Note: This chapter contains strong nguage, transphobic and fatphobic comments, as well as violence through fire.

  *Transtions are provided by Skyr.

  Shit, shit, shit, shit.

  This wasn’t supposed to happen.

  The leading man stepped closer, but the grass only pulled Pnet deeper in. Sol seethed from the trees, adjusting Moon on her shoulder. Pnet and the grass were so perfectly still that Sol felt the trees holding their breath.

  The man stepped forward, crouching towards Pnet. The Dragon stepped away, offering a kind gaze to them both. Sol summoned a knife behind his back, ready to throw.

  Pnet moved herself the slightest inch backward, as the man extended a hand to her. “Forgive me for my Dragon. Venul is the curious one of the bunch.”

  Pnet didn’t move. Even from here, Sol could hear the men’s whispers.

  “Is she a statue?”

  “Hasn’t moved one bit.”

  That blind pustule of a man. Sol compined.

  The man stepped closer to Pnet. Sol snapped his vision towards him and threw the knife.

  It cut through the air, jumping between rays of light until it sailed past the man’s hand, blood popping, and paused before Pnet’s shoulder. Sol held it up through a ray as she stepped out, summoning another knife behind her back.

  “Step away from my sister,” he ordered.

  The man returned to Pnet and saw she’d vanished, reappearing behind Sol.

  “Se ete xau,” she whispered. I’ll take him.

  Sol passed Moon into her arms and waited for her to sit with him before he stepped forward and directed her Embodiment form into her arms, which vanished and was repced with two balls of light molded from the rays above.

  When others saw this, they would run in fear, screaming monster and freak. Unfortunately, this had the opposite effect.

  The men whispered among themselves, putting the pieces together.

  Pnet doodled a rune into the ground: “idika” for famous.

  Sol nodded before she yelled. The men had surged forward, falling to their knees and trying to kiss their feet.

  “What are you doing?” Sol cried, trying to jump away. She moved the balls of light towards them and they screamed as they tried to look up at them.

  Pnet performed another subconscious act, using the earth as one would shake out a bedsheet. The waves carried the men behind their leader, who hadn’t moved when they'd run.

  “A brother?” the man whispered. “That expins your bravery.” his gaze turned to Moon. “Why is he asleep?”

  “I-”

  “That is between us,” Sol snapped, cutting her off before whispering to her in Elven. “Yus ete awyeka woultyeit ne, fyor.” Do not tell him anything, flower.

  “Elven?” one hissed.

  “Why do they know Elven?”

  The man’s eyes turned to their bodies. “Elven uniforms…simple ears…heavier than usual…Who are you three?”

  Another tapped his shoulder and whispered in his ear. The two watched as his eyes widened as he discovered the news.

  “The Triplets,” he whispered.

  “Ay, veriki, zikiete.” Sol sighed. “Yus mi nizaabe ckleet oski-yukisk! Yuse obiritan uyliuxa anmi skartan!” Ah, fuck, Pnet. You could’ve run with me! Now we’ve been found again!

  “Fem-ta yuse e zirta jieran v?ren kop xin-an, bodkir?” Pnet asked, still shivering. “A muri se etiervi-” How did we end up in the st Elven town, then? As far as I know-

  “Ijero yuse naren lerik, ne, et mi naren vinar. Mi ne woulyiet kop boliki lekisk.” Moon pushed us there, no, he pulled me there. I had no tell in that.

  “Se yus e sev verai kop peris pik-deywe woenar vise ako, far?n j?dil os, hzerven dek os e zirtan nek ywed yus luamni!" Of course, because I should turn to you whenever we decide on a new community. You’re not even awake half of the time!

  “Viern, zikiete.” Sol said, snapping his fingers impatiently. “Estene viern enamni f?birk. Yu e zirtan nizaabe kipbi.” Vilges, Pnet. They are named vilges. Get with the times.

  “Yu swe-odswe verikiz femii henerve! Yu se yweka levinril kop mi akizien devisk?" Four hundred fucking years, you idiot! Do you expect me to remember everything thrown at me?

