Stranded on an Alien Planet

[slut_in_white]

Stranded on an Alien Planet (closed)

Nasrin Tehran had imagined this mission going differently, to say the least. Despite the extraordinary danger she was in, despite how unlikely rescue was, she found herself oddly concerned with the idea that her father would be disappointed in the mission's 'failure,' so to speak. Which, of course, was ridiculous. It wasn't her fault that her ship had been attacked by raiders, that they had crash landed on some unknown garden planet, and that she was the lone survivor. Her father would feel nothing but relief at her survival, but sometimes the human mind works in strange ways when under stress.

Nasrin was a human diplomat, and the daughter of one of Earth's ambassadors to one of the half dozen alien species that humanity has encountered since they had taken their first steps in joining the galaxy. This was her first diplomatic mission without her father there. This was to be her chance to prove herself. Instead, they were attacked by some unusually brazen pirates and now Nasrin was alone and trapped on what appeared to be a wild planet, the lone survivor of the attack and subsequent crash.

She crawled out of the burning husk of the ship and broke out into a run. She barely registered the humid air, the enormous trees around her or the songs of birds hidden in the canopy. Her ship had been driven by a nuclear fission core. She needed to escape the immediate area or she would certainly not survive. Her clothing wasn't exactly ideal for sprinting through the woods - she was wearing a beautiful green silk dress, now torn in a dozen places, and a pair of matching high heels. She paused to pull then off after the heel caught in a root for the fourth time. Running bare foot had to be better than this. She fled through the forest, ignoring the scrapes and cuts that her feet with gathering as she ran.

It was the fact that Nasrin was reasonably fit and actually enjoyed running as a form of exercise that saved her life. She was able to run non-stop for nearly an hour before the extraordinary pain in her feet forced her to stop. By then, she was well out of danger from the inevitable core explosion of the ship. She collapsed, grasping at her bleeding feet. She had nothing - no supplies, no food, not even any other clothing or shoes. Everything was still on the ship. Tears began to pour down her cheeks, both of pain and fear. She was going to die here, unless a miracle occurred.

 

[TonyDeeDee]

Rawn felt the explosion first, the soft mossy ground below his boots shaking for a long moment. Seismic events were uncommon in this part of the Great Continent, leading him to the quick conclusion that this likely wasn't a natural occurrence.

The sound reached him a moment later, a deep rumbling many miles in the distance. His natural climbing ability, a remnant of his species' evolutionary history, had him to the top of the sixty foot canopy in just seconds. In the distance, a mushroom cloud had already begun forming. It was eerily horrific and wonderfully beautiful at the same time. And Rawn knew immediately what had caused it.

He descended from the tree and began jogging at a comfortable pace in the direction of the crashed ship. He'd seen this with his own eyes only once before, but his Planetary Watch Division training had included several hours of visual recordings of such events, as well as three days of advanced training on how to react to such incidents.

In this case, he was to hurry to the site from up wind, thus avoiding any potential contamination from the burning craft. The only problem with coming in from up wind, of course, was that his sense of smell -- one of his most powerful abilities -- was of little good to him.

Of course, it wouldn't be that significant of a loss this day: crashes like this never resulted in survivors. Or, so he had been assuming until he almost ran the alien over. He'd slowed at an unusual sound, and then an unexpected smell filled his nostrils. Rawn froze in place and instantly altered his colors to mimic the vegetation about him. He remained still and silent for several minutes before hazarding to move forward.

He had taken just a dozen silent steps before he found the alien sitting on a downed tree. Although he'd never seen one before, he knew it was a Human Being, from the Earth Planet. He'd never seen one before, but PWT had included eight very interesting days of education about them.

Despite his inexperience with them, he quickly determined two things: this Human Being being was a female, and this female was crying. Even without his training, Rawn would have known the latter. It -- she -- was sobbing, with tears running down its -- her -- face, dripping down onto her bare legs.

Rawn studied her for several minutes. His PWT had taught him that Human Beings had physical standards by which they judged one another, sometimes for the purpose of breeding. He didn't quite understand that, but that was because the females of the Freen species all looked physically identical. It was only their smell and mannerisms that set them apart, and neither of those had anything to do with procreation anyway.

This Human Being would have been considered attractive and desired for breeding by the Male of her species, Rawn's training had taught him. That meant that the ship she'd been on must have been a breeder ship for colonization. There was no other reason for a female to be out her in this Sector, after all. It wasn't like she could be a ... what, a Diplomat or something of importance. No, of course not.

