Chapter 6 #2
I just wasn’t sure if I could trust it. He said that I could, his voice all raspy as he vowed it.
But I was pretty sure that protecting me was like treason to his Clan.
He was their warlord, why would he do that?
Just because he thought I was his mate? That seemed so extreme…
Could a biological quirk be enough to make him betray his own people?
The only thing I did know for sure right now, was that I needed to learn everything I could about my situation.
That meant digging that chest up from the floor so I could inspect what was in it some more.
Krashe had hidden the small wooden chest back beneath one of the gray stone tiles that covered the floor of his home.
But I’d paid attention, I knew which one it was.
Climbing from the nest, I pulled a fur along with me to sit on.
It would protect me from the cold floor, and from any more bruising as I worked to get that flagstone lifted.
He’d made it look easy, those bulging muscles weren’t for show; I knew it would be much harder for me.
I couldn’t get leverage in the same way, so I had to be clever about it.
I ran my fingers along the edges of the dark flagstone, testing to see how much it would wiggle for me.
Then I reached for the fire poker I’d seen Krashe use to get the blaze going earlier.
It was a long bone, one end tapering to a point, while the other end was wrapped with leather for better grip.
It was much heavier than it looked and I nearly dropped the thing.
Once I had it cradled in my lap I realized with some horror why.
It wasn’t a femur from some beast Krashe had hunted, it was a fang, or maybe a tusk.
The thing was as long as my arm and at the leather-wrapped base, as thick as my wrist. I did not want to imagine the size of the beast this thing came from.
Fervently, I hoped it was a big elephant-type creature but considering what kind of planet I was on… I doubted it.
“Okay,” I said out loud, the crackle and pop of the fire the only sound that came back to me.
“I can do this, I just have to use some leverage.” I heaved my makeshift pole into place, wedging the sharp point of the giant fang under the edge of the tile.
With a good push, the stone lifted, and leaning on my wedge with my upper body, I freed up a hand and gave the tile a good shove.
I cheered for myself, I’d done it. The fang rolled away as I hurried to slide the stone completely to the side so I could open up the hidden cubbyhole.
The small wooden chest was like a treasure, gleaming in the firelight where the wood had been polished to a deep nutmeg sheen.
The hinges at the back were made of looped branches and rope, the lock no more than a loop of the same, folded over a carved wooden protrusion.
When I flipped it open, I heard a noise and I raised my head in surprise.
Where did that come from? It sounded like a cross between a mewl and a chirp.
The single room was still a bit of a cluttered mess, even with Krashe’s cleaning spree from before.
I didn’t see anything and it couldn’t have been the chest, could it?
I hauled the smallish box out of the hole, and then rearranged myself on the fur so I could sit comfortably while I looked.
A stack of what looked like datapads, at least six of them, all gleaming silver with sinuous lines decorating the sides.
The holographic picture cube was perched on a folded piece of cloth, which was soft to the touch.
When I pulled it out and unfolded it, it turned out to be a scarf of a deep red, embroidered with gold thread.
My breath caught in my throat at how beautiful it was, my eyes scanning over the surface in total fascination.
This looked like a tapestry made to tell a story.
At the top were planets and stars, below that clearly a city like the one I’d seen in the pictures earlier.
While at the bottom was a depiction of the Naga as tribalmen.
Waving spears around and hunting six-legged, cattle-type creatures.
You could read it both ways—the Naga climbing to advanced technology or a chronicle of their devolution.
I was pretty sure the maker of this piece of art had intended to chronicle the latter.
There were symbols in the middle that made me think of war, of robotic armies marching on their creators.
I was pretty sure there was an image of a spaceship leaving the planet as well, but it could also depict an arrival.
“Chirp?” Startled, I raised my head and searched the room again.
That noise, what was it? And where was it coming from?
The apartment I’d grown up in back on Earth had rats that you could hear scuttling around in the ceiling and walls at night.
I really hoped it wasn’t something like that, the thought alone made my skin itch along the back of my neck.
I thought I saw a flash of something green and heard another chirping noise.
“Come out, where are you?” I asked gently.
Maybe it was Krashe’s pet and it was just scared to come out of hiding.
Cajoling a little more, I made those silly noises with my lips that people always made for pets and babies. “Come on out, I won’t hurt you.”
This time I heard something flutter to my left, and when I raised my head I was just in time to see a bright green little snout poke out from beneath a roll of parchment.
“Chirp, kee kee?” it said. A pair of velvety brown eyes stared at me from a tiny little face with a pointy nose and an impressive set of bright green whiskers.
“Oh, there you are. Come on out. You’re a cute one, aren’t you?
” I said and I slowly raised up my hand toward it.
I couldn’t possibly reach it, whatever it was, but it was small and green and those eyes were just so soft.
My rational brain wanted to point out that this was usually when the hero in the movie ended up getting bitten.
The little green nose nudged up, sending the scroll it was hiding under spinning.
The parchment thudded to the empty workbench and rolled off it and both me and the green creature followed its descent with our eyes.
Watching it bounce with identical head bobs along with the motion. “Oops,” I said with a laugh.
