“Thanks for coming with me, Tenuk… Uh… Tenia…”
Tenuk glanced down at his chest. His female chest. Tenuk was currently shapeshifted into a pale blue female Temthan and was pretending to be Nyssi’s girlfriend, calling himself (herself?) Tenia and wearing quite a few of Nyssi’s clothes, mostly a black vest top and jeans, as well as a light jacket. Being shapeshifted and acting wasn’t the problem, it was the lying and making sure Tenuk covered his tracks well enough to protect Nyssi. Worse, the pair of them had taken Nyssi’s jeep into deep Temthan territories, and Tenuk had no idea how… civilized the locals were.
“No worries. I kinda do have questions though…”
Nyssi spotted a sign, and abruptly pulled over. Tenuk worried for a moment, but quickly realized that Nyssi just wanted to turn on the GPS and navigation system. She knew Vriskera, the Ksithan territories of Portalia, well. She wasn’t too familiar with Lasara, the Temthan territories, which her parents had fled from before Nyssi had even been conceived. Her trips back here had been brief. Nyssi input the destination, then set off again before acknowledging Tenuk.
“Sure, what do you want to ask?”
“Just two things really. If you wanted protection, why did you bring me and not Retvik, and why did you ask that I be female?”
“HAH!” Nyssi laughed at Tenuk’s first question. “Retvik’s probably the best body guard you could ask for, and I trust that he could keep quiet, but he’s way too obvious, this is supposed to be a secret meeting.”
“Yeah but everyone knows you’re best friends with a Rethan, a Skyan and a Spast. And everyone’s probably going to guess that I’m Tenuk. What with calling myself Tenia. Even if I’m producing the right pheromones.”
“You’re still blatantly less obvious!”
“Yeah but…” Tenuk paused, adjusting his voice so it was higher pitched by making his vocal folds slightly smaller. “But why am I pretending to be female?”
Nyssi tutted. “You get how Rethans are so defensive? Well they didn’t naturally evolve like that, they were bred. But every species has some sort of mechanism that makes them want to protect others, and for Temthans, it’s… weird… One female doesn’t trigger that desire to protect, but two females does. Or, at least it does if there’s one male Temthan around.”
“Why?”
“Male Temthans can’t resist the idea of saving and protecting a couple of young, sexy female Temthans who might reward them with a threesome.”
Tenuk stared at Nyssi.
“What?”
“That is fucked up.”
“It’s nature. Sex is what drives the universe, mate!”
Tenuk tutted and fell silent. Nyssi sighed. “We’ll be fine. Just keep quiet and keep your recorder on at all times.”
Nyssi slowed down as the GPS told her where to go. Three lefts, a right, three more lefts and one last right.
Ahead of them was a large, ancient, somewhat gothic mansion. Lit with warm yellow lights, but making far too much use of the colour black. There were seven vehicles parked nearly to one side, one of which was a black van with one-way vision, its rear doors weirdly open. The other vehicles were al pretty standard Temthan 4x4s similar to Nyssi’s. Nyssi parked up, then sighed again.
“You ready, Tenia?”
“Mhm!” Tenuk did his best to be optimistic. “Ready when you are, girlfriend!”
Tenuk’s female Temthan voice was pretty damn good, and that made Nyssi much more confident. Opening the glove compartment, Nyssi pulled out a small box and opened it up, revealing two small tendril bands with metal balls on them. They were discreet voice recorders. Nyssi activated them and handed one to Tenuk. She also handed Tenuk a small syringe with a clear liquid in it.
“What’s that?”
“My personal antivenom.”
“Why?”
“The venom of the Tharr family… makes you obedient to them. If things get nasty, they might bite you. My antivenom will counteract it.”
Tenuk frowned, then tucked the syringe into his bra, out of sight. After a brief silence, They tied their hair-like tendrils back into a ponytail with the voice-recorder bands, then both climbed out of the car.
“Let me do the talking…” Nyssi hissed as she locked up, then slowly approached the entrance. Standing just inside was a very large, very bulky black-skinned Temthan wearing a black suit. They spotted Nyssi and Tenuk and opened the door so they could come in.
“Nyssi Tharr, welcome.”
“It’s Tharru…” Nyssi muttered. “I can’t stay long.”
The Temthan guard grunted. “I apologize, your friend cannot come in.”
“Aw…” Tenuk pulled a sad face. “But I thought my bestest girlfriend was gonna introduce me to some weird family members!”
The guard eyed Tenuk. “You may stand in the foyer but you may not be part of the meeting. Nyssi, please, go through, they are expecting you.”
Neither Nyssi nor Tenuk liked that, but there was little they could do without raising any suspicion. Nyssi walked onwards, through a large set of double doors, into a rather fancy banquet hall. Tenuk decided to wander around, pretending to be curious, before deciding to ask some random questions of the guard.
The banquet hall bothered Nyssi. There were six guards in suits like the Temthan outside and eight chairs around a large, round table. At the edge furthest from Nyssi was a tall, gangly male Temthan with brown skin and blood red scales, sitting in a throne. Much to Nyssi’s dismay, she vaguely recognized their colourations.
“Nyssi Tharru, welcome to the Meeting of the Unmourned! I am Tharrus Bloodscale, the youngest and only surviving son of Lord Tharr. To my right are Sesi and Sonia Altharr, to my left are Tharrina Venommind and Tharri Crimsonclaw. Please, sit down and join us.”
