Read Online Paragenesis: Stories of the Dawn of Wraeththu by Storm Constantine - Free Book Online Page B

and
violent, and we still struggled for territory and dwindling
resources. My life had settled down to a dreary routine of
scavenging, helping to maintain our territory, sleeping, cleaning,
and trying to attract as little attention to myself as possible.
Dawson, our crew leader, wasn’t terribly fond of me; I didn’t fit
in.
    That day’s scavenging had been
successful; we’d found a bag of old clothes and we’d managed to
steal a case of canned peas.
    That afternoon was different
from most. When Mouse and I returned to the warehouse, our clan
weren’t the only ones there; Dawson appeared to be
entertaining.
    “You’re late,” Dawson
barked.
    “Sorry,” I replied. “We had to
be careful – wanted to be sure we weren’t followed.”
    “Tanks! Bunches of them!” Mouse
supplied, nodding enthusiastically.
    Dawson waved his hand
autocratically. “Come over here and meet my guests.”
    Mouse moved forward grinning,
while I followed more slowly.
    “This is Mouse!” Dawson said
beaming at Mouse proudly. “He’s one of our best! He can sniff goods
out anywhere, and he can liberate them like a pro.”
    Mouse nodded vigorously and
grinned more.
    “And this,” Dawson said with
considerably less enthusiasm, gesturing in my direction, “is
Nolan.” He paused a beat. “He’s new”.
    I nodded to the newcomers.
There were seven of them and they were like no one I had ever seen
before. They were beautiful. They wore clean, colourful clothing,
jewellery, and their hair was long and styled. There was something
else too, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. They not only looked
different, I was sure they were different; they seemed to
radiate something. Self-confidence? Power? Authority? Serenity?
    By comparison we were loutish,
grimy riffraff stuffed into layers of ill-fitting scavenged
clothing.
    “And I am Maelduin,” said one
of the newcomers, a tall, tanned har whose dark blond hair hung in
a neat braid down his back. “These are Acorn, Aydenn, Osiris,
Zekki, D’rik, and Inari.” He flashed a disarmingly charming smile;
Dawson was clearly bewitched.
    Our guests were all easy on the
eyes. I will admit to being fascinated by them as well. The one who
piqued my interest the most was the dark-haired swarthy beauty with
big dark eyes, and a slightly aquiline nose, who’d been introduced
as Inari.
    Someone had started a fire in
an old metal crate, and our crew members sat around it while our
guests listened to Dawson talk about us. Actually, he talked more
about himself and how wonderful his plans were, and his gripes
about the world, which constantly failed to recognize his genius.
He was pathetically desperate to impress our guests, but to me he
came off as even more of an unimpressive braggart than usual. Most
of our crew egged him on, flattering him, and encouraging his
antics, but I saw that Dawson was a garish caricature compared to
our guests and their composed self-assurance. I gave total credit
to our guests, who managed to remain flawlessly gracious, their
smiles never wavering.
    “Dawson, you are unbelievable!
A genius to be reckoned with!” Maelduin chuckled affably.
    From my vantage, on the outside
edge of the circle gathered around the fire, I was pretty sure that
several of our guests exchanged a faint smirk, but no one else
appeared to notice.
    “That story, my friend,
deserves a toast,” Maelduin went on. “Allow us to offer you and
your hara some refreshment so that we can offer up a toast to your
continued success.”
    The suggestion was met with
whoops of approval by members of my crew. Our guests began
producing green bottles and fanned out among the twenty or so of us
in Dawson’s crew. Inari passed a bottle along to the eager hands of
one of my gang with a smile, but he stayed seated next to Maelduin.
I observed him for a moment, he seemed withdrawn, resigned, tired.
To me he was the most intriguing and beautiful of them. I kind of
identified with him, or at least I projected my own