The Airstream gleamed under the strange violet starlight as we returned to the campsite. The aluminum exterior caught and reflected the alien sky, making the trailer appear as if it were made of liquid silver—something otherworldly and ethereal rather than the mundane relic of my grandfather's life it actually was.
Krysanthea parked the ranger vehicle, killed the engine, and sat motionless for a long moment. Her scaled hands remained on the steering wheel, knuckles tense with tension. The confident, authoritative ranger who had whisked me away to dinner seemed to have vanished almost entirely now.
"I need a minute," she said, her voice barely audible. "Go ahead inside."
Nessy and I exchanged another glance. Wordlessly, she squeezed my hand, her message clear: Let's give her space.
We stepped out into the night air, leaving Krysanthea alone with her thoughts. The forest around us was alive with sound—crickets chirping, the rustle of leaves in the gentle breeze, the distant call of some night bird. Normal sounds. Familiar sounds. A stark contrast to the cosmic strangeness of the purple sky above.
Inside the Airstream, the warmth was immediate and welcome after the night's chill. The rangers had connected the RV to an electrical line and a propane tank. Per the clicks of switches, lightbulbs ignited across the interior bathing it in warm light. Nessy moved to the small kitchenette, filling a kettle with water and setting it on the propane stove.
"Tea," she explained, catching my questioning look. "For shock. And... other things."
"You think tea will help?" I asked, settling onto the bench seat by the fold-down table.
"Not really," she admitted, her ears drooping slightly. "But it gives me something to do with my hands while I figure out what will." Her tail swished anxiously behind her. "I never thought... I mean, she was always so perfect. So untouchable. It never occurred to me that she might be..."
“Hurt?" I suggested.
Nessy nodded, her expression troubled. "Yeah. Those stats… that’s tough."
I nodded.
“I feel hell-a-stupid now,” She shuddered visibly. "I've been competing with a ghost, fighting someone who’s hurting so much.”
Through the Airstream's window, I could see Krysanthea still sitting in the vehicle, her silhouette motionless against the dashboard lights. There was something profoundly lonely about the image—this predator, this protector, isolated by a looped-time experience none of us could truly understand.
In a few more minutes, the door to the ranger vehicle finally opened. Krysanthea emerged. She had composed her features into a mask of professional detachment.
The kettle whistled, startling us both. Nessy hurried to remove it from the heat, preparing three mugs of tea. By the time Krysanthea reached the Airstream's door, the husky was ready, a steaming mug extended in offering.
"Tea?" Nessy asked.
Krysanthea paused at the threshold, amber eyes narrowing slightly with suspicion at this unexpected kindness. After a moment's hesitation, she accepted the mug with a nod of thanks, her clawed fingers wrapping around the ceramic.
"I..." she began, then stopped, seeming to struggle with words. "I would prefer… if you didn't discuss what the System revealed to anyone outside our trio."
"Of course," Nessy said immediately, ears flattening in sympathy.
An awkward silence settled over the Airstream. Krysanthea sat onto the leather bench across from me, her body language guarded. Nessy fidgeted by the kitchenette, clearly torn between her natural impulse to comfort and her uncertainty about how to approach this new, vulnerable version of her longtime rival.
Finally, it was Krysanthea who broke the silence.
"I should… drive to the ranger station… get and set up the tent," she said, her voice carefully neutral. "It's getting late."
"You don't have to sleep outside," I said. "There's room for you in here."
A ghost of her usual sardonic expression flickered across her features. "The Airstream is designed for two at most, and that's assuming they're comfortable with close quarters." She gestured vaguely at the limited space. "Three would be... excessive."
"We'll totes make it work!" Nessy declared suddenly, her tail giving a tentative wag. "The bed can be expanded. I saw the mechanism earlier while cleaning. And I don't mind sleeping on the floor if necessary."
Surprise flashed across Krysanthea's face at the offer. "Why would you—"
"Because that's what packmates do," Nessy interrupted, voice filled with warm conviction to the brim. "They look out for each other. Even when it's inconvenient. Especially when it's inconvenient!”
Something shifted in Krysanthea's posture then—confusion and an almost imperceptible lowering of her guard. She set her barely-touched tea on the table and exhaled slowly, her feathers settling against her body.
"I appreciate the offer," she said, the words sounding strange and formal on her tongue. "But I think I need some time alone. To... process my stats…"
She turned to leave, but Nessy moved with surprising speed, intercepting her at the door.
"Nope," the husky said, planting herself firmly in the raptor's path. "No more alone. That's not how this works."
"I don’t think that you get it—”
"You're right, I don't get it," Nessy admitted. "I can't possibly understand what you went through out there, all alone for so long. But I know what it's like to lose someone. To feel like part of you is missing." Her blue eyes held Krysanthea's amber ones. "And I know that being alone with those feelings doesn't help. It just gives them more space to echo. I’ve been separated from Alec for four years. You’ve been separated from him for two and a half years. It won’t help to add more time alone to that. Both of us have been alone long enough.”
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
For a moment, I thought Krysanthea might simply push past Nessy—assert her physical superiority and retreat away. But something in the husky's earnest expression seemed to reach her.
“He’s not our Alec,” Kristi said.
“He is,” Nessy insisted. “Right, Alec?”
