Riro said, “I understand now.When you suffer blood loss, the shark comes out.”
“Does it?Huh.Yeah, every time I lose a lot of blood, I get teethy...toothy...pointy face?”
“Are you tired?”
“Yeah.Disappointing day all around.Oh, I need my tablet.”
“Cabree has it.”
“She’s here, too?Aw, I didn’t want to fuck up date night.”
Cabree snorted.“You just made me aware that I am not on any kind of population control, and Denog has no reason to be, so now we wait.”
“Well, you can keep having sex.You can’t get more pregnant, and I get the inkling that he’s a flooder.”
Riro laughed.“Where did you learn that?”
“I am a faster learner.The audio is still playing from the tablet.”
Cabree paused and then chuckled.“Yeah, he is.”
Denog snorted.
Pria whispered, “Damn.I caused a parade.”
She didn’t know what happened after that because she fainted.
The lights were bright, there was a bag of blood hanging above her, but the blood was a strange colour.Cabree was holding her hand.“Seriously?How in the name of all the gods can we be the same blood type?”
Cabree lifted her head and smiled.“I am a match when I need to be.They got two pints out of me, so you should be fine.”
“Aww.I didn’t want you perforated.”
“Honey, you did that enough for the both of us.What really happened?”
“Hm?”
“That was a ryokon stinger.It’s a speargun mark.”
“Wow.That was precise.”
“I used to snorkel with my family before the gold thing.”
“That sounds fun.”
“It was.Did you do fun stuff with your family?”
“I was learning to cook with my grandma when I cut myself, and then the eye and teeth thing, and then I used water as a bandage, but it is a bad bandage.Grandma called me a demon, and then we just waited until I was old enough to be sold to the capitol.”
Cabree said softly, “What do you mean?”
“The program was looking for elemental-based actives, so they paid my parents for me.So, I was sold.”She chuckled.“When the program learned I couldn’t breathe water, they tried to get their money back, but the old king told them to fuck off.”
Cabree stroked her hand.
“They tried to get Hyreno to take me, but they said they don’t take air breathers, and so I went into the guardian program, and we know how that turned out.”
The hand clutched hers.