Mystic Heart Odyssey, part 1: Strangers in a Strange land, chapter 9. Resupply (and recovery) day! With all the emotion and traumatic memories brought up the previous day, the two decide to spend an extra day or two at their latest, and nicest camp site so far.

-Llox

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The next morning was particularly beautiful, with sunbeams shining down through the trees on the water flowing over and past Lykou and Kuna’s little den. Birds were singing, and the forest was full of life. The two slept in a bit later than usual, and even once they were up, they took their time, just enjoying the peaceful environment.

Lykou eventually found a suitable branch and got busy working it into a new spear, while Kuna was stitching something together with some materials he’d collected nearby. “Whatcha workin’ on?” Lykou asked idly. Initially, he’d wanted to talk about the nightmare, or at least what caused it, but they both agreed to hold off until later, and not spoil the beautiful morning. Finally getting some rest, and waking up in such a serene place, had done wonders for both of them.

“Some damn pants, or something like that,” Kuna replied with a slight blush and a smirk. “This poncho was a good start, but sometimes I’d like something between it and… certain bits.”

Lykou grinned. “I mean, you could just cut it short, it might not tickle as much,” he teased.

“Yeah, you’d like that, wouldn’t you?” the sereva responded. “Perv.”

“Hey, I’m not the one wh-”

“Aaaaand that’senoughofthat,” Kuna quickly interrupted, his blush intensifying a little as he averted his eyes. “Weren’t you going to go murder something?” Immediately, he flinched at his own commentary. “Er, I mean…”

Lykou chuckled. “Can’t hunt until I finish my spear, you know,” he reminded the sereva. “Why such a hurry to chase me off? Need some… alone time?”

The sereva groaned and rolled his eyes. “I swear, Lykou…”

“Hey, I’m glad you’re doing better this morning,” Lykou said after a brief silence.

“I know, I get it, it’s nice when I’m not being a moody, dramatic bitch,” Kuna snarked, grinning over at the canid briefly. “You don’t have to beat around the bush.”

Lykou frowned a little. “Come on, I’m serious. I’m genuinely glad you’re doing better.”

“I know, Lykou. You’re a big softy and I appreciate it,” Kuna responded with a genuine smile. “Thanks for, you know… last night.” He paused his stitching and rubbed his neck thoughtfully, his smile momentarily fading ever so slightly. “I promise I’ll… tell you things tonight.”

“Only if you’re comfortable with it,” Lykou reminded him. “Just focus on having a good day for now.”

Kuna took a deep breath and resumed his work. “Yeah, well, comfortable or not, last night made me realize you were right,” he said quietly. “As painful as it is to think, let alone talk about, it’s better than trying to just bury and hide from it all the time. It’s probably why I keep having that… damn nightmare…”

“That’s true. And I’ll do whatever I can to make it easier for you,” said the konuul, pausing his own work for a moment and grinning at his companion. “And yes, that includes all the cuddles you want.”

“Sounds good,” Kuna replied, blushing but grinning back. “Sorry I’m kinda, y’know… clingy like that.”

“You d-”

“AND sorry for saying sorry. Again,” Kuna continued, rolling his eyes slightly. “But you know what I mean. It just… really helps. A lot.”

“Hey, I’m glad to help,” Lykou assured him. “Besides, I enjoy it too. You’re a perfect snuggle buddy.”

Kuna folded his ears down and blushed a bit more. “Oh come on. …really?”

“You’re a cute little ball of sass that practically melts when you’re held,” Lykou half-teased with a playful smile. “Doesn’t get much better than that.”

The sereva let out a slightly squeaky half-groan as he tried to decide how he felt about that, temporarily burying his face in his hand.

“And that just bumped you from ‘cute’ to ‘adorable’,” Lykou added, laughing a bit.

“Lykouuu,” Kuna whined, as he tried to re-focus on his work, unable to stop grinning despite himself. “I swear you get off on this.”

The canid chuckled. “Alright, alright, I’ll stop,” he said, relenting. “But it’s true and you should just embrace it.”

