Braxton arrived at the Hazul settlement about five pm that night. He saw a woman in an older suit of heavy Combat Armor. Her helmet wasn't active and her long blond hair almost descended to her ass. Her body was curvaceous and she was very fit. Her armor hugged her body in a way that made him want her already.
Like the rest of the woman he had seen associated with the program, she was in her thirties. She had a large sword strapped to her back. It was a two handed type. She must have taken it off a dead Tritop. It was insanely large for her. Remarkably, it seemed like she supported its weight easily.
Braxton greeted the guards in their own language "Greetings. I'm here to try to establish a trading network. Can I speak with a chief or elder that can assist with what your needs might be?"
"Proceed to the big hut in the middle of town." The guard responded.
Braxton rode up beside Vixen. "Hi doll. You look as good as I expected. You're a little taller then I expected. The package looks sweet thought."
"Holy shit you're a kid. How did you get out here?" Vixen replied.
"I hope you aren't going to try and back out of our arrangement. After my dreams last night I don't know if my heart could take the disappointment." Braxton teased.
"If you keep up your end of the deal, I'll hold up mine. Don't scream to loud if I hurt you though. When are we leaving?" Vixen inquired impatiently.
"I've got some business to see to before I leave. I'm working on trading with the Hazul tribes. I got the gate back to Earth fixed and I want to prep things to make my millions." Braxton said proudly.
"I'm not real sure what you mean. I've been mostly out of touch with other humans for a long time. Specter was the only one I talked to at all since the day the Tritops attacked the mine. I was a rookie back then. First posting with this game. I've been here for about elven years now." Vixen stated.
"The gate got destroyed at the base camp. No one could go back to Earth. They sent people though across the years trying to fix it. I got it done. That is as much as I've sorted out myself. The people at the base camp should be returning to Earth by now. That was a little over two weeks ago." Braxton informed her.
She looked him up and down. His body language told her he wasn't telling her lies. "So you're saying, you are taking me to a place I can get home?" Vixen asked for clarification.
"If that is what you want. It should be an option for sure." Braxton said plainly.
"Now you are stuck with me until you get me there. You won't have to dream about touching me either." Vixen said seductively.
"This is my mount Icca. Why don't you get used to riding him while I sort out my business." Braxton said as he dismounted.
"Okay." Vixen mounted the lizard and started practicing.
Braxton walked to the chief's lodge. He spent half an hour talking with the chief. He learned this town was called Starlight camp. They didn't need meat. They needed female Hazul to move there. For whatever reason, the birthrate of females was low here. Weapons were also highly prized among this tribe. They had tons of blood reserves to trade too. The chief said "If you can convince five female Hazul to move here, I will give you whatever blood reserves we have."
"Deal, as long as it's at least one hundred vials. It can't be any less than that. Getting them here could be difficult." Braxton bartered.
He left on good terms and went back out the gate. Braxton pulled out the whistle and blew into it. Then he started walking south. Icca came and found him soon after. It was a little longer than he expected initially. Vixen was on Icca still looking a little disgruntled. "Where did you two get off to?" Braxton asked nonchalantly.
"I was trying to cross the desert. Then he turned around all the sudden and ran back here. You can't blame a girl for trying can you?" Vixen pouted.
"I won't hold you to anything we said. I will get you home if it's within my power. If you don't trust me and my judgement, it's best you stay here. My mount is my friend. Before I try crossing the desert, I have to gather extra water. We both came close to death out there. Your suit won't collect enough water in the desert to survive long in those temperatures." Braxton informed her.
"How do you plan on getting me back? You don't even have any weapons. Just a battle suit and a mount." Vixen took on a haughty tone.
"The same way I got here. One step after another. I got more weapons than just these two 9mm you've apparently overlooked. I wouldn't worry about it. I've got a stockpile of weapons and armor back at base camp too. I'm fortunate like that. I left more than I brought so I'd have room to carry trade goods." Braxton replied.
"Show me one weapon you have." Vixen tested him.
"Why bother. All you see is a kid." Braxton started jogging and stopped talking. There was a lot of ground to cover and he wanted to cover a few miles before resting. Icca ran beside him happily.
Braxton held his pace for four hours and stopped near the halfway point to the next town. "That was an impressive run. Maybe there is more to you than meets the eye. Got any energy left?" Vixen teased.
"Enough if you don't mind a very sweating man crawling on you." He said with a wry smile.
"Who said you'd be on top?" Vixen said as she dismounted. She stretched and started to strip.
"Hold on. I really don't have enough energy for that right now. I want to but, I don't want to not be about to satisfy you properly the first time. You seem like the sort to hold a grudge and withhold affections going forward." Braxton sported a devilish grin as he said this.
