Page 96 of Hummingbird and Kraken

Declan nodded, even though she couldn’t see. “I’m working on it! We’re going to a party tonight, though. With our neighbors. They’re…” He looked to Geir for confirmation. Geir nodded because she already knew. “They’re shifters. And Geir and I rescued some of their kids a few days ago so now we’re heroes.”

Geir groaned. Vigdis was never going to let him live this down.

“Oh, my brother is a hero, is he? I’m sure you were both very brave.”

Declan shuddered. “It was terrifying. I thought I was going to die.” He laughed as he said it, though.

Geir gripped him tighter. He’d thought Declan was going to die, too, and he still wasn’t over it.

“Tell me all about it,” Vigdis gushed.

It sounded like this was going to take a while, so Geir laid down on the couch, pulling Declan on top of him. All the fear from that night was transformed into humor and exaggeration as Declan retold the story, getting Vigdis to gasp and laugh at all the best parts.

Geir let the words drift over him, soaking Declan in with all of his senses and listening to a voice he hadn’t heard in so long.

He missed Vigdis, he realized. He’d forgotten how funny and animated she was. “When are you coming?” he asked.

Declan gave him a crazy look and the phone was silent.

“Did I interrupt?”

Declan nodded, still looking surprised.

“Did he just ask me to visit?” Vigdis asked. She shouldn’t have sounded that shocked.

“Yep!” Declan grinned like he’d won some sort of prize. “I told you I’m a hero.”

Geir snorted.

“Oh, I agree.” Vigdis was going to be insufferable. “I guess I’ll just have to come see for myself. What are you doing in three weeks?”

“Showing you the lake. Oh, and the farm. And May. You have to meet May. And Ro. You’ll love him. And maybe we can all go swimming together. I mean… we’ll all wear clothes. I’ll wear clothes?”

“You will wear clothes,” Geir said sternly. “Just like May.”

Declan threw his head back in laughter, then launched into a story about a certain four-year-old.

Geir just snorted. Declan could be just as ornery as May, sometimes, and he found it adorable.

Now that the important things were settled, he let himself drift to the carefree voice of his love and his sister as they made increasingly elaborate plans.

If this couch was his cave, maybe it could have occasional visitors.

* * *

Shapes moved in front of the fire and laughter filled the air.

Geir stood in the shadows, watching the party unfold before him. The last time he’d celebrated the full moon with the tribe, it had been a very different event, lasting hours. It had been joyous, but also solemn. Dancing, he’d learned, was serious business, a form of prayer. The drum was the heartbeat of Mother Earth.

This evening there had been a much shorter ceremony. Dancers in full regalia moved clockwise around the fire, following the same traditional steps, to the sounds of hammered drums.

Geir, too, carefully walked only clockwise, remembering just in time to explain to Declan. It made all of their actions, like picking up a plate of food, part of the greater dance. He’d forgotten how much he enjoyed being part of something like this, where his own deep sense of the earth was enacted so visibly.

After that short display, though, the People were dancing to modern music on a sound system, a few frolicking around the edges in their shifted forms.

There were still mountains of food, traditional dishes interspersed with bags of chips and hamburgers. He’d tried to slip away with just a few bites of the fish and corn stew that he remembered enjoying decades ago, but the shifters had piled his plate high.

His belly full, he’d found a place to lean against a tree and observe.