I turned around to find Sumin standing a couple of meters behind me, an apologetic expression on her pretty face.
“I’m sorry to disturb you,” she said in a soft voice, “but you have a guest.”
I slightly recoiled, taken aback by the comment as none of us ever had guests. Bane would have poked me himself and wouldn’t have been considered as a guest but as a friend. She gestured with her head over her shoulder. I looked up, and my breath caught in my throat at the sight of the female that had been haunting both my every waking hour and my nights.
Looking sinfully beautiful in her short Vanguard uniform dress, she stood next to her hoverbike and appeared slightly intimidated. My brain froze for a moment, wandering what in the world would have brought her here. Sumin’s knowing smile snapped me out of my daze, and I glared at her, which only made her chuckle, completely unimpressed. To think there was a time when she would have cowered before me. It both pleased and annoyed me that she no longer saw me as a monster, but it also made me feel like a softie that she would no longer consider me intimidating.
“Thank you,” I said begrudgingly before heading towards Linette.
“You’re welcome,” Sumin said in a singsong voice, shamelessly taunting me.
Although they were mated, I didn’t believe for one moment that Tremak would have betrayed my feelings towards the pilot to her. But his female had proven quite observant.
Linette clasped her hands in front of her as she watched me approach, an uncertain smile stretching her lips. Her gaze discreetly roamed over me, and my stomach suddenly dropped. I had not expected any visitor, least of all her. I was standing bare chested for the very first time in front of her. She would always see me either wearing a hooded cloak or my Vanguard uniform. My steps faltered, but I quickly caught myself. Everything in me was shouting for me to run to my dwelling and pick up something to cover myself with. But I couldn’t do so without appearing like a fool.
I would have given anything right this instant to know what thoughts were crossing her mind. Knowing that I could simply extend my senses to take them right out of her head made it all the harder to resist.
“Hello, Varnog. Sorry to bother you during your personal time,” Linette said looking timid, an expression I couldn’t recall having ever seen on the petite, but tough female.
“Hello, Linette,” I responded in a friendly tone, trying to hide just how thrilled and self-conscious I felt having her here. “It is no bother at all,” I said, stopping in front of her. “How may I help you?”
“It’s regarding the training,” she said, tucking a lock of her long black hair behind her ear in a nervous gesture.
My heart sank, and I struggled to maintain a neutral expression on my face. A million thoughts raced through my mind, going from her finding it inadequate to her thinking she also felt too uncomfortable working with us to continue.
“Do you wish to discontinue?” I asked in an impassive tone.
Her eyes widened, and her slight recoil soothed the ache that had been clawing at my chest.
“Oh no, not at all! Quite the opposite,” she said, shaking her head. “I think those simulations are phenomenal. I wish we’d thought of doing things like that before. Normally there’s no special preparation. We just jump right in and hope for the best. For once, we’re not going to go in blind. But I think we need to crank things up a notch… or two… or five,” she added with a sheepish grin.
With each of her words, my heart soared, and my own grin stretched my lips.
“I am glad the Dream Walks meet your approval,” I said, feeling both awkward and proud, repressing the urge to puff out my chest. “Do you wish to discuss it now?”
She cast an uncertain glance towards the Circles where many of my brothers were still in trance in their respective individual instances or in groups.
“I… I wouldn’t want to interrupt anything,” she said hesitantly. “I was just on my way to Dragons Rise to go watch the hybrids flying around and pine over the fact that I’ll never have wings of my own. Then I decided to make a little detour here, since it was on the way, and ask while at it. But if you are available, now would be great.”
I silenced the pang of jealousy at her mentioning the Dragons. I knew she had a specific Dragon in mind, and I couldn’t blame her. Reaper was a stunner, like pretty much all of the hybrids. The fact that he was also smart, charming, a formidable fighter, and loyal to a fault truly made it impossible not to be fond of him.
“Now would be fine,” I answered calmly. “You have piqued my curiosity. If we do not go into details immediately, I will spend the rest of the day just wondering about it. It will drive me crazy.”
She chuckled. “You’re one of those… I can relate.”
I cast a glance at the Circles before looking back at Linette. “Let’s go to the garden to discuss without disturbing the others,” I suggested.
She nodded and fell into step with me. Her large, dark-blue eyes looked this way and that, hiding none of her curiosity about Skogoth. The blatant admiration on her beautiful elven face warmed me from the inside out. I took great pride in what we had achieved in less than three years, in no small part thanks to the aid of the Vanguard’s architects and construction workers. Still, the village reflected the merger of both the Scelks and the Janaurians in us.
My natural instinct was to build a hive inside the mountain face or in a cave. That was the Scelk in me. But the Janaurian aesthetic inherited from my host before his passing required more organic dwellings shaped into a circular village with the common town hall in the center. We had compromised with a semicircular village at the foot of the mountain face, with a few houses dug directly inside the rock, mostly inhabited by our single members—like myself—and stone and wood houses for the families surrounding it. In the center of the mountain face a large cave had been created, serving as our Great Hall.
Plants, trees, and flowers abounded, making our buildings almost blend with the environment. The subtle fragrance of many of those plants held soothing properties to help calm our more violent side. However, we didn’t want our dwellings to disappear, simply not clash with the harmonious look and feel of nature.
Our females had spent a tremendous amount of time decorating the facades of our houses with various forms of sculpting, be it with clay, wood, stone, and even metal. On the left side of the dwellings, a large park and play area had been set up for the children near an open sky school. On the opposite side of the village, the Circles occupied a large plaza off to the side of the dwellings in a large open field, a short distance from the Mistral River. Right beside it, the garden sprawled over two hundred meters before merging into a nearby forest.
It was an essential part of our life, just as were the Circles. Many of us would spend hours here meditating and finding our inner peace.
“Your village is gorgeous,” Linette said with heartfelt sincerity. “To be honest, I had no idea what to expect. But this is truly beautiful. It must be breathtaking from a bird’s eye view.”
“Thank you,” I said, making no effort to hide my pride this time. “I have no idea what it looks like from above, but I concur that it most likely is impressive. That said, I’m starting to think you must have been a bird in your past life.”