Rain Glittering on Red Horns - Ch. 03
Recrimination Squeezing the Chest.
“YOU SPEAK COMMON?!” Miyaka stammered looking at the giant alien in front of her. ‘Ah shit, that was rude,’ working in a shop long enough always puts that recoil and guilt about just showing surprise to someone new. As though you expected less of them, bad for business, and she’d been pulled aside enough times over it to really work on herself. She wanted to let the moment sit in silence, tumble the too many thoughts in her head, but her host seemed to have no inclination to let any of that happen.
“Is common what you call ‘storm talk’? I’ll have you know I did very okay-ish-ly in school,” Beril made a wide all too proud grin at her deflecting earnest humor. She let the moment sit maybe a few seconds too long but then slipped into a comfortable soft smile, as a child finding an animal coming back to health with relief.
“I’m just relieved you are doing well little one. Please I made lots of tasty warm food, let's eat and you can tell me all about the world of the little folk, you’re from outside the forest right? It’s wonderful we speak the same language. I don’t have many stories about the galaxy but I have seen illustrations of so many different cultures and species, without much text to describe them.”
Beril interrupted herself as she excitedly grabbed a cheese croissant the size of a car and shoved it in her mouth with an audible ‘aumf’ and an excited smile as she swallowed. “No matter how many times you bake the same dish, a meal cooked with heart always tastes as sweet as the first time one had it,” she thought out loud to herself, tapping her sternum in pride with her free hand. She excitedly took another large bite from her selection and let the crumbs dance on her glowing cheeks.
“Mff–shorry–ffmm...ahem…so yeah you’re from outside right? We have books about the outside world, but not as much as I’d wish. Most are still in the special sections of the library and I think you have to be a big brainiac to get those, I dunno.” Beril made a gesture swirling her gargantuan hands on either side of her head, the motion seemed dizzyingly terrifying and adorable to Miyaka. “I’ve never seen one of you alive so this is kind of exciti…scratch that last part…let's just eat. You need your health! Look, look!” Beril gestured emphatically at the tiny dishes around Miyaka, and folded her hands under her chin excited to see which one the small the creature would pick first.
“I uhhh…yeah okay let’s eat…yeah” Miyaka bunched up the makeshift pillows behind her with her good arm to make it easier to sit up, and looked at the array to choose from in front of her, trying to forget that part about her host only seeing dead aliens before. Somehow this giant had the dexterity to make a set of ‘miniature’ flaky and soft desires almost as well as she would see at the local coffee shop. At a cursory glance the thicknesses were off, and they looked lumpier than the 2nd-batch fresh donuts she picked up on her way home from work every Friday. But the warmth and the smells were overpowering her.
‘Sweet…or maybe savory? What to choose first? What’s healthie…oh fuck it’, grabbing a sharp cheese filled biscuit of some sort and a thin pastry drizzled in chocolates and spices in each hand, she just started to bite into each, as Beril’s smile slowly grew from gentle to excited off to the side. There were few feelings as powerfully uplifting as seeing someone uncontrollably bite into the meal you made for them.
The silence stretched on, as the simple conversation of eating warm food in good company washed over the table. Both of the women simply focussed on enjoying the plates in front of them, and glancing at the comfort and warmth of one another’s faces. Though Miyaka still wore deep worry under her expressions, she let herself soak in the moment, giving her body more of her strength to recover.
Eventually Beril’s plates were left next to spotless, with some fist sized crumbs strewn about, while Miyaka’s were still covered in food. Some of the dishes were half eaten, some with just bites or experimental nibbles taken. None of it was bad by any means, but she simply didn’t have the appetite to finish even a regular meal’s worth of food.
Miyaka’s stomach felt full but not overwhelmed, as she slid forwards and sank into the cushion of the bed that had been set up for her. As she did, she let her eyes wander up to the ceiling. She started to pick out the natural cavern rock from the parts that had been carved back with smooth clean precision. The space was left as natural as could be to suit the giant’s needs. ‘Was it an aesthetic choice? Or part of her culture?’ Miyaka thought to herself, thinking to her own domiciles growing up and in adulthood.
