Zarhae was decidedly not paying attention. He certainly should have been paying more thought to his surroundings, instead of just focusing on talking with his pooltoy counterpart while floating around on him. In fact, if he had been paying any mind whatsoever to his surroundings, he would have easily noticed the large black and blue dragon that was the only other obviously living toy at the pool, and the white and blue dragon riding it. He also would have noticed that he was approaching said dragons at a relatively fast pace.

*bonk*

The Zarhaes felt a shock pass through them as they hit the dragon, followed by a loud splash as the dragon’s rider was knocked off by the impact. Oops.

“Shoot, sorry,” Zarhae apologized to the dragon, trying in vain to peer around him to make sure his rider was okay. “I - we… didn’t notice you there, my apologies…”

“Ho, watch yourself there.” The dragon cautioned them, looking at the Zarhaes quickly before turning to see where his rider had fallen and ensure they were unharmed.

“You’re ok?” Zarhae asked, pausing his searching for the rider to actually take a closer look at the dragon in front of him. He was quite an interesting creature, rather enormous, primarily dark blue and black with orange highlights in many places. “What’s your name?”

“Yeah, I’m alright, you clearly came at me with some speed~ Surprised you didn’t spot me,” The dragon responded. “I’m Kammorne, and the other dragon with me was Zycora, wherever she’s disappeared to now.”

“Good, good. I’m Zarhae, and my float here is, well, also Zarhae. It’s a bit confusing sometimes, frankly.” Zarhae explained. His pooltoy counterpart quickly chimed in with a “Hello,” and a wave, before futilely trying to dunk his head into the water in a vague attempt to see Zycora through the water.

“So, how did you become… well, like this?” Zarhae asked Kamm, motioning generally at Kamm’s body, before tapping on the back of pooltoy Zarhae’s head. “I’m just wondering because I doubt it was the same process as how I obtained this one.”

Pooltoy Zarhae swatted at Zarhae’s hand, before looking up at Kamm, an expression of mild annoyance on his face. “What he means by that is that he ‘obtained me’ by creating an extradimensional portal to another universe, wherein flesh and vinyl are, in effect, entirely swapped.”

“I became it by choice - I’m a shapeshifter, so I just adapt to the kind of environment I’m in if I want to.” Kamm answered, and then hinted to Zarhae’s hand. “Say, what’s the deal with the hand there?”

“Ah, yes, this… thing.” Zarhae began to answer, holding up the appendage to his face, rotating it around and wiggling his fingers. “It was an… incident, when I was first testing the portals. I had just finished my first prototype, and as I was just attaching the power supply, I accidentally had my paw and some of my forearm going through the frame. As such, when I did attach the power… well, this thi-”

An expression of confusion and then alarm shot over pooltoy Zarhae’s face as a shock passed through his body, followed by the telltale bubbling of a puncture. Both of the Zarhaes and Kamm turned to look at the water, where a flash of white and blue movement was retreating. Zarhae sighed, moving a claw to plug up the puncture and turning back to Kamm, while his inflatable counterpart looked at the hole with vague annoyance and amusement.

“I suppose that that was Zy, correct?” Zarhae asked Kamm, seeming rather resigned to sinking. “You didn’t tell me that she had a taste for revenge.”

“Sorry about that, she’s definitely not one for being caught off guard like that~” he chuckled, as Zycora soon resurfaced with a cheeky grin on her face. “Maybe you can join us on top of me since uh… the other Zarhae… might not keep ya up for long.”

“Yes, that does sound good,” Zarhae responded, but then he looked to his punctured counterpart. “You’re ok with it too?”

“It’s fine, yeah. I can keep this plugged up myself.” He answered, motioning to the hole in his belly before flipping over so as to access it with his own paws, also knocking Zarhae off in the process.

Zarhae spluttered for a moment, not having expected to be knocked into the water, and glared at his now laughing pooltoy and a giggling Zycora before he turned towards Kamm. “Now then, how do I get up onto you?” Zarhae asked Kamm, looking over his body to see if there were any reasonable footholds with which to climb. “Should I just go up your leg like Zy’s doing, or do you have some better way of doing this?”

Kamm motioned to his rear legs, indicating their use as a way to mount his back. As Zarhae began to swim over to the shown leg, he paused for a moment. “Hold on, I’ve got to do something real quick,” he said, before suddenly raking his claws across pooltoy Zarhae’s vinyl hide. “And that,” he continued as he stared angrily into his victims eyes, “Is why you don’t throw off those who have sharp claws, understood?”

