The Many Misadventures of Bo

Rivals

Did I have any rivals growing up? Hah!

You're making me cry I'm laughing so hard. See, the funny thing is, my best friend used to be my worst enemy. Guess I kinda have a habit of doing that.

Anyway, there's a particularly amusing incident I remember from back before the frix sprite story I just told you guys.

. . . Ken's shaking his head at me, so maybe I shouldn't.

Nah, let's do it. Anyone got a picture of the forest we can put up while I'm telling this next one?

---

"The school report says you bit him. You bit him?"

Bo bared his fangs at Nyss, wishing he was already an adult with an impressive growl.

"Yeah, and?"

Nyss pinched the brow of his nose, ears and tail drooping. "We've discussed this so many, many times. Kenton is barely a few months older than you. He is not, in any way, shape, or form, responsible for P'rraa's passing!"

"He's human!" Bo spat back, and Nyss crossed his arms.

"I wouldn't care if he were a Vyss'n, Bo. You don't go around biting people who've done nothing to provoke it."

Oh, but he had.

Nyss didn't understand. Kenton was a stupid human, and it was so unfair that he was better than Bo at almost everything. Everywhere he went, people congratulated him on speaking Klia'an so well, and how great he'd done at recitation night, and on and on. He didn't deserve it. Any of it. Bo's father for a weak, fragile human? It wasn't a fair trade at all.

"As it stands," Nyss waved the parchment in his hands, "you're getting too old for a switching, and honestly, it hasn't even remotely changed your attitude towards Kenton, so after consulting with the Innah, we've decided to try a different tack."

Nyss looked up at the ceiling of their loft muttering "Lanae, give me strength," and Bo had the sudden sinking feeling he was going to hate whatever his big brother was about to say.

"On your school's field excursion to the kitterstone mines tomorrow, you'll be pairing up with Kenton on any assignments Teacher Illyia has for you."

"No!" Bo had been looking forward to visiting the mines for so long. And now he had to work with Kenton? It wasn't going to happen, it simply wasn't.

---

"Stay out of my way," Bo said to Kenton after Teacher Illyia had explained their activities for the day.

"But we can't complete all our assignments without working together," the human protested.

"That's your problem," Bo said, and grinned at him. The first task was easy enough, using the small nets they'd been given to pan for lumps of kitterstone worn smooth by the water in the shallow pools all around them.

His pile grew and grew, but didn't seem to get any bigger than Kenton's who kept pulling the bright red rocks out of the swirling water as fast as Bo. Faster even. The human suddenly gasped, and Bo looked over to see Kenton clutching a beautiful blue rock.

"Oh, you found a sapisz stone! Very good, Kenton."

Bo snarled under his breath at Teacher Illyia's over-the-top praise, and flung his net aside.

"Don't be mad," Kenton said, and offered the stone to Bo, "we're a team. This is your find too."

"Told you to stay away." Bo shoved at Kenton's hand and crossed his arms in a sulk, refusing to look when Teacher Illyia added their score to the tally she was keeping.

Next they had to collect liphiz flowers from the brush growing around the mines, and while Bo gathered more than Kenton, the irritating human upstaged him yet again. Bo went to present one of his flowers to Seri, only to find that Kenton had already given his adopted sister a crown of the bright orange and purple blossoms. Bo flung his own on the ground and trampled them, not caring that Teacher Illyia swished her tail sternly and marked his and Kenton's score near the very bottom of the list.

"Please," Kenton pleaded after they received their third and final assignment, "please work with me. We did so well on the first task; if we try really hard, we can make up the lost points."

"I can do it. On my own."

But catching the fast swimming craunah in the stream which fed some of the mine's pools was easier said than done. They were see-through, which made spotting one difficult in the first place, and when Bo plunged his hand into the water, they squirted ink jets that hid them from sight again. He tried and tried and tried, coming up with only silt and rocks, his claws piercing leaves and driftwood but not craunah.

His only consolation was that Kenton seemed to be struggling just as much. The human was up to his knees in the stream, ink-dark water gushing around him, and he appeared to be holding back tears. Bo gave up on catching the slippery creatures and started to jeer at Kenton instead. The human deserved to know what it felt like to fail at something for once.

"Just stop!" Kenton finally yelled at Bo and dragged an arm across his muddy face. "I get that you don't want to help, but you don't have to make it harder for me."

"You think crying will make me feel sorry for you?" Bo laughed and approached Kenton. "I might be the only person in all of Tribe Osinan who sees you for what you really are. Murderer." He whispered the last word, so Teacher Illyia wouldn't hear.

Kenton's bottom lip trembled,and he clenched his fists. "I lost my pa that day too," he said, voice shaky and thin. "You don't have to mean about it. It's why Seri stopped talking to you."

That was why? Seri had stopped coming over to play at Bo's loft because he refused to let Kenton trick him—like he'd tricked everyone else—into forgetting all the people they'd lost trying to help the worthless humans in Ethaba?

"You told Seri to stop talking to me?" he growled, furious at the yellow haired human standing in the stream.

"No! It was your own actions which pushed her away."

"Liar. If you weren't here P'rraa wouldn't be dead, and Seri would still be my friend. It's all your fault!" Bo sprang at Kenton and tumbled him fully into the stream, pushing his head under the water and scratching at him with his claws. Kenton shrieked, bubbles escaping his mouth, the muffled sound lost under his flailing and thrashing.

The commotion must have attracted Teacher Illyia's attention, as moments later Bo found himself being pulled away and his arms firmly restrained behind his back whilst Kenton was dragged out of the water by Seri, crying and vomiting and bleeding from a dozen places. Bo shifted to try and escape, but Teacher Illyia scruffed him without hesitation, and he went limp in her grasp.

"This is the last day you will ever be in one of my classes—in my school at that! Nyss wants you to learn, he'll have to teach you himself."

---

"He tried to drown him!?"

Even though Nyss was in the other room, Bo could clearly hear his oldest brother. He sounded very mad and horrified all at the same time. Bo supposed he had good reason, given that Kenton's adopted mother was none other than the leader of Tribe Osinan herself.

"Innah, please accept my repentance on Bo's behalf. I assure you, nothing like this will ever happen again."

The low growl accompanying those words gave Bo the sudden certain feeling that he was not yet too old for a switching.

He wouldn't outright attack Kenton again though. Rather than open people's eyes to the truth, all it had done was make them feel more sorry for him. And now Seri wouldn't even look at him anymore. He didn't think even two flower crowns would change that.

From beyond the spinner-floss curtains, the Innah laughed gently. "Well, Healer Laedr patched up the worst of Kenton's injuries, and he's mostly fine now. Mild maiming does seem to be the best outcome, given the circumstances. We'll keep trying with Bo. At least he didn't bite him this time."

---

Was that a funny story, or what?

(It wasn't? Most children don't attempt murder to avenge their dead fathers? I'm scaring people, and my sense of humour's been badly skewed? See, now you sound like Laine.)

(Oh, it's time for break? I wanna try the cut!)

You're watching an interview with the famous Bo of Tribe Osinan on the Thorunn Crystal Broadcast News Network—don't change frequencies, we'll be right back!