*****

Around mid-afternoon, Kuna sat alone at the camp, having finally just finished the pants he’d been working on while Lykou was away on his hunt. It ended up being a lot trickier than he’d expected, with a lot of restarts and frustration along the way. But at long last he was wearing something reasonably comfortable that’d cover and protect his nether regions from the sometimes ticklish brushes of his poncho or the wind. Or pervy peeks from certain balls of fluff and sweetness- not that he figured it was something Lykou was actually doing; after all, the poncho hung down far enough that he’d have to practically be actively trying to flash anyone. But that was the embarrassing secret thing- some small part of the back of his mind almost did want to. And he didn’t want to let that embarrassing, horny little voice win, so that was that.

Now that he’d finished that little project, he began doing some more gathering of his own. Previously he’d had more luck collecting food than Lykou did, even if he’d been less confident about it at the time. But it seemed their current area was going to make it a bit tricky, with all the rocks and uneven terrain getting in the way. So he spent the next several hours searching for and grabbing up anything remotely edible that he could find. He even found some mushrooms, though he shivered as he tried to push back some memories while he picked through them.

Once he was satisfied that he’d collected enough, he returned to the campsite and started setting up wood for the evening’s fire. When the sun started getting low, he began to worry about Lykou’s continued absence. Certain fears and doubts started trickling back into his mind as the shadows grew longer, the generally positive mood he’d carefully harbored through the day breaking down in the process.

Had something bad happened to the konuul? Should he go looking for him? The sereva’s mind wandered, his worries growing worse as time went by. Or… did he finally get tired of me? a particularly dark corner of his mind wondered, having been slumbering through the day. And like a dam finally breaking, the invasive thoughts began flooding in, and he started to spiral into familiar old territory.

He tried to fend them off, remembering the nice moments with his friend, but the doubts just kept creeping in. Why would he be any different? one dark thought asked. Nobody wants you. You’re born to be alone. Stop trying to fool yourself, it’ll hurt less when the inevitable happens.

“Shut up, shut up, SHUT UP!” Kuna started shouting out loud and gripping his head as he kicked a rock into the nearby stream. “He’s not like that, you’ll see!”

Stop lying to yourself, they continued some time later. He’s abandoned you just like everyone else, and you know it.

“N-no,” Kuna weakly argued against the voice inside him, tearing up as he knelt down by the water’s edge. “Y-you’re wrong. He’s different. He wouldn’t…”

As the sun began setting in earnest, he swatted at his vague reflection in a small isolated pool of water. “Y-you’ll see,” he mumbled. “He’ll… he’ll be back… right?”

Eventually he curled up and buried his head in his arms, crying softly. You should have known better than give into those foolish hopes and sweet words.

But just as he was about to lose himself to the darkness, he heard a noise somewhere behind him. He quickly looked up and the hopelessness immediately shattered.

“Whew, thanks for starting the fire, Kuna,” Lykou said, trudging up with a collection of kills he’d made- two large birds of some kind, and another one of those huge rodent-like things. “I think I got a bit turned around out there, so good thing I saw the smoke. How was y-”

He didn’t get a chance to finish his sentence as he quickly had to drop the two carcasses and catch the sereva that had launched himself at him, nearly tackling him to the ground. “Woah, shit!”

Kuna clung to him with all four limbs, trembling and sniffling a bit.

“Woah, hey!” Lykou said as he tried to steady himself, then gently embraced the sereva and patted him on the back. “Everything alright?”

After a moment, Kuna came to his senses and quickly climbed off the konuul, blushing and rubbing his arm sheepishly. “I, uh… I was just w-worried about you,” he said, averting his eyes.

Lykou chuckled at first. “Hey, I may not be the brightest, but I’m sure I would’ve found my way back sooner or later anyway,” he reassured his friend, then frowned as he looked a bit closer. “Wait… have you been… crying again?”

Kuna shifted uneasily and folded his ears back, still avoiding his friend’s gaze.

“Oh, Kuna,” Lykou said and pulled him into another tight embrace. “What’s wrong?”

The sereva returned the hug and took a deep, shaky breath, then just smiled weakly at him as he pulled back again. “Head-demons,” was all he could say. “Remember?”

Lykou stared at him thoughtfully for a moment, then sighed and squeezed him again. “Alright, you can tell me all about it over by the fire,” he said, picking up his kills again. “I can deal with these later.”

Kuna shook his head. “N-no, you can do that now. I’ll… I’ll just look away,” he said, rubbing his arm again. “Besides, the… the birds especially look d-different enough that it won’t make me think of… w-well, you know.”

