FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Kalokin started panicking even as Khaesho smiled. He didn't want to... he didn't want to kill her, and even if she survived, he wasn't sure he wanted to subject her to that kind of pain.

WHATDOIDO?!? Khaesho, people have gone insane from attempted bonding even under the best of circumstances! I can't do it, I can't!

RELAX! Seriously, just... calm down! You heard it from her own mouth. She would rather die than spend a lifetime knowing that she'll never see us again. Just... just look at her! She isn't even remotely afraid. She trusts you. I trust you. Why don't you trust yourself?

But... I'm scared, Khaesho... I don't want to be responsible for killing Shou... you would never forgive me.

I... I would never be happy again, no... but I'm with Shou. I'd rather run the risk than live the rest of my life wondering what I might have had. If you try and fail... then perhaps, it wasn't meant to be. If you don't try at all? If you force us to split up because you wouldn't even make the attempt?

He let the question hang, and it pulled the last of Kalokin's arguments down with it.

Khaesho, I don't...

Don't worry Kalokin... just do what you can, and live with what you can't. The worst that could happen is only a possibility.

Early on in their journey, when they were planning the theft of a lifetime before they started fleeing, Kalokin had said the exact same thing to Khaesho. He recognized the words now, and fell silent as he gathered his nerves.

Alright.

Kalokin pulled his essence forth, leaving a generous portion inside of Khaesho as a now-permanent blessing. He formed his essence into a physical form then, piling coil after coil until he compromised a full sized Naga. He took on his traditional form; he was a blue racer of a much paler color than any snake found in the wilds. His scales were a thin, ice blue, pale and stark against Khaesho's darkly gleaming black. They had been in complete darkness up until now, tactile comfort had been all they really needed, but he formed an orb light as he always had, leaving it to hover high, near the cavern roof. He spoke with a voice like the almost constant pattering of lightly falling rain, a lilting tenor that went well against Khaesho's solid baritone.

"Shou... I'm serious... there isn't just a chance you could die. Death is the most likely outcome. I have to balance... I have to balance a triangular plate on a single point. One wrong move, and I accidentally devour your soul. One wrong move, and I tear your spirit to shreds. One wrong move, and your body simply dies... your heart just stops beating. I-"

She interrupted him by climbing out of Khaesho's coils and tackling him to the ground. She squeezed him tight with her arms and buried her face in his chest. He completely lost his train of thought, and only belatedly hugged her back.

"I trust you Kalokin... and even if I die... I have nothing to go back to. My parents died when I was young, my remaining family is worthy only of hells hottest fires, and I don't really have any good friends. Up until now, the only reason I've had to keep living was so I could dance on the stage. I don't want to go back to that... not unless you and Khaesho make me..."

This last sentence was spoken with more than a little wavering in her voice. Even if he hadn't already had a small amount of his essence in her body, there was no way Kalokin could have missed the surge of fear that ripped through her mind. She still suffered with an almost paranoia-like fear of being abandoned and of being left behind. She still thought she wasn't good enough, and Kalokin reacted in the exact same way Khaesho had. He pulled her up and bent his mouth down to hers to kiss her fears away. It was the first time she'd physically kissed him, and his mouth conformed to hers like it was made for it. He exhaled softly, and his breath tasted like clean mountain streams and cooling rain on a hot summer day. Following Khaesho's example, he only pulled away once her fear subsided.

"You've clearly made your choice. It's going to take a while, and it's going to hurt, so you'll probably be wanting to bathe first."

Shou nodded, and attempted to stand before she whimpered and collapsed atop him again. Her outburst had caught her body by surprise, but she was swiftly becoming aware of every ache and pain she had. She was hurt. It wasn't the happy type of hurt from a good romp in the hay, but a soul weary, aching pain that made her bones feel heavy. It was like nonstop practice the days before a performance when she was out of energy and still trying. A little whine, and she wrapped her arms around Kalokin, trying to summon up the energy to move.

"Shou, you don't look too hot... rough night?"

He gave the jibe playfully and she smiled to hear it, but there was truth to his words. They were both still bloodstained from the previous day's meal, not to mention covered in dust. He slid forwards slowly, sliding his arms around her and lifting her into the air. She offered him a small smile, thankful for the assistance. Ears perked up and she responded softly, warmly. "Indeed it was... I could certainly go for a bath..." And her eyes drifted closed with a soft sigh as she snuggled into his still-warm scales. Though her stomach was growling with hunger, a bath was at the top of her list at the moment.

