaron.

"Why are you sitting?"

By now, Ryan was a little more than shocked that she had a voice. While he thought about that, he decided that he might have been a little more prepared to hear something along the lines of 'thank you', but while she plainly wondered if he was always this slow, he shrugged with a small smile, "I'm hungry. I thought this might be a good place to rest."

"Bad place," she said with a bit of a scowl, "Look up."

He tilted his head back and saw what looked a little like pterodons with long tails wheeling above them in the sky.

"They hunt in daylight. They see us," she said, "more of them will come. When there are many or if a big one comes, they will come down. You cannot hide as I can. I show myself so that they will think a little about attacking two.

We should leave now, "she said looking up, "Only three and they are not large. But not long before the bigger ones come to see. Come."

Ryan decided that he really couldn't argue the point, so he stood up.

Taela felt the stony front that she'd affected begin to crumble for a moment as she looked up at him. She thought back to the pictures that she'd seen.

"Why did you shake your head?" he asked.

"Nothing," she replied, "Are you finally ready? I can come back when your bones are clean to take what I can," she nodded at his pack and rifle.

She watched as the backpack went back on and he picked up his hat and his rifle. He set the ball cap on his head and tucked his shirt into his waistband. "Alright, let's go."

She walked quickly beside him in silence, mostly, but she did have a question or two.

"Why did you help me?" she asked.

Ryan shrugged, "I liked you better than the snake."

There was a strained silence for a moment and then he heard her chuckle. They walked on a little and then she had another question for him.

"Why do you wear a hat? It is not cold."

"It keeps the sun from burning my head." He thought it was a good answer, but it brought another question.

"Why is your hair short? It grows, yes? Why not grow hair and not wear a hat?"

Alright, he thought, how to explain that? He considered for a minute. "I like to wear my hat," he said, "It keeps the sun off my head and out of my eyes. My hair is short so my head can't overheat from long hair. It's easier to take care of and hard for insects to live in when I'm living outside."

They were nearing the edge of some woods. Or maybe it was the same forest, just in a different direction. It did look just a little different to Ryan somehow, as though it was a little more arboreal rather than jungle-like. He wondered where they were going.

"I can't cut my hair," she said.

"I know," he replied.

She was about to ask him how he knew that, but a sound from behind them caused him to turn around. One of the pterodon-ish things didn't seem to want them to leave, it seemed. It was diving and was coming at them, flying about twenty feet off the deck. The girl cried out and ran, looking around for a stick or something to fight with, but Ryan's rifle barked again in two bursts and the thing fell in a struggling heap almost at their feet.

He wanted to get a better look at it, but he felt her hand on his forearm. "Run!" she cried.

He ran.

She obviously would have wanted for him to run faster, since she was almost pulling his arm off in her effort to get more speed out of him. She didn't stop until they were well into the woods. By then, the other birds, or whatever they were had settled into fighting over the corpse of the one which had attacked them. She led him deeper into the woods until they came into a bit of a clearing, still under the canopy of the large trees.

Ryan looked around. There were quite a few animals here, some form of quiet grazers mostly by the look of them. They didn't really give the pair a second look. She led him to the bank of a stream.

"Rest here," she said, more as an instruction, "I wish to ask things."

"Well," Ryan said, as he pulled his canteen from his harness and unscrewed the cap, "in case you were wondering, you're welcome."

He held out the bottle to her, "Here. Don't mind the taste, the bottle makes the water taste like plastic. I usually put flavouring in it, but, ..."

She stared at him and the bottle alternately.

"Why do you offer it?" she asked him.

"Don't Morgarods get thirsty?" He asked, "When did that change?"

She took it and sniffed doubtfully before she handed it back. "There is better water right here.

I do not mean to be rude. Thank you for helping me. Snakes like that can be aggressive. If you had not killed that one, it would have followed you and they are fast when they wish to be."

She looked at him as she sat down on the bank, "Do you always rest standing and sit when you are being hunted?"

"No," he said, "I wasn't sure about all of these things here, those animals over there."

"They have no interest in us at this time of year," she said, "and anyway, we are all here together. The fliers cannot hunt us here. There are other things to watch for, but unless these ones grow nervous, we are safe."

She did her best, trying hard not to stare, "How do you know that I cannot cut my hair? Where did you learn Morgaron? You are, ..."

"Hungry," he nodded, as he took off his pack and set it down. He reached inside and pulled out a package. She watched him open it and look inside. He set it down next to her and sat on the other side of the little bag.

"You can have anything that's in here. I don't know if you have an allergy to monosodium glutamate and polysorbate 96000, or crummy food that was made before you were born and will taste just as bland as it will now long after we're both dead."

He smiled at her a little, "Oh wait," he grinned, "you're about to tell me that there's better food right here, only I don't know what it is. I just got here."

He pulled out some simulated beef-flavored biscuit things which looked as though they'd already weathered a nuclear strike or two and he began to chew thoughtfully for a moment.

"I'm obviously a human, as you've probably figured out, since I'm not a Morgarod. I learned about Morgarods and how they speak in the war. I know that your hair is not like mine. If you cut it, it will hurt and you will bleed. I've been in cryo-sleep mostly, but I guess that at the speed that the big pile of ashes back there was going, it must be sixty years since I was a soldier."