Patchwork Earth Book 1: Chapters 5 & 6 (Patreon)

Chapter 5

When Goto was a teenager, his father had taken him and his brothers to the mountains to toughen them up. One of their exercises was to sit beneath a glacier-fed waterfall to see who could last the longest. Goto always broke first, to his shame. It was to be expected; he always fell short of his older brothers. He was sure that’s why he was the one sent to California. They could spare him.

Well, at least he could say he’d gone over the falls without flinching. Goto wasn’t sure how far they fell, but hitting the water felt like running into a brick wall. It seemed his training had done him some good. He didn’t inhale a lungful of water after the wind was knocked out of him. His lungs were bursting by the time he surfaced again, and he was gasping as he came to rest on a floating log.

“Bose! Bose, are you there?” Goto glanced around frantically. He didn’t find his companion. The log responded, though, swimming out from under him. 

Goto didn’t need any more cajoling to swim ashore. He wasn’t sure what the log had been, but he’d seen enough monsters for one day. 

He flopped onto the sandy bank, his favorite robe soaked through. He lay there gasping, disturbing a scaly, green creature as large as him, but with a jaw as long and narrow as his katana. He opened one eye and scanned the large pool at the base of the waterfall. He spotted a host of yellowed eyes and bulbous noses poking from under the water’s surface. One of them, the largest of the bunch, lunged and snatched up a fish in a flash of silver scales. 

“I see,” he said between greedy gulps of air. “Thank you for leaving me alone, Mr. Log. I am glad not to be a fish today.”

The thought of fishmen reminded him of the delphens, which brought him back to reality. Well, what counted for reality anymore. Forcing the exhaustion from his limbs, he stood. Further down the bank, Bose and the slender delphen were in much the same condition as he was. 

“Bose!” He jogged over.

“Goto!” The taller man rose and let out a celebratory holler. “Ain’t you a sight for sore eyes!” Goto wasn’t much for hugs, but Bose didn’t give him a choice. He decided not to complain too much, thought the two thumps to the back Bose added made him wince. “You lazy bones, lettin’ me deal with the young miss all by myself!”

“It was your idea to go in after her,” replied Goto, his waterlogged enthusiasm failing. “What are we going to do with our prisoner?”

Bose released Goto, his broad grin souring. “I guess we ain’t out of the worst of it, are we?” He shaded his eyes and looked up the waterfall. “At least her people gave up.”

“They didn’t have a choice, short of jumping after us.” Goto followed Bose’s gaze and goggled. “How in the eight hells did we survive that?” The cliffside had to be a hundred feet straight up, with the forest crowding the edge of the cliff face as much as it dared. Their pool had been carved from the sandstone at the base of the cliffside. It went nearly out of sight before turning into a languid river that ventured out into the endless tracts of desert from which they’d come. At least the pool was lined with palm trees and ferns. He welcomed the shade. 

Bose closed his eyes and put his hands together.

“Bose?”

After a moment’s silence, he met Goto’s eyes, a sardonic grin splitting his face. “It’s rude to interrupt a conversation, Goto. I don’t know what you worship, but I know a near miss when I see one.”

Goto hadn’t cared for lectures on the Americans’ god in San Francisco, and he had less patience in this strange world where he found himself. Still, he didn’t see a reason to voice his disapproval, so he changed the subject. “How is the delphen doing?”

Bose’s eyes widened. “Plum forgot about her.” He hunkered down next to her. “Her chest is moving, but she ain’t breathing, far as I can see! She’s got no nose to speak of, and her mouth’s shut.” He began poking and prodding her, but to no avail.

“Then how is her chest moving up and down?” Goto perked up as he detected a rhythmic sound beneath her. “I apologize, Miss, but it is necessary.” He carefully lifted her up until her limp form was seated, but there was nothing where she’d lain but wet sand. He cradled her neck, and felt a hole open up beneath his palm. “She has a hole in her neck!”

“How badly did you cut that poor creature?”

“I didn’t, you saw! I used the blunt side of my…” Her slick skin gave little purchase, and he nearly dropped her. He scrambled to catch her and his ring finger ended up in the mysterious hole. 

The girl’s black eyes flew wide open and she gagged violently. She let out a series of chittering sounds. Goto swore he could almost understand them, but it was like listening to somebody whispering in the next room. He quickly removed the offending digit.

Her eyes came back into focus and a webbed hand caught Goto in the cheek. “What are you doing, you pervert?”

“Huh?”

She scrambled back from him on all fours, scaring off a juvenile crocodile. “Do you go sticking your fingers inside everyone you meet? Do they not teach manners in Nova Roma?”

Goto’s embarrassment was burned away by indignation. “Pervert? We saved your life, you ungrateful sow!” 

“Saved me? Hah! You nearly cut me in half with your sword! And then…” Her jaw went slack as she traced their path up the waterfall. “Oh no.” 

Goto felt a smack upside his head, disturbing his straw hat. “Goto! Apologize to the lady.”

“For what,” he countered. “For waking her up? For showing her more mercy than her fellows would have shown us?”

Bose’s unyielding gaze allowed no argument. “Where I come from, we don’t call a lady a sow, no matter what the circumstances.”

