Nirrvash

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“What did you say, hussy?”

“That I would like you to put me - us - in cages near Rairok, preferably by his lair, sir,” I repeated to the unpleasant-looking man at Cages. He turned out to be a Knight Commander like Stouch, but their personalities couldn’t have been more different. This one was insufferable to even stand in front of.

The bastard looked at me like I was crazy and started to laugh. “Did you hit your head, hussy? This isn’t a fucking inn.”

“I do know, sir.”

“Then don’t fucking tell me where to put you.”

“Maybe we should ask Knight Commander Stouch,” Stella suggested, loud enough for the guy to hear. It was a good try, I had to give her that, but there was no way it was going to work. Except it did. The man flinched, muttering something about fucking Eichenralke before kicking a leg off the table in a huff. “Fine, have it your way. Hey, Raid!”

Somewhere from the corners of the workshop, a man I already knew came rushing out a moment later, adjusting his pants and disheveled hair. “Yes, sir?” Raid asked.

“Put these two in the cages at Rairok.”

Raid paused, looked at us, then shrugged. “I guess the interrogation didn’t go well.”

The insufferable Knight Commander, whose name I refused to remember, cleared his throat, obviously growing more and more annoyed with our presence by the second. Raid straightened. “Yes, sir. You two come with me.”

***

“Seriously, what are you doing back here?” Raid asked once we were out of sight of his superior. “I see you’re not in shackles, so . . . ?”

“High Commander Ronnu wants Korra here as a shifter to spend the night among the beasts in her beast form,” Stella took over the explanation.

The man whistled. “You were assigned to Ronnu? Damn. That’s what I call bad luck.”

“We were told we were lucky,” I argued.

“What kind of fool told you that?”

“Knight Commander Stouch.”

Raid stumbled and stopped. “That explains a lot.”

“Anything we should know?”

“That guy is very loyal to Ronnu. Like blindly loyal - he wouldn’t say a bad word against her.”

“So he lied to us?” Stella asked. “He seemed like a nice guy to me.”

“I don’t know what he told you.”

“That the 7th Rosicrucian Order is an order with one of the lowest casualties.”

“Well, that’s true.”

“And that it is basically a credit to how strict the High Commander is with her men.”

“It might be. Heck, it probably is. Look, I’m not saying the 7th is a bad order. “

“Then what are you saying?” I asked as he paused.

“Just what I heard. I’m not a knight. I take care of the beasts.”

“And what did you hear . . . ?”

“That Ronnu works her men from morning to night without a moment’s rest. And if you screw up, Stouch will make your life a living heap of shit.”

Stella and I looked at each other, neither of us knowing what to think. That was not what we saw. Sure, Ronnu was tough on her men, but by all accounts, she let them do as they pleased as long as they did what she expected of them on the battlefield. As for Stouch, the sweet guy, those rumors could very well be true; hard to say when we haven’t gotten on his bad side yet.

However, no matter how I looked at it, it all seemed more like rumors spread to keep any dick or cow from joining the 7th. Pretty smart, if I may say so. Only those who had the guts to face the rumors got in - and someone like us - and Eichenralke bitches that no one wanted, like us.

It made one wonder how ordinary mercenaries were treated here.

***

»I thought it was thee, Korra Grey,« Rairok yelped as soon as we reached his lair.

»It’s nice to finally meet you in person, Rairok,« I returned in beast talk, eyes fixed on the one before me.

There, under a tarp stretched across the open space between the cages, sat a bizarre beast. It had the body of a deer, or rather a stag, with a neck that long, but its head was more like a cat’s, with small meerkat ears and disproportionately large eyes. They were huge.

Rairok himself wasn’t a huge beast, only a little bigger than me in my full beast form, but those eyes . . . they were like my small human fists. And strangely similar to my own. There was no mistaking those green irises with a purple rim and veins crossing the green. Coincidence? It had to be.

“Korra?” Stella nudged me. “Are you all right - what did he say?”

“I merely said hello to her, friend of Korra Grey.”