Then the breath faltered in my throat. The creature sprung from the diamond-shaped cubbyhole, four little legs spread wide.
Then small leathery wings unfurled and caught the air and the tiny creature coasted down toward me in a tight spiral.
Four little paws landed on my still outstretched hand, a long, thin tail wrapping around my fingers. “Chirp kee kee?”
Oh my god, it was so damn cute! It was shaped much like a lizard; the way the four legs angled on the sides of its body.
Its head was round at the back but pointed at the front but unlike a lizard, it had a pair of ears that it wiggled and a set of green whiskers on its nose.
While it did look like it had scales, the pebbled texture was velvety soft, as if they were covered in a fine suede.
It was bright green like a parrot, with bright green bat wings to match.
As alien as could be but also cute like a flying squirrel or something.
Actually, it was possibly as close to what I imagined a dragon might look like, only miniature.
Its weight was soft and warm in my hand, and its body no longer than my palm.
“You are as green as a kiwi, you know that?” I said to it, and it responded with a chirp kee kee.
“Guess I’ll call you that, huh? Kiwi?” I offered, raising my hand a little to bring it closer to my face.
“Are you a boy or a girl, Kiwi?” I didn’t expect an answer but it still fascinated me when it fluttered its wings and swung its tail like it was preening for me.
The little creature even puffed up its chest and raised itself on its four squat little legs. Ah, a boy then, trying to show off?
“Do you live here? Do you know Krashe?” I said while I lowered my hand to put him down on the fur next to me. I wasn’t sure what the little creature wanted of me, but so far he hadn’t given any indication that he was inclined to bite. I hoped that was a good sign.
The tiny little dragon scuttled around in a circle on the fur next to my hip.
Then he raised his nose in the air and wiggled it while sniffling.
Ah, probably hungry. I leaned over and nabbed my empty stew bowl from the barrel next to the strange round bed.
“You want some of this, Kiwi?” I asked, offering it to him.
“Chirp kee kee!” he responded, spreading wings and paws to leap for the offered food.
While my strange new companion tucked into his meal of leftovers, I settled my focus back on the treasures I’d uncovered.
Based on the story the embroidered scarf told me, I knew that a calamity had struck this planet.
That was why Krashe’s people were back in the Stone Age, but that didn’t explain much else.
I carefully refolded the scarf and placed it back in the chest, taking out one of the datapads instead.
It took me a moment to figure out how to turn it on, but once I did I was greeted with some kind of interface and dozens of little icons.
Not an unfamiliar sight, I just didn’t know what any of it meant.
Then my eyes caught on the scroll that Kiwi had dropped onto the floor.
The edge had unfurled and squiggly symbols were visible on the edge of the paper.
Symbols exactly like the ones on the screen of the datapad.
I started to reach for the scroll, which was far away enough that I had to scoot off the fur to do it.
A green ball streaked passed my hand, Kiwi racing across the floor on his short legs.
He was on the scroll in a flash, his little mouth opening to bite down on the edge.
“Oh no, don’t…” I started to stay, worried he was about to eat the thing.
But then he did something strange, scuttling backward and pulling the leather roll with him.
His long tail lashed from the effort and then he was next to me, nudging the scroll into my hand and raising his head to look at me with pride.
“Why, thank you! What a good boy, Kiwi!” I said and he responded with his customary chirp, his tail wagging behind him so fast that it thumped on the floor.
I guess he was more dog than dragon. Not that he looked that much like any of the Earth creatures I was reminded of, my mind just wanted to classify him as something familiar.
I accepted the offered scroll with a smile, daring to reach out to scratch the little fellow between his soft little ears.
He purred like a kitten when I did that, ears twitching, and his eyes shutting.
Soon he was curled up in my lap, a winged, suede-soft little bundle of heat.
He was rolled on his side, round little belly protruding now that he’d eaten his fill of my leftover stew.
Suddenly, things didn’t seem quite so bleak anymore.
I wasn’t alone now that I’d made an animal friend.
If only I could figure out how to read these damn squiggles…
I really wanted to know what Krashe had been writing about on these scrolls.
And why could he write the same script that was on these datapads?
Maybe I was leaping to a strange conclusion here, Krashe probably couldn’t read or write at all.
Eventually, I had to give up. I couldn’t read any of this and studying the pictures in the holo cube didn’t give me any more answers.
Kiwi woke up when I started to put the chest back into the hideyhole beneath the stone.
He chittered in my ear while he perched on my shoulders as I worked to make everything look untouched.
Appeased when I held out the stew bowl for him again.
Then I finally had to give in to my exhaustion.
Krashe hadn’t come back and it had been hours since he’d left.
The fire had started to die down to embers and a chill was back in the air.
I didn’t want to stir up the flames when I was going to try to sleep, afraid I’d cause the house to burn down around me.
At least Kiwi didn’t leave my side when I climbed back into the round bed and tucked myself under the many furs there.
“Thanks buddy,” I said to his tiny shape as he snuggled up against my chest. “It’s good to make friends.
” I was starting to drift off when I realized what an idiot I was, I should have grabbed one of the many weapons from the wall.
Sleep caught me before I could bring myself to climb back out of bed to grab one.