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ALIANA
Night has fallenby the time Creep has portalled us all over and Tesq helped me scrounge up something to eat in the forest. We end up circling a small fire in front of the stone arch leading into the cave. It's testing our luck with the tracker, but we're all so hungry that we're past caring. Besides, we’re confident that it’ll take the monster days, if not weeks, to reach us here.
Crickets sing all around us as the fire snaps and jumps, flames dancing yellow and bright. Juices drip down my chin, warm and delicious, as we feast on a squirrel and two rabbits I speared with ice and a pot full of mash from rinsed and roasted acorns Tesq gathered. Dev's stomach still growls afterwards, and I imagine none of my mates are incredibly full, but none of them complain about it.
Em keeps trying to slide some of his share of the acorns over to me, annoyed when I won't take them.
"Can't I just be nice and give them to you?" he grumbles, his eyebrows furrowed.
"First off, you're a monster. Nice is unnatural. Second, you're in a body that needs food, and I won't let you starve Chase. He's still healing." I cut off the "idiot" I want to add at the end of the sentence, but I think Em gets the insult even though it remains unspoken.
"Always Chase this. Chase that. Did youeven likemy picnic?" He stands up with a huff and stomps off into the trees. Hobbles really, the stubborn fool.
I glare after him, wondering what the hell his problem is.
"He's trying to woo you,” Creep whispers unhelpfully, leaning over my left shoulder.
"Yeah. Got that. He sucks at it."
"Of course he does. He's a shit, and you don't need to be his. You're mine.” Dev's eyes glimmer like rubies in the firelight from his place across from me.
I throw one of Em's abandoned acorns across the fire at him. "Fuck off. You like sharing me, and you know it."
Dev just narrows his eyes and glares at me for calling him out as he pops the acorn into his mouth. "Making him jealous is just going to make him want to kill Chase once they can separate, you know."
Goddammit.
"It's not like I want Chase," I say, though my stomach tightens at the lie, and Creep backhands my shoulder lightly.
"You need to work on that poker face," he tells me. "Or actually, don't. I'll portal around and rummage up some cards, and we can play strip poker before the hot sex you promised me."
My blue monster gives me a salacious wink that rolls my eyes to the back of my head.
Tesq interrupts the obnoxious direction the conversation is going by speaking up for the first time since we started eating. His joints grind a little as he swivels on a tree stump to face Creep. "You need to portal to find Uni."
Both the other monsters turn to look at him in disbelief.
"I don't want to find that fucker," Creep protests, lip curling.
Dev leans forward closer to the fire, and the flames seem to jump higher in an effort to touch his face. They don't, but their dancing stripes him with color, and his entire face seems to glow eerily. "That asshole was banished. For good reason."
"Wait. Banishment is an option? I thought monsters were all about beheading," I pipe in, glancing curiously between Creep and Dev, who both seem to be vibrating with fury.
"He was banished. Once we divided the kingdom." Tesq's reply is slow. His sentences are broken, but his tone is steady, and when Fluffy emerges from the trees after her own hunt for dinner, he softly lifts his hand and turns his attention to her, as if nothing out of the ordinary is happening.
I glance between my three monsters, waiting for further explanation, but Dev and Creep are busy having a facial expression conversation with one another, and Tesq is busy nuzzling his tiger's blue fur.
"Fuck!" Creep says as he jolts to his feet.
Guess his naughty plans will wait.
I quickly rise off the dead log I dragged over for my dinner seat, but before I can say a word, my monster under the bed is gone. Portalled away.
Turning to Dev, I open my mouth to demand an explanation, but he gestures off into the trees. "Go get Em before he hangs the human boy. He'll want to be here for this."
"Here for what?"
"Hurry. So you don't miss Creep when he gets back."
