Radiance

Radiance Chapter 6: Dancing in the Moonlight.

Visa watched Seven with curiosity as he washed out the stange human contraption that he was calling a still though he did make a point of telling her he had absolutely no idea how he knew that or how to even operate it, but once it was clean to his standards he filled it up and lit it.

Pretty soon clear water was coming out and filling up the jars he put underneath it and it had considerably less radiation than when it went in and in her opinion tasted better as well, not that the radioactive water out of the pump would truly bother her or her brother as their anatomy essentially made them immune to it.

But it was fascinating to watch him work, she also got a chance to see him using that mysterious ability of his to perform certain tasks that would have required the use of specialised tools, like when he couldn't gt some bolts off the top of the tank with the wrench he found he used his power to pry them off before she could offer to help him, which both surprised her and saddened her a little because she saw the pain it caused him etched in his face.

But he seemed determined to do it himself like he had something to prove to both himself and the others as well, though what that was she wasn't sure, but it was still fascinating to watch him work.

Her brother had also been unusually quiet since he'd come back in from apologising to Seven about his hurtful remarks, he was just sat in the corner of the room seemingly lost in deep thought about something, she also noticed he seemed to keep glancing at both her and Seven like he was trying to figure something out.

While this was going on Wisp seemed to have busied herself with fixing up her robotic body, she seemed to be removing her limbs one at a time and was trying to remove the dust and sand from inside it, there was something rather amusing about watching a robot sat on the floor holding one of its own legs upside down and shaking the dust out of it while calling it a shit-filled cunt waffle.

Once they were finished with their tasks Seven decided he wanted to study the map on that Pipboy thing of his to see if there was anywhere close by that would be a good start for looking for supplies, but before he could sit down Ven jumped up.

"Here come sit over here next to Visa so she can help you, you know what my crazy tail of a sister is like, she'll only moan if you make a plan without including her in it," ven said quickly grabbing Seven's shoulder and steering the surprised and confused looking human over to the mattress and plonking him down next to her on it.

Visa growled at her brother, "Will you stop calling me a bloody crazy tai!?" she huffed in annoyance and Ven gave her a fangy grin.

"Yeah sure, when your tail stops being crazy," he said while retreating safely out of cuffing range.

"Honestly planning a run would be a good idea, flying by the seats of our pants simply isn't going to cut it for long, there's a lot of shit we have to consider here, we need to stay under the radar so that the Enclave doesn't get wind of our position for starters, that means trying to avoid populated areas because no offence you two are going to draw human attention like a guy sitting there minding his own business draws wasps," Wisp said shaking her left arm like a maraca with her right.

Visa huffed in annoyance, not at the planning aspect she too thought this was a good idea, but at her brothers shit-eating grin, he was up to something she could smell it, but the question was what?

Shrugging she decided planning would take her mind off things and she shifted over closer to Seven who was operating the map on his arm, she had problems seeing the small little screen without leaning down and blocking his view with her head, which caused him to complain because he couldn't see what he was doing to operate the controls.

Why don't you sit behind him? You can look over his shoulder then?" Ven offered and Visa both huffed and internally baulked at that suggestion, that would put her and the human a lot closer than she would like, hell sitting like this on the mattress next to him with her tail loosely coiled around his side because she simply had nowhere else to put it was already making her feel pretty odd.

Seven glanced up at her, "It's fine Visa I don't mind honestly, sure beats staring at the back of your head" he said with a weak smile like he wasn't sure the joke was going to be appreciated.

"Oh, I'm sure my sister won't mind you looking at the back of her head as long as you hunt her dinner first and maybe give her tail a wash," Ven said with a grin and Visa simply froze up for a moment before snarling at her brother for the insinuation as she saw Seven turn that pretty red colour again.

"I am not some hussy skank claw who lifts her tail for any male who drops a mole rat at her feet!! This proud claw is reserved for a true male, one who has manners and knows about respect and honour!" she snarled at her giggling brother angrily.