The now rapidly flattening wolf was only able to reply with a surprised yelp before he quickly lost all of his air.

As Zarhae climbed up onto Kamm’s hind leg, he looked up to see Zy looking at him, already having gotten up onto his back. “Mind helping me up?” Zarhae asked, still somewhat irritated at her. She quickly held out her arm and helped Zarhae up onto Kamm’s back, where he soon laid down.

“Hoooh… wow, Kamm, you are very soft…” Zarhae commented, happily squishing his vinyl between his claws and fingers. “And so warm too… I can see why Zy likes you so much, though I may well need to steal you for myself at some point~”

“Good luck prying me from Zy’s care~” Kamm chuckled. “You’d have to ask real nicely~”

“Hmmm… I think I could do it if I wanted…” Zarhae mused, stroking his chin in thought before turning to look at Zy, grinning maliciously. “In fact, I think I could get you right now…”

Before Zy had time to properly register what he’d just said, Zarhae quickly rushed over to where she lay on Kamm’s back, pushing her off his side and then grabbing bundles of Kamm’s vinyl in his claws. His wings sprouted from his back and unfurled, gray feathers flapping as Zarhae began to lift Kamm out of the water.

“Hang on, what the hell are you doing?! PUT ME DOWN NOW!” Kamm yelled angrily at Zarhae, to which Zarhae complied, dropping him back into the water before landing on his back, laughing hysterically. Zarhae then heard Zycora climbing back up Kamm’s back leg, and so he went over to help her back up, barely managing to apologize through his laughter as he pulled her up.

Zycora then proceeded to knock him off of Kamm’s back.

“Oomf, ok, yeah, I did deserve that.” Zarhae admitted after splashing into the water, climbing back up Kamm’s leg before sitting down again on his back. “Truce?”

“...Fine.” Zy responded, before turning and motioning towards pooltoy Zarhae. “By the way, is he… going to be okay?

A cursory glance at his unblinking, unseeing stare and lack of movement would very quickly tell someone that something was very wrong with him, and that he was most certainly not okay.

“He’s okay,” Zarhae answered, barely glancing at what was rapidly becoming obvious to be the corpse of his previously inflated counterpart. “He’s just… temporarily deceased; he’ll be fine in a few hours. Don’t worry about it. Although - actually, Kamm, what happens to you when you get deflated or popped?”

“It comes down to how I feel, I can shift back when deflated, or I can stay flat. Both ways I can repair myself if needed, too.” He explained.

“Hm, interesting. Good to know…” Zarhae said, and then turned to Zycora. “Speaking of which - Zy, why was it that you poked my inflatable counterpart? Even with the motivation of some sort of revenge, it isn’t exactly a normal reaction to puncture someone’s pooltoy, especially a living one, just for them accidentally knocking you off of your toy. So I’m wondering if there might be something… more behind your actions?”

“Well your toy didn’t exactly seem living from below, plus, it’s an easy way to make sure you would end up in the water too.” Zy explained coolly, though Zarhae didn’t think he was imagining a slight blush spreading across her cheeks. “What makes you think I'd have other reasons beyond that?”

“Well for one thing, you started to blush a bit when I asked that question, which I’m pretty sure confirms my suspicions…” Zarhae answered tauntingly, barely hiding a gleeful smile.

“It’s nothing of the sort, it was just an act of revenge, nothing more!” Zy reaffirmed, at this point entirely failing to hide her blush.

“You’re blushing quite a lot, Zycora. I don’t think you’re telling me the truth with this…” Zarhae teased Zy, before lightly pushing one of his claws down into Kamm’s back. “If it was truly just vengeance, then surely you’d understand if i want some revenge of my own, and surely you wouldn’t have an abnormal reaction to this~”

“Surely you don’t need to do anything that rash, do you?” Kamm asked, breaking up the fight between the two, with Zy still blushing.

“Fine; I suppose I don’t necessarily have to always take revenge. I’ll stop” - Zarhae stifled a laugh - “poking fun at your affinity - especially considering that I actually share it. I’m guessing Kamm enjoys hissing toys too?”

“I prefer them in any kind of way, either being one or riding one. And yes, maybe the deflation part is exciting too~” Kamm admitted.

“Ha, I knew it!” Zarhae exclaimed, a bit of laughter escaping his mouth. “So, how’d you get into… this… stuff?”

“Just… experimenting, I suppose, without getting into too much detail. Zy and I found out we both liked it after we were together.” Kamm explained.

