Chapter Six Zann
I watch as the strange creatures communicate with one another. The leader is doing a lot of talking and gesturing.
“Can it talk like me?” Davix signs curiously.
“I don’t think so,” I reply. The leader creature does use its hands a lot, but its movements lack the crisp, distinct motions of Davix’s hand language. Davix nods.
Several of the creatures leave the room and return with a large contraption similar to one I have seen and used to clean out cages.
It sprays a vile chemical that burns the skin and the nose.
I bare my teeth at the creature carrying it, who scurries quickly backwards.
The leader creature takes it from the other creature and sets it on the floor beside it.
The leader creature wipes its hand through the gore and then pulls back a lever on the contraption.
A stream of liquid sprays out of the top, but it does not smell like the one we have used before.
As if to prove that point, the leader creature puts its hand in it and the blood streams away.
It gestures to me and then moves the contraption to the corner where Alek had been. Then it returns to its table once more.
“It wants us to wash, I think,” I tell the others.
“Why?” Krish asks curiously.
I glance down and nudge a piece of flesh with my foot.
Like my brood brothers, I am splattered with blood and gore.
Though the leader creature does not appear troubled by this, many of the others reacted quite strongly to it.
“Perhaps it is part of the medical care it said it would offer.” Regardless of the reason, I find the idea of cleaning Lianov’s blood from my claws pleasing.
With a normal kill, I would lick them clean but the thought of consuming any part of that vile creature sickens me.
Instead, I move to the corner and operate the contraption like the leader creature did.
The liquid that erupts from it is not simply water based on its smell, but it is also not the cleaning chemical we have used.
I slide a hand cautiously through the liquid, and I am surprised to find it pleasantly warm.
“It feels good,” I call to Davix and Krish in surprise, as I pass my hands and arms through the liquid and splash it over me quickly.
The leader creature lets out a noise. I whip my head around to stare at it with narrowed eyes.
“Can it understand us?” Krish asks. The leader creature nods vigorously in a gesture we have learned means ‘yes’.
“It would seem so,” I reply cautiously.
“But you cannot understand it?” Davix signs. I shake my head.
The leader creature starts speaking, but it makes no sense to me. I frown, but it continues talking.
“Does it know you can’t understand it?” Krish asks. The leader creature stops long enough to nod. “And yet it speaks at you anyway?”
The second leader says something to the leader and the two make similar sounds.
It sounds similar to what Alek called laughter, though it sounded different when Lianov would make the same sound.
For now, I choose to ignore it. I place my hands back into the stream of liquid and hear the leader creature suck in a quick breath as I slide the chains up my arms to clean the raw and ragged flesh beneath them.
It says something to the second leader who calls to other creatures in the hall.
When I have cleaned most of the blood of our tormentor from my flesh, I step back and gesture toward my brood brothers. “Krish, you go next,” I say.
Krish follows my example, cleaning most of the blood and gore from his body before turning off the stream of liquid and glancing at Davix.
“I do not wish to wash,” Davix signs stubbornly.
“It is your choice,” I reply.
“Zann is right though,” Krish says. “It feels good – like the lake near the hot springs in the east of our territory.”
Davix frowns. He hesitates another moment before cautiously testing the liquid spraying machine. He steps towards our huddle far less clean than Krish or I, but cleaner than he was when he began.
The leader creature takes a small contraption from one of the others. It presses a button, and a small bright blue flame erupts from the end. It moves to one of the tables and uses the flame on the surface, cutting through the surface quickly and easily.
“What is it doing now?” Davix signs.
The leader creature gestures at second leader and says something. Second leader says something in reply but then slowly extends its arms in front of it. Leader creature passes the flame between second leader’s arms in the empty air. Second leader spreads its arms wide and then points at us.
“Is there something we cannot see?” Krish asks.
“No,” I answer slowly. “I think it means to set us free.” I stare at the leader creature in disbelief. “It means to cut our chains,” I say louder, and the leader creature nods. I cannot help it. I tip my head back and laugh long and loud.