Lion pulled a face at the small item Inn was holding as they walked into the gift shop.

“I can’t believe you actually bought that,” Lion gestured to the photo key ring. “My eyes are closed in it!”

“I like it,” Inn gave one of his small indecipherable smiles as he attached the key ring to his new phone before sliding it back in his pocket. “What is this place?” Inn asked, looking round.

“It’s a gift shop,” Lion explained. “We’ve reached the end of the aquarium and now this is the store where they’ll try to sell us T-shirts with fish on.” Lion couldn’t help but giggle as he held up a shirt with a cartoon of lots of elderly looking fish on it in a group and the slogan, ‘Old School!’

“I do not understand,” Inn frowned, picking a mug off a nearby shelf with a fish wearing a suit and smoking a cigar with the catchphrase, “The Codfather”.

“Don’t worry about it,” Lion grinned, tugging on Inn’s sleeve and leading him over to look at the ornaments and souvenirs. There were some pretty snow globes with dolphins, bright plastic pens with wobbling clownfish on the top and a large wooden model of a shark that made Lion shudder.

“Oh!” Lion said, rushing over to the wall of plush toys he had just spotted. “Look P’, it’s a lionfish!”

Lion beamed as he held up the soft fish with dramatic spines and stripes.

Inn regarded the two of them for a moment with narrowed eyes. “He looks more dangerous than you.”

Lion giggled, he had to agree. He was pretty sure whatever scraps of dignity he’d had left had been left behind in the shark tank.

“Hmm,” Inn murmured with interest as he picked up one of the fantasy plushies, a long green sea serpent with pearly fangs.

“I think that’s meant to be a naga,” Lion said, peering around Inn’s large frame.

“Real naga have golden scales on their bellies,” Inn stated.

“Real...” Lion trailed off as he remembered who he was speaking to. Of course the great Lord Hanuman lived in a world full of mythological monsters and beasts.

“You’ve seen one?” Lion asked excitedly.

“Of course,” Inn smirked, turning back to Lion with the two plushies still in his hands. “There are many types and sizes of naga, in fact my arrows-“ Inn snapped his mouth shut.

“Your arrows what?” Lion cocked his head curiously.

“My arrows were once responsible for slaying one of the beasts,” Inn finished, his eyes flickering awkwardly to the side. Lion wondered if Inn was embarrassed to tell stories of his great bravery.

“That’s incredible!” Lion declared encouragingly.

They continued walking around the shop and when they arrived at the cashier with the lionfish and naga still in hand, Lion knew better than to protest the purchase. Inn seemed to genuinely enjoy exchanging baht for goods.

“You know, Lion said quietly as they exited the store and headed out of the mall. “I’d love to hear more stories about your world, I mean, that’s if you’re willing to tell them of course.”

Lion remembered when he had been a little boy, his father would read him stories about the old myths and legends to help him fall asleep.

Inn looked surprised for a moment before nodding, signaling a taxi to take them home before Lion had a chance to kick up a fuss that the sky train stop was right there.

+++

That evening, Lion walked into the bedroom after showering. He was dressed in brand new pajamas, courtesy of Inn’s emeralds. They felt soft and comfortable as he happily toweled off his hair. He paused for a moment in the doorway. The lionfish plushie was sat on top of his makeshift pillow on the floor.

“Hey P’Inn?” Lion felt himself tense as he walked over to lift up the covers but still couldn’t see what he was looking for. “Um, did you by any chance see another plushie around here?”

Lion felt dreadfully embarrassed that Inn might have spotted the Hanuman plush that Lion slept with. There was probably something inherently weird about sharing a room with someone who slept with a doll version of you.

Inn was sat up in the bed reading something on his new phone. The larger boy looked up with a blank stare.

“You mean the monkey?”

Lion felt himself blush, he pretended to towel his face further so as to hide the redness. “Ah, yes, that one.”

“It smelled,” Inn replied tersely, he sounded irritated. Lion wondered if the other boy had been offended by the small squishy replica of his true form?

“You have the lionfish now,” Inn added.

“Did you put it somewhere?” Lion asked, eyeing the trash can with a frisson of fear. Even if it made Inn uncomfortable, that Hanuman plush was still one of Lion’s oldest possessions.

Inn gave a loud, put upon sigh before sliding out of the bed and waking over to the chest of drawers. He pulled open the second drawer to reveal the plushie nestled between some blankets.

“Thank you,” Lion grinned in relief before going to make himself as comfortable as he could on his floor bed.

“We have school tomorrow?” Inn asked as he crossed the room and resettled himself.

“Nah,” Lion yawned, “it’s still the weekend tomorrow. Is there anything you’d like to do?”

“I have learned about a place called ‘Ramayana’,” Inn stated after a pause. “It is near that city you told me you took a bus to with the jellyfish.”

“Pattaya?” Lion frowned, he couldn’t imagine why Inn would want to go there. “Wait, do you mean the Ramayana Water Park?”

Ramayana was a massive water theme park just outside of the seaside resort, Lion often saw billboards advertising the attraction to tourists as it was one of the biggest parks in Asia. ‘Ramayana’ also happened to be the name of the epic that the Ramakien was based upon.

“Oh, P’Inn,” Lion fidgeted awkwardly, the other boy had sounded so earnest in his desire, maybe he was truly missing home and thought perhaps that the Ramayana held the key. “I’m sorry, it’s nothing to do with the myth, it’s literally just a water park.”

“I see,” Inn nodded slowly in the shadowed light of the room, he sounded a little disappointed and Lion’s spirits fell.

“Perhaps,” Inn cleared his throat, “perhaps it would still be a good place to visit. The people there look happy, their hearts must be very content.”

Lion ignored the strange phrasing, Inn often spoke in weird archaic seeming sentence structures. “Oh,” he said with surprise, “well, yeah, I mean it’s quite far. Like two hours on the bus, but we could get up super early. It will be expensive though, are you sure?”

“Yes,” Inn nodded, handing Lion his phone with the alarm app open. Inn hadn’t quite learned how to use all of the software yet. “I enjoy swimming and this way there will be an absence of jellyfish.”

“That’s true!” Lion giggled, feeling lighter now. If he could do anything as an apology for summoning Inn from the magical world, it would be to show him a really good time in the human world. “Ah, I’m excited,” Lion admitted, shuffling down under the covers and resting his cheek on his new lionfish that smelled faintly of jasmine and palmarosa from Inn holding it.

“But we’ll have to come up with something to tell Granny,” Lion added. “She’d have a heart attack if she knew how much money we were spending.”

“Tell her you are taking me sightseeing,” Inn replied.

Lion chewed on his lip, he guessed it wasn’t technically a lie. He grinned to himself before sending up a silent prayer that his swimming shorts were still wearable and not as apparently revealing as his leotard had been.