Mystic Heart Odyssey

Part 4: Quality Time

Chapter 5

Still more bonding time!

-Llox

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Later in the evening, the storm built up slightly as the boys cuddled by the fire. Eventually Kuna held up the two halves of the empty gourd and looked them over. After Lykou had finished drinking from it, he’d cut it in half and they’d just finished sharing the edible fleshy fruit bits from the inside as a late evening snack. The sereva handed one half to Lykou and examined the other.

“Which half are you going to use? I can’t say I know what to look for, heh.”

Lykou pondered it for a moment, taking the other half from the sereva to examine. “Well… I’ll have to mull it over, I guess. Hard to tell from just looking at them. I may just experiment with them later, once I finish the handle. I need smooth out the inside and find some of that special sappy stuff to protect it first anyway.”

“Anything I can do to help?”

“Not that I can think of. Thanks though,” the konuul said, smiling and pulling the sereva into a hug after setting the one half down. “Maybe you should make an instrument, too.”

“Mm, nah. I don’t exactly have any experience with instruments, so I wouldn’t have the slightest idea what I’m doing,” Kuna replied, then set his half down and hugged him back.

“Hey, neither do I! I’ve played around with some drums before, but that’s it. New experiences, you know? Maybe we can make you some kind of pipe thing.”

“...we’ll see. For now I’m good though,” Kuna said, then leaned back into the canid’s lap and looked out into the dark forest beyond their shelter as the thunder boomed overhead. “Maybe I should go ahead and seal up the entrance soon.”

“Heh, getting tired?”

“A little. Mostly just thinking ahead, though.”

“Not scared of the storm are ya?” Lykou asked, squeezing him gently in his arms.

“As long as it doesn’t get any worse and the lightning doesn’t change color, no.”

The konuul winced slightly at the thought. “Yeah, fair point. So far so good, though.” They both sat and listened to the crackling fire mix with the sound of the rain for a bit, occasionally punctuated by thunder. “You know, we may not need to seal up tonight. Doubt anything is out wandering around in all that.”

“Yeah but if there is, it’ll jump into the first shelter it finds. And may attack anything it finds in the way.”

“Hmm, true. We could just keep the fire going to deter anything. It’d be nice to keep some fresh air flowing in here and be able to hear the rain more clearly.”

“I suppose… in any case I’m not in a hurry to go to bed. Like I said, just thinking ahead.”

“Fair enough. This is kind of nice.”

Kuna smiled faintly. “Yeah. Yeah it is.” Another, louder thunderclap made him jump slightly. “M-maybe other than that though.”

Lykou chuckled a little. “Hey, like you said, as long as the lightning stays normal, we’re fine.”

“Y-yeah…”

“Would hate to wake up in another new place all over again,” Lykou said, frowning. “Although at least now we’re a lot better equipped than the first time.”

“...would hate to wake up separated, too…”

“Hmm? Shit… didn’t even think of that.” They sat in a somewhat tense silence for a few minutes. The canid finally broke it. “You alright Ku?”

“...yeah. Just… head-demons again I guess,” the sereva replied absent-mindedly.

“Oh? Want to talk about it?”

Kuna slumped down a little and looked up at the konuul for a moment, then sighed. “Sometimes I just… get real scared that I’ll wake up and won’t see you around. That we’ll end up separated. Or worse, that I’ll wake up back in that old cave, all alone, and… all this will have just been a cruel dream.”

Lykou squeezed the sereva gently and nuzzled his head. “Hey. If we ever do get separated, I’ll come and find you, no matter what it takes. That much I promise you,” he said. After a moment, he smiled and dug into his pocket, then slipped his hand into the sereva’s, pressing a certain stone into it. “And remember what I said. I’m as real as this stone. Don’t forget it.”

After a short moment, the sereva smiled back and squeezed his hand, then rolled over a bit and nuzzled up into the canid’s neck lightly. “Right. Thanks, Kou.”

They both cuddled in silence for a while, enjoying the peaceful atmosphere. Eventually, they got tired and Kuna drew up some large roots to barricade the entrance, while still leaving big enough gaps to let fresh air in. After changing out of their day clothing, they snuggled up under Lykou’s blanket and dozed off for the night.

