Chapter 4
Not much later, when the first sun reached its peak in the sky, Nail found himself delegating his mentor responsibilities to other warriors of the Dragon Clan. The three large brethren before him, Choda, Churet and Chik, stood amiably with their arms folded heavily across broad chests, accepting their added responsibilities as readily as lake birds accept fish.
"The tenderlings in the primary batch are ready to learn the skill of flight, while the secondary has just barely learned to focus their ki," he continued. "And Bok has a couple scrubs in his new grouping that he claims are better suited to be warriors than healers."
They nodded, accustomed to the shared duty. Nail had been dividing it between them for the past year anyhow, so that he could spend more time with Guru, learning the ways of a patriarch.
Choda, his eyes narrowing in curiosity, jerked his chin. "So tell us, Nail. Since the Father has requested that you spend time with this alien, do you plan on bringing it to the clan?"
Nail sighed, considering the newcomer's gruff and fiercely independent nature. "That would be up to her. I offered at last dusk, but she is uncomfortable accepting our help."
"A female, you say?" Chik asked.
Nail nodded, and watched in subdued amusement as their faces scrunched in unfamiliarity at such an odd concept - an intelligent species needing two genders to procreate, just like animals.
"And it has the ability to reason?" Churet asked innocently.
Nail chuckled. "As much as you or I."
Their eyes widened, and they smiled good-naturedly. Choda clasped Nail on the shoulder. "Well, let the alien know it is welcome here. We could learn much from it, no doubt."
Nail was about to reply when the sound of alarmed voices caught his attention. He craned his neck in the direction of the commotion to see several namekians running out of their domes and stopping in rigid surprise. He followed their stunned gaze, and gawked.
Holding herself with all the dignity of a carnivore in the midst of plant-eaters, Axle strode solidly through the clan center, tossing pointed glares at the brethren as she passed. Tucked securely under her muscled arms were two namekian children, wide-eyed and blushing.
"If you'll…excuse me," Nail muttered absently as he took off at a brisk jog. No one had yet confronted her, though her presence drew them like pollen bugs to a flower. Unsure of her intentions, he preferred to be the first one to intercept the alien female, and made his way through the growing crowd, catching her attention.
Axle stopped when she saw him and her eyes crinkled in a knowing smirk as he approached her. Without speaking, she dangled the embarrassed young namekians out at arms' length, by the seat of their pants. "Do these belong to you?" she asked, her thick accent warbling the words. "I found them by the river, stuck in a tree."
The little namekians began to squirm, and Nail didn't doubt for one second that they'd been spying on her. He took them off her hands and lifted them up until their eyes were level with his. "Of all the trees to climb, and it had to be one by our new friend's camp, eh scrubs?"
Their flush darkened, and little anxious giggles escaped their lips. With a nervous glance at Axle, one of the tenderlings cupped a hand up to his mouth. "We saw it in the lake, Nail," he hissed in a strangled tone meant to be a whisper. "I think the alien is a warrior!"
Nail risked a quick glance at Axle, relieved to see her eyebrows quirk in amusement rather than furrow in anger. He looked back at the scrub. "Oh? And what makes you say that?"
"It's strong!" he declared, biting off the words for emphasis. Then other one nodded vigorously.
"Yeah. Its chest muscles are so big," he whispered with enthusiasm, "they stick out." He held curled hands several inches off his own chest in demonstration, as he added, "Way out!"
Nail had also noticed that odd part of her physical structure, though he wasn't about to direct everyone's attention to it. If they were going to establish a friendship with the alien, they needed to focus on similarities, not differences. He looked apologetically at Axle, and caught a maroon flush that tinged her cheeks.
"You might consider schooling your tenderlings on the female anatomy," she said heatedly, folding her arms across her chest. Nail blinked stupidly. Something had upset her, and he'd missed it.
He dropped the children, and they scuttled over to Bok the Healer who was watching bemusedly at the edge of the growing crowd. "Well, you're the first one they've seen," he replied innocently, "that isn't an indigenous animal of this planet, anyhow."
"What?" Her face twisted in confusion, and then her eyes narrowed. "Where are your females?" she asked warily, as though he were hiding them in slave mines underground.
Nail shrugged. "There aren't any."
She frowned suspicion at him, and glanced nervously at the surrounding brethren..
Nail swept his arm across the crowd of namekian spectators. "We're an asexual species."
