49. Kuret

49

Kuret

We spend days looking, but don't find anything. We're both weary, but Nasrin keeps pushing herself beyond her limits. Her species is more fragile than my own, and so it has been a careful dance to get her to rest without her getting upset with me.

When she does, it doesn't cause the same anxiety it did before. I know it's a reflection of her own fear, not because of something I have done wrong. We are doing the best we can.

I open my mouth to tell her that maybe we should rest a few more hours, but a loud thumping sound makes me whirl around. I hear unsettled bleating from the argila and it lets me know it's an intruder.

When I turn back to Nasrin she already has weapons in her hands, eyes trained to the outside of the cave. I scoop up my pack, checking it for weapons, then move out onto the wet ground, my bare feet making squishing sounds as the rock transitions to grass.

I turn to motion for Nasrin to stay in the cave, but she ignores me, hands clenched on her gun and her face looking grim, but determined. I briefly consider arguing, but another loud thump urges me into faster movement.

It's coming from the entrance to the valley. The one I thankfully spent time fortifying. After another loud whack, I break into a run. Whatever it is, we'll need to kill it before it causes too much damage that will take time away from looking for Olivia.

As we get close, Nasrin reaches out a hand to grab me, pulling me by the braids so I move my ear close to her mouth, her panting breaths tickling against me.

"I can understand them. They're arguing. One of them is giving the other a hard time about how they shouldn't be using their tail to knock."

As she speaks, I can hear a language that sounds like rocks grinding together and I wonder at her ability to make sense of it. "Should you try to speak before we shoot?"

She considers it for a long moment, but then after a hiss of pain, starts making the same odd sounds. A few moments later, she's back to speaking my language.

"If you can be trusted," she yells out, "then speak in Kuret's language and tell us about the other humans you have found. What are they named?"

My marks flair when a female starts speaking on the other side. "My name's Kira. I'm here with Drasuk. Ree and Eli are the other humans I've met."

Both of us instantly relax, though I can still see some apprehension on her face. I've never known anyone as slow to trust as she is, though from the stories she has told, I can understand why.

"Is that enough of a pass code?" asks the voice on the other side, snark clear in their voice. "Or should I do a dance over here before you agree not to shoot us."

"How do you know we have guns?" Nasrin asks her.

"Drasuk can smell them. May we come in?"

We both look at each other. I wipe a hand across the back of another and Nasrin emulates me, while also nodding her head.

"Yes, I'll just…" I trail off when my carefully constructed defenses are disassembled in mere moments by small human hands, a blue tail, and lots of claws.

The shock of pink hair pulls my notice first, then the hulking blue form with thick skin beside her, then my gaze flits back to the woman and the manticorid traits she has, including a long, dancing blue tail with a venomous manticorid tip. It helps settle me even further to see signs that she has been around Thivoll.

The woman points a thumb at the large blue creature. "Like I said, that's Drasuk. He can't understand us, so I don't suggest making any sudden moves in my direction. He's hopelessly smitten with me and all that."

The large grin on her face afterward lets me know she's trying to be funny, but the steel in her eyes and just how deadly he looks lets me know the threat is real.

A glance over at Nasrin lets me know that she's staring in awe at the blue creature, mouth hanging open. Kira notices too.

"Doesn't he look like such a cute big dragon-dino dummy? He grows on you, though. What do I call you two?"

Nasrin shakes her head, blinking rapidly. "Uh. Sorry. I'm Nasrin, this is Kuret. He met Ree a while back."

Kira moves her odd, swirling eyes back in my direction. "Ah, you must be one of her foot soldiers she's always tying herself up in knots about. Clearly at least you aren't someone she sent to their death. We just need to find that bird-man so she stops droning on about it."

I'm not really sure what she means, but decide it isn't worth asking. "Where is Ree? And Thivoll?"

"Let's get this nice stockade you built back in working order," Kira says, "find someplace more comfortable and we can catch up."

As soon as Kira moves the first log back in place, Drasuk takes over the task, tail working simultaneously with hands so the job is complete in a fraction of the time it took me. It's humbling, but I'm more excited about the possibility of having such a clearly able companion to help me protect the cloister.

It's been exhausting and there is this ever-present nagging reminder that one male is never enough. With Thivoll, Drasuk, and I, we should be able to at least get enough rest.

Nasrin beckons them back to the cave and Kira starts speaking again. "Have you checked all of the possible entrances?"

I'm taken aback for a moment, thinking at first that maybe Drasuk prompted the question, but he is scanning our environment, clearly not aware of the conversation. It's a guard's question. Not a female's line of thinking.

I shake myself out of my shock. "Partly. There are caves, but none of them seem to lead out, at least not quickly. There is still a threat, and we should be wary."

She nods, eyes scanning the environment. "What about the stream? Is that a point of entry?"

This time I know for certain it is her own question, and from her confidence and intensity, it's based on experience. "It comes from underground and returns underground. Are you a-" I stutter over my words for a moment. "A guardian?"

