Kilniara’s eye’s widened in surprise at that before they began watering slightly and her arms leapt up and strangled his neck even as her lips slammed into his. Joe grunted in surprise at that before returning her kiss avidly. They lost themselves in the moment, reaffirming their feelings and acceptance of one another before the stress of the moment released itself fully and they collapsed in emotional exhaustion once again, Kilniara’s head in Joe’s chest.

“You really did well though.”

“Yeah, well… it was still quite shocking. I’ll admit that!”

Kilniara pulled back from him once again and smiled sadly at him, “Don’t worry. It’s OK.”

Joe’s brow plunged down towards his eyebrows in confusion, “Worry? About what? What’s OK?”

Kilnaira continued smiling sadly as her hand came up to his cheek, caressing it, “I know the Acokzau are quite … terrifying and ugly. We all know this. Finding love or those who would find us beautiful outside our own race is difficult. You already accept my rest form. This is …”

Joe cut her off at that, his head now rapidly shaking in rejection, “Right, you’ll have to explain the rest form thing, but no. You are not ugly. Terrifying, yes! Definitely, but not ugly. But then everyone and every being can be terrifying to some in their own way. Your Acokzau form surprised me because your form is very similar to some animals long dead on my plane. It was just a shock to see that form. But, you … it is … that form is very beautiful.”

Kilniara’s eye’s opened wide in shock, a tinge of concern undergirding the shock, “You think Acokzau are beautiful?”

Joe smiled at that before taking a deep breath, “Maybe it is a bit due to my plane or something, but my people find many animal forms very beautiful. Some are considered more beautiful or beautiful by more people than others. Snakes are a good example. People who find snakes beautiful tend to be rare, but they do exist. But, it’s an understanding of the beauty of that form, not …” Joe took a moment to look down into Kilniara’s eyes before smiling although a hint of worry tinged the edges of his eyebrows, “Not a … sexual thing.”

Kilniara’s eye’s widened before she began giggling uncontrollably, her laughter spilling out of her as she collapsed into his arms. Joe sighed cautiously in relief and she stayed leaning in his arms until the laughter escaped her.

“Kin are… unique. Do not worry. Our two forms also comes with attraction for those forms as well. All kin understand that sexual attraction for the original form is specific to that race. Only Acokzau are attracted to other Acokzau. If other Kin or base are attracted to original forms, then… there is something strange about them!” Kilniara offered with a strange lilt at the end. All kin? There… are more? No… focus!

“Don’t count on it with my people,” Joe grunted with a twist of his lips.

Kilniara looked up at with humor which swiftly shifted to shock when she realized he was being honest. Her jaw dropped as she coughed a bit, catching her tongue in her throat at her rapid reply, “Really?”

Joe nodded, amusement obvious on his face as he watched her antics.

She took some time before asking once again, “Really, really!?”

“Yup. There are some of my people who find… beauty, including even sexual beauty, in forms… other than … uh… the norm.”

Her eyes stayed wide before she asked quietly, then trailing off, “Is that why…”

Joe’s eye’s widened in some surprise at that before he spoke, “Oh! I hadn’t really thought of that. But… no. For me, when I see you in your … rest form? Is this the rest form? You said that before.”

Kilniara quickly nodded, “Ah…yes, this is the rest form. It’s the form that kin naturally stay in all the time. It can be base or original or any in between.”

“Huh… interesting. That’s… OK. Cool. Anyway, I was going to say, when I look at your rest form, I mainly only see the base form. I don’t notice… the … Acokzau, I guess. I mean, I notice the tail, obviously, but the tail feels … well… it feels like to me just added on to the base form. It is not … I don’t know how to explain it.”

Kilniara smiled, complete relief and relaxation on her face as she shook her head, “I’m not sure that I do understand, but I am grateful.”

Joe chuckled at that and shook his head, “You don’t need to be grateful. It’s right that I accept you as you are.”

“You believe this?”

“Yes. Accepting people as they are is… a wise way of life, to an extent. Certain things are unacceptable, of course, such as harming others or just downright evil, but… yeah. Now, accepting and loving or being attracted to are differing things, though… but… yeah.”

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“Huh,” Kilniara replied, her thoughts lost in Joe’s explanations and Joe allowed her the space to consider it.

The two sat in silence for several moments as they both considered their own thoughts, Joe digesting the revelation that his girlfriend was essentially a velociraptor and Kilniara coming to understand Joe’s willingness to accept so easily. Silence settled comfortably between the two for some time as they considered their thoughts and Joe finally asked one that had grown more insistent after he’d first heard it.

“So… kin.”

Kilniara glanced up at him, a bit surprised, “Kin?”

“Yes. You said that Acokzau are kin, but… there are many kin?”

She nodded, “Yes. Any race with a base and another form are kin and they can change freely between the two.”

Joe blinked at that, “Oh. So… everyone can change forms from original to base except for the base?”

Kilniara frowned at that, “You know very little of any race, do you.”

Joe smiled softly, hiding his embarrassment, “I only know of base, no other.”

“Your clan is only base?”

“Yes.”

“Your clan must be… incredible.”

