By sundown, the village had been transformed, and everyone who lived there seemed all too happy for a reason to celebrate on a whim. String lights hung in festive sine waves. Glowing lanterns bobbed in the water. A band jammed mellow on a floating platform, and the smells of fire-crisped fish and sizzling shells filled the warm air of a summer’s night.
Dex lounged cross-legged in a cup-shaped chair hanging from a pole near the end of a dock, a plate of goodies balanced on their ankles. They put one arm behind their head and sighed contentedly before picking up yet another skewer of battered crawdads with the other hand. The memory of their unpleasant ride to the village was fading fast, and in its absence, they were more than happy to sit and eat and do nothing.
Mosscap was out on the water, in the back of the speedboat belonging to the old woman who’d vouched for the printer’s handiwork that morning. She tore around the water at a speed befitting someone a fraction her age, deftly piloting her craft around the lit-up buoys that ostensibly kept her and her passenger safe. Dex couldn’t hear what she and Mosscap were saying to each other, but their cheers and laughter rose above the hum of the engine and the splash of the water. There was no doubt they were having a fantastic time.
Leroy approached Dex’s chosen spot, carrying two tall glasses filled with something purplish. “Mind if I join you, Sibling?” he asked. He lifted the drinks with a smile. “I don’t come empty-handed.”
Dex accepted the offering gladly. “I was getting thirsty,” they said, smiling into Leroy’s eyes as they took the drink. It was some kind of boozy punch, thick with muddled herbs and berries. Dex and Leroy saluted each other, then each took a sip. “Gods, that’s perfect,” Dex said.
“We have it good here,” Leroy said, settling into a chair hanging opposite Dex’s.
“You certainly do.” Dex gave the bear pendant around their neck an acknowledging rub with their thumb. “Thank you again, for your time earlier. I hope we didn’t screw up your day.”
“Oh, not even a little,” Leroy said. “You made it a great one.” He looked out at the water as twin peals of laughter arose from the speedboat, and chuckled. “Glad to see Ms. Amelia found herself a willing victim.”
“Is that her name?” Dex asked.
“Mmm-hmm,” Leroy said. “And Mosscap’s braver than me. I wouldn’t get in a boat with her.”
“Why not?”
Leroy gestured toward the water, holding his palm flat to emphasize the spectacle before them. The boat careened at reckless angles, water spraying wildly to either side.
Dex laughed. “Mosscap’s waterproof, at least.”
“Mosscap’s lucky,” Leroy said, “to find someone as kind as you to look after it.”
Dex warmed under the compliment but squinted at the phrasing that came after. “Mm, I’m not its keeper. Our arrangement isn’t like that.”
“What is it like?”
Dex thought. “You ever had a friend come visit from somewhere else? Somewhere far away, where they do everything different? You have to show them around, teach them what the food is, how the tech around your house works, what counts as good manners?”
“Sure,” Leroy said.
“That’s what it’s like,” Dex said. “Mosscap’s my friend, and I’m just showing it around. It did the same for me, out in the wilds. Human lands are my neighborhood; everything else is Mosscap’s. It’s an exchange, pure and simple.”
Leroy sipped his drink, peering at Dex with keen interest. “I heard a rumor you were out in the Antlers. Past the Borderlands.”
The comment made Dex feel a touch exposed. Their choice to head out that way had been made in solitude, and their reasons for doing so were private. To have that time and place become folded into Mosscap’s public story was an odd feeling. They took a moment before replying. “Yeah,” they said at last. “I was.”
To his credit, Leroy seemed to glean Dex’s mild discomfort, and his tone as he continued was gentle. “What’s it like, out there?”
Dex exhaled, and decided to embrace the vulnerability. “Beautiful. Frightening. It makes you understand why we don’t live out there anymore.”
They hadn’t noticed before, but Leroy was wearing Chal’s sugar bee on a charm bracelet around his right wrist. He gave this a little rub, just like Dex had with their pendant. “And Mosscap helped you find your way through?”
“Yeah,” Dex said. “It did. I don’t know what would’ve happened to me out there if we hadn’t run into each other. I either would’ve turned around or…” They shrugged. “I dunno.”