Chapter Eight
Dekani was, well, Dekani was confused. She wasn’t normally, but the Sky Hunter Nakomii had said something that confused Dekani, and she wasn’t sure how to ask about it. That happened, and normally the Sky Hunter was able to answer her unasked questions, using her scent and body language in order to know just what she was asking. But he wasn’t doing it this time, so Dekani was confused. And since she couldn’t ask, she was starting to get frustrated.
Dekani understood ‘frustrated’, because that was how she felt whenever a hunt went wrong or scavengers took away a kill that belonged to her. So ‘frustrated’ at being unable to talk her question right was normal, wasn’t it?
“Sky Hunter Nakomii, me have question.”
Dekani looked up as the Sky Hunter Nakomii looked over at her, his eyes resting on her. Now that she had his attention, she wasn’t sure what she was going to do with it. Taking a deep breath, she tried to organize her thoughts into a context that she could use to explain what she wanted.
“What Sky Hunter Nakomii say, about me name?” That wasn’t exactly right, Dekani knew, but she was pretty sure it was close enough for the Sky Hunter Nakomii to under stand.
The Sky Hunter Nakomii rumbled, and Dekani’s ears twisted towards the sound. Dekani knew that at one time, not even that long ago, Sky Hunter Nakomii making the thunder sound would have made her run away. Now she just listened and enjoyed the noise. It made her feel like making a rumbling sound in her own throat.
“Little one, didn’t I already explain this to you?” Dekani shook her head ‘no’, so the Sky Hunter Nakomii made the thunder noise again, and continued. “Names are important, to both dragons and… whatever you are, yes?”
Dekani nodded. “Yes, Sky Hunter Nakomii, name very im-im-importanted to dragons and me kind.” At least, Dekani thought it was… that hard to say word that the Sky Hunter Nakomii said. The Sky Hunter knew what was… the hard word, importanted, he knew what dragons thought was importanted and what they thought was silly. But did she know what her own kind thought of as importanted?
“Close, important.” The Sky Hunter Nakomii sounded the word out, and Dekani did the same. She couldn’t make her voice as deep and rumbling as the Sky Hunter, so she didn’t try. But the words always sounded different when she said them.
“Good. Now, as I was saying. Names are given to young cubs at birth, so their parents can call them without having to look for them. My mother gave me my name, and I’m sure you had a mother at one time, so you must have a name.”
Dekani nodded, still unsure, but ready to believe whatever the Sky Hunter told her. “So Sky Hunter Nakomii named Sky Hunter Nakomii. Me right?”
Dekani blinked in shock as the Sky Hunter shook his head. She looked down at her feet and dug her toes into the dry dirt. It scratched under and between her toes, and for a moment she paid attention to the feeling but almost missed the Sky Hunter’s words.
“No, pest. My name is Nakomii. Not Sky Hunter Nakomii, just Nakomii. Understand?”
Dekani nodded, her confusion still there but she wasn’t sure just what it meant. So, Nakomii thought names were important? Did she have a name?
Well, it didn’t matter. Her stomach was empty, so she was going to go hunt. Worries were banished as Dekani dropped to all fours and walked off in search of a small food scent. She didn’t feel like sharing her food today.
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Nakomii stared off at the little pest creature, the Dirt Clod that he had found winters ago. Briefly, he wondered if she would catch something big and share it with him, before deciding not to count on it. He was growing lazy this warm season, with the little walking dirt clod catching most of the food. When the cold season came around again he wouldn’t be able to hunt and they would both suffer.
His thoughts on the little clod finally settled on something that had been nagging at him for a while. It wasn’t anything really… urgent, he thought, casting about for some scent, something edible. The scent of a fox den caught his attention, and he stumbled upon it even though he’d been looking for it. The foxes had gone to great lengths that nothing found their den, but where ordinary hunters with flesh shielded by ineffective fur balked at thorn bushes, a scaled dragon had no problem nosing aside the minor annoyance and filling his stomach before moving on. He was still hungry, the fox kits and adults that had come upon him while eating, doing nothing in order to fill him up, but he wasn’t starving and a little hunger just made him a better hunter. No, while his body hunted down and caught small creatures and ate them, his thoughts drifted.
