Taken aback, I frown. “Why?”
She grabs her face and pushes her hands up it and through her hair with a dramatic flourish. “Because I’mstarving! And I don’t think I can eat any more of these bugs you keep giving me.” She points to a pile of small black beetles I scavenged for her from deeper in the waterways beneath the city. “I know I haven’t been easy the past few days, but I will die if I don’t get something more substantial to eat and that isn’t so gross!”
“Meat,” I suggest, thinking it over.
“Yes! Meat, if you have any. I can…” she looks around, her eyes wide, “…start a garbage fire with something to cook it. Meat or starchy grains of some sort would be great. Seriously, feed me well and it will do wonders for our relationship. I think we could be great friends, big boy.”
Big boy. This is the second time she has called me that.
I…
I do not mind being called big… but boy?
Rising, I straighten and peer down at my body. I am big but I am not a boy. I am a full-sized male naga.
Though for the first time, her smile reaches her eyes, and it seems like she is telling me the truth. It makes sense. I have not had the time to hunt since her arrival, too busy figuring out what to do about her and watching her. I have not eaten in days myself, only sustaining on the bugs that I have also provided her with. Suddenly my stomach reminds me that I have not ventured into the plains between here and the forest for the succulent meat of pigs since the arrival of the recent skycrafts.
“Please,” she begs, her voice smaller than before as she gives me imploring eyes.
I uncoil my tail and crack my back and neck, then turn to remove the boulders blocking me from access above. “I will hunt us some meat.”
“You will?”
“Yes. It is time I eat as well. I do not need to be your friend for you to request the sustenance your body needs, Sabrina. It is not like I am allowing you to sustain yourself. I will supply you with what you need, but I do not know what that is. You must tell me.” I roll away the last two boulders and twist to face her. “You are the first human I have known.”
“You are my second alien—naga. Though I only saw the first one.”
I tilt my head at the tunnel. “If you are hungry, it is best I go now with the night soon ahead of us. It will be some time until I am back. How long does your body have?”
She lifts her hands then drops them. “If you’re asking until I die, I dunno, maybe a couple of days? I should have enough water.” She peers at the basin of fresh water I refilled this morning. “I’d rather you come back before that though.”
“I will try.”
I head into the tunnel, winding the entirety of my tail within before shifting the biggest boulder back into place.
“Darolus,” she shouts, appearing behind the rock. Her worried expression, aimed at me, is disconcerting. I have never had someone look at me in such a way before. But there have been many firsts with her. “If you see anyone else in my crew, please don’t hurt them. They’re not here to take you. In fact, my captain insisted on us not getting involved. They’re good people.”
Her crew?
This is the first time she has mentioned a crew.
Searching the worry in her eyes, I realize it is not for me, but for them, and find I must suppress the confounding urge to hiss in disappointment. “If they are still around, I will avoid them.”
“Thank you,” she whispers, turning away abruptly and disappearing behind the boulder.
Staring at the empty place where she was, I position a few more boulders, then make my way to the surface, blocking the tunnel from the outside as well.
In the golden light of dusk, I turn toward where I last saw Sabrina’s skycraft rather than the plains. I climb through the rubble and out through several makeshift tunnels I have made over the years, until finally I spot the strange ship in the distance. They are still there. Her crew.
Hissing, wanting the skycraft and the other humans far away from my territory, I spin with a growl and head in the direction that is fastest out of the city. The same direction that will take me to the borderlands of the place I hate most. The place where my enemies live.
The forest…
Where all the meat comes from.
TEN
RETREAT, THEFT, AND CONFIDE