What she was or wasn't would matter in about sixty seconds, Rawn suddenly realized. As she sat on the log, the foliage behind her began to shift about slowly, its spike covered vines slowly unraveling and reaching up and over her, preparing to criss-cross into a killer net from which she would never leave.

Rawn's heart, which had already been pounding at the sight of the Human Being, sped even faster. He wasn't sure what to do. His job was simply to watch for aliens, not interact with them, and certainly not save them from poisonous plants which, after all, needed to eat, too.

But despite his training, Rawn crouched slowly, then leaped out in a long arc toward the female. From her perspective, it probably looked like an attack, particular since he was drawing his machete-like sword as he passed over her head and landed back on the forest floor behind her.

He slashed once to the left, then again to the right. The Living Net Plant recoiled, pulling its vines -- or what remained of them -- back into its stump like base, ceasing its attack.

Rawn turned quickly to the Human Being, holding his machete with its sharp tip pointing directly at her face. He hissed menacingly at her, trying to mimic the Earth snake, which he had learned in PWT would scare the crap out of a Human Being female.

Then, without waiting for her response, he spun back to the severed vines and snatched them up quickly. They'd begun leaking sap from their cut end, and Rawn rapidly tied them closed to preserve the nutritionally valuable fluid.

Once done, he turned back toward the Human Being...

 

[slut_in_white]

Nasrin reacted to the movement she saw out of the corner of her eye before she even fully realized what was going on. She saw a shape leap out of the brush at her and she rolled forward, her arms going up instinctively to protect her head. The blurred shape sailed over her and she heard the distinctive "shick shick" sound of a blade on foliage. She twisted to look and saw a Freen with a machete slicing at what looked like a living plant with wicked looking spiked vines.

Relief flooded through her. She had been on her way to the Freen home planet to help to build a trade alliance between the Freen and Earth. Surely he would help her!

That hope evaporated when the Freen - male, judging by his build and the length of his tail - whipped around to face her, his machete held out toward her, hissing. Nasrin squeaked in surprise and scrambled backwards, shocked. She had never known a Freen to hiss. She was pretty sure she knew most of the ways they usually expressed aggression or fear, and this was not one of them. She watched, still baffled, as he tied off the vines in what appeared to be a quick attempt at first aid on the plant.

He turned around again and Nasrin was suddenly intensely aware that she was trapped and alone with an alien who apparently felt aggressive toward her. She lifted her hands in a gesture of peace, her palms outwards. "P-please," she stuttered, speaking his native language. Freen was a consistent language, spoken all over their home planet with little variation in dialect. "My ship was attacked. I'm alone, unarmed and without any supplies." She frowned. All of that was true, but perhaps she wasn't exactly presenting the best case for helping her. "My name is Nasrin. Nasrin Tehran. I'm certain you would be rewarded if you could help me reach your home world."

The Freen seemed nothing if not surprised. She realized that he probably hadn't expected her to be able to speak in language. But with a father like hers, and after spending a lifetime in the Diplomatic Corps, she could speak every major alien language at least passably. Her Freen was just particularly good.

She tried to get to her feet, holding his gaze in an attempt to avoid making any sudden moves - he still had that machete in his hand, and a gun she didn't recognize strapped to his thigh. She only made it partway to her feet before her bleeding soles became too much to bear and she collapsed, gasping in pain. "I-I'm injured. Please," she said, aware of the fact that she was truly begging for her life now. "Please."

 

[TonyDeeDee]

"P-please," the Human Being stuttered in Freen.

Rawn didn't think to much of her speaking that one word in his language: he could say please, thank you, hello, good bye, and at least a half dozen more words in each of the three languages the Human Beings had brought with them into space.

But when she continued onward in Freen, his eyes widened in surprise. "My ship was attacked. I'm alone, unarmed, and without any supplies."

It didn't make any sense to Rawn. Why would a female Human Being be educated in his language? She would have no reason to ever use Freen out here in the Void. After all, she could only be a breeder to her species' males or a servant to their Upper Class, and in neither case would she need to be able to converse with someone like Rawn.

Of course, Rawn didn't have the slightest idea what the Earth culture was all about, let alone how it differed from his own. The career opportunities of Human females weren't limited simply because of their gender, as were those of the Freen females.

On the other hand, Human females weren't always treated with the greatest respect by their male counterparts, as were the Freen females. Because only they were capable of the miracle of procreation, they were traditionally treated almost like Godesses.

