To the teacher’s dismay, he bounded right up to me and plopped down in my lap. She made a noise in her throat that reminded me of an upset turkey gobble, and said something to him, fluttering her wings all the while. I wished I knew what Alryv responded, but she blew a heavy breath through her nose and he didn’t move from where he perched on me.
The others crowded closer after seeing how brave Alryv was being. The guard who was with me had given me a tablet and stylus to draw with, but I wanted to try out something I’d heard vorpyr say to each other while I was being escorted here.
“Ka’reth.” I said, pronouncing it carefully.
The children tittered and said it back to me. I smiled and gestured a hand at them, “ka’reth,” Then gestured at myself, “hello.”
Eyes wide, they crowded closer as if it would help themunderstand better. I repeated the motion twice more and some of the braver ones repeated the English greeting. The teacher looked wary but still she didn’t intervene, so I took that as a sign I wasn’t doing anything too terrible in her eyes. And even though I was out of my depth in this situation, it was fun interacting with them.
I gestured at myself, “human.” I gestured at them, “vorpyr.” This time they tried the strange word right away, pointing at me. Next I did the same thing, except with my name and Alryv’s name, so they understood the context.
Neither the guard nor the hovering teacher seemed to want to take over or give direction, so I continued like that, drawing a picture of a horse on the tablet and showing them. I was suddenly very grateful for all those various art classes Mom haddragged me to when I was a teenager who only wanted to lie in a hammock by the lake and read.
At some point the Vorazyr—Arrazyl, I now knew—showed up. He lurked in the background in the shade of a tree. Our eyes met. He inclined his head to me. Once again I wondered if Alryv was his child.
A small female joined Alryv on my lap, prompting me to break eye contact with my strange captor. She chattered at me, using her hands as she spoke like many humans did. I listened intently to the words but of course didn’t understand their meaning.
Thewhooshof wings caused me to look up just as a tall female landed a couple of feet away. She looked angry. If I didn’t have vorpyr children sitting all around me and two on my lap, I would have leapt to my feet. Her claws and fangs were on prominent display. She snapped something at the teacher, who grumbled a response, looking even more annoyed with this new development.
The little female on my lap said something in that sweet, high voice of hers. The new arrival responded, striding over. Before I had a chance to react, the vorpyr scooped up the child and turned her back to me, her wings spread, blocking me. Ah, so that was her daughter, and she didn’t want her anywhere near me, the evil human. I kept my sigh internal and looked to Arrazyl. He watched the exchange without expression. It seemed no one else had noticed him.
The teacher and other female exchanged sharp words, and the mother took off with a flap of her wings. Over her mom’s shoulder, the little one waved a wing at us.
And so the day progressed. We moved from the park into the school and I received a children’s writing sheet where I could trace letters or characters, and instructions from the teacher—through the guard who could speak the intergalactic language—to plan a field trip for them, using the “scholarly” knowledge I had.
“That’s not helpful.” I muttered. I didn’t know the area or what to show them. The whole thing felt like one big interview I hadn’t prepared for. And I didn’t want to find out what happened if I failed.
Arrazyl was outside the school when the guard escorted me out so the teacher’s regular class was no longer disrupted. I was mildly surprised to see him. Certainly he had better things to do than babysit me. Unless he still thought I was some spy mastermind.
He ignored me and said something to the guard, listening intently to the response. If they were going to ignore me, there was no reason to stand there like a mute idiot. There was a rock carving I wanted to see better. I’d seen it when we were walking here, but I couldn’t stop the whole class so I could sate my curiosity.
I was halfway to it when a strong hand clamped down on my shoulder, halting me abruptly.
“Leaving so soon?” Arrazyl’s voice was low, dangerous.
As calmly as I could, I pointed at my destination. “We passed that carving on the way in and I wanted to see what it was.” When he removed the bruising grip he had on me I rolled out my shoulder.
“An artist from my grandparents’ time crafted it.” There was a hint of pride in his voice, but his controlled expression gave nothing away.
We went over to it and I stepped close, studying the clean, weathered lines on the stone. Unsurprisingly, it depicted a battle. I frowned. “What is this?” The vorpyr were depicted fighting a grotesque species, and it looked like they were greatly outnumbered.
Arrazyl stepped up next to me, that spicy scent of his wrapping around me. “This is a reminder. It’s one of the battles we had with the ‘Gak generations ago. They tried to take over Ryiv and wipe us out.”
Ryiv. “Ryiv is this planet, right?” I asked. He trilled. “Where are they now?”
“We don’t know. After their defeat they disappeared as fast as they came and haven’t been heard from since.”
My mind whirred with this information. “Do you think they’ll come back?”
“Hope they do not, human. Only destruction follows in their wake. They destroyed most of the inhabitants of Lashov. They pushed them back, eventually, likely because the ‘Gak were fighting on two fronts, us and them, but it left that planet very wild and without the great infrastructure there used to be. Warlords rule that planet now.”
“They didn’t respond to negotiations or peace talks?”
“They’re intelligent and adaptable, but they do not want to make friends, they want to take over.”
There was so much to learn. “I imagine a great many battles are depicted in your art. But given the architecture and even the carvings I’ve seen, vorpyr value art quite a lot too, not just fighting.”
He inclined his head and pinned me with that assessing gaze of his that felt as though it could peel back the layers of my soul.
