-Chapter VII-

Finally Getting Somewhere

Awareness comes back to me like a slap to the face.

The first things that I see when I wake up is the sky, now with more clouds, and, well, Sky. She is looking down at me with what I have figured out is the equivalent of a smile for Kobolds. The back of her mouth is open a bit and showing canines while her yellow eyes are absolutely glowing. Soon she is just saying my name over and over again as she pets my head with one hand. I am apparently resting my head on her lap? Huh, first time I’ve ever gotten a lap pillow from anyone other than my mom, which obviously doesn’t count.

I try to sit up, to figure out what the hell is going on. I was just in the middle of fighting a freaking huge bear, wasn’t I?

As I try to sit up, a splitting headache tears through my skull like a badger on meth. Grabbing my head, I immediately lie back down. “Ooooouuchhhh, ah what the hell!? How hard did that damn thing hit me?”

Above me, Sky is panicking a bit and saying my name. She still doesn’t know how to ask if I am ok or hurt. Giving her a pat, I try to calm her down, she’s adorable but saying my name over and over again is just making the headache worse.

“Sky, it's alright calm down please. Here… ‘Are you ok?’ try saying that for me. Please? ‘Are you ok?’” I ask her. Maybe a bit of language practice will help her calm down a bit.

She tilts her head about, the gears in that smart little head of hers turning as she figures out what I’m saying, slowly she asks, “Are you ok?” She thinks a bit more, “Lain, are you ok?”

I give her a big smile despite wanting nothing more than to try and chase my headache away with an ungodly number of curses. Responding, I say, “I will be ok. My head just hurts.” Pointing to my head I repeat, “Hurts.”

She watches me, and pets my head where I pointed, “Lain hurts…”

I pat her hand where it is petting me and tell her thank you. Closing my eyes, I wait for the splitting headache to calm down as she keeps gently petting my head.

My headache slowly starts to wear away, not disappearing as that would just be too nice of it, but eventually it wears down to a manageable level. What the hell, I thought I was supposed to have a weird healing factor or something, does that not apply to migraines?

With my headache reduced to a more manageable level, I slowly get up from Sky’s lap. Being extra careful not to move to fast and make it worse.

Once I am finally sitting upright, I groggily take a look around. The place is even more of a wreck than it was when we got here. The Humvee looks like someone got pissed while trying to peel open a tin can and parts of the road have been reduced to rubble. Some trees have fallen, and there is a car sitting in the field with its rear end stinking up, its front is crumbled and partially buried in the ground.

Not too far from us is the bear, its lying dead on its side. I was a bit shocked when I saw it laying there, but honestly, Sky and I are still alive, so it only makes sense that the bear would either be gone or dead. I can’t help but ask it, “The hell happened to you mate?” But I don’t think it’s going to respond.

Lastly, I direct my attention to my little friend, she not looking good. Her arm is hanging limply at her side as she holds it, and she is looking utterly exhausted. I ask her, “Sky, are you ok?

She shakes her head and whimpers, she shakes and points to her arm, “Hurt…” She looks down and her shaking increases. I reach out to touch her, but she pulls back. Is she worried about something?

Her shoulder looks like it’s dislocated, I should be able set it for her pretty easily. I reach out for her, and she pulls away from me again. What the hell? Wait, I think I get it. Kobolds are basically in their tribal stage still, aren’t they? Hell, I don’t even know if they live in villages or a hole in the ground, but I can’t imagine that they have very much medical knowledge. It could be that a Kobold with a busted arm will usually become crippled. Is she worried that I’m going to leave her behind?

“Sky, let me look at your arm.” I reach for her, but she pulls away again, her shaking increases.

Damn this language barrier!

I decide that if I am going to fix this, I am going to have to be a bit forceful. “Sky!” I call to her with a bit of anger mixed in, she flinches and looks at me. Before she can recover, I reach over and grab her. She seems startled like she wants to run away, but I force her to sit still, giving her a light bonk on the head when she tries to stand up. “No!”

Moving my tail, I wrap it around her side and then grab its end. Taking hold of her mouth, I force it open, revealing a mouth full of sharp little canines with some molars in the back. Taking my tail, I force it between her teeth and clamp her mouth down on it; I don’t want her to bite her tongue off.

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Before she can even think to spit my tail out of her mouth, I grab her by the shoulder and her arm. With a quick pull I yank the arm out some and give it a push. With the sound of bone moving over bone and a satisfying pop, the bone slides back into place. She gives a muffled scream as she bites down as hard as she can on my tail. I can feel her canines try and fail to pierce though the flesh of my tail as she screams.

Utterly exhausted, she falls over and lands face first against my chest, for a while she just lays there breathing heavily. I pull my tail from her mouth and let her rest as I run my hand down her back, both to pet her and to check if I can feel for any areas that are obviously damaged.

As she starts to get herself back under control, I move behind her and lightly massage her shoulders and back. She must have gotten thrown around and hit a wall or something. Looking at the wreckage of the Humvee, that starts to look like it is quite likely what had happened.

