Cooro's words floated into his mind. "Said she didn't care if you never came back."
She didn't mean it, he thought desperately. Of course not. Yeah, we've been fighting a lot since…well, since we met, really… but we always got over it. She knows I didn't mean it, that I'm just a bit of a hot-head. Just like I know that she does care what happens to me, even when she's mad at me.
Cooro asked Lee question after question all the way back to town, most of which the prince nimbly dodged aside, answered with a vague "I'm not sure," "Maybe," "Far away from here, perhaps," or "Sounds about right." Cooro didn't seem in the least disappointed. To be honest, Lee was so good natured about it, Cooro might not have even noticed that he ended up with no more information than when he began.
Husky was too absorbed in his own thoughts to notice. Lee watched the movements of his hands beneath his cloak, probably fiddling with that little bag of his. What the prince really wanted to do was ask the beautiful fish-boy what thoughts had him so serious, but he didn't want to speak too much in front of the bird-child. He dare not say anything about the fish-man kingdoms.
Prince Lee saw his guards following at a safe distance, well out of view. When Cooro was distracted (which happened fairly often, as he noticed various odd rocks on the ground, ripe fruit on a tree, or cute little animals run by), he gestured for them to keep their distance. They nodded.
They soon arrived at the town, which hadn't changed much to Prince Lee's memory. He made a point of sneaking into the town every few years to make sure there were no rumors floating around of fish-men living nearby. The three headed straight to a small inn near the edge of the town. It probably had no more than six guest rooms, but Husky had mentioned they offered meals, so it probably did fair business.
A small blonde-haired girl was sitting in front of the inn, looking worried. A large young man stood just behind her, a Kim-un-Ker with gray hair and eyes. She looked up as they approached, light brown eyes looking relieved for a minute, then getting a stubborn look to them.
"Hi Cooro," she said, pointedly ignoring Husky. "Who's this?" she asked, looking at Lee.
"This is Lee. He's a fish +anima Husky met at the beach."
"At the beach… You went swimming?" exclaimed the girl, her voice going tight and high with worry. Nana the bat-girl, Lee assumed. That would make the young man behind her Senri, a bear-man.
Apparently Nana had forgotten she was going to ignore Husky to punish him for their earlier argument.
"What if something happened? We didn't know where you were! You just took off like you always do when things don't go your way! What if you were captured again?"
Husky blushed red, extremely aware of Prince Lee's presence. He'd just met the guy, and now Lee was seeing him being royally chewed out by Nana, like a child that had wandered off without his mother.
"I was fine! I watched the beach the whole time, and no one but Lee saw, and that's only because he was swimming too!" Husky angrily growled right back to her, only refraining from screaming because Prince Lee was there.
"That's just it! Someone saw!" she replied, her voice tense with anxiety. "You could've been kidnapped! Isn't that why we decided not to use our anima if we weren't together? And you didn't even take your staff! What on earth could be so important that you would go swimming?"
The fish-child's beautiful blue eyes narrowed, and beneath his cloak his hand tightened around the pouch. "Nothing."
Prince Lee frowned at that. Was there a reason he was hiding the stones? It's not like they were jewels.
"Oh, so now I'm supposed to be stupid? Like I don't know you enough to think you'd…"
"YOU DON'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT ME!" Husky suddenly screamed at her.
Everyone knew from the flash of pain that whipped across Nana's face that he'd gone too far. The pain quickly turned to anger and Nana glared fiercely at him.
"Fine," she said icily. "See if I care next time you run off!" The little bat-girl turned and stomped off.
For a moment, none of the guys said anything. Husky stood there, burning in embarrassment. All Nana had done was care a little too much, and he'd blown up on her…
"Stupid, selfish girls. I hate them all," he growled to himself, though he knew it wasn't true. It was wrong, he knew, but it made him feel just a little better to push the blame onto Nana's gender.
"Husky…" began Cooro.
"I don't want to talk about it. Look, I left my stuff in the room before I ran off the first time. I'll grab them and see you guys at the table for dinner.
Senri and Cooro nodded and Husky went on into the inn.
Lee casually followed Husky to a room with three beds. On one of them was a belt with a bag attached to it, a matching vest and shorts, a pair of large gloves, and a long staff. Husky took the pouch from around his neck and stashed it in the bag, slipped the vest and shorts on over his tight black shirt and pants, and buckled the belt on. Lastly he slipped the gloves on and gripped the staff in one hand. He seemed perfectly comfortable in the outfit, and Lee had the feeling it was probably his normal outfit, and the black clothes were more for swimming.
