Page 48 of In Darkness and Dank

“Yes. Very strong.” Shu buried his cheek into Kittisak’s hair.

Sharing a tender embrace in this gorgeous lagoon while Shu’s minutes-old nephew tried to shove Kittisak’s finger into his toothless mouth was pretty damn amazing. He could feel Shu’s soft breath on his ear, and his heart skipped right over itself as Shu squeezed him a little closer and chuckled as Hue managed to get a small nibble on Kittisak’s thumb.

Kittisak was pretty sure this was the most magical moment of his entire life.

Bal’s laughter broke the spell, and Kittisak frowned. “What?”

“I see,” Bal teased, wading over to retrieve Hue. She was eyeing Shu. “Very almae.”

Shu hissed at her.

Bal laughed harder.

They went into the shallows for Hue to splash around, and he was already a very strong swimmer. Bal had to regularly dive back out into the water to grab him from going out too far, scolding him the entire way back only for him to do it again a little while later. Shu brought them a fresh batch of fruit to share, and Kittisak offered to share the fish he’d cooked.

Shu eagerly accepted the cooked fish again, though Bal was distrustful and preferred to eat hers raw. Hue ravenously ate both and then passed out in Bal’s lap, exhausted from his many escape attempts.

It made Kittisak smile as he was reminded of his own efforts to leave this lagoon.

As the sun dipped in the sky and turned it a lovely shade of pinkish-orange, Bal loudly announced that she and Hue were leaving. She wanted to go share the news of Hue’s birth with the rest of their family, and she kept giving Shu long, meaningful looks and giggling at him.

Kittisak still had no idea what that was about, and neither one would tell him.

The most he’d gotten out of Bal was that the moon was coming.

They bid farewell, and Kittisak was very pleased to have earned himself a hug from Bal. He squeezed Hue’s little hand one last time, and then Bal took off back into the pool with him, leaving Kittisak and Shu alone.

“Wow,” Kittisak said as he flopped down on his butt beside the cold fire pit. “That was a hell of a day, huh?”

“Hell of a day,” Shu agreed as he sat next to him. “Happy. Very happy. Hue beautiful.”

“Yes, he is. Congratulations on becoming an uncle! He’s a cute kid!” Kittisak grinned. “I’m guessing Hue is not gonna keep the tail though, huh?”

“Eh. We lose tail.” Shu shook his head. “No tail when big.”

“You want some of those running around one day? Little egg babies?”

Shu grinned. “Perhaps one day. Much time for that.” He nudged Kittisak. “You? Want babies?”

“Yeah, one day,” Kittisak replied. “Like you said, lots of time for all that, right?”

“Much, much time.”

“How would that even work?” Kittisak’s brow furrowed. “I mean, you can’t just put an egg in me.” He hesitated, and a sliver of panic struck him. “Wait, can you?”

“No.” Shu laughed. “Some pozzos adopt eggs.”

“There’s just… random Rife eggs hanging around that need families?”

“Sometimes.” Shu shrugged. “Sister Lhi has baby from big water. Family gone, leave egg.”

“Oh.” Kittisak frowned. “So, she adopted the egg?”

“Yes.”

“Does that happen a lot?”

“Eh.” Shu shook his head. “But pozzos do not need egg to be pozzos.”

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