_Mystic Heart Odyssey_

_Part 7: Downtime_

_Chapter 18_

_Yay, more awkward conversations! ...and soul magic practice~_

_\-Llox_

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Lykou, Kuna, and Gleam spent the next few hours at the stream, as Gleam was gradually taught the basics of swimming, in between bursts of goofing around. Her large, poofy tail slowed her down a little when it came to getting around, but she still ended up having fun. On a couple of occasions, the boys pinned her and tickled her- though she got her revenge when they took turns teaming up with her to do likewise to one another. Lykou could possibly have fended them both off, but he opted to let them ‘catch’ him a couple of times. By the time they left the stream, the sky had gotten dark and they mostly made their way back by moonlight, with some help from Kuna’s magic.

Lykou quickly set up the fire, while Kuna and Gleam plopped down and made themselves as comfortable as they could. The sereva used his magic to conjur up some comfortable floral seats again, then proceeded to curl up and hug himself- partly for warmth, since they were all still naked, and partly to try and hide his nether regions. Gleam, too, was clearly a little chilly, but she just wrapped her tail around herself and stretched out.

“O-okay, starting to see the appeal of this fire stuff now,” Gleam commented once the canid finally had one started. “And clothes…”

“Gotta wait until we’re reasonably dry before you put those back on though,” Lykou said, reclining back contently. “Don’t want to make them soggy, trust me.”

“Sure,” she replied, then sighed and pulled over her food bag. She pulled out an apple and began munching on it. “Thanks again for everything, guys. I appreciate you teaching me all these things and being patient with me.”

“We’re happy to, Gleam,” Kuna said cheerfully, albeit still blushing a bit.

“Yeah,” Lykou agreed as he pulled out some food for himself. “Honestly, it’s been pretty fun.”

Gleam nodded and swallowed another mouthful. “Yeah, I was surprised how much I enjoyed that swimming stuff,” she said, then eyed Kuna for a moment. “Aren’t you gonna eat?”

“A-after I dry off,” Kuna said, looking away bashfully.

“He’s focusing on keeping himself covered right now,” Lykou said, grinning, then nudged the sereva playfully. “You know you’ll dry quicker if you stretch out though. It’s just us here.”

Kuna narrowed his eyes and shot him a look. “I’llbefine.”

Gleam just shook her head a bit and smirked. “Back to that, huh? So much fuss over what’s between your legs,” she said, then snickered and took another bite. “Actually, that’s got me curious though. Have either of you ever had any mates? Any… little-Lykous or little-Kunas out there?”

The question caught both Lykou and especially Kuna off guard, making them both blush. “Uhh, n-nope, no babies here,” Lykou said bashfully. “Most people don’t have babies until they’re a little older than we are. As for mates, well… nothing too serious. My friend Naira and I sorta tried the romance thing briefly, but decided we’d rather just stay friends. And there was this guy I sorta-”

“Wait, really?” Kuna suddenly interjected, smirking faintly. “You and Nai were more than just… you know, once?”

Lykou chuckled. “Yeah, very briefly. I don’t think she was ready for romance then though. Plus, y’know, there’s her whole doesn’t-want-to-actually-have-kids thing, which would be a risk between us if we got too serious. It was mostly just to get our parents off our backs.”

“Waitwait, hold on,” Gleam interjected, thoroughly confused. “I’m lost. What’s romance, and what’s the point of mating if you don’t want to make babies?” She furrowed her brow. “And… did you mention something about another guy? What, as a mate? How’s that work??”

Lykou and Kuna shared a look, then the sereva coughed awkwardly. “Uhh… right, I guess there’s a whole other realm of things you wouldn’t know about,” Lykou said. “So… you’re kind of still thinking about the whole thing from a wild animal perspective. But, well... two things. First of all, it’s not always about making babies. A lot of times, people just like to do it for, er… fun. Because it… feels good, you know?”

“It… does?” Gleam said, blinking in surprise. “Huh… I… always thought it’d just feel… awkward or something.”

“Did… did you never have… you know, urges?” Lykou asked uncomfortably.

“What, heat?” Gleam asked, frowning. “Yeah, I guess. Annoying hot feeling. Goes away eventually though. Never found a mate so I just kinda let it pass. Er, as far as I can remember anyway. Pretty sure I’d remember having kits, though.”

