“Let’s get you out of the house. She just assaulted you with pears again. You can definitely tell Izzy is kicking her where it hurts today,” Kalina pulled Rhenakos. “Besides Xeik is getting himself into some shit with Lewis. He followed them to the fair. We should go so he doesn’t do anything stupid.”

Getting the fair Kalina was looking around, “The very least we can bring things goes for the girls. Little girls loved stuffed animals.” She looked to Rhen. “Osiria would forgive you if you bring Izzy home things.” There was a smirk.

Following the scent they watched Lewis win Simone a huge stuffed animal. They saw Xeik choking and following behind. Kalina bought two glasses of ale and slammed one in front of Xeik. “You might need this kid.” She sat down by him and sipped on her own.

“So, you smashed your face into the table… Everything okay?” Kalina didn’t know what his issue was but she could see Simone and Lewis in the distance enjoying the sweets.

Rhenakos sat down at the table, laughing at the fact that Xeik had slammed himself into the table in shock over the odd couple. Lewis and Simone had already moved on to the game stall they had been eyeing, which allowed the poor thief boy to get up from under the table, his pride hurting more than his face.

“What exactly did you think was going to happen?” Rhenakos asked. “They’re here for fun. Can’t you just leave them be?” This was priceless coming from a demon obsessed hunter, but the fact was that he was right. “I think you might need to drop it before you actually hurt yourself.”

“Rhen,” Xeik said looking to the hunter as he took a swig of the ale. “I don’t think you understand. I swear! You should have seen it! The look on his face…he looked like he was going to try and eat her. And I heard something about apples, it’s got to be some kind of code. What if he’s going to poison her with apples or something…”

“For the love of Angela,” Rhenakos said rolling his eyes. “Kid…do I need to explain this to you?” He looked at Kalina, who was positively cracking up at the whole situation. “And you, just….be nice to him. He’s sheltered.”

Xeik growled at the two, “What’s so funny? I don’t get it!”

Rhenakos sighed, and leaned in, whispering. As Xeik listened, his look of anger slowly dissipated into a look of shock and embarrassment, his face turning red and deepening in shade with every word that Rhenakos spoke. He sat down in his seat, pursing his lips and staring down, eyes wide. It almost looked as though he were trying not to cry as well.

“Xeik…Just…” Rhenakos almost felt bad for the boy. “Look, if you feel bad enough bout it, just…switch to Ayaa. He doesn’t know about her right? You don’t have to hide.” This didn’t seem to be helping, and the hunter just sighed. “Xeik…I just need you to understand that maybe, just maybe…Lewis isn’t going to hurt her.” He paused. “…maybe that’s not the right word.”

This caused Xeik to turn red again, his mind going back to when they first met.

“For the love of…” Rhenakos threw up his hands. “There’s just no winning here!”

Kalina just started to laugh hard at the situation as Xeik was talking. “Kid,” she put her hand on his shoulder and smiled. “Simone literally can’t die. Even if Lewis wanted to. He went through a lot to get her back. My mother punched Lewis in the face. I talked with Ma about what went down and she told me Lewis came rampaging into her domain yelling he wanted Simone back.”

Kalina looked up to see Simone toting Lewis towards a vendor. She had another stuffed animal, “She married them and she wouldn’t have done it if they didn’t want it. Lewis killed Simone that’s true but he wanted her so bad… He just wanted to set her free. It would have been more selfish to keep her alive unless they had actually talked. “ She rattled her fingers on the table debating on the information she had. “If Simone dies so does Lewis.” She looked at Xeik. “They are one and the same now. Mother says its something called Resonance.”

She got them some food and brought it back over. “Simone is probably the one person that Lewis actually loves. She taught him how to feel but only for her. It’s dangerous. Now eat, it’s a pumpkin roll and you look like shit. You too Rhen… You were getting beat pretty bad… If you are worried about anyone getting hurt you should worry about poor Rhenakos here."

Xeik frowned at the fact that Kalina was telling him that he looked like shit. But she and Rhenakos were right, he was definitely acting a bit like a child, and he was better than this. Perhaps his mishap with the drugs had affected his mental state more than he thought. He started to eat on the pumpkin roll. It was surprisingly delicious for the fact that it was fair food, and he scarfed it down, realizing just how hungry he was.

“I’m sorry guys, I just…I guess I’m not doing as well as I thought,” Xeik said finally. “I do want to enjoy myself a little more though. Do you mind if I hang around you guys?”