"Why did you leave so much stuff here?"
Husky blushed, but Lee had heard enough by now to know about his fight with Nana, the reason he had run in the first place. "I don't usually think of things like 'go get my stuff from the room' when I'm upset. I had to cool my head, so I left."
"Why… umm…" began the prince uncomfortably, his eyes glancing down to the vest and shorts.
"The inn keeper's wife said she'd wash any clothes we gave her." He frowned at Prince Lee. "It's not like I was running around naked or anything."
"Oh. Okay." The red-haired prince suddenly blushed.
Husky rolled his eyes, seeming to get where this was going. "Lee, I am a BOY. Don't go there. I am SO not interested."
Prince Lee looked up, surprised. "I wasn't thinking you weren't!"
Husky glared at him.
"Well, okay, maybe a little. Or… maybe a cross?"
"What on earth is a cross? Does this have anything to do with that 'or maybe both' you asked me earlier?"
"Well, some fish-men have the ability to change permanently into fish-women. Others are both genders at the same time. Certain types of fish, such as parrotfish, clownfish, bass, and salmon…"
Husky's face flushed red and he quickly spun around and left the room, not wanting to hear the rest of this conversation.
Prince Lee reached over and snagged the boy's arm, yanking him back into the room and off-balance.
"This is actually important, Husky. It is very rare, but if there is the slightest possibility…"
"I do NOT want to hear this."
"Listen, Husky. Or do you WANT to be kidnapped by a fish-man looking for a mate?"
Husky froze. "I am NOT a girl!" he insisted again, alarm showing in his big, blue eyes.
"If you tell me the type of fish your source came from, I can tell you whether or not it's a possibility. If it's not a possibility, you can simply tell them and they'll probably leave you alone."
Husky looked confused. Inwardly, his mind was spinning. This was crazy. Should he trust Prince Lee? Could the prince just be spouting lies to confuse Husky? Did he really want to help? He looked like he did…
"They'll… leave me alone, right?"
"Where did it happen, Husky?"
"A… a pond. In a garden…" mumbled Husky, not really wanting to give out too much information.
Prince Lee let go and leaned slightly back, looking somewhat disappointed. "Oh. Probably some sort of cyprinidae. Carp. Your source was probably a type of goldfish or more likely a koi, which would explain your beautiful blue-silver coloring."
"No chance of any of… that stuff, right?" asked Husky, relieved, already having is answer from the regret in Lee's eyes.
"No chance," confirmed Lee. "Koi are known to give beautiful fish forms, so if a fish-man approaches you, you can just tell him what your source was and he'll back off."
"Nothing to worry about, then," said Husky, quickly dismissing the conversation from his mind. "Are you going to join us for dinner? It's not just for guests."
"Of course. Even if there's no chance of you becoming a female, I still want to invite you to visit my kingdom."
Husky frowned at him and hefted the staff warningly. "I wouldn't be able to go with my friends, so it's not going to happen."
Lee smiled cheerfully. "We'll see. I can be quite persistent."
The beautiful fish-child rolled his eyes. Prince Lee seemed to be as stubborn as Cooro when it came to getting what he wanted. But, unlike with Cooro, Husky wouldn't be giving in and joining the fish-man. Not a chance.
Author's Note: Well, after much deliberating, I decided to throw in a little bit of gender-bender, though I doubt I'll be doing anything other than referencing the possibility to give the fish-men a reason to harass Husky. The information about fish should be accurate, though if there are any ichthyologists among my readers, feel free to correct me. Heehee! Sorry, but I just love torturing Husky about looking like a girl! I did not have Husky say it was in Sailand for a couple reasons. I'd like to say it's to leave open the possibility of Husky still being a girl, but it's mainly because, (1) I don't think Husky would easily give out that information, even having kept it from a secret from his friends for nearly a year, and (2) I still need to do more research about what sorts of fish would be in a garden pond in a DESERT kingdom. Probably not koi, and certainly not goldfish, though I could be wrong. Feel free to let me know if you have any ideas! Oh, and an apology for the roughness of the story. I am still working out the plot, so I may have to go back and rewrite parts of chapters later. I will do any editing at that time.