Monday was the day of Inn’s detention. He had been told that he was to help clear up the school grounds, especially the mini vegetable area. Inn frowned, rake in hand as he stared at the overgrown patch, dense with weeds and yellowed shrubs.

“I’m here!” Lion called out, hurriedly jogging over and carrying a similar looking gardening tool. “Sorry, I was just chatting to Bluebell.”

Inn nodded, it seemed pointless that Lion was joining him for this punishment anyway, but the other boy had insisted. Inn sighed as he began to apathetically attack the closest square of earth, raking up the thick bulbous roots of weeds and tipping them into a wheelbarrow.

“Oh wow, this garden is really neglected,” Lion frowned, picking his way through the shrubs and crouching down to look at the strangled remains of some hapless taro plants. “It’s a shame, this could be such a nice space.”

“You like gardens?” Inn asked absently, giving up on the rake altogether and reaching for a rusted pair of ominous looking shears.

“Yeah,” Lion grinned, “I mean, I like the idea of growing my own produce. Bluebell’s family grow their own mangosteen fruits and they always taste amazing.”

“You would want to grow fruit?” Inn questioned, grimacing as he saw a Vietnamese centipede of about ten inches scuttles across the dirt. The creatures had a worse bite than many venomous insects and were unusual in the city. Inn supposed its appearance was due to the unruly haven that the untended garden provided.

Inn hooked the creepy crawly on the end his shears before hurtling it over the school wall. There was a resulting scream and clattering noise from the other side a moment later.

“What was that?” Lion asked, a confused expression on his face as he turned round. Inn shrugged, affecting his best innocent look. Bug missiles was probably not a Hanuman approved move.

“Does the principal expect you to clear this whole area today?” Lion groaned, wiping his brow. “It’s so hot!”

“Go sit under the tree,” Inn instructed, moving to take Lion’s hoe from him. The other boy, however, looked affronted and clutched the tool closer to his chest.

“No way! I said I’d help and I will. Now how about you do this end and I’ll start from the other?” Lion walked off without waiting for confirmation, a determined look on his face.

Inn huffed a laugh before fishing out two pairs of thick gloves from the wheelbarrow. “Hey, Little Lion,” Inn called out, chucking one pair over.

Even with the gloves, Inn’s palms were still stinging after half an hour of strenuous weed pulling. Inn was half convinced he had encountered more reasonable carnivorous flora in the jungles of Himmapan.

Although Inn’s strength was not what it was back home in Longka whilst in his demon form, he was pleased to find that his stamina was still relatively good. He reached up to the sky as he cracked his back from side to side. The sun had thankfully disappeared behind clouds and the day had returned to a normal state of muggy dullness.

Inn glanced over at Lion, the other boy had red scratches up his arms and his grey shirt was soaked through with sweat.

“Let’s take a break,” Inn stated firmly. He was a little frustrated with himself, there was no need for respite and if they continued they would get the job done quicker. Regardless, Lion was wincing as a new thorny branch ran up his wrist and Inn was a little concerned the other boy may pass out.

Lion was fit and strong enough from ballet but this kind of manual labour took its toll on anyone.

“I’m sorry you’re having to do this,” Lion groaned, sliding down against the bark of a palm tree and opening his water flask. “You only got in trouble because of me.”

“Mm,” Inn agreed before seeing the look on Lion’s face. “But I am used to hard work.”

“Really?” Lion cocked his head. “I mean, of course you would be use to fighting and training but do you have to do stuff like this at home?”

“I,” Inn paused. It was true, he had never been conscripted to doing such menial tasks as landscaping back at Longka, that was servants’ work. However, the exercises he devised for himself weren’t too dissimilar. “I like to tire my body out,” Inn concluded.

“Give me some examples,” Lion asked curiously.

Inn smirked and raised an eyebrow at the other boy, delighting when Lion finally realised the implication and turned a furious red. “I meant your training!” Lion hissed. “I mean, do you do obstacle courses or sword fighting?”