Goto gulped. He stood and bowed to her. “I am sorry for the insult, Miss... Were you Klai or Welta?”

“Klai,” she replied, rising to her feet. She began squeezing out her soaking robe. “Klai of clan Meina.” Goto tried to ignore her feminine build, highlighted by her clingy wet clothes. He knew what happened to people in the old stories who tried to romance oni.

“Charmed, Ms. Meina,” said Bose, deftly tipping his hat. “I believe this has all been a misunderstanding.”

Goto snorted at that. “Whose misunderstanding? Her group attacked us first.”

“No, those explosions started going off, right around when you started flapping your trap which, just like now, don’t help nobody.”

Klai was pacing back and forth, eyes fixed at the top of the waterfall. “Oh no, I’m stuck in the Outlands!”

“We’d be happy to get you home,” said Bose. “As a peaceful gesture.”

“You don’t understand,” she said. “Hardly anybody returns once they get into the never-ending desert!”

“The Romish do,” said Goto. “If they’re sneaking in and stealing your shoveltusker ivory, they must have a way out.”

“That’s different. They’re Romish, like you. Delphens don’t have airships. We don’t have any way back up!” She gestured, showing how the cliff face dominated the view in all directions. “It will be twenty miles through the desert to get back to the jungle, much less Ketarum! I don’t have my rexi. I’d never make it.”

“Airships?” Bose’s eyebrow raised. “You mean flying ships?”

“Would that be the strangest thing you saw today?” Goto gestured at Klai. 

The light parts of her face flushed red. “Who are you calling strange, Romish? You have some nerve, coming into our lands to insult us! You’re like your finger, going where you don’t belong!”

“Stop that! I am sick and tired of always being called the wrong thing! I am not a Chinaman and I am not a Roman! I am Japanese, a samurai, or if you cannot keep that straight, simply call me by name!”

Klai was cowed by Goto’s rant. She put a webbed hand to her mouth. “I… I have never met a human who wasn’t Romish. Are there other kinds?”

“Oh, a few more,” said Bose with a chuckle. “I’ve never met one myself. I take it y’all don’t have good relations with them.”

“To put it mildly,” she said.

“Well let’s start fresh. First off, I apologize for some of what’s been said and done today. You’ll have to excuse my friend here. He’s a tad excitable.”

“I can see that,” replied Klai.

Goto let out a long sigh. “I suppose it does not matter what you call us. You seem to be alright. We can part ways.”

“Hold on there, slick,” said Bose. “Are you going to leave this little lady here all alone?”

“Especially after you knocked me out,” added Klai. “My head still hurts.”

Goto shrugged. “You attacked us, and we fought back. We all survived without serious injury, despite that cannonade your people fired at us.”

“Our people? Our people don’t use cannons! Those are Romish weapons. I had thought you were with them, and I had wondered why they valued you so little.”

“So there’s an unknown, hostile third party on top of everything else,” said Goto. “I want nothing to do with any of this. No lives were lost. It seems to me we can walk away without a further grievance.”

“Walk away to what, exactly?” Bose pointed a thumb up the cliffside. “We know there’s a city up there. All we know is out there is sand. Her city of cretins…”

“Keratum,” she said in an irritated tone.

“Awful sorry. Keratum. We barely got away with our lives twice out in this wilderness. I don’t know about you, but getting a bed and a hot meal sounds nice, and a city would have both. We might even be able to find out where we are.”

“Keratum would also have oni who would as soon attack us as look at us,” countered Goto. “This time, we would have water. The river must go somewhere, and I would wager there is a town somewhere along its path.” 

Klai let out a confused click. “What’s an oni?”

“Search me,” said Bose. “Anyway, Goto, it’s the decent thing to do. You’ll vouch for us, right, Ms. Meina?”

Klai flashed a smile that was as winsome as it was sharp. “If you can get me through the desert, I’ll be eternally grateful. I swear on the honor of my clan that you will be welcomed with open arms.”

That oath got Goto’s attention. He hadn’t thought of a creature having family honor, and he hadn’t met anyone with that concept since leaving Japan.

Before he could speak up, Bose nodded. “That’s good enough for me. We’ll get you home, Ms. Meina. I’d rather have y’all delphens as friends.”

Klai let out a pleased click and embraced his arm. “Thank you, Boseking. It’s nice to have a true gentleman to rely on.” She looked pointedly at Goto, and her insinuation was clear.

If Bose noticed the slight to his partner, he didn’t show it “I do try, ma’am.”

Goto told himself he couldn’t possibly be jealous of the attention this oni was lavishing on the cowboy. She was a disagreeable monster who’d nearly killed them with her horn. Nope. Not jealous at all. 

Chapter 6

Bose let out a sigh of relief when Klai let him go. As much as he’d hoped for some female companionship back in San Francisco, he wasn’t sure that the delphen fit the bill. She was most of the way there, but her inhuman skin and lack of hair marked her out. Still, she was pleasantly warm, and that warmth lingered after she broke the hug.

He shook his head to clear it. He’d been in the wilderness too long. It was making him loco. 

