Sino’s eyes were wide. “It stops making noise. Duck. Evo grabbed her legs. Sino positioned his body against the wall around Evo and the table to create a safe zone. Evo didn’t make a noise.

When it exploded, Sino felt the moments stop. The room was dead silent except for his own beating heart. He looked up, and the bomb was post-exposure with a white-green explosion pushing the air. The table was mid-buckle around his body, and a single wooden shard pointed right at his eye. Instinctively he moved, trying to pull Evo, but she was frozen solid. He pushed Bo, who was also trying to cover Evo, but a wooden shard was sticking out of his shoulder, his blond head thrown back mid-scream.

Suddenly he heard unnatural voices in his head overlapping. It took a moment to Separate them.

“Duck! No. Etesha Meldo. Destroy Duck Tish Sphinx. Meddlesome” Each in a different voice.

He moved his head and recovered Evo. Moments began. Pain peppered his back as shards of wood pelted him. The one near his eye went past his head and stuck out of the wall. Sino heard Bo grunt in pain.

“Shit!” Bo grabbed hold of the bloody wood poking through his shoulder.

“Don’t pull that!” Sino yelled. He growled in pain as well. The doors were open now.

“Fee,” Bo yelled. “She’s not responding.” He spun around to sit. “Matcha.” His breath was heavy. “Why is no one responding?’ His sword impaled the floor.

Sino noticed the entire room was a mess of wood shards, broken plates, food, and cloth. The air felt different. Sino wasn’t sweating, but it also felt different. His lungs felt heavy like the air wasn’t right. Sino looked over Evo. “Are you hurt.” He asked through mindspeak. She looked up at him and shook her head. Her green eyes filled with tears. Sino hugged her. He winced at the pain covering his back.

“Is that your only injury?” Bo asked, nodding to Sino’s Back. “Is she okay?”

“She’s fine.” He grunted. “Something’s not right.”

“Your back?” Bo asked.

“No, the air, it isn’t right.”

“What does that even mean?” He said between breaths.

“I don’t know. It doesn’t feel right. It smells and feels normal heat-wise, and it’s like… ugg.” He grunted in frustration. “I don’t know.”

“We should probably move. Can you get up?” Sino asked.

“Ya, just give me a hand.” Bo took two quick breaths. Sino grabbed Bo’s uninjured arm and yanked the human to his feet with ease.

“Evo. Stay between us.” Sino told her and helped her stand as well.

“Your room should be close,” Bo grunted. Sino nodded, taking it slow and peeking into the hallway. It was empty. Stepping over the threshold, he felt a zap of electricity hit him. He put his free hand up, the other holding Evo’s

“Zap of current. Not a lot,” Sino warned. Bo nodded and winced as he stepped over, and Evo didn’t react. Sino noticed that it felt like his lungs were having trouble filling every step.

Bo suddenly spoke. I understand. The air is getting hard to breathe like the oxygen levels aren’t right.” Sino didn’t respond.

“I’ll meet you in your room.” Bo veered into a nearby room.

“Are you having breathing troubles?” Sino asked via mindspeak. Evo shook her head.

Once in their room, he grabbed his satchel and walking stick.

“You’re hurt.” She grabbed his arm.

“I’m fine. Had worse.”

“Daddy,” her voice whined in his head.

“Wares heal quickly. I’ll be fine shortly.” He patted her head. She smiled with worry still in her eyes. Bo reappeared, still heavily breathing, a potted plant in his good arm. “Get in the bathroom and fill the tub he said.”

Sino’s eyebrows raised, but he did as told. He also grabbed the pillow bed into the large oversized bathroom as the well-filled.

“Sit,” Sino told Bo. “We need to do something about this.”

“It may be helping the air. Plants make oxygen.” Bo said.

“I have some herbs I brought with me that will help with infection, but we need to sew your flesh to stop the bleeding."

“That’s where this beauty comes in,” Bo said, nodding to the plant.

Sino’s eyebrow raised. It was a tefler plant, its leaves made a delicious fermented drink, and some weave leaves into baskets. Bo sat on the tub's edge and tore off the tip of the leaf. As he pulled, the inner vein peeled from the length of the leaf. “A few years ago, I went to a… kingdom called Mexico. We call these plants Agave. Makes a great tequila, but the earlier generations would also use this part of the pointed leaf as a needle and vein as thread. I saw a demonstration on it when I went tequila tasting in Mexico City. Not sure it will work, but hoping it will.”

“Smart. This is gonna hurt.” Sino warned as he grabbed the cloth out of his satchel. He dipped it into the water. Evo watched, her eyes wide with interest.

"We call this plant Tefler. We also use it as a fermented drink. Leaves are also dried and used as materials to weave into baskets. Some like to eat it raw, very nutritious, but biter for wares.” Sino broke another leaf off. He also pulled out two plants from his satchel. He took the knife from the twine by his ankle, splitting the plump leaf open with the blade. He sprinkled pieces of the two other plants in the fleshy opening of the leaf.

