Heart and Claw Update

Am back, god I hate sitting in a car for six hours both ways. Need to get back in the groove but here's 4.2k words

“I sense a bit of conflict of interest here,” Pearl noted. He expected her to provide some argument or remark, but instead she just placed her chin on his head, holding him close. “Take your time, Cooper, I’m not going anywhere.”

-xXx-

After cleaning themselves up, Cooper and Pearl made their way back to the entrance of the mine, reigniting the campfire and eating their fill of brahmin meat, the carcass staying preserved in the frigid cold.

“Been a bloody long time since I smelt cooked meat,” Pearl started, her head hovering over the fire as she gave it a sniff. “I don’t like it charred, but I can see the appeal of making the outside crispy.”

“Don’t you know how to make a fire?” he asked, giving her a concerned look.

“It’s not that, I can just never hold those little lighters properly, y’know, because of the claws?” She held up a hand, her claws flexing in and out of their sheaths. “Same with flint and steel, burned my nails a couple times trying that out.”

“It can’t imagine you having trouble with delicate work,” he said. “You’ve set up lights all throughout this mine, got your own power source, too. How’d you do all that with claws?”

“Lots of time and even more practice,” she replied, watching him eat with a smile on her face. “Keep in mind I had ages and ages of practice during my time with the Enclave. Some of the higher-ups thought it was a waste of time teaching us things like electronics or mathematics or whatever, but just like you humans, we hybrids needed a lot of stimulation to keep us occupied. That’s not a euphemism by the way, even though it kinda was.”

“I figured,” he chuckled. “Sounds like this Enclave is pretty sophisticated if they’re teaching deathclaws all this stuff.”

“That’s putting it lightly,” she replied. “They’ve got tech that makes your power armour look like something out of the medieval times. Hangar bays full of vehicles, a standing army that could occupy most of the west coast cities, armories full of gauss rifles and laser weaponry, they’re the top shit and nobody knows it, not yet anyway.”

“Vehicles?” he asked. “Like cars?”

“Sorta. Imagine if you took one of those automobiles, and strapped inches of armour plating all over it, then mounted a couple of chain guns on it, that’s what they have. Then there’s the Vertibirds, which are like cars, except they drive through the air using rotors as propellant.”

“I’d say that sounds crazy, but I’m out here treating a deathclaw den like it’s a camp, so I’ll believe you.”

“It can be a lot more than a camp if you gave it a chance,” Pearl suggested, Cooper pausing his chewing to think. It was obvious she wanted him to stay here permanently, but she didn’t want to say it out loud. The idea was certainly becoming more appealing the more time he spent here, but his dreams about living in a city like New Reno still held sway over him. Living in a dirty old mine out in the middle of nowhere didn’t hold as much appeal as a cityscape, did it?

“You ever ride in one of these aircars or armoured vehicles?” he asked, trying to steer the conversation away.

“They’re called aircraft,” she chuckled. “and I haven’t, wasn’t authorized to go joy-riding. I did manage to sneak into a vehicle bay one night and hop in an armoured truck. There’s an entry hatch on the roof and you’re supposed to go in legs-first, but in my foolishness I did it the other way around and got stuck. One of the guards found me after I kicked and screamed for like fifteen minutes, had to get a couple guys in power armour to un-wedge me.”

“Must have been quite the sight,” he chuckled, picturing Pearl stuck with just her legs and tail visible.

“Got in a lot of trouble for that one,” Pearl continued. “Being banned from working on the vehicles was the worst thing, though. Engines are super cool.”

“Not much out here to put those skills to use,” he said. “I’ve only seen a handful of intact cars in my life, and never one that worked.”

“Generators are the best substitute, they’re similar in a few ways to an engine, but I had to read up a fair bit before I even tried making that one you saw near my nest.”

“Saw a bit of your book collection before our… fight,” he said, remembering the stacks of books he’d glossed over. “What are they about?”

“Oh, anything and everything!” she replied eagerly. “Romantic adventures, machining guidebooks, poetry, sciences, even a few copies of Guns and Bullets.”

Cooper whistled his approval. “Those area pretty rare, couple hundred caps a piece for those.”

