Rasmus was in the kitchen all night, whipping up delicious Earth dishes one after the other, little Bin helping to plate them and make them all pretty. Andihar Dayarunar slung words of praise about his cooking like an old woman slinging pieces of dry bread by the local pond.

Clan Leader Gul's usual stoic self didn't allow for much in the way of praise, but considering the fact that he had his face in bowl and plate for almost an hour without pause, nodding and grunting to himself any time he tasted something new, he must have been pretty happy with the experience overall.

Bin would bring him little plates of food that she had decorated specially for him and call him Grandpa Gul, and it was pretty easy to see just how much he loved that, even if he tried to appear nonchalant. She spent most of the evening in his lap, feeding him fruit and other snack in portions so big that he had to open wide to eat them, but he never once complained.

When Bin got tired, Eik put her to sleep on some pillows lined up on the floor in the corner. The rest of the evening was spent in merriment and fun, this large group of friends simply enjoying each other's company. How far they had come.

Many had endured pain and suffering but at least for now, they could feel grateful for the fact that they had reached a moment where they were happy in the present—a moment where they could breathe and appreciate what they had.

When they eventually split up to head home to their beds, it was with smiles on their lips and laughter in their hearts.

***

"Wasn't it just so much fun yesterday, huh, little Bin?" Eik asked as they passed through one of the smaller marketplaces near their house. Rasmus had moved into a home of his own, but they would visit each other almost daily since he had actually only moved four houses down the street.

"Super duper fun!" she said, hopping onto a fence and walking along its length, arms out to the sides to keep her balance. Quickly and stealthily, a Profound Toxic beast on the smaller side fell into rhythm behind her, its body type vaguely feline but still with reptilian features. "I hope we do it again soon!"

At this point, Bin was pretty proficient at English and didn't even need the mental assistance of the translation spell anymore. Apparently, the alien race she belonged to had a tendency to absorb new languages like a sponge during childhood.

"Did you get enough breakfast?" he asked, eyes drifting to a café that did sandwiches for their morning rush.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"And did you do your homework? I know you hate math, but when you're buying groceries on your own one day, you're going to be so happy that you learned how to add and subtract."

"I always do my homework. Even if I hate it," she grumbled, rolling her eyes at him.

"Alright, alright, I'm sorry," Eik chuckled. "You're the best student ever and I should have never dared doubt that."

"Well, as long as you know it now," she said, nose in the sky with pride.

"Hey," Eik said, patting her on the shoulder to catch her attention as he pointed across the street. "Isn't she one of the girls from your class, Bin? What's her name again? Kathrin or something like that. Karol?"

When Bin didn't answer, he looked back at her and realized that she had gone ahead, walking so fast that she was almost jogging. "What's up?" he asked, catching up easily, falling into lockstep with her. "She walking together with her mom just over there. Don't you want to walk to school together?"

"No," Bin said.

Eik ruffled her hair. "Why not? Isn't that more fun?"

"I don't want to talk about it," she muttered and batted away his hand, speeding up even further, unwilling to meet his eyes. Well, Eik could take a hint if nothing else—at least this time.

"Alright, fine, we don't have to talk about it. But if you change your mind you can come to me any time you want, you know that, right?" he called after her.

"Yeah, I know. Thanks," she said, offering a slight nod back.

They continued in silence, the number of kids on their way to school increasing with every street they passed. There were still only four schools in Forest, which was nowhere near enough to accommodate all of the children of school age living in the city, but the work was already underway to build another two facilities.

Once the school building came into view, Bin slowed down and eventually stopped, ducking into an alley. Eik followed her. She was staring at the ground, jaw working with tension.

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"Aren't you going to school?" he asked gently, kneeling.

She glanced at him. "I don't think I want to go to school today."

"Why not?"

"My… stomach kind of hurts," she tried.

"You should have said something earlier!" he said, finally understanding, bright, green Panacean Quintessence flowing from his hand and collecting into a puddle of liquid the size of a fingernail. "I've got just the thing. Swallow this and you'll be all good again, I promise," he assured her with a smile.

"I don't want it," she said.

He pulled her into an embrace and rubbed her stomach. "You've got this tummy ache and don't want it to get better?" he teased. "Don't you know I'm the best in the city, hmm, cutie? I swear it works."

"I said I don't want it!" she snapped and pushed past him. "I'm going to school!" she called and stomped off, heading for the double doors where a teacher stood ready to greet the kids. The morning greeting was kind of a way to reassure parents who were worried about letting their kids out of their sight in a world that was still poorly understood, and where monsters weren't just characters in a scary story.

Eik watched her walk through the school gates, hefting her backpack and keeping her head down. She looked defeated. A lump sat heavily in his throat. Something was wrong, and he was failing her for not realizing what it was. Being a parent was freaking difficult.

