Epilogue
Naomi
“Are you nervous?” I asked Krashe as he carried me up the mountain flank.
It had been three days since we’d left the Shaman’s home on the triple border of Bitter Storm, Copper Tooth, and Thunder Rock.
Three Clans that made use of his services, and now we’d learned that a fourth little Clan was starting to settle nearby too. A Clan of Humans and Naga.
We’d spent quite some time with the Shaman, and he’d told us all about the various humans he’d met in the weeks before we’d arrived.
Hearing that he’d run into Kalani and Iave felt good, he said they’d tried to rescue me from Bitter Storm.
Since he’d later run into them again on the battlefield by Thunder Rock Village, he could assure me they’d survived their adventure just like I had.
I was tickled pink by the idea that just like me, Kalani had fallen for a Naga warrior.
There had been others Artek had met too, like a Copper Tooth hunter named Mox who’d found a human girl in the wetlands.
He and the girl, Charlie, had been his first contact with humans.
Artek had sent them to Vera and her mate, who were building a safe haven for them in a set of ancestral caves beneath the very mountain we were now climbing.
As soon as Krashe had heard about it, he’d been completely set on taking me there.
I wasn’t sure if Krashe would be happy or even welcome in a place that was essentially run by a former prince of Thunder Rock though.
But he was dead set that I’d be safer—and happier—if I could live with other humans.
I had to admit that I liked the idea of seeing some familiar faces.
I wanted to at least talk with Vera, and especially Kalani.
I wanted to know that they were happy like I was.
If Krashe wasn’t going to be welcome, the choice was easy though; I was staying with my mate.
A mate he’d given up everything to be with, and moved Heaven and Earth to see walk again.
We still didn’t know for sure if Artek’s insertion of that small chip had gone right.
It was active and visible on the scans, in exactly the location it should be according to the Shaman.
But I hadn’t been able yet to so much as wriggle a toe.
Krashe tried to hide it, but he was worried and sad that it hadn’t worked yet.
Me, I was on pins and needles too, but I’d already had to accept once that I’d never walk again, I could do that again.
I was a much stronger, more confident person now than I’d been eight years ago when I had my accident.
I had the things that truly mattered anyway, a loving mate, a safe haven.
“Me? Nervous? Nah,” Krashe said, his deep voice rumbling against my shoulder where he had me pressed to his chest. Because my hover chair had been too damaged to get back to work, he was back to carrying me.
Artek and Krashe had hauled it into his home though, and Krashe had sworn that if the chip didn’t work, he’d find a way to make the chair work.
“Are you sure?” I asked with a grin. My presence would hopefully diffuse any tensions with the blue Naga, the Thunder Rock outcasts.
Still, Krashe was the one who’d decided to go to war with their former Clan, he hadn’t been there for the actual fight, but they probably wouldn’t take kindly to that news.
He huffed as if I’d offended him which just made me smile even more. Looking at his handsome face, with his wild ponytail of braids and black feathers, I instantly knew he was enjoying my teasing. “Sure, you heard Artek. They are welcoming all outcasts to join them. Am I not an outcast now?”
I bit my lip as I thought about that. I knew that Krashe was definitely an outcast like the other males the human girls were with.
But there was one really big difference.
Krashe was from the one Clan that was universally disliked by all the others.
And he’d tried to start a war, a war that his former Queen had continued without him, badly.
On top of that, we’d learned from Artek that she’d then cast out literally every male that was present at that battle they lost. So there were plenty of former Bitter Storm outcasts now roaming these mountains.
That bit of news had infuriated Krashe, and it had explained why the force we’d faced had been comprised primarily of sentinels that guarded the Hearth Caves and subpar warriors that hadn’t been included in the war forces.
Of course, casting out what remained of your fighting and hunting force might temporarily solve the hunger issues.
But without hunters to bring in food, what were they going to do?
“Just let me do the talking, okay?” I warned and ignored the amused smirk that curled my Warlord’s mouth.
My eyes grew large when I realized that the trees were thinning out.
For the last hour, we’d been flanked by a cliff wall on our right and larger boulders scattered on our left.
Those rock blocks had grown more frequent and bigger, and now we were in what amounted to a wide funnel.
When the trees thinned out I could see our destination ahead and it was not at all what I expected it to be.
A carved gate framed the entrance to these cave tunnels, and two Naga-shaped statues on pedestals held up lanterns on either side of it.
A domed ruin lay to the left of the entrance, the metal bones of the structure clearly a copy of the greenhouse that guarded the entrance of Artek’s home.
A handful of people were outside on the grassy and semi-flat area in front of the entrance.
Eagerly I skipped over the three blue and one purple-scaled Naga males to search the faces of the humans with them.
I instantly recognized Vera, but it was the sight of Kalani’s face that made me truly happy.
