Anomaly

by lolmyster42

He doesn't know why he's here, he doesn't know how he got here. He doesn't know who these people are, he doesn't know what these people are. He doesn't know what HE is, either, but he knows what he can do with what he's become. So he'll do everything in his power to avoid being alone again.

4. Chapter 4

Anomaly

---

Episode 4- Arrival

---

"Heya, fuzzyears!"

Keith's ears twitched. He didn't like these people. Corvin really didn't like these people, which was part of the reason he was standing in front of the door leading to the room he and Flora were in. After everything had happened, Keith was certain that if one of these people disturbed Corvin, they would die.

Not that he cared, but the day had been stressful enough.

"They still in there?" If he recalled, the one with purple hair was called Maren. The loud one. "If it's not too much trouble, I'd like to see him."

"Look, he doesn't have the money to pay for any damages he caused to your tavern," Keith said. "And he's pretty steamed right now, so if you barge in there, well… I can't be held responsible for what he does."

She crossed her arms. "I'm not about to leave after chasing someone all this way, how else am I suppose to pay for the damages?"

"Don't know, don't care."

"Why, if I could find me a templar that hadn't run away I'd…" Tiredly, he looked at her jovial green companion, who just smiled more at him. It made him hope that he would pass out there just so Corvin could deal with them if they barged into the room.

Unfortunately, Maren's nagging had no such effect. Just the power to make him more and more irritated.

---

"Mew?" All that noise outside made of really hard for Flora to sleep. She couldn't imagine who Keith was arguing with on the other side of the door, because she was too tired to think about it.

"Mmm… I just had the strangest dream." She rolled over in the bed, surprised to see Corvin's unconscious body in a chair. She poked him, only to get no response. "Huh, Corvin? Did… he stay by my bed because he knew I was upset?"

She went still for a moment in thought, then smiled, dragged his body into bed with her. She was still a little upset with him, but the though pass as she wrapped her arms around him as he slept. "Come on, Corvin," she mumbled as she snuggled into his chest. "Come to bed"

He muttered something in his sleep. "Shhh, no need to wake up. Just…" she yawned, closing her eyes and settling where she lay. Sleep," she muttered as she too feel asleep.

---

"What... what were those things?"

"Big brother, I'm scared…"

"A … business man."

---

Corvin awoke with a start for two reasons: the nightmares startled him, and the fact that his face rolled into something furry. Familiar and furry.

"What the…?" he looked up to see Flora next to him, smiling.

"Mmm, good morning, Corv- mrow?"

She didn't get any further, as Corvin sat up in the bed as fast as he could to hug her. For her, that meant he instantly went from a laying position to a hugging position, which made her blush slightly.

"You're okay," he whispered, stroking her back. "Don't scare me like that again, Flora. Please."

"Corvin? What are you talking about?"

He pulled away, staring at her curiously. "You don't remember?" he asked.

"Remember what?"

He sighed. He was honestly hoping for this. If she had seen the things he had done while fighting Neutral, it would have complicated things, so it was more of a relief than anything. Still, it meant he'd have to explain things to her, which hopefully would prove easier with Keith as a witness.

But there was another matter to attend to. "Nevermind that, Flora. What I want to know is," he said, then pointed down on the bed, "why I'm in here with you!"

She let a giggle out. "Hehe, I couldn't let you sleep in that chair all day, could I?"

He would have retorted, but he was too relieved to do that. He just let a single laugh out, looking down on the bed.

"Corvin!" His head picked back up when the door opened, Keith walking in with a tray. "I got some stuff I thought you might want."

"Oh?" Well, that was thoughtful of him. If it was food he'd have to decline, but at least Flora could get something to eat. She was probably starving after her what her body went through. He scooted to the edge of the bed as Keith walked over, craning his neck to see the tray. "What did you bri-eckh!"

It was water. Two glasses of it. He didn't want that, he didn't want that terrible liquid anywhere near him. "Get that away!" he hissed, slapping the tray away and retreating off of the bed into the corner. Some of it almost splashed on his when he slapped it away, and eyeing the stain on the floor only made him more uneasy.

Keith stared at the hand that once held the tray in bewilderment while Flora giggled. "Is there something I should know, Corvin?" he asked as his eyes slowly traveled up to Corvin.

"He's afraid of water," Flora answered. When Corvin snapped his head to her, frowning, she just stuck her tongue out at him.

He made a "tch" noise. He wasn't afraid of water, just cautious. The same way a normal person would be cautious if someone had just tried to hand them a glass of acid. And he had to look away when she stuck her tongue out at him. He only liked it when he was the one teasing people.

"You? Hydrophobic?" Corvin gasped when he saw a smirk come to Keith's lips. That was probably the second time he'd ever seen him smirk. "Wow, I don't know what to say."

"I'm not hydrophobic!" Corvin growled, dashing right in front of Keith, who reared back in surprise. "I'm just not thirsty, that's all!"

He couldn't believe this. And here he thought after outsmarting Neutral he'd adopted a cool demeanor, and now it was all gone. Brought down a glass of water. He glanced down to the glasses that had fallen to the floor, eyeing them in contempt. It was all their fault he'd just been emasculated.

"Right." Corvin sighed in defeat at Keith's grin. "Well, when you're done, I need to talk to you, okay?"

"We can go now," Corvin said, then looked back at Flora. "Try to get some more rest, please. You've been through a lot."

"I have?"

Corvin turned back to Keith. "Does she really not remember?" he asked.

Keith shrugged in response. It's hard to tell with these things. I can explain later."

"Mh-hm..." Fortunately, Flora had already turned in. If Keith needed to say something, this was about the time. "Alright. Let's go."

---

"What."

It was a simple response, plucked right from the top of Corvin's head. It was about the only response he could think of when he had Keith went outside, only to not find a city in front of them. Just the tavern in the middle of the forest, with not a single trace of the city. Corvin wasn't even sure the ocean was anywhere nearby.

He put his hands on top of his head in disbelief, Keith walking up behind him. "

"That whole city… I think it was just an illusion… only an image of a city that once existed."

"I knew the people were fake, but... oh, Keith," Corvin moaned in despair as his hands slipped back to his sides. "Do you have any idea what this means?"

''What?"

"We... we have to walk more."

SMACK!

"Rude," Corvin muttered as he stared back at Keith, who had an angry scowl on his face while he nurses his open hand. Was it really his fault he was so distraught with the news of having to travel more? The sight of seeing the forest at every turn was beginning to become a tiresome sight for Corvin, and he was hoping a change of scenery would soon approach. That hope had been dashed, and now he stared at what was inevitably to be even more traveling.

Still, he was a bit concerned that the entire city was a fake. Including the harbor with the ships, connected to the ocean. Which was also an illusion. Corvin couldn't begin to fathom how Neutral had pulled something like that off, it's not like they read the maps wrong. Maybe she had them turned around with illusionist tricks or something similar, he didn't have a clue.

He sighed, kicking the dirt under him. Situation could have been worse, he assumed, but it could have been better as well. "Once again, magic has complicated my entire life. Fantastic."

"Corvin, are you alright?"

"I don't know, probably. Ask me again once we know where we're going." He turned towards Keith. "Where are we going, anyways? You have the map."

"I scouted ahead, and I found a strange symbol on the map," he answered, pointing into the distance. Corvin tried to follow the direction the finger was pointing, but when all he saw was more forest he grew too disheartened to look on any further. "So logically, we go in that direction."

"Towards the mystery symbol?" Corvin asked in disbelief. "There's no logic there at all!"

He stopped himself when he felt a certain pair of arms wrap around his waist. Of course she couldn't sleep for long. "And why are you doing this?" he asked.

"This is just what girlfriends do to boyfriends. I thought you should know, since I'm the first girl you ever met." He didn't even need to turn around to know she had that playful smirk on her face. This was twice in a row now.

"Is that what we are now?" The question was more to himself that to anyone else, but Flora responded by nuzzling his cheeks. He chuckled, stroking her hair. "I suppose we're that far. So, we're to move to strange-symbol-land, is that it?"

"What about them?" Keith asked, then nodded to the tavern. "The group that's still in there?"

Corvin froze, twitching his head towards the tavern by a few centimeters. "I forgot about them," he muttered. "They think we're still in there, right?"

Keith nodded. "Yeah, why?"

"Alright, let's skedaddle." Both Flora and Keith's mouths dropped when he shoved his hands in his pockets and started walking forwards, whistling jauntily.

"S... ske-what?" The word sounded strange to Flora when she said it, and Keith's response was to give her a confused glare before shouting out to Corvin, "wait! Corvin!"

"Yeah?" He stopped briefly to turn around and face them.

"The supplies are still in the tavern."

His hands sagged to the side when he remembered, posture going flat. For a brief moment, the thought of just killing that group right then and there seemed to be about the only way Corvin could avoid talking to them. Obviously, Flora would never allow that. But they couldn't continue on without those supplies, otherwise Flora and Keith could potentially starve. On the other hand, he really didn't like any of those people, and wanted to avoid as much contact with them as possible.

Fortunately, there was an out to this situation. One that didn't require anybody to suffer and pain and for everybody to walk away happy. And that out was for Corvin to run as fast as he could back into the tavern, running out not five seconds later with the backpack of supplies in hand and disappearing into the forest.

Keith had rolled his eyes at the sight, Flora laughing. "He's really determined to avoid them isn't he?" she asked.

"Yeah. It's almost comical in a way," Keith said, following after Corvin. "C'mon, let's go. We have a lot of ground to cover."

---

They'd been walking for hours now, and Corvin was thankful for his nearly unlimited stamina. If he were still a normal human he would have passed out from exhaustion a few hours back, but he felt no fatigue whatsoever.

Hands clasped behind his head, he leaned back to look at Flora, who seemed lost in her own thoughts. Her memories of the possession were in bits and pieces, blurry enough that she had thought of the whole ordeal as a dream. Even after they'd explained it to her, she didn't seem that surprised. Even better was that she didn't have any memories of Corvin doing anything inhuman, so that secret was still safe. When Corvin had asked if she was alright, she said she was fine. Corvin didn't believe her, but he'd give her some space. She seemed like she needed it.

As for Keith, he had been... some help. Corvin has asked about Neutral, though the response was a bit vague. Neutral was just one of the three gods who created this world, simple as that. No in-depth story of how that came to be or anything like that. No hidden prophecy or meaningful story or anything. Just gods, that was it, goodbye. He admitted he didn't know much more do to not being the religious type, but his answer when Corvin had asked about the possession had been somewhat helpful.

"They don't reside in this dimension," he had said while they were travelling. "While they can use their power to affect this world, in order to physically do something here they need a host."

A host. That was what Flora was, a product of some invasive parasitic relationship. Neutral got to exist in this world for a short while while she fed off of Flora. The thought made him sick, that along with the thought of gods. Mostly because Neutral was, for all intent and purpose, still alive in the masks' own little dimension somewhere. He just hoped he didn't have to deal with her anytime soon; he was still thinking about some of the things she said. Like the war that was to supposedly begin in the near future. He didn't much care for something like that, especially if he and Flora were to play some pivotal role in it.

He shrugged on the inside. Neutral was wrong about those predictions during the fight, maybe this would be wrong, too. He hoped. Anything to rub in her lack of a nose to prove a point.

"I'm calling it," he suddenly announced, stopping where he was. They had stopped in the middle of a forest clearing, and the light was beginning to die out. "We can set up camp here."

"I'll get some wood for a fire," Keith said.

"Okay. Hey, while you're out, get some water. You two are almost out."

"You mean we're running out," Keith reminded with a annoyed glint in his eyes.

"No, I don't drink water. I don't drink anything. Ergo, it's your water." He was amazed he had yet to be questioned about that. Not that he wasn't preparing a explanation for that, but he was just surprised. Also thankful due to the fact he had yet to come up with anything good.

"Fine, whatever," he dismissed, departing for the materials.

"Corvin...?" He turned around at the sound of Flora's voice, noticing the wary look she had in her eyes. "Corvin… I don't think we should camp out here."

"Because...?"

"Because… keidran have been here… I can smell their scent."

He smirked, placing a hand on Flora's shoulder. "Flora, it'll be fine. It's not like someone is going to come up at our camp and shoot a arrow on us in our sleep."

Not a second passed before he abruptly turned around, waving a hand in the air behind him... only to hit nothing. He turned to face her again with a sheepish grin. "I was hoping that would actually happen once I said that. Murphy's Law, y'know?"

"No, I don't," she giggled, gently taking his hand off of her shoulder. "But yeah, I suppose, the scent was kinda old, anyway. I'm sure we'll be fine for one night."

"Great, glad you feel better," he said, sighing as he sat on the ground, leaning his back against a tree. The act alone brought him some amount of amusement. Back in his old life he would have never imagined sitting on the bare ground, let alone against a tree. He was to afraid of germs and small insects to do something like that. With this body, however, and insects or bacteria that made contact with him, anything organic, really, was instantly consumed, with anything non-organic simply being brushed off. Considering he could never take a shower or bath again in his life, it was a good substitute for keeping him clean.

"... Hey," he asked suddenly, "you think I should start a diary?"

She sat down next to him, quirking a brow at him. "A what?"

"A diary. You know," he said, making a rectangular shape with his hands. "A book I write in. Usually shaped like this."

"I know what a diary is. I want to know why you want to start one."'

He shrugged. "Who knows? All these crazy things happening to me feels like they deserve to be written down. Plus it'll give me something to do, because walking through the woods for this amount of time has grown beyond stale."

"Sounds fun." Her eyes traveled away from him and fell to the ground. "I wish I could do something like that."