“Ah ha, caught your interest there,” Pearl grinned. “Can’t blame you, I would be too if I could use guns. Wanna go check them out?”

“Sure,” he said, quickly finishing up his meal. After taking a swig from his canteen, they stamped out the fire, Cooper blinking as Pearl offered him her hand.

“Come on, you can walk me back.”

He didn’t see much point considering it was about a minute’s walk, but he humoured her, slipping his hand into hers and grabbing her by the finger, since it was a much more comfortable size than her giant palm. Despite her suggestion, Pearl took the lead as they made their way back to her room, the deathclaw guiding him past the bathing chamber, her horns just grazing the ceiling.

Once they were in her room, she brought him over to the stacks of books sitting on the ground, setting a couple of them on the nearby desk as she searched for something deeper in particular. Eventually she found what she was looking for, slapping a thin book on the desk, a little puff of dust exploding from the impact.

“There we are, a copy and G and B.”

He lifted the guidebook, the cover stenciled with an Old World handgun below the signature title. He leafed through it to a random page, the parchment slightly yellowed, but readable. Cooper knew all he needed to know about bullets, but it still felt humbling to hold a copy of the famous guidebook.

“What’s that one?” he asked, pointing at another book in the stack. It was as thick as his hand if he splayed his fingers all the way out, with a blue cover.

“BBS, or Big Book of Science to the uninitiated,” Pearl explained, the way she plucked the book coming off as more than eager. “This thing’s got it all, from chemistry to computer science. Not a lot of it applies anymore to this day and age, but it’s a good bit of light reading.”

“Light reading? That thing’s as big as your head!”

“That’s the best compliment someone’s ever said to me,” she chuckled. She started laying out the books into rows, her gentle nature showing itself again as she kept her claws well away from scratching or ripping anything. Her chops were pulled up in an oddly human-looking smile as she watched him browse. “Feels great to finally show off my collection,” she said. “my pack doesn’t exactly appreciate my passion for literature, y’know?”

“You really do have everything here,” he said, nodding as he appraised the tomes. There had to be at least two dozen unique books all together, some of which he’d never seen before in his travels, the ones about poetry and fantasy being the prime examples.

“Not quiteeverything,” Pearl corrected, Cooper watching as she reached into her cloak like some sort of shady drug dealer. From the folds of her cloak she produced a very familiar looking handbook. He’d almost forgotten about his little gift to her.

“There,” she said, placing the scout book on top of the copy of Guns and Bullets. “It’s not a preserved copy considering all those notes you scribbled in, but it’ll do.”

“You’ll never let that go, will you?” he asked. “Don’t forget you wrote in it too.”

“Wait a minute,” she said, holding up a claw. “I just had this amazing idea! Why don’t we make your notes into a proper book?”

“You want to make a book? I’m not sure there’s enough notes for a full volume.”

“It doesn’t have to be as big as the science book, and people like a more concise guide anyway. And if worst comes to worst, we can fill it out with drawings.”

“How’re we going to make it?” he asked. “We going to rub out one of your copies and use that?”

“No wayare we touching those! We’ll do it from scratch. I have all the tools here, and I’ve dabbled a couple times, it’s not as hard as you might think. What do you say?”

“I... okay,” he replied, Pearl’s grin growing wider. “What do we do?”

“Clear the desk, but leave the handbook, I’ll go get some paper.”

She made for the other side of the room, Cooper gingerly placing the books on the ground as she rummaged through a pile of junk noisily. He took the solitary seat behind the desk, and Pearl came over after a moment, a bundle of pens and pencils in one hand, and a stack of paper in the other. She set the objects down, then sat on the floor beside him, shuffling on the stones to get comfortable.

“You can have the chair if you want,” he said, making to stand up, but she put a hand on his leg to stop him.

“I’m good, puts me at the right height anyway, sitting like this.” At this angle her eyes were higher than his, but not by much. “Besides,” she added. “you blew up my other chair when you shot up the place earlier.”

She gestured, and he followed her extended arm towards a pile of splintered wood that might have resembled a chair at some point. He must have sniped it when he’d fired his rifle into the darkness. He mumbled an apology, Pearl bumping his arm with her elbow.

