Biohuman

After the important discussion and chatting and getting to know Keng more, the Wang family and Keng had dinner. They sat around the large kitchen table (that could hold a literal feast) and dug into Fan'r and Mother Wang's delicious Japanese-Chinese cuisine.

"Ah, Ma I've been craving these for months! I can't find all of the ingredients in Revit." Bright said with his mouth full. The family all dug in and Keng watched.

He didn't know how to "properly" act in this situation. Lee Seng had memories about these sorts of things but he was always moody and quiet which didn't help for the friendly atmosphere here.

"Here, try some of this. You'll love it!" Lily spooned him some of everything, explaining what the dishes were. Keng watched as his plate filled in no time and took a bite of each thing.

"Is it good?" Mother Wang asked. Keng nodded. It was a new taste he didn't think he'd be able to taste. He felt heat in his mouth kick in and grabbed the mug of water and took a sip of it.

The boys chuckled at him as he looked at his food. What was that burning feeling? He had never tasted anything like that. He reeled through the memories from Lee Seng but couldn't pinpoint it exactly.

"First time eating spicy food?" Jacob asked. Keng turned to Jacob and nodded.

"That's what that burning feeling was?" Keng asked. Jacob chuckled and nodded.

"You get used to it."

"How do you guys eat that all the time? What's its purpose?"

"It makes the food taste way better." Jacob replied. "And helps with all sorts of stuff within the body."

"Enough with the facts. Eat up." Fan'r motioned.

Dinner went by and Keng could only feel a bit out of place. His actual experiences with Lee Seng were way different than Lily's family. It was a different experience that kept him occupied for the rest of the night.

"Jacob you're going to bathe, right?" Mother Wang asked.

"Yeah, why?" Jacob asked. Mother Wang poked her head out of the kitchen and pointed at Keng.

"Take our guest with you. There's plenty of room out back for all of y'all."

"All? The others are bathing?" Jacob asked.

"Winn, Bright and Philip decided to go out back early. Hurry up and take Keng with you!" Mother Wang motioned as she pulled back into the kitchen. Jacob looked at Keng.

"Bring something to change into. Let's go out back." Jacob motioned. Keng grabbed some clothes from within the bag and followed Jacob out to the back. A small but sat out in the back near the forest line. Jacob led Keng into it and the smell of familiar salts entered his nostrils as he pushed past curtain clothes that hung about halfway down and noticed Winn and Philip in the large hot spring. Bright was rinsing himself off over on the left side as Jacob moved to the right side to strip his clothes off.

"Oh, the guest's here." Winn announced.

"Don't spook him, Winn. He looks like a mole-rabbit in the den of wolves." Philip  retorted.

"Take your clothes off over here. Throw it in the bin and we'll handle the clothes for later." Jacob instructed. Keng moved over to the right side as Bright shut the water off and made his way into the hot spring.

"Is this like a… Hot spring?" Keng asked.

"Oh, you know it?" Jacob asked, surprised. Keng nodded as he put his clean clothes into one of the open shelves.

"Yeah, Lee Seng went to a couple before."

"Your Vessel's memories must make things odd for you, huh?" Jacob pulled his boxers off and tossed his clothes into the bin. He stood, facing Keng as he chatted.

"What do you mean?" Keng asked. He pulled the last of his clothes out and a whistle caught his attention. He turned and noticed Winn, Bright and Philip were all staring at him.

Even Jacob.

"Wow. He's healthy." Philip complimented.

"Extremely." Bright nodded. Keng held onto his clothes, nervously as Jacob pulled them out of his hands and dumped them into the bin. He moved past Keng and motioned him to follow to the other side of the hot springs.

"Doesn't Fox Spirits get the memories of their Vessel?" Jacob asked.

"Y-yeah." Keng nodded, following after Jacob. Jacob sat down on one of the seats and Keng mimicked. Keng watched Jacob set a bowl next to Keng and then grabbed another bowl and turned the rune on. Water spilled out of it and he began to clean himself.

"So is it weird to see human culture here?" Jacob asked, looking at Keng. Keng turned the rune on and began to wash himself.

"Mmm, I guess?" Keng replied unsure. "There's a lot of his experiences I can see, but experiencing those things for the first time, like this, is way different."

"How so? Don't the memories feel like you did those things?"

"Yes and no." Keng shrugged. He dumped the bowl of water on his head and wiped his face. "I think it's just weird because he's still around and about." Keng expanded upon his answer. "If he and I were just one body, one spirit, I think it'd be different but we're two different people who share the same soul. Everyone says we're unique because of that, but things have been getting… More complicated as of lately." He set the bowl to the side and soaped himself up and scrubbed his hair.

Jacob and Keng washed themselves off. Jacob moved his fingers over the rune and stood up, setting the bowl on the chair.

"Come on. Let your body soak all that stress away." Jacob motioned. Keng followed suit, slowly stepping deeper into the hot spring. He could feel tense parts of his body ease up.

"Have you ever been in one of these hot springs before?" Philip asked. Keng sat down and nodded.

"When I was here many months ago, yes. There was a small one in the Floral Forest cabin. It was really nice. General Halys did a great job with that one…" Keng sighed.

"Oooh, you've met the General?!?" Bright swam over and sat next to Keng. Keng opened his eyes and nodded. "What was he like? Is he like what they say?"

"He's… Strong. Lee Seng almost got caught by him because of his problem." Keng explained.

"Your Vessel almost got caught by him? What did he do?" Winn asked. The Wang brothers circled around Keng. They seemed interested in their guest.

"His name is Lee Seng. At least try to say his name rather than what he is." Keng told them.

"Oh, so-sorry."

"It's alright. The older generation just like to keep calling him Vessel. We're more complicated than that, but let's just say he has a personal problem I can't really divulge what happened, but it's something that still affects him to this day. General Halys almost killed him but something happened, but it didn't happen. Long story short, General Halys looked after me and Lee Seng and the Biohuman friend for awhile."

"Another human. That's weird. To think the world changed so much off of what Mom said to us." Jacob sighed. "How's Earth? Is it like what our Mom told us? Crowded, people fighting amongst each other, noisy?"

"More crowded now than ever, I guess?" Keng shrugged. "People probably still fight amongst each other. I've read history books while Lee Seng slept and human history is strange. People fight each other over land, beliefs, people, etc. I think there's always people fighting against each other even with the apocalypse all around the Biohumans."

"Apocalypse? Is that like the end of the world?"

"Yeah. Basically when the Biohuman serum was released into the world, the apocalypse happened and it caused a lot of problems for people. You'd think with people's greedy natures, the serum would've been a privilege to those who were wealthy, but I guess now."

"Stuff like that happens too? So what's so good about Earth?" Philip asked.

"I don't know." Keng shook his head. His eyes wandered to the ceiling. He had asked the same question Philip had asked, but always found himself asking why anyone would stay in Daros, too. "I ask myself the same question about Earth and here. Is Lee Seng the only thing that keeps be tethered to Earth? Is my heritage and culture tying me to Daros?"

'Even he has time to think about stuff like this?' Jacob observed. He leaned his head onto the edge of the hot springs and looked up as his brothers looked at each other. 'Lily sure brought an interesting person home. I wonder if it'll be a good idea to let Lil to go with him.'

"Well, enough about that." Winn announced. He moved over to Keng and wrapped his arm around him. Keng looked at him, nervous as Winn let out a toothy grin. "Enjoy your rest now cause we're going hunting early tomorrow. It's been awhile since we've all hunted together. Can a greenhorn keep up with experienced hunters?"

"I think I can keep up." Keng smiled.