The Dirt Clod had been named such because of his first impression of her. At the time, she had been so filthy she had really looked like a big bit of dirt. Even smelled like dirt until she started to shed. The shedding confused Nakomii, but he had quickly decided to ignore it. After the Dirt Clod was clean, it didn’t smell like dirt any more, nor did it look like dirt. And that was what bothered Nakomii. If the Dirt Clod had a name, he would gladly call her by name, but she had never offered one.
Maybe she’s just confused, Nakomii thought as he stuck his nose into a bee hive. The insects didn’t bother him as he snapped up the honey and wax, catching quite a few bees as well. After a time, where he walked away, the bees stopped buzzing around him and, stomach full from terrorizing the neighborhood creatures, he headed back to the bone pile to rest.
The Dirt Clod was there when he got there. She was resting on the ribs, looking like a big cat he had seen once, watching her cubs at play that he had to stop and look twice. The effect was ruined when she saw him, or heard him or smelt him, and jumped down to the ground. Though she landed on all fours, she quickly got up on her feet to run and great him with a low growl. He growled back and knocked her over with his muzzle, before laughing and moving into the shade of the giant ribs. The Dirt Clod scrambled to rest against his side. Perfect timing, he thought, looking over across the parched plains.
“Do you have a name?”
“Me? Me not know.” The Dirt Clod sat up, and Nakomii looked around. Granted, her speech was slightly annoying with it’s simplicity, but the fact that she could talk at all was a blessing. He repressed a shudder, recalling the first cold and warm season they had spent together, every word sending her running before she actually realized he was talking.
“You don’t? What do you mean?” The Dirt Clod glared at him, her stance defensive. Her scent was as well known to the dragon as his own, and the aggravation and shame in it made him sigh. “Did your mother never name you, little one?”
“No know. No ‘member.” Well, at least she managed to pronounce part of the word correctly.
“Ah. Well, I’ll have to give you a name then.” That suggestion earned him a smack on the neck, and he would have blinked if it were possible. “What was that for?”
“Nakomii no mother!” Was the answer.
“Oh.”
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Nakomii was silly. Dekani giggled as she wrestled with Nakomii, clinging to his horns and scrambling with her hind feet against his sides. He was making the thunder sound, trying to throw her off so he could ‘tickle’ her again! He did that last night and she had squealed, unable to get away and not sure she wanted to. It was fun, being ‘tickled’.
When the two of them finally settled down, Nakomii let her rest against his side again. He was warm, and the dark times, the ‘nights’, as Nakomii called them, were getting cold again. It was because the bright times, the ‘days’, were hot. Nakomii tried to give her the names of the bright dots in the sky that he called stars, but Dekani couldn’t see anything but a big, but not very bright blur. Lifting her hand to point at it, she blinked as she noticed something. Her hand was the same color as the blur that she could see!
“Nakomii? What that?”
Nakomii’s sides heaved in a sigh, though Dekani wasn’t sure why he sighed. He looked over at her, and must have noticed the same thing that she had, because he mentioned it.
“I never realized before, little one, but you look the same color as the night star. We call it the Dekalagh, because the goddess watches us from it.”
“Oh. What ‘Dekalagh’?” Dekani was confused again, but at least she had an idea as to why she was confused. The word Nakomii had called the night star sounded familiar, though she wasn’t sure how. Something about it, though, made her slightly upset. She felt the need to move, but wasn’t sure why, so stayed put. Nakomii would answer her anyway.
“Dekalagh is the dragon and pest Goddess. She is the mother. Her mate, the day star, is Anacin, the father. They created dragons and pests together, little one. To look like the Goddess is a blessing, because it means you are a favored of her.”
Dekani nodded, brow furrowed. It was an expression she had adapted to her face, similar to Nakomii’s wrinkled face when he was thinking. She had heard Nakomii talk of the pests before, and wasn’t sure what they were, except that they were a bad thing.