“Hey don’t worry about it, it’s just a chair. Now if you’d blown up my books, then I’d really be mad, but you got lucky.”

“So how do we get started?” he asked.

“Grab a pen and start writing down your notes on a blank page,” she said, nudging the paper closer to him.

“All of them?” he asked, dreading the hundreds of words he’d scribbled into the handbook.

“Well duh,” she replied. “You want to fill out this book, right? Oh and try and make it legible, other people will want to read this one day if we end up making copies.”

“And what’ll you be doing?” he asked, starting to copy over the text from the handbook.

“Drawing,” Pearl replied, taking a pencil to another sheet and starting to trace out some lines. “Couple sketches will really put some oomph into it. Start thinking about what you want to put on the cover as well, a nice catchy title will go a long way.”

-xXx-

The hunters trudged through the snowy dunes, the powder coming up to their thighs in the deepest places. The occasional wonky tree sprouted up from the sloping landscape, the brown trunks contrasting sharply with the snow, rising up like bones towards the grey sky, the air chocked with a low-hanging mist the sun barely penetrated.

Their group numbered three, each of them wearing drawn hoods and long cloaks, the sleeves and scarfs of their uniforms flapping like flags in the gale. The storm had been going strong for days now, and it showed no sign of clearing up, the group surrounded by an encroaching haze of wind.

“Where the hell is he?” one of their number called, his voice muffled by his bandana. “You think he even saw the flare?”

“Of course he did, ice-brain,” one of the others said. “Got one in return, didn’t we? Damn it, freezing my tits off out here…”

“Maybe if you didn’t wear leather all the time, Jade, you’d stay warm for longer,” the third of their group replied, leading the way up the next slope.

“She wears it to look like a dom,” the one with the bandana snickered. “Loves it when the boys and the girls ogle her, don’t you Jade?”

“If I was gay, I’d still get twice as much pussy as you ever would, Carlson,” Jade replied, and now it was her turn to laugh while the one called Carlson grumbled.

They crested the next dune, the three shielding their faces as they glanced around, their voices carrying on the wind as they called out. When nothing appeared to happen after five minutes, Carlson snapped.

“Fuck sake, Jordon, fire another flare already, he’s not here.”

“Hold on,” Jade said, pointing out to their north. “Think I see him.”

They looked to where she indicated, a figure blooming into view from the snowy fog. He was clad from neck to toe in padded combat armour, painted over to match with his white surroundings. He carried himself with a professional ease despite the treacherous environment he was in, Jordon giving him a respectful nod as he approached.

“Rhys, there you are. We were just about to pop another flare.”

“Found something interesting about our mark,” Rhys replied, pointing over his shoulder. “Come take a look.”

The three followed the armoured man further into the snow, soon coming upon a clearing between a handful of dead trees. A smoldering firepit sat in the middle of what might have been a camp at some point, the ring of stones partially submerged in the snow. Foot prints ringed the camp in random directions, but it was hard to tell where one began and another ended.

“He’s not alone,” Rhys explained, kneeling in the snow. “Two sets of footprints. Maybe he had a friend hang back while he went and talked to the old man.”

“He didn’t seem the sociable type to me,” Carlson added. “But why hide out here? We’re not raiders.”

“Someof us used to be,” Jordon said, giving him a pointed look. “Think you can follow them, Rhys?”

“Prints lead a bit to the west, wind’s hard, but we’ll pick up a trail if we’re quick.”

“You hear anything from our hired hunter?” Jade asked as the group began to walk. “You’ve been tailing him longer than we have, hear any gunshots or something?”

“Nope,” Rhys replied. “Either he’s still searching, or he’s dead.”

“What’re we planning to do with this guy, anyway?” Carlson asked.

“What do you mean?” Jordon said, turning to look at him. “Hendrix told us to find him, that’s what we’re doing.”

“I meant after. Let’s say hypothetically he’s somehow insane enough to bring down those deathclaws, I reckon all that reward money’s better off lining someone else’s pockets, if you get what I mean.”

“You really are an ex-raider,” Jade muttered. “You want to fight a guy who’s crazy enough to take on a pack of those things by himself?”

