Some men were nothing more than animals. They were ruled by their instincts. Primal creatures who let their emotions or their gut feelings lure them toward what they sense to be good or bad for them. That was the kind of creature Riddick knew himself to be. He had never claimed to be anything more. He'd kill someone if they implied he was anything less. A man who lived outside the world of society was not necessarily a man without pride. He was only a man who didn't need anyone else to tell him what he should take pride in.
She had been walking in the park the first time he'd noticed her.
Pretty would have been the first time a normal man would have thought of her.
Riddick had thought she was trouble walking. He could tell it from the way she smelled as she'd wandered around, a storm brewing, ozone clashing with flesh. Most wouldn't have picked up on it. He did because it was easier for him to pick up on a smell than an emotion. People were something of a curiosity to him. Living outside didn't bother him no matter what the weather was like or where he was making his bed. Riddick didn't have any fear of being alone in the dark.
He wasn't so sure he could say he had no fear of a woman who smelled like lightning waiting to strike which was why he'd followed her home.
Elaine.
Her name had been the second thing he'd learned about her once he'd wound up outside her house, making his bed in a tree canopy high enough for him to see her place from all sides. It wouldn't do for his prey to get away before he could notice. Riddick was a better hunter than that. He'd had plenty of practice. She wasn't the first person to capture his attention though she was the first woman in a long time. Men tended to be more fascinating because they got up to worse shit.
Riddick watched her for days until he decided to toss a pebble at her window to see if he could wake her. See what would happen if she went looking for him in the dark.
~*~
Elaine was clueless. He had stayed outside of her wards, which only covered just outside her doors and windows. The place was a hand and magic built cabin, stone and wood. And utterly isolated.
But Elaine had been captured in the Middle East. She was wary of everything around her home. She wasn't as worried, which is why the wards didn't extend far, but she was still cautious.
Which is why she didn't bolt out of the house when she heard the pebble hit. She waited to see if there was another or if it had been a squirrel or nature. When the inevitable second came after she'd started to drift off again, she slid from bed and cast a small light spell, fingers cupping the light. She carefully checked the windows, then carefully opened the door.
She looked around slowly.
****
Light came from nowhere in the middle of her room. Riddick dismissed the usual suspects -flashlight, lamp, lantern, candle- and it was obviously too small to be an overhead which meant it had to come from a personal source. Seemed Elaine carried a torch on her or else she could make light from thin air. He squinted to see if he could get a better look at her. It was a long distance, but his vision was good. She was looking around to see where he was without even looking up to where he was sitting.
It was a long way, Riddick decided, giving her a break by tossing another small pebble at her feet. It landed right in front of her, clicking on her front step. He raised a hand casually to wave at her. A dark shadow of a beast in the night high up in the trees across from her home---Riddick wondered if she'd call the police or if she'd come over to investigate herself. He wasn't sure. Elaine was still a mystery to him which was why he was still there. If she had failed to amuse him, he'd have left her to herself.
Making his way out on the limb, Riddick stretched out.
He wondered if he could get to her before she could dart back inside to close herself away from him.
Probably.
They were a good distance apart, but he could run faster than a man of his size should be able to which had served him well in the past.
It'd serve him well tonight if he had to make his way out of sight before the police arrived.
~*~
Elaine had no working phone. She had her cell, but less and less had she relied on it. She was well and truly alone. Though despite her trials, she'd come to prefer that. She could rely on only herself. Not hide in the crowd.
When the pebble landed on the step before her feet, she flicked her hand and threw the light towards the shadowy figure in the trees, she was by means blinded by the loss of light, but she lifted her other hand, ready to defend herself.
"Show yourself." She said, snapping the words out. She tried to keep the worry from her voice, she almost had a moment and lost it to a flashback, but her hand that wasn't ready to move was clutching the doorframe, nails biting into the wood.
***
'Show yourself' was the last order Riddick expected to come from pretty Elaine. She threw her light at him and he raised a hand to stop himself from being hit only to realize it was literally a light she had thrown. Nothing seemed electronic about it. The little thing appeared to be a floating orb of light. He didn't like the way it hurt his eyes -the dark was always the most comfortable place for him- so he rolled off the limb to land in a crouch at the base of the tree.
Riddick stood slowly. Sometimes he thought he could fall from any height and still manage to stand. There was a comfort in knowing he could handle most punishments.
The only thing he didn't like was being caged.
No one caged Riddick.
"Can you see me? I can see you."
His voice was low in tone and pitch. It carried. A dark question in the darkness. Riddick hoped he didn't scare her away. She was still too interesting to get lost from him so soon. There were things he wanted to know about her. How did she smell like a rising storm? How did she make light with her hand? How did she stand sleeping in that enclosed house every night?
If he had all the answers, she'd be boring again. A part of the Orange County landscape he could move on from---like every other person he'd ever met.
~*~
Her free fingers flicked, a word in some other language, fell from her lips. Another ball of light this one flung towards the base of the tree. Eyes half narrowed. Elaine was scared of most people. She still jumped when people spoke up too close.
But she'd made this home.
This was her territory. She wasn't ready to give it up without a fight.
"I will find you." She said firmly. If he dared her, he'd find her more interesting than not. Even if there were old terrors to be brought to the surface.
But Elaine was far from weak now. She'd been just a regular person. Now she wasn't.