*****

In the early, pre-dawn hours, Kuna began to toss and turn, making soft whimpering sounds. The commotion eventually woke Lykou up. He slowly sat up and rubbed the sleep from his eyes. Then, when he realized what’d woke him up, he gently pulled the sereva into his arms and stroked his side. As the whimpering and thrashing subsided, Kuna suddenly jolted awake and started to blurt something out, only to stop himself when he caught sight of his surroundings.

“NO DON’T-… I…. huh??”

“Bad dreams again?” Lykou asked quietly, hugging him tightly.

“Er… y-yeah I guess so” Kuna said after a moment, then sighed and slumped back into the canid’s arms. “Shit, I’d hoped I was past this crap…”

“Hey, everyone has nightmares sometimes.”

“Still,” the sereva replied, then rubbed his eye. He curled up in the konuul’s arms, and they sat and cuddled in silence for a minute.

“Was it… you know, THE nightmare? Or a different one this time?”

“Mm… kind of both? It was more… vague this time. S-started off with both of us, but… th-the shadows took you and… and then they started coming f-for me. W-wasn’t as clear what it was but… but I could… s-still tell… you know,” Kuna said, shivering and sniffling a bit. “Certain… s-sounds and shit. A-and a more… v-vague monster, I guess…”

“Oh, Ku…” Lykou said, cradling him in his arms. After a moment, he frowned more as something occurred to him. “I hope our conversation yesterday didn’t-”

“No,” Kuna interrupted. “Don’t blame that. It just comes up sometimes. Anyway,” he said, then paused and rubbed his other eye. He then turned to smile up at the konuul sleepily. “I wouldn’t trade yesterday for anything. It’s really nice just having a chance to, you know… hang out again, just the two of us. Sitting around, chatting, and enjoying each other’s company. Sharing stories and stuff. No stupid damn nightmare is gonna undermine that.”

Lykou smiled back at him, then squeezed him tightly. “Well I’m glad. Still sorry you had a bad dream again though…”

The sereva sighed and shrugged. “I’ve had them so often over the years… at least it’s been less common with you around. And like I said, it was…” He shivered again slightly. “At least a bit less intense this time.”

Lykou rubbed his side gently. “Hmm… you know, maybe you should try that ‘astral magic’ thing, see if that helps.”

Kuna blinked a few times. “...huh. Maybe I should...”

“You’ve been practicing your life magic a lot these last couple weeks, but you haven’t done much with the other kind, other than that one spell. And re-igniting these medallions when they need it. And the arches I guess.”

“That’s a good point,” Kuna thought, running his fingers over the medallion thoughtfully. “Don’t know what else I can do with it, but I haven’t really tried the whole… astral thing yet.”

“Oh, hey, maybe you can kill two birds with one stone and-…. Er…”

Kuna gave him a bewildered look. “...what.”

Lykou grinned sheepishly. “Errrr…. Right, I guess-”

“I have no intention of killing any birds with any stones, and what the fuck does that have to do with anything?” Kuna asked, arching a brow. “Talk about out of nowhere…”

“Sorry, uh… figure of speech, which I guess I should’ve known you wouldn’t be familiar with...”

“Oh? The heck does it-… oh, wait,” the sereva replied, blushing slightly, then grinning sheepishly. “I guess I should’ve realized that wasn’t literal. Like… doing two things at once?”

“Yeah, more or less. Anyway I was going to say, while you’re doing that, you could get some help to start with by using that astral charm Aelana gave you, and pay her and Daisy a visit.”

“Oh… oh yeah!” Kuna said, perking up a bit. “That’s a great idea! Maybe she can help me practice with it.”

“Exactly!”

“I wonder if you can join us too?”

“Er… I don’t know, one of us would have to come to the other’s dream. And isn’t it supposed to be super hard for people to do that usually? They can only do it because they’re… you know, super powerful, ancient, and partly from another world.”

“Oh, right,” Kuna said, deflating slightly. “...I mean, the charms probably help, but yeah…”

“And I don’t have that kind of magical ability, so you’d have to try and come to mine.”

“Right…”

“Still, hey, see if you can visit them. Maybe you can ask them about it.”

