Bastial Explosion (The Rhythm of Rivalry: Book 3) (28 page)

After the rest of his roommates left for their mission, Steffen made sure to write a letter to Gabby before his began.

Gabby,

Effie, Reela, and the others left the Academy this morning to investigate Corin Forest. I’m not sure exactly when they’ll be back.

As soon as Javy Rayvender and two Slugari get here, I’m leaving as well. However, I’m not going with Effie and Reela to Corin Forest. A friend from class and I will be going with Jack Rose, Javy Rayvender, and the Slugari to Raywhite Forest, where I’ll be taken underground to the Slugari colony to help discuss war strategy with them. My knowledge of the Slugaren language and the Slugari leader’s familiarity with me are the reasons I’m going.

I should be back before Effie and Reela. When I return, I’ll write another letter.

— Steffen

He struggled with the end, unsure what word he should put before his name. “Love” was too much. Even though Gabby already had claimed she loved him, he wasn’t sure he felt the same way. “Stay safe” felt idiotic, when he was the one likely to be in danger. He couldn’t figure out what would be wrong with “miss you.” But he decided that simply putting his name without anything else was the safest option—his usual choice when it came to women.

When the Slugari arrived with Javy Rayvender, Steffen didn’t need Jack Rose to notify him. It already was evident from the mass of people crowding around the Slugari for a glimpse.

Squeezing his way through, Steffen found that Marratrice already was part of the crowd, her green eyes wide as she stared with an open mouth at the Slugari.

“It looks like we’ll be leaving soon,” Steffen said.

She tore her eyes away and gave a surprised laugh, only to look back at them right after greeting Steffen.

“I can’t help but stare,” she said. “They seem right out of a storybook.”

There were two Slugari. Although they only came up to Steffen’s waist, the sun managed to find them between the surrounding people, causing their emerald-colored flesh to glisten. Steffen remembered their dark eyes were usually beady, small and hard to see among their fat faces. But right now they were large, bouncing around the crowd.

The two Slugari had what looked to be proud smiles. They had long mouths like Krepps, though their teeth weren’t sharp, nor did they have very many. The most prominent ones were in the front—two rectangular teeth that came down from the top of their mouth like a rabbit.

Besides their eyes, the claws at the ends of their diminutive arms were the only other dark coloration to them. Their claws looked sharp enough to draw blood, though Steffen knew the Slugari used their control over Bastial Energy to fend off predators instead. They generally were too slow to rely on any kind of physical method of escape, such as running or fighting, and for good reason. Their gray stomachs along the curve of their front side looked extremely soft.

“You think the Slugari are something, wait until you see the Dajrik,” Steffen said.

“That’s right!” Marratrice exclaimed. “I can’t wait.”

Steffen felt as if he should warn her of something, though. “When I went with Terren and the others to the Slugari colony, I was nothing but excited. But so much happened I wasn’t prepared for. I’ve come to realize that it’s better to expect surprises by being on guard, even if it’s harder to enjoy the experience. At least it’ll keep you alive.”

“But how can you expect a surprise? Isn’t that the very meaning—to not know it’s coming?”

Steffen scratched an itch at the back of his head as he wondered how to answer. “I suppose that’s true.” Still, he felt completely different than he had the last time he left the Academy. He was more prepared for…what he thought were surprises.

Perhaps it wasn’t surprises he felt more prepared for but danger in general. That was it, danger. If he’d been told the first time he left the Academy that he would be part of a battle atop the Fjallejon Mountains and that he’d be fighting off Krepps to help Slugari escape, he wouldn’t have gone in the first place. And why would he? He was no warrior or mage, just a first-year chemist with no experience fighting.

But now he felt ready for whatever happened in the Slugari colony. Some part of him reasoned that nothing could happen, telling him it was silly to be worrying Marratrice. But a very small part argued back. He felt it in his stomach, where his seed had formed after Terren’s speech.

This small doubt was enough to make him uneasy.

“I thought you two might be here.” Jack Rose surprised Steffen.

But then Steffen saw his smile go flat as he and Javy Rayvender met glances.

Javy had half a smile along his thin lips. When Steffen looked closer, he realized that even the half of his mouth that was smiling wasn’t genuine but just for show. It was as if it was too much for Javy to put on a full polite smile.

His age was hard to place, perhaps somewhere in his thirties. It was the lack of wrinkles in his face that made it so. He could’ve looked the same way for the last ten years.

What kind of man has neither smile nor worry lines?
Steffen wondered.
One who has complete control over his expressions,
he heard himself answer.

Although Javy had no bulges of muscle, there was still something about him that seemed threatening. Steffen couldn’t figure out what it was. The man had his shirt tucked into his pants, and there was nowhere for him to be hiding a weapon.

Javy moved a hand to get the Slugari’s attention. “The other members of our group are here.” Javy pointed, lifting his dark eyes to give Steffen the quickest of looks. But even in that brief moment, Steffen could feel himself being studied—judged, even.

One of the Slugari lifted his little arms. “Humans!”

The murmurs of the crowd stopped.

“Thank your greetings!” the Slugari continued in his accented common tongue. “But we go now.”

Javy drew them away, pushing a palm out at the people just arriving who hadn’t seen the Slugari yet. “We must be leaving,” he told them. “Come, Rose,” Javy said. “Bring your minions.”

“Minions?” Marratrice asked.

“He likes to joke,” Jack said.

“He didn’t seem like he was joking,” Marratrice mumbled to Steffen.

“I didn’t think so, either,” Steffen admitted.

“Just ignore everything he says unless he gives you an order,” Jack said. “Now let’s catch up to them. I’d like to meet the Slugari.”

