Chameleon in Chrome Ch. 03

"Sixty years means nothing to me," she said, "but I understand about cryo. How old is your body?"

"I'd guess around thirty, thirty three, something like that, if that means anything to you. I'm all grown up, if that's what you're asking."

"But you are not old," she said, almost as a question.

He shook his head and reached into the bag again and came up with the dessert, some apocalypse-resistant brownies. "Here," he said, "You ought to try these. They're the best thing in here. Everything else tastes like shit."

It made her laugh a little, but she understood the gesture and she tried one. "I like it," she nodded.

"Then have the rest," he said, "I'll try to get through these sandy, nutrient-filled sawdust rolls."

"Why do you eat it if you do not like it?" she asked with a curious smile.

"This is soldier's food," he said, "for when you're out on the battlefield. I always thought that they gave us this to keep us annoyed. But it's kept in shuttles as emergency food. Since I don't have anywhere to live, other than what I flew in on, I'd say this is an emergency."

"Are you annoyed now?" she asked.

"No," he smiled, "I'm a little pleased to have found somebody else here. If you weren't here, I'd be annoyed."

"Humans are strange," she decided aloud. She was half-human herself, but she often felt more like a Morgarod, and she knew that he didn't know of her mixed heritage, so she played on it a little.

Ryan had nothing for that, so he didn't reply. When she looked over at him, he nodded in agreement, so she decided to try another tack.

"You have strangely shaped legs and such small feet."

He looked at her, and was about to make a remark about the size of Margarod breasts, or the lack of it, but he knew that it might be too close in, since he was enjoying this quite a bit, and he knew that he likely didn't have too many options for some sort of conversation, so he went another way.

"I dunno," he said, looking at his legs and swiveling one foot, "They've gotten me this far, so I think that I'll keep them."

His reward for that was her laughter. It was a little different, but he liked it.

Why do you wear clothes here?" she asked, "It is too hot."

"I think that your question is dependent upon your point of view," he said, "I do have my reasons. Why are you NOT wearing anything?" He knew that her reason related to her wanting to be able to hide, but her answer still surprised him.

"I wish to be comfortable," she said, "and not sweat like you do. Also, I wish to save my clothing for when it is cold."

"You wished to hide yourself," Ryan said with a nod, "for your own reasons, and you can't do that if you're wearing clothing, can you?" He winked at her and it caused her to tilt her head in curiosity.

"I think," he smiled up at the trees, "that it would be nice to see an empty bikini running around."

The thought made him laugh a little. Her expression made him laugh more.

"What is a bik-"

"Never mind," he said with a little grin that seemed to pull to one side a little. "Humans are strange."

She nodded, before she looked at his legs again and then at his face. "My legs are different from yours. Aren't you going to tell me that they look strange to you?"

Taela was an only child. All that she'd ever had were her parents telling her that she was lovely, or pretty, or beautiful all of her life. She'd never had anyone else to use as a measurement for herself. She knew that her parents had always loved her, but they were her parents after all. She'd have liked to learn what she wanted to know from a male Morgarod, but there weren't any others here. She was coming to like Ryan, but their differences ...

He didn't know what was underlying her questions. He was just being honest and enjoying their strange conversational game here. "Now why would I think that your legs look strange? I did tell you that I've seen Morgarods before."

"My legs are not like yours," she said.

He shrugged, "Your hair is not like mine either, but I like it anyway."

Her mouth fell open. "You like my hair?"

Ryan nodded decisively, "And your legs."

"My feet are much larger than yours," she said, trying again.

He nodded, "So? You don't walk on them flattened out. You walk more on your toes. Where I'm from, we have these actors to amuse people by dressing absurdly, and acting a little crazy. They're called clowns. A lot of them wear huge shoes to add to the effect. They clomp around in those shoes to cause small humans - children - to laugh. You don't walk like that at all. The way that you walk on your feet gives you a lot of grace. It also sends a feeling of strength. It's nice to see."

"And you like that?" she asked, "that I walk like a ... clown?"

