"Kaledoniya!" Krysanthea admonished sharply, stepping closer. "That's quite enough."

  "But he does," the teenage raptor insisted, her feathers rising in defiance.

  Kristi sent her deadliest raptor glare at her younger sister.

  "Not bad different," Kaledoniya seemed to correct herself. "Just... Sliiiiiighty different. Like he's been somewhere very bloom-y for a few days… with a dog."

  "He has been out of town," Krysanthea replied smoothly. "Places none of us can imagine. He’s gone past highway 69 which I could not even go through in my own search for him. Miss Whitepaw was with him for a bit… she guided him back home with her husky nose.”

  “Ah! That would explain why he smells of dog and various Systemfall blooms!” Kaledoniya nodded.

  The explanation seemed to satisfy the gathered raptors, who nodded in collective understanding. Of course he smelled different—he had traveled through territories corrupted by the System. He had survived experiences they could only guess at. The alternative—that I might not be their Alec at all—remained unraised.

  The claustrophobic press of scaled bodies, the overlapping voices asking a million questions I couldn't truthfully answer, the expectant eyes seeking familiar recognition—it all created a suffocating sense of false identity. I was playing a role I hadn't auditioned for, wearing a skin that didn't quite fit.

  I should have spoken up. Should have clarified who—what—I really was. But the words wouldn't come. The hope in their eyes was too raw, their dark, sharp claws too close to me.

  Would they tear me apart right then and there if I told them that I wasn’t one of theirs?

  An eerie sense of déjà vu settled into my bones.

  I’ve been to this room before. Been badgered by their questions before and also saying nothing because I was too shy when Kristi introduced me as the boy who danced with her at the formal.

  I recalled, Kristi leaving to the bathroom and being accosted by the second sister. Katerina. Told that I was chosen to be part of their pack by the big sister. Threatened not to spend time with other girls or… else.

  I blinked and the alien memory was gone.

  What if I was their Alec, in some fundamental way? What if the boundaries between souls were more permeable than I'd imagined? The thought was concerning—suggesting belonging and a degradation of my core identity I did not wish for.

  I saw her eyes then. Cold, dangerous, gold with flecks of silver. Katerina was staring at me from where she sat by the fireplace on a dark leather seat, claws tapping at the handle. She didn't sniff me nor pester me with questions. She simply stared.

  [Achievement Unlocked: "Foreign Diplomatic Relations" - Successfully infiltrated a nest of raptors without becoming dinner! Charisma check passed. Mostly.] The System commented unhelpfully with a flash of silver text.

  Gee thanks, I thought.

  [Side Quest Discovered: "The Prodigal Son Returns" - Maintain your cover as the 'real' Alec while surrounded by dangerous predators with extremely sensitive noses. Reward: Continued survival and potential political alliance.]

  I mentally sighed.

  "Alec has had a long day," Krysanthea finally announced, her voice cutting through the chatter with practiced authority. "He needs rest. We'll have plenty of time for reunions in the coming days."

  Relief washed through me at her intervention, though I tried to kept my expression carefully neutral.

  "Of course, of course," the Lord Marshall agreed, waving a scaled hand dismissively. "Take him home, Kristi. We'll reconvene at a later date."

  Home. The word was laden with implications. Whose home? The Airstream where Nessy waited? Krysanthea's residence? Some other place that belonged to a version of me where I'd never been?

  As Krysanthea led me from the room, her clawed hand firm against the small of my back, I felt the weight of the raptors' collective gaze following us—expectant, hopeful, oblivious to the truth. Katerina’s eyes stayed on me the longest. It was likely she didn't appreciate that I smelled of Nessy.

  In the quiet of the stairwell, away from the press of bodies and expectations, I finally found my voice.

  "You didn't tell them," I said quietly.

  Krysanthea's amber eyes met mine, unblinking. "No," she agreed. "I didn't. Sorry."

  "Why?"

  Her scaled fingers flexed slightly against my back, the gentle pressure both guiding and possessive. "Hope," she replied simply. "Ferguson needs hope right now. The truth is... too complicated."

  Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

  "Complicated," I echoed, the word hollow in my mouth. "That's one way to put it."

  A thick, reinforced door cut off all sound as we entered into a small, lavish lobby waiting area.

  "Would you have preferred I introduce you as an immortal, System-reconstructed duplicate from another dimension?" she leaned in with a whisper, her tone betraying a rare hint of defensiveness. "How do you think they would have reacted to that? Some of my sisters aren't as as understanding as I am and Dad is really set against Systemfall corruption.”

  I had no answer, and she knew it. The raptors' reaction to anything System-related would likely have been fear, suspicion—perhaps even violence. Their warm welcome would have transformed into cold scrutiny or worse.

  "The truth has its place," Krysanthea said. "But timing matters. Context matters."

  "And what happens when they discover I'm not who they think I am?" I asked.

  "That," she said, her voice softening slightly, "depends entirely on what you prove yourself to be instead. Show your worth to the town, Lord Marshall and my sisters by being a good, helpful boy and you will have acceptance and love. Mine and my family’s. The Strand Estate owned a third of Ferguson before Systemfall and afterwards we were the ones to offer them protection with our strength. Before highway 69 looped into itself, it was my family’s pack that raided the nearby abandoned military bases and storage facilities.”

