Skye followed Hamish as they walked down the street, heading towards the inn where Hamish had left the others. It was difficult for Hamish to gauge exactly what was going through Skye's mind. On the surface, he appeared to be simple-minded, but there was a clear intelligence shining in his eyes. More than anything, it seemed that Skye had an unusual set of priorities and little regard for anyone else's opinion or desires. Hamish might have described him as self-centred, but the way he had leapt in to save Duran painted a different picture.

When they reached the inn, Hamish spotted Duran sitting at a table with food and a drink in front of him, engaged in conversation with a man with light blue skin and even lighter blue hair. The man appeared to be in his thirties. Slone was sitting at the bar with his back to them, making it appear as though he and Duran were not together.

Duran gave the man one of his all-too-convincing fake smiles and said something to him before getting up and waving Hamish over as he headed in Slone’s direction.

"Making friends?" Hamish asked, leaning against the bar.

“Earning money,” Duran corrected. “I cleaned and mended his clothes. He’s been generous.”

“I’m sure the fact that he was in his clothes while you did that had nothing to do with his generosity.”

Duran waved away the concern with a dismissive gesture. “I know what he wants. He’s been plying me with alcohol. I’ve been pretending to be a lightweight when I’m the exact opposite. It’s been profitable.”

Hamish shook his head in admiration. "You're clever, Duran. But is he going to get what he wants?"

Duran's expression turned serious. “No. I don’t appreciate his approach.”

“Can’t say I trust him either,” Slone added. “Wouldn’t want to leave Duran alone with him, that’s for sure.”

Duran's gaze shifted to the man in question, studying his form with a critical eye. He wasn't particularly large, but he was bigger than Duran. Most men were.

Skye, meanwhile, hovered near the man's table, looking disinterested as he idly patted his thighs. The second the man turned his attention away, Skye snatched a chicken wing from the plate and casually retreated, pretending to be engrossed in his own business by the time the man looked back.

"I thought he'd wandered off," Slone said, glancing at Skye.

“He did, but he found me again,” Hamish said. “It turns out there’s some weird ocean shit going on and ships don’t run to The Spire, but Skye knows a lady who might be able to help us figure something out.”

“Ah,” Slone said, rubbing the back of his neck. “I prob’ly shoulda known about the weird ocean shit. Sorry. I don’t like boats, so I don’t know much about what goes on with ‘em.”

“I don’t suppose it would have made any difference to what we decided,” Hamish said. “We didn’t exactly have any great alternatives to coming here.”

“And if we’d gone the other way, we wouldn’t have the egg, we wouldn’t have met Skye, and we wouldn’t have gotten to see this town,” Duran added. “Maybe the other way would have held even greater surprises, but I wouldn’t give up what we have here to find out.”

“Y’know, I can’t argue with that,” Slone said. “Normally I wouldn’t need any convincing not to mind, but I’m tryna be a bit smarter since I got you guys to worry about as well this time.”

Duran opened his mouth to respond, but before he could speak, he caught sight of the man rising from his table. Duran's demeanour changed in an instant, his posture shifting and his expression softening in a way that made him look more like Fanner than himself.

The man sent Hamish a glance that made it clear he wasn’t welcome. He didn’t seem to have realised Slone was also with them. He forced a smile onto his face as he focussed his attention on Duran. “I need to head back to my ship, but I’ve got some sails there that need repairs. If you can help me with them, I’ll pay you well.”

Duran smiled back, a hint of flirtation in his eyes. "Maybe later, Declan. We hardly slept last night, so for now I'll be happy to rent a bed with what you've already given me."

"That will only carry you through until tomorrow," Declan warned, his eyes flicking to Hamish.

Duran shrugged. “Maybe we can work something out tomorrow, then.”

Declan gave Duran a single, tight-lipped nod. “We’ll see.”

Hamish folded his arms over his chest as he watched Declan walk away. “I don’t like him.”

Duran stretched out his back and yawned. “I’m sure nobody in his life does.”

“I got creepy vibes from him.”

Duran let out an exaggerated gasp. “No, really?”

“Skye sure don’t waste any time,” Slone said, nodding towards the abandoned table where Skye was busy picking over the leftovers.

Duran pulled a few brass coins out of his pocket and handed them to Hamish. “I’ll go pack up any salvageable food that Skye hasn’t eaten yet while you rent a room for us.”

Hamish took the coins. “Sounds good.”

#

Skye looked up from the table as Duran approached, but he didn’t stop eating.

"You can eat as much as you want, but we're going to pack the rest of it up and take it upstairs with us," Duran said. "We're renting a room for the night."

Skye offered no response or acknowledgement, but he did switch from eating the food as fast as he could to helping Duran pile it onto a single plate. When Hamish waved to them, Duran picked the plate up and headed towards the stairs that led to the second floor of the inn. Skye followed.

As they entered the room that Hamish had rented, they found it to be sparsely furnished, with only two medium-sized beds and nothing else. A window facing the street offered a view of the harbour. As soon as Duran put the plate down on the bed nearest the door, Skye sat down and continued eating.

Hamish helped Slone take off the egg harness. 

"Hey Skye," Hamish said, "any guesses as to what might be in this egg?"

Skye chewed a mouthful of food as he studied the egg. “Maybe it’s me?”

