“Okay, I have a question! Actually, I have lots and lots of questions, and they’ll get progressively more annoying the more you have to listen to me, but my question right now is why are we training in secret?”
“We are training in secret?” Abius asked, answering Levik’s question with a question of their own. “Everyone knows that Timik has their own personal training area and that they invite people to train with them… Sorry, him.”
Timik shrugged. “It’s fine, Abius, you’re allowed to get my pronouns wrong. But Levik’s question is valid. Thing is, we’re not letting folks know that we’re forming a team yet.”
“Why?”
“Because…” Psiksi didn’t answer properly. This made Abius suspicious.
“The Fluffyvok has a point. Why are we keeping our training secret? Timik’s plan is somewhat known among other house fighters.”
“Dude!” Psiksi hissed. “We don’t use that word here!”
Abius blinked. “What word?”
“The F-word!”
“Fluffyvok?”
“YES.”
Levik was clearly unbothered. “Psiksi, we don’t see that as an insult, and haven’t done for centuries. The only name we don’t like is “Kronospast”, and a lot of us teenagers kinda prefer the term “Fluffyvok” because it better describes what we are. “Vok” just means “beast” or “people” anyway, doesn’t it?”
Psiksi frowned, then nodded. “Yeah. I’m a shadow beast, Abius is a light beast, you’d be a fluffy person.”
“Where does the name “Spast” come from, outside of “Kronospast”?” Timik suddenly exclaimed. “Surely you didn’t just cut the name off a slur for yourselves and use that as a name?”
Levik raised a finger, then paused. “I can see why you’d think that. But the name “Spast” comes from the word “Spastiloull”, because we are basically massive bees and we pollinate all the Tiloulls, the massive flowers that grow all over Calestia and that we now farm for honey.”
“Wait…” Timik was still confused. “You are massive bees?”
“Why do you think we only really eat sugar? We evolved long tongues to sip nectar and lots of fur to cover ourselves in pollen, which we’d take back to our nests and brush off to make into honey.”
“But… what does that have to do with the word “Kronospast”? Why is that also a name for you?” Timik’s confusion wasn’t going away. Abius was also confused but was happy to let Timik ask the questions, as he was a tad more articulate.
“Oh… That word comes from the… big stupid thing the Spasts did 10000 years ago. The Spast leadership tried to capture our Holy Lord Kairos and steal his scales to make everyone immortal, which, uh, kinda broke time. Except the Dark Lord saved Kairos, and the Dragon God cursed the Spasts and made us not live as long as we used to. We went from living 5000 years to living 300 years, and it’s been slowly increasing back to normal. We were called “Kronospastoi” by the Threavok races, meaning “Time Breakers”, and it kinda stuck.”
Timik glanced at Abius and Psiksi, then shrugged. “I feel like I should have known that already.”
Levik wasn’t bothered. “Us Spasts kinda keep to ourselves. And Psiksi knew all that, right?”
“I knew about the whole Kronospast thing, but I didn’t really know that Tiloulls were the name of the massive flowers on your home world…” Psiksi admitted. “But in all honesty, most of my exo-Skyan knowledge is focused on the mammalian races.”
“Which races are those?” Abius asked. “Ksithans, Banikans and…”
“Temthans, Banikans, Ksithans, Torr. They’re all warm-blooded races that suckle their young with blood via their mammaries.”
“But…” Levik hesitated. “Woman Spasts have breasts…”
“You don’t feed babies milk though. The breasts are pockets of fat used to feed both the body and a baby that’s developing in the womb.”
“Oh…” Levik trailed off. “Anyway, why are we training here in private rather than using the big house fighter training area?”
“Because Psiksi doesn’t want folks knowing that we’re serious about a Dessaron team yet!” Timik tutted. “Everyone already knows I want to do it, especially Tanok, but Lord Tromos doesn’t, and we don’t want him to know until we’ve at least built some chemistry between us.”
“Our chemistry is not that bad…” Abius muttered. “Still, we do need some combat training, yes?”
“Yep!” Psiksi grunted. “And we’re going to start by working out what all our weaknesses are, so we can work out how we’re going to cover each other’s tails. But also, I want to know how far Levik can shapeshift, because I want Abius to throw him.”
