Then it came to me.
“Okay, how about this,” I started. “I take the sheepskins with me, you get the top hide and the grassy stuff.”
“No, you want to move, you get the cowhide on top.”
So that was cow.
Interesting.
“That isn’t fair,” I informed him. “The sheepskins are fluffier.”
“I know,” he replied.
Jerk!
“But you get the grassy stuff!” I snapped.
“I get that too.”
I clenched my teeth. Noctorno was silent.
“You’re a jerk!” I told him.
“Pardon?”
“A jerk!” I clipped, twisted further to him and jabbed a finger in his direction, “You! Jerk!”
“Jerk?” he asked.
“Argh!” I groaned, understanding they didn’t have that term here and deciding against educating him. Then I made a decision and flopped on my back on the skins. “Fine, whatever, we’ll sleep together. You just stick to your side and don’t touch me.”
“I’ll stick to my side but you need to stick to yours.”
“No problem,” I hissed.
“Rubbish,” he muttered.
“Whatever,” I snapped, yanking the hides to my chin then turning to my side away from him and curling my knees into my belly.
“You kick me, steal the hides or snore, I’m moving you and the top hide across the way myself,” he said to my back.
I closed my eyes and warned, “You touch me, I’ll kick you so hard in the balls you’ll kiss any hope of children good-bye.”
“I did that a long time ago,” he mumbled and I swiftly rolled to face him.
“Do you have to have the last word?” I snapped.
“Yes,” he returned.
“Jerk,” I gritted out.
“Cow,” he returned.
Oh my God! He just called me a cow!
“I hate you,” I spat.
“That feeling, my love, is mutual,” he retorted.
“Ugh!” I grunted, glared into his face and rolled away from him again.
There was quiet as I watched the firelight dance on the cave wall in front of me.
Then he called, “Cora.”
“What?” I snapped.
“You’re welcome for dinner and saving your arse from the vickrants.”
Vickrants?
What the hell were those?
Probably they were those things.
Shit. He had gone out in a thunderstorm to get dinner and he had battled, rather mightily and with great skill and energy, that thing that had me, saving me from disappearing like poor Rosa.
Shit!
I gritted my teeth. Then I sucked in breath through my nostrils.
Then I whispered, “Thank you, Noctorno, for dinner and saving me from the vickrants.”
I didn’t want to say it but that didn’t mean it didn’t have to be said.
“Bloody hell,” he whispered back, his voice low and heavy with surprise.
Whatever.
I closed my eyes knowing I’d never get to sleep but hoping I did and when I woke up I would be at home.
Chapter Five
Terms
They had me.
The black, scaly claws were on me, grasping at me, their talons tearing at my nightgown while the thin, veined wings flapped sickeningly. It was pulling me away, pulling me over the balustrade behind Cora and I could hear her shrill, terrified screams mingled with my own.
I jolted awake and bolted out from under the hides. Darting blindly, I ran into the cold, hard stone wall.
“Cora.” I heard.
“Oh my God,” I whispered, pressing myself to the hard stone.
I wasn’t home. Why couldn’t I have woken up at home?
I closed my eyes and felt the tears slide down my cheeks.
“Cora.” I heard again and a warm hand was on the small of my back.
“They almost got me,” I whispered.
“Cora.”
“They got Rosa.”
“Come back to bed.”
“They took her.”
“Cora, come back to bed.”
“They flew away with her and then, poof, she was gone.”
“You’re trembling. Come back to bed.”
“Just like that,” I whispered, my nails clawing at the stone. “She was gone.”
“Cora –”
Noctorno stopped speaking when my breath hitched loudly with a sob.
“Bloody hell,” he muttered then he picked me up, I slid my arms around his shoulders and shoved my face in his neck as he carried me back to the hides.
“I wanna go home,” I snuffled into his neck.
“You can’t,” he told me as he went down to a knee and placed me on the hides but I didn’t let go of his neck, in fact, I clutched him tighter.
“I don’t like it here,” I told him, my voice held tremors, the tears kept falling.
“Orlando will be working to –”
I cut him off by wailing, “I ate Thumper!”
Then I shoved my face further into his neck and arched into his body.
“Thumper?”
I yanked my face out of his neck and stared at him. “A furry bunny! I ate bunny! Bunnies are cute! You don’t eat them!” I cried then pushed my face into his neck, tightened my arms around his shoulders and pressed my body to the solid heat of his.
“Bloody hell,” he muttered, his arms sliding around me as he settled on his side in the hides, his body facing mine, mine pressed tight to his, his arms staying around me.
“I wanna go home.”
“Let Orlando do his work.”
“I don’t like it here,” I repeated.
“Cora, calm yourself,” he ordered on a squeeze of his arms.
This was good advice and I tried. I took heavy, broken breaths and closed my eyes tight. It took awhile and, along with the tears, it exhausted me so when my sobbing subsided, I was tuckered out.
But I didn’t let him go. He was real. He was warm. He was strong. He saved me from that thing. He fed me. He took me someplace safe, dry and warm (ish). He was a jerk, he hated me but he was taking care of me. In this strange land, if I didn’t have him, I would be royally screwed (more than I already was, that was).
“Thank you for taking care of me,” I whispered, pushing closer to his body.
That body got tight.
“But I don’t want to eat bunny anymore.” I was still whispering.
“Fine, Cora, I’ll not hunt bunny anymore,” he sounded slightly amused, slightly surprised and slightly annoyed, a strange combination that worked for him. “Go to sleep,” he said on another squeeze of his arms.
I pulled in another breath and sleep came closer.
Then I mumbled, “Pray God, those things don’t harm her.”
His body again got tight.
“Pray God,” I repeated softly.
“Sleep,” his voice rumbled the order.
“She tra la’ed and danced on her toes. Anyone who tra la’s and dances on their toes shouldn’t be harmed, even by those things. No, especially by those things.”
“Cora, what did I say?”
I fell silent.
Then, on the edge of sleep, I whispered so low it was barely audible, “I hope Aggie’s okay.”
I felt his arms squeeze one last time before I was dead to the world.
I woke feeling great.
This feeling didn’t last long because the next feeling that assaulted me was the knowledge that my body was wrapped around the long, hard body of Noctorno. He was on his back, I was nearly on top of him, my thigh thrown over both of his, my head on his chest, my arm tight around him.