by Alma Boykin
Cheeker tried to burrow deeper beside the fallen log, but it was too late. The two strangers had heard him and Brska digging for nutroots. Brska clung to her brother and Cheeker lay as still as he could, hoping that the two creatures would go away. Instead, he heard footsteps as the larger one came closer. He stared up into a pair of bright blue eyes, and gasped as he saw what looked like strings hanging from the narrow, silvery-blue muzzle and a pair of small, rounded ears behind the eyes. Brska also looked up and suddenly scrambled over her brother and the log both, towards the stranger. The stranger backed up a little, giving Brska room on the dead tree. Cheeker tried to grab his little sister but she danced away from his forefoot, cheeping at the odd-looking stranger.
He heard a voice asking, “What did you find, boss?” as more steps approached the hiding place. Cheeker scrambled up onto his hind legs, ready to grab his sister and pull her out of danger.
Instead, he froze in surprise as a voice inside his head said, «Two juniors out playing, I think.» Brska shook her head and then looked around as if trying to see where the voice came from. Cheeker looked around as well before staring at the two strangers. He knew what the silvery one was from tales he’d heard—a True-dragon, like the ones that lived far on the west side of Burnt Mountain in the Wildlands. But the other! He (and he carried a sword, so it had to be a male) walked on his hind legs towards the two juniors, his teeth bared but eyes friendly. He didn’t have a muzzle, but did have a black tail that swung from side to side as he walked. Brska stared as well, then pointed towards the tall stranger and made the question noise. Cheeker made a negation; he didn’t know who or what they were.
The True-dragon studied the two juniors, then turned to the two-leg. The taller creature tipped his head to the side, as if listening to something. “Hmmm. That’s a good question,” he said aloud. He looked at Cheeker and the junior realized that the stranger had odd, silver-grey eyes. “What is your name, young one?” It sounded friendly, but so had Zhaet, and Cheeker was on his guard.
“I’m called Cheeker. Who are you?” he demanded, slowly reaching over to grab Brska and run.
The True-dragon’s muzzle strings stiffened and the stranger made a strange, cheerful sound. “Zabet, they’re too young to know who we are on sight.” Two-leg turned back to the two juniors. “I’m Commander Rada Lord Ni Drako, the Daimyo of Singing Pines. This is Lady Zabet, called the silver dancer. It’s a nice morning, isn’t it?”
Cheeker didn’t know whether to run or fall over and beg for forgiveness. He’d heard stories around the hearth at night, when he’d been very small, about the strange creature called Lord Ni Drako and how he’d helped the King-Emperor beat off monsters who’d invaded Drakon IV. The elders had said that the lord had disappeared not long after the final battle, perhaps dead, or maybe called away to another world in the Azdhag Empire. But that was all just stories! And everyone knew that spirits never walked under the sun, so whoever this person was, he wasn’t a ghost. As Cheeker tried to decide how to respond, Brska began cheeping and bouncing on top of the log. All at once she slipped and started to fall and Zabet caught her, putting her carefully back on the wood. Brska shied back, then took a careful step forward towards the True-dragon and made the question noise again.
“Ah, yes, my lord, it’s a nice day,” Cheeker said, deciding to climb onto the log himself so he could see better. Cheeker’d just dug his talons in and was dragging himself up when the tree shifted towards him! It rolled, pinning his tail and lower legs. Zabet grabbed Brska and pulled her away safely but Cheeker couldn’t get free from the weight on his tail and he cried out. Brska wailed in fear as well, fighting loose of the True-dragon to scramble around and cling to her brother.
Ni Drako said something that sounded rude and then ordered, “Zabet, go find my guards or two of the servants and get them here, with the Healer. I’ll stabilize the tree.” The reptile vanished into the brush beside the trail while the daimyo looked around, coming back with a large branch, which he wedged under the tree beside Cheeker. He did the same on the other side and Cheeker felt a little of the weight on his legs ease, but he still couldn’t move them. Brska, nearly hysterical, wailed and clutched at his neck and Lord Ni Drako frowned a little. “Cheeker, can you calm her down?”
