Shady Hybrids AU

BOOK 2 CH 1: Drowning in Air

[A few days post James' transformation.]

I head back from a morning of caving. The walk back to my base isn't too bad, hell, I find it quite easy. However, it feels like a straight 5 minutes by the time I get there, because my mind is buzzing with thoughts and Kindness is also buzzing with things she wants to say to me. I ignore them.

I sit down, slipping Kindness into a sheath and sighing. James was pretty screwed over at the moment, and I'm truly quite concerned for him. Maybe Kindness will have an explanation.

I hear some sizzling sounds and I look around, confused. It seems to be coming from Kindness' chest, so I pull her out. My eye is immediately drawn to the fact she's glowing again. Cyan, blue, cyan, blue..what could this mean? Maybe I should ask Kindness herself.

"Kindness, do you know why you're glowing again?"

"SQUIDDY BOY...I'VE TOLD YOU THIS ALREADY, I DO NOT HAVE ANY INVOLVEMENT IN THNXCYA'S TRANSFORMATION." She says.

"I know, but why are you glowing different colours now?."

"I DO NOT KNOW, SQUIDDY BOY..."

"Uh, alright."

Well that didn't give me any answers, did it?

Either way, it's not much for me to worry about. I continue with all my work, hell, since we're getting a new member today I need to be at my best. I tie up my hair and head over to the main Shady Oaks base, allowing the sun to beat down on my skin. It feels oddly sensitive, but I don't think much about it.

I head over to see Justin resting under a tree and James trying his best to stay afloat for longer than a few seconds.

"Ow...." I can hear James mutter as he faceplants again.

"You're doing terribly, mate." Justin responds.

"Hey boys!" I yell out, waving.

"Hey!" James says, looking up. "Justin's trying to teach me to fly. It's not going well."

Justin chuckles, and so do I. I sit next to Justin as James continually tries to fly up and down. Justin explains that while James is fast to pick things up, it's still a tricky thing to adapt to. He also mentions that the transformation is far from over - James is still losing weight at a rapid rate and so isn't really at the weight to fly yet. But still they're trying so it's easier to pick up.

He's lost over half of his normal weight in a week. Justin's apparently surprised he's still functioning.

We continue watching James get better on his flying, soon enough being able to stay afloat for one minute before getting tired. Which is a great start, Justin says. James downs a bottle of honey and ends up chewing on a flower as we wait for Dan to get back from whatever he is doing so we can welcome the newbie.

"Dan should be here soon.." Justin mutters, checking the time on his comm.

I hear a quiet voice from behind me, and I whip around, before realising it's source. Oh right, Kindness.

"You aight, Squiddy?" James asks.

"Yeah uh...I actually have Kindness on me right now. She's glowing weird colours again." I say, pulling her out, showing the blue and cyan glow. James squints.

"Huh...if someone else transforms, we know this is related to James'...new bee attire. If not, it's just a coincidence." Justin comments.

"I'm sure it's just a coincidence." I say, before putting her away.

I lay back on the tree when one of the tentacles on my back smack me.

"Ow."

The other two laugh as I wrangle with the rogue thing. I'm something of a hybrid, see. I..can't exactly remember how it happened, but that's why my name is Squid after all. The only really squid like thing on me is the tentacles though, compared to other hybrids like Jerome and Ecko I'm really quite unremarkable. I normally just keep the tentacles down and by my side so they don't disturb me.