Arze shrugged, but his face looked anything but nonchalant. It weirdly comforted me that he was just as appalled as I was at the actions. “People went missing all the time in those days. It’s not too far from logic that tythwig took the human and made his death a quiet one, at least from the perspective of the humans.”
“The human was killed and the tythwig was, what, exactly?”
“He was also sentenced to death.” Arze nodded, clearing his throat. “Both of them were killed for almost allowing the thin veil of our respective worlds to meet. But when Orbs came out of the shadows twenty-two years ago, tythwig refused to abolish the rule against human and tythwig involvement beyond strictlyplatonic or forced proximity by way of employment or living situation.”
Well that explained the other question I had about why he was allowed to work with humans if it was all that serious. What a weird fucking rule. I could understand why tythwig were concerned about being exposed to the public hundreds of years ago, but to not eradicate the rule that kept tythwig on their tight leash after Orbs were revealed to the world felt like a massive oversight in my opinion.
My heart hurt that there’d been, presumably, one of the first interspecies relationships and they’d been reduced to such a horrible history. I looked at Arze with more knowledgeable eyes, but nothing had changed in the end. I still yearned to learn more about him, too fascinated by him in every angle to abandon the idea of learning all I could. I wasn’t setting myself up for success by wanting to continue to spend time with him, our leave from Phoebe looming on a handful of horizons yet to arrive. I couldn’t help it.
I felt something strong with Arze that I couldn’t explain. Even worse or even better, depending on the time of day, I couldn’t let go of it. I refused to.
However, that meant nothing if Arze didn’t feel the same way.
“Alright, that being said,” I began. “How exactly does the tythwig hierarchy work? Are you in tribes or something like that?” I’d heard word that some Orbs tended to stick together and live in self-imposed communes comprising of only their respective species, but I had no idea if tythwig were one of the rumored ones. “How would any one of them find out about what happened last night?”
I swore I could see his cheeks turn a darker shade of purple, and it was fucking adorable. Arze cleared his throat again at thememory that must have danced behind the thin membrane of his eyes, holding his stare with my own.
“Firstly, tythwig don’t typically live in tribes or anything of that nature. Tythwig are pretty nomadic, living anywhere and everywhere. Our ability to shift into trees lets us blend in and appear as any other tree, if we so choose to.”
That was…pretty fucking cool. My head turned toward the tree line the kept us out of view from the still rowdy crowd forming towards the front of the RV park. The fact that any one of those trees could really be a tythwig in disguise was awesome while also giving me great caution. I don’t think I’d ever look at trees the same way again.
“But all tythwig are to uphold the standard set by the elders. So while any given tythwig could technically be anywhere, they’re obligated to report whatever they see to the Triad of elders of the area. Any tythwig that is proven to withhold information in regards to someone breaking the decree is, you guessed it, also sentenced to death.” Arze explained with the utmost respect, despite there being a real fear evident in his voice. “That’s why I was so worried about us being out on the street talking outside the restaurant. Any one of my kind could be anywhere, watching, observing. And if they ever…” He looked around us, taking in the scene of the surrounding trees. An interesting glaze came over his eyes for a quick second, and then I could physically see his body relax. “If they ever found out about what we did last night, we’d both be subject to a death sentence.”
“But surely tythwig can’t just kidnap a human like they could centuries ago. Everything’s recorded nowadays and if a random human went missing, there’d be police everywhere.”
Arze displayed a smirk of caution. “You assume that tythwig and your human police aren’t in contact. You’d be wrong in that.”
My mouth dropped. “The police would cover it up?”
Arze nodded. “Anything to prevent a war with tythwig. And it’s a known thing that once Orbs were announced to the world that tythwig would eradicate any form of fortified peace if the decree wasn’t upheld by the humans as well.”
“Fuck.” I said, astonished by this output of Orb education. I liked Arze but I couldn’t ask him to risk hislifeto entertain my desire to keep hanging out with him. I’d never forgive myself if something happened to him because of me. Not that I’d have long to worry about it, considering the chances of mealsobeing killed were pretty high.
My mouth opened to ask him what he thought we should do, but his earlier apprehension leaving after he took in the surrounding trees gave me pause to shift my line of questioning. “Can you…sense other tythwig?”
The smile that crawled over his face and made his lips upturn was hateful, because I wanted to press my lips against his so fucking bad as it happened. “You’re very observant.”
“You hesitated to mention what we did last night,” I nodded. “Then you relaxed after scrutinizing the trees.”
“Tythwig can communicate telepathically.” He described with finesse. “We can also locate one another from long distances. For example,” He titled his head away from me, his eyes peering out into the distance, the RV park his entire field of view, taking in all the trees and those beyond my vision. “There’s a few tythwig outside the park grounds. Maybe four or five? But they’re much farther away from here to stay as far away from the humans as possible, I imagine.”
“Especially loud ones, like them.” I gestured toward the group that resided beyond our sight, muffled hoots and hollers still being lifted into the air.
A silence built between us, Arze reaffirming his gaze to me, the feeling of his eyes on me causing my skin to heat.
“I feel like I already know the answer,” I didn’t want to do what I was about to do, but I needed to know just the same. If the thing between us was indeed just the one time, I had to steel myself for that truth. “But how do you feel about what happened last night? And what are your thoughts going forward, I guess, in that same regard.”
His shoulders rolled, his purple skin rising and retracting with its beautiful ridges moving so fluidly that I found myself staring and wanting to lick those ridges until Arze was overstimulated and begged me stop.
Fuck, now I was hard underneath the damn picnic table.
“I…enjoyed myself last night.” Arze said, divulging his truth for me to absorb. “And while I think the tythwig decree against humans is absolutely ridiculous and outdated, there’s a group of tythwig that live in the wild forest around Jane’s. We were reckless to have done what we did in the haunted house.”
“But you enjoyed it?” I said with a smirk, unable to really register anything else because I was still stuck on that delightful admittance.
His cheeks blazed a dark mauve again. “I did. Very much.”
“I did too.” I reached across the table, feeling bold enough to grab his hands and take them in mine now that I knew there wasn’t the risk of us being overheard or overseen by other tythwig. “I really like you, Arze. And I know it doesn’t make sense for us to start or continue anything, since I’m leaving after Halloween, but I don’t know. All I know is that I like you and I’d really like to do what we did again but in a more…slow-paced setting.”
