Chapter 55
Killian settled on the ground to Ender’s right, with Cyrus right next to him.
They’d just finished grabbing what they needed to groom Ender’s chickens, which was apparently two tubs of water mixed with whatever Ender put in it, a ladle, baby shampoo, towels, brushes, and a machine that the label on the outside called The Petamatic.
“I’ll wash. Killian, you rinse them with the ladle in the tub in front of you, and Cyrus, you pat them with a towel before placing them into the pet dryer.
It dings when it’s done, so take them out as quickly as you can, as they don’t like staying in it,” Ender explained with a smile, before calling out, “Gather, my children! Grooming day!”
He probably shouldn’t have found it surprising that the chickens did just that, and in a rather orderly fashion.
He was a bit startled to see them all come running at once.
They flocked around. While some roamed nearby, most formed a line by Ender’s side.
There was no doubt the Gorgon had a pretty strong bond with the flock.
“This is Tim-Tim, he’s a light Sussex rooster,” Ender stated as he picked up a mostly white rooster with gray-black feathers striping around the neck and tail, and placed him in the pan of water, before he started washing him with the baby shampoo.
Killian laughed softly when the fluffiest black chicken he’d ever seen walked out of line and right over to him, hopping into his lap.
“That’s Flimmy, she’s a black silkie, and still a baby compared to the others. She also likes having her feathers pet, which is what she is waiting for you to do.”
Looking down at the rather cute bird, who was staring up at him with her beady black eyes, he started to run his hands over her feathers. She was unbelievably soft, and he couldn’t help but chuckle when she cooed at him. Flimmy only sat there for a moment before rejoining the others.
“Ow!” Cyrus growled. “Stop pecking me, you little—”
“Do not yell at my chickens!” Ender snapped.
Cyrus picked up who Killian could only assume was the perpetrator. The chicken with yellowish-red feathers squawked, its feathers fluffing up and looking beyond indignant as the Fate snapped back, “Then tell this one to stop pecking me!”
“Leave Billina alone! She’s old. She is allowed to peck whoever she wants!”
Cyrus sputtered.
“Put her down!” Ender hissed.
His fiancé let out a clearly frustrated growl, before slowly setting her down. Killian giggled when one of the man’s eyes started to twitch, as Billina immediately started pecking at one of Cyrus’ thighs.
“Anyway,” Ender said, as he picked up Tim-Tim and handed him over to Killian, before grabbing a black hen with feathers that looked like they almost had a white lace pattern on them. “This is Starlight, she’s a black Barnevelder.”
Zenny walked as quickly as he could beside Soren, his impatience to get to where they were going growing fast.
His gaze flicked up to the tall Harpy, and he hesitated for a moment before giggling and taking off running.
“Zenny!” Soren snapped, but he ignored the Cryptid, running the rest of the way to the underground pool.
Past the automatic door, and already in his swim shorts, Zenny ran straight into the large cavernous room with a laugh, only to stop in his tracks, his eyes growing wide with wonder as he witnessed Killian breach the water.
“Wow…” he rasped softly, as the Siren smoothly dove back underwater without a single splash.
With gray-ish shimmering purple scales framing the man’s sides, arms, and chest, it was hard not to notice that Killian’s pearlescent skin seemed to glow when slick with water.
The Siren’s tail was an ombré of light gray-ish purple shimmering scales that changed to a deeper purple-teal mix on the bottom, before shifting back to a lighter purple-teal for the fin.
The smaller fins on the Siren’s hips, along with the ones right above the larger fin, and his dorsal, were the same color, except the larger fin's structural lines stood out in dark purple.
Zenny watched on as Killian repeated the action.
When he finally looked away, he quickly realized he hadn’t been the only one watching.
Ender and Cyrus seemed just as entranced.
Both were in the water as well and shirtless.
While the Fate was deeper in and treading water, Ender was sitting on the steps, seeming to be soaking, his increasingly large belly visible.
A smile spread over his face as he stood there watching them all, it grew when the lines appeared around them. Just as he had first spotted on the spaceship months ago, each of the three men had a red line connecting Zenny to them.
But more than that, the Cryptids had lines connecting them to each other. One each…well, no, it was more like two lines that had twisted together in sort of a candy cane type way. That’s how it always was when there were multiple relationship connections between two people.
In whatever ways the people were connected, the various colored lines would twirl together to form a larger one.
In this case, between the three men there were red and pink twirled lines.
Pink, unlike red, meant romantic love. At least, he was pretty sure it did.
Zenny had sort of been forced to figure things out on his own, as he hadn’t actually met another Cupid, as far as he knew.
The lines between Cyrus and Killian were older, with the red being darker in color, while the pink was brighter and more vibrant, telling him that their relationships were many years old. While the lines between them and Ender, not to mention the ones connecting them to Zenny, were very new.
He was sure they were showing the future, or what could possibly be the future.
Zenny hadn’t actually figured out if new lines were something that was always meant to happen, or even if they were permanent.
Mainly, as he hadn’t actually been around anyone long enough to watch what happened.
So, he didn’t know if the lines always deepened, or if they sometimes broke and faded away, like they never existed.
He hoped they wouldn’t. Zenny was smart enough to know that it was a possibility. He just hoped, with everything in him, that these specific lines would stay.
The lines had changed already. The one between him and Ender was deeper now than it was when he first spotted it, as was the one between him and Killian. Cyrus’ was still the same, but then, he hadn’t really been around the Fate much.
He had a moment to notice that another set of red lines had appeared, before someone clearing their throat had him jumping. Zenny glanced back sheepishly at the Harpy, who now loomed behind him.
Staring pointily, Soren drawled, “You are getting extra homework for that.”
“But—” he started to whine.
“No ‘buts’. I’ve told you multiple times that the halls are not a place for you to run.”
Zenny huffed, looking back at the water with a pout, but found his eyes drawing curiously to the lines that had appeared when the Harpy entered the room. There were four in total, though one was harder to see, since it connected to him and the man was behind him.
That line, and the lines between the Harpy, Siren, and Fate were new, and a cooler tone of red compared to the others.
Zenny knew it still meant family, but the connection was different.
He didn’t understand the threads enough to really say exactly what it meant, but in his mind it was probably a distant relative, or… maybe just not direct family?
The line between Ender and Soren, however, was the same tone as the other red lines, except it was possibly the deepest blood-red he’d ever seen.
Which maybe meant it was just the oldest connection he’d seen.
His best guess, based on having been around the two men for months, was that they were siblings.
But something worried him about that line. As thick and solid as it looked, there was something wrong with it. Speckled on the deep blood red were black spots, almost like mold was forming, or as if it was rotting.
He’d spotted lines with it before. Zenny had never understood exactly what it meant, still he couldn’t help but think they weren’t a good thing.
Which is why he’d ended up counting them about a month ago.
He wasn’t sure how many there had been when he first got there, but since then, they had dropped in number, going from fifty-six to fifty.
He could only hope they continued to go away, but Zenny figured it would be a good idea to keep an eye on the situation.
He’d gone from having no family, to possibly having four future family members, and he didn’t want to lose one. Wait, it was actually six, because of the babies! He’d have siblings! Oh…Zenny wasn’t sure he’d be that great of a big brother…
Wait, no! It was seven! Though that last line he saw had been almost see through, and he’d only caught a glimpse of it once.
He supposed that one was very up in the air, and with the line between Ender and Soren possibly being in danger, he probably shouldn’t be too focused on figuring out the random ghost-like pink thread between Soren and the very pretty man who seemed to ruffle the Harpy’s feathers back on the spaceship.