"You... you can?" he asked.

"No… as a slave, I was never taught."

He felt a spike of anger go through him when she said that. He had promised to give Flora her privacy concerning her life before meeting him, so he didn't know much of anything during her time as a slave, but the thought of being deliberately kept ignorant... it sickened him due to his upbringing to be an intellectual. He felt another pang, on of guilt, when he realized what he just brought up.

He shook those thoughts away. No, this was something that needed to be addressed. "Do you want to?"

Her eyes widened. "What?"

"Do you want to learn? To read and write, that is. I imagine once we'll get on the boat we'll have some free time, I could try to teach you something then."

Flora beamed at him. "Really!? You would do that!?"

He laughed nervously when she got closer to him. "Of course. If it's something you want to do then-"

Flora scooted over and hugged him, cutting him off. "Thanks," she said.

"Uh... y-you're welcome," he stammered, thankful that she released him. He still wasn't used to physical contact.

"Mm." She got up, dusting herself off. "Well, anyways. Do you mind if I go for a walk?"

"A walk?" Corvin asked.

"Mh-hm. I just wanted to clear my head, it's been a long day. Could you set the tents up while I'm gone?"

"Sure. But are you certain it's safe to go? You said other keidran could be out there."

"Aw…" He felt a blush come to his cheeks when she looked back at him with a adoring face, forcing him to look away. "Don't worry about me. This is my territory."

"If you say so. Have fun." With those words, she left, leaving Corvin to relax against the tree at his own leisure.

"I like how your "cool guy" facade just disintegrates whenever she acts cute near you," Jack snickered in the back of Corvin's head.

He groaned. "Hey, come on. Be nice."

"Naah. It's even worse when you mention wanting to start a diary."

"Even you have to admit you get bored from time to time in this place."

"True. Anyways... surprised you let her off so easily. In the dark. In the middle of a forest we know next to nothing about."

Corvin shrugged. "She'll get annoyed if I follow her around, or worse case she'll think I don't trust her enough to not get hurt if I let her out of my sight for more than five minutes."

"I think that's a little justifiable when she let herself be possessed by a god. A god we then had to fight."

"I wouldn't consider what we did a fight, but you have a point." His eyes flashed yellow as a sonar pulse was sent out to the surrounding area. Not that he didn't trust her to defend herself if anything happened, but it was better to be safe than sorry.

To his annoyance he actually did see someone else advancing on Flora. Someone with a spear. When he looked closer he recognized who it was immediately, causing him to slam his hand down on a tree root next to him. It caved in on impact.

"... Does this mean we can eat him now? I'm really dying to get some keidran genes."

"You what, Jack? I just might eat him."

---

Sythe, in his opinion, has had a rough time lately. It seemed that the entire world was intent at stopping him from getting Flora back with every fiber in it's being, whether it be that damnable human to that grating basitin the the masks themselves.

CAW!

And a crow to annoyingly caw behind him. That was a big distraction for him, but he could ignore it.

CAW!

Hopefully. But after all of these setbacks, he'd finally caught a break by following Flora and those other two here, and stalking her once she made way from camp. Hopefully-

CAW!

Hopefully... he could convince her to leave with him. He had a good argument, after all. She was important, and it's not like anybody had a say in this marriage. Not even that hooded idiot, no matter how much he thought he could sway things his way,

CAW!

He was going to throw a rock at that thing soon, it was hard enough hiding in this brush. Soon, Flora would wander close enough for him to get close enough to talk and-

CA-CHLKH

Sythe froze. Crows didn't make a sound like that. A sound that sounded like a wet crunch. He turned around, spear at the ready to defend himself from whatever had stalked it's way behind him.

He regretted his decision as soon as he turned around.

It was him. That human in the blue hoodie. Standing mere feet away from him with a hand in one of the hoodie's pockets. His other willowy limb clutched a limp crow in his bony fingers. He gagged when he saw the head was missing from the bird, and that the human was chewing something.

"And here I thought I made it clear what would happen if you did this again," he said, completely calm as he bit and swallowed a wing off of the bird. "Frighteningly clear," he added.

Sythe had to control himself from vomiting right there. Both from the shock of seeing him and the way he was eating that bird. But most of all, he was scared. Scared because he didn't know how the human had found him, or managed to sneak up on him.

"What is wrong with you!?" he shouted, pointing at the bird. "Do you know how sick that is!?"

"Hm?" Corvin looked questioningly at the bird, then at Sythe. "I don't see what the problem is. It's my food. I eat this all the time."

"It's just... eugh." He shook his head in an attempt to get the picture out of his mind. It didn't work. "It's just disgusting. Not to mention it's bad luck."

"Bad luck?"

Did this human know nothing? "Crows are seen as a bad omen, you idiot. They're seen as omens of death because they're often seen near dead things. Especially after large battles."

"Or you just see them everywhere because crows are scavengers by nature who will flock to dead bodies due to the prospect of a free meal." He grinned, giving a small shrug. "I'm not the superstitious type, I'm afraid. Probably not a smart thing to say after having fought a god, but what's one to do?"

"You're still on this?" Sythe scoffed. "I don't believe that someone like you could have fought Ephemeral and survive without a single scratch on his clothes."

It just defied logic, and seeing that this human was a bit above average in strength, it would make sense that he would say anything to inflate his ego. He may not have known how he got rid of her, but he seriously doubted he actually fought her. Not when he didn't have a single wound and he talked about it in such a flippant manner.

Not to mention his lithe form. He had almost no muscle to speak of, which probably explained why he was so fast. Less weight to work with. Sythe could probably snap his limbs in half with barely any effort if he was that thin, so he didn't want to imagine what a god could do, even if it was just a host. No, it didn't make any sense at all that he managed to hold her off.

Yet, he was somewhat unsurprised when Corvin just rolled his head as a substitute for rolling his eyes, which for all Sythe knew he didn't even have. "Believe what you want," he said, striding over to him. "That matter is done and over with. Right now, Sythe, we're dealing with the fact that you're stalking us. Again."

"And I told you," Sythe said, raising the spear at Corvin, "that I don't have a choice in the matter. Do you realize how important it is that me and her marry?"

"Her and I," Corvin corrected.

"Whatever! There could be a war, you idiot! This entire marriage is so that the wolf and tiger clans don't go to war!" He noticed Corvin flinch in the slightest at that, and took that as a sign to continue. "Do you really want a war to break out because you wouldn't let her go with me!?"

"I don't care."

Sythe's eyes widened. Did he hear him right? "Didn't care"? He just explained that the possibility of countless being slaughtered due to not giving Flora up, and his response was not caring?

"Do you care... to repeat that?" Sythe asked, teeth beginning to grit together.

"I said I don't care," Corvin repeated. "I guess those big ears of yours are just for show, huh?"

"How?" Sythe asked, spear pointed further at Corvin. "How could you say something like that?"

"What matter is it to me that two clans I've never even heard of go to war over something as pointless as this? It doesn't effect me in any way. And I don't much care for idiots slaughtering each-other over something as trivial as this."

"You..."

"All that matters to me is Flora. She's all that matters, nothing more. She's mine and mine alone, Sythe. You and all those clans are just in the way. So I'll repeat myself..." He began to slowly walk forwards again, not caring for the weapon pointed at him. "I don't care that a bunch of fools will kill themselves over something pointless. It's not like it would be the first time."

He threw the spear. He couldn't help it. Corvin's callous words filled him with too much rage to think rationally, so him throwing the spear was almost reflexive. And to his dismay Corvin used two fingers to flick the spear away like it was nothing, sending it landing to the ground.

"Tell you what," he said. "You gave me some insight on something important, and I'm in a good mood. So I will give you yet another chance here, Sythe."

Sythe balled his fists, getting into a ready stance. He didn't know why, it was just instinctual. But part of him hoped Corvin wouldn't choose to fight him.

"You see, I need to insure you never follow us again. And Flora could use some closure on the chapter of her life involving you," Corvin continued, "so you're going to explain things are over between you two and whatever business dragged you two together, and then leave us forever. How does that sound?"

"Sounds like something I would never do," Sythe growled. "You can't force me to do something like that."

Corvin hummed in response, taking his empty hand out of his pocket and inspecting his nails. "Well, I wouldn't say that. You say you don't believe me when I say I defeated Neutral. Why is that?"

"You don't look strong, and you don't look wounded," he answered. "Nothing about you says that you were in a fight. Even the way you walk. The way you talk. You're not a fighter."

"You're right, I'm not. Admittedly I used a bit of trickery."

Sythe smirked, despite the situation. "I knew it. So you cheated."

"I wouldn't call it cheating." Corvin's voice sounded far off as he inspected his nails, not aimed towards Sythe. That put him on edge a bit more. "I've always considered cheating to only exist in games. Once lives have been taken into consideration cheating ceases to exist, transforming into underhanded tactics to win." He clenched his hand. "I don't fight fairly. I don't follow rules of engagement unless they strictly benefit me. I use any means to win and to make sure nobody I care about is hurt in the process. As long as I win it doesn't matter. So no, Sythe, I didn't cheat."

He opened his hand, Sythe gasping softly. He blinked to make sure what he was seeing wasn't real, but it was. His nails had changed, curling into hooks and taking on some gray, metallic color. "Must be magic," he thought grimly. He knew something was off with this human.

"I won." Corvin flicked his wrist, causing Sythe to hiss in pain as a stinging sensation came to his hand. "That's all there is to it."

Sythe released a hiss of pain, gripping his hand. One of Corvin's nails had found itself embedded into his finger. "Y-you little..." he growled, ready to rush Corvin, maybe claw him in the face. He was halted with a cry of pain when four more nails embedded themselves in the rest of his fingers.

"I used these to pull the mask off of Flora," Corvin explained, waggling his now nail-less fingers. The other hand was completely intact, still clutching the half-eaten bird. "They're connected to microscopic threads attached to my finger tips."

"Micro-what?" Sythe gasped out, contemplating if he should just rip the hooks out. Though, something told him that if he did that, Corvin would just put them back in.

Said human sighed at the question. "They're too small for you to see," he dryly stated, then went back to inspecting his hand. "Oh dear, it appears I've used all five nails, and my other hand is preoccupied." He rubbed his chin, seemingly deep in thought. Sythe knew by his teasing tone that it was just to make him more mad.

He snapped his fingers. "I know. I'll just make more."

Sythe couldn't believe his eyes when he saw more hooks grow in place of his fingernails, and yelped in pain when Corvin continued to flick more and more on him. Fingers, palms, forearms, shoulder, feet, calves... all of his limbs were embedded with countless hooks, the pain causing Sythe to drop to his knees as he stared up at Corvin with a hateful glare.

"It's a bit crude, I know," he admitted, looking up from Sythe to look behind him. "Think of it like a puppet's strings. I hold you in place while you explain it all away to her. And if you say anything I don't like I simply hang you from a tree branch until you suffocate. Ready?"

"N-no!" he yelled, looking helplessly at the hooks embedded in his skin. The pain wasn't unbearable, that was one thing at least. Just excruciating. And Corvin sounded serious when he said those threats, which deterred Sythe from attempting any form of trying to come up with a way to escape. Not that he could, considering the fact that he didn't see a way out of this.

"Too bad, because all that screaming you did earlier drew Flora to us." The leaves behind them began to rustle, Corvin taking that as his que to leap into a branch hanging overhead to watch below. He let out a mocking "good luck" to Sythe on the way up, causing the wolf to snarl up at him.

It was official. Sythe hated no other person in existence more than Corvin.

---

"You... you don't want to get married?"

Those very words sent ripples of anger through Corvin. The thought alone that something like that almost transpired. That somebody else would touch his Flora. He quickly curled a finger, causing one of Sythe's arms to be raised upwards at an awkward angle. He yipped in response.

"Are you okay?" Flora asked, looking at Sythe strangely.

He smiled, nodding frantically. "Uh-huh! Yeah! I just, uh... itchy back! It's been killing me, but I got it, don't worry."

Corvin rolled his eyes, taking a bite out of the crow he was holding. Currently, he was laying on his back on the branch above the two, leg draped over the other while his hand extended past the branch just so it would be easier to manipulate the strings. Evidently it was harder than it seemed, seeing as more than one hook was attached to each finger.

He curled his thumb. Three of Sythe's fingers broke in response. He would commend him on keeping a straight face if he didn't hate him so much.

"Oh my," Corvin thought to himself. "It appears I'm no good as a puppeteer."

"And we had such a promising career ahead of us," Jack chortled in response. "About what Sythe said, with the war and all that. You really don't care?"

"Hmm. Not entirely." Corvin considered briefly what would happen if he were to just clench his entire hand. He imagined all of Sythe's limbs snapping in half at once. It helped him think clearer. "It's not exactly an answer Flora would approve of. It's not like if I were to see innocents about to be hurt in front of me that I wouldn't help, but... it's a war. And I doubt it will be fought for a good reason if a arranged marriage hinges on it."

"Meh. Give people too much power, and they're liable to abuse it. Especially if they're blind."

"Blind?"

"Metaphorically. Fools who don't know how the world works, the impacts of their decisions on the common folk, blah blah blah. You know, blind. Wars like that happened all the time in our old world, I'm not surprised it happens here, too. Especially when the humans here will let a maniac run around committing genocide against a whole species for some fickle reason."

"... They're young, though. This world's civilizations are only five hundred years old, give or take a decade."

"The one you were from was thousands of years older and still did stupid things like this. Same shit, different reasons. You're right, why bother. Unless we walk straight into the war it doesn't concern us."

