James couldn’t believe how fast time could pass, it had already been a year but it felt like just yesterday he was in Fanggook, farming rice with his adoptive father. Looking back on it, he still wasn’t sure if he regretted leaving, he had made actual friends here and even met his real father... who he hadn’t seen for months.

Danh still didn’t know who he was to James, but as he thought of it, did it really matter? He wasn’t there for him in the first place so he didn’t need to know of their relation, it would put him at more risk of being discovered by Queen Ambrosia.

For now he was satisfied with eating food with his best friends, Bright Mac and Burnt Oak, the latter having Odonata next to him. Bright Mac on the other hoof had a very pretty mare with a pale gamboge coat and an orange mane, her eyes were a brilliant shade of turquoise.

She was Bright Mac’s wife, Pear Butter, or Buttercup as everyone called her. Well James personally called her ‘Unnie’, meaning older sister in Fangrean.

She in return called him bumblebee, since he had a bad habit of buzzing when excited.

“You would not believe just how hard it was to get here, Granny Smith said she’d rather cut her right leg off than let me come out here. Even when I told her I’m just here as a nurse,” she giggled before pecking Bright Mac’s cheek, “thankfully she was more than willing to watch little Big Macintosh.”

James honestly adored her, she was so sweet and always had such a positive attitude. It was no wonder why Bright had fallen head over hooves in love in her so fast, he even envied it sometimes.

Woah! Where did that thought come from?

“You okay there James?” Pear asked with a concerned look.

He nodded, “yeah I’m fine, just blanked out for a bit.”

Odonata smiled at him before asking, “what did you order James?” Thank the Gods he was able to eat meat without the chance of getting strange looks from his fellow soldiers.

If you’re wondering why that’s the case, it was because he was now able to roam around without his disguise, which was relaxing due to how hard it was for him to hold that form everyday. He still used the name ‘James Bridge’ due to how comfortable he was with it, he loved being called James, it suited him.

“I ordered bún riêu,” he answered as he took a bite of it, savoring the sour flavor of the dish.

“Ooh! That has crab in it, right?” Odonata said as he leaned over, being given a small piece to have.

James nodded, “mhm, what did you get?” Odonata looked disappointed as he looked at what he ordered, “now I wish I got the same thing as you, it’s good but still!” He whined.

He managed to see what was on Odonata’s plate, he recognized it as gỏi cuốn, spring rolls basically. “Don’t be sad about it, oppa,” he teased, using the Fangrean term for ‘older brother’.

“Don’t you call me that you little weirdo,” Odonata grumbled as he took a bite out of one of his spring rolls. “I’m actually trying to be healthy, for personal reasons.”

Burnt Oak chucked deeply, “darlin’ you’re already beautiful, I don’t know what you’re going on about.” His lover pouted his lip at him, saying, “reasons, Oakie, reasons!”

Pear giggled as she watched this exchange, then turned to ask James, “what was basic training like for you guys? I heard that you were one of best in your unit.”

The Changeling blushed as he mumbled, “it was nothing really...”

“Ain’t nothing? Heck James, the first day of basic training you could barely do a push up. Now you can keep up with the General, that’s an accomplishment in itself!” Bright Mac exclaimed.

James rolled his eyes, “but I think he sees me more as an advisor than a soldier, just yesterday he asked me if calling Changelings ‘bug-like’ is offensive.”

“Hey now that I think about it, whatever happened to those stallions who offered those rifles to the Mistress?” Odonata suddenly remembered, tapping his chin.

James snorted, “they got chewed out by the DI, I heard he even forced them to get them back the day he found out. All that for a night with Danh, who I honestly haven’t seen in awhile.”

Odonata waved him off, “he’s fine, I’m sure of it. Ever since I quit working at Shangri-La, I haven’t been seeing him... I think he was jealous of the fact I was able to leave, thanks to this one over here,” he poked Burnt’s cheek, who blushed with a soft smile.

