Eli efficiently set the stage, a mouthpiece for Austin’s desires. Austin thought Captain Inx might object to dancing to his whim, but with a bow and good humour, Inx began a demonstration of his acrobatic ability. Reba, seemingly, thought Austin wanted a description of how he’d learned the moves, and he was in the middle of explaining the steps to achieving a front flip—something clearly exceptionally easy for him, as he flapped his wings on take-off for extra air time—when Kada emerged onto the porch with Lassie, a silver platter in her hand.
Austin didn’t even look at Lassie, waving to the empty seats on the porch. “Wait there until I’m done eating.”
Reba looked wide-eyed at Lassie, and it took a nudge from Inx to continue his explanation. Reba executed a flip, and Inx, eyes only for Lassie, stepped forward and respectfully declared, “Let me show you a more skilled example.”
Austin glanced at Kada, nervously perched forward in her seat, and the girl startled, eyes wide with fright. She wrung her pipes until her knuckles whitened.
“Something to suit their demonstration, Kada.” Austin didn’t do ‘soft’, but he kept his voice level and calm.
She nodded stiffly and raised the pipes. Austin grimaced as the first sound produced was an off-tune squeak. He felt the wince of everyone, and then the weight of their attention upon him. They’d seen plenty of his raging against Tristan over the past few days for the pettiest of perceived slights. The greatest slight he’d suffered today was Tristan’s inattentive absence.
Austin kept his eyes on the training pair, ignoring the mistake.
Inx talked loudly, as if to distract from it, and Kada recovered herself and began to play. Mercifully, she was in tune, and the pipes, once she found her rhythm, were pleasant.
Reba and Inx were covered in sweat and bent double, panting from their exertion, when Eli spoke up. “I can’t really say who’s better. What do you think, Lassie?”
The look Lassie fixed on the two men before her was unmistakably admiring, but who was being favoured was impossible to tell. At Eli’s question, she looked nervously between the two, face reddening. “I think their athletic ability is impressive,” she admitted. “Though, they look rather tired.”
By “tired” Austin guessed she meant fit and glistening, going off the way she couldn’t tear her eyes off Inx’s chest.
Inx noticed and grinned at her. Lassie’s ears and neck turned as red as her cheeks. “I suppose the captain?”
Austin gestured to the low table. “Rest and eat. I want to see a spar once you’re recovered.”
Reba looked incredibly uneasy venturing onto the porch, Inx curious. Eli stepped in again to talk and prodded the conversation to life. Austin flicked a finger at Kada, and shecorrectly interpreted it as a signal that she, too, could rest. Eli drew from Inx an explanation of how he came to be in Tristan’s service. When the merman brothers took the city, Inx had been one of the former guards. Inx would be spared if he swore fealty.
“Wasn’t exactly a leader left to be loyal to anyway.” Inx shrugged. “Just the leftovers of the late monarch’s court, and she hadn’t been around since I was a teenager. Besides, head of the guards or not, you try telling a preteen that can crack your armour apart with his bare hands that you don’t fancy falling in line.”
“You could have left,” Austin said.
“It’s home. And Tristan’s service really isn’t so bad, unless Secretary Char manages to corner me and stick me on paperwork.” Inx’s tone indicated that such a thing was far worse than the fall of a city, and Austin thought of all the paperwork he put Tammy through. He wasn’t sure he’d personally suffer sitting through forms himself, though he recalled the scientists presenting him with hundreds of surveys to fill out over the years.I felt this, I felt that.
“Boring.”
Inx’s eyes brightened. A genuinely appreciative smile flashed Austin’s way. “Indeed. Prince Halloveshis paperwork, too. I suspect our dear secretary pins official mandates to his wall to read before bed…”
Lassie stifled a giggle. “He does not.”
By the time Reba and Inx had eaten and were wrestling on the sands, a portion of the Troop had snuck away from carrying rocks to watch and cheer them on. They grappled like there were stakes, a competitiveness rising in both men, indicating they genuinely wanted a win. By the time a bleary-eyed Jaris joined them on the porch, Kada was on her feet, blowing out a frantic tune on her pipes.
Inx caught a strike on his chitin-shielded forearm and grabbed Reba by the wing. The men fell to the sands, Inx on top, knees planting onto the strong joints of Reba’s wings. Reba tried to dislodge him but, exhausted, lay back in the sands, gasping.
“I yield,” Reba panted.
A cheer from the Troop went up, and Inx raised two victorious hands high in the air. His smile flashed at Lassie, and then he was on his feet, helping Reba shakily to his as well. Reba didn’t seem too bothered by the defeat, though he grumbled something that made Inx put an arm around his shoulders and squeeze.
There was a hum in the air after the intense fight, and an uncomfortable disquiet filled Austin at the thought of sitting there waitingthe rest of the day.
He looked at Eli. “Put together a competition. I want to see the best fighter.”
Eli leapt into action. He dispensed orders for the Troop to come and prepare themselves, spoke with Lassie about arranging food and drinks, and Jaris bent heads with Kada, discussing their musical input. From thin air, a chalkboard appeared, and lots were drawn.
The entire household turned out on the sands to watch, the competition accepted with startling enthusiasm. Soon enough, Austin understood that was due to the Troop’s appetite for competition, as they threw themselves into fights with whole-hearted determination to win, all wielding whatever biological advantages they had to their full extent.
Eli approached Austin, holding a plate in offering. “Some food, if you’re hungry? You haven’t eaten yet today, and it’s almost dinner.”
Austin ate a few mouthfuls, recognising that the growing agitation inside him was likely just hunger. He drank the juice too, and then he went back to watching the Troop.