"And I would agree with you if Neutral's prophecy didn't say me and Flora would be right in the middle of it."

"... True."

"Look, now doesn't seem the time to think about this. All I care about right now is keeping Flora safe and happy. And if something happens that disturbs that goal, I'll deal with it." He leaned his head over the branch to look down at that two.

"I don't see what the point is in trying to force you into a marriage when we both would be unhappy in it. Even if the elders demand it happens. So... I'll stop following you," Sythe said. "I'll say I couldn't find you or something."

"That's... wow, Sythe. I didn't think you would admit something like that. It's a little bit of a relief to be honest."

Corvin smiled. Yes, that was it. This was what he wanted. An obstacle smoothly being removed from his life. He smiled even more when the two said a few more passing words before Flora nodded, turning to leave. He couldn't believe his luck in how smoothly that went.

And as soon as she was out of earshot Sythe gripped his fingers, a low whine coming from the back of his throat.

Finishing the res of the crow, Corvin slid off of the branch and in front of Sythe, clapping his hands. "Bravo, Sythe, your sub-par acting skills were enough to satisfy me."

"Great. So get these things out of me already." Sythe scratched his arm, near where one of the hooks were. He had an agitated look on his face.

Corvin made a "tsking" noise, grabbing Sythe's muzzle while forcing his right arm to stiffen. His left one tried to smack Corvin away, to which he responded by grabbing the wrist, stopping it.

"I'm afraid I just can't do that," Corvin whispered, his fingers twitching and causing Sythe's right arm to go as straight as possible. "Sythe, if memory serves correct I did warn you. Do you know what that means?"

He saw anger blazing in Sythe's eyes as he tried to wrench himself free of Corvin, though it was to no avail. Any sound he tried to make was muffled in his mouth as Corvin had a firm hold on it. "It means," Corvin continued, "that I already let you off once without any punishment. I can't let you off free again, otherwise there wouldn't be any encouragement for you not to try this again. And I'm afraid I'm not satisfied with a few broken fingers."

His fingers ever-so-slowly curled, with Sythe's arm beginning to bend. Corvin saw Sythe sweat, likely due to the wolf realizing the arm was bending the wrong way, towards his elbow. A few popping sound were heard from said elbow. "Sythe, I'm not doing this because I want to. I'm doing this because I need to. Because putting her in risk is a course of action I refuse to even entertain the thought of. It's all for her sake, you understand."

Sythe started to scream, a muffled scream that reached no ears but his and Corvin's. The arm was bending too far back, and blood was beginning to drip down his elbow. His efforts to break free from Corvin were becoming more and more frantic.

He sighed, clenching his fist. The arm snapped off completely at the elbow, falling to the ground. Corvin shook his head sadly at Sythe as his eyes rolled into the back of his head, his body going limp. He made sure to heal the stump on what was left of his arm before tossing him to the ground, whatever flesh being left over having been fused to the wound. He'd be fine.

"I could simply just reattach your arm, but I'm not going to." He said these words more to himself than Sythe, his words barely above a whisper. "Maybe this will deter you from stalking us ever again. And maybe be thankful, I'm sure others in my position would do far worse. But I'm feeling generous this evening. Here," he said, using his threads to place the arm on top of Sythe, retracting all of the hooks back into his fingers until only his normal nails remain.

"I'll even leave the arm to you, so you have something to remember this by. Because I'm such a nice guy, Sythe."

"Or we can eat the arm. Maybe get something good out of it. Just saying."

"There will be other opportunities, Jack. Just be patient. I'm sure the day where a keidran drives me over the edge and forces me to consume them is near."

"hmph. Whatever. Anyways, Flora should be getting back to camp now. To the camp without any tents."

Corvin's body stiffened, his hands going to his face. "No..." he gasped softly, tearing his head back towards the campsite. "The tents... I forgot to pitch them!"

He'd been so caught up in this that he had forgotten all about the tents. He cursed his own incompetance, dashing back to the campsite before Flora could step foot in. He couldn't break the promise he made t her about pitching the tents, the she would be upset. He couldn't have her upset, no matter what. So he raced back as soon as he could to put the tents up.

He didn't pay Sythe's mutilated body any mind on the way back.

---

"Ah! Ah, this isn't good!"

He couldn't do it, not matter how fast he went. She was just too close, and he didn't have any experience pitching tents. As a result, he only managed to get two of them up.

"You don't even sleep, though," Jack reminded Corvin.

"But I... hm. I guess you're right." He could just say he wasn't tired, right? And that'd he would just stay up all night? It wouldn't be the first time he used an excuse like that, but there were only so many times he could use that one. He should have paid more attention to Keith whenever he set the tents up.

"Corvin, I'm back!"

He turned around, smiling and waving all the while hoping she wouldn't mention the tents. "Hey," he waved. "Walk fine?"

"Eh, got side-tracked…" she sighed, collapsing right on top of him. He caught her with his arms, holding her close to his chest. "I'm just exhausted. It seems like all we do is travel around. After all this is over, I just want to go back home and settle down."

"Settle down, huh?" he asked. "Yeah. That sounds nice."

Flora looked over his shoulder, to the tents. "Is that my tent over there?"

"Geh."

"It's over, abort. It's all over, Corvy. No hope."

He chuckled nervously, shaking his head. He should have spent less time ripping Sythe's arm off. It was all his fault he was in this situation to begin with. "You see, uh... there is only two."

"Yeah, but why?"

She wanted a reason!? "'Cause... I don't know, there's just two."

"But there's a third one right there." The "third one" she was referring to was the pile of cloth and stakes piled on the ground near the center of the camp, Corvin's last-ditch effort of constructing the third and final tent. But he just wasn't fast enough, it took him too long just to set the first one up. The second went faster, but her footsteps were already withing earshot by the time he finished it. So there the third one lied, unfinished.

"... I guess I got sidetracked, too," Corvin grinned, rubbing the back of his head. "Sorry about that. I only got two up."

"Oh… but… then where am I supposed to sleep?" Flora asked.

"In the tent?" Corvin nodded to the one on the left. "I mean, that one over there is pretty solid. The other one will probably collapse if a slight gust of wind passes through the campsite, so Keith can get that one. I'll just stand here all night."

She frowned, looking up at him. "You almost never sleep, Corvin. It worries me." She poked his chest. "In fact the only time I've ever seen you sleep is... well, after the whole fight thing happened..."

He hummed. It was distressing her, his lack of sleeping habits. He couldn't blame her, if their roles were reversed he'd be worried, too. He could just put the third tent up, but he didn't really want to. And he would prefer not to sleep in a tree. Which meant there was only one option.

"Well..." he murmured, pushing her finger away, "if you're that concerned about it, I can just... well, could I just sleep with you?"

There was a moment where they both just stood there, with the realization of what Corvin just said dawning on him. He looked calm on the outside, while on the inside he was screaming in fright. Oddly, Jack was silent.

"Y-you mean… you don't mind if I sleep in your tent with you…?" She had a gleam of something in her eyes. He didn't know what it was, but it was something. It scared him.

"I... suppose not...?" He gave an awkward shrug in response. "I'm... you'll have to forgive me, I'm not the best in these types of things and-"

"It's alright, Corvin." She hugged him tighter, though it did nothing to help him become less flustered. "It's about time anyways you let us do something like this."

"I... is it?"

"Mh-hm."

"Oh. Well... alright." He returned the hug. She always managed to calm him down, even if she was the one who worked him up to begin with. He always thought it a bit too soon to start getting this physical, but she made it seem as though it were natural. She made it in a way that it felt nice... like it was suppose to happen.

"I love you, Corvin… hey Corvin?"

"Yes?"

"Are we gonna… you know…?"

"Are we gonna… what?"

"You know... the thing."

"No. I don't. What thing?" He pulled away from her just to get a better look at her. She seemed hesitant to ask whatever it was that she asked, and was blushing slightly. But for the life of him he didn't know what she meant.

"Jack, what does she mean?"

"I lose all hope for you if you aren't able to figure it out."

He thought about it for a few seconds. Still turned up blank. "Can I get a hint?"

"Ugh, here's a big one, Corvin. She wants sex."

"Oh. Alright." Somewhere in the back of his head some glass shattered. "Wait not alright! What!?"

"You're on your own, boyo."

He would have made some outward sign of his shock if he didn't think it would offend her, and thanked his hood for covering his eyes, otherwise she would see them opened wide enough to look like they were ready to pop out of his skull.

"You... you're serious?" he asked. She nodded, something he wished she hadn't done. "But it's so soon, I mean we just started hugging and you want to jump to something as intimate as that!?"

"Wha? But we kissed before, didn't we?"

He groaned, grabbing his chin and looking down. "We did kiss," he muttered, then looked back up. "Flora, it's... I... is it what you want?"

She looked down a bit with him, pressing the tips of her fingers together. "Well... I've been thinking about it. In my culture I'm considered old enough, plus we're in this relationship, we both love each other, so... well, if you don't want to-"

"Do you?" he quickly asked. "Is it something you want?"

Her blushed deepened, but signs of hesitation were beginning to ebb off of her. "I do want it, Corvin."

Well, that changed everything for him. If she wanted it he'd have to do it with her. If he declined it could make her unhappy. He couldn't have that. "Then of course," was his answer. "Just... wait in the tent for a bit, please? I need a minute."

She nodded. Eagerly. Then ran off to the tent. Eagerly. Most like to undress while waiting for him. And she would most likely undress eagerly.

He sighed. Deeply. This was a very big leap he was taking here. Sex meant he'd have to take all of his clothes off. Including the hood. She would see his face. Not that there was anything wrong with his face, in fact the regeneration bit of his anatomy made it so he didn't have a single blemish on his body. He just didn't like people seeing his face except those that were close to him. Then again, with what they were about to do, it was hard to get much closer. Fine, then. She would get to see his face. She was the only person on the planet with the privilege, after all.

Oddly, as he made his way to the tent, he didn't feel much of anything in terms of excitement. Not even anticipation. It was to his knowledge one was supposed to feel something along the lines of something like this when they were about to engage in something like this, but he didn't really feel that much. It was there, just in a lower amount than he would expect. But he brushed any notion of that off as he walked to the tent. It was nothing, he was sure. Just his nerves taking a while to catch up was all.

But any and all thoughts pertaining to why he didn't feel that nervous evaporated when he entered the tent and saw her. The fur covered anything that was too revealing, but any and all clothes had been disregarded as she sat there expectantly. She was grinning nervously, and he noticed that her tail was starting to sway back and forth as he sat down next to her.

"So..." he trailed off, not really sure how one would start something like this. He or any memories he had contained no experience whatsoever.

He felt her tug at his sleeve. "Well, we can take this off first," she said.

Hesitantly, he nodded. "I can keep the hood though, right?"

Her response was to wrap her arms around his neck, kissing him briefly while looking up into his face. "Corvin, I would like to see the face of the person I love." She gave him a teasing smirk. "Or do you not trust me enough for that?"

"N-no, it's not that." He felt her grip the sides of his hood as she started to slowly slide it down. He let her, not matter how flustered he became. "It's just, well, I haven't shown my face to anyone in a while so and-"

The hood dropped fully, exposing his face to everything inside the tent.

---

Flora was mildly surprised when she saw Corvin's face fully, for the first time. He was a bit younger than she would expect, that was for sure. Though his age was one of the few things on her mind as she ran her hands over his smooth, alabaster skin, a motion he gave a small smile at. His black hair came down in straight, pointed bangs that she brushed out of the way of his face, noting how the tips of the bangs ended in a dark blue color instead of black. The same blue as his eyes, which stared into hers.

She blinked at those eyes. They seemed tired, in a way. It gave her the desire to try and make him happier, with her taking his thin chin into her hands and lifting his face into hers so they could kiss again.

They broke apart, her heart pounding in her chest when he pulled her closer to him. "I... I don't know what to say," he whispered.

She hugged him tighter. "I think you do," she whispered back.

He blinked, then smiled. "You're right. Flora, the only other people that have ever seen my face were my family. I always felt insecure, so I hid behind a hood. So, I suppose me being brave enough to show you my face... I do love you, don't I?" They kissed again, with him leading in this time. "Yes. I do love you, Flora."

Her heart beat faster as something a feeling began to grow in her. Those words were enough to set her off as the two embraced in a passionate kiss again, settling on the ground, while a feeling of happiness washed over her, among others. Feelings she couldn't put into words as she let herself into the throes of passion.

---

Keith groaned under the weight of supplies in his hand, annoyed as usual as he walked into camp. It's not that he minded getting the necessary supplies, it's just that the other two made him do it more often than they did.

He wasn't mad or anything, he would just appreciate it more if they did something once in awhile, and he made this request vocal as soon as he entered camp. "Ugh, finally. Corvin, it's your turn to go on watch. I'm exhausted." No response. "Huh, Corvin? Now where'd that stupid human go? Hm?"

He saw movement in one of the tents. Too much movement for just one person. "Ow, hey, that's my tail, Corvin!"

That was Flora's voice. "Er, sorry. Forgive me, it's the first time I've ever done something like this. Does this feel better?" And that was Corvin's voice.

"I know, me nei- eep! Mm… that's nice…" Keith stared, disbelief on his face. He knew what those sounds meant, and he was starting to see a clearer picture of what their positions in the tent was. Sighing, he walked off, muttering to himself "… on second thought I think I'll go scouting for… a while…"

It wasn't his place to interrupt something like that, after all. After everything they had been through, they could use a break. He just hoped it wouldn't be a regular thing, because he didn't have the patience to do this every night.

---

"Aya… oh no… no… why? Why would you do this!? How could you do this to your own daughter!?"

