#I tried a singular edible and all I did was sleep. I was knocked out cold… can’t say I liked or disliked it

[theres-whump-in-that-nebula]

Also the local head shop I went to recently has a giant incense section so of course I’m gonna go back for incense once I have my first paycheck of the school year 👀

[smugglerandprince]

Chapter Five

The sun was beginning to set when Jaawn finally stood, stretching. Myall had lost all his twigs to Jaawn, though he was pretty sure it was because the particular type of poker Jaawn had them play was of his own invention. Myall couldn’t call it cheating, but it was hard to beat Jaawn at what was quite literally his own game.

“I think it’s time for us to get out of here,” Jaawn said.

Myall nodded, “I keep thinking I feel this root moving. Did you feel the root move?”

Jaawn chuckled. “Nah.” But he clambered quickly back down to the ground, so Myall was not so sure that he believed him.

Myall followed, sliding down to stand beside Jaawn. The forest had completely changed around them. In the fading sunlight, shadows layered on top of each other until there were pockets of deep black. The sounds of the leaves also seemed different, as if they were whispering, calling Myall and Jaawn deeper into the forest.

Myall heard a great creaking in the distance and a few moments later, another, seemingly closer. “Do… Do you think we made the trees angry by playing with dead pieces of their bodies?” He whispered, brushing his hands on his tunic to try and remove the sticky sap left by the twigs.

“Nah,” Jaawn repeated softly.

“Do you remember which way we came from?” Myall asked.

“Nah.” Jaawn caught Myall’s eye, before cracking a grin. “Kidding. I’m a pilot, remember? I have a great sense of direction.”

He held out his hand, as he had while leading Myall through the Market. It was easy enough to take it, considering the angry tree sounds that seemed all around them now. As soon as their hands were locked together, Jaawn took off at a jog and Myall hurried to keep up.

Myall was glad he had kept up with his running while on the ship. They had an exercise room and a rotating schedule for who got to use it when. And while some of the equipment looked like torture devices, he had assumed they were for the nonhuman crewmembers and stuck to the treadmill.

It turned out running through a potentially dangerous, possibly sentient forest and jogging in place were two very different things, especially in the oncoming darkness. Jaawn stumbled over a root and their hands broke apart. A few minutes later, Myall himself almost tripped over a lifted mound of dirt in his path. They shared a look after that and Myall knew they both had the same fear: the trees were purposefully trying to knock them down or stop them from leaving. They clasped hands again and ran faster, faster even than they had when the Colonists were chasing them.

When they finally made it out of the trees and into the light of the city’s outskirts, Myall dropped to his knees, pulling Jaawn down with him. Gasping for breath, he looked back at the forest. The great trees seemed to lean towards them, reaching to take them back and never let them free. Or maybe it was just his imagination.

“You okay?” Jaawn asked, his voice raspy.

“I think so,” Myall replied, turning to look at him. His eyes were deep brown in the contrasting light. “But I am ready to sleep for a week.”

Jaawn smiled, a beautiful smile that made his face even more handsome. “Yeah, I get that.”

“But first,” Myall rested a hand on Jaawn’s shoulder. “I owe you dinner. What’s the best restaurant in town?”

“I know just the place.”

When they arrived at the restaurant, 90-9 and Mrrrm were already there, but it took Myall a few minutes to notice them. The dining room they entered was huge and the walls were made of glass. They had taken the train right to the restaurant, because it was halfway up one of the tallest buildings in the city. The light from the rest of the city streamed in, a warm rainbow of colors. The lights in the dining room were few, in muted yellows and oranges. In the center was a raised stage, round like the room and the tables. A group of three Yur singers crooned on the stage, their voices harmonizing in a way human vocals never could. It was all so beautiful and elegant, that Myall just wanted to watch.

Jaawn tugged his arm, leading him through the crowd near the stage, seemingly intent on dancing. But then he caught sight of the other crew members, who both smiled when they saw Jaawn approaching. Mrrrm’s smile was all teeth, while 90-9 flashed a pixelated smile on their face, which was almost entirely taken up by screen. Both were a mimic of a human smile and this seemed to be an inside joke, because Jaawn started laughing as he settled in a chair across from them. Mrrrm was curled up on a large pillow, which kept her high enough to reach the table with ease, while 90-9 was folded into a human chair.

“Did you find everything we need?” Jaawn asked, as Myall took the seat beside him.

“Yes,” 90-9 said, their voice bored. “But it took all day.”

“What were the two of you up to while we were doing the worst job?” Mrrrm asked, lifting her head from the large mug she was lapping some drink out of Myall didn’t recognize.

“Oh you know, just running from the Colonists, hiding in the forest,” Jaawn said, shrugging like it really was nothing. “Oh, and we got our fortunes told.”

“The future is statistically unknowable,” 90-9 said.

“That was the most improbable thing I just said?” Jaawn snapped, though his eyes sparkled with mirth.

“Are the Colonists still around?” Mrrrm sounded fearful as her ears perked up, seeking the sound of pursuers.

