This chapter has been proof-read by: AnthonyL
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Worried, I quickly put on my equipment and headed in their direction. I eventually arrived at a great vantage point from which I could stealthily observe the intruders from above. “Daughter, please reconsider this. It might be true that it hasn't attacked any of us yet, but there's no way to know for sure what's going through this monster's head. Our best warriors clearly stated that only dragons emanated this much strength. If it decides to attack us, there's nothing we can do to stop it.” Said the man I recognized as the chief, Kuyani's father.
“Stop calling him an 'IT' already dad! Naytuñ is definitely not a dangerous monster. He simply is from a different race of humans birthed from the love of a dragon and a human. Just like the oracle told me when I was still a young girl, Naytuñ is the one I am destined for.” Said Kuyani who was being transported on some kind of rudimentary palanquin, supported by 4 muscular warriors.
Oracle? Birthed from the love of a dragon and a human? What the fuck was she even talking about? Humans and dragons can't crossbreed. Seemed like they had a lot of legends and folklore that dwell on make-belief and storytelling. Anyway, by the look of it, the small father and daughter cortege seemed to be heading straight to my cave, so I assumed that Kuyani wanted to pay me a visit.
“B-but daughter, Urufra the shaman said that we shouldn't go to his lair. Those who do would get their souls sucked away and be condemned to roam the earth as spirits forever.” Worryingly added her father. At his words, the warriors flinched and stopped in their tracks.
“Stop being silly. I've been there before and I am still alive and well. I doubt this old man even knows what he's talking about........ You four, who told you to stop?” Added Kuyani. The four warriors had cold sweats and their legs were visibly shaking but Kuyani showed them no pity.
“Daughter!!” Suddenly yelled the tribe's chief with anger in his eyes. “I know I know, never speak ill of a shaman if you don't want you and your family to be cursed... I know that, but I am speaking the truth.” She then confidently said with determination in her eyes.
Having confirmed that they truly were heading for my cave, I climbed down from my elevated spot and showed myself. “Urgg* UWAaaaaaa!” After spotting me, the four warriors who had been carrying Kuyani's palanquin dropped her to the ground, turned tail and ran away from me as fast as their legs could carry them.
The chief seemed angered by their reaction but simply crouched next to his daughter and used his body to shield her while observing my reaction. “Naytuñ!!” Kuyani eventually broke the awkward silence and tried to stand up while extending her arms toward me.
Wanting to prevent her from injuring her leg again, I quickly walked up to her, tossed her father aside and took her in my arms again. Thinking back on it, I felt like I had spent most of my time carrying her around like a princess than anything else. The young woman then enveloped me in her arms and leaned her head against my chest, showing a level of trust toward me that felt undeserved.
“D-daughter!...” Her father was still on the ground, looking up to us with tears in his eyes as if he was slowly losing his daughter to me. Feeling pity for a father seeing his daughter growing up to become an independent woman, I couldn't help but see myself in his eyes and also think about my baby Rambo.
I knew very well the pain felt by a father seeing his children growing big enough to leave the family nest. Turning my attention back to Kuyani, I noticed that her face-paint was different than usual. She had red and white pointy lines going down her cheeks and something looking like a black number '8' drawn on her forehead.
[Face-paint: Bride]
Crap!... Feeling like things were getting out of hand at first, I eventually decided to ignore it. They probably needed some type of ceremony to make it official and as long as I didn't partake, it didn't matter whether she had a bridal face-paint or not. None of it would matter once I left this place anyway.
Sensing an opportunity to learn more about this world, I decided to invite him to follow us down to my cave. I had a small notepad where I had been writing all the words I had learned so far, and hoped to learn enough to be able to communicate with them, even if it was in a rudimentary way.
As we walked through the jungle, Kuyani kept rubbing her head against my chest and below my chin like an affectionate cat which seemed to irritate her father for some reason. She had talked about an oracle before. Was it really possible for people to be able to see the future? What were the odds for someone to be right about the coming of a red blooded human to this isolated region? Maybe this oracle truly had foreseeing powers.
How could she thrust the words of this oracle so much, going as far as being this affectionate to a 'monster' who she barely knew. I had learned a lot recently, but new questions just kept piling on as I learned more. As we were walking toward my cave, I could have sworn I saw Kuyani glare at her father before he finally decided to speak again.
