Ezza looked up from where he was looking over the skull.

Zas had just cried out in pain again. He wasn’t usually this clumsy, but then again Zas wasn’t used to having to manually make a lead board either. After listening to a few more curses from Zas, Ezza got up and went to check on him.

“So, how’s it going?” He asked walking into Zas’s room. Zas pushed another pin into a point on the world map he gotten a hold of.

“Pretty good, except these little tacks are sharper than they look, and hard to control. I think I have them all now though.” Zas stepped back and looked at his board. He had been hitting chat rooms a lot before they left and he had stumbled into a group of people who were alien conspiracy enthusiasts, but they were amazingly accurate. It was uncanny, he had sent out letters giving a few facts about alien cultures, and had asked for information on boosting signals and getting off earth. Then they had left for Granite Falls, he had expected a message back but the response was overwhelming.

Zas looked over at his cork board. On it he had postcards from everywhere marked on his map: Lucky Palms, Moonlight Falls, Appaloosa Plains, Twinbrook, Champs-Les-Sims, Sunset Valley, Isla Paradiso, Barnacle Bay, Bridgeport, River View, Lunar Lakes, Midnight Hollow, Dragon Valley, and Little Haven. Funny thing about that though, there was no Little Haven on his map. Little Haven however, is where he had gotten the most information. It was puzzling.

“Well, I took another look at that skull you found, you’re right it’s not human. Unfortunately, my suit isn’t fully fixed so I can’t access my full database.” Ezza said, interrupting Zas’s train of thought.

“So, what kind of skull would it be?” Zas asked. He finally turned away from his map. Ezza looked at him and shrugged.

“Like I said I can’t tell you because our suits aren’t fully optimal. I also did a little digging into those spores I saw everywhere at Granite Falls.” Ezza said.

“And?” Zas prompted him.

“They’re memory spores.” Ezza said.

“They’re what?” Zas asked.

“Memory spores. Mates, did you want me to get you some?” Ezza asked teasingly.

“Funny.” Zas said.

“Look they’re so thick in that clearing, and that’s what worries me. It’s almost as if someone was trying to keep Nigel’s mind intact. Lydia mentioned a young man, maybe that’s who doing it.” Ezza said.

“There’s a lot of things that don’t make sense here. Where did the skull come from? Did Nigel do it? Why is there no Little Haven? Why is it always Summer? I’m confused, there’s just so many things.” Zas said, he had turned back to his map holding the postcard marked Little Haven. Where was it?

“I think we need-” Ezza started when he was cut off by Zas’s phone ringing. Zas answered it, indicating for Ezza to wait a moment. A smile spread across Zas’s face as he continued to talk. Once he hung up, he turned to Ezza.

“Break time! We’re going out tonight. We’ve been invited to a party at the Bluffs. We’ll take a break and come back to it, just like in the old days. Freshen our minds.” Zas said enthusiastically.

“Well, I think we should stay and puzzle it out. I mean until we know for sure what’s going on, we can’t keep running around like loose cannons.” Ezza said, looking at Zas.

“What is happening here? When did you become the worrywart and I became the Wondrous Wonder Boy?” Zas asked Ezza. “You know what? Doesn’t matter, we’re going tonight.”

Ezza sighed, he recognized the tone in Zas’s voice. He turned and went to get ready to go out to the Bluffs. Casting one last look back at Zas and his map, he went to his room.

 

The moon was out and there were only a few clouds in the sky. The ground was shaking with the power of the music coming from the top of the bluffs. Ezza sighed, parties were not his thing. Zas however was beaming.

“Come on!” Zas hollered over the music to Ezza. Then he took off jogging up the path, Ezza trudging slowly behind him. By the time Ezza made it to the party, Zas was already lost in the crowd of people dancing in front of the DJ booth; there was a small crowd around the mobile bar set, and a few couples were in the bushes. Man, I wish Dina was here. Ezza thought.

                                       

 

He could see Zas dancing up a storm with Luciano on the dance floor. Zas knew how to cut a rug that’s for sure, it wasn’t Ezza’s cup of tea. Wondering when this was going to be over, Ezza walked over to a bunch of plants near some rocks. The plants he noticed were glossy and thick with growth. Curious Ezza started poking around a bit more and found a pool of water they used as their water source.