“Alright, sounds good,” Kuna said, then stretched a little and glanced out at the faint light coming in through the shelter’s entrance. He then looked down at the faintly glowing coals poking out of the soot in their firepit. “I think I’ll wait for tonight though. Looks like the rain stopped for the most part, and morning’s on the way.”

“True. You sure you’re alright though? You can doze back off for a bit if you want,” Lykou suggested, then grinned. “I’ll hold ya ‘n everything.”

Kuna grinned back, blushing slightly. “As tempting as that is, we might as well get an early start while the weather’s clear.”

The canid looked up and glanced out between the roots at the entrance for himself. “True… if I’m lucky, I can go hunting and be back before it’s even lunch time.”

“Yeah, and I can try to do some foraging. Though it might take longer than usual, given all the pine trees and the lack of other things growing out there…”

“Heh… true. At least we have the charnops for now, if nothing else. If you can’t find much here, I’ll help you look around once we get through the next arch.”

“I appreciate that, ya big sweet fluffball. But do you even know what to look for?”

“Hey, I can gather… things!” Lykou said, playfully defensive. “I can find all kinds of leafy nonsense!”

Kuna snickered and nudged him a little. “I appreciate the sentiment anyway,” he said, then sat up and started digging around in his food bag nearby. “C’mon, let’s get some breakfast before we give into temptation and doze back off.”

The canid chuckled. “Yeah, good point.”

*****

After they’d eaten and finished waking up, Lykou left to begin his hunt, and Kuna set out to do some foraging, after first stopping by a stream to refill his water jug. Of course, with the sparse brush around, he wasn’t having much luck. By the time the sun was reaching his zenith, he’d barely found a few useful herbs and a small handful of edible-looking berries.

Eventually, he turned his attention to the trees themselves, as he remembered that Lykou would need some resin for his instrument. Since he wasn’t getting far with his foraging, he decided to search for a candidate for some resin. He took out his hatchet and began searching for promising-looking limbs that were within reach. It took a while, but he finally settled on one and took a few quick swings at it.

After a short while, he removed his robe as the effort began to make him sweat. He couldn’t help but think Lykou would’ve had it down already, but he was determined to prove himself useful. The sound eventually drew the attention of an unexpected guest, however. Kuna had just finished resting and sipping some water from his jug, and was getting ready to make another swing, when he felt that eerie sensation that he was being watched. He spun around just in time to see a large bird-like creature, almost as tall as he was, charging at him. He jumped back as it snapped at him with its beak, then ducked just in time to dodge its wing swiping around at him.

His adrenaline went into high gear and he quickly activated his bracers. His instincts were screaming at him to get away. Initially, he started to do so, but found the bird was easily keeping up with him. He conjured up his magic and quickly tugged up some roots to block its advancement. That gave him a moment to get his bearings and work out the best way to escape. Of course, he could just surround himself with roots and wait for Lykou to show up and save him.

...no, he thought to himself. Not this time, dammit. Time to fight my own fight.

He was tired of running and leaving the hard fights to his friend. He’d stood up to Kerr, he could damn well stand up to a damn wild bird.

Said bird finally broke down the roots keeping it at bay. Kuna held the hatchet in one hand, while the other continued to glow with a green aura. The two stare each other down. The beast didn’t look like it was particularly aerodynamic- it was too big, and clearly meant more for running on its sharp talons, and maybe short glides. The edges of its wings were sharp, too- almost like they had a metallic edge. They circled one another for a moment, as Kuna forced back his instinct to flea, instead focusing on trying to anticipate the creature’s movements.

Suddenly, it charged at him again. The moment it jumped forward, Kuna brought a large cluster of roots up to trip it, then quickly swung his hatchet at his assailant. The bronze edge scraped against the sharp edge of the creature’s wing as it quickly shielded itself and took a few steps back. Its other wing swung around and nicked him in the arm. Luckily, the woody armor covering his body took the minor cut without issue.

Again, they separated and circled around, each waiting for the other to make a move. Finally, the bird lunged again and he instinctively blocked with the hatchet. It unexpectedly gripped the weapon in its talon and tugged at it while slashing at him with its wings and equally sharp beak. Splinters fell as they scraped and slashed at his wood-armored body, making him wince, grunt, and cry out in a mixture of frustration and brief moments of pain as he tried to pull away. “Fuck off, dammit!” he shouted as he tried to pull the hatchet free while being assaulted by its dangerous wings. Even through the armor, he sustained a few nasty cuts, but fortunately the bracers’ magic began quickly closing them and preventing any actual bleeding.

