Mother of Stars

Rediscovery - Connor

I cradled Neila's head against my chest as I ducked through the entrance back into the night. Having seen more of her abilities, I held her more tenderly. Wouldn't want to accidentally injure her and have her flip out on me.

And in that moment, I realized there was another reason. I felt for her now more than before. With each episode of her outbursts, it hurt me to see just how far she'd fallen. To go from happy-go-lucky joy to pure despair in under an hour, especially from someone who'd never before wavered from the former state. Nobody deserved that, no matter how annoying they were before.

Ambient starlight outlined Griff's angled form in the middle of the road. He held up a hand. "Stop."

I froze, convinced by the urgency in his voice. "Wha—"

"Sssh," he snapped, holding still while staring at the ground. He was listening for something. "Can you hear it?"

I perked my ears up and waited a few seconds. "Nothing except for maybe the distant wind?"

"Increase the sensitivity."

The background noise from the night grew louder just as I thought about increasing my hearing sensitivity. At first, there was nothing noticeably different. Then, there were slight, irregular oscillations that seemed to emanate from the rock town. The more I listened, the clearer the noise became. It was ragged, nervous breathing.

I turned my head to follow the sound somewhere in the northern half of the town. Griff stalked in that direction with his blade at the ready. His feet made absolutely no noise on the sand. I activated my acoustic camouflage and kept pace behind him.

The hidden creature was still difficult to locate despite our ability to hear its breathing. It was as subtle as the sound of wind in a forest. I thought it stopped several times, but I realized Neila's breath was throwing me off a bit. I relied on Griff to make the correct calls on which streets to take.

He slowed near an unremarkable boulder home. His armor rippled as its scales camouflaged in tune with the little detail that could be discerned in the dark. Judging from the color distortions on his scales, I wasn't the target for the camouflage. It was for whoever lurked in the boulder home toward which he leaned his head.

"Interesting," he mused.

I tip-toed as softly as my digitigrade legs allowed me; I still didn't quite trust the acoustic camouflage to do the stealth job. Griff pulled his head back and put the back of his hand on my shoulder.

"Here's the plan. You try to talk to it and make it understand we're not going to hurt it. Then ask where it's from. Maybe it'll be willing to show us."

"Why don't you want to talk to it?" I asked.

"You don't look nearly as intimidating," he admitted with a shrug. "Mostly because of the mane."

I snorted, which fortunately came out silent. "Are you saying I'm cute?"

He shook his head once in confusion. "No, where the hell'd you get that idea?"

"Nowhere." I rolled my eyes. My heart ached again. If Neval had been here, he would've definitely given his essay of an explanation as to why he gave me a mane in the first place. It was indeed to look less intimidating. Though, now that I thought about it, it could be an advantage to get any potential opponents to underestimate me.

I held out Neila to Griff. "You're going to have to hold her, then."

His head bobbed up and down slightly as he looked from Neila to me and back again several times. He slumped his shoulders. "Alright, fine."