She scarfed down the bun, a little embarrassed to have Jotaha watching her pig out, but too hungry to care at the moment, and too delighted with the food to slow down. As she was licking the last little bit of filling off her fingers that had escaped the casing, he offered her the second half of the bun.
“No,” she said, with regret. “That’s your half. I won’t gobble up all your food. You’ve been pretty generous already.”
“Hon-gree?” He gestured to her stomach.
She was still a bit hungry, but felt bad about acknowledging it. He couldn’t have carried that much food in his pack to feed them both for any length of time, and she had lost her own pack, not that there had been much food in it other than a couple granola bars.
He seemed to read her indecision and pressed the last of the bean-bun on her, insistent as he handed it to her.
Sarah took it without attempting to argue. If he wanted her to have it, she wasn’t going to complain. After he handed it off and she settled in to eat it, Jotaha suddenly rose to his feet, his head spines standing erect. For a moment, his visible scales blazed with light, which quickly faded.
His head turned towards the entrance of the tunnel, rather than the exit that led towards the poop beetle cave. His tail lashed back and forth, and his hands clenched into fists.
Sarah slowly pushed away from him, feeling dwarfed by his massive size and the threatening body language. Though he wasn’t looking down at her, his demeanor was terrifying. This was the hunter that had taken her down with a dart while she was armed with an assault rifle.
He suddenly started pacing one way, then another, muttering in a way that suggested he was deeply upset, though it was low enough that even if she could understand his language, she wouldn’t have caught his words.
Then he stopped and turned to regard her, causing her to tense, concerned with the intensity in his stare. His gaze shifted to the tunnel entrance, back to her, then back to the tunnel entrance. His lips pulled back in an intimidating snarl as he stared into the darkness beyond the warm bubble of light from the stones. His spines remained erect, and bioluminescence darted across his cheeks and over his head in flashes, lighting up the spines, then quickly fading.
Finally he growled as he turned and stalked to his pack. He bent and picked up a tube-like thing that she suspected was his dart gun. It was as long as her forearm and looked like it was made of carved ivory or bone. He attached it to the belt that circled the waist of his armor, then tucked a handful of darts into a pouch beside the blow gun. A sheathed dagger joined the weapons on his belt, along with another sheath that looked like it held a combat knife that could have come straight out of the movie Rambo. It seemed out of place with the rest of his armor, and served as yet another reminder that she wasn’t the first human the lizard man had met.
She was probably just the first to survive the encounter.
He strapped a third sheath onto the outside of his forearm, then strode back to the river stone ring and bent to retrieve his dagger. He wiped the blade on the fabric that had held the bun, before sheathing it.
Then he turned his attention back to her, and Sarah shivered at the intensity of his fixed, reptilian gaze. “Sarah, fanak.” He gestured with a flattened palm towards the ground in front of her.
Confused, she slowly pushed herself to her feet, stopping mid-crouch as his hand fell upon her shoulder. He pushed her back into a sitting position with just enough pressure that she couldn’t resist.
“Fanak.” He pointed again at the ground. “Fanak auje.”
His words and intent might confuse her, but his frustration was obvious as he rubbed his other hand over his spines. They popped back up immediately after his hand passed over them, still sparking with bioluminescence.
“Fanak,” he growled as if repeating the word enough would be all it took for her to understand.
“Do you… mean ‘stay’?” She couldn’t imagine what else he could be saying.
It looked like he was arming himself to go somewhere, and she was obviously no warrior. Perhaps that was why he was so agitated about getting her to understand him.
He growled again, and she took that to be more frustration, since he didn’t seem to be forming any words. After a moment where he seemed to be considering, he tapped his chest with his open hand, then pointed to the exit of the cave. “Jotaha golex.” He pointed to her and repeated, “Sarah fanak,” pointing again at the ground.
She nodded, hoping she understood his intent now, though the thought of him leaving her alone in this cave gave her a strange urge to beg the giant lizard man to keep her with him. After all, wasn’t she supposed to be planning an escape? With her own clothes on now, and him leaving her alone in the cave, she had the perfect opportunity.
“Sarah, uh… fan-ack. Uh… o-gee. Jotaha golesh.” She tried to hiss like he did, but it wasn’t happening with that sh sound. It came off more like a lisp from her, when Jotaha made it sound natural and fluid.
He studied her with obvious suspicion, and she had to admire his instincts.
She patted the ground in front of her. “Sarah will fan-ack o-gee right here. Sarah is not an idiot to go chasing after you or go running into the dark tunnels without a light.”
The crazy thing was, she meant it. She had rejected the idea of taking this opportunity to escape him almost immediately after it occurred to her.
Mostly because she wasn’t an idiot. She had no idea where she was, how big the cave system was, how she could possibly find her way back to the surface, and most importantly, just exactly why he was arming up for bear. It was dark out there, and she didn’t see her head lamp anywhere. She supposed she could try to take one of the glowing stones with her, but they were hot and she had no idea how to carry them without burning herself. If Jotaha felt the need to leave this cave armed, then she sure as hell didn’t want to head out into the darkness with nothing but a hot stone to light the way.
There was another reason she didn’t want to run away from him. He’d been kind to her, feeding her, repairing her clothes, taking care of her wounds. After some of the worst moments of her life, he’d comforted her. Granted, he’d used a drug to do it, but she had to admit, it had been effective, and he’d been a perfect gentleman while she was under the influence and in a relaxed state.
Jotaha was watching her with narrowed eyes, his brow lowered as if he could guess the thoughts running through her mind.
He slowly crouched in front of her, still towering over her seated form even in a crouch. “Sarah.” He reached towards her as if to touch her face, pausing with his clawed hand between them, before lowering it to settle upon her shoulder. “Fanak. Vaelin gurez.”
She nodded again. “Sarah fan-ack. I promise.”
12
The chanu zayul were insistent as they transmitted the message from the hive. The elder zayul, the urvak zayul, had detected more nixirs crossing the boundary into yan-kanat territory. More nixirs breaking the treaty.
Before his drahi, the last nixir he’d been tasked to hunt had come a season ago. A large team of them, with their alchemy weapons and armor made of strange materials that looked nothing like hide or bone or metal or wood. They’d had lights like his drahi had worn, attached to head coverings far stronger than hers had been.