Tonight was supposed to be fun. A time when you’d be able to party and drink yourself blind and half to death on nectar that even the gods wouldn’t pass up.

  Or so Kiki thought.

  Currently, she was pushing past everyone in her way as she attempted to leave. The reason for that being was the lying and manipulative monster that had somehow fooled Jinki into thinking he was good.

  Kiki let out a snarl drowned in the sea of murmurs and music as she tightly held her mug.

  ‘Why couldn’t that little monster just have stayed away,’ Kiki thought, making it past the crowd and out of the great hall.

  With her mood completely ruined, all she wanted to do was just leave, and she was about to when, out of the corner of her eyes, she noticed a lone figure well hidden in the shadows. A figure she recognized.

  Sitting alone in the shadow of the great hall was Biku. He was intently looking at the blue flower that he’d been given with a sorrowful expression.

  “Too scared to come inside, oh mighty hunter Biku,” Kiki teased, sitting down beside Biku.

  “I got you a mug,” Kiki said, holding it up to Biku.

  However, he sat there motionless and silent.

  Kiki, slightly annoyed, placed the mug between them and started to poke him, saying, “Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, HEY!”

  “Enough already!” Biku snarled in anger and annoyance.

  “Look who finally woke up,” Kiki mused once again, offering him the mug.

  Grumpy, he accepted it for nothing else than to get her to leave. “Thanks, you can leave now. Go… enjoy the party or something.”

  “Are you always this rude, or have we never spoken to each other for long?” Kiki asked rhetorically.

  “You could take the hint and just leave me alone,” Biku sighed. “Commander Jinki had the decency to.”

  Kiki drank a large amount of the contents in her mug, keeping it in her mouth before forcefully and extremely audibly gulping all of it down. “I ain’t Jinki, you rude bastard.”

  “What do you want from me?” Biku asked in a tired and annoyed tone of voice,” Can’t you just go back inside with the others?”

  “Jinki brought that little monster with him, and I just couldn’t be near him,” Kiki answered. “So I found you instead.”

  “By monster, I assume you mean the healer,” Biku said emotionlessly. “You didn’t seem to dislike them before.”

  “That was… that was before,” Kiki somberly answered, her voice hinting at slight anger.

  “Good to know I’m your last choice,” Biku sighed, his attention firmly on the flower.

  “Why are you so gloomy?” Kiki asked, sounding slightly exhausted.

  Biku didn’t answer right away; instead, he took a sip from his mug as he slowly and delicately spun the flower in his hand round and around. “How well did you know Asini?”

  Kiki, slightly caught off guard by the question, muttered something and rubbed and scratched the back of her head. “Errrrrrr… not too well, I suppose.”

  “I mean, I knew her, and we talked at times, but it was mostly just about hunting and those kinds of things.”

  Biku, with his gaze still affixed on the spinning flower in his hand, sipped from his mug. “I talked a lot with her. She always seemed stoic and tough, a real hard ass.”

  “Yet her prowess with a bow far surpassed mine, and just under the surface, she was sweet and gentle.”

  “She was probably just like Jinki being able to hold her breath for long or something like that,” Kiki said, looking up at the pretty little lights in the sky.

  “Hey, have you ever wondered what one of them tastes like?” Kiki asked, nudging Biku.

  “What?” Biku questioned, still looking at the flower.

  “You know the pretty little lights in the sky,” Kiki answered.

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  Biku let himself fall on his back, his tail getting squished under him to his left as he held the flower above him. “I have never thought of it. I always just thought they were pretty.”

  “But once upon a time, I wondered if you could make a necklace from one of them.”

  “I always imagined they tasted sweet, but a necklace or jewelry made from one of them would certainly get you any girl you fancied,” Kiki responded as she also let herself fall on her back, her tail getting squished to the right of her body.

  “Anyone I fancied,” Biku muttered.

  “As I said, anyone,” Kiki said as she experimented with drinking while pouring some floor juice down her mouth with mixed results as she wiggled her tail a little and played with Biku’s. “I bet even gifting that flower to a girl would assure you she’d become your mate once Ki and Di unite.”

  “Why do you hate the black healer all of a sudden?” Biku asked, still spinning the flower with his fingers as he pulled his tail away.

  “I don’t want to answer that,” Kiki said defensively, with undertones of rage in her voice as her tail limply stopped moving.

  “Then leave,” Biku flatly responded.

  “Huh?!” Kiki uttered with mild annoyance and shock. “Why are you so rude?!”

  “I never asked you to come here or talk to me,” Biku responded, never once even looking in Kiki’s direction.

  “What happened to you?!” Kiki exclaimed, propping herself up on her elbows and looking directly at Biku. “You weren't this sour on the mission or when we broke into those two idiots' houses and scared them half to death.”

