I don't let the translation error show on my face. Sometimes life is all about bravado.
"Are you female?" it asks suddenly, sniffing the air. "You smell too good to be male."
The absurdity of the question throws me off. "Plenty of males smell good," I respond, irritation clear in my voice. "Males should smell good."
Before I can continue my rant, a whiff of the alien's scent reaches my nose. It's unexpected and heady, and it derails my train of thought entirely. Arousal surges higher within me, unbidden and unwanted, and I clench my fists.
I was aroused from the moment I saw it, just like the other aliens, but this is even worse.
"For fornication's sake."
I stamp a foot, seriously pissed off at the slimes and my own errant body. The lizard just keeps looking at me like I'm a snack.
Or I guess, even worse. A pet.
Focus, damn it, I tell myself.
I shake my head hard to clear it. The creature is watching me closely, amusement dancing in its eyes.
"Are you distracted?" it taunts, taking a step closer.
"No," I snap back, gripping the dagger tighter. "I'm just planning our next move."
My voice is steadier than I feel. "We need to get out of here and find a safe place to regroup."
It studies me for a moment longer before making a low grumble. "Agreed," it says, the amusement fading from its expression. "Lead the way, little one."
It holds out an arm, and I can't help but stare at its odd hands. Four fingers on each hand, each set of two directly opposing each other, so when it walks, they jut out directly to the outside and inside. Each finger is thick enough it looks like two fused together. There is no difference between the ends of its four limbs, so I'm not sure to call them all hands or all feet.
At the tip of each finger are long, curving dark-blue claws that come to a relatively blunt looking tip, but have a sharp, serrated edge on the underside between the end and where it disappears into the flesh of the fingertip.
I move my gaze back up to its face, which is the most dragon-like part of it, with big nostrils that remind me of a horse, teeth that are an over-bite of large fangs in the front of its large mouth, and others that jut up from the bottom jaw as an under-bite of smaller, but just as sharp looking, teeth. It has minimal lip movement, and so I assume most of the way it forms words must be an internal structure.
Its eyes are bright amber-gold orbs with a slitted pupil. Around them is a thick, lighter blue hide that it can pull together over the eye. As it did when I tried to shoot at them before. In a v-pattern from its forehead down to its nose is darker blue hide, with multiple spikes that start small between the broad expanse between its eyes, and then gradually become bigger on its forehead and down its broad back, until transitioning back to smaller down the length of its tail.
The spines shift quite a bit as it communicates, and I wonder what that might mean. I move my gaze back to its face and could swear it looks entertained at my long assessment. Smug and arrogant, too.
I don't trust it, not entirely, but for now we have a common goal.
I take a deep breath and start moving; the creature falling into step beside me. The uneasy truce is better than nothing.
The silence between us is tense, filled with the unspoken threat of violence.
I keep my dagger ready, just in case. Lizard breath might be a temporary ally, but I'm not about to let my guard down. We move through the dense foliage, every sound amplified in the quiet.
I'd much prefer to be alone, even if it was a human here, but a beast that admits it likes playing cat to my mouse? Ugh.
"What's your name?" I ask after a while, trying to break the tension.
It glances at me, its eyes narrowing. "You didn't defeat me to earn that privilege."
I snort. I highly doubt they make their elders fight them for their name.
"Fine, be mysterious. But if we're working together, I need something to call you."
It considers this for a moment.
"My name is Drasuk," it says, voice low and resonant, reverberating through the air between us.