Life was a constant give and take, Rawn had learned young.

"My name is Nasrin," the Human Being continued in nearly perfect Freen. "Nasrin Tehran. I'm certain you would be rewarded if you could help me reach your home world."

Rawn's eyes narrowed a bit at her last comment. He wasn't a diplomat, he was a soldier. Hearing this alien request assistance in reaching his home world was -- in the mind of an Earthling -- like giving the fox the key to the hen house.

"I-I'm injured. Please," she said after trying to stand but falling back to the ground instead. "Please."

He studied Nasrin for a long moment, then slowly returned his machete to the scabbard that ran down the middle of his back, underneath a small pack filled with supplies.

He moved a step closer to her, repeated the gesture of peace that the Human Being had used, then moved close enough to her that he could reach her feet. He crouched down before her and said simply, "I will help."

He removed his back pack, pulled out a first aid kit, and began working on cleaning her wounds. There were cuts and abrassions, as well as a trio of various thorns that would have seriously harmed a Human Being had their poison reached her blood stream.

But all in all, she'd gotten pretty lucky. He looked around the forest floor, then pulled a pair of large leaves from a nearby bush. When he wrapped them around Nasrin's cut up feet, the natural sedatives in the surface caused the pain to fade away. He wrapped a vine around each leaf, tying them around her feet.

"You should not walk," he said, inspecting his work. "I shall carry you."

He returned his pack to his back and looked to her, asking, "How do you know my words...? You are a female Human being, yes?"

 

[slut_in_white]

The Freen was quite adept at healing, it seemed. Her feet were already feeling better by the time he had finished wrapping them.

"How do you know my words...? You are Human Being female, yes?"

Nasrin nodded, as he bent down and lifted her easily off the first floor, bridal-style. She wrapped one of her arms around his neck for balance and noticed, quite abruptly, that his skin was very warm. She didn't know much about Freen physiology. She had always just assumed that, because of their reptilian appearance, they were cold-blooded. Apparently, she had been wrong.

The Freen was looking at her expectantly, and Nasrin was drawn out of her reverie. "Oh, yes. I'm a human female." It seemed a strange thing to say, but human relations with the Freen were new and fragile. It wasn't all that surprising that he hadn't seen a human woman before. "I have been studying alien languages most of my life. My father was the first human ambassador to your people." She frowned, hoping that the Freen delegation for the trade talks wouldn't become offended when she didn't arrive on time. Her ship hadn't been even able to send out a distress signal before they went down. "I was on my way to your home planet to engage in talks about the possibility of trade between our worlds," she explained. She could see the look of surprise and disbelief on his face at her words and frowned. "Why do you look so surprised? Do you not believe me?" she asked, frowning concerned again that she would be held as a prisoner here instead of as a guest, at least until she found some way to prove her identity.

 

[TonyDeeDee]

After Nasrin explained who and what she was, Rawn realized that he had a lot to learn about the Human Being race. Females as ambassadors...? It just didn't seem ... appropriate. Females were to be honored in the home as the life makers and care givers, not to be out in the Void taking such risks as this female had.

He was very easily walking through the rain forest and, for the most part, looking into her eyes without having to watch his step. This forest was as familiar to Rawn as was the back of his hand. It was the reason that the Freen Protection Force had enlisted him in the Planetary Watch Division and then sent him back here.

"Why do you look so surprised?" Nasrin continued. "Do you not believe me?"

"I have no reason to believe you," he said. His words came out without emotion. He wasn't calling her a liar: he simply couldn't believe what she was saying. Without hesitation, though, he added, "I have no reason not to believe you."

Essentially, that was the Freen way of saying put up or shut up. If Nasrin wanted Rawn to believe she was an honored ambassador from a distant alien planet, she was going to have to prove it to him. Unfortunately for her, of course, her proof had been atomized with the explosion of her ship.

"I will take you to my home," he said told her, now turning his full attention to the path as he broke into a light jog. He was strong and fit, and despite carrying an adult being in his arms, he was making fairly good time with his heart only barely beating harder. "We will know who you are there."

Rawn adjusted his grip on Nasrin's body in an effort to make the run more comfortable for both of them. Female Human Beings' bodies were softer than those of their Freen counterparts in many places, particularly around their back side or their upper front. It seemed a bit unnatural to Rawn yet, at the same time, was rather nice.