Large wire cable clusters, some more organized than others, were mounted to the ceiling and walls, as well as a few pipes a few feet wide. As her pointed ears flicked she noticed no running water flowing through them at the moment. Large translucent tubes of lighting laced throughout the ceiling, giving off an even and soft comfortable lighting. Everything around her became just a normal curiosity, like walking into an acquaintance's home for the first time, despite the scale of it all.
“Well, that was a riveting conversation wasn’t it?” Beril smiled cheekily at her small guest. Miyaka stirred slightly, getting up to respond ,but Beril just gently extended a warm open palm towards her and shook her head side to side. “Don’t worry, I know guests often want to help with the dishes, out here at least, but I’d rather you not use your arms and legs on my plates just yet…given your scratched up condition of course.”
Miyaka’s face flushed slightly, taking a ding to her pride, “My condition?! I’ll show you my fucking conditio…ffffff” She sucked in as she hurt herself again. “Yeah..yeah I’m an idiot…okay, thanks for clearing my place.” Her eyes half closed as her head sank back again into her pillow.
Beril gathered up her plates gently, not wanting to make too much noise, and brought them to the kitchen. Miyaka’s eyes couldn’t help but be drawn to the process. There was something about the gentle and deliberate way the giant’s hands moved that was fascinating. It was like industrial robot arms getting to work carefully and speedily moving massive heavy parts on and off of a starship in maintenance hangars. The comparison may have just been a way for her brain to help her process what was happening, but the odd familiarity did give her a sense of comfort as well. Everything around her was so out of place, out of mind, and out of scale.
Of course, when the giant stood up and made her way towards the kitchen, Miyaka couldn’t help but notice the physique of the back of the giant. Under the dangling soft white hair pulled back into a puffy ponytail, the round shapes of her powerful muscles were easily visible, as well as along the back of their arms. Her skin was blueish grey, with a sparkling quality to it, like precious metals glimmering on the stone walls of a quarry. She was wearing thick heavily padded pants with fur lining and plenty of straps ready to mount any manner of equipment to. An odd technological device poked out of a pocket or hooked onto a fastener here and there, and honestly it looked like the sort of outfit you’d see among any myriad of aliens throughout the galaxy. Of course there were distinguishing cuts, patterns, and decorations that must be specific to her people blended through the outfit, but otherwise it felt so oddly ‘normal’.
When Miyaka felt her cheeks flush slightly, she just started to pull the blankets over herself even further in embarrassment. ‘Wait..speaking of clothing…’ Miyaka thought to herself. She realized she didn’t have hers on, her wounds were bandaged but…’OH ANCESTORS SHE SAW ME NAKED?!’ The realization, along with her recognizing latent attraction to the giant’s physique made her already red face start to flush even more as her wide eyes felt themself trying to look anywhere the giant would not be. It was a futile effort when the shadow of the object of her thought entered her view after returning to the table.
“Oh no, are you having a reaction to the food? Do you need more water? Was any of this harmful?” Beril leaned in with concern, her neck craning towards Miyaka as her head tilted to inspect every angle of her face. The giant’s eyes had both the introspection of a caring adult, and the analytical movements of a pedator gathering data on its quarry. It was as unnerving as it was assuring. Her soft white hair drifted by with a rush of air as her massive hand darted forwards to quickly pull it back to avoid smothering the red girl in it. ‘Shit, come on Miyaka, say something, any thing’ the tiefling-oni thought to herself.
“Uh no, I’m fine, I just..look nevermind…I just realized, I was thinking about. Where are my clothes? I was wearing clothes right? My pilot suit…” Miyaka gestured with her left arm up and down her body, trying to signal she was covered head to toe essentially. “It’s dark blue, lots of wires like you have around this room…oh and a vest! white.”