He tried but Brska had gone away and wouldn’t listen to him. “She’s gone away into her head, Lord Ni Drako,” he almost wailed himself. “She can’t hear anything I say.” Would the noble beat him like Zhaet did? Or hurt Brska? He forgot the pain in his tail and legs as he tried to hold Brska safe
Instead, the noble knelt on the dirt beside him. “I’m going to touch you and take away some of your pain. Try to relax,” he said, laying a misshapen forefoot on Cheeker’s foreleg. The hurt in Cheeker’s tail and legs faded away and the junior felt himself relaxing and calming down. Brska calmed too, ceasing her wail but still clinging tightly to his neck and foreleg. “Cheeker, what were you and your sister doing out today?” the noble asked in a conversational tone, as if he were talking to an elder or another noble.
“We were gathering nutroots, my lord,” Cheeker replied.
The noble frowned, but not in an angry way. “Don’t you usually wait a little longer, until the husk gets thin?” He sounded as if he knew food, but that didn’t match any stories Cheeker had ever heard about nobles.
He nodded. “Yes, Lord Ni Drako. But we were hungry.” Now the noble really frowned.
“Are you still hungry?” he asked, opening the pouch attached to a belt around his middle and reaching into it for something.
Brska nodded, eyes going wide as she saw the lord take two whole pieces of jerky out of his bag. She let go of Cheeker’s neck and lunged over him for the dried meat. Cheeker cringed at her bad manners but the noble didn’t seem offended. He handed her the jerky, cautioning, “Easy, easy, chew it little one.” She slowed down, chewing carefully and swallowing before taking another bite, eyes closed. As she did, the lord rested his hand on her back. His eyes opened wide and he seemed to get very angry. Then he looked away before handing her the second piece of meat. “Cheeker, I know you’re also hungry, but if you are hurt you need to have an empty stomach if we have to Heal you.”
Cheeker thought about when his sire had died and how the Healer had said the same thing. He blurted out “My lord, am I going to die?”
“Absolutely not, Cheeker! Your tail is broken and I wager you have some cracked talons but you are certainly not going to die.” The lord sounded annoyed and Cheeker flinched. Brska finished her meat then backed away, putting Cheeker between her and the stranger again.
A commotion from the trail revealed the arrival of help. “Over here, Corporal,” Ni Drako called, standing up and waving a foreleg. Two of the biggest males Cheeker had ever seen hurried up, followed by a female in a purple robe, and Zabet. “His tail and hind legs are trapped. I braced the trunk so it wouldn’t roll any farther,” the noble informed the new arrivals.
“Very good, my lord. We’ll push, sir, if you want to pull the junior?” the largest male offered. At the noble’s nod he and his partner found two more big branches and wedged them under the log, while Ni Drako bent down and gripped Cheeker’s forelegs at the shoulder. “On three,” the big male called. “One, two, three!” And the males pushed down, shifting the log enough for Ni Drako and Zabet to pull Cheeker out from under the fallen tree. As soon as he was free, Cheeker tried to roll upright, but Ni Drako held his shoulders firmly against the ground.
“No you don’t. Not until Healer Seelee looks you over,” the noble told him. The female gave Cheeker a good sniff, then began feeling his hind legs and tail and asking questions. Yes, he could move everything. Yes, it hurt when he moved his tail. No, his hind legs didn’t hurt as much. He’d broken off three of his eight hind talons and he’d pulled muscles in his hips. And his tail had been broken. Lord Ni Drako reached down and laid his forefeet on Cheeker’s tail while the healer took hold of the base and tip, away from the noble’s hands. “This is goin
g to hurt a little and will sound funny,” Ni Drako warned, then nodded his head.
Seelee pulled the two ends of the tail as the part under the lord’s forefeet snapped back into position. As the Healer realigned the tail, Cheeker felt the broken area grow warm, then hot, and the noble frowned in concentration. Cheeker had yelped despite himself and Brska tried to attack the Healer, squealing and lunging at her. Zabet grabbed the small junior, holding her still as the Healer turned her attention from brother to sister. She touched the squirming, squalling junior and her eyes went wide.
