Kuta rubbed their eyes and rolled over as they felt something odd poking against their side. When they had gone to bed earlier, Kuta had been sleeping with a yellow-plated Rethan, but as Kuta turned to look at their beloved poten-partner, they were surprised to see a rather… draconic being. Arkay was still vaguely Threanic, but he was larger and spikier than he was before he’d gone to sleep, he’d grown a pair of proper, working wings, he had a pair of curved horns underneath his head plate and was tossing and turning, but not actually conscious.
Feeling somewhat concerned, Kuta nudged Arkay. This caused Arkay to abruptly wake up, sit up straight and stare directly at the wall in front of him.
“Uh, are you well?” Kuta whispered, not having expected that reaction. As they placed their hand on Arkay’s shoulder though, Kuta quickly let go and blinked repeatedly, a sharp bolt of pain going through their head. Realizing that he had accidentally hurt Kuta, Arkay snapped back to reality and immediately apologized.
“I’m sorry. You got telepathic static off me.”
Kuta blinked some more. “You were dreaming of me. Also you seem to be turning into a dragon.”
Arkay glanced down at himself. “Huh. Yeah. Both of those things are true…” With a tut and a shake of his head, Arkay turned back to his normal, half Skyavok, half Rethavok self, then apologized again. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you.”
“I know that!” Kuta smiled, rubbing their head, then sat up too. As they did so, Arkay climbed out of bed and started wandering around, and Kuta swiftly decided to join him. Clearly something was wrong. “Did you have a nightmare?”
“Yeah, I did..” Arkay frowned. “Most of my dreams are errant lost memories from pasts I can’t place, and I get nightmares on the regular. What bothered me was that you were in the nightmare, and, worse, it was present day you, not little scared Decayling Kuta…”
“Is that bad?”
“I don’t know. It might have just been a nightmare, but… Ugh… I might have to keep a dream journal for a few days, see if there’s a pattern…” Arkay trailed off and made his way downstairs. He was thirsty and needed a drink. Kuta shrugged, then used the convenient shadow they had set up in each room to jump to the kitchen ahead of Arkay.
“Do you want to talk about it?” Kuta asked. Glancing at the clock on the oven, Kuta noticed that it was early, 3am. But that didn’t bother Kuta, they were always a light sleeper, and never seemed to need much sleep at all. “You look like you need to talk.”
Arkay tutted as he downed three glasses of water. “I don’t want to talk about my nightmares, for fear of them coming true. My thoughts and emotions and sometimes my very existence can alter reality if I’m not careful. We can talk about other stuff, I guess…”
Kuta grabbed a drink from the fridge, an energy drink. They weren’t tired, they definitely weren’t going to sleep now. Kuta then wandered into the living room and threw themselves at the sofa. “We can talk about other things! Actually, I do have a… a thought…”
Arkay joined Kuta in the living room. “What’s that?”
“I have very much enjoyed my trips to Portalia, and the other strange places you have taken me. But I do not want to be a burden and use you for my travels. At the same time though, I am capable of shadowjumping the way you do. Is it possible for you teach me how to shadowjump between planets?”
Arkay looked Kuta up and down. “I mean, I can, but can’t you technically already do that?”
“Uh, no?”
“You’ve shadowjumped to Zero Zero on multiple occasions.”
Kuta blinked. “That… is a very good point. And that brings up another question. Why DO we end up in Zero Zero if we do not consider a destination? Yes, the Skyavok’s elemental affinity is shadows and darkness, but it is still weird.”
Arkay hesitated for a moment, not sure whether to be honest or not. After some thought, he shrugged. “It seems weird to you, but that place has… some significance to me.”
“Why?”
“Uh, it’s complicated.”
“Why?” Kuta asked again. “It cannot be that complicated.”
The Thantophor hesitated again. “It’s… it’s where Epani and Sini found me when I died, where they resurrected me to be their death god. Zero Zero and most of that planet was a nuclear death zone, but when Sini started making life, I terraformed the planet to make it habitable. A reminder that life can grow from the ashes of the dead.”
Kuta smiled, sipping their drink. “That is… both strange and also very sweet. You truly are a kind, interesting being.”
Arkay shrugged, not really agreeing, then changed the subject back to shadowjumping. “Thing is, you just need to know where the shadow you want to jump to is, and approximately how far away it is. Which I know instinctively because I’m a deity, but it’s very hard to work out as a mortal. But we can try it if you want.”
“Right now?”
“We’re both awake and unable to sleep.”
“True…” Kuta put their drink down and stood up. “So, uh, what do I do?”
“Well, let’s start with somewhere we both know. How about we go to my place?” Arkay suggested. “You know the shadow in the corner above my bed, where you dragged me on my birthday. It’s about 5.63 kios away, somewhere behind us. Can you imagine that shadow?”
Kuta closed their eyes and thought to themselves. “I can.”
“Alright, now lead me to a shadow and take me there.”
“But…” Kuta stuttered. “What if I mess up and we end up in Zero Zero… wait, why am I worrying? You are the Lord of Shadows, you will fix things if I mess up.”
“Of course.”
Kuta stuttered some more, then took Arkay by the hand and led him to the darkest corner of Kuta’s apartment. They hesitated, concentrated on the shadow and where they wanted to go, then grabbed Arkay’s hand tightly. Kuta ran at the shadow, their eyes closed, dragging Arkay with them, only to find themselves falling flat on their face and landing on something soft.
“Hey, Kuta! You did it!” Arkay exclaimed. But he didn’t get an answer straight away. Kuta had briefly knocked themselves out, but they swiftly came to.
“I did it?”
“You did! Are you alright?”
Kuta glanced around. Everything was dark. Of course it was dark, they were in the bedroom in Arkay’s apartment, and Arkay had clearly left all the lights off.
“That was… not as bad as I thought…” Kuta picked themselves up, then smiled. “Still, my apartment is nicer.”
“Yeah, well, it’s made for a Rethan General, not a lowly Skyavok minimum wage guy.”
“Can we go back?” Kuta asked.
Arkay nodded. “Of course. Do you need some help?”
“I… I think I can do this…” Kuta climbed off the bed and headed into the living room, where there was a more vertical shadow for them to walk through. “Can you.. hold my hand though, please?”
“Heh, of course.”
Arkay offered his hand, and Kuta pulled him close, before closing their eyes and concentrating yet again, focusing on the shadows in their home. However, this time, Kuta twisted them both around and pushed Arkay through the shadow first. The two of them landed on Kuta’s bed, with Kuta on top of Arkay.
“Nicely done!” Arkay grinned, hugging Kuta tightly. “I take it you want to snuggle?”
Kuta yawned. “I will be honest, I was going to pin you down in a sexual manner and make out with you, but I just exhausted myself.”
“Fair enough, cross-planet shadowjumping is insanely strenuous. But you just saved fortunes in travel costs!” Arkay patted Kuta playfully on the head, then hugged them tightly. “You get some rest, alright?”
“What about you?” Kuta yawned again. “Will you have bad dreams again?”
“Eh, I’ll be alright…” Arkay sighed. “Sleep well, Kuta.”
“You too, Arkay.”