Her mouth opened in an unspoken thought, and a handful of expressions crossed her face then, none of which were 'believing'. Nail sighed internally. Why would she think he was lying? "It's true," he asserted, confused at her reaction.
After a moment of scrutiny, she snorted and shook her head. "You obviously think so."
Nail frowned. Huh?
"Whatever," she said, shifting her weight from one leg to the other. "Look. While I'm here, I need clothes. These were charred paper-thin by the planet drop." She held out a pinch of fabric from her pants only to have it piece off between her fingers. A small hole was left in its place, revealing the shimmering gray skin underneath. As Nail took in the rest of her attire, he realized that it was indeed falling apart.
"Oh…" He scrutinized her figure, and then took a step back. "Hold still." Ignoring her perplexed expression, he focused his ki and called on a magic that only a handful of brethren had learned - Clothes making.
The energy whipped the wind around him, and just as light started to spark about her, Axle hissed and jumped back. A white bundle of clothes materialized where she'd been, and crumpled to the floor.
"What the hell was that!" she cried, her green eyes panicked and accusatory. A low rumble rippled through the spectators as they started to chuckle.
Nail held his hands out in a placating gesture. "Axle, you didn't hold still."
She looked at him as though he were insane. "Hold still! While you zap me?"
"It doesn't hurt," Nail said and pointed to the clothes on the ground. "It's how we create our attire." He neared her and placed both hands on her shoulders. "Trust me."
She pursed her lips and glared at a couple namekians whose laughter rose above the rest. Nail noticed that at her daggered look, they quieted down immediately. "Alright. Just hurry it up. All this attention is making me trigger happy." She patted her gun for emphasis.
Nail gulped and nodded. Locking stares with her, he summoned the magic again, and this time when the air crackled and spat around her, she stiffened, but didn't move. With a flash of light, a pair of black pants materialized on her lower half with a simple white vest on top. Nail smiled and was just about to comment on his good work when she looked down at her torso, and gasped.
One of her hands clenched the vest's material in front while the other simultaneously snaked out and slapped him hard across the face. He winced, and held a hand up to his stinging cheek. The brethren went silent with shock. She'd just hit him, and they hadn't even been sparring.
Rubbing his face, he frowned at her. "Why did-"
"Give it ties, namekian!"
"What?"
"Laces, a sash, or something!" her voice raised in pitch as she demonstrated that the vest needed to be closed in front. At his further hesitation, she whipped her thigh weapon out of its holster and pointed it at his face. "NOW!"
Startled, Nail did as she said, and a few loose strings appeared on the inner stitching of the vest. With a growl and a highly annoyed glare, she fixated on tying it up as he watched her in confusion.
When she was done, she made to leave, but hesitated at the swarm of brethren that blocked her way. They wore an assortment of expressions; some curious, others confused, others engrossed… It was a lot of attention for someone who seemed to prefer solitude.
Nail watched warily as her lip twitched and curled up over her fangs. Afraid that she might hurt someone, he walked up behind her and clamped his arms around her from behind, pinning her hands to her waist. She gasped, and turned her head to gape at him in muted appall.
"I'm taking you back," he said gruffly, and before she could protest, he launched up in the air. Whatever vehemence she professed earlier was undermined by her obvious fear of heights as the air peeled around them. She went completely rigid and squeaked.
"Nail!" she hissed, staring bug-eyed at the ground below. "I'm…gonna…kill you!"
"I was afraid you were going to hurt someone," he reasoned, suddenly noticing as he held her against him that her gray skin radiated a lot more heat than he'd suspected. It was trivial, but it caught his attention.
"I am going to hurt someone," she spat, but her threat sounded more like a whimper. "You!"
He could see her lean-to down below, as he'd been flying relatively fast, and dropped down. She struggled against him, but he wouldn't release her.
"We're a peaceful people, Axle."
"I know that!"
He felt her gun on the inside of his leg and shuddered at the thought of her using it against his people. "Your weapon has no place on our world."
"It has a place in my holster, and that's where it's going to stay!" At his tightened grip, she finally relaxed and sighed wearily. "Already making ultimatums for your interplanetary guest, eh Nail?"
"We won't harm you."
"I'm not getting rid of my gun," she said in a tone that left no room for argument. "But I won't use it against you now, if that's what you're afraid of."