“We lost them,” Myall assured her, awkwardly. He was a bit disappointed he wasn’t having dinner with Jaawn alone, but after such a mad adventure, he supposed it made sense Jaawn would want a break from the one-on-one time.

“Yeah, it was pretty awesome, though,” Jaawn said, leaning toward 90-9. “Certainly not a boring day, at least.”

“Do not brag,” 90-9 grumbled. “I will watch the prince next time and then I might get to do something interesting for once.”

“9, I didn’t know you cared about others,” Jaawn chuckled.

Myall was unsure about the tension that hovered between Jaawn and 90-9. They seemed to work together well, but there was something when they spoke that hinted at an unresolved issue. It reminded Myall of his older sister and mother, who stopped being able to see eye-to-eye after his sister got older. It took them talking it out over months to understand each other again, and that was with his sister moving out and putting physical space between them. Jaawn and 90-9 didn’t have the room on the ship for such luxury, which meant whatever was there was being ignored and growing.

The three of them continued joking and teasing, talking about their day. Mrrrm was interested and horrified by what Jaawn told her about the forest and 90-9 played a recording of the captain scolding Jaawn. They then wondered what the captain was up to and Myall could tell they were being careful about what they said about her. It was clear to him she was off selling their smuggled goods and they didn’t want Myall to know. They also didn’t want anyone else in the restaurant to hear their conversation. Myall focused instead on the singers, after choosing his dinner at random from the part of the menu that indicated it was edible to humans.

The truth was Myall hadn’t been offworld until less than a year earlier, when the Colonist threat drove him to take action. There were a lot of foods, sights, and beings he had never seen before. Jaawn’s ease around such mixes of human and nonhuman cultures made him jealous. But the only way to gain that ease was to spend time away from his own homeworld. He wondered if part of their current problem with the Colonists was that his planet was so far away from other inhabited worlds. This made them an easy target and it meant that those planetside were more isolated than most of the galaxy.

Myall came from a world inhabited only by humans, while Jaawn was spaceborn. The difference was more than just how they saw the galaxy. It was how they moved within it and how it was going to treat them. Myall needed to get space smart quick. Diversity was the only way to fight the Colonists’ goals of forcing everyone into their singular way of thinking and believing.

Turning back around in his chair, Myall smiled at the group. “What other places on this colony are must sees?”

Mrrrm perked up. “Do we get to try and sneak into bars Jaawn and I have gotten kicked out of?”

“Yes,” Jaawn said at the same time 90-9 said “No.”

Myall laughed.

How they found their way back to the ship later, Myall didn’t know. Not because he drank anything, but because he didn’t know the way back and Jaawn and Mrrrm were laughing too hard to be much help.

The bouncers at the very first bar they tried had caught them and marked them as troublemakers, but not before Mrrrm had added some graffiti to a wall. Being marked as troublemakers meant that your bios were sent to all the other bars, and the doors would prevent you from entering, even if there were no bouncers. It didn’t stop Jaawn from giving it a try, and he was pushed into the group to be caught by Mrrrm. That was when the laughing started, and it didn’t seem that it was going to stop any time soon.

Myall jogged to keep up with 90-9, who marched ahead of them with singular determination to get home. Myall tried to keep an eye on the two in back, but knew ultimately they could handle themselves.

As 90-9 lead them to the transport station that would bring them back to the docks, Myall caught sight of what looked like a festival down a side street. It was the Market of Ideas, still just as busy at night as it had been during the day. The warm lights strung above it gave the Market a glow that seemed to call to Myall. He suddenly knew that if he went back there, he would find everything he needed to solve his homeworld’s problems.

Before he could make a move toward the market, though, he felt a hand on his shoulder. Looking back, he saw Jaawn, who was no longer laughing.

“It’s not a good place to go at night,” Jaawn said, his voice low. “This is when the black market ideas come out, drugs that can leave your mind lost in thought while your body wastes away or left to only crave words, not food. It’s only safe to enter the Market in the light.”

Myall looked back, alarmed. But how could a place so warm and inviting be dangerous? He took a step forward.

Jaawn gripped his shoulder tighter, speaking urgently. “You know when you are chasing sleep, but thoughts keep coming? They turn to worries about the next day, and then fear for the future. You remember your most embarrassing moments. Your mind turns darker and darker as sleep won’t come. What starts out as warm rest turns to something sucking at your soul. That’s the Market of Ideas at night. Except it might just lure you into never sleeping again.”

With great effort, Myall turned back to Jaawn, meeting his eyes. Jaawn was looking at him, not at the Market, and his look was pleading.

“Shit.” Myall whispered.

“You’re telling me. Come on, let’s get home before those bouncers from Dark Moth find me,” Jaawn moved away, and Myall followed, deliberately not looking back at the lights of the market.

“How many times are you planning on saving me today?” Myall asked, picking up his steps until they were side by side.

Jaawn shrugged, “I guess as many times as I need to.”

They caught up with the others before Myall could think of an appropriate response to that.

<- Chapter Four | Chapter Six ->