Finally, just as the bird lashed out to snap its beak at him, it was suddenly stuffed with a plethora of vines which yanked it backwards, hard.

Using the bird’s momentary surprise as a good distraction, he conjured up more and more vines and roots to wrap around it, binding it in place. He gave them some large, sharp thorns for good measure, and began squeezing the creature until it could hardly move. Try as it might, its squirming wasn’t doing much against the thick bindings squeezing down on it. In fact, its attempts were injuring itself against the thorns. Its head was still poking out and it let out an angry, frustrated screech as specks of blood fell and sprayed on the ground. After releasing his magic, Kuna walked over and gave its beak a good, hard smack with the blunt side of his hatchet. “Ah, shut up. You lost fair and square, asshole,” he commented, then took a few steps back and grinned, panting a bit. “Holy shit… I… I did it!”

“KUNA!” a voice called out from the distance. He turned to see Lykou running through the woods towards him. He waved the canid over, then disabled his bracers. “Kuna! Are you alright?? I heard a bunch of… noise… and…” the konuul said as he slowed to a stop a few yards away, eyeing the entangled bird. “...wha-”

“I kicked its ass!” Kuna said, beaming. “This… bird-thing attacked me but I kicked its ass!”

Lykou slowly grinned, then walked over and pulled his friend into a big hug. “So I see! Well done, Ku!”

The bird let out another angry screech as it tugged at its bindings. “I said shut up, you lost already!” Kuna snapped at it, still grinning.

“Er… what are you going to do with it? You know it’ll just keep trying to attack once it gets free.”

“I… uh… I hadn’t really thought about it, to be honest,” Kuna said, scratching his head. “Maybe… it won’t? Especially now that there’s two of us here, and since it already knows I can beat it, maybe it’ll... just leave?”

“Maybe… I could just… you know,” Lykou said, then drew a line across his neck. “Since its head is poking out still.”

“What… kill it?” Kuna said, shifting uncomfortably. “I don’t know, feels kind of… wrong, now that it’s already trapped and defeated.”

“Well, it WAS trying to kill you, you know.”

“Yeah, true… just… it’s helpless now. Almost doesn’t seem right. Especially since we can safely get away now without having to kill it.”

“Hey, it’d be more cruel to let it just sit there and starve to death.”

“...true…”

“Tell you what. Let it go slowly and we’ll both watch it. If it tries to attack again, I’ll finish it. But if it runs off, it probably knows not to mess with us anymore.”

Kuna nodded and eyed the beast for a moment, then conjured up his magic again. “You hear him? You better fuck off if you know what’s good for you,” he said, glaring at it. After a moment, he withdrew the roots, and the bird scrabbled back to its feet. Numerous bloody red marks covered its body from the thorns. Nonetheless, despite its injuries, it flared out its wings and let out a threatening cry as it slowly stepped backwards.

Lykou’s eyes widened slightly as he finally got a good look at it. Now that it wasn’t bundled up in a huge cluster of vines and roots, he could see just how dangerous and large the thing really was. “Damn, Ku… you tangled with that thing and won? Impressive,” he said, then grinned at the sereva. “Fucking proud of you, buddy.”

Kuna smirked at him, then turned back to the bird and waved his hatchet towards it. “Go on, go! Fuck off!”

Finally, the bird seemed to make up its mind and turned around, then quickly sprinted off through the trees. They watched it go until it was out of sight, then shared a sigh of relief as the lingering tension of danger eased.

“Seriously Ku, way to defend yourself. You’re growing all the time!”

“Thanks!” Kuna said, blushing slightly. “Feels good to not be a push-over for once.” He looked over the canid briefly. “Hey, I hope that didn’t pull you away from your hunt. Not have any luck yet?”

Lykou sighed and shook his head. “Nah. Not much in this forest that’s any bigger than squirrels. Was honestly thinking about calling it quits and hoping for better luck after the next arch.”

