Chapter 11
‘Shit’ Karl thought, they were right outside their cave and were surrounded by people wielding swords.
Their eyes flicked between the people in front of them, feeling conflicted. They wanted to protect their flock, but if they moved any closer then they would either be killed, which they didn’t want to happen. It was painful and took a lot of time to regenerate.
They couldn’t even talk, their vocal cords were strained and would only let out growls of warning.
They couldn’t talk to distract them, so they did the next best thing.
Slowly, they brought their hands up with palms facing the sky, then began trying to sign.
‘What do you want?’
Blunt, but Karlis wasn’t feeling particularly like being nice as their flock was being threatened.
No response except for hands tightening on hilts of their swords, and narrowed eyes.
Karlis furrowed their brows and resisted the urge to sigh, it was just their luck to land somewhere where sign language wasn’t used.
Their elongated and pointed ear flicked as they could hear someone whisper ‘why isn’t it attacking’
Karl growled more. Who do these people think they are? Some sort of creature? Apparently so.
Just as they were preparing to make a break for it, the silence was so immense you could barely breathe.
Then it was shattered by a dry hacking cough, coming from the cave behind them. They saw the hunters still even more, attention drawn to the cavern.
Worried, Karl growled even louder to bring attention back to them, which was futile as they heard the shuffling of feet coming up behind them. A quick glance revealed S1, standing at the entrance, leaning on the side slightly.
Karlis and Izarri ignored the shouts of panic around them, focusing slowly on each other.
Karlis brought their hands up again, turning their body to the side as they did so.
‘How is she?’
Her small face seemed to crumple more at that, and both were oblivious to the hushed silence that had fallen around them.
“She’s not doing so good. Ori is doing all he can but she isn’t getting better, and Luke is refusing to sleep or eat again, can you come help I’m scared.”
Not caring for the potential fatal consequences, Karlis kneeled down, and opened their arms and with no hesitation Izarri ran at them and basically tackled them. Quietly shushing the girls’ hiccups and cries while rubbing small circles on her back, they gathered her up in their arms so her legs wrapped around them, and stood up. Luckily they did this with no difficulty with their newfound strength.
- They go to sleep, then wake up to a confrontation – Karl yells at them to shut up, you’ll wake up Raya.