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His head tilts, then he shakes it. ‘There is light. Githyn,’ he spells. It’s a word I don’t know, and maybe there aren’t the proper classifiers in ASL for him to explain in a human way that I’ll understand what they are.

For now, I’m going to assume it’s a light source.

‘Very small inside?’ I ask. I take a second to shoot him images of what scares me, and he blinks in surprise, then his lips tilt up, and I think he’s probably laughing.

‘No. Not small. Trust me?’

I do, god help me. I shouldn’t after the way he’s kept me at arm’s length, but I do. Instead of answering him, I offer my hand, and I don’t know why, but I’m surprised when his palm presses to mine. His fingers are so much bigger and longer than mine, and his claws are just barely extended at the tips. They spread mine almost wide enough to hurt, but his skin is so soft. I can feel it fluttering every so often as he tugs on me and we begin walking again.

It feels like both forever and no time at all before we’re halfway up a large, tree-covered hill and standing at the mouth of what is most definitely a cave. If I didn’t have keen eyes, I might have missed it. The entrance is large enough for a Vyastil to walk through, but it’s angled to the side, giving the illusion that there’s a solid wall in front of us.

As I take a step forward against the hillside, I realize I can fit through easily.

Eissa goes ahead of me, his tail still around my waist, and the path ahead of us gets darker and darker to the point I feel panicked.

“Wait!”

Eissa freezes, then I feel him shift, and a second later, the way ahead of us bursts into bright pinpricks of light. For a moment, I can’t see anything except a shower of stars, and then they settle into something almost like millions of fairy lights hung from the ceiling.

My chest rumbles with a noise of wonder as I step past the narrow path into the massive cave. The floor’s covered in that strange moss that moves, and off in the distance I can see carvings on the walls in what’s clearly the Vyastil language.

‘Beautiful,’ I sign. When I look over at Eissa, he looks a little uncertain, but his lips are curled up in a smile.

He pulls me close using his tail, then grabs me by the wrist and brings me to the far wall where some of the carvings are. Before I can ask what it’s about, he presses my palm to the stone and after a second, I notice faint vibrations against my fingertips.

My brows dip. ‘Don’t understand.’

He lets me go. ‘Singing stones. The caves are made of them.’

My breath catches in my chest as I lean my entire body against the wall. I can feel it now, and when Eissa reaches out and taps his fingers in a pattern against the wall, the vibrations get stronger. I press my ear to it, and I can only just make out a faint melody, and I close my eyes to listen.

From what little of his voice I have heard since meeting him, it sounds almost the same.

I feel a caress against my cheek, and when I open my eyes, I realize he’s touching me with the tip of his tail, and I can’t help a small grin.

‘Beautiful,’ I sign again. I’m running out of adjectives. Pulling away, I glance at the carvings again, then trace my finger over some of the looping scrawl. ‘Do you know what it says?’

His shoulders rise and fall with a sigh as he tugs me toward a bed of the moving moss, and we settle against it. It feels amazing as it conforms to my body, and I lie with my feet resting against Eissa’s thighs. His clawed, bird-like feet extend far beyond my body, and I feel him kneading into the moss for a moment, a bit like a cat.

And just when I think he’s not going to answer my question, he lifts his hands. ‘They’re old legends and myths about the Vyastil before…’ His fingers trail off, and his face suddenly looks sad. ‘It was generations before I was—’ He bites his lip, then spells, ‘Hatched.’

My brow dips. ‘Like an egg?’ I make the sign for egg, my eyes widening when he nods. ‘Vyastil come from eggs?’

He nods again.

I think I might have heard that from somewhere, but I figured it was just human slander, trying to other the monsters even more than they already are. But now I can’t stop staring at him, trying to picture a tiny baby Eissa crawling out of an egg.

Are they big?

Are there females?

My thoughts must be loud because Eissa reaches into my mind to answer me. There are female Vyastil, and the eggs are quite large. We emerge bigger than human newborns with the ability to walk shortly after birth.

It shouldn’t be an odd concept. Humans are one of the few animals on Earth not able to walk, like, almost immediately. But something about it strikes me as so…bizarre.

Will I ever see one?

Something flickers across Eissa’s face, but it’s too quick for me to get a read on it. When I try to prod at his mind, it’s a steel trap. But it doesn’t last. His words float into my head. No. Vyastil don’t breed often, and breeding is carefully controlled. There are only a few females, and they are kept far away from humans. Hatchlings are just as closely guarded.