"I simply made her perfect… now her beauty is preserved, and we can be together… forever… come, Corvin, it's your turn."

"You... to my own sister... I'll kill you!"

"Now, that's no way to talk to your father, Corvin!"

These were the voices that had woken Corvin up, in the middle of the night. It was disappointing, in some way. There was a small hope in him that being with Flora would stave off those dreams, but it seemed that was in vain. Oh well, it didn't matter.

He looked down to her, Flora's body nestled with his own while both of their arms were wrapped around each other. He noticed that her eyes were open as well, and were looking up into his.

"Nightmares?" he guessed. She nodded, to which he rubbed her back kissing the top of her head. She purred contently, snuggling back into his chest while falling asleep once again.

He was glad that he was able to lull her to sleep so easily, but there was no cure for the agitation he had that she had nightmares to begin with. But there was little to do about that. All he could do was comfort her to the best of his ability, and make her as happy as possible. And making her happy was all he could think of as he fell asleep as well, drifting back into his own nightmares.

---

He awoke that morning as he always did when he fell asleep: in an alert state of panic. Fortunately he was able to get a normal composure withing a half second, so Flora shouldn't notice it.

Speaking of which...

She wasn't in his arms. Rather, she was at the entrance to the tent, wiping the bottom of her feet with a rag. Her ears perked up and her head turned around, giving him a smile.

"Good morning, Corvin!" she chirped, giving him a small wave.

He smiled. "Oh, hey…" He gave a small wave back. "What's going on?"

"Well, I just wanted to open up the tent and go get some fresh air." She glanced down at her feet, frowning. "Unfortunately, the ground was all wet. My feet got pretty muddy walking around. It must have rained while we were asleep. And looking at the clouds, I think it might again."

"R-rain? As in water that falls from the sky? That rain?" he stammered, unconsciously shifting his body further back of the tent. "You know what, I'm just going to stay in the tent. Tent sounds good. Tent sounds safe. I'm not going out there no matter what you do." The last part was whispered quietly enough for her not to hear it, but he meant every word.

She grinned, crawling over to him and placing her hands on his shoulders. "Well, I don't know about you, but I think I can come up with something to do to pass the time..."

"Oh really? What would that be?"

She blinked heavily, tracing a finger on his bare chest. "Oh, you know..."

His smile fell a bit and he tilted his head inquisitively. "No seriously, what?"

Her smile completely fell, and she gave him a deadpan look that suggested he should know what she was talking about. He couldn't come up with any possible answer that was obvious, so he just chuckled nervously while shrugging.

Deep withing his mind was a heavy sigh. "Sex."

His eyes widened a bit, and his mouth made an oh-shape in realization. However, Flora had already pounced on him and started assaulting his mouth before he could get a sound out.

---

There wasn't a name for the realm that the three who lived here occupied. It was was; a separate dimension from the one that they ruled.

One dark-robed figure, who's head was naught but a stone mask with ominous red eyes, looked at a model of their world, constructed from mist. He barely paid attention to the shattered pieces of another mask, this one with yellow eyes, slowly floating across from the one with red eyes. Another masked figure in black, this one with blue eyes, stayed away from the other two, this one content to just watch.

"This is a problem," the one with red eyes said, the mist-model shifting to that of a model of a town. Two figures were displayed in the middle of that town, one being Neutral's mask attached to a tiger keidran. Across from her was a blue-hooded figure, crossing his arms and smirking confidently.

"Oh? Is it?" Though temporarily shattered, Neutral was still capable of speech. She couldn't call herself a god if she couldn't do that much.

"Do you know why this is such a problem? If not, take a look." The figures moved, imitating the battle they had. All three looked intently at it, not at Neutral, but at Corvin in particular, scrutinizing every single move he made. Every dodge he made, he made without any effort on his part. Never losing his composure. And the fact that he missed all of his claw slashes didn't ease any of their minds, for Corvin had admitted they were mere feints so he could set his trap. All three knew full well he could have ended Neutral in an instant had she not possessed Flora.

"I'm not mad that a creature such as that managed to best you." The red-eyed mask shrugged. "It happens to the best of us, our host are merely hosts after all."

"So why is it you're so upset at me, Chaos?" Neutral asked.

"I'm angered because he mocked you at every single turn. That he defeated you effortlessly. And I'm angered because he made a fool of you." He pointed an aged hand at the image of Corvin, the eyes of the masks narrowing. "A creature who could so easily overpower a host should not exist in our world."

"You are the one who brought him to this world, Chaos." This came from the blue-eyed mask further back, his voice calm though criticizing. "Don't be upset at your own fault."

"I didn't bring him, the demon did," Chaos corrected. "And I wouldn't have had to make that deal of Neutral hadn't killed my champion by mistake."

"Oh ho ho ho..." The three turned to the new voice, all sets of eyes narrowing. The sound of black loafers clonking on the floor that didn't exist in this realm echoed to them as the being in front of them tipped his hat to them, a red-slit eye staring at them from behind it's brim.

"You could have refused the deal, you know," the demon reminded Chaos as he gave him a condescending smirk. "I would have loved to set him loose in a more fun world, just to see what would happen. But the circumstances here were too good to pass up."

"Hmph. A champion is a champion, I suppose. As long as he's with the humans." That was Chaos' logic, at least. Someone that could beat any of the other champions effortlessly seemed too good to be true, but he had taken Corvin anyways. He was starting to regret it.

"Hmm? The humans?" The demon gave a sordid laugh off. "Why ever would he side with them? You three know as well as I do all he cares about is his Flora. That will never change."

Chaos scoffed, glancing down at the image of Corvin. "I should have been more specific."

"Indeed. You asked for a champion, not a champion for humans. I gave you what you asked for, no more and no less." He sighed, looking contently at the image. "Of all the humans I've played with, his father was always the most interesting. And Corvin is no exception. I warned you not to reveal your existence to him, but now that you have, he'll stop at nothing at resisting him." He gave a cruel smile, which did nothing but anger the three masks. "And what will you do? I doubt his friends will allow themselves to be possessed by their species' respective masks, and he has the ability to decimate any host with ease. You three are unable to remove yourselves from this realm, so you are unable to stop him yourselves. He is not human, so you would not be able to forcibly take control of him, Chaos. And while you three can change the world's mechanics at your whim, the biology of the very races that inhabit it... but he is not from your world. Your godly magic has no power over him."

Bits and pieces of these facts had dawned on the masks the more and more they observed Corvin, but all of this brought together only served to anger them. They were gods, after all; they were used to being the most powerful, and able to change anything they didn't like. That's what being a god was to them.

To have something like that exist, however... something that could defy them just be existing. It was vexing to no end. And none felt that anger more than Chaos.

"Why?" he asked. "You... you knew. You knew the problems he would cause, and hid it from us. So why? Why would you give us something like this?"

The demon said nothing, instead continuing to admire the image. "Humans are such fascinating creatures," he said, "for years I've toyed with them. Explored different worlds of humans. But their individuality, the way they think, the radical difference they share... it all fascinates me. Perhaps I wanted to see if gods were the same. Or perhaps I was bored. Not even I know." His smile fell a bit. "Though, I have learned that gods interest me none compared to humans. You're much too fickle and petty. Frankly, you are a complete and utter bore."

That was the last straw for Chaos. He had been made a fool of. His title as a god mocked by this lowly demon. But he was still a god, and had the power of one. And with a wave of his hands, those powers were demonstrated by a picture of a skull, made of red smoke, appearing over the demons neck before dissipating.

The other two masks' eyes widened slightly. They knew that mark well, for it was a mark used to kill any living creature, no matter who they were. And this demon was alive, so he was no exception.

The demons slit eyes widened briefly, before settling in their normal coy look. "Do you have any inclination to what significance the Destroyer has to maintaining the balance of the multiverse, mask?"

"I don't much care," he answered. "This is the price you pay for incurring the wrath of gods: death, demon. And that is all you will get from me. You will slowly die from that mark I have placed on you,

"So be it." The demon's calm demeanor surprised at the masks. Most would be more upset at the prospect of them dying, some even in panic. Depressed. Enraged. But he just smiled at them, turning around and walking back. Back to whence he came from. "I still have one single toy left I managed to salvage. I'll have more fun with him and then, who knows?" He stopped. "Oh, by the by. I hear you've been having trouble seeing the future, Neutral. I'd be worried about that. It could mean all sorts of things." He continued walking. "Well, fare thee well, masks. This will be the last time we ever converse. So goodbye."

He disappeared in a blue portal, leaving the three alone. "I'm utterly furious," Chaos stated, turning the model back into one of the planet. "The game will continue regardless. As a god, I can command the Templar to do as they please. They can deal with Corvin. And the war will commence, regardless of any interference, with the humans triumphing."

"And I will have to make sure keidran blood is preserved, through any means," Neutral thought, staring at the model of the planet along with Chaos.

The third said nothing, content to just stare along with them. And with that out of the way, the three continued to do what they have always done, and what they plan to forever do: rule their world and change it however they see fit. But for now, they would settle with the way it was now, and merely observe their game unfolding to see which species would last the longest. All except Neutral, who would make one small change. A change that very well changed the fate of everyone, the masks included.

---

Corvin Drevis was upset.

Well, upset wasn't the word. More like disappointed. Somewhere along those lines. He was just reminded of that fact when he tilted his head down, seeing Flora asleep on his chest.

Being intimate with Flora gave insight to certain traits this body of his had, which Jack had elaborated. Such as it's lack of sensitivity. Take pain, as an example. The fundamental reason that pain existed in every creature was to make said creature aware that damage was being inflicted in a certain area, and for it to be uncomfortable enough for the creature to remove the source of pain. This feeling would later implant itself as a memory in the creature and provoke fear whenever it knew it would suffer similar pain, all for the effort to avoid the pain. That's why it existed.

For Corvin, it was different. He regenerated every single wound he had, so he didn't need to worry about grievous wounds. A normal person having their eyes gouged out would experience enormous pain, that pain being the body telling the person to get away from whatever was damaging them in that area, else they would lose their sight. This pain would be intense because it would be damage beyond repair, and it would be losing a sense crucial for survival. That's why when someone's eyes were being gouged out their body would scream at them to stop whatever was causing the damage. But if Corvin's eyes were to be gouged out he could merely shrug and regenerate a new pair, hence there being no need for his nerves to be able to transmit that amount of pain. It was damage he could easily repair. There wasn't any amount of damage he couldn't repair.

Pain. Pain wasn't necessary for him. And Jack had explained that if there was a necessary part of his biology the virus that had mutated him rejected it. He could still feel a minute amount of it, just enough to tell him something was damaging him, but nowhere near what any other creature would feel. This... had an unfortunate side effect. Nerves like that deadened other sensations as well... such as pleasure.

That's why he was so disappointed when he looked down at Flora. He only derived about five or ten percent of sexual gratification that anybody else would have, and it proved to be very annoying to him. Another factor was his strength. He always had to be so careful when holding her, embracing her. Just an ounce of extra force and he could wind up snapping her in half, which was why it was especially vexing during sex. He had to spend half his concentration making sure he didn't break her spine.

In summary, sex sucked for him.

Though it mattered little when it came to Flora, who he affectionately petted as she laid sleeping on his chest. The one silver lining to his lack of gratification was he could divert any focus not being used to try and not kill her to pleasure her. And based on the sounds she made during their activities she was more than pleased at his ministrations. The near-infinite stamina surely helped in that regard. Still... it didn't stop him from wanting more out of it.

He sighed, leaning his head back on the ground. No use dwelling on something he couldn't fix. Though he should probably do something about the fact that he could see the sun shining through the tent directly above him.

"Flora? Are you awake?" Corvin asked, not bothering to move his head from where it was.

Her response was a groggy groan, followed by, "mmm, no, just resting."

"It's the middle of the day. The water is likely gone by now."

She didn't make a move. "Mmm, five more minutes," she pleaded, digging her head further into his chest.

Corvin sighed. "Very well. Five more minutes."

She sighed contently, still not moving from her spot. "You know, it's weird. Your heartbeat is so quiet I can't even hear it."

Jack already had an explanation prepared for that, as if sensing that Corvin was going to ask about what she said. In truth he didn't even think his heart beat at all, now that he thought about it. At this very instant he didn't feel it beat.

"She can't hear your heartbeat because you don't have one. Your body is pure viral matter that can change itself on a whim, you don't need an organ system to keep you alive. All of your organs are no more than superficial placeholders who's only use is to give this human form more face. In fact the only thing in you that has any use is your skeleton for support, but even that doesn't factor in much help."

So that explained it. If he were to to rip his own organs out, brain, stomach, all of it, he wouldn't be affected in the slightest. Because those organs didn't provide any life to him. They were just placeholders.

But once again, he pushed these thoughts aside. They didn't matter in the slightest. All that mattered was being with her, and keeping her safe through any means. Keeping her happy. Content. But for now, she was satisfied, and he himself felt content knowing that. He got up from the ground, laying her down in his spot and touching his discarded clothes. They morphed into tendrils and swam over his skin, reforming into his normal attire.

He took one glance back at Flora, giving a smile off before exiting the tent. He was happy enough for now, even if he did want to feel a bit more. But as far as Flora was concerned, it didn't matter. For now that would have to be good enough.

---

He was surprised to see Keith at the fire, poking it with a stick like usual. He could have figured as much.

"Keith," Corvin greeted as he sat down next to him.

"Corvin," he greeted back.

"So... been here all night?"

"Had to. Someone had to keep watch while you and Flora were doing gods-know-what in there."

