Chapter 3
Cosima
“So, what do you think? Does it taste good?” Naomi asked me.
We were sitting at the campfire outside the entrance to the caves.
It was the only place where we could cook food, and thankfully even the Naga preferred not to eat things raw.
When I’d seen their freakish, snake-like features, that had been a serious fear of mine.
I gingerly took a nibble from the meaty stew she was holding out on a wooden spoon.
It was spicy and hearty, with lots of nuanced flavors.
It was a good stew, tasty even if I didn’t know what animal the meat had come from.
Naomi was a master at cooking good things out of the scarce variety of ingredients we had available.
“It’s good,” I assured her. “Very tasty.”
She sighed, dropping the spoon back down on the nearby tray.
“Yeah, but it is just more meat again. All we’ve got on the side are those weird purple berries, the dried kind of plum type thing, and those nuts.
Not a lot to work with. We need more variation in our diets!
” She lifted her leg, smiling as she did so, and pointed her toe to the basket of ingredients in front of her. “See what I have to work with?”
Formerly paralyzed from somewhere mid-thigh, Naomi took extreme pleasure in using her legs.
She was still recovering, still learning to walk completely on her own.
Her dogged determination meant she worked hard and improved every day.
And I was sure that she was often sore from it, but she was always smiling, always happy. A shining example of resilience.
I leaned in to gaze at the dozen or so little bags in said basket.
Some bigger than others, I knew that Krashe regularly went out for her to find more edible spices she could use for flavor.
One bag was definitely full of the purple berries and my stomach gurgled at the sight.
I was hungry, and I’d been a vegetarian on Earth, eating all the meat here was difficult.
But I really liked those berries, they were the perfect blend of sweet and tart.
Naomi picked up the bag and tossed it into my lap.
“Go on then, you’re not eating nearly enough.
” And Naomi and Vera were eating far more than I could imagine.
Vera was pregnant, she had confirmed it, but I suspected that Naomi was too, though she wasn’t showing it yet.
I wondered if Krashe knew, probably not, because I was pretty sure he’d get overprotective if he did.
Munching on my berries, I thought about Naomi’s issue with our food supply.
She was not shy, she’d already discussed it with her mate, hence all the herbs.
I wondered if she’d brought it up at any of our ‘clan’ meetings, but I wasn’t sure because I’d always ducked out of those.
What could we even do about it? From what I heard, the Shaman had a greenhouse, but it was full of flowers and stuff, not food.
At least I felt better about my decision to change my clothing.
The leather dress I wore now was not my finest work, the leather was tough on my fingers to work with.
But it was much closer to the clothing I’d loved to wear before my life had taken so many abrupt turns.
I shuddered and shoved away the dark thoughts that threatened to surface.
No, I wasn’t thinking about any of that.
I’d made a choice, I was going to be strong.
I was determined to see that through, wherever that might take me.
“Chirp-kee-kee?” Kiwi asked from my left, and I turned my head to gaze down at the tiny jewel-green miniature dragon.
He fluttered his wings and landed with a thud on the log beside me, tilting his head this way and that while staring avidly at the pouch of berries in my lap.
Seems I wasn’t the only fan of the sweet treat.
“Don’t give him any!” Naomi warned, she waved her spoon at the tiny dragon.
“He’s getting plump, and those berries make him farty.
Trust me, you don’t want that!” She stuck out her tongue at Kiwi but the little fellow seemed unbothered by that, scuttling over the log a little closer to my pouch of berries.
I held my breath, uncomfortable with how close he was getting.
I was no fan of snakes or lizards and Kiwi was too much lizard for me to find cute.
Nah, that wasn’t true, those soft brown eyes were sharp and clever like a cat somehow.
The rounded ears and whiskers were like those of a dog.
He was soft like suede as well to the touch.
Kiwi was cute, but I still didn’t know what he’d do if he got close.
I had a feeling he was about to steal the berries right out of my lap.