“Huh…” Lykou said and shared another flustered, awkward look with Kuna. “Uh. Well… um.” He shifted position a bit and rubbed his neck as he tried to think of how to handle the subject. “It… does feel good. Like… really, really good. So much so that people also sort of… do other things to get the same feeling. Like. With their hands and other… parts. It’s not just… you know, regular mating all the time. U-um… fuck, Ku help me out here.” In a rare exception to the norm, the canid was clearly getting more and more frazzled with the subject as he spoke.

“Er. Y-yeah, and… and people can do stuff to themselves too,” Kuna explained awkwardly. “W-with their hands and stuff. Just… just use your imagination and experiment s-sometime, I guess.” Gleam glanced down and went to reach down between her legs, but jerked back when the sereva blurted out, “W-when you’re by yourself! It’s… it’s a private thing.”

Gleam arched a brow, then yet again rolled her eyes for probably the dozenth time recently. “Right… of course,” she said, then blew some hair out of her eye. “I admit you’ve got me pretty curious now though.”

“Just… l-let us know if you need to go have some alone time to, uh… e-experiment,” Lykou said with an awkward grin. “We do it sometimes too, so… yeah.”

“I’d ask how, but I’m guessing that’s… ‘private’ too,” Gleam said. “So, uh, what about that ‘romance’ thing? What’s that mean?”

“Oh, that’s a bit less awkward, albeit… a little harder to explain,” Lykou said, grinning, then sighed. “Um… throughout your life, you’ll hopefully make all kinds of friends and relationships with people. But romance… that’s when you find someone you really, really love. Someone that’s more special to you than anyone else. Heh… people try real hard to find that special someone sometimes, especially when they’re younger.” He paused and, despite his best efforts, couldn’t help but let his eyes flick back towards Kuna ever so briefly. Luckily, Gleam didn’t catch it, and he was facing away from Kuna, so he didn’t spot it either. Kuna also, however, let his gaze drift over to the konuul briefly as a faint smile and a renewed blush crossed his face. Again, Gleam was too focused on what Lykou was telling her to notice, though. And the dim light helped as well. “When people talk about their ‘mate’, that’s who they’re usually talking about. Not just someone they had sex with at some point.”

“So… an extra special friendship and a mate at the same time?” Gleam asked, scratching her head. “Sounds… nice I guess…?”

“Way more than nice, honestly,” Lykou said. “Heck, even a little crush can be a pretty crazy, bubbly feeling that you can’t really compare to anything else.”

“Crush?” Gleam responded dubiously. “Being crushed doesn’t sound fun…”

Lykou chuckled and shook his head. “No, not crushed, it’s not literal. Just a figure of speech,” he explained, blushing. He had to be careful not to get too wrapped up thinking about it as he explained it. Thinking about the sereva sitting next to him as he talked about it was definitely filling his tummy with butterflies again. “It’s like… kind of the pre-romance feelings you get for someone. Where you’re not quite sure if you’re in love with them yet but you think you might be, but-”

“But you’re too nervous to say anything because you’re afraid they won’t feel the same way,” Kuna suddenly interjected, staring into the fire thoughtfully. “But you just can’t stop obsessing over them, and you just feel all… light and giddy when you think about them.”

“...er, yeah, that,” Lykou said, glancing back at the sereva with some surprise. “I… didn’t think you’d kn-”

“J-just what I remember from s-some stories my grandmother told,” Kuna quickly explained, avoiding meeting the konuul’s eyes. “A-and it’s not like I didn’t see, uh. O-other people being like that with each other.”

“Sounds… strange,” Gleam said. “People sure are complicated.”

Lykou’s gaze lingered on the sereva thoughtfully for a moment before he slowly turned back to the squirrel and smiled again. “Yeah, that’s an understatement. But it’s a good kind of complicated, believe me.”

“So you… had ‘crushes’?” Gleam asked.

“Hey yeah, besides Nai, you mentioned some guy,” Kuna quickly added, his curiosity suddenly spiking. “You never told me about that before either.”

Lykou blushed and rolled his eyes up, smirking. “Yeah, yeah… not many, but back when I was first starting to, y’know… have urges and stuff, when I realized I liked guys that way too, I briefly had a crush on this slightly older guy, Toreko. It was really just me being a horny curious bisexual mess, though. We weren’t real close friends or anything.”