“Yeah, same here. Got a few herbs, but that’s it. Oh, there is one thing though!” Kuna walked over and pointed out the branch he’d been hacking it. “I figured if I couldn’t find any decent food, I could at least help you find some of that resin stuff. Lot harder to chop this thing down than I expected, though.”

“Aww, that’s sweet of you,” Lykou said, walking over to take a closer look at the deep cut the sereva had already started. “I think that’s the right kind, alright. Here, let me take a few cracks at it.”

Kuna handed him the hatchet and sipped some water while he watched the konuul chop at the branch. For the next hour or two, they took turns with the hatchet, until finally the branch was not only chopped off, but also cut into smaller pieces that’d be easier to carry. Luckily, there was a decent amount of the thick, sticky stuff they needed just below the bark, especially in the thicker sections.

“Whew, hope this stuff does the job like I hope,” Lykou said, then took a sip from his waterskin.

“Yeah. But hey, if nothing else we’ve got some extra wood, too.”

“Might not be great as firewood yet, but yeah.”

After taking a few minutes to rest up, they both gathered up the wood and began heading back to their camp. Just as they were approaching the hill, the bird that had attacked earlier came charging up behind them, so fast and out of nowhere that it nearly slammed its sharp beak into Lykou’s shoulder. The canid immediately dropped the wood and spun around, knife already in hand to attack it. But he was met with a grisly surprise- the bird was suspended slightly off the ground by a few feet by a pair of massive, rigid roots with bloody, sharp ends piercing all the way through its body.

He looked to his side and saw a panting sereva glaring at it with glowing green hands. “I… felt it coming,” he mumbled. The bird shuttered, a shocked look on its face, then its eyes rolled up and it slumped over, quite dead. After a moment, recognition seemed to dawn on the sereva’s face, and he slowly relinquished the magic with an uncertain expression.

“Woah, shit… nice save, Ku,” Lykou said, looking the bird over. He then noticed his friend’s expression and wrapped an arm around him. “Er, you alright?”

“I… killed it,” Kuna said, unable to pull his eyes away from the bird for a minute. In nearly all their other fights, Lykou had been the one to land the finishing blows, when it came to that. It was one thing to help out and be near death, and there’d been a few tense times where he’d certainly been aiming to kill their attackers- like when he’d been overcome with rage at the ravager after it landed what would have been a fatal blow on his friend. But it was another thing to actually take a life personally. Eventually he snapped out of it and shook his head. “Y… yeah I’ll be fine. Just…”

“I mean… technically not the first time. Remember the golzogs?”

“...yeah. I guess I was… kind of wrapped up in my own head at the time. This is the first time I’ve… taken it in…”

Lykou gently stroked his back, watching the sereva with concern. “...hey, it attacked us. It couldn’t be helped. You did what you had to, Ku.”

After a moment, Kuna slowly nodded. “...yeah. Yeah I know,” he said, then took a deep breath and finally looked away.

“...pretty jarring the first time, I know,” Lykou said, then gently pulled him into a hug.

Kuna hugged him back and bit his lip for a moment, then sighed. “I’ll be alright, Kou,” he finally said, a small smile returning as he slowly pulled back. He shot a side-glance at the bird, then shivered. “Hey, you got your meat afterall, I guess.”

Lykou looked down at the bird and quirked a brow. “...I guess so. Not sure how good it’ll be on something like that, but it’s worth trying,” he said, then smirked back at the sereva. “Didn’t expect an assistant hunter today.”

“Don’t get used to it,” Kuna replied with a little shudder, then smirked faintly. “But you’re welcome, I guess.”

The konuul chuckled. “Don’t worry, I won’t. Hmm… you know I can probably get more than meat out of this guy, too,” he said as he began examining the bird. “Whatever this hard, sharp stuff on its wings is might come in handy.”

“...have fun,” Kuna retorted with a small eye roll. “I uh… think I’ll just start carrying the wood back now.”

“Sure… since we’re so close, I’ll just butcher this thing here out of your way and join you shortly, alright?”

“...thanks.”

“Sure thing. Hey, you gonna be alright?”

Kuna nodded and shot the bird one last look. “Yeah. Still kind of processing things, but I’ll be fine,” he said, then smiled a bit. “I’ll get a fire started after I get this stuff up there. See if I can find some flat rocks for you.”