Visa huffed and grumbled to herself as she decided to take Seven's invitation to sit behind him so she could see the map thing batter, shifting her weight along the mattress that was crushed almost flat beneath her sizable mass, the only way she was going to be able to do this was either to squat behind Seven or sit behind him, she chose the second one as the first really didn't seem very lady claw-like to her.

So slotting a large leg on either side of Seven's lithe slender human frame she shifted forwards till he was almost sat with his back resting against her like she was a living chair, she placed a large clawed hand on either of his shoulders and leaned forwards her chest swells pressing against his back slightly as she angled herself to ensure he didn't wind up with either his head wedged between them or pushed forwards by them, sometimes being a female was a royal pain in the tail hole.

Resting her head nearly atop Seven's head Visa got a whiff of Seven's pheromones, he was still a little nervous of her which given both her size and her current proximity to him was to be expected but it still made her feel a little sad that he was frightened of her, granted it made her feel powerful but sad also.

Suddenly she noticed a rather stupid grin plastered on her brother's face, "What are you smiling about?" she growled and he simply smiled even wider.

"Oh nothing, I was just thinking how odd it is that humans and claws seem to fit together so well, almost like it was by design or something," he said and Visa looked down and realised that Seven did indeed seem to fit rather well against her body and in the gap between her large thighs, which sent a white-hot flash of embarrassment through her from the tip of her tail to the tips of her horns.

She couldn't push Seven away otherwise she'd hurt him and given her back was almost against the wall there was nowhere to go anyway, so she opted to simply growl angrily at her brother and then focus in on the planning while hoping that Seven wouldn't notice the tinged blush to her scales or the heat coming off her, though other than the blush and getting a little fidgety he seemed to be doing a rather good job of ignoring her annoying brother, though she did wish he would stop fidgeting as he was brushing the sensitive scales on the insides of her thighs and it was sending tingles along her legs and up into her belly filling it with hot little flies that seemed to be buzzing around in there.

Suddenly Wisp's head appeared in her view and she'd appeared next to them and Visa got a sudden hot flash of anger that both surprised her and scared her, because it was defensive anger that a female claw got when she saw another female sniffing around her male, wherein the name of hell had that come from?

Seven was no one's male and he certainly wasn't hers, he was fucking human for one thing which was infact the major thing, he was not a claw male or otherwise, so where the hell had that defensive jealous instinct come from?

"I think there are two real candidates here, one is this trainyard and the other is this thing marked bos safehouse" Wisp said pointing at the two little icons on Seven's map with her now reattached arm.

Seven looked up at her questioningly, "What made you choose them?" he asked.

"Elementry my dear Seven, because the previous owner of this Pipboy has taken the liberty of marking the word 'clear' under their names, look here and here, I would take that to say that they've cleared out the hostiles from the area, so it should be safe for us to have a poke around and see what we can find," she said smugly.

"Oh, so that's what that means, yeah there's a few like that but most are too far away to be worthwhile" Seven said pointing to a few others dotted about.

"We should avoid these ones, I saw this NCR thing in the Enclave database, it stands for New California republic and that would mean these are outposts, which means armed soldiers" Wisp said pointing to the nearest one to them which was marked 'Camp Golf'.

"Yes, we should avoid soldiers as I really don't feel like having my tail shot off" Visa agreed injecting herself into the conversation.

Seven nodded in agreement, "We should avoid the surrounding areas to them as well as I'm willing to bet there will be patrols around as well" he said making them nod in agreement.

"Alright the train yard and the safehouse it is then, we'll head out as the sun begins to set," Seven said and there were nods of agreement all around.

They decided to get some rest while waiting for the sun to go down, Seven decided to get some sleep while Wisp and her brother decided to make some food with the meagre supplies they had on hand for the organic beings like them, Seven was going to sleep on the floor next to the mattress, he'd taken his armour and upper shirt off due to the heat in the shack, despite being in the shade the desert heat was relentless.

