Of Claws and Scales

1

Zora smiled as she stopped to survey the woodland oasis surrounding her.  The sun filtered through the branches of poplars and maples.  It was springtime and hundreds of little violets had already sprung up through the soft, dark dirt.  She bent and gently touched the velvet of one of the small purple petals.  Zora grabbed a small, worn journal with faded leather out of the pocket of her satchel.  Then she grabbed her colored pencils wrapped and tied in matching leather.  

Within minutes she had the petals perfectly drawn with dark purple streaks, and then moved on to sketching the heart-shaped green leaves.  Zora listened intently to the sounds of humming insects and skittering sounds the squirrels made as they danced through the limbs.

She was content with her life.  She lived the life of a quiet herbalist, collecting and drying plants, making salves and balms for her clients and studying new plants for new concoctions and blends.  She loved being in nature and she sighed happily.

Hours passed by.  The sunlight drifted until the colors on her sketchpad were hard to see as they blended into grey before her eyes.  She blinked then rubbed her eyes.  Then stood and stretched her sore legs.  It would be nightfall soon and she had yet to make dinner.  She turned to pick up her colored pencils when her eyes rolled to the back of her head and she crumbled to the forest floor with a soft thud.

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The Issyn warrior hummed clicking its insect mouth parts together.  He stalked towards the frail human with her long ebony hair and tanned skin on eight legs made of thick bone.  He noticed she had only two eyes compared to his six, and only four appendages compared to his eight.  He poked the soft flesh with the point of one of his hard legs.  He hissed in revulsion.  Humans were disgusting creatures with their soft flesh and only one pair of eyes and odd mouth, but necessary none the less.

The Issyn were interested in discovering new species, new planets that knew not of the millions of various species that roamed the galaxies.  Females were easier to acquire from hidden planets who had no planetary defenses, especially planets that knew nothing outside their own planet and species.  He picked up the young human with his two front legs, a light feather barely heavier than the silk he carried within his own body, and slowly used the silk between his spinnerets to wrap her.  He shivered as he remembered the Commanding Female with her large mandibles dripping venom and her command to make sure the females he collected were unharmed... and the threat that ensued.  He rubbed the scar on his abdomen.

"Thyyyk" he hissed.

The woman uttered a soft moan as her head lolled to the side.

The Issyn warrior clicked his mandibles together in revulsion at the sexual noise.  He gave a shutter.  He hoped that he would forever be passed over to mate as he was not in a hurry to be torn from limb to limb after the mating. 

The deadly mating pair was one of the reasons why the Issyn were branching out and kidnapping females from various species and planets.  The males were becoming scarce as the pairing was deadly, but if more suitable pairings could be found maybe the barbaric ritual could be forgotten.

He stalked back into the underbrush and soon without a trace the Issyn and the female were gone.

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Zora awoke feeling hazy, her head throbbing with a headache.  She blinked once, the bright light searing her eyes that she was forced to close them again.  She blinked again.  Twice and then a third time as her eyes began to focus.  The throbbing of her head didn't help matters.  She went to move her hand to rub the tightness in between her brows, but her hand would not move.  Zora looked down to see her whole body wrapped in grey thread.  The wrapping so tightly wound around her body that she could barely twitch her fingers.

"What the hell?!" Zora exclaimed.  Her chest heaved.  What the hell had happened to her?  This is all just a very bad dream.  Any minute now I'll wake up.   She repeated to herself trying to keep herself from becoming overcome with a full blown panic attack.

Zora turned her head trying to distract herself when three pairs of eyes startled her.   Large black orbs stared back at her unblinking above a pair of thick black fangs as sharp as daggers that dripped in red venom.  

A fear so raw crawled up her spine as Zora screamed.  She had never screamed so loud in her life.  The giant spider-like creature thrust a leg and pressed against her mouth to silence her.

"Thyyk!"  It's mandibles ground together. "Be quiet human!"

Zora stopped screaming, greatly afraid.  Her chest heaved.  The large bony appendage pressed tightly against her mouth and she didn't know what would be worse-to close her eyes and see the frightening creature or to stare at the bony structure in front of her and see the large fangs dripping with what could no doubt kill her.

"You will calm yourself, earthling."  It said as it brought its appendage away from her mouth when Zora no longer risked screeching.  

The beast brought the end of one of its legs and tore through the webbing.  Once torn the creature opened the webbing and tore through Zora's clothing revealing her bare tan skin.  It traced its leg over the taut skin of her breasts, down over the gentleness of her belly and even further over the raw skin of her sex.  Zora bit her lip and closed her eyes but the dream would not fade.

"The Issyn... we have studied your kind.  You will make many Issyn eggs."

"Humans don't lay eggs."  Zora whispered.  Her eyes as round as saucers.

"Thyskp."  The creature hissed.  "Eggs.  Young.  It doesn't matter.  You will provide the Issyn with many."

"But I'm a human.  Not a Is.. seen." 

The spider-like creature crawled over Zora in an instant.  It's appendages tightly grasping her body as its wretched fangs twisted and rubbed against each other.

"One bite, human and I will eat you."  The creature taunted.

Zora skin crawled with the repulsion of the large spider-like creature as it hovered over her.  Tears came unbidden as her eyes filled and her breathing quickened.

Then the Issyn jumped off of her and laughed in a high-pitched array.  "If I wanted to eat you, you would have been sucked bone dry already."  Laughing at its own joke, it left by climbing the grey wall behind it and crawled through a tunnel out of sight.

Zora sat up on her elbows.  Her clothes were torn to shreds and she couldn't stop shaking or crying.  She wiped her eyes and breathed shaky breaths.  She looked around.  She was surrounded by dark grey walls with odd luminescent orbs lined along the ceiling to give light.  There was nothing else.  She sat on a high platform that seemed nothing more than an examining table.  Feeling quite literally exposed, Zora slid off the platform and down to the cement floor.  She brought her knees to her chest and tucked in her arms. 

It was childish to think but maybe if they didn't see her, she would be okay.  She would escape their harm.  Zora deluded herself that one childish truth.  She would be okay and all of this was just a horrible, horrible nightmare.  Her eyes grew heavy and Zora's body crumbled into exhaustion.