Otter decided she didn’t particurly care for soo-meng. She’d been kind of excited for them, to be honest. Rua had made them sound like magical beasts, gracefully swimming amongst the isnds, the sea beasts that helped protect the Siyan people. When she’d first seen one, she’d been ecstatic.

  Their heads were reminiscent of a hippo’s, wide and bulbous and absolutely adorable, with a fat body to match. It was covered all over with scales that resembled jewels, changing colour from a deep green to a bright blue depending how the light caught them. They had a pair of flipper-like appendages at the front that helped them get around on nd, and their lower body was long and sinuous, a tail that was long and agile, surprising for the soo-mengs’ size.

  They were graceful in the water, and awkward and clumsy on nd, and looked like some kind of Pokemon, rather than an actual real world animal. She wanted nine and to mother them extensively.

  That was right up until she’d been forced to ride on one for three hours straight.

  Soo-meng were apparently also temperamental, zy, and not particurly patient with novice riders that had no idea what they were doing.

  The amount of times Otter found herself filing in the ocean, trying to get back to the surface was… well, as Rua put it, ‘downright embarrassing.’ To the point where Rua announced that she would make sure no one ever saw Otter ride one in public, a decration that was supposed to make her feel shame, but instead was just a relief.

  Righting herself each time was a pain, since Otter’s soo-meng seemed to think the whole thing was a game. Swim for a bit, buck off the rider, then py ‘keep away,’ always just staying slightly out of reach as Otter floundered about in the water. It was almost enough to make Otter want to turn around and swim back to the muddy death swamp that was now on fire, the smoke billowing out over the horizon.

  The fire that Otter had started in a fit of idiocy hadn’t gone out by itself. Instead, it had continued to rage, the entire isnd now abze. Birds swooped away en masse, and according to Rua, a lot of the nd critters were making their way to other isnds. It would continue until it burned itself out.

  She kind of felt bad about that. She wasn’t exactly an environmental activist, or a vegan, or anything like that. Her own attempts at being a hippie were contained to a lot of pot use, the odd low-end hallucinogen, and a lot of ‘free love’ sex. And maybe some poor fashion choices.

  Despite that, the guilt from the ecological disaster unfolding before her was a little heavy for her tastes. She’d never been big on being bogged down on consequences, but so rarely had her screw ups had this much of an impact. They’d always been contained to video games, and failed retionships. And the odd fme war with other streamers, like that one French Canadian douche who couldn’t form a coherent sentence in either of his bilingual lexicons.

  She tried to keep it out of her mind, the destruction she caused in her path just for the sake of survival. She’d already killed a man. And now this isnd burning? And this was just the beginning. She suspected it was going to get worse, before it got better.

  She forced the thoughts back, trying a smile. It came to her easier than she would have liked. All she had to do was look at Rua, astride her own stupid water-dragon-hippo-fish thing, enjoying herself. Even Sunny was having fun. Her copied memories from Rua apparently had more than enough information on how to ride a soo-meng without falling off all the time.

  It only took an inordinate amount of time for Otter to finally come to the idea to summon her Thread of the Scourge, and with some very careful mental commands, had it not burn the soo-meng was it touched and looped around it, forming a loose sort of rein system that also kept Otter tied in pce. Rua watched the entire process with a vague sort of amusement combined with disdain.

  “No real Siyan needs reins,” she said.

  “Well, I’m not a real Siyan,” Otter muttered.

  “A child can figure out how to ride a soo-meng. I should know. I was a child when I learned. Just like everyone else in the Isnds.”

  “Yes, congratutions, you probably have generational memory or something on how to ride one, it’s probably instinctual for you. I can’t even ride a horse or drive a car, how am I supposed to be able to move this sea cow around without falling off?”

  “With your hips?” Rua asked, giving hers a little wiggle that would’ve sent Otter falling off if not for her reins literally tying her in pce.

  “Quit distracting me.”

  “That was a distraction for you? Then maybe I shouldn’t tell you what I have pnned for you once we make ndfall.”

  Otter shot a gnce at Sunny, who was zooming about in what could only be described as ‘ocean donuts,’ her soo-meng entirely too enthusiastic as she whooped and hollered and called for more speed.

  “Who says you get to make the pns?” Otter asked.

  “Well, my penoa promised me an orgasm just a few days ago, and then went and got me captured by Cuttings while she was too concussed to do anything about it. And then she spends all her time talking instead of doing.”

  Otter tried to think of an appropriate retort to that, and realized any such deflection would be seen as weakness in this exchange. Rua wasn’t as big on trying to constantly establish dominance as one particur ex of hers was, but she did have some of that in her. Their dynamic was weird, and Otter hadn’t entirely figured it out yet. They were both testing boundaries. But for now, Otter had established herself as the sexual dominant, and she wasn’t about to give that up so quickly when Rua so freely controlled everything else they did.

