Atakarr’s POV

Atakarr was covered in green, funky blood, ached in places she hadn’t even known she had, and not thirty minutes ago had almost been monster snack; between all of that, she could be forgiven for forgetting that Myles still wasn’t comfortable with spreading word of the System yet.

Personally, Atakarr thought it was rather pointless; Elder Raad already suspected something anyway, and though Atakarr had neither confirmed nor denied it, the old woman was too sharp to miss something so obvious, and eventually, others will start to notice too. However, Atakarr had already decided to give Myles the time and space he clearly needed to work through whatever was bothering him, and she intended to stick with that.

Or more accurately, she had, until this happened.

As Kaffika, Somma, and Bala; the unofficial ‘cooks’ of the tribe, stared from her to the meat on the ground, and then to Myles, not knowing whether to be more perplexed by the quantity of meat, the perfect cut of it, or the fact that they’d just watched Atakarr replicate Myles’ magic trick, Atakarr looked to Myles to see what his reaction would be.

He looked resigned, and when his eyes met hers he shrugged and said, “it was bound to happen at some point.”

She turned back to their still gaping audience of three, and before they could get their wits about them enough to begin bombarding her with questions, she said, “look, can you guys just pretend you didn’t see anything?”

Their expressions went from bewildered to incredulous in record time.

Yeah, no, Atakarr thought, that would not be happening.

*****

“Everyone would have heard by the time the food’s served, wouldn’t they?” Myles asked as he undressed.

They were in one of the more closed off parts of the bathrooms, and Atakarr had already loosened her braid and was washing out the blood that had somehow gotten into her hair with a liberal amount of water.

“It probably won’t even take that long,” Atakarr said, then sighed. “I’m sorry, I completely forgot—”

“No, it’s fine,” Myles cut her off, but not rudely. “Really. Actually, on our way back, I was thinking; that chameleon we fought today, how hard would it be for it to get in here?”

Atakarr’s lips curled in distaste; she’d been trying not to think about that. From what Myles had told her of chameleons, it had become obvious to her that the only reason his people hadn’t taken measures against the creatures was because of how small, and therefore relatively harmless they were on Earth.

Myles was still speaking. “I mean, between the tongue and the camouflage that thing could do a lot of damage before it was found. If it was found.”

A scenario rapidly flashed through Atakarr’s mind; people disappearing mysteriously, everyone living in fear and huddling together for safety, slowly going mad with terror and starvation. She shook off the images. “What’s your point?” She asked Myles, voice harsher than intended.

Myles at first looked surprised at her tone, then he winced at the realisation of the effect his words must have had on her. “I’m sorry, I just meant...” he stopped, then sighed and ran his hands down his face. “Have you ever had a fear before? But not a practical one, like the fear of falling when on a high place, or the fear of being eaten by a dangerous animal, no. A silly fear? Maybe even a nonsensical one?”

Atakarr frowned, failing to understand. She’d been scared before, of course. Hell, she’d been deathly afraid not even a minute ago, but all her fears had always been practical and real. Very real. “Myles, I don’t understand. What are you saying?”

Myles sighed. “Of course you wouldn’t understand,” he muttered as if to himself, hands running through his full head of hair, which was unkempt and starting to lose that... lustre it’d had when he first got here, causing it to look more like hers. The only difference of course being that hair grew everywhere on his scalp instead of a strip down the middle.

“Myles, maybe if you just explained what you mean I would—”

“I’m scared of you,” Myles cut in. He hadn’t raised his voice, had actually spoken in a rather low tone, but the words seemed to pack a certain weight to them.

Atakarr cocked her head in bewilderment, not knowing how to even begin to respond to that. Which was unnecessary, because Myles wasn’t done. It almost seemed like with that first sentence out the floodgates had opened, and everything else couldn’t come out fast enough.

“All of you. You, Seeng, Elder Raad, even... what’s her name? The kid who keeps going on about how weird my ears look—”

“Killin.”

“Yes, her.” Myles sighed and seemed to deflate with the loss of air. “I know it’s absurd and inane and whatever other synonym you want but...” he shrugged.

Atakarr thought she was beginning to understand now. “Myles, is this because of Frezz?”

Myles sighed again. “What do you think?” He asked.

Atakarr didn’t know how to respond to that either. She’d known that eating Frezz had badly affected Myles, but seriously? This much?

But wait—“why are you bringing this up now?” Atakarr asked.

“Because I want to help,” Myles said. “I want to help and I feel like an ass for not doing so when people’s lives are literally in danger because of some ridiculous fear I have.”

That very much caught Atakarr’s attention. “You want to help? You mean with the System?” Myles nodded. Okay, she was going to have to handle this very carefully. “What about [Mental Fortitude]?” She asked. “I thought it helped you work through your fears and emotions.”

“Well maybe I don’t want to work through this,” Myles said.