When he'd adjusted his grip on her, the hand of the arm supporting her legs clasped tightly to one of her buttock cheeks; and the finger tips of the hand of the arm wrapped around her back were just barely pressing into the outer flesh of one of her breasts. To make matters even more interesting, as they reached rougher ground and he found it necessary to pull her even closer so he could watch his step, Nasrin's other breast pressed against his chest, and between his uniform's lapels where a patch of his skin was bare, he could feel a hardened nub of flesh that he'd read was called the nipple. If he recalled, it was associated with child rearing, but Rawn had also read that they were a pleasure point for the female -- and even some males -- of the Human Being species as well.

They'd been moving quickly for ten or fifteen minutes when he came to a sudden stop at the edge of a sheer drop off. He turned Nasrin and leaned a bit, holding her right over the edge of the thousand foot drop. He wasn't trying to scare her, and he certainly wasn't threatening her in anyway. He simply wanted her to see the beauty and majesty of it and went about the demonstration in a poor fashion.

 

[slut_in_white]

Nasrin squeaked in surprise and blushed when the Freen grasped her bottom and breast, but she knew that, if he hadn't seen a woman before, he would have no idea that such things were considered inappropriate. He clearly meant nothing by it; it was obviously just easier to carry her that way. Besides, she had to admit, his strong, warm hands felt kind of nice...

She was surprised by the sudden, jerking stop and looked out at the view. It was breathtakingly beautiful. She smiled slightly, her eyes traveling slowly across the horizon. It took several seconds for her to realize that he was holding her out over the edge of the sheer drop. She cried out in sudden fear, both of her arms wrapping tightly around his neck. She clung to him and buried her face in his neck in order to prevent herself from looking down again. "What are you doing?!" she demanded, pressing her body as close to his as possible.

 

[TonyDeeDee]

Rawn backed away from the precipice immediately at Nasrin's obvious fright. As was customary in such instances, he simply said, "Forgive."

He released his hold on her legs and Nasrin dropped to her feet before him. She'd still be holding tightly to his neck, so when her stretched out toes -- the only part of her feet not in pain, apparently -- touched the ground, her body was still pressed up tightly against his own.

She was shorter than him by a full head, and as Rawn looked down into her eyes and felt her body pressed to his, he wondered whether such proximity to an alien -- particularly a male much bigger than her -- frightened her at all.

The Freen had many similarities to the Human Beings, particularly in their physical shape. But there was one thing the Freen had that the humans didn't: the power of empathy. They were able to not only sense how another person -- Freen or otherwise -- felt physically and emotionally, but they were also able to feel that same feeling themselves if they wished.

He was curious about whether Nasrin was scared or not, pressed hard up against his firm, muscular form ... so he concentrated on her current emotions and felt what she was feeling...

 

[slut_in_white]

Nasrin disliked heights, to say the least, so even after they had withdrawn from the edge and her savior let her back down to the ground, she kept shuddering for nearly a minute. That was why she was initially unaware of how strange it was that she was clinging so close to an alien she had just met. She didn't even know his name, but her arms were still tight around his neck and cheek still pressed against his chest, over that bare patch of warm, smooth skin between his lapels. With her body pressed so close to his, she could feel the musculature under his clothing. She had this notion, based on nothing, she realized, but strong nonetheless, that she was safe with him.

Nasrin's sexual experiences were... limited, to say the least. She had not been the most approachable girl, due to a variety of reasons including political influence and money, not to mention the fact that her father had always been rather overprotective. That was why, under the stress and fear she felt, it took her quite a while to recognize that the warmth growing in her belly at his closeness was desire.

Of course, being a diplomat on her way to the Freen homeworld, Nasrin knew about their empathy, so the moment she recognized her desire, she jumped back from him, her hands coming up to cover her face out of embarrassment. "Oh! I'm so sorry, I don't know what came over me..." She lowered her hands, blushing and wanting nothing more than to change the subject. "I, ah... You haven't told me your name," she observed, hoping to get past her momentary lapse in judgment. As she looked up at him, though, she came to realize that it wasn't momentary. His wide, dark eyes, his broad shoulders, his smooth, warm skin... There was no question that her desire was not just momentary.

 

[TonyDeeDee]

The flood of emotion from Nasrin took Rawn by surprise. Where as Humans were sometimes confused by their feelings -- often not knowing if the goose bumps crawling over their skin was due to fear or excitement -- the Freen could separate and identify emotions with great ease.

