“Korak, are you there?”
Korak seemed to be ignoring everyone lately. She was supposed to be in charge of the Kalsa Warrior nest of Kolasi, but these days, she spent most of her time with her friend Talok. Talok didn’t mind, he was a Varga, a feral, adult male Vohra, he just liked the attention. But Talok, as animal-like and often mindless as he was, even he noticed something was wrong.
“Korak?”
The voice calling them attracted Talok’s attention. He left Korak’s side and headed to the entrance, wagging his tail with glee. He liked other Vohra. The smarter ones. They were nice to him. Not like the old one. That thing kept him in a cage and toyed with him. The smarter ones though, Talok used to be one of them. Or something. He couldn’t really remember.
“Korak! Oh, hello, Talok…” The little Vohra seemed scared. Even after all this time, Talok had never hurt anyone, but they were still nervous around him. This one in particular. Talok continued to wag and wave his tail. He wanted to lick the Vohra but he knew he’d be told off if he did that.
Behind him, Korak finally moved.
“What is it, Avrak?”
“Um… Can I have a word with you?”
Avrak, that was his name. Korak got up, tugging at Talok’s reins and suggesting that he pull back a little. Really, not even Korak trusted Talok not to kill anyone, but he understood. He was a hungry, horny, adult male, and if he couldn’t get food, sex or attention, in his demented mind, violence was the next best thing.
“What.”
Avrak sighed. “Korak, we’re supposed to be running this nest together, and lately it’s just me, Nuvak and Levuk doing everything. You’ve just… sat here. You’re not… feeling the changes, are you?”
Korak sniffed, then stroked Talok’s head as he wrapped himself around her.
“I’m sorry. You’re right, I should be working with you more. I don’t think I’m feeling the changes completely. Just the preliminary depression that comes ten years beforehand. Unlike Talok, I’m fifty, me changing soon is a possibility, not something forced.”
“I guess…”
“That wasn’t why you wanted to talk to me, was it?”
Talok wriggled a bit, then wandered over to Avrak, making a low humming sound. Avrak assumed that Talok was just happy to see him, but really, Talok saw that Avrak was stressed and wanted to comfort him.
“We’ve had no communications with other nests for a week.”
Korak blinked. “What?”
“The last communication we had was after our last Varga deposit. They signed off calling us ‘godless heathens’.”
“That makes no sense!” Korak suddenly seemed stressed, so Talok continued humming.
“I know. I thought it was just a grumpy Vohra in charge but we’ve heard nothing. So then I thought maybe we had communication issues. I’ve sent two squads up to our communication centres and found nothing wrong. No one is talking to us.”
“Have you tried sending out messages?” Korak suggested.
“Yes,” Avrak sighed. “We sent out messages. Put delivery and read receipts on them so we’d know that everyone would see them. We got delivery receipts. And read receipts. Only one reply.”
Korak blinked again. Talok also seemed confused. He may have been an animal these days, but he still understood things.
“What did the reply say?”
“They called us godless heathens again, and attached a file that looked rather… sketchy. We don’t have a proper tech department to check these things out, so we left it unopened.”
“And if no one’s replying to us, I don’t think we can send it off to a nest that does have one…” Korak sighed. “Okay. Fine. We’ll just have to keep on going as normal. I’ll see if I can contact another race, see if they can assist us. Thank you for telling me, Avrak.”
Avrak bowed, then left. Talok wanted to follow him, but a tug on his reins told him to stay put. Korak gently patted him on the shoulder, calming him down.
“Talok, I have work to do. I’ll send for a handler crew to take you to the feeding area and put you outside, okay? Hopefully I won’t be too long.”
Talok nodded, then nuzzled Korak. She took his reins and tied them to a post, then headed to the door.
“Be good, okay?” Korak smiled as she closed the door behind her.