“I-I need to get back to the village. If the other chiefs learn that we came here without them knowing, they could see this as a serious offence. Sniff* Please take c-care of my precious daughter, oh great draknari-kirishui'shrakum. Sob sob*” Said the man before turning around and heading back to the village on his own.
I was a bit puzzled by his reaction, but Kuyani seemed overjoyed and began to snuggle even more intensely against my body. Was she a cat or something? I couldn't shake this feeling that the most dangerous person here wasn't me but her. She looked like a woman ready to do anything to get what she wanted, and the thing she desired right now seemed to be me.
We eventually arrived at my cave, where the many fish I had caught were still in the process of being smoked. Kuyani closely inspected everything around and seemed restless for some reason. Maybe she had understood that all these preparations meant that I was going to leave soon.
I put her down next to the fire, sat next to her and took my mask off. She was the only one who had seen my face so far and I intended to keep it that way for now. There were so many things I was curious about and wanted to ask her, but I first needed to learn more about their language to be able to do so.
Sitting awkwardly a few feet away from her at first, Kuyani kept subtly decreasing the distance between us by gradually shimmying her way toward me one centimetre at a time. Since she kept wanting to remain glued to me, I couldn't help but start feeling self-conscious about my body odour and decided to go wash up in the river.
I went through my bag, pulled out my axe body soap, deodorant and a bottle of shampoo smelling like mango and other fruits. What? There was nothing wrong with a man enjoying smelling like fruits. What mattered was that I liked the smell and that it was a heck of a lot better than smelling like a gym locker room.
I made a hand gesture for Kuyani to wait where she was, while I went toward an area of the river where she couldn't see me. Once there, I removed my armour and clothing before jumping the the water. The water was so cold that I couldn't stay in it for too long so I quickly began by washing my hair, rinsed myself, then washed my body and rinsed again.
As I was doing so, I could clearly sense Kuyani crawling her way up to me. What was she? A voyeur? I used to think that only men were the type to peek at people washing, but I was apparently wrong when it came to people from this world. I used to be very timid when it came to showing my naked body, but for some reason, I didn't mind it too much if it was her.
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After all, I had seen every inch of her body while she was unconscious so I wasn't really in a position to judge her. She was probably curious to know if I was built like a normal man down there the same way I had been curious about her. Still feeling embarrassed after all, I quickly finished washing myself and hurriedly put on a pair of clean pants.
After doing so, Kuyani's head finally popped out of a nearby bush, then quickly disappeared after realizing that I had noticed her presence there. Only wearing pants and giggling to myself, I went up to her and took her in my arms once again. “You truly are a weird woman. Peeking on me while I take a bath? You little perv. Giggle*”
She remained silent while blushing but suddenly realized something. Sniff sniff* ... Showing a curious expression, the little woman began to sniff my hair and body, then even began to lick my skin energetically. Yep, she was a cat alright. Who would have thought that axe body soap truly had the effect seen in their commercials. “Hihihi* that tickle dammit.”
Being dragged in by her playful mood, I decided to take revenge and tease her a bit by licking her as well. We both began a licking battle and messed around a bit before I eventually began to explain and show her the soap produce I was using. The little woman was fascinated by the vivid colours of the soap bottles and was already trying to use them as hair ornaments.
She then ended up taking her/my shirt off and began to rub her body with the soap. She couldn't be submerged in the water because of her wounds, so I took a clean cloth and helped her wash her body. I obviously avoided her most intimate areas and finished by washing her hair.
We were finally sharing the same delicious smell which seemed to make her very happy. She kept combing her hair with her fingers, seemingly fascinated by how soft it had become. No matter how I looked at her, that little woman seemed to be enjoying herself a lot in my company, and for some reason, so did I. The way she acted around me was still very strange to me.
How could she be so comfortable in the company of a 'monster' like me? Was it because of that oracle she spoke about before? Once she was clean, she went to put her shirt back on, but I stopped her and pulled another clean shirt out of my bag and gave it to her. After cleaning herself, it would have been bad for her to put a dirty shirt back on. This time, it was a red shirt with an Adidas logo printed on it.