She rested her head against his shoulder and traced a finger idly across his chest. Nuzzling into the warmth of his scales, she murmured softly. Ears twitched just slightly as she listened to his heart beat and found herself smiling faintly despite herself; his heart had an odd pattern... it sounded almost like it beat in sets of threes, rather than in sets of twos. She lacked the knowledge that snakes had three chambered hearts, as opposed to the standard of four, but listening to his heart beat was comforting despite that.

It wasn't far to the warm water's edge, and he managed to force himself directly in with no more than a small flinch. Kalokin grumbled something and vanished from his mind, clearly still shy of water. Khaesho lay her in the shallow water, supporting her head with his thick body, and began to wash the dirt, grime, blood, and dried sex from her fur. Her body ached, but the warmth of the water helped soothe the pain in her form. She was quick to help, raking her claws through her fur and washing as much of the grime from her coat as her weak limbs could manage. Turning her head, she licked at his scales, looking up at him with a smile.

"Thank you, Khaesho..."

Khaesho was -not- very fond of the water, but he did have to admit that it was necessary to clean her fur. In the deserts, he'd have just scrubbed himself down with sand, and that got him as clean as he ever needed to be, but there was a distinct lacking of sand around, and he had to admit that scrubbing his own submerged scales did a decent job of cleaning them.

"You're welcome, anything to make this easier for you. This won't be like any other sickness. The first day is the worst, especially for you. Every day after that will be a little easier though, until you've adapted. If you survive more than six hours, then that triples your chance to survive all of it."

It was a unique experiment, Kalokin taking a wolf as an Avatar, a Vessel. It was a sharp variance in natures, wolf to snake, warm blooded to cold. She wondered for a moment if it would be too much of a strain on her body, but settled to live in the moment rather than borrow trouble from the future. Her tail wagged in the water and she made a happy noise; she was very fond of the water.

He had nothing but his hands to work with, but all the same, he did his best to clean the grime from her pelt. He did a thorough job too, not even hesitating to rub his scales across her more personal areas. His nonchalant manner had her blushing, even though he'd done far more than just rub her.A soft murmur of exhaustion escaped her and she nuzzled into him just a little bit.

"I hope you are right, I am so tired... so hungry..."

It was a petulant little mutter, and her ears drooped a bit. When they managed to get all the filth from her pelt, he carried her out of the water. She started to struggle from his arms, so she could shake herself dry, but he held tight to her and silenced her with a whisper.

"I'm going to heat both of us to dry us off a little. I don't know what your heat tolerance is, so whimper if it gets too hot."

He pulled warmth into them both, easily evaporating his own scales dry. He then set to work on her fur, pulling heat into her body in a steady stream. It felt good, soothing at first, excess heat bleeding from her coat into her body, but as the temperature climbed, she couldn't suppress a whimper as warm turned to far too hot. Still, Khaesho managed to get her gently steaming, and he maintained her warmth several levels below painful as he carried her back towards his cave.

The help he gave her was accepted gratefully, though she felt weak as a pup and it drove her mad. Still, her arms hurt, and she couldn't carry herself for the exhaustion that ate at her very bones. She was dry by the time they got to Khaesho's bed cave, where Kalokin was waiting with a little surprise.

"Kalokin, how in crooked hell did you get fish?"

He had three fish, each skewered on one of the three talons of his right hand. They weren't huge, but they were decently sized, large perch or small bass perhaps.

"The lake isn't that far from here."

"But... what did you even catch them with?"

Kalokin detached his right hand, letting it float through the air until the fish were close enough for Khaesho to taste.

"Remember... you've only ever seen me bound. Now that I'm free, I get to reclaim all my powers! Man, this is going to b-"

His body lost focus, then melted into a pile of glop. He only barely managed to keep the hand physical long enough to hand the fish to Shou.

"Kalokin! Khaesho, where did he go?"

Ow ow ow ow OW!!! Hell, that hurts...

"He's still here, but I don't know what just happened."

I'm out of practice is what happened. I haven't tried to hold a full manifestation together in decades, and I have the spiritual equivalent of a cramped muscle.

"He says that after being confined to my skull for so long, he's not used to the... rigors of holding a... corporeal form together. He's fine, just sore."

"Good... I thought he'd hurt himself for a moment..."

"Nah, it takes a hell of a punch to actually hurt him. He's fine."

