Endosymbiosis

16. Peeling

"Try to remember the last time... Think about how you were feeling..."

"Not good."

"... And feel that way again."

I saw something flash across his eyes, a deep pain from an old stab that he'd also felt at the Oasis. He closed his eyes - maybe to concentrate, maybe because he didn't want me to see his pain - and let his face take on a serenity that hid the storm behind... And then I waited for the lightning.

At some point his fists clenched. His face contorted with memories he didn't want to relive, until tears pooled in the tight corners of his eyes. What had happened that, even with the passage of time, it managed to torture him every time he remembered? No one deserved a pain like that... And the more I stared at him, the more it did hurt me to see it being lived by another human.

Kadi grunted and flinched, until a scream escaped his throat. I opened my mouth to ask him to stop, to give up on my stupid idea, when the scream turned to a roar and his face tore open in half.

I fell back and scrambled away, my eyes unable to flee from him.

His skin peeled away, giving way to massive teeth, impossible to contain. Claws sprouted from his paws like swords and a mane of hair crowned his head among the fluorescent scales that protected him like armor. The pearly-eyed circle around his head bore into me, filled with a hatred I didn't need to do anything to provoke. He emanated power with such primal naturalness that it immediately transported my mind to the jungles where my ancestors fled from similar beasts.

They had survived. So maybe I could survive too.

I crawled close and stopped not close enough for him to reach me, but so that he realized I had the courage to do so. But my hand, gripping the electric baton with all my might, trembled like a flag of surrender on the wind.

"Good to see you again..." I stammered. "After trying to kill me."

"I can't resist. Human flesh is the softest..." How many had he killed to reach that conclusion?! "And you didn't think you were special enough for me to spare you, did you?" The fevino hissed in his language, as old and mighty as mountains; and as frightening as its avalanches.

"Apparently I'm enough to stay alive."

"For a while." I swallowed hard.

"We need you." I confessed. Maybe he could have pity on us. "We need you to emerge before Kadi is on the brink of death. When we call." I tried to demand, but my voice sounded fragile and the fevino laughed.

"Why would I agree with that? Why would I subjugate myself to pests like you?" He growled, each word a stab to my genes. "Why would I obey you as if you were superior to me?"

I got to my feet. And I swung the electric baton, testing its weight in my hands.

"Because I can kill him."

"He would die too..."

I walked over, my leg shaking until it caught the firmness of the floor.

"That wouldn't stop me."

"You're either lying, or you have no loyalty even to your own species... How do you expect me to respect you?" I did not expect. When did they have?

"I hope you deal with the consequences of swallowing him."

"And I could do the same to you..." He gritted his teeth, showing them with all their splendor right in front of my face... But I got even closer, unable to tell if I was already in the danger zone. I needed to look powerful.

"Do not try. You'll be a good little fevino... Or else I'll poison you two with just one dose."

He watched me for just a moment, long enough for us to realize I was telling the truth.

The only thing that irritated me was what tried to stop me.

He lunged forward and his teeth almost closed in my neck. I crashed the electric bat into his head and he fell backward in a convulsion of sparks, flinching and grunting like a wounded kitten. That had caused him more pain than I'd imagined, his bared teeth inflating me with confidence.

"You will emerge only when called." I growled at his fallen body. "And will leave when ordered. Or I will do a lot worse than that."

The creature stared at me like a prisoner, his body almost as bruised as his ego, and I would have felt bad had I not been able to see the tips of his fangs sticking out of the corners of his mouth, ravenous for my soft flesh.

"By what name will you summon me?"

The answer was already on the tip of my tongue:

"Kitten..." He growled in response.

"If you call me that again, I'll come back... But only to kill you."

"As long as you come back, I accept the challenge. Kitten."

Before I could laugh, he reached forward and ripped one of the pipes from the wall where his chains were tied. I fell back and watched his body squirm, teeth opening and closing in explosive snaps that didn't reach me just because of the other currents... Now threatening to break. I raised the bat when one of his paws broke free and he knocked it out of my reach. Damn it.

"Kadi!" I yelled and ran to the opposite corner of the room. "You can come back... If you're not too busy in there."

The beast chuckled, releasing his other paw and bending the pipes in the wall, getting closer and closer to breaking.

"Do you think I'm the only one?" The creature hissed. "He also wants to give you a good bite. I'm just doing both of us a favor..."

And I would prefer it to come from his teeth!

I dodged along the walls as far from the beast as possible and retrieved the bat from the ground. I ran to the other area of ​​the ship, leaving behind me the apocalyptic growls of the creature that was beginning to break free. I looked for something I could use to defend myself and found a pistol on a bench... I would have to be careful, because if I killed him there, the ship would explode with me inside... But it wasn't like I had a best choice.

I grabbed the gun and locked myself in the cramped space of the bathroom, holding my breath so he wouldn't notice my presence...

As the fevino advanced against the metal door, I struggled not to scream.

"I know where you are..." The beast growled. "I smell your fear from afar... And I want to taste it."

I swallowed, huddled in the corner of the bathroom. The fevino slammed into the door once more, so massive he managed to bend the metal. And then he slammed again. And again. And again... Until the door parted a bit from the wall and opened a gap where his claws reached in and scraped the air in front of my face.

"ARKADI!"

The fevinp squeezed his head through the gap, his hot breath burning me and his teeth as close to me as mine.

"I'll never disturb you again!" I begged and the beast just laughed.

"As long as I'm alive, you will... So I'll settle this now."

When he inched inside, I closed my eyes and fired.

Silence... And when I summoned up the courage to look, I saw that the fevino had disappeared behind the breach, but I kept my trembling arms pointing the gun, waiting for his return... But he didn't come.

Had I hit him? No. I just made a hole in the wall.

So where was he?

A growl gripped my ears, exhausted like someone who had to run for his life... A human sound.

With his body covered in the scaly felino skins, Kadi slowly pushed open the door. Somehow, he had managed to regain control.

"We'll never do that again." Kadi muttered, pulling away from me and my bad choices.

"Do you believe that pediatrics at the Oasis was even worse?"