The sun began to set, the hot wind turning cool upon his cheek as he felt his body turn orange from the deep red glow of the twilight desert.  The sand became blood red mirroring the pinkish sky, a sigh from his lips as he sat against the stone pillar.  It was getting cold.  He knew he had to return soon.  But he worried even more now about his young victim.  The girl was still asleep, still sedated heavily by the drug he gave her.  He hoped at the very least that she would be awake by now, but he had no idea how long the affects usually lasted.  He walked up to her whispering in her ear:
	"Come on...come on, please, you have to wake up...I don't want to do this, not to you...I don't...hhhhh...god dammit."
He kicked the side of the carriage wheel and slumped against it, head in his hands.
	"Just trying to save your ass here, just REALLY trying here and it doesn't fucking...work.  Just...why did I bother?  Why did I even bother trying to do anything...hm...I guess I really can't save anyone...I tried just one time...and I failed again.  Now, you're gonna get eaten...just like me."
He stared down upon his chest seeing the cuts in the jumpsuit made by the girl's knife, wearing nothing else realising his original clothes were still back at the den with Gruthar.  He knew he had to return soon, knowing he could not wait but as he slowly got up, he didn't realise the hot shade was hiding another shadow within it.  A monstrous silhouette that he knew all too well upon hearing the voice at his back.
	"Theeeere you are."
	"H-H-HOLY-SH-SHIT!"
He turned and fell hard onto the warmer sand, seeing the beast on the other side of the carriage above him.  The sun would have seemed like a halo above him, but the sky was already turning dark enough that shadows began to recede, a smile drawing across his beastly lips.
	"Are you surprised?"
	"Y-Y-y-...y-you were supposed to-...wh-what are you doing here?!"
	"I came to find you, halfway between my lair and the slave camp, and here you are sitting in the shade like a snake underneath a large stone.  Ahhh..."
The beast walked forwards checking over his carriage with approval, a deep tremble of which came thickening from his throat.
	"Very good...unmarked and untainted food, no drugs or chemicals...and this...this young one is very tender."
	"Y-y-you...l-listen um...she might...she might not-"
	"Hmmm?"
	"Sh-she might not be...s-safe to eat, I mean, she...hoh god um, I think she's on drugs."
	"I do not detect any scent of addiction on her, markings even.  Are you sure of that?"
	"Um...n-n-no but-"
	"Let us return home then so I may feast upon them.  I have not eaten this entire day and I do not like waiting."
Gruthar scratched his stomach neatly to emphasise his point, gurgling hot breaths as he grinned upon his next meal.  James stood up on the opposite side of the wagon as he gently stepped forwards, placing his hands on the girl.
	"H-how long until you...plan to...eat her?"
	"The sooner we return home the quicker...why?  Are you hungry too?"
	"UM...just...wh-what about...what about these other people, I think...I think this lady here's rather thick, look at her thighs!"
	"I prefer my meat tender."
	"B-b-but why rush it, leave the best for last right?!"
	"That is not the way I do things, now come, stop delaying me and my stomach's nourishing."
	"O-okay...as you...whatever you say."

Walking forwards to the front of the carriage he hoisted up the rods and slowly rolled on as the sun began to set, nearing the halfway point between the camp and the lair of his deathclaw saviour.  He worried that he had suddenly given her to an even worse but swifter fate.  He really hoped that she would wake up soon before he reached the den home.  Even if he knew that his fate was already sealed personally.  Gruthar walked in front of him, guiding him past riverbeds towards their destination as James carefully looked over towards the ridge.
He knew it was risky, he knew that it was going to be incredibly stupid.  But his heart was burning heavy with each new step he took, and as the lair started coming slowly into view upon the horizon, his stomach knotted up painfully with guilt.  Tears flecked down his cheeks as the agony turned too great and without another thought he stopped the carriage.  Before Gruthar had turned to see what was happening, James grabbed the girl and dove into the riverbed, a shallow murky tributary long choked of any life within a depth of 23 feet as he slid down the moist slope.
	"What are you doing?!" roared the deathclaw.  "What is this?!  WHERE ARE YOU TAKING HER!?"
But no reply came from the riverbed as Gruthar waited, his trembling snarl echoing loud enough to reach James hiding out underneath a small rocky shelf, shivering as the shallow dried-out river trickled past at a depth of no more than 2 feet.  He huddled up against the inside of a small tunnel, a hole previously owned by some skin-shedding mammal despite odd reptilian scales.  The girl he hugged tight, not once daring to let her go.
	"Do you know how foolish it is to take food from a deathclaw?  DO YOU!?  Do you know WHY I am named such, little James?!  I am going to count to five, and if I do not see you return with my meal...then I will make you feel every strip of flesh and bone flensed from your pitiful little BODY!  One."
The raptor struggled to control his breath, hoping that perhaps he could stay silent and hide until at least the girl woke back up.
	"Two."
Oh god...what am I doing?
	"Three."
This is so stupid, this is fucking stupid I should just leave her and run, I'm gonna die either way but I can't, I just can't let him-
	"Four!"
I can't do this...he's gonna kill me anyway so what've I got to lose?  I can't...please, please wake up, just please get up and run so-
	"FIIIIVE!"
The sudden roar that deafened him came bellowing down the hole, seeing the monstrous eye and wicked long teeth stare down upon him, shining like blades upon the moon's reflection as he shrieked and blasted a shot of fire at him from his nano-fuelled claws.  Gruthar was surprised by the sudden flames, roaring and backing off to scratch his face clear of any burns before James dodged out of his hiding spot, splashing clawed feet running down the small riddling passageways of the former mighty river.  Gruthar charged after him, as his feet pounded heavy upon the riverbed, powerful enough to send the earth shaking underneath.
	"YOU WORTHLESS SNAKE, YOU MADE A PROMISE TO ME!  NOW PAY YOUR DEBT!"
	"G-GO AWAY!"

He ran as fast as he could but the deathclaw was much faster and unburdened without weight unlike James.  The pounding steps clumped harder and louder from behind him, splashing fiercely along the dead river before a vicious snarl came up behind his ear forcing him to duck hard and swing the other way.  Gruthar swung past him with lunging fierce claws snaking past his throat, readily trying to grab his face before James dodged into a crouching turn as he headed in the other direction, back the way he came.
The raptor held on tight to the girl's body, claws gripping against the light-blue dress as he looked high and low for a new hole to hide in.  But the deathclaw was not long before catching up, practically galloping through the shallow water as James tried desperately to blast a shot of wind from behind him, causing a mighty splash of water to strike up upon the deathclaw's face like a small tidal wave, snarling as he slammed his way through it with short delay.
But James found a way quickly for his escape, a small side area of the river's course that seemed to have long eroded over time.  A crack in the wall had been made, one wide enough to be the length of an alley and seeing light on the other side of it.  He ducked down through it , pushing his body through as he nudged the girl through first, before crawling in behind right as Gruthar found him.  The monster suddenly swung his claws out upon James' back, scraping past the number on his back and just barely missing the scabbard before scratching along the flesh, the raptor shrieking as blood dripped hotly down the yellow-and-blue jumpsuit before he pushed further in, just out of range as Gruthar tried to shove his claws into the gap.
	"I will NOT tolerate food stolen from me you pathetic WORM!"
	"Y-YOU HAVE PLENTY OTHER FOOD, GO FUCKING EAT IT!"
	"I WANT THE GIRL!  BRING HER TO ME!"
	"N-NO!"
	"GIVE ME THE GIRL NOW JAMES, OR ELSE!"
	"YOU'RE GONNA KILL ME ANYWAY, WHAT'S THE POINT?!"
	"I promised you would not suffer if you did as I asked now bring me that girl or I will make you suffer BEYOND your comprehension!"
But the raptor did not listen, scraping his suit against large pointed rock glowing red in the twilight evening with the girl pressed further up against his head.  Eventually the crack widened out some more leaving him on the other side of the tributary passage, safely away from Gruthar.  Then he heard something land with a mighty crush from up above, hearing a monster's charge of powerful feet cracking upon red earth.
	"JAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMES!"
He ran as fast as he could, desperate to hide as he stumbled his way through the shallow canyon towards a lower point along the western side.  The deathclaw was on top of the area, which was a good 23 feet depth downwards as he scanned for any sounds of raptor feet sloshing through shallow filthy water.  He heard him easily enough, smelt his fear just as eagerly as he walked across the top area, leaping across gaps with feline grace and powerful muscles crunching upon solid dirt.  The raptor was nearby, knowing which way he went.  He knew he would be trapped either way.
A small pointed bowl where the water would stop flowing, with only one exit out of it as the creature smiled upon nearing it.  He knew the raptor was here, the harrowed scent of his pulsing cowardice turned thick in his nostrils as he landed upon the very centre.  He heard a shriek from James who fell back against a wall, his vault suit ragged but with no sign of the girl on him.  The canyon's dead end was filled with cubbyholes and narrow hiding spots, backwashed and eroded by the former swell of the river in its younger days.  Many creatures could easily have been hiding out here, but somehow he could not pick up her scent.  Not yet at least.
	"WHERE IS SHE?!"
He did not respond, shaking with fear as his eyes widened with such.
	"WHERE!  IS!  SHEEEE?!"
Still he did not reply, trembling with panic as he pressed up against the wall upon the deathclaw's approach.
	"Give...me...the girl, or else I will make your soul retch with agony."
	"No...n-n-no I...can't-"
	"BRING HER TO ME!"
	"NO!"