Metaphysically fine, that was. It was an easy lie to tell, one told enough that he'd started to believe it himself. He slithered directly onto the middle of the carpet, where a small dip in the floor meant he had the fur layered three times as thick. He set Shou down, propping her up against his coils, and set to work using his sharp claws to slice the fish into chunks small enough for her to swallow easily.

Shou's ears were drooping and she was fighting to keep her eyes open. She was proud of the god though, and she accepted Khaesho's help once more, though shame colored her cheeks at being unable to even feed herself. To be tended to so heavily by one she wanted to be strong for; it was embarrassing, enough so that she whimpered softly as she curled up against his strong back. Khaesho fed her gobbets of meat until even the act of swallowing seemed like too much effort. She was weakening faster than they'd thought; it was now or never. Khaesho tossed the rest of the fish down his gullet before he coiled protectively around Shou. She didn't notice, but it also pinned her arms to her sides. Kalokin manifested again, wincing as he did, and slithered over to place his hands on Shou's head. Before he could even open his mouth, Shou cut him off.

"If you're about to try... try some last ditch effort to change my mind... don't even bother."

He and Khaesho both laughed, and he bent his head low to nuzzle Shou's face.

"I wouldn't dream of it... I just wanted to say that this is where it starts. I'm not sure how you'll react, but if you react like Khaesho did..." They both winced at that. "Let me just say, we won't hold anything you say or do against you. The infusion... it affects different people in different ways, and we know you don't mean it."

The idea that she would say anything against them, even against her will, was alien to her, and the thought that they expected it from her hurt more than anything else. She opened her mouth to say something else, but Kalokin shushed her with a finger.

"Now, there isn't much you can do to help... but try to relax. Try to not fight it. Now... I want you to close your eyes and keep them closed, no matter what. I'm going to cut the lights and blindfold you anyways, to stick to what I know works, but I think it'll help if you willingly keep your eyes closed."

Shou closed her eyes, unease drawing tension through her body. As she did, the rest of the cave slipped into an absolute darkness of the kind that does not exist on the surface. Without vision crowding her mind, she could focus on her other senses, making them seem magnified tenfold. She heard Khaesho's heartbeat right behind hers, the two beating in an oddly disjointed rhythm that somehow still seemed synchronized. His breath slid through thinly spread lips, deep breaths that moved his chest, and she instinctively joined him. She quickly started sliding towards sleep, but Kalokin surprised her by pressing his lips to hers in a tender kiss. He kept both hands in either side of her head and managed to whisper into her even though his tongue was busy tugging at Shou's.

"Good... peace...be at peace... you are safe... nothing will harm you..."

His voice was soothing, flowing right through her ears and directly into her mind. Had she been awake, she might have recognized it as a kind of hypnosis, but as it was, she fell quickly into an almost-sleep.

"Good... goooood... don't struggle... don't move... just relax... let it all go..."

Her body fell absolutely limp, not a single muscle moving but for her lungs and her heart.

"Now... Shouyousei... I am a wandered... a soul without a body... a man without a home. Your body is your home... envision your home. You are home. You are safe. Nothing can hurt you."

She tried to bring to mind her apartment in the city, but it just felt... wrong, somehow. It was where she lived, but it wasn't home. So, she went further afield... A quaint two story house on a generous estate. Afternoon sunlight streaming through the windows. Her mother's warm laughter. Her father's gruff smile. They were seated around the table playing a board game; it was one of Shou's favorite memories, a relic of a simple time. The memory twisted slightly though... and she was an adult, at the same scene. Her parents looked exactly as she remembered them, but they looked... fake. washed out. Two dimensional. She remembered it being daytime, but the windows were obscured by a heavy darkness greater than the darkness that filled the cave. She stood up uncertainly and her parents froze, like characters in a freeze frame.

"Shhh... stay calm... this is your home. You are always safe here."

This was home. She was safe here. She relaxed again, and was about to sit down when she heard a knocking at the door.

*Tok tok tok.*

It was a simple noise, but it seemed oddly strange despite that. She glanced towards her parents to see them frozen. Immobile smiles turned warm faces into twisted mockeries.

"Nothing is wrong. Nothing will hurt you."

She left them behind her and stepped towards the door. Every window in the house was covered in the same absolute darkness, and the front door was no different. The handle was rattling and the door shook faintly, as if someone was gently testing to see if it was locked. She heard Kalokin's voice again, but this time, it sounded as if it were coming from the other side of the door.

"Shou... Shou, let me in... it's cold out here... so cold... so dark... please, let me in."

