The man rubbed at his rope-burned wrists, his eyes trained on their surroundings. The hairs on the back of Nova's neck prickled. Was there something out there?
Nova also searched for this potential invisible threat. Invisible because she couldn't see much past the pit or the looming trees above. The forest was also gradually getting darker.
Stepping to the side, she watched the man carefully. His head shifted slightly as if he could hear her silent footsteps, but his gaze was still fixed on something in the distance. The man didn't deem Nova a threat.
Who would?! Especially compared to someone of his stature.
He didn't waste any more time, so he leaned forward and yanked the nails out of his feet with a grunt. Nova gasped as blood pooled from the area. Without thinking, she rushed towards him, kneeling. "You need to put pressure on them. Oh gosh." She covered her mouth at the sight of blood. The man's head snapped up, eyes sharply on her but he didn't move, his gaze turning curious and a little bewildered when she ripped at the hem of her dress.
She gently grabbed his huge foot. The man's chest rumbled with a warning growl. "Don't give me that," Nova scolded, seriously wondering at this point if she had hit her head because how was she scolding a man who could possibly crush her skull in one fist?
He did nothing else but growl. Nova tied the material around the wound, tightening it. He watched her curiously again, frown lines deepening between his brows. While he watched Nova tending to wounds he knew would heal within the hour and wondered who this strange, beautiful creature was, Nova's focus was on helping him and zoning out about something Chad hadn't considered when building a resort here…
Where was the closest hospital? Did he plan to build one on this island as well? Had he thought it through? Her hands had paused on the man's foot, preoccupied now with thoughts about Chad. Was he alive?
Nova swallowed down the sudden thickness in her throat and distracted herself by asking this giant tree of a man, "What happened? Who did this to you? Why did they do this to you?"
The softest of touches, but skin rough and calloused, gripped Nova's chin and tilted it back. She froze, her breath halting as she stared back into those glistening red and gold eyes, the red trying to swallow the gold. He scanned her face, then rested on her boring blue eyes. "Not safe here. Questions later."
He released her chin and rose to his feet. Nova could breathe again. This man was intense. She gaped up at him and jumped to her feet, almost instinctually, defensively so as not to feel like such an ant. It did nothing. She still felt tiny in comparison to him.
"Quiet," the giant muttered, stilling Nova's actions by gripping her wrist lightly right when she parted her lips to speak.
Nova frowned. She'd had enough of disrespectful men. Even if he was some Tarzan-type giant, how dare he-
A low, guttural roar—thunderous and raw—snapped Nova's head to the side. Her eyes widened, her body locking up, her heart stuttering as a beast of golden fur and black rosettes burst from the shadows. Not for her. For him.
The jaguar's jaws lunged for this giant's jugular. Tarzan-man shot his hand out and caught the jaguar mid-air by its neck and growled, his face inching closer to the beast's, his eyes glowing menacingly. The jaguar's jaws snapped, then whimpered as his hand squeezed as he glared at it.
The beast's fur then shrank, and its body formed into a human. "You will pay… for what… you've done." A man spat in the giant's face, glaring at him as he dangled from Tarzan's hand. He clawed at his hands, literally clawed with the razor-sharp claws on the ends of his fingers, to get free. It was useless.
Without blinking, and staring straight back into the man's eyes, the giant raised his other hand and in one swift motion, snapped his neck.
Nova gasped, backing away in utter shock, her hands trembling, her legs almost giving way. She'd seen quite a lot on this horrendous nightmare of a day, but the strength this man has to easily break someone's neck like that and with no glimmer of emotion?
Her heart pounded, throbbing in her ears as her breaths came out uneven. What has she done? She raised her heels, intent to use them as weapons with her eyes trained on him.
He broke that man's neck so easily. It shouldn't have been so shocking, especially after everything she has witnessed today. But it was right in front of her. She saw the light bleed from the man's eyes.
That man did try to attack him, though. It was technically defence? You will pay for what you've done. Those were his last words before his neck snapped.
He'd been tied up and left in this pit. Was he a prisoner? A criminal of some sort? It was a little too late now for questions. He was free and she was the one to free him.
The man of sharply carved muscles, his arms probably bigger than her legs, tossed the man aside and turned to her. Those intense eyes locked with hers, his head tilting slightly, watching her intently, noting the shift in her behaviour.
He took one step forward and she took one step back. "Afraid of me now, little mouse?" He asked, that voice low, guttural and warm. He took another step forward which was the equivalent of her three steps.
"S-stay back-"
He lunged then, and the earth shifted beneath her feet. "What?! What are you doing?!" She cried out.
This damned brute had tossed her over his shoulder like some sack of potatoes. Her head flopped over onto his back, hair sprawling over her features, backside stuck in the air as one of his trunk-like arms gripped both her legs to his chest.
"Getting out of here," he grunted before squatting and in one powerful motion, leapt from the ground of the pit. Nova gripped at his muscles, the wind whooshing around them and gasping, clutching at her phone before it almost slipped out from her chest.
They landed on the side of the pit.
Nova looked up at the back of his head. "What are you?" She asked, her voice breathless, in awe and with some shimmer of fear.
Yet the warmth radiating from him calmed the rapid beating of her heart.
It shouldn't. He just murdered someone.
"Yohuali," his voice rumbled. "But you may call me Yoa."