Page 11 of Prison Moon
Chapter Four
Sara jolted awake and reached out for something to hold on to and realized a moment later she was no longer falling. The panic from going over the side of the cliff still rode her body and caused her heart to thump against her ribcage. Deep breaths helped but the question, why wasn’t she dead? kept ringing in her ears.
She looked up, the hazy pink-tinted sky above was filled with flat, dull grey clouds. The rock wall to her right wasn’t the same one she’d fallen from. It wasn’t tall enough, so how had she ended up here?
The dragon. The moment he popped into her head, her heart started racing again. She went motionless, not moving anything but her head as she scanned her surroundings, looking upstream, then down best she could, and froze the moment she saw him.
The scene on the cliff played inside her head again as she stared at him. She hadn’t dreamed it. A dragon really had flown down into that gorge and clamped one big foot around her. A dragon that was currently drinking huge amounts of water from the river.
He was enormous, his scales shimmering in the sun, the colors ranging from deepest indigo to a soft periwinkle blue that seemed to shine like iridescent jewels when he moved. He was on four legs and had a tail that was swishing back and forth across the loose pebbles and rocks along the river bank. Boney ridges stood up on its head and ran in neat rows toward the back of its skull. Two twisting horns with sharp points jutted from the top of its head and leathery wings were tucked in close to its body. He was the most fantastical thing she’d ever seen. Well, aside from the space aliens. And the inside of a spaceship. Or the nebula she’d seen from said spaceship.
She watched him for long minutes wondering what he was going to do with her. The same voice that had been spelling out her doom since she woke on the alien spaceship whispered,he’s going to eat you.The words caused her stomach to cramp. She wanted to ignore it like she had been doing over the last however-many weeks she’d been trapped on that ship but as she looked at the dragon, she couldn’t. He’d snatched her out of the sky for a reason, and if she had to guess, she’d say it was because she was an easy meal.
Or so she thought until she glanced back at the river.
The carcass of an animal lay near the water’s edge. It was as large as a cow but looked nothing like one. It was thickly furred, the matted grey-brown hair reminding her of the thick wool of sheep but its shape was more goat-like. Its legs were spindly in comparison to its body. Its head was small and one of its two horns was broken off. Blood coated its matted hair in places and a newfound hope the dragon hadn’t taken her to eat eased the cramps in her stomach. Why did he need to eat her when he had that thing? It outweighed her by at least a hundred pounds. But if he didn’t take her to eat, then why was she here? And why was she still sitting here asking herself all these questions to begin with when she should be running? She had to find Marcy. Did she get away or did the others get her? Or did the dragon grab her too and he’s already eaten her? Her stomach rolled at the thought.
Sara lifted her head enough to see behind her and scanned the surrounding cliffs. She could get away without being seen. The dragon was still drinking, his swishing tail making a slow path back and forth along the rocks. She chewed her bottom lip and looked up the river again. There were more rocks scattered along the bank. Several were even large enough to hide behind. If she could make it to the next one without being seen, she might just survive.
Easing back, she scooted along the ground, moving backward on her elbows, keeping a close eye on the dragon. The ridiculously short dress she wore rode up her legs with every move and with her lack of underwear, she was shining half her butt but she crab-walked close to the wall anyway. If it came down to escaping or showing her unmentionables, she’d flash half the aliens on this world and not regret a single second of it.
She was nearly to a large rock not far from where she lay when the dragon lifted his head. Sara fell back and played dead. Had he seen her moving? She got her answer when he turned and started her way. She debated jumping to her feet and running but her heart was racing so fast she was dizzy.
The dragon was in front of her in three large steps, his head bending low to the ground, his hot breath wafting past her face. She laid there motionless long enough to start worrying and cracked her eyes open enough to peek at him through her lashes. Her heart nearly beat out of her chest when she saw how close he was.
From a distance, the dragon was huge, up close, he was enormous. Sara barely breathed as he stared down at her, especially when he inhaled, his mouth opening just enough to see the razor-sharp teeth lining his mouth. The words, please don’t eat me, whispered inside her head.
Hot breath blew the hair away from her face, then heated her shoulders. His snout bumped her breasts and her stomach and when he reached the apex of her thighs and nosed her legs apart, her entire body clenched tight. She didn’t move an inch, her breath seizing in her lungs. He nosed her legs again, his hot breath warming her entire lower half and her heart lodged in her throat. Tears pricked at the back of her closed eyelids. She was about to lose it when what sounded like a scream echoed through the river gorge and the dragon lifted his head.