“Fuck me,” Stella froze in shock, and I with her. Rairok spoke in a local equivalent of Eleaden Standard, a human language.

“Is that an invitation to mate?”

I almost laughed. Why did it sound so familiar?

“No, no,” Stella was quick to stop him from misunderstanding, although I was sure he meant it as a joke, and explained. “T-That was just an expression of my - my shock - entirely inappropriate. I-I apologize.”

Raid, the son of a bitch who could have warned us, laughed. “I would say the opposite; it was spot on. Most people react the same way to Rairok.”

“And I always wonder why?” Rairok asked. This close, when he wasn’t trying to talk over the entire Cages, his voice was more of a low yelp than a roar.

“I’ve n-never met a beast that speaks our language,” Stella explained thoughtlessly. Fortunately, she seemed to have forgotten about Idleaf in her shock. That rascal wasn’t exactly a beast, she was a tree. Albeit the tree was a bit of a stretch, too. A creature, perhaps? A magical being?

“Indeed, that might be surprising,” Rairok nodded and glanced at me. “As is a human being able to speak our language so well.”

“All right,” Raid clapped his hands together. “You seem to know each other, so I’ll cut to the chase. These two women will spend the night in the cages. This one is a shifter,” he said, pointing at me.

“I see. Thou fear what might happen if she faces the full force of her nightmares. I’ll keep an eye on her and her friend? Is she spending the night in the cages too?”

Now that I think about it, there was no need for Stella to be locked up. She might as well have been outside of my cage, free.

Yet, to my surprise, Stella nodded. “N-no o-offense, Rairok, b-but with all those beasts around, I’d feel safer locked in one of those cages.”

Well, that made sense - a lot of sense, actually. Knowing that all the beasts around, except for Rairok, were tainted, and thus could not be reasoned with, the cage seemed like a safe choice.

“Reasonable but unwarranted. I wouldn’t let my kind hurt thee.”

This assurance, coming from an obvious herbivore like him, sounded less than convincing. Well, at least he gave me the impression of being a herbivore. Nevertheless, it was only when I connected him to the level five hundred presence I had felt last night that his words gained weight. The way Stella froze told me that she figured the same.

“I-I . . .” She hesitated, the realization putting her in a quandary. Save herself from the stress and anguish at night, or offend the five-star beast. She even looked to me for help, but I felt that it was her decision to make. Whether I wanted it or not, my life was now tied to the beasts. Rairok wasn’t the first one I met, and he wouldn’t be the last. As long as she was stuck with me, she had better learn to deal with them.

“Sorry, Stella. That’s up to you.”

“What the . . . are you serious?” she hissed in a whisper, as if that would keep Rairok from hearing her. He may have had small ears, but I doubted he was hard of hearing.

I merely nodded in response, which only pissed her off more. “You . . . !”

“So, what’s it going to be?” asked Raid. I had almost forgotten that he was still here. “You may have had dinner, but I haven’t. Besides, I’d like to finish some . . . work in the workshop before the sun goes down.”

“Thou want to go back to Maren, thy mate . . . thou reeketh of her,” Rairok remarked casually, as if unaware of what he said. 

“Uh . . . yes, and you stop it, Eichenralke,” he said, pointing at me as I leaned in to sniff him. It was curiosity that got the better of me.

Pulling back, I grumbled in disappointment. I smelled nothing but mud, rotting plants and wet beasts, just like any human would.

‘Maybe if I turned into a beast?’ I pushed the thought away.

“Make up your mind, and quickly,” Raid said to Stella, then looked at me. “You come with me.”

It wasn’t long before I was locked in the cage again. This time in a bigger one, and of my own free will. No bread, no bucket. Not that I minded; it was bloody awkward to use that thing.

“I-I’ll stay out,” Stella made her decision at last.

“You’ve got balls,” Raid remarked, not hiding his joy at being able to get back to his ‘work’. “Eichenralkes, Rairok, it was my pleasure as always.” His attitude towards us and the beast could not be more abysmal; he even gave it a polite Not that I blame him; even the Imperial Chief Healer was highly courteous in front of Esudein.