“Horny?” Gleam asked.

“That’s just a word for... when you’re really craving… uh, you know. The good feelings we talked about,” Kuna explained, then turned his attention back to Lykou with a smirk. “Any other crushes?”

Lykou chuckled as he fought off the urge to admit his current crush to his face. “Not really, other than maybe one or two very brief things. Like I said, horny teenage nonsense, confusing lust with love and shit.”

“What about y-” Gleam started to ask Kuna, then hesitated. “Er. Wait. I guess probably not….”

Kuna frowned and looked away, blushing a bit. “Hard to think about those kinds of things when everyone clearly wishes you weren’t there,” he mumbled, folding his ears down. Lykou frowned and pulled him into a warm hug.

“S-sorry,” the squirrel apologized. “Wasn’t thinking…”

“S’alright,” Kuna said with a shrug, leaning into the canid’s embrace. After a moment, he blushed and smirked. “Doesn’t mean I didn’t fantasize, though. Just… wasn’t about anyone in particular. Usually some big strong buck that didn’t actually exist.”

“...a guy?” Gleam asked, curiously. “Only males?”

Kuna shrugged. “Mostly. I mean I do find some girls attractive-”

“Like Hoku,” Lykou teased.

“Shutup,” Kuna retorted with a flustered grin. “But yeah, I guess for the most part I lean more towards guys.”

Gleam tilted her head and looked at him curiously. “Why? Sorry I keep asking, but you’ve really got me curious about all this. Why would you wanna be with another male, uh… like that? And how would it even work?”

“Y-you’ll just have to use your imagination for the last bit,” Kuna quickly replied, rolling his eyes up briefly, blushing more. After a moment he lowered his gaze and smiled bashfully. “As for the rest… I dunno, I’ve just… always liked the idea of a big, strong guy that can hold me and... protect me… and…” He blushed a bit hotter as his gaze briefly drifted towards the canid holding him. “Uh. A-and um. S-stuff.” He suddenly noticed Gleam glancing between the two of them with a thoughtful expression and panicked internally. Suddenly he got up and grabbed his clothing and his food bag, then made for their shelter, using them to cover himself. “W-wellI’mgonnaeatandmeditateforabit,” he said hastily, with a nervous smile, to the somewhat startled canid and squirrel. “I-I wanna practice that soul magic as much as I can while we’re s-still in this valley, l-let me know when you two are ready for bed, haha.”

“Oh…. O-okay, good… luck...?” Lykou said with a perplexed expression as the sereva swiftly stepped away. He then tilted his head and scratched it a bit before turning back to Gleam. “Not sure what _that_ was about…”

“I guess the subject was just getting to be a bit much for him?” the squirrel suggested, frowning a bit. “Maybe I should go apologize, I didn’t mean t-”

“No no, don’t worry Gleam, you didn’t do anything wrong,” Lykou quickly assured her. “He’s just… shy about things. He’ll be fine, trust me.”

“Well it was obviously making him uncomfortable,” Gleam persisted. “I should have stopped…”

“Gleam, please. You’re fine,” the canid reiterated. “It’s not your fault he’s a bit high-strung about various subjects.” He grinned and sighed, then picked up his waterskin. “In fact… if you have any other questions about this stuff, maybe it’d be good to ask while he’s not out here with us.”

Gleam thought for a moment, then tilted her head. “So… for people, if I understand right, you only ever just pick one special person to ma- er, have sex with... for life?”

“Well, I wouldn’t go that far,” Lykou said. “Casual sex is a thing, though… it can be complicated. There’s always the chance someone might start to develop crush-like feelings for someone they’re intimate with, but it might not be mutual. So… you have to be careful who you do it with, and preferably know yourself reasonably well before you go doing that kind of thing.” He glanced away and took a sip of water as he thought to himself, _and you’re a fine one to talk, literally starting a friends-with-benefits thing with your crush_ _just the other day__. Hypocrite._

“People are confusing,” Gleam repeated, shaking her head slightly. “So wait, if people do, uh… sex things with each other without actually wanting to make babies, does that mean different species, too?”

Lykou blushed and nodded. “Technically yeah. N-not that I have much experience with that. Lakefire’s kind of isolated. Only other kind of people I met before this journey were ursarans, and uh… yeah, we’re not on good terms.”