He striked at his face with a sudden slash but Gruthar grabbed him and swung him across by the arm and waist, hurling him across the deadened pond as a thickened splash of mud and gruel-thin water dripped from his cheek.
	"Why are you so rebellious all of a sudden?  Why do you threaten to anger me knowing that only pain awaits you for it?!"
	"B-because...because....sh-she doesn't deserve it, she doesn't need this, she don't deserve to die!"
	"She is already DEAD!"
	"NO SHE'S NOT, I DRUGGED HER OKAY!?"
	"What?!"
	"I DRUGGED HER, I COULDN'T KILL HER, THEY MADE ME TRY AND KILL HER BUT I SHOT SOME MEDS IN HER AND KNOCKED HER OUT!  IF YOU WANT HER SO BADLY THEN YOU'LL HAVE TO GO THROUGH ME!"
	"...why...are you so concerning about a worthless little human?  Considering the blood already upon you, what is one more child upon your conscience when you are about to die?"
	"I...I just...I-i-i wanted...I couldn't..."
James began to falter as he stood up slowly, heavy with clodded dirt and half-black across his scales as he looked down upon his feet, shivering with pain and sorrow all twisting up through him.
	"I couldn't do it...I thought, I thought I could knowing what you wanted...I thought I could take her life but...just some part of me can't do it, I don't...I don't know why...please...I'm sorry, I did everything else for you, I got you your meat."
	"I gave you PRECISE instructions James...if you cannot obey your master then I shall put you down like a dog."
	"Fuck you...f-fuck you...FUCK YOU!"
Roaring with blind fearful fury, his claws came out fully as he bent low into a posture for battle, drawing out his scissors with one full practiced swing as water streaked across the front of him.
	"IF YOU WANT HER SO BADLY, THEN FUCKING KILL ME!  I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU WANT, YOU WILL NOT HAVE HER!"
The deathclaw roared a vile quake of deep strength, echoing across the small canyon as the raptor shook with panicked frenzy.  He had nowhere to live, nowhere to run and nowhere near the amount of strength to fight against the deathclaw.  But he braced himself for battle nevertheless, twitching his fingers as he brought forth a new flame, burning across the water-dripping steel the moment Gruthar stormed within range.
Striking a wild arc of fire across the creature's vision, he dodged and slashed hard at Gruthar's leg with scissors on fire hoping to at least delay his movement.  But the monstrous calf was thick and haunched, the very flesh even struggling to open up a wound beneath the raptor's force alone.  In turn the beast backhanded James across the face as he turned, slamming him across the water before stomping his way forth.

James sputtered as he felt a large swelling bruise upon his face, grunting as he dodged through the water to his left upon seeing the monster's foot, crushing down upon the filth liquid with a mighty splash that went over both of them.  Mud dripped like molasses off of both reptilian beasts, the raptor summoning a mighty gust of wind too desperate to reach its full strength.  But enough to dissuade the monster from suddenly charging him as the watery slop spiralled wildly in front of him, tearing and striking mud across Gruthar's face before dissipating fully.
He had enough time to wipe the mud off his face but not enough to see where James had disappeared to.  Then he felt the raptor's blades sink into his thigh, trying to stab their way in as James began shanking down hard to try and break the skin.  Nothing was working, the monster too tough for what little strength he had alone to force upon his scissors.  Gruthar was not pleased, demonstrating this by grasping at James' head and forcechoking him, thick butcher-knife claws wrapped tightly around his throat ready to suffocate him, or slit him wide open as he smacked his hand hard to make him drop the scissors, clattering down into open filthy water too thick for him to see.
	"You...are a FOOL to think you can even come close to becoming an apex predator."
	"GLK-HHHHKKK!"
	"I...am the master of this place, this SANCTUM that I call my territory where I make my food, I make my arrangements and I know every single rock and shadow within a fourteen-mile radius, so without even a gun in your hand you have no hope of defeating me OR my kin!  Now...one...last...chance.  Where is the girl?"
	"HRLK!  Hhhhh...h-hhhhh...you'll...n-never have her..."
	"Do NOT play games with me, WHERE IS SHEEEE!?"
	"R-right...th-there."
Pointing feebly to the wall behind the deathclaw, the beast turned his head by instinct before seeing James suddenly burn both his hands up, fierce flames striking down his arms as his claws scraped violently.  It wasn't enough to pierce the flesh but it was certainly enough to make the deathclaw drop him in startlement, shrieking a bass growl of frustration as the raptor fell back to the water.  He realised that now he had some moisture around him, he could also open up to another trick of his, especially when the water was too thick for him to find his scissors again in a hurry.
As the deathclaw started to run towards him, the raptor pulled up the water from around him as an icy thickness went coursing along his veins, shivering hard as he gasped with harrowed breaths before heaving outwards.  The moment he did, the ice shot forth along the zero-degree water now turned a thicker hue of burning cold icy mudfloats, crystallising black as the deathclaw simply barrelled through it.  His feet stomped upon the ice trying to form underneath, not even causing him to slip with his superior traction as he cracked harder underneath, collapsing back to a meagre 2 feet of water.

James however had a plan, desperate but something at least as he short forth a blast of water using wind before crystallising it suddenly.  Striking gusts of wind upwards into the sky, the water surged forwards before he fiercely shot cold ice deep into the epicentre of it, turning it into an icy tidal shield with vicious frozen tips the length of daggers black with mud.  Pointed glancing speartips at Gruthar's face did not deter him as he slammed his fist through the solid wave.  Punching his clawed hand through the hole, he saw the raptor had disappeared from the other side wondering where he had gone.  Then he heard a scream from above, as James came running up the frozen sheet with a vile fistful of burning fury, slamming down hard onto the creature's face with a burning scar across his left cheek.
The beast roared and slashed his claws left and right upon his face, trying to get the raptor off as James latched onto his neck with both arms wrapped around him, swinging up to behind his neck in order to stay out of reach.  He beat his claws upon Gruthar's head, screaming fiercely with determination that certainly reached suicidal trying to fight such a thing barehanded.  His hands scarred fiercely with reddening firetips, scraping down thickly along the back of Gruthar's neck with flames of sweet desperation in an attempt to try and break through the skin.  But nothing seemed to work.
Soon the creature had enough, stomping his way near one of the walls of the pond-lake and slamming the back of his head against it, jagged rock walls crushing James' body against it.  He heard him scream from the sudden pain, another two shoves giving him the same reward as he tried to brush off his feebler opponent.  Soon he began feeling the raptor's claws start slipping from his neck, weak and pulverised with sudden pain all over his younger body.  He huddled up against the base of the wall, scarred and bruised with a torn jumpsuit, jagged tears all over revealing little flecks of red underneath.
Painful gasping breaths came to his ears as he clutched his red chest, feeling the hot wounds weeping out as Gruthar stared down upon him.  His horned image glinted in the dark sky above them, eyes of infernal indignation staring down upon the beaten raptor.  He said nothing for a short while, before suddenly grabbing James by the throat and shoving him up against a hefty weighted stone, pushing his neck back as if ready to snap it off upon a ceremony ritual.
	"WHY do you fight me?  I gave you warmth, I gave you food and I entrust you with my home, you disrespect me like a whelp!"
	"KH-KHhhhh...I don't...I don't believe...that it's right."
	"What is?"
	"Th-this killing we do...or you just tried to make me do...they tried to make me...k-kill that girl and I couldn't...I wouldn't...those sick bastards didn't care about keeping themselves alive, n-n-not like you claim to do...they just...they wanted to kill people weaker than them cuz it was f-fun for them."
	"And why should this concern me?"
	"BECAUSE YOU ENABLE IT!" cried James hoarsely.  "YOU-HGKHH!  You...you give them an excuse, and you do nothing to s-stop them...you're a monster."
	"I never claimed myself to be anything else, I do not seek pleasure through this, but survival...nor will I seek pleasure from slowly extricating every inch of flesh from your body for myself to feast on."
	"You...a-a-all it takes...for evil to win...i-is for good people to not do anything...I don't...want evil to win.  I don't..."

