For those of you new the Astronaut Academy universe, it’s probably worth noting that videogame-inspired bio-engineering has made it so humans can have up to eight hearts stored in their body at one time. Usually you are born with a single heart, and your parents will give you two additional hearts. As you grow older and meet new people, you can trade additional hearts with friends and loved ones! Additional hearts can also be stored in heart containers for safekeeping.
In panel 5 when Tak says “two of my hearts,” I can’t help but think of the animation reference for Avatar the Last Airbender (from the Season 1 DVD) where Bryan Konietzko acts out Aang negotiating with the pirates.
Aang: Pirates love to haggle. Watch and learn. What say ye to the price of… one copper piece!
Pirate Captain: Hahaha! The price is 200 gold pieces. I don’t haggle on items this rare.
Aang: Okay, TWO copper pieces!
It is that monster eating hearts, not Thalia.
I think it is that thing they were talking about in book one where they said they had found something that fed off of human emotions.