Chapter 107: Yizo

Felix Sythias’ POV:

I craned my head around to look at where the voice had come from. In the distance, underneath one of the windows leading out of Alex’s old home, laid Yizo. He looked a lot like his father, a fact that I tried very much to overlook. He had the exact same shade of green for his scales, the broad shoulders, and thick tail, but his snout’s structure was different—a bit slimmer—and his tail was relatively shorter. The last one would probably change once he hit puberty, though.

“What are you doing, Yizo?” Alex asked, his voice caring but firm.

Yizo climbed to his feet, dusted himself off, rushed over, and threw himself at Alex the moment he was in range. Alex hugged him back, and I noticed his eyes glistening with tears. I took a step closer and nuzzled him, letting him know I was there for him.

“I don’t want you to go,” Yizo said through his own tears. “You only just got back, you can’t leave already!”

Alex let Yizo go and sat down beside him, patting the stone next to him. Yizo reluctantly sat down, too, and laid his head on Alex’s shoulder.

“I know, Yizo. And if I could, I would’ve stayed longer. But I can’t. I’m not welcome at home anymore, and I have a new place to stay now. I joined the Academy, you know? So I can’t stay.”

Yizo shook his head. “No! I’ll tell dad to stop yelling at you! Mom will, too, I just know it! Please, just stay…” he said, then fell quiet as he noticed Alex wasn’t budging. He was silent for a moment, then quietly asked, “Why does dad yell at you so much? I tried asking but he won’t explain, and just says ‘you know why, you were there’ every time I ask. Is liking men really that bad? Mom said it isn’t, but dad gets so angry over it.”

Alex was so surprised by that last part that he was unable to answer, so I did it for him while he recovered. I shook my head. “Your mom is right, it’s not bad. It’s perfectly normal even,” I said to Yizo, then explained the apple metaphor I’d told Alex when he first came out to me. Yizo was enraptured by my story. “In most places in the worlds, it’s rather common to see gay couples just walking around together. It’s sad that they can’t really do that here,” I finished.

Yizo nodded but still looked confused. “Then why does dad get so angry about it?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” Alex answered, having recovered from the shock of hearing his mother defending him. In all honesty, it surprised me too. “Maybe it's just how he grew up?”

Yizo shook his head. “No, that’s dumb. If Thuza can change his mind about his daughter, dad can change his mind about this.”

I looked at Alex confused. He explained. “Thuza is the butcher. He didn’t want his daughter to get a boyfriend, even though she is—was—already fifteen. I didn’t know he changed his mind, though.”

Yizo nodded enthusiastically. “Yeah! He came over for dinner a few months ago and told us how seeing his daughter sad and retreating into her room all the time made him realize he shouldn’t put his pride above her happiness. He also said that he didn’t want her to leave like you did. Dad didn’t like that very much, though, and he started shouting.”

“Oh,” Alex said.

He didn’t say anything for a long moment, so I poked him with my snout. “Are you okay?” I asked.

He nodded slowly. “I am. I’m just… surprised, I guess. I thought everyone here hated me, but it sounds like that might not be entirely true. I’m not sure what to think of that.”

Yizo’s face brightened. “Does that mean you’ll stay?” he asked, and Alex shook his head. Yizo’s tail sagged. “I guess I can understand that… When will you leave then? I’d like to stay with you for as long as I can. Make the most of it, you know?”

Alex still had that distant, thoughtful look on his face, so I answered for him. “We’ll leave tomorrow morning. We need to get back to the Academy to let them know we’re okay. We got a bit… lost during an excursion and they’re probably worried about us. For now we’ll have to go hunt, though. We still need to eat and we’ve all but run out of food. How about we pick you up when we return, so you can talk a little longer with Alex?”

Yizo shook his head. “No, I’ll just come with you. I can help you track your prey!”

I thought about that for a moment and looked at Alex. I prodded him and he looked up. I asked him if he was okay with that.

He glanced at Yizo, then nodded. “If it’s fine with you, then yeah, he can come with us. Though, only if mom is okay with it, too.”

Yizo accepted those terms and ran off to ask. I turned to Alex while he was gone. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“No,” he said, shaking his head, then hesitated. “Well, maybe later. I want to get my thoughts in order first.”

I nodded, and we waited for a while, Alex leaning into my side. Occasionally he glanced towards a distant building. It smelled like blood and raw meat, so I was pretty sure it was the butcher’s shop. I wasn’t sure what he was thinking, but I hoped it was something positive. His village and mom didn’t think of him as badly as he thought they did, and even defended him. That was something to be celebrated, right?

He didn’t look very happy though.

There was some shouting from Alex’s home and I looked over. We were quite a distance away, but I could still hear most of the conversation, though I tried to ignore it. I did not need to hear exactly what his dad thought of him. I wanted to strike him with lightning enough without that already—I didn’t need even more of a reason.

Alex’s parents were now fighting about Yizo going with us for the evening. His dad made all kinds of awful arguments, from saying that I would eat him, to shouting that Alex would turn Yizo gay or worse. Luckily, they’d sent Yizo to the other room while they fought, though I wondered how much that really helped if I was able to hear them all the way over here. Eventually the mother put her foot down and said that either he calms the fuck down and let the two brothers spend some time together while they could, or he would have to find a different place to sleep.

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I relayed all of it to Alex—except the father’s nasty arguments—and he nodded. Not much later, Yizo came outside with his mother. They walked over to us. Alex had a guarded expression, though I recognized that hopeful glint in his eyes.

They stopped in front of us, and Alex’s mother rubbed the back of her head. “Your father doesn’t agree, but I think you should be able to spend some time with your brother while you can. You were always good with the children, and you're almost as high a level as your father, so I trust you can keep him safe,” she said, then glanced at me. “Especially with your winged friend here.”

