Spears of Uu'kata

Chapter 16 - Disarm

Charlotte sat beside Godrar in some kind of amphitheater as he tuned another, smaller version of his surfboard instrument. He called it a celder and she anxiously waited as he tuned it.

She wished he'd just hand it over. She was gonna re-tune it anyway.

She'd kept asking to let her try the big one but he didn't want her to touch it so he agreed to let her try one of the smaller ones.

It was about the size of a buggy board and painted bright red. She loved it.

He finally handed it over and tried to show her how it was supposed to sit upright in her lap. So of course she tilted it and tried to hold it like a guitar.

"No," he said, "up."

Charlotte sighed and sat it upright again, looking at his hand positioning to figure out where to place her own.

The Celder had a lot more strings than a guitar and it would take her some time to figure out which ones matched the guitar before she could play any of her favorite songs.

She guessed she should listen to the old fellow until then.

If there was anything in the known universe Charlotte was good at, it was kicking ass and string instruments. They just made sense to her fingers. Though, she wasn't so sure now that her captors had chopped into her fingers.

She flexed her hands, stretching the scar tissue on her fingers, and tried to pick at the strings.

It didn't go well.

Godrar winced and said, "Again."

He picked a few strings, then looked at her expectantly.

She tried again, gritting her teeth. God that hurt. She hadn't even tried to move her fingers like this since waking up covered in bandages.

Charlotte stopped and flexed her hands again.

Frowning, Godrar pulled a pair of spectacles from a pocket and slipped them on. He leaned over, looking at her hands.

The old, seemingly mild Uu'k'asht actually growled as he set his Celder aside. He carefully took one of Charlotte's hands into his own, pulling it toward his face, eyes narrowing. He traced over the scars on the sides of her fingers with his own, thick digit.

Looking up, he nailed Gondroll with a hard stare and asked a question that sounded like, "What did you do?"

Gondroll answered with a long explanation. As he spoke, Godrar's hands started to caress hers, running his fingertips over each scar and pressing slightly. It hurt in a good way, like when someone is massaging a knot out of a muscle, so she didn't try to pull her hand away.

He finally let go and stood. Going over to a bag, he dug around in it, then returned with a glass bottle. Uncapping it, he poured a little liquid into his palm, rubbed them together, and took Charlotte's hand again.

The ointment smelled like mint and leather and heated her skin as he rubbed it in, massaging it into each scar.

"Ohhh... wow," Charlotte breathed, feeling her entire body trying to melt. She'd never had a hand massage before and holy shit was it amazing.

She closed her eyes and hummed in pleasure. When he finished one hand, he took the other and gave it the same treatment.

The sound of approaching footfalls snapped her eyes open again and she looked to see Ahnekk stepping up to Gondroll. He crouched down beside him and leaned in to speak, but his eyes were riveted on Charlotte.

They spoke in hushed tones and his eyes never left hers. Gondroll kept glancing at her as they conversed so she knew she was the topic of their conversation.