Chapter 11 GiveTake
ELEVEN
GIVE OR TAKE
Darolus
On the plains the pigs have abandoned their usual watering hole, and when I find them again, they are fitful, erratic with unrest. It has been hard tracking and hunting them lately.
I only seem to come upon small herds rather than large, and far beyond the usual ranges.
I have even stumbled upon pigs slumbering within the ruins of the city, an act I have never seen them do before.
They are either fleeing the forest or its violence has spread closer to the city. If it is the latter… I have always known this day would come.
But the humans… I did not expect them.
Nor did I expect their skycrafts, or for one of their females to end up as a captive in my nest. It has been several days since I returned with real sustenance for Sabrina, but with the flying vessels only seeming to continue, the animals remain unpredictable.
Heading through the building next to the one that harbors my nest, I wind through one of the many different paths to my stored supplies. Eyeing the pool of water as I descend into the main space, I picture Sabrina on the other side of the wall. A short swim away.
But for fear she will see me, I must go the long way to my supplies, through the hidden pathways I made long ago—pathways that lead to a portion of the city’s underground that is still intact, and places I no longer dare venture for respect of those that live there.
There are other underground tunnels I still use, but not these.
I merely guard the above ground entrance to these tunnels and keep them safe from those who I do not want to find them.
Which is everybody. Including the new humans.
Not being able to check the entrance regularly since Sabrina arrived has not been easy. Especially because it has been even longer since I last made an offering to those beyond the deep door. Though… I could return more often. I no longer believe Sabrina is in search of what I guard.
But I still cannot be certain.
In the past days, despite me being gone for great lengths, she has ceased fighting for her freedom. She has begun to settle into my nest like it is her own, even stealing one of my hides in the process, growing comfortable with the space. She is learning.
Oddly proud of the little human, I look over the piles of weapons, technology, and tools, noting that nothing has been moved or taken.
After perusing the rest of the stockpiles, I approach the deep door in the back of the room, directly opposite of where my nest would be on the other side.
Nondescript, it is like many within the city, except that both sides still hang as well as open and close properly.
Cracked ajar right now, a draft of cold air seeps through to chill my face and chest. An earthy, damp musk fills my nose.
I place my offering on the floor inside and close the doors afterward.
Gathering a bunch of wood and hides from the supplies, I leave my stores behind, winding back above to check on the newer ones I’m drying outside in the sunlight. When there is nothing left to inspect, I head back to my nest, intent on doing something right for my pet today.
Sabrina’s gaze is already on me as I remove the last boulder in my path and recollect my newest offering from where I placed it on the ground to my side. Heaving the bundle in my arms, I approach her.
She stands and eyes the supplies in my arms with an expression that quickly turns excited, and I notice the black around her green eyes has been refreshed from yesterday. Her lips are freshly painted red. I trace the sharp edges of her mouth, wondering why I find it so appealing.
Questions form in my mind as I stare at them… Does the red coloring have a taste? Is it tart like an apple or sweet like overripe berries? I lick my lips and stifle the hiss that wants to leave my throat.
My heart is beating fast… yet there is no reason for it. There is no danger, yet my muscles are tense as if readying for action.
“Are those for… me?” she says, looking hopeful at my burden.
I gather the hides further, rolling them up and handing the mass to her when she reaches out her arms. “Yessss. For you.”
Her eyes widen as she takes the hides from me and gathers them against her chest, losing the ends of several in the process.
The wood I place in a pile next to her cooking pit, distractedly aware of her gaze trailing over me.
When I straighten, she gives me a smile before turning and heading for the side of the pool.
“Oh, they only smell musty. Good.” She preens with excitement. “It gets so cold at night.”
I frown as I watch her drop the bundle at her feet, then squat and shuffle through it with her hands, spreading some of the smaller hides out. Cold? “It does?”
I am never cold unless I am under water.
She glances at me over her shoulder, taking a moment to look me up and down.
For some reason, I push out my chest and press my arms back, flexing.
“Yes, but I don’t think you’d realize with how muscled you are,” she says, almost…
playfully? “I’ve been close enough to you on several occasions now to know you are your own heat source.
Beings built like you don’t get cold. They get hot, and only hot. ”
It is true. I do get hot, much more than the opposite.
“I do get cold,” I say defensively, my chest deflating, “though it is not often.” I rarely swim in the underground waterways.
It is too dangerous and they often lead to places I do not want to be.
“Do you get cold at night?” I ask, concerned she may be suffering when she does not have too.
“I get cold every night. Don’t worry. I’m used to it. It’s almost comforting sometimes, that nightly chill.” She shrugs as she continues sorting through the hides.
I growl, not liking that at all. Heading to my nest, I scoop up another armful of hides, then drop them next to her.
“You should have said something sooner. The hides here are at your disposal. I am not using them. Take them! If I do not care about setting them afire when you need kindling for your meat, I do not care if you use them to rest within.”
Rising gracefully, she lifts one of the new hides and shakes it out over the water. “I did. The biggest one. You saw.”
I frown at her. Trying to understand what she wants or does not want is harder than it should be.
Still, I do not like thinking about her being cold.
At least in this, I have brought her something to fix that.
“If there is something you need that you do not have, you will let me know, understand? You must tell me.”
She hesitates, starting to say something, only to close her lips. She slowly pushes her hair over her shoulder and looks at me as she starts again. “I will. But… Why? What do you get out of it? It seems like an awful lot of effort when you can just let me go or kill me.”