Soon it became clear that the Slugari who’d thanked the crowd had practiced those lines specifically, for his common tongue was even worse than Steffen first thought. It was so bad that Steffen immediately wondered how the Slugari had communicated at all with the King when they’d visited Kyrro City.

Steffen asked Javy, “Is there someone on the King’s staff who speaks Slugaren?”

“No,” he answered. Then he pointed at the Slugari who’d been silent the whole time. “But she speaks common tongue.”

Her body crinkled in order for her head to turn. “It’s true,” she said with a reserved smile. Her voice was so soft, Steffen imagined each word spinning through the air and quickly dissipating like steam.

As soon as she’d spoken, the male flailed his arms at her, uttering something in Slugaren that was too quick for Steffen to understand.

The female’s smile stretched farther, though she turned to hide it from the other Slugari.

“What’s wrong?” Marratrice whispered to Steffen.

He noticed she had her hand in her coat pocket, holding tightly onto something. He ignored it for now, though curious what she seemed so protective about.

“I’m not sure,” Steffen answered.

“Mate speak, she let me speak,” the male Slugari complained to Steffen.

“What?” Steffen asked, switching to Slugaren to answer him. “
Would you like to repeat that in this language?”

“No Slugaren,” the Slugari continued in common tongue. “Practice Human language. Need.”

“He’s my mate, and he doesn’t want me talking unless absolutely necessary so he can learn common tongue,” the female Slugari said, grazing her claw along the male Slugari’s back.

Marratrice giggled. “You both are so cute.”

The female Slugari’s two antennae sprouted forward at Marratrice’s compliment, only to droop back and rest atop her head after a breath. “Thank you,” the Slugari replied, smiling wide enough for her rabbit-like teeth to show. “We’re very happy to be here…my mate especially.”

Frustrated a conversation was happening without him, the male Slugari waved his arms about and said something in Slugaren that Steffen couldn’t understand.

The fat on their bodies rippled from front to back as they traveled out the western gate. Their thick tails slithered, propelling their bodies forward. Javy was five steps ahead of everyone else, seemingly content to walk on his own.

Jack indulged the male Slugari, helping him with words and phrases as they spoke. Marratrice joined in. She had an excited grin that seemed as if it was going to stay on her face throughout this whole experience.

She never took her hand out of her pocket. It was particularly strange because Steffen knew she liked to gesture as she talked, sometimes moving her whole body.

In the rare instances when her hand would come out, it would shoot back in as soon as the gesture was done.

“Are we going to be meeting with Queen?” Steffen asked the female Slugari now that her mate was distracted with Jack and Marratrice.

“Yes, eventually. Until then you’ll be speaking with me. I’m Khy.”

Her name involved a soft “k” sound that was similar to the noise someone would make clearing their throat while saying “hi.” Steffen had practiced it, for it was a common sound in the Slugaren language, but he rarely got it right.

After their names and a few pleasantries were exchanged, Khy explained how Javy already had told her about the four classes of men and women who were part of the Kyrro Army: warriors, mages, chemists, and psychics. According to Khy, they’d never heard of psyche before, and she seemed disappointed that neither Steffen nor Marratrice was a psychic.

However, when Steffen started discussing plants and potions, excitement made her eyes go wide. The Slugari made potions as well, and soon they were exchanging recipes at such a rate that Steffen didn’t trust his memory to retain it all.

As he pulled out a scroll and pen and began to write, Khy told him, “I spent much time discussing potions with chemists in your king’s castle, but they were only potions that might be valuable in battle. I was concerned killing was the Humans’ purpose of learning the art of potion-making, so I’m happy to find out there are chemists like you.”

“Yes, there are just as many potions we use to help and heal…if not more.”
But I suppose they’re often overlooked in times of war. Is killing enemies really that much more important than saving allies?

By the time they reached the forest, Javy let the Slugari take the lead. Only they knew the location of the entrance to their colony.

Steffen was surprised to find that it was just a hole in a hillside covered by a few knee-high rocks.

“You’re not worried about people finding it?” Steffen asked.

“This is just a temporary entranceway,” Khy answered. “Because we’re in ally territory, we don’t mind the lack of secrecy while we determine a proper place to use as a connection between our underground colony and Kyrro. We’ll cave this in after you leave.”

After the rocks were cleared and the Slugari slithered in, Javy halted Steffen and Marratrice. “Keep your questions to a minimum,” he said. “The Slugari requested someone from the previous group, which is the main reason you’re here, Steffen. But there’s a lot we need to figure out. So keep out of the way when you’re not needed.”

“I understand,” Steffen said, humbled.

“And you.” Javy pointed at Marratrice. “I don’t know what you have planned, but don’t do it.”

What’s he talking about?
Steffen expected Marratrice to object, but instead she wore a look of guilt. Javy had spent no time with her. What did he see that Steffen didn’t?

“Are you a psychic?” Steffen asked.

“He’s not,” Jack answered for him. “Leave my chemists alone, Rayvender.”

“Then keep them under control, Rose.” Javy turned and crawled into the tunnel.

“Will it get wider?” Marratrice asked.

“Eventually,” Steffen told her. “But it might be a while.”

“I don’t like tight spaces.” She had a slow breath.

“You don’t have to come,” Jack said.

“No I need…I mean, I want to. I can do it.”

But the tunnel was even smaller than the one in Satjen. Steffen couldn’t fit with his backpack on, so he was forced to push it in front of him and crawl after it.

Marratrice grunted from behind Steffen, muttering curses under her breath.

It wasn’t long before the tunnel was nearly pitch black, the only light a faint glow far ahead. Because of the way the tunnel dipped, Steffen couldn’t see the Slugari he knew to be producing it.

“It’s getting so dark.” Marratrice spoke with a tremble.