Gleam drummed her fingers on her arm and bit her lip thoughtfully for a moment. “Um. So… would you maybe be willing t-”

“Let me stop you there, Gleam,” Lykou said, then sighed and smiled sympathetically. “I’ll admit I’d love to help you figure things out. But honestly you need to, y’know… experiment with yourself a bit first. Like I said, it’s best to know yourself a bit better before you even think about being intimate with someone else.”

The squirrel sighed and folded her ears down slightly. “Damn. I had a feeling you’d say that.” She looked around a bit. “You said I have to do that alone, right? In… ‘private’?”

“Yeah, that’s generally a personal thing,” Lykou said, then thought for a moment as he glanced around the campsite. “This valley’s pretty safe, but I wouldn’t want you to be fumbling around in the dark. If you want, we could probably convince Kuna to make a small, separate shelter for you t-”

“No, that seems excessive,” Gleam said, rolling her eyes a bit. “Not like I’m in heat now anyway. I’m just curious about it all.”

Feeling someone bad for her, Lykou fidgeted and thought for a moment. “Okay, I tell you what. Obviously, we have different parts, but I can tell you what I know from my friend Naira, so you have something to start with, then I can get Kuna to come back out and we can give you a while in the shelter by yourself to experiment or something. Or… we can go to bed early and you can do that out here.”

Gleam thought about it for a moment, then shrugged. “I guess. Or I can wait until tomorrow. I’d rather stay warm until I’m fully dry,” she said, glancing at the fire briefly. The chill from the breeze on her still-wet fur definitely made her appreciate it more, even if she was still a little anxious around it. After a moment, she glanced back at the overhang surrounded by magically-shaped plantlife. “Speaking of which, though, you think he’s okay?”

“Yeah, he’ll be fine. The shelter should block the wind well enough,” Lykou said. “And I’m sure he’d come back out if he was actually getting too cold or uncomfortable.”

“Just wish I understood why this subject is so sensitive,” Gleam grumbled slightly. “It just doesn’t make sense to me.”

“Well, admittedly it probably doesn’t help that, uh,” the canid began, smiling sheepishly, and hesitated for a moment. “...no offense, but I keep having to remind myself that you’re an adult, and this isn’t the kind of thing you usually talk about around someone under a certain age…”

“Gee, thanks,” Gleam replied flatly.

Lykou frowned. “S-sorry, I-”

“No, I get it,” the squirrel said, rolling her eyes with a small smirk. “Like we already agreed, I’m… _behind_, on things. So forgive me for being a bit dumb, _big brother_.”

Lykou snickered and shook his head a bit. “Ign-”

“I’m gonna stick with dumb, dammit,” Gleam insisted. “I get that there’s a difference, but ‘dumb’ is an easier word for me.”

“Fine, fine,” Lykou relented. “Anyway, how about I continue telling you our story?”

Gleam mulled it over, then grinned. “Okay. But first, tell me what you know from Naira. You did promise.”

“Erk… right,” Lykou said, blushing again. “I did, didn’t I? I thought you wanted to wait, though?”

“I probably will to act on it,” Gleam said. “But I’m still curious. And I don’t want to make Kuna uncomfortable again by bringing this stuff up in front of him again tomorrow.”

“Fair enough,” the canid replied, then took a deep breath and shifted position again, making sure to cover himself up, just in case. “Well…”

\*\*\*\*\*

In the shelter, Kuna was huddled up in one corner, still slightly flustered as he munched on some food. He had his legs curled up against him to try and conserve heat. He was missing the fire’s warmth, but he was still too frazzled to face Lykou or Gleam, especially when it was growing apparent to him that the squirrel’s innocent curiosity might accidentally expose his feelings for the konuul when certain subjects came up. He certainly didn’t hold it against her, of course. She was just naturally curious and ignorant, after all. But it definitely made him nervous.

And all the talk about sexuality admittedly had him thinking back on his intimate time with the canid the other day. He certainly didn’t need to have a certain condition arise in front of both of them. Still, he realized that keeping his feelings hidden until they got to Lakefire might be a lot harder than he’d thought. And he wasn’t sure what to do about that.

