Chapter 17
Iave
After seeding my mate again, the two of us washed up in the cold stream.
We ate and drank our fill and I inventoried our dwindling supply of food.
Enough to last us a couple of days. By my estimation that meant we had more than enough to reach the entrance of the Ancestral cave where Corin, Zathar, and I had been living for the last few months.
The Queen of the Thunder Rock had declared all Ancestral caves off limits to her people, all except Shamans.
After we had been cast out, that seemed a logical place to go.
It wasn’t like she could punish us even further for disobeying that rule.
It had never made much sense to me anyway and I didn’t believe in the ghost stories like Zathar did.
“So what now?” Kalani asked from where she sat on the edge of the bank.
She was lacing up her boots, the strange foot-coverings thick and strong to protect her fragile feet.
She looked beautiful; I especially liked the way the purple sunlight tinted her dark skin this luscious color.
I wanted to go back to licking it like I’d done a short while ago, but she was right, we had things to do.
“Kill the zombies?” I suggested and she turned her head to give me this wide, beaming smile.
It was infectious and I found a smile tugging at my own lips, my cheeks aching from how little I usually did that.
I might actually have to get used to doing this more often, but I was looking forward to that.
I was even looking forward to surprising Corin and Zathar with a smile some time.
That would really catch them off guard, now that I thought about it.
“Yeah! We should do that. What if they get out? That might be devastating. Who knows how fast they reproduce when they have a plentiful source of food.” She got up and stomped her feet to settle them in her foot coverings, her boots.
And I admired the way the sheath of arrows that hung from her hips accentuated her sexy curves.
I didn’t like that she’d had a nightmare before, but I liked the result.
I liked how we shared stories of our past and found more common ground.
I felt lighter for having talked about it.
She was right, I shouldn’t be carrying all that guilt around.
I had been just a kid, and I hoped she’d stop feeling guilty too for what happened on that planet.
“Hey, what’s that?” Kalani asked, interrupting my thoughts to point at the row of things I’d laid out side by side on the furs.
They were the things I’d collected from the three bodies of my ancestors that we’d discovered.
She was pointing at the tube-like thing that was about as long as my underarm.
I shrugged, not having the faintest idea. Corin might know, but he wasn’t here.
When she approached, I picked it up and offered it to her.
If she wanted it, she could have it. It was an unknown item to me, which meant that the Thunder Rock Clan probably wouldn’t want it either.
Not that this combined was going to be enough to buy back a place for both my friends but they might have found more treasure themselves.
Corin did pick through the sky-ship before we got distracted by the sleeping shells that housed Kalani and her people.
“Iave, I think this might be a rifle, I mean a weapon. And this little part here… it glows. I think it still has juice!” Juice?
Why would a weapon have juice? I was still puzzling over that when she stepped away, raised the weapon to her shoulder, and aimed at something in the far distance.
With a soft whine, something blue-white flashed from the end of the tube and impacted far in the distance with a bang.
I gaped in shock at the result, rising rapidly on my tail to get a better look.
She’d hit a tree, and it had blown to pieces, falling over with a loud creaking noise and a boom.
“Blasting suns… That’s what a rifle is?” I asked and I was already reaching for the thing but Kalani danced out of the way with a laugh.
“Nope, this is mine now! You can’t have it,” she said in a singsong voice and she stuck out her tongue to me.
I was starting to think this was supposed to be an offensive gesture to her people, but I was very used to seeing a Naga stick their tongue out.
We did it to catch scents all the time. I rather liked seeing her oddly short, blunt little tongue, and how pink it was.
“Oh yeah? Is that so?” I asked, and with a quick motion, I wrapped my tail around her hips and yanked her closer.
“And I’m used supposed to let you take my rifle?
I found it, you know.” I was teasing her and it felt really good, this wasn’t a side of me I’d let out often but with Kalani, it was so much fun.
I don’t know why she seemed to think that raising the weapon above her head meant I couldn’t reach it, but she did.