His voice twisted on the last word, jerking lower and darker in a way that caused her to recoil backwards. It sounded like a hungry beast, not at all like Kalokin, but he kept talking in his familiar, kind, calm, level voice.

"Shou, I'm sorry, my voice cracked. It's just so cold out here. Remember, this is your house... you're safe here, nothing can hurt you."

Not unless you let_it _in...

The voice ghosted across her ears from somewhere deeper inside the house, and she whirled around, heart beating rapidly in her chest. Her house was exactly as she remembered it, but at the same time, everything was wrong. It wasn't the right color... everything was steeped in shadows, stained just half a shade darker than it should have been. She backed up to the door, only to recoil from it as well; the wood was icy cold, almost freezing. If Kalokin was out there... who knew how long he could survive?

"Shou, please, it's so cold."

He's lying.

She heard it more clearly this time, a voice wafting on an unseen breeze from deeper inside her house. For the first time, she called out to Kalokin, but within her trance, the sound never even got to her lips.

"Kalokin? Kalokin, something's wrong... I'm not safe... I think something's in here with me."

You're safe Shouyousei... unless you open that door.

"Shou!?! Shou, if you're right... you need to unlock the door right now. I can protect you, but only if you let me."

He's lying through his teeth. He's just like everyone else. Just like your uncle.

The house grew darker and every beam creaked and groaned as if a great weight pressed against it. Shou backed up against the door, ignoring the chill, eyes darting back and forth as phantoms moved and danced at the edges of her vision.

"Kalokin, help!"

He will use you.

"Shou, we're out of time! Open the door, quickly! I can't protect you from out here."

He will abandon you.

"SHOUYOUSEI, OPEN THE DOOR!"

You are worth nothing to him.

"Shou... I love you..."

Then everything fell absolutely silent. She hadn't realized that there was a steadily climbing buzz in the air, but everything fell still as her trembling fingers touched the deadbolt. Shaking hands drew back the lock with a click that resounded through the air.

"and I'm sorry... never forget that..."

The silence that followed was deafening. Nothing moved, Shou couldn't even hear her heartbeat. From down in the basement came a noise... the sound of a wooden step creaking under a paw. At the same time, the door handle turned slowly, ever so slowly. She could hear the slight rubbing, the sound of metal sliding against smooth wood as the latch was pulled from the frame. The silence lasted for exactly half a moment longer.

The door exploded inwards, knocking her off her feet as a veritable flood of dark liquid surged through the doorway. It hit her like a tidal wave, ice cold snapping her out of the trance and dragging her back to reality. Her mouth was open and something was pouring down her throat and-

"OH GOD KHAESHO IT'S INSIDE OF ME GET IT OUT GET IT OUT GET IT OUT!"

She panicked, writhing and flailing, screaming despite the heavy mass in her throat, but Khaesho's thick coils kept her arms pressed tight against her. It was alive, some wretched liquid that squirmed down her throat like a snake, crawling through the walls of her stomach and flushing itself under her skin. She would feel it writhing just under the surface, some hated, alien thing. It did not belong, it itched, she wanted to tear her flesh open, needed to open her veins so that whatever was inside of her could bleed out of her body.

"Khaesho, please, let go, it's under my skin, oh god it hurts, get it out, please!"

"Shou! You have to calm down! Just relax, a-"

"KHAESHO IT'S UNDER MY SKIN! GET IT OUT, PLEASE!"

Her skin writhed from some unknown parasite, slithering amongst her muscles, flowing right beneath her fur. She screamed, flexing all her muscles to the fullest, but was unable to make Khaesho budge even an inch. He slithered around her until he could look her in the eyes, and snapped a small light into existence so she could see his face.

"Shou, please, you have to trust me."

Kalokin had poured as much of his essence as he needed down her throat, and Shou's eyes were shining with tears as she beheld her mate.

"Khaesho, please, you don't understand, I can feel it crawling through my skin and it itches and I- aaaaaaaiiiiiiiiggghhhhh."

Words failed her here, and she turned her head to gnaw at her shoulder, the only part of her she could reach. Khaesho caught her head in his hands and nuzzled his face against hers.

"Shou, you have to calm down... the pain goes away quickly, you don't need to worry."

"But Khaesho-"

"Shou... everything has a price. You want to be with us? Forever? You want to raise a family together? You want to spend every waking second at my side? I do. I can have Kalokin call it off, but if he does, you have to leave immediately, and we can never see each other ever again."

