It looks like the Goliaths may have found a flaw in what their captors have done to them. And it seems like Ty has a few surprises up his sleeve.

If you do want to read ahead two chapters, you can subscribe at either Subscribestar ( https://subscribestar.adult/neopuc-s-fables ) or Patreon ( https://www.patreon.com/Neopuc )

<<< PREV | FIRST | NEXT >>>

Chapter 6

“What’s going on with you? You act like you just understood that human,” Ty asked Eli.

“That’s because I did understand him,” Eli said, surprise still evident in her voice.

Ty cocked an eyebrow, “Are you sure? All I heard was gibberish. Still seems like my translator isn’t working with humans.”

Eli snorted, “I didn’t need a translator for that one. He spoke my language.”

“Seriously. What did he say?”

“It was only my name. His accent was thick, but it was my name. I think he knows me,” Eli explained.

“Do you remember him?”

Eli shook her head, “I’ve never seen him before, or at least not before the memories I lost.”

The wolf looked thoughtful for a moment. Then he said, “I have a theory I want to try out.”

“What’s that?”

“I think those human-sized aliens are the ones that messed with our memories. And they don’t look like they have a sense of smell any better than a human’s,” Ty said.

“So?”

Ty smiled, “So they may not have grasped what a sense of smell as good as ours really means. While they made us forget a few years, they may not have messed with our scent associations. Try giving the human a good sniff.”

Eli’s eyes widened in surprise at that. She had never even thought of that. These aliens may have made a mistake in letting them gather together like this. She brushed most of the humans away with her hand to make sure there was room to rest her hand on the ground, palm up. Something about those humans reminded her of the Goliaths she had just fought with, so she did not mind treating them a little rough. Plus, they had been trying to mess with her human, and a part of her really did not like that. Then again, he had been knocking them out left and right, which another part of her enjoyed seeing. Knocking out someone your own size that was augmented, like they all probably were, was no easy feat either. This was one tough little human.

The human did not mind what she did to the other humans. Eli noticed he was smiling as he watched them get brushed away as if they were nothing more than nuisances. When she looked at him with her hand resting on the ground right next to him, he appeared to get the message of what she wanted. He climbed into her hand, urging the human he had been protecting to join him.

While she had not intended to pick up that human, she did not mind his presence. That was probably for the best. She might have felt guilty about leaving him on the ground without his protector, even though a couple of the other Goliaths, Ty included, were helping to sort out the humans. Their fight was ending, and the two groups had a pretty clear divide, just like with the Goliaths. The Goliaths made sure those groups stayed separated. There was no way for them to tell which humans were the good ones with absolute certainty, if there even was a good side, but they had strong suspicions about which was which based on appearances.

Eli waited for the humans to get comfortable in her palm before lifting them up. This was not her first time handling humans, so she knew what speed they were comfortable with, and she kept her palm level. They did look a little tense, but when Eli did not smell any serious signs of fear, she thought she was doing things right. Her human looked alright but a little on guard, even as she held them closer to her muzzle. The other one tensed up a little bit.

Ty chuckled at Eli, “You might want to make it clear you don’t intend to eat them.”

“Oh, right,” Eli said, cursing herself for not thinking about how this might look from a human’s perspective. She pointed at the humans and then at her nose before making an exaggerated effort to breathe in. Then Eli looked at the humans, and they nodded in agreement, seeming to understand what she wanted to do. With their approval, she finished bringing them up to her nose. She started sniffing them in earnest this time.

Humans and other races that did not have a great sense of smell did not understand that things did not simply smell good or bad to races with a keen sense of smell. Scents could convey a whole world of information, and that information could change based on other things they observed. Of course, she could smell the differences between races; even individuals had their own scent. It went deeper than that with people. Whether she considered someone friend or foe, or did not know enough about them to determine either could change what she associated a person’s scent with.

Surprisingly, Eli found that she had specific associations with both humans, not just the one she considered hers. That other human was somewhat familiar. She knew enough about him that she could easily track him if she wished. He was not a friend, though. The human was definitely not an enemy, either. His scent told Eli that he was someone to be protected. It made her feel more like his guardian.