“You noticed it too?” Ni Drako asked, sitting up. The Healer nodded, frowning angrily. “Try moving your tail,” the noble ordered Cheeker and he obliged. It felt stiff but didn’t hurt.
“Lovely job, Lord Mammal,” the light brown Healer said. “I think we need to bring these two back to the manor, so I can... make certain nothing else is broken.” There was something else in her words, something Cheeker didn’t quite catch.
“Very well.” Ni Drako turned to the watching soldiers. “Good work corporal, private, and quick response,” he smiled, and Zabet nodded as well. There were some quick conversations and soon Cheeker found himself being carried on one of the males’ backs as the Healer carried Brska. Zabet and Lord Ni Drako led the way back to the manor and soon the two juniors were tucked onto a sleeping platform. Cheeker had a brace on his tail, “just in case,” and the pair had been given big bowls of meat-rich stew. They ate slowly and drank lots of the plentiful water as the Healer and her assistant watched. She showed them how to use the necessary, then dimmed the lights, leaving her assistant to watch over the pair. Cheeker and Brska were soon asleep, bellies full and bodies warm for the first time in a long while.
Lord Ni Drako could have killed someone after the Healer reported to her. “The female has been abused, as has the male. But he was only beaten and clawed. She’s been forced, several times by the look of her.” The senior Healer shook her head sadly. “She’s six year turns or so old.”
Rada’s jaw dropped and Zabet’s whiskers went rigid. “Blessed Bookkeeper! She looks like she’s no more than four! Undernourished?” Seelee nodded and Ni Drako swore. “Forgive my ignorance, Healer Seelee, but shouldn’t she be speaking by now?”
“Yes, Lord Mammal. She’s been so traumatized that she can’t, or won’t.” After a long pause, the Healer gathered her nerve. “My lord, what are you going to do with the juniors?”
“Determine who their sire and dam are, then find out who hurt them and punish the furbearer, to begin with,” Rada stated firmly. “Do you have any other suggestions?”
“Find them a different home, Lord Mammal. Something is very strange about what’s going on here,” the reptile said. Her lord nodded, thanked her for the good work, and dismissed her back to her other duties and patients.
Rada and Zabet looked at eachother. “There are some very sick creatures in this galaxy,” Rada observed in a conversational tone.
«Agreed. Can I have his balls as a trophy? Or are you going to hang them on a pole as a warning?» Zabet demanded, eyes flashing with blue fire.
“I’ll have to see what the law allows and if the juniors are willing to testify in an adjudication.” The mammal sighed and sat down at her desk, starting to pull up copies of the civil and criminal law codes on her computer. “Skinning him and stuffing his hide as he watches, followed by slow strangulation would be my choice, or staking the monster out, wounded, for the shardi or roklat to find would also be fun. But again, it depends on the law. At least, since according to the law I’m male, I don’t have to find another noble to act on my behalf.”
«Small blessings and all that,» her Boss agreed.
Cheeker woke up and tried to sort out where he was. He and Brska lay on a sleeping platform with a light cover over them, and it was not quite dark in the room but it was very quiet. He stretched and realized that his tail felt stiff and heavy. Then he remembered—they were at Singing Pines manor house, in what the Healer had called an infirmary. He also suddenly remembered all the water he’d drunk before going to sleep and barely made it to the necessary. As he carefully cleaned himself and walked back to where Brska still slept, Cheeker noticed the Healer watching him. She came over and sniffed him well, then asked, “How do you feel?”
“Fine, Healer,” he said. She carefully felt around the broken place in his tail, then removed the brace and had him move his tail in all directions. It felt stiff and a little tender when she touched it, but not too bad.
The Healer nodded, then sat down and offered him some more water and some dried fruit to eat. “Cheeker, what will your sister do if she wakes up and you’re not here?” the Healer asked.
He looked over at the yellowy-gray shape sleeping on the platform. “She’ll scream, then she’ll go away into her head and rock or curl up in a ball.” Were they going to take her away? Or put him to work, while she was too small?
The Healer sensed his concern and smiled, patting him with her tail. “Lord Mammal wants to ask you a few questions while he tracks down your elders and lets them know that you and your sister are all right. But if she’s going to get upset if you are gone, then Lord Mammal will just wait a little longer.”
