For a second there was only inky darkness, and Natalie thrashed frantically against whoever, whatever was restraining her, stars bursting in front of her eyes.

Then an angry voice hissed above her, "Keep still, girl. Unless you wish to feed your flesh to the threshers."

Natalie froze. Threshers, the horrible creature she'd seen outside. It wasn't surprisingly to hear they ate people, but having it confirmed was enough to make her go still. For a moment her captor stayed where he was, and she could feel him breathing, the rise and fall of his chest against her back. He kept his hand over her mouth, and his other arm wrapped around her arms and chest, pinning her to him.

In this fashion, they waited as the voices from outside grew fainter. Then his voice came above her in the darkness a second time, less panicked now.

"Tell me you're not going to scream if I let you go. You're lucky we pulled you in here at all."

Slowly she nodded. Her eyes were almost adjusted to the dark now. She could make out dim shapes in the room. A bare scattering of furniture, and one other person beside the man behind her. A figure was crouched in the corner, hands covering their face. She couldn't tell if it was male or female, but she thought maybe it was a woman, judging by the slender, pale arms and the long hair spilling over their shoulders.

"Alright," the voice whispered from behind her, and then the hand over her mouth was gone, and she felt his grip ease. Then she was completely free, and she stumbled slightly, putting one hand against the wall to brace herself.

Her captor—rescuer, she supposed, now that she had time to really think about it—stepped back, eyeing her cautiously. In the dim light, it was hard to make out his features, but he was...tall.

Taller than any normal man she'd ever seen before. At least six-foot-five, maybe more. And his eyes glowed slightly in the dim light, a coppery color. It felt like she was facing off with a jungle cat in the darkness.

Her mouth went dry as she remembered the twisting black veins on the pirate's arms. They weren't human, and whoever this was, he didn't appear to be either.

"Who are you? What are you?" She took a step back, toward the door, and her rescuer shook his head.

"it would be extremely foolish for you to go out there right now. It sounds like they're on the other side of the shanty, but if they catch your scent..." he trailed off, and in the dim light she saw him tilt his head to one side. Even in the half light she could tell the way he moved was strangely fluid, and again she got the impression of a large predator of some kind. It felt like having a conversation with a lion. "I could ask the same question of you. Where did you come from?" His eyes widened, and she felt a little alarmed when he took a step toward her. "You look...are you human?"

The way he said human, with an air of incredulity, made her want to laugh. In a hysterical, this-is-all-insane type of way. Here she was, only half believing everything she was seeing, facing off with a man with glowing lion eyes, and he was acting like she was the impossible one.

"I'm Natalie," was all she managed to get out.

"Sam." He gestured to the figure in the corner. "That's Gwendolen."

The person in the corner, Gwendolen, uncurled slightly, peering up at Natalie. Now she could see it was a woman. Her face was slender, smudged with soot, which made her tawny eyes glow even brighter. Her hair was long, down past her shoulders, but it hung lank, and her clothing was torn in places. She looked at Natalie with obvious distrust, eyes flashing. When Natalie stared back the woman actually pulled her lips back and snarled, revealing a series of needle-sharp teeth.

Panic clenched her chest, and she stumbled back, nearly crashing into the wall in her shock.

Sam hissed from his spot by the window, his eyes wide and glittering. He was practically bristling. "Gwen, put those away. God's above, what did they do to you?"

Sam's drew nearer to the woman, and his face looked pale, his brows drawn down low. He approached her as you would a hissing cat backed into a corner. "I need you calm. I'm going to get you out of here."

Gwendolen, who did look a bit like a wildcat backed into the corner of the hut, glanced quickly from him and back to Natalie. Natalie pressed her back against the wall, eyeing the woman uneasily. Had she walked from one dangerous situation straight into another? This woman didn't seem at all stable. And those teeth...how was that even possible?

She watched Sam approach the woman, and again she was struck by his animalistic movements. The way he stalked forward and the way the woman leaned back, still baring her teeth, her eyes wide and mistrustful.