Her human was on a completely different level. His scent inspired powerful emotions within her. She found his scent to be absolutely exquisite. It was a scent she could not get enough of. Eli could have just sat around enjoying his scent all day long. It was a scent she found she had desperately missed without even realizing it. She must have been sniffing him more intently than she thought because Ty asked, “Is everything alright, Eli?”

Eli had to tear herself away from sniffing the human with some effort before she could respond, “It’s…complicated.”

“What’s the matter?”

“I’m just really happy and really pissed off at the same time,” Eli sighed. She could see the question in his look. “Ty, I think I’m in love with this dark-skinned human. I love getting to smell him again, but I’m angry that these aliens have kept us apart without me even knowing.”

“Do you remember why you’re in love with him?”

“No, but after looking at him knocking out all those other augmented humans, I can guess why,” Eli looked at the little human whose name she did not even know. But there was no mistaking his scent. It made all those strange feelings she had about him so clear. She was in love with him, wildly in love.

“And why’s that?”

Eli smiled lovingly at the human as she answered that question, “I always promised myself I would only fall in love with someone that could beat me in a fight.”

“Seriously,” Ty tried to stifle a chuckle.

Eli was about to snort, but she was holding the humans too close to her muzzle. That would have been a little rude. She turned to Ty, “As if female wolves don’t like a nice strong male. Besides, my old man always told me I was a delicate flower. I need someone who can take care of me.”

“Sure you do,” Ty did laugh lightly that time as he looked Eli up and down.

“You’re one to be talking mister finger food.”

Ty gave her a toothy grin at that comment, “That asshole had it coming.”

Eli smiled back at Ty. She agreed with him. Then he looked thoughtful for a moment before asking, “Mind if I give them a good sniff, too? Maybe I know one of them.”

“I’m not going to bite if you try,” Eli shrugged. “I guess you should get their approval first, though.”

Ty did just that, gesturing to the humans to make himself understood. They nodded in agreement and let Ty smell them. When Ty’s tail waged excitedly, Eli assumed she recognized someone. She asked, “Who do you recognize?”

“Two of the three.”

“Three?”

“I don’t recognize the dark-skinned human. But you are familiar now that I’m thinking about it. I hadn’t even noticed it before. Your scent is one I’m so used to that I guess I just don’t pay attention to it. But I think we’re colleagues.”

Now that Ty had mentioned it, Eli breathed in deep. Then she said, “I should really kick myself. This would have helped deal with some paranoia about you. I’m getting the same feeling from your scent. We might want to spread the word about this. It could help build cohesion with some of the others.”

“Sure, but before we do that, can I hold the other human,” Ty said. “I think that one is very close to me.”

There was some more gesturing and a little discussion between the humans. Eli’s human did seem worried about Ty’s human, but Ty’s human seemed all right with going to the wolf. Even if the wolf did not remember the human, he was obviously attached to his scent. His tail was wagging enough to give off a breeze. As excited as Ty’s tail was, Eli noticed his posture relaxed more than she had seen since she first woke up in this prison. To her, the big wolf looked just as fond of his human as she was of hers.

They both took a little more time to enjoy having their humans in their grasps. It was amazing how happy a creature who was dwarfed by one of her claws could make her, but that was clearly the case. When they were satisfied, they went around spreading the word to all the other races capable of gaining real information from scents. That did not include everyone, but it included enough that the Goliaths could start piecing together who knew who. The humans seemed confused about why the Goliaths wanted to sniff them, but they looked like they might have started to catch on towards the end. Eli thought they were even beginning to grasp their command structures.

Not everyone knew each other. That seemed to be because they were from at least three different ships. Eli and her group stayed clear of the pirate Goliaths, so they could not identify them. They did inspect what they thought were the pirate humans, though. Eli and Ty did not recognize any of them, but a couple of the other Goliaths picked out a few they thought were friends or colleagues. That was not all that surprising. Having years of your life stolen could have an effect on people.

Based on the numbers of the pirates, both Goliaths and humans, Eli guessed they could have been the crews of anywhere from four to ten ships, depending on the size of those ships. It was not much information, but it was something. Whoever these aliens were, it looked like they were targeting pirate vessels more than anything else. There was something odd about the situation that Eli could not quite put her finger on, though.