The conversation woke Brska, who blinked sleepily and then made urgent, worried noises. Cheeker and the Healer got her to the necessary, where she took care of business as the Healer watched. After Brska finished, the Healer sniffed and examined her too, then left the pair alone for a moment. Brska made the question noise, and Cheeker explained where they were, satisfying her for the moment. The Healer came back with a strange female Azdhag in a plain green robe and with Lady Zabet.
«Come with me,» the True-dragon ordered, and Cheeker gently pushed his sister along as they followed the silvery reptile down a wood-paneled corridor, up a treaded ramp onto another level of corridor, then to a door with a beast head carved in the wood. Brska stared around at the True-dragon and the servant, who smiled at her. Zabet tapped the door knock and then opened the door. «In here, please,» she said into the juniors’ heads, making Brska shake as if she had water in her ear hole. Cheeker followed their guide into a dimly lit room with a sleeping platform, stove, benches, and cushions scattered around, and a strange tall table and little table. The funny-looking noble sat on the little table behind the big table, but he rose onto his hind legs when Cheeker and Brska entered.
“Cheeker, please take a seat,” the noble ordered. “Your sister too.” Cheeker looked around and climbed up onto a bench, followed by Brska, who didn’t seem to want to leave her brother’s side. At Lord Ni Drako’s nod, the servant put some food in front of the two juniors, along with a container of water. The servant and Healer sat on the floor, while Lady Zabet stretched out on the sleeping platform and Ni Drako sat back down behind the big table. Brska helped herself to the dried meat and fruit, chirping and enjoying the sweet treat. The room was crowded and Cheeker wondered what was going to happen.
“Cheeker, what is your sister called?” the lord asked.
He swallowed. “Chee’s daughter, Lord Mammal. But my sire named her Brska.”
“Brska, Chee’s daughter,” the noble repeated, tapping with his forefeet on something on the table. He frowned at the device, then looked up again from the table. “Did your family recently move to Singing Pines or Burnt Mountain, Cheeker?”
What strange questions the lord asked, Cheeker thought. “No, my lord. We were both born here, in Taymi settlement.”
The lord tapped again, frowning. Cheeker began getting nervous as the lord grew more and more unhappy with something. “Cheeker, I don’t see your progress records from the learning place. What study set are you in?”
Oh no. Cheeker’s spines went flat against his neck, and he looked down to the floor, tail going limp. “I’ve never been to the learning place, my lord.” Behind him he heard the servant’s tail thwap the floor in surprise and the lord’s black ears went flat against his head.
“Have you been ill? Or do
you live too far from the learning place to go?” Ni Drako wanted to know.
Still looking at the floor, Cheeker whispered, “My dam’s mate won’t let me go. He needs me to work.”
“Then he’s violating manor law as well as abusing you,” Ni Drako said angrily. “And since manor law is dictated by the King-Emperor himself...” he didn’t finish the sentence, but he didn’t have to. Cheeker covered his eyes with his forefeet and started shaking. He’d gotten Zhaet in trouble with the manor lord! Zhaet would beat him or worse, and then hurt Brska again! Brska sensed his fear and began making little crying peeps as she clung to his side. Cheeker heard the noble get up from his table and start walking around. Something cool and a little rough lifted his head up and the noble ordered, “Look at me Cheeker.”
Cheeker very reluctantly met the strange eyes. “Cheeker, answer me truly, because I will know if you lie. Is your dam’s mate your sire?”
“N-n-no, my lord. Zhaet took my dam as mate after my sire died two summers back,” Cheeker stuttered.
“Has Zhaet hurt you, Cheeker?” The silvery eyes bored into Cheeker’s head and he didn’t dare lie.
“Y-y-yes. He hits me when I don’t get my work done, or if he’s mad, or if I get in his way.”
The noble’s eyes grew very cold and hard and Cheeker gulped. “Cheeker, has he ever hurt Brska?”
Cheeker made a forefoot gesture, too afraid of the noble and of Zhaet both to speak.
“Did you see him hurt Brska?”
Another gesture, but that wasn’t enough. “How did he hurt her, Cheeker?”