Little Fang

Author's Note:

"Toofy was taught at the temple. She didn't do very good with the languages. Only speaks human, neko, a bit of demonic and high elf. Never learned the undertongues, like goblin or orc. Got her in lots of trouble... Learned to curse in rattan. That's fun."

Rattan as a language is mentioned once in 'Toofy', but there are no ratgirls in either "Drachne" or "Toofy".

Clearly, we need to fix this!

So, in the spirit of "Dragon's Kitty", here's another standalone story from the same world.

(Some few may find this eerily familiar. That's because Maly/Inny Kiel was my first character from this world, but starred in an experimental game. I've adapted the story from that.)

---

The pitter patter knocking out the rhythm above Cohen's head is relaxing, reminding him of so many summers spent waiting for the eventual relief of the brief storms.

It would be pleasant to lie here and reminisce, but that seems like a bad idea. Considering he was bleeding out.

There isn't much in the remnants of the old tin shed, one of the only structures still standing on the farm.

A mouldy apple. It's really gross. And he had no idea how to turn mould that might be penicillin into actual medicine.

Now seems like a bad time to try to learn.

There was also a dead rat the size of a cat. The only surprising part of this is that he managed to actually kill the damn thing with his bare hands before it killed him.

Well... Killed him all at once.

The torn remnants of his shirt. Considering what the rat did, it isn't surprising it was torn up.

It seems like a bad idea, what with the bacteria that rats carry, but wrapping it around his wound from the bite on his side seemed to be the only immediate choice to make.

Cohen wrapped it as tightly as he could. However... He was still bleeding. It's still raining. The rat is still dead.

He passed out.

---

"Wake up!"

The voice was crazy loud, enough that Cohen was dragged back to reality, kicking and screaming. Cracking open an eye, he saw something that could not possibly account for the insane volume of the voice.

A small, probably growth-stunted, young girl. At least... She looks almost like a girl.

Her bare arms outside her sleeveless shirt are covered in red fur, the same colour as her hair. He couldn't see her ears, the easiest way to tell if what kind of exotic she was.

Exotic. The term was used by humans to describe all the sentient, or near-sentient species that should probably be considered equals, but are mostly looked down on. Pretending that they were some kind of oddity, when humans might be dominant and dominating, but were outnumbered ten to one by the other races.

She was young, but not that young. Not a juvenile, but at an age and with a face that meant you couldn't guess if they were two or three decades old. Somewhere in that range.

Glancing at his side he saw that his shirt was gone, and replaced by a proper bandage.

Cohen groaned, "Did... Did you save me?"

"Mmm."

Well, that was extraordinarily descriptive.

She stared at him for a little while, and then sat down, a skin-coloured tail curling out from the bottom of her shirt to go around her feet and hands. She smiled at him, "Ratata."

Cohen nodded slowly, "Do... You have a name?"

"Maly Kiel." She said happily, before sniffing the air. Her pink eyes narrowed and she let out a low growl as she looked outside the tin building.

Her name sounded like a cute thing on the surface. Except it was less of a name, and more of a description. Directly translated from rattan, it meant "Little Fang".

Something like a nickname, then. Maybe.

Hard to tell with her kind.

Cohen followed her gaze, and growling. He hadn't heard anything. Not even the skittering of a rat.

"Przekleta bestia." She said in anger before diving out of the doorway on all fours.

A rattan curse. Meaning something like 'cursed beast'. Generally used to refer to exotics that have picked up an actual curse that has taken their minds from them. Dissolved their sense of self and left behind something that was more animal than person.

Not that dissimilar to what rabies can do to a human, if left unchecked.

Cohen crawled over to the doorway, wincing with each motion. From his vantage point he could see the thing at the edge of the wheat field that lay outside.

It and the young girl were circling each other, both growling.

The beast's hackles were up.

Shadows seem to swirl around it, to be a part of it. It was difficult to tell what it once was, before the curse took root. Too hard to tell if it was even bipedal before the curse. Whatever it was... That was long gone.

The girl on the other hand didn't look so cute and innocent anymore. Her pink eyes were those of a killer. Unblinking, unafraid. Her shoulders are braced, her tail floating to keep her balanced.

Cohen nearly died fighting a stupid rat.

What on earth was she thinking taking on something this fucked all on her own?

The cursed creature struck first.