Atakarr hesitated, not quite knowing how to handle this. To be honest, she didn’t really understand why Myles felt the way he did; she personally had no problems with eating people. What she had problems with was the fact that they had to. That in a world that supposedly had so much more, this was the best her people had access to. And in that moment Atakarr had something that could be likened to an epiphany; she didn’t need to understand why Myles felt as he did. Not really. She just needed to understand that he did, and reassure him that as he said he was being silly. Though not for the reasons he thought.

“So do you think we will eat you?” Atakarr asked.

“What!? No... maybe. I don’t know. I told you it was silly.”

“Maybe. I wouldn’t know. But let me clear up your confusion though, we will.”

“Huh?”

Atakarr shrugged. “Myles, you’re meat. And don’t take this the wrong way but you’re very delicious looking meat.”

“I don’t think there’s a right way to take that,” he said.

“Well however you take it, the fact remains that we eat our dead. The only ones we don’t eat are those who die of disease, or on the rare occasion when we have other meat available. And depending on the kind of meat it is, we just might throw it out and eat them instead.”

Myles seemed to be turning a very interesting shade of green. “Atakarr, if you’re trying to make me feel better, you’re not doing a very good job,” he said queasily.

“Really? Then let me spell it out for you; Myles, we’re cannibals, not mindless animals.”

“I didn’t say you were,” Myles tried to interject, but Atakarr continued over him. She could see now that she’d given him enough time and space; it was time she said her piece.

“We would only ever eat you if you die. And we’re not idiots either, so you can rest assured that just like I did not attack you when you told me about the System, so too would no one else. Actually the safest way to ensure that you don’t get eaten would be to share the System with everyone, because the only reason we resort to cannibalism in the first place is because we can’t get enough food for ourselves.”

Myles stared thoughtfully at Atakarr after she finished her speech, which would have been rightly called a rant if her voice hadn’t been calm and conversational the whole time. “I never thought of it that way,” he said.

“I know you didn’t,” Atakarr said, then walked to him and gently took his face in her hands as he looked up at her. “You know what else I know?” She asked, staring into those bright eyes of his.

Myles swallowed and shook his head no, and Atakarr realised that this was the closest she’d ever been to him with his clothes off. For some odd reason, that realisation caused her to feel the slightest hint of... awkwardness.

‘I’ve been spending too much time with Myles,’ she concluded as she shook off the feeling and continued. “I know that you’re a good person, Myles,” Atakarr said. “You’re a good person because you gave me power when you had no obligation to do so. Without asking for anything in return. So maybe your fear is silly and whatever else you called it, but you’ve earned the right to be as silly as you want. Besides,” she finished with a shrug, “I’ll be here to knock some sense into you if it gets out of hand.”

Something in Myles’ expression changed then, and she felt the space between them grow heavy with tension so thick it felt like none of her spears could cut through it. “So we’re like... partners then?”

She smiled. “Sure. Partners.”

Myles smiled too. “Myles and Atakarr: Monster Hunters. Sounds like a bad eighties show.”

“I have no idea what those are,” she said.

They were closer now; Myles reaching up towards her, and she leaning down, the six inches of space between them down to two. Atakarr so wanted to close that last bit of space, but she held back; it would be better if Myles did this.

As though he could read her mind, Myles took her head in his hands and pulled her lips down to his.

It wasn’t magical, but it wasn’t bad either. It was actually quite good.

And when, barely a minute later, they were both lying on the ground, Myles stopped and said, “um, I haven’t really done this before so—”

She shushed him, then leaned real close to whisper in his ear, “I’m sure there’s a skill for it.”

There was.

*****

Myles’ POV

Everyone knew.

Not that he and Atakarr had... but that Atakarr was somehow able to do something that everyone had thought only him able to.

As soon as they’d walked into the pool room, all eyes had turned to them and the buzz of whispered conversations had spiked sky-high.

This was going to be a fun meal, Myles thought.

Atakarr, naturally, looked like she didn’t notice any of the attention, heading to a quiet(er) corner which Myles quickly followed her to.

The food was just starting to be served, and before it got to their turn, Elder Raad walked over and sat with them.

Myles had known this was coming, and even though he’d gone so far as to prepare what he would say (which Atakarr had found very amusing), he still felt nervous as the older woman glanced between he and Atakarr.

Before Elder Raad could say anything, Atakarr spoke. “It would be easier if Myles showed you. The things he says might make more sense then.”

Elder Raad turned to him. “Do you agree?”

Myles quickly nodded. Actions speak louder than words and all that.

“After the meal then?” Elder Raad asked, but it wasn’t really a question.

Myles agreed.

The meal passed way too quickly. And though Myles was happy to leave the stares of the pool room behind, the whispers only increased when Elder Raad walked out with him and Atakarr.

They went to a quiet corner somewhere and after all three were seated, Myles plucked a strand of hair from his head, the whole time wondering how pulling a strand of hair from his head could still hurt so much, even with [Pain Resistance] at level 7.

Surprisingly, Elder Raad put up no argument to swallowing Myles’ hair, simply quirking an eyebrow in what could have been amusement.

Would you like to gift System to being [Raad]?

«Yes» || «No»

“Oh, by the way, this part will feel weird.” Myles thought yes.