"Strip kid. Sex now or later don't matter. If it happens so be it. I need human contact period." Vixen ordered him.
Vixen laid out a hide blanket on the ground. She stretched out on it fully naked. She eyed him hungrily and waited for him to join her. Her gear was close at hand. Braxton stripped and settled in beside her. He summoned another blanket to cover them. Vixen cuddled closely with him the whole night.
The pair rested undisturbed and when they woke Vixen looked years younger. If was as if she had absorbed his youth somehow. The stress of not seeing another human being for ten years, must have weighed heavy on her. Braxton laid still, waiting for her to wake on her own.
After she woke up the two dressed again. Braxton watched her. Her body was muscular and toned. He couldn't see an ounce of fat on her. She was like a sculpture perfect in every way. "How old are you?" He asked.
"That isn't a question you ask a woman." She replied testily.
"I was only asking to find out how long it took to craft perfection." Braxton replied smoothly.
She grinned and looked back at him blushing. "I'm twenty nine. You're quite the charmer when you want to be."
"What level have you achieved? If you don't mind my asking." Braxton inquired making small talk. He pulled out an MRE for each of them.
"Oh my, real food. You don't need to butter me up this much." She ripped it open and savored every bite of the treasures within it.
It made Braxton very happy watching her eat the MRE. The joy it brought her was genuine. It reminded him of his friends in the streets. They had the same look when he brought them meals. He didn't even open his. "Here you can have this one too. You need it more than I do. I haven't been here very long and haven't suffered through the hardships you have." Braxton said as he handed her the second MRE.
She took it and it vanished into her storage. Then she said "I'm level ten. What level are you?"
"I'm level two. I've only been here for about six weeks or so." Braxton said in his own defense.
"How did you end up here? You seem like a good kid." Vixen replied.
"I ran away from home. I got kidnapped and tossed in here. Now, I'm trying to make the most of it. Honestly, this has been better than digging through trash bins looking for food." Braxton informed her.
"How old are you actually?" Vixen asked.
"I turned Fifteen a few weeks into my time here." He said honestly.
"You seem mature for your age." Vixen said she moved to stand up.
The two walked along chatting causally. They were not in any kind of a rush. The day wore on lazily. Around noon Vixen put her hand on his shoulder and pointed a few hundred yards in front of them. "Lava lizard." She whispered quietly.
"What is its weak point?" Braxton calmly asked as he summoned the laser rifle.
"Nice weapon! They have solid armor and are very aggressive. Shoot it in the eye going into the middle of the head. Direct shots won't hit the brain. You can also shoot into it's mouth." Vixen said quickly.
Braxton slowly lowered himself to the ground and took aim. He took his time asking Vixen a few more questions as he setup his shot. When he was sure exactly what he doing, he squeezed the trigger gently. The shot went perfectly and the creature flipped over then seized up and didn't move again. "Thanks for the guidance. It's easy to kill if you know what you're doing."
"That's some good shooting. I could get used to having you around." Vixen said.
"Why is that?" Braxton pressed trying to draw out more information from Vixen.
"I can kill a lot of creatures but, it's dangerous without a good weapon. My sword is good and I'm pretty good with it too. When I get surrounded sometimes my kills get stolen. Having a hunting partner would be very handy." Vixen responded.
Vixen was over six feet tall. She dwarfed Braxton even with his growth since he arrived. He only stood five feet eight inches. She wrapped her arm around his shoulders like an armrest. Vixen had been in this world and this region for a long time. She was able to point out many targets for him easily over the next couple hours.
Braxton was very impressed with her ability. She was very impressed by his skill with the rifle. The pair got ten kills quickly. Vixen was again surprised when he collected all of them in his storage. "How much can you carry? I know, I wouldn't have been able to collect that much and I've leveled up more than you. How is that possible?" Vixen was completely flabbergasted.
"I was a mule. They wanted me to carry in tons of supplies and I couldn't carry it all. I started off with one hundred slots. You guys started off with ten or twenty. I was told but I don't recall." Braxton replied.
"Yeah, my storage only went up by two slots per level. Some stuff takes up several slots and I have to manually move it around to fit more stuff into it at times." Vixen said.
"That sucks. I wonder if that can be upgraded." He still had a watch in his own storage loaded with other items. He didn't see what might be in it yet either. Braxton was thinking it might be able to be absorbed by his watch. He hadn't wanted to pull stuff out of it yet. He really wanted someplace completely secure to see what was in Specter's wrist watch.
Now he had an idea it might be laden with supplies for crossing the desert and returning. He still wasn't ready to empty it but, after he tried his hand at trading again he might.