Inn bit his lip in amusement; there was nothing quite as delicious as how Lion behaved when he was flustered.

“In the great river waters there are beasts with swollen heads and tentacles the size of tree trunks,” Inn began, noticing how the other boy’s eyes went wide and Lion leaned in towards him in excitement.

“I would run laps across the river,” Inn continued, “jumping between their gargantuan limbs. You never know when or where one will surface, equally you don’t know when the one you are standing on will sink beneath the water.”

“You must have to have such quick reflexes,” Lion added enthusiastically.

“Yes,” Inn nodded, “and furthermore, on each tentacle are four great sucking discs that can create mini whirlpools. After the river I would run on to the forest where hoards of grazing ghilen would be awaiting me.”

The ghilen were monstrous creatures with hooves and antlers, shards of which could be fired off at any moment.

“I would duck and roll to avoid their assault,” Inn smiled, “but this is only the beginning as inside the forest of Himmapan lie the true monsters.”

“Oh wow,” Lion breathed out slowly. “Do you ever see humans in the forest?”

Inn let out a barking laugh, “Only their skeletons.”

He turned his head to look at Lion. The other boy was still staring at Inn with rapt attention, although now he looked a little nervous. Inn opened his mouth to tease Lion further about how a sweet little morsel like him would be gobbled up immediately before he had even crossed the tree line.

“But you’d protect me right?” Lion asked quickly, his voice all in a rush.

Inn blinked in surprise, Lion’s eyes had drifted off to one side, avoiding Inn’s curious expression. A few moments of tense silence passed, Inn could hear a car backfiring on the street behind the wall, the buzz of afternoon mosquitoes hovering around the branches of the tree above them.

“Of course,” the words were out before Inn had even planned them. He figured he should be pleased, that his mind was already working so quickly and instinctively to further his deception of being the honourable Hanuman. “I would not let the monsters get you, Lion,” Inn stated, jumping up and brushing himself off.

‘I’m the only monster that gets you,’ Inn thought darkly as he picked his rake back up and stamped down on a nearby ants nest. The small bugs scattered frantically, streaming in ruddy rivulets across the cracks of the hardened earth.

“You keep stamping and all the bugs are going to come out!” Lion laughed, walking forwards and taking a sip from his cola bottle.

Inn huffed and kicked at the last dregs of the colony. A second later a horrible shriek pierced his ears. Inn jerked his head up and saw Lion scrambling backwards, his face a mask of sheer terror. The fizzing cola bottle had been dropped on the ground, its sugary brown contents emptying themselves across the dirt and darkening it.

“Lion?” Inn barked, throwing his rake off to one side and hurrying forwards.

“Don’t!” Lion yelled. Inn froze, confused. Lion continued moving back until he slipped over a tree root, landing hard on the ground. Inn scowled and began to move again.

“No!” Lion screamed. “Don’t move Inn – it’s a cobra!”

Inn stopped in his tracks as he gaze fell on the pale brown slithering form of the snake, winding its way over the cola stain towards Lion. The snake was about a metre and a half long with large black eyes.

“Lion,” Inn growled, “stay completely still.”

“I – I hate snakes,” Lion stammered weakly. Inn could see his body was trembling as the snake kept advancing forwards, gliding as if on polished ice.

Inn reached down to pick his rake back up, tiptoeing forwards before lifting his foot.

“No – no Inn don’t!” Lion stammered out, apparently realising what Inn intended to do. Inn slammed his foot down hard, shocking the snake into changing course with alarming speed. Inn darted forwards, ramming the rake down and trapping the slender serpent between its biting, metallic teeth.

“Lion,” Inn shouted, “go get a bag.”

Lion hauled himself to his feet and sprinted off in the direction of the school building. The other boy reappeared a minute later with a security guard in tow. The guard hurried over with a concerned look before bending over to catch his breath and letting out a low whistle.

“Not a cobra,” the guard panted, sounding relieved, “just a rat snake.” He opened up a hessian sack for Inn to drop the squirming snake into. “I’ll take it to the temple,” the guard nodded, wiping his forehead. From his portly physique, Inn figured he wasn’t used to running.