The raptor started sobbing, whimpering softly as he struggled to breathe through the thick grip of the beast's claws around his neck, squeezing his throat harshly to throttle his breath straight through his windpipe.
	"HHHLLLK!"
	"Is that what you see me as?  Evil?"
	"You...you wouldn't let a little girl go...when she's done nothing wrong."
	"She is weak, she will not live in this wasteland much longer."
	"WELL LET HER TRY THEN!  LET HER TRY, GIVE HER A CHANCE YOU F-fucking...w-w-we all...deserve a chance and she...she needs it more than me."
	"You threw away your chance long ago."
	"WELL SHE DIDN'T!  SHE NEVER HAD THE CHANCE, GIVE HER ONE!  PLEASE, just...don't kill her...please...I'll...I'll feed you...let you eat me piece by piece just please don't hurt her...please..."
	"You would rather give your own life, than to suffer the death of a human child?"
He nodded softly, tears running deep as he tried to keep breathing, waiting for the moment when his life would run out knowing he at least had the chance to do something right.  It did not completely remove the stain of his soul but he felt it lighten somewhat.  He closed his eyes with head back waiting, giving his last thoughts over to whoever could hear them as he gave his last breath.  Then, suddenly, he heard a noise that he never knew.  A monster's voice chuckling with bewildered amusement.
	"Hmhmhmhm...I knew it."
	"Huh?"
	"I knew you were not ready to die yet."
The raptor opened his eyes to see Gruthar smile down upon him, the claws round his throat slowly relaxing as he allowed him to breathe fully once again.
	"Wh-what?  What you mean?"
	"If you had been so ready to die, you would not have cared what I did to that little girl...but you did.  That proves to me that you are still worthy of living."
	"What?!"
	"You passed my test.  I was not certain if you truly believed that you could give yourself up to eternity...but now I know you still have a life in you.  Enough to protect others."
	"You're...you're not gonna kill me?  S-seriously?!"
	"No."
Instead of feeling relief from that moment in the middle of a dusty canyon pit, he felt outraged.  Anger and outrage sitting up as he sneered at the monster.
	"What do you WANT from me?!  You wanna keep me alive to torture me, what the FUCK is your problem?!  First you say you'll kill me, then you don't, you hunt me down for this kid and now you call me brave for not giving her to you, WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU WANT FROM ME!?"
	"It was an opportunity for me to see if you were truly worthless...and weak...or if you still had enough strength to see through the end of all this.  If you had given her to me, then that is that, you would give up completely and follow suit to be my feast.  But since you had not given her to me...I see you no longer as weak."
	"...who put you up to this?"
	"Hmmm?"

He stood up violently fast with piercing fury in his green jaded eyes.
	"WHO, the fuck, TOLD YOU?!  Did someone pass on some secret message to you too, someone following me and my every move, WHO!?  WHO'S FOLLOWING ME!?"
	"Paranoia does not suit you-"
	"SHUT UP!  I'M NOT SOME FUCKING PAWN, I JUST WANNA GO HOME AND I AM SICK OF THESE FUCKING TESTS!  I SAVED A GIRL, SO WHAT, THAT DOESN'T MEAN SHIT!"
	"But it also means that you are not ready to die yet."
	"I HAVE NO HOME LEFT, THE ONLY PEOPLE WHO'D EVER WANT ME WON'T FORGIVE ME FOR WHAT I DID, I'M STILL A MURDERER EVEN IF I SAVED SOME KID!  ...I'm tired of all this.  I've...I've done too many bad things that I...won't feel good ever again even if I got out of this.  I'll still know that people are dead because of me, I'll still know that, even if I...try to save people.  Why should I care anymore?"
	"Because you are not a beast, like me."
	"Fuck you, I'm not anything, what kind of beast makes fucking maps for a living?"
	"Hmph...that is true, perhaps I am not the best example."
	"Just-whatever, are you...are you gonna fucking eat me, or do I have to go kill myself properly?"
	"I will not eat you.  And if you are still that eager to take your own life, then I suggest you delay that for the time being."
	"And why's that?"
	"Because now you have a young girl who needs you...she needs you to protect her, doesn't she?"
	"You...you..."
He sneered close towards Gruthar seeing he only reached up halfway to the beastly chest.
	"You have been fucking around with me, trying to be sagely and all 'death upon us' and 'survival of the fittest' bullshit and now suddenly you want me to live?  Fucking hypocrite."
	"I only said that the weak and unreasonable are those I kill.  You are not weak, though you certainly are trying to be less reasonable than usual."
	"Why didn't you eat me before?!  HUH!?  You try and claim to be some kinda beast, some big monster of the wasteland who follows the rules of nature and has no moral guidance, but you didn't fucking eat me when we first met despite every reason to!  But you didn't!  WHY!?"
	"...I was lonely."
	"Huh?!"

	"I am lonely James," said Gruthar.  "Lonely without any other to see me as something more than just a beast.  I cannot speak like this to my own race, they are beasts who burden themselves only with that of their pack.  I cannot speak to them about my fears, my hopes, my aspirations...what little I have left of them.  Neither can I speak to humans the same way for they do not understand such pains of me.  We all just look to survive yes but...do you know what it is like to be a one-eyed man in the land of the blind people?"
	"Wh-...what?"
	"It is a human saying.  In the land of the blind the one-eyed man is king.  I find this not to be true for in the land of the blind, one who has eyes shall always be alone, forever cursed to not feel ignorance in bliss."
	"You...you just wanted someone to talk to?  That's it?  Some guy who could understand you?"
	"I admit it is rather foolish to think you would want to ever talk to me, but I have been alone a very long time.  It...does things to you.  And as much as I...have tried to revert myself to basest of instincts, I cannot.  I have tried as you can see but...something stops me.  Perhaps it was my father's teachings still prevalent within me, how not to judge people, human or otherwise, and to always do good upon the wasteland...but I see no use for this.  I...I cannot do good for this world that rejects me...how I wish I could be nothing more than a beast, without this...futile intelligent mind of sentience."
	"Yeah...I know the feeling."
James began to calm down as he felt melancholy sweep into his body.  A heavy heart of both shame and uncertainty now coalescing to become unsettled without reason.  He offered his hand which was received in turn by the far larger long-clawed hand.  In a wasteland struggling to be dominated by the remnants of humanity, he could not help but feel comfort within the company of the reptilian beast.  Likewise, the deathclaw seemed to feel the same way before asking:
	"You understand why I am this way, don't you?  We cannot rely on human piety to guide us with friendship."
	"I used to...along with being an idiot much more than usual."
	"I see."
	"But I understand...I...don't think that way anymore, I...learned better.  But this world the way it is...I understand why you'd be alone."
	"That is all I ask.  Come, bring the girl with you and we will see if she is not wounded before her waking comes soon.  I will not hurt her, on my father's word you have this."
	"I...alright is...that really a promise?"
	"My father once travelled with the saviour of the wasteland.  I can offer no better a promise than this."
	"Alright alright, I'll...I'll hold you to that Gruthar.  But...before I do...were you...really gonna eat her if I just gave her up to you?"
	"Yes.  I do not waste food if it becomes available to me."
	"And...what about me?"
	"If you had given her to me...I would most certainly have eaten you if you so chose for me to do so."
	"But...what reason do you have now on not eating us anyway?"
	"Because...you are not weak anymore."

