Solar Song, Frozen Fate ✓ | lion girl, frenemies, frost curse

Chapter 25: Leaving (Part 2)

Taro stiffened beside her as everyone came in. Sovanna put the chain over her head and tried to hide the gem in her thick neck fur. For some reason, she didn't want the Krokeys to see what she had. They were helping, but that didn't mean some of them didn't still see lionkind as enemies.

"Chi-chi, look, there's the Wing that saved ye flutterin' heart, pippy," said a male who had a tuft of black hair atop his head. It was strapped around his head, clearly fake.

A female by the looks of her curves hidden under her thick brown coat rolled her eyes. "Flutterin', eh, ye mean, dyin', and cut that dumb pippy business out, I'm not your little female hatchling-tee."

"Right, old as Guardian's thumb," the male said with a laugh and the female wacked him across the back of his head. Then she sauntered over to Sovanna and Taro.

"Chi-chi," she said, "I'm talkin' to ye, Wing. Chi-chi."

Sovanna realized "chi-chi" was a way to grab attention, not a nickname. Taro crossed his arms and frowned deeply. The female trailed her claws across his cheek and whispered something in his ear. Then she stepped back with a smirk. Taro shook his head.

"I said no, Scilia," he said in a gentle, scolding tone. "Just don't go into the frost for a while. That's all I need. Really."

Scilia stomped back to the male and faced Taro again.

"But we always give back!" she complained. "What's a Wing want, I asked ye, but he don't want anythin'. What he wants me be careful, but that's not givin' back. He saved my life. I need to do something. I should serve him, but he said no. What else is there?"

"I don't know," the male shrugged and avoided her eyes. Scilia huffed.

Stopha came out of the children's room with Oli behind. "You are giving back, you know. You're coming with on a dangerous mission," he said and Scilia said something back to him in such heavy accent that Sovanna couldn't understand a word. Taro turned to Sovanna with a wry smile.

"Scales have a custom of doing deeds in return of other deeds and what you do in return depends on what was done. Something as big as saving her life from iceblood, well, she wants to be my servant for a year. Aerisi don't have servant systems, so I declined, but in their customs, there's no such thing as declining a deed return. No wonder we don't get along."

"Sounds weird to me, too," Sovanna said.

Scales were so much different than Kaunlutha that Sovanna couldn't wrap her mind around it. Not just what Taro explained but how they talked. Scilia sounded angry and threatening but what she was trying to do was do Taro a favor. It was the accent and the voice, the loudness of the species that made her and the male sound like they were arguing, but what they were talking about was each of their choice of warm coat. She realized Stopha must have adopted the more Human style of Universal speech, talking in softer tones most of the time and only being loud when it was necessary.

"It's going to be cold like a Guardian's liver," Scilia said in a loud, grumbling voice, "and you know how much I love snow."

"I can't wait to get outside after all this indoorsy with you, pippy," the male said with a laugh, his voice sounding strong and combative, "We always give back. You owe me, too."

Scilia flashed her fangs. "Of course, I do."

Sovanna pursed her lips. Is she grinning?

Fang flashing in Kaunlutha culture was aggression. It was different from grinning and showing teeth because Kaunlutha could grin without flashing fangs. Scilia and the male didn't sound like they hated each other. They went on and on, flashing fangs a lot. Sovanna eyed Naja who was standing behind the duo in the doorway and behind him was another figure. Took her a while to realize it was a Human and not an extremely short Krokey. The Human stood out in the hall, hood pulled over the face, and Sovanna couldn't tell if it was male or female.