The trait resonated with him.This man worried Saer would harm the boy.
As Ruki had when Saer first spotted him, he lifted his own hands to show them empty and benign.
Asheda sneered, then barked more orders behind them.Other voices answered.Before long, another man came from the stalks with a sort of fur blanket.Asheda took it from him and unfolded it, holding it out to Saer.
What in the Hells was he supposed to do with that?
He stared at it, then shot a skeptical look at the man.
Ruki offered a subdued laugh, then darted forward and grabbed the blanket before Asheda could protest.He stepped closer to Saer, then wrapped the fur around his own, skinny shoulders, modeling it for him.Saer tipped his head, but nodded, then held his hand out.If they felt more comfortable with him clothed, so be it.
Grinning once more, the boy closed the distance between them and placed the blanket in Saer’s waiting palm.
5
Saerlearnedallhecould during his days with the humans.
Ruki’s overt enthusiasm to Saer’s appearance proved both irritating as well as necessary.The boy yammered on without pause, a necessary evil for him to pick up the language.
When trying to speak in his guttural native tongue, the human body Lucifer crafted him didn’t produce the same sounds properly.To that end, he noted humans didn’t, or couldn’t, growl.Whenever he made the noise, Ruki laughed while others of his settlement widened their eyes in alarm.
Ruki called them his tribe.
Asheda was Ruki’s father, as Saer surmised, though also held the title of Chief and leader of his people.
Ruki’s mother, Donanni, carried some of her son’s light-heartedness and welcomed Saer more readily than Asheda.Together, the mother and son smoothed out Chief Asheda’s stern nature.
Whenever he found a moment of peace, Saer homed in on these humans, attempting to detect what his maker needed from them.Time and time again, he came up with that same niggling feeling, but nothing certain—and it irritated him to no end, the inability to solve this puzzle.He needed it.Needed to return to the Hells.
Needed to see Neyu again.
Their settlement rested under a wide, blue sky dotted most days with cotton wisp clouds.Green mixed with pale yellow hills surrounded them on all sides, and the people slept in huts crafted with thick tree branches and animal skins.They farmed the land and hunted in the nearby woods with bows and arrows.A clear river ran along the village, a place for fishing and bathing.Saer was given a small shelter with blankets, some animal skins to don, and little else.
With nothing more to bide his time as he investigated, Saer absorbed all he was shown.Ruki and Donanni shared their skills first—cooking, harvesting, and tanning hides in the sun.
He didn’t need to eat, though he could.To the best of his understanding, what he ingested boiled and burnt within.He gained a modicum of heat energy from this, though certainly not enough to sustain him.Heat of any kind seemed to do as much—including from the sun on warmer days—though fire did best.
Humans couldn’t touch the fire without burning, the same as when their fragile skin made contact with his blood.He taught himself to absorb and manipulate the blaze’s heat in ways to avoid their questions and suspicion.Proximity to their fires worked well enough, though if he sat too close, ribbons of flame tended to draw his way.He found the balance and helped with the cooking more often than not.
After an argument with Asheda—which the mother and son won—Saer was allowed a knife to clean game and fish.
He spoke little in his first days, other than to repeat words and ensure understanding.Other things he feigned ignorance to—like when Ruki asked why his skin burned as though he had a constant fever.“Fever means sick,” Ruki’d said.Whatever that meant.
While the tribespeople slept in the evenings, Saer stayed awake and explored for nights on end.He didn’t require sleep as long as his heat stores remained adequate.
Honing theDaemoenicainnate ability to sense heat, Saer learned each familial signature emanated a unique signal.He developed a talent for distinguishing specific people in a crowd, like an extra layer upon his eyesight.
The first time he ever did this, because of his constant proximity, was with Ruki.
Subtle differences set the chief’s son apart from the other villagers—his height, varying temperature fluctuations, the rush of his warm blood with each beat of the boy’s heart.Saer could pick Ruki out of hundreds by heat sense alone and perfected the ability over the course of weeks, even through walls or barriers.
Ruki grew more intrusive with each passing day, and Pride needed to roam without the inquisitive mind of the adolescent questioning his every move.The curious eyes of the chief’s son saw much.
But even the energetic boy needed to rest.
A warmth surrounded and pulled at Pride’s awareness despite the coolness of the evening, an aggravation that had poked at him all day, but he’d forced himself to ignore it until Ruki tucked himself into bed.Energy glimmered near—something calling to his core and purpose—closer than ever since his return to Earth weeks earlier.
Like a pervasive itch under his skin.