Returning back to the deathclaw's den beneath the cemetery landfill, James pulled off the jumpsuit carefully before sitting up naked against the firelight, covered in muddy blood along with Gruthar opposite, scratching wounds healing up upon their face as red streaks glinted in the flames, crackling between them.  They kept their bodies warm, feeling another night of the dead wastes upon their heads.  Neither spoke between them, the fire always flickering as shadows crossed from each wall around them, dancing upon a whim.  The deathclaw slowly reached out at the fire and turned the metal spit, revealing a human torso with arms and legs bound tight against its body, roasting to a glossy brown.  The raptor asked him:
	"How is she?"
	"...she'll live," said Gruthar, "she is resting in a pile of blankets in a warm part of my cave.  You gave her one half of a syringe didn't you?"
	"Yeah, I made sure I did, not gonna let anything slip me up this time."
	"Hmph, good, she may have suffered greatly from a full injection but I could not say.  She will awake soon once her body flushes out the morphine fully, we just need to keep her warm."
	"Alright that's good...so...why can't you talk to humans exactly?"
	"I do not trust them, simply.  Things my father told me of them give me great reason to distrust them much as he tried not to dissuade me.  But I would not want to go through that same fate again."
	"Fate?  What...what happened to him?"
	"He escaped...but his entire clan were exterminated by the human race, for their rebellion against their human masters.  Much as my father tried to make me understand that not all humans desire such it...it's better that I stay away."
	"Jesus...but...wait, you still rely on them, don't you?"
	"Hmmm?"
	"I mean, they may not know it but you sure enjoy making those trades with them, bottlecaps for meat I mean they're assholes sure but you're still making trades with them."
	"I am not proud of it but I must do what is necessary to survive.  Does that make me a villain to you?"
	"No.  You're not a villain, not to me, you're just...some creature trying to make a living, I understand that, not like you go actively hunting out anyone to go killing them at night...don't you?"
	"I tend to avoid such confrontation with humans, they are a very vengeful race of creatures."
	"Right, gotcha, but you still rely on them, and they in turn rely on you bringing in bottlecaps for them in some way, that's still one way you're keeping things going.  I mean if you really wanted to stop them you'd do something about it but like I said you're not evil you're just...not really dealing with all of it because it's not your problem."
	"I can handle two or six humans wielding rifles but sixty-seven is a little beyond my limits."
	"Wait, sixty-seven?"
	"Yes.  I counted.  ...there's not much to do in this wasteland as you can see."

He swept his hand over to the map on the wall behind him as a brilliant example of this, the raptor smirking upon hearing this.
	"Heh, yeah...so, if you go out travelling with your maps, how come no one notices you?"
	"I disguise myself through espionage, camouflage and if need be, a cloak like my father did."
	"Hmmmm...you think maybe I could travel with you, I mean me and her when she wakes up, explore the place a little, see if I can find anything that'll help me?"
	"Hmm.  I am not sure.  The wasteland is already a very dangerous place."
	"More dangerous when you're alone."
	"Not when you are a deathclaw.  Besides, what makes you think she will trust something like me, a child's nightmare in personification?"
	"You're not THAT scary."
Gruthar slowly leaned forwards with his head above the flames, licking across his jutted chin as a burning fierceness came deep within his eyes down upon him.  The raptor balked adding meekly:
	"O-okay you kind of are."
	"Thank you.  One monster alone will find it difficult to gain her trust.  Two however shall find it impossible."
	"But still...you want I should, just go and take her somewhere?  Away from here?"
	"That would be best.  There is a settlement I know of that would be the best place for her to be."
	"Really?"
	"Yes, a settlement called Beech, near the ruins of a much larger city I forget the name of.  There are many humans there, just travel north for three days and you might make it, without any obstacles that is.  Maybe four days at least."
	"Right...shit...well, not like I haven't done this before?"
	"Hmm?"
	"Saved a kid once, right out of a city filled with monsters under the dead of night.  Not sure why I did it I just...feel like I had to."
	"There I see that spirit in you of humanity, the conscience of sentience."
	"What?"
	"An animal is not cruel, nor is it kindly.  It is simply existent for that is nature itself.  There are no morals in nature, not until you develop sentience.  When you gain sentience a whole world opens up to you.  Morality.  Good.  Evil.  An animal acts by instinct which is not a moral guidance.  But a sentient creature must act by what it believes to be the best option, whether it be for itself...or for the sake of others."
	"That why you said you wanted to be just a beast...without that...brain of yours?"
	"Somewhat...I curse my intelligence when all the deathclaws around me simply lived their existence blissfully, eating and breeding for the next generation of beasts.  Whereas I...I wanted to explore places, travel the wasteland to see its uncharted regions.  As you can see my work has come not a long way but..."

He pointed back towards the crudely drawn map, detailing various place names and even dates of discovery.  It was quite expansive too, as indicated by the mile length he now saw on the bottom of it.  For a crude map, it was surprisingly well-detailed, with small markings showing either scenes of battle, various settlements from villages to cities, as well as places of historical interest.
	"It is something I am proud of still."
	"I'm still kind of impressed by that," replied James.  "I mean, not everyday you meet somebody who wants to make maps out of places."
	"There are machines that can automatically record such places but I have not been able to find any.  Vault-dwellers usually have them but they are useless unless you find one who has travelled well.  It is a shame my father did not obtain the Chosen One's device, but then again...the greatest part of an adventure is the discovery and the journey...not its completion."
	"Right I remember you saying...god that smell is weird."
The roasting smell of flesh was unusual to him, much moreso than other meats he had smelt along the course of his journey.  It was a rather thick, pungent sort of scent, a rather meaty but at the same time nauseatingly sick with nutrients unknown to him.  The worst part of it was the fact his stomach growled shamefully for it to eat, confused by what was meat accepted and what he did not want to eat.  But he had no choice.
	"You have never tasted human before?"
	"Not like this...heh, unless sucking the odd penis counts."
	"Not unless you swallowed."
	"Uhhhhh technically I did."
	"I see."
	"But I never eaten...human meat before."
	"What have you eaten then?"
	"What haven't I eaten?  Pork, chicken, cow, um, beef...fish, I used to love these jellied steaks, Koopin's mom would make them god they were so good.  But meat in my world was...different.  Not real meat because everybody was an anthro so...we all sorta ate this synthetic stuff, I think it got made from a type of fungus that tasted really good LIKE meat but, it wasn't."
	"A surrogate meat...interesting."
	"But it was really good, I mean holy shit if you prepared it right, fuck it didn't feel any different from actual meat.  I mean the odd murderer came and went trying to eat an anthro and not always a human did it even but still it was a great way to live with just false meat and vegetables.  After a few hundred years nobody seems to care whether it's real or not, none of it is but..."
	"Then this shall be an enlightening experience, it is almost ready."
	"Oh.  Good.  Say uh, you said before that your dad was able to talk right?  What about your mum?"
	"So long as he communicated to her with the basest of instincts, their union was well-received and we grew within a clan of them.  They did not seem to particularly mind our ability to speak, merely considering it our own language.  But we were still of their clan and they accepted us always.  Even now, should I return to them, they will accept me by my scent alone."
	"Well that's good to hear, why don't you go back to them?"
	"I have explained already my metaphor on the land of the blind, need I repeat this again?"
	"Right sorry...but...didn't you teach any of your family too on how to speak?"
	"No.  Sadly it is based on genetics on whether a deathclaw of my line will have the gene of intelligence in order to learn such communication.  My father told me that we were originally engineered by the Enclave, a human organisation, and that the gene for intelligence was made male-specific and dominant.  Any intelligent male that mated with a non-intelligent female would most likely produce intelligent offspring."
	"...so...guys get to talk, women just shut the fuck up and get back in the kitchen?  ...hhhahahaha wow, that is the most sexist bullshit I've ever heard about genetics."
	"I have come to realise that humanity is very slow to abandon old ideals...even within the fields of science."
	"Hah, I hear ya...hmmm...so who was this Enclave then?"
	"From what I remember of my father's words, they were a group of humans that aimed to resurrect the wasteland in their image, eradicating all those who were not 'pure human' and for those who were judged beneath them to either be enslaved, or executed.  My race was created to be their personal army, soldiers without mercy without sacrificing human life as cannon fodder."
	"Wait seriously?!  You guys were made to be supersoldiers?  ...heh...funny thing, so was I."
	"Hmmm?"
	"I mean not CREATED but the reason why I'm here and I have all these powers is because the A.R.M.E, some dipshits back home wanted to make me a supersoldier, no idea what but these nanos have given me enough already so..."
	"I see...perhaps we are more alike than we think."
	"Maybe!  Heh...hehehe...
	"Food is ready."