Lykou raised an eyebrow and eyed him for a minute. “Are you sure?”

Kuna nodded. “Y-yeah. We can just talk about the day while you’re doing it,” he suggested, then frowned and tensed up a little. “A-and then t-talk about the… you know, h-heavier stuff after.”

With a small smile, the canid walked back to the campsite with the sereva. “Alright, if you’re okay with that.”

*****

Lykou was pleasantly surprised that Kuna had already gone through the trouble of expanding the firepit and collecting some suitably flat rocks for him.

“I, uh… remember how it went last time. Thought I’d save you some trouble,” Kuna said, sitting on the far side. Once Lykou had gotten to work butchering his kills, the sereva had turned to the side so he wouldn’t be directly facing the grisly business. He was almost hesitant to do so, though, seemingly nervous to let his friend out of his sight completely. “I hope the rocks are big enough.”

“They’ll work fine,” Lykou said, smiling. “Thank you, Kuna.” He worked in silence for a minute, before speaking again. “So how did things go for you today?”

“I got plenty of food for a few days. Though it was a little trickier this time around,” Kuna replied. Now that they’d settled in by the fire, his nerves had relaxed and the dark thoughts from before had more or less fully faded. The idle conversation definitely helped. “All the rocks and crags and stuff.”

“Yeah, does make a lot of things tricky. Including hunting. Luckily I found that things kind of even out a bit further downstream,” the canid said, the glanced over at Kuna’s direction. “I see you’ve done some more needlework,” he pointed out, nodding to the knee-length shorts the sereva had on, just visible below the edge of the poncho.

Kuna smirked and side-glanced at him. “Yep. No more sneak peeks for you,” he teased, deliberately leaning forward and propping his head up on his hands, his elbows resting on the rock he was next to. He turned his back slightly so that his poncho slid back and exposed his now clothed backside. He even wiggled his hips slightly. The shorts ended up being a bit snug in the end, but for the moment that actually worked in his favor.

The unexpected behavior blindsided Lykou and he almost cut himself as he gawked at the sereva. He quickly shook his head and snapped out of it, albeit not without a blush. “W- I wasn’t- I didn’t-”

Kuna had a good snicker at that. “So THAT’s how it feels to be on the giving end. I can see the appeal,” he said, rubbing his chin and rolling his eyes up in mock thoughtfulness.

Lykou just stared at him, dumbfounded, for a minute, still blushing. Then he grinned broadly back at his companion. “Look at you getting all playful for once.”

Kuna poked his tongue out at him in response. “I can’t always be the one getting flustered, you know.”

“Nah, but you’ve got way more experience at it, and look way cuter, too,” Lykou replied, determined to remain on top of the teasing game. “Anyway I’m surprised you didn’t leave a flap for ‘easy access’. Or did you just make them easy to slide down?”

And it worked. Kuna flushed and rolled his eyes, still grinning nonetheless as his palm met his face. “ANYway,” he said, eagerly trying to change the subject now that the tables were turned back again. “So what about you? You were gone a long time. Were you really hunting all day?”

“Not the entire time, no. Like I said, I did get turned around a bit at the end,” Lykou responded. “Oh!” He put down his knife and the carcass he was working on, and got up real quick. “I almost forgot! I found something you’re gonna love.”

Kuna sat up, intrigued. “Oh?”

The konuul first rinsed his hands in the flowing water nearby, then dried them thoroughly on his shirt as he went over to his chaser pack and dug around a bit. Then walked over to the sereva holding something in his hand. “Stick out your hand.”

The sereva did as instructed and Lykou dropped something in his palm. He looked at the small object in his hand for a moment, then his eyes started to widen. He glanced up at the canid for a moment, who nodded to him. He licked the small crystalline object experimentally. His face immediately lit up with a grin. “You found a salt cave??”

Lykou nodded and grinned in return as he returned to his seat and picked his work back up. “Yep. You should see about making a small waterproof bag, if you can. So we can go collect more tomorrow,” he suggested. “I have more, but I had to put it in my food bag. Which I’m sure you don’t want. It’ll be perfect for the meat, though.”

“I will in a minute,” Kuna said dismissively. He then grinned and let out a tiny, brief squeal of delight as he rolled onto his back, then popped the little salty delight into his mouth and started sucking on it contentedly.

