"Do we actually need to get snippers from that island?" Darter waded with caution. They and Aster were up well past their knees in silver water, with the sun burning bright on both their faces, trying to clean Aster's face of its smug expression and Darter's of its pensive nervousness. It failed to do either.

Aster, with even more force to each step than on land, straddled the bridge, always a step off on either side from deeper waters, a collapsing pit of sand, or an inconveniently placed irate snipper. Every now on then, when they did hit a snipper, and the snipper hit back, they only tensed their face and continued. "Well, we have at least two days worth of berries, and Elytron said that they'd let us cook the lyndwa they found yesterday," Aster said. "And all of that sounds awful!"

"Thanks, Aster," Darter said. "I'm glad I collected it all."

"It was a good try," Aster said, sympathetically. "And we will eat it. But I want to get some meat! Real meat! I don't know why you have such a problem with it."

"I don't have the problem. Whoever lives there is going to have the problem," Darter said. "I've been there. They're not friendly."
Aster rolled their eyes. "It's a huge island. I'm sure they get intruders all the time."

"Never."

"Never?"

"And they guard themselves with bones. Predator bones," Darter warned.

"Awesome."

"Not when they're in your back," Darter said.

"I'll just knock them blind," Aster bragged, removing their shirt and tucking it at their side. "I was going to use this to hold fish or snippers anyways." They snagged the shirt on the end of their snipper poker and began twirling it around like a white flag. Darter hesitated in the shallows.

"You said we could go wherever I wanted, because it's been a whole shift since we started living together."
Darter relented and returned to trudging, slowly, through the waters. "I don't know how you convinced me to go wherever you wanted to commemorate me taking you away from the Covena."

"Because your present is me!" Aster smiled big, exposing those still half-hearted fangs, which were, if anything, being worn down from trying to gnaw through snipper shells rather than built up like Aster had hoped. "No, and a bunch of snippers, too. We're going to eat so well, and maybe we can give a little to Elytron, too, if they behave. It'll be a big old festival to celebrate how great we are at fending for ourselves!"

"It hasn't been difficult," Darter mumbled. "But we're going to make it difficult, if we go steal someone's snippers. You have to be careful about who you make angry."

Aster snorted. "You're the one who almost drowned me yesterday so we could get to a tiny cove that just had kinshii eggs on it."
"Those eggs were good," Darter said. "You said you liked the eggs."
"I did like the eggs," Aster said, slowly. "I also liked almost being pecked in the face and then eating wet eggs almost raw on the shore! Not! Maybe next time we should go eat something that doesn't have parents that could kill us. Do you think we could find pokkabol?"

"Absolutely not," Darter said. "There's almost no pokka in the entire Big Silver. Everyone kept eating them, and now they're gone."

"The Siida have pokkabol. We could probably steal a few," Aster said. "I mean, ask nicely for a few."

"I'd steal pokka," Darter said. "Would you steal them? From under Cyspel?"
"Maybe there's another Siida Covena around here somewhere," Aster mumbled, "Filled with less scary Siida, who I don't care about."
Darter shook their head. They were close now, so that only their feet were covered. The island was even larger than it had looked at a distance, where it had already loomed over the neighboring islands. It carved upwards to something that almost but didn't quite resemble a mountain, in part because it wasn't that large and in part because mountains had a kind of natural gravitas. The island was intimidating, but it was intimidating in a way that had been planned. Someone had lovingly constructed it for some purpose, and sprinkled it with trees almost as a cover-up. It had to have been around a long time, because Aster could see huge coral structures on the banks, crawling with snippers, but they found their mind buzzing with the mere idea of someone making something this big.

Maybe it just looked perfect, and they were stressing over nothing. No panta, at least no pre-metamorphosis panta, which were the only panta on the planet, could make something like this. It was likely a holdout from before, a bunch of young panta sheltering in the shell of the scarier adults. Aster needed no such doting from the past. They walked ashore on their own feet, protected by nothing, and put their stick in the nearest structure. "Come on, Darter."

Darter hid themselves around the side, occasionally sneaking glances to Aster. Aster sensed movement and with a quick jolt, managed to drag a snipper out of its hole. They took out a rock and bashed it once, cleanly ending any thoughts the snipper might have had of letting go or moving (or any thoughts at all, ever again).

"Keep up."

Darter looked at Aster again. They halfheartedly pulled a single snipper up by the time Aster had four broken bodies lodged in what used to be their shirt. "Doesn't it feel like stealing to you? There's something awful on the air, and it reeks."

