CH 8 - A New Home

Logan stared in disbelief. Only moments ago they had been engaged in hot, passionate sex. The scent still hung in the air.

“You can talk? How? When?”

Beauty snapped her teeth in frustration and held a hand up.

“Ok.” Logan took a breath and spoke slower. “Fewer questions. Got it. Still, why haven’t you spoken before now?”

She shook her head, then pointed at one ear. “Hear. Learn.”

“You learned to speak.” Logan pointed at himself. “From me?”

Beauty tilted her head, then nodded.

He blinked at her, wide-eyed. “You have been around me for a grand total of two days. You learned to speak ... in two days.”

Again she paused to consider the sound of his words. Again she nodded.

“Holy hell,” he muttered. “Beauty, you are amazing.”

She squinted at him and tilted her head.

Logan chuckled and scooted close enough to gently touch the soft skin of one shapely leg. “It means astonishing, incredible, beautiful, sexy...”

Once more, she held a hand up to stop him, but she was smiling as she did it. It seemed she understood at least the idea of what he was saying. That made Logan happy. She had a gorgeous smile. He thought he might like to see a lot more of it.

“Perhaps you will understand this better.” He leaned in for a long, soft kiss. Beauty hummed with pleasure and kissed him back. In truth, she wasn’t a very skilled kisser, but, like so many things, she was learning uncommonly fast.

“Yes,” she purred and nibbled at his lower lip.

“Glad you like it,” he smiled. “Me too.”

Logan sat cross-legged next to their tiny fire. Spread out in front of him were all the spoils of war he barely could remember having taken from the two dead demons. Beauty sat against the wall, silently watching.

“This is how you got the water skin you gave me,” he told her. “I thought you traded for it, but no. You just went out and fought for it, didn’t you?”

Beauty flashed her sharp teeth at him in what could have been a grin, or a silent snarl, or both.

He chuckled and that made her smile back.

One by one, he held the other items up for examination. “Then we have our loot from the two yesterday. Two leather belts with pouches and flint. A ceramic flask in a leather hip holster with some kind of sour whiskey. A cat-o-nine-tails whip, kinky but not much use in a fight.” Logan held up a dagger and watched the firelight slide over its oily, black surface. “Ten-inch dagger, metal unknown. Very nice. And then there is this...”

He picked up one of ten bronze-colored, hexagon-shaped coins and bounced it thoughtfully in his hand. On one side was a profile of a handsome, horned demon. On the other side was a beast with three heads.

Logan held it up for Beauty to see. “This is really interesting. The rest of this stuff...” He waved at the collected items. “ ... could, with a little skill and practice, be made by anyone for their personal use. At somewhere around a medieval level of technology, I suspect. But coins ... well, coins exist as a means of commerce and trade, and they have to be minted and standardized to maintain value. By some degree of higher authority. Which means some flavor of civilization, maybe even cities.”

Beauty tilted her head at him.

“City, um...” Logan paused to consider. “Many people.” He pointed back and forth between Beauty and himself. “Tall buildings?” He made vaguely square gestures with his hands.

Beauty nodded slowly, then pointed at the fire. “Smoke. Many smoke. Many people. City.”

“Yes!” Logan could only stare in wonder. The demon girl’s mind was razor-sharp and as hungry as her other appetites. Even his poor efforts at teaching and charades could not prevent her from grasping new concepts like a sponge soaking up water. He grinned. “Excellent. Then allow me to introduce you to the exciting world of commerce, dear lady.” He set some of the items in front of her. Logan divided the coins by size into small piles, then held one up before placing it on the ground by her foot and took back the ceramic flask. Logan repeated the process by taking the dagger and leaving two more coins at her feet.

She frowned at the coins for a moment before taking back the flask and the weapon and pushing the money back to him. Beauty then gave him the flask back and took one of the smaller coins, holding it up for Logan to see. Picking up the dagger, she scooped all of the remaining coins over to her side before placing the hilt into his hand.

“Yes?” she asked.

“Yes! Trade,” Logan grinned. “Buy.” He gave a coin and took an item. “Sell.” He reversed the process and took the coin back.

“Trade. Buy. Sell,” Beauty repeated.

“Yes, that’s it exact-” Logan paused and glared at her. “Wait a minute. You just established a specific value on these items. Which means you already know exactly what I am talking about, you sneak! This is humor. You’re teasing me, aren’t you?”

Beauty just blinked her golden eyes at him, the perfect poker face.

“OK, sneaky girl. Where is this city? Have you been there? How far?”

She pointed somewhere beyond their shelter and held up four fingers. “This many sleeps.”

“No so far. Can you lead me there?”

Beauty frowned, then pointed at him. “Hurt. No hurt.”

“Does that mean danger?” he asked. “Is it dangerous?”

“Yes,” she nodded. “Danger. Much, much danger.”

“Danger, how?”

“Many.” She mimed, drawing flowing lines on one side of her face. “Show, no show.” A growl of frustration rumbled in her throat.

Logan could see the struggle on her lovely face. He did not understand, but at least he could empathize. It seemed her newly formed vocabulary was not sufficient to express the concepts Beauty was struggling to communicate. At the astonishing rate she was learning, that would not be an issue for much longer. Her brilliant adoption of language skills would see to that, but for now, it seemed they were at an impasse.

“Damn,” he grunted. “Ok, Beauty. I trust you to know what you are talking about. For now. However, danger or no danger, the reality is we are in desperate need of supplies. Supplied these coins can provide us.”

“Trade.” Beauty held up a coin and pointed again toward the outside world, then at herself.

“I can’t do it, but you can?” Logan scowled. “I suppose you have a point, but what about danger? For you?”

She held up a clawed hand and snapped her teeth at him.

“You can take care of yourself,” he translated with a chuckle. “I don’t doubt that, but I do not like the idea of you going alone.” Logan heaved a great sigh. “In the meantime, if we are not going anywhere for now, then we have to find better shelter. This crack in the rock was never intended to be a permanent shelter for me, and it sure won’t work for two. Having seen that geyser, I’m thinking there may be caves around here. We can start our search where we terminated those two Incubi bastards, collect some water, and hunt food at the same time.”

“Food. Yes?” Beauty asked and reached for the zipper on his denim jeans.

Logan laughed and lifted his hips as she pulled his pants down. “Woman, you are going to be the death of me, but what a way to go.”

They set out as soon as the night cycle had ended. Nothing of value was left behind. Each of them wore one of the belts and pouches. Beauty had the flask, the whip, and coins. Logan carried the dagger, the various pelts, a newly shaped spear, and the mostly empty drinking skin.