“TK, are you there?”
Vikalos’s heavy fist slammed on the entrance to the small Deathven Vessel. He had been waiting patiently for too long now, waiting for the young captain to tell him that his friend was dead.
“TK, I need answers!”
A familiar orange crystalline Decay-Lord appeared in the doorway. He had a rather annoyed look on his face. Vikalos snarled, standing to attention.
“What do you want?”
“Is he dead?”
“Is who dead?”
“THE DECAY-LORD YOU TESTED!” Vikalos shouted, again slamming his fist into a nearby wall. TK glanced at the indentation and wondered how long that would take to repair, before finally answering.
“Arkay is fine. He is recovering since he got a little singed.”
“Can we see him?” a third voice asked. TK looked past Vikalos and saw the head of Saahro, a very dragon-y Decay-Lord, peering around the corner. “We were worried he would be incinerated or something.”
TK shrugged, then lead everyone inside, towards the dining room where he and Arkay had been relaxing. To his surprise, Saahro nuzzled past both him and Vikalos and leaped up to Arkay, hugging him.
“You’re alive!” the Murdragon beamed, somewhat crushing Arkay under his weight.
“I suppose I am!” Arkay smiled back. “You’re happy to see me.”
“We totally thought you’d be incinerated. But you seem fine!”
“That seems like…” Arkay glanced at TK and Vikalos. “Does that happen a lot?”
“More than it should, sadly…” TK muttered as he sat back down. “Unfortunately everything is a lot stricter these days, including things like what level of corruption or voidborn traces are acceptable in Decay-Lords. I take it then you’ll be taking Arkay back onto your ship?”
“Yes.” Vikalos’s reply was blunt. “He will be coming back with us.”
Saahro smiled as he climbed off Arkay. But as he looked back at the young Decay-Lord, he realised Arkay didn’t seem as thrilled as he was.
“Uh, you don’t look that happy…”
Arkay picked himself up. “It’s nice seeing you all, but it… it turns out that TK and I kinda have a lot in common and I… I kinda like being here more than I like being on your ship…”
“Why though?” Saahro asked, before suddenly looking at TK, the reason clicking. “Oh. You two are like, universe buddies. Born in the same place or something.”
“Basically, yeah…” Arkay sighed. “I like you guys a lot, but I’ll be honest, it’s been a long, long time and I was never really welcome on your ship anyway.”
“You belong on our ship…” Vikalos grunted.
Saahro tutted. “Does he though? I mean… he’s kinda right… We only had him with us for a little bit anyway then you took him to Deathven and we basically forgot about him.”
Vikalos grunted a little more, then stomped around a bit, collecting his thoughts. “I will be honest, I do not want to let go of you, Arkay. I feel you will be safer and prosper better on my ship. But this is, well, up to you.”
“Of course it’s up to me!” Arkay exclaimed. “I don’t really have a reason to be on your ship in the first place. I’m not saying I won’t visit or anything but I want to be here with TK.”
Saahro glanced up at Vikalos. “Can I be here with TK? He’s a pretty cool guy.”
TK shook his head. He knew this was all going to end up as a big mess, so he had quickly thought up a compromise. He liked Arkay, he liked Saahro and he liked Vikalos, he didn’t want to anger any of them.
“I have a suggestion…” TK sighed. “Why don’t we tag along together? I dock my ship on yours and join you for a bit?”
“You can do that?” Arkay gasped.
“Yeah. I could have this ship shrunk down to the size of a large sofa if I wanted to,” TK explained. “But frankly I was getting tired of incinerating Corruptions lately and could do with a break.”
Vikalos blinked in confusion, not quite sure what was going on. Was TK really willing to join him on his ship again, despite their pasts, all for this little new Decay-Lord? Either way, he wasn’t one to count his gifts, so he very quickly agreed to it, before TK could change his mind.
“That is a wonderful plan! Come, Saahro, let us head back to our ship while TK here sorts himself out… We shall see you two in a jiffy…”