Chapter 4 #2
It was a struggle to sip from the leather skin without dribbling water everywhere.
I was too weak to properly raise my head for a good drinking position.
It was embarrassing to be this uncoordinated and disheveled around someone so ethereal and pretty.
He pushed against the furs beneath my head, helping me to a more upright position, and more cool, fresh water filled my dry mouth and soothed my parched throat.
Far too soon, he pulled the waterskin away from me. When I made a noise of protest he shook his head firmly and rattled off more hissing noises. He was telling me no. I hated it, but when he held up something that looked very much like beef jerky, I forgot all about wanting more water. Yes! Food!
It was salty but flavorful, a little tough to chew but I hardly cared.
I was so hungry, and so weak, that I knew I had been out cold for far too long.
I was lucky I was any kind of coherent at all right now.
After just a few bites, it became too difficult to chew the tough food.
I sighed sadly when he pressed another piece to my lips, I did want to eat, but it was so much effort.
Sleep was already pulling on me again, threatening to pull me under.
He rumbled, a discontented sound that I understood, even if I couldn’t figure out the actual words.
His hand dropped away from my mouth, his fingers briefly brushing along my chin as he did so.
A glow spread along his scales in a flash, there and then gone again.
I blinked my eyes tiredly, certain I had imagined it.
Drowsy and exhausted, and also still thirsty, I helplessly watched through hooded lids as my handsome, alien caretaker got to work.
He was filleting his fish and putting them into a metal pot hanging from a tripod over the fire.
Water and a handful of some kind of grains went in as well, and then he started picking herbs from his impressive collection dangling from hooks from the ceiling.
It smelled incredible, but my stomach clenched at the thought of eating more.
Those three bites had already made me feel full; the savory, salty flavor still clinging to my tongue.
He turned back to me once the fish stew was cooking, holding up the waterskin again.
I was grateful for the few more sips he allowed me to drink, and after that, so tired that sleep claimed me.
***
Zeidon
For the shining moments that my mate was awake, my heart had sung a wild rhythm in my chest. Her eyes were blue, blue like sapphires.
She was weak, and I worried about giving her too much water or food all at once, fearing it could make her sick.
I should have been better prepared, the dried meat was too tough for her to chew, but the fish stew would fill her once she woke again.
“You like her, huh? Srazz?” I asked the Ayala nestled against her hip.
He lifted his head from his lazy nap to blink his eyes at me, then he twisted just enough to settle his head on top of her.
Chortling gleefully at me like he was mocking me for being so far away, on the other side of the fire.
If I could, I’d trade places with him in a heartbeat.
I bared my fangs at him and growled a possessive warning, which he promptly ignored.
I sighed, my happiness fading the longer it took for her to wake a second time.
I did not dare leave the cave, afraid I’d miss it.
I busied myself with my other guests in the meantime.
Feeding the Arazal with its broken leg and checking on the stag’s bandages while I was at it.
I fed the nest of baby Ayala, still without quills or their distinct black and white stripes, with a boiled and cooled mash of nuts and berries.
The little purple Sleara was purring in my lap not much later while I stretched his injured wing and carefully inspected it.
My mate blinked open her eyes slowly, her gaze instantly flying to my eyes.
A soft smile slipped onto her face, and her eyes twinkled.
I didn’t know eyes could do that, but I loved it.
Freezing in place, I just stared, caught up in how pretty she was when she was awake.
Her stomach rumbled loudly in the silence stretching between us.
Shame spread through me, I should have been quicker to anticipate that.
Nudging the Sleara onto my shoulder, I rushed to prep a bowl of the soft, nutritious stew I’d made.
I approached slowly, then lowered myself to the ground next to my nest so that I could hold the bowl to her mouth.
With my tail between the furs under her head, I propped her upright gently but without actually touching her.
“Here. Eat this,” I said to her, holding out a spoonful of warm but not too hot fish stew.
Her eyes locked onto mine, then darted from my face to the eagerly reaching Sleara on my shoulder, the beastie would snatch up her food if I’d let him.
At her hip, Srazz was just as eagerly sniffing at the air.
