Chapter 1 #2
Was I proud to see one of my creations at true scale, more than just a tiny model I built in the privacy of my home?
Or horrified that my Clan was suddenly building a device I was certain my ancestors would have forbidden?
The only thing I did know for sure was that I wanted the hungry mouths to be fed, and for that, my Clan needed more territory.
I was in a foul mood by the time I returned to the Hearth Caves.
The main passageway was crowded and smelled awful which meant the latrine area was due for a refresh and it hadn’t happened yet.
Nobody wanted to pull latrine duty and it shouldn’t be my job to assign people to the task.
All of the Queen’s advisors who were responsible wanted to curry favor with the Clan, assigning people to a hated task was the last thing they aspired to.
This couldn’t go on like this. If there was one thing I remembered vividly from the lorekeeper stories it was the importance of cleanliness.
If nobody took care of the latrines we were all going to get horribly sick.
Just because there was a palpable thread of excitement running through the Hearth Caves, courtesy of the coming territory expansion, didn’t mean we could forsake our duties to our current homes.
“Aser! Where are you?” I roared when I traversed from the passage into the cavernous halls where we made our home.
My second in command, a male recently assigned to the position by the Queen herself, found my side only a couple of coils of my tail later.
I didn’t care for the male who was a bit too much of a sycophant for my liking, but he was effective when I gave him a task.
“Yes, Warlord?” he drawled in a sibilant hiss that was made more pronounced because he was missing several of his upper front teeth.
He hadn’t told me how he’d managed to lose his teeth, and I hadn’t asked, but I had a feeling it wasn’t from a fight.
The male was awfully violence-averse for the second in command to a warlord.
“Find some people to fix that stink, it’s time new latrine holes were dug,” I snarled, curling my lip at the male to let him know just how angry I was at having to deal with this detail myself.
The Queen should have someone fully take-charge of the important jobs around the Hearth Caves, food storage, drinking water, rationing, and the latrines.
“Yes Sir, of course! But Sir, you should know…” Aser started to prattle.
I was crossing through the central gathering place which was ringed by as many homes as could be squeezed together.
To one side much space was taken up by the extravagant building that housed the Queen.
It was busy, Naga coming and going as they carried the freshly crafted spears and ammunition from the crafting area to the exit of the caves.
Children were playing everywhere and the sad bleating of some of the cattle we kept for their milk and fur added to the noise.
I saw far too many thin faces and it made something hot and angry churn deep in my belly.
I had been warning the Clan about this for years but it wasn’t until the first food stores had been emptied that the Queen saw fit to listen to my demands.
We needed more space for our always-expanding Clan, the biggest Clan in all the territories.
“Why aren’t those children in school?” I demanded of Aser when I spotted a few younglings too old to just be toddling about at this time of day. Aser spluttered since I’d interrupted him in whatever inane thing he was trying to bring to my attention.
“How would I know, Sir?” he said. When I turned my head and pierced him with a glare he let out a squeak of fear.
Of late, too often children were skipping school or kept out of it by their parents, which was even worse.
Everyone should be learning to read and write the ancient script, learn all the lore kept by our clan, and then apprentice with a craft specialist or hunter.
It worried me greatly that things were slipping and the Queen did nothing.
“But Sir! You should know that…” Aser tried again and I paused my rapid pace to pin him in place with a look.
He knew he shouldn’t be bothering with any of the sniveling things the Queen’s advisers wanted to tell me.
That was his job, to listen to their prattling so I didn’t have to.
Nothing they said was ever helpful, the Queen just kept them around because she liked how they praised her.
She kept me around so shit actually got done, and that wouldn’t happen if her goons could bother me.
“Sir,” Aser dared to try yet again, which meant that whatever he was told to convey to me was serious enough for him to risk my wrath.
The last guy they had made my second hadn’t lasted more than a couple of weeks before I’d made him quit.
Aser had actually lasted the longest yet, because he was really good at not bothering me with the suck-ups’ complaints.
“What?” I snapped out, my voice thundering across the gathering place with such force that everyone fell silent to stare at me.
The two male warriors that had accompanied me back to the Hearth Caves quietly backed up and lowered their spears toward Aser in warning.
A whole crowd of red, yellow, or orange eyes peeked at me from whatever job or play they were doing.
I flicked out my tongue, drawing in the disgusting scent of too many bodies packed into these caves.
My eyes narrowed in derision at the many dirty faces I saw.
“A patrol encountered a sky-ship falling from the skies, they captured one of the abominations alive. The rest escaped!” Aser hissed in a low voice, aiming now to keep the information between us instead of sharing the knowledge with the entire cave.
An admirable attempt but fruitless, I could see the nearest Naga shiver with excitement, tails twitching on the dirt-streaked, stone tiles that covered this entire area.
“Where is it?” I demanded, willpower kept my own tail from twitching or the scales on my back from rattling.
They had captured a creature from the skies?
I tried to recall the lore on such creatures but I only remembered that the skies meant danger, nothing about any creature in particular.
Curiosity was stronger than fear in this case.
What would such a creature even look like?
Would it have a tail like me? Scales? Or fur like the tasty Arazel I liked to hunt?
My assistant pointed with a clawed hand without uttering another sound.