Corvin smiled at the jest. "Hey, now. Gimme a break."

"Give you a break? I've been up all night watching the place, so if anybody needs a break it's me."

"Fair point." Corvin stuck his thumb out towards Keith's tent. "Go on, get some rest. I'll wake you and Flora up in an hour and then we can get a move on.

"Sounds good." Keith made a move to get up, then stopped briefly, pointing to the ground next to Corvin. "By the way, caught you breakfast," he said.

Corvin looked down, spotting a dead crow next to the place he sat. He eyed it with distaste, realizing it had been dead for at least thirty minutes. Inedible.

He looked up. "I only eat the live ones," he said.

Keith blanched a little, but managed to wave it off and go back to his tent. Alone, Corvin looked up at the sky, where a lone crow was circling the camp. He was tempted to throw the dead one at it in order to make it drop down to him, but interestingly the crow flew down and landed on his shoulder.

He gave it a perplexed look, giving it a tap on the beak to make sure it was real. It didn't fly away at his touch, instead content to just sit there, staring at him. He didn't give much thought to why the crow decided to up and descend on his shoulder, instead just grabbing it and devouring it in three bites quickly.

"Corvin? Corvin…?"

He stopped, dropping what remained of the crow. The voice... it sounded like Flora, but of a higher voice. Familiar. He looked over his shoulder to see who it was.

If his heart actually beat, it would have stopped the second who he saw it was who was standing mere feet away from him, looking out from behind a tree. A small girl, about eleven. Human. With a blue dress to match her deep blue eyes. And a face similar to his.

His sister.

"…Aya…?" Corvin asked weakly, blinking rapidly to make sure he wasn't imagining things. He wasn't, as she refused to disappear.

"It's been so long Corvin… why don't you come over here?" she playfully asked, backing away into the foliage.

That action alone should have been enough to tip him off that something was the matter, but he didn't care about analyzing the situation. "Wait! Come back!" Corvin yelled, chasing after her into the woods.

"Heheh, come on! Catch me!" she taunted, refusing to slow down.

"Corvin, stop and think here for a second." Jack's words fell on deaf ears as Corvin continued his pursuit. "Would you just stop for a second!?"

"No, I won't, Jack! That's my sister! I'm not going to just stand here thinking about the possibility of how she's here when she's right there!"

"And with that mentality you'd be dead long ago if you didn't regenerate!" Both Corvin and Aya stopped in the middle of a clearing, Aya looking curiously at Corvin while he looked worryingly at her. His eyes were forced to flash yellow as a sonar pulse was sent out. He almost fell to his knees in disappointment when he saw a black shape standing in front of him, and not a skeleton.

He looked down, knowing full well what that meant. She was just another illusion, just like the ones Neutral had conquered up. But he had to be sure, just in case he was wrong. He stepped forward, attempting to try and grab her shoulder. His hand phased right through, the entire illusion dissipating into thin air.

Disappointment turned to despair. Then he began to think about the implications of what this meant. In order for that illusion to exist, someone would have had to have conjured that with magic. Someone who wanted to lure him away from the camp.

He didn't get that far in thinking, however. Just as far as the part of someone having made that illusion. Someone responsible for bringing that pain to him. Someone who did it purposefully. The very thought of that made him furious beyond words.

He didn't make a single sound. Not one as he looked down at the ground where the fake Aya had stood. He didn't notice the red light beginning to pour out of his hood, or the grass being blown back as an outward pressure began to leak out of him. Or the crows around him beginning to caw indignantly in his direction.

He did, however, notice the sound of something hitting the ground behind him. He turned, interested to learn that it was a crow. One with an arrow sticking out of it. Behind the dead crow was more cawing, louder than the rest. He looked up, his mouth turning into an angry grimace.

"Them. They did this."

---

It was a simple contract, the simplest in the world compared to other ones the two wolves had taken. Three targets, a female tiger keidran, a basitin, and a human. Bring the girl back alive, bring back the head of the idiot human who decided to go and rip the arm off of the nephew of one of the wolf elders, basitin didn't matter. The head of the human was especially important, for the two had never seen anyone fly into a rage like that. Then again, the human did rip the young wolf's arm off, so it could be understood.

Admittedly they laughed a bit when they saw the human. Pale, likely a sign of sickness. Scrawny enough that they could probably blow on him and he would snap in half. Didn't even have a weapon. Obviously an easy mark.

And then the strangeness began when a crow landed on his shoulder. And then it got even weirder when he decided to eat the bird, an act that disgusted the both of them. So the two had decided that killing him now would probably be better for their sanity, so the mage of the two decided to conjure and illusion to lure him out of the way so they could kill him. Yet again they were surprised when a small human girl showed up.

"Hm? A girl?" one asked, pointing to the illusion. "I thought the illusion was supposed to be of his heart's desire?"

"It is," a slightly higher, yet gruff, voice replied.

"Then... why'd a little girl show up?"

"Who knows? The guy's sadistic enough to rip someone's arm off and sick enough to eat a crow raw, he's probably a pedophile, too. C'mon, he's moving."

So they had followed him to a clearing, where they were surprised to see he dispelled the illusion. Surprised because he was actually able to figure out it was an illusion, and thus was able to dispel it by mere touch. That's where the problems began.

A red light poured from his hood, and a think red fog began to waft from his body as some invisible force began to push the grass around him back in waves. And then all the crows in the forest seemed to fly around him, making a cacophony of noise as he just stood there, staring at one single spot.

"Shoot him!" the first wolf half whispered, the second nodding as he pulled an arrow back from the bow, letting it loose.

It didn't land, as one of the crows flew in the path of the arrow and let itself be hit, shocking the two. What shocked them more was the fact that the crows around them started to squawk louder and louder, drawing the attention of the human.

"Zen!" the second shouted, doing his best to bat away the birds. "Do something about these things before he finds us!"

"Agh! A little late for- damn, duck!"

The second one turned around, yelping and falling back on the branch when he saw the human crouching down right behind him, wearing the angriest scowl he had ever seen. He tried punching the wolves, to which they dived out of the way- only to gasp in shock when the main tree branch and the three behind it were blown away by the force of the punch.

"What the- how did...!?" These were the only thoughts the second one could think before the human grabbed Zen by the throat, hurdling him into the middle of his camp, which by all means was surprising due to how far away the camp was, and even more impressive was the fact that the human managed to leap all the way there and right on to of Zen's body.

He couldn't cover that kind of distance, he'd have to improvise. Teleportation spell was always handy, especially in situations like this. Blue crystals in the wolf's hands glowed brightly before shattering, and the wolf's body disappearing in a flash. It reappeared in a similar flash next to the two, with the human straddling Zen and a fist raised over his head.

In the corner of the wolf's eyes he saw the flap to a tent near them open, the tiger coming out to see what the commotion was. By a stroke of luck the tent the basitin was in collapsed on top of him for some reason, and was struggling to free himself from the tangle of cloth.

"Okay. We can do this, easy. Draw my sword, cut the human's head off, then put the girl to sleep with a sleep spell. We leave with the targets before the basitin can free himself." It was a foolproof plan, one only a seasoned assassin would be able to come up with. A clean plan that left no margin for error, quick, clean- not in the human's case- and to the point. A flawless plan.

Too bad it went to pot as soon as the wolf swung his sword, because instead of dodging or blocking like a sane person would do, the human decided to catch the blade in his teeth. Then he bit down with enough force to shatter the blade to pieces.

The wolf stumbled back, holding what was left of the broken blade in front of him as the human changed his own targets, stepping off of Zen and casually walking his way towards him. The fog had ended and the crows' cawing had finally ceased, but there was still a feint glow emanating from his hood's shadow.

"Corvin?" the tiger asked, remaining in her place while she looked all concerned-like at the three of them.

The human, Corvin, gave a sordid laugh off, pointing back at Zen. He said something in human speak he couldn't understand, then pointed back to him. The tiger nodded, rushing to the basitin and helping him.

Corvin focused back on the wolf, taking a few more steps forwards. The wolf, in the meantime, was beginning to panic. "Okay... okay, think. That red glow that came off of him earlier was likely some enhancement spell, that's how he became so strong all of a sudden. If that's true, than the fact that the glow simmered should mean that his strength has waned."

He saw Corvin grin as he slowly put one step in front of the other. "If that's the case, then why does he look so confident? Either He doesn't know his power's drained or he's saving it for when I attack." The wolf's eyes narrowed, and he raised the broken sword up in defense. "No, he looks young... too young to think up something like that, or even learn the magical control needed to do something like that. If I rush him with the sword-"

His thoughts were cut off when Corvin winced, stepping back a couple steps. The wolf looked down, blinking when she saw his left foot burning, steam rolling off of the bottom of his shoe. Coincidentally, there was a puddle of water near that particular foot.

"The water... the water hurt him...?" He couldn't fathom why a human would have a weakness like that, but it mattered little. If water hurt him like that than he had the perfect spell to take him out for good. He gave his own wolfish grin, digging into his own pockets and grabbing a handful of mana crystals. All he had to do was say the magic words and he would be sprayed with water. And his brother would give him the perfect opportunity to cast it,

After all, he did just thrust his blade through Corvin's chest.

---

Corvin looked down at the blade piercing him, giving it a curious look. It was strange, due to the fact he hadn't heard the second wolf get up and sneak behind him. His foot stepping into that stray puddle must have distracted him.

On the bright side, he'd calmed down slightly. He still had every intention of killing these two, but hopefully now he could do it in a way that wouldn't scare Flora, who thankfully headed his warning to stay away from the wolves and go help Keith. He almost groaned in annoyance when he saw the tent fall on him. He knew he should have taken more time on that one.

Back to the matter at hand... the sword through his chest. It wasn't actually a problem, so he might as well have some fun with the two. "Well, aren't you impressive?" he said, tapping the tip of the blade. "You managed to pierce the blade completely through my chest. You must have been able to slip past my bones, otherwise you wouldn't have been able to penetrate completely. Quite some skill you have." He turned his head to the wolf behind him, who was grinning triumphantly. "Please, indulge unto me the name of the man who managed pierce me with such precision."

"My name is Zen, and that's my brother, Natani!" He actually pointed to the other wolf, much to Corvin's amusement. "Together we're the Magi Brothe-egh!"

Corvin's fist had impacted the center of Zen's face, the force being enough to bend his muzzle. Blood dribbled down his nostrils. "The Magi Brothers? Really? Such a ridiculous name." It really was, in his opinion. No flair at all, and very unimaginative. The name enough gave good enough reason to kill these two.

He used his fist to push Zen back, who immediately began to groan in pain as he held his muzzle. "Well, you've thoroughly disappointed me, Zen. And you had me going with your little display in swordsmanship earlier. Allow my to shed some light on all of the mistakes you've made!" Corvin reached his hand behind him, gripping the hilt of the sword. "One, you took your eyes off me." The sword was pulled free with a none-too-pleasant squelching noise, the wound instantly sealing up. "Two, you really thought I wouldn't do anything during your little introduction."

Zen took his attention away from his muzzle and focused back on Corvin, but it was all too late. His eyes widened in and his face twisted into pain and shock as his own sword was thrust into his chest. "Three, if the person you just ran a sword through is still talking calmly, it's likely there's a problem. And I'm certain there's some other fourth thing I didn't mention, but honestly, who has time to consider these things in the midst of battle?"

The body fell to the ground. Corvin saw Zen was still alive, but that wouldn't be the case for long. He turned back to the other one, Natani he was called if Corvin heard correctly. He gave him a curious stare when he saw blue light beginning to build in his fist, a grin plastered on his face.

"Just what are you-" He didn't get to finish, the fist glowed brighter until something seemingly sprayed from it. Something liquid-y.

"Water run now get away!" He wasn't that surprised magic could do something like that. He really shouldn't have been, with what he'd seen it do. But the prospect of someone conjuring a stream of water and blasting it at him made Corvin uncomfortable to no end. He managed to leap out of the way, but some of it did make contact with him. He grimaced as he felt his arm begin to disintegrate, his body landing in the treetops a good distance away, too far for anyone there to see him but close enough for him to spy on them.

He glanced down at his wounded arm, relieved to see the damage already healing. He was going to take both of that wolf's arms for that one.

"Hey, uh... Corv? What's that sound?"

Corvin's head tilted in confusion. Sound? He didn't hear anything out of the ordinary, besides the small animals around them and the rustling of leaves. Oh, and the wolf that had splashed him with water was saying something in keidran to his brother.

Corvin shook his head. "What sound?"

"Just focus your ears, wouldja? I hear somethin'... kinda funny. And worrying."

"If you can hear it then why do I need to..." Corvin sighed quietly, rubbing his face and shaking his head. "Forget it, I don't want to know. Fine." He strained his ears to hear something out of the ordinary, rolling his eyes in the process. He had other things to worry about right now.

Then he heard it. A beating sound, not unlike wingbeats. Only these ones sounded far, far away, and had a much too heavy sound to them. Which meant whatever it was had big wings. Big things usually had big wings.

"Okay, maybe that's a problem. Let's see here..." He sent a sonar pulse out, a return pulse returning seconds later. With that pulse, came the image of what was flying directly towards them. And it was not it one bit good.

"Oh. Huh. Well, look at that."

"Fuuuuck..."

---

Okay, this wasn't a problem. Zen had a sword through him, but that was fine. Corvin missed any vital organs, so all Natani had to do was treat the wound once they were a safe distance away.

He grit his teeth. Never before had they encountered someone as annoying to deal with as this. He was irritating yet terrifying at the same time, going into a personal monologue with a sword running through him.