Lykou couldn’t help but snicker. “Just make sure not to overdo it.”

“I make no promises.”

“It’s not going to cum if you suck on it long enough, trust me,” Lykou pointed out with a mischievous smirk.

Kuna sputtered and blushed, and moments later, the canid had to duck as a clump of dirt was hurled at him. The canid just laughed and re-focused on his work after that. Eventually, with some reluctance, the sereva did ease off the delicious mineral morsel and got to work putting together a bag using some particularly waxy leaves he found near the stream.

The time passed peacefully for a while, with Lykou eventually setting the meat he’d managed to cut up onto the stones to cook. This time, he didn’t over do it, though, instead rolling the chunks around in his salt-filled food bag to help preserve it after it was cooked just enough. He wasn’t sure if it was overdoing things a bit with the salt, but he figured it had to be better than his previous ‘smoke-drying’ attempt.

The moon was creeping up into the sky by the time they’d both finished what they were doing. They would have been considering bed by then if they hadn’t slept in so late that morning- and if Kuna hadn’t made a promise. So they ended cuddling by the fire once things had been put away. Luckily there was a large smooth rock in a decent position so that Lykou could lean back against it comfortably while the sereva reclined in his arms.

“So,” Lykou prompted, hoping his friend would take the gentle hint.

Kuna sighed, reluctant to let the nice moment pass and delve into painful territory. But he’d promised, and he knew ultimately it’d be good to get things off his chest. “Yeah, I know. Give me a minute,” he said, taking a moment to collect his thoughts. After a minute of silence, he suddenly started digging around in his pocket. Lykou noticed he’d started trembling slightly. “Lykou?”

“Hmm? Yes Kuna?” the canid asked, tilting his head down at him, a bit concerned about the sudden change.

“Don’t… don’t take this the w-wrong way,” the sereva started. “I just… before I s-start, I need to hear something from you.” He opened his hand and revealed a certain stone with a small ruddy stain on it. “When… when you made that promise. In… in the cave.”

“I swore I’d never try to hurt you, and I meant it. Yeah?” Lykou confirmed.

Kuna was deathly silent for a moment, still shaking. He suddenly sniffed as he closed his hand again. “A-and… when you m-made that promise… did you only mean-”

Suddenly, Lykou saw where the question was heading, and proceeded to squeeze the sereva in his arms tightly. “I meant it in all ways, Kuna,” he assured his friend, then gently lifted his chin up to look him in the eye, smiling softly. “I never specified physical hurt only. Is that what you needed to hear?”

Kuna’s eyes were already getting teary, and he slowly nodded, his ears folding back. “Y-yeah,” he confirmed, sniffling a little as he smiled back. “Thank you.” He rubbed his eye, then turned onto his side so that he could lay his head on the konuul’s chest, the trembling subsiding a bit. “I kind of figured, but I just… n-needed to hear you s-say it.”

“Of course,” Lykou said, stroking his side gently.

Kuna took a deep breath as he once again tried to gather his thoughts. Finally, he began. “I’ve… always been weak, Lykou.”

“Hey, now, y-”

“Shh, Lykou. I’m not being all, you know,” The sereva vaguely waved his hand around a little as he searched for the word. “’woe is me, I’m worthless’ this time. I’m just talking literally, physically weak.”

Lykou hesitated for a minute. “I… guess you’re not winning any arm-wrestling contests anytime soon, sure. But you know that’s not the only kind of strength, right? You’re strong in other ways.”

“That’s sweet, Lykou. And I know,” Kuna responded, giving his friend’s hand a gentle squeeze and smiling up at him slightly. Then he sighed. “But the point is, physically, I’m a weakling. And I actually used to be even worse. When I was little, I was sick all the time. I think everyone half expected I wouldn’t make it to my teens. Even my parents- don’t get me wrong, they loved me and were great to me- my family always treated me better than anyone else, but even back then, I could see the worry in their eyes sometimes.”

Lykou frowned, but remained silent. He was surprised when Kuna glanced up and smiled again, albeit faintly. “It’s kind of ironic, those years actually had a lot of my happiest memories despite that. Grandma was always there back then. She rarely left my side for long when I was battling some illness or other. She would always sit with me and tell me stories, and take care of me when my parents couldn’t be there. Though they’d join in when they could.”

