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Chapter
31 Gentle
Giants
Larra watched in helpless fear as the
thoth family lumbered toward
her. There were five of them,
a huge male, even larger than the one that had ravished her, a female, and
three juveniles. The smallest
one was no more than three feet tall and its little piggy face might almost
have been considered cute if she had not been so
terrified. All Larra saw was
the huge fighting fangs that protruded menacingly from the jaws of the impressive
animals. She had felt the pain
of those incisors before.
Grunting menacingly they shambled
toward her.
They stopped just a few feet away and sniffed
the air. They seemed suspicious
of the fact that a single human being, naked and alone was her in the
forest. No doubt they could smell
the scent of the Lelawabi warriors who had melted
into the bush as they approached.
Larra was almost at the end of her
strength. Her grip on the ropes
was slipping, impaling her more deeply on the sapling that penetrated her
vagina. With a despairing cry
she slipped down a little more. The
pain was unbelievable. In a few
more seconds it would not matter what the thoth
did to her; the sharp stake would rip into her guts and she would die in
horrible agony.
The female thoth
came closer to her. It was a
repulsive beast, almost as tall as the male, with huge pendulous breasts
the size of large watermelons that dangled to her
midsection. Its foul odor assaulted
her nostrils as it surveyed her, its little piggy eyes glinting
wickedly. Larra almost screamed
as the thoth female reached toward
her.
The huge hands closed about her waist and
then surprisingly, she felt herself being lifted like a child from the brutal
stake. The female
thoth held her close, so close that Larra thought
she would faint from the stench.
Wrapping one arm about her the thoth used
the other to snap the ropes that bound her to the trees on either
side. They parted like pieces
of rotten string. Then cradling
her like a child, the thoth moved off into the
forest, the rest of her family following.
With a moan, Larra slipped into
unconsciousness.
She awoke in a bed of
leaves. She was tucked under
the buttress roots of a great rainforest tree, sheltered on three sides by
the dark wood. Over her head
was a sort of crude thatch woven from palm
leaves. She must have groaned
as she awoke, because suddenly a huge head was thrust into her
shelter. It was the female
thoth.
Larra cringed in fear as the monster bared its fangs, backing away
into the farthest corner of the shelter.
It was a futile action. If
the thoth wanted to attack her all it had to do
was reach out and take her. The
thoth grunted and then
disappeared.
Larra sat up, puzzled as to why she had not
been attacked, but grateful for the
reprieve. She was still naked,
which was not surprising, but something had changed, some sort of green goop
had been smeared over most of her body.
Tentatively, she stuck her finger
into and realized that it was some sort of healing
ointment. Her eyes widened
slightly. Someone had dressed
her wounds, but whom?
She was shaken out of her reveries by the
reappearance of the thoth’s huge
head. It bared its fangs at her
once more and then pushed its way into the
shelter. Larra tried to scramble
away from the advancing monster, but was stopped by the bole of the
tree. Then she saw that the repulsive
creature was pushing something toward
her. “What…” Larra
said in amazement. Before her
was a crudely woven basket full of several varieties of tropical
fruit. The
thoth was offering her food!
Realization suddenly dawned on
Larra. She felt quite
stupid. How could she have missed
the obvious? First the
thoth had rescued her from
impalement. Then it had dressed
her wounds. And now it was trying
to feed her. Ashamed that she
had not seen the obvious, Larra smiled at the huge creature and took the
basket of fruit from her. The
thoth returned the
smile. What Larra had taken for
a snarl was actually a friendly greeting.
The violet eyed adventurer shook her
head. This was the strangest
rescue she had ever encountered.
“She was here,” thought
Lemaire.
He read the site of Larra’s battle with
Desari and his warriors as most people would read
a book. She had been ambushed
and then captured. His eyes narrowed
as he continued to read the signs.
She had been captured and probably…
“Damn!”