That's what was confusing. Most people would be wracked with pain when a sword went through them, much like Zen was in right now. But he treated it like it was nothing, which it may as well been considering he saw the wound close up once Corvin ripped the sword out. What was strange was the fact the clothes mended, too- the healing he could get, but why waste the effort mending clothes in the middle of the fight? It made no sense. Nothing about that human made sense.

He turned to the tiger, who was still struggling to get the basitin out of the tent. Well, it didn't matter. He managed to nail his arm, so hopefully it would take some time to heal. Enough time to grab the target and Zen, that's all he needed. Just long enough to-

CRASH!

There was an unimaginably loud sound of something crashing down behind him, the force large enough to send dust flying past him. This was followed by heavy breathing, heavy enough that Natani felt it on his back.

With a sense of dread, he turned around. And his face fell into despair when his fear were confirmed when he laid eyes on what landed behind him.

"D-d-dragon..."

---

"Well there's something you don't see every day, huh?"

Everybody at the campsite stopped what they were doing just to stare up in awe and fear at the dragon that landed behind them. It was large, around the size of a house and a half. The type Corvin had seen in old Renaissance books detailing a large lizard with four limbs and two giant wings on it's back, though usually they were green. This one had black scales, but at least the books had the red-slit eyes down pat.

He could have figured dragons existed in a world filled with anthropomorphic animals and magic. He could've, but he really didn't want to until now. He couldn't have figured what one was doing here at this exact instant when he and his friends were under attack, but questions like that didn't seem important when there was never anyone around to answer the bloody things.

Anyways... most of the books he read had said dragons tended to be violent. He didn't know if that applied to this one or not, but judging by the way it was looking at his friends and those other two people down in the camp he could guess his intentions weren't friendly.

"Ooh-wee! Just look at that thing, Corvy!" Jack cackled with glee, internally clapping at the sight. "Just imagine all the goodies we could get from consuming something like that! Kill it! C'mon, go there and kill it! I'll do anything you want afterwards just go down there and kill it!"

It was tempting to Corvin, too, which likely meant Jack was salivating at the thought. Nothing exited him more than the prospect of consuming something, and if that something was entirely new with fresh DNA? Who knows what could happen. But he couldn't rush it, not just yet.

"Wait, Jack." The cackling stopped abruptly at those thoughts. "We can't just attack it. Maybe it's friendly."

"Who cares? New genes means new tricks. New tricks means new ways of survival. Evolution. I don't care, just kill it!"

"I'm just saying that maybe I can have a conversation with it before we try and skewer it."

"Corvin, I honestly doubt it can talk. Also it's throat is turning red." As Jack said those words a orange-red light seemed to start glowing from inside the dragon's throat. Smoke began to rise from it's nostrils as well. "I'm not an expert, buuuut... maybe, um, stop it before it roasts your friends alive? Just a suggestion."

Corvin needed no convincing, as his legs jumped from the tree branch he was standing on, his body shooting past the dragon. A resounding SMACK! was heard as Corvin's fist impacted the side of it's face on the fly-by, his body landing on it's feet a good distance away.

Corvin hummed, turning around to look at the dragon. He'd put enough force into that punch that the bones in his hand had shattered, a wound that had been healed in the time it took him to turn around to look at the dragon. Said dragon looked only slightly dazed, and the only sign of damage on the dragon's face were spiderweb-cracks around where he had punched it.

"Hm... minimal damage. That's not good."

"Well, Corvy, theoretically you could just punch it to death, but I feel like for your friends' sake that would take too long to accomplish."

Corvin could agree with that sentiment. The dragon was now fixing him a murderous glare, it's attention now solely fixated on him. On the bright side that would likely sway danger away from Flora and Keith, but if this thing did have ranged attacks they could be caught in the crossfire regardless.

He played around with the idea of just grabbing the two and running away as fast as possible, but this thing had taken a hit from him and survived. So far it was the only thing in existence that could claim that, which probably meant it could match other feats of his as well. Like being able to fly as fast as him. So that option was out.

No, he'd have to kill this thing here and now. It would draw more suspicion that he wasn't human if he did this in front of those two, but this was a basic emergency. Giving a little inhuman effort was a given now.

"So. Ideas on what I should do here?"

"Ideally you're gonna wanna turn your arm into a blade, jump in the air, and cut it's head off. Simple."

Corvin shook his head, looking over at Keith and Flora. The two had stopped whatever they were doing, choosing to stare at him and the dragon. "Can't let them see me transform."

Jack groaned. "You're killing me. Alright, look, I got a plan. Normally for armored enemies your gonna favor a blunt weapon over a sharp one, right? Sharp ones won't do any penetrating or slashing damage due to the armor blocking it, so you want to use blunt for more surface damage over precise damage."

"Makes sense."

"Well without transforming your only blunt attack is your fists and feet, which will do shit-all in the time we have. Luckily your fist managed to crack its scales when you didn't even charge the punch, which means we can make something sharp enough to pierce the armor. Check this out."

Corvin felt tendrils twirling under the sleeves his his hoodie, then felt something drop into the palm of his hand. He held the object up, blinking rapidly when the sunlight reflected off of it. It was one of his claws, separated from from his body. At first glance it would seem all he was holding was a unusual shiny knife. "How's this going to help?" Corvin thought, turning the claw over in his hand.

"It'll pierce him, that's what it'll do."

"And...?"

"And this body happens to be able to shapeshift and adapt to fit any situation, so the fabrication of a neurotoxin potent enough to kill a whale with one drop is pretty far in to the cool shit you can do."

As Jack said, the claw was coated in a thin liquid, visible provided you looked close enough with a microscope. And if he was right this would kill the dragon if it hit blood.

Obviously the next course of a action was to throw the claw and end it all right there. Unfortunately the dragon seemed to have had some base level of intelligence, because it tilted it's head a few inches to the left in an effort to successfully dodge the claw, which sailed into the woods to part unknown.

Corvin sighed. "Okay, fine then," he thought, making more claws and having them fall into his hands. He made it a point to connect these ones to his hook nails so they wouldn't be lost like the last one. "We can make this difficult, why not?"

---

The entire clearing was silent, with all parties staring nervously at the two in the middle staring at each-other. Flora and Keith looked at Corvin in worry while Natani was constantly swapping fearful glances between the dragon and Zen. The dragon glared hatefully at Corvin while he just smirked at it, snapping his fingers and pointing at the dragon.

"Well? What are you waiting for?" he asked. "Fire."

And fire the dragon did, a jet of flame flowing from it's mouth and setting the forest in it's path ablaze, Corvin choosing to avoid the fire by running around the dragon in circles. The dragon tried to retaliate by swiping at him with it's tail or using one of it's massive limbs to try and smash him, but every attempt was followed by Corvin vaulting over whatever tried to hit him.

A claw fell from his sleeve and into his hand, Corvin quickly throwing it at the dragon. He was delighted to see blood spurt from where it hit the dragons back, and even more pleased when he saw the look of surprise in it's eyes. A look like that and Corvin would assume it had never been wounded like that in it's entire life, which for all he knew was true.

He reeled the claw back into his hand, leaping back closer to the tents when it tried to smash him with it's tail. The assault stopped there, with one of the dragon's massive fingers touching the wound Corvin had inflicted on it, staring curiously at the blood.

There it was again. Seemingly mystified by the fact it was actually wounded by something so small. To Corvin it seemed a sign of intelligence, if only at a base level. It gave him one idea that was likely doomed to fail, but at least he could say he tried to do this peacefully.

In each had five claws fell, which he let go. They dangled on the virtually invisible threads that were his fingernail hook, calmly walking forwards as he spun the claws on their threads, forming two spinning wheels on either side of him. This was enough to draw the dragon's attention, who had grown bored of inspecting it's own wound.

"I don't know if you can understand me, and frankly I don't care. I don't know what possessed you to come here and pose a threat to my friends, and frankly I don't care," he said, stopping a good distance from the dragon while still continuing to spin the claws around him. "You've shown signs of intelligence by acting surprised that I wounded you. I know nothing about dragons, so perhaps what I just did was a great feat, or maybe your just the kind of person who thinks their so powerful they can't be hurt. But as I've said, I don't care."

He retracted the threads, holding all of the claws between his fingers. The dragon gave him a curious look, though Corvin could see a pinch of boredom in that look. The look turned to one of utter fury when Corvin threw all ten of the claws, the small blades a silver blur slicing through the air as they embedded themselves in the dragon's midsection. Corvin them pulled on the threads, the force being enough that the dragon was forced to the ground and dragged right in front of him, with Corvin resting a foot on it's large snout. Dark smoke flowed from it's nostrils as it bellowed in protest, Corvin being nonplussed as he drew one more claw out.

"Let me try to explain the situation you have found yourself in," Corvin calmly said as he brandished the claw in front of the dragon's eyes. "Thus far I have proven that I am capable of piercing your exterior hide to draw blood via these knives. This one in particular is very special, as it has a neurotoxin powerful enough to kill you withing seconds." The dragon angrily bellowed again as it tried to lift it's body, but Corvin forced his foot down on it's snout, holding it in place. "Neurotoxin is a poison in case you didn't know. You should count yourself lucky that you dodged that first knife, as it was poisoned as well."

The dragon blinked, watching Corvin carefully as he rested an elbow on the knee attached to the leg keeping the dragon down. He rested his cheek in his palm, flipping the poisoned claw between his fingers. "Here's the ultimatum. Leave, you live. Stay, you die. It's quite simple, and if you think I'm merely trying to bluff myself out of this situation I can assure you that the words I have said so far are sincere. So what are you going to do?"

He honestly wished that the dragon would say something. It would be so much easier if he could try and have a conversation with the thing so he didn't have to threaten it. In his defense, though, he did act to defend his friends. In his opinion, everything he'd done so far was justified, and he was giving the dragon a chance to live. This was part of the reason he was completely mystified when embers started to fly out of the sides of it's mouth and a orange glow started to emanate from it's throat.

He sighed. This was obviously a sign that it was intent on staying. "Well, your choice," he muttered, throwing the knife into it's throat with little effort.

The dragon's eyes widened, Corvin noting that they were already starting to become bloodshot. It's body started to shake as it gave out what he assumed to be a pained cough as it's resolve on breaking free started to drastically weaken. Then is stopped moving altogether, the dragon dying on the spot.

Corvin blinked. He was honestly surprised how fast that had taken. He expected the poison to take more time that that to take effect, but it was nearly instantaneous. Not to mention completely anti-climatic as a whole. No body thrashing of death-wail as it died off, just an instant "blegh" on boom, done.

He rolled his eyes, pulling the claws out of the dead dragon and retracting them back into his body where they were broken back down into raw biomass. He felt like fighting something as big as that should have been more dramatic than that, but what was one to do? The forest was fire, so Corvin supposed that was one thing to set the mood, but ultimately he felt like there should have been more to it.

He shrugged. No point dwelling on it, danger had past, all was well. He turned from the fallen dragon the wolf that had done the water trick on him. Currently he was looking at Corvin in a cross between awe and fear, which was slowly starting to descend to pure fear when he started to realize what he had done to Corvin.

And Corvin would have made those fears a reality had something large not dropped on the ground in front of him, scattering dust in every direction. But Corvin didn't have to see the shadow in the cloud of dust to guess that it was another dragon. Just his luck.

The dust cleared, revealing the next dragon. Unlike the last one, this one was white, a color Corvin had come to associate with people that annoyed him to no end, especially if they came with a matching green shirt, which thankfully this one didn't. It's eyes were yellow, too, and not giving him a murderous glare like the last one was.

Corvin threw his arms up, let them fall back to his sides, and then sat down on the head of the dead dragon all the while looking up at the new one. "So," he started, "are you going to be able to hold a rational conversation or am I going to have to kill you like I did this one here?"

"You... killed this dragon?" Corvin's hidden eyes widened in surprise. He expected many things ranging from another roar directly in his face to garbled words meant to be strung together into a threat. Something like that, or at least something in the middle. Not the sound of a woman's voice sound inside of his head.

"Meh?" Jack grumbled from the depths of his mind. "What the... what, do we have a new one in here? Don't tell me you're losin' it even more than you already have, Corvy."

"No, it's the dragon." He pointed to the white beast in front of them, who tilted her head in curiosity. "I think she's using telepathy to talk to us."

"Oh. Well get rid of the bitch. This noggin' of yours is cramped enough as it is." The dragon tilted her had back in a mix of shock and disgust when Jack said that. "Seriously, get her out."

"Jack, I think telepathy is the only way she can talk. Am I right?" He pointed at the dragon, which prompted her to nod in response. "See, she can't talk. Probably a dragon thing."

"Mgh... Fine, whatever. Just be quick about it, wouldja? Makin' me nervous enough as it is here."

"Yeah, yeah." Corvin focused back to the white dragon. "So, dragon... woman... forgive me for not asking, but what is your name?"

The dragon blinked, straightening her posture once the question asked. "Oh, how terribly rude of me," she thought, bowing her head a bit. "My name, dear sir, is Nora. Lady Nora."

"... Lady, huh?" That implied she had some rank in what was likely a class system in dragon culture, possibly of the royalty type. Yet again common knowledge he should probably expected to know, and yet again information he wouldn't due to his short time here. "Hm. Fitting. Anyways, Nora, I have a lot of questions to ask."

"As do I," Nora said, gazing at the dragon Corvin was sitting on. "You say you managed to kill that one there... how did you accomplish this?"

"I stabbed it."

She blinked. "You... stabbed it?"

"Yeah. With poison."