His eyes teared up a little, even as the faint smile remained. “Mom would sing sometimes. And dad would play a mokina.” He paused to rub his eyes and his expression fell. “Grandma couldn’t stay around forever, though. It hurt bad when she passed.” He fell silent for a moment, as he thought back. “You know, it’s funny… the night after she passed, I thought I heard her in the room when I was in bed, coming to tell me goodbye. I always chalked it up to a kid’s imagination for years now, but part of me wants to imagine her spirit was there one last time.”

“Hey, I don’t see why not,” Lykou smiled softly and stroked the sereva’s side. “She sounds like a pretty special person. Maybe she did the whole ‘echo’ thing.”

Kuna closed his eyes and sighed, smirking slightly, even as the tears lingered. “That’s sweet, Lykou, but as far as I know she was never a magic user, so I don’t think she was attuned enough to the spirits to do that. Still, it’s nice to think she paid me a visit on the way out, so to speak.”

“From the sound of it, she’d wouldn’t have let the spirit world take her without making damn sure her grandson knew he was loved to the last,” Lykou said, squeezing the sereva gently.

“Sappy. But yeah,” Kuna agreed, sniffling and squeezing back. “I’d like to think so.”

Again, the two sat in silence for a minute before the sereva sighed and continued. “Anyway, eventually I stopped being sick all the time. But I still had… issues. Once I was well enough to move around and actually, you know, take part of the whole life thing, I was really clumsy. And prone to dizzy spells,” he explained, then grumbled a bit. “Which really didn’t help my reputation.”

“Reputation?” Lykou asked, raising an eyebrow. “What, are kids supposed to have ‘reputations’ at that age in your tribe?”

“Not usually. But when you’re sick that much, and then only end up bumbling around messing things up once you finally start participating in tribal activities, rumors tend to start,” Kuna half-mumbled into Lykou’s chest, looking away with a more bitter expression. “That’s when the whole stupid… ‘curse’ thing started. And it got worse when the other kids’ antlers started to grow, and… mine just… didn’t.”

“Antl-?”

“You know. Horns, or whatever you called ’em,” the sereva glumly explained, lifting a hand to wave over his head.

“Wait, so,” Lykou responded, his eyebrow arched. “You-… huh.”

“Yep. I’m a freak,” Kuna said with a heavy sigh.

“Wait, no!” Lykou quickly hugged him again. “Don’t do that.”

Kuna shrugged, but returned the hug weakly. “S’alright, I’ve kind of accepted it at this point.”

“Well you shouldn’t. You might be different, but that’s not something you should feel bad about,” Lykou insisted.

The sereva looked up at him for a minute with slightly watery eyes, then sighed, smiling a bit as he looked away again. “Yeah, I know. Mom and Dad used to tell me that, too, back then.”

“So believe it,” Lykou encouraged him, gently rubbing the sereva’s shoulder. “They’d want you to.”

“I’ll try,” Kuna said, sighing again. “Just hard to when I heard otherwise from everyone else. Even if not always directly.”

Lykou frowned. “Really?”

“Yeah. Like I said, rumors started early. And after… a-after,” Kuna paused and started trembling again, clenching his eyes shut as he clung to the konuul, struggling with the memories once more. “The… the attack…”

“Take your time,” Lykou reminded him, holding him close and stroking his head softly.

Kuna shivered and took a moment to collect himself, sniffling and crying into his friend’s neck for a minute before he could bring himself to continue. “R-right, so,” he eventually continued. “A-after… that… it only got worse. They usually didn’t blame m-me directly, of course. Even fucking… N-Niric backed off a bit after that. But I’d occasionally hear the whispered rumors.”

“Niric?” Lykou asked curiously.

“Asshole kid. Always picked on me before that,” Kuna grumbled, his sorrow gradually blurring more and more into bitterness as he idly picked at and fiddled with a couple pebbles on the ground nearby, before flicking one away. “In a way it was worse when he stopped though. Before, it was just him being a jerk, probably repeating things he heard some adults say to try and upset me. Typical kid bully shit. Afterward, though… it was like he genuinely believed it and avoided even getting near me. Like he’d catch my ‘curse’ or something. He was far from alone in that, either. Other kids, and adults, too.”