The girl from Bin's class whom Eik was pretty sure was named Kathrin passed him on the opposite side of the street, her mom walking with her. They caught Eik's attention when the girl stopped and pointed at Bin who was about to walk through the double doors, greeting the teacher politely.

"That's her!" the girl exclaimed, pulling on a man's shirt sleeve, Eik realizing that he must be her father. "That's the monster girl I told you about! The green one! She's the one from my class!"

The mother stared after Bin as she disappeared into the building. "You still have that filthy alien in your class?" she asked. "I specifically asked for them to have her sent away!"

"Yeah, she's so weird! I don't like being close to her. Sometimes they make us be in the same group in class too!"

"How can they allow that… thing to be in the same class as normal children? It's absolutely disgusting!" the mother huffed. "Go to class, Kathrin, dear. I'm going to go and have a few words with the school."

Eik let the girl leave before he stepped across the street and approached the two parents who were speaking with no attempts at subtlety.

"Excuse me," he said with a smile, clenching his fists so hard behind his back that his nails digging into his palms drew blood. "I couldn't help but overhear your little conversation with your daughter just now. You know, about the girl in her class."

The mother looked him up and down as if judging his entire being in that first moment. Eik didn't know what she thought and didn't really give two shits about it anyway. He was pissed. The father narrowed his eyes as he studied Eik's face, seemingly unable to decide whether he had seen him before or not.

"Yes, that's right. It is outrageous, frankly, that they would allow such a barbaric creature to be around our precious children. I take it that you're a concerned parent as well, then?" she asked.

"You could say that," he admitted, a thick vein popping out on his forehead as anger pressed him. "I would actually go as far as to say that I am even more concerned than you."

The mother gave him an incredulous expression and crossed her arms. "Is that so? And what, pray tell, makes you say that?"

Eik shrugged, resisting the urge to punch both of their faces in. "Because my daughter—the cute green one—has to go to class with a kid whose parents are this brain dead and nasty."

"Excuse me?" she nearly shrieked. "How dare you? Do you even know who we are?"

Eik snorted. "Of course I don't."

"My husband is the newly appointed vice captain of the south gate of the outer wall! He is a C-ranker, I'll have you know, and he can make life here a living hell for you and your filthy little alien spawn!" Damn, what a witch.

A single glance at the husband told Eik that he neither would nor could wield such power, although judging by his uniform, the claim about his rank was probably true enough. The man didn't appeared to be quite as extreme as his wife, but since he also wasn't putting a stop to his wife's deranged behavior, Eik didn't like him either.

No matter how you looked at it, this woman had no clue who he was. If she did, she probably would have gone for a more cordial tone. Eik had purposefully kept his face away from the public eye to a certain degree because he didn't want to live his life getting his boots kissed.

That was going to change soon anyway.

Eik stepped in close, eyes only a few centimeters from hers. Hers were shocked, and his were a brilliant blue, energy crackling in his irises. "Can he now?" he asked in a menacing whisper.

She swallowed hard, but that arrogant expression hadn't disappeared. The husband stepped in, and grabbed Eik by the arm. "Hey, that's enough. If you're a human from Earth, surely you can see why we want an alien gone from our schools. I don't know who you are, but I feel like I've seen you before. Are you under my new command? Don't overstep."

Slowly, Eik's eyes drifted to the hand on his arm. He really hoped he wasn't about to murder two people on the street in broad daylight. "C-rank, huh? That's very impressive," he said as he seized the man's hand and crushed his fingers without mercy.

Bands of inert Profound Toxin covered nose and mouth on both of them before they could let out screams. Eik heard the woman's nose break under the constriction. He hadn't actually meant to do that. Well, at least he wasn't poisoning them.

"There you are!" a voice called from behind Eik. It was Robert. "I thought I could find you here on a school morning. Listen, we have to talk."

"Bob, I'm kind of in the middle of something pretty important right now," Eik told him. "It's ab—"

"It's urgent!" Robert hissed. He seemed to notice the two other for the first time. He frowned but didn't bother asking what it was about. "Don't kill them please," he said.

"I wasn't going to!" Eik snarled. "What is it that's so urgent?"

Robert beckoned for him to follow him away from the intolerable mother and father. As he walked away he deployed Panacean Quintessence to both of their injuries, sending death stares at both of them. "This is not over. I'll be in touch," he promised them.

Eik threw up a sound barrier—another technique he had learned from Andihar. "Alright, what?"

"There's someone at the outer wall," Robert said.

"And? What do they want?"

"We don't know."

"You don't know? How the hell do you know that it's urgent then?" Eik questioned.

"Because he said he would only speak with you, but the urgency stems from his identity."

"Which is?"

Robert swallowed, clearly terrified. "The only thing he would say was that he has come from the cult of Moon Shall Swallow."

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