FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

SfKC - Desperate Measures pt. 3

The snow had come just a few days later, freezing over the lake shortly after. Stored up split wood beside the shack kept it well warmed though while Tala and Obok took time trying to really reach a point where they understood one another. All their time was spent sharing stories and learning more about each other and the peoples they had come from.

They learned that many Kobold and Human celebration days lined up. That their societies were different, but in some ways, not as much as either had expected. How human families lived, and how Kobold's had crafted wooden tools. Every day the snow kept falling as the pristine white blanket covering the land grew thicker. Occasionally Obok would go out, wrapped in furs, to the edge of the lake and break a hole, but by and large it was an uneventful period, and restive.

On the fourth day, with wind blowing sheets of snow into drifts outside, Tala was cooking a large fish that they would share. Roasting it over the open flame, turning the spit that her human friend had made for her to use, and pondering about what to do with herself now. Silently, Obok sat on his cot, working a knife over a piece of wood. He was trying to make something, but she had no idea what.

Tala had a problem. Her needs and urges had been building, but he wasn't a Kobold. Had he been, it's likely something would have already happened between them. Males trapped in close spaces with unmated females usually tended to pick up on the looming issue with ease, she had been told by the elders that she would just smell different to them when the time came, and she had experienced it winter of last year with her first mate.

Much like they were now trapped by the winter snows, her and Frib, her now dead mate, had been basically trapped the year before. It had been nearly a week before the hunters could properly get out of the camp, and they had been trapped in their lean-to, living off of saved up bones from over the year. It hadn't been as nice as the full fire in the shack, but it had been special to her. Something had finally clicked in Frib after a few days, and the mating frenzy they had gone on had been something else.

She had given him five young for it, two of which survived to the attack. She had no idea if they were still alive, but she hoped so. Suddenly snapping back to reality as Obok's hand reached down to grab the handle of the spit and softly berating her, "You okay? Tired?" He sat there, suddenly next to her, and turning the fish on the contraption. She hadn't even realized she'd stopped.

"Tala sorry," she sputtered out, grabbing at the spit to take it back, "Tala remember tribe, Tala remember mate, and snow before." The fish was nearly done, only overcooked a bit on one side, and she lifted it up from the two sticks it had been set on. Carefully, Obok answered, "Good memories? Good remembers?"

"Good remembers, yes." the fuzzy Calico Kobold replied as she used the big knife to cut the fish into a small and large chunk, his and her sizes. Hopping up onto his fur lined cot as she began to eat at the flakey meat, "Obok remember mate?"

He shook his head, "No, I never had one." This confused Tala more than almost anything he'd said to her in their time together. He had shown so many skills that would have made him a prime target in the tribe. So much so as to even cause a female to consider having to drive off other females. He was quiet, and fast. Skilled at hunting, fishing, building, working hides, the list never seemed to end for her. Had he been a Kobold there may have been blood drawn between rival females in an attempt to secure a spot in his hut, an extremely uncommon thing.

"I think there were a few girls in the village who I might have tried to court, but I didn't really have time to. I've been out here since before I came of age." Biting into his fish as he ate, setting aside the bones for her, he continued, "I never really thought much about it, I guess I could have gone to another village, but something about this place made me stay here."

Tala looked up and over at him, her own food finished, building up the courage to ask the words she wasn't even sure would be correct, "Tala think Obok good mate. Village girls slow." Leaning over and pressing her body against his to share warmth and companionship Tala never got to see his face, though she wondered why he coughed for a moment.

Obok nearly choked on the last bite of his fish, coughing it up roughly just as she pressed against him and staring down at the soft fuzzy beast. His own inner monologue demanding answers, did she understand what she had said? If she didn't, why the sudden affection? She was a Kobold, and he was a human. That could never work. Could it? Was this just insanity?

He knew that he felt something toward this Kobold, she had followed him around and listened intently when he tried to teach her things. She had even started to understand a lot of the stuff he'd told her before the snow took everything outside the shack to a halt. She was learning his language rapidly and seemed smart. Cautiously, more so than he'd ever moved in his life, he brought a hand down and rested it on her, pulling her tighter against his fur wrapped torso.

"Tala," careful now, he thought, "Tala do you mean what I think you mean?" The Kobold's small paws grabbed his hand and held it to her chest before answering, "Tala not care Obok human," then, with a casualness that he had never before seen in his life she asked, "Obok mate Tala? Tala know no eggs, but Tala need."

"Obok-, I mean, I'll try," he assured her, reaching out with his other hand to stoke the fire and help heat the room more before he began to unwrap his furs.