Watcher's Web

A snap brought Jessica back from the trance.

She blinked. Stared. Blinked again.

Orange light gilded Ikay's face, bringing out gold spots in her huge irises. Behind her some curious females still lingered, but most onlookers had gone back to work.

Doors were open at the bottom of the installation’s central pillar. Jessica could see wire cages inside, with lots of balls that glowed like radioactive caviar. A group of females were wearing gloves and loading those balls into bags, which others carried towards the river.

The air was humid, heavy with the minty scent from the females’ bodies and the wet smell of mud. A breeze caressed Jessica’s skin like soft fingers. The most beautiful thing in the universe. Gone was the burning, the pain, the madness and the recklessness. Gone was the web and the man’s voice and the stranger in the restaurant. With the heat that had fled her body through the web, the anger had melted away.

How had this alien female done that? Because when their minds connected, there had been no doubt: Ikay had done something to drain off the pressure, something none of the doctors she had visited on Earth had ever been able to do.

Jessica stared at Ikay and the remaining onlookers as if, for the first time, really seeing them.

Yes, they were the same type of creatures as the ones who had been following her, the ones who had taken Brian and killed the others. Those men still stood motionless at the ridge, mere silhouettes against the darkening sky. A group of hunting females waited halfway between them and the wall. Why the men should let themselves be stopped when they had fire-spewing weapons was a question Jessica couldn’t answer, but the fact was they didn’t come closer and so it seemed for now she was safe, at least from them. And if these females had plans to kill her, they could have done so a hundred times already.

A wave of fatigue rolled over her.

"I’m sorry to be so rude, but would you have something to eat?" Jessica mimicked eating.

Ikay repeated Jessica’s mimicking, speaking a single word that sounded something like okkik, with short vowels and deep guttural "k" sounds.

Jessica nodded, but at Ikay’s blank stare repeated the gesture again. "Please?"

Ikay beckoned, and led Jessica away from the wall, waving the last aproned workers back to their jobs. The two Amazons followed, still looking wary.

At the gap in the wall another Amazon waited. This one was much younger, her body graceful with female curves and supple, striped skin. Large, long-lashed doe-eyes met Jessica’s in a questioning look. A gorgeous, feminine creature, even in the way she held her knife.

Her voice, young and childish, rang like a bell.

Ikay pointed at the chest of the black-haired Amazon and said a single word that sounded like "Alllll."

The Amazon’s name?

Jessica tried to repeat the word, but couldn’t produce the thick "l" and said, "Alla."

The Amazon’s glare met hers. Her tail swayed at knee level. It probably meant mildly annoyed.

Ikay moved to introduce the older woman with the leopard spots. This one took Jessica’s bastardisation of her name into Maire without any emotion, gazing into the sunset.

On the other hand, after hearing Jessica call her "Dora", the young Amazon let forth a barrage of snorts and gurgles that sounded like she was choking. It seemed this was their version of laughter. Jessica chuckled, launching Dora into another set of snorts.