Tame

Dawn’s eyes groggily fluttered open to Kalen’s sleeping face. His long, dark eyelashes resting on his cheeks deceitfully reflected a defenceless innocence. But Dawn found herself stifling a humorous snort at Kalen’s lip caught against bedding, revealing a definitely not innocent snaggled canine. She was pleased to hear his now more even, relaxed breathing. But froze and felt a heavy thump of her heart as she realised her positioning.

At some point, Dawn had also drifted off to sleep. She had laid by his side at a respectable distance, but that space must have further closed during the early hours of the morning and he had turned his body in towards her. Some of Dawn’s hair was gently entangled in his fingers, while Kalen’s other hand lay precariously over her waist.

Dawn was left startled at how close the Theron was. For a long while she just watched the rise and fall of his chest, listening to his soft sleepy breaths.

The fireplace had well and truly burnt out and the brightness of the house indicated that the sun was high in the sky. So Dawn was most certainly rather late for her usual routine of morning chores.

As Dawn tried to slowly pull away from Kalen a soft growl crackled in his throat. He did not awaken but turned further in towards her, eventually smooshing his face further into the bedding fabric before he was still again in a deep slumber.

Dawn had to build up her courage to try to move again. Although she was not outwardly fearful of him, the last time she’d tinkered with an unconscious theron she’d needed stitches. Once she was sure he would not unsettle again, as quietly as she possibly could, Dawn unhooked the rest of herself from Kalen. She let out a soft sigh of relief while stretching out a knot in her shoulder.

She hastily brushed her long hair into a high ponytail, changed into a fresh sundress, and tied her feet into her very scuffed boots. They looked as worn as she felt tired.

Dawn collected up the necessities for her morning rounds and tiptoed out the door to feed Mack his very delayed breakfast.

Dawn had her usual busy morning. She fed, brushed, and moved Mack from his enclosed night shelter to the main paddock, replenished Mack’s water trough by hiking buckets to and from the little stream closest to the property, swept the cobblestone pathways, watered the heavily sheltered plants, washed a few clothing items and hung them up to dry, reorganised and sealed up the stock in the market cart, and was tending to her little produce garden when a figure in a thin line of trees close by suddenly caught her eye.

Kalen leaned heavily against one of the trees’ trunks. He was heaving out of breath, but pushed his shaking body to keep staggering towards Dawn’s direction. He flopped heavily, face down, into the grass by the vegetable garden structure and extenuated a groan.

Dawn was immediately at his side to check him.

“What happened? Are you okay?”

Worry was apparent in Dawn’s tone. She hadn’t even noticed him leave the house which was in the opposite direction and she was surprised he already had enough strength to stand upright without assistance, let alone be up and walking. Or in this case, stumbling.

“I had to pee.” He mumbled into the ground.

“Oh...” She replied awkwardly.

Kalen rolled over to try to stretch his sore muscles. They twitched in protest and there was a clicking of his seized-up limbs.

“Who knew just pulling your pants up could be so exhausting.”

Dawn tried her best to be respectful and not giggle at his comment, but she could not hide her amused grin. She couldn’t bear to tell him there was an outhouse much closer to the main house, so there was no need to travel all the way over to the forest.

He was no longer gasping between words when he spoke, which was an excellent sign. Another excellent sign was the fact that Kalen’s attitude still had not darkened, nor did he seem to have any sinister plans in store for her.

“I’m almost done here,” Dawn replied in an audible tone as she walked back into the vegetable garden. It was once a chicken coop, but when the last of her family’s chickens passed away Dawn converted the structure into an enclosed garden for her edible crops instead. “I could heat up some water for you so you could soak your body in the bathtub. If you’d like? I will also have something I can put into the water that might help with the aching.”

Kalen seemed intrigued. ” You have a bath big enough to fit in?”

He gradually edged himself closer so he needn’t raise his voice.

It wasn’t surprising that Kalen was curious. Most folks in Dawn’s town either used the main river to bathe or a pail. Something large enough to fit and soak your whole body was a luxury.