“It’s four on one, I’m a fan of those odds,” Carlson said. “Plus we got Rhys with his laser gun, that thing will slag his power armour.”

“This is true,” Rhys added. “I’ll expect a bigger cut if you end up relying on my gun.”

“What if he hasn’t found the pack yet?” Jordon asked.

“Then we’ll help him out,” Carlson explained. “He’ll be so grateful that we came to the rescue that he’ll end up letting his guard down, and when that happens…” He raised a finger and slid it across his neck.

“That’s assuming we take on Omega’s pack and live,” Jordon said. “I don’t know about this, man, if Hendrix finds out we straight up murdered this Tracker guy…”

“We’ll just say the claws got him! God, it’s like you haven’t ever killed someone before. Think about the money! Three thousand caps, split between us! That’s like… uh… hmm…”

“Seven fifty each,” Rhys said. “Could probably ask for a hazard pay bonus if we play the heroes.”

“How about it, Jade?” Carlson asked. “You’ve gone quiet over there, what do you say? Think of all the cheap leather suits you could buy with that money.”

“I can’t believe I’ve been forced to team up with a trio of lunatics,” Jade muttered. “If you guys are stupid enough to go up against someone who didn’t even blink when I told him how big Omega was, then go ahead, I’m not getting involved.”

“Bigger cut for us, then,” Carlson said, seemingly elated by Jade’s refusal. “Just stay out of the way while we reap the rewards. Man, this Cooper guy won’t know what hit him.”

***

“Easy…” Pearl warned, hovering over Cooper’s shoulder as he fed the final length of the thread through the hole. He brought the pin needle between the gap in the papers, then wound it behind the nearest stitch, creating a loop in the string. “Easy!” Pearl said again.

“That’s not helping,” Cooper said, rolling his eyes as he poked the needle through the loop.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry! I’m just so excited! C’mon, Coops, one last thread of the needle…”

After they’d filled out the contents of their book, they’d began working on the cover, cutting out two square sections of cardboard Pearl had lying around. Pearl had used her nails to poke holes in the margins, which would serve as threading for the string that would bind the book together. She had begun the first couple of stitches, pinching the needles between her two claws, surprisingly good at such delicate work. She’d let Cooper have the honour of doing the final touches, and after tying down the last loop, Cooper held out the excess string, Pearl cutting off the excess with a talon.

“Think that’s it,” Cooper breathed, wiping his brow as he set the needle down.

“Turn it over!” Pearl said. “Let’s see how it looks!”

He pinched the front cover between his fingers, and folded it over the pages, waiting with bated breath to see if the binding would hold. There was a crease of paper, and then the hardcover turned over, his flimsy needlework keeping the book in shape. Black letters were stenciled into the cover, Cooper reading them over with a grin on his face.

Gamma Season

A Hunter’s Guide to the Wasteland

By Cooper and Pearl

It was outlined by little humanoid figures and sketches of yao guai and geckos, as Pearl had thought the cover could use some imagery. Cooper felt an odd sensation swim over him, one he could best describe as a kind of euphoria. He’d created this thing, as haphazard as it looked at a glance, he and Pearl had stitched together their very own handbook, and he felt proud at the realization.

“Well go on,” Pearl said, nudging him with an elbow. “Open it up, let’s see if the stitches hold all the way through.”

He glossed into the first few pages, his movements slow and deliberate as though he was handling some precious work of art. The first couple of sections were dedicated to survival techniques, Cooper had decided, and every now and then the tips would be accompanied by an illustration where Pearl had thought it appropriate, such as a bundle of rope, or a primitive water filter. She wasn’t an artist by any means, but Cooper’s handwriting wasn’t all that great either, yet the amateur styles complemented each other in a strange way.

“Looks good so far. Wait a second…” He placed a finger on the next illustration. “Is that supposed to be me?”

“What?” Pearl asked innocently. “I think I really captured your physique.”

The sketch depicted a figure clad in bulky power armour kneeling in the snow, in the process of placing stones in a firepit. The helmet was absent, a sliver of a gruff face visible below a long tuft of hair, an unseen breeze wisping it to the left.

