A Second Chance

Love Your Enemies

Tomak was enraged.

The female wouldn't grant him a warrior's death! Instead, she'd prefer to watch him die from blood loss! He prayed that Cetanu would have her die an agonizing and humiliating death, something that would stain her bloodline forever.

To take matters into his own hands, he weakly started the countdown sequence to set off the bomb that would destroy them both, but just when he thought he'd have the last laugh, he watched in utter shock as the female sucked out the energy from his gauntlet!

The bomb was deactivated.

He snarled, cursing her to the marrow of her brittle bones.

However, it seemed too much for the little female to handle as she struggled to keep the energy from his device inside of her lithe frame. And when it was finally released like a pent-up storm, it was directed at the chasm's wall, weakening its integrity and causing it to collapse in. He had high hopes that the rubble from the landslide would be their end, but it stopped a few feet from his position.

He cursed.

If the lou-dte kalei hadn't thrown the only weapon he could have reached, then he would have done the job himself.

"Owww," a small, pained voice pulled him out of his brooding. The girl slowly sat up, coughing the dust from her lungs. She waved at the fine particles in the air, swirling them about.

Tomak snarled, wishing to kill the wretch. Looking down, he noticed a good size rock beside his foot. Thrusting with his good leg, he kicked the rock in the direction of the girl. It missed her, but she seemed to understand his intentions.

"Really?!" she aimed him a scolding look. "This was all your fault to begin with!"

His eyes widened in outrage. How dare she!

The stretching of his mandibles was the only indication she had when he was going to roar again. Spinning around, she quickly covered her ears and tensed in anticipation. When it came, (and it did), it was full of vigor, not lasting quite as long as the last one though. When she shakily lowered her hands and turned around, she saw how fatigued he looked. He was losing blood fast.

Rae had to admit though, other than his poor attitude and sickening intentions, he was quite the sight. First off, his mass was humongous! Human men looked like mere twigs in comparison to his branch sized muscles! But as Rae briefly admired him, she wondered how she even found it within herself to throw something so large and heavy into the ravine. It had to have been pure luck. There was no other explanation for it. Adrenaline can have a powerful effect, but could it really do that?

Suddenly, he lurched to the side, trying to get up. Bad idea. Another whine slipped from his panting maw. Its eyes squeezed shut, then blinked open again. Constantly fighting.

Lowering her eyes in regret, Rae avoided looking at him. She felt horrible that something so glorious had to die a slow, agonizing death.

Strangely, her mind went back to when she was snowboarding off the trail. She distinctly remembered falling and hitting her head hard enough to be knocked unconscious. It must have been a tree well, there was nothing else that could explain her predicament. Many die each snow season from such devastating accidents, unless someone got to them in time. Understanding this, Rae recognized that she should have died.

Yet here she was.

The next thing she remembered after everything went black was waking up in an unknown location, then not a minute later she came face to face with him. Or quite literally, face to chest. She had no memory of crawling out of the ditch, and that was what bothered her. Their meeting was not a coincidence. There was really only one explanation.