47 BULLETS

I had no idea how long Thann would be out. I assumed Thann meat meant he was hunting. Well, if we're playing caveman, guess I'm the gatherer. So I grabbed my bucket and started wandering the forest. I knew potatoes and rambutans were edible now, so I picked up a bunch of those and then made my way around the woods and found other things. I put the mandarin oranges and elderberries back in even though I knew they irritated my skin because they could be alright cooked or made some other way. I wouldn't eat anything until Thann could look them over.

After my bucket was overflowing with random plants and seeds, I headed back to camp taking a round through my snares. And I'd caught something!

My eyes rounded when I realized I'd caught a skunk. Straight up. An Earth skunk. No spines, no horns. But there was no skunk smell. I would have noticed that way before I walked that path. Even if he didn't spray, I surely would have scented him by now. Maybe on this planet he didn't have the predators that Earth did.

I bent and pulled him from the trap, examining him close. Then I did see some traces of the different planet. Two long fangs like a viper and a scaled underbelly. Creepy.

But also dinner.

Taking him and the bucket back to camp, I dropped the veggies off and grabbed my slaughtering gear then headed back out to the woods to process him. I buried the innards, but was careful with the fur. I realized just how much I missed youtube when my mind immediately went to 'learn how to tan hides' before I remembered this was a martian skunk. I had never tanned leather hide before, but Thann was clothed in leather. Maybe he knew how to do it.

I brought the skin and carcass back to camp and prepared him on a simple spit. Any meat I'd had the last few days has been boiled, so a change up to roasted sounded delicious.

A roaring fire soon lit my small clearing and Mr. viper skunk was above it. My mouth was already salivating as I basted him with the salty fish sauce.

The sun showed it was about midday with still no sign of Thann, but my mind was racing about this Molly. What would she be like? Smart and patient enough to teach Thann words. Maybe she was a teacher. I was overly excited to be able to meet another human on this strange planet.

We'd leave in a few days.

My head started making lists. I'd need to bring this and that. We could salvage that from the truck, etc. But then I realized I have a bucket, purse, and four wide shopping bags. There was no way I could bring everything. Thann surely could carry one of the bins, but how would I decide what else came with. I needed a wagon.

My mind sped through how to make it. I had wheels on the truck. I had six nails and an ax. How to make a bowl seat with six nails? If I ax wood into planks, then could I stretch those six nails to work? And then those tires were so big. Not like the little farm wagon tires. Would they be too bulky? I was almost sure of it.

Oh! My mind flipped a new idea out.

A wheelbarrow. Could that work? Just one tire. And the spare on my truck was smaller. I'd just need one and then long thin logs for the handles. Maybe I could weave some kind of bowl for it with vines instead of wood planks. My mind sped through the possibilities and figured that was what I needed.

I had to dig in my glove box for my truck manual, because I'd forgotten how to get off the spare, but it was off and two log handles were cut down by the time Thann came back.

I was slashing smaller branches off the main logs with my handsaw when he came crashing into the clearing like a mad man. He hopped the fence with a leap that landed him clear at the fire with a rage. Before I could even open my mouth, he had dumped three water bottles over the fire and was kicking dirt over it, the spit falling to pieces under his feet.

My saw was hovering over the next notch, just staring with confusion at the chaos when I finally got my bearings enough, seeing the roasted skunk rolling in the dirt. "Hey! That was going to be dinner!"

He then twisted to me, a different kind of fire lighting his eyes and I was lifted into his arms, a hand over my mouth. The saw dropping to the ground in shock.

What the heck Dothraki!? I started fighting his hold, and he tightened so I could barely breathe, let alone move.

His head was darting back and forth while I looked at my catch, now covered in grime.

Jerk! Was he really the only one who could catch game? I did perfectly fine at my processing and I didn't see him with any food when he came crashing back.

Jealous martian boy.

But then I remembered his odd tantrum when he thought I ate those berries. Was viper skunk bad too? It was certainly a possibility with how long those fangs were. Maybe it shot poison out instead of a bad smell?

Freak. That was a scary image.

And what if the poison was all through the meat too? That would make me freak out if I saw someone trying to drink a shot of rattlesnake venom.

My mouth was still covered while I hovered above the ground in his arms. Under his hold I tried to say, "srry. I yiddnt kno yit bad."

He growled threateningly and stepped us to the truck cab and practically tossed me in.

"What is wrong with you!" My face now came down in frustration more than fear.