It leaped towards her with a speed that made him flinch and go to cover his face, expecting nothing but a spray of blood as his would-be saviour died.

He knew he would have, if the situation were reversed.

Strangely, the beast hit the ground and spun, striking nothing at all. Instead the girl was now facing it from the same place the creature had been standing a mere moment before.

She was grinning, but the smile wasn't reaching her eyes.

The girl tensed up, her hackles rose every so slightly, a moment before she disappeared. She didn't simply attack, she vanished from his sight altogether.

Cohen flicked his eyes towards the beast, but instead he saw a huge path of collapsed wheat that stretched out of view. Neither of the two were in sight at all.

He tried to crawl outside, towards the damaged wheat. He had to know if she was okay.

A soft hand caught his wrist as he went to move outside the shed. Glancing down he saw Maly Kiel holding onto him.

She shook her head and dragged him back inside.

The girl pushed him down onto a soft bag of grass, and smiled weakly. "Spac. Sleep. Need."

---

Even with the screaming agony in his side, Cohen felt relaxed and as if he actually got a decent night's sleep. There's nothing quite like the sound of rain on a tin roof.

Maybe a little less than a full night's sleep - it was still dark outside.

He could see pink eyes glittering by the doorway, staring out at the dark. He couldn't really imagine what is out there, too many things, but considering what she did before... It felt good to have something acting like a guard dog. They'd need it.

She crept closer to him, and patted his shoulder, but kept her eyes trained on the outside world. "Dobry. Awake. Not dead."

He turned his gaze to where she was staring but couldn't see a damn thing.

"Anything out there?"

"Mmm." She nodded her head and shrugs, "Rats."

She didn't seem that concerned, but then she did just manage to either drive off or kill something so far gone that Cohen hadn't been able to identify it. She didn't seem to be a normal exotic at all.

"Thanks, for saving me."

The girl seemed amused at the statement, her mouth curling into a smile as she continued to stare into the dark.

"Bez wyboru." She whispered, as if it were the simplest of things. As if she had been acting only out of obligation. Most survivors would see another being attacked and either steal whatever they had and move on, or use their dying body as a lure to escape the things that go bump in the night.

This far outside the borders of the empire, things were as unsafe as they could get.

It seemed this particular girl wasn't just strong, she was strange. Why did she even help him?

"Maly... How did you find me?"

Maly Kiel screwed up her face with concentration, searching for the words. She struggled with it for a long time and then spoke quietly. "Wazne jest blisko. Important is close."

Cohen didn't get her meaning, but it was clearly something heavy for her. Something to keep in mind for the future. And thinking of the future, he whispered, "What happens in the morning?"

He had come to this god-forsaken place to die. It wasn't something he was very willing to admit to the girl going to a huge amount of effort just to keep him alive.

It seemed cruel to tell her his intentions in this wasteland.

That he thought life wasn't worth living.

Maly Kiel smiled and Cohen felt her tail curl around his waist in a reassuring hug. "We go. Place nearby. Dom rodzinny."

She settled down beside him, snuggling her head against his shoulder. She tapped his forehead lightly, "Spac. Sleep."

Cohen groaned, but found himself drifting off easily in the arms of the strange but beautiful creature.

---

"Wake up!"

Cohen rolled over, grabbing at his ears, before he suddenly screamed in pain and grabbed at his side.

He felt someone else gently roll him onto his back again, and he was staring up into two accusing and pink eyes. She glared at him angrily, "Jebac."

He cringed and touched his now very wet bandage, "Sorry. I guess I shouldn't have done that. Fuck this hurts."

She frowned for a moment, and then disappeared from his sight with a scampering of bare feet. He didn't try and sit up to see where she'd gone to. Not when he was already bleeding again.

Maly Kiel reappeared as quickly as she had vanished. The woman pulled off his bandage and chattered nervously at what she saw, then shoved a handful of something that looked like grass into her mouth.

"Uh... What are you doing?" Cohen asked cautiously.

She spat the pulp into her hands and worked it for a moment. Then, to his horror, she spread it across his wound.

It seared like he was being branded.

"Fuckshit!" He roared.

"Miec prezesrane." Maly agreed with him grimly, and then pulled out a clean bandage and began to tightly wind it around his bare waist. With each tight pull of the material, she paused to lean down and kiss the spot where he'd been bitten.

