For those who didn't see the message on my profile, I had thought that my subliminal undertones about the characters and their characteristics were being understood.
After the last chapters reception regarding how it ended, I believe I have overestimated my abilities in writing. And so, it got me wondering: How many of my other subtle meanings throughout my other stories were not picked up? Or were they?
I don't have the answer for those questions, so I decided to rewrite this chapter and shift perspectives to better explain things in an easier way. I don't wish to spoon feed every hidden meaning in my story, but I may need to ease up on the subtlety. So, apologies for the delay regardless.
That, and my 3 lovely capstone classes are all writing intensive and wanted 8 page term papers due around the same time.
That's right, Author lore time: I'm doing this shit while trying to graduate college and get into the real world. But there's no stopping now! Onwards to the next chapter!
XXX
In the span of mere days, Katya felt that she had a grip on the man named Dietrich Fischer.
She knew he was in his twenties and had a brain that was more mature than his body was. He had been able to apparently see through the fanaticism of the fascist Reich and had done what many others had as a soldier fighting for his country.
However, once past the uniform and gun, Katya had come to know that Dietrich was a monster. First and foremost.
Besides being a known absolute menace to the Red Army during his reign of terror as a sniper, he had a penchant for killing anything that he could get an excuse for. Humans. Animals. Humanoid animals.
It did not matter.
While his actions and reasonings were selfish in nature and causing pain sowed pleasure for him, he had recently began to show that he, in fact, was a human just like the rest of them through the creature they called "Kasma."
He had approached the felid with an unseen care that nobody in the group had seen the man perform. He was always there to show Kasma the reality of life while somehow calming and nurturing the poor animal.
Katya had thought that such displays from Dietrich meant affection, but the look that he was giving her after she had asked him proved otherwise.
"Katya? Do you see any pink triangles on this uniform?" Asked Dietrich. She was brought out of her thoughts by the heavily accented voice of the Chort, and by looking over his clothing, she did not find any of the pieces he had asked her to.
"Uh...no." She said. Katya had been made aware of the camps and the symbols used to sectionalize the persecuted. She had learned of every symbol that the Reich used to identify "subhumans" and easily target them. Homosexuals were made to wear a pink triangle while in the camps, as had been supposedly passed down from the liberators of the damned.
She looked back up to Dietrich's face and saw that the look he was giving her was a truly nasty expression. His whole face had turned sour.
He looked over at her with what she knew to be contempt, with malice in his eyes, staring directly into her soul.
"Then that fact on its own should tell you more than enough. I can barely stand other people as is. What would lead you to believe that I would lower myself to such disgusting levels?" Growled Dietrich.
Katya shifted her legs under her so that she could feel a semblance of comfort. Dietrich's generally venomous tone did not inspire feelings of comfort for her.
"I had believed that you were above the fanaticism of your regime. Everything I had learned and noticed about you these past days had led me to believe that you saw things differently." Explained Katya. She finally settled down on her legs, and looked towards Dietrich once more.
"The level of care and affection you showed for Kasma but nobody else led me to believe that you, well, felt strongly for other boys. I appeared to have misinterpreted what you felt, and I apologize for that." Said Katya. Dietrich did not drop his face, merely maintaining his look.
"I would never lay in bed with one of them, Katya. They are not human. And their breath is..." Dietrich twisted his face into a look of disgust, and Katya had to agree. Thrask apparently did not brush their teeth or do much for personal hygiene beyond what a house cat on Earth would do. It was fairly disgusting, if she was to be honest.
She was about to speak up again when Sehth'ker walked out from an adjacent tunnel hallway and made her way to the group. Katya watched as Dietrich frowned with her appearance.
"Hello, Sehth'ker. Thank you for joining us." Dietrich's tone had an inflection of sarcasm that Katya was able to easily pick up. However, it did not appear that the Thrask bandit understood the man's snub.
"I appreciate the welcoming! It is a very nasty day outside!" Proclaimed the bandit. Katya watched Dietrich look off into empty space before turning his head back. He cast her a glance that was filled with disappointment then turned his features into a blank page.
"It is nothing I would complain about. I would much rather be out there hunting Krisch'a than staying in this cellar cooped like a chicken." Spoke Dietrich. Sehth'ker looked at him with a twisted face.
"Very...well. The rains should not last much longer. When they let up, you will have no hindrance!" Encouraged Sehth'ker. Dietrich nodded and fell silent, no longer adding anything to the conversation.
Katya had always found such an aspect strange. She noticed that if Dietrich no longer had anything to say, he would just shut down completely and almost refuse to speak.
No small talk. No comments on aspects of the new conversation. He was there, but not present.
Katya wondered if, since he joined the war at the cusp of his adult life, Dietrich perhaps felt that there was little he could add to conversations not related to war, violence, or hunting?
"Could he feel so strongly about himself while still harboring insecurity?" Pondered Katya. It certainly was a possibility that would explain his silence, if not many other questions about the man.
He did not appear to suffer from any mental issues from the war. At least, he never appeared to display trauma or duress.
"Putting his psychotic obsession with killing aside, at least." Reminded Katya. But even then, the extent of who would be killed always had a limitation. Dietrich did not kill without discrimination. There had to be a reason for him to target someone or something.
"Psychotics do not limit themselves. Or, at least, I do not think they do." Katya had to remind herself just how little she knew about Dietrich.
Besides the few concrete things she concretely knew about him, everything else was able to be debated regarding his thoughts and feelings. Some aligned with his party. Some didn't.
"Sehth'ker, I wanted to give you my thanks for volunteering to go outside with me last night. You had every right to stay inside, yet you came." Said Dietrich. He looked over to the Thrask and extended his hand for a shake.