Rhenakos shrugged, ignoring Kalina’s remark about Osiria abusing him. “I’m cool with it. We just needed to get out for awhile. I was just going to sit and drink for most of the time, but I guess we can wander. What do you think, Kalina? Want to explore?” The hunter seemed a bit enthusiastic. “I heard there’s a mirror house…thing. I think that’d be funny. We might get to see what we’d look like if our proportions are off. I could use a laugh.” He took a swig of ale. “Though, you might want to switch to Ayaa soon. I really don’t need you and Lewis getting into it here. That’s more trouble than I signed up for.”

Kali slapped his shoulder again, “Look like shit is just a phrase. You look stressed Xeik. Stop stressing. If I stressed as young as you are I would be dead by now.” She always told the truth straight. Leilah was the one who stressed and Kali took things at face value.

“You are a welcomed addition to our little crew. We want you to have fun here too. We’ll relax and have fun. Eat some fair food. It will be great.” She hugged Xeik to her. “Just don’t worry about what Lewis and Simone are doing.”

Once they were on their way Kali had a look on her face as they found Lewis and Simone in front of them. She knew Simone say something about the one way being for pansies. She wasn’t afraid. “Well… Guess we should go the other way then.” She looked at both of her companions. “Avoid those two for now.” She kept her voice low as she saw Simone look back in their direction.

For the most part, Simone ignored them since she was more into whatever Lewis and she were doing. “Her hearing… has gotten really good.” Kali was impressed. “Guess we are going the pansy route comrades.”

Xeik, now assuming Ayaa’s form, followed close behind Rhenakos and Kalina as they headed to the House of Mirrors. She was almost shocked when they all noticed that Lewis and Simone were in front of them, taking the left path. The blond girl, now sporting a cute, filly red dress, was about to follow them, but Kalina and Rhenakos started to talk about the right path.

“I’m not a pansy though,” Ayaa said in her pouty voice. “This is so unfair…”

Rhenakos laughed, “Xe-…Ayaa, we’re here to have fun. It’s not about the scariness and what not. We’ve faced a lot of scary things. Besides, I’m sure this path, while not as frightful, will probably be just as fun.” He smirked, “I’d even wager that it has better prizes. See, even the sign says that this one has treats.”

The girl puffed, and folded her arms. “Fine. I guess,” she said, looking almost defeated. The group made their way down the path, finding themselves in front of a variety of different mirrors. Ayaa took a look in one, and the image that greeted her was a goofy looking cat-like Ayaa staring back with paws, ears, and even a tail. The whole thing was absurd, and Ayaa found herself laughing at it in spite of her earlier feelings.

Rhenakos was at his own mirror, which inverted his muscle mass, making him look so much tinier than he was. The whole thing looked absurd, but he was smiling at it. “I swear, if I were actually this small, Osiria could launch me like a spear.” He looked to Kalina. “What did yours do?”

“Yeah Ayaa… Besides knowing how fucked up those two are… Think about it. We don’t want to be on their path.” Kali patted Ayaa’s head. “Let’s have fun, drink, eat, and be merry! Even win some prizes. Don’t you want to win some prizes for Leilah? I bet she would really like that!”

Kali was staring at a mirror and she put her hands on her hip. “It inverted me… but take a look at it.” She looked in the mirror and saw herself looking like Leilah. “It made me short and plumper.” It wasn’t that Leilah was fat but she was curvier than her sister was. “It’s just a blonde Leilah.”

“Osiria could launch you like a spear though… I would wager if she was pissed off enough she would be able to do it still.” Kali smirked a bit. “Couldn’t she Ayaa?”

The girl was trying to fight being happy, almost out of spite, but she couldn’t help it. The fact that Rhenakos was being absurd and Kalina’s remark about Osiria being able to hurl Rhenakos was just amusing. She hated to admit it, but she was having fun.

“Yeah. I can win something for Leilah! I’m sure she’d like that!” She twirled in response, which seemed to only make her happier. It was a complete one-eighty from the depressed boy that had met at the table. Things seemed to be going well.

Rhenakos frowned at Kalina’s mirror. “Not the best one. Here, try the next one.” He more or less pushed Kalina into the next mirror, which turned them both into much, much hairier versions of themselves. Rhenakos looked like a crimson haired, ancient wizard with all the hair and extra beard he had, flowing all the way down to his knees. It was quite the absurd look.

Kalina, however, looked more like a blonde wrestler, her own hair tied in eloquent rings and tied about her body. The only thing that completed the look was the absolutely massive beard she was sprouting, also intricately braided.

Ayaa took a look at their reflection, and immediately found herself laughing so hard that she could barely breathe. The pair looked absolutely ridiculous together, like some weird party out of a game for children. Even Rhenakos couldn’t help but laugh at their reflections, fully expecting to get hit by Kali once she processed everything that had happened.