Ashsib and the Cat Beast

Chapter Three

Swearing a blue streak, Ashib scowled at an inch-long sliver stuck in his thumb.

"Be careful, Ash, that crate is falling apart." Calder said belatedly.

"Thanks." Ashsib sarcastically responded.

"You got a problem with my leadership, Ashsib?" Calder asked, lifting an eyebrow.

"No, sir. Thank you for the warning, sir." Ashsib immediately became complacent before it turned into something more distracting.

Calder gave a disappointed cluck, clearly hoping to pick a fight. Things were too simple for him, meaning, it had been quiet all day. Time spent sorting was woefully boring.

"Where did fun Ash go, anyway?" Vel said as he passed by, a crate in his large arms as if it were light as air. A smirk quirked the droopy side of his mouth.

Ashsib ignored him, pretending he didn't know what the other man was asking.

"Confident Ashsib, yes, I miss him." Calder joined in. The two didn't fight if they were making fun of someone else. Ashsib their usual target.

"Manly Ashsib."

"Brassy Ashsib."

"What the hell does brassy mean?"

"Read a book once in a while, oaf."

"Stuff it, Red."

"You know I hate being called that, Scarface!"

"Why you!"

Well, it stopped them for a little while, anyway. Ashsib pulled the splinter from his finger with a hiss, blood welling up from the puncture. He'd have to have Elian disinfect it. Truthfully, the Ashsib of the past would have cried from such a wound. That Ashsib wouldn't even have been down in the hold helping lift things in the first place. Being superhuman had changed that, and even when the Beast was purged from him, Ashsib had experienced too much to go back completely. Some habits were harder to change, however, and he hated to be so cowardly, but his mind found it easiest to just work as it always had. Vel was right, he was falling quickly into old ways.

"Ashsib." Vel broke through his brooding, "You're dripping, bud."

"Ah?" Ashsib, almost dazed from being deep in his own self-loathing, looked at his hand. The red was nearly down to his elbow and soaking into his shirt. "Ah! Ah! Ah!" He jumped up and rushed away, "Ahhh!"

"Hey, that's not the crate I asked for." Calder said, unmoved by Ashsib's hasty retreat.

"Yes it is, you said the one with the double brand." Vel argued, "This one has a double brand."

"Listen here, you drunk-" Calder started.

"That's it." Vel tossed the crate aside and the fight began in earnest. Without anyone near to mitigate their bout, neither would hold back.

~~~

"Elian, I need a bandage." Ashsib called at the clinic door.

"Making multiple visits a day a habit, Ash?" Elian said as a greeting.

"No." Ashsib answered, dead serious. He'd had enough of that in the last two weeks. The bandages were just starting to recede and the scabs on his face were finally turning to white scar tissue. "I got a splinter."

"Come here." Elian grabbed a bottle of disinfectant and a cotton swab. Both conveniently placed so the doctor didn't have to get up from his chair to reach them. "Namere isn't here." He added.

Caught craning his neck to see behind the privacy curtain, Ashsib bashfully shuffled forward and presented his thumb.

"Never came after I sent you." Elian cleaned and bound the wound in a matter of seconds. "Get back to work."

Ashsib slunk back to the hold.

~~~

Settling down to dinner was the only time the full crew was together again that first day of landing. The added guest chair remained empty.

"Why did I make a portion for Namere, then?" Challah, cotton candy hair freshly pinked at the shop earlier in the afternoon, demanded. "If everyone knew she wasn't on the ship? Just because I'm in the kitchen nobody tells me anything!"

"Now, Challah, you know that's not true." Quinn assured her. He knew best how much she feared being ostracized. Her birth island had turned their backs on her, even her blood relatives, so it hurt her when her crewmates left her out. "It's been busy. I only spoke with Elian once and forgot about it until now."

"Besides, the food won't go to waste." Bretta indicated Vel with her fork. The man was already halfway through Namere's portion.

Challah smacked the back of Vel's hand with a ladle.

"What? She's not here." Vel said, brassy.

"She knows we plan to leave in two days, she'll return." Quinn shrugged, "Or we'll leave without her."

"I wonder if something drove her off the boat?" Calder idly pondered, "Not that she doesn't have plenty to brood over, but she seems to be keeping to herself even more since Tarssis."

"You think she found out we've been sneaking sedatives into her food?" Elian asked Challah.

"Wha?" Vel said through another mouthful.

"No, she asked me to stop that days ago." Challah shook her head, a frown on her face.

"Ashsib?" Faces turned.

"Huh?" Caught off guard, Ashsib gaped. He'd swallowed his food first, at least.

"Namere." Calder said, "Have any ideas?"

"Why would I? I can't understand that woman." Ashsib said bitterly.

"Even another Beastperson doesn't know, it's impossible for the rest of us." Quinn declared.

Talk turned to more mundane topics and Ashsib got up from the galley table, his appetite dried up, and went for some fresh air. The deck was awash in the gold and red sunset, the evening breeze cool. He had become the Namere expert on the boat, but he did not feel like one. She spoke more with Elian and Quinn than she did him.

Once the sun had finished setting, Ashib headed back below decks to his cabin quarters. His was in the back of the starboard side of the long hallway, but not the last. Namere occupied the last bed cabin in the row, one of two empty cabins kept clear for passengers. Ashsib tumbled into his hammock bed and slowly rocked as he thought about what he did know about Namere vanLanterrion.

By all appearances, she was a pleasant woman with a quiet demeanor. Of course, with Namere, appearances were deceiving. She was raised as a warrior, rose to a Special Forces Peace Officer in only fifteen years of service, and could turn into a catperson thanks to the same taint that Ashsib suffered from. She was also heavily wounded, which made it all the stranger that she disembarked the ship without saying anything.

Ashsib rolled over, restless, it wasn't a good line of thought to try and fall asleep to. In two days they were going to start heading to Namere's homeland. Edyunnen was where the secret to their purification was hidden. Maybe she was as anxious as Ashsib was to arrive.

Maybe she dreaded it like he did, too.