professor, plus an added bonus with the better-than-average chance of bedding Lita during the trip. She looked down where her shirt was wet and stretched tightly over her breasts, showing a significant swell. And they itched, too. She scratched at them absently before forcing herself to find dried wood and put it in a pile.
Dried wood was not a common commodity in a rain forest, but she managed some dead limbs and twigs and vines for kindling. Too bad she didn't have any waterproof matches. Or matches at all.
The grotto would be her shelter, she decided. It was here and she wouldn't have to expend energy in building something. The water seemed fresh, but she knew better than to assume. If for no other reason, she had to figure out how to build a fire to keep the jaguars away and boil water to drink. She held out little hope of finding a hamburger joint for supper.
With a pile of dry or drying wood and no way yet to light it, Lita finally succumbed to the itching and the call of the lagoon and went in, cautiously as before. Treading water, her stomach growled again. She couldn't hear it, but she could feel the invisible tendrils of hunger scraping the inside of her belly. What was there to eat? She could probably guess at what fruits were edible and scoped out the tree tops from the bay's vantage point. Coconuts, that would be good, both liquid and 'meat' inside. She might get to the point of eating a raw fish like she'd seen on Survivor Man . She couldn't imagine it at the moment, but she supposed it was possible. Especially after the hunger pains groveled inside her again.
Fine. Coconuts it was.
She was leisurely breast-stroking to the shore when something bumped against her leg. First she thought fish, which led instantly to piranha or barracuda despite knowing intellectually that there was little danger of either devouring her leg in one attack. She hurried her strokes regardless, her mind going next to crocodile and bull shark before mentally rationalizing the river dolphins they had come to study in the first place, or even better, random dead wood.
She made it to the shoreline and was pulling herself out when something caught her foot. She twisted around, shaking her leg to dislodge whatever it was, and was shocked at seeing something green and scaly wrapped around her ankle. The grip released her and she scurried back from the lagoon like a crab, heedless of the sand scraping her knees.
Surely she hadn't seen what she thought she'd seen. It had to be kelp, deep Amazonian grasses wrapped in such a way to resemble a...a hand .
But in the next breath, she watched paralyzed as a head emerged from the dark surface. It was bulbous, with fins that stuck out from the side as it... breathed. Its mouth was rimmed in fat, bulging lip-like skin that opened and closed like a koi in a tank. She tried to breathe, feeling panic rising in a scream that wouldn't come out.
The creature stopped.
They stared at each other. Its eyes were nearly perfectly round and black with no eyelids that she could tell. And then with a rush of something like an adrenaline dump, it struck her that it wasn't attacking. It wasn't coming toward her.
And it could have.
She was hardly safe on land if this giant fish monster could breathe out of the lagoon. As though hit with cold water herself, she realized she should run away. She scrambled up and sprinted into the grotto, stopping only when the light became too dim to see and she was forced to stop and regain her bearings.
Listening, she didn't hear anything coming after her.
Good God, Dr. Moreno would've had kittens ! She even smiled, just a little. She'd been the first person to ever see this new species; something worthwhile on this ill-fated trip. Now she just had to survive and get out of here to tell the school. Making sure that she heard nothing following her, she continued into the cave at a saner pace, but her steps led her to the ‘pool’ room where the mating was continuing, albeit
Dried wood was not a common commodity in a rain forest, but she managed some dead limbs and twigs and vines for kindling. Too bad she didn't have any waterproof matches. Or matches at all.
The grotto would be her shelter, she decided. It was here and she wouldn't have to expend energy in building something. The water seemed fresh, but she knew better than to assume. If for no other reason, she had to figure out how to build a fire to keep the jaguars away and boil water to drink. She held out little hope of finding a hamburger joint for supper.
With a pile of dry or drying wood and no way yet to light it, Lita finally succumbed to the itching and the call of the lagoon and went in, cautiously as before. Treading water, her stomach growled again. She couldn't hear it, but she could feel the invisible tendrils of hunger scraping the inside of her belly. What was there to eat? She could probably guess at what fruits were edible and scoped out the tree tops from the bay's vantage point. Coconuts, that would be good, both liquid and 'meat' inside. She might get to the point of eating a raw fish like she'd seen on Survivor Man . She couldn't imagine it at the moment, but she supposed it was possible. Especially after the hunger pains groveled inside her again.
Fine. Coconuts it was.
She was leisurely breast-stroking to the shore when something bumped against her leg. First she thought fish, which led instantly to piranha or barracuda despite knowing intellectually that there was little danger of either devouring her leg in one attack. She hurried her strokes regardless, her mind going next to crocodile and bull shark before mentally rationalizing the river dolphins they had come to study in the first place, or even better, random dead wood.
She made it to the shoreline and was pulling herself out when something caught her foot. She twisted around, shaking her leg to dislodge whatever it was, and was shocked at seeing something green and scaly wrapped around her ankle. The grip released her and she scurried back from the lagoon like a crab, heedless of the sand scraping her knees.
Surely she hadn't seen what she thought she'd seen. It had to be kelp, deep Amazonian grasses wrapped in such a way to resemble a...a hand .
But in the next breath, she watched paralyzed as a head emerged from the dark surface. It was bulbous, with fins that stuck out from the side as it... breathed. Its mouth was rimmed in fat, bulging lip-like skin that opened and closed like a koi in a tank. She tried to breathe, feeling panic rising in a scream that wouldn't come out.
The creature stopped.
They stared at each other. Its eyes were nearly perfectly round and black with no eyelids that she could tell. And then with a rush of something like an adrenaline dump, it struck her that it wasn't attacking. It wasn't coming toward her.
And it could have.
She was hardly safe on land if this giant fish monster could breathe out of the lagoon. As though hit with cold water herself, she realized she should run away. She scrambled up and sprinted into the grotto, stopping only when the light became too dim to see and she was forced to stop and regain her bearings.
Listening, she didn't hear anything coming after her.
Good God, Dr. Moreno would've had kittens ! She even smiled, just a little. She'd been the first person to ever see this new species; something worthwhile on this ill-fated trip. Now she just had to survive and get out of here to tell the school. Making sure that she heard nothing following her, she continued into the cave at a saner pace, but her steps led her to the ‘pool’ room where the mating was continuing, albeit
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