Nyssi did as she was told. Tharri and Sesi seemed as uneasy as she was, and Sonia looked genuinely queasy. Tharrina though was rather open-eyed, clearly amazed that she had family. Nyssi was somewhat glad that Tharrus was the only male Temthan present. Considering how the Tharr Clan treated females during their worst days, it was somewhat ironic.
“I’ll be blunt, why have you invited us here, and how are you alive?” Nyssi immediately asked.
“Oh, so you don’t want to be here either?” Tharri hissed. “It is called the Clan Unmourned for a reason. Our presence here is treasonous!”
Tharrus raised his hand. “Dears, please. Nothing is going on. I just wish to talk. And maybe re-establish a few things.”
“Like what? There is nothing TO re-establish!” Tharri was having none of this. She got up from her seat, but an approaching guard suggested she sit back down. “We’re not doing anything. We shouldn’t be here. This is horrible!”
“I’m inclined to agree…” Sonia muttered. “Like, uh, it’s cool that I have extended family, but we shouldn’t have extended family. The Tharr are dead.”
Tharrus seemed unbothered by the complaints. “Is it too much to ask for a little family reunion?”
Nyssi tutted. “It is, actually. How are you alive? The Tharr Bloodscales are all suppose to be dead.”
“Temthan eggs are quite hardy. Quite, quite hardy. I was unhatched when everything… went down. Lost and forgotten, raised by strangers. But I discovered who I truly was, and I wish to no longer be Unmourned.”
“Well tough shit!” Tharri continued to hiss. “We are NOT embracing our past.”
“I don’t want to. I want to make a new future. Build a new clan. Claw back some power to restart, fresh and bold. After all, the Tharr weren’t always mass murderers. And with Nyssi’s newly discovered fame, I feel we could-”
“Alright, no, fuck off, I want nothing to do with this!” Nyssi interrupted. “I’m quite happy living my life, completely unrelated to the Clan Unmourned, and I think the rest of us feel the same way. I am not risking anything.”
“Nyssi, my darling, we could-”
“I said no. I mean no.”
Tharrus tutted. “I thought someone who has been so close to the Deathbringer would be more… willing to help me rebuild.”
“Yeah no, fuck you. And if Arkay was here right now, he’d say fuck you too. Why do you think the Tharr on Portalia were torn apart by the Unending Fear? The Ksithans have always been backed by the Deathbringer.”
The lone male Tharr descendent sighed, then stood up. As he did so, all the guards started to approach. “I was afraid you would all be… unwilling…”
Sonia immediately screeched and dived under the table in a panic. Nyssi grabbed a knife, then pulled Tharri close to her, in an attempt to protect her, then tried to make her way backwards towards the exit. Tharrina was too confused to really do anything and just remained seated, while Sesi joined Sonia under the table and the pair of them crawled towards Nyssi.
The guards all snarled, then pulled out rope and handcuffs, marching towards the female Temthans.
“Tenuk, need an out!”
The wall behind Nyssi exploded inelegantly, and a colossal, blue Banikan charged into the room, throwing the banquet table at Tharrus. Having no idea what to do, most of the guards opted to protect themselves, and rushed out the room via a door behind the throne, not even bothering to try and do their jobs.
“Move!” Tenuk roared, using his body to block the remaining guards.
Nyssi grabbed her fellow Temthans and dragged them outside, into the parking lot. The guard in the foyer was out cold.
Back in the banquet hall, Tharrus had picked himself up and drawn a gun. A submachine gun.
“I should have guessed that Nyssi would have brought backup. Guess I’ll just kill you.”
Without hesitation, Tharrus opened fire, emptying the entire clip into the Banikan. As his gun clicked though, Tharrus blinked in confusion. Tenuk was still standing. Grunting in pain, but still standing. Tenuk glared at Tharrus, then took a deep breath. As he exhaled, a torrent of flames erupted from his maw, setting the room alight. Rather worryingly, everything caught fire a little too quickly.
Tenuk knew he should probably have made sure that the creepy Temthan was dead, but he was in way too much pain and the flames were spreading too fast. He didn’t like it, but Tenuk made the decision to head outside, to safety.
Thankfully, Nyssi and the other Temthans were all waiting for him. Nyssi immediately raced to Tenuk’s side.
“I don’t know if I should change my shape or not…” Tenuk muttered. “Like… I don’t… the bullets… Huh, I guess this is how Kayel felt…”
Tenuk’s outside wounds had already healed externally, but he could feel things inside him. However, his options were taken away as Tenuk suddenly lost all his strength and turned back into his normal Spast self, then collapsed in a heap.
“We should go to the hospital…” Sonia whispered. “We’re all in shock.”
“Can any of you drive?” Nyssi asked as she scooped Tenuk up and gently carried him to her truck, placing him in the passenger seat. “I only have room for two more in my car.”
Tharri tutted, then made her way to her own 4×4, pausing only to glance at the mansion, which was now slowly burning down. Tharrina joined her, while Sonia and Sesi climbed into the back of Nyssi’s truck. “Yeah, I can drive. Hospital’s not too far from here, you can just follow me. Thanks for saving our asses, can’t believe I was stupid enough to come here…”
“Oh, me too…” Nyssi sighed. “Fingers crossed that cunt doesn’t come back for us…”