The tents were all set up, a small fire had been lit and dinner had been eaten. While Nyssi and Retvik were currently lying in their tents, Tenuk was sitting on the beach, watching the waves lap across the sand. He’d been mostly sitting on his own, but he quickly noticed that someone was approaching, despite the fact that he’d requested to be left to his own devices.
“Hello, little one!” Ilga smiled as she sat down next to Tenuk.
“Hi…” Tenuk frowned. “Can I help you?”
“I just wanted to check on you. I think Retvik wanted to check on you as well, but he also wanted to respect your wishes to be left alone. It’s quite unusual how he is so protective of you, more so than he is with anyone else.”
“We’re, like, best buddies. I think Retvik sees me as his little brother and I kinda see him as my big brother. Even if we both have two siblings each.”
“Most unusual!” Ilga continued to smile. “Still, you seem… at ill ease. You were attacked by a monster today. While, yes, I did hire you to kill said monsters, I don’t want you all to get hurt.”
Tenuk snorted. “We’re, like, unkillable. Blessed by the Thantophor. And then blessed again by the Allbirther because we helped save their stupid asses. I’m more upset that I fucked up and accidentally reverted to my old colours.”
“It’s fine. I already promised I’d keep your secrets safe.”
“That’s not the point. I fucked up. I have spent a very long time trying to build this new persona for myself, but I go to a weird new world and make a cool new friend and I immediately fuck up and reveal my stupid, real self.”
“I don’t think your, uh, real self is stupid.”
Tenuk snorted some more. “You have no idea. I had basically no life. No friends, no time off, studying all the time. I was glued to my father’s side, forced to follow him around and learn all the different parts of being the Lord-King. I don’t remember WHY I was on Portalia when that hotel exploded, I just know that it was my first time away from my dad in like six months and I was desperate to get away.”
“So now you are free?”
“Until my dad dies, yeah.”
Ilga blinked, not understanding.
“Right now, my littlest brother Kohra is the Heir. But… I kinda promised that, after a couple of years of me being Tenuk of Xeno Dessaron One, I’d go back to being Tanos, Son of Lord-King Ahvra. So that Kohra doesn’t have his childhood years ruined the same way mine were. If my dad dies tomorrow, I have to get back to society as fast as I can and claim I’ve been alive but had amnesia the whole time, because Kohra’s way too young, he’d get torn apart by his ‘advisors’ because he’s a child and naive.”
“You don’t want to be Lord-King though.”
“Nope. Because I’ll be stuck as Lord-King forever.”
Tenuk sighed loudly. He was genuinely upset. Realizing she had made Tenuk sad, Ilga decided to say something to cheer him up.
“Well, if it makes you feel better, I think your dark blue fur with light blue fuzzy neck thing looks way nicer than your red and silver look.”
“What, really?” Tenuk blinked.
“Oh, totally. Metallic fur is silly.”
Tenuk snorted. “Yeah, it is. I only chose silver because dad wanted me to have a metallic like he does. Kohra unfortunately was forced to do the same thing. When I last saw him, I didn’t recognize him because he used to have a light blue mane before I, uh, died. Levik though changes his colours on a whim because he’s that good a shapeshifter, but he’s fucking insane and doesn’t believe he’s a Spast half the time.”
“I must admit… you are fascinating, Tenuk.”
“I wish I wasn’t. I just want to be a normal Spast sometimes.”
“Understandable.”
The Spast and the Lanex both fell silent. However, the silence was interrupted by a loud splashing sound. This was followed by the sound of something being dragged out of the water, and someone shouting in surprise.
“What the fuck is that?” Nyssi screeched as Kayel sat himself down by the camp fire and started cleaning whatever it was he had caught. Retvik didn’t shout in surprise but he had nearly knocked his tent down trying to get out, wanting to make sure everyone was safe.
“I dunno…” Kayel shrugged. “It was just in the water, swimming around my legs. It nibbled my tail so I stabbed it with one of the spears we brought along with us. Don’t want it going to waste though!”
Ilga got up to see what was going on. Kayel glanced up at the Lanex, and realized that maybe he should have checked with the marine biologist first before brutally murdering whatever had tried to eat his tail.
“You… killed a juvenile black-finned carni-tuna?”
“Is that a bad thing?” Kayel asked.
Ilga shrugged. “Uh… no… just… surprising… They’re normally speedy little bastards. Like to nibble on tubes and, uh, boats, when they get big enough.”
“Sounds like I did the universe a favour then!” Kayel perked up and went back to skinning and filleting his catch. Nyssi really didn’t like how Kayel had nonchalantly cut off the tentacles and dangling lure and chucked them to one side.
“That is a fucking ugly fish…” Retvik muttered.
“Fucking tell me about it!” Nyssi hissed. “The ugly stuff always comes out at night! Doesn’t mean you have to drag it out of the water.”
“Shouldn’t have bit my tail then…” Kayel shrugged some more. “Surprised you freaked out so much, Nyssi, it’s just a fish.”
“It IS an ugly fish…” Ilga admitted. “Not actually killed and eaten one before though. Normally I can just throw out a net and catch a bunch of sardines. I’m also somewhat surprised you know how to fillet a fish, Skyavok are not known for eating fish on the regular.”
“I’m both former K-Class and a former Phantasma assassin, we did a lot of survival camping while in training. Honestly, I’m more surprised that Tenuk hasn’t done much complaining yet.”
Tenuk frowned. “I learned my lesson on Kolasi. Plus, this time round, we have an expert with us and we know what we’re fighting against.”
“Fair enough!” Kayel smiled. “Anyway, let me cook this up, and we can have a nice, late night snack or something. We gotta keep ourselves nice and filled up for our hike tomorrow…”