14. Drasuk

14

Drasuk

I am watching Kira closely, fascinated by the sudden shift in her scent. It's richer, more intoxicating, almost overwhelming.

I've never encountered anything like it before.

I don't know how to interpret her expression, but I think I might know what her scent means.

"Why do you suddenly smell better than before?" I rumble.

Her eyes widen, and a dark flush spreads across her brown cheeks. "What do you mean, smell better?" she retorts, her voice edged with annoyance.

She's delightful when she's angry. Tiny and fierce like a cornered animal. I find my spikes twitching despite the situation.

I like how expressive her face coloring and her thick, brown-red lips are. Judging by how much they move, the patches of black fur above her pink eyes must also communicate her feelings. Her delicate nostrils flare out just like a drak's would when angered, except on a much smaller scale.

So far, I've only seen anger, but I am curious to know what ways her features will shift with other emotions. Such delicate, expressive features that make me want to just keep looking.

"You're too small to not make the perfect pet," I say, unable to resist teasing her.

The anger that flares in her eyes is amusing, her reaction just as entertaining as I had hoped.

"I am not a pet" she snaps, her voice rising. "I'm a person. I'm a fornicating head of a container... damn the thing, you insipid, overgrown..."

I don't understand any of the words that flow out after that.

Eventually she cuts herself off, before looking away with a huff. Her indignation is palpable, and I can't help but be delighted by it.

"Is it because you want to be more than a pet?" I ask, my tone dripping with mock curiosity.

The idea intrigues me more than I'd ever admit, especially to this tiny human with her fierce spirit.

She stares at me, her anger boiling over. "I don't want to be anything to you," she grits out. "I'm my own person, damn the thing. I'm human . Not an animal."

That same intoxicating smell of hers waxes stronger, tainting the walls of my nostrils and nuzzling the back of my throat.

I vaguely acknowledge the fact that I have taken a few steps closer to her.

I chuckle, the sound deep and rumbling. "Of course you would like to elevate your status, but you will have to convince me. I'm not sure I see the appeal," I say, leaning closer to her.

Her scent intensifies, and I find it increasingly difficult to maintain my composure.

Her face turns a deep shade of red-brown, which clashes with her bright pink hair, and she erupts in a slew of nonsense words in my language. "Fornicate until finished, scale face. What the fiery pit in the ground… excrement. Fornicate."

She lets out an exasperated sound. "Your language is terrible."

Her attempt at cussing in Drakonid is both hilarious and endearing.

I can't hold back my laugh, the sound echoing around us.

"Fornicate until finished? This really isn't the place," I tease. "First we would have to start, which I haven't agreed to, of course, but then it would be a very long time until I was done. This isn't the time for that."

She grabs a stick from the ground and flings it at me, but I dodge easily. "No. I said fuck off . Fornicate until finished. Excrement."

Her frustration is evident, and it only makes me want to keep prodding at her. Before I can, she throws her little arms up in the air, raises a single dainty digit, and stalks away from me.

"That's enough rest for now," she growls as she heads deeper into the forest.

I follow her from a distance. I've never been so entertained.

As we move through the dense foliage, I can't help but feel a growing companionship with this tiny, fierce human . Her spirit is indomitable, and it draws me to her.

I watch her closely, my amusement gradually giving way to a grudging respect.

I call out to her after a while, my tone softer than before. "Why do you fight so hard? What drives you?"

She glances back at me, her eyes still blazing with anger, but there's a hint of something else there, too.

"I fight because I have to," she says, her voice also lower. "Because if I don't, they'll win. And I can't let that happen."

Her words resonate with me, stirring something deep within my chest. I let out a rumble of agreement, understanding her more than she might realize.

"We are more alike than you think, human ," I say. "I too fight because I have no other choice."

She stops walking and turns to face me, her expression thoughtful. "Maybe we are," she admits. "But that doesn't mean you get to treat me like a lesser being."

"You must admit, you are rather pet-like when you're angry."

Her earlier annoyance returns as an exciting glare on her face, crossing her arms over her chest. "You're impossible."

"And you are delightful," I counter, enjoying the banter. "Perhaps this alliance won't be so bad after all."

She rolls her eyes, but there's a hint of amusement on her face, I think. I might be misinterpreting. Her fur doesn't communicate like my spines do, but the movements of her face seem like they might be the equivalent.

"Just don't get any ideas, iguana brain. I'm not here for your entertainment."