He’d climb all over her to get to that bowl of stew so I quickly curled the tip of my tail around the nest to catch him around his generously rounded belly.
She opened her mouth and accepted the bite, and another.
Soon she was lifting her hands to grab for the bowl of stew herself, as if she intended to eat it all on her own.
I pulled it back with a regretful expression and shook my head, “No, you’ll throw up if you eat too much too quick, Precious.
” I’d seen it more than once with too eager animals once they woke from a long sleep.
My mate was obviously no animal, but I had plenty of experience nurturing the sick back to health. I was right about this.
“Oh poo,” she said softly, her bottom lip curling in the most curious fashion.
It made my heart ache in my chest, that look.
Her eyes got all big and shimmery, that lip trembled a little, and then she shuddered out the biggest, longest sigh.
I raised the spoon back to her mouth, unable to stop myself.
That look pulled more on my heartstrings than the baby Ayala did when they mewled for food.
“You’ll make yourself sick. You really shouldn’t,” I warned her when she took the bite eagerly.
Forcing myself to put the bowl down near the fire, I grabbed the waterskin instead.
That appeased her and she drank several sips.
I let her have more of the water, though that too I needed to watch carefully.
She had to be starving and dehydrated, all the more reason to take care not to flood her poor, shrunk stomach in one go.
She’d be stronger in an hour, and then I’d feed her again.
I needed to be strong for both of us to make sure she got exactly what she needed to recover.
Picking the still sniffling Sleara from my shoulder, I gently set it down on the nest next to my mate.
“You stay there. Srazz, watch over them, I need to feed the rest,” I said to the two beasts.
The Sleara was barely bigger than my fist unless he flared out his wings, with one bandaged up, he wasn’t going anywhere quickly.
He probably didn’t even want to; Sleara were extremely difficult to release back into the wild once I’d patched them up.
My mate made a startled noise in the back of her throat, followed by a waterfall of quick, melodic words that spilled from her pretty pink mouth.
She was starting to have a deeper flush along her upper cheeks, making her sallow and sunken complexion look more lively, healthier.
She was going to be alright, I hadn’t made a grave mistake by not going to the Shaman with her.
“Whatthefudgebuddy?” she said last, her words going up in the end.
From the expectant look on her face, I thought that maybe she was asking me a question but I didn’t know what.
It was tempting to reach out and touch her with a finger or the tip of my tail just so I could understand her.
That was the way of mates, but I had not properly courted her yet. I needed her invitation first.
“The Sleara is harmless, he just wants to sleep.” The little purple creature had already been fed, going after my mate’s stew was pure greed. Srazz didn’t look like he appreciated being forced to share but that didn’t bother the Sleara, who curled up in my mate’s lap with a content little purr.
“Oh…” my mate said with an endeared look on her face at the sight.
“Thatscuteiguess,” she added quietly. Her body relaxed against the furs, and one hand came up to gently touch Srazz where he sat next to her hip.
He’d pushed closer when the Sleara encroached on his territory and now chortled eagerly when it was he who got the pats.
He knew that was to be envied, I envied him that touch.
If only she would stroke my scales the way she stroked the Ayala’s fur.
I turned away from the sight, my heart feeling heavy and tight.
I was a mixture of anxious and happy, relieved and excited.
Now that she was awake, I could start courting her.
Was she going to be receptive to my advances?
Or would she spurn them? That was the female’s choice, and some females did spurn their mate, despite the glow of the mating sigils.
My hands stayed busy as I fed and cared for the half a dozen more animals that I’d already collected over the past weeks.
I never knew how that happened so fast, one day my cave would be empty, the next I’d have three animals that needed my help.
What if my mate didn’t want anything to do with that?
It was a very undesirable trait, I had been told more than once.
I glanced over my shoulder to look at her, chest feeling hollow and empty until I laid eyes on her peacefully sleeping.
Her hand was still on Srazz’s rump, her other tucked beneath the Sleara’s velvety soft head.
She was smiling in her slumber; that did not look like someone who disliked the presence of all these animals.
With more hope, I forged ahead with my chores. Determined to get everything done as quickly as possible so I could spend every moment my mate was awake at her side.