Kestrel crushed the piece of candy in her mouth and ate it quickly, making crunching sounds. Then, she used a cloth to carefully clean her hands.
In the daylight seeping through the window, Kestrel lifted her clean hand and waved to Ren - this is the normal gesture for a beta to offer ntal grooming to an alpha.
"I’ll give you a ntal groom," Kestrel said. She saw a touch of fear in Ren’s eyes. There, the calm surface of a lake was broken, and his beautiful eyes shook noticeably.
Ren was sowhat anxious, but he finally leaned forward, letting his forehead get close to Kestrel’s hand.
It was at this mont, when they were very close, that Kestrel noticed Ren’s eyes were beautiful. Under the faint light, they had a layered clarity, like a yummy candy, crystal clear and especially sweet.
"Your eyes are beautiful," Kestrel smiled. When her soft hand covered Ren’s eyes, she felt his eyelashes flutter and brush her palm a few tis.
Kestrel suddenly rembered that this seed to be the first ti she officially gave a ntal groom to Ren. They hadn’t actually t many tis, yet she felt they knew each other well.
Kestrel rembered that she had entered Ren’s psychic landscape twice - the first ti they fought, which she basically bullied Ren. The second ti, to escape from Polluted Zone Five, she went deep into Ren’s psychic landscape, sealed his pain, and upset his incretion, which could also be seen as hurting him.
Thinking about it this way, Kestrel felt that she hadn’t left a very good impression on Ren.
"Is it too risky here?" Ren asked sowhat worriedly, but he knew that if he could get a proper ntal groom now, it would be very helpful for his recovery.
"Don’t worry, I’ll protect you," Kestrel told him.
Large tendrils confidently appeared from all directions, wrapping around both of them, blocking any emotional leakage from them.
Kestrel entered the familiar sea. The deep blue water warmly welcod her, with beams of moonlight shining to the sea floor, following her around. Kestrel did a flip in the water, with the tendrils spreading out behind her like seaweed.
Kestrel thought it was a really comfortable place. Cozy, spacious, relaxed, beautiful and gentle, capable of holding all of her.
The sea creature slowly erged from the depths of the sea.
In the deepest part of the seabed, that beautiful underwater garden had been trashed. It was full of damage and disorder, with large areas of unremovable black pollution - indicating that a powerful psychic attack had hurt Ren.
What upset Kestrel the most was that the mysterious palace she had only explored once had a corner missing and a few strong pillars collapsed due to the impact of the attack. Beautiful pearls and clamshells were tossed all over.
Then, giant tendrils surged from the seabed.
They were huge, strong, and full of drive, ready to work.
One of the tendrils slowly crawled over the pebbles on the seabed, propping up the broken red coral, replanting the uprooted seaweed. But it got distracted halfway and went chasing after a scared hermit crab.
A delicate process was unfolding in the depths of the ocean. The tendrils were unusually lively, each snaking their way through the dark expanses. So played with starfish, so gathered shells, so planted corals, while others were assigned the duty of tidying up. There was a noticeable lack of efficiency, as if they were more interested in playing than working.
Kestrel found herself in a palace, a place she had visited just once before. It was the most private and delicate part of Ren’s ntal world, a safe house for his mories and feelings. At this mont, his usual defenses were down, his regular guardian—the orca—absent.
Driven to do her best, Kestrel began to carefully sort the scattered pearls and repair the collapsed walls.
Marine life swam gleefully between her fingers. As Kestrel interacted with the glowing, shy creatures, she found herself becoming more playful. She was attracted to the vibrant, soft beings that would retreat when touched.
There were many beautiful shells on the seabed, and Kestrel found herself collecting one after the other, arranging them into delightful shapes. So shells released bubbles that floated towards the surface. The sight was srizing.
To her surprise, she saw her own face reflected in the bubbles.
...
By the ti Kestrel realized she had spent too much ti in the psychic landscape and retreated, Ren had fallen asleep. His face rested on the table, his breath gently caressing her wrist. He was calm and tranquil in sleep.
Kestrel knew that alphas were beings of high alertness, their senses heightened far beyond those of ordinary humans. The fact that Ren could sleep in this risky environnt was a testant to the comfort and relaxation her psychic grooming had provided.
Kestrel was pleased, as her diocre ability in psychic grooming had always been a worry. It was her biggest weakness amongst all her psychic subjects. Before this, few had appreciated her grooming.
Even at the East Shore outpost, where she got along well with Birdie, the fear in her eyes during her psychic grooming was evident.
"Yes, it’s very efficient," Birdie had said, scuffing the ground nervously, "A thousand tis better than beta pheromones. But it’s also terrifying. I always shake."
Kestrel remained silent, but the fear in their eyes only increased her anxiety. To spare them further discomfort, she always tried to finish the grooming process as quickly as possible.
But today was different. For the first ti, she had made an alpha feel comfortable.
Looking down at Ren, who was peacefully sleeping on the table, she felt a sense of accomplishnt.
In his waking hours, Ren looked robust again, like a sharp blade or a towering mountain. The light from the window softened his features, giving him a gentle look. The remnants of blood on his face made him look both vulnerable and handso at the sa ti.
A tendril weaved its way into Kestrel’s arms, showing off its newly sprouted, tender end.
"You’ve grown this much already? How did you do it?" Kestrel was surprised. She knew that psychic beings could heal each other’s wounds by bonding, but she didn’t think that a short touch with the orca could lead to such amazing growth.
When she was at the beta academy, teachers had talked about rare tis when psychic beings could heal each other a lot. But, these tis were hard to find because the psychic beings had to really know each other and work well together naturally.
Kestrel looked at Ren’s psychic incarnation. The orca was in a corner, being playfully thrown around by seven or eight tendrils. Its eyes were wet from being played with too roughly.
Kestrel quickly called the rowdy tendrils back.
The little orca looked at Kestrel, made a sad sound, and disappeared back into nothing.
With the lively tendrils finally agreeing to climb back onto the table, they helped watch over the sleeping Ren who had fought all night, both hurt and tired. They let him rest well, keeping him safe from any monsters in this world.
One of the tendrils was ssing around with a few colorful candies that Kestrel hadn’t eaten yet. It happily used its newborn end to try and pick up each pretty candy, holding it up in the light. Sotis, it would rember to gently touch the soft hair of the sleeping alpha.
It had grown back, its "beauty" was back, and it was confident again.
"How about that, I told you he’s the sweetest."
"Yeah! Sweetest!"
The tendrils repeated its words, and soon the jumbled voices in Kestrel’s mind ca together into one thought.
"The big fish is the sweetest."
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