"You know," he smiled, "what you're really trying to do is get me to think that I'm insulting you when I'm not, to see if I'll try to recover somehow or try to explain it away. I said it that way on purpose, just to see you try to spring a trap that."

She grinned at him.

"Of course, what you're thinking is that I'm smarter than I look," he said, "But I don't think that I'd agree with you and you'd never say that anyway."

That shut her up for a little while as she worked through it. But there was something that she wanted to get back to. "If we were on your world, ..."

Ryan leaned back to lie on his side, looking at her as he propped himself up on one elbow. "Just as an example?"

"Yes," she nodded.

"Let's imagine that we are there then," he smiled, "Are we there as friends or acquaintances?"

Seeing her nod, he said, "I think I know what you're trying to say. By now, the war - or whatever that was between Morgaron and Earth is likely over - at least I hope it is. It could have ended with three results: one or the other won a clear victory and has subjugated or destroyed the other - that's two ways, or someone with a brain decided that the two peoples have some things in common and can get along. In such a case, by now there likely is little about a couple of people - one of either kind - walking together or being seen in public that would seem remarkable in the least.

But we're not there," he said, "so I don't have to worry about anyone stepping on your feet on the street because they weren't looking."

"You would worry about that?" she asked.

He chuckled, "I think you worry about too much. For the purpose of our example, let's just leave it at the point far back behind us where I said that I like your feet. I'm not even going to begin about your legs. That would take the rest of the afternoon."

Now he had her a little confused. "Why?" she asked.

"Well because they're long," he smiled.

He was beginning to be able to tell her level of interest when she asked, "You think that my legs should be shorter?"

"No, I like your legs," he said, "I'd just need more words, wouldn't I?"

Besides remaining slightly confused, she laughed again, and Ryan decided that it had been worth stringing her along to be able to hear something like that.

"Shouldn't you call the others so that they know that you are alright?"

"There are no others," he said quietly as he leaned back on his hands, "I don't really know what happened, since I was in cryo, but most of the rest were killed, and the few that were left killed each other. When I woke up, there was only the pilot and I. She's still on the ship out there."

The girl nodded, "I saw. You were standing there for a time. She meant something to you?"

"A little," he admitted, "But it was a lot more than I meant to her. I was in the shuttle and she dropped me to lighten her load so she could leave without me."

He looked at the stream and didn't say anything else. Taela felt the silence as a heavy thing, so she looked around. "I would have thought that it would take more than one to fly the craft that you landed in. So you are alone?"

Ryan regarded her a little cautiously, seeing as she'd just told him that she'd seen his landing and wondering how, since he'd seen no one, but he nodded. "I guess I'm really talented. Actually, I just know where all of the controls are and I have a long reach. You?"

"No," she shook her head, feeling a little more comfortable to know that there weren't nine more like him somewhere here. "I am here with you."

He looked a little confused, wondering if he should have asked the whole thing. Maybe asking it as a single word carried the wrong connotation. "I meant --"

"I know what you meant," she said, "There are others here, but not many. You are not in danger. Do you have a name? What are you called?"

"Ryan," he said.

She tried it and it always got split up somehow the first few times into 'Ry-anne'. He tried to help, holding out two fingers to bring them together as he said his name again. She had it the next try and repeated it to herself twice more.

She pointed to herself, "Taela."

He needed far more tries to get it right than she'd needed with his name.

"So, if I have this right," Ryan said cautiously, remembering Morgaron naming structure, "You are Taela. It means hope?"

He didn't know it, but he made a few points with that. "Yes, she nodded, impressed that he'd know this.

Finally, her gaze fell on the water.

"Do not move," she said with a little excitement in her voice. He wondered at the slightly hopeful sound, but she was gone, hidden and leaning forward. She shuffled forward slowly a little at a time until her toes were right at the water's edge.

"These little things are good to eat," she said quietly over her shoulder.

He was curious, but he didn't want to sit up to look, if she was hidden. He'd scare them off, whatever they were. He couldn't see her, but he did see the slight ripples when her fingers slipped into the water slowly.