Slowly her shaking stops, and soon she is melting under my hands. Giving happy chirping noises and there is a quiet gurgling noise that seem to be coming from deep in her throat. Never heard a Kobold make that noise before… Is it supposed to be like a cat purring or something? Such a weird little race of people. They look like a dog and a lizard mixed, stand and move like humans with hands like ours, they sound like birds, and now they can apparently purr like a big cat? Oh, my goodness! They’re like platypuses, an adorable little amalgamation of nature!

Wait does that mean they lay eggs? I mean… they are sort of reptilian in some ways. But they definitely lean more towards mammalian. Although, platypus…

Not important! Focus Lain, get your ADD under control!

As I was getting lost in my own head, Sky was busy progressing her evolutionary stage from Kobold into a Relaxed Little Puddle of Pleasure. She’s already laying chest down on the ground with her limbs splayed about uselessly, her tongue is hanging out the side of her open mouth and her eyes are glazed over like a stoner high off their ass.

I have to stop myself from laughing, mostly because it would make my head hurt, as she almost looks like a bunch of bread dough being kneaded by a baker. Chuck her in the oven and I’ll have a loaf of Kobold Bread.

Now, with my little companion hopefully feeling less stressed, I give her a poke on the nose and wake her up. She blinks her eyes, and soon the little puddle on the ground is back to being a platypus, I mean Kobold!

Sitting up, she looks around and tries moving her arms. She marvels at the fact that she can move it now but winces as she does so. She is probable still sore, but that should heal with time. Looking back to me, she calls my name and then throws herself onto my chest.

I wrap her up in a big hug and tell her, “I told you that I won’t leave you behind. Even if you get injured or crippled, I will still keep you with me. You don’t have to worry.”

She shakes a bit as she nuzzles herself against my naked chest. Which is something that I have been fighting to ignore since waking up. Why the hell am I naked!?

Looking down at myself, I see nothing but blood-stained grey skin and a few loose scraps of my poor clothing desperately fighting to cover my body and failing utterly at it. The only part of my outfit that remains in decent shape is my leather belt that still has some of the poor lifeless remains of my shredded blue jeans hanging from it.

Well, there goes the last of the clothes I brought from home, how the hell did I even end up this way? Wait, didn’t I go through a fucking tree!? That right, when the bear hit me!

Looking down at myself again I try to see if I am injured anywhere, but even after looking all over, I fail to find any cuts or bruises. In all honesty, besides a splitting headache that just doesn’t want to go away, my body feels fine.

All of this blood, is it even mine? It came from the bear didn’t it. Why the hell do I keep ending up getting covered in blood recently!? Is this just going to become my new norm or something? I’m already a little demon, I don’t need to push the image any further by having a weekly blood bath or some shit. I would much prefer to be normal, thank you!

Silently cursing my fate, I look around the area for my backpack full of clothes. Thank goodness I was able to find so much clothing, it would royally suck if I ended up reduced to having to run around naked… Where is my bag?

…

…..

………..

I stand up, completely ignoring the fresh burst of migraine ripping through my skull and the world fluffiest necklace currently hanging from my neck and looking very surprised, “Where the hell is my bag!?”

With Kobold latched onto me like a Koala, I run around the area and search for my bag.

I almost cry in relief when I find it laying down the hill off the side of the road, just a bit away from the remains of the poor Humvee. It looks like it got a bit thrown around, but everything is intact.

Sighing with relief, I go to retrieve it. The headache I was ignoring in my fright makes itself known again and I have to hold my head as I grab my pack and drag it back up onto the road. Sky gives me a pet on the head from where she is latched onto my chest.

Once I get the pain to calm down a bit and I start to relax from freaking out, I help Sky get down, although she looks disappointed, and then get ready to get dressed. Only I stop as I realize something.

I’m covered in blood, some of it hasn’t even finished drying yet. Anything I put on is going to get ruined. I especially don’t want to ruin any of my underwear, that would horrible.

Looking around I try to find if there is somewhere I can wash off and my eyes find one of the barns off in the distance. Barns got to have a water pump… We can head over there and get washed up first. Then I can get dressed. Besides, the only people around here should be just Sky and myself. I’ll be fine being like this for a little bit. Even if it is embarrassing, I would rather not get blood all over everything.

Giving Sky a little poke, I point towards the barn, “Barn. Come on, let's head over there.”

She looks at the building in the distance and then nods her head, “Barn.”

Dragging my bag behind me to avoid staining it with blood, I head down into the field as Sky follows behind me. Working my way through the tall grass, I try to ignore my nudity. I’ve never been the daring type of person that would be comfortable with walking around like this, let alone being seen.

The only thing keeping me from turning into an embarrassed mess is the fact that it is just me and a Kobold here, and she shouldn’t have any interest in my naked body.

I turn around and catch Sky staring at me before she quickly looks away.

I’m going to ignore that….

Finally arriving at the barn, I kick open the door without a single shit given. I don’t care if there anything living in here, if they get in between me and the water pump I will tear them apart with my bare hands and feed them to Sky!