Then he frowned, thinking of something else, “though it is a shame that I haven’t been able to see my family in awhile.”

“Why’s that?” Pear questioned before she sipped some of her sugarcane juice. “Turns out, my father wasn’t too pleased to learn I was working as a prostitute, even though I quit months ago! He basically told me ‘if your mother knew of this, she would have me disown you immediately!’” He changed the tone of his voice to sound high pitched and whiny as he mocked his fathers words.

She then suggested, “I’m sure he’s just concerned, you should try to reach out again. Does he know about you and Burnt Oak?” Odonata bit his cheek, not really wanting to answer the question.

“He doesn’t know?” Bright Mac realized, “he’s gonna find out at some point, wouldn’t you rather tell him yourself than let him find out later?”

Odonata shrugged, setting his spring roll down as he mumbled, “I think I lost my appetite.”

Burnt Oak kissed the top of his head as he said, “I think we’ll head out now, it was good seeing ya Buttercup.” He lead Odonata away, who looked a little sick on their way out.

“Is he alright, bumblebee?” Pear whispered to James, who shrugged, “I don’t know unnie.”

James was sent on an errand by the General himself, further proving the fact he was just an ‘advisor’ at this point. He was sent to go to the first Vietrot village that they ever visited, it was rather peaceful when he first went there, so he hoped it would be the same now.

The fields were still beautifully green, it made him long for the old days when he was still in Fanggook. But he didn’t have much time to think about that, he had to make it to the Elders of the village to deliver this message.

After what felt like maybe thirty minutes, he made it to the small village. He saw young nymphs running through the fields, playing with the cattle that were walking through the rice plants and screaming bloody murder.

James didn’t know if that made him want to have children or not, but when he saw one of their fathers shouting for them to quiet down, he laughed to himself. Maybe it would be worth it in the future, but he didn’t have to think of that now.

“Ah, James!” An elderly male greeted in Thaydonese, startling James out of his thoughts.

Fortunately, over the year James had managed to pick up Thaydonese.

“Oh, hello Silverfish!” James greeted back with a kind smile. Then he pulled a letter out of his saddlebag, “the General wanted me to deliver this to you, I haven’t read it myself.”

The Elder took it and skimmed it, making the comment of, “his Thaydonese is terrible but he’s trying,” James snickered at this, “from what I can gather from this is that he wants us to evacuate the village.”

“Huh, why?”

“Apparently he’s worried that Chrysalis’s army might come our way, so he’s offering us a place to stay in Flygon...” the elderly Changeling didn’t look happy as he explained this.

James tilted his head, “isn’t that a good thing, you’ll be protected there?”

“But I’m not going to have much luck convincing everyone here to go, we would rather die on our land than abandon it.”

“But you won’t be abandoning it, see it as a vacation from working!” James protested.

“Look how about this, I’ll speak with the other Elders and see what they want to do about this. I can’t speak for them, but I’m just warning you that it might just be our final decision to simply stay here.”

James could only nod in understanding, saying, “thank you for your time, Silverfish.”

As he walked away from the Elder, he grumbled to himself, “well that was a waste of time...” he walked down a path to leave, deciding that once he got back to Flygon he was going to order himself a bánh da lợn as a reward for this useless trip.

He yelped suddenly as he was tripped, when he hit the ground he heard a high pitched voice that certainly didn’t belong to a Changeling, and wasn’t speaking any language that he recognized, “¡Hola desconocido! Creo que eres muy guapo, ¿eres una modelo famosa?”

He slowly turned his head to see a tiny filly with a pale green coat, big teal eyes, and a long raven-black mane. She looked about five, which was obvious when she gave him a toothy grin to reveal a missing tooth.

He couldn’t respond with anything else but a, “wh-what are you?!” She giggled as she answered in her language, “¡Mi nombre es Liliana Rivera y me gustas!”

Author's Note

Time to bring in a big character wooo