The moment of truth had arrived.  James was given an arm from the human remnants whilst Gruthar took the entire torso as well as a limb for himself.  It smelt even worse in his hands, but he knew his stomach was trembling sickeningly with hunger unless he ate something soon.  He had not eaten since upon waking up back morningtime, slowly sinking his teeth into the human flesh.  At first the texture was like any 
In truth he knew there was no reason for him personally to feel weird tasting the human meat, but that did not help him.  Humans were the one species he had seen throughout his entire adventure, in all capacities from stars to shining sea.  He was having problems even remembering any worlds that there no humans were living in, oddly remembering about two of which that were rather odd in his earliest adventures.
He was suddenly starting to miss Dream Land, a world where candy grew on trees.  Now he was biting into a human arm trying desperately not to grasp the hand.  It took him a long time to swallow, not savouring the taste despite its awakening.  All he could say about it was that it was certainly tougher than pork, more bitter but sweet around the breast muscle and stringier than jellied steak.  He was not going to miss this taste.
	"How does it taste?"
	"...like...like beef maybe...I dunno, kinda pork maybe but-"
	"The breast muscle I find to be the most sweetened of meat."
	"Okay you're not helping.  I already felt weird eating real beef in other worlds when I've got neighbours that were cows...this really isn't any better quite frankly."
	"Personal tastes will not help you survive.  Now eat, I recommend the flesh between the first and second knuckle of the hand for you to eat."
	"F-fine...mmmph...it is kinda...good, maybe a little like pork...tougher...mmmmph..."
To James it was like a good developed veal, not young like calf, but not quite an adult beef.  A mild meat that he could compare with pork for the best reference, a little stringy, but not tough enough to dissuade him from further eating on.  When roasted it was rather tender, and he was only thankful that the meat was not bloody which would surely have soured its taste with the metallic zing of iron nutrients.  He almost tempted himself with thinking how many of his neighbours' species that he ate.
He prayed to whatever god was listening that he did not have to eat dolphin, or worse.  He could only take so much of this pseudo-cannibalism of sentient beings.  The two reptiles sat together for what would possibly be the last time, the last remains of their food tossed away as a pile of human bones in the corner, white and glinting in the firelight.  Once they had finished, Gruthar began setting up a small pack of supplies for James to take with him, their plan now set as the raptor was given a backpack to hold more items with.  Two even, one blue and one green.
	"We can give this one to the girl when she wakes up," he replied.
	"That is a good idea, more inventory between you will increase your chances of survival, hopefully with more luck than the former owners of these packs.  You will find food, ammunition as well as a handgun in your pack."
	"Seriously?"

He opened it up to see there was indeed a handgun in it, a rather familiar-looking piece of solid black that he instantly recognised.  Amongst the interior space was also some slabs of brahmin meat, syringes, a bottle of water looking cleaner than the river outside, and even a compass for handy navigation.
	"Heeeey...this is a Beretta."
	"Hmm?"
	"Yeah totally this is a nine-millimetre Beretta...you even managed to fix the slide on this, Sarah told me about how these things tend to have slide failures if badly managed."
	"Then I hope you find it a good companion, for I did not fix it."
	"Then...who did you kill to get THIS thing?  Firing pin block looks good, pin striker's not sticking, maybe the magazine might-nope."
James tested the ejecting of the cartridge which pulled out smoothly before clicking it back in.
	"Seems perfect, brand new off the factory, that or someone knew how to fix a gun."
	"Shame they could not fix themselves after trying to fire at me.  I do not know who the owner was but this wasn't the weapon they shot at me with.  It was a rifle, that I broke after slaying him."
	"Huh...this was in their backpack?"
	"Yes."
	"Weird, why not use this thing for what it's for?  Oh well...guess it's time for us to go, well, me and her really.  You said head north right?"
	"That is correct, head straight north for three or five days and you should arrive there.  You should also clean yourself, whilst you still have the chance to do so."
	"Yeaaaah um...I noticed people don't clean themselves out in the wasteland, not a lot of clean water."
	"There is clean water, but it is rare that you find water without radiation in it."
	"...ra-...radiation?  Really?"
	"Yes, thankfully I'm not affected by it but...you should not bathe in it for a period that's unnecessary.."
	"Alright...I...really would like some of this blood off my face for starters."
	"That would be best, if only so that you seem presentable to your new charge."
	"Right, so uh, you got a place I can clean?"
	"Yes, it is in the back down near the depths of the cavern where the water flows in, come with me."
The deathclaw brought him to where there was indeed a small pool of water, naturally filtrated through the rocky walls looking cleaner than usual, but it was still dirty by technical standards according to Gruthar.  While it looked cleaner, it was irradiated like most water in this world was.  The very elixir of life for all surviving creatures, was now tainted with death to various degrees.  Due to the subterranean cavern protecting it from any exposures, it was the cleanest that James would ever get to see.

The raptor took his jeans with him hoping to give them a wash too as he laid his scabbard beside the pool entrance, rather shallow but enough for him to get his feet wet up to the knees at least.  The waterhole didn't reach much further than perhaps a good twenty feet in its breadth, the depth of which was easy enough to walk in as he laid his jeans into the pool.  Dirt slowly filtered out of his leggings as he walked in naked, feeling not particularly clean despite the cool subterranean water trickling through the outer rock.
Gruthar also walked in ahead of him, hard clawed feet splashing about with tremendous force as James came up behind him.  The water was not still but it did move slowly, and as a result they got to see clearly the results of their recent fight wash off from them very easily.  Blood slipped through muddily across the loch, circling around their knees before drifting along a current, one they could not see or tell from whence did it come.
The raptor felt no cleaner than he did before.  Even worse was the feeling of his left arm being rather dull compared to his right, not completely but enough to know that it still was not the arm he had once been born with.  Hating it.  Punching the water furiously until he felt the knuckles grind against the stone earth delayed in movement.  He watched his reflection in the lake, broken and reassembling to his face giving a strange distortion upon him.  Gruthar's movements made it worse, splashing water over himself with a groan of contentment, feeling the dirt rush neatly off him down to the waters.
The beast was enjoying this, oddly for James who simply watched the deathclaw throwing it across his shoulders, dripping from his terrible lengths, claws glistening in the semi-dark as James followed suit.  Being lost as he was, he felt only the need to mimic as a way of guidance, splashing all over himself.  His body dripped neatly, right down to the penis which swayed between his legs back and forth limply, the deathclaw taking note with a smirk.  James said nothing bashfully, feeling a need to cover himself up but Gruthar stayed his hand, touching it away when he tried to hide himself meekly.
The monster simply glided his claws down his own body, a tremendous height of lean beige muscle that James could not help but look in awe and splendour.  Then he noticed an odd bulge building up between Gruthar's legs.  He watched whilst pouring water all over himself, not feeling its effects but certainly not feeling clean like he should knowing it was irradiated.  The blood came off his snout finally, but still he did not feel clean trying to push his head down underwater for a few moments.  Then a few more, feeling the cold embrace of the stream.

