Chapter 14: Shame-Holes

Tom-Tom sniffed at the air.

He cringed at the odor that hit his nostrils. It was not meat-smell and not danger-smell. Just… wrong-smell.

With a small huff to clear his nose he crouched lower into the brush, belly to the ground. Leaves and dirt got stuck to his scales, but he didn’t mind. Leaves were good camouflage. Doudra said so once, and Doudra knew everything. Well, not everything, but lots. Way more than Tom-Tom.

He turned back and motioned for Klik and Red-Snout to follow. Klik simply scratched his belly. Red-Snout chewed on a twig and blinked the wrong way, slow, then fast. Tom-Tom made a mental note to teach him better blinking later. If he remembered, that is.

They each crept forward on quiet claws, their ears twitching and tails brushing low. Tom-Tom gripped his spear, sweeping it in front of himself to peer through the foliage.

That’s when Tom-Tom saw them.

Three dirt-mounds. Carefully shaped with rocks stacked on top of themselves, more and more rocks. Each of the mounds had a tall stick in it, with bits of fabric tied at the top like a sad little flag. The sight sent a chill down Tom-Tom’s tail and he froze.

“Oh no,” he whispered.

Klik caught up behind him, squinting. “What are they?”

“Graves,” Tom-Tom said. “Trash-holes for the forgotten.”

“But they look neat.” Klik frowned.

“They are not!” Tom-Tom hissed. “They buried them like you bury shame. Like you hide mistakes. You burn the honored, Klik, but you bury garbage.”

Red-Snout scampered forward and sniffed at one of the sticks and sneezed.

Tom-Tom crept forward as well, his ears flat with claws flexing nervously. His spear he left in the dirt a few feet from the rock mounds, forgotten. All of his attention was now on these rock mounds. The monuments to shame.

He sniffed again. There was old blood. Two different kinds, one Kobold and one…. Human. Woodsmoke… and metal. That strange sharp smell that human body-water-stuff. And something else… a sorrow-smell.

He pressed a claw to one of the mounds and the rocks shifted slightly under his touch, the stick slanted at an angle.

“Ghirzu,” he said softly. “And the twin-scales. This is them.”

Klik’s tail curled. “The southwest scouts?”

Tom-Tom nodded solemnly. “They didn’t come back. Now they won’t ever.”

He stood up, his spine straight, chest puffed just a little. “They were brave. Good climbers. Ghirzu told me once that he saw a bird in his dreams. That’s rare, Klik. Birds don’t come to dreams unless you’re important.” Tom-Tom’s tail twitched and curled as he spoke. His emotions making him momentarily lose control of the appendage.

Klik nodded slowly, like what Tom-Tom had said made perfect sense.

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Red-Snout chewed on a rock.

Tom-Tom closed his eyes for a second. He wasn’t praying exactly, just… being quiet. Finding this was a lot for the kobold. He hadn’t expected to be confronted with such depravity. He would have to report it back to Doudra.

***

They returned to camp by sundown.

The kobold den was a mess of twisted tree roots and burrowed-out holes nestled in the crook of a ravine. Smoke rose up from the cooking pit, thick with moss and rabbit bones. It was a chaotic display, but not an unfamiliar one for Tom-Tom. A few of the younger soldiers, the new-scales, were throwing acorns at each other. One of them was even wearing a mushroom on his head like a hat.

Doudra sat at the center of it all, cross-legged and eyes closed, her scepter lying across her knees. She was muttering something slow and strange, words just out of reach to Tom-Tom’s understanding. Her feathers swayed in the firelight.

Tom-Tom stepped up and cleared his throat. Then he did it again, louder.

She didn’t open her eyes. “What did you find?”

“Graves,” he said. “Three of them. Our scouts. Buried like old fish. Covered in rocks and forgotten.”

Now she looked up. “Who did it?”

“Humans,” Tom-Tom said. “They left smells. Smoke and iron. They made shame-piles.”

Doudra’s eyes narrowed at his report, her head titling slightly to one side, then the other. “You’re sure?”

He nodded. “They’re gone now. But they were there. Klik even found a button.”

Klik held up the little plastic object like it was treasure.

Doudra stood slowly. She moved like water through thorns, something silent and dangerous. Her gaze flicked toward the fire as she whispered to herself. There was silence in the camp as the shaman discussed among nobody. This went on for a few long seconds until Doudra finally returned her attention to Tom-Tom.

“We were sent to find something,” she muttered. “But the chief didn’t know what. And now… now it looks like instead, something found us. ” She stepped close and looked down at Tom-Tom.

In response he puffed up slightly. He tried to stand taller. Braver, smarter maybe.

“These humans,” she said, “they don’t belong here. They kill our kin and bury them like filth. That’s erasure.”

Tom-Tom didn’t know what “erasure” meant. But it sounded like something that needed fixing.

“We should find them,” he said. “And make them explain.”

Doudra tilted her head, a wicked grin slowly creeping along her snout, revealing long sharpened teeth. “And if they don’t?”

Tom-Tom paused. “…Then we make them wish they did.”

She smiled at that response. Tom-Tom’s tail flickered and twitched at that. If he made the boss smile, he was certainly doing something right. These humans might have actually been a good boon for Tom-Tom after all.

“Take the scouts. Spread out. Listen to the trees. If they walk here again, I want to know what path they breathe on.” She waved her hand dismissively.

Tom-Tom saluted. Like what a brave scale-captain should do. If he wanted to be promoted up from scout, he would have to start playing the part. Klik saluted too, but a beat late. Red-Snout fell over trying.

Tom-Tom grinned at his two companions. Red-Snout blinked oddly again. Tom-Tom still had to teach him how to do that right. But not right now, there were humans to find.

“Let’s go find the shame-buriers,” he said.

And they turned, quickly stalking off into the dark.

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