Page 103 of Alien God

“New two-legs. Hello, two-legs. Pretty, pretty, pretty. Pretty two-legs play? Two-legs hunt? Brekken happy. Brekken hungry. Hello, two-legs. Two-legs tiny. Two-legs cub. Brekken love two-legs cub. Love two-legs. Love food. Treat? Treat? Play, two-legs, play?”

“I think he likes you,” Shoshen called over, laughing in the hyena-esque way I’d gotten used to. It hadn’t taken long – he laughed a lot.

Brekken padded along in his jaunty circle, barking and tossing his head.

“Yes! Brekken love new two-legs. Love Shoshen. Love Aiko. Love Ashken. Ashken three-legs! Brekken four-legs! Brekken love legs. Love run. Love play. Love food. Treat, two-legs?”

“I’m sorry, I don’t have a treat for you,” I said, shaking my head, amazed by this entire interaction. When Brekken stopped walking and stared at me blankly, then repeated his question about treats, I remembered he couldn’t understand me. He only understood Sionnachan words and commands.

“No treats right now, Brekken. And her name is Torrance,” Shoshen said before turning to me. “I can’t tell you how strange it is to understand the animals now. I’ve known Brekken my whole life, and now I can hear what he’s actually saying to me.”

“It’s incredible, isn’t it?” I breathed.

“It is.” He grimaced. “Though, it gets a little dark when he’s going in for the kill on a hunt. I try to tune those parts out.”

Brekken resumed his mad laps around us.

“Hunt? Hunt? Two leg Torrance hunt? Torrance tiny cub. Torrance cub learn hunt. Brekken show. Brekken big dog, big hunt. Brekken show tiny Torrance cub. Brekken teach. Brekken get treat.”

“She’s not going to go hunting with you, you great mad lout,” Shoshen chuckled, leaning against his shovel.

“Torrance cub. Cub learn,” Brekken replied obstinately. “Learn hunt. Learn play. Learn cover shit. No mess no scent no trail. Brekken teach tiny two-legs.”

I burst out laughing.

“OK. How about play? That one I can handle,” I said. I tossed down my shovel, looking around for something to play fetch with, but there weren’t exactly sticks just lying around in a snowy forest of crystal cone trees. Instead, I settled on bending down and heaping snow into my hands. I formed it into a ball, then chucked it as hard as I could.

Brekken went absolutely ballistic, taking off on a tear after a snowball that was just a little too fluffy and that had actually entirely disintegrated in the air.

He hadn’t noticed my snowball’s demise, though, and was digging and running and barking, his tail going crazy. “Where ball? Where ball? Where ball where ball where ball where ball where ball?”

It became a routine. I’d help Aiko with chores and wedding things in the morning, then after lunch, I’d usually venture out with Shoshen, doing outdoor chores and throwing snowball after snowball for Brekken. Like this, with these kind people and this batshit-crazy, loveable, horned wolf of a dog, it almost felt like I could build some sort of life here.

At least, until Wylfrael finally came back.

It was the first time I’d seen him during daylight hours in ten days. I didn’t even know he was there. Not at first. I’d been lobbing snowballs for Brekken while Shoshen did some chores inside the barn when suddenly Brekken started growling. The growls turned to barks, and he sprinted to me, getting behind my back to face something.

That something was Wylfrael.

I hadn’t seen where he’d come from – presumably the sky, having landed soundlessly. He certainly hadn’t been inside the castle this morning. Brekken barked again, his hackles rising at Wylfrael’s presence.

“Get back big wing two-legs!”

Wylfrael’s silver-white brows rose slightly.

“Brekken,” I said, frantically petting him, worried he’d do something that would make Wylfrael retaliate, forgetting he couldn’t understand a fucking word of English. “It’s alright. That’s Wylfrael.”

“The master of this castle,” Wylfrael added. He obviously spoke in Sionnachan, because Brekken understood and replied.

“No,” barked Brekken. “Aiko Ashken Shoshen master. Big wing two-legs stranger. Torrance cub. Brekken protect cub. Big wing two-legs want tiny Torrance. Brekken smell want. Brekken smell hunger. This big wing two-legs hunter. Hunt Torrance. Eat Torrance. Brekken kill.”

“She’s not a cub, she’s my mate,” Wylfrael called coolly. If he was annoyed by Brekken’s barking, he didn’t show it.

“No,” Brekken growled. “No mate.”

Panic made my stomach drop. Jesus Christ, we couldn’t even convince a dog that this was real? I whipped my head, looking to see if Shoshen was around to hear Brekken. The barn wasn’t far away, but luckily, it looked like he was still inside it.

“No no no,” Brekken continued, gnashing his deadly teeth, claws sinking into snow. “No mate. No soft no protect no warm. No nice smell. All hunger all anger all want want want. Want like blood. Brekken smell. Brekken hunter. Brekken know hunter smell.”

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