“Now what, Korra?” asked Stella once she reached my cage. “Are you going to turn into a beast?”

“I could, but if you don’t mind Rairok,” I said to the beast that stood behind her, uncomfortably close, judging by her shiver. “I was hoping we could talk in human language first. So Stella can understand.”

“So thy friend’s name is Stella?”

‘Shit!’ I didn’t realize I had never introduced those two. “My apologies, Rairok. This is Stella Palemoon, my friend.”

The beast looked at her with those enormous eyes, making her nervous. “I’m delighted to learn thy name, Stella Palemoon.”

I wasn’t quite sure how to respond, and neither was Stella. “It’s n-nice to k-know you too, Rairok.”

To put an end to this awkward situation and ensure that my transgression would soon be forgotten, I quickly returned to my original question. “So, can we continue speaking in the human language?”

“We can, Korra Grey,” he said and cocked his head, puzzled. “But what is stopping thee from speaking the human language when thou art a beast?”

“I just can’t?”

“Why? Thou knowest the language?”

I did, but that wasn’t the problem. “M-my throat won’t let me. All I can do is roar and speak beast talk.”

“Then how can, Korra, speak the beast talk the way you are now, a human?” It was Stella who pointed this little detail out.

It was something I often wondered myself and eventually found the answer to. “I shift my throat.”

“Then thou hast thy answer, Korra Grey.”

“Yeah,” Stella nodded, agreeing with Rairok. “Why couldn’t you shift your throat to handle human speech in your beast form?”

“Because it is a subconscious thing. I have no control over it.”

“Is that so?” Rairok asked. “If thou art doing so, it speaks of some level of control.”

“Alright, alright, I’ll give it a try,” I gave up. “Later, though. Even if I do make it work, it won’t be right away and . . .”

“Thou camest to talk to me.” Rairok finished for me. We didn’t explicitly mention it, but he wasn’t stupid enough not to figure out our reason for being here, in cages next to his den.

“Yes, to meet you and talk,” I said bluntly. One thing I’d learned was that beasts didn’t much appreciate one beating around the bush, let alone lying.

“I find thy daring refreshing. Does it comest from the fact that thou hast already spoken to my kind? Was it this Esudein that Onvarth Maignes spoke to me about earlier in the day?”

‘Onvarth? Seriously? Well, whatever.’ I shouldn’t have been surprised, the Grand Commander had talked about asking him, yet it still took me off guard. “H-him, and others. I have met many.”

Rairok rolled his eyes oddly. “Did thou kill any?”

Now I wished Stella was in the cage with me. Though on second thought, I wasn’t so sure it would do us much good against a level five hundred beast no matter how lanky he looked. This was a tricky question to answer. Did the labyrinth beasts count? Eventually, I decided it would be best to go about this as I felt about it. “Not the ones I could reason with.”

The stag-ish beast eyed me, bobbing its head from side to side. “I see. Thou hast the smell of a predator.”

Whilst relief washed over me, my chest heaved with pride. A predator. Indeed, I was one.

“So what do thee want to talkest about, Korra Grey?” Rairok asked as he sat down on the ground.

The darkness. That was on the tip of my tongue. But something else was nagging at my mind at the moment. “Do you feel anything familiar about me?” Honestly, it took a lot of courage to ask that, and it made me feel like someone who might have found his long-lost father. Seriously, how do you ask a stranger if you’re his daughter?

“Korra? What the f . . . heck?”

I gave Stella an apologetic look.

“It’s the eyes. His are like mine.”

“No, they are not,” Stella argued sharply, but then she stared into mine, with an occasional glance at Rairok’s eyes. “Shit. They’re alike. You don’t think . . .”

“I do.”

“But yours are normal. Not so . . .” She paused and looked at Rairok, who was watching us curiously. “So big.”

“I don’t know, mutation. Look, my wings aren’t as big as Miros’, and a real drake’s heart wouldn’t fit in my chest. It was all somehow scaled down to my size.”

