A Real Man Knows How to Build a House

Maybe there’s a different village with slightly less murderous people in it nearby?

He held up his hands, eyeing that axeblade. “Actually I... need it alive.”

“What? Why?”

“Because drakyree law demands a serial soul-tearer be tried by their tribe’s alkief, and their akryrk drained and distributed to all members if the judgement falls that way,” he didn’t say. Letting a wild farmgirl murder this one wouldn’t really improve human/drakyree relations in this region.... “I’m... a pacifist.”

“What language is that?”

“I don’t kill sapients,” he tried.

“Don’t understand a word.” The disapproving judgement practically radiated off her. “But if you’re squeamish about it, you can turn around and cover your ears. This won’t take a heartbeat.”

In response, he slapped the ragdolling drakyree onto Dirr’s horsey back and smacked her off into a gallop.

Hopefully she wouldn’t get eaten.

The woman blinked in the cloud of dust left by the mare’s hooves, axe still raised threateningly, and he shrugged. “Whoops, my hand slipped.”

“That was not a slip—” She sighed, thankfully dropping the weapon’s head with a dull thunk. “It would have been a good footwarmer for Dad, too.... But I guess you were the one hunting it. Aren’t no business of mine. Though I might’ve taken it in exchange for less work on the farm’s repairs.”

...Maybe he should’ve let her.

How could you even consider that?

The drakyree would die anyway.

And all that akryrk would go to waste!

At least they might not wind up stuck here for moon cycles pretending to fit in with the humans.

Well, you’re the human here, so it shouldn’t be that hard for you.

Unaware of the ongoing mental argument, Nyrahn swayed a little, the world whirling in place around her saviour and farm demolisher. “Thank you for keeping it from killing me, I s’pose, anyway.”

“...You’re not going to collapse again, are you?”

“Just need a sit-down. Dad should be okay, ought to get him out of the cellar,” she mumbled, staggering a step over to a bit of fence and sitting down. “I’m sorry, my manners could be better today. Haven’t even asked your name yet. I’m Nyrahn.”

Hm, maybe she isn’t so bad?

He eyed her, apparently having switched forms to a pale-faced, tired farmgirl instead of a seething river of wrath, now. “Aderay.”

“Hum, I’ve never heard a name like that before.”

Oh no what if she gets suspicious and thinks it’s a drakyr name?? She’ll use our pelt as a footwarmer!

He shoved away Kyter’s panic. Stupid drakyr was the one advocating they prance around among humans who wanted to kill them, anyway.

It’s fine when they’re not suspecting us of not being human!

Aderay ignored him. “It’s from up north. Means light of dawn.”

“That’s a surprisingly delicate name for a man who just crashed through a farm like a storm,” she muttered.

...Wait, did she just call your name “feminine”?

No she hadn’t. Delicate didn’t equal feminine.

She called it feminine hehe.

And “ray of sunshine” wasn’t? Aderay left her sitting there, taking a couple of strides towards the nearby building he’d crashed into. It looked like the main habitation, probably the best place to start this repair job.

It’s not “ray of sunshine”! It’s “burst of sunlight”!

Very masculine.

What, so it has to be “my teeth are spears and my hide drenched in the blood of my enemies” to satisfy you? My name is brilliant, blinding violence! Yours is “I woke up too early in the morning and I can’t even see the sun”.

“I think it’s a comment on your whiny personality being as annoying as a shaft of sunlight in the eyes,” he muttered, picking up a shattered bit of wood with that sinking feeling slowly dipping into his toes. If he started now, how far could he get?

Annoying? Whiny??

The whole wall would probably need to be rebuilt, and he’d need to get new wood from somewhere. Probably have to chop down some trees to fill the gap, maybe saw them. How many trees would that need? Did sawing take that long?

You’re not getting any help from me. I’m never talking to you again.

“You’re worse than the human.” He sighed, glancing back at said human, who was squinting at him. “Hey, farmer girl, can I borrow your axe?”

“...What for?”

He gestured vaguely to the building. “To chop down some trees.”

She stared at him for a long, long time. Long enough for him to wonder if he’d said something so stupid it’d broken her.

“...Maybe you should go rescue the henhouse and herd the chooks into it while I fetch Dad, so he can tell you where to start.”

This was going to wind up more complicated than he’d thought, wasn’t it.

___

“WHAT IN THE ROARING BLAZES HAPPENED HERE?”

“It’s... a long story.”

Aderay had somehow managed to herd the chooks and plant the battered henhouse back in place, at least, if a little off from where it had been.

Was that a... feather sticking from his mouth?

“Well we can’t leave everything in shambles like this! Where’s the dirty beggar who did it all? Let me give him a piece of me mind!”

Nyrahn’s father seemed to have a problem with volume. Or maybe hearing. Aderay could’ve heard him from the other side of the village without even trying. “It was an accident. I’ve already said I’m going to help rebuild it.”

“From what I hear you don’t know an axe from a peg,” the old man roared, stabbing his stick into the ripped-up ground of the yard. “What sort of man doesn’t know the first thing about building a house?!”

Suppose you’ll have to put on a dress now.

He scowled, running a hand through hair filled with feathers and dust. “Don’t turn down a slobbery gift when you’re starving. I can figure it out.”

The man’s eyes narrowed at him for some reason. “And why would you do that, eh?”

“Because your daughter threatened to axe me.”

“She said WHAT?” The man whirled on his daughter. “Nyrahn, I ain’t lettin’ you chase after this drusky destruction wreaker—!“

“NO! No Dad no he—“ She covered her abruptly red face. “He said I threatened to axe him! Axe him! Which I didn’t, by the by!”

...What had the old man thought he said?

I don’t know but it sounds suspicious.

“Hrumph! Well ye’ll be staying in the barn if ye haven’t anywhere already! Haven’t got room for ye, anyway, since half the house’s gone,” the old man snorted like Dirr in a bad mood. “And ye can start by cleanin’ up this mess and not a step further!”

The barn?

Wait, they’re... giving us a place to stay? Aderay, thank him! We won’t have to sleep in the forest again! We’ll be in a warm human building!

Of course he’d latch onto that. The one or two times they’d managed to sleep in a human habitation had spoiled him. Still, it was an unexpected kindness. He bowed deeply. “Thank you, I appreciate having a place to stay.”

...Why was the farmgirl looking at him like that?

Oh circles, does he... has he really nowhere to stay? she thought, looking at clothes covered in dirt and stains and reassessing what little she knew about this stranger. If he hunted drakyrs for a living.... The poor thing doesn’t have a home, does he? He must have been a nomadic type, never settling, who’d never had an opportunity to learn the ways of building a house, or the warmth that came from sharing a village.

A loner....

“Well then, stop your babbling and get to work,” her dad barked. “It aren’t free!”

Aderay sighed. Hopefully Dirr could survive the hungry drakyrees for a few more hours....