Hello Lovelies! Enjoy!

Chapter 10 – Phase 2

Kreesis was still unsure of what to think about the pair or this mating. Many times he had returned to the hollow with Lykrosis and still he was just as confused and just as conflicted.

That first time, he had been understandably perturbed by the whole event. Even with Lykrosis explaining everything to him beforehand, he had not been prepared for anything that had come about. That Lykrosis would willingly touch the female without concern had bothered him greatly; he had thought to see more reticence, more hesitance.

However, nothing had bothered him more so than his own desire.

It was wrong, and he had said as much as soon as they had returned to the burrow. The conversation between them had been brief, mostly just him admonishing Lykrosis harshly about all this foolishness, and when he was done with that, he had left so he could think. He had needed the space to separate what Lykrosis had told him from what he had witnessed and how he had felt.

That had taken awhile.

At first, he had thought it would have been better to never have known Lykrosis for the other vandal had placed a heavy burden on him with this knowledge. He was asking him to choose loyalty to him over that of the crew without sufficient reason. Despite whatever Lykrosis had thought, they still did not know anything about the pair or their intentions. This could very well be some sort of trap set by the nuur'khu and despite Lykrosis insisting he was just as suspicious and just as cautious, it had not appeared that way to him.

Lykrosis and the female had left themselves so vulnerable and seemingly with no thought or hesitation. It was illogical, and that was very unlike Lykrosis. Which made him wonder what Lykrosis could possibly be experiencing during the action that would justify this.

That question alone had been enough to justify to himself why he was not reporting this immediately to the captain. He had wanted to understand this mating and this pair. He had wanted to understand the strange desire he had felt; a conclusion—he figured—that must have been the same one to which Lykrosis had come.

And for that reason, he had accompanied Lykrosis back to the hollow again.

Each time after that first, they had conversed prior to Lykrosis and the female mating. Kreesis had questioned the pair extensively, both asking questions he knew Lykrosis had already asked to check for consistency in the answers as well as new topics he himself was curious about. He learned so much more than he had ever thought possible about this planet and the hu'ins, but the problem was, he had no idea if any of it was true.

To the extent possible, he verified the information using their archive for reference and he had not found any discrepancies, which he found surprising. Seemingly the pair had not told him any untruths, but if not to deceive, then why give up this information so freely?

He had no answer for that, only that the more moments this went on and the more he learned, the more he admitted to himself that the pair did not seem hostile. Their actions always seemed to be consistent with their words, innocuous.

It was strange.

Granted, the whole situation was strange, particularly the behavior.

Kreesis watched, for that was all he had to do in those moments. He watched Lykrosis and the female; he saw the changes. The more times they had come, the more easily Lykrosis interacted with the female. He lost caution and suspicion, what little there had been of it.

The creature, he had been told, had never had qualms about physical interaction and now, he noted, it seemed neither did Lykrosis. Claws slid and scratched and wandered much more readily. Bodies entwined more closely, more freely, and stayed together for more moments.

There was an eagerness in the other vandal that Kreesis had never seen before and he wasn't certain how to feel about this development.

He had come to realize that Lykrosis enjoyed these moments with the creature, truly enjoyed them, and that was rare. Fallen society was harsh and unforgiving. The strong excelled and the weak were forgotten or disposed of. Since he had been spawned it had been this way and Kreesis could not pinpoint many moments in which he had truly enjoyed himself. There were many moments when he felt pleased: besting a foe, hunting and consuming a kill, being made a reaver, but these moments were small and fleeting. They were nothing compared with the open contentment that seemed to surround Lykrosis most always when they were together now.

And deep within him, he also realized he envied Lykrosis that feeling.

All that knowledge had led him to this moment, crouched in the hollow watching Lykrosis mate the female, and part of him wanted to experience this too, whatever it was. The more times he had come here, the more his resistance to the idea had faded. Kreesis wasn't sure what he may actually think once the idea of touching the female was no longer just that, an idea. However, for now, he could no longer deny that mating was something that he wanted to do, at least once.

"What do you think he wants?"

Who?

"The other vandal or… the first vandal. I don't know. What do you think they are trying to accomplish by having the other vandal there?" The ghost honestly could not figure out why the first vandal had brought the second.

Curiosity?

"Maybe. That's definitely what lured the first one in, but, I just don't feel like that is it. He mostly asks the same questions as the first when we are conversing, which is strange to me since you would figure the first would have relayed all that information to the other by now. Maybe the second one discovered what the first was up to and demanded to see what was really going on?" it asked although the question was more rhetorical.

Friends?

"Pfft. I don't think I can even say the words 'fallen' and 'friends' seriously in the same sentence. I'm pretty sure that's a human concept." The ghost waited, but it didn't receive any more prompts after that. The female probably hadn't the faintest idea why the other vandal was there either. It was a bit suspicious; well, more than a bit.

Each time the female mated a new species, the ghost feared that each meeting was another opportunity for them to be ambushed. It had happened before, but usually fairly quickly after the first time. The vandal had returned often enough, that that particular worry had left its mind. Until, suddenly there were two vandals in the hollow instead one, and the fear resurfaced.

Yet, so far, nothing had changed. They conversed, the female mated the first vandal, and then they left. So again, why was the second vandal there? Since that first day, they had not broached the subject again of the female mating both of them, which it was thankful for. However, the ghost had a nagging feeling that the longer this went on, the more likely it was that it would come up again.

The ghost sighed. Was it ever going to get some answers instead of more questions? "I'll keep thinking about it, but more importantly, we also need to discuss phase 2 of this plan."

Phase 2?

"Yeah, that's the point, what is phase 2? We have been at this for a while and I am exuberant that it is helping you, don't get me wrong, but I still have no idea where we are going with this."

No plan.

"You don't have a plan? I thought you had this all figured out and it was all part of some master plan to fix yourself." The ghost got a feeling of rejection.; nope, definitely no master plan going on in that brain of hers. "Well this is never going to work then. We can't keep this up forever. The situation is too precarious; there are too many variables, which all lead to either us or them being discovered and somebody ending up dead."

Will know.

Will know? What did that mean? "Can you elaborate, please?"

Feeling better. Will know.

This time, the ghost felt more assuredness related to the future, that the better she felt, the more she understood. There would be planning. "So, you're saying you don't have a plan right now because you are not well enough to have one? You have to get better and then you will know what to do next?"

Yes.

"Uh huh. That's flimsy as hell. You know that, right?"

Yes, and there was humor behind that word.

"Seriously, you are never worried about anything. It is amazing and at the same time, insufferably frustrating." Smiling, that's what it received, not that it was surprised. "Whatever. Come sit down and let me get some scans. If the whole plan rides on you feeling better, we better damn well make sure you are actually getting better."

So…?

Fallen Language. Listed in order of appearance:

Nuur'khu – lightbearers