Just Another Day

Shanku faced off against one of the reptiles, she and it both had flared wings curled about them threateningly. The reptile jumped and brought its feet forward to try to grab her. She crouched and lunged at the fiend, grabbing hold of its ankles. They hit the ground and rolled. She struggled to pull herself on top and pinned the fiend to the ground with a foot squarely on his chest, his spines on his back sinking into the soil. It still had its teeth and snapped at her as far as his neck would allow. She jumped back, still holding the lethal feet.

The man came up behind them and slit the reptile's throat. "Quit playing around and get your dagger!"

"Cut me some slack, claws are still more familiar!" Shanku snapped back. She yipped as another reptile impaled itself on the man's dagger. The final one of the Port's Plague flew in close behind its fallen comrade. Shanku leaped back away from the clawed feet and lashed out at his throat with her own claws. She succeeded in severing the major vessels in the neck as she ripped back her hand.

"Why did I bother teaching you anything," he sighed as he cleaned his dagger of the strange green blood.

"What a mess," Shanku grimaced as she eyed her slimy fingers. She felt a strange tingling and burning sensation begin on her fingers and she quickly wiped the acid off before it could do her any damage.

"Come. We camp elsewhere," he said calmly as he walked away.

"Ya sure? Other than the gooey corpses, this place is rather nice," Shanku replied sarcastically.

"If they found us here once, they'll find us here again," he said logically.

"And if they follow us to the second camp?"

"We defend ourselves and move again."

"A bit reckless Mister... whoever you are," Shanku laughed.

"Rhett," the man said warmly.

"I'm Shanku," she grinned. Maybe I finally won him over.