  Sol removed a calf, turning it to light to py within her hands. “Se zein ne-wil zee- HANDS OFF OF OUR BROTHER NOW, YOU VERMIN!” A shame I cannot…

  He rolled himself into his Embodiment form, expanding as big as the space would allow, hovering over the sweating men, and one who had reached for Moon was now disintegrating under the fmes. The Dragon, meanwhile, leaned forward to smell.

  “Release him.” Pnet ordered from behind her.

  Sol sought out her location and doodled runes into the side of the ball, which, when transted to the Skartan Zirtan a Woulti, read “This would be scarier if you were an Embodiment, too.”

  “Whatever offer you are requesting,” Pnet started, showing Sol the hand-sign for uveri. “My sibling firmly rejects it.”

  “Your…what is that? A sibling?” a man spat out the word foreign to his tongue. “What does that mean? He was clearly a boy.”

  Sol let fmes come from his sides, forcing them towards a few heads whom had come close and began to stick to her.

  “Are you done?” Pnet asked. “E ruvia fliz anmi? Ezt kir menira anmi.” Is the Dragon okay? She's quite near.

  “Vemir, lenik.” Sol snapped, falling into his Wizardly body. “E ruvia fliz dokri an. Keitik eztene anmi zee-tet der?m enwoultye.” Quiet, sister. The dragon will be fine. Studies say they're fire-resistant.

  “Yuze boliki e jirau kipik tora pur? oz tervien kop eztene ne-eipal zikara uveri urdup.” Fuck you, and didn’t we agree that the Elves have limited knowledge on them?

  The leading man stroked his Dragon, staring at them all. “It seems like you’re fine by yourself.”

  “Clearly.” Sol snapped. “Now if you’ll excuse us-”

  “-which is why you’ll need a mentor.”

  “I’m sorry, excuse me?” Sol stared at him, confused. “Excuse me? You’ve just said we’re well off by ourselves.”

  “Precisely. You need guidance through the wild.”

  “We’re well,” Sol said. “Nothing would hurt us.”

  “Except for Giants.” Pnet cut in, counting them off her fingers. “Or those birds. And we can’t anger the Deities. Plus-”

  “Zerki tra-tarati." Smart-ass.

  “Solely you.”

  The man kept talking, stroking his nearly nonexistent facial hair. “I know a good tutor, an old friend of mine. According to your uniforms and nguage, you’ve been living with Elves for nearly a hundred years?”

  “Why should you care? Shall I iterate once more? We - forgive me, for my sister is dense - I have no intentions of leaving with a stranger.”

  “Sor.” Pnet whispered. “Pli-kett.”

  “Air? The air? What about-?”

  “Dukropi, yus zerki. What is the word for sky?” Above, you ass.

  “Dlegeti?” a third voice whispered. Sun?

  “Ten minutes, Ijero.” Sol hissed. His blinks were becoming heavier. This wasn’t supposed to happen now! “I just need-”

  The sun began to sink towards the horizon and Sol suppressed a yawn. Shit.

  The men watched in fascination as Sol grabbed for Pnet’s shoulder, the tiredness growing by the second.

  “Mi raiko zirtan edeilla.” Sol hissed. “Megik tasil fiurai n?kar lixa?” I need more time. May Seventh answer this prayer?

  “Yuze ne menira vakk vaned yubiyar ek ah, yus tasil tiervi.” Pnet said. We are not nearly strong enough to affect their magics, you know this.

  A man looked at them. “Is this when your souls switch?”

  “Biad?n…Sorry,” Sol smmed his jaw shut, forcing her eyes open. “What does that mean?”

  “It’s storytelling. Your souls switch at each dawn and rise. It's your schedule, is it not?”

  “Interestende,” Pnet said. “As…”

  Sol could hear nothing more as he slumped into Pnet’s arms, asleep. The st thing she saw was Moon shifting on the ground and opening his blue-gray eyes to stare at the scene before him.