(A/N: As mentioned in the previous drabble, this and the next 'chapter' are kinda derpy and not well done. I wanted to introduce Lyx, a Florida Panther Titan hybrid based off my crazy Boxer/Ridgeback mixed dog Lexi. This chapter also delves into the Titan Hybrids that populate much of the Woven Zone, which is what I'm thinking I'll call the forest the Florida Team lives in.

Lots of weird dialogue in this one again. Mostly Ket explaining things.

Mama Cat and possibly T-Boy will be physically introduced in the next chapter, when I get around to finishing and polishing it.

Cheers!)

Ch.4

Lyx

Dante sighed and looked up towards the hazy purple sky from where he was sitting against the guest cabin. Despite the sun having sunk below the trees an hour ago, it was only marginally cooler since the storm passed. The humidity was unbelievable, like trying to walk through warm soup.

"What kind of backwards place is louder at night than in the day?" Dante smiled as Zhalia lowered herself down next to him, changed from her usual jeans and jacket into a loose tank top and shorts similar to the ones Ket had worn for their hike to HQ. "This is ridiculous."

Dante chuckled his agreement, the cicadas practically screaming theirs. "It woke me up. Worse than a Banshee."

The two sat together in relative silence as the sun finished its journey below the horizon and night claimed the forest fully. As the darkness fell the screech of thousands upon thousands of cicadas increased, their shrieked song joined by the shrill chirps and warbling calls of the frogs and toads that had collected at the marshy puddles left by the rains.

Then the bellows and caterwauls of otherworld creatures a joined the fray. And the two Seekers marveled at the unexpected harmony the wild Titans brought to the otherwise discordant melody, the final touch to two worlds truly interwoven at the deepest level.

Dante moved closer to Zhalia, brushing the side of his hand against hers in question. She answered by leaning against his solid frame with a quiet sigh of contentment. Moments like these would be few and far between in the crowded cabin the team shared.

"What do you think about the things Ket told us?" Zhalia asked quietly, toying with her Gareon amulet. She wanted to summon him, just for the feeling of extra security in a new place and to show him the wonders of the surrounding forest. She was unsure of how the peculiar environment would affect him, especially in light of the things they had learned earlier.

Dante hummed softly in response, sharp eyes picking out the first few stars glittering through the drifting cloud cover above. "I think…it's a lot to take in." He looked down at his partner. "Still think this will be an interesting enough mission for you?"

Zhalia scoffed, looking back up to him. "There's plenty to keep us occupied at least."

The slight creak of one of the cabin doors opening drew their attention. Ket stepped out, snapping on the last of the four hairbands she used to bind down the length of her ponytail.

The guide waved slightly to Dante and Zhalia, who returned the gesture, before padding barefoot over to the cabin opposite theirs. She cracked the door open and exchanged quiet words with the occupant before opening it further to allow the large cougar Dante had seen earlier to slip out.

"Are you guys hungry?" Ket whisper-called as she rubbed the massive cat's head.

A handful of minutes later found Dante and Zhalia sitting at the long picnic table at one end of the open building. In one of her moments of rapid, enthusiastic speech Ket had called it a 'modified Chickee' that had been maintained and rebuilt in the same spot for hundreds of years. It was a gathering spot for the Florida team, where they cooked and shared their meals and planned out their daily activities and responsibilities.

As Ket set about rekindling the fire in the center pit, muttering about smoke repelling the droves of mosquitos as a trade off for the uncomfortable heat it provided, the cougar began investigating the newcomers to its home.

"Oh, this is Lyx!" Ket threw over her shoulder when she heard the soft intake of nervous breath that always preceded new Seekers being approached by the cougar. "She's pretty chill. If she rolls over onto her back she wants you to rub her belly."

Dante shifted slightly as the animal bumped her head against his hand. "Hello, Lyx." Unsatisfied with the lack of more enthusiastic attention, Lyx suddenly put her paws first on Dante's knee, then reared up and put them on his shoulders. "Whoa! Easy, girl. I'm taken."

From where he was now staring at the cat's midsection, Dante was surprised to see a slightly familiar gold trimmed, though mostly royal purple, armored harness that covered Lyx's chest. At the center, a green gem the size of the detective's fist glinted dully in the light of the young fire.

"She's a Titan." Zhalia stated, her own surprise only hinted at in her monotone voice. The Seeker reached over and ran her fingers through the fur at Lyx's tan neck. She grinned and scratched the cat's cheek when the Titan rumbled a purr and set her heavy head across Dante's shoulder to provide easier access.

Ket popped her thumb up in response, flashing Lyx's corresponding amulet on her left wrist as she added chunks of spongy wood to the flames. "That she is! She's not actively summoned at the moment though. We don't like asking the local Titans to use their powers unless it's necessary or they want to train with us." She turned around with the now smoldering pieces of wood to place beside the table just as Lyx let out a surprisingly bird like chirp and licked Dante's face from his cheek all the way to his hair, sending a stripe of it sticking up in various directions. "Lyx! Sorry, she likes you."

Zhalia covered her mouth, trying to hide the rather un-Zhalia-like giggles that were threatening to burst out as Lyx continued to groom her boyfriend's hair to her feline satisfaction. "Is 'Lyx' her Titan name or a reference to this little behavior?"

