Out of the trees, a tall, broad-shouldered man stepped onto the beach. His hair looked to be the same unruly length as when he had been a boy but pinned back in a braid or two behind his head. Instead of leather, he wore clothes of woven plant fibers.

Despite being within two hundred years old, it seemed that Fangarus had taken to life in the wilderness as extensively as Tavras. Of course, he only looked around twenty-five, the prime of his life in which he had ceased aging.

“Hello Uncle,” Fangarus said as he approached. “Who is that with you?”

“I am looking after this young demigod.” Tavras gestured to her with an open arm. “His name is Valentine.”

Her name sounded weird, pronounced in the masculine way. She bowed and said in a voice lower than normal, “It is an honor to meet you, Fangarus.”

A short laugh later, he said, “I wonder where you get that formality from. Certainly, you did not pick it up from Tavras. Just call me Fang.”

It was a relief that she could let her lame attempt at etiquette fall away. “Yeah, sure thing,” she said with a smile. “You can call me Val.”

“It is nice to meet you.” Fang grinned back to her, though his smile fell away quickly. Nodding upward to Foofy, he asked, “Is that your dog?”

“Yes. His name is Foofy!” She tried having her voice make up for the enthusiasm which Fang seemed to lack.

“Do you think that’s cute?” Fang only narrowed his eyes and frowned all the more.

“Uh, yes?” Val had always thought that Foofy’s name was cute. She never had any desire to teach him a new one ever since she had rescued him from the animal shelter.

Fang responded with a shake of his head and turned his back on her. “Well, it's not. It is cruel—" He cut himself short with a shake of his head. "Never mind.” His demeanor lightened as he invited them into the forest with a welcoming wave of his arm.

Here, Fang led them somewhere and made conversation along the way. Addressing Tavras, he asked, “So, did you come all of this way just to introduce us?”

“That is only part of the reason,” Tavras said. “I am also interested in hiring Iharu for her services.”

“For the dog?”

“Yes, for the dog.”

A long pause held between them. Only their footsteps sounded over the fallen leaves on the forest floor.

“I will call her.” Fang closed his eyes for a moment, and then flitted his attention back to Val. “A warning about Iharu: she can be a little intense sometimes, but don’t worry. At least she doesn’t bite anymore.”

In the distance of the forest, there was a rumbling squeal. It sounded something like a boar, but much louder and deeper as the animal boomed in its moans. The only thing that reminded her of a wild boar, only larger and scarier than one, was a behemoth.

Her steps plodded on in dread as they continued. Behemoths inhabited this island, after all.

A quiet rustling of leaves sounded behind them, and Foofy took up a deep growl at once. Val spun around to see another human with a hulking creature at her heels. How they had even managed to sneak up on them, Val had no idea.

By her wild appearance, the woman must be Iharu. Her hair bundled into freeform locs. At some point while Fang and Iharu were growing up together, he must have given up on teaching her to comb her hair. According to her appearance, Iharu considered hair brushing to be optional. She wore leather clothes designed in a revealing manner, showing off her mature and muscled body. The monstrous animal that she had at her heels was a behemoth.

Foofy barked and growled in the face of the behemoth.

“It seems that your pet does not like mine,” Iharu said. The cadence of her voice clipped over her disjointed words. “He should know his place.”

“Foofy, off,” Val whispered, hardly daring to move her lips. Keep the Peace flowed out from her to both Foofy and the behemoth, though she had no idea if she could have any effect on it. She dared not touch Iharu for fear that she would recognize the exertion of influence over her and become angry with that.

“Fang, Uncle, who is this stranger that is on our Preserve?”

“Tavras has taken in another demigod,” Fang said hastily. His hand gestured to introduce Val. “Iharu, this is Valentine. He goes by Val.”

Iharu’s face twisted into a deep frown. Her weight shifted as she placed both hands on her hips, scantily clad by her short, leather skirt. “Why do you introduce a woman to me as a man?”

“A woman…?” Fang leaned closer to Val and observed him with narrowed eyes. “Maybe, but he introduced himself to us as a man, so we should respect his identity.”

“N-No,” Val said, abandoning her faux deep voice. While Fang's liberal acceptance of her at any gender was a kind gesture, she really did consider herself to be definitively and absolutely female. Plus, it was a horrible sign if her guise as a man could be seen through this easily. “I am a woman.”

“That is disgusting,” Iharu said with a rather gross snort herself. “As women, we are stronger than men. Why do you not want to be a woman, but a man instead?” Her voice rose with anger, making Val shrink back.

Before she could even open her mouth and blame Tavras, Fang spoke up.

“Uh, Iharu, I’m all for feminism as much as the next guy, but what you just said is objectively false. Men tend to be stronger than women in the human species—”

“Shut it, Fang! You’re just upset that you are a weak, sorry excuse for a human being. Maybe if you ate meat, you would be stronger.” Iharu had drawn a knife and circled it around the Adam’s apple of Fang’s neck.

In response, he only rolled his eyes.

With a huff, Iharu pulled the knife away from Fang and directed it at Val’s throat instead. “Now, you. Explain yourself!”

Unlike Fang, Val did not accept the knife point leveled at her neck quite so casually. With eyes drawing large, Val tried to lean as far away as she could. Her heart thumped away in her chest.

What should she say to discharge this situation? Val found her tongue caught up in her throat, uncertain about the best way to reason with Iharu, the She-Wolf.