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“Your anatomy must be very different if you can simply eat cave mold and survive the experience,” she says. “Most of the flora in these desert caverns are highly toxic to humans.”
I furrow my brow.
“You humans are strange creatures,” I say, before fumbling uselessly with the ingredients on my table.
“I could say the same about you.”
I thought she was being melodramatic, but she does bring up a good point. I cannot simply have my human pet starving.
“What do you eat then, if not cavern flora?”
She thinks for a minute.
“Here in the desert, food is pretty scarce. But I guess I’m fond of dried meat, and some of the plants that grow outside are okay in a pinch.”
Just out of sight, I snap my fingers together quietly, summoning bowls of food to the table in front of me.
I’m not sure if she’s more indifferent or terrified as she watches me.
13
ARIE
He’s enthralling to look at, addicting to both the eyes and the soul. Even with the most mundane of movements, I find myself watching him and feeling silly for doing so.
Perhaps that is how it is with all godly beings? But I have never felt this way before when thinking about any of my own, not when I see them in the corner of my eyes taunting me or looking at me with sad pity. When Peliel looks at me, I feel seen. I feel important.
It’s not necessarily a safe feeling, I am not comforted by what he is or what he can do… But I do feel worthy.
He makes me feel less alone.
It makes me curious about him. I haven’t had someone so… tangible to talk to in the past few years, though it seems longer.
“Why do you live here?” I ask softly, afraid to break the silence between us but also wanting to hear his voice. “Surely there are better places to be.”
Peliel tilts his head back to give me a glance, but his eyes stray from my own pretty quickly. From his profile, I see his mouth twitch downward.
“These lands are vast,” he mutters. “Lots of space to roam and claim.”
“So, is it safe to assume you like the freedom this place allows you?”
He sighs. “Yes,” he says. His voice is dry and unamused. “I do enjoy the freedom.”
It makes sense, I suppose, why a creature like Peliel would like to stay in the deserts of Tlouz. I myself have always wondered what it would be like to stray from these dry lands, but more population most likely means more competition and more annoyances.
“Has anybody tried to fight you before? Lay claim to your territory?”
Peliel is quiet for a moment, tilting his head in a way that almost seems thoughtful, but I cannot read the look on his face. “A few times. There are other things in these lands, both human and beast, as I’m sure you are fully aware of.”
He smiles in a way that makes it seem like he is baring his teeth toward me. “Nothing that was hard to deal with, however.”
I hum but don’t respond, unsettled.
He says nothing after that, and I content myself with watching him again. I watch as he makes his way away from me, putting several feet of distance between us, and busies himself with some of the bowls that hold food.
The reminder of how long I haven’t eaten is enough to make my stomach clench, and I put a hand over it. I don’t wish to humiliate myself anymore by letting it growl, not when it would be heard in this silent cave.
“Sit,” he says, though I’m not dumb enough to think it is anything less than a command. Peliel jerks his head toward the stone slab that I assume works as a table. I sit on one of the sides, avoiding what I presume to be the head of the table.
