The LEVELER King ✔

BOOK 3: CHAPTER 11

Idsel wasn't as skilled with repairing the tools but Crane, and even Boon, was better. What he fumbled with, they pieced together. Their thin scales covered them from head to toe now. It wasn't thick and full yet but it would grow in time.

They had eaten early, long before Nala awoke from her separate bed of hay on the floor. Now more than ever, Idsel, longing for normal Leveler ways, tried to teach his sons what he could about their culture lest they be considered strange when they returned. Levelers slept together, as did the three of them. Though the scales of the boys were sharp, injury only occurred if they thrashed or angered. It was safe to sleep by them, and Idsel's tough skin wasn't problematic. Still, Nala slept alone, on the floor.

Damn these Earther ways. Idsel no longer commented on it, he only emphasized to his sons when they asked, saying, "It's your Aza's way."

Now, sitting on the stone fence, Idsel struggled with the tools while his sons made fast repairs of the others.

Boon asked, "When can Aza eat with us again?"

Still focused on his work, Idsel muttered, "What do you mean?"

Crane said, "When is she allowed to eat with us again?"

Idsel looked at them finally to see their short glances at the doorway. Nala stood there looking pensive and miserable. It was an expression Idsel had grown to loathe.

He picked up the vines and got to work on twisting them into a net. "Aza is welcome any time. We three are just diligent."

Despite the boys' worry for Nala and Nala's obvious worry for them, no one moved to greet the other. Finally, Idsel said to them, "Come, fetch your ino and we'll see to training her."

Shortly after they left, Nala approached and sat down beside him. She gathered up some of the vines and helped with the net in silence.

Eventually, she said, "It's been one month, Mana, do you plan to forgive me?"

Idsel continued in his work, resisting the urge to speak freely.

When he didn't respond, Nala stilled Idsel's arms, taking the left into her grip.

"Mana?"

Idsel shrugged her away. "You ask me for forgiveness, Nala, but I do not know why. It is not my business what abuse you Summoners enact on one another. It is not my business what you decide is best for you and your kind. But I will tell you this...." He met Nala's gaze finally. "I am not the one you've wronged. I am not the one you should ask to forgive you. You've taken away someone's cycles. Trapped them, doomed them to one season. And you should know better than most how it feels to live without a tail."

He went back to work, gathering the vines up. The net was nearly finished but he needed something to do with his hands lest he brandish a claw.

"It was the God's will," Nala muttered.

When Idsel let out a string of clicks in the back of his throat along with a groan, Nala's body drooped.

"Please do not say that," Nala begged. "I'd thought it was right. Earthers had left their stages behind and look how far they've come."

Idsel was certain Earthers had no stages to speak of. From what he'd seen, they were small, weak creatures.

"Is that what they intend?" Idsel asked. "I have lived in the third stage as you for longer than is custom. That stage should last no longer than one month and we return to our armor. That is common. Our second stage is to allow for preparation of the third, but the first is proper, the first is right. In those stages our desire is for food, shelter, and movement. In the third the only thought is to mate. Eating to grow strong, to mate. Sleeping and waking up, to mate. Going out in search of shelter, to mate. That is our sole concern and I understand it. I thought you brave and strong to survive so long with this craving yet keep your senses. But I'll tell you, Summoner, your senses have fled you."