  Biku stayed silent as he just kept looking at the blue flower.

  “I’m talking to you,” Kiki said in annoyance as she quickly snatched the flower from Biku.

  “What are you doing!” Biku exclaimed, trying to grab the flower from Kiki.

  Kiki, with a slightly amused expression, rolled away from Biku before he had a chance to get the flower back. “Finally! You seemed half dead before; you should thank me for bringing you to life again.”

  Once Kiki stopped rolling, she could see Biku had a pained expression as he dug his claws into the dirt. “Don’t look like that; if it was important, you would have traded it or given it to someone by now, Bibi!”

  Biku didn’t answer; instead, he just got off the ground and onto his feet. He slowly walked toward Kiki, who still, with an amused expression, continued to roll away.

  However, no matter how much Kiki rolled away from Biku, he never ran or changed his expression. He just seemed defeated, as if doing anything other than walking was too hard.

  Slowly Kiki stopped rolling, and her amused expression disappeared as she sat up.

  When Biku approached her, all he did was hold out his hand.

  Shamefully, Kiki adverted her gaze as she handed back the flower, “I’m sorry.”

  Biku took great care as he took the flower and walked back to where he had been sitting.

  For a moment, Kiki wondered if she should just go home and call it a night or find someone else to talk to at the party now that it seemed like something big was going on.

  Yet she did neither of those things as she got to her feet and walked back over to Biku and once more sat down beside him.

  “It was Asini, wasn’t it,” Kiki sighed. “You love her, don’t you?”

  Biku gently stroked the head of the flower with his thumb for some time before he answered her, “Don’t you mean loved.”

  Kiki moved her tail on top of Biku’s with her gaze lowered, “I think you know it’s love; otherwise, you wouldn’t be holding that flower.”

  “It would have been perfect,” Biku mournfully sighed. “I would have gifted her the flower and asked for her to become my mate… but… but.”

  “But the heretics ensured that your happy ending was not but a dream, one you’ll never know the ending of,” Kiki sighed unhappily.

  “What am I even supposed to do now,” Biku said sorrowfully yet with slight frustration. “Remember her until the day I die and just move on. Find another who’ll become my mate and love her less.”

  Kiki looked up once more to the sky. “That’s the choice life gives you. Either you can hold onto the flower and let your memories and sorrow swallow you, or you can use it to find someone else to love.”

  “Or you could crush that flower and be mine tonight.”

  For the first time tonight, Biku willingly, albeit because of shock, looked away from the flower and at Kiki, “What?”

  “I know we’ve never really interacted too much before Commander Jinki sent us on that mission, but in that short time, I saw your strength and conviction, and I felt something… I don’t know how to describe it,” Kiki said, slightly embarrassed.

  “But I knew those feelings only intensified after we scared those two idiots half to death and ran away laughing before anyone came.”

  “Kiki…” Biku uttered, speechless, as he felt his hands slightly trembling.

  For longer than he could remember, he’d loved Asini, and he hadn’t taken the news of her death very well. He had so much anger in him anger that he unjustly went to the healer and anyone else too unlucky to be around him.

  Yet when that anger subsided, all that remained was sorrow. Sorrow for a life not lived. Sorrow for a future forever out of his grasp. Sorrow for not confessing his true feelings while he had the chance.

  He didn’t know if it was because he’d had a bit of fun with her before this point or if he really liked her, or if it was just the unyielding call of mating season, but Biku crushed the flower in his hand and quickly pounced on Kiki.

  “You made the right choice,” Kiki lovingly said, reaching out with her hands and gently caressing Biku’s face.

  Without a word, Biku just leaned down and started to lick her face, neck, and beautiful nose. Of course, Kiki reciprocated the intimate action as she wrapped her arms around him and pulled him close.

  In the meantime, Jubo and Wilf were in a fierce battle to the death, or so it seemed.

  Sure, Wilf was bleeding, but she seemed unfazed, which only irritated Jubo more.

  Growling, he swiped at her once more.

  Laughing, Wilf jumped back, avoiding the blow, “Impressive, you made me move.”

  Quickly, Jubo followed up with a fury of swipes, attempting to rip and tear Wilf to pieces.

  However, Wilf just jumped around, backstepped, and sidestepped, avoiding each and every blow to Jubo’s continued humiliation and frustration.

  ‘How can this be!’ Jubo thought as he played catchup to this lowborn vixen. ‘I’m a Dekaso! I’m to become the head of the household! I am the fastest there is!’

  As the thought passed through his mind, Jubo was no longer completely filled with anger and a feeling of humiliation but dread and an overwhelming sense of fear from his very core.

  And so, with little to no warning, Jubo’s already incredible speed increased, and Wilf was no longer able to fully evade.

  Each swipe now brought with it a new nick, scratch, and wound, yet Wilf’s only response was to laugh.