That was good enough, he figured. But it unsettled him that there was so much anger in her. So much mistrust. Nail had never been around anyone like that before, and it saddened, intrigued, and confused him all at once. He wanted to understand her. He had so many questions, that-
"So are you going to let go of me?" she asked, turning her head and peering up at him.
"Oh…" He released her, wondering why he hadn't done it sooner.
She turned around and placed her hands on her hips, her black-burgundy braid draped over one shoulder as she cocked her head and stared up at him. "You've got a lot to learn about the universe, namekian."
"I would have you teach me."
Her reflective eyes narrowed as she scrutinized him. He held his breath, hoping she'd relent. After several uncomfortable seconds she threw her hands up and plunked down on the grass by the lake.
Taking her lack of rejection as an affirmative, he went down and sat cross-legged, next to her. "You know, Axle, our lack of technology makes us no less advanced," he informed, peacefully.
She snorted. "Please. "Ignorance reigns on Namek."
Nail sighed inwardly. It might take a while to change her of that opinion, but her preconceived notion just fueled his incentive to try.
"So tell me," she said without taking her gaze off the lake. "What is your role amongst your kind?"
Nail blinked back his surprise. He hadn't anticipated that she might initiate the conversation. He inhaled deeply. "Many things. One day I'll be patriarch over my race, but for now I'm the mentor over the warriors of the Dragon Clan."
She wrapped her arms around her knees and glanced at him. "Sounds important."
Nail shrugged. "It's my calling. I'd be just as content if my place in life was a simple Nurturer."
"So there's no jealousy from others?"
Jealousy. The word was almost unfamiliar. It was a term he'd learned from Guru's studies. "None at all. We are each part of a whole, here."
She chuckled. "Sounds like a regular paradise," she said as she laid back on the grass with her hands clasped behind her head. Nail's attention immediately went to the puckering vest stretched over her chest muscles. It was so unusual. He found it…pretty? No… Decorative? He frowned, trying to place the impression it gave him.
Carnal?
She looked up at the sky. "So one day you'll be in charge of the namekians, but for now you're the warrior's mentor in the most significant clan of all Namek."
He choked. How did she know so much about his kind? He saw an opening and took it. "You know, it's the same calling that Etrack had before he left for Rameumptum."
She stiffened, and glanced at him knowingly. He raised his eye ridges in mock innocence.
"Fine, Nail," she said, shaking her head. "Ask your questions, but don't expect complete answers."
He couldn't help feeling like he'd won a small victory. He shifted on the grass until he was facing her. "How did you know him?"
A flicker of pain crossed her face right then, but she winced it back. "He was a hermit that dwelt near my grandmother's village. He was…close…with my family."
"And you spent much time with him?"
"I did." She was quiet for several seconds, as though deciding how much to tell him. Finally, she continued, reliving her past as though he weren't even there.
"My mother was involved in politics in a volatile, urban city," she began, her eyes twinkling with emotion. "A speciest movement began to gain momentum when I was a girl, and she fought it. Out in the open, not realizing or caring that it endangered us. And to make a long story short, she was assassinated."
Nail's heart hurt. He couldn't imagine anything more awful. Guru was constantly trying to prepare him for his imminent passing, but Nail still feared that his father's loss might drive him mad. He wanted to reassure her somehow, but the events were all in the past, and there was no point in putting bandages on an old scar. So he sat quietly and listened.
She continued. "I had no father, as my mother had bought the sperm that made me from a bank. The man who it came from, though, was apparently some great governor who died six decades ago," then the tension in her face relaxed as she addressed the lighter side note. "Expensive but coveted stuff, his sperm. I swear I'm probably related to half of Rameumptum's upper class."
"How strange," he commented. "With such a plethora of genetic variation, one would think such specializing wouldn't be necessary."
She shrugged. "Well, I don't think I'm all that special, to be honest. Unique, yes. Special, no."
He snorted, contemplating what he knew of her character. "I can't imagine there are many of your kind that are like you."
She smirked in a way that made him think he'd barely scratched the surface of some great tomb. "You have no idea."
"So what happened when your mother was taken from you?"
"Etrack intervened, and took me in. That's when I found out he was a lot more than just a weird alien hermit. He was so enraged at my mother's death that he broke his vow of not teaching violence, and began to teach me the ways of the warrior."
