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 cookingpit, 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 andshakes 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 thathas 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.”
“Whyareyou here?” I shoot back.
Her brows furrow and she lowers the current hide she is holding. “What?”