Goto’s mind was on more practical concerns. “Is it safe to tarry here? There are an alarming number of crocodiles.”

“Oh, we’re perfectly safe,” said Klai. “They aren’t crocodiles. We don’t have those in the Blessed Oasis. Those are gharials.”

The samurai’s eyes narrowed. “What’s the difference?”

She crossed her arms, clearly pleased with herself. “Gharials only eat fish. The jaws are too narrow for anything bigger. And we won’t be here much longer either way.”

Bose had been in various states of panic and distress since arriving in this crazy land. As he watched the slender-jawed reptiles patrolling the pool at the waterfall’s base, his stomach finally reminded him he hadn’t eaten since before he met Goto. He was sure the samurai was at the verge of starvation. He’d already been underfed when they’d met in San Francisco and they hadn’t had a moment’s rest since. Bose figured Goto was too stoic to admit it. 

“Ms. Meina-“

“You can just call me Klai,” she said sweetly. 

“Klai, then. If we’re going back into that desert, we’re going to need to rest and eat first. Goto’s right, our water issue is solved. Seems to me if there’s fish eating creatures, there’s fish.”

Goto’s stomach rumbled audibly. He coughed into his hand, blushing furiously. “I would not be opposed, but I’m not sure how we would get them. I don’t have a net or a spear.”

Bose scratched his whiskers, deep in thought. “Klai, how about them gharials? Are they safe to eat? I could shoot one easier than a fish.”

Klai’s face brightened up. “They aren’t bad at all. I wish we had some salt, but we can make do.”

Bose unholstered his six-shooter. “Sounds like a plan, then.”

Goto shook his head. “No, we would not want to waste your bullets. We only have so many.”

Bose cocked his head. “What’re you goin’ on-”

“You told me yourself, right? You do not know where you will get more of them.” He fixed Bose with a pointed glare. “Much like I wouldn’t want to test my blade against their scaly hide, since it could get stuck and break. We need to be cautious.”

It took Bose a moment to divine the meaning. The samurai still didn’t trust the delphen. He had to admit, it was probably best to keep whatever strange qualities their weapons had a secret, at least for the time being. “Plum forgot about that.”

Klai leaned in, inspecting Bose’s forgotten pistol. “Hm, I think Goto has a good point. I’ve never seen such a weapon. We certainly couldn’t get you more ammunition in Keratum.”

“Sure, but it looks like you dropped your weapons, and if we can’t use the sword or my gun, how’re we going to catch some dinner?” Bose wished he could take Goto aside and debate the finer points of paranoia versus survival. He didn’t want to get on his companion’s bad side, though, and he worried that letting the delphen woman in on their secrets would do just that. 

“Leave that to me, Boseking.”

“You can just call me Bose,” he replied. “Ma’am, what’re you doing?”

She was already halfway out of her blue robes. “I said, leave it to me.”

Bose and Goto averted the gaze. The samurai made a show of covering his eyes, so as to leave no doubt of his purity. “Have you no modesty, woman?”

Klai laughed, a sound mixed with more of the high-pitched noise that Bose couldn’t quite make out. “Oh, so I’ve moved up from oni to woman now? I’ll take that as a compliment.” He heard fabric hit the sand, and he couldn’t resist taking a peek. Not out of perversion, of course. More out of an intellectual curiosity about what a delphen looked like.

He realized he needn’t have worried. She wore a yellow silk undershirt that covered the important bits. Still, she didn’t look half bad, and darned close to human.

He forced his gaze away again, but he didn’t miss her proud smirk as she followed his gaze. He really had been out in the wilderness too long. He hoped they made human women in this strange land, or he didn’t know what he might resort to.

“You boys go get some firewood. I’ll be right back.” She bent down and dove in. He hadn’t noticed before, but she had a fin that ran along her forearm, which she unfurled in mid leap. 

“Klai, you dang fool, what’re you doing?” He’d seen alligators in Louisana before, and jumping in with a mess of them seemed like suicide to him, no matter what she said. 

She didn’t reply, of course. He couldn’t see any sign of her, aside from the occasional bubble and frantic motions from the gharials. A dozen of the beasts beached themselves on the opposite side of the pool, and others darted every which way.

Goto peered into the pool, a deep frown creasing his features. “We should help her.”

“I’m not sure how,” he said. “Besides, gators don’t much fear men, but they’re taking her mighty serious. Maybe they know something we don’t?”

As if on cue, Klai breached the surface towards the center of the pool, an armored gharial the size of a large dog thrashing in her arms. In a flash of green and grey, they were back underwater. There was a profusion of bubbles, and then nothing. 

“I knew she was an oni.”

“You’re going to have to tell me what that means later,” said Bose. “When she ain’t around.”

One minute became two, and then five.

“Aw, heck,” said Bose under his breath, already stripping out of his vest. “You were right! We need to go in after her!”

Goto hadn’t waited for Bose’s say so, and he was down to a white, cotton loincloth. Before he could jump in, Klai emerged from the water, her teeth wrapped around the still gharial’s throat. She dropped it with a triumphant grin, reptilian blood running down her face. 

Her face fell. “Why didn’t you get the firewood?”

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