“I don’t know.” Ayron sounded puzzled. The hunters exchanged a look then stepped back. He didn’t blame them. They’d never seen their leader unable to identify a creature, and this one was disturbing, with its human-like features.
“Could it be an undiscovered species of ape?” Khan poked it in the side with his sword. The creature hissed and writhed.
“Stop!” Ayron shoved the sword aside. “We’re not going to harm it. Not until we find out what it is. It may be some form of humanoid, a mutation that managed to survive against all odds. There are parts of Iridia we still haven’t fully explored since the Trouble.”
He fingered a corner of the loose white covering. Not skin. Some sort of garment. Grabbing it near the top, he tore it down the center and spread it apart. Over his shoulder, Khan made a sharp guttural sound.
A pair of naked breasts covered by a nearly transparent layer of fabric lay before him. Full and firm with round pink nipples darkening at the center. Stunned, he reached out and cupped one.
The creature made a high-pitched noise and swatted his hand away.
Eli laughed. “Whatever she is, she’s got your number already, old man! Let me have a go at her.” He sank to his knees and ran a hand down the body. “Sure feels like a real woman. Soft and smooth.” He grabbed one breast and squeezed, pinching the nipple roughly between his fingers.
The female shot out a fist and backhanded him across the face. Swearing, he grabbed her gloved hand, tightening his fingers around it. They had a silent contest, the female keeping her hand out in front of her, rigid, refusing to yield. With a disgusted snort, Eli finally tired of the game and let her go.
“Looks like she’s got your number too.” Balek grinned, showing off incisors filed to lethal points.
Ayron stood and pulled the female to her feet. The shredded remains of her white garment fell to the ground. The men fell silent, staring.
She was magnificent. Tall, easily matching his six foot height, her body was slender and supple. Not like his beloved Naia. His mate’s body had been lush and full and much shorter, more suited to Iridia’s powerful gravitational pull.
The shapeless white garment had given no hint of what lay beneath. Wide shoulders narrowing to a slim waist. Breasts like those of a young woman jutted out through the thin film covering her body, the nipples hard from Eli’s pinching and squeezing. Obviously they’d never overflowed with milk or suckled young. Her hips flared out, begging a man to follow the curve with his hands…or his lips.
Patches of hair were visible under the transparent skin-tight garment — one on her head and a smaller but much more intriguing one between her thighs. His cock stirred to life, the first time in longer than he could remember. She followed his gaze and shot out a hand to cover it.
“What is your name?”
She cocked her head, and her eyes narrowed, as though puzzling over the meaning of his words.
Eli let out a whoop. “D’ya think she’s mute? Wouldn’t that be a gift from the gods? A female who looks like that and doesn’t use her mouth to talk all the time! Made just for this.” He grabbed his cock, protruding stiff and hard from the folds of his cloak.
She watched him intently as he spoke then turned her head away when he reached down and stroked himself.
Ayron stepped in front of Eli, blocking him from the female’s view. “Just because she can’t speak doesn’t mean she doesn’t understand. She may have some degree of intelligence.”
“She doesn’t have to be smart to spread those legs for me. Rip the rest of that thing off, and let’s see how she’s put together down below.”
“No.” His voice was flat, but the others knew better than to test Ayron’s patience. Pulling his cloak off, he wrapped it around her.
His body had already registered a shocking response to the female. If she inspired this degree of arousal in him and his group, he couldn’t let her appear in front of the entire Tryb nearly naked. The younger men would never finish butchering the narliphant. They’d be too busy fighting for the chance to claim her.
“Let’s go.” The other men obeyed immediately, heading back toward the kill site. The woman simply stared at him.
“I said, let’s go,” he barked. Ayron took a few steps, beckoned her to join him. She didn’t budge. Frustrated, he grabbed her arm, turned her in the direction he wanted her to head, and swatted her on the ass, propelling her forward. She gave him a nasty look but fell into step behind the others, clutching the edges of the cloak around her.
They could hear the singing long before they caught sight of the Tryb at the kill site. When they arrived, she stopped dead. Ayron understood why. Even after all his years as a hunter, it was an amazing sight. He could imagine how it must look to someone who had never seen it before.
Torches flickered in the purple moonlight, illuminating a swarm of workers atop the beast, busily stripping the hide from the narliphant. The men chanted an ancient song of victory, while the women echoed back the refrain after every verse as they hacked the carcass into chunks of bloody flesh small enough to carry.
A steady line made up of the old and the young Tryb members disappeared over the crest of the hill, lugging the smaller bones and hunks of meat wrapped in the hide back to the caves. They’d all sleep for hours when the night’s work was done.
He knew the oldest women, those who could no longer carry a heavy load, had remained in the cave to build a fire in the massive pit. Tomorrow they’d roast huge slabs of meat over a bed of coals all day. At nightfall, the Tryb would have a feast, eating and drinking their fill, then singing and dancing till dawn. Many children in the Tryb could trace their beginnings to a night like the one in store.
A murmur broke out among the crowd when they caught sight of the hunters with their latest prize. Tryb members crowded around them. Dozens of hands reached out to paw at the female. She drew up to her full height and pulled the cloak tighter around her.
Ayron caught sight of Mother Eva, the matriarch of the Tryb, and called her over. She moved slowly, painfully, as befitting someone of her advanced age. The group parted, allowing her to proceed regally to the center.
“What have we here?” Eva’s keen eyes sized up the situation.