Weapons were being leveled at us, I saw spears and even a crossbow.
Shouts going up along the lines of ‘Bitter Storm!’ and ‘The Warlord!’ Krashe’s arms around me went tense and I knew that he was ready to throw his body protectively over mine in case they were really going to shoot at us.
Then Kalani’s voice rang out, “Hold your fire!”
“Hi,” I said with a wave, “We’re not hostile.
We’re friends, I swear! Please don’t shoot, that would really suck.
” Kalani let out the girliest of happy squeaks, very surprising coming from such a tough gal.
Then she was shrugging off the grip of the dark blue Naga next to her, her mate Iave I figured.
She threw herself down the path toward us with a laugh.
“You are alive! Dang girl! How the fuck did you survive?” she said, fearlessly ignoring Krashe who was wearing a stoic expression that I just knew hid a bit of bafflement.
I’d told him about Kalani and the others, about how we’d ended up here as far as I understood it.
He knew I had only known this girl for thirty minutes at the most but it felt like I’d just been reunited with a long lost friend.
We hugged, the slightly awkward angle not bothering us in the least. “I’m fine!
” I said to Kalani, “What about you? Artek said you are mated. Is that him?” I eagerly asked, pointing over Kalani’s shoulder at the dark figure hovering just behind her.
His blue scales were so dark they shimmered in midnight hues, his face drawn in a dark scowl that could rival Krashe’s on any given day.
“Yeah,” Kalani grinned, shooting a sunny smile over her shoulder at her mate. The instant softening in his gray eyes made me happy. I knew that look too, I just needed to tilt my head back and smile at Krashe to get that exact same soft, loving look from him. “And I guess you did too?”
I smiled, happiness filling my chest. “My Warlord took care of me.” I ran my fingers along the scales on Krashe’s arms, wondering why my words had made Kalani burst out in laughter.
Then Kiwi raised his head over Krashe’s shoulder, finally waking up from his little nest atop Krashe’s heavy backpack. “And so did Kiwi.”
Then people started to surround us for introductions, human and Naga alike wanted to ask us our story.
They welcomed us eagerly toward the cave and something tight unclenched inside my belly.
I realized that maybe I’d been the one who’d been crazy worried if Krashe would be welcome.
When their hostility faded the moment they realized Krashe had rescued and then mated me, I felt a tremendous sense of relief.
Not that I didn’t catch a bit of posturing, some glares, and baring of teeth between the males.
But nothing was said about the war at Thunder Rock, they didn’t ask, he didn’t volunteer.
Maybe it helped that Kalani and Iave had been at the battle, and they knew Krashe hadn’t been.
Kalani was only too happy to tell me all about it.
When Krashe and I got the grand tour of the caves they lived in, I was a little worried about having to live inside a cave again.
Those worries were quickly dashed. They had running water and plumbing.
There were stone apartments with actual doors, a medical bay, and a command center from which water, power, and air systems were controlled by a pale blue Naga called Corin.
It was light inside, with apartments circling down around a deep pit, with a fountain at the center.
There were even working lifts that could lower you down that pit to the gathering place next to it.
Very much a small little town inside a mountain, just big enough to house several hundred people at most.
We were offered an apartment with the others on the top floor, closest to the entrance.
It had no windows, but plenty of light came from the crystals in the ceiling.
There was a little bathroom off the bedroom, and an actual living room as well.
Plenty of space for Krashe to put up shelves for all his books, and a workbench for his little experiments.
I could already picture hanging his mother’s tapestry on one of those walls.
The only thing missing was a kitchen, but the others were cooking over open fire outdoors anyway, I could work with that.
A few hours after we’d arrived, we were finally left alone in our new little home.
Krashe had had help from the other males to make us a nice soft nest in the bedroom, offering us extra furs from their stash to pad out what little remained of our own bedding.
Then we’d washed up together under the functioning shower and Krashe had used his comb to brush out my hair.
I felt like a new person, sitting there in our nest, relaxed, belly full, clean.
I was with my mate, and back with humans who already felt like friends, especially Kalani.
A few weeks ago, when my brother had come home admitting to how much trouble he was in, I thought my world was ending.
I’d confessed to his crime because I knew my family would starve if they lost him.
We’d said tearful goodbyes and that was it.
But my world hadn’t ended, my adventure had only just begun. “I love you, Krashe. I’m so happy I made the choices I did. That I ended up here, with you.” He curled himself onto the nest with me, Kiwi riding on his shoulder, and gathered me close to his body.
Nuzzling against my hair he said, “Brave heart, look at your foot.” Derailed, since those were the last words I expected to come from his mouth, I turned my head against his chest to look where he’d pointed. Gasping when I realized the toes on my left foot were twitching.