Cohen was feeling a tiny bit less delirious than the day before. When he'd asked her how she found him, when he expected to just become another dead body in another ruin, she had told him that something important was close.

"Maly..." He said stiffly, trying to ignore the pain, "Am I important to you?"

"Mmm." She nodded and smiled up at him.

"Why?"

She turned her head sideways and blinked, and then shook her head. She didn't understand the question. Cohen was pretty sure she understood the word, but for some reason she didn't comprehend his meaning.

He winced, trying to lean up on his elbows, "I'm nobody. An exile from the empire. I can't even fight a rat. Why would I ever be important to anyone?"

"Cohen. Important." She replied, and pushed his shoulders gently but firmly back down. She wrapped her tail around his waist, and then snuggled down beside him.

Her arm went across his bare chest, delicate little fingers pulling tightly against his side. She closed her eyes, clearly intent on ending that particular conversation.

Unless Cohen very much missed his guess, he'd just been claimed by the strange little exotic.

Her breathing was soft and calming. Her tiny chest raising and falling as the woman clung to him with a determination. It was as if she'd finally gone to sleep.

She had been watching over him throughout the night, so he wouldn't blame her.

Cohen tried to shuffle a painful little inch away from her.

Maly's tail tightened and dragged her with him. He wasn't going to be able to even try and stand up. He was stuck with her. Or rather, she was stuck with him.

"No spierdolic." The woman muttered quietly.

Cohen sighed heavily, "Do you need to sleep, before we try and leave? You were going to take me somewhere, weren't you? Close by?"

She raised her head and yawned, "Cohen want run. Want podpierdalac himself from me."

"I won't run. Can't."

Maly nodded and reluctantly stood up, before helping him to his feet. He noted that her tail was still looped around his waist, the end of it tucked through so that she was like a belt to him.

She pulled one of his arms over her shoulders and helped him to stumble outside and into the rain.

Cohen felt a little guilty as they began to move through the wheat field. His chest might be bare, and freezing, but he had solid boots on. Whereas her dainty feet sank into the sucking mud as they walked.

Maly suddenly giggled and pulled down on one of his frozen nipples, "Getting excite?"

He rolled his eyes, and then frowned, "Well, you're opening up. Can you... Tell me who you are?"

"Maly Kiel." She replied again with a broad grin.

He nodded, "Is that your name? What you do? What about who you are? Do you live with a clan? Hunt? What do you do for fun, in this gods-forsaken place?"

"Maly Kiel is... Maly Kiel." She said very slowly, as if speaking to a child.

He gave up.

Her tail tightened momentarily, "Not far. Rats not attack. Maly Kiel is Maly Kiel. Inny Kiel explains."

Cohen nodded slowly, "Inny Kiel? Is that another ratata?"

"Mmm."

He frowned, "Does... Does she speak more human, is that why she can explain things?"

"Mmm."

As they moved through the field, Maly's eyes were constantly roving. Her little pink eyes never settling on a single location for long. Her breathing was calm, but he also found it to be measured.

She might seem cute most of the time, but this was someone who had gone toe-to-toe against a shadowbeast and come out unscathed. She was a survivor, and that meant there was a deep violence inside her.

Cohen was glad she was on his side... Even if he still had not a clue as to why.

The little ratata led him up to the top of a hill. He hadn't quite been heading this way, when the rat had attacked him. He would have missed this view, if he kept going.

Missed the sight of a dozen little straw huts, standing in the mud.

He could see ratata scurrying around in their village, preparing wood and stacking it under covers. Cutting and cooking meat. Looking for all the world like they were preparing some kind of ceremony or festival.

Maly Kiel grabbed his hand and grinned at him, "Dom rodzinny."

With that, and her fingers tightly interlaced in his, as well as her tail around him, she led him down and into the village.

As he approached, looming a good head-and-shoulders over every single one of them, the villagers stopped and stared. Some had completely black eyes, some were red, but there was a single other with Maly's pink.

The other pink-eyed ratata had flowing white hair, and she was storming directly towards the two of them with her tail poised in the air.

"Kurwiszon jestem na kurwie!" The ratata screamed angrily.

Maly Kiel's hand and tail tightened, and she stuck her chin forward stubbornly, "Wazne jest blisko."

The other looked up at him, and then spat at his feet, "What are you doing here, human?"

"I... Don't know. She saved my life." Cohen said cautiously.