Reaching his hand down into the water, and wishing he had brought a vial with him, Ezza swirled his fingers in it. The water moved sluggishly, as though it had more weight than normal water. Hmmm, that’s strange. As he swirled his fingers more while thinking, he found himself being refreshed. His tiredness was starting to melt away a little bit, also his hand didn’t feel as achy as it did earlier from clutching the skull as he examined it. Pulling his hand from the water, he noticed his skin had a healthy, almost gloss to it. Ezza examined the weighty water on his hand, glancing over his shoulder he could see all the party goers still going strong. So stripping down he dove into the water.

Almost instantly he felt peppier, and more energized than he had been. He felt like he could run days which was unusual even with his stamina and endurance training from the Academy. He also felt full, like he had just eaten a large meal. His vision had cleared a bit as if he had just woken instead of staring through microscopes at bone for hours. He also felt daring. Normally he was cautious, but now he felt like charging onto that dance floor and flinging himself around while screaming his head off at the top of his lungs. How odd. Ezza crawled out of the water and into the bushes, his need to charge head long into a throng of people and make a fool of himself disappeared, but everything else stayed the same. Dressing himself, he took off looking for Zas.

Zas turned around when someone clamped their hand on his shoulder. It was Ezza and he was looking good, way too good. Zas had to shake his head a bit, he almost found a strange attraction to his best friend and Pairing. Must be the juice, better cut back. Zas had followed Ezza to the edge of the party.

“What’s up?” He asked wiping sweat from his brow.

“I discovered water. I think we should leave for now, return when the party’s over and gather a sample.” Ezza said.

“No! You discovered it!? What have people here been drinking all this time?” Zas asked dramatically. “Hey! Everybody listen! My friend discovered water! You should be thankful!”

Ezza hissed and grabbed Zas’s arm. What did the idiot think he was doing?

“Yeah well, he should shower more then!” Came a shout from the dance floor followed by shrieks of laughter. Zas snickered a little and turned back to Ezza who was looking at him as if he was about to die. Zas could have cared less at this point, his attention was focused on Ezza’s lips. Funny how he’d never noticed them before, they were Ezza’s lips; the same ones he’d had all this time. But tonight they looked plump, and kissable, and Zas felt a need to glide his fingers across them and feel their softness, to be shortly followed his mouth, and tongue. He reached up and gently ran his fingertips over Ezza’s bottom lip. Ezza’s eyes closed as he felt the wonderful sensation of Zas’s fingers on his lips. He let out a small moan, which froze both men.

“What am I doing?” Zas asked. He realized his hand was on Ezza’s lips now he was caressing them, he pulled his hand back. “Uh, sorry?”

“Yeah, no. I mean that was slightly weird right?” Ezza shivered from the loss of Zas’s touch as he took a step away from his friend.

“Must’ve had too much juice. Sorry friend.” Zas said rubbing his head sheepishly. Even now the impulse to pull Ezza to his body and ravish his mouth was present. Well, this shouldn’t go in the report, Zas thought to himself. He took another step back from Ezza.

“Do that again.” Ezza commanded.

“Are you nuts? Look we’re best friends and that means I like you, but not that much. Go find Dina.” Zas said looking at the curve of Ezza’s throat, and the way his Adam’s apple moved when he talked.

“No idiot, I meant step back.” Ezza said. “The pull is lessening.”

“It is?” Zas didn’t think so. The tone of Ezza’s voice seemed to burrow into his ears and nest there. It wasn’t an unpleasant sensation.

“I think we should go home.” Ezza said.

“I agree. We should go home to bed. I mean sleep! To sleep, not together. Why would we do that? We’re friends, and have separate beds. Big roomy, comfy for two separate beds.” Zas said staring at Ezza.

“What is with you?” Ezza asked shaking his head. He grabbed a hold of Zas’s arm and began pulling him along behind him as he left the party.

 

Zas lay awake in his bed, his arm burned where Ezza’s hand had clutched it almost the whole way home. By now Ezza would be tucked into his bed, snuggled down under the covers in just his boxers….Mates! What am I thinking!? Zas rolled over now and tried to get some sleep, it was going to be a long night for him.

***************************

Up above, looking through his monitor at the two men, he sat back with his dessert pack and sighed. These two were a pain in his neck, an entertaining pain in his neck for sure, but still. Something had to be done, especially now that they were starting to get tangled in things they shouldn’t. Despite first impressions, he liked these two; especially after what they had done for him.

“I’ll help you out muffins, but it’s not going to be easy.” Especially if they were going to repeat tonight. It hadn’t been easy to keep the Hunter off their trail tonight, it had been dumb luck that one of them had found the  Breeding Pool. Can’t count on that every time though. Nope, he was going to have educate his little toys before it was too late.