Lykou was torn between two feelings- on the one hand, he felt horrible for Kuna, tightening his embrace around the sereva as his eyes watered slightly. On the other, a burning anger was brewing inside him. Part of him desperately wanted to get his hands on those other sereva and beat some sense and decency into them. It took him a moment to calm himself enough to speak up. “You deserve so much better than that, Kuna. Nobody should be treated that way.”

Again, Kuna took a deep breath, but let himself smile weakly. “You’re a sweetheart, Lykou. Thanks,” he said, nuzzling against the canid’s neck slightly. “Anyway, that’s how it went from then on. Don’t get me wrong, some folks were decent enough to kind of… half look after me for a few years after,” He paused and tensed again for a moment, trying not to think about it to much. “A-after, you know. Made sure I had enough to wear and keep warm, and a little tent of my own. Nobody bothered teaching me anything though, and they just had me go gather the same old things I’d learned about as a kid with my parents.”

The sereva began shivering again, and his eyes started watering again. “A-and then… eventually, like… a couple years ago,” he started, but had to stop as the emotions started overwhelming him again and he buried his face in Lykou’s neck. “S-sorry, give me a minute,” he said, sniffling. He curled up a bit in the konuul’s lap.

Lykou gently cradled the sereva in his arms, nuzzling his head softly. “Take all the time you need.”

After collecting himself for a minute, Kuna continued. “A c-couple years ago, there w-was another attack. N-not a ravager this time, luckily, but some other dangerous wild… thing. I’m not sure what it was, b-but it came after me w-when I was out gathering. I ran and g-got away with a f-few cuts and scrapes, and nobody d-died, though some of the s-sentinels got scraped up a b-bit worse when I c-came to them for help. They dealt w-with it, but everyone got even w-worse towards me after that. U-until… until…”

Kuna trailed off, sniffling and crying quietly. Lykou did his best to comfort him, though his inner hate for the sereva tribe was growing. It wasn’t his fault, he thought. What the fuck is wrong with those people?!

Eventually, Kuna continued, but his voice was quieter and shaky. “A-after… after I was old enough. One… one morning, I w-woke up a-and it was… so quiet. I didn’t hear anyone m-moving around like usual.” Again, he paused, clearly struggling. He rubbed his eyes as he felt the konuul’s arms squeeze him again gently. “W-when I came out of my tent, they… they w-were just… gone. All the other tents and everything, just… they’d left me behind.”

It was fortunate for Kuna that he wasn’t looking up at that moment. Lykou was already glaring daggers into the forest. Upon the last sentence, the anger in his eyes turned into a burning hatred that could’ve melted sunstone ore better than any furnace. The passive cruelty was bad enough, but just abandoning a member of the tribe? Walking away without a word? Never had he heard of such vile, despicable, not to mention downright cowardly behavior. His eye twitched as he struggled to keep calm, for Kuna’s sake. Eventually, the sound of soft sobbing snapped him out of it, though, and he forced away the angry, vengeful thoughts and turned his attention back to comforting his friend.

He held the sereva tighter than ever and fought back some angry tears of his own. “I… I don’t even know what to say, Kuna. I could never imagine a worse group of worthless, cowardly idiots. You deserve so much better than that.”

Kuna was silent for a few minutes, aside from occasional sniffling. “W-what if they’re not wrong though? What if I am cursed?” he suddenly blurted out, albeit quietly.

Lykou was momentarily stunned by the question. “W-what??”

“Just look at what’s happened since you met me. A stupid freak magic storm somehow threw us all the way to some weird who-knows-where, with no idea which way to go to get back to your home. We have to scramble to figure out how to survive, I gave you nothing but grief the first few days, you had to save my ass from some big… weird giant spiny beetle or whatever the hell it was, we stumble across a horribly destroyed village and encounter a ghost, and for all we know we’re still nowhere near getting back,” he quickly rambled off, then sighed, not willing to look up. “I appreciate all your kindness, but it really does seem like trouble follows me wherever I go.”

Lykou took a long, slow breath to calm himself, then picked the sereva up and turned him around so that they were facing each other. At first he half glared at him, but quickly softened his expression when he saw the guilty, anxious, and defeated look on his friend’s face. With a sigh, he pulled him in close and rested their foreheads against each other. “Kuna listen to me. As weird as it sounds, I think meeting you in that cave was the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”

“Huh?” Kuna replied, looking legitimately confused as he started to pull away, but the konuul gently, yet firmly pulled him back.

