Chapter 31

This was way too important to be hiding in the trees. I was hoping to make a lot of changes to the Tarks when I was king. Enough that the older generation might label me a radical, try to overthrow me, and crown my sister queen. But honestly, they wanted me educated with the Theran and Farkhi like all the previous kings and I was shocked no one had done it yet.

Most of my people had only ever encountered humans from afar in their boats. Sono, Oris, and I were playing a little too far from Theran territory when we came across a rail-thin human trying to hunt. He seemed shocked to see kids, and this was the first human any of us had seen.

He didn't want to hurt us. He seemed more concerned about where our parents were and something hurting us. We were all a bunch of idiot kids, so we asked why he was so skinny. We got an earful about taxes and Barons. He seemed to hate them more than he hated us, so Oris hunted a few rabbits for him while Sono and I gathered some wild roots and herbs for him to make a stew.

Oris puffed his chest up and said one day, he was going to be able to take deer down, but he wasn't big enough yet. The human practically started crying that we did all that for him and apologized to us for everything the humans did to us in the past and the present. He did tell us it wasn't all humans.

We all went home and shared that story with our parents. They all got mad and yelled at us. We were watched like hawks and never allowed to wander far out of any territory to play again.

But this? Volaris and Sono were here. So was the person we'd been praying to return for a very long time. If these five humans were dangerous, they wouldn't be allowed to sleep near the Spirus and eat breakfast with her.

It was common sense and sometimes that flew out the window when hate was involved. Yes, some of them were bad, but not all of them. Not all the tribe members were that great either.

I'd had enough. Unlike Oris, I believed in the Spirus story. Now that she was back, I really wanted to meet her. So, I stepped out of the trees into the clearing to see her.

Oh, wow. She was lovely. She was much smaller than I was expecting, and we hadn't seen the red hair in a very long time. Hers was the color of flames and her eyes were so unusual. One was violet and one was green. She had this weird look on her face as I approached and introduced myself.

"Do all the tribe princes have that really nice dip in their hips that I like so much?" she asked Sono.

Volaris and an insanely tall man both started choking on their breakfast. Esylle, Sono, and the other humans tried to hide their smiles. The Spirus was charming. I didn't know what was so important about my hips, but she seemed to like it.

"Neptis grew up with Oris and me. We're all good friends. And yes, we all have that dip in our hips."

"I don't know why I like it that much, but it seems a little unfair all three of you have it. Are you hungry?"

Ugh. I so wished I was hungry right now. We ate some fish in the nearby river before we found them in the clearing.

"He's not, but he still wants to sit," Sono teased.

"Well, come sit. You can figure out that the humans with us are my friends and they've been nothing but nice to me. Except Leodos, who yells a lot."

That was Leodos? We knew about him. He was a friend to the tribes. He stopped the experimentation on us. He also looked like he wasn't angry with her in the slightest. Leodos just blew a raspberry at her.

"It seems like you're feeling better, Imp."

She stuck her tongue out at him. The Spirus just stuck her tongue out at the man who ended the torture of my kind and he seemed to think that was normal. One of Volaris's spies told us she'd been born a baby and was now a girl my age, but I guess it hadn't sunk in Sorcha was more like me than some fabled god.

It was a little mind blowing, but it was actually rather nice. Unlike Oris and Sono, I thought about this when I prayed. Oris thought it was all fables. Sono straddled the fence but thought we should be saving ourselves instead of waiting for someone to come back from the dead and do it. Especially when we hadn't exactly been given a date and had been waiting a long time.

I just hoped when she came back, she wasn't mad at us or treated us just as badly as the humans did. How were any of us supposed to know how our creator thought? I knew people were confused she was born to Esylle instead of coming back the way she was, but I personally liked her like this.

Oh, some of the older generation were going to be furious about it. My dad would feel terrible for her and Volaris would want to teach her. Terros yelled a lot. I already knew how he would react. She could relate to us if we showed her the beauty of our world.

Sorcha was also beautiful, and I really didn't know what was so important about my hips or Sono's, but she seemed just as interested in them as her breakfast. I didn't think this was possible, but she was even more sheltered than the average Tark. I hated the reasons for it, and I didn't even have the full story.

I wanted to sit here a little longer and get to know her better, but I needed to bring my tribe out to meet her and the Theran and Farkhi were getting close.

So, I left her. I just hoped once everyone got here, she'd have time for me again. Maybe I could use the fact that she really seemed to like my hips to get five minutes alone with her.