“Ah yeah. It’s a white porcelain one. It was one of the many things my older brother and father collected of the old world. They even set up plumbing for it to take water from the stream.” Dawn smiled at the memory of them collecting various bits and pieces from all over, anything they thought might come in handy for something, and every time her grandmother scolding them for bringing home more useless crap. “But the pump has long since died and I didn’t inherit the inventive talent to fix it. The water still drains away though.”

Dawn found a sneaky caterpillar under one of the tomato leaves. She carefully plucked it from its hiding spot and threw it out the open wire frame door. A couple of ravens waiting attentively swooped down from some tree limbs to race to it first for the free snack.

Kalen remained quiet while Dawn continued to fill her woven basket up with ripe vegetables. She could see him taking in the sights of her yard. Both her father and brother had made quite the collection when they were alive. In between beds of flowers and herbs there were multiple piles of old machinery parts, engines, and other junk that Dawn could not identify that had now been taken over by nature. The metal structures and the area where they lay abandoned stained red with rust as they degraded, offering a home for spiders and other small critters.

Beyond that was Mack’s fenced-off area with a shed that was used at a barn to house him at night time. Just beyond that was a couple of paddocks with very worn-out fencing. Mack was busily grazing in one of those said paddocks. If he were not so old and lazy, he could easily escape the deteriorating confinements. And beyond that was forest. Hectares and hectares of it.

Dawn caught Kalen staring at one of the only non-junky features of the garden. A headstone with the details carved neatly into the mossy stone. There were fresh flowers sitting against the aged grey slab.

“That’s my grandmother’s grave,” Dawn informed him.

Kalen offered Dawn a look of pity. But did not say anything, so Dawn continued.

“She passed a long time ago. She was shrewd and strict, and everyone in town was terrified of her. But she taught me a lot about plants and how to help people.”

“How long have you lived alone?” Kalen asked.

Dawn had to think about it. “A little while after my grandmother passed away, my brother August and my father went out to hunt but never came home. I don’t know exactly... But it’s been a few years since then.”

“What about your mother?”

“I don’t remember my mother. I was very small when she passed. But I do know that her death was the reason we moved to this village.”

Kalen went silent again as Dawn finished packing the last of her vegetables, mostly a mix of tomatoes carrots and beans, carefully in her basket and latched the coop door shut behind her.

Kalen had pulled out the little black rectangle from his pant pocket and was twirling it around his fingers.

“What is that?” Dawn asked, recognising having picked it up in the forest among the rest of Kalen’s scattered belongings. He must have found his saddle bag before he went on an adventurous pee in the woods.

Kalen signed and pushed his hair back from his forehead. In the sunlight it looked less dark with tinges of red undertone.

“It’s Anthony’s communication device. You can call other devices connected to it if you’re close enough to the advanced cities that can ping off a signal. It’s totally broken though. Not that you could get a signal out this way anyway.”

What Kalen was referring to was the more advanced, built-up technological towns that were usually theron run. They had electricity, factories, and so on, but they were very independent and seemed to only associate with similarly built acquaintances. Allegedly humans did live there too, but Dawn had never seen or even knew anyone that had personally experienced such towns, so the concept was like a whole other world. She only knew that living conditions were drastically different to how she lived.

“I’m sorry about your friend.” Dawn said, struggling for the right word to use for whatever relationship he and Anthony were supposed to have. She watched Kalen put all the effort he could into standing upright. “Are you and him from one of the tech towns?”

Kalen frowned.

“I think it’s pretty clear we’re not friends.” He responded bitterly. “And not really. I’m from a clan up north which is close to a couple tech towns. My division is sort of in between them.”

“I see,” Dawn responded shyly, interested to learn more. With her free hand, she helped steady him upright as they walked back to the house. “I will draw you a bath, and perhaps over lunch, could we talk some more?”

Kalen didn’t verbally answer, but Dawn felt her face blushing once again as he moved his hand down to intertwine his fingers with hers.