“But you two should stop your garden work for today,” the guard continued. “This area will have to be checked for more snakes.”

“Just a rat snake,” Lion repeated, looking horrified as the guard strode off with the bag. “I’m such an idiot, god, Inn I’m sorry.”

“They look similar,” Inn shook his head. It wasn’t Lion’s fault, he had thought the serpent was a cobra as well. Inn frowned as he looked back over at Lion. The other boy’s shirt was sodden and brown, he must have spilled the cola down himself in his panic.

“Go get changed,” Inn stated, “I’ll tidy up the equipment.”

“Okay,” Lion nodded, still looking upset.

Inn sighed as he began stacking the hoe, rake and shears in the wheelbarrow, wrenching off his gloves and wiping his sweaty palms on his pants.

“Khun Inn?”

Inn turned around at the delicate voice. Nin was standing there, a concerned look on her face. Nin’s hair was dyed a honey brown and was tied in a long, neat braid. Her face was petite and round with pale skin and there was a faint waft of strawberries.

“I was upstairs in the school for photography club and I saw what happened out the window,” Nin bit her lip, “are you okay?”

“Fine,” Inn shrugged, interested to hear that the school had a photography club. Ever since discovering that humans could capture the world instantly on paper he was quite excited by the hobby. “It was just a rat snake.”

“Oh, that’s good,” Nin nodded, holding her hands together. Her nails were unpainted but clean and carefully manicured and a thin, silver ring sat on her index finger. “I thought that was really brave of you, trapping it with the rake like that so that it didn’t bite Lion.”

Inn smiled, Nin was pretty and compliments were always welcome. “I am used to snakes,” Inn replied, puffing his chest out slightly.

“Right,” Nin broke into a full smile. “I was wondering, are you coming to ballet again this weekend?”

“I suppose,” Inn shrugged, he always just seemed to go wherever Lion went.

“Did you like our last performance?” Nin asked shyly.

“Yes,” Inn replied truthfully.

“I’m so glad,” Nin laughed, taking a step forwards towards Inn as if emboldened. “Khun Inn, I was wondering. You’re a little older than us right?”

Inn frowned, wondering where she was going with this, how did Nin know his age?

“Oh I didn’t mean to offend you,” Nin held up her hands, “it’s just I heard Bluebell saying you came from Russia and that the grade level system is different or something.”

Inn shrugged, what the hell did he know about school grades or even Russia for that matter.

“Only,” Nin paused and seemed to collect herself, “it’s my older brother’s birthday in two weeks and I haven’t bought him a present yet. He’s twenty two and I have simply no idea what to buy a man,” Nin laughed self deprecatingly. “I was hoping perhaps you would accompany me shopping to choose a gift? I could really do with your advice.”

“I like shopping,” Inn agreed thoughtfully, rubbing his chin. He wasn’t sure why Nin didn’t just ask one of her own male friends but perhaps it was to do with him being closer in age to her brother.

“Fantastic!” Nin exclaimed. “It’s a date then – we’ll meet at Central World mall this Friday at six?”

Inn nodded as he noticed over Nin’s shoulder that Lion had returned. The other boy was wearing a spare school shirt that was two sizes too big for him and looked ridiculous.

“Oh, Lion,” Nin looked round in surprise. “Are you okay? I saw the snake.”

“I’m fine, thank you Nin,” Lion nodded, though his voice was barely a mumble and he was staring at the ground.

Inn frowned, wondering if the other boy was still that upset about the rat snake?

“Well, I’ll see you later,” Nin smiled again, waving to Inn and flashing Lion a sympathetic look before walking back to the school building.

Inn stared at Lion for a few moments, Lion was still fixated on his shoes, shifting them on the grass.

“I’ll take these back to the shed and then we can leave,” Inn stated, pushing the squeaking wheelbarrow towards the shack on the far corner of the grounds. He could feel Lion staring at his back as he walked away.