“—oh, no.”

Balm, who Lial thought was sleeping, murmured those words so suddenly that Lial stopped and looked over at him curiously to see what brought it on. In doing so, he saw it—something big headed their way with an even stride. Someone big headed their way, though it was definitely not a human, and not even the human-animal hybrids that Lial had grown more accustomed to.

He opened his eyes wider, curious, even as Luceme sighed something next to him. “What did you say?” he asked Luceme without looking at him, his attention on the figure.

“I said ugh, it’s Scrow,” Luceme repeated in no uncertain terms, his face contorting. ‘Scrow’? Hmm. Interesting.

‘Scrow’ got closer and closer and Lial realised that whatever this was, it was tall. He saw a huge, fluffy tail lifted behind it as it walked, small feet that he thought shouldn’t be able to support its weight, and perked up ears. A muzzle, eyes, and then ‘Scrow’ had joined them. Lial didn’t know how to describe them—or him, as he was guessing. The thing was, he wasn’t familiar with animals. He suppose he might say… a squirrel? But squirrels didn’t tower, nor did they have a set of predatory-looking eyes.

“Huh,” Scrow said, in a deep voice that rumbled, “I didn’t think it was true, but a human really did end up here. Man, you’re a pipsqueak.”

Despite the comment, despite the predatory eyes he had, there was absolutely no malice in his voice. It was as though he were remarking on the weather. Lial’s lips twitched into an automatic smile, bemused, even as Luceme made a low sound next to him and folded his arms over his chest.

“Yeah. Humans don’t get as tall as you,” he replied gamely and Scrow snuffled in thought, rubbing a large, clawed finger below his chin.

“S’that so? Well, not even other people on this island get as big as me.” He laughed, his hands planting on what were likely his hips. Lial had to really tilt his head back in order to look up at him but he couldn’t understand why Luceme and Balm had reacted the way that they had when they’d seen him coming.

“I’m Lial.”

“Nn. Scrow.” Scrow smiled, though it was more him baring his teeth. Then, he turned his head, one of his ears lightly twitching. “Oh, you’re here too, Luceme? Balm. Didn’t see you, you’re so quiet.”

Balm didn’t look particularly pleased. It was a strange face on him. Lial had only seen him when he was drowsy or when he was smiling. Usually, there wasn’t an in-between or an unpleasant face, just an overlap between the two. As expected, though, he was more than smiles and napping in the sun. Something occurred to Lial in this moment, though, the more that Scrow spoke. Are you two just bad at dealing with this kind of person?

For someone like Lial, it didn’t really matter. So long as they weren’t the violent types, he could cater to their personalities easily enough. It was a skill, carefully cultivated. And this Scrow seemed like the type who wasn’t necessarily unfriendly, but who lacked enough common sense not to just say every little thing that came into his head. That would just serve to make people dislike you.

…But, Scrow seemed to be unaware. He was chatting away, one of his huge hands swinging out to catch Balm about the shoulders.

He dug his root toes into the ground, resisting being pulled with a tense look on his face.

“…never visits my cave,” Scrow was complaining. “I heard about this from the birds, you know? The birds! Not even Arbor or Ombre, it was the l’il ones who aren’t walking around. There’s plenty of nice dirt on the mountain, y’know, you can come anytime you want.”

“That’s fine, thank you,” Balm gritted out through his teeth.

This was fascinating to watch. Lial cupped his hand at his chin, staring at the proceedings. Luceme, tilting his head, looked doubtfully at him. “What is it?” he muttered. “You probably want him to go away too, right? He’s always like this.”

“No, nothing like that.” Lial waved off the concern easily, smiling. “I’ve never seen Balm react like this.”

“Ah, yeah, he really doesn’t like Scrow.”

Balm was being jostled about, his expression still stiff, his eyebrows a sharp ‘v’ of displeasure. Scrow, heedless of this, continued to chat away. “You’re always sleeping on the dirt anyway, l’il difference will do you good,” he was saying now.

Lial had to admire that level of obliviousness.

Balm finally escaped from under that arm, though, stepping a few paces away. “No thanks. The mountain is inconvenient to try to climb,” he said, folding his arms over his chest, his fingertips drumming against his green skin.

Scrow raised one eyebrow. “It’s ‘cause you’ve got roots for legs,” he commented and laughed. “Well, if you change your mind, I’ll carry you.”

Oho. Lial smiled.

“Lial? What’s up?” Luceme murmured. Apparently, he was paying close attention to Lial’s reactions. That was something that deepened his smile too, but as it was…

“Nothing,” Lial said with a laugh. “Just thinking that there’s a lot of trouble ahead.”

Luceme opened his mouth, paused, and then frowned and rubbed his fingers against his temple. Nope, he didn’t have any idea of what Lial was referring to. That was fine, too. Lial gave his arm a fond pat and then looked up in time to meet Scrow’s eyes.

