Trinket (Reverse Harem)

Bleed On It

"What?" I gasped and I tried to reach behind myself to touch the scratch. Ormiss swatted my hands away. "I've got those... things in me somehow!"

"I can pick them out," Itek assured me, trying to sound calm but his expression was too calm. "I can see them. Ormiss must be able to sense them with his magic. I will pluck them out. You're healing, they probably are just uncomfortable."

Ormiss folded his arms across his chest. "The leg is also hollow. Venom, perhaps."

"If they are like snakes, snakes can dry-bite. Also, she was just scratched, so only a few little... nettles... got into her skin." Itek disappeared back into the cave.

"Is this even happening?" I asked, because I was so confused.

"The squid venom didn't affect you either," Ormiss said.

I pursed my lips. "True."

Itek returned carrying a small little set of clamps that a thoughtful Eaon had included just in case we had to pull splinters out of our feet. His eyesight was still better than anyone else's in human form, and he quickly and deftly removed the tiny little hooks that had gotten stuck in my skin. He showed me his palm, where five little wicked curly hair-like fibers sat. "There. They were in the scab, but easy enough to get out."

"We should keep those," Ormiss said. He looked at the dead bugs. "And I would say we should take those carcasses with us, but it's not feasible. Eaon would be very curious about them."

"What are they?" I asked.

"I've never seen anything like them," Ormiss said. "Not even in the deep ocean."

Itek shook his head as well.

"I'd say they came with the storm, but we saw them in that town on the southern coast." I hugged myself. "Those were bigger. Different types, these are... little."

"Well, that's disconcerting. So there is a whole town of them?"

"Wait, do you think they've been looking for us?" I asked.

Ormiss and Itek exchanged looks.

"I'm not sure what sounds worse. That they're hunting us, or that there's more than once place we'll bump into them." I chewed on a fingernail.

"If you are immune to their toxins, then that would be reason enough to hunt you," Ormiss said.

"But I'm not immune to the taint." I waved my hand at the island.

"Taint and venom aren't the same thing."

Itek kicked one of the carapaces with is foot. It flopped over. "Bugs. Bugs mixed with demon, I'll bet."

"With a dose of Sea-Serpent ambition, perhaps," Ormiss said darkly.

"You don't think these look like they've got some demon in them?"

"I've always thought bugs were demonic."

"I personally feel the same way about sharks."

I crouched down next to one of the grotesque haves. I'd never met an actual demon, but I'd met humans that had demonic taint. Shifters couldn't sense demonic taint like humans could, so I'd always presumed I was human... except according to my shifter consorts, I wasn't human. Shifters could sense other shifters, humans could sense demons, but I was all mixed up and reversed.

"Theia."

I spun around to Itek.

He raised a brow. "Are you allright?"

"Yes, yes, just... I'm looking at them and something's telling me I should be frightened of them, but I... can't feel the fear?" I'd felt the fear at the southern town. I'd felt the fear while they swarmed overhead. That tap tap noise. But just looking at these dead bodies, even though I was aware of my instincts screaming, I wasn't screaming.