With his tent up in the air with Myelome, Oskar barely had time to sweep away the nasty, thick liquid raining down on him. He hurried to pull himself up with his spear to stand on one foot, and used Sora to launch himself upward after her.

  Myelome was already due another one on one conversation, and this was, unplanned or not, probably the only way she was gonna listen. Oskar broke the dune tops with a massive grin on his face, spiraling Sora around him to push away the still descending rain of vomit. He glanced down in time to see Erik diving back under his tent to avoid it himself. Still grinning, Oskar shifted his angle and increased his speed to intercept the Kobold for their special little talk.

  **Touwon**

  Touwon’s sharp eyes followed Oskar upward without a change of expression. It wasn’t that he didn’t care, he did, but he didn’t understand why everyone seemed to be so overly expressive. It’s like screaming with your face.

  If you smile at everything, what do you do when something is funny? I bet I could create a script in the PUB interface to send people digital representations of my expressions without having to make the expressions with my face. Emoticals? No. There must be a better word.

  Lost in thought, Touwon glanced up briefly as a small shield enveloped him. Partially digested and poorly chewed lizard splashed against the small dome around him, and he gave Erik a no-look nod. Touwon liked Erik, but the Kobold only had eyes for the prosthetic foot laying carefully where Oskar’s tent had been. That beautiful, curious piece of perfectly machined wonder.

  I can make it better. I only need to study it more.

  Truthfully, he had the design, if not the materials, perfectly memorized. However, a little extra study, Touwon found, was the perfect way to invoke new ideas. He already had some ideas, but it was a rare moment when Oskar didn’t need his foot, and since night was a bad time to dismantle their most dangerous fighter’s ability to walk, he’d not had many chances to study it.

  Frustrating, but it was a truth, as Fox would say. He glanced over at Fox, her mischievous eyes squinting up at the quickly brightening sky.

  Oh yeah, Myelome and Oskar. I wonder what they are talking about.

  But again, his eyes went back to the prosthetic. It likely needed cleaning anyhow.

  Maybe for just a moment.

  **Fox**

  Fox easily stepped back, dodging the spray of Myelome’s excessive dinner and saw Erik pop a shield around Touwon and dive under his own tent for shelter. She gave him an appreciative nod when she saw him peek out carefully. The man saw everything. Some of it was still coming down, but Myelome had moved a bit as she ascended, tangled up in Oskar’s tent, and was no longer directly over the camp.

  I am not sure if it is the blue eye that Bastet gifted him, or his nature. It is likely both. These humans are rare even among humans. I suppose I haven’t met many, but if all humans were this capable, they would live longer in this Bastet cursed world.

  Fox watched Oskar snatch Myelome out of the air, but they continued upward until they were barely visible to even Fox’s eyes. According to the Druid, the air would be thin up there, but Oskar was hopefully smart enough not to kill her. The Myelomes were dangerous.

  After Benedictus had saved as many Kobolds as he could, the Myelomes had stepped up to protect him because of his more scholarly nature, like she’d told Oskar. Bene wasn’t weak, but he wasn’t a physical leader. Most Chiefs were a mix of both. She’d seen him reluctantly use his magic a time or two, and he was more than capable, but it didn’t seem like confrontation was his strong suit.

  She knew she had been gone a long time, though, and remembered little about this specific Myelome. Somehow, despite saving the older Kobold’s life, Fox had made a bad impression. A bad impression on top of a bad reputation.

  I do not know if there is a way for me to ever feel like I have a home there again, and it looks like some things never change. I suppose I will always be an outcast. Maybe I should have never left. But I could see the world was slowly dying. There must be more.

  Shaking her head slightly to clear her thoughts, she looked up, not seeing the two in the sky anymore.

  They really have been gone a long time.

  Fox went about cleaning up camp, not bothering to poke Touwon for help. He was obviously focused on something in his tent. His tools were laid out and he was feverishly working on some new idea, Sara pawing at him every time his hand went near her, curled up on her back nearby. So, Fox, in the company of Penny, went about pulling down her own tent and filling up her waterskins.

  **Mylome**

  She could not stop sicking up and could not get her bearings, spinning as she was. Her arms were pinned to her side, and she knew her heart would give out soon. But then, the human used the Magic Above and pulled her to him in the air, and she immediately slammed her forehead into his face.

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  He deserved that for what he’d done to her.

  When he finally stopped being such a fool and took her back down to the ground and got this mangy tent off her, she was going to slit his throat.

  Fool.

  The pink human might have been a fool, but he was a dangerous fool; she could see that much in his too-big eyes. He didn’t even wipe the blood from his freshly busted lip.

  The desert was a cruel place, and so she listened when he spoke, even if it was only to save her life from someone who, for some reason, was more powerful than she was.

  If only my hands weren’t bound by this tent, I would show him how to use magic.

  She almost believed it.

  “Are you listening to me?”

  Myelome nodded, staring at his serious face, secretly pleased with his bleeding lip and the scratches she’d left down his cheek.

  Additionally, she did not yet trust herself to open her mouth with the nausea she felt. It would serve him right, shaming her for eating as they did, but he might actually hurt her if she did so. It was not her fault that she was always hungry. Nothing was never enough, and they had plent-

  “Know this… if you so much as lay a dirty claw on anyone else, I’ll take you exactly high enough in the sky that it’ll take you an hour to die.”

