Benjamin hoisted another shovel full of dirt into the waiting mine cart. It was dirty work, mining, and he hated dirty work. Rubbing at the cuff of his grime smeared dress shirt, he sighed. He'd spent two hundred dollars on this shirt and now it was ruined.

"I think I hear Walof," gNeiss's soft voice whispered in his ear.

Benjamin turned in time to see Walof round the corner with an empty cart.

"Another one?" Benjamin demanded. "We're not even done this one."

There was grumbling down the line, and a few curse words that peaked Benjamin's interest. He'd never heard a lot of swearing on this world before, but his experience in the mines had been colourful. He would have to write them down before he forgot.

If Walof noticed the discontent, he didn't care.

"She wants them both by sundown," he said.

"When's sundown?" Benjamin asked.

"Two hours," the lean aig replied.

Benjamin used a word from his own world.

"How are we supposed to get this done in two hours?" he demanded.

Walof shrugged. "Your problem, not mine.

As he turned to leave, he lifted two fingers to navel. So quick it would have been hard to spot if Benjamin hadn't been looking for it. Benjamin tapped his own fingers to navel, careful to keep his back to the work crew.

When Walof had retreated, one man spat in the dirt where the aig had been.

"That to him," he said.

"Yeah," Benjamin agreed. "That to him."

He didn't try spitting. It really wasn't his thing. Approaching the empty cart, he placed his hands on the edge and peeked inside.

"This cart might actually be bigger than the last," he complained, his fingers busy searching the rim.

One man snorted in response to his words, but no one noticed his scrabbling.

'Quickly, quickly,' he thought to himself.

He was beginning to wonder if Walof had brought the wrong cart when his fingers brushed up against hard metal. Deftly, he scooped the key from its hiding place and tucked it into his pocket. Re-adjusting his grip on his shovel, he went to join the men along the wall. Two more hours. If he could survive five brothers, this should be a piece of cake. His eyes fell on his sand dusted Rockports and he sighed. He just wished it wasn't so messy.

***

The Jemily twirled first one way, and then the other. Heads titled up, the ceiling spun above them until their feet could no longer keep up and they collapsed in a heap on the floor.

"Well, that was fun," said one.

"It was okay," agreed the other, "but less fun than the last time and much less fun than the first time."

Pulling their feet in, they sat in the middle of their cell. One picked up a rock to draw in the dirt while the other propped her chin in her hand.

"We could play Tic Tac Toe," said the one with the rock.

"What's Tic Tac Toe?"

"The game with the 0s and Xs. Remember? Benjamin taught us."

"He taught you."

"Same thing."

"Not always."

"Always."

"Are men always complicated?" the one without the rock asked.

"How do you mean?" the other said, drawing a grid in the dirt.

"You go first," she said, passing the rock to her other hand.

She drew an X in the center grid. "Like this?"

"Like that. What do you mean about men being complicated?" She drew an 0 in the corner.

"They never get it right," she said, taking the rock back and drawing an X beside the first X. "Benjamin knows we are two, but forgets we are one and Norch knows we are one, but forgets we are two."

The other one sighed. "Maybe we are complicated."

"We are simple, they complicate it."

"Maybe you are right."

"I am always right."

"You can't always be right when I am always right."

"We are always right."

"We are always right."

A sound outside brought both their heads up.

"Shhh," whispered one.

"I am shhh, you shhhh," said the other.

"Neither of you is shhh," came a voice through the barred window, "but if you give me a minute, I can unlock this thing and you can both un-shhh and tell me how great I am."

The Jemily bounded to their feet and flew to the window to press their faces against the window.

Benjamin smiled up at them. "Miss me?"

***

gNat buzzed in agitation against the glass walls of her prison. She was a small being, but the sides of the jar felt smaller and smaller each passing hour. Did she have enough air? How much air was a glass jar capable of holding?

She fluttered to the bottom and forced herself to stop thinking about it. She was the number one CR manager on the beach. Or she had been. Every Ceratopogonidae was recruited, trained and assigned through her. She could do this. She just had to ponder it out properly.

How would she get through to her friends? The thought gave her pause. When had they become her friends? Was it after they had outwitted the Rohn together? Or did her admiration stretch back to when Norch had saved the Lamprima Aurata from near drowning? When had she stopped reporting to Poul? She fluttered her wings absentmindedly as she ruminated. It was after the house. Where Norch and the Jemily had taken such great care not to step on the Camponotus. Yes. That was it. The first time she had thought of them as something other than an assignment. She had to save them, even if she was unable save herself.

A scrapping noise somewhere out in the room drew her attention. She fluttered up higher to get a better look, but the edge of the shelf prevented her from seeing anything below. She waited, fear welling up in her thorax.

A small hand reached up, grabbing hold of the shelf, followed by another hand and a set of wings until Nae Xali was beaming down at her.

"Norch says we need you," she said.

***

Kei Ta snapped as something buzzed past her snout, but it evaded her easily and after a couple warning snorts, she settled her head back down between her two front paws. She was on the verge of falling back asleep when a scent in the air brought her snout up again. She knew that scent.

Standing, she let out a soft whine, her back end wiggling in anticipation.

Behind her, her big, new friend moved, metal clanking as his manacles shifted.

Kei Ta hoped The Man had brought her treats again, but when he finally appeared she found she didn't care, her little heart so overwhelmed with joy at the sight of him that she bounded towards him in a barely restrained quiver.