"A bit of both!" Ket chuckled and grabbed Lyx's harness. "Lyx, come on, you're not supposed to climb on people. There ya go." With a complaining huff the cougar dismounted her new friend and padded at Ket's heels to her cabin and back. "She told us her Titan name is Lyxari, and her sort of 'species' has been known as Hiyaraba since the first Timucuans came here." With a flourish Ket set down two plates, one with the breaded and fried pieces of the cottonmouth she had killed earlier and the other with regular turkey club sandwiches. "The Titan hybrids around here usually prefer the names that they give themselves. We try to honor that.

"You don't have to eat the snake if you don't want to. Mama isn't too fond of me eating it, never really got used to the more interesting foods around here, but she always says I should offer it to guests if I have it."

Zhalia grabbed a piece without hesitation. This wasn't the craziest thing she had eaten, and though she had eaten snake before on various missions to the East, she had never tried an American snake before. Dante took one more slowly, open to new experiences but still a little cautious.

"That's not bad." Zhalia commented, using a knife to scrape away more strips of meat from next to the spine after giving it an initial taste. "A little more fishy than the others I've tried. But not bad at all, Ket."

"Aw, thanks!" Ket flashed the ex-spy a genuine smile, giddy with the praise. "I'm no cook, but per southern tradition if I can put it in a pan with oil I can cook it to an edible level."

Following Zhalia's example, Dante pried off a string of flesh from the snake's spine and tried it. It was fishy, but a very light aftertaste of chicken lingered on his tongue. His partner was right, it was good, and oddly addicting. "Nice Florida fare. If we had these in Venice I'd have to get the recipe." He chuckled. "Not the strangest thing I've eaten."

Without missing a beat Ket chirped, "Yeah, I've heard you can be a little odd, Zhalia."

It went as dead quiet as it could be with the nighttime chorus in the background.

"Aaah, fuck, I am so sorry!" Ket covered her face, mortified that she had just tossed out a risqué joke at the expense of the second most powerful Seeker in the Foundation. "That slipped out! I've been living with two guys for years and this kind of banter is what I've gotten used to, I am SO. Sorry!"

Zhalia grabbed the young woman's hands and pulled them down. She looked her dead in the eye and said with firm conviction, "You and I…are going to get along so well." A toothy grin flashed across the former spy's face. "Keep those kind of jokes coming, kid. And we'll be just fine."

Slowly, Ket's red face broke out in an equally frightening smile. "Oh this is going to be fun."

Dante shook his head. "I'll never understand you two." Still, he kept pulling bits of snake meat off his piece as he gestured to where Lyx now laid on Ket's feet under the table. "I know you're probably tired of explaining everything after earlier, but could I ask you a few questions about the locals?"

"Of course!" Ket sank her teeth into the fleshy spine of her snake and ripped the entire chunk of meat down from the vertebrae to the tips of the many ribs in a single motion. "It's fun to actually tell people about this place. It's kept so secret, even in the Foundation. What do you want to know?"

"You told us that the Titans here can breed and age. Are they somehow hybridized with the animal population?"

As Dante spoke the young guide fanned air onto the smoldering wood piece she had set on the table, releasing more smoke to drive off the mosquitos that had begun to close in. "From what we can tell and what the original balunu hitihuta left us information-wise, that seems to be the case. They're Titans, but they're also animals."

Zhalia spoke up, leaning forward with her elbows on the table. "So when you say Lyx isn't 'active' right now, you mean you haven't summoned her using her amulet?"

Ket nodded. "Exactly. Most of the Titan energy that the hybrids have is stored in these gems they have locked to their bodies." She reached down and tapped Lyx's green gem with a blunt fingernail, giving the cougar a good scratch under the jaw to mollify her. "They can chose to take on their summoned Titan form whenever they want. They can also gift their amulet to Seekers, though I've never heard of them bonding with someone who isn't balunu hitihuta."

"Are they all based on the animals in the area, or are there any mythos Titans here?" Dante asked. It was a little disappointing to hear that the chance of him bonding with a hybrid Titan was slim to none, but the entire topic was still incredibly interesting.

"There're a few mythos Titans around. They don't show themselves often, mind you, even to us." Ket shrugged. "And just to make sure it isn't a total surprise, but not all hybrid Titans look like their animal form when they summon. Hell, T-Boy, he's the Titan that sticks by Mama like a freakin' shadow, we can't even tell what he's supposed to be." She jerked a thumb over her shoulder towards the cabin Lyx had slinked out of. "I say that because he loves to pop back and forth between his summoned form and his natural form. No warning whatsoever. He can be all over you one second and then literally over you, if he doesn't squash you with his summoned weight that is."

"We'll keep that in mind." Dante smiled wryly. Titans that could summon at will would be an interesting challenge.

Ket stifled a yawn and checked the battered clock that hung off one of the Chickee's posts. "Ah, jeez. Mama'd kill me if she knew how late I kept you guys up with all this yammering." She stood and stretched her clasped hands over her head, both shoulders popping sharply. "If it's alright with you, I'm going to head off to sleep. There's a cooler in the guest cabin by the water tank. You can keep the sandwiches in there for the rest of your lot to snack on."

Both elder Seekers bid their guide goodnight and watched her trudge back to her cabin. Lyx heaved her muscled body from under the table and plodded after her, swaying her tail in a surprisingly human mimicry of a lazy wave goodbye.

And once again the harsh melody of the wilds filled the silence, leaving Dante and Zhalia to sit in wonder of the forest around them.