  Otter spied the horizon. In the distance, she could see a shadow on the water. More than likely nd, given it was the direction they’d been travelling in.

  “If I get to nd first,” she said, “they’re my pns. We do what I want.”

  “And when I get there first, we do what I want?” Rua asked, something sparkling in her eye.

  “My word on it,” she said, knowing Rua’s lie detection would reassure her on the truth of it.

  “Hmm. It sounds like I win either way. Deal. So, when do we start?”

  But Otter was already triggering another Thread of the Scourge, sending it out like a sso and looping it around Rua. Rua’s eyes went from surprised to indignant and then impossibly wide as she was yanked from her soo-meng’s back.

  “Sunny!” Otter called. “Rua just told me she wants a hug from you!”

  And then she did her best to nudge at her own soo-meng and send it towards the distant shore. The only thing that kept her on the soo-meng’s back was her improvised rein system, and a sheer determination to get id on her own terms. The beast surged forward in a dispy of speed that should have been impossible, moving forward like a missile loosed to wreak havoc on the world.

  Ocean spray seemed to hit her from every direction, stinging on her skin in a way she still hadn’t gotten used to. She pushed herself forward, gripping as hard as she could to the soo-meng and her reins until her forearms burned and her thighs were quivering with the effort.

  She wished that the tale of her victory would be more gmorous, but even with the btant cheating, she still only won by mere moments, stumbling on the beach and falling face-first into the sand. Her soo-meng nudged her with its bulbous muzzle, as if to check if she’d died and become food, and then when dissatisfied with the answer, buggered off back into the ocean where it belonged.

  Rua nded lightly on her feet beside Otter’s prone form, ughing the entire time. A moment ter, Rua had turned Otter around so she was now facing the sky and a beautiful smiling face, and she couldn’t help but smile in return. Rua leaned in for a kiss, and Otter was happy to oblige, and then suddenly Rua was on top of her, hips grinding into her own, lips demanding more than just a little bit of affection, and it was all Otter could do not to push Rua into the sandy beach and take her there.

  But it was a strange pce, and she didn’t know what eyes would see them, to say nothing of Sunny. Though the redhead now had the body of a young adult, Otter still couldn’t help but still see her as a child.

  So Otter pulled away, smiled, and put one finger on Rua’s lips. “Patience.”

  Rua got a frustrated look, but nodded.

  “Where’s my hug, mama?” Sunny called, still in the water with her soo-meng. She struggled to get off gracefully, and instead simply opted to fall off and into the water, before dog paddling to shore.

  “Now I have an ocean to throw her into,” Rua said. “Even better.”

  “Try to pce nice,” Otter said.

  “She’s still not my daughter,” she grumbled.

  “Yeah, but don’t be a dick about it.”

  As if the word alone triggered the action, Rua pressed her hand against Otter’s growing erection, which she hadn’t even noticed at first, but now couldn’t think about anything else.

  Completely oblivious to what she was interrupting, Sunny tackled them both, clumsy and awkward and all affection, and completely ignorant that she now weighed a lot more than she had just a few days ago. A lot heavier.

  The air whooshed out of Otter as both she and Rua were fttened, and even though Sunny was a skinny young woman just a few inches shorter than Otter, she felt like she weighed more. Unnaturally more. A thought Otter would’ve inquired into, or thought more about, if the breath weren’t suddenly crushed from her lungs.

  Sunny squeezed them both in a tight hug, all girlish giggles and over-exuberance with the odd kiss on the cheek, and even though Rua was the clear primary target, Otter was just happy to be included.

  “Okay, enough,” Rua grumbled, trying to sound a lot more grumpy about the whole business than she actually was. Otter could all but feel the warmth radiating from their link that told the actual truth of how Rua felt.

  “But mama,” Sunny whined. “I haven’t hugged you for hours.”

  “And I haven’t thrown you into the ocean once yet, so we’re all suffering here. We need to talk.”

  Rua’s tone hinted at something. There was an edge to it, and a reluctance.

  “I already know,” Sunny said, an obvious impatience entering her voice, desperately leaning into Rua for more affection.

  “You probably know some of it,” Rua said. “Which is nice, having someone who’s seen my side of it.”

  Rua took in a long breath, but added nothing else. Her body had gone tense, and while Otter wanted to give her some physical affection as support, she knew that wasn’t what Rua needed, nor words of encouragement or reassurance. She just needed time, something Otter had always been happy to let her have.

  “We’re about an hour’s walk from Ri Oa,” Rua said. “We should probably head there, but… I’m still not ready.”

  Otter nodded, understanding. “We don’t need to be there tonight. We can set up camp here. One st night in the rough, before civilization at st.”

  “Camp. Yes. That sounds like a good idea. And then… I guess I can tell you why I left Ri Oa in the first pce. And all about my sisters.”