Ortai Legacy: Arrival

9.3 - Arka Shortage (L)

After throwing on a cloak, I tentatively went outside. At a glance, I realized that finding Cadmus would be much more difficult than Mar'kost likely assumed. There were a lot of scalewings working around the ranch, and quite a few were crimson. I'd only briefly seen Cadmus a few times, and I wasn't good with human faces, much less alien ones. Even if I'd had a photo of him, I doubted I could've identified him without a lot of staring.

It was a good thing my graxi had retreated at the prospect of sunlight, because I was definitely going to have to ask for directions. I hesitantly approached the nearest circle pen, where a shirtless cream-colored scalewing with a slender figure was raking the sand. His wing membranes and back were the same orangey brown. He didn't have horns; did that mean he was younger than Cadmus?

He was facing away from me, but it wasn't like he had earphones in or anything. If I just called out, he would turn around. Then I would undoubtedly have to explain why I looked like a walking human sculpture.

Maybe I could just talk with my hood down and avoid needing to explain my appearance. Only, I already looked like a total creep walking around in the middle of summer in a full-body hooded cloak. If I refused to show my face as well, no one would talk to me. They might even call the Enforcers on me.

I needed to be friendly and confident enough to seem like I belonged here. If I said I was Cadmus's house guest, they wouldn't be afraid of me, right? Unless they didn't believe me. In that case, claiming to be his house guest might make things worse. They could assume I had bad intentions toward Cadmus. Hopefully, they weren't overprotective of their boss. They shouldn't be; I wasn't intimidating in size, stature, or armament.

The cream-colored scalewing half-turned, caught sight of me, and shrieked. He jumped back, clutching his orangey-brown chest.

"Sorry..." My voice was too faint; he probably couldn't even hear me from across the pen. I took a quick breath and tried again. "Sorry for scaring you, sir. I'm looking for Cadmus. Have you seen him?"

Annoyance replaced fear in his expression. "Who are you, mammal?" His voice was relatively higher pitch than I would've expected.

"M-mammal?" How had I outed myself so quickly? I'd barely even said anything.

"Don't play dumb." He approached me with his rake held like a weapon. "Who are you, and what do you want with Mr. Greyer? You here to curse him?"

"Huh?" I couldn't even begin to imagine where he'd gotten that idea. "I just-"

"Hey," someone called, making us both jump. It was a red scalewing of Cadmus's approximate size and build. His voice sounded similar too, but a shout like that wasn't really a good comparison. Luckily, he came close enough to have a proper conversation.

"This funny-looking mammal-" The yellow scalewing spoke the same way I might when referring to a cockroach. "-came looking for you. Betcha she's here to curse the hatchlings."

The red scalewing chuckled. "Eh.... she's a guest." He definitely sounded like Cadmus. "Excuse us." He ushered me away from the other scalewing, who quickly tried to apologize. Once we were out of earshot, he stopped. "Whatcha need?"

It occurred to me that this might be a relative of Cadmus—or a completely unrelated scalewing—who'd been told about the presence of a guest but nothing else. As awkward as it was to confirm his identity, it wouldn't be as bad as being arrested as a supposed shifter. And he might assume I couldn't see his face while wearing my hood low, so my question would be reasonable.

"Are you Cadmus Greyer?"

"That I am." He cleared his throat. "I noticed yesterday, you can't see too good, can ya?"