And once more, Katya was reminded just how much of an enigma Dietrich proved to be. A sworn enemy, whom he had threatened with extremely painful methods of torture many times since meeting one day ago, was suddenly a perceived ally.
And to add to that, he shoehorned a new topic of conversation. Nobody had made any inkling of relation to what he was saying. Hesitantly, Sehth'ker extended her own hand and Katya watched as they shook.
"I see that Kasma has already spread our customs. And as such, it is my custom to allow you your freedom. Providing reinforcement last night and not killing any of us in our sleep has only helped you." Spoke Dietrich. Katya watched as the man let go of her hand and gestured to the cellar entrance.
"You are free to leave, and so are the others, at any point. However, I believe you should let the rain pass before leaving. We have warmth, food, and shelter here. You do not out there." Reiterated the man.
Katya raised a brow in surprise. She genuinely did not think that Dietrich would let Sehth'ker leave.
Alive, that is.
She was certain that the Thrask would hang at any given time and had already secretly resigned the creature to such a fate.
To see that Dietrich was allowing past enemies to live was something she had not expected. It reinforced the notion that she knew less about the man than she thought.
"But before you do go, I want you to explain how your magic can heal a paralyzing blow to the spine but not your eye or ear. Why can Kasma's crystals allow me to talk to you but not fix my arm?" Commanded Dietrich. His tone was authoritative and Katya felt that sense of superiority she had seen other Germans show in the war.
Sehth'ker made a hacking noise akin to a cat coughing a hairball up. Katya scrunched her face at the harsh noise and waited for the Thrask to finish.
"Sorry. On the subject of magic...It is complicated to talk about because it is just that: Magic! We do not understand every facet of our power." Said Sehth'ker. Dietrich nodded.
"The crystals that Kasma uses are imbued with magic power. They are not innately magical on their own." Explained the Thrask. Katya looked over at Dietrich and saw that he was squinting.
"So why do they work on me? After all, your fireball did nothing to me." Said Dietrich. Sehth'ker clapped her hands and rubbed them on her legs.
"As such, I do not have an answer to explain because I cannot. The magic does not follow rules. We use it and understand it as best as we can. The crystals hold spells and incantations for later use. How and why the have produced an effect on you, I am unsure." Explained Sehth'ker. Dietrich shrugged.
"As for your arm, it seems that our magic is unable to influence you in any way. Except for Kasma's crystals. It is...peculiar." Spoke the Thrask. She shuffled to get closer to Dietrich and Katya could envision the man's discomfort.
Sehth'ker was, admittedly, not the prettiest sight to be close to. Her milky eye, scarring, and notched ears truly made her look ghastly.
"It is very peculiar, indeed, that magic does not affect you." She said. Sehth'ker gently ruffled the left sleeve of Dietrich's tunic until she could see the damage that his arm had.
Katya found herself leaning in to inspect it as well, and inspect she did. There was a sizable divot in the man's forearm. It looked like an explosive caused the wound, judging by the healed burns and apparent cleanup of shrapnel in and around the main scar tissue.
Sehth'ker ran a hand over the wound and then looked straight to Dietrich. Katya held her breath at the actions of the Thrask. It seemed that Dietrich did not have any lingering pain or loss of function from the wound, and for Sehth'ker's sake, she was glad.
"You caught us by complete surprise because we could not sense you. You have no magic at all and when we try to see you with our magic like the other creatures, you do not show up." Said Sehth'ker. Dietrich loosened his arm from the Thrask's grip and rolled his sleeve back down.
"The crystals work much like why our ammo replenishes: There are forces at play here beyond our grasp. If nobody can detect us, then Krisch'a will have no idea she is being hunted." Said Dietrich. The then reached a hand out and placed it against the side of the Thrask's head.
He rubbed a thumb over the scarred area of her face, and tapped just above her milky eye on the brow.
"And Kasma's healing? How can it fix your back but not your eye?" Asked the man. Katya took note of his tone: Completely lacking in emotion. She knew that Dietrich was concerned only for own his well-being and was not caring of Sehth'ker at all.
"Our powers are the life source that runs through us all. Recent wounds, if not proving to be mortal, are able to be fixed with spells. Kasma is a quick learner and very powerful for his age and stature. My eye was injured long ago, and is unable to be healed by our magic." Explained Sehth'ker.
Katya began to understand more and more about Thrask magic. Many of its qualities, as told by the reformed bandit, were not able to be explained because they were simply magic. The Thrask did not or were not able to fully understand how or why everything worked.
What they did know is that the magic worked, so they used it. Katya likened it to her knowing the SVT-40 rifle she was issued. She knew not of how it was built or what caused the weapon to cycle, but she was instructed in how to use and maintain it, so she did.
"Some say that magic was granted by us from the creators themselves. Others say that it is an aversion to our creators granted by those who rule the hells below." Said Sehth'ker. Katya saw what might have amounted to a twinkle in the felines good eye with the way she explained their history.
The cat raised her hands up together and then parted them, as if she was tracing a rainbow in the sky.
"While both aiding and hurting us, magic has been a part of the Thrask way of life for as long as we can remember. From harnessing the power of the storms to healing and bringing fire! New spells and evocations are procured as we learn more and more!" Sehth'ker waggled her hands excitedly and Katya almost forgot that she was watching a bandit.
She had never seen Sehth'ker become so animated from anything and during her excited monologue, Katya took the time to notice that Dietrich was looking at the Thrask.
Or, better put, staring at her.
He was entirely motionless and Katya had finally understood one thing about Dietrich that unnerved her:
He stared for way to long.
Whether it was a conscious decision to unnerve and intimidate those he looked at, hyper-fixation due to his time as a sniper, or just plain obliviousness, Katya did not know.
All she knew was that his parents apparently never taught him that it was rude to stare.