Lemaire bristled with rage, the blood scattered
about the area spoke all too plainly of what had been done to
her. If he caught up with those
who had captured her… He
had to find her. He traced Larra
to where she had been tied between the two
saplings. He
paled. Those monsters attacked
her. And she would have been
unable to defend herself. His
heart sank as he realized that Larra was almost certainly
dead. Who could survive being
attacked by a band of
thoth?
But there was no sign of her body, and not
enough blood to indicate that she had been
killed. Mystified he followed
the tracks of the
thoth.
There were five of them. Two
big ones and three smaller. They
had gone directly into the forest.
Well, the very least he could do was to recover Larra’s
body. Sighing, he
unslung his rifle and took up the trail.
He found the thoth
quite quickly. They had not moved
particularly far, apparently not fearing any
pursuit. Strangely, there had
been no sign of Larra’s body anywhere long the
trail. A horrible thought entered
his mind. What if the forest
monsters had taken her because they planned to eat
her? He
shuddered. That might mean that
she was still alive. The
thoth might have taken her as fresh
meat. After the way her captors
had used her Larra would probably be too battered and exhausted to fight
back. He clicked the safety off
his rifle. Just ahead was a small
clearing. He could see several
giant bodies moving about, but as he was approaching from downwind; the creatures
had no idea that he was there.
Slowly, so as not to startle the
thoth, he pushed the barrel of the rifle between
the leaves of the underbrush. First
the adults; the juveniles would likely be too confused by the attack to
react. He had done this before
when hunting in the wilds of Ontario.
Drawing the rifle to his shoulder he drew a bead on the big
male. His finger tightened on
the trigger as he drew a breath.
Wait.
A little alarm was going off in his
head. Something was not quite
right. Then he had
it. The huge beasts were grazing,
ripping fruit and leaves from the plants around them and stuffing the vegetation
into their mouths. But it was
more than just the act of eating.
It was the plants themselves.
They were standing in neat rows.
Only plants that were being cultivated grew that
way. “And,” he
thought,” only intelligent beings planted
crops.” Could it be that
the thoth were not malignant monsters, but possessed
of some sort of rudimentary intelligence?
Lemaire was not a wanton
killer. It was true that he had
spent most of his life as a guide and hunter, but he never killed
unnecessarily. Animals that were
of no use to him he left alone. He
was fully conscious of how each animal fitted into nature’s overall
scheme. Each species was there
for a purpose. And if the
thoth were intelligent, then that was an even better
reason for leaving them alone.
And yet, he knew that the
thoth were regarded as vicious killers by the
Suruani and
Lelawabi.
They were used to brutally assault female captives in a most disgusting
and horrible spectacle. He sat
back on his haunches to reconsider.
If Larra had been taken by the thoth she
must be nearby. If the apelike
creatures were as murderous as he had been told, then it was likely that
she was already dead. But if
they were not, then where was she?
And why were the creatures so vicious in
captivity? Perhaps because they
were in captivity.
Lemaire wondered how he would behave if
he were captured and forced into an arena, and then one of his tormentors
was sent out to face him. He
doubted that he would violate her, but he was not a
thoth.
Perhaps that was how they dealt with enemies.
In the meantime, all this thinking was getting
him nowhere. If Larra was in
the thoth camp, and he suspected she was, then
he had to find her. And he could
not do that with the huge beasts close
by. He would have to kill them
or drive them off. Perhaps if
he fired his rifle the loud noise might panic
them. Or it mind cause them to
attack. He needed something more
certain.
Fire – all animals were afraid of
fire. He backed stealthily away
from the clearing. Quickly he
gathered up enough dry wood to make a reasonable
blaze. Taking a match from the
waterproof pouch he carried in his pocket, he struck it and kindled the dry
wood. Soon he had a small blaze
going. He created a crude torch
by bundling together a few dry twigs and bunches of dry
grass. Attaching this to a staff
he shoved it into the fire and watched it blaze to
life. Now he was ready
to go into action.