“Nope, we found it together. And I’m claiming it.
I’ve got the training to use this, you don’t.
Maybe, if you’re nice, I’ll let you try it once.
” Oh, how I loved it when she threw challenges right back at me, my blood was already heating, and my cock growing eager and heavy in my pouch.
“A kiss then,” I drawled, “And it’s all yours.
” She didn’t even hesitate, she just threw herself forward, arms with the rifle hooking around my neck as her lips attacked mine.
I loved this particular type of assault very much, and I was very tempted to let it grow heated until she let me fill her again.
When we broke apart I lowered us to the furs but not for more play. “If we intend to destroy the zombies, we need a plan. And I think I’ve got one.” My tongue had picked up the scent earlier when I’d scouted around the perimeter of our camp while she slept. A tar pit.
I outlined my idea and then listened as Kalani made her own suggestions, improving what I’d cooked up on several points.
It wasn’t long before we’d settled on the right course of action.
It was astounding to me how easily the two of us worked together.
This was what it had been like for my father and mother when they went on hunts together.
A type of partnership nearly unheard of among Naga couples.
They would be so happy to know that I had found it too.
It was already nearing sunset when we set out for the pit the Naga zombies had dug their tunnel into.
As Kalani set up our supplies around the edge, I worked to tie a good piece of rope I’d braided that day to a nearby tree.
Light still shone brightly down on the small trickle of water, pond, and trees that were scattered throughout the somewhat circular hole in the ground.
Across from our position was the tunnel exit, covered up in sticky tendrils that hung across it like vines. We weren’t going to approach that until we were good and ready, but right now entering the pit would be safe. There was light everywhere, which meant the nasty creatures wouldn’t exit it.
“Are you sure you can make this climb again? Your tail is still healing,” Kalani said quietly from where she was perched on the edge of the rock wall.
I didn’t take it as a slight to my abilities, that wasn’t why she said it.
She was worried; any good plan could fall to pieces when the action started.
We were taking a big risk, especially me, because I was going to have to climb into the pit, and then back out before they could get to me.
I pointed at the tube she had lying across her bent knees.
That rifle was the game-changer for me, it was going to make all the difference.
“You’re the sharpshooter, you tell me. Can you keep them off my back long enough?
” As intended, that made her shoot me a scowl, which I met with my brows lowered as far as they could go.
She’d told me about her role as a warrior for her people, being a sharpshooter was an amazing achievement, it was no wonder she was proud of it.
Throwing up her hand, she said with a laugh, “Fine, I’ll stop worrying. Now get your ass in gear. We’re losing daylight.” With a defiant glare that was all show, I gave my rope a hard pull to make sure it was properly tied.
When I shrugged the backpack onto my back a moment later, she rose to her feet to kiss me.
Touching me along my chest and then my ribs as she hugged me around my middle.
“Stay safe, okay? There better not be another scratch on your pretty scales when you get back here.” I couldn’t make a promise like that, that wasn’t how things worked in a fight, but I said the words anyway because I knew she knew that.
When I swung myself over the edge of the rock wall, the backpack slipped and jiggled.
We’d emptied everything out of it; using a fur to tie the things we needed into a big kind of sack.
The thick leather of the backpack was enough to contain all the tar that we’d filled it with but it wasn’t an easy burden to carry.
The viscous liquid was too thick to seep out, but it also didn’t want to stay in; at least it was only for the climb down.
“Watch your six,” Kalani said, her hand touching my knuckles where I gripped the rope. I was still puzzling over what she meant as I started my descent. Her pretty face, topped with those intriguing curls etched on my brain.
***
Kalani
The sight of Iave climbing back down into that damn hole made me feel all kinds of anxious.
I couldn’t have that, not on the eve of battle.
At least I had a routine for this, even if it was different when you were heading into battle with the man you loved.
And I loved him, I knew that. Just as I knew that he loved me, even if we hadn’t said the words to each other.