His eyes soon closed letting him feel peace for just a moment.  He smiled to himself, letting his nostrils pulsate needing air to come back, knowing he would not let them.  Deep into the darkness peering.  But a hand grabbed him by the neck and hoisted him out of the water, feeling the shock back to reality as he swung heftily in front of Gruthar, naked and errant to the cold waters around them.  The raptor blushed shamefully at what he tried to do, simply getting a shake of the head from the creature before looking downwards.
A gasp came from his smaller guest at the size between his legs, prodding upwards powerfully at a frightening hot length making him gulp nervously.  Gruthar simply smirked at this, saying:
	"I will take that as a compliment."
	"Y-y-y...y-yeah...h-holy...shit you're big."
	"I must clean every part of myself.  Forgive me for the current state I am in but I must wash myself fully."
	"Oh no no I mean um...that's...totally fine I...god."
It was a fearful thing to see, a large red-fleshed penis of at least 12 inches reaching up towards his belly.  The deathclaw had no testes, or at least perhaps internal like James' was, except Gruthar did not have a sheath but rather a genital slit that unfolded thickly to let his meat pulse out, a flared head with violent hot veins trickling up and down the thickening shaft.  The raptor struggled not to look at it too much, but the deathclaw chuckled deeply, putting him down back on the floor asking:
	"Are you interested?"
	"I...just...admire it, that's all.  Just...one guy to another, holding dicks...in a pool no one can see."
	"Very well...do not worry, I have no interest in sexual relations with you...unless you yourself show some interest."
	"Um...I...god...it's just...it's just that I...promised, well, not really promised but I want to...not...be unfaithful."
	"Ahhh.  I see, you are still considerate to your boyfriend?"
	"Well...I'm not dead YET so...maybe-"
	"But you were ready to give it all up, what makes this any different?"
	"...fuck it...I wanna...I wanna maybe...just, I dunno what to think!"
	"Let me offer you a compromise.  You are curious of its taste, yet you do not want to be unfaithful...perhaps I should ask you if you may assist me in washing it?  As a simple act of hygiene."
	"...well...I...I guess that's okay but long as there's no sexy stuff."
	"There will not be any.  Now...would you be so kind as to help clean me?"
The monster stood sternly before him, the raptor seeing his length reach right up towards his head from the long-legged gait of his host.  He soaked his claws in the water and began touching the cock nervously, pulsing hot red beneath his fingers as he slowly began stroking it.  He realised what he was doing before pulling back and just simply washing it further, splashing more water on it as he rubbed neatly down the underside of the length, hearing the grunts of pleasure instinctive from the deathclaw.
	"Hhhhrrrrrrr...do not...worry...I will control myself."
	"I-i...hope you do."
	"I would not be so unkind...hhhhhHHRRRrrrr...even though you...are experienced at this."

Indeed the raptor was able to get the right points of the penis by his hands alone, pleasuring it by an instinct of muscle memory fondling through the lengthened strokes, caressing it as if sculpting it out of clay.  His hands flowed from the base to head, gliding like playing a harp as he played gently with it, trying not to encourage it further and even more trying not to tempt himself with a taste of it.  This was a monster, a filthy vile well-hung monster that made him shiver at his dominance.  The musk was unbearable but at the same time piercing deep into his nostrils.
It was hot, and spicy, and sending more signals down to his body wanting to respond to it, his cock slowly feeling the blood rush to it as James cursed himself for it.  The deathclaw smelt his arousal, chuckling darkly like a demon all too familiar.
	"Hmhmhmhm...your body betrays you."
	"Sh-shut up, it doesn't know what it wants."
	"As opposed to your mind?"
	"Just...are you done?"
	"Not yet...dig into the genital slit, your hands are much smaller, clean it out for me."
	"Okay..."
The last act of cleaning his host, was to push his fingers beyond the base of the penis and smoothly rub his hands along inside of it.  Not throwing any water into it, but rather cleaning out the musk by well-watered fingers dragging across the inner circles of his slit, docking around the meat as he struggled not to press his head near it from the way he angled.  A thick sweating musk dripped when he pulled his hands out, liquid testosterone pure and unadulterated that James almost fainted at, the scent of such power and raw masculinity that simply terrified him hotly.
A stray terrible thought made him think of Koopin's reaction to this, as well as what would happen in a more intimate scene before shaking his head and cursing himself.
	"Fuck fuck FUCK, dammit NO!"
	"Hmmm?"
	"Jus-whatever, are you done yet?!"
	"Yes.  Thank you for your assistance."
	"It's fine, whatever...lemme just clean my hands."
	"I would suggest that, yes."
Once his hands were cleaned through a good solid dunking beneath the water for a few minutes, until he felt them turn numb with cold as a reassuring feeling.  Walking out of the lake, he grabbed his jeans and walked back to the fire, watching Gruthar pleasuring himself with long slow strokes of his length.  The beastly tremor in his throat was unnerving to hear, but at the same time strangely exciting knowing what he was doing.  He walked away hearing the monstrous echoes of the beast rising towards a climax, deepening breaths in a simple rhythm as he could practically see in his mind each stroke and gasp.
Claws glide upwards, pulling back down as Gruthar pulsed his hot pre to the lakewater, staining it neatly as a whiteness spooled from his dick flaring up at the head.  Not quite that of equine, but almost certainly reminiscent of some reptilian creature.  James heard him turn louder, harder and hungry for his climax whilst struggling to ignore his temptatious thoughts, wanting to imagine just being taken by that beast, hot brutal essence of a powerful creature just bending him over and making him his bitch.  He knew what he had to do.

Moving closer to the fire, he spread his legs gripping his cock and began stroking off hard as he could, still hard and hefty with need as he allowed thoughts to run free in his head.  He remembered his last fantasy being a threesome between him and koopin and another beast, so he knew that such thoughts would have been sacrilegious to a shameful point before if they had bothered him that much.  Currently he could not help thinking of the deathclaw's length, ravaging his hot hole with tail lifted begging for him to be fucked.  He let the fantasy run wild panting hot against the flames, his chest glistening with sweat more.
His meager length in comparison of 7 inches trickled hot pre in the firelight, dripping like tiny diamonds with each drop on the floor whimpering lustful noises to himself.  He could not bring himself to betray Koopin in reality, but he knew well enough that the safety of his imagination was enough.  He knew Koopin had his fantasies, with or without him, and that this was perfectly acceptable.  That was his excuse for imagining Gruthar taking him by the rear with both legs gripped around his claws, laying him on his back and ramming him with his whole length violently.
The monster's roars echoing from beneath almost made the fantasy complete, almost feeling as if they would cum together.  What a wonderful thing that would be, to think they would cum at the same moment, adding to his hot dream blissfully with eyes shut tight as he scraped his rump against the floor softly, jerking back and forth in his motions.  His hand pummelled harder on his meat, jerking off furiously with hot slippery clawed fingers where streams of precum webbed between them.
	"F-fuck...fuck me, hoh god fuck me...HOH...h-hhhhuuuh...G-gruthar...fuck, deep in me...nnnnmmph..."
His tongue fully out as he imagined the thickened length, his tail snaked back and forth eagerly with bliss as his anal pucker pulsed and quivered in imagination, thinking of the huge meat it could be stuffed with to the hilt.  His cock dripped heftily more on his chest, the raptor letting himself go freely with such a pent-up lust he had not treated for some many months as his hands turned slippery towards cumming.
	"Fuck!  FUCK ME!  FUCK, UNGH, GUHHH!  HHHhhh...hhhhhh...f-fuck yes..."
His dream had reached the end, the deathclaw filling his body with potent monstrous seed that came dripping out of his body, through his mind's eye as he clenched his pucker to play the part.  His cock leaked potent splattering strings of his semen, glinting like the broken web of a spider on his chest in the firelight as he laid back with short bliss, waiting for the shame to come in once his body reasserted itself.  The blood petered out from his cock, making it shrink away into hiding as he looked up to behind him.  Gruthar was smiling upon him.
	"GUH, SH-SHIT!"
	"I see you could not resist either."
	"UM, L-LISTEN I-"
	"Hush."
He put a claw to James' lips letting him smell his new musk.
	"What did you think I was imagining when I came with you?"
	"...ugh...god...dammit."
	"Would you like to go clean yourself agai-"
	"Yesthankyougoodbye."