Berril smiled and pulled a small box out from under the table, she had carefully and neatly laid out the ripped pilot suit and gear as best she could. Miyaka noticed some of the larger rips were even sewn up with thread the thickness of rope. It was like a parent repairing their child’s doll clothes. It was humiliating feeling so diminutive, she was short for her species already but it felt so magnified in this situation. “So…you saw me uhhh…you know”
“Oh don’t worry, I just had to undress you to check you for damage! You were breathing pretty rough when I found you…and your clothing was pretty wet with rain and blood.” Beril found herself scratching the back of her head idly. “I mean I kinda assumed you were a person and didn’t wanna do anything untowards…but..I…uh. Anyways, luckily the scanner found most everything to be heavy bruising, scrapes and cuts, easier to clean and cover and mend. No bones or organs were broken as far as it could tell.”
Miyaka started to poke and prod her arms and legs more actively with the tips of her fingers. She was relieved to have external validation of her condition, but hearing that set off some instinct to feel things out all over again. “Well, it feels a bit weird meeting someone this way, but thanks anyways. I guess it’s not the first time I’ve woken up confused and mostly naked in someone’s home…but usually I at least knew them a little beforehand.” Miyaka chuckled to herself slightly, bringing up a fit of coughs. “And whatever you did, you definitely did right. I don’t think anyone in my town could have patched up someone like me with an industrial mech, I mean those are some pretty big hands for someone like me.”
Beril looked down at her fingers and flexed them a bit, then smiled proudly. “I am pretty good aren’t I?” Beril nodded smugly, “well, uhm, you should be feeling totally fine in a few days or weeks, but you won’t be running around on a hunt any time soon.”
Miyaka turned the thought over in her head, ‘days..weeks..time…TIME! That’s right, something bad just happened, was happening, to her home.’ Her hands leapt to her face and she started breathing rapidly. ‘Oh no I need to get back home! I need to know if everyone is okay!’
“Wh…what’s wrong, did I say something?” Beril’s face shifted from smug accomplishment to familial concern. The words barely registered to Miyaka though as static flooded her mind and hearing in an uncontrolled rush.
The door to the locked memories of her mind opened slightly. In her mind's eye she reached out with both hands and pulled the doors apart letting in a rush of bright light. She blinked, blinded by pure white, and then she saw it, a battle. Smoke, screams, fire, the heavy bass tones of large kinetic weapons detonating and vibrating the world around them. She had no idea why Lion’s End would be attacked, what did they have that anyone would want? It was just another pit stop in a big galaxy.
She was rushing back to the locker room, ripping off her coveralls and pulling on piloting gear. The ceiling shook overhead as she zipped up the vest over her chest and pressed a button to activate its sensor package. She ran over to one of the shop’s two power-suits and pressed her back against it as she pulled her boots back on. It was large and built for daily and emergency use for ship repair. It even included flight and hover units for working on larger vessels without needing a crane system accessible, giving it plenty of maneuverability.
At least River wasn’t in today, she was off at her husband’s mech shop for a parts delivery. She hoped the goblins were okay, the shop was a short hop outside of the town, easier to experiment with the big walkers without traffic or houses outside the hangar doors. Honestly, if he had any functional ones in his hangar, and a pilot, maybe they would be safe.
Her thoughts flowed back to the power-suit besides her. Remembering to run through system checks on the arms. They were set with industrial reconfigurable manipulators able to tear apart most spacecraft panel by panel. Integrated inside the limbs were laser cutters when force wasn’t enough. The charge for the cutters was pretty limited when the suit wasn’t directly plugged into a larger power supply, but they’d add plenty of extra threat as needed.
After mounting up and marching the mini mech outside onto the landing pad, she checked the views from the cockpit window and her onboard camera displays. There was a large warship overhead with fighters and light mechs spilling out from every hangar opening. She could feel paralyzing fear flowing like a river through her limbs as she did her best to fight off the emotion, ‘come on Miyaka, they’re fucking with your friends! You’re not gonna let them get away with it are you?’
The small garrison for the outpost, mostly retired pirates, mercenaries, and soldiers, were engaging as well as they could, but it was an obvious lost cause. Their ships were being swatted from the sky, or grabbed by the warship’s tractor array. Town guards on the streets tried to focus mostly on getting civilians to safety, but professional soldiers and light mechs were quickly overwhelming and subduing them.
