Creatures Caves

Chapter 8: Who Am I?
The two of them trekked through the forest, under the leaves. A kobold screeched at them from the undergrowth, and rain dripped from the sky. Athena rubbed her forehead and yawned. She was tired. A lot had happened in one day. There had been the paintberries, the battle at the village, and her meeting with Rusil. She kept her twin swords out all the time. Rule One of the jungle: Never trust anyone not of your own tribe. And Rusil wasn't even a grendel! Athena rubbed her forehead with the back of her hand. A flea bit her and she plucked it out of her fur and squashed it. The other grendels never got fleas. Presumably because they didn't have fur.
Ahead of her Rusil glanced back. "Come on!" He said.
"Yees!" Athena said, and caught up with him.

Morning dawned a week later to see two travellers, a norn and a being who thought she was a grendel, sleeping in a clearing. Over them leaned a metallic robot on tracks. Its sensors marked them clearly as intelligent life forms. Its master's instructions were clear. Take them to him. Its metal claws reached down to take hold of them.

Athena screamed as she awoke. Something was holding her tightly around the middle. She saw it as she woke, and almost lost consciousness again. It was massive, the size of a small tree. This megalith was made entirely in metal, and it had both her and Rusil clasped in gigantic metal claws. She beat against it with her hands, feet and tail, screaming profanities that only one who has lived all one's life with grendels can possibly know. Rusil stabbed at it with his dagger, but the blade bent on its metal hide. The thing said in a monosyllabic voice that had the sound of grinding gears behind it "Lifeforms - must - be - subdued - if - they - prove - violent."
It produced some sort of tiny needle and stabbed it into Athena's shoulder. She yelled again and beat at it, but she felt a slow drowsiness coming over her. She fought it, and the metal beast as it rolled away with them over the jungle floor, but it was winning out. She cast a despairing look at Rusil, who was obviously succumbing too, and then she lost consciousness.

A hand was touching her shoulder. A scaly hand. For a moment Athena thought it was a grendel, and then she felt the fingers. There were three of them. Long and thin. They resembled nothing so much as her own! She jerked upright, and found herself looking into the eyes of a creature who could be almost her double. The only difference was that he was larger than her, and clearly elderly, and he had scales instead of fur, and his eyes were red like grendel eyes.
"Who are you?!" Athena demanded.
"Now that is what I should be asking you," He said, withdrawing his hand. She noted now that he wore a long blue gown of some material very fine material, and two blades identical to her own were sheathed at his belt, one on either hip. An array of interesting looking devices were attached to this belt. "I'm Ukgokar. I'd like to know what a young shee is doing on this forsaken planet? And with a pair of banshee swords to boot!"
"B-banshee swords? Young shee? What are you talking about? I'm Athena, a grendel of Kurope's tribe."
He shook his head. "You're no more a grendel than I'm a log of wood. But you haven't answered my question."
Athena shook her head. "What is this place? What was the - thing?"
"The service robot? It was looking for intruders. I do not like norns and grendels interrupting my work. But you - you are something different. I want to know how you got here."
"I was born here! And - what did you do with Rusil?"
"The norn? I destroyed him. I don't like norns."
Athena was more disturbed for her own safety than she worried about Rusil. True, they had been companions, but there had been no mutual trust, and she had in fact disliked the norn. And a harsh grendel upbringing had not made her soft. She was hard inside, and not squeamish. "But where am I? And why have you brought me here?"
"This is my ship. I repaired much of it, but the hyperdrive is broken forever. I can't get off this planet. I brought you here because I am curious about you."
Athena gazed about her surroundings. She was in an entirely metal room, on a couch. She did not recognise any of the things around her. She had never even been in a hut before, and certainly hadn't seen furniture. Wonder filled her mind as she looked around, but she did not forget her immediate situation. "I came for the treasure." She said at last.
Ukgokar burst into peals of laughter. Athena pent up her annoyance for later. It would not do to anger him, when he had weapons and she none. "The treasure! That's so rich! There's plenty of treasure here, Athena. But none you would want. Electrical, all of it." And he laughed again.
"What do you mean?"
"It's useless without me. When I die it will rust and rot and fall to pieces." Suddenly he was sober. He said "Look. You're a damn shee, and everyone knows banshee and shee don't like each other. But you're the only being on this planet that could understand this thing. Stay with me. I'll teach you about it, and maybe one day you'll manage to mend the hyperdrive. Who knows."
Athena knew he was talking absolute rubbish. There was no such thing as most of the things he was on about. "No." She said.
"No?!" He was amazed that she had turned him down.
"No. I am a grendel! Not whatever you keep insisting I am!" And suddenly Athena lunged. Wherever this Ukgokar was from, it didn't build the reflexes and speed you needed in the jungle. He hardly moved before she had his swords out of their scabbards and at his throat. She held them there, unwaveringly. "You will make sure your beasts do not harm me," She said. "And I won't hurt you."
He nodded, his eyes wide.
"Good. I won't take your treasure. You didn't kill me when you could have. I'll do you a favour in return." She held one sword at his throat, while she gestured with the other that he sit down against the wall. He did as he was told. She tugged at his gown. It tore easily one way, but was near breakable the other. She tore two long strips of it, and used them to tie his wrists and ankles to a cable that ran along the bottom of the wall. And then she took up her swords. "Goodbye." She said, and ran out of the room. His shocked red eyes followed her out.