Joe smiled at that, his embarrassment fading in his pride, “Yes… we truly can be.”

“Hmm…” she replied in thought before suddenly shaking herself and beginning her explanation, “Kin can change form from base to the original. No others can, including empowered or, of course, base.”

“Empowered?”

“Dwarves… elves, halflings… they have the base form but have managed to keep their power and essence, thus have maintained their form without need to transform.”

Joe blinked at that, confused, “Empowered?”

“They are powerful, thus… Empowered. They are able to maintain their form.”

Maintain? Then… something… that means… something happened, right? “Kin can also keep their form, right?”

Kilniara nodded, but then shifted slightly to a tone of awe, “But empowered did not. They have their form as it is.”

Joe wanted to unpack that small tidbit of information, almost itching to dig into it, but found himself feeling reticent for reasons he couldn’t quite understand. It was almost instinctual, and if anything had been hammered into him, following his instincts was one of them, and he reluctantly allowed the questions to die, although he did make a careful note of it. Hmm… so maybe ask Garnedell? The two fell silent once more, lost in their thoughts for a time until Kilniara broke from hers and sat up, lips curling into a teasing smile as she looked up at him. Joe noticed her attention and focused on her.

“So… I’m uncertain if I should be relieved or angry.”

Joe smirked in reply, noticing her teasing reply, “About what?”

“You likened me to an animal.”

Joe smiled, shaking his head, “Well, you look exactly like creatures that our people found and recreated images of. We called them velociraptors, although… I don’t remember if they had the frill you did or not… I know one of the dinosaurs did, but… yeah… You are … My girlfriend is a freaking velociraptor!”

She slapped him but smiled shyly, “I’m your girlfriend!”

“Definitely, yes. If you’ll have me.”

She smiled before nodding happily, “Of course… but then you go and call your girlfriend a common animal.”

“We all are animals!”

Her eyes widened, her faux anger taking on a hint of real pique, “You really are calling me an animal.”

Joe laughed softly and shook his head, “We technically are animals. Animals are creatures that move and eat other living things. Plants do not move or usually eat other living creatures. You and I move and eat other living things. We are animals. But! I didn’t call you an animal! I said you looked like an animal.”

Kilniara had considered Joe’s argument carefully but then quickly dismissed it with his last statement, “Oh! Now I look like an animal!”

“So do I!”

“What?”

“My form looks like monkeys or apes from my plane.”

Kilniara’s eyes actually crinkled in a bit of surprise, “You have animals that look like base forms?”

“Yeah,” Joe nodded firmly, “That’s who we evolve…” Joe trailed off, his thoughts deep in consideration, his mind quickly derailing as he lost himself in consideration. How… what about evolution? How are … why are there so many humans here? … but we… there… evolu… what… how. His thoughts spiraled out of control before his thoughts jerked back to the moment as Kilniara continued the conversation.

“… that you feel it’s perfectly fine to call your girlfriend an animal?”

Joe focused on Kilniara, noticing a bit of anger and he found himself a bit confused, “You are angry at this?”

“Yes!”

Joe considered for a bit, confusion quite evident before he continued, “I’m really not trying to be a jerk. Really, I’m not, but I don’t understand. Why are you angry?”

Kilniara seemed to flare in anger and Joe quickly placated her, lifting a hand, “Please, I’m not trying to be rude or hurt you. I just really don’t understand.”

Kilniara stopped, her anger reigned in slightly before she considered Joe shrewdly, eye’s narrowed a bit, “You… you called me an animal.”

Joe thought for a bit before he replied, “Yes, although I just said you looked similar to an animal on my plane. This is considered rude or impolite?”

Kilniara huffed before replying herself, “How would you like to be called an animal.”

Joe thought for a bit before replying cautiously, “If it was to imply a comparison or a categorization in conversation, I would not be angry. If it was meant to be impolite and rude, I would likely just ignore it or find it… amusingly foolish.”

“Really… If I called you a… a… the… monkey! This would not bother you?” she replied with a bit of heat but mostly skepticism.

“Not really. If you meant it, I might be a bit hurt if I knew you were trying to hurt me, but if you were just making an observation, I wouldn’t let it bother me.”

Kilniara stared at him for several moments, thoughts running wildly before her eyes widened and realization seemed to hit her and she nodded slightly, “So… you… are not offended easily?”

Joe considered a bit before nodding cautiously, “I try not to be, yes.”

“Then… you allow others to… you did allow the usurer to call you base…”

Joe took a moment to remember the loan shark before nodding slightly, “Yes… although the base thing doesn’t really bother me because I didn’t really grow up with it, but yeah…”

“You are truly not bothered by insults?”

“Hmm… insults do bother me, but simple words aren’t really… worth it. An insult just from a word is … kind of foolish. It is very unwise to be insulted from such a thing. It is unwise to be insulted from anything, to be honest.”

Kilniara actually seemed confused at this, her anger now long gone as she listened, “Why?”

“Because if a simple word or even a more meaningful insult could truly offend you, it is very easy to control you. A simple word can arouse anger, upset, rage, or hate in you and it would take a simple word to make you do almost anything another person could want against you.”