“Huh, what an interesting coincidence, for you guys to turn out to have the same… interests.” Zarhae said, smiling. “What other toys do you guys have?”

“A Zenith; a sea dragon…” Kamm began to list off, thinking through his collection.

“My Ember,” Zy chimed in. “And quite a few more!”

“Now those are certainly some very nice toys~” Zarhae commented. “Oh, also, can I just quickly say something?” Zarhae asked, a strange, rather sadistic smile spreading across his face. “Vengeance is always needed.” He finished, rapidly bringing down his claws on Kamm, putting four small, loudly hissing gashes in his once-airtight skin. Kamm quickly started to soften and sink, slowly deflating beneath Zy and Zarhae.

“Why you little…” Zycora exclaimed in mock anger, before playfully pushing Zarhae off of Kamm’s side.

“Oh for - *sigh…*” Zarhae said, paddling back over to Kamm’s leg to climb up. He began to clamber up, until Zycora appeared above him, giving him another shove back into the water. After splashing into the water, he once again tried to climb up, only to splash back into the water as Zy pushed him again. “Fine then. If you’re not willing to let me come up there… I guess I’ll just have to bring you down here faster~”

Zarhae dove under the water, disappearing out of sight.

“Oh great, of course he’d disappear…” Zy griped, peering over Kamm’s side to try and see where Zarhe’d gone. “Where’s he gone off to now?”

Kamm winced, a trail of bubbles appearing from beneath him. “I think I know where he went…”

Suddenly, a loud splash issued from behind Zy, as Zarhae jumped out of the water. He quickly grappled onto Kamm’s side, tearing a few more holes into him before climbing up onto his neck.

“Wow, Kamm, you’re even softer when you’re hissing~” Zarhae said, hugging Kamm’s neck and then lightly gnawing on one of Kamm’s horns. “I fould come anf poke you again fometime~”

Zy approached behind Zarhae’s perch at Kamm’s shoulder, wobbling somewhat on his quickly sinking back. She grabbed Zarhae by the legs and yanked, trying to pull him off of Kamm again.

“Hey! Ftop it!” Zarhae yelped through Kamm’s horn, managing to still hold onto his neck even with Zy’s pulling. “He’s comfy, ofay?”

Zycora did not, in fact, “Ftop it,” instead continuing to yank on Zarhae, eventually managing to pull him off, sending them both tumbling over Kamm as Zarhae’s claws tore Kamm’s neck and his teeth shredded his horn.

“Nice going, you could have just let him go…” Zy grumbled in mock anger, her and Zarhae untangling themselves.

“Why, is something wrong with not letting go?” Zarhae asked, raising a claw again. “Do-” he jabbed his claw into Kamm’s back, “-you-” he punctured Kamm again, “-not-” a third stab, “-like-” a fourth, “-this?”

“I would like it more if you weren’t speeding up the process so much,” Zy grumbled.

“I… hadn’t thought about that.” Zarhae admitted, realizing just how many holes he’d put into Kamm’s now entirely flat hide. “...my apologies about that, I do agree that it would have been more fun if I had, perhaps, not poked him quite as much.”

“Well then. I suppose we should probably get you to some dry ground, right Zy?” Zarhae asked, changing the subject and beginning to drag Kamm towards the edge of the pool. “Though I would guess you probably don’t tend to get moldy, do you, Kamm?”

“Not really, I don’t exactly stick around folded up for long periods of time, wet or dry.” Kamm explained.

“Thought so.” Zarhae said, pulling Kamm up onto the side of the pool. “By the way - how might I be able to find you two in the future?”

“Probably just around pools or lakes.” Zy responded, finishing with hauling Kamm up.

“Yeah, we’ll probably just be floating around,” Kamm affirmed, his flattened form slowly morphing back into his anthropomorphic one. “...or sinking, as the case may be.”

“I’d assumed so,” Zarhae chuckled, looking over Kamm’s previously unobserved normal body, before beginning to walk away. “Well, this was certainly quite enjoyable, meeting you two. I hope that we’ll meet again soon enough… perhaps a bit less adversarially next time, though.”

“Heh, for sure,” Kamm agreed, he and Zy giving Zarhae a final wave goodbye as they parted.

---

Well, this took a while to write. This is a collab I've been working on writing with  Kammorne, with a meeting between Zarhae and his characters. It's the longest story I've posted here so far, and it's been super fun to write it! I think it came out pretty well, and I'm happy that I've started to really interact with people on here :)