Abius immediately hated that. “I do not want to hurt Levik!”
“Friend, you won’t hurt me!” Levik grinned. “I’m a master shapeshifter, I can make myself fatty and even fluffier, not to mention more ball-shaped, and I could, I dunno, turn into a bird mid-flight or something… Maybe if I turned into a Banikan and landed on someone?”
“Pretty sure Tenuk did that once.”
Levik’s smile faded and he turned to Psiksi. “I’ll be honest, I know I have MASSIVE boots to fill, I know Tanos was the best guy ever, but can we not immediately start comparing me to my brother? At the very least, if you’re going to, can you do me a favour and suggest alternatives? Sure, Tanos turned into a Banikan and landed on someone, what if I turned into… a second Abius and tackled someone after Abius has already thrown me?”
“Can you do that mid-flight?” Timik asked. “Being thrown is pretty disorientating.”
“With practice, probably? We could try right now?”
Levik approached Abius, thought for a moment, then shrunk himself down, so he was only about half a metre tall, but much fluffier and fattier. And rounder. Abius realized they didn’t like looking at folks while they shapeshifted and did their best to hide their unease.
“Alright, mister Abius! Pick me up and throw me to Timik!” Levik squeaked, his voice suddenly a lot higher.
Abius hesitated, unsure how to pick Levik up.
“Come on!”
“I do not… want to touch you inappropriately.”
“Levik, can you roll up into a ball so Abius can pick you up?” Psiksi suggested. “I think Abius doesn’t want to hurt you, you are kinda triggering their “protect the fluffy” stance.”
Levik shrugged, then did as he was told. Feeling slightly more comfortable, Abius scooped Levik up, then awkwardly held Levik in their massive claws.
“This is weird…”
“It’s fine! Throw me!”
Timik opened his arms, ready to catch Levik. Abius hesitated, then walked over and just handed Levik to Timik.
“Dude, what’s wrong with you?” Psiksi asked.
“This is weird…” Abius repeated themselves. “Throwing a living being is weird.”
“I am giving you full permission to throw me!” Levik squeaked some more. “I want to be thrown!”
Timik handed Levik back to Abius, then took several steps back. “In case you’re scared we’ll drop Levik, we’ll start off with a short distance, alright?”
“Very well…”
Abius held Levik tightly, taking a moment to stroke Levik’s fur, then very, very cautiously threw Levik to Timik. Timik caught Levik no problem, grinned, took some more steps back then immediately threw Levik back to Abius. Feeling a tad more confident, Abius threw Levik once more, but, rather than passing to Abius again, Timik threw Levik at Psiksi.
Thankfully, Psiksi was a fast thinker and caught Levik with ease, then passed Levik back to Timik, who then threw Levik to Abius.
This continued for a little longer than necessary. Levik seemed to be enjoying it though, up until he suddenly reverted to his normal size and proceeded to throw up all over Abius.
“Ugh… sorry…”
Abius put Levik down, patted him on the head, then pulled a handkerchief out of a gap in their stomach wrap and handed it to Levik so he could wipe his mouth.
“It is fine. I think we got carried away.”
Levik shuddered, then went back to smiling. “It worked though. And it was pretty fun! I probably ought to not eat a ton of ice cream beforehand though. Also, you are going to want to stick your clothes and armour and stuff on a hot water wash because my vomit is kinda basically honey but smellier.”
Abius shrugged, then took off their stomach wrap and started wiping themselves down, not too bothered. “I have been covered in far worse things, what with me normally wresting animals with my bare hands…”
“Fair, but you can all be a bit rougher with me! I’m not that fragile!” Levik grinned. “I do however need some water and something to eat. And maybe a shower.”
“No worries!” Timik seemed thrilled. “We’ll get cleaned up and maybe do some weapon training afterwards.”
Psiksi nodded in agreement. “Yeah. I wasn’t sure about you at first, but you’re actually pretty damn steadfast for a Spast.”
Levik bounced with joy, but very suddenly stopped as he felt nauseous again. “I appreciate that! Can we go and get some water, please?”
Psiksi put an arm around Levik and led him off. “Sure thing, little guy.”