I raise my chin and squint at her. “I will not argue with you about this.”
“I’m not trying to argue. I genuinely want to know. Darolus—”
I straighten, coiling my tail under and around me, liking the way she says my name.
“—what do you get out of this? Because it can’t be me.
I’m not that great. I come from no money for you to ransom, not that I think you’re gunning for that, but all my skills revolve around street smarts, not…
this.” She waves one hand. “You’ve made no move to touch me or assault me, so why not be rid of me?
I’m a survivor. Even if my crew is gone by now, I’ll figure it out. I always have before.”
I hiss at the implication that I might ever assault her. I made a vow. But she does not know that. She has a good argument and one I have pondered. Especially now that I am certain she has no clue what I am hiding. Why keep her captive down here if she is innocent?
She is a lot to take care of, which I have not been good at so far. And she does not want to be here, yet despite that has made no real attempt to attack me, to the point I no longer fear her having her blade. It is not like I sleep in her presence. Regardless, it is clear she presents no threat.
But she has said she plans to head to the forest… And she could still tell others about me… Which might bring those others here. Even if I had nothing to guard, the idea of more beings coming to disturb my peace makes me want to snap my teeth.
More importantly, imagining her gone causes my heart to twist in a way I do not like nor understand. When I saw her lying on the ground that first day in the tunnel…
I thought she was dead.
Knowing she is safe, here in my care… It helps me focus.
“Darolus,” she murmurs my name when I do not answer. “Are you… lonely?”
She takes a step closer, frowning up at me. Concern clouds her face and her eyes are surprisingly warm.
Lonely? I am not lonely. My nostrils flare at the thought. If I wanted company, all I would have to do is head for the trees…
“No,” I hiss again, sharper than usual, and she flinches. “I need to ensure you are trustworthy.”
She huffs, sliding a step back to drop the hide, pick up another, and shake it as well. “So, you’re keeping me here because you don’t trust me. Okay. Like I said before, I won’t tell anyone about you.”
“Why are you here?” I shoot back.
Her brows furrow and she lowers the current hide she is holding. “What?”
“Tell me why you are here, why I found you in my territory. What were you doing if not searching for something?”
“What? As in right here, here? You brought me down here after you knocked me unconscious! If you mean here as in the city, our colony ship imploded! The people and ship I’m—was—with needed something, anything useful we could’ve used to buy fuel or spots on other ships off this planet and back home.
Trust me, we wouldn’t be here otherwise, we—I—don’t want to be here.
” She looks around. “I’m a bowels of the ship kind of girl. ”
I pause at her words, realizing there has been a profound misunderstanding between us. “I did not knock you unconscious.”
Her expression shifts as my statement sinks in. “You didn’t hit me in the back of the head?”
“No. I heard the arrival of your ship, and when I came through the tunnels to investigate, I found you lying on the ground.”
She lifts her hand to the back of her head and rubs it. “A rock maybe…? That doesn’t make sense. I heard hissing.”
Stiffening, I look away and back in the direction of the tunnel.
Unaware how tense I have gone, she finishes shaking out the hide, then grabs the next. “If it wasn’t you, then who?” she asks.
I do not know. I glance at the water, thinking of the tunnel beneath its surface, and shake my head.
But I am going to find out.
Whoever is above, hiding their tracks, trespassing in my territory without my knowledge and hurting a female that is under my protection… Anger has me clamping my fists into balls. Only another naga would have hissed before their attack.
I twist for the exit. “This, female, is why I do not let you leave. This,” I snarl, winding my tail around a boulder and bringing it to me as, for the first time, it occurs to me that I did not block the tunnel on my return.
“Wait!” She chases me across the room and to the threshold of the tunnel. “Where are you going now?”
“To find who hurt you and kill them.”
“It was over seven days ago! They’re long gone by now. Stay with me instead. It’s been a long, boring day. I hate begging but I could use a little company. Please?”
Her plea makes me hesitate, though not for long. I shift the boulder into place, blocking part of the path and grabbing another. “Not tonight. Not when there could be another naga in my domain.” How could I have missed them?
“Is it really that serious? They left me alive.”
“It does not matter. My territory has been breached.”
“Please stay. Truthfully, if it wasn’t you, it was probably a rock that fell…
” I look at Sabrina, momentarily getting lost in her beautiful eyes.
Her brows are drawn together above and the excitement from before is gone.
But this time the worry shining in them instead is…
for me. Just for me. My chest tightens. I wish I could stay.
“I made a vow long ago to guard this place from my enemies with my life,” I explain. “This place is not for them, nor will it ever be. Now one is here and it has gotten past me. I will not sit quietly when you or what I protect could be in danger.”
She does not say anything more as I roll the final boulder into place and close her in.
Without her gaze on me any longer, the pressure in my chest only grows, my desire to give her what she wants as strong as my need to track down the trespasser.
I place my hand on the last rock and close my eyes, gritting my teeth.
I wait a moment, but the pressure fails to alleviate. Confused and bothered—by both Sabrina and the existence of a violent intruder in my territory—I let out a raw hiss and spin around to begin my hunt. Hopefully I will come up fruitful and my hands will be covered in naga blood very shortly.
I am tired of the chaos. Now that I have Sabrina settled, all I want is a return to my peace—with her.
Luckily, no one gets past me for long.