“I’ve been stuck in that little valley all my life, always wondering what the rest of the world was like. And after meeting you, it’s been like a fantasy come true. I know it’s been tough at times, but I wouldn’t trade it for the world. I’ve seen things and places and even people I never could have imagined before. And I’ve finally seen actual spirits for once! Who cares if one was a ghost that went a little berserk at us? We helped them find peace! And then we saw an echo- something I didn’t even know about- and got some crazy ‘soul-mark’ or whatever as a reward! And who knows what else we’ll encounter! And best of all, Kuna,” Lykou explained, then hugged the sereva tightly again, looking him right in the eye. “I got to meet and befriend an incredible and unique person from a people I never knew about, who’s already taught me things about the world that I never even knew I didn’t know. And I know there’s so much more to learn about and from you, too. Maybe even things you’ve yet to figure out about yourself.”

He took a deep breath, then smiled. “So no, Kuna. Being here with you, I feel as far from ‘cursed’ as I could possibly be. If anything, I feel incredibly fortunate to have met you,” he assured the sereva. His smile turned into a slightly playful, but still sincere grin. “So much so I still sometimes wonder if you’re an aliki-ka in denial.”

Kuna blushed and stared back into his eyes for a moment, his own still shimmering with tears. A smile slowly grew on his face and he eventually shut his eyes, embracing the konuul with all his strength as he started crying again, but happier tears this time. “Thank you, you big sap,” he eventually managed to choke out, sniffling. “I can’t tell you how much that means to me. Just… thank you, Lykou.”

“I mean every word of it, Kuna,” Lykou assured him, gently stroking his back.

They held each other in silence for a few minutes, then Lykou gently pulled him back. “Right, you know what this means, don’t you?”

Kuna blinked and gave a weak shrug. “What?”

“You’re coming back with me,” Lykou said, in a confident tone that left no room for argument. “Back to Lakefire.”

“W-wait, are you sure that’s a good idea?” Kuna asked nervously. “W-would they even accept me? I mean, for one there’s the whole, y’know… food thing, not to mention I didn’t even f-fit in with my own people, why would-”

“Kuna. Shush,” Lykou playfully chided, then smiled again. “They’re good people. I’m sure they’ll love you and you’ll love them. And I’m sure we can sort out the food problem just fine.”

Kuna bit his lip and looked away anxiously. “I don’t know, Lykou…”

“Well I do. So no arguments. You deserve to be a part of a tribe that cares about you. One that’ll have your back, not run away and ditch you like a bunch of worthless, paranoid cowards. One that never abandons its own. And that’s the Ashers through and through, Kuna. Even when we bicker, we’re all a huge family in the end. One that’ll fight the world tooth and nail for each other, if it comes down to it. That’s the way its supposed to be. And you’re going to be a part of that family.”

Kuna wasn’t sure how to respond, and he still had some misgivings. But Lykou’s confidence helped, and he was intrigued by the idea, at least. Ultimately, he gave in, albeit nervously, and sank back into the canid’s arms. “Alright… I… I guess it’s worth a try…”

They both cuddled in silence for a few minutes, before Kuna spoke up again. “S-so tell me about them.”

“Hmm?”

“Your tribe. And your village. What’s it like there?” Kuna asked, trying to mask some lingering uncertainty with curiosity. “You told me a little bit, but not much.”

Lykou beamed. “Well, there’s a big sheer cliff called Sunstone Ridge. And at the right time of the afternoon in the spring and fall, it looks like a second sun in the sky from all the exposed sunstone in its side.”

“Sunstone… that’s that shiny stuff your knife is made of, right?”

“Mhmm. And there’s bits of it scattered around the Shimmer Loch, too. That’s the lake the village is built up next to,” the canid said, pulling out his knife carefully to show it off a bit. “The stuff is harder than stone and can be made sharper, too.”

“If its so hard, how do you make anything with it?” Kuna asked with a raised brow, intrigued.

Lykou chuckled and gave a small shrug. “Unfortunately I can’t help you there. Only a few people know to work with it. I do know it involves getting it super hot for a while, though- it just, I don’t know, melts or something, and they somehow shape it before it cools and hardens again. It’s one of those craftsy-type jobs I never really tried learning,” he explained as best he could.