“At this point, I’m not really sure,” I confessed. “I got another weird memory flash in the restaurant. I… remembered your sister, Katerina, threatening me into no longer hanging out with Nessy because I danced with you at the formal.”
“That bitch!” Nessy growled. “Sorry, I know she’s your sister and all… but what the fuck?!”
“Kat was always very protective of the family,” Kristi sighed. “She takes her words too far sometimes. I can… tell her to bring it down a notch.”
“Thank you,” Nessy said. “If we’re gonna be Alec’s packmates we should do our best to reduce his stress levels, not raise them.”
Kristi let out another weary sigh, sitting back down onto the bench. The silence between us stretched on, taut and awkward.
Then, perhaps sensing that words alone wouldn't bridge this gap, Nessy dug into a pile of sorted things and pulled out an old guitar belonging to my grandfather. She turned it for a bit then her fluffy hands struck the strings and both of our eyes snapped to her, drawn by the chords that had an inexplicable weight to them, her voice resonant and clear as if amplified to concert-levels by the metal interior of the RV.
Ho-owoo-oo-oo-owa!”
Highway loops can't hold you down,
Soul damage can't make you drown!
With every step and every breath,
We'll fight together beyond death!”
Nessy sang, strumming and tapping her feet against the floor, some of the lyrics echoing unnaturally across the RV’s interior. Kristi’s eyes went wide.
“Ho-owoo-oo-oo-owa!
Twisted time and dungeon days,
Breaking souls in countless ways!
Feathers dulled and courage drained,
But still this raptor's heart remained!
Whoa-oh-owooooo! Oh yea!
Pack of three against the tide,
Husky nose and raptor sight!
No matter what the System breaks,
We'll stand together, come what may!”
The music wrapped itself around us like a tangible, albeit invisible, warm blanket. I watched as Krysanthea's rigid posture vanished, her shoulders lowering incrementally with each verse. Her amber eyes closed, feathers rising and falling with her breathing as she seemed to let the music wash over her.
“Whoa-oh-owooooo!
Prowling time and twisted things,
Can't touch what our bond brings!
I howl a promise to the sky above,
Scales, skin and fur united as one!
Yeah-yeah! Yeah-yeah!
A leader reborn from bathtub gloom,
Our anchor through the Systemfall doom!
With fangs and claws we'll guard his back,
The strongest, fiercest, wildest pack!
Pack of three against the tide,
Husky nose and raptor sight!
No matter what the System breaks,
We'll stand together, come what may!”
Krysanthea smiled, glancing at me. ‘What the fuck’ her expression said. ‘How’s she doing that?’
“Whoa-oh-owooooo!
Raptor brave with broken soul,
We'll help you heal and make you whole!
Rivals once but packmates now,
This is my solemn, sacred vow!
Pack of three against the tide,
Husky nose and raptor sight!
No matter what the System breaks,
We'll stand together, come what may!
Ho-owoo-oo-oo-owa! Yeah, yeah!”
“What in the Slayer’s name?!” Kristi sputtered as Nessy strummed the final chord and fell silent. “You couldn’t have composed that just now… right?!
“I did,” Nessy grinned.
“HOW?!”
“Magic!” Nessy waved her hands in the spongebob-imagination meme format.
“That… that doesn’t explain shit!”
“Fine, fine,” Nessy huffed. “I practiced singing for four years so that I could impress Alec when he returned from university. Plus the System blessed me with… Riffweld Skill! It's like the songs just pour out of me when I’m with my pack! Like they were already written somewhere in my soul and I'm just... channeling them. Pretty neat, right?"
Krysanthea stared at the husky with barely concealed envy. "So while I was getting my soul chewed on by a time loop, you were developing supernatural musical abilities?" She shook her head in disbelief. "The System has a strange sense of humor."
"Sorry," Nessy said, her ears drooping slightly. "I didn't mean to—I mean, that song was for you! I wanted to make you smile!”
"No," Krysanthea interrupted, raising a scaled hand. "It was... beautiful. Surprisingly so." She stretched. "You have a gift. An actual, meaningful gift. A musical talent amplified by Systemfall. I've never thought that something like that would be possible. Not corruption or madness, but… rhyme, beauty.”
Nessy's tail began wagging hesitantly. "Thank you. That means a lot coming from you. An actual complement from you! Yay!”
She high fived me.
"She never praises anyone unless they absolutely deserve it," Nessy ranted at me. "Impossible standards, no participation trophies from Krysanthea Liss Strand. No siree!”
A small smile quirked at the corner of Krysanthea's snout. "Some things haven't changed, I suppose."
The tension between them had transformed into something different—not quite friendship, but no longer the bristling antagonism of earlier. It felt like a truce, fragile and new.
"So," Krysanthea said. "Who’s sleeping where?"
Nessy's ears perked up, her tail wagging with renewed vigor. "I'll figure it out! I'm an expert nest-builder!”
The velociraptor raised an eyebrow, but Nessy already took off, tail wagging like a helicopter, almost smacking into everything nearby.
She pulled hidden levers and compartments, expanding the bed platform to nearly twice its original size. Blankets and pillows which she fetched from her place earlier became arranged with meticulous care, fluffed and positioned according to some internal logic only Nessy understood.
“Dang, she’s really going at it,” Kristi commented, nursing her tea.
“Yep,” I nodded from my seat across from her.
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