  I sighed.

  “We procured all of the supplies and tools from the Amazon distribution warehouse that our family owned, relocating everything to Ferguson, securing the Valley with an array of sensors and cameras. Father was elected Emergency State Lord Marshall because he offered the people of this town stability and hope in time of great panic.”

  I wondered if the Strand Estate was something like the Italian mafia. It sure seemed that way with the whole lavish restaurant sitting room and strong family bonds, threats and raiding warehouses.

  "Alec…" Krysanthea's voice dropped to a register.

  I turned to her.

  Without warning, she suddenly sank to one knee before me, her starlit dress pooling around her like spilled midnight. The gesture was so unexpected, so utterly incongruous with everything I learned about her, that I found myself frozen.

  "I, Krysanthea Liss Strand, hereby offer my allegiance to my Undying Knight," she declared, her scaled hand extended palm-up toward me in a formal gesture. "As the daughter of the Lord Marshall of Ferguson, I pledge to stand as your shield against all that would harm you, to guide you through the complexities of our world, and to ensure your place within the boundary of this town and even beyond it… forevermore."

  I stared at her. This wasn't a romantic proposal—it was something stranger, more primal. A predator offering alliance. A powerful family extending membership to an outsider.

  [Companion Alignment Challenged! Raptor-clan offering detected. Warning: Accepting additional alignment may cause significant canine distress and potential companion loyalty fluctuations. Domestic complexity increased by 37%. New achievement unlocked: "It's Complicated: The Family Edition" - Successfully entangled yourself in pradavarian raptor clan politics while already bonded to a pradavarian husky.]

  “Why?” I asked her, ignoring the System's rant.

  "Because I made a promise," Krysanthea said, her voice soft in the opulent silence of the lobby. "When I was trapped in that loop, living the same two weeks over and over, I broke, reaching a point where I thought I might never escape. That I would be condemned to that hellish purgatory forever."

  Her amber iris framed by gold sclera held mine, unblinking. Burning fire in an ocean of gold.

  "On the sixty-fifth iteration—I found myself in an abandoned church just off Highway 69. The building was half-consumed by something that looked like coral made of broken glass and human teeth." Her voice remained steady, but I saw a tremor ripple through her scaled fingers.

  "I was desperate. Exhausted. I knelt before what remained of the altar and prayed to the Slayer for the first time since I was a hatchling." A bitter smile curved the edge of her beak. "I promised that if I were granted escape, if I could find my way back to Ferguson, back to anything resembling normalcy... I would dedicate myself to protecting whatever hope and stability remained in this broken world. I cried and begged the Slayer for mercy, for a route to you or even back to my family. Anything. I begged for a way out…”

  She remained kneeling, her posture a physical manifestation of that promise made in desperation.

  "The next loop, I found the door that led me out." Her eyes never left mine. "A new, half-buried door to the tunnels below with the words ‘Find your Undying Knight' spray-painted on it with a number eight below. I don't know if it was the Slayer who answered me or just the System's random mercy, but I keep my promises, Alec. All of them."

  The weight of her words settled between us, heavy with implication.

  “You’re my Knight,” she said. “I get it now. You’re the hero Ferguson needs. You’re the one who can summon stats. Nessy didn't find you. You found, summoned her to you. The Strand family can offer you protection, resources, and a legitimate standing in Ferguson. Whatever quests the System has chosen you for—me and my family can aid you." Her voice hardened slightly. "And in return, you help us protect what remains of our world."

  [Companion Allegiance Offered! The Monster Slayer of Ferguson - Krysanthea Liss Strand. Accept? Y/N]

  “Did the System just tell you something?” Kristi guessed, still standing on her knee. “A message?”

  “It’s asking me to accept or reject your… Companion allegiance,” I said.

  “And?” Hopeful amber eyes stared up at me.

  “And I need to think about it,” I said.

  “Fine,” she stood up with a deep sigh and opened the lobby door.

  The night air wrapped around us as we stepped outside, the stars overhead impossibly bright in Ferguson's mountain sky. For a moment, we stood in silence, two figures poised at the edge of decisions that would shape whatever came next.

  I stared up and my mouth opened wide. This wasn’t my sky. Violet, alien constellations wrapped the celestial sphere. Shards of what looked like the half-obliterated moon stretched themselves across the horizon, sparkling at the edges like a vast asteroid belt.

  “What—” I breathed out.

  “The sky changed during Systemfall,” Kristi commented. “To this. A patchwork of galactic otherness. It looks like a million galaxies overlaid atop each other through a telescope. Worlds, alien planets, ruins of massive megastructures… shattered moons.”

  A fluffy white and black rocket suddenly crashed into me wrapping me in her embrace and interrupting my sky-gazing.

  “Alec!” A familiar canine voice yelped into my ear.

  “Hey Ness,” I breathed out, my heart nearly leaping out of my chest from the shock of the sudden impact of her arrival.

  “Whitepaw. Didn’t I tell you to stay in the RV?” Kristi asked.

  Nessy let out an irate sneeze-huff in the direction of Kristi and then licked my face heartily.

  Beware of Kittens requires your ratings, love n' hugs!

  Romantically Apocalyptic discord