_I’ll just have to… be more mindful of how I express myself,_ he thought to himself after a bit_. Zyn said I made it too obvious. I need to work on that._ He took a deep breath and tried to center himself a bit, then popped the last bit of a carrot into his mouth and crunched it up. _Which is all the more reason to work on meditating, like I said I was going to do anyway._

After he finished eating, he adjusted his position a bit and closed his eyes. It exposed him to the chill a little more, but he decided to use that to his advantage to distract him from other thoughts. He did some breathing exercises for a few moments as he worked to clear his mind, then started focusing on the mystical energies flowing through and around him. The life and soul energy were the obvious ones, but for a moment, he tried to get a sense for others. He could just barely sense the water energy in the jug next to him, though it was weak and faint. He couldn’t be sure, but he had the vague sense that the energy associated with the earth and stone around him was at the edge of his awareness as well- definitely far too unfamiliar to grasp, but still oddly comforting in its presence. He imagined air energy was all around him as well, but he couldn’t even begin to perceive it. And the only fire energy would’ve been too far away at that point for him to pick up on without training and getting used to feeling for it.

Once he felt reasonably centered and calm, he reached out and grabbed the soul energy with his mind. He grasped and released it a few times, then opened his eyes and looked around, trying to consider what to do next. He considered just drawing random shapes in the dirt nearby and seeing if any happened to be spirit signs, but ultimately decided against it. Even though he was pretty sure he could only get his magic to point to the nearest real one, he didn’t want to take any chances. So eventually he pulled out the astral charm and began pondering it again. His mind went back to the previous evening’s vision. He mostly convinced himself that it’d been a dream, resulting from having nodded off while meditating- but he couldn’t be sure. After all, it was from a perspective he hadn’t had while visiting Aelana’s garden in person.

And, he realized, soul magic interacted with dreams anyway, right? So even if it was a dream, he may as well try again and see if he could manipulate it. He’d been conscious of the energy and his grasp on it at the time, after all. So he gripped the charm tightly in his hand and closed his eyes again, then began focusing and thinking about the garden, Aelana, and Daisy. For some reason, he found it hard to focus on the garden this time. But after a moment, something else began to manifest in his mind’s eye. It was blurry, but he got a distinct impression of movement. Fast movement, at that. After a minute, the blurry white thing that filled the vision drew back and he realized with some surprise and trepidation what he was seeing- clouds! His perspective was up in the sky. And after a moment, he realized the large object dashing through the clouds was the familiar form of Daisy, soaring through the sky, under the moonlight.

The wolpertinger soared around in a wide arc, then plunged down to the earth, only to leap back up into the sky. From the expression on her face, she was clearly have a delightful time. As Kuna’s vision followed her around the wide ranges of Clovaria for a bit, she flew over one sleepy town or village after another, bounding around the many rolling hills and searching the landscape for for any signs of anything interesting happening. After a few moments, however, she slowed and landed on a hill, seemingly distracted. She looked around and furrowed her brow thoughtfully for a moment. She eventually turned towards Kuna’s perspective. She squinted, then slowly started to grin. A sparkling light began to glow along her antlers as she hunkered down, then suddenly pounced forward.

Kuna jerked back to alertness and fell over suddenly with a gasp as his eyes sprang open. He panicked for a brief moment, feeling as if someone had just shoved him. But as far as he could tell, he was still alone in the shelter. He quickly gave himself some light with his magic just to check, but there was nothing else in there with him. He could still faintly hear Lykou’s voice outside, with occasional interjections from Gleam.

_What the heck?_ he wondered to himself, wide-eyed. He lifted his hand up and stared at the crystalline object in his hand thoughtfully. _Was… was that real? Did I just… ‘scry’ on Daisy?_ He folded his ears down and smiled sheepishly at the thought. _And did I… bug her? She didn’t LOOK angry, but…_

He quickly shook his head and straightened up a bit. He’d considered visiting them that night, but now he was somewhat anxious, worried he’d crossed some unspoken line by mistake. Either way, he realized he’d mostly dried off while meditating, and the cold was starting to get to him, so he quickly put his robe and shorts back on. With that out of the way, he pondered meditating more, but he knew he’d likely be too frazzled after that little event, whatever it was. After hesitating for a moment, he decided to step back outside and re-join Lykou and Gleam. He was still a little nervous and knew he’d have to be careful to steer the conversation away from certain subjects, but he felt bad about his earlier abrupt departure. And in any case, as he stepped outside and started approaching, it sounded like they’d shifted back to Lykou telling their story anyway.