The raptor hurriedly got up and chased down to the lake, washing himself fully to get rid of the shame and regret from what he just felt, the deathclaw's teasing not helping any as he threw his body in fully.  Once he felt every bit of seed off his body he came back up again, drying himself by the flames along with his jeans beside him.  Gruthar said nothing as he waited in turn, letting steam filter from their naked bodies, radiant hot scales peacefully.  They came down with melancholy after their lust had soon sated, settling like dust to sit mournful upon the wastes.
Eventually it was time to leave, the raptor having dressed and being given his map with locations marked on it for interest, courtesy of the self-taught cartographer giving him the layout of the wastes.  A marked spot east of him along the river was a good start for their journey, as recommended by Gruthar to be their place to be upon the girl's awakening.  Before he left however, hoisting the little girl over his shoulder cautiously, a thought soon came to him in the midst of coming down from previous occurrences.  He asked his beastly host:
	"Um...hey, Gruthar?"
	"Yes?"
	"Before I leave...how far away was this house you saw me at?"
	"Perhaps four hours from a walk straight across to the east."
	"...right, pretty far then um...could you do something for me?  When I go?"
	"What is it?"
	"...whoever's left in that house...I want you to bury them for me.  Just...bury them in a nice plot outside their house and...give them respects.  I'd do it myself but it's...quite a long way away."
	"I understand.  I will do it as a favour for the meat you brought to me."
	"Right...yanno, you're not that bad really.  I like you."
The deathclaw made a genuine smile which while terrifying to any person, made James only slightly nervous more than usual.
	"I like you too.  Your time here has helped stave off my loneliness for a brief moment of my existence.  I appreciate your being here."
	"Thank you...I'll just...take her to the place marked then, we uh...just heading on out there to the great big wasteland.  You uh...you want maybe see each other again soon, I mean after all we've said and everything."
	"In time James.  Do not succumb to the wasteland just yet.  Let it run through you, be its spirit...take its blood beneath the sand as your own."
	"Uhhh...s-sure.  Thanks...goodbye...Gruthar."
	"Farewell James.  We will meet some other place soon."
With that he left, walking off into the night as he headed back towards the riverbed carring the girl with him and a backpack on his scaled shoulders, sitting on top of his scabbard.  He knew a safe place for her at least, one given out by Gruthar as a means of hope for his new friend, if he saw him as that at least.  James was not sure what to consider him to be, more as an acquaintance if anything else that seemed deeply confused about his meaning in life.  In a way James felt pity for him, one that he felt for himself even.

In the deadened silence of nightfall, the raptor contemplated back to the house where his greatest sin had been.  He wasn't able to get back there, pay his respects, hoping to at least make amends by this single act of charity.  It wouldn't of course help reprieve any of the guilt in his being, but at the very least he tried somewhat.  As he carried the girl off towards the new place somewhere north, he murmured a prayer for the children he had met religiously memorised, hoping he never had to speak it again.
	"Espíritus...Acoged a este niño en vuestros brazos.  Liberadle de todo su sufrimiento-"
	"Para que así pueda correr libre en paz...Amén."
Snow fell down upon his shoulders, the dusty hot winds turning into howling gales across street pavements behind him.  Sarah stood before him, standing over the two mounds of dirt she had in front of her as she finished speaking her prayer.  The two said nothing for what felt like eternity, her long grey jacket ruffling slightly whereas the raptor was firmly wrapped up in a tight brown coat, moth-eaten through old use, feeling the cemetery wind rush through him fiercely.  A crying lament shrieked through the city streets, wrapping their pained sorrow around the small tombstones in front of them.
	"Why did you come here?" she said without turning.
	"I...I just...wanted to know what-"
	"I TOLD you to stay out of my business.  I ASKED you to stay away from all this, the least you could do is you respect my wishes."
	"And I did, I didn't get involved when you went running off in the night, but this is different!  What, you're giving respects, I can't give respects too?"
	"Do you even care about these kids?"
	"Well...yeah I mean...what kind of sick bastard would do this to them?"
	"A demon, that's who.  And watch your mouth, they can still hear you and I won't have them hearing any bad words even after they've gone from this place."
	"Demon?"
	"Look that's all you need to know, I don't want you knowing anything else about what happens."
	"Why?!"
	"Because I know you're too arrogant, running off in the night thinking you can take her down and make me proud of something!"
	"That's not true!"
	"...Is it?"
She turned and walked up towards him, taller than him as she stared down from her six-foot height down upon the young teenage raptor.
	"How many fights have you been in already?  Six?  Ten?  Fifteen?"
	"Wh-what you mean?!"
	"You have a head too big for your fists and one day you're gonna fight something far more powerful than you and when that happens, you'll be lucky to even walk away after it takes a beating out of you.  And if that someone is out there ready to take you down and teach you a lesson..."
Sarah pressed her beak against his marked snout, staring at him dead with a piercing gaze.
	"I...do NOT want it to be her."
	"Wh-...wh-who?"
	"...I won't speak her name here, not in front of these kids."
She turned back towards the small graves, gingerly walking forwards as she touched softly upon each of them, bitterness dwelling up inside of her.
	"Hhhhh...god...just...f-f-fu-...god, dammit, just...they don't deserve this.  No one deserves this...'specially not you kids...I didn't do enough to protect you."
	"What?" asked James.  "What do you mean protect them?"
	"To protect them like always, every kid in this city, in this neighbourhood at least, is under my watch making sure they don't stray off to bad things, don't get hurt, get used or mutilated just...hhhhh...these kids are our future James, you and everyone else inherit the things we leave and I...just..."
She turned towards him with a single burning eye, shivering back her tears to stop coming out with pained expression.
	"Promise me one thing."
	"What?"
	"Promise me you'll remember that prayer, cuz I'm gonna teach you it.  It's the only thing you'll ever need from my old language.  If you ever find a kid's body you promise me...that you'll give 'em that prayer word for exact word.  And you're gonna learn every single word of it because I don't EVER want to have to speak it again."
	"O-okay, fine...I know you hate Spanish bu-"
	"THAT'S NOT THE POINT!" cried Sarah.  "This is MY city and I'll be damned if I ever let any kid die in this place, not while I'm here!  If you ever find another kid, you swear to me NOW that you'll say that prayer and then come running after me...I'm not gonna let anything happen to them...not again.  Promise me."
	"I...I-i promise."
	"Good..."
The dolphin turned towards the skyline of the city, large looming buildings wrapped in misery and cold searing longitudes.  She felt no mercy from this city, but that did not stop her taking the same stance for her hated enemy.
	"I'm gonna find her James.  I'm gonna find her and I'm NOT letting her get away."
	"You not...wait...you not gonna turn her in?"
	"No...not this time she's crossed too many lines for me to let the police even risk coming near her.  I'll find her James.  I swear on my life I will.  And when I do..."
She turned to him with hidden rage twitching in her face.
	"I'm gonna make her suffer."

