Rajin was a little hesitant to go through the gate, but Rain and Hammer had gone without a fuss, so she followed. What would they think if she showed her unease? She didn't know, but she didn't want to find out. She held her head high and plunged through. It did not occur to her that they might consider her anxieties reasonable.
The patch of sand they stepped onto was noisy but lifeless. Well, the leafy high resistance things poking up from the ground has some mild current of energy running through them, and there were some tailed furry balls sitting in those stalky things, buzzing faintly with energy. The sinistrals were nowhere to be seen, leaving Rajin without a reliable source of food.
She trilled in indignation at the deprivation, and was surprised that the general morning-sounds of the mangrove swamp halted immediately. Something in the dark heart of these woods emitted a low growl.
Is something wrong? Rain's voice in her head.
No food. She replied, communicating in concepts more than words and wondering how Rain could not have noticed the lack of sustenance. Of course! Rain would know where to find energy. She silently upbraided herself for displaying her discontent. That would have to stop if she was to avoid being consumed by these strangers. She was surprised they hadn't tried to suck the life from her already.
Yes, food. A good idea. Rain again. I can sense some of what you are. You should be able to talk to both of us directly using this method. With practice you'll even be able to form crude words, once you learn them.
Rain spoke aloud.
“Rajin is hungry, and to be honest so am I.”
“Yes,” that was the one called Hammer, “I haven't eaten since that ferry ride days ago and I'm also thirsty.”
What was this thirsty concept? She would have to conceal her ignorance and wait to find out. Why were these people admitting their desire for food so freely? Was it a message that they considered themselves so strong that, even in their weakened state, they would still be treated with caution? And they had assumed she was doing this. They must think she was powerful indeed. Now she understood, this was a triangle of mutual fear. Clearly they were holding each other at bay, two equally matched opponents afraid that if they moved first than Rajin and the other would both strike in retaliation. She would have to decide which one she would approach with a proposal of betrayal. The stone skinned warrior or the terrible sorceress.
“We are near my complex. We'll go inside and I'll fix you something. The sun will become too strong for me to bear before long, anyway.”
Hammer just grunted in reply.
The three of them slopped through muddy mangrove sand towards the island proper. The tide was out, so everyone stayed relatively dry, though their shoes and the hems of their pants became quite dirty. Rajin's claws filled up with mud, which irritated her. She would get that out later. More bothersome was the way it stuck her feathers together. She noticed with a start that she now considered this body as part of her, rather than just a case she pushed around to achieve things she wanted.
They arrived at a rectangle of lower resistance, recessed into the wall. The humans were talking about something called a “notepad.” Apparently they needed on to do something. The ground here was rough and dry, so she used this time to preen herself, scraping mud out of her feathers and from beneath her claws. When she was done, the humans were impatiently staring at a black circle on the wall. The area around that circle had an unusual resistance profile. It took her a while to piece together what the effects of that profile would be. It looked like it was for converting sound and light into electricity, and vice-versa. They had things like this in her home world, but this was the first she had seen here, and it worked differently to what she was used to. If that was even what it did.
She heard Rain mutter something under her breath. It sounded like “should have done this in the first place.”
Another gateway opened up, this one leading into a messy chamber. The three ventured in, Rajin less hesitant this time. Neither would harm her while they both survived.
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