“Sorry, human,” Scrow said, “I forgot all ‘bout you for a second. How about it? You wanna come up to my mountain sometime?”

“A human’s even less likely than me to go,” Balm cut in sternly.

Scrow shrugged and spread his arms apart. “Lemme hear it from him. So? What d’you think? My cave’s up in the mountain, ‘bout half a day’s climb up.” He half-turned and he raised one of his hands to gesture. Though Lial had seen that mountain, rising up from the center of the island, he hadn’t considered going toward it. It looked to be mostly rock and dirt, what could be gained from trying to climb it? Besides…

Lial absently set one of his palms on his leg.

He wasn’t certain he could do it, without slipping or something. It was troublesome when he couldn’t get sensation from this leg. He wouldn’t be able to recognise if he got strained or injured, either. “Would you offer to carry me, too?” he proposed.

Luceme shifted next to him, at the same time Scrow’s eyes got bigger. Then he snorted and shrugged one of his shoulders carelessly. “Why not?” he said brightly. “Might as well, since I offered the same to Balm, yeah? You don’t weigh much either, do you.”

He approached. Lial had to tilt his head more.

Huge clawed hands with big fluffs of fur along the wrists were reaching for him—

And then Balm was there, deftly pushing Scrow’s hands up and away. It was a funny pose, and Scrow didn’t try to resist (as far as Lial could see), though he did look surprised. His ears cocked forward and he stared at Balm, who stared right back at him.

“Haha. What’re you doing?” Scrow grinned. “Weirdo.”

Balm blinked, and then he dropped his hands with a sigh. He put a hand briefly against his face and Lial thought he saw a thin, tired smile cross his lips. “I should be asking you that. What were you going to do? You can’t just pick him up.”

“Huh.” Scrow scratched under one of his arms. “Don’t see why not. It’s just like practice.”

“You just can’t.”

“Is this a human thing?” Scrow complained. “Ah, yeah, speaking of, hey. What’re you even doing on this island?”

It was a question without malice but Lial scrutinised him nevertheless. He was looking for anything. A flash of something in Scrow’s face that might give away suspicion or otherwise, but there was… nothing. Actually, his expression was so clear that it was almost mind-boggling. Lial thought that this guy here, he was about as pure as Luceme was. As he found many of those on this island to be. He was completely candid.

“Pua brought me here,” Lial replied vaguely. “I fell off of the docks back where I’m from and got swept out to sea.”

Scrow cocked his head. “Fell? Jeez, that was dumb.”

“Hey, watch it.” That was Luceme, huffing out the words.

“What? It is dumb, isn’t it?” Scrow looked to Lial for confirmation and, happy to talk about anything as long as it wasn’t too much about himself, he shrugged and nodded.

“Well, it was, basically.”

Scrow nodded, as if to say exactly. “See? The human knows.” The end of his big tail thumped against the ground. “Well, watch yourself around the water. If you fall into the ocean just at the beach, it’s gonna be really embarrassing if Pua has to go and bring you back.”

Balm, who had shifted out of the way, sighed as Scrow reached out, thumping Lial’s shoulder with an enormous hand. It was a surprisingly soft contact. Maybe he was being mindful after all? Lial might even just let him pick him up if he kept up that carefulness. But, given that neither Balm nor Luceme were happy at the moment, he could probably count on them keeping Scrow from unceremoniously scooping him up.

“I’ll be careful. Thank you.” Lial smiled and Scrow gave him a grin full of teeth.

“Did you come just to meet Lial?” Luceme asked him, frowning.

“Hmm? Ah, yeah, mostly. But I’m running out of food too. I’m gonna catch some fish and get some fruit.” Scrow dug his hand into the thick fur at the back of his neck, scratching and squinting up at the sun. Then, his attention shifted to Balm again. “You’re not busy, right? You should come with me.”

Balm pulled back his head as if Scrow had asked him to cut off his own legs. “Me? No, thank you. You can go on your own,” he said quickly.

Scrow rumbled disapproval, scrunching up his nose with his ears flicking backward like a displeased cat. “C’mon. You’re just gonna sleep anyway.” With that, he reached out, unceremoniously grabbed Balm by the arm, and began to tow him away.

“Scrow—let me go! Right now—”

How forceful, Lial thought and mentally applauded. On the outside, he smiled and waved them off as Luceme shifted from foot to foot next to him. “I’m gonna go help him,” he started, but was stayed by Lial’s hand.

“Don’t worry so much. It’ll be fine.”

Luceme looked at him doubtfully. “You don’t know what Scrow’s like… Hell, I’m impressed you could talk to him for that long.”

“I don’t think he’s so bad at all.”

In fact, Lial might even cheer him on from here on out.