The other one sneered at him, "Not worth saving."

"Pierdolony!" Maly Kiel suddenly yelled, and then dropped into a low and continuous growl.

The angry one rolled her eyes, "Tss. Fine. It is your right, Maly."

"Inny explains." She stomped her foot.

Cohen laughed nervously, "So... You're Inny Kiel?"

"Yes, I'm the spare." The woman replied sarcastically, "What do you know of the ratata, human?"

"Nothing." He shook his head, "I know enough of the language to trade, and that's about it. I ask Maly who she is, or what she does, and she just repeats her name, so I'm guessing it's just a nickname."

"It's a title. Like your lords." Inny Kiel said, voice dripping with scorn. "Maly Kiel is our defender, our guardian. She is the one who guides the clan."

He looked down at the woman holding onto him, "Defender, I got to see. But... She's your leader? Why was she outside the village, where it isn't safe?"

"I'm the spare." Inny Kiel said tiredly, "If she dies, I become the Maly Kiel. That is our way of things. Always two, for all things."

"Like... A master and an apprentice?"

The ratata spat at his feet again, "Master and master, maybe. I'm no less than she. However, when she goes and makes bad decisions like this, I can't overrule her."

"Can I ask what decision she's made?" He said timidly. "She doesn't seem to speak a whole lot of human."

"She doesn't speak a whole lot of anything. She speaks war. She speaks death. She speaks with fang and claw." Inny Kiel snarled and then her tail dropped to the wet ground with a slap, "Tss. I'm getting angry at the wrong one. Come, this is our hut."

The three of the entered the hut.

Both women paused by the doorway, scruffed their feet a little on a mat, and then pulled him over to a lit fireplace. The smell of mossy pine filled the little one-room hut.

Maly Kiel sat him down on the mat, and then forced him to lie down by gently pushing on his shoulders. Then, she pulled off his bandage and tossed it into the fire.

She squeaked at the other one so fast he didn't have a chance to even guess what was being said. Inny Kiel growled, but left the room.

Maly Kiel pulled a small tin bucket from beside the fireplace, sloshing a little water as she did. She grabbed a cloth from where it had been drying and began to wash her feet.

Cohen found himself fascinated, lying there and unable to move. He watched her drawing the wet rag up and down her dainty feet, making certain to get even the smallest skerrick of dirt.

When she was done with that, and her feet were shining with water, she extended them towards the fire and began to picked at her toenails with her claws.

Cleaning herself until it was hard to tell that she had just been trudging around outside.

"Do any of your people wear shoes?" Cohen asked.

Maly Kiel blinked and looked over at him, she frowned for a moment and then shook her head. "Sometime. Long time ago. When war was rattan."

"When war was rattan?"

"She means when we used to be bred for war by your kind." Inny Kiel spat, coming back inside and thrusting a handful of flowers at the other ratata.

"Oh."

Inny shrugged, "I might hate you, but it has little to do with that. The ratata have always been bred. We give birth to armies, to miners, to slaves because we have always been skurwysyn slaves."

"Free." Maly snapped, and then she picked up a small circular tin cup without a handle, and began plucking flower petals and adding them.

"Yes, we're free now. Not then." Inny rolled her eyes, and then sat down by the fire and began a similar cleaning routine to Maly. She was just as precise, and just as beautiful.

"Are you... Sisters?"

"Stupid humans... We're clan." Inny growled, "You think one relationship is better than another. A mother, a father. Ratata don't have that. We are all just clan."

"Family seems important to you." Cohen tried to sound understanding and sympathetic, getting sick of his head getting bitten off every time he opened his mouth. "How do you... Handle marriage, then? Us stupid humans use sister and brother and so on to mark those we can't marry or mate with."

Inny shrugged, "Mostly, we get attacked by kinds like yours. Forced to become breeders with anyone."

"I am sorry that there are dicks in my race." He said with exasperation.

Inny laughed softly, "Mmm. That was rude of me. Sorry. I... I don't like this situation. And I like your ignorance of it even less. We take a life partner, from outside our clan. Not everyone is allowed this. Isn't a right, it is earned. Only the bravest, the strongest."

"Like... Maly."

She nodded at him, and then began to warm and clean her toes, "Yes. Just like Maly Kiel. I told you I was the spare, and that we were equal. Not quite. She has the right to take a life partner, but I don't. Not unless she does, first."