"No!" He snapped at me with an angrily quiet voice and then quickly followed in the truck, taking up lots of the room. In a speedy movement I was on his lap, cradled in his arms and his full hand back again at my mouth. I started thrashing again in his arms, until he tightened me like a vice against his chest, a strong leg flipping over mine to stop any movement.

After a few moments I stopped my flailing realizing it was pointless and accepted I was at his mercy. His grip lessened minutely, but the hand across my mouth still held all sound in.

In the minute of silence that followed, my own hunter sense started picking up. It was strange, a low tone on the wind. Almost silent to my ears, but the way Thann's head perked to the left he knew what it was.

His deep voice was a tiny breath of sound directed into my ear with a hot breath. "No mouth. Safe." His fingers pressed deeper momentarily over my lips then used his chin to gesture out the path to the lake. "Kill."

My heart stopped in realization. This was not about the skunk. It was about something else. That tone. Some other hunter in the woods that could kill me. The anxious scanning of the forest, the smothering of the fire, the hand across my mouth. I nodded the best I could under his hold and leaned my head back against his shoulder, my hair bun bumping between us. I grasped if this was something that scared Thann, seven-foot-tall Dothraki dragon fighting machine, then I should be terrified. The thought petrified me, and trembles of fear started rolling though me.

My hands burned with the itch to hold the rifle that had been my safety for the last week and a half. I tried to take deep calming breaths, pulling in oxygen to my fearful lungs.

Thann must have sensed my silence because the hand came off my mouth and wrapped softly around my shoulders instead. It was a tender movement that would have caused chills had I not been waiting for a tyrannosaurus to show up.

The long tone sounded again, but I still thought it was far away. Maybe that's just how the animal sounded. Gave the prey a false sense of security that it wasn't right on top of it. I closed my eyes acknowledging that I was about to become lunch. I didn't need to see the monster that would eat me. I'll just go to sleep and wake up in heaven.

As the hour past with no T-Rex showing up, my trembling ceased, and I began to get drowsy pressed against Thann's incredibly warm person. I didn't think I could actually fall asleep though, the threat of being chewed into oblivion still a possibility.

"El?"

"Yes?" I opened my eyes and angled my head.

"Earth female safe." He opened his arms and I stretched scooting off his lap.

I looked around trying to see anything that might be between the trees. "What was that? The sound." I signed butterfly. "Inndzho?"

His eyes shown the confusion in my word, but he followed my hands in interest.

I pointed to the lake and made my own low note sound, then signed again. "Inndezzaho?"

"Indizayo!" He sat straighter.

"Oh yeah, that's the word. Indizayo?" I pointed and made the sound again.

"No." His shoulders squared, and jaw clenched.

"What was it? Worse? Tyrannosaurus?"

He stared at me, a strong glance that said he was reading me somehow. Though I wasn't sure what he was searching for.

"Ear No Indizayo." He spoke almost carefully, gauging my reaction. "Werewolf."

I flinched back like I was punched. I knew that word! "Werewolf?" I asked unbelievingly. "No."

"Werewolf. Yes."

"Werewolf, no. They don't exist. They're fairytales."

His voice was tense. "Werewolf yes."

And he sounded extremely truthful. Werewolves exist on his planet? I mean I guess they could right. What's different about expecting a dinosaur and dragon showing up, to have it actually be a werewolf.

Crap.

My mind raced with pictures of Hollywood movies with men changing into killer beasts on the full moon going on rampages for human flesh. My stomach churned. And the tone! It wasn't a musical note. It was a howl instead! I was going to get eaten!

I felt myself getting woozy, ready to pass out.

Wait.

But no.

It was light. And weren't werewolves supposed to change at the full moon only? This was daytime and the two moons were on some waning cycle at the moment. This was like the skunk. Something that reminded Molly of werewolves. He'd heard her call them that. Not that there really were werewolves.

Oh!

The sabretooth! That scary big grey thing could remind me of a werewolf. Oh my gosh. I had looked in the eyes of the killer that even Thann was afraid of! Why didn't it slaughter me!?

"Thann!" I shouted. "One was here. It looked at me!" I softened looking over to where I had seen it. "Freak. That's scary. Werewolf."

He was still quiet as I fell into my own thoughts.

I looked back to Thann. "I guess I'll need to be more careful in the woods if there's werewolves around."

He was studying me again. Eyes half squinted and watching.

"What?" I asked, feeling embarrassed under his scrutiny.

