The giant flying beast settled near the manor ruins with a gust of wind and a low screech. Elara descended first, then came the others.

Upon seeing them, Kai couldn't help but let out a short laugh.

'I didn't realise how weird these friends I made looked until now…'

Nadya hopped down next, her orange hair unkempt as always, followed by Sven with his windswept silver hair, Lenny with his hulking reptilian form, and Amina quietly peeking from behind them like a shadow.

"Hope we're not too late for dinner," Sven grinned, his eyes locking onto the boar meat crackling over the fire.

"Perfect timing," Kai said, waving them over with a smirk. "There's plenty of beast meat, more than we could hope to eat."

The group settled down in a circle, just like they had done many times before when camping in the wilderness. The fire crackled in the centre, casting warm orange light on their faces as they tucked in - Lenny tearing into meat with sharp teeth, Amina carefully picking off the burnt parts, and Nadya gnawing on a large leg bone. Sven took it upon himself to carve the meat like a gentleman before shoving the biggest piece into his own mouth.

It wasn't long before the stories began.

"So," Kai said, glancing at them, "what kind of trouble did you lot get into today?"

Sven raised a hand like a teacher's pet. "Actually? We were responsible, for once. We explored the city. Got some food. Saw the cathedral ruins. Pretty tame."

Kai blinked. Isaac raised an eyebrow. Takeshi, ever silent, simply tilted his head.

"You're telling me you spent the whole day sightseeing?" Isaac asked, unconvinced. "No fights? No chases? Nothing?!"

Nadya smiled, smug and calm. "For once, we actually stayed out of trouble, unlike you idiots."

"Yup. No blood. No fires. No explosions," Sven said proudly, then added with a wink, "Shocking, I know."

"…That's not the whole story," Lenny muttered, licking grease off his clawed fingers.

He immediately received glares from Sven and Nadya, but the cat was already out of the bag, and they were bound to find out anyway. They just wanted to take the moral high ground for once, but that didn't last long.

Kai squinted. "Knew it."

Lenny scratched his scaled chin awkwardly. "Alright, so… most of the day was chill like they said. But toward the end... things got a little crazy."

Amina leaned forward nervously. "It wasn't Lenny's fault."

"Yeah," Lenny grunted. "Some jackasses in the market started mouthing off about how I looked. Called me a lizard freak. Usual stuff. I ignored them."

"Okay... And?" Kai gave him a half-smirk.

"I've learned to let it go," Lenny grumbled. "Mostly."

"But Amina didn't," Nadya said, smiling slightly. "She snapped."

Amina's face turned red. "I just… didn't like the way they were talking about him."

Sven chuckled. "She lit them up with words. Called one of them a toad-faced barnacle or something."

"I said he looked like a fungus that hadn't evolved past its mould phase," Amina muttered, looking down.

'What a lame insult. If someone said that to me, I'd just laugh,' Kai thought.

"And that's when the guy tried to hit her," Nadya added. "Big mistake."

Kai narrowed his eyes. "You didn't step in?"

"Didn't get the chance."

Lenny sighed. "I acted on instinct. Swatted the guy with the back of my hand. I swear I went easy on him."

Isaac leaned forward, grinning. "Define 'easy.'"

"He flew," Sven said. "Like, launched."

"Would've splattered on the wall," Lenny groaned, "but then Sven zoomed in and caught him mid-air."

"...And then I dropped him anyway," Sven added cheerfully, "and stepped on his head. Not hard. Just to make a point."

Kai shook his head. "Of course you did."

"And then," Nadya said dryly, "all hell broke loose."

"Mutants. Civilians. Cops. Some mutant authority guys showed up," Sven counted off on his fingers. "And suddenly it turned into a giant game of hide-and-seek through the city."

"I'm not good at hiding," Lenny muttered.

"You're built like a walking boulder," Isaac said.

"We tried to avoid casualties," Nadya added. "No deaths. A few broken bones. That's it."

"Then we made it back to Elara's lab," Sven finished with a stretch, "where she gave us the biggest lecture of our lives."

"I didn't want to bring them out here after that," Elara muttered from the side. "But would they listen? No. So they came along to this damned manor."

Everyone burst out laughing.

Kai glanced around the fire. They looked like a mess - a patchwork group of mutants, survivors, and weirdos. But this chaos? This warmth?

He didn't hate it.

Then Isaac raised his hand, licking a bone clean. "Alright, since we're all confessing... Let me tell you what happened on our end."

"Oh, boy," Lenny said.

After describing how they got here, Isaac jabbed a thumb at the massive beast lounging behind Iancu. "That demon mutt chased me all over the valley. I couldn't phase away. I'd pop out and boom - there it was. Snarling, biting, chewing on my hopes and dreams."

The dog-beast lifted its head, growled low, and narrowed its glowing eyes at Isaac like it understood exactly what he said.

"See?!" Isaac pointed, backing up slightly. "It knows. That thing wants my soul."

Iancu chuckled, stroking the beast like a proud parent. "He only chases those who smell like fear."

Isaac threw up his hands. "Then we've got a problem, because I reek of it."

Another round of laughter followed, and as the fire crackled louder, Kai leaned back, arms folded behind his head. Above them, the stars blinked silently. Around them, the forest held its breath. And for the first time in a long while…

Everything just felt right.

Then Iancu suddenly stood, brushing his coat. "Ah, almost forgot - I've got something for you all."

Without another word, the pale man skipped into the manor and returned moments later with a dusty crate of old wine bottles, their labels long faded and bottles covered in age.

"Wine... probably," he grinned.

Sven and Nadya's eyes lit up instantly.

"Oh, this is cursed," Nadya whispered, already popping open a bottle.

"It smells like vinegar and rot," Sven gagged... then downed it anyway.

"Perfect," she followed, both of them swaying after a single gulp.

"You two are nuts," Isaac muttered.

"Beautifully so," Iancu added.

Kai just chuckled, watching them stumble around like drunk children. But as everyone joked and passed the bottles, his smile faded again.

He had things to do.

Plans to set in motion.

And as the others drank and slowly dozed off under the stars, Kai stayed seated by the fire, silent, thinking.

Because peace felt like a lie.

And it never lasted long...

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