She kept looking at her new piece of clothing with fascination in her eyes, not because of the printed logo but because of its colour. She had apparently never seen a piece of fabric with such a vivid red colour. I quickly washed her old shirt and put it up to dry next to the fire.
We then spent the rest of the day messing around and trying to communicate with each other. I would point at certain objects and note the names she gave them on my notepad. The point was to gradually write as many words as possible and make some type of dictionary for me to communicate with them. At the end of a very productive and instructive day, I eventually carried her back to her village before nightfall.
Just like that, an entire week went by in a flash. I no longer needed to go to the village anymore since Kuyani kept coming every morning after that, and would spend the days with me. She ended up teaching me many things during these last days, but mostly taught me how to speak their language. My vocabulary was still very limited, but I had managed to learn the basic words necessary to communicate simple thoughts.
It was finally time for me to consider packing things up and leave, but I wasn't sure how to announce it to Kuyani. After all, she had kept wearing her bride face-paint since that day. There was also the fact that I had grown quite attached to her. Leaving her behind wouldn't be an easy thing to do and I was already dreading the moment I would have say my goodbye to her.
Because of this, I had decided to spend as much quality time with her as I could. Her leg seemed to be doing a lot better now and she could already walk around properly, so it had also became obvious that she didn't need me here anymore. The number of people gathering at the village had also grown exponentially.
The palisade around the village had been extended and now covered the entirety of the sandy area. More than 1500 people were now permanently living there. From the way it looked, all the surrounding tribes had gathered and formed some kind of coalition based around me being there.
Sensing that the longer I stayed there, the more complicated things would become, I had decided to pack my things up and leave in no more than a few days. Because of that, I had spent the day playing on the beach with Kuyani who had now finally learned how to pronounce my name properly.
“Nathan! Look look! Hehehe!” Said Kuyani who proudly displayed her new braided hair. I had braided some strands of her hair with red strings taken from her red shirt, which had apparently made all the other women in the tribe jealous. “Kuyani.pretty.” I laboriously said in her native language.
She blushed, then jumped into my arms to give me a kiss on the cheek. The more I thought about it, the more nervous I became at the idea of telling her that I intended to leave soon. As we were playfully messing around on the beach, something picked up by my sensing ability instantly made me react.
Something was heading straight toward us at an unbelievable speed. One worrying thing about it was that it was coming from the direction of the sea. The most worrying thing was the fact that whatever this thing was, the energy emanated from it was above anything I had came across so far.
Whatever this thing was, it was very fast and was either swimming of flying. For a creature to emanate such strength, it had to be a red blooded creature for sure. Panicking, I grabbed Kuyani in my arms and bolted in the direction of my cave. There, I told the confused Kuyani to hide inside, then grabbed my sniper rifle. Before I could finish preparing myself for the incoming fight, the creature was already upon us.
“ROOOOOOOOOAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!!” The familiar mighty roar of a dragon shook the entire area as the creature flew above us for a few seconds before finally landing right in front of us. “KYAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!” Seeing the beast, Kuyani screamed her lungs out and fell to the ground, her legs having apparently given up due to her intense fear.
The creature wasn't that big, barely bigger than a large dog, but I was rendered speechless by what I was seeing. The creature standing in front of me was a real dragon, and by that I meant that it had 4 legs and a pair of wings. So the locals had been right all along when talking about wyverns. Rambo, as well as all the other flying creatures I had seen so far had not been dragons, but wyverns.
This time though, what was standing in front of me was a real motherfucking dragon. I loudly swallowed my saliva, shaken by fear and apprehensions. I felt like this creature was not something I could take down on my own. My legs were shaking but I couldn't run away and leave Kuyani behind. I needed to protect her at all cost.
Ready to fight with my life on the line, I let out a massive burst of dokari and pointed my sniper at the beast's head. This dragon was black and red, and its colour patterns strangely resembled Rambo's. Remembering some 'dragon tongue' words taught to me by Rambo, I decided to try speaking to the beast before attacking it. After all, the creature didn't seem to act aggressively toward me for some reasons, but before I could say anything, the creature spoke first.
“FAWTARRRRRRRRRrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!! Rambo finally found fawtarrrr!!!” Said the beast.
“Eh??? R-Rambo?!!!”
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