“Nakomii, what pests? Me hear you talk ‘bout them, but me no know what pests are. Tell me?”
She craned her head back and to the side to look at him, in the process exposing her throat to Nakomii. But she wasn’t afraid. Nakomii wouldn’t attack her like... like… well, like something else had done. Her shoulder tingled, and she blinked. Her body remembered, even if her thoughts didn’t.
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About to answer the little one, he choked. For the first time, he could see it. He didn’t want to, but he could. His little one, his blessed of Dekalagh, was a pest. And she- no, it, it was just looking at him, trust in its scent and face. It had foolishly bared its vunerable throat to him, and it didn’t take anything to shift a wing until it rested near the back of her throat. One quick jerk, and the pest would no longer be bothering him.
The moment his thought finished, he got to his feet, sending the pest that was also, somehow, blessed of Dekalagh to the ground. Where it belonged.
But it didn’t belong there! She didn’t belong there! She was his little one, his! She was a blessed of Dekalagh, and he- he had almost destroyed that! The Goddess would have acted swiftly and angrily if he had finished the action. And besides, how could he think of killing his little one, just because she was unlucky enough to be born a pest? How could he have thought that, after the time they had shared together?
She was looking at him. He could smell the confusion, the hurt and, it pained him to realize it, the fear that radiated from her in waves. A sob tore through him then. He had to- to… Spreading his wings, he jumped over the still form on the ground and took to the air, before anything else distasteful could be revealed to him.
A pest! He had spent time with a pest! He had fed and cared for one, and it had fed and cared for him.
But, his little one couldn’t be a pest! Everyone knew that pests were put on the land as a mistake! A warning, to dragons, about what would happen if they didn’t do as the Mother and Father decreed. Because of the pests being a warning, every dragon wanted to kill them! If only to show to the Mother and Father that the children would not stray.
Nakomii lifted his gaze up to the night star, the Mother’s watching eye. Had he failed? Or had he passed some test, given to him by the mother, by sparing one of Her chosen, even if Her chosen was a pest? He just didn’t know.
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Dekani licked her lips, and decided to curl up where Nakomii normally slept. The spot would smell like him. And she was right, nestled where the skull and spine rested together, the space did smell like Nakomii.
Why had Nakomii done that? He had looked at her, and had smelled upset. And then he pushed her down and flew off. It confused Dekani, upset her. Had she done something wrong, in asking about the pests? Or… or, maybe Nakomii had gone to find a pest! Yes, that was it! Nakomii hadn’t understood how to explain the question, so he’d gone to get a pest. He would bring it back to show her, and then she would understand. It made so much sense now!
But then, why had Nakomii smelt so sad?
Dekani shook her head, and curled up. Although her mind was active, sleep claimed her quick enough.
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Dekani stared at the bush, unhappy. She didn’t understand. Mother was upset, and had hit her. But Dekani wasn’t sure why Mother was upset. Dekani hadn’t done anything wrong.
Upset, the young child looked up and sniffed the air. Mother was hunting, and Dekani had been told to stay put, so she did. But she didn’t have to like it.
“Dekani, come. Eat.”
Dekani grinned, and darted out to her mother. She crossed a clearing, and Mother reached out with one large hand and hit the child on the head, sending her sprawling.
“No Dekani. Bad. Now eat.”
Short words, simple words, and the young child understood. Chirping her agreement, Dekani made towards the food, only to be sent sprawling again.
“No! Bad noise, no noise. Bad Dekani!”
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The faint light of dawn woke the woman. Dekani was unsure, and her senses couldn’t detect Nakomii. Remembering what she had thought he had gone off to do, Dekani wasn’t sure anymore. It was something that had happened in the night, and she remembered it. It was clearer then some of her other memories.
And she had a suspition as to why Nakomii had left all of a sudden. After all, why would he want to be near a pest?
Feeling sorry for herself, Dekani got to her feet and walked towards a game trail. Now she would never be able to tell Nakomii her name, just when she remembered it too.
