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Title: The First
The First and its characters, settings, and plot are mine. Please do not take, alter, distribute or archive without my permission.
“Davis?” Cassidy called, looking up from her book when she heard the front door open. There was a strange noise, like the scrabbling of tiny claws on the hardwood floors and she got curiously to her feet. Had he let the cat inside again? “Who’s there?”
The noise stopped and for a moment there was silence as she tensed, waiting for it to begin again. Movement caught her eye and her attention fell to the floor. Peeking around the corner was what looked like a small lizard of some sort. Its head was blocky and topped by twin sets of two horns. Needle-like blue spines fluffed out on its neck and shoulders and its little feet sported tiny, tiny claws. It looked at her with eyes that swirled with all sorts of colors and then turned to look behind it at the man who had just come around the corner.
“Hey Cass.” He smiled with a mix of guilt and excitement. “Happy Birthday.”
“Please don’t tell me you let that thing inside…” She gave her husband an almost sarcastically pleading look as she sank to the floor. The critter moved forward cautiously and sniffed at her fingers.
“I just got her today,” he said, crouching down as well to run a gentle finger down the creature’s spine, right between her little folded wings. “She’s the firstborn.”
“Firstborn? I thought they… you know. I thought you already…”
“Nono,” he said quickly. “She’s the first chas’kra to be born to a mated pair,” he corrected with a smile.
“So they’re breeding now?” Cassidy said, though her tone had not warmed much at all. “We can’t keep something like this, Davis. Not here at the house. You know how much bigger they get.”
“She can live outside. Donaldson’s down the mountain keep Cha’rik outside and he does just fine. We’ve got more than enough space out there and it’ll be years before she’s big enough to have to stay out there like the others,” Davis pointed out diplomatically.
Cassidy gave him a look that lasted for only a second; only until the little creature began happily licking her fingers. It was not a good idea, she knew, to be keeping one of the chas’kra in her home. When they had first been created she had very firmly told Davis she would not have one in the house. While true that the dragon-like chas’kra grew smaller than their prototype counterparts, the Scovens, they were still created beings.
They were still unpredictable.
They could still be dangerous.
Five years after the first of them had been taken into its new mountain home the humans were still learning about how they developed. They had been created and marketed to aid humans in their daily lives. They were bigger than the male Trenneks that hunted the mountains and stole the souls of their victims, and so the chas’kra were good for defending the homes of their owners. They could fly, though at five years they were inexplicably beginning to lose that ability. Their flight as youngsters had proven invaluable, however, as they transported people and items the long distances between mountains much faster than any land travel or air glider had done.
But so far, they had not seen a full life cycle of the beasts. Not one of them had died a natural death from old age. Many of the first generation were beginning to get cranky as they aged, but they showed no signs of becoming old in body. No one had any idea how long they would live or how they would act when they were truly aged and dying. A second generation had not been created purely for that fact; the company that had put them on the market had wanted to wait and make sure there would be no complications with the first set. They wanted to determine how to change the price according to faults and successes.
She sighed. That was the other issue. “We can’t afford one of these,” she said softly as she looked over to him. “I don’t know how you got your hands on a baby, but you must have paid a fortune. Our fortune.”
“She’s a second gen, Cassi,” he whispered. “She wasn’t made, she was bred.”
Eyes narrowing, she looked back down to the beast who had clambered onto her knee. “A second… how?”
“Remember how Henki’s said their Kiva was acting weird? She was in heat; she mated Donaldson’s Yandi.”
“It worked?” she asked, concerned. “I thought you’d said they’d been made to be sterile…” She looked now at the creature with just a little more respect. This was a creature born to flesh and blood, not to machines and metal. This was a creature falling asleep on her knees and already beginning to win her over. “What happened?”
He shook his head, taking a seat on the floor as his knees began to throb from crouching. “I’m not sure. They’re not sure, really. I had to take her. I’ll have to take her to the lab tomorrow and find out what’s going on; see if she is fertile, too.”
“This could be bad,” Cassidy said quietly. Everyone had expected the species would be within their control. They were not supposed to breed until a second generation had been created.
“It could. If they can breed…” He shook his head again, as though to clear it.
“Breeding season changes creatures,” she said. “The species has been getting more aggressive; what if they are looking to breed? What if that is their reaction?” she looked away from him. “What if someone gets hurt because of it?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. I wish I could tell you it will work out, but I don’t know. The Scovens never bred and the chas’kra haven’t shown an interest. Those who are getting nasty fight everyone, even potential mates. I can’t say why Kiva let Yandi near her, but she chased him off afterwards. She was violent toward the kit here.”
Silence fell between them. Cassidy picked up the half-asleep chas’kra kit and cradled it in her arms on its back. When she ran a finger over the creature’s soft belly it made a stuttering noise that melted into a trilling purr that brought a smile to both the watching faces. “What are you going to call her?”
“It’s up to you,” Davis said, absolving himself of the responsibility. He knew that if she named it she would keep it more readily than if he did. It would be ‘her’ chas’kra as opposed to ‘his’ beast.
Cassidy stared at the sleeping creature, stroking a finger over the incredibly soft black patches of skin around its eyes. It was a moment before she smiled and looked up at Davis again. “Trillium.”
He smiled in return, reaching over to give Cassidy a gentle kiss. “That’s a good name,” he repeated, looking happily to their new pet. “Trillium.”
Trillium yawned then, blinking open little rainbowed eyes to look at who was making all the noise. She was greeted with smiles and soft strokes and a contented purr trilled up in her breast again. She looked curiously between the pair for a moment, letting their quiet happiness wash over her before she closed her eyes once more. This was a Good Place she decided as sleep claimed her.
