The greenish-blue water seemed to be glowing. The pool took up almost the whole room, with organic walls bordering it on three sides, while the only section of floor was in front. Padded stone lounge chairs were scattered about.
The floor naturally curved down into the water on the far-left side, showing it was the shallower end, while in front there was a set of stone steps.
As he took another deep breath in, his skin basically breathing in as well, his body tingled as it soaked in the warm moisture. The warmth told him the pool was in fact heated, which just made him extremely happy.
“What ya think?” Ender asked after a moment.
“Beautiful,” Cyrus grunted.
“It’s even more than I hoped for.” Killian smiled. “It’s perfect.”
“It better be.” The Gorgon snorted. “The thing cost a damn fortune to build. Come on, it’s time to pamper my chickens!”
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. Hewasa 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 eyesstarted 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 quicklyas 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.
