"And there we go!" Huck said very enthusiastically and almost jumped up and down from excitement. "Is it uncomfortable?"

I looked down at the metal armband covering half of what was left of my arm. I moved my elbow joint, and it did feel a little tight, but Huck said it would. The metal would mould after my arm and its movements over time.

"So, what we'll do is connect the nerves too. There are transmitters in the armband that picks up on them, but it's gonna be uncomfortable. I'll be putting in screws now, and they'll go into your skin. From there, the transmitters will be ejected and connect your nerves to the armband."

I nodded. I didn't really understand what he was saying besides that this was going to be painful.

Dy took my hand in both of hers and squeezed it. "Just clench the shit out of my hands if you need to," she said.

I snorted. "I'll try to not let my superhuman strength crush your delicate hands."

She laughed and shook her head at me.

"No point in dragging this out, right?" Huck said and put a screw in one of the holes in the band.

I tried to prepare myself, but nothing could've prepared me for this. He screwed it in, and it felt like my arm was on fire again. I felt my fingers on my right hand move, and I couldn't deal with any of it. I screamed and tried to squirm away, but Dy held me down, her hands now on my shoulders.

Huck was keeping my arm still as he screwed in more screws. It was like my arm was getting reanimated or something. I could feel it all, and it intensified with every screw.

I screamed until my throat was sore, and my voice hoarse. When they finally let go, I curled into a ball, clutching my arm to my chest.

"That's the worst part over with."

I was panting, trying to get myself under control. The pain wasn't bad anymore, just a dull pounding, but I was exhausted.

"Your Queeness... Can you say something?"

"Al," I panted and opened my eyes, looking up at Huck. "Call me Al."

"Al," he said very softly and smiled. He had a big gap between his front teeth, and I suspected he was older than his boyish face indicated. "You okay?"

"Yeah." I took a deep breath and sat up in the bed.

"Move your arm for me."

I did as told, moving it a bit. It didn't hurt anymore.

"Right, so the transmitters are doing their thing, and we can attach your roprothesthics. This won't be painful, but it'll probably be a little weird. It feels weird to all of a sudden have a limb again."

"How would you know?" I asked, mostly to just get the attention away from me.

He pulled the leg of his trousers up, exposing metal under the fabric. He knocked on it for good measure.

"I'm upgradable," he said and winked at me.

"What happened?"

"I was mauled by a dragon," he said without missing a beat.

I couldn't hold back my laughter. It was such a dumb reply.

"Why doesn't anyone ever believe me?" Huck looked up at Dy, and she shrugged.

"Probably because it's a dumb answer, Huck. Dragons aren't real."

"This one was! And it bit my leg off! Had a real nice Sunday dinner with a side of Huck-leg!" His round cheeks flushed more and more with every second, and I bit down hard on my lip to not laugh out loud again. "But fine. Don't believe me. See if I care." He rose to his feet and went to the dresser where a package was resting on top of it. He opened it and lifted an arm out of it. My arm, I guess. It was made in this brownish metal that matched my skin tone.

"So, let's just do this?" Huck asked and shot me a crooked smile.

"Let's do this."

He got me to lie down again, and I took a deep breath. Huck put the arm down on the mattress and slowly slid it closer to the armband. He propped it against the metal, slid a section of the band over the prosthetic and then something clicked. It sounded like something powered up, like when you turned the radio on. The music would start out of tune and very slow, and then it gradually picks up and become clearer. Instead of music, it was just one note, more resembling a hum, really.

"Okay, it should be working now. Try and move your fingers."

I took another deep breath and focused on just moving my pointing finger. The finger next to it moved instead.

"I moved the wrong finger," I said and looked up at Huck.

"It'll take some time to calibrate. Until then, just keep moving. Do some exercises to get back into it all. The more you use it, the better it'll work."

"Will I be able to write?"

"You should. It might take some time before it looks good, though."

"That's okay." I smiled and moved my thumb. And I actually intended to move my thumb. "I... I don't know how to repay you for this, Huck. Thank you."

His flushed cheeks got even darker, and now the tips of his ears turned darker too. "It's okay..."

"How about we all go out?" Dy asked. "We could go out for dinner and stuff." She shoved her hands in her jacket pockets.

"That sounds nice," I said and glanced at Huck.

His eyes bounced from me to Dy, and then he nodded. "Okay, yeah. Sure. Dinner."

"And drinks," Dy added.

"Sure, sure. Get the one-legged guy drunk." He rolled his eyes and got up from the stool, he had been sitting on.

There was another live band playing, and this one was even better than the last one. The lead singer was mesmerising. Her red dress clung to her body, and she was moving her hips to the slow rhythm. She had a big rose stuck in her hair, matching both her dress and her lipstick. I had never seen anyone look like that and I wanted to look like her. I wished I looked like her.

Dy's hand found mine under the table, and her fingers laced with mine. "She's amazing, isn't she?"

I nodded, unable to tear my eyes off her. "Her voice is so..." I lacked words to describe her voice.

"Yeah, I know." I could hear the smile in Dy's voice.

"She's also a very nice lady," Huck chimed in.

"You know her?" It took almost everything in me to look at him.

