Submission (#2198) Approved

Growling, Bite watched as Daere took down the Christmas decorations.
Scooter and butter were also over, keeping Bite and Daere company after what had transpired with finding Zeus.
The mood was somber, all of them not knowing how to react to what they had found.
“that’s it!! We have to tell mal!” Bite snarled, slamming his hands onto the table.
Daere sighed, lowering his hands. “Bite….. how do we tell someone that their long lost spouse they thought was DEAD is actually stuck in the horrid state of reanimation with no way to die, but isn’t themselves anymore?” Daere asked, even Styx was quiet inside his visor.
Scooter sighed alongside butter.
“there isn’t much we can do, but it’s wrong of us to keep this from him— Zeus was the love of his life!!” butter exclaimed.
“we have to move on, we’ll tell mal but not right now. For now, let’s get ready for the new year.” Daere said softly, putting up his new year decorations as the others went silent at his words.
“babe, you cant actually be serious?” Bite scoffed, standing up from his seat to walk over to his partner.
Daere sighed once again, he was the mature one of the group, he knew the others would run right to poor mal and spill the news without any consideration for their friend’s mental state.
“why don’t we go visit mal? Bring him some cookies and hot cocoa for his crows?” Daere suggested, making the others relax and nod in agreement.
After about an hour, they’d made the cookies and hot cocoa and were packing it up to take to their friend in the lush forest.
“alright, everyone ready?” Daere asked, earning nods from the others who followed after the much larger terralien dutifully.
Bite’s tail wagged behind him as they made the trip towards their old friends’ cottage up north in the lush forest.
“don’t worry, we wont tell mal right away, well… I wont. Butter might.” Bite tried to reassure his boyfriend.
Daere groaned and Styx fixed bite with the most bombastic side eye that made even snarl wince inside Bite’s visor.
“alright you two, once we get to Mal’s cottage absolutely NOTHING is said about what we saw, understood?” Daere said seriously to the two smaller pup terras.
“but…. We will tell him right?” Scooter asked softly, nervously twiddling with his paws.
Daere crouched down in front of his friend, offering him a clawed hand.
“Scoot, it’s not that simple, we have to think about his feelings. I know you and butter want to tell him— and we will….. just not right now, okay?” he asked him gently.
Scooter nodded, squeezing Daere’s hand lightly in reassurance.
Standing back up, they made the last leg of the distance to Mal’s cottage and knocked, watching as their wizard friend opened the door.
“oh, hello Daere and friends.” His deep, silky voice washed over them as he stepped aside to let them inside the house.
“hiya mal!! How have you been?!” Butter squealed, running up to hug his legs happily as Mal’s snake tail moved to nuzzle Butter with a happy hiss.
“hello darling, how have you been? Would you like a snack?” he cooed, leaning down at the waist to pet his hair soothingly.
“we brought cookies and cocoa!!” Scooter chirped, offering the bag of cookies to his friend who chuckled and took them with a thankful nod.
“thank you darling. Lets sit and talk, it’s so nice to see all of you.” He said warmly, moving away from butter to sit on the sofa as he opened the bag for his crows to begin munching on the cookies.
As all of them talked about everything and anything, the night soon came to a close.
Butter looked up at mal and shook his head before saying.
“mal, I’m so sorry but…. We found Zeus.”
The wizard froze, and a green light encompassed the room as a menacing snarl left him.
“what?”