She fixed him with a curious glare, then did something resembling a squint as she examined the dragon's body. "Dragon scales or notoriously sturdy, making it almost impossible for any blade to get through, let alone human strength being enough to break them. And there's very little, if any, poison in the world that could kill one."

Corvin smirked. Oh, he was going to be as vague as possible just to see what she would say. "Well, I did all three of that pretty easily." He shrugged. "So I don't know... cosmic fluke?"

She gave him a deadpan look, which caused his smirk to grow larger. "By the way your smiling, I doubt it. So will you tell me how you really did it?"

"That would be telling, Nora. I feel like divulging that bit of info would be an unfair exchange of information on this lovely conversation we're having." He pointed down at the dragon. "And I do sincerely mean it when I say this chat is lovely. You have no idea how many people these days lack common courtesy and skip straight to crossing blades. Why, this one breathed fire at me without so much as a single word. What I'm trying to say here is that it's refreshing-"

"I get it, I understand." Corvin frowned at that interruption, but gestured for her to continue. "So the dragon attacked you first, without provocation?"

"Yes, That is what I said."

"I see. Well, from what I see, he was an adolescent. They are rather brash at that age, so it's not that surprising that he attacked you without warning," she explained, then tilted her head a little to the side. "Not to mention how you managed to best him so easily."

Corvin rolled his eyes. He probably should have known there was a reason that ordeal ended as quickly as it did, if the reason the dragon died so easily was because he was a teenager on all respect. Nora, on the other hand, sounded older. Likely wiser due to the fact she was actually saying words to him, as well. It made him wonder what a fully-grown dragon was capable of, but honestly he would rather not kill another dragon in front of his friends. He was worried enough with him having to explain the first one.

That being said... would you mind getting off of him?"

"Oh? And why would you ask that of me?"

"It's just... rather respectful, is it not?" Nora gave a slight glared at Corvin, eyes flicking between him and the dead dragon. "It's a common notion that dragons are held in high esteem due to their position in the world. I just thought that most people gave them due respect."

"That notion was obviously tossed out the window when I killed it," Corvin harshly responded. "This thing attempted to harm me and my friends without so much of a word of warning, and therefor has garnered no respect from me." For emphasis, he kicked his heal down on the fallen dragon's snout. Bone's were heard breaking under it's force. "This thing is as worthless as the dirt I trod upon beneath my feet. So I disposed of it as so."

She gave him an odd look, to which he sighed. "Sorry, I like to monologue sometimes. Look, can you just tell me why you're here? It's been a trying day."

"I was simply flying overhead when I saw all of you in distress," she explained, pointing her tail upwards. "I saw the dragon laying there and figured something was wrong. Imagine my surprise when I landed to find you standing over it's body."

"What a shock it must have been."

"Yeah…" She looked lost in thought for a moment, but compiled herself before Corvin could ask what was wrong. "If you want, I know a clearing… I can take you all there, it's pretty near a portcity…"

"Portcity, huh..." Portcity implied it had ports, so therefore had boats. And Corvin was in desperate need for one of those, considering their destination was an island.

Plus, Nora was offering to fly them here, which would be much quicker than walking. "I don't know, Nora. That seems like something I'd have to consult my... friends... for... ah, jeez."

When he had looked past Nora's massive body, he saw all of his friends and the wolves. One the ground. Unconscious. This sight was followed by Corvin groaning. Most likely the result of too much excitement for the day resulted in them passing out from an overload of information being processed. Now he really would have to take Nora's help, because he didn't feel like carrying them to the nearest city or wait around in the forest that was burning around them.

"Guess I don't have much choice," Corvin said, the first word he'd vocalized in awhile, honestly. He walked over to his friends with Nora following, with Corvin carefully picking his friends up and with the help of Nora placing them in spots on her back where they wouldn't fall off.

He cast a glance at the two wolves. "What about them?" he asked.

Jack scoffed, grumbling, "should just kill 'em and be done with it."

"If I may..." Nora offered. Jack scoffed once again, but allowed her to continue. "The keidran who inhabit this are sure to investigate all of this commotion. They'll find the two here and likely help them."

Corvin hummed, crouching down next to them. "Awesome, great, fantastic. So let's leave them and go."

"No. I'm bringing one with us. Need to know why they were sent in the first place."

"I don't... oh, I get it. Yeah, sure, bring 'em."

Corvin was hoping Jack would understand. Ordinarily Corvin would have already smashed both the wolves' skulls in and drained any memories they had from their brains, but Nora was here. He didn't know anything about her, and frankly he didn't trust someone who just gave free rides to complete and dangerous strangers. Jury was out whether she was just legitimately good or had some ulterior motive, but either way he rather keep his knowledge of any and all abilities away from total strangers. This meant he'd either had to wait for the wolf to wake up so Corvin could question him or consume him once Nora dropped them off wherever it was they were to go.

So with all this in mind Corvin picked up Natani and tossed him on Nora's back, sitting down in-between her wings. "Alright, we're done here. Let's go."

Nora nodded, flapping her wings and taking off from the ground and soaring off into the sky, leaving Zen, the dead dragon, and the burning forest behind.

---

There was a lot to be said about viewing the world from this perceptive. Flying in the sky at breakneck speeds and looking at everything they passed down below. Everyone was still unconscious and Nora had been for the most part silent through the flight, which left Corvin and Jack to fill the void with some conversation. Unfortunately this one was rather heated.

"You can't really be that upset, Jack."

"Fuck you, I'm pissed. Mega pissed. Pissed beyond any rational sense of the word."

"There will likely be other opportunities, you know."

"You mean like the one we left behind?"

"Ah, you're overreacting."

"You know what we could have gotten out of that thing, Drevis? Wings! Or the ability to breath fire! But naah, we had to leave it behind because you were too lazy to walk." Corvin was silent, instead staring at the ground below. "And don't you dare tell me we couldn't have just killed Nora when your friends were unconscious from fright of all things. Turn your arm into a blade, one-two and bam! Dragon genes for us to consume. But noooo...!"

"You know as well as I do that dragons are an unknown, especially the adult ones, which Nora is," Corvin interrupted. "For all we know the adult ones have a wider range of abilities or are stronger than the adolescent ones. I would think you of all people would know the importance of observing unknowns before striking."

"Hard to think straight 'cause I'm so pissed. Can't believe you would do this, even after I made you that gift."

Corvin's ears perked. "Gift?"

Jack said nothing, acting his answer out in the form of tendrils swirling around his hand until an object was left. It was a book, one with a black cover and a blue spine. The hundreds of white pages between the covers were blank.

"Heard you and Flora talking earlier when you mentioned a diary. Thought I'd make one."

"Oh. Well, thanks." Corvin didn't know Jack to do something like this, but the thought was still pleasing. The book was absorbed back into his body, and at the same time he noticed the wind rushing past him start to go down in tone.

"I think she's stopping."

"Whatever."

"Still mad?"

"Yeah. Still mad."

Well, he'd gone from saying he was pissed to being mad, Corvin would take that as a sign of Jack calming down. So there was something, at least.

They landed at a vacant field near to a tree and some bushes, with the sun setting. Corvin had tossed Keith and Natani off into somewhere behind the bushes, then carefully cradled Flora's body in his arms and stepped down, sitting down against the tree.

He cradled her head in his lap, softly petting the top of her head as he looked up at Nora, who eyed him with interest. "So what is this place?" he asked.

"Haven fields, it's just outside the forest. Town is just beyond that hill" Nora answered.

Corvin nodded, continuing to tend to Flora. "Your very gentle with that keidran… is she your mate?" Nora asked.

He shook his head. "No, were just… really close…"

"Really? Then why do you keep petting her head?" Corvin said nothing, which caused Nora to smirk."Thought so. It's rare these days to see a human and keidran mate…" she mused.

"I've noticed. Keidran aren't especially popular around humans, are they?"

Nora shook her head. "No, they aren't. Neither are humans popular with keidran, which is why I find it humorous how devoted that thing is to you. One look into her mind and it's obvious her attraction to you." Both Corvin and Jack froze momentarily when Nora mentioned mind reading. She couldn't have tried that with them, they would have felt someone poking around in there memories. It didn't stop Corvin from internally grinning at Jack.

"Told you. Unknown abilities."

"Shut it."

"No," she continued, "what concerns me is the relationship itself. What do you plan to do when this little adventure is over? Having a keidran for a wife wouldn't look good, you know?"

"What others care about is of no concern to me," Corvin state, still stroking Flora's head. His eyesight had fallen to her and was now whispering instead of talking. "My only goals are to remain with her and keep her happy."

"And what are you going to do to keep her happy?"

"I... I don't know. Honestly, Nora, with all the prejudice I've seen in this world I don''t even know if a place exists that would allow us to live in peace." It wasn't ideal on that front. Every human city he'd been too had hatred for keidran. Nora implied the same was said for most keidran villages. He didn't know where in the world he was suppose to find peace for the both of them.

"A human and a beast. Well, there is one place you can go… The Orchard Valley."

Corvin's eyes didn't raise, nor did his voice. Didn't stop him from asking what the Orchard Valley was in a hushed tone.

"It's hidden far off, beyond the basitin islands, on the other side of the continent. It's a place beyond even the influence of the Templar. The village itself is called Lyn' Knoll. Ugly word, but it's a combination of two languages. I do not think the Templar are even aware of it's existence. But if they are, they don't seem to be taking actions against it. In the village, members of all three races co-exist… relatively in peace. Not so many basitins, of coarse. They have that stubborn pride. I only know of the village because I happen to cross it on one of my flights. They've paid me quite well to keep their secret to myself, and make sure no-one but the right people find it. But if you are looking for a place to get away from it all, that would be the place to go. Simply travel beyond the shores of the basitin islands, once your done there, and you'll reach the Orchard Valley."

Corvin committed all of it to memory. Seemed too good to be true, but Corvin would lose all hope if there weren't some people in the world who wanted to co-exist. But of course they were a minority who had to live in hiding because of the Templar. Well, some hope is better then none. Corvin just wished hope was a bit more than a bit.

"Don't know how to thank you for this, Nora. Really." It was strange, feeling grateful for someone. Nobody in this world besides Flora had been that nice towards him, but it was... nice was a word. He's use nice to describe this feeling. It felt nice.

The dragon chuckled, a vocal chuckle that sounded more guttural than Corvin was comfortable with, and flexed her wings outwards. "Don't mention it. Anyways, I wish I could stay and help you, but I'm needed elsewhere. Remember what I've told you."

Corvin nodded. "Yeah, the Valley. In..." he trailed off, looking left, then looking right. He shrugged, pointing off in a random direction. "That direction?" A disappointed frown from Nora that was responded with a sheepish grin. "I remember the directions, don't worry."

"... Good." She lifted off the ground, hovering a number of feet above Corvin while looking down. "I'm taking my leave now. I've released your… bestial companions from their sleep. Goodbye, Corvin!" She flew off at those words, quickly becoming a dot on the horizon.

"... Bye." He didn't pay much attention to her, focusing most of it on Flora, the two sitting under the tree. At one point Corvin brought his diary out, flipping to the first page. Boredom had started to set in, so he needed something to occupy his time. Experimentally, he tapped the end of his fingernail to the page, pleased to see a black mark was left where he made contact. So he went to work, scribbling his entire life into the blank pages as he finger scratched along the surface.

---

It was an hour of going at it, but he finally felt Flora begin to stir from her sleep. About time, too, as the sung was beginning to get low. He put the diary on the ground, patting her head while resting his back.

Her eyes fluttered open, her eyes slicking from left to right as she sat up abruptly "Neh… Ah! Corvin! The dragon, where…? Corvin!?"

He petted her head. "Behind you," he said. He didn't have any regret it saying it when she twisted around and wrapped her arms around his neck.

"Corvin your okay!" she cried, trying her best to bury her head in his chest. Sh chuckled, patting her back before gently pushing her off of him, with her giving him a sheepish look. "Heh, it's been awhile since I've done that…"

"Has it? Hadn't noticed," Corvin absentmindedly commented, resting back against the tree. "You had me worried, you know. Another hour of waiting for you to wake up and I would have begun to panic."

She laughed, leaning into the tree next to him. "You? Worry? That'd be an interesting sight to see."

"Maybe." He let a weary sigh out, staring off into the distance. "You probably have some questions about what transpired."

"Only a few hundred."

"Ah. Well... that's to be expected, I suppose. Can we at least wait for Keith to wake up? I'd rather not repeat this."

She was about to say something, but then a scream cut through the air. A scream from Keith, to be specific. It was only a second later that Corvin realized that he'd left Keith with someone trying to kill them. What one would call a bad move on his part.

He got up immeidately, rushing past the bushes to where he had tossed the two... only to stop and fail to stifle his laughter when he saw Keith sitting on the ground, trying to shake the wolf off of him. It was funny because the wolf was still asleep, and cuddling onto one of his legs with a firm grip that Corvin doubted he would relinquish.

There was annoyed groan in the back of his mind. "You forgot to kill the wolf," Jack grumbled, most likely doing what Corvin imagined to be a stomp somewhere in his head.

"Sorry," he apologized, "I got so caught up in my diary it passed my mind."

"You're not getting any more gifts from me."

This only amused Corvin further, and the fact that Keith was reaching out to him for assistance didn't help any. "Corvin, what the- don't just stand there, help!" he yelled, and then proceeded to actually try and kick the wolf off of him.

"You're sure? Seems to me you have the situation in hand, Keith." The wolf started to move of his own accord, which deadened the mood immediately as his eyes fluttered open. The mood went back to being happy when the wolf screamed the second he saw himself clinging to Keith's leg, leaping back and rubbing his hands on his sides.