"They have delicate hearts," she said, "They die when you touch them, and they will not stay good for long at all. You must eat them right away, but they are so good."

Her hands moved suddenly, and she came up with three. Bringing them back, he saw the black things that she'd been looking at in the jungle. She showed herself as she took one and bit off its head, spitting it out instantly. She put the rest in her mouth and chewed for a second, and then she had bliss written over her face.

She bit the head from another and offered the rest to Ryan. He took it from her before she could feel badly or anything. Looking at it for a second, he decided that it couldn't possibly taste any worse than the combat meal, so he put it in his mouth.

As soon as he bit it, he was amazed that something a little ugly like that could taste so good. He nodded, "This is fantastic. It tastes like something that's a delicacy where I'm from called caviar. Nobody can afford to buy enough of it for a taste. But I had an uncle who was pretty rich, and he bought a little for me once. What are they like if they're cooked?"

She shook her head, "You cannot cook them, they will turn to bitter jelly then, and even so, you cannot even carry them, they do not last. Do you want the last one?"

"Can we share?" he asked.

Taela could never explain her next action to anyone. She couldn't even explain it to herself later on, but she had a slightly mischievous idea come into her head suddenly.

She nodded and bit the head off the last fish. After spitting it out, she looked at Ryan a little challengingly, "My mother used to play a game with me when I was small because I wouldn't try these to even taste one. She would challenge me to take it from her. She knew that I have trouble in resisting a challenge.

Come and take it if you are not only being polite, warrior, "she said as she put the last fish into her mouth, holding it there so that half of it stuck out like a black tongue.

She nodded her head so that it would wiggle up and down, the way that her mother had teased her when she was little. He laughed and she giggled a little and beckoned to Ryan with her hand.

Ryan leaned forward onto his hands and he stretched out to carefully take the rest of the fish from her mouth, making sure to touch his lips against hers as he did. He pulled back a little and chewed the offering, swallowing quickly. They smiled at each other for a moment, and then he kissed her softly one time, before he pulled back and smiled at her from where he sat.

Taela was delighted and a little shocked. "The kiss was your thanks?" she asked.

He nodded, feeling as though he was thirteen again, "Yeah. I like a challenge too. Besides, I'm out of sawdust rolls. Can we get more? I'd love to do that again."

She shook her head, "We can, but it will not be good later."

She was a little stuck for a moment, trying to come up with an explanation. She tried to tell him that too many would upset his digestion, but he told her that he had a strong stomach, which was not what she meant.

Finally, she just blew a loud raspberry and he understood, laughing with her.

Ryan noticed a few different kinds of small fish in the water. He reached into his pack and brought out the simple and rudimentary set of fishing gear and began to fish for them with a small bobber as they talked. Taela was fascinated and he tried to explain what fishing was like where he'd come from.

"Things are different here then," she said, "there are things which can lie still until they are hungry, they simply will not move until then. It is better not to tempt them too much."

He shook his head, "The idea is to tempt them to bite the hook. That's how you get the dinner that you might need."

She nodded with a smile and watched as the little plastic worm hung suspended and drifted near to a pair of pebbles. A second later, something which looked like a cross between a fish and an alligator lunged and took the hook and everything. Ryan gasped as it turned and disappeared with the lure, the bobber and the rest of his little emergency fishing kit.

Taela laughed until her tears ran.

When she had a little control back, she grinned at Ryan and patted his rifle, "You should keep this close when you do this fishing."

She chuckled and wiped the tears from her cheeks. After a moment, she leaned close to him.

"You did not smell like this before," she said, sniffing near to him, "What has changed?"

Ryan was a little embarrassed, but then he just shrugged. "I don't usually carry this many smells on me," he said, "Some of this is something to protect my skin from the sun, since I haven't been outside in any kind of sunlight for so long. It smells awful. I also put something on to repel the flies in the jungle. That smells worse. The rest," he sighed sheepishly, "is me, from sweating. I'm sorry if it offends you, Taela."

