Kimi walked toward the dining hall, Puru clutched in a pocket on her shirt. Small, wolf-like creatures ran along the ground, stopping when they saw her.
“Whoa…” one said, “What is that?”
“It’s a human.”
“No! Humans don’t got wings!”
“I’m half-human.”
“That’s possible?” the first one asked.
“I’m living proof, kiddo!”
“What’s your name!? I’m gonna name myself after you when I turn ten!”
“My name’s Kimialva, but everyone calls me Kimi.”
“Nice to meet you, Kimi!” both kids exclaimed.
“I’m One, and this is my twin, Two! Where are you going, Kimi?”
“I’m going to the dining hall.”
“We’re going there too!”
Kimi began walking towards the dining hall with the two little children.
“One? Two? Where are you both?” shouted what Kimi assumed was their mother.
“We’re with Kimi, Mam!”
Their mother quickly came into view. Black feathers adorned fey wing-like arms and a brownish-black beak laid on fey face. She had wrapped feyself in cloth that seemed light and airy.
“Hello, I’m so, so sorry about those two! I tell them not to run off and it’s the first thing they do.”
“It’s no problem. I was headed to the dining hall anyway, so it was no problem that they decided to tag along.”
“I’m so glad. I’m Terril, I’ws one of the guards. These are my two kids. Most of the time they stay in their room to eat, but they really wanted to ask her highness about the eclipse.”
“That’s reasonable.”
“One, Two, why don’t you two run ahead a bit. I’ll catch up in a moment.”
“Okay Mam!” the two said, darting off.
Terril sighed. “Kids, huh? Always getting into trouble.”
“I’m a kid!”
“Really? You’re rather responsible.”
“Yeah. Well, I’m turning thirteen in three days.”
“Oh my! Happy early birthday, I suppose.”
“Thank you!”
Terril flapped her wings, darting up into the sky. “I’ll see you in the hall!” she said, before darting after her kids.
Kimi darted in. She hadn’t eaten at all that day. She was probably going to get scolded, but what did she care? She could still eat now.
“Hello,” Ulet said.
“Hi.”
“How are you?”
“Good,” Kimi said, though she felt more nervous as she heard the monsters’ whispering.
“Wonderful! I do hope you settle in well. I know you’ve been all over the past few days.”
“Oh… Yeah!”
Her aunt smiled. “Glad to hear it, Kimi.”
One and Two hurried up to Kimi’s aunt.
“Your highness! The eclipse earlier, was it you?”
“No, It was someone very special. I’ll tell everyone about them at tomorrow's moonlight meeting.”
“Okay!” Two said, scurrying off with their sibling.
Kimi grabbed some food and went to sit at a table with Jackie and Sei.
“Sei, can you tell me about the moonlight meeting?”
“Every time there’s a full moon, the monsters of Gelpie meet up and talk. Then messengers are sent to the other territories to tell everyone else about it. It’s a monster thing, but often humans will join in.”
“Ah. So I’m going to be known by practically everyone on the continent. Okay… I-I can’t do this…”
“You’ll do fine, birdie!”
“Birdie?” Sei asked.
“A pet name. Jackie gave it to me.”
“Mhm! I gave it to her because I love her!” Jackie said, scooching up closer to Kimi and kissing her cheek.
“Oh. You two are dating. Okay.”
“You seem sad about that,” Kimi said.
“Oh, well… I really like you both.”
“Poly-style, or bad novel love triangle style?”
“Poly.”
“Nice. I’m also poly so we can make this work! I had a crush on you for the longest time but ended up with Kimi sooner. Kimi, what about you, are you poly?”
“I don’t know what that is.”
“Oh yeah, you grew up thinking gay folk were bad. Juno told me.”
“They did?”
“Yeah, I think it was an accident though.”
“Back to the original topic, lovebirds. Poly, or polyamorous, is basically loving multiple people, romantically, at once,” Sei said.
“Oh! There’s a word? I just thought I was just… broken and weird. I think I’d like to date both of you, though”
“Women and non-binary folk only, right?” Sei clarified.
“Yeah, I guess?”
“There’s a label for that one! Neptunic! I’m an agender, poly lesbian, my mommy, the one who’s not here right now, she’s a trans lesbian, and my mama is just a lesbian! There are pan people like Sei, aromantic people like your aunt, omni people like Juno, gay, lesbian, asexual, demisexual, bisexual, demiromantic, greysexual, greyromantic and others.” Sei said
“And that’s just romantic orientation, gender is a whole other bag of cats. Transgender, non-binary, agender, demigirl, demiboy, genderqueer, bigender, genderfluid, genderflux, and probably more but I forgot them.”
“That’s a lot…”
“You don’t have to memorize them or anything.”
“I’m staying up until three a.m. memorizing all of them.”
“No. Stop. Don’t you dare,” Sei said.
“I have done this before, I can handle it. I once slept three hours in a week. I’ll be fine.”
“You are going to perish. You will die. I cannot stress this enough, you cannot do that, you will perish,” Sei said.
“I’ll be fine.”
“I’m sleeping in your room so I can be sure you sleep. You are so unhealthy,” Jackie said.
“You don’t have to…”
Glares from the two shot into her.
“Okay, yeah totally fair. Go ahead Jackie, please.”
“Good. You need to set a good example for those little kids that seem to like you. They’ll be influenced by you,” Sei said.
“Oh no. I-I can’t do anything like that! I’ll ruin them,” voice quivering and cracking, said Kimi.
“Bedtime. Let’s go to sleep, Kimi.”
The two guided their girlfriend to her room.
“Why am I so exhausted?” Kimi groaned.
“There’s an inevitable energy crash after using your roar. You’re crashing.”
Puru climbed out of Kimi’s pocket, scurrying up her shirt and head, and hopping off. She flew towards the little pillow fort Kimi had made for her earlier.
“Lay down,” Sei instructed.
“Can I at least put pyjamas on?”
“You can hardly stand on your own. If you want to put nightclothes on, we’re putting them on for you.”
“That’s… that’s fine”
Once Sei and Jackie had dressed their drowsy girlfriend, they pulled themselves into bed with her.
Kimi sighed. “I miss my brothers. My father, stepmother, aunts and uncles of Ioskian descent, they’re all awful. But my step-brothers, they were great. We got along so well! It was like we weren’t even born of two separate mothers. I wonder if they miss me…”
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