\*\*\*\*\*

“So we thought we had our little happy ending, but then- oh, hey Ku,” Lykou said as the sereva walked over and sat back down next to him. “Everything alright?”

“Yeah, s-sorry about earlier,” Kuna said with a sheepish smile. He blushed a bit as he glanced between them. They were still naked, but he was reluctant to make a big deal out of it again right after apologizing for rushing off earlier.

“No, I’m sorry for pushing you guys about awkward subjects,” Gleam said. “I saw it was making you uncomfortable an-”

“It’s alright, Gleam,” Kuna interrupted. “It’s not your fault I’m…” He paused and glanced at Lykou, then sighed and smiled sheepishly. “Well, a bit extra shy about some things.”

“Told ya,” Lykou said to Gleam playfully, then turned back to the sereva. “Did you actually do any meditating?”

Kuna nodded. “Yeah, in fact I… may have, uh… done something, but I’m not sure.”

“Oh?” the canid asked, perking up. “What?”

“I… miiiight have, uh, ‘scried’ on Daisy a little?” Kuna said, scratching his head. “But it might’ve been my imagination.”

“Really??” Lykou said, then grinned and grabbed him in a side-arm hug. “That’s awesome, Ku!”

“What’s scrying?” Gleam asked.

“From what I understand it’s like… seeing someone from a completely different place. Uh. I-in your mind, in this case,” Kuna explained. “Which is why I’m not sure it wasn’t just my imagination. But it felt pretty real. I was seeing from up in the clouds while she was flying around. Except my perspective wasn’t from on her back, but bit away from her.”

“Wow…” Lykou said. “You should talk to them tonight, that way you can find out for sure.”

Kuna winced and rubbed his arm nervously. “Maybe. I’m, uh… worried I accidentally broke some rule or something. Apparently at some point she seemed to sense that I was doing it and… I dunno, she did something that, uh, kicked me out of the vision.”

“Oh… well, you can just apologize and explain that you’re new to it,” Lykou suggested. “I’m sure they’ll understand.”

“Yeah… I guess,” Kuna said sheepishly. “She didn’t look angry or anything. Kinda… playful, if anything.”

Lykou chuckled. “As opposed to when? That’s just typical Daisy for you.”

Kuna giggled a bit. “True.”

“Hey, wait, if you can scry now,” Lykou said hopefully, sitting up a bit more. “Does… does that mean you could scry on people back in Lakefire?”

Kuna frowned and sighed. “I dunno. I… kind of doubt it, unfortunately. I was only able to do it with Daisy because I have this charm,” he said, pulling out the astral charm for a moment to make the point. “And I’ve met her and Lana. I don’t yet have any connection to anyone else from Lakefire.”

“Oh… damn,” Lykou said, deflating a bit. “I was hoping you might at least be able to check in on people back home.”

“Yeah, I wish I could, Kou,” the sereva said, pulling the canid into a hug. “I really do.”

Lykou hugged him back and sighed. “I do have those old charms Nai and I made, but I doubt that’s enough, since you haven’t met her yet.”

“He could still try,” Gleam suggested. “If you describe her well enough.”

Lykou and Kuna both looked at her, then each other. Kuna shrugged. “Kind of doubt it, but I’m certainly willing to try.”

Lykou thought for a minute, then smiled faintly. “Well, alright. But let’s save it for tomorrow. It’s already pretty late now, and I was just finishing the story about the islands.”

“Oh yeah, what about that ‘happy ending’ you mentioned?” Gleam asked. “Sounds like something delayed it.”

“Yeah, Tuimana showed back up down on the beach,” Lykou said with a frown.

Kuna shuddered. “Oh yeah, that. He kind of ambushed me that morning when I woke up before anyone else. Wanted to try and force me into making a pact with him to avoid being sent to Dalzai-Nar,” he said, then squeezed Lykou tightly, clenching his eyes shut. “Bastard threatened everyone else to try and coerce me. We kept trying to run but somehow he was able to keep magically dragging me back by that damn tooth in my soul.”

“Luckily Zyn showed up and helped fight him,” Lykou said, squeezing the sereva back gently. “Though even he had trouble at times.”

“Wow, with how powerful he is?” Gleam commented, wide-eyed. “That’s… terrifying.”