“This is gonna hurt.”

“Just do it already.” Bo grimaced.

Sino gripped the bloody shard. “I’m gonna need you to put the cloth on it once I pull it out. Bite on the handle. He handed the dagger to Bo. Bo nodded. His breath was quick in anticipation before he bit down.

Sino assessed the shard, it was surprisingly smooth, and the widest part already was sticking out the front of his shoulder. Without warning, he yanked it through. Bo grunted in pain, breathing through clenched teeth. Bo’s hand shook from the pain, but he took the wet cloth and pressed it to the hole. Sino pressed a few leaves into the back end of the wound. He ran the needle and thread through his mouth and then spit on the back of the wound.

“Did you just spit on me?” Bo asked in almost a whisper through clenched teeth on the dagger.

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“Wares heal quickly, but our saliva is particularly healing for humans and has a numbing venom. Bo nodded. His hand was still shaking as he held the cloth to the front of his shoulder. Sino pierced through the human’s skin and proceeded to sew the wound shut, trapping the leaves in place.

Sino looked at Bo, who was now clenching his eyes closed. “It needs to drain, so I’m going to push in the mixture, but only going to use pressure and ware venom to stop the bleeding. It's probably gonna ooze out any infection, so don’t be scared.” Sino warned.

“K” Bo’s voice clipped and mumbled on the dagger. Sino grimaced and munched on the fleshpart. He spit it back into the leaf and shuttered at the bitterness. He then coated his finger with the ground-up mixture. The wound was as wide as Sino’s finger. He scraped the mix and nodded to Bo to move the cloth. Bo dropped it into the water. Evo fished it out. Her hand changed from light brown to ruby red to match his blood, but she rinsed it out for him and handed it back, her hands looking like ruby gloves with long pointed claws. Sino pushed the mixture into the wound and recoated his finger each time he stuck it in. Bo grunted, eyes clamped tight. Sweat trickled from his forehead and chest. Sino watched as a white ooze dripped out. Sino grabbed the cloth and wiped the ooze. Then rinsed it again and wiped Bo’s face. It oozed again with bubbles and froth. Bo opened his eyes. “Dude, that feels weird.”

“It’s healing.” Sino wiped away the ooze. When the ooze turned clear, Sino wrapped twine around Bo’s shoulder to hold the mixture and the leaf pressed against the wound. “Evo, your hand?” She nodded. “Do you need to fully bathe?”

“Yes, Daddy.” She looked down as if she were embarrassed.

“Okay. Let’s empty the well, and then we can refill it for you.” Sino said to Bo, “Lay down and rest. I’ll keep an eye out for trouble.”

Bo crawled over the pillow on the floor and immediately passed out.

Sino went into the well, scrubbing the sides with the cloth until the human’s blood was gone.

Once satisfied, he pressed the blue tile to refill the well.

“Will he be okay?” Evo’s small voice asked in Sino’s head.

“Yes, He’ll heal quickly,” Sino said aloud.

“And you?” she asked.

He turned. His flesh was already blistering. “Almost all healed.”

“Do I heal like that?” She asked.

“I don’t know, little one.”

“Can I ask something?”

“Of course.”

“Are you my mate?” The words took Sino by surprise.

“No, little one. Ware’s recognize their mate’s presence even if one isn’t yet old enough to produce pups. We just won’t feel the ‘pull’ to consummate it until the first Samian after both are sexually mature… But we know. It's like a feeling of completeness.”

“So, what do I feel?” Evo asked.

“I don’t know, little one. Can you try to describe it?” Sino asked. The tub was now filled, and Sino helped her down the stairs. The water frothed at her touch, so he couldn’t see her skin change.

“It's hard to describe.” She kept talking through mindspeak. “Like when we met.”

“Rinse off, and we can talk more about new feelings you may get that could be confusing for you.”

She nodded and sunk entirely into the bubbling water. Sino checked on Bo, and he was sweating but sleeping soundly. Sino placed the wet cloth on his forehead.

“Daddy?” Hearing her matured voice in his head made his heart pound.

He didn’t look at her. “She’s just a child.” He told himself. ‘Maybe it’s the air. The air isn’t right. The last time his heart raced like this resulted in a strapping healthy pup.’

“Daddy? What new feelings?”

“Shitake.’ He thought not the proper conversation. He worked to slow his heart, but the heavy air didn’t help. He could hear the water splash as she stepped out of the tub. He didn’t have to turn around. He felt the same feeling as before when the woman dropped the infant off. Having made that conclusion, it was as if the ware could click it off. His breathing leveled out. He turned to face her.

She was breathtakingly beautiful. She had nice wide childbearing hips and healthy long curly bright red hair. Her skin is dark ivy sap, a deep rich brown. Plumb round lips that looked fun to kiss. She was going to drive fae crazy. He smiled at her.

