Florian glanced up at Kade as they followed Koji. The other man didn’t seem as tense as he had the last few times they’d met—if Kade still had reservations about his ability to help them, it seemed he was keeping them to himself. But he didn’t think that was the case; rather, he hoped Kade had accepted Koji as part of the team.
They had a team now, more than just the two of them. That made him somehow nervous, as much as it brought relief. Adding a third person to their dynamic would be strange, Florian thought, but Koji seemed nice enough. That was the best he could hope for, all things considered.
Kade noticed his gaze and looked down at him with a questioning expression. Florian smiled and shook his head, leaning closer to him.
“Just thinking about how weird it is that it’s not just the two of us anymore,” he whispered, and he felt more than heard Kade chuckle in response.
“Yeah,” Kade agreed. “It’ll be different.”
They walked in silence for a little longer. It occurred to Florian that they hadn’t really explained their relationship to Koji—that might be awkward, though they weren’t exactly trying to keep it a secret either, so maybe he would figure it out without them having to say it outright. He didn’t want the other man to feel like a third wheel, but it would just be the three of them for the foreseeable future, so it could be hard to avoid. Self-consciously, Florian veered a bit further away from Kade as they walked.
“There’s a clearing up ahead,” Koji said, interrupting his thoughts before Kade seemed to notice him pulling away. “My sisters and I would go there when we were younger, when we would sneak out of the city to play. It’s hard to spot from any of the guard towers, so we should be safe there.”
Florian’s nerves flared up again. He’d almost forgotten that the whole reason they were sneaking out was so that Koji could shift in front of him, and Florian would copy his dragon form. How different would it be from shifting into a wolf? That had been strange at first, but he’d adapted quickly—a dragon was so different that he couldn’t imagine it being as easy of a transition.
“Here,” Koji said, vaulting over the low stone fence that separated their path from the surrounding forest. “There’s a little path. Come on.”
Florian followed him readily over the fence. Kade hesitated, peering past them into the woods, but they couldn’t see very far. He sighed and loped over the low stones as well, following at a distance as Koji continued to chat amicably at Florian.
“We used to come here to explore,” Koji said as they walked. “There’s always so much going on in the city. Sometimes it’s nice to get away from it all, but my father was always so worried about our safety we could hardly get anywhere. So I figured out the guard towers’ blind spots and found this place. I would come here alone first, then I would bring my sisters when they got old enough.”
“How old are you and your sisters?” Florian asked. Koji winced, sighing before replying.
“Well… They’re my half-sisters, actually,” he said. “Mine and Daichi’s mother died when I was nine. Queen Natsuko is the girls’ mother. Daichi is forty, I’m twenty-four, and Haruko is thirteen. All the girls are two years apart. So they’re pretty close.”
“Oh,” Florian said, hesitant. He couldn’t have known—Miyuki hadn’t said anything about the queen not being the boys’ mother—but still he was embarrassed to have asked. Part of him wanted to say that his mother was dead, too, but Florian had never even known his mother. The comparison wouldn’t exactly be tactful now. “I’m—I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”
Koji gave him a soft smile. “No need to apologize. You didn’t know, like you said. I’m sorry about your father, too. I don’t think I ever met him, but from what I’ve heard about him, I think my father’s dislike of him was pretty unfounded.”
Florian laughed. “Well, thanks. I didn’t know him very well either, though. Kade probably knew him best.”
“He was a good man,” Kade said simply. Florian nodded, and the three of them were silent for a long moment. Up ahead, Florian could see sunlight streaming through the trees again. As they walked, the only thing he could hear was the crunching of leaves underfoot and his own breathing. It was strangely peaceful. Everything here was so still, he realized—although if he really focused, he could sometimes pick up sounds of wildlife, distant and muffled as they were.
“They really are just leaving it all up to the next generation, huh?” Koji finally said, and Florian laughed.
“I guess they are,” he agreed, shaking his head with a tired smile. “Maybe it’s different with the kraken clan.”
“Doubt it,” Kade replied, just as coolly, but Florian could practically hear him holding back from rolling his eyes. “King Torsten sounds just as... stubborn... as King Tetsuo. As long as he’s still alive, I’m sure it’s the same.”
“Not looking forward to going there, either, then,” Florian grumbled.
“Here we are,” Koji said, interrupting them. The woods had opened up into a wide clearing covered in soft, yellow-green grass. It was larger than Florian had expected, with plenty of room for a child to run around and explore. No wonder Koji and his sisters had frequented it.
“Great,” Florian said brightly, though his nervousness was making his heart beat fast again. “How, uh, how should we do this?”
“Well, what do you need to do?” Koji asked, looking curiously at him as he set down his backpack. “You said you can just touch me and then you can shift? Is that right?”
“Once you’re shifted, yeah,” Florian said, nodding. “I realized it’s kind of like Animorphs, how they touched an animal to get its DNA and then they could...” He trailed off, realizing both Koji and Kade were staring at him in complete incomprehension. “Uh, nevermind. Yeah, I just need to touch your dragon form, and then I should be able to do it, too.”
“Sounds easy enough, then,” Koji said, smiling cheerfully at Florian as he took a few steps back. “Just remember, the first shift is always the worst, but I guess you’d probably know that already.”
“Right,” Florian said, nodding. He started to take off his backpack, which Kade took from him before he could set it down.
“Just be careful,” Kade said softly, shouldering it alongside his own. “I’ll be right here, too.” He took a few steps back, then gave a small, encouraging smile. Florian smiled weakly back, then turned to face Koji. The other man’s eyes briefly flickered between Kade and Florian, but his expression remained the same soft, easy smile that he’d been wearing the whole time—for a moment Florian wondered what Koji thought of them, of all of this, but he had to stay focused. He took in a deep, centering breath, then nodded at Koji.
“Ready when you are,” he said.
“Alright,” Koji said, his smile widening. A green light engulfed him—the same color as his eyes—and his body began to elongate, his arms dropping down to support him as his form stretched out to become serpentine.