"Damn," Sam muttered. "She's completely wilded. There's no way I can get her out like this." He straightened up, holding one hand out to her. "Gwendolen. Gwen, listen to me." His voice was firm but low. "It's Sam. Remember me?"

Slowly, Gwendolen tilted her head to one side. She blinked at him.

"You're in the valley," Sam said, still frowning. "You've been here three weeks. We need to get you out now, before they find us." He darted a quick look at Natalie, who felt her face flush. He meant before they found her. She was obviously a terrible inconvenience to the two of them. She had just happened to arrive in the middle of him rescuing his friend, with a crew full of pirates on her heels. Probably she'd ruined everything for him.

Gwendolen's eyes were flicking back and forth rapidly over his face, and Natalie, still watching with a kind of rapt attention, noticed they moved far faster than normal. Almost as if the pupils were...vibrating.

She felt her throat tighten. Wherever she was, this wasn't home. And these people...these things, they weren't human.

But they were also better than the creatures outside, so she stayed frozen to the spot.

The woman's rapid eye movements stopped abruptly, and she pulled back, her shoulders slumping. As she did, her teeth retracted, the needle points vanishing into her gums.

Natalie squeezed her eyes shut, her stomach lurching. She felt for a moment, that she might be sick. When she opened her eyes again, Gwedonlen was slowly approaching Sam. The woman put one hand out, and Sam took it, the relief plain on his face. When he spoke next his voice was still low, "Listen, Natalie, right?"

She only nodded.

"We're going to sneak out of here, but I need you to stay beside us. Whatever you do, don't get behind us, or she'll feel hunted." He glanced sideways at Gwendolen, who was still darting narrow, distrusting looks at her.

All of this was making her incredibly nervous. "Yeah, I...got it."

Was she more in danger from the creatures outside, or from the wild woman? She kept expecting her to bare her teeth again.

"You," Sam waved one hand at her, though he was careful to keep the movement to a minimum. "Through the door first, but check to make sure no one's watching."

Natalie frowned at him, thinking this seemed rather obvious. So he thought she was an idiot. She stepped forward cautiously, and placed her hands on the rusted knob, pushing the door open a painful half inch at a time.

The shouts had died down, and when she peered outside, the narrow dirt streets were empty. "It's clear," she whispered.

"Go." Sam's voice was urgent, "around the back of the hut. There's a path through the mountain that way. We may only have seconds."

Natalie stared at him, her heart beating furiously. What if those creatures were still out there? What if they smelled her?

"Go," Sam snapped, and he reached out with one long arm, nudging her in the small of the back. Natalie lurched forward, less than graceful, slamming into the tin door. Then she was outside, back out into the dust-filled air, which seemed to crush her lungs the moment she was outside.

Again the terror was almost paralyzing, but nothing in the streets moved, though there was a flicker of movement in the window of the shack across the street. Would anyone turn them in? The thought pushed her into action, and she slid with her back pressed against the wall, toward the back of the hut. Behind her the door bumped the wall. Sam and the woman were following.

She wasn't sure what she'd expected to find behind the hut. Forest maybe, like the one in her backyard. There was nothing green though. Only a few sickly, poisoned looking yellow trees dotted the landscape at the base of the huge rocky mountain. The mountain itself was intimidating, the stones so dark they were almost black.

"There," Sam hissed. Now that they had stopped running momentarily she got a better look at him. His hair was sandy blond, and nearly as long as hers, falling around a slender, sharp-featured face. There were leather straps criss-crossing his chest, and the handles of some kind of weapon jutted up from both shoulders.

She followed his line of sight and saw where he was pointing a moment later. There was the smallest of paths leading up the side of the mountain, which disappeared behind one of the highest peeks, a small, crumbling sort of trail. Natalie stared at it in horror. It was no more than a goat trail, and he expected her to climb that?

"I—I can't," she stammered.

?'