Bro Druid: Its about family

Bodhi could hardly believe it had been over three years since he started dating Nix as he yawned himself awake, cuddling on top of her in their hammock. So much stuff had happened it was hardly believable. Bodhi had been promoted quite against his will to division head lifeguard. Unfortunately for the blue-striped sea otter, that meant less time windsurfing and patrolling the waves and more time doing administrative work. Despite his insistence that all the paperwork was an unnecessary part of the job, Bodhi surprised everyone with his excellent scheduling and inventory control skills. 

 

Nix was doing a lot better with her social anxiety issues. They weren’t completely gone, but the pink-haired, silver-striped hyena flourished with Bodhi. Culinary school had turned the already gifted Nix into a fantastic chef. She was a sous chef at one of the fanciest beachfront restaurants, Le Beach Bum. Nix was also doing better with her body image issue and even managed to convince herself to wear a bikini to a formal druid festival. While the hyena wasn’t polyamorous like Bodhi, she had agreed to a semi-open relationship. They had to be involved with the person, and no one except Nix and Bodhi was allowed in the hammock. 

 

There was a bit of a rough patch when Thalia, Nix’s mom, had come to town with her eldest three daughters.  Bodhi ended up facing them down in an ancient rite of their people. Through several trials, the lifeguard managed to set Nix free from the constraints of her overbearing mom. The youngest, Delia, tried to use magic to prey on Bodhi’s fear of sharks. However, words from the sea otter reminded him that it was okay to be afraid because even sharks feared lightning. With those words echoing in his head, Bodhi summoned his own shark made of lightning magic to strike down all the ones his opponent summoned.

 

Callista, the next sister, tried to outsmart Bodhi by locking him on top of a building. Each door on each floor was locked with a different type of puzzle that would need to be solved before the door could open. Everything had a strict time limit for Bodhi to reach a button outside the lobby to disarm the bombs planted on the structure. After discovering that the puzzles didn’t need to be solved as they didn’t give out a token or something to collect, the sea otter jumped off the roof. Using his wind surfboard, Bodhi slowed his descent and landed safely before slamming the button to disarm the bombs.

 

The last sister, Adreana, was the oldest and the strongest. As a taunt, the hyena woman bent a large weight in half. She gave Bodhi the option to pick a weapon from among a rack that was set up. Not a fan of fighting, the sea otter examined the setup until he picked his kangaroo friend Sheila as his weapon, declaring that she was in the reflection in one of the swords and therefore counted. The roo initially wasn’t getting involved, but when told that Nix was at risk of being forced to give up her dreams, she decided to throw down.  Sheila, an accomplished brawler in her right, put up one hell of a fight. Adreana was not prepared for a battle that was this difficult. Sheila was quicker and agile, but the eldest hyena daughter was stronger. Both were sporting bloody noses, black eyes, missing teeth, and a few cracked bones when Bodhi tripped Adreana out of bounds, causing her to be disqualified.

 

After patching up both fighters, the lifeguard hurried to the final confrontation with Thalia in her rooftop penthouse hotel suite. Bodhi burst through the doors exhausted and worn down from the previous challenges. He didn’t stand a chance against Thalia’s immense power. Between physical and magical might, the Shaman Chief made short work of the blue-striped sea otter. As Thalia was about to break Bodhi’s back, Nix broke free of her bonds and tackled her mom. Finally able to express her pent-up rage from all the years of being beaten down by her mom’s expectations, the pink-haired hyena yelled and screamed till all of her pain was out. Nix carried Bodhi to a medic station to be patched up after telling her mother that she was disowning herself and never wanted to see her again.

 

Thalia left the Cove of Summer Breeze later that night and never returned. While Bodhi hadn’t technically passed all the trials, the hyena matriarch decided to accept that her daughter was her own person now. Nix never heard from her mom or sisters again, and she was happy about that.  She didn’t need them anyway. Bodhi and his family had accepted her as one of their own, plus she had good friends like Sheila here for her.