She shook her head, leaning closer to sniff more, but after a noseful of repellent, she wrinkled her nose. Catching more of him near his shoulder, she moved onto her knees a little behind him. Her nose tickled his skin and he finally flinched when she began to sniff behind his ear.

"This smell is you," she decided with her hand on his shoulder, "much better here."

He watched her face come around into his view with a coy little smile. "You are a little fearless at least, to let a Morgarod slip behind you. Are you ready to move again?"

He nodded, "But how do I get back to my ship? Where were those things in the air this morning? I didn't see them then."

"They were there, some of them," she said, "They like to hunt when the sun warms the ground. It helps them fly. The large ones come out later. You are too big for the small ones in the morning."

Ryan nodded, understanding about thermals of warm air rising from sun-heated ground.

"I will lead you another way," she smiled at him and he found his own smile tagging along, "I will also show you a place where you can wash so you will smell the same everywhere."

She led him to the opening in the mountain wall by the stream. Once they were inside, she told him to remain still until his eyes adjusted to the darkness. "I've got a flashlight in my pack someplace," he offered, but she said no.

"In a little time," she said, standing just in front of him in the dark, "you can see by the light of the plants on the walls. You said you have known Morgarods before?"

"One or two," he said, "the males who taught me to speak. I requested to learn."

"Ah," she said quietly, "You wished to know your enemy, yes?"

He nodded, "I guess you could say that. But I think it was more than that. I'd seen them when we fought. Everybody told us that they fought out of bloodthirstiness, but I didn't see it that way. I saw someONE in their eyes -- not just someTHING if that makes any sense.

I saw that in every one of them that I was close enough to be able to see it. I had a feeling that they were more like us than we'd have ever cared to admit. I guess I volunteered to learn so that I could know if I was right. I never got much of a chance while we were trying to kill each other, and we'd seldom get close enough to see."

She thought about it for a minute. "Well you have kissed one now," she said, "Is it true what they say? That we are frog people?"

Ryan chuckled, "I thought that term was a pile of shit before I'd even seen a Morgarod. I don't know about your culture, Taela, but humans never outgrow our schoolyards in some ways. It's always 'us or them'. It's always cut down to a single choice to force us all to agree to something -- whatever it might be -- that is never so clear. They just try to make it sound as though it is clear. 'You're either with us, or you're one of them.' That's always the way that it ends up being phrased somehow, not matter what the group or the issue. It's never worked all that well on me."

"Why?" she asked.

"Well, for one thing," he smiled, "I was never the kind who could be bullied by that kind of thinking." He smiled and she saw it in the dim light. "I wasn't all that popular in the schoolyard."

His eyes were growing accustomed to the low light level. He saw her standing so close to him. He knew that she was this close before. He'd felt the warmth of her body on his. Her right foot was against his boot, and he could sense her breasts just a little away from his skin. He relaxed his stance just a little and he could just feel one of her nipples touch against the top of his abdomen. She moved a little bit and the feeling was gone.

But then it was back again, both nipples.

He thought that he heard just about the softest sigh from her. It was barely audible, but he knew that he hadn't imagined it.

Taela found his eyes to be a little unreadable at first when they came into view as her eyes adjusted. She didn't like the other smells on his body much, but she did like the one that she knew was his own. It was a little strong for the reason that he'd said, and she knew why that was. She had the same sweat glands that he did. But she found that she didn't mind it all that much and she'd show him where he could get this strange body of his clean.

It wasn't all that strange, she'd decided, and she did like his smell, just not this much, this close, but it wasn't bad.

Taela found a thought in her mind that there really wasn't all that much wrong with him after all, and she now wanted to learn how to be a friend to a human if that were possible. She had a fleeting thought about how he might be to hunt with, but she pushed the thought away after a second. They didn't know each other well enough to be a hunting pair.

But it was a nice thought, she decided as she lifted her hand to touch his chest.

Ryan gasped as he felt her wide fingerpads begin to slide over his pectoral muscle experimentally. It took him a whole half a second to decide that he liked the feeling. He saw her eyes looking up at him, and in light like this, any woman's eyes would seem larger, if she was trying to say something with them.