Healing Ties (Ties, Book 2) | ✓

Chapter 14

Yore had an entire spread of food laid out on the table in front of him and was just starting to wonder if he should go and check on Lucas and Fanner when finally they made their way down the stairs. The strange, eyeless grey creature followed them down.

"That damn thing was waiting outside the door," Lucas told him as he pulled out a chair and sat down. "It scared Fanner again."

"Sit down," Yore told Fanner before his hovering started to get awkward. "I'm surprised you're not more scared of it, Fanner. I thought you'd lived a sheltered life, at least when it came to strange beasts."

Fanner carefully considered the chairs available to him and ultimately sat down next to Yore, across from Lucas at the four person table. "You saved me when I ran away and you showed me the gryphons so— so I thought that if it was dangerous, you would know. If something in the water that looks like a little child can try to kill me or a person can do terrible things, then maybe something that looks like a monster can be harmless."

Yore watched as the creature crept around the room and shoved peanut shells it found on the floor into its mouth. Yore was fairly sure he also saw it eat a coin. "I'm actually just trusting everyone else on this one. I've never seen anything like that before."

"Seems completely harmless from what I've seen," Lucas said. "Doesn't have teeth. Has claws, but they seem to mostly be for climbing. It likes to scare people just by like, existing near them, but I've never seen it actually be threatening towards anyone."

"What did Eltran call it? Cookie?" Yore asked.

"Oh, yeah. They call it Cookie to try to cockblock it from scaring people. It's much harder to be scary when your name is Cookie."

As if hearing its name — though it had no visible ears — the creature strolled over and casually stretched out on the floor behind Fanner. The most disconcerting thing about it was that it was difficult to determine what level of intellect it had. Was it essentially an animal, or did the human-like qualities of some of its features hint to something more?

It wasn't that Yore felt threatened by it. The thing was smaller than him and showed no signs it had the ability to do him any real harm. If he were honest, he just didn't want to unintentionally be rude to it if it did understand him.

Lucas looked at Fanner and nodded to the food as he grabbed a chicken leg and some potatoes for himself. "Eat."

Fanner looked over the spread in front of them. Yore had gone all out. The satyrs had been generous, but they'd underestimated how much Yore ate by quite a bit. He'd been undereating for days so that there would be enough for Fanner and now he was ready to make up for it. They had an entire roast chicken, roast beef, potatoes, soup, pastries, and an apple cobbler.

Fanner tucked his hands in his lap and looked down. "I— I could have something else."

"Really?" Lucas asked. "None of this looks good to you?"

"No, no!" Fanner said. "It all looks very nice. Too nice. I don't deserve this."

"Someone gives me food, I eat it. I've never worried about whether or not I deserve it. I'm not even sure what that really means."

"You've both given me so much already. Yore spent days getting me here, even though I made trouble for him, and you gave me these clothes, Lucas. I feel bad taking more when I have nothing to offer in return. Nothing you want."

Yore wondered if that last part was a dig at him for not letting Fanner touch his dick. Fanner seemed to believe that was all he was good for. Or, at least, that it was the only thing he was good for that he wanted to be good for. He seemed to fear the part of himself that had allowed him to escape and survive this long.