Ais hands grasped at empty air by her sides going for daggers that were lost, left in the back of the monster.

Whatever was in the cart cocked its head, evaluating her.

Ai pushed herself up into a crouch, gritting her teeth and pulling her ears back in pain.

Whatever it was moved closer, until light touched its face. Ais eyes widened as more and more of its body was exposed to the light.

His body. He was very definitely male.

He uncurled his body, rising to his full height and looking down on the strange female. For a moment they just looked at each other. His eyes lingered on her pointed ears and her tail, frozen in motion behind her.

Ai couldn’t seem to decide where to look, her eyes jumping from one region to another (specifically avoiding his nakedness). He didn’t have skin, he had scales. Dark green and glossy like a snakes. His pupils were thin slits in the brighter green of his eyes and his tail dragged across the ground behind him.

Whatever he was, he wasn’t human. Little did she know, he was thinking the same thing.

Ai felt naked without her weapons and small in contrast to the snake man. Even if she had been standing, she was certain he would be significantly taller than her.

Ai noticed more significant details then. He might have been tall, but he was thin. His bones poked out at awkward angles and where there wasn’t bone there was wiry muscle. No fat at all. His wrists and ankles had smaller scales, paler green and scabs.

He was the passenger, the creature that the people wanted to hide.

“I’m not one of them. I won’t hurt you.” Her voice was shaky. She hoped he spoke the language of the spirit people, and that he was a person that understood what she was saying. Not a creature that saw an injured animal that would make a decent meal.

If it came down to a fight, Ai wasn’t certain she would win.

He gave her no indication that he understood, instead stepping closer. She moved back clumsily, her claws digging into the dirt. He made a sound in the back of his throat, almost a cooing, and crouched down like her. Eyes wide he moved closer again.

Muscles tense and teeth gritted, Ai allowed him to.

He stopped a pace away, falling back on his ass. As he sat cross legged, his tail curled around onto his lap hiding his genitals. Ai stared before releasing a shaky breath. He was intelligent. He had to be.

Keeping her weight off her injured leg, she mirrored him sitting on the hard ground.

The man opened his mouth, sharp teeth gleaming as he spoke. His words were clumsy and slightly hissed, so it took Ai a moment before she realised what he was saying.

And what language he spoke in.

“Do you understand me?” He had asked, and he asked in a language familiar to Ai.

It was the language she came into the world knowing. The language she thought in. Wherever he had come from, he spoke the same language she did.

It would have been a miracle. A huge discovery had Ai not been sitting in the dirt, bleeding, with corpses strewn on the opposite side of the road. As it was, she had difficulty conjuring any positive feelings about it.

“I understand.” It felt odd to her to be speaking her language again.

He gave a brilliant smile, showing off every one of his sharp needle-like teeth. A shiver crawled down Ais spine. She looked odd, but at least she didn’t look like him. He was disturbing.

A predator.

She shut her eyes against the brightness of the world. She wanted to cry, but she couldn’t. She hurt and she was pretty sure that Ermine was dead and everything was going to shit but her eyes were dry.

She didn’t want the lizard to be here. She wanted to be back at the hut. Warm and snuggled in her furs where she could relax without having to look over her shoulder.

She wrapped her arms around her chest and the slight chill of the breeze. At least it doesn’t stink anymore. Still, an echo of the monsters stench lingered in the air along with the coppery smell of blood.

Blood. She had to help Ermine. If he was still alive…

The man watched with interest as she jerked herself out of whatever mini-coma she had just entered. She didn’t look at him as she got to her feet, hissing under her breath. When she began to limp over the road he thought she was going to leave him for a moment.

Panic rose in his chest before he crushed it. Her companion was over there.

He followed quietly behind her. His steps were silent over the ground, and his movements fluid.

She was the first of her kind that he had seen. Her hair was black but had red highlights where the sun caught the strands. Her ears and tail were furry and he knew he was going to feel how soft they were at some point. Curiosity would be his undoing one day.

He needed a place to stay. He didn’t know how to survive in the wild, or where the nearest civilisation was. He could follow the road but he didn’t want to go back to where he was from, or go wherever the slavers had been taking him to. Whether she knew it or not, the girl was his best bet. Her style of dress was unfamiliar and almost barbarian.

His eyes narrowed when he remembered his own state of dress. He hadn’t been allowed clothes.

She was a freak like him, but she was already doing better. Something dark and ugly raised its head inside of him. He licked his tongue over one pointed fang.

Ai kept her breathing steady as she approached the body.

He was face up, and his skin was pale. Sinking to her knees beside him, she ignored the way his eyes had gone flat as she felt of a pulse. His skin was warm, but lifeless.

Withdrawing her hand like she had been burned she grabbed handfuls of dirt. It wasn’t fair.

Her fist struck her injured leg, waves of pain radiated out. The edges of her vision went dark for a moment before receding.

She still wanted to scream at the unfairness. Another part of her wanted to shake Ermine awake. Cold and logical Ai prevailed.

Behind her the man slid smoothly out of his predatory stance.

“Was he your friend?”

“I…not really. We didn’t know each other that well.” It was the truth, but Ais mouth burned like she was telling a lie. She felt like she was belittling their relationship somehow, especially given the way he feels about her. Felt.

He was dead now, just gone. It was so odd. She didn’t know how to react. She couldn’t even look at his face.

“I’m sorry.” The snake man said and she felt the urge to laugh. Sorry wasn’t going to bring him back to life. Sorry was meaningless.

“I-I need to get back to the village.” She stood again, cursing her leg. She wasn’t use to being injured. She wasn’t use to pain.

“If you leave him here, the ghoul will eat him. It won’t have gone far.” He steadied her with one firm hand on her arm.

She nodded up at him. She was right. He was tall, at least a head higher than her.

She stared blankly as he bent over and picked Ermine up, slinging him over his shoulder. She felt like her mind was on slow motion, everything taking longer to process.

“I-he,” she took a breath, “you’re coming with me?”

He gave her a look, a remarkably human one on an alien face.

“Right.” She said turning on her heel. “It’s this way.”