Whoa… That meant Etrak would have gone centuries without passing on his wisdom. It was almost unbelievable. "He never taught anyone before that?"
She shook her head. "Said that violence was too intrinsic in a Rameumptum's nature. He said that we'd misuse the power. I guess he should have stuck to his resolve, because that is exactly what happened with me."
His fixed gaze urged her to continue.
"I didn't learn all I should have, mind you," she said, sticking a blade of grass in her mouth, and stretching her hand back behind her head. "I was hell bent on revenge, and when I felt he'd taught me enough to avenge my mother, I took off for the city. I was only thirteen."
"So young?" Nail couldn't even imagine the tenderlings he knew embarking on such a dark mission. He could barely envision the adults doing so, even if it were a just cause.
She nodded. "By that time, the speciests had come to power, and I barged right in on a council meeting they were having at the city center," a humorless chuckle escaped her lips and she shook her head. "The majority if not all of their leaders were there, and I didn't realize it, but Etrack had followed me. The vigilante bastard caught up to me right when I entered the room."
Her words were harsh, but her voice was strained.
"Words were shared. None too kind when they associated us with my mother, and next thing I know, they took an emulsifier," she patted the gun on her thigh, "and shot Etrack before he even knew he was in its sights." Hard lines creased her face, and she swallowed. "Took his head clean off his shoulders."
Nail gritted his teeth and looked down. So that was how the legendary Etrack had met his end, and right before her young eyes. It was awful. The story evoked strong emotions in him. The poor female even felt the need to carry with her the weapon that destroyed her mentor, as though its presence could somehow protect the great namekian from a death that had already claimed him.
After a long, shuddering breath, Axle continued. "I don't remember much after that, but the next time I saw straight, everyone was dead."
Nail gaped at her, with one word forming in his mind. Berserker…
She flicked a glance at him, then. "Two Stroke, the rubber-skinned captain that we buried yesterday - he was out in the hallway at the time, petitioning for a license to buy and sell goods at the spaceport. He came running in after it all happened, and after gawking at the corpses of the entire regime, he blew his breath out in a long whistle and shook his head, 'Well,' he mused jovially as though I'd just spilled my drink instead of slaughtered an entire room full of people. 'So much for the Speciest Movement!'"
She started to laugh, but Nail didn't miss the moisture glistening her green eyes. "And he grafted you into his crew?" he asked quietly.
She nodded. "He turned to me afterwards and said, 'Kid, I could use someone like you.' Having nowhere else to go, I joined up with his posse of mercenaries, and have been with them ever since."
"Mercenaries…"
"Muscle for hire, though most of what we do is more brains than brawn," she smirked without mirth. "More crooked than straight."
At his questioning glance, she continued. "Can't say much of our work is ethical, but we have our own code of honor," she caught his gaze, a glint of irony in her face, "skewed though it may be."
"Hmm…" Just in the past few minutes she'd become so real, so dimensional, so wounded… He sympathized with her now on so many levels, and wondered if he too would have projected such a hard exterior had he been subject to the same circumstance. And her line of work…he could only guess at the details, but he didn't doubt that the scars on her body came from after she met Two Stroke, not before.
"So what brought you to Namek?"
She sighed. "Dragonballs. What else?"
"What did-"
"I think that's a perfect place to stop, don't you?" she asked, quirking a brow at him.
Nail opened his mouth to disagree, but realized he was fortunate she'd divulged as much information as she had. The rest could wait. After all, it wasn't like she was going anywhere anytime soon. "I understand." He stood to his feet, and turned to leave.
"Hey Nail," she said, her expression surprisingly playful, even after the harsh telling of her story.
"Yes?"
She toyed with the blade of grass in her mouth before continuing, her lips curling up into a smile. "Next time you have a conversation with a female, Mister I-have-no-gender," she jested, the humor in the title somehow eluding him, "It's common etiquette to keep your eyes on her face."
He frowned confusion, and she glanced pointedly down at her chest where the vest stretched over her protruding… Whatever they were. But as she drew attention to them, he realized that he indeed had been staring at that part of her anatomy for much of the conversation.
Then, a vague realization washed over him, and though he didn't comprehend it completely, it was enough to make the blood rush to his cheeks. His eyes trailed back up to her face, and he gulped. "They aren't chest muscles, are they?"
She laughed heartily at what Nail assumed was his glaring ignorance.
"No."