“Thanks, Ku.” The konuul gently rubbed the sereva’s head. “I’ll be there soon, promise.”

*****

Several hours later, they were both sitting around a crackling fire again. Three flat rocks held pieces of meat cooking around its edge, while Lykou held a couple makeshift skewers with some smaller bits out over the flames. Kuna was busy carefully trying to coat the two halves of the gourd with whatever resin he’d managed to get out of the wood they’d collected. It wasn’t nearly as neat of a job as Inkari had done with just jug, of course, but he did the best he could. Once one piece was thoroughly coated, he carefully used a couple of water-soaked sticks to place it in the fire, well away from where Lykou was cooking. They’d expanded the fire pit as much as they safely could in order to make sure they had enough room for both things at once.

Kuna glanced up and arched a brow, noticing some feathers sticking out of the canid’s hair. “What’s with the feathers?”

Lykou smirked back at him. “Hey, why let them go to waste? I doubt you’d use ‘em, so I might as well save ‘em for something.”

“For what, decoration?” the sereva replied with a bemused smirk.

“Hey, you got your flower crown thing from Moyra.”

“...true, I guess. What, you going to make a feather crown or something?”

“Nah. Maybe a headband though. Though… I’ll have to get my own kill for it to really be right, I guess.”

“Huh? Whatcha mean?”

“It’s not uncommon for Ashers to wear things with feathers from recent kills in them. Supposed to show how good a hunter you are. Same with boar tusks, but those can be a little more awkward. But honestly I always just kind of liked the look, with feathers,” the canid explained, then shrugged. “They’re kind of pretty, what can I say?”

Kuna eyed them for a moment. “You know, they kind of are,” he agreed, then smirked. “Still weird to wear dead stuff though.”

Lykou stuck his tongue out at the sereva, then checked on the meat cooking in the fire again. After turning a couple pieces over, he popped one of the smaller bits from a skewer into his mouth and gobbled it up. “Mmm… not quite like turkey, but not bad.”

“I’m very happy for you,” the sereva snarked, then gave him a playful glare. “And you better not tell me there’s another fruit or something that tastes like that for me to try.”

The canid snickered. “Nope, no worries. No bird-meat melons for you,” he replied, then started examining one of the feathers. “...heh, if Naira was here, she’d probably have me braid her hair and stick one of these in the end.”

“...want me to try with you?” Kuna suddenly offered.

Lykou perked up. “Really? ...you can braid hair?”

Kuna shrugged. “Maybe? Haven’t exactly had any practice with hair, but I used to sometimes braid grass blades and other things when I was bored.”

The konuul pulled at a lock of his hair thoughtfully. “...you know, I guess it is getting a bit long.” He grinned back at the sereva. “Sure, why not. I’ll probably need to trim it before long, but why not have some fun in the meantime?”

Kuna chuckled and moved over next to him, blowing a pit of his own bangs out of his eye as he sat back down. “Tell me about it. Guess we’re both getting a bit shaggy,” he said as he brushed through the canid’s hair. Unlike his own hair, his friend’s was the same color as the fur it protruded from. “Sometime soon I guess we’ll have to each give each other a trim. Don’t want hair getting in our eyes at an inopportune moment, you know?”

“Yeah,” Lykou replied, slightly distracted. They’d certainly been close numerous times, including lots of casual cuddling, but somehow having the sereva braid his hair made him blush, for reasons he couldn’t figure out. Nonetheless, he enjoyed the attention and closeness, and his tail began flicking and swishing slightly.

“W- hey, watch that thing!” Kuna said with a giggle after it briefly bumped against his thigh.

“Oops, sorry,” Lykou apologized, snapping out of his thoughts with a sheepish grin, blushing a little more. “It has a mind of its own sometimes, I swear…”

“S’alright, I think everyone’s does. Just more noticeable when you got a long one I guess,” Kuna replied. After a moment, a thought occurred to him as he was braiding the lock. “I wonder if I could use my magic to like… slow our hair growth so we won’t have to worry about cutting it much?”

“Hmm? Good question. Isn’t it harder to use it on animals and people though?”

“Yeah but obviously not impossible. And healers do it to patch people up, so it’s probably something I should practice with sometime.”