“Miros’ wings and Drake’s heart?” Rairok wondered, his eyes rolling oddly again. If my eyes had anything to do with him, I was glad I hadn’t picked up the tic. Anyway, I figured I’d said more than I should have even before Rairok spoke. I didn’t care. This cycle was lost anyway, and I had a chance to learn more about myself.

“Sorry, Stella. I have to . . .” I said, telling the beast sitting in front of my cage what I had told High Commander Maignes about my mutations.

“I see. It is not unheard of for people to see potential in the crossbreed of our kinds,” Rairok said when he heard me. To my relief, neither upset nor disgusted. “And humans are not the only ones. As we speak, deep behind the battle lines, the likes of thee art being bred.”

“Beastmen,” Stella said.

“That is indeed what the humans call them.”

“I’m not like them,” I pointed out.

“Yet similar. What art thee asking, Korra Grey?”

“If it is possible that I am related to your kin? Do you sense something familiar about me?”

Rairok rolled his eyes. “Not a thing.”

I dropped my wings in disappointment. It was a letdown. For whatever reason, I was hoping that . . .

“Although relying on those senses is something my kin outgrew a long time ago. They can be . . . confusing, inaccurate . . . and as it turns out a gateway to our hearts.” Did I get that right, that this beast and its kind had shed its beast instincts?

“Is that why you’re immune to the darkness, the taint?” Stella took the question of my mouth.

“I am not immune, nor can the merit of still having my will be credited to my difference from others of my kind.”

“So you have no way of telling if . . .”  I said, swallowing the last words. I didn’t even know why I was getting my hopes up when there was little to no chance that Rairok was one of the beast species whose blood coursed through my veins. It would be like finding that one pebble in the whole desert.

“I didn’t say that, Korra Grey.”

“So there is a way?”

“Indeed there is,” Rairok said, sounding rather hesitant.

“Is there a problem?”

“I’ve never tried it on someone like thee, Korra Grey? A human and a stranger to me.”

That was an odd way of putting it.

“Thou see; it’s a rather intimate thing.”

“W-what do you mean?” I faltered, not missing the slight blush on Stella’s cheeks.

“It’s about forging a connection between the two of us. Nothing permanent, or taking thy will away, but deep nonetheless. If thou art my kin and we forge a connection, I will see all of thee.”

There was only one thing to say to that: Fuck! “And there is no other way? Can’t you smell me or something?”

“I’m afraid not, Korra Grey. Thy scent is thy own.”

Did I think he was lying? Annoyingly, no. None of my instincts triggered.

“A-and what exactly will you see?”

“Are you seriously considering this?” snapped Stella. She knew just as well as I what was at stake. If Rairok had really found out everything about me as he said he might, it wasn’t hard to imagine him telling High Commander Maignes. Yet, unless I was mistaken, her concern was more for me than that. “You don’t know what that shit, that connection or whatever, will do to you.”

“I assure thee, Stella Pallemoon, a friend of Korra Grey, that I have no intention of harming her.”

“I didn’t m-mean to say t-that . . .” she stammered, trying to make things clear, then raised her hands in surrender. “You know what, you have to know best for yourself what you can and can’t do. This beast stuff goes beyond me.”

“Thank you, Stella. I mean it.”

“Whatever, just don’t expect me to be able to do much if this shit goes south.”

I nodded, not entirely sure I was up to it myself, and looked back at Rairok. “What do you want me to do?”

Rairok stood up and walked closer to the cage. “Stick thy head out.”

That was easier said than done. The bars were so close together - for obvious reasons - that I found it impossible to do. If anything, I felt like an idiot for even trying.

“That’ll do,” Rairok stopped me when I managed to align my head so that my forehead was poking through the bars. “All we have to do is touch heads.”

With that, he leaned over and gently placed his forehead against mine.

Nirrvash

The ending raises a lot of questions, but I'm curious what you say about Rairok. I didn't want to make his description too detailed, leave more to your imagination and let his personality do more of the talking.