"A preposterous assertion, little thing," I say, my tone serious now, despite the amused cant of my spines. "We have a common goal, and I respect that. But that doesn't mean I can't have fun along the way."

She sighs, shaking her head. "You're unbelievable."

"I've been called worse. Though I did say my name was Drasuk. Now, let's keep moving. We don't want to disturb the local fauna with our pet play."

She raises her middle digits at me again with lowered eye fur and turns away, leaving me blinking at the mysterious gesture.

An odd creature, this one.

We continue our journey through the dense forest, the canopy above casting a dappled shadow on the path. She is agile, weaving through the underbrush with ease, her movements graceful and precise.

I follow her lead, my larger frame making the journey slightly more cumbersome, but manageable.

As we walk, the silence between us becomes less tense. I find myself watching her, and not just out of curiosity. Her determination and resilience are qualities I respect, and her fierce independence is a refreshing change from the submissiveness I've encountered in civilians.

I assume she must be a human version of a Maj'Ra.

Most species erupt into screams the first time they run afoul a drakonid, after all. Her screams were taunts, expressions of impeding violence, and curses.

I want to hear her yell at me again soon. It's fierce and exciting.

We come across a small stream, the water clear and cool. Kira kneels beside it, cupping her hands to take a drink. I watch her, noticing the way the moonlight catches in her hair, and the way her eyes reflect the light.

She looks up at me, catching me staring.

"What?" she asks, raising the fur above one of her eyes.

"Nothing," I reply.

She takes another sip of water before standing up, brushing the dirt off her knees. "Where exactly should we be going? You haven't been very forthcoming with details."

I hesitate for a moment, considering how much to tell her. "We're on a genali hunting ground. Supposedly, they have outposts stationed at strategic points on the planet where shuttles bring down supplies from orbit."

She narrows her eyes, studying me. "And you're just now telling me this?"

"I didn't think you'd be interested in the details," I say, my spikes taunting her. "But if you are, I can tell you more."

"Spare me the sarcasm ," she mutters, but there's a hint of a smile on her lips. "Just tell me what we need to do when we get there."

I rasp out a laugh. "Don't get your hopes up, little one. I'm running off speculation here. For one, I have never been to a hunting ground before, so I have no idea how to find these drop points. But I do know that there's a drop point for every biome on a planet, according to the manual on genali methods. But this ground is fully developed, so it's definitely an older one. The design principle should be the same."

"There's a fornicating manual?"

"Every species has thousands of those to appeal to the baser instincts, but that's not what I'm talking about."

" Porn isn't what I—"

She just shakes her head instead of finishing. I don't know what it means but assume it is to communicate she is done speaking.

"Secondly, as I said, these are orbital drop points. Basically, it's where hunters head to, to communicate with operatives in the planet's orbit and place orders for weapons, ammunition, medicine, or whatever they need. Of course, I think we also might be on a planet where anything advanced won't work."

That catches her interest. "Tech doesn't work? That lines up with something I overhead on the ship."

"It either doesn't, or they have special rules here, though if they mentioned it, then we should assume it is a tech-suppressed planet. If you've run into any hunters, you'd notice that their weapons of choice are too elementary."

I point to her weapon as an example. "The blaster you're using is an outdated tech from the era of ballistic weaponry. If energy-based weapons don't work here, then communication tech doesn't either, which is what makes this talk of orbital stations questionable at best."

She lets out a sigh. "So basically, we've been charging through dense forests at night like a pair of directionless morons for the past couple hours."

My eyes squint as I hold in laughter. "But that's not why I'm interested, though. Hunters need a way to get off this world. What better place for extraction than such a place? If this planet destroys technology, then no ship can enter this planet's atmosphere and leave. Many have tried even with the most primitive exploration class models on tech suppressing planets. They all lose power and crash. Either way, they always have an orbital station above that steadily needs to drop off supplies. It has to connect somewhere, even if by space elevator."

Kira runs a hand through the choppy pink fur on her head and I resist the urge to stare. "That's a lot of ifs and maybes ."

I grunt out my agreement. "Do you have a better alternative?"

She says nothing for a while before she punches a nearby tree violently, splitting the bark and making me recoil in shock.

"Fornicate me sideways."

I can't resist the rumble of laughter that comes grinding along my chest and up my throat.

"I doubt that would be an effective method of copulation."

"Oh, fornicate off into a pit."

I laugh again.