“New Neighbors”

Prompt: A Kindness

No one entered Everstorm willingly. It was deadly exile; even elemental spirits feared it. The violence of untamed weather varied, but it was never calm in that ring surrounding Dracora. The cold increased the further one went out, and the air thinned, turned poisonous. Beyond was the lifeless desert Void, red in rock, sand, and sky.
Skyrunner, the cheetah, and Hazelnut, the flying squirrel, knew this, but the two beastfolk were young, and many things had fallen from beyond the dome of dusk-blue sky, landed out there over the past month. They were too shiny in Skyrunner’s telescope to be meteorites, and not even a dying dragon would go into Void.
The two beastfolk wore winter garb, glass orbs covering their heads–Hazelnut’s idea–attached to hoses and giant air-filled waterskins on their backs–Skyrunner’s addition. Everstorm had lessened enough for them to enter, seeking wreckage of the most recent metal roc.
The mysterious craft had been struck by lightning, torn apart by wind. A young female had been thrown clear, other passengers crushed in the fall. They all looked like scaly apes at first glance, furless except their heads, and no signs of magic. Primates lived over the sea, unseen for decades, but these clearly weren’t Dracorian. Where had they come from?
The survivor’s helmet had shattered, scaly armor torn and bloodied, but she would live. Sky and Hazel carried her back to safety. Frightened as she was, the star-ape didn’t fight them, too weak perhaps, or in shock.
The beastfolk removed their helmets once close to home, unaware of the gravedigger tree until its deadly lure-smell caught them.
Hazelnut had time to cover her nose, but Skyrunner got the full siren scent, staggering towards the tree’s death-trap with the wounded ape’s litter still harnessed to him.
The human astronaut stirred, alerted by Hazel’s panicked attempts to break Sky’s trance.
Pain and blood filled Skyrunner’s nose, reality returning with it. The strange ape had somehow gotten in front of him, smashed his nose with her fist, before collapsing again.
The beastfolk continued with their guest, wondering why she hadn’t merely saved herself.