  He really was a fool. Air can’t kill you, even she knew that.

  “Oh, you don’t get it, do you. You don’t know how oxygen works. Allow me to teach you.”

  ***

  Ten minutes later, she’d learned exactly what he meant. Crying, she’d made a vow to her ancestors out loud to behave and be respectful, and she meant it. She’d made another vow though, deep in her heart, that this indignity would be punished. And she meant that one, too.

  Wait till Bene hears of this.

  He must have seen something on her face he didn’t like, because the dangerous human dropped her. Both vows were temporarily forgotten as she screamed.

  **Erik**

  When Oskar and Myelome came down, roughly ten minutes later, Oskar had a busted lip, but the old Kobold’s entire disposition had shifted. She immediately ran over to clean up the area around her tent. Erik had heard the screaming before he’d seen them reappear, and they’d come down close enough to Erik that Oskar could grab onto his shoulder for support. His brother’s eyes through his Goggles were intense, his brow furrowed. Oskar waited, watching the old Kobold pack her belongings up with intense scrutiny.

  “Hey bud. How’s your morning been?”

  That earned him a stare from Oskar.

  “By the way, someone chucked up all over your stuff,” Erik said innocently, and Oskar groaned, hopping the few steps over to his tent, careful to avoid the mess.

  [[ Hell yeah, someone did. Serves him right. I wish it was me. ]]

  You wish someone vomited on you?

  [[ Wait, no. Him… the robot wannabe. The Robo-loser. His tent got vomit all over it, remember? You just said that. Do I have a virus or something? ]]

  Erik smirked, but noticed Touwon’s head pop up when Oskar yelled, “Where the hell is my leg?! Honestly!”

  [[ Hahaha, Touwon stole the foot! Serves him right! Classic. ]]

  Erik couldn’t help but chuckle at that one.

  **Oskar**

  Oskar had to take a moment to calm down. It had taken a 500 foot free-fall at the end, there, to finally make Myelome realize he was done putting up with her crap. If she’d not been helplessly bound, he might have seriously hurt her over the headbutt. He’d still seen defiance in her eyes until she spent a few minutes sucking in thin air. The defiance didn’t leave completely, but the panic in here wide eyes grew enough that he was worried she might try to bite him. He didn’t want rabies, and so he let the fall do the rest of his work.

  Now, he was staring at where his tent had been, and wondered why anyone on this big, hot, dumb planet thought now would be a good time to mess with his leg.

  “Where in the hell is my leg?!” He called out. “Honestly!”

  He was tired and not in the best mood and was trying very hard to not unload on the most likely culprit, but when he turned to glare at the Kobold, Touwon clearly said, “Almost finished.” That took the proverbial wind out of his sails.

  Oskar blinked and glanced around at Fox and Erik’s wide-eyed faces, but Touwon himself kept tinkering with the foot.

  “Well, alright. Let me know when you’re done.”

  Outside of a “Yup,” and “A Little,” I don’t think I’ve heard him say anything I could understand, except the bad word, brekke or whatever. I need to remember to ask what that means.

  Curiosity further overrode his irritation, and so he spent the time cleaning the tent with Wayspring water while sitting on the sand. It felt like a colossal waste of precious water, but there was no way he was packing this tent into his bag covered in Myelome’s dinner. By the time he’d gotten it sufficiently cleaned, Touwon was packing his tools up.

  The Kobold stood and walked over to Oskar, reverently carrying the prosthetic foot like it was a holy relic of his people. “What did you do to it?” he asked. Touwon answered by handing him the prosthetic and walking off to pack up his own tent. “Great. Thanks, man. You’re the best.”

  // He really is. I did a scan, and I think you’ll be pleased. //

  What did he do?

  // Yeah, I’m pretty much never just gonna give you free information, you know that. It makes you lazy. //

  What about the misty battle forms you can make that show me how to use weapons?

  // The only rule that over-rides the no free information rule is keeping you alive. You know that, too. //

  You do care!

  // You say care, I say data… For all you know, I agree with Erik’s PUB about you. //

  Wow. Et tu, Computus? Is that thing still talking smack?

  Oskar’s vision flashed green around the edges.

  // You have no idea. That thing hilarious. He just wrote a poem for Touwon in appreciation for him taking your leg. Wanna hear it? //

  Yeah, sure, Oskar said, calling his bluff. There was no way it actu…

  // Ahem…

  The brave Kobold of righteous repute

  Has bravely stolen… an idiot’s boot.

  The foot inside, his source of lies.

  Of robot dreams and false implies.

  Yet a cyborg poor Ossy shall never be.

  For brave, strong Touwon, has set it free.

  The Kobold brave, through wit and might,

  Did take the foot, as was his right.

  The foot set free, by divine theft.

  Looks like Ossy’s stuck hopping on his left. //

  Oskar brows had climbed as high as they physically could, and so he’d dropped his jaw because he didn’t know what else to do.

  After a minute, Oskar reluctantly sent, That… was actually pretty good, but I can’t believe you told him about the Ossy thing.

  // Wasn’t me, I think Erik helped him with it. And it was pretty good, right? I’m calling it ‘Foetry.” Like Poetry… get it? //

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