Thrilled he agreed with her plan, Katherine blushed at his playful, flattering words, which caught her off guard.  At a loss to find any of her own, she could only manage to flash him a radiant smile and nod with enthusiasm. “Yes, let’s go,” she breathed.<em>My God but he’s handsome!</em>She thought, while allowing her gaze to sweep from his face to his powerful, masculine physique. Every time those perfectly sculpted muscles moved, his entire body conveyed control, authority and confidence.  That combined with the way he looked at her made her feel warm all over, and she studied him for brief moment before following, wondering if the electricity she felt whenever he was near, was only in her imagination.<em>I think I’m in big trouble.</em>She admitted with a sigh, and then hurried to catch up.<br/><br/>The walk up the cliff trail wasn’t easy, and it wasn’t long before the heat became oppressive, making Katherine long to tear away the bulky suit she wore.  Her pace slowed a little bit, but she refused to be responsible for slowing them down and pushed herself harder.  It was still impossible to say if the trail was natural, but she made an educated guess it was not.  Along the way, she stopped briefly to run her hands over tiny groves in the stone. They were rough, but each seemed to be in perfect parallel to the others; definitely indicative of tool marks.  Though she kept searching for other clues, nothing else on the path even hinted at intelligent life, which left her two theories; a lost civilization or alien visitors.<br/><br/>When they reached the top, she was about to tell the Captain her conclusions when the oasis came into view.  Elated and impatient to get to it, she wasn’t paying close attention to their surroundings and gasped when he grabbed her and pulled her down in the thick scrub like grass beside him in one lightning quick motion.  His grip was unbelievably strong and she felt a moment of panic, concerned about what had him on high alert.  Searching the direction he pointed to, she saw the animal beside a tall tree with an umbrella like canopy of shimmery copper leaves, and sucked in a breath; afraid and fascinated at the same time.  It was the most bizarre creature she’d ever seen.  It blended into the surrounding trees fairly well, and moved slowly, almost lumbering.  She leaned close to his ear, whispering. “Well I don’t see any fangs, but…”  Her words died off, something on ground glinted in the sunlight and caught her attention.<br/><br/>Her face froze in shock at seeing something clearly man made. No, alien made, she mentally corrected herself.  Reaching out, she let her fingers glide over it, almost reverently, and her heart pounded with excitement.  Proof of a civilization, it had to be!  Picking it up, she examined it thoroughly then looked at Captain Hunter. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but to me, this looks an awful lot like a crude fishing rod of some kind.  If so, that means there must be water nearby.  We have to keep going,” she said with resolve. Slipping her arm free of his grasp, she inclined her head towards a large tree about ten yards beside them on the right, perched on the edge of a grassy knoll. “I’ll go first and take cover.  Can you aim your gun at that thing in case it decides I should be dinner?”  She joked nervously, before darting off, still crouching, and so focused on her task that if he protested, she did not hear it.<br/><br/>It only took a couple of minutes to reach her goal, and she scurried behind the wide, golden trunk, pressing against it and noting that the bark was perfectly smooth. The tree provided ample shade and she was grateful for the cooler temperature.  After giving the thumbs up signal to the Captain, she then did a quick survey of the rocky slope to her left.  It was steeper than appeared at first glance.  Kneeling, she crawled forward with slow deliberate movements, and peered over, her hand gripping patches of rough grass to keep from slipping. A familiar shimmer appeared several yards from the bottom and Katherine grinned.  But, as she glanced over her shoulder believing Captain Hunter was now behind her, the ground began to tremble. There was no time to move, the entire slope side gave way and she went skidding downwards in an avalanche of dirt and rock.  It was fortunate the stones were not large and couldn’t do much damage.  Trying to shield her head with her arms, the suit also offered some protection, but something razor sharp sliced down her side as she fell. Though the slide lasted seconds, it felt like several long minutes before she hit the bottom with a bone-jarring thud.  Dazed and a bit bruised, but otherwise unhurt, she struggled to stand and dust herself off.  Likely experiencing a bit of shock, she couldn't seem to stop trembling.  Squinting up at the now decimated hillside, she didn’t see the Captain the right away and grew worried, so she shouted. “Can you hear me? Are you ok? I'm fine! There’s water, if you can find a way down here! Be careful!”<br/><br/>Looking down at her now tattered suit, she peeled it off her body with care, stepping out of it and tossing it into a ball at her feet. Wincing a bit, she inspected the cut on her side through a jagged rip in her tank top; pressing her fingertips carefully around the wound. It wasn’t serious, but it hurt like hell, and she kicked the dirt with her boot in frustration.<em>Shit! Shit! Shit!</em>Wrapping her arm around her waist, she moved forward, wanting to find Captain Hunter and make sure he was ok, but a loud roar made her stop short. It seemed to be coming from the thick copse of trees to her left, and she crouched down, inching her hand towards her discarded suit to feel for the weapon she had on the utility belt, praying it was still attached. Another roar; her gaze flew to the trees.<em>Shit, this cannot be good.</em>