She glances back at me. "Why do you sound surprised?" She looks over Nasrin. "Why does he sound surprised?"

Nasrin snorts. "In his culture, females are in a cloister. I don't think a single one of them fight."

"What the fornication? Ugh," Kira says, disgust clear in her tone. "Another language that doesn't know how to curse."

She turns back to me. "I guard the feces out of things, Kuret. Yes, I am a guardian. A marine ."

"He isn't a misogynist , Kira," Nasrin says. "I thought so at first, but it's just a cultural thing and he's learning."

Apparently, being whatever that is would be a bad thing and Nasrin's right. I am learning. I mean, it's not like I didn't trust her when she said males and females could integrate, it just hasn't made sense, at least not until this moment.

The pink female with all those scales, spikes, and claws, is clearly a very capable protector. Then I feel even more stupid. Nasrin has been protecting herself too. But it's so different from what I know. Our females live in fear inside their walls. We protect them… but maybe the fear that locks them in there would lessen if they also protected themselves?

Yet again, my world shifts, this time even further lowering the burden of panic and anxiety. It isn't all on me. I mean, it's my sworn duty, but now I understand what Nasrin means about how roles can blur.

I realize I haven't been keeping up with the conversation when Kira lets out an explosive curse.

"No way is Ree making a cloister. Fornicate that. Although, we do have a safe base now that we found Eli, so there is a bit of basic overlap. Except instead of walls its monsters in the water. She landed on an island protected by Wroahk. He's a kraken ."

"A what?" I ask.

"Stupid translators," Kira huffs. "He lives in the water. A shark . Octopus . Uh. A fish . How can I not find a word that translates?"

Nasrin snorts. "His language doesn't have a word for ocean . I think he's from a desert world."

"Gross," quips Kira. "You never get the sand out of your butt crack."

Nasrin groans. "As if that comment isn't gross?"

There is a defensive tone to Nasrin's words, and I don't really understand what I'm missing. Was there an insult in there I didn't get? It seems like she doesn't like Kira for some reason, but I'm not sure why.

"Hey, lighten up, Nasrin," Kira snarks back.

Nasrin whips around, anger clear in her features, and this time I know for certain that it's not tied to what is going on right now, but something already established before they met. Are their people enemies on her planet?

"Lighten up? That's all you Americans care about, isn't it? That American snark of yours is a privilege. And a trap. You use it like a weapon, as if it means you are making progress in the world, but you aren't."" Whoa, whoa , there partner," Kira says, her own tone taking on a sharp edge.I don't understand her words, but Nasrin must, because she is even angrier now. "I will not! You ignore the suffering around you. Ignore the rampant loss of human rights and that precious 'freedom' you say you represent and champion… but only for yourselves. All lies, while you support any regime you need to get the resources you need to feed your endless desire for materialism . You were a marine , you say? Then those battles you fought were not about justice. They were about greed. And the women of my country needed you." She all but yells that last point, her voice raw with emotions. "Maybe then I would have learned how to 'lighten up,' instead of fearing for my life because I wanted to teach."

Drasuk pushes himself between the two females, his rock grinding voice loud now as he speaks.

Nasrin looks like she regrets her outburst afterward, but she doesn't reply."Chill, Lizard Brain," Kira orders him. "She's just telling me some hard truths and we'll do better together if we just face them."

Kira takes a long, deep breath, grabs one of her forehead spikes and then speaks again, her voice calm and measured. Nothing like the snark from before. "You are right, Nasrin. Many of the battles I fought were driven by greed, though some of them were essential and were just. But not all… and after I was discharged it was one of the many things that just about wrecked me. I almost drank myself to death. I won't forget the faces of the people in all those countries I served in. The gutted, loss of hope looks in their eyes. Of course, I wish I did more. I mean… I don't know how I could have, but I wish I could go back and change something. But I can't. What we can do is make something different where we are. I mean, we might be stuck here, and I know we can make a better world if we are. I have to believe in that, or I will lose my fornicating mind."

I can see the anger seep out of Nasrin with each word Kira says. Then she takes her own deep breath. "I'm sorry," she says in a small voice. One wracked with pain. "I know you couldn't have changed it, anymore than all of the things I tried changed it. I just get so angry sometimes when I watch American TV ."

Kira throws back her head and laughs. "Oh, Nasrin. I get angry when I watch that too. How about we see it as a silver lining that it's all those light years away?"

My muscles relax when I see Nasrin smile. "I can easily agree to that," she says, finally fully breaking the tension between them.

Kira turns serious again. "While I know it's not the same, I know what it's like to face discrimination. We'll have to work hard to avoid it here."

"Well, all of the glowing, scales, fur, and feathers… and who knows what else, should help put it all into perspective," Nasrin replies.

With that, the two of them walk off, close together now and acting like they weren't just about to come to blows. Drasuk and I can't speak a word of each other's language, but we still manage to communicate how baffled we are by it all. I don't think understanding their words helped me make sense of it, either. Not beyond there being cultural differences they needed to hiss at each other about so they could be friendly.

Females will never stop being strange, no matter the species.