"Yeah, that's my sister," he snorted.

My jaw dropped. I had never in thousand years seen that coming. He didn't look like her at all. He was skinny and scrawny, and that gap between his teeth really took a lot of focus. I glanced back up at her, and she gave a little discreet wave to our table. Huck waved back.

"Impossible to believe she's related to such a handsome guy, isn't it?" He grinned at me, and I decided there was no good reply for that.

"Let's go get more drinks." Dy grabbed my left hand and hauled me with her. We didn't go to the drinks stall. We went behind them, in a little alley and Dy pushed me up against the wall, taking my face in her hands, kissing me.

"This isn't drinks," I laughed and pulled back a little.

"Nope," she murmured and pressed her leg in between mine. Her hands landed on my hips and pulled me up her thigh. She leaned in and kissed me again, moving her hips back and forth. A sigh fought its way out of my mouth, and this was definitely getting dangerous. The friction her movements were causing was going to get awkward in a moment.

She kissed my jaw, and I moved my head to the side, running my hand up in her hair, as her tongue ran over my throat. I whimpered softly as she pulled me even further up her thigh.

"What the fuck."

Both of us froze. Dy then slowly pulled back and looked over her shoulder at Huck. He looked absolutely fuming.

"Huck-"

"Seriously, Dy? Seriously?!"

She turned around, letting go of me. "What?" she sighed and threw her arms out to the sides.

"She's a goddamn queen is what! You can't just fuck every girl you meet!"

Dy folded her arms over her chest. "I don't. And fuck you for implying that."

"Huck, really. I was the one who initiated it. And it's fine. There's no problem here," I tried.

"No problem?" he growled and took a step forward. "We're supposed to be working on a mission here. And you two are not being fucking focused on that."

"Excuse me?" I said coolly. "I don't know if you've noticed, but it's not like I've been invited to any meeting that would discuss anything. I've been focusing on recovering because someone blew off my fucking arm. And Dy has helped me with that. You're in no position to decide nor tell us what to do."

He looked wide-eyed at me, and some of the tension slipped out of his body. He bit down on his lip and then looked down at the ground.

"You're right," he said quietly and looked back up again. "I'm just... I really want this to work. I want everything to work because... No one should starve up here. No one should be poor, and you could change that. I don't want you to abandon us if Dy pisses you off."

I glanced up at Dy, and she rolled her eyes. "I'm not gonna abandon you even if Dy did piss me off. She already has. I'm not so emotional I'd let my feelings decide what I do with my kingdom, Huck."

He scratched his arm and nodded. "Right. You're just really... Young. You know?"

"I've been tutored since I could walk in how to be a queen. How to not let bias do what's best for the country. And I won't let my biases steer me now either. I've seen what's happening up here and I want to help you. Not because you've helped me, or because of Dy or anyone else. But because I see the injustice that was hidden from me." I stepped in front of him and put my hand on his shoulder. "When I get my crown back, I'll do whatever I can for all of the mountain tribes."

He nodded again and sniffled. "Sorry. To you, too, Dy. I'm sorry."

"It's fine. Just don't ever call me a slut again," she said coolly.

"Technically I didn-"

She arched her brows at him and sent him an are-you-kidding-me-look. He swallowed his words and nodded again.

"Drinks?" I said, kind of desperate to get out of this awkward situation.

"Yep," Dy said and brushed past us.

"I fucked up," Huck murmured and glanced up at me.

"Yeah, you definitely did." I shrugged a little and trailed after Dy.

She was quiet when we got home. She had been quiet the rest of the night too, and she turned her back on me when we went to bed.

I moved closer and slung my new arm around her. "You okay?"

"Sure," she muttered.

"You sure? You've been awfully quiet."

She sighed and flopped on her back, looking down at me. "I'm not a slut."

"I wouldn't care if you were." I shrugged a shoulder. "It's not like I can judge or anything."

She clenched her jaw. "I... Usually don't sleep with women I'm not in a relationship with."

"That's the opposite of an issue."

She snorted softly and turned on her side, moved down and wrapped her arm around me, pressing her face to the top of my chest. "It just... Struck a nerve. Because Huck knows that."

"He means a lot to you, huh?"

"He does. I... Was the first one he told he was a man. We were five."

"Wait, what?"

"He wasn't born male. You didn't know that?" She looked up at me.

"No, honestly. It never occurred to me."

"He'll be so stoked to hear that. Anyways, he's always the first to meet my girlfriends and... I just... Didn't think he'd ever say something like that to me so..."

"Sometimes we say things we don't mean when we're scared," I murmured and started massaging her scalp.

"I know," she breathed. "Thanks, though. For... This. It's nice."

I smiled and pressed my lips to the top of her head. "You've done way more for me than I've done for you. I should be the one thanking you."

"Nah," she chuckled. She moved up and kissed me. "You don't have to thank me for that. Ever."

"Aw, that's too bad. You'd like the way I thank people."

She pulled back and arched her brows at me. "Really?"

I nodded slowly and pushed her on her back. "Yeah, you're missing out."

"Oh no," she breathed and closed her eyes as I started kissing her throat, moving down.