Oh. Well…shit. "An excellent question. It's because the…doctor…" Surely there's a doctor in their training compound? "…made a plug for me. It's called a 'tampon' and it's inserted into the canal. The teeth then hold onto it until I stop bleeding. Once it falls out, then I know the teeth have receded and I'm ready for a new mate." I flutter my lashes at him. "Did you…want to see?"
Please, please don't want to see.
He blanches, his turtle-y face screwing up. "No. Doesn't matter anyhow. I'm still medicated."
I don't know what that means, but I'm going to take it as a boon. "Ah."
"Seven days, you say?" The big hand rubs my hair again, his fingers dragging through the pale strands.
"Yep." I figure if Kas doesn't find me by seven days, I'll have time to come up with a new plan of some kind, even if that plan is "Fling self off cliff".
He looks thoughtful as he continues to touch my hair. "So what does a human do when they're bleeding? To please me?"
"Oh, that's easy. I can sing and tell stories. I can cook." I smile brightly at him and hope I look as stupid and gullible as I sound. "Too bad you don't have a cook-fire, because I can make a mean roasted bird."
"I have a cook-fire." He grabs me by the arm and hauls me to my feet. "I'll take you to it."
I'm about to chirp out something about how it's not really necessary, how we should stay where we are (so Kas can find me easier) but my new “friend” doesn't give me a chance. He slings me over his shoulder with great force, knocking the wind out of me and almost making me black out again.
I really want to say something about being careful with toys, but vomit fills my throat and I puke my guts out instead.
My captor doesn't release me. He just sighs and moves into the nearby water, sinking deep and forcing me to hold my breath each time he goes under.
I quickly lose track of where we're going. Being dunked over and over again and nearly passing out until my thrashing makes my new friend surface for air? Yeah, you lose track of everything except the next breath.
By the time my captor climbs onto the muddy banks, I'm a wrung out, exhausted mess. I barely notice as he lumbers onto land and walks a little ways. He dumps me on the ground and I let out a surprised yelp, coughing and sitting up. My hair has become completely unmoored and I shove the wet mess out of my face and look around.
"Camp," he says, gesturing at the pit in front of me. "I'll make a fire. You cook."
"I can manage that," I say, coughing up a bit more water. I look at our surroundings, trying to determine where we're at. The tree roots are massive here and lie above the soil like giant worms. The ground underneath me is hard, so I'm guessing up a cliff somewhere? Someplace with lots of rock? I try to remember if we passed an area with a great deal of rock, but I can't recall. After a while, everything starts to look the same, and this place doesn't look significantly different from the rest of the jungle, other than the fact that the roots are a little more raised up out of the dirt.
It's clear my new friend has been here a few days, though. There are lots of footprints in the muddy soil, and the ferns nearby look a bit beaten up. The fire pit has enough ash in it that there's been more than one fire. There's also a funky smell here that I don't recognize. Maybe an alien makeshift latrine? Who knows? Whatever it is, it's foul.
As I watch, my captor grabs a thick branch and tosses it onto the fire pit, then digs something out of a hidden spot at the base of a tree. He pulls out something that sparks with flame and tosses it underneath the wood.
I brush dirt off my skin and try not to pay attention to the fact that I'm wearing nothing but a damp bit of fabric around my breasts. It's dark now and I can't see much, so I'm hoping he can't, either. Sure, he just carried me all over the place, but I don't want to sit with my lady bits hanging out, no matter if he thinks I have teeth in them or not. "So what am I cooking?"
"Meat," he says, and lumbers off.
I'm about to ask just where I'm supposed to get this meat when he returns a moment later and tosses something at my feet.
The horrible stench hits me like a slap in the face, and I stare down at the “meat.”
It's an arm. A tattooed, bluish-gray arm.