“There’s my boy, the fool,” his parental sneered.
Heavy into his cups, Shoval was being escorted along by other miners, some of whom were as old as Shoval. Most carried similar thinking.
The laughter seemed to float down to Phares, and he wished gravity would fail and he could float up to them and see how well they did in zero-g combat.
Zero-g was not pleasant when one was intoxicated.
"What do you want?" he snapped, the headache only worsened by his paternal's antagonizing. Could Shoval do anything besides belittle and mock him? He had never known his paternal to be any other way.
"I know what I want," Shoval said. "A son who wasn't an idiot." Shoval gestured.
Phares gritted his teeth. He shifted the bag that he carried, his hand tightening on the strap, for if he needed to put it down—
From the door of the lounge from which his parental had emerged came a couple more miners.
One of them happened to be Driqan.
"Look at that, Driqan, my spawn, the fool, thinks he serves your mate!"
Truly, Shoval pushed too much.
Phares growled.
Driqan and another miner with red skin and horns, Olmed, headed toward Shoval. “Knock it off, Shoval. You're wasting your voice."
“I speak what I speak,” Shoval said. “And that is…” He turned and looked around like he’d lost his thoughts. “That would be, uh…”
Olmed gestured to the others. “Take him home."
"This is more fun!" one fired back.
"It won't be if Phares gets a hold of you," Olmed said.
Shoval snorted. "That boy's not worth—”
Olmed stepped toward Shoval, his red skin pulsing and the armored bones on his back poking out of his shirt. Even his horns twitched. "Do you really want to cross Phares? A Xian? A young and sober one? And me?"
Olmed glanced at Phares, then back at the other male. “Go. Get going.”
The others continued on their way, evidently realizing the best choice for the night would be to move on, and not mess with the Kantenan.
They shouldn’t be messing with Phares, either. His purple skin and the bones jutting out of his shoulders, while not as menacing as his paternal’s, were still deadly in battle. Just being Xianan was enough to get most to back off.
Even from a distance. Olmed glanced at him again, and he nodded.
Phares returned the gesture and turned back to Agot. “Shall we get to your appointment?”
She nodded. As they moved a little further away, where they were less likely to be heard, she spoke softly. “Are you well?”
“I have a headache,” he muttered, the pain in his head getting worse by the moment.
“I don’t doubt it,” she replied.
* * *
A short while later,Phares anticipated the medical tech’s return. While he didn’t want to be waiting around for temporary pain relief, he had little choice. The throbbing was getting worse, and as a result, so was his frustration. Even the bones on his shoulder were pulsing, or at least it felt that way.
They were sure taking a long time to get back to him, though. It seemed like he’d been in the room for ages.