Visa had tried to protest stating that his body was much frailer than hers and he needed the mattress more and that it was even designed by humans for humans, but Seven simply smiled at her and replied, "Well now it can be something designed by humans for humans given by a human to a claw to use" he said and with that, he'd laid down next to it and placed his head on the pile of armour padded with his shirt.

Visa felt utterly lost and confused, never before had any being other than one of their own kind and even then not to this degree shown her such kindness, she lay down on the mattress and looked at him, she suddenly also realised she was actually missing the feeling she'd been getting when sat with him on the mattress, those subtle little things slike him moving his rear to get comfortable and brushing the inside of her large thigh, or him straightening his back and accidentally bumping her chest, the soft scent of him wafting up to her.

Visa shook her head and tried to clear it, what in the name of hell was going on with her?

Was she so starved for attention that she was beginning to consider a member of another species as a viable alternative?

If her Alpha or brood mother could see her now and see her thoughts they slap her upside of the head and tell her to stop being such a crazy tail, or they'd disown her, she sighed heavily and she thought about them, she missed them both so dearly, her Alpha had been such a strong and noble claw, always putting his pack first and making sure that everyone was safely bedded and well-fed.

His broodmother was always fussing the younger hatchlings and the adolescent claws, making sure they were well-groomed and that they were doing their best to learn about the world around them, "There will be no idiot claws in this pack!" she'd always say before launching into a long-winded speech that as noble claws it was their duty to not only be better than the humans but to surpass them, that one day it would be their kind that would inherit the world after the humans burned themselves into the ground with their petty squabbles and fights.

She'd always made a point to tell them all that when those days were arriving that it would be the job and duty of noble claws like them to rise and to lead the other packs to their rightful place at the top of the food chain, that they would uplift the other packs and teach them how to be the best claws they could be and in order to do that they must be the best claws, they could be before they set out to show others.

"I'm trying mother, I truly am," Visa said silently to herself as the memories wet her eyes as she remembered the days before the Enclave came and took it all away, of the joyful and happy young claws running around revelling in their lives and exploring everything around them, of learning the wonders of the world in which they lived, but as always the happy memory turned sour and the pain came along with the faces of pain and death.

Visa woke with a start to find Seven leaning over her holding a bowl and looking concerned, "Are you ok? That looked like a pretty bad dream" he said softly as he held out the bowl to her, it looked and smelled like her brother and Wisp had come up with some kind of soup to make the most of the ingredients they had.

She sat up slowly and accepted the bowl gratefully, "It was nothing, just bad memories" she said softly and Seven nodded knowingly as he sat down next to her on the mattress which surprised her, that was a pretty bold thing to do without an invite.

"Yeah trust me I sympathise on that point, kinda ironic that the only good memories I have all include you guys," he said softly as he looked down into his own bowl.

"Why ironic?" she asked watching him carefully.

Seven seemed to realise that he was halfway to insulting her here and he shook his head, "I didn't mean it as an insult, I simply mean that I have no memories other than waking up on that ship and all of that is bad, real bad, so my good memories only really start when Wisp got me out of there and we ran into your two, I can't imagine any human having good memories including your kind and visa versa from the way things seem to be but here I am possibly the only human to have nothing but good memories involving claws and they are the only good memories I have full stop" he said rambling a little as he tried to clarify.

Visa huffed but she could see his point, it was true obviously that humans and claws did not get along, but that having been said he was unlike any humans she or her brother had ever met, as was Wisp maybe it was because possibly they were created by regular humans also, so perhaps they shared a kinship in some form because of that lacking of the natural evolution of their kind that caused them to share a form of empathy for the other's plight as they both knew a deep form of pain and disconnection, but whatever it was she was glad to know him and indeed them as they were good and honourable people.

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Eventually, they got themselves ready and after securing the shack as best they could they set off, they're first stop would be the Gypsum Trainyard and it wasn't all that far from either the shack they were camped out at or Nellis airforce base where they'd emerged from the underground tunnels, infact part of the network started right there in the trainyard.