“Huh. Stone that melts? But it gets harder afterward?” Kuna responded, a faint grin slowly appearing on his face. “Are you sure your people don’t have some kind of magic? Because that doesn’t sound natural to me.”

At first, Lykou chuckled slightly, but then he thought about it a bit more. “Huh… you know, I hadn’t really thought about it much, but, well, maybe,” he admitted. “Never been around Derrish or Kitza when they’re working on the stuff, let alone one of the old masters. If they do though, they don’t say anything about it. As far as I know, it’s just some kind of weird craft they do.”

“Magic users often refer to it as a craft,” Kuna pointed out.

“Well now you’ve got me curious. I’ll have to ask them sometime,” he said, then grinned at his cuddle-buddy. “Or have you ask them.”

Kuna folded his ears down and bit his lip, looking away for a moment. “Hmm…”

“I’ll be with you, don’t worry. They’re nice people,” the canid assured him. “Although a bit odd, I’ll admit. I think being in that heat all the time makes them a little funny in the head sometimes. But in a harmless, kind of fun way. Heh, and maybe you have to be a little odd to figure that stuff out, anyway.”

“They sound… interesting,” Kuna replied with minor uncertainty.

“Oh they are. But trust me, they’re fun to be around. Er, when they’re not busy at work. ‘In the flow’ Kitza calls it, hehe,” Lykou said with a shrug.

“So what else? Kind of hard for me to imagine living in one place all the time. And your village looks kind of big. Must be a lot to do there.”

“Oh definitely. You’ve got the fishers, shore-sweepers, woodwrights, cooks, hunters, stone carvers, weavers, gatherers-”

“What do you guys gather, if you mostly eat, er, you know,” Kuna asked curiously.

“Well wood for fires, obviously. And herbs and stuff. Like I said, there are some plant things we use. Some are good for flavoring stuff. And making tea and soup and so on,” Lykou answered, then grinned. “Hey, maybe you can teach us some things.”

“I don’t even know what ‘soup’ or ‘tea’ are, Lykou” Kuna responded with a slightly bashful smirk. “I doubt it.”

“Really? So you guys never use fire for much of anything but warmth?” the canid asked with a slightly dubious look.

Kuna thought a bit, then shrugged. “Sometimes grandma would soak some kind of leaves- never did learn what kind- in some hot water for me to drink when I was sick.”

“Oh, well there you go! That’s basically tea,” Lykou said with a smile.

“Huh. I never knew it had a name. Was just some odd thing some of the elders did as a remedy-type thing,” Kuna said, scratching his head thoughtfully.

“Yeah, it is good for that. Also just nice on cold winter nights, too. Sometimes the cooks put something in it to make it kind of sweet, too,” Lykou went on, then smiled contently as he stared off into the distance. “I can’t wait to show you, Kuna.”

“Sounds nice,” Kuna admitted, smiling a bit. “So… What about your family?”

“Well, I already mentioned Kezhna, my sister-”

“Scary intense hunter, right,” Kuna playfully interjected.

Lykou snickered a bit. “I’d correct you, but nah, that’s a good way of putting it. And she’d probably love that. Anyway, yeah… Dad’s a fisher, and Mom used to be a hunter but switched to being a cook and occasional shore-sweeper after I was born. Says she wanted to be closer to the rest of us and not stuck out in the woods most of the day.”

“What do shore-sweepers do?”

“Pretty much what it sounds like. Walk around the lake shore collecting useful things. Mostly the charnops, and the occasional chunk of sunstone,” Lykou answered with a shrug. “Kind of like gatherers, really. Just for the edge of the lake instead of out in the woods.”

“Charnops?” Kuna asked. “What are those?”

“This weird fruit thing that only grows near the water. They’re good, and there’s lots of them. One of the few plant-things we eat a lot of. You’ll definitely have to give them a try.”

“Huh, sounds interesting,” the sereva responded.

The two continued chatting about Lykou’s village for a while, but eventually they both started having trouble keeping their eyes open. With some reluctance, they both agreed it was well past time for rest, and when they laid down in their makeshift bed, it was only mere moments before they both were sound asleep. As was becoming the norm, Kuna was snuggled up close to the konuul, who was more than happy to have him there. And this time, the nightmares stayed well away.