to know how far away we are. I mean, you flew pretty far with me. Do you know how far? Which direction? How fast?”
“The questions never stop with you. I flew somewhat far. In a random direction. As fast as a dragon flies when carrying a round female from a village on a worthless planet.”
I scratch my chin. I suppose pressing him for distances and speed in miles and hours is not going to work. “Okay. Only checking.”
There’s a sharp crack from in among the trees, and I whip around. It’s dusk, and all I can see are shadows that don’t move. “What was that?”
“Not our spies,” Caronerax says, eyes open to thin slits again. “Those are not that clumsy.”
I stay on my guard, staring into the woods. “Do you know who they are?”
“Not exactly. I know that they are unaware of each other. Both are stealthy and focusing only on us.”
“Are they friendly?”
Caronerax ponderously gets to his feet. “As far as I can tell, one party think they are friendly to me, whereas the other is extremely hostile to me and very, very curious about you.”
I back away from the woods, towards the dragon. “Are they close?”
“They don’t need to be. They both know precisely where we are. Light your fire now — help them pinpoint our location.”
“Will they attack?”
Caronerax peers out at the swamp. “That possibility does exist.”
“You don’t seem worried.”
“‘Worried’. I have some idea what that word means, but I have no concept of it. In the same way that until recently I had no concept of the word ‘pain’.”
I’m pretty sure I see movement in there, all over the place. “If they attack, can you beat— oh fuck!”
An orange beetle the size of a coffee table comes zooming out of the bushes, waving long tentacles in the air as it rushes straight at me.
Caronerax calmly steps past me, bends down, and grabs it. The huge insect snaps giant mandibles at his face and poke long, thin spears harmlessly at his scales. He tosses the attacker into the swamp in an arc so big the splash from where it lands is too distant to be heard.
“I think I can beat them,” he ponders as if nothing has happened. “But their capabilities are unknown to me. As are mine, in this form. In my dragon form I could vaporize them both without exerting much effort. Now, it feels like any tiny creature can vivisect me at will.”
“Oh,” I breathlessly say, my heart pounding in my ears. “You took good care of that beetle, anyway.”
“Hm? Oh, that unthinking thing. Not really a challenge at all. It was all instinct, no thoughts. But I note you haven’t lit the fire. I wonder if flames won’t keep those nuisances away. It did last night, anyway. Although it seems a travesty to call something so cold a fire.”
That gets me building a fire in record time, then easily lighting it with the stone-age matches.
I sit down and munch on not-sheep and a handful of berries. I want to ration them in case I don’t find any more out there in the swamp. If we’re able to cross it the way Caronerax seems to think.
I spread the not-sheep fur out on the ground in a suitable place. “Hey, come sit down. The fur is softer than the gravel.”
He comes over, then remains standing for a while, to show me that he decides what he’ll do, not me. It’s a very male thing to do, I feel. And I don’t mind it. A bit of maleness can be good. Really good.
“There are so many things I don’t know about you,” I state after a while. “I know you don’t like questions. But maybe you can tell me? I mean, you don’t have to. I obviously can’t force you. It’s just, I think I like you, and I want to know more.”
He makes himself comfortable. “There is a lot to know. But very well. To kill the time until we can keep going. I came to this barren place about twenty days ago. I brought a cache, which is indeed a part of my hoard. I took the time to get it, where I understand the others simply panicked and took a chance that wherever they were being led would be a rich place where spoils and loot would be plentiful. In fairness, they had reason to believe so. Our enemy, the Inferiors, were filthy rich, and of course the last spaceship they had would