“For wares when sexually mature they start having feelings of attraction. This leads them to seek a mate or companion to have pups with. For wares, we take multiple companions to ensure we can spread our seed for a diverse ware population, but not all fae are like that. Some monofaes believe in one soul mate sent by the gods and are devoted to only one companion at a time. Both lifestyles are natural, and you will need to figure out which works for you.”

“Are we companions then?” Evo asked, her voice more sing-song than her curious young voice.

“No, little one. I think of you as if you were one of my pups.” He stood up and put his hands on her rosy brown cheeks. Her green eyes looked down. Her skin heated to his touch.

“Like Wrigley and Bo?” Evo asked in his head.

“Exactly.”

“Every time I take a bath, it's like I get a different set of information, and it confuses me.” She said in mindspeak. “I feel like you are important, though.”

“If any fae is important, it's you, and that's why no matter what happens, I’ll protect you,” Sino explained.

“You said you would kill me.” Tears fell onto his hands.

“Oh, little one. How could you remember that? You were just a baby.”

“I remember every word, every feeling. Just now, you had a feeling like when the woman dropped me off.”

“The woman was emanating ‘Lust.’ It’s a strong sexual emotion to help encourage sex to create pups."

She looked up. Her eyes were wide and innocent. “Are you lusting towards me?” Her voice had hope, and her lips quivered.

“For a moment, I did feel lust. It's perfectly natural for a sexually mature fae to be attracted to another sexually mature fae. But as I said, I think of you like my pup, which is like an antivenom for lust. That’s why I don’t feel the same and why we will never be companions.”

“I understand, I think.”

“Do you remember anything about your time with the woman?” He asked and dropped his hands.

She shook her head, “Just the feeling of lust. I remember what she said, but it was like I didn’t exist before that, or maybe I was just asleep. There were no moments before that. Just a forest, a fire, a wolf, the woman, and lust.”

“Do you know who she was?” He asked.

Evo shook her head again.

“You said you get more information; what do you mean?”

“It was like when I walked. I knew how to do it; my muscles just weren’t strong enough. The language was last time; I really wanted to speak with you.”

This time he nodded. “What about this time.”

“Pleasure.”

“If all this is about fertility, then that makes a lot of sense.” He paused. “Mags did talk about the ware population.”

“But we don’t know what my purpose is.”

“Correct, but we will figure it out,” Sino said.

“How?”

“We need to speak to the Sphinx, I think.”

“What if they want to kill me?”

“I’ll protect you.”

“Even if it hurts wares?” She asked.

He raised an eyebrow at her and processed what she said. “The Fae talk about the Fates and the various Gods/Goddesses that affect our lives. Do we genuinely have free will, or is everything we do predestined? Since they know all, they would see how we will react to the path they put to test us. However, there are talks that once a life is born and let loose, you and all your lessons can be changed. If they wanted to change things, they would need to wait until the new generations were born.

Since multiple deities can make changes, no one really knows if the Fates got it right with your life or not. So even if you think you know what you should do and what the Fates want from you, in the end, even a single fae can change the balance. That’s why the balance is so fragile and why you are so powerful. Your ancient magick pulsing through your veins can save my species or destroy it.”

“Stop filling her head with nonsense.” Bo coughed and then struggled through a chuckle. “We all know that I’m gonna save the day. Sino will protect Evo, and I’ll protect FaeLand. All will work out.”

“Apparently feeling better?” Sino asked.

“Yeah. Actually, other than this cough, I feel surprisingly good. Pain-free.”

“The cough is a side effect of the herbs. It should go away shortly on its own.” Sino walked over to Bo to remove the bandages. Bo was staring at Evo. Sino knelt next to Bo, reaching around to untie the last of the twine.

“Do you have to eye Evo like that?” Sino growled softly to Bo as he fiddled to untie the twine.

“You think this is healed already? I’m just a human, and I don’t have healing powers like y’all.”

“My venom is like a super herb for you humans, and it comes in handy if a mating goes awry.” Sino inspected the site. It was scared but completely healed.

“Holy shit, that’s fantastic.” At that exact moment, Bo’s green eyes met Sino’s. Sino’s heard Bo’s heart quicken.

“Fuck. Can you back up, bro?” Bo’s voice lowered an octave, but it was pleading.

Sino didn’t respond but got up, pretending he didn’t notice the human’s response to Sino.

“Is that normal, Daddy?” Evo’s eyes were wide, but she shamelessly stared at the human’s bulge.

“Don’t embarrass the human. Pretend not to notice.”

Too late. Bo’s eyes went wide. “I have a mate. I’m not attracted to dudes. Not that being attracted to dudes is a bad thing. Just being clear here.”

Sino snickered. “Guardian, you would be so lucky. I don’t think your body’s response was to me specifically. Evo is excreting Lust as she is sexually mature now, so your body is most likely responding to that.” Sino watched the human’s shoulders visibly lower.

“How are you not reacting.”

“I think of her as my pup, so I just think of holding her to my chest while we journeyed.”

Bo opened his mouth to say something, but an unnatural grinding sound began.