Aster sniffed the air. It had never smelled better. It had to be the trees. Whoever lived here, they had taken the grinte's share of the whole Big Silver, that was for sure. "Whose is this, anyways?"
"It's..." Darter paused. Something tried to grab their stick, which was dropped into the structure. It proceeded to break it in two, leaving them without a weapon. They didn't seem to notice. "Aster, this is the Koda pack."

Aster laughed. "That's what you were afraid of?"

"You're laughing?" Darter seemed distressed.

"The Siida have no problem with the Koda, Darter. Once one of them came into our territory and I thumped 'em myself. Cyspel used to scare them off or dazzle them themself, and then they all knew that if they tried anything, now, if they tried anything-- the whole planet'd be down on them like that," Aster clicked their fingers. "They'd have to be pretty stupid to attack us, when they know that the whole planet would wipe them off the face of Big Silver--"

"They might," growled a deep voice, "If the Siida were here to protect you, or if they even cared about if their deserters lived. But they don't, do they?"

Every hair on Aster's neck stood on end. The stranger swung forwards just as a pike descended on the coral, leaving a long, crumpled streak as snippers began to flee in every direction. In the chaos, Aster dodged another swing of the pike by hopping over the coral. As they used their own momentum to vault to the other side, they brandished their stick. It had nothing on the biting metal their opponent had, and to Aster's eyes, the red sheen of rust coating the stranger's dented, dull blade only made it look more threatening. The stranger said, "You don't scare me with that. I know you're a novice, probably one who takes hits but doesn't give them. I can see the scars, but not the horns."

Aster growled, "You don't know me. What are you, anyways, the pet Owai?"

"I'm a scout," complained the stranger. "And the beach guard."

"Well, you're doing a bad job. Darter, the snippers!"

Darter clutched the snippers and began running back out into the surf. The Koda scout, which was a panta around Aster's size, twitched the nubs of what appeared to be flexible, fleshy horns. Their white hair shone gloriously in the sunlight, and a shield adorned their front, actual metal armor covering their chest. As they ran forwards, Aster dodged to the side. They noted an unprotected back and sprung towards them. They landed a sloppy kick on the small of their back, which sent the stranger sprawling into the sand, their pike stretched out in front of them.

"I'll call for help! Don't think I won't," they yelled, and Darter, tactfully moving the pike from their side, lifted them up and headbutted them back into the sand.

Aster scrambled over, gaping as they stared down at the stranger, who was now dead still in the sand. "You didn't-- you didn't kill them, did you?"

Darter shook their head. "We need to go home before they send more. We'll have to take a long route home so they don't find us, and sooner or later they probably will, because they're close," Darter explained. "When that time comes, we'll probably have to stand our ground, but if we were going to stay on the island, we would have had to fight them eventually. They like to keep everyone on the move."

"How do you know all this?" Aster asked.

Darter shrugged.

Aster looked down at the stranger. They still weren't moving, and the water on the banks kept lapping and receding, Aster's heart rising each time it lapped at their pale skin. "We should take them home," whispered Aster. "And fry 'em up. Look. They look just like a pokka."

Darter's face twisted. "Aster."
"I'm serious! Look at the big plates on their face," Aster prodded them with their stick. "They're probably a big baby who doesn't do anything but get protected by older members, right? I can't believe we were afraid of them--" Aster's gaze shifted. "I get it. No jokes. We should, um, we should... we should go bring our stuff back. Long way. Then, when we get home, we can eat all the snippers I caught and pretend nothing ever happened, right?"

Darter waded into the water. Aster collected their stick and wound the snipper bag-shirt around it. They followed Darter back into the open lake. The way back was significantly heavier than the way over, punctuated with fierce stomping and a feeling of dampness around Aster's ankles, as if the water was trying to get them and drag them down. Aster found themself stomping deliberately to cover the silence, and Darter would occasionally look back, which marked the only eye contact the two shared for most of the hike. Darter cut a long path around Big Silver, a path arching around even more small islands Aster had never seen before curving back towards familiar land. Aster took in each shoreline until they blurred together. Some of the shorelines carried their own scent of panta, in the distance, muskier than the stench of river water. Other panta were positively floral. Was there really so much diversity on these islands? How many of the islands contained little groups, like Aster and Darter, and could they become allies instead of strangers, if asked?
Were they in danger too?
Darter finally limped ashore.