	"You awake?"
Her eyes blinked open for the first time in 16 hours.  Darkness was all around her but she felt the light of the sun come through nearby.  The ground was hard and dusty, but much cleaner than the one she slept on last night.  And the night before, and every night before that.  The monster that tried to kill her was now sitting in the corner of a cave entrance, wearing a pair of jeans and nothing else except an odd belt attached to a scabbard upon his back, a long pair of handles circling up from behind his head darkly like a shadow unknown upon him.
She noticed one of his arms looked slightly off, a faded colour despite the hand looking perfectly fine until she noticed a large circular indent upon his left shoulder making it look artificial.  A hand of his reached up towards his naked chest, scritching beneath his neck as if looking for something not there.  A small river flowed forth between them, drifting its way through the cave towards the horizon through a small winding rift within the landscape.  She felt a blanket now on her chest, sitting up fearfully as her hand dug into the hem of her dress, gripping for the knife hidden in it.
	"Was worried I actually killed you, wouldn't wanna waste my meds on something like that.  You alright?"
The girl said nothing, swiftly pulling out her blade from underneath the blanket before standing up quite shakily.  Her head felt light and uneven, wooziness starting to sink in as her legs buckled up beneath her, forcing her to sit back down against the rock as the raptor reached out for her.
	"Woah woah careful, careful, you might still be a bit woozy from the Med-X I gave you.  Just sit back and relax, we got all the time we need until you're ready to go."
	"R-ready?" asked the girl nervously.
	"Yeah...I've been waiting for you to wake up for about...few hours maybe?  Must be longer than that."
	"Are you...g-gonna kill me?"
	"Heh, nah...I don't eat kids."
	"You eat people though?"
	"...not really.  Prefer steak myself."
	"You...you were fighting me, back at the...slave arena."
	"Yep...you fight good, not many your age could even fight that good."
	"But...whut...whut's going on?  Why am I...here?"
	"I injected you with some Med-X stuff just to knock you out, made them think you were dead when I carted you out of there."
	"But...why?"
	"...I didn't wanna kill you.  I just...I don't wanna go killing kids for no reason, even if you fought for your life."
	"I'm not some kid," said the girl strongly.  "I'm a woman."
	"...what?"
	"You heard me."
She stood up more stern with her appearance, grasping the cavewall for support as she made her proclamation with knife pointing out at him.
	"I'm a woman, an' I don't want you pitying me just because I look little!"
	"Hhhheheh, you saying you some midget?"
	"Nah-uh!  Just...grew a little faster than most!"
	"Well you sure weren't waiting to kill someone that's for sure, nearly gutted me with that knife."
	"Whut makes you think I won't kill you now?!"
	"Because I know the one place where you can find some safety.  And before you ask if it's a trick, why would I bother with the effort of pretending you were dead just to sell you off somewhere, because I know you were thinking it."
	"N-nah I wuzn't!"
	"Well what were you gonna ask?"
	"...nuthin', I don' need anything from you!"
	"Well too bad, because I'm going that way too and I'd like to have a friend with me for the ride along.  Seriously, we'd work better as a team."
	"Nah-uh, more people easy to spot, they get killed a lot faster."
	"Well good luck out there in the wasteland with only a kitchen knife on ya.  I'm sure those radscorpions'll be shaking in their boots when they find you walking up to them barely able to reach their stingers."
	"Pfft...you ain't seen the last person I killed."
	"Well...guess I haven't.  But that was a PERSON...not a creature."
	"Like you?"
	"Yes...but this creature actually wants to help you."
	"Why?"
	"Cuz I'm a nice guy or at least trying to be?"
	"Naw you ain't.  You came to the slave camp makin' deals fer bodies, did you eat 'em?  I heard you, don't you say you didn't cuz I heard you say you did."

James saw her eyes sharp like an eagle's, hazel pale as the white dunes staring right through him as he softly shook his head.
	"Not...exactly.  I was making a deal for a friend."
	"Fer whut?!"
	"...food."
	"So you DID eat 'em!" cried out the young girl.  "Yer a monster, yer just keepin' me so you gonna eat me later, aren't you?!"
	"If I was a monster waiting to eat, then why didn't I kill you!?"
	"Cuz you wanna...jus...mebbe keep me fresh?!"
	"...heh...you got a pretty twisted imagination."
	"So I'm right?"
	"No, because you've been out for a whole day, I could have eaten you when you were asleep and not gotten nearly this much sass from you.  What matters is that you're free.  Hell I won't even stop you running out here and finding your own way but don't go that way.  That's where the slave camp is in that direction, you wanna turn right when you leave.  There's a backpack for you as well, got food and water so I hope that helps you.  I'm not gonna make you join me, if you don't want to, you clearly seem to not be afraid of dying out there."
The girl noticed there was indeed a small green backpack down by her feet, opening it to find there was a water bottle and a few strips of meat, brahmin from the looks of it.  She was rather worried, suspicious but surprised by such a turn of events.  A part of her wanted to thank whatever god was watching over her, but she knew better than that.  She also wondered the true intentions of this strange creature, setting up the pack onto her back after sheathing her knife back into the hem of her little blue dress.  She said nothing, until the raptor asked her:
	"What's your name?"
	"......Diana."
	"I'm James.  Maybe once we head out we can get some real conversation going huh?"
	"Yeah...maybe."
	"Do you trust me?"
	"...nah-uh."
	"Okay, that's fine.  You've been in a slave camp and everything so I don't expect you to trust me so easily.  That's up to you.  But I'm going to promise you one thing.  I will not let anyone hurt you, not out here.  I will find you someplace safe."
	"That don't mean nuthin', yer not even human."
	"I'm a lot nicer than those guards back at the slave camp."
	"Fer now."
	"...tell you what, I'll pinky promise."
	"That stuff's fer kids, I'm not a kid I'm a woman."
	"Pfft...alright.  What promise do I make to a woman then?"
	"...I'unno...maybe...whut...whut would happen if you broke yer promise?  If I get hurt?"
	"I'll kill myself."
	"...r-really?"

She was taken aback by his lack of hesitation, the raptor nodding with an utmost certainty.
	"I've done...a lot of things...and I want to make amends.  That's it, that's my real reason, I'll bite-"
	"You better not."
	"Sorry, sorry, bad choice of words, what I MEAN is that I want to do something right, something GOOD at least for the sake of dealing with the stuff I've done.  And if I can't even save you, then I'm not worth anything.  If anything happens to you, I will not walk another step, I'll just lay down on this blood-stained sand and just wait for death.  That's a promise."
	"...you really promise?"
	"I swear on my very soul...or what's left of it."
	"Well...o-okay then.  You...yer kinda weird an'...never heard o' no creature that can talk but...least you care about me...right?"
	"If I didn't I would not have tried risking it to get you free."
	"Okay...but...but-"
	"But what?"
	"...I didn't wanna be free like this.  Not without...my family."
The raptor had not realised this, thinking perhaps she was all alone but had not considered for one moment that she might not have been.  His heart sank further upon hearing this, clutching his head as he sighed deeply.
	"Dammit...I'm sorry...I didn't...I just, I didn't realise, just...I saw you in that awful place and...I just wanted to help."
	"And...you did but...if you really wanna help me...you...you could help get my mom out of that place.  She's in there, she don' know whut happened you could go get her!"
	"I...I didn't exactly plan to save YOU in particular, that's complicated."
	"Whut?!  Whut is, you can't save my mom?!"
	"No no I never said I COULDN'T-"
	"WHY NOT?!"
	"It just-I mean-it's not easy!"
	"You got ME out!"
	"Look, that place is armed to the teeth, there's like sixty-seven guards there all equipped with rifles and tough armour, I can't fight all that!  But maybe we can find someone who can, or at least some way of getting in there."
	"Really?"
	"We're going to a place called Beech, it's a town north of here and there's bound to be someone there, we just find someone and get 'em back down to the slave camp and free all of them safely."
	"...you promise?"
	"I promise.  We will find some way to get your mom out of that place...somehow at least."
	"...alright.  You promised that to me, that's TWO promises you got on yer head now."
	"If you die, I die with you.  If I can't save your mom then I'll...I'll see what happens, but right now the most important thing I care about is getting you somewhere safe.  Got that?"
	"Fine...um...th-thank you...James."
	"You're welcome."
	"We going soon?"
	"Yep, soon as you're about ready, how are you feeling?"
	"I'm good, my head don' hurt as much now."
	"Then let's head on out.  Just stick close to me, that's all I ask."
	"Okay...but you try anythin' funny, an' I'll...I'll cut you like a bitch."
	"...heheh...yes, ma'am."
With a somewhat sardonic smile and a salute to the young woman, the raptor walked out of the cave along with his new charge.  Diana readied herself with blade in hand walking alongside the raptor, keeping a good space apart from him but still marching in line beside him, just out of arm's reach.  A new morning greeted them with hostile winds, blazing hot soles and the howl of endless wastes.  All he had to do was keep walking north, and everything would just fall into place for him.  Hopefully.