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Vasily ducked into Amaru’s tent with a greeting on his lips that died unspoken. Amaru was absolutely nowhere to be seen. Worse, the cot looked unslept in.
Just where the hell had he gone?
Vasily’s sixth sense, ‘now it’s my problem’ alarm promptly went off.
Swearing, he turned about and searched the camp. He distinctly remembered tucking Amaru into bed last night and making sure he had everything he needed, so where had his mage gone? It was very obvious he had spent maybe two seconds in his cot before leaving it. Was it just because Amaru had slept so much recently that he couldn’t fathom lying down again? Or had some idea popped to mind that he wanted to explore? As long as he hadn’t found trouble in the dead of night, it was fine. It did mean, however, that he was now looking for both of his mates instead of just one. He came across other people as he stalked through the camp, stopping to ask if they had they seen Amaru or Luka. Eventually, someone had seen Amaru and pointed him to the research end of the camp.
He hoofed it over there, finding Amaru within seconds. He had a folding card table in front of him, a screwdriver in hand, and what looked like a thousand pieces of…something…spread out over the table. It looked like electronics, but damn if Vasily knew what he’d taken apart.
Amaru sat hunched over it like Gollum with his ring, muttering to himself in dire tones. He did not look happy.
A little concerned, Vasily approached and leaned over the opposite side of the table. “Amaru?”
His head popped up, eyes blinking owlishly for a second as he clearly switched mental tracks. Then he smiled broadly. “Favorite person! Hello. How are you this morning?”
“I’m fine. Did you sleep?” he asked because Amaru did not have the air of a man who had slept at all.
Amaru waved this off. “Not tired. Slept too much.”
“What are you doing?”
“Trying to figure this thing out. But now it’s all in pieces and my repair spell isn’t working because I don’t know how this works.” Amaru glared at the bits on the table like this was entirely their fault for not cooperating.
Just from the casing, Vasily guessed this had been a cell phone last night. Whose might be the question. He smothered a chuckle at Amaru’s frustration because that expression wasn’t meant to be cute. Mentally, he promised himself to find a pawn shop later and buy a bunch of cheap electronics for the mage to play with. Starting with a cell phone was like diving into a new video game on the extra hard level.
It was a shame Luka was missing this. He mentally aimed a kick in his other mate’s direction. Just wait until he laid hands on him…Vasily wasn’t sure if leaving Amaru in this moment was all right or not. He seemed safely occupied?
Amaru, in a fit of frustration, reached for a sharp rock on the ground and took a jabbing stab at a wire.
Vasily frantically caught his arm before it could impact. No. Not safe to leave Amaru alone. Dammit. Luka would have to wait. “Let’s not destroy either the phone or your hand.”
Amaru glared at him, anger rising. “It. Won’t. Come. Apart.”
“How about you let that be for now? We can go shopping for you.”
“Oh! Yes. Excellent.” Amaru bounced up, although he cast one last disapproving scowl at his project. “I need many things. All sorts of tools and elements if I’m to have a workable space.”
Vasily had meant more clothing, but okay. He could see how Amaru would need tools too if he was to work on the problem of waking up his clan. “It should be interesting to figure out what modern tools will work for you.”
“Hmm, yes, I pondered this problem while working on that.” Another glare. “But tools are tools; it’s me who needs to adapt to them. Right, so, where do we go?”
“Let’s start with spell elements. The mages around us will know best what we have on hand, or what can be brought over, and they can start pulling that together while we shop for actual tools and clothes.”
“Clothes?” Amaru looked down at the clothes he wore, then back up with a growing frown. “But I like wearing Luka’s clothes.”
Hearing this absolutely delighted him. Amaru might not know they were mates, but he clearly liked Luka quite a bit. “He only brought so much to wear, you know.”
“Then buy him more clothes so I can borrow them.”
“Your logic is hurting my brain.”
“I’ve been accused of that more than once.” Amaru came around to lean up against Vasily’s side, almost snuggling in, really. He batted those enormous chestnut eyes, so cute Vasily’s heart almost stopped. “I like screwdrivers.”
Snorting a laugh, Vasily promised, “We’ll get you a wide variety. Plus other things.”