It was a lie, but it was a beautiful lie. Kalokin couldn't turn back now, but they needed Shou to want this, they needed her to still believe that it was her choice. Her tears were flowing freely now, sobbing with pain and revulsion as what may as well have been a demon twisted her spirit and soul.

"Khaesho, it feels so wrong and it hurts and I HATE IT JUST GET IT OUT!"

"Shhhh... I know Shou... It hurt the same way for me..."

He could feel her skin literally crawling as Kalokin spread his essence through her body, and he reached with his claws to scratch. Her legs, her back, her arms, everywhere that the flesh still danced, his claws were there. He kept one arm at her head though, running soothing claws through her hair all the way down to her scalp.

"Please, deeper... harder..."

"If I scratch any harder, it will cut your skin open."

"Yes! CUT IT OUT!"

"Shhh... just try to bear with it... Don't worry... You are safe... we promise you Shouyousei, nothing will ever hurt you again."

She whimpered with pain and misery, but even if she wanted nothing more than to tear her hide open to pull the parasite from her veins, she recognized that fighting Khaesho was futile. He squeezed her tight and pulled on his magic, pulling heat from the surrounding rock until his blood sang with it. Warmth leaked through his scales and into Shou's body, feeling for all the world like she was wrapped in a great, scaly blanket. He whispered soft nothings into her ear as her bone wracking spasms turned into shudders of revulsion, then finally into random twitches of discomfort. She'd kept screaming for most of the time, alternating between begging for a swift death and cursing his name with every word under the sun for not helping her. Finally, after two hours of misery, she fell into a light and uneasy sleep, claws still flexing, trying to cut through her skin.

When at last she fell still, Khaesho left her there in the middle, gathering all the soft furs from around his cave and piling them into a nest. He gently placed her in the nest and joined her, tugging the remaining furs over the top of them to create a wonderfully soft bed. She had curled into the fetal position, and he coiled around her beneath the fur, her warmth soon warming the bed to a sharp heat. Softly, cautiously, Khaesho tried to attract Kalokin's attention.

Kalokin?

I'm a little busy Khaesho.

Will she be alright?

Hell if I know.

He sighed softly before settling himself comfortably in the darkness. He'd been trying to hide it, but he was just as tired as Shou was. He gave her neck one last lick before sleep overtook him.

Shou woke another two hours after that. Her first instinct was to jump up and run, to tear at her flesh and physically pull this parasite from her body, but with a struggle, she managed to clamp down on the urge. She could feel it inside of her still, and it felt_wrong._ She felt horrible and disgusting and used in a way that she hadn't felt since-

Shou? Can... Can you hear me?

It was Kalokin's voice, but it came from inside of her. It spiraled forth from some dark corner of her mind, some unknown crevasse where she could feel something horrible seeping into her consciousness. At first, she panicked, but something about his voice... he sounded timid... scared... alone. He sounded like the pitiful nobody who always got picked on at the playground, the despised fool who didn't have a friend in the world.

"Kalokin?"

Yes... it's me. You don't have to speak aloud though... just think what you want to say, and I'll hear your thoughts.

Like this?

Perfect.

Kalokin, something feels wrong! I don't feel like me, there's something under my skin, something inside me and-

Shh... don't worry Shou... everyone has a hard time of it at first.

She didn't quite understand what he meant, until it clicked. This horrible parasite, this foreign presence that she could feel right beneath her skin... it was him?

Yes, it is me. The only difference between my soul and a demon's soul is that my name is Kalokin. Your spirit reacted to me as it would to a demon trying to possess you.

Wait... you... you're a demon?

Hardly. I'm infinitely more powerful and I'm better company at dinner parties.

It managed to surprise a giggle out of her despite her pain, and he radiated a comfy warmth through her mind that could only be a smile. All of a sudden, a thought came to her with a shock.

Kalokin... are you... are you okay..?

Memories of a bloodied and dying rattlesnake flashed behind her eyes. He'd been in so much pain, he had suffered for hours. She had watched him die in her arms. Kalokin could feel her worry for his safety overshadowing her own pain, and for a moment, he was sorely tempted to lie. He was a thief and a liar by nature, and it would have been easy. It would have put her mind at ease, and the last thing she needed to do was worry about him, but... at the same time, he didn't want to lie to her. He certainly wouldn't have freely spoken of it, but with all that he'd put her through, all he was still going to put her through, he owed her the truth, at the very least.