“Yeah, he got tossed way out into the sea at one point,” Kuna said, then shuddered. “Then Tuimana rounded the others up again… and…” He trailed off and shivered.

“Oh yeah, you did something then, didn’t you?” Lykou said. “We never talked about that. I could vaguely hear you but couldn’t see what was happening. Sounded like you found some way to fight him until Zyn got back.”

Kuna stared into the distance for a minute with an odd expression, then shivered. “Yeah, I… don’t know what happened exactly. I had these weird thoughts and impulses that didn’t feel… normal. And just started saying some… pretty vulgar shit, without really thinking about it. And somehow I was able to jerk him around through the same link he had with me, through that… tooth…”

Lykou stared at him wide-eyed. “Woah. You should’ve mentioned that to us. Especially to Zyn. That sounds… strange.”

“Well, we’ve been a bit preoccupied since then,” Kuna pointed out. “And after a while, I honestly just… didn’t think about it too much.”

“Seems like it’d be a hard thing to forget,” Gleam interjected. “Then again, given how much you two have put up with… that whole island thing sounds pretty insane. So how’d you get away from him?”

“An even older and more powerful god than Whironui showed up,” Lykou said. “Was honestly kinda scary. It was huge and brought all these weird… monster-like people with it.”

“I’m just glad they were on our side,” Kuna said. “It tossed Tuimana to the hells and that was that.”

“Spent a good day recovering and spending time with our new friends,” Lykou said, then shot a playful look at Kuna. “Especially Kuna and Hoku.”

“Oh don’t start that again,” Kuna said, blushing and rolling his eyes.

Gleam smirked. “Okay, what’s with you and this Hoku girl?”

Lykou grinned and poked his tongue out at Kuna. The sereva just grumbled and folded his ears down, giving him a playful nudge. “We got along really well and…” he trailed off, then fidgeted a bit with a bashful expression. “Let’s just say the subject from earlier is relevant and leave it at that.”

“Ohhh, so you guys mated?” the squirrel asked innocently.

Kuna’s blush intensified and he facepalmed. “I w-wouldn’t put it like that. Remember, ‘mate’ has a bigger meaning for people.”

“You know what she’s getting at,” Lykou teased, nudging him playfully, then chuckled and turned back to Gleam. “But yeah, it was just a casual thing. It was his first time though.”

“Well at least you’ve _had_ a first time,” Gleam said with a sardonic smirk. “I still need to see what all the fuss is about.”

“Well like I said, when you feel like taking some time to yourself to experiment, just let Ku and I know you need some privacy,” Lykou said. “I uh… hope what I mentioned earlier helps.”

“Sure, sure,” Gleam said, then yawned and stretched, exposing herself fully once again. “I don’t know about you guys, though, but I’m getting tired.”

“It is getting a bit late,” Lykou agreed, rubbing his neck softly.

“Er, yeah. And can you two put your clothes back on now?” Kuna said, averting his eyes and blushing again.

Gleam sighed and rolled her eyes, then leaned over to grab the poncho. “Fiiiiine.”

Lykou grinned and nudged the sereva playfully. “What? Not like we haven’t slept naked together before.”

“Shut!” Kuna sputtered and shoved him lightly. While Gleam was distracted with getting the poncho on, he leaned over with a sheepish grin and added, “Yeah and you remember what happened that first time.”

“Shame. Maybe when she decides to go ‘experimenting’, you and I could do some more ourselves,” Lykou teased quietly with a wink.

“Shh!” Kuna quickly shushed him and shot a quick glance at Gleam to make sure she was still distracted. Then he grinned back, still flushed, and bit his lip as his heart raced a bit. “...but yeah.” Much as his brain was telling him it was a mistake that could make it all the harder to keep his feelings buried, his heart, along with certain... _other_ parts, drowned it out.

“What were you two saying?” Gleam asked after she finally found the hole and slipped the poncho over her head, then straightened it out.

“Nothing,” the boys both said at once.

“Just, uh, talking about the trip tomorrow,” Lykou quickly added after sharing a quick glance with Kuna. “Uh, so did you decide you’d visit Lana and Daisy or not?”

Kuna scratched his head and thought for a moment, then shrugged. “I… don’t know. I guess I’ll keep the charm nearby and decide when I go to sleep. Still kind of anxious, but I should probably update them on things and uh… apologize if I need to.”