Nasrin's emotions jumped about and traded places quickly, but within just seconds of one another, Rawn identified in her fear, confusion, curiosity, and ... lust.

Rawn hadn't only been trying to identify her emotions, but he had opened himself to feeling them as well. A strange feeling overcame him when Nasrin's lust struck him, but the moment was short lived as she suddenly withdrew from contact with him.

"Oh! I'm so sorry," she apologized, her embarrassment immediately obvious, "I don't know what came over me..."

Rawn didn't understand her meaning or embarrassment. It was obvious that she could speak his language and was, therefore, somewhat familiar with his species. But it never occurred to him that she understood their power of Empathy. It wasn't something the Freen openly talked about with alien species, so Rawn would have been shocked to learn that his alien counterpart was more than aware of the power.

"I, ah... You haven't told me your name," she said, moving on.

Rawn didn't answer immediately. His mind was lost in that so brief moment of emotion that had overwhelmed him. It was a feeling the Freen did not have: lust and sexual pleasure were foreign to them -- alien would be a better word -- as it played no part in their survival or procreation.

Breeding was just something they did out of necessity, not out of pleasure. And while it was performed by a process almost identical to that of the Human Beings, it wasn't something that was also so very pleasurable that it ruled many aspects of their lives, as it did for so many of the Human Being species.

"Rawn," he finally answered. He didn't add more -- a surname, as Nasrin had -- because there simply wasn't one.

He took a step closer to Nasrin and proceeded with the traditional Freen greeting. He stiffened his body, held his hands out before him -- palms up, as he was the initiator -- and bent at the waist until his upper body was at a 45 degree angle with his face looking down toward her feet.

Is she was this ... diplomat that she'd talked of before, then she would know that she was to step forward, repeat his movements, lay her hands in his, and lean forward to touch her forehead to his. For millenia, this had been the greeting of peace within the Freen, and -- while he himself had never performed it before -- Rawn assumed that it would be proper for demonstrating the feelings of peace between the Freen and the Human Beings as well.

The reason for the elaborate display was simple: physical contact meant sensing your counterpart's emotions. If your counterpart had ill thoughts, they wouldn't remain hidden. The greeting had forced a culture of honesty amongst the Freen and protected them from the internal fighting that had destroyed so many species across the galaxy over the billions of years of life within it.

The second reason was a bit more personal to Rawn, however. He wanted to feel this lust once more. It was ... nice.

 

[slut_in_white]

Nasrin responded to the greeting with an instinct borne of habit. She had done this a million times, her form perfect. That left her mind to think of other things while she did it. Like how, when bringing her forehead to touch gently against his, it felt a little like she was about to kiss him. Like how she was unable to contain the little burst of lust she felt at the thought of kissing him. A blush blossomed on her cheeks as she realized that he could almost certainly feel her desire.

She touched her forehead to his and held the position for several seconds, as was customary. She shut her eyes to keep herself from staring at his lips. She wondered what his lips felt like. She squeezed her eyes closed, trying to distract herself. "It is my pleasure to meet you, Rawn," she murmured, injecting a more human form of greeting into the Freen one.

 

[TonyDeeDee]

No sooner did Nasrin make contact with him then a chill ran up Rawn's spine. He'd been told that his evolutionary ancestors from the pre-warm blooded period had used shivering to create friction and thus heat their reptilian bodies when the sun wasn't adequate. He would have thought this tremble was a flash from the past if it weren't for Nasrin's shared emotion.

Rawn could tell that she was trying to hide that particular emotion -- and the potential embarrassment it offered -- so he spoke nothing of it, instead returning her Human Being greeting, "To meet you is my pleasure ... Naz-reen."

As he rose to height and -- rather reluntantly -- pulled his hands away from hers, Rawn would have blushed at his uncertainty as to whether he's pronounced her name correctly. But Freen didn't blush. Instead, presuming that he'd done poorly, he simply said, "Forgive."

He glanced off toward the cliff, then toward the trail that led to the right. "That way we go. I will carry."

He offered out his arms again, but this time waited for Nasrin to come to him. Despite not being in physical contact with her, he was feeling ... feeling ...

He wasn't actually certain what he was feeling. He was Freen, she was Human Being. He didn't feel lust, she did. He could empathized with her emotions, and -- he was beginning to suspect -- she knew that. They were so different and yet ... there was something very much the same when they were in contact: she had feelings for him that she probably shouldn't ... and he wanted desperately to learn more about those feelings with her.