Sara peeked at him through her lashes again and saw him look up the rocky cliff into the trees. Long minutes passed before she heard the noise again. It was closer than before and was undoubtedly a woman screaming. Her pulse kicked up a notch at the thought. Was that Marcy up there screaming? Or one of the other girls from the ship she’d been on? What sort of things were they running from? Nausea caused her stomach to flip over itself as she remembered seeing a few of those—things. She wouldn’t wish the creatures that lived here on her worst enemy.
The dragon looked back down at her, then used his snout to push her toward the rock wall until she was flat against it. He looked down the river in both directions, then to the sky before giving her one last look and stepping back, jumping into the air and flying over the trees. The moment it was out of sight, Sara exhaled the breath she’d been holding and thought she’d be sick. Her stomach rolled as she sat up and scanned the riverbank. It was now or never. If she could get far enough away, the question of whether or not the dragon intended on eating her wouldn’t give her nightmares come nightfall.
The water was too deep to try and cross and she didn’t want to even guess what sort of things lived underwater on an alien planet. Escaping from a dragon only to be eaten by some fanged fish wasn’t how she wanted to go. She’d stay on this side of the river, thank you very much.
She climbed to her feet, turned left, and ran close to the stone wall, jumping over the smaller rocks in her path as she came to them.
The screams she’d heard seemed to grow louder as she ran, male screams now joining the woman’s and she wondered if the dragon had found them. As she ran further from the spot the dragon had placed her, the high bank on her left gave way to more even ground, and Sara’s arms pumped at her side as she ran for it. She jumped into the vegetation along the riverbank when she was near enough, grabbing the weeds and grass to help boost herself up and had run a few hundred feet when she realized she had no idea if she was running straight into the arms of the very things she should be running away from.
Unlike the jungle they’d been dumped into, this part of the strange world was dense with trees. A forest with strange plants and bushes filled her line of sight. Where most plants on Earth were green, this planets vegetation reminded her of the colors in autumn. Big leafy plant’s in blood red, smaller ones in a deep eggplant purple and bright butter yellow to darkest orange. If she had time to think about it, this alien moon would probably be beautiful for its plants alone.
She jumped a small bush and veered right as more horrific screams filled the air. The noise caused gooseflesh to dot her skin. A loud bellow, that could be nothing but the dragon, echoed through the trees before the screams suddenly stopped and she slowed, trying to distinguish which direction it was coming from. The sound of something running in her direction grew louder and she crawled under a leafy bush, staring out from between the thin branches.WhatdoIdoWhatdoIdoWhatdoIdo
She was panting and tried to calm down. Her heart was racing so fast she wondered if fear alone could give you a heart attack. She lowered her head, resting it on the ground and tried to process everything. Was it just this morning the Big Heads had dropped them off here?
This is a prison moon. A penal colony for the most dangerous beings in the galaxy.
The Big Head’s words whispered through her head as she heard another scream echo through the trees.Female companionship is a prize worth fighting over.Some of them are sexually compatible with your kind, some are not, but they won’t care. They’ll mate with you anyway, regardless of the outcome. So you only have two choices. Let them catch you—or run.
Sara looked out from under the bush. She saw no one but could hear them. If they found her…
She scrambled out of her hiding place and jumped to her feet, and ran, darting around trees until her lungs ached, sweat popping out on her brow. The screams eventually stopped but she could hear things running through the forest. They were still coming. Whatever it was out here amongst these trees, it was coming straight for her.
Long minutes later, the sound of someone behind her caused her steps to falter, and before she could look back to see what it was, strong arms banded around her waist and she was tackled to the ground to land with a solidthunkon whoever, or whatever, it was that grabbed her. Her scream was cut off by a hand clamping over her mouth, her struggles useless as the solid weight of someone held her down.
“Quiet. They’ll hear you.” The person holding her was male, the deep baritone of his voice sending an odd chill rushing down her spine. “If you value your life you will not scream and you will cease your movement.”
Whoever held her dragged her backward, large purple leaves of a plant as tall as she was covering them moments later. She didn’t struggle regardless of the fact she wanted to. Caged so tightly in his embrace caused images she’d rather not be having to race through her head as she lay cheek down against the ground and peeked out at the surrounding forest through the large purple leaves that hid them from view.