The sea eagle Eli had talked with earlier came over to her with the squirrel in tow. They were talking about something with each other. While Eli trusted them more after the scent test, they were not the crew of her ship. There was a chance their entire crew could have been pirates, though Eli thought that was doubtful. Still, she curled her fingers up as a protective barrier around her human. Eli still had not returned him to the other humans. It just felt natural to carry him around.

The eagle noticed but let it go while the squirrel nodded in approval of her behavior. The sea eagle said, “It looks like you’ve noticed something is off too.”

“Do you have any idea what it is,” Eli asked.

“I don’t know if you were interested in the Navy before going into the military, but we were,” the squirrel said. Eli had not been. She had been planning to join the Astral Marines. While that meant she would probably serve on a vessel, she had not bothered to learn much about them. “It looks like we have the entire crews of two frigates and a heavy cruiser, marines included.”

Ty spoke up, also still carrying his human, “The entire crews? They managed to take everyone prisoner without any casualties.”

“I think so.”

That did get Eli to look surprised, “How the hell could they pull that off?”

The eagle and squirrel shrugged, but Ty offered a solution as he tapped his head with his free hand, “What if whatever they used to mess with our memories can be used from a distance. They mess with our minds, knock us out, and take our ships without a fight. I’ve never heard of tech like this outside of fiction. We’d have no defenses against it.”

“Why go to the trouble of capturing everyone,” the eagle asked. “I understand taking some prisoners, but they could have blown us away if they wanted if they really knocked us out that easily.”

“Maybe they’re not as hostile as we think,” the squirrel said, trying to sound hopeful.

Eli shook her head, “They’re hostile, alright. Those little aliens seem to be in charge, and they’re terrified of us, Goliaths, I mean.”

The squirrel cocked her head at Eli and said, “So?”

Ty’s eyes narrowed as recognition hit him, “They forced the humans in here with us despite how terrified they are of us. Those bastards thought we going to…abuse them at the very least.”

“Or kill them at worst,” Eli added solemnly.

The sea eagle looked thoughtful, “So they’re terrified of us, and they have this weird hatred for humans. Well, they have Goliaths of their own where they come from, so I guess they could have done something to spook the little aliens in the past. I wonder what they could possibly have against the humans?”

That was the question, Eli thought. It might help them figure out what was really happening, but they had no way to figure it out. They had no information on the aliens besides what they had figured out. Hopefully, they could figure out even more as time went on. It would also be nice if the aliens kept them all around to figure those things out. The aliens needed to keep at least a few of them around for whatever purposes they had, but they had also decided that the humans were expendable.

That thought had Eli’s fur rippling in anger. The little aliens might have gotten what they wanted if she and her comrades had not fought off those pirates. She looked at the human in her hand, so small that he barely took up any room, his weight so little that even one of the sea eagle’s feathers would seem heavy in comparison. This was her love, and some shitty pirate could have taken him from her. They would not have felt any shame for attacking such a fine warrior outside of a mech. Just the thought of one of those lousy pirates whose skill clearly paled in comparison to her little love doing something like crushing or eating him left Eli infuriated. Even though she knew the human could not understand her, she said, “If anything happens to you, every last one of these pirates and those aliens will pay.”

“I think we better try to figure out as much as we can while we’re still together,” Eli said to the other Goliaths.

“Why’s that,” the squirrel asked.

Ty smirked, “We were put in here to…terrorize the humans. That wouldn’t last long with as many of us as there are. If we’re right about that, it won’t take long for them to make us return to our cells. I’m surprised they haven’t done so already.”

“I might have a thought about that,” the sea eagle spoke up, “There are not as many of those hidden observation posts as there were in the hallways, but they’re still here and still watching. I doubt they would have liked being on the ground for our fight. And here are two of you carrying them around. They might be waiting to see what horrors you inflict on those poor humans.”

Ty rubbed his jaw thoughtfully, asking, “Do you think you’ve spotted all their hiding points?”