“...just be careful how you practice. Don’t want to mess something important up.”

Kuna winced at the thought. “Yeah, good point.” He glanced down at the canid’s tail, which was still twitching a bit. “...I think I might have an idea as soon as I’m done here, too.”

“Oh? Whatcha got in mind?”

“A few things. You’ll see.”

“Gonna be all secretive, huh? Now I’m really curious.”

Kuna just grinned and continued braiding the canid’s hair. It didn’t take long, and he did his best to tie the end up around the end of a feather for good measure. “There, all done!”

Lykou examined the lock out of the corner of his eye, then grinned and hugged the sereva. “Thanks Ku! Want me to try yours now?”

“Nah, I’m fine thanks. I’m going to try some of that practicing now. Besides, you’ve got your meat to deal with, mister bloody fingers.”

“What, don’t want me to give your hair a little touch of red?” the konuul teased, then chuckled.

“Very funny,” the sereva retorted as he sat back and conjured up his magic. He began focusing, staring down at his forearm intently.

“Whatcha trying to do?”

“Shh, you’ll see. ...hopefully, anyway.” Some time passed in a slightly awkward silence. His brows furrowed after a while, and he began to sweat slightly. Finally, some of the fur on his arm began to change color, until it resembled a stylized green vine pattern. “Whew! Did it!”

“Oh hey, that’s really cool!” Lykou said, perking up and eyeing the marking.

“Was a lot harder than you’d think though,” Kuna said after drinking some water. “It’s… hard to explain. It’s like I can feel part of myself subconsciously working against me or something. Like my body, or its energy anyway, working against my mind.”

“Does sound pretty weird. I can only imagine. But hey, you did it! Wanna try me next?”

“I… think I want to practice a bit more before I try anyone else,” Kuna replied with a small smile. “I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself if I accidentally messed you up somehow.”

“Hey, you literally saved me from the brink of death a little while back, remember?”

“Yeah, but that was with Inkari’s guidance. I had no idea what I was actually doing,” the sereva reminded him, then shivered, looking away in thought. “...does make me wonder how she knows so much about peoples’ bodies though.”

“Not sure we want to know,” Lykou said, wincing slightly. “But point taken. So what now?”

Kuna thought for a minute, then took a deep breath and closed his eyes, smirking faintly. “Another idea I had. Might take a bit longer though.”

“Heh, alright. Warn me if you’re about to sprout an extra arm or something,” the canid quipped before retrieving the meat from the fire. Once he had all of it cooked, he ate what he wanted for dinner, then began coating the rest in what salt he had left in their salt bag. He made a mental note to suggest they look for another salt cave when they headed out again, but he held off for the time being, not wanting to interrupt the sereva’s concentration.

Eventually, Kuna’s eyes opened again and he glanced backwards. He grinned and picked something up- a long length of fur. “Hey, it worked!”

Lykou looked over, then arched a brow in amusement. “What, did I give you tail envy?” Kuna stuck his tongue out at him, and he snickered in response. “Seriously though, good job.”

“Thanks. It’s not really all tail, I just grew the fur out real long,” the sereva said, examining the faux-tail attached to his real one.

The konuul looked him over for a moment and couldn’t help but glance at the small bumps on his friend’s head. “Are you gonna try… y’know…” he said, gesturing lightly when the sereva caught him looking.

Kuna looked up in thought for a moment, then shook his head a little. “You know, I don’t think so. Not like I’m going to be around anyone that gives me grief over it anyway, so I don’t have to keep feeling self-conscious about it. And at this point I’ve… kind of made peace with it as it is. I’m just… different, and that’s okay.”

“Fuck yeah it is! Proud of you, Ku.”

“Thanks,” Kuna said, then grinned back at the konuul, blushing slightly. “And like you said before. They’d only get in the way during cuddle time.”

Lykou grinned back. “Is that a hint?”

“Wash your hands and it just might be.”

The canid snickered and finished putting away the extra meat, then poured some water over his hands to clean them off. After drying them off on his old shirt and taking off his new armored shirt, he re-positioned himself and leaned back, then patted his thighs. “Well c’mere then, you.”

Kuna giggled and shifted over by the canid,then snuggled up into his friend’s embrace.