The barrel trembled again.
I reached in.
Fingers smeared with dry blood, bone dust, and salt from the preserved meats I'd devoured earlier. My hand brushed the neck of the boy. He was thin, warm, vibrating with panic.
He screamed.
The sound hit me like a hammer to the skull.
High. Sharp. Panicked.
My ears rang.
I recoiled, baring my teeth. Then leaned in again, slower.
He screamed louder.
I growled low, pressing a single blood-streaked finger to my lips.
Silence.
His mouth snapped shut like a trap. His chest heaved. Eyes wide, rimmed with red. He didn't blink.
But he didn't make another sound.
He understood fear.
Good.
The other one.
Smaller, softer, thinner, darker eyes. Scared, but didn't flinch.
A girl. Didn't know what a girl was. Didn't care.
She stared at me. Not in defiance, but in... awareness. Like she'd already seen death, and found it unimpressive.
I liked her already.
They were no threat.
Not to me.
No claws. No strength. No power.
But they had something.
They had words.
They had knowledge.
Things I didn't have.
I'd killed a jungle. Killed the sea. Killed a god-beast. But this new world? I didn't understand it. Not its words. Not its tools. Not its soft-skinned makers.
These two would help.
They would teach me.
Even if they didn't mean to.
I dragged them out of the barrel one at a time, setting them gently on the blood-slick floor.
The boy collapsed, fainting instantly.
The girl crouched beside him, protective, sweating fear, yet also fearless.
I pointed to myself. Then mimed fighting, slashing, stabbing. I beat my chest, curled my fingers like claws, bared my teeth.
Then pointed to them. To her.
"You," I growled in a voice like rocks grinding. "Prey."
Her eyes narrowed slightly. Not in fear… in thought.
She understood. Not the word. Not my voice.
My meaning.
She spoke.
A stream of sounds. Foreign. Fast. Filled with emotion. A question?
I didn't know.
But I remembered.
Every word.
Every syllable.
Every twitch of her brow, wrinkle in her nose, twist in her mouth.
It would take years to understand everything. But I would.
Eventually.
I never forgot anything.
Then she said something else.
One word, louder than the rest.
Immortal?
She tilted her head. Pointed to her heart. Then mine. She repeated it again.
"Immortal?"
I didn't understand.
But the word stuck.
So did her eyes. Searching mine. Like she was looking for something inside me.
More words came. Questions. I growled. Snapped my teeth. She kept talking.
So I grabbed her face.
Not hard. Not cruel.
Just enough.
Her mouth smeared with blood.
My blood.
No scream.
Silence.
She stopped.
I pressed a finger to her lips again. Same as with the boy.
She nodded.
We understood each other.
Silence.
I stood.
Let them stay on the floor.
They weren't going anywhere.
I turned back to the barrels, opening them with grunts of effort and little growls of surprise.
So much food.
Mine.
Colors I hadn't seen. Smells I couldn't name. Shapes I'd never dreamed.
Jams. Meats. Fruits. Grains. Pickled things.
My mouth flooded.
I feasted.
Fingers tearing. Teeth snapping. I didn't eat like a man… I ate like the jungle.
Greedily.
Loudly.
Laughing as juice and blood ran down my chin. My ribs heaved with each breath, each swallow.
I had killed gods, and now I was eating like one.
Behind me, the girl helped the boy sit upright.
His face was pale. But he breathed.
He looked at me like I was fire.
Not just dangerous.
Untouchable.
She whispered to him.
Gestured.
They argued quietly.
Then slowly, like stepping across a ledge, they walked toward me.
Close.
Too close.
I growled and waved them back with a bloody hand.
Mine, I tried to say with my face. Food is mine.
They stopped.
She didn't back away.
She stepped in front of me.
Between me and my food.
I stared at her.
Low growl.
Warning.
Mine.
She didn't move.
She bowed.
Kept her head low.
Showed me all her weak spots.
Then she raised it.
Hands on her chest. Then pointing to the boy.
And spoke.
"Yumi," she said clearly, touching her chest again.
"Riku," she said, pointing to the boy.
More words. A string of them. I caught them only in pieces, in melody, not meaning.
But I understood one thing.
Names.
They had none like mine.
Because I had none.
Just blood. Bone. Hunger.
I didn't speak.
Didn't move.
But my growl softened.
I looked at her hands. At her face. At her calm.
She wasn't brave.
She was ready to die.
There's a difference.
I respected that.
I like her more now.
I leaned forward.
My breath stank of salt and fruit and iron.
She flinched. Barely.
I pushed her gently to the side, back toward the wall.
Not a shove.
Not a threat.
Just a dismissal.
She looked up at me, confused.
Then nodded.
She understood.
I was not a monster.
But I wasn't her friend.
She sat near the boy.
Watched me eat.
I watched her watching.
She looked at the ship, then the bodies. She looked like someone remembering something she'd hoped to forget.
She'd seen death.
She didn't cry.
Didn't scream.
That mattered.
She stood again.
Faced me.
Raised her chin.
And said it again.
"Yumi."
Her voice cracked. Not from fear.
From hope.
I stopped chewing.
Stared at her.
The air hung quiet and wet.
I swallowed slowly.
Then spat the last bit of salted meat out onto the floor.
Let it sit.
Smiled.
And said it.
"Yu… mi… Ri… Ku"
Her mouth opened in shock.
Then curved.
Just a little.
A smile.
Hope.
I grinned.
Blood in my teeth.
Rule Two: Understand your enemy.