***
Riddick sidestepped the light flung at him with a casual grace. There was nothing lumbering about him regardless of his bulk. He considered kicking at the orb to see what would happen. The idea was dismissed as soon as it had come to mind only because he didn't like the thought of catching anything on fire. Her home was nice. Peaceful in its own way even if it was too enclosed for his liking. Riddick wasn't interested in hurting her or hers. All he wanted was a break from the monotony.
Walking closer to her without hesitation, he got close enough to where if he wanted to? He could reach out and touch her. Riddick didn't have to worry about what would happen if she reached out to touch him. He was fast enough to escape prison. He'd be fast enough to escape anything pretty Elaine wanted to throw at him. Fear was for other men. Riddick preferred animal instinct and animals? They only knew fight or flight. He could run from a fight he wouldn't win without being afraid. It was only a matter of weights and balances.
"Technically? I found you."
It wasn't as if the woman were watching him. She hadn't even known he was there until he'd decided to tell her. Clue her in. The chase got boring when he was the only one who knew he was winning over his prey. Riddick liked a little more excitement in his life. There was precious little else he had to his name---by choice. He was one who didn't need things. He needed to survive. He needed freedom. Everything else was only so much trash to get piled up in his way. Riddick wondered if Elaine could live without all her things.
"Watching you for a while now. You're interesting. What are you?"
~*~
Elaine didn't have much. She had a garden, which was getting larger as she spent more time here. She could live without much. She'd learned how very quickly. Being captured meant she had lost all of her things, including her freedom. It was one of many reasons she moved out here - she had freedom to come and go as necessary, and if she found the place too cramped, she’d sleep under the stars.
She twisted her lips into a scowl. “Indeed I see that you have. I suppose that means I’ll have to work on my perimeter.” She said with a heavy sigh as if it was just too much to have to worry about that here. She was so fond of the freedom she’d neglected anything further than her door. She tucked her hair over her shoulder and stared at him, lips pursed as she thought.
“Does it matter? Do you really need to know?”
She stared at him, trying to figure him out. She wouldn’t meet his eyes, though, staring at a point just away from them. The last thing she wanted was a soulgaze with someone who’d been watching her. That made her a little wary to begin with. “Also, that’s a little creepy sounding.”
~*~
"I don't need anything. I want to know what you are because it amuses me. Very little amuses me. Creepy? Don't know if I qualify for creepy status. Think I'm more of the fucking terrifying variety."
Riddick wasn't sure what made Elaine tick. She was an oddity in his world which was made up of too much sameness. He liked the way she smelled so he circled her to lean into the curve of her neck, his face near enough she should have been able to feel the heat from his body as he breathed in her scent. Storms. A woman made up of storms. All her tousled hair looked as if it understood everything there was to know about storms which made him wonder if she was some kind of witch.
A stormborn witch.
He liked the sound of that.
Murmuring, he stated, "You smell like storms. Lightning and rain. Ozone. Is that what you are? A woman made up of storms? A stormborn witch? I like the sound of that. It suits you, Elaine."
~*~
His closing in on her had her sucking in a breath and trying very hard not to move. She wanted to bolt back into her house and slam the door, waiting for the wards to trigger and bring lightning down on his head. But she couldn’t. Elaine didn’t do well with people being too close anymore. She’d been scarred and beaten down, never broken completely, but it was enough to leave her with a fear ingrained in every muscle. She shook her head just a tiny bit, clearing her head of the cloud of terror. It wouldn’t do here. This was not there. “You aren’t half as terrifying as people I’ve run into.” she managed after a moment, getting control of her voice again. Her chest was painfully tight feeling, and she was incredibly uncomfortable, but she held her ground.
Elaine chose to let the name go. It wasn’t too hard to believe he’d overheard it somewhere, or seen someone greet her. She didn’t live as a hermit, although she was beginning to wonder if perhaps she should. That might be safer in the long run after all. He had gotten closer to her than she’d let anyone since Clint. And he had distanced himself from her, and hurt her trust, so no one had come after that. It had been a very long time ago already. It felt like years. It wasn’t, but the foundation she’d begun to build in trusting people had gone back to the dirt.
“Perhaps.” she said as she managed a step back, out of the too close zone for the moment. She had her doubts as to whether he’d stay out of it or not. She figured he’d push buttons, why else get that close in the first place? She really didn’t understand it. “That’s a nice way of putting it, I suppose.” fingers curled into the doorframe again. “You got a name I can call you by? Only fair if you’ve got mine.” she said with a sniff of indignation. This whole thing was making her weirded out and ready to move somewhere else.
~*~
That was where she was wrong: Riddick wasn't the most terrifying person she had ever met because he wasn't a person. He was an animal and he was dangerous.
Sometimes.
When he wanted to be.
Playing nice with a scared woman was easy for him. Riddick didn't care for kicking around women or children. All he cared about was seeing what he could get out of the first interesting person to cross his path in way too long. He wouldn't get much if he scared her away as soon as he'd met her. Riddick knew when he should back off. Running was his second favorite thing. It made him feel more alive than standing still. He prowled in front of her, backing away as if he were readying himself to spring on her before straightening his stance.
"Riddick."
Capturing her gaze for seconds only, he muttered again, "Call me Riddick and I'll take not being the most terrifying person you've met. Why? Because I'm not a person. I'm an animal."
His smile was real before he twisted in place, darting back to the trees to leave her standing in the safety of her own doorway where animals named Riddick were only ghost stories to be told after dark.