"Werewolf kill."

I nodded. "I get it. Werewolf freaking scary. Werewolf kill me."

He palmed over his bandage and glanced down to it. "Werewolf hurt."

My eyes jumped in surprise. "That was a werewolf?! No." I thought about the striped canals. Teeth. And all of the other scratches. Claw marks. I pictured the sabretooth fighting Thann and immediately worried. I pressed my hand over his. "Hurt. Yes or No?"

Heshook his head. "No hurt. Kodwa..."  He hesitated. "Earth female Mataoka hurt." He glanced down with a struggle of inner pain. "Thann Cane no Mataoka safe. Mataoka kill."

A silent gasp left my lips. "There was another Earth woman? And she died?" I bit my lip as tears brimmed. "Werewolf kill Earth female Mataoka?"

He nodded solemnly, eyes still to the floor. "Kill. Yes."

"And you couldn't save her. Oh no. I'm so sorry Thann. That must have been horrible." I looked to his wound and softly pressed my hand at the bandage. He finally met my glance. "Thann hurt. Thann tried save Mataoka. Thann saved El. I'm still here."

His chest straightened slightly as he took in my words. "Thann safe El."

I nodded and then sat back to look at the dash in my own inner struggle. "Earth female Jia. Indizayo kill. El no save Jia." The tears finally spilled over my cheeks. "We both tried to save someone and couldn't. Jia kill." My pain speared through my words. "I could have saved her. I should have shot the beast to death the first time we saw it. I let it get away. Why didn't I just kill it?"

Thann's thumb was on my cheek then and I turned a quick look his way. He was staring at my cheek, thumbing over my sadness. "Cry."

I wiped my eyes and tried to sit back tall. I didn't need to break down in this world. I needed to be strong. "Yes. Cry. Sad." I signed open hand down my face. "Jia."

He made a whimpering noise. A low rumbling hum that was very similar to the tenor my farm dog at home used when he was unhappy. "No cry." His open palm caressed against my face. "Jia. Mataoka. No cry."

I nodded and struggled to pull myself back together. "Yeah. They wouldn't want us sad." I inhaled deeply and laid my head back against the seat top.

His whimpering slowed, but he continued to stroke my face. I let my eyes close and concentrated on the motion, until calm finally filled me.

"Want to see a picture of Jia?" I asked softly and then got out of the cab, grabbing my phone from the charger. He'd about jumped down after me when I came back and slid in next to him. I flipped through and found the video I wanted. A funny shot of the both of us while we were waiting for the rain to pass, sitting in this very spot. We must have had cabin fever bad. But then I snorted to myself, cab in fever. We were in a cab. Right, moving on Eleanor. We were laughing and reminiscing about Big Macs and French fries. A sigh left me at the memory, then I held the phone out. "El. Jia." I pointed to the other woman in the video.

He watched in fascination, a smile lifting his lips. Then he grabbed the phone from my fingers.

"Don't try to shake us out of there again," I chuckled.

He looked back and forth from me to the device. "El. El. Jia. Jia kill."

Making a sad face, I nodded. "Jia kill."

"Movie! El Jia Movie. Yes-No."

"You know about movies?"

He was trying to make some point through his eyes. He held out the laughing video. "Movie Movie! Yes-No."

"Yes, yes. Okay? It's a movie." I grinned and tried to press the rest of my tears away.

He smiled wide. "Movie!"

"Want to see my other movies then?" I grabbed the phone back and started looking through for videos.

He watched in amazement as I scrolled to the top, pictures flying by. "Eyes! Eyes! Eyes!" He cried.

"What?" I grinned. "Did you see eyes as I flipped through?"

I didn't realize he was just wanting me to slow down so he could see them.

"Okay. What do we have first? Oh chickens!" I giggled and turned on the video. It was when I just brought home a batch of new baby chicks to add to my flock. I signed bird with pinching fingers at my lip like a beak. "Bird. Bird." I mimicked their sweet calls, "tweet tweet! Bird," then went back to watching cellphone me pick them up and play with them.

I showed him some stills as the chicks grew up. Then there was a video of my niece singing in her adorable little toddler voice which he was fascinated with. A bunch of silly ones of me with friends at a youtube convention, a rainbow, and then my dog and cat.

"Chien!  Chien!" He cried out, pointing at the golden lab.

"Shen?" I asked confused.

He smiled giddy. "Chien! Oscar! Lissette, Oscar!"