 

[slut_in_white]

Nasrin approached Rawn slowly and hesitantly, still self-conscious of the lust that she couldn't quite contain. She couldn't exactly stay here until she got over her desire and he didn't seem offended by it. Walking up to him, she wrapped her arms around his neck. Her face was held quite close to his neck. "Um, I'm ready," she whispered.

She felt Rawn lift her easily into his arms again. His hand gripped her bottom again which made her gasp. She blushed again, pulling herself closer to him. Her face was really quite close to his neck and she was quite struck by the desire to press her lips against the smooth skin there. She couldn't. It would have been completely and utterly inappropriate. In order to stop herself, she pressed her forehead into the curve between his neck and shoulder. Maybe that was inappropriate too, but less so than kissing him. Sadly, however, it did nothing to suppress the desire.

 

[TonyDeeDee]

Rawn mirrored Nasrin's gasp with one of his own, though to a lesser degree. He'd dialed down the Empathy, knowing that if he hadn't, he wouldn't have been able to concentrate on getting them to shelter and safety. But the Human Being was obviously still reluctantly feeling her lust for Rawn, and -- less reluctantly -- Rawn was enjoying mirroring that lust for Nasrin.

As he turned and began down the trail, his attention was divided between the often hazardous path and a new question that was running through his mind: Nasrin likely knew that he was sensing her feeling for him, but did she know that he was enjoying it so much?

They continued onward for almost an hour, occasionally stopping so that either or both of them could stretch out the curled and stiffening portions of their bodies. Rawn had had to fully disengage the Empathy after tripping on a root and nearly sending the two of them down a slick, muddy embankment.

Once The Planetary Watch Team member's mind was where it should have been the entire time, they'd begun making better time. They suddenly broke out of the jungle and onto a long, narrow foot bridge. Rawn stopped a few steps in, turned, and directed Nasrin's attention over the vine rope structure: below them, the chasm continued more than a thousand feet into the misty darkness.

He continued onward another hundred yards to what amounted to an island in the sky. The plateau Rawn's Watch Station was located on was surrounded below by the river which split into two branches, then combined once again. The only way onto the island was via the bridge or the air. Rawn had selected this location because it greatly reduced the number of carnivorous species that could easily made a meal of him, although it certainly didn't eliminate them entirely.

The security continued once they were upon the island. There were spiky barriers on the ground that deterred the slithering animals closer to the Freen's own evolutionary track. There were nets and tree snares to disrupt the flight of the three flying species -- one avian, one reptilian, and one mammalian -- that were literally large enough to carry Rawn away. And transplanted all about the island -- which, unknown to Rawn, was about half the size of a Human Being football field back on Earth -- there were dozens of plants with fragrant or repulsive scents that other species of plants, these ones killers, didn't like, thus keeping them at bay.

All in all, the island was relatively safe for a Freen who species had been raised around such dangers. As Rawn set Nasrin down on her own two feet and directed her to a sitting surface, he wondered how safe the Human Being would have been out there on her own. He thought to himself, She'd be dead already.

"Hungry?" he asked, remembering the plant-animal that had almost made a meal of Nasrin before their meeting.

He slipped off his pack and pulled the long sections of vines he'd hacked off with his machete. He pulled the weapon again, whacked off the knot that had contained the thick fluid inside, and stuck the severed end into his mouth. With a great sucking sound, he emptied it of much of its thick sap, swallowing it with a grunt of obvious pleasure.

"Delicious, you know that word, yes?" He hack the end off a second vine and held it straight out toward Nasrin. The plant's natural ability to root its severed vines was causing the eight foot long section to twitch in Rawn's hand, like a fish on the hook. He smiled a bit, seeing Nasrin's expression at the strange offering and asking, "Something different then...? Something ... not yet alive?"

 

[slut_in_white]

Nasrin pulled away from the wriggling vine, certain that there was an expression of mixed horror and disgust on her face. Her gaze flickered up to Rawn's as he asked, sounding amused, if she would like something else. She laughed, embarrassed and nodded.

"Ah yes, thank you. Something not yet alive would be nice." She frowned, watching him move toward the house. "I, um..."

Rawn stopped, turning to look at her, evidently waiting for her to continue.

Nasrin looked down at her feet, feeling embarrassed. She disliked being a burden, but she didn't know if there was anything she could do about it at the moment. "Is there anything I could do to help?"