Raven Tide

8: Patch🔥(Chyani)

Was someone singing?

I stepped out into Venom Heart's central hallway still groggy from sleeping in. It had been two days since we escaped the Iddril and we were still another day away from the nearest jump point.

A deep sultry voice serpentined throughout the metal corridors. It was a strange hypnotic melody composed of smooth rolling clicks and inhuman overlapping octaves.

It was Raven Tide singing in the med bay.

Was there such a thing as a male siren? If there was, I understood why sailors were mesmerized.

He spun and smiled with his rows of fangs exposed as I entered.

It was hard to imagine that only forty-eight hours ago he was a bloody mess on the floor, instructing me on triage before I hoisted him onto a hover lift and dumped him into a giant tube in the med bay filled with glowing yellow ooze.

He was light on his gigantic lizard feet and stripped of his armor, excluding his gauntlet and loincloth.

"I see you're feeling better," I stepped closer when he raised my hand in the air, bidding me to dance with him.

His movements and pitch were perfectly timed. I couldn't help but join him and giggle when the tips of the little white tendrils on the sides of his face, that he referred to as touch-quills, tickled my cheeks.

"Yes!" Raven Tide switched his tune into my language. "I have eaten and showered. Are you hungry? There are boiled eggs."

"A little but I have trouble eating first thing."

It was peculiar seeing this side of him. He mentioned razkurs had a connection with sound, but I had no idea he was capable of being this lively.

What was it like being raised by, what I imagine, were two very different species?

He continued singing and spun me around him. It was like he was made of pure whirling light.

Once, when I was nineteen, I hooked up with a lead singer in a punk band. Not my usual. I discovered why groupies go wild and what the advantages were of having a partner with good rhythm.

Of course, the next morning I found out he was lying about his age and being single. Jerk turned out to be forty and married with three kids. Some pleasantries can only be enjoyed briefly and in the moment.

Raven Tide pulled me tight and twirled me loose, then he turned to something he had been tinkering with on the counter.

"Do you eat eggs, shells and all, too?" I panted, catching my breath.

"Yes," he returned to me and settled down. "Zhaguai like meat. Razkurs eat bones."

He chomped at me playfully a few times in the air.

"I see," I straightened out with a deep exhale. "The best of both worlds."

"Definitely," Raven Tide chittered, then he touched the end of my crimped right arm.

"I don't have anything onboard compatible with your tech to make repairs," His voice was calm, sincere, and without pity. "But it could easily be remade on my homeworld, Sahei. However, we're not heading there right now."

"It's alright, it was a fair trade," I patted his arm. "Those plugs needed to be pulled, and I needed to stop the gears. No real harm was done. Sure, it's a little frustrating not having my dominant hand, but I know how to get by without it. "

"There's another option," Raven Tide held up a fist-sized octagon cylinder. "It's a Regeneration Coil. It's specially designed for regenerating limbs. We've tested it on razkurs and a few other species. It works. I just have to dial down the speed."