Chapter 5 Grighri
GRIGHRI
I was out checking my traps when I saw the fire in the sky and knew I had to go check it out.
Every kit is raised with the stories of the sky people who rode inside great metal grak.
Some were good and left gifts of exotic foods, cured illnesses, and injuries while they were here.
Others were bad and came to steal away people.
I needed to see which kind these were and report back.
If they were the evil ones, we would need to return with many warriors and and kill them with stealth, using the mighty fire darts and killer air weapons some of the good ones left us in the time of our elders, years after evil ones came in a wounded metal grak and tried to kill good ones who came to measure the deepening ice at the start of that time’s Great Chill.
The warriors then helped the good ones, who called themselves the Sho’a’ra, and in return, the Sho’a’ra left the weapons as gifts.
They were precious, and only to be used to kill the star demons should they ever return.
As I approached the metal grak, I could see it was mortally wounded, part of its body torn away and burned by the very stars as it fell.
The strange one walking towards me was nothing like the others that had been described.
He walked with an odd gait as if gravely injured, and I wondered if the grak had bitten him in its death frenzy.
He didn’t seem to be able to see me as keenly as I saw him, so his distance vision was weak.
If he was a star demon, I doubted we would need any of our gifted weapons to kill him.
A stripling with a stone flinger would be able to slay him before he was even aware they were there.
I knew the moment the creature saw me, as he quickened his odd pace, floundering about as if he’d never walked in snow.
I lengthened my stride, curious to see this small thing.
He certainly did not appear to be carrying any weapons, which was very foolish.
What if a razor tooth came out of its underground den looking for food to feed her kits?
Or perhaps a rival group of star demons, the ones who slew his grak, followed him down to finish the job?
And why was I so certain the star demon was a male?
When I was close enough to take in the finer details of just what he was wearing, I was flabbergasted.
The clothes were far too large, and were those trews tied upon his head?
He shivered, and my heart clenched. This was no demon.
It was small enough to have to be a kit, and it had scavenged these things from the downed metal grak out of desperation.
How had a kit come to be inside the beast?
Had evil ones stolen him, and he’d managed to get away while they tended to their mortally wounded bird?
I dropped to all fours and began to race, needing to reach the ill equipped kit before harm befell it.
The kit was clearly traumatized as it screamed a high pitched wail of terror and turned to run.
Yes, definitely wounded the way he held himself and stumbled about.
I pounced to cross the last several feet, covering the kit’s body with mine to show dominance so it would submit to my care. I flipped the kit over and blinked.
This was no kit. The eyes that were the brown of the dirt Hrucha kept in the pots of seedlings he nurtured looked at me in terror, but there was a look of maturity to them I did not expect to see in a stripling.
I’d been right, he was wearing two pairs of trews tied about his head.
He had a strange nose and was completely furless, which was probably why he had what appeared to be multiple layers of oversized clothes on.
And he stank, and not just of male sweat.
I could smell the taint of urine, feces, and general unwashed body.
He stared up at me, mouth agape, panting heavily as he tried to control his fear, his heart racing.
I could see his teeth just peeking out, and they were blunt, like one of the ice fruit eating corbih that hung on the limbs of drilth, napping all day long before ever so slowly creeping inside a hollow stuffed with leaves to pass the night.
“Who are you?” I asked.
“Huhiiii.”
I thought back to the names of the star people. None of the ones I’d heard of were named the Huhiii. Perhaps it was his name? I knew he must understand me, as the stories all said the star people could understand and speak all languages. I tried again. “I meant your species.”
“Ahsrree ah cnt undrrstnd oo. Cn oo hep uss? Weejhst krshlndd ohvr thrr. Meenmuh frundth cu rryri oos uhr hep. Oo lihvuhrnd hrr?”
I could hear the pleading tone, and while it seemed that the star man had come from the downed grak, perhaps I’d not been so far off the mark as to his age.
He obviously was young enough to not have learned all the languages.
It was plain though, that the young Ahsrree was begging for my help, and given the state of him, and how helpless he obviously was, I was moved to grant him my assistance.
“I will,” I told him, my nose twitching in disgust at the pure reek of him as I took off my coat and bundled him into it. I would be cold, but I could bear the discomfort long enough to reach home.
“Yahno ah stnk naht liek thay prvied dss shwrz urenithhngh,” he thanked me apologetically. He winced as I stuffed one of his arms inside the sleeve, and I made a mental note to have our healer check out both his leg and arm as soon as we got back to the clan. “Tnks beeg guh hie buht wohnt oo kohd?”
“It’s not far,” I reassured him, knowing he was anxious as he had no idea where our hidden clan stronghold was. I hefted him over my shoulder and began loping as fast as I could back home.
“Wahyt! Muh friend err bak thrr!”
He wriggled, complaining of the undignified position, which was too bad.
It was the easiest way to carry him with his definitely injured arm and leg, as he wouldn’t be able to hold on.
I slapped his ass and he gave a loud yelp, but stopped complaining.
I felt him shiver once more, his teeth lightly chattering, though he wasn’t shuddering as much as he had been before.
Still, I hurried my stride, running as quickly as I could without winding myself.
He needed a healer, and to get warm, as his Star People had no fur, as well as a really good bath.
The clan also needed to learn of the dead metal grak upon the tundra.
We would need to send a scouting party to check to make sure no demons lingered around its carcass.