“Hey, don’t worry about it, Ku,” Lykou said, rubbing his shoulder softly. “They’re nice, remember? And you said yourself that Daisy didn’t look mad.”

The sereva fidgeted and smiled awkwardly. “Right… just kind of embarrassed if I did something wrong.”

“Welcome to my world,” Gleam said with a sardonic grin, then turned to head towards the shelter. “Well, I’m heading in. You two coming?”

“Sure, you two go ahead, I’ll put out the fire and be right there after I get my shorts on,” Lykou said, getting up.

Kuna got up as well but paused and waited for Gleam to be a little further out of earshot, then leaned toward the konuul. “So what exactly did you ‘mention’ to her earlier?” he asked curiously.

“Oh, that,” Lykou said with a sheepish grin as he started getting dressed. “Well… since she’s gonna be trying out… you know. I told her things I knew from Naira to get her started.”

Kuna’s eyes widened a bit and he blushed again. “You-… you mean about… _really_??”

“Yeah. I mean, she’s already late on picking things up anyway,” Lykou reasoned. “Might as well have a couple tips to start off with.”

Kuna shook his head in amusement as he started heading to the shelter. “You’re a perv, you know that?”

“Hey, I’m just being helpful!” Lykou retorted.

Kuna turned and stuck his tongue out at him playfully, which the konuul reciprocated. Kuna giggled as he turned to continue on, while Lykou gathered up his waterskin and bag, chuckling.

\*\*\*\*\*

“Weel now, breakin’ yer own rules, Lana?” Daisy taunted with an amused expression from a nearby reflecting pool lit up by moonlight. As per their usual arrangement, when she’d returned to the garden, the two of them swapped out. “They’re nae in Clovaria ‘n’ didna give ye permission tae peek at ‘em.”

“Fair’s fair, he scried first,” Lana said with a grin as she eyed the blurry image taking shape in the air in front of her. “’sides, ah’m jest curious to see where they are.”

“Nae like he knows proper scryin’ etiquette if he’s jest started learnin’ ta do it,” Daisy pointed out.

“Aye, ah ken that. Ah’m nae upset am ah? I’ll jest be sure ta tell ‘im next time we talk,” Aelana replied, then shot her other half a bemused look. “Anyway since when do ye care aboot rules ‘n’ etiquette, hmm?”

“Oh ah don’t,” Daisy retorted, grinning back. “Ah jest like remindin’ you o’ yer hypocrisy.”

“Very funny,” Aelana said, rolling her eyes slightly, then turned back to her own scrying window. Slowly, her expression shifted from amusement to surprise. “...here noo, whit’s this?”

“Wot?” Daisy asked. “Show me!”

“Ye ken damn well ye kin just look through our body’s eyes,” Aelana said flatly.

“Aye, bit it’s fun pesterin’ you instead,” Daisy playfully quipped.

“Ach, fine,” the lepne replied, then brought the scrying window over to where the wolpertinger could see it from the reflection. “See?”

Daisy’s eyes widened a bit. “Oh, wouldja lookit tha’? Lykou didnae mention a new companion when we spoke to ‘im. Looks like there’s been an interestin’ development.”

Aelan squinted and eyed the vision closely. “She’s nae like any kind o’ folk ah ken aboot either.”

“Dammit, hope one o’ ‘em contacts us soon,” Daisy said. “Ah’d love to hear ‘em s’plain this.”

“Me too…” Aelana said. Slowly, a sly grin crossed her face. “Hmm… if that lad’s makin’ this kind o’ progress… mibbie it’s time _we_ took a little initiative…”

Daisy beamed. “Ohhh, now yer talkin’! Ah still dinnae ken why ye didnae jest tell them what else those charms could do when ya gave ‘em to ‘em.”

“Partly ‘cos he wouldnae be able ta use ‘em back then, but partly ’cause ah ken ye’d appreciate me leavin’ it a surprise,” Aelana said, rolling her eyes as she dismissed the scrying window. “Ye must be rubbin’ off on meh.”

“Ah _am_ partly you, ye numpty,” Daisy reminded her. “Guess ye kept some o’ the fun bits fer yerself efter all, tho.”

“Ach, shet yer weesht,” Aelana retorted with a smirk. “Ah’ve got some preparin’ ta do.”