A wing of the invader’s fighters shrieked by her and she saw that cursed emblem printed on their wings, the white star wreath around a downward pointed sword, The Republic was here. Some hypocrites they were, an empire more like it, but what’s in a name. They stained the words of freedom and claimed them as their own above all others. ‘That doesn’t matter, why are they here?’ Miyaka thought as she gritted her teeth hard.
There were clouds of smoke, flashes of light from ship lasers, some seemed concentrated, others random like they were trying to cause chaos. She remembered that she needed to fight. Miyaka took to the roof of the shop with a short burst from the back of the power suit’s thrusters and waited for her moment to strike. Inputting her intent into the machine it waited for an enemy fighter to get close enough overhead and then leapt to the sky grabbing on with the manipulators as the laser cutters engaged.
The memories here swirled as the sound of them cut in and out rapidly like turning a faucet on and off in the kitchen. The fighter was spinning, trying to shake her loose, as her arms and legs frantically pushed controls to pummel it with the power-suit. Something happened and the fighter’s engines went to full blast while its guidance systems failed. Did she try to drop off? she must have, she thought, but something happened in the struggle and she ended up out here, so far away.
“Hey, hey!” she could hear the giant’s voice blending back in, mixing with her stuttering dreamy memories. She couldn’t quite pick out what her rescuer was saying, it sounded distorted through water she was still swimming up through in her mind. The tone got more worried and she could hear it breaking through her thoughts fully. She realized she was bent over forwards, breathing in short rapid succession. Beril was maintaining distance as well as she could, but concern was carved into her face like a statue into a mountainside. “Little one, please take a pause,” she tried to whisper soothingly, and it broke through.
Miyaka held her breath for a moment and let her heart relax again, thumping proudly in her chest. She had to get back home, she had to get back to Lion’s End outpost. She knew what she needed to do, where she needed to be. She looked up at the giant, Beril pulled back slightly at the intimidating fire in Miyaka’s small piercing violet eyes. When the giant looked at the certainty in that face it almost felt like the tiny thing was as big as her, larger even.
As Beril’s eyes quivered, Miyaka shouted in piercing clarity upwards, her body was damaged, she couldn’t do this alone, she had to take a gamble. While holding her left hand over her chest, “my name is Miyaka Dragonstail, I am from the outpost of Lion’s End, my friends are under attack right now and I need your help to bring me back to them!”
It was another one of those short but endlessly deep silences. Beril could hear the heavy breathing from Miyaka in front of her cutting through it like a sword wreathed in fire. Such tiny breaths, but that must have taken so much out of the little thi…of Miyaka.
It was a call to action, Beril felt energy spiking through her blood, blazing through her body. It was like the heroic stories in her books, fables and legends though they may be. Her life was methodical, patient, relishing in the fight but in no way sporadic. There was so much to consider for her, saying goodbye to friends and family, planning the route, knowing what the fight was, who even was being attacked…
Her thoughts stopped, cut off by something in her heart, something at the core of who she was. She stood up from her stool by the table suddenly. Beril walked to the wall and strapped on some bags, holstered an array of her weapons.
She grabbed a data pad from beside her bed and stared at the screen, there were words in her heart, words of departure that had in truth always been there. She punched them into the tablet, silently and methodically, a short message she knew the people closest to her would understand. Her heart fluttered and she stared into the middle distance as she grabbed her club, her thumb gently brushing back and forth several times over the power switch. She had this one moment to stop her moment, her landslide of emotions could still be held back briefly. She could stay here, safe, she could make sure Miyaka was safe, regardless of what was happening to her people. The forever storm would always protect them in their sacred refuge.
She turned to look back down at Miyaka, her face wasn’t even pleading. Miyaka was going to run to rescue her people regardless of what Beril chose in this room. Beril realized was already in the fight, it had come to her. There were no weeks of stalking and preparation, the hunt was already in its final stage. She was in it, she could feel it.
“My name is Beril Three-Six, and I will help you save your people Miyaka.”
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