“You?”

Skye nodded.

“You know, yesterday Slone said something about how it could be anything, considering the fae. At the time I agreed, but now I’m realising there are many things we can probably rule out. It seems unlikely that you are in the egg.”

Skye chewed the last bit of meat from a chicken bone with his sharp teeth. “No, I mean, a baby of me. Of what I am.”

“Did you hatch from an egg?”

Skye shrugged. “I don’t remember being born.”

“Well, neither do I,” Hamish said, “but I feel like my mother probably would have mentioned it if I’d hatched from an egg.”

"Well, I don't remember my parents either.”

“Oh,” Hamish said. “I’m sorry. I still think you probably didn’t hatch from an egg.”

Skye shrugged again.

Duran sat down on the bed next to Skye. “Do you live here?”

“No,” Skye said. “This is an inn.”

"I meant in the town," Duran clarified.

“Hm,” Skye said as he started work on picking another chicken bone clean. “Yes.”

Hamish kicked off his boots and lay down on the other bed. “You’re an odd one, Skye.”

"Why?" Skye asked as he popped a grape into his mouth.

“Well…” Hamish shook his head. “I don’t know. It doesn’t have to be a bad thing.”

“Okay.”

Skye finished picking over the scraps left on the plate as the rest of them got ready for bed. Duran went to join Hamish in the other bed and Slone claimed the one Skye was eating on. Once he was done eating, Skye set the plate on the ground and curled up on the end of the bed, hugging his little rucksack against his chest.

Duran and Hamish cuddled up together, the egg pressed between their bodies, and Slone turned off the light. Duran listened to the quiet sound of Hamish’s breathing as he drifted off to sleep.

#

Skye woke up to evening light and found that everyone else was still asleep. He dropped his weight and silently climbed off the end of the bed, pausing to check the closest bag for food. He grabbed the first thing he found, a large sweet potato, and then climbed out of the window and onto the roof.

Except where the roads cut through them, there were no gaps between buildings in this town. It made rooftop travel easy. Skye wandered along until he got to a quieter corner of town and then he sat down on the edge of the roof to eat.

Skye tried biting into the sweet potato, but his teeth just got stuck in the girthy, dense vegetable. Though his teeth were poorly designed for it, Skye could chomp his way through most fruits and vegetables, but all he could do was poke little holes in the sweet potato with his teeth.

Below him, a teenage girl with bright flowers blooming in her hair lingered in the doorway of an empty building. She was homeless. Skye didn’t spend much time interacting with the community anymore, now that he was old enough to look after himself, but he could tell that she was. People who had nowhere safe to go existed in space in a very different way from everyone else. They had to build their defences with their body language wherever they went, especially if they were small and vulnerable like this girl.

Skye kept gnashing at the sweet potato with his teeth, but all he succeeded in doing was breaking a few tiny pieces off. Maybe if he took it to Miriam, she would cook it for him, though she would probably try to use it as an opportunity to teach him to cook like she had last time and that was boring.

Maybe he should ask Miriam to give him a knife as payment for his next job. She was giving him some new shirts this time. Skye had always preferred running away over getting into a fight, but last night had made him realise that sometimes you could end up in a situation where you didn’t have much of a choice. Skye didn’t know what he would have done if the handsome man he’d decided to save on impulse hadn’t had a knife of his own or friends to back him up. Skye couldn’t fight a vampire with his bare hands and he’d gotten too close to get away again if he’d let that vampire loose.

Also, having a knife would make eating his sweet potato a lot easier.

Someone made their way down the alley towards the girl and, as he watched, Skye realised it was the man Duran had been sitting with in the inn earlier. There was something about him Skye didn’t like. Something about the way he looked at people.

He was looking at the girl that way now. When she stepped out towards him instead of shrinking away, Skye realised what she was doing.

Growing up, a lot of the other homeless kids around Skye had engaged in prostitution. He never had. He’d had sex on occasion, but there was no way he would be able to put up with someone doing that kind of thing without any regard for his enjoyment. Fortunately, he’d never needed to rely on such things. He just stole what he needed.

But not everyone was blessed with his physical advantages and people had to do what they had to do if they wanted to survive. When the man turned and started walking back the way he’d come, the girl went with him.

Skye followed along from the rooftop, careful of where his shadow fell. People didn’t usually look up, so Skye went unnoticed as he moved up above.. 

Skye was making a little progress with his sweet potato. Through sheer persistence, he was starting to break a few small pieces off. He would have snuck back into the room and swapped it for something better, but he was invested in stalking this man now.

When they reached the harbour, Skye had to drop down from the rooftop to continue following them. He kept himself near-weightless so that his footsteps would be silent and slunk along behind them. When they boarded a ship, Skye waited until they were below deck before slinking on board and dashing up the mast.

Maybe if he just put the sweet potato in Miriam’s oven and turned it on, the sweet potato would either cook or Miriam would step in and do it for him before he broke something. His jaw was starting to get tired from trying to eat this thing with teeth that weren’t designed for chewing. Maybe he could throw the sweet potato at a fisherman and then steal a fish while they were distracted.

A muffled scream came from below deck and then abruptly cut off. Skye sat frozen in place and listened, but no other sounds followed.

Skye tossed his sweet potato into the water and dropped down from the mast. He needed a knife.