Ven seemed very animated as they walked and seemed to be deep in conversation with Wisp though because of the low tones they were using Seven really couldn't hear most of what they were talking about so instead he found himself being almost hypnotised by Visa swishing tail which was swishing back and forth as she walked, back and forth, back and forth.

Infact so was so utterly hypnotised by it that he walked right into her rear end when she stopped abruptly at the entrance to the trainyard, "Oof" he exclaimed before the huge startled female claw whirled around on him looking both surprised and angry.

He held up both his hands in a gesture of both apology and surrender, "S-S-Sorry Visa I was lost in thought and wasn't looking where I was going, I didn't realise you'd stopped" he said quickly.

"Glad you said that Seven I was going to ask just how in the name of hell you missed and ass that big? I'm pretty sure some of these train cars over here could use it to hide behind if they felt scared" Ven said realising what had happened and now Visa whirled around on him instead.

"My rear is not big! It is perfectly sized for my size! And don't you dare make a fat tail joke!" Visa snarled angrily before whirling back to Seven.

"And you! Watch where you are going and pay attention!! It is dangerous out here you cannot afford to be spacing out!" she snarled.

"Yeah! Just think what would have happened if my sister had spotted something interesting on the ground, she'd have bent down to get a good look, lifted her tail and we'd have lost you forever, you'd be all alone lost in a tunnel of darkness so huge you can't see the ends or touch the sides" Ven sniggered making Visa snarl and whirl around again.

"I'll give you vast dark tunnel! I'll tear your bloody tail off and shove it up to your vast dark tunnel!" she snarled stomping over to swipe at her brother while he danced about laughing.

"Back me up here Seven you have to admit my sisters tail is getting pretty huge right?" Ven said ducking and dancing blows.

"I-I-I think her tail is rather lovely, it's just the right size" Seven stammered and Visa stopped swinging and looked at him in amazement then turned and folded her arms over her ample chest before smiling smugly at her brother.

"See? Even a human can tell a perfect tail when he sees one" she said smugly.

Ven just grinned at her, "He just doesn't know any better" he said making her huff.

"Will you lot knock it off? We're in hostile territory and you lot are arguing about fat bloody tails!" Wisp snarled.

"Don't forget fat assess" Ven injected quickly making Visa swing for him again.

"Let's just look around alright? I want to cover both places and get back to the shack before daybreak" Wisp said and with that, they set off into the trainyard.

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Ven smiled gleefully to himself, it had worked perfectly, he knew baiting his sister would make her blow up but then pulling in Seven would make the human defend her as he not only didn't wish to anger her further but also he seemed to have a genuine want and need to spare Visa's feelings, so pushing him into the corner like that had forced the pretty human to pay her a compliment, which by the spring in her step and the happy swish to her tail had not gone unappreciated.

It seemed that receiving compliments from the pretty snow furred human meant a great deal to her, possibly because as she'd pointed out he was human so him noticing something that meant a great deal to a claw justified the pride in it because even he could see it.

Infact he was just planning when he could do next to give them their next little nudge towards one another when he saw something that made his body and heart freeze solid, bodies, more specifically, claw bodies.

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"Jesus, what the fuck happened here?" Wisp breathed as her torch lit up the bodies strewn everywhere, they were blatantly Deathclaw bodies and there was a whole lot of them, though they looked kinda odd, their hides were so light they looked almost white under the torch making them almost seem to glow.

"Humans happened that's what" Visa snarled angrily as her eyes roamed over the bodies strewn about everywhere.

"They even killed the hatchlings," Ven said so quietly his voice was barely a whisper as he pointed.

All of them followed his pointing claw and all saw something that horrified them, packed tightly together obviously huddled up to try and protect themselves were a group of about six maybe seven adolescent deathclaws all gathered in an open train car that looked like it had been converted into a nest.