“I think so, but if those other avians helped them hide some of them, I might be missing a few,” the sea eagle said.

Ty nodded, “That’s a possibility, but I don’t think that is the case. So, let me know where they all are without making it obvious to the aliens that you’re doing it. Then we’ll see if I can work something out.”

Eli was a little surprised at how tricky the wolf turned out to be. After he found out where they were being watched from, he figured out a few weaknesses. There were a couple of places where, if a Goliath sat down with their backs to any observers, they could block out what they were doing with any humans in front of them. Based on the psychology of those little aliens, they would imagine any number of horrors were being inflicted on those humans.

The biggest, meanest-looking Goliaths, except for the pirates, were selected for Ty’s plot. Eli did sniff in mock offense when she was selected. She protested, “You do know a lot of guys consider me pretty hot.”

Ty smiled, “Sure, beauty queen. But you’re also the only one here as tall as I am, and you look like you could tear any other person here in half.”

“Which only adds to my hotness.”

“I won’t argue with you there,” Ty laughed. “Now, get into place so we can get on with this.”

They only needed one other Goliath for Ty’s plan. And that was an alligator. Even though his size and build might have made people think he was a marine. The way the others reacted to his scent made it seem like he was one of the ship’s officers. Supposedly, he was one of the older captives, but Eli had difficulty noticing. Reptiles tended to age pretty well, even without using age regression treatment.

A few other Goliaths herded the humans in front of them. They tried to convince the humans to do it willingly before putting on more of a show of looking scary about it. The squirrel was the best actress. Despite being one of the shortest Goliaths there, she was having fun acting the part of the enormous monster. Her act did nearly crack a few times, though, as she almost laughed while trying to sound mean. It was kind of cute to Eli, but she hoped the humans were aware it was just an act. As small as the squirrel was, humans still looked like bugs compared to her. Then she noticed a few humans chuckling and thought things would work out.

Once the humans were in place, it was Eli’s and the Alligator’s job to be loud and aggressive. Fortunately, with their backs to the alien observers, they would not notice Eli and the Alligator giving the humans little winks and urging them to play along. The humans caught on quickly enough. Many started wailing in despair, very, very dramatically. They were playing it up and having fun with it. Eli wished they would dial it back. It was hard not to laugh at some of their antics.

While that was happening, Ty was also being loud, practically roaring threats at the humans. But his words did not matter. It was what his hands were doing that counted. For some reason, the wolf knew sign language. Even better, a couple of the humans did, too. Ty had found a means to communicate with the humans. Eli had no idea what they were discussing, but that did not matter. They now had a means to share information.

This continued until they heard a voice echo through the room, “All prisoners are to return to your cells. I repeat, all prisoners return to your cells. Failure to comply with orders will be punished.”

“Looks like our recreation time is over,” Eli told her human. Reluctantly, she returned him to the other humans. A thrill shot through Eli when the human maintained contact with her hand until she drew it far enough away from him. As she stood up, she noticed the doors to the room opening for everyone.

Eli and her group of Goliaths made sure the pirates left the room first. They did not want to give them even the briefest alone time with the humans, especially now that they were aware quite a few of those humans were friends. Once that was done, Eli’s group started to file out, too. Eli did not really want to leave her human behind and cast a few glances his way as she left. It left her almost giddy to find him looking at her as well. It also pissed her off that the aliens had taken away the reason why she had fallen in love with that human. But she trusted her own instincts. Those feelings were there for a reason, and she would find out those reasons again, even if she had to smash every last one of those alien bastards to do it.

As they returned through the hallway, Eli and a few others gathered around Ty to see what he had found out. Since they were being watched. They were mindful to keep their voices down. It would be slow to relay the information to everyone else that way, but that was how things had to be. Eli asked, “What did you find out?”

“For one thing, all of them have their memories up until they were 18 years old,” Ty said.

“That’s weird,” Eli said, “I mean, 18 is the best case for us, but some poor bastards lost everything past 14.”

Ty shrugged, “It gets even more odd. Some of the humans have vague memories of their interrogations. They say it’s more like a dream half-remembered. But they got the sense the little aliens are looking for something.”

