Page 5 of A Soul to Embrace

He also knew a staring contest with her would get him nowhere.

Bringing his knees up, he placed his right elbow on his thigh.

“Alright, Mavka. Let’s figure out what your stage of development is. Can you understand the words I’m speaking?”

He received chitters, a tilting skull that rattled loudly like dried bones were stuck inside it, and dark-yellow orbs. The sound was telling.Doubtful, then.

Just to double check, he stated in the sweetest and friendliest voice he could muster, “Your mother, the Witch Owl, is a slug, and I hope she burns.”

He obtained the same response.She doesn’t understand.She was reacting to the tone of his voice, not the meaning of his words.

He covered his mouth and looked off to the side in thought.This isn’t ideal.He tapped his forefinger against his lips.

“Okay, female,” he stated with his gaze slipping back to her. “I’m going to have to play a rather nasty trick on you. However, if you don’t let me out of this hole within the next few minutes, I,the great Jabez, will be forced to relieve myself in this hovel you call home.”

How long he’d been unconscious, he didn’t truly know. If he counted the initial few days, and then the days she’d likely healed him over, he knew it’d been at least a week. He’d had no food, nor water within that time. As an Elysian Elf, his body clock still rotated with Nyl’theria’s triple sun cycle, despite being on Earth for over three centuries.

He couldn’t change his biology, but it did aid him in this situation. He needed to pee, to eat, and to drink water, before the third Nyl’theria day of dehydration began to wither him.

Jabez reached his hand out to the female Mavka. Her blunt snout dipped to his reaching palm before she tilted her head once more. Jabez wiggled his fingers, and his long nails – whichalmostappeared claw-like – clicked between them.

“Come on. Take my hand. I won’t bite.” Yeah, because hers would be far more devastating.

He didn’t even offer a grin, which would have flashed his fangs, in case it came across as threatening. He kept his expression neutral.

When she didn’t take the bait, he held his own hands together to demonstrate, before reaching out to her once more. He positioned his feet in preparation, just as she tentatively placed her palm in his.

He simply held it for a long while, letting her get used to it. Hers was warm and rough from walking on all fours, but the texture wasn’t unpleasant.

Although awkward at first, her unsure muscles eventually loosened, and her orbs turned a bright yellow in joy.

Sucker.Jabez yanked her arm as hard as he could, making the Mavka crash face first into the dirt wall behind him as he shot for the hole she’d been guarding. Within seconds, dirt shifted and distressed squeals came from behind as she scurried to givechase when he left what he realised was a burrow. Her growl was loud, menacing, and a warning to Jabez that running was futile.

Which was fine, as he had no intention of doing so – yet.

Turning around, he held his hands up in surrender, and waited for her to exit. With orbs bright red, she halted, lowered her four-legged stance, and snapped her maw at him. She slammed a humanoid hand upon the ground, claws raking into the dirt, before tossing clumps of it as she pointed towards the opening behind her.

Jabez slowly, and cautiously, stepped to the side. She followed, but wasn’t incited to hunt due to his snail speed. Then, once he was out of eyesight, he gripped the base of his dick and answered the call of nature. The scent alone had to be off-putting to her, and hopefully it made her leave him alone.

In the dim moonlight, he spotted his torn pants on the ground.

A spectator appeared, huffing over him, and he tilted his head back with his eyes half-cast in annoyance.I guess she doesn’t care.Placing one hand on the closest tree for balance and to ‘trap’ him there, she released chitters at him while pointing back at the entrance of her burrow.

It showed that she understood the concept of language, but just simply didn’t know his or vice versa.

“Get it now?” He eyed his pants once more. “Yeah. You didn’t want the scent in your home, so hopefully you’ll understand from now on that I’m like most creatures and need out of your imprisonment. Demons, humans, and even the Elvish are not like you, Mavka. What we consume, we must expel.”

He received no audible answer.

Why am I bothering to talk to her?he thought with a sigh.It’ll be like talking to a tree.

Once done, he stepped back. As if that was her call to action, she attempted to grab his arm so she could drag him backinto her burrow. Predicting it, Jabez dodged it by ducking and turning, then he held his hand out.

“Wait. I need food.” He mimed eating while patting his stomach.

Not understanding, she reached for him again, and he snapped out a quiet growl before miming the same motion. The Mavka paused and observed him silently.

She did the same action, and a gurgle came from her stomach – hungry and then persistent. Her yellowed orbs turned red, and she licked at her maw.

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