Define "Okay." In order to do this right and make sure nothing went wrong, I had to clean up the mess I'd left behind first. All things told, the rattlesnake was stuck in your mind for sixteen hours of torture, capped by a slow death. In order to heal, and reclaim that fragment of my soul, I have to effectively re-live every second of those sixteen hours, death included, unless I want to literally cut off a piece of my soul that is filled with sorrow and suffering. That's not a price I'll ever pay though. That's how demons are born.

An unusual twitch rippled across her mind, the mental equivalent of the odd, shuddering motion Khaesho did when upset.

It won't be the first time a piece of me has died, and I somehow doubt it'll be the last. I've lived through worse, though I don't think I'll be pretending to be a Rattlesnake anytime soon. Don't tell Khaesho though, he has more important things to worry about, namely, you.

She knew that a god of thieves could probably lie as smoothly as a spring breeze, and the fact that he didn't, the fact that he told her the truth made her heart swell. As he spoke she whimpered in her mind, whimpered for the pain he had gone through and suffered because of her. The twitch reminded her of Khaesho's shivering, and she bit her bottom lip. Concern welled inside of her and before she could stop herself, she was apologizing softly.

I'm sorry... it was all my fault that happened... I couldn't... I couldn't do anything to help him-

Just stop. It isn't your fault, you were doing exactly what you should have been doing, given the circumstances. It's my fault he got stuck in there, and I don't want to hear you speak another word about it. You aren't out of the woods yet. Your next three days are going to be hell, and before you say anything else, I want to make one thing absolutely clear. You're caring, generous, and there's not a single conceited or prideful bone in your body. That being said, for the next week, you are the center of the world. You need anything, you want anything, you tell us, we'll get it. Until you're out of the sandstorm, it is my and Khaesho's job to do whatever we can to help you through this.

But... you're hurting!

No buts. I've been through worse, and I know that I'll heal. You're more important right now.

Her cheeks colored a deep pink, making the whorls on her cheeks stand out more, but she nodded mutely. ...alright Kalokin - as you say . She smiled softly in the warm darkness, though her ears were drooping and her body was trembling from her exhaustion. A thought crossed her mind, and she grinned wolfishly despite herself. Next week... does that mean it worked?

You're talking with the god of thieves from the inside of your own soul. You tell me.

She couldn't repress a soft squeal of happiness, but Kalokin quickly spoke up again.

Don't party just yet. There's still a possibility you might not make it. You went through the worst of the ethereal part; your soul and spirit were both strong enough to withstand me bending them into pretzels. The problem now is that your soul is half Serpent now... give or take a little. It doesn't fit into your body, because your body is still all Wolf. That means I get to play mad scientist with your guts and see if I can twist your body into a shape that matches your new soul.

You'll do fine... you got this far, right! I trust you, Kalo.

And she did, Kalokin could certainly feel that. He was immersed in her body and soul, and he could feel every thought that passed through her mind. She didn't doubt him... she'd seen him at his worst twice now, and she still trusted him, despite her instinctual revulsion.

I'll try to be worthy of it. Now, there are two ways we can do this. I can keep you in bed for a month and we won't know if you'll survive until the third week, or I can slam your body into shape over a few days, and we'll know you're in the clear if you survive the first twelve hours.

I'm a dancer Kalo, there's no way I could lay in bed for a month and still be sane. Besides, Khaesho owes me an eternity of kisses, and I intend to collect.

As you command. This is something that's better done quickly anyways. I need to take a few hours to get a close look at your biology, make sure I know every way it deviates from a Serpent's. Does everyone of your kind have a four chambered heart?

She giggled at the question, until she realized that he was serious.

Yes...? how many chambers does Khaesho have?

Three. That's why your heartbeat sounds weird next to his. Man... half of your guts don't make any sense at all. What in crooked hell does this thing even do?

_ _He physically poked something inside of her, making her squeal and squirm.

Stop that!

His laugh was a soft chuckle, a polite vibration that seeped through her mind from one corner to the next.

Get some sleep while you can, Shou. Once I start re-making you, it will probably hurt too much for you to get any decent rest.

Alright... and Kalokin?

Yes, my love?

Thanks for letting me stay.

Thank you for wanting to stay... Khaesho's lived effectively alone in this cave for years, thinking every Civilized in the world hated him because of what he was. You don't know how much this means to him.

She murmured something, but the sound was lost even to her own ears as her exhaustion pulled at her again. Her mind still felt like it was being pulled in three different directions at once, but she managed some amount of peace knowing that the feeling would fade soon. Even though it felt horrible and wrong, she trusted him.