I lifted the pouch, his head bobbing up to follow the movement, cocking sideways when I pressed them to my chest where he couldn’t reach.
“These are mine, find your own,” I said to him with a smile, my awkward feelings fading when he plunked to his side and rolled over, exposing his belly.
“He’s not like a cat right? That’s not a trap?
” My grandmother had a cat I remembered fondly despite his belly traps, inviting me to pet him and then attack me with all four paws.
Naomi seemed more focused on the flavors she was still testing in her new stew recipe than on what her pet was up to.
She glanced over and shrugged, “He just wants petting, all the time. Don’t worry, that’s not a trap.
” So I reached out and gingerly tickled his little round stomach, watching as he tapped his left leg rapidly against the log in an involuntary twitch.
My face felt a bit foreign from smiling as much as I had in the past five minutes.
This was good, I was making progress. I should have spent more time out here already, keeping Naomi company as she cooked wasn’t bad at all.
I was no longer scared of a dragon snatching me up, and it was quiet around here because all the Naga were out hunting or working much further away.
Then a shiver rolled down my spine and I just knew that someone was watching me, and it wasn’t Naomi.
I lifted my head and made eye contact with a pair of golden orbs.
Something tingled through me, settling deep in the pit of my stomach.
Heat and arousal that I didn’t want to feel, just from a single glance.
Why was Zsekhet staring at me? I felt like I couldn’t escape his piercing glance anywhere except inside my apartment.
He was supposed to be working on the drying hut they were building along with Zathar and Corin.
I’d seen them at it all morning. But now he was just hovering there, next to the frame, and staring at me.
I bared my teeth in a grimace, contemplating whether I wanted to stick up my middle finger.
That male just made me so angry whenever he looked at me.
Why was he so cheerful and friendly but when it came to me he got so intense?
I just wanted him to be vapidly cheerful while he ignored I existed.
This was exactly why I hadn’t gone down the slope yet to get a look at the ‘aspirant’ camp beyond the wall, even though that had been one of the goals I’d set for myself today.
“If you really want to get under his skin, I know what you should do,” Naomi said.
She’d scooted closer along the log we were sitting on and Kiwi instantly took that as an invitation.
He scuttled across my lap without hesitation and threw himself into the arms of his favorite person with some happy chirping noises.
She was smiling as she cuddled the creature and scratched him behind his flared little ears.
Her blue eyes pierced me with a playful look.
“Zsekhet I mean, you want to get back at him for all those heated glances?” So she’d seen it too, the way he stared at me all the time.
That was actually a relief, I wasn’t sure if I wasn’t just imagining it, just like I had to be imagining my weird responses to him.
He just put me on edge so much, and that was the last I needed.
“No,” I said, far more sharply than I meant to. I rose, ignoring the basket I’d brought out with leather to work with. I was too restless now to sit down and freaking sew, even though I had a list of requests for clothing a mile long. “I’m going for a walk.”
I stalked away, the bag of berries still clutched in my hand, without a backward glance.
See, I was upset, but I wasn’t running off to hide.
Progress. I was determined not to let that slip away from me, I needed to prove to myself that I could get out of this dark space in my mind.
I needed to leave the past behind me, even if to me the past was still so very, very fresh.
Unlike the other girls, I hadn’t been fake executed for a crime they committed.
They would say they hadn’t been either, Naomi had falsely confessed, and Vera had been framed for example.
But they had known what was about to happen, sorta.
I hadn’t. I thought I’d been rescued. The first weeks I’d been stuck on Serant I’d imagined that they’d made a mistake, that there was a mix-up and I’d still be rescued somehow.
Now, I knew the truth, I’d been silenced and sold, betrayed by the UAR that I thought had rescued me.
Stalking across the purple grass toward the wooden gate, I stretched my legs and imagined one of those exercises my mom had been fond of.
Let the negativity flow out through my feet and into the ground.
Just let it drain away. That was much harder when I wanted to keep glancing over my shoulder at that golden-scaled Naga and his far too piercing stare.