He marched into the clearing screaming his
head off. He hoped that what
he was doing worked, because if it didn’t and the
thoth attacked, his chance of survival was going
to be minimal. The startled animals
whirled on him and Lemaire thrust the blazing torch
at them. Whether it was the element
of surprise and the noise he was making or the animals’ fear of fire,
his scheme worked. The
thoth family turned and crashed into the
forest.
Lemaire followed them for a short distance,
making sure that they were truly panicked before turning back to the
clearing. Now where was
Larra?
It took him only a few seconds to find
her. She was curled up in a crude
shelter located between the spreading roots of a large
tree. The look of relief she
gave him when he entered the shelter repaid him for every risk he had
taken.
“Lemaire,”
she gasped. “Thank God,
I thought it might be the Lelawabi coming
back.” Then she turned bright
red. She had suddenly realized
that she was completely nude and had nothing to cover herself
with. Reflexively, her hands
went to her loins and breasts in a hopeless attempt to cover
herself.
Gallantly, Lemaire
stripped off his shirt. He had
no spare clothes with him, having left his pack behind so that he could travel
more quickly. He draped the garment
over the blushing woman. It only
partially covered her charms, and in the few seconds she had been completely
exposed, he saw that she would need some medical
attention. She had a nasty oozing
gash in her left side, and her right arm also had a bloody wound that needed
attention. Her body was also
covered with bruises. He suspected
that she had also been raped, but knew he could make no mention of
that. He would tend to her as
best he could. For the rest,
including any psychological damage, she would have to look after
herself.
Larra fell back on the bed of grasses and
leaves the thoth had prepared for
her. Now that
Lemaire was here she felt completely done
in. The
thoth had done what they could to help her, and
the amazing salve they had spread over her body seemed to have helped many
of her smaller cuts heal in an incredibly short
time. She felt quite embarrassed
at her naked helplessness. She
knew that she should not be so affected, after all, she and
Lemaire had made love only a few days ago, but
she did not feel comfortable, being so weak and
vulnerable. However, she knew
that she had to rest, and she also knew that her more serious injuries needed
quick attention.
“Jean,” she said
quietly. “You will have
to stitch my wounds. They can’t
be left the way they are.”
Lemaire nodded.
“I saw,” he said.
“But I will have to take off the shirt to get at the one in your
side.”
“Do it,” she
said. She shifted the shirt
aside. It was about all the movement
she could make without crying out.
Lemaire examined the deep gash in her
side. “It does need
stitching,” he said, “but the rest of your wounds seem to be healing
very well. He looked Larra in
the eyes, trying to avoid staring at her naked
charms. “There is something
very strange about this underground
world. Have you noticed that
injuries that would normally takes weeks to heal only take a few
days?”
“I have,” said Larra, “and
I intend to find out why. This
may be something of use to the Allied war
effort.”
Larra grimaced as
Lemaire pinched her flesh together, but gave no
other indication of the pain he was
causing. The big woodsman had
taken out a simple needle and thread from a small leather pouch he always
carried with him. It contained
matches, fishhooks, and other survival
gear. The thread he was going
to stitch her with was fishing line.
Lemaire jabbed the needle into her
skin. Larra set her jaw and turned
away, but made no sound.
“Never, done much of this,” he
said. “Hope it don’t
leave a scar.”
Larra winced as
Lemaire tightened the thread, pulling the edges
of the wound together. Then he
pushed the needle in again. Larra
stoically ignored the pain as Lemaire systematically
closed the wound. “OK,”
he said, “now the arm.”
Obediently, Larra shifted her
body. The movement was much more
painful than the stitching of the wound had
been.
Lemaire took her arm and stitched the gash
closed. “That should hold
it,” he said. “But
as soon as we get to one of those Suruani healers
you should have it looked at.”
Larra
nodded.
Lemaire draped the shirt back over her and
she curled up in the leaves.
Exhausted from her ordeal and the pain of her injuries, she closed
her eyes.
Lemaire would look after
her. With a sigh she drifted
off to sleep.
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