"Lissette? That's a dog. Do you know the word dog?" I paused as I considered. "Oh! Wait, Lissette Oscar? Did Lissette have a dog!?"

He kept pointing. "Lissette! Oscar!"

"Cool!" I exclaimed to the cab. Maybe I could charge her phone when we get there and me and her could chat puppies. Then I sighed. I missed my dog. Actually, I missed all my animals. I pointed out the pic. "Dog: Scout. Cat: Bella."

After a few more silly pics of my cat and dog, there were a couple meme screen shots, a park, and then one of the family when my nephew was just born.

We were all gathered around: mom, dad, my bro and his wife, their two girls, and me holding my new nephew.

Thann looked shocked, eyes raised to me. "Baby."

"Whoa," I startled at his new word, then laughed. "Yes. That's a baby."

"El baby," he spoke softly and then placed a delicate hand over my stomach.

"OH! Hold up there Dothraki. Nope. No El baby." I swatted his hand away. "I don't have any kids. This is my brother's." I zoomed in on his face. "Bro-ther. Do you know the word brother?"

He looked at the pic and scowled. "Earth male. Mate."

"Mate?! What!? No. No mate!" My face reddened brightly. "I did not have relations with my brother! Nononono.  Don't be crazy!"

He actually growled.

"Oh good grief," I said to myself and scrolled a few pictures to find my brother's family photo with just them and the new baby.

I zoomed in on my bro and his wife until their faces filled the screen. "Uh, they mated. Mate." Why was I having to tell him about my brother's sexual encounters? Uck.

Then I zoomed out to the whole family. "Baby." I gazed up to him. "No El mated. No El baby."

He eased.

"It's my family. Family. Do you know family?"

"Fffmly." He echoed.

I placed the phone on my lap and signed family with my fingers in an okay sign making a circle. "El Family."

I flipped back to the photo with my entire family and zoomed in on my parents, not quite sure how to get him to understand. "Family. Parents, uh these two, mated. El baby. Brother baby. Parents."

He beganto smile at the pic.  "Fm-ily. Iqembu lezimpisi. Fmily."  

"Yes! Family! Family okay? No El baby."

"Yes."

The next pictures were at a lake house vacation, and he loved seeing the scenery views, some sunsets which he recognized a sun, but he was not happy about my Halloween costume with the giant fake cut across my face.

"HURT!" He bellowed in the cab and grabbed my face.

"Ack! No Thann. Fake. No hurt." I pulled my face away and laughed. "Stop! No hurt."

He looked over the picture and then traced a finger where it should be on my face. "No hurt."

"Uh, yeah. Exactly. Erm, it healed."

He then pressed his thumb into my cheek, probably assessing the slight scar from when I hit the steering wheel when I first crashed.

His thumb roamed over my cheek warm and delicately and I looked to him, catching his eye. For just a moment, my glance dipped to his mouth and my lips parted, thinking something might happen, but then he sat back.

I took a calming breath and gave a nervous chuckle. "See? All better."

We went through the last few pictures until it was the last selfie with Thann. He looked skeptical as he saw himself again. "Thann. El."

"Yep. That's us. Hey! Do you want to be in a movie?!" I turned the selfie cam on video and I waved to the tiny pic of us on the phone. "Hi Thann! Say something."

I then looked to him and he watched his finger point to the screen. "Kuyathakazelisa ngiyababona."  

Stopping the video I played it back to him and his eyes widened in glee. "Kwenze futhi! Kwenze futhi!"

"Fun huh?"

He grabbed the phone and held it back up in front of us like I had. I pressed the record button for him. He went full scale monologue in it, making me chuckle. I only recognized my name and the name of the dragon beast from his words. A bursting grin pulled to his face and then he looked back at me. I couldn't help but reciprocate the handsome gesture.

Finally, I looked away and turned the video off. Then I started the video over and he watched in a sense of pride.

"Recounting battle stories, eh?" But as I thought about it, it made sense. Maybe I should keep a journal. Maybe a written journal would be better though. If those solar panels ever break, my phone is toast. "Well boy. Now that the werewolf is gone, should we get something to eat? I think you busted my viper skunk up, but I'm still kind of willing to eat it, dirt and all."

"Eat." He nodded and suddenly he was out of the truck and racing to the tree line.

"Dude!" I complained. "Can't he even say goodbye? Guess he needed some food to keep up all those Mighty Thor muscles."

The thought left me with giggles.  Oh well.