“I can keep myself safe,” Yizo protested. His mother just patted him on the head and he pouted.

Alex hesitated, then lifted Yizo onto my back. He turned back to his mother. “Are you sure you’re okay with this?” he asked, the part about him being gay left unsaid.

“I am,” she said. “I don’t quite agree with your father, and I may not understand, but you’re still my son.”

Alex looked like he wanted to talk about it some more, but his father called from inside that dinner was getting cold. He no doubt didn’t want his wife to spend any time with us. Petty man.

“We’ll talk more later, alright?” he asked.

“That sounds like a good idea. Now, it’s getting late and it will be dark soon, so you should probably go hunt while you still can. Keep your brother safe and I’ll see you again in a few hours.”

Alex hesitated, he carefully stepped forward and hugged his mom. I smiled at him. Afterwards, she went back inside, and Alex strapped his brother into my saddle. He then jumped on, himself, and sat behind Yizo. He made sure they were strapped together and I checked as well. Only after I was certain they were both safe, did I run to the edge of the village. I needed a wide open space to take off, and the village didn’t have that.

Once we were there, I took a running start and took off. Yizo yelled in excitement almost as much as Alex had that first time we flew together. I saw the family resemblance now. They might not look much alike, aside from their bone structure, but they had an adorably similar sweet and curious personality.

For the first few minutes, I flew in circles around the village. Both so that my riders could get a good view of their home, and because I needed to get used to the weight of two people on my back. It had been a long while since I'd flown with two people. It wasn’t something I did often, since it really limited how fast I could go. One person could lay flat, but two people could not. It was much more drag and effort.

But I was getting hungry, so we didn’t hang around the village for long. Soon enough, we were soaring over the sandy dunes and prickly lizards, looking for anything big enough to be worth eating. It was more of a challenge than I expected. After a while I slowed to a hover and turned my head to Alex.

“You’re the expert here. Where can I find something worth hunting?”

He thought about it for a moment, but Yizo answered before he could. “Oh! Why don’t you hunt the snake monsters? They keep attacking the village.”

Alex looked down at his brother with a frown. “What are you talking about? What snake monsters?”

“I think I know what he’s talking about,” I said, remembering something. “Your dad mentioned it earlier, remember? He talked about monsters attacking the village and people leaving because of it.”

He was quiet for a moment. “Well, then. I think I know what we’ll be hunting then. As much as I hate dad, I want mom and Yizo to be safe here. If we can do something to help, I want to help.”

“Alright,” I said. “But we can’t stay too long either. People are probably worrying sick about us. I don’t want them to worry any longer than they need to. That would just be cruel.”

Alex winced. “Right, I almost forgot about that. What a stupid thing to forget.”

I chuckled. “I think that with everything going on, you’re allowed to be distracted. And if we can’t fix it now, we can come back after we let everyone know we’re safe, or let dad send someone here. He should be back by now,” I said, then realized that meant dad was also probably worrying sick. The thought of him worrying in his office made me feel a little sick as well.

“Why are people so worried about you?” Yizo asked. “You said you got lost, right? How did that happen?”

“I’ll tell you in a moment. First, which direction do these monsters keep coming from?” Alex asked.

Yizo told us and we flew back to the village to pick up the trail while Alex told his brother about everything that had happened to us these past days. Hearing the whole story laid out like it was, I only appreciated our newfound freedom more. I’d want to go back there eventually but not for a good few weeks or even months. I really wanted to know more about the ruins, but I wanted some time to fly around without hitting any walls or ceilings even more.

When we got to the village, Yizo pointed in the direction the monsters supposedly came every time. Now that it was pointed out to me, I did see signs of monster attacks on that side of the village. Recently repaired doors and walls, small splatters of blood that hadn’t been cleaned yet, a few paw prints, the odd and gross look of the oasis, and most importantly, the abandoned house on the edge of the village.

The gross looking water concerned me the most, though. The attacks were only on the side of the village with the drinking water. I was guessing that’s why the monsters kept attacking. But by the look of it, the pool of water was dirtied every single time they came.

I swooped down to investigate further, scaring a few lizardkin by accident while I was at it. Too bad for them, I had to check this out. I sniffed the water, scowling at the tangy smell. I then tasted it, and my fears were confirmed. Whatever these monsters did or were, if they kept coming like this, they’d poison this well and everyone would have to leave or die of thirst.

“What’s wrong?” Alex asked.

“The water is poisoned,” I said, then explained my theories. Alex wasn’t happy with what I had to tell him.

“Huh, I did tell dad the water tasted funny, but he told me I just hadn’t cleaned my glass properly,” Yizo said.

Alex shot him a look that told me Alex believed it could’ve been both, then turned back to me. “Well, let’s go kill those monsters before things get worse, then.”

We took off again and tracked the monsters together. With the wind covering any tracks in the sand, it was hard. But after flying in the direction for a while, I saw something in the distance. A large rock formation poking out of the dunes. A pretty good place to hide and sit out of the wind. I banked in that direction to check it out.

As we hovered above the rocks, it was very clear we’d found the monsters. Or at least, some of them. Below us were a collection of very weird-looking monsters. They were like snakes, except if they’d had the slippery, slimy underside of a slug. They had the antennae, too.

“Ew, gross,” Yizo said. I had to agree. I wouldn’t want to drink any water these beasts had been in. The thought that I already had made me shudder.

“What’s their level?” I asked Alex.

“Eh, not too high. Level 34. We can take them. But let’s bring Yizo home first,” he said, giving his brother a hug. “Sorry, bud. I can’t guarantee I can keep you safe against these monsters.”

I nodded. “Alright. But after that, let’s kick some slimy snake butt.”