"You were right," Aster said. "I was being stupid. Is that what you wanted to hear? Can you forgive me now?"

Darter said, "I don't want you to say it because you want me to forgive you. I just want you to say it because you mean it."

"I mean it, I just..." Aster mumbled, "I don't want you to be mad at me."

Darter closed their eyes.

"Tell me next time, if something's going to be bad."
"I didn't think you would listen--"
"I will," promised Aster. "I'll try harder."
Darter turned. Aster flinched as they approached, but Darter wrapped their arms tight around them, and Aster leaned in.

"We can hug?" Aster asked.

"We are hugging," Darter said. "Right now."
Aster leaned in even harder, trying to squeeze Darter so tight they would burst. Darter did no such thing, but when Aster heard their rumbling laugh, they knew they had done a good job. Aster even attempted to lift Darter up, which was even less successful than squeezing the life out of them. They at last backed up, flashing a smile, and said, "We should at least get to eat our snippers."
Darter nodded. Since they were the one who knew how to spark fire, Aster gathered the sticks while Darter looked for the right kind of rocks. When the pair of them were assembled around the fire, they ended up with a fairly legitimate set-up, which reminded Aster of their time back at the Siida Covena. There was something comforting about the dance of the flames, contained in their little pit, licking the dark bones of the sticks they had been offered. It was like they had built a small sun, and were now harnessing it for their own ends. Aster imagined this must be what power really felt like. Their gut wrenched up slightly, thinking about the stranger on the banks. They had smelled like the smoke that now rose from the fire, if mixed with this awful, briny scent that had to come from their armor. Why would anyone ever smell like smoke? Would you have to walk through fire to get the smell on you?
"Don't think so hard," Darter said. "It's just going to get you down."
"You don't know I'm thinking," Aster said, drawing their impaled snipper back away from the flames. It was charred in several places, and if anything the shell was now even harder to pierce, but Aster was not a perfectionist.

"Sometimes I can't believe you are," Darter's eyes danced with playful flame. "You know I'm kidding."

Aster sniffed distastefully. "We should put this out soon. It's going to be dangerous to local wildlife."

"Are you afraid of fire?"

"Not afraid of nothing."

Darter sighed. "That means you are afraid of something."

"Nuh-uh."
"Aster."

"Nuh-uh."

Darter cast them a look.

Aster gathered up the remaining snippers. They would spoil within days, as punishment to whatever foolish panta would dare disturb the sweet reserves of their meat, but they would be worth a good morningmeal before then. Even then, they had an excessive amount of snipper meat left over, spoils of what Aster personally considered all their work. "I've got something to do," Aster said, wrapping up the remains. "You handle the fire."

"Of course." Darter rose.

Aster nodded and dashed inside. As they descended, their hands on the walls, they found themselves stepping on something scaled. Elytron hissed, and Aster jumped back off their tail. "Sorry! I just wanted to bring you... some food. Because you're part of our family now," Aster said, placing a snipper on the ground. They nudged it with a foot towards Elytron, whose gleaming eyes stared blankly up at Aster, the only thing obvious in the otherwise impenetrable gloom.

There was a crunching noise as Elytron pierced the shell with their teeth, followed by a sickeningly long sucking noise. At last, the darkness responded, "It's good."

"It better be," Aster said. "It took a lot of work to get it."
"Almost as good as the lyndwa I ate earlier," Elytron mused as they sucked out the snipper's guts with their tongue, which was surprisingly neat but still involved an ugly, distressing slurping noise the entire time. "Good things are right here. They don't need work. Just patience."

Aster stamped their foot. They had expected Elytron would be completely incapable of understanding what had gone into the small snack, and clearly they were right about it. "Maybe if you don't want that much."
"What is wanting more going to get you?"
Aster stared down. "Stronger."

Darter was smiling when they ascended, their face cast in the light of a dozen moons. Aster nodded back and situated themself in what had become their mutual bed, which was beginning to feel uncomfortable on their back. There was something about the way the feathers poked out that Aster fundamentally disliked, because there was no way to punish the feathers. They couldn't be kicked into obedience, and it would look stupid to even try in front of Darter. Aster sighed, readjusting themself in the bed, but as they tried to drift off, they kept imagining the stranger and their rusted pole, menacingly pointed straight for Aster's heart, threatening to tear them right down the middle.

Aster shifted. They shifted again.

It was their head that was bothering them so much. There was nothing there to protect Aster, aside from their useless coppery hair.