Eli grunted, “Sounds like whatever the aliens are doing to our heads is more effective against Goliaths than humans.”

“That’s the same impression I got. That may be because they are terrified of Goliaths, so whatever they are doing is meant for us. However, they also sound like they have a real grudge against the humans. I would think they would have tried better against the humans,” Ty explained.

Eli said, “Yeah, they put the humans in there expecting we’d eat them or something. That’s pretty messed up.”

“It’s even more messed up that the pirates might have done it,” Ty growled. “But there’s even more to it. The little aliens have been calling the humans things like the fallen, cursed ones, and other things along those lines.”

Eli looked thoughtful, “That sounds like they know each other.”

“Makes me really wonder what happened in the time we lost.”

Eli’s brow furrowed, “Some of the younger people only lost a few months of memories, though. Could a first contact have gone that bad in such a short time?”

They all thought about that as they relayed the information to everyone except the pirates. Eli’s group did not trust them, especially after what they had tried to do to the humans. There was not a shadow of a doubt in their minds that the pirates would give up any information they had if it meant saving themselves.

When they returned to the prison section with their cells, Eli felt less comfortable than ever letting any pirates share cells with the humans, even if the humans were protected by shields. She knew all of the pirates had to be augmented. And now, knowing how the little aliens felt about humans, Eli did not feel confident that they had provided the humans with the best protection they could.

When Eli noticed one of the pirates about to return to a cell he shared with humans, she decided to try something. Maybe the aliens observing her would punish her for it, but maybe they would not. She quickly walked over to the pirate, grabbing him firmly by the back of the neck and restraining the arm closest to her. He was so surprised that he could not stop Eli from walking him face-first into the wall beside his cell.

“Oh, sorry about that, but I think you were about to go into the wrong cell. That one belongs to one of my friends here,” Eli gestured for one of her allies to enter the cell instead. Most of the Goliaths in the hallway hesitated, waiting for the aliens to punish them for what Eli did. When nothing happened, Eli smiled. The aliens were not so concerned with what they did now that they were not in a rush to have them eat the humans.

Some of the pirates looked angry. Eli gave them a toothy smile and said, “It looks like our captors don’t care about cell assignments, but I do. So there are going to be some changes. I’m revoking your rights to stay in cells with humans. If you have a problem with that, we can fight it out again. Then we can see if the guards stop us. If they don’t, well, I’ve been getting tired of prison food.”

Eli licked her fangs for emphasis. The pirates looked furious about being pushed around, but Eli did not care. Her group had already shown they could take them and would do so again if needed. If they did fight again, she was serious about taking some chunks out of them this time. It was the best way to ensure they did not have to keep doing this. One of the pirates eventually spat, “Crazy wolverine bi-“

“Watch your language,” Eli growled menacingly. “Don’t say anything I’ll make you regret.”

The pirates grumbled and made some halfhearted threats after that, but they did as Eli ordered. They rearranged the cells they were staying in. Only Eli’s group was allowed in the cells with humans. That also came with the benefit of ensuring the pirates did not share cells with anyone from her group. Hopefully, everyone would be able to sleep easier without having to worry about their cellmate trying to kill them in their sleep.

Eli and Ty made sure to keep their cell. It was the one that had their humans, and they were not willing to give up on being able to keep an eye on them. Even after taking the time to supervise the Goliaths’ new cell arrangements, they still managed to beat the humans back to their cells. It was a little tense waiting for their return. Who knew what the little aliens might have tried to do to them? But they did return, and Eli was just content to look at them for a while along with Ty.

Ty did something that caught her attention after a while when his human turned to him and said something. The wolf nodded at the human, causing Eli to ask, “What was that about?”

Before answering, Ty looked around the other humans in the cells surrounding them. Then he said, “The humans had the same idea you did. We don’t have any pirate humans with us anymore.”

“That doesn’t answer my question, Ty.”

The wolf grinned at her, “I guess I can tell you now that I don’t have to worry about pirates, and all these humans are likely our allies. The reason I nodded was because he asked me to.”

Eli was stunned as she asked, “Wait, do you understand the human common language without a translator?”