“Not bad for someone with claws on their hands,” he said, turning the next page. The next parts were all about tracking techniques and how to save time when searching for game, all of which Cooper had tried and tested over his years out in the wild. The last bit of the book was a detailed bestiary containing every creature he and Pearl had come across in their lifetimes, with deathclawsincluded at the very end, Pearl drawing a little image of herself at the top of the entry, exaggerating her proportions, like giving herself big eyes and a bright smile.

He'd wanted to add a section on how to hunt deathclaws, but his biases towards Pearl had stopped him, not to mention Pearl herself having her own problems with that. Instead he wrote down avoid at all costs in big bold letters, which satisfied the guide part of the entry.

“This is awesome,” Pearl said as she turned the book over in her hands. “I’ve always wanted to make something cool like this, and now we have!”

“It was pretty fun,” he admitted. “How much you think this could go for at a market?”

“Cooper!” she exclaimed as if he’d just insulted her. “This thing is ours, we’re keeping it, right here in the priceless section…”

She placed it carefully on a shelf mounted above the desk, Cooper noting there was only one other book there, one covered in a bright red binding. He asked her about it, and she lifted it off the shelf, handling it as though it was made of glass.

“This is my animal encyclopedia,” she said, breathing the words out in awe. “It’s pre-war, obviously, but it has a detailed list of every known animal to have ever existed on Earth. Watch out when you open it, the pages literally come to life.”

He was about to ask her what she meant, when he got his answer. The first pages were using the weight of the cover to hold a crease, and lifting the cover unfurled it, a section of the page popping out like a blooming flower. Colours burst up at him, the outlines forming some kind of strange animal with a long nose and two curving tusks, the creature taking on three dimensions thanks to the extending parchment.

“Uh, Pearl?” he asked. “This is a children’s book.”

“Animal, encyclopedia,” she insisted. “It has photos, maps of where they used to inhabit, and fun facts too! Did you know that a baby elephant can walk within a day of its birth? Deathclaws can take up to three weeks and we’re the apex predators.”

She encouraged him to read through it a little more, explaining each animal in turn. Lions, monkeys, giraffes, hippos, each animal looked so docile compared to what Cooper was used to.

After browsing for a while, he folded the book up, the blooming pictures residing into the pages, Pearl placing it beside their hunting guide. He stretched his arms over his head as he yawned, wiping at an eye as he asked: “What time is it? Might catch some lunch soon.”

“Dinner, you mean,” she replied, leaning back to peer down the mineshaft, no doubt using her keen senses to look for natural light. “It’s dark out, maybe seven or eight o’clock.”

“Really? We’ve been doing this all afternoon?”

“Time well spent in my book. Damn, doing bad puns again.” She reached over and took him by the shoulder, pulling him into a one-armed hug, Cooper breathing in her scent as she pulled him into her bosom. “Seriously though, that was fun, tried making my own books a long time ago, but it’s way better having someone around to help.”

Her affection was contagious, and he couldn’t help but wrap his arms around her to return the gesture, Pearl chuckling quietly as she placed her head on his own.

“What’s so funny?” he asked, her deep voice shaking his bones.

“You. Just the other day you couldn’t stand the sight of me, now you’ve gone hours without even batting an eye.”

He guessed he’d been too distracted making the book to really think about it, but maybe that was the whole point of their little book project, to get him used to her presence.

“Your arms must be tense after all that work,” she murmured, moving her other hand to his neck. She pressed the pad of her thumb into where his neck met his arms, digging into a knot of muscle there. She’d remembered all his pressure points. He relaxed into her embrace, her soft underside pliant and inviting, the novel texture of her scales pressing into his face and neck. Sitting in one spot for hours had stiffened up his muscles, and it felt nice to have someone on hand to ease them out.

As though of their own accord, his arms began to run down her sides, her strange scent igniting a fire inside him. What was he doing, hugging this beast like she was a life long friend? No, Pearl was no beast, she was a thinking, intelligent person, he’d known as much already, but their afternoon of bonding had finally forced him to accept the fact.

“What’s this?” Pearl cooed, angling her head round, tracking his questing hands. “Someone’s getting a little touchy…”

“Sorry,” he said, pulling his hands back.

“That wasn’t a warning, Coops, you can touch me all you want…”