The bushed behind Corvin rustled as Flora bolted through, stopping at his side to see the commotion. "What's going on?" she asked.

"It appears when I tossed their bodies into these bushes the wolf grew rather clingy. You should have come here sooner, it was quite- hey, hey!" Corvin cried out in protest as Flora reached into his hood, grasping his ear and pulling him back into the bushed. Anybody else and he would have snapped the hand off, in fact he had to fight the urge not to, but for her he allowed it. She let go of him as soon as they were behind the tree, crossing her arms and scowling at him.

"And what did I do to deserve this?" She made no response, just continually scowling at him. He sighed. "Flora-"

"Don't 'Flora' me. You know what you did."

"How was I to know they would do that? I didn't exactly plan their landing when I tossed them into the bushes."

"And you shouldn't toss people into the bushes wherever you please." That voice belonged belonged to Keith, who walked up to them from the bushes. "I talked to the assassin."

"Must've been a fast talk," Corvin remarked. Both he and Flora had only been away from them for about forty seconds. "So, what did our would-be killer have to say?"

"He said that he was sent by the Wolf King to kill us. But… the contract is off."

A unseen brow from Corvin raised. Apparently the wolves had a king. At least the mystery of what type of government system those lot ran by was solved, though he shouldn't have been that surprised seeing as what time period he was in. The second part of what Keith said, however, was interesting. "Off, huh? And just how does he know that?"

More rustling and more footsteps. He didn't have to guess that it was the wolf leaning on the tree behind them. He said something in keidran, something that caused Flora to nod sadly.

It was slightly to Corvin that he couldn't understand. He'd have to consume a keidran one of these days, if only to learn the language. "Can I get a translation?" he asked, turning to Flora.

"He and his brother have a link connecting their minds together," she explained, pointing to the wolf. "And their King banished them. Apparently they'll kick his brother out of whatever village took him in as soon as he's healed."

"Hm. Anything else?"

"I asked if he wanted to come with us."

Withing Corvin's mind there were two deep, heavy sighs. Outside, however, Corvin just stared at her, unable to comprehend what drove her to ask that. "Why in the world... Flora, why?"

She gave him an irritated glare. "I don't know, Corvin. I was only trying to help. He's already walking away, so I guess it didn't matter." True to her word, the wolf was walking away. He shouted back something to Flora, which caused her to nod and look back to him. "

"Feh, good riddance," Keith grumbled crossing his arms. Corvin had an inclination to agree, mostly due to the fact that he wasn't that keen on taking somebody who had tried to kill them with them.

It really was a shame, thought, that he wasn't able to consume him. It would have been nice to know why they were sent in the first place, but oh well. He had other concerns than knowing that, such as the fact both Keith and Flora were glaring at him.

"I, uh... I have some explaining to do, don't I?" They both nodded, causing him to sigh. He could already feel a growing headache coming on as he tried to think of a way to rationally explain everything that had happened back at the camp, and the fact they started to rapid-fire the questions at him didn't help in any capacity.

"What happened with the white dragon?"

"How did we get here in the first place?"

"How were you able to kill that dragon?"

"How long have you been carrying knives?"

Corvin held his hands up in desperation. "Guys, wait! Can you please just slow down? I can only answer one thing at a time and you shouting a hundred questions at me isn't going to help-"

He stopped when he heard somebody say something behind them in a panicked tone. He knew who it was because he had heard that voice mere moments ago. He just wish he understood what the voice said. His keidran dialect was non-existent, after all.

He ran behind them, taking cover behind the tree as two humans ran up to them. Based on their ragged clothing and the fact one had a pitchfork of all things, Corvin would assume that these two men were commoners, likely farmers.

He held a hand up, stopping the both of them in front of him. Flora and Keith stepped back to the tree, both watching Corvin in trepidation as he stepped closer to the two. "Is there a problem?" he asked. There wasn't any malice or ill intent in his tone, just a normal question with a tone one may use when conversing at dinner.

"Do these keidran belong to you?" one of them asked.

"... Yes..." Corvin strained to answer that seriously, but he held on by telling himself it was just a lie. A lie he could forget about as soon as these two turned their backs on him.

That seemed to calm the two, as the looked relaxed at his reply, the one with the pitchfork lowering it. "Oh, sorry, we didn't realize," pitchfork-man said. "You should really have them collared and stay with them at all times. We're close to the border, you know?"

Corvin scowled at the man. He took no pleasure in being given advice, and his urge to see these two leave them only increased with every passing second. Unfortunately, the one with the pitchfork looked more closely at Corvin, his face scrunching in anger as he pointed at Corvin.

"Hey, wait a minute!" he shouted, his blonde friend going on the alert. "I've seen this guy before! He's the one on the wanted posters set up two days ago! That crazy guy who killed all those guards!"

Dumbfounded, Corvin could nothing but stare in disbelief as the pitchfork man fished out two paper flier from his pocket, holding them up for Corvin to see: the first had an artist's rendition of Corvin in his hoodie at the top, with more information on the bottom.

WANTED: 250,000 gold.

NAME: Unknown

FACIAL FEATURES: Uknown

Wanted for the murder of a high-ranking member of the Templar order, a number of city guards, and the liberation of a captive keidran. Known to be extremely deadly in close combat.

The second one was had an artist's rendition of Flora, much to Corvin's shock. Even worse was what was written on the bottom.

WANTED: 25,000 gold.

Runaway slave known as "Flora". Tiger-patterned. Flat-chested.

"Hey!" Flora yelled out in protest, pointing at the flier of her. "Flat-chested!?"

Had this not been an incredibly serious, Corvin would have let a genuine chortle out. Seemed like only yesterday she had been asking him about her chest size, she really was insecure about that...

"Oh, for goodness' sake, not another fight already!" Keith seemed less enthused than Flora in the matter, looking ready to rip his own ears out.

"Maybe we should try getting away?" Flora suggested. "Might be a good idea this time."

"No. They're problems." That was Corvin's input on the two in front of him; two people that would likely hound them for some meager reward. He honestly had no idea what he did was an offensive enough of a crime to warrant wanted posters of him, and this would be incredibly difficult to deal with in the future. But he had to deal with the now.

And he dealt with that by dashing behind the one with the pitchfork, lightly flicking him in the back of the head. The force was enough to knock him out, his body lamely falling to the ground. The same was done with the second one, both unconscious from the lowly blows Corvin had dealt.

"Knocked them out, everything's fine, let's go. Town is that-away." Corvin made sure to scoop his diary up from the ground as he lead the way to the nearest town. Unsurprisingly Flora and Keith just shrugged, following him. Surprisingly the wold followed after watching Corvin's little spectacle in silence.

He sighed. So she would be following them. Somehow he felt he would never get over not killing him when Corvin had the perfect opportunity.

---

"So, you want to know what exactly happened?" It was a long trek to the city, and this conversation had to happen eventually. He just hoped he was able to make something convenient up that dissuaded any suspicion of him not being human.

His friends nodded, Natani- Flora had insisted he actually use his name, to which he begrudgingly agreed- stared blankly at him. Flora had promised to translate for him.

"Well," he began, "the white dragon's name was Nora. Thankfully, she was actually far more reasonable than the one before her, with that one having been an adolescent. Possible explanation for why it attacked, or not, don't know, moving on. She saw we could use some help and so flew all of us here, and then pointed to the direction of the city."

Keith had nodded along, making sure to take note of every detail. "Okay, that's all fine and well, Corvin. But can you tell us how you actually killed the other dragon?"

"Was I not supposed to be able to kill it that easily? It was the first time I'd ever seen one. Not to mention the first time I ever knew of creatures such as that existing..." he added, glaring at Keith from the side of his hood.

Evidently he caught it, as he scoffed in response. "Don't blame me for your ignorance. It's common knowledge, much like most of the stuff you don't know."

"Mm, I wouldn't say that." If that were true than the memories of the one person he'd so far consumed in this world would have told him so. "Anyways, the first one. One of the knives I had was poisoned with a rare substance. It was enough to kill the dragon in seconds."

"And why exactly do you have knives?" he pressed.

"Why do you have a sword?" Corvin countered. "Are you going to ask me how I'm skilled in using them and what kind of thread I had attached to them next?"

"No. I'm done." Corvin could tell all of his answers had left Keith unsatisfied, but what was he to do? Tell Keith that he could grow knives out of his arms? That would open a whole can of worms Corvin would rather leave unattended.

"What's that?" This one had come from Flora, who was pointing at the book in Corvin's hand.

"Oh. This," Corvin said, holding the book up, "is my diary. It was a gift from a friend."

Flora nodded. "Oh! Nora gave you a diary?"

"No, different friend. You don't know him."

Keith's brow furrowed. "You have a friend other than us? When and where do we get to meet this mystery man?"

Corvin shrugged. "I don't know, I mean... well, he comes and goes. Maybe you'll see him one day, or maybe you've already met him."

"Hah-hah."

"I would love to continue this conversation, guys, but we've reached the city." Good thing, too, because it had grown late enough that the sun had completely set. Thankfully though it was early enough in the evening that the people were still out in about in the large city below. Actually, now that Corvin thought about it, there was an unusual amount of people up at this hour. As well as lights... and the Templar tower near the back of the city did nothing to ease Corvin's mood.

Flora tugged on his sleeve. "Let's spend as little time as possible, Corvin. Bad things always seem to happen to happen to us when we're in these human cities."

Keith let a sarcastic laugh off, pointing directly into the city. "That's the least of our problems! How do you guys expect to get to a ship? You're both wanted by the humans. And a traveling group of 'animals' and a crow-eating blue clothed weirdo isn't exactly what I would call 'inconspicuous.' unless there's some huge distraction, I don't see how we're getting in-"

BOOM!

"... Is that a firework…?" he trailed off as something exploded in the sky above them, blue sparks spreading out from the center.

"I would say this is a happy accident, but I feel that would be a rather large assumption on my part," Corvin muttered. "Come on."

---

They went in, with Corvin happily checking the mental box next to the mental objective of "find a city with a boat", which previously he had penciled in, but after the whole fiasco with Neutral the penciling had promptly been erased partially leaving smudges on the imaginary objective that somewhat had personified Corvin's mood up until that point. At least now he could replace "find a city with a boat" to "find a bloke with a boat". Should be simple.

After five minutes in that city he realized simple was a foreign concept within these walls. Half of his attention was focused on trying to listen to Keith translate whatever Natani was saying about the apparent festival currently taking place in the city while the other half was busy dodging people decorating themselves in ribbons and shiny things. He couldn't even pay attention to the Templar announcer on a stage they had passed talk about whatever it was he was saying, nor could he even be bothered to see his face.

But in the end it all came down to sheer coincidence that they had walked into what Natani called the "Festival of Beasts", where humans and keidran got together to celebrate the times where they didn't hate each-other and certain members of the respective species didn't stab members of other species for giggles. What made it worse was the fact this entire thing held together by the Templar, which in Corvin's opinion meant there should have been people walking around with the word "hypocrite" stamped on their forehead. Hard to believe that people who enforced slavery to a fanatical degree could do something like this, but it was a weird world.

"Wow, everything is so colorful!" Flora commented, doing her best to look at all the attractions while Corvin tried his best to not lose her in the crowds.

"It's missing one of those guys who spit fire out of a cup, but otherwise yes. Colorful," Corvin remarked.

Keith, however, was suspicious and moody. So all was normal with him. "I still don't like this… that guy said there were wanted posters up… but I haven't seen a single one…"

Natani, meanwhile, had held his paws up to his nose and said something. Something Corvin desperately wished he could understand. Why his brother could speak human fluently but this one couldn't was beyond him. Maybe it had something with the blue aerosol substance starting to waft through the air.

Flora started to giggle, and nuzzle her way to Keith. "You know… you're pretty…" she purred to him, which drew Corvin's gaze too fast for Keith's comfort.

"Oh, perfect, too late," he grumbled, grabbing her and trying to force her off of him in what seemed like a desperate move survival due to Corvin glaring at the two of them. "Get a hold of yourself, we don't have time for this. and I'm not pretty!" He actually blushed at that statement, something Corvin would never let down.

"Here, let me," Corvin offered, gently prying Flora off of him. She pranced away while Corvin crossed his arms, glowering down at Keith. "Can you please explain what exactly is going on, my friend?"

"They're burning subtleflowers and everybody is inhaling the fumes." A blank stare from Corvin followed by a sigh from Keith. "The fumes are arousing the keidran."

"They're... they're exposing everyone to aphrodisiacs? Are they completely insane!?" This was utter complete lunacy. "Common sense" must be in the same vacant lot that "simple" was in, because the longer they were in this city the more Corvin realized it lacked.

Somewhere among his ramblings Corvin heard the distinctive giggles of Flora, followed by, "Corvin! Look, look! Ribbons!"

His shoulders slumped, and against his better judgement he turned around. "Okay, Flora, I'll look at the- OH!" His eyes bugged out at the sight he saw.

She was completely naked. And by her standards naked enough that nothing too revealing was revealed due to fur, but nonetheless naked. Covered in ribbons of all colors. Ribbons that did nothing to cover her enough that every passerby didn't comment on her lovely appearance.

"What the… Flora, where'd your cloths go!?" Corvin half-asked half-screamed.

She just giggled more in response, and to Corvin's horror her eyes had begun to glaze over. "Hehe, I'm having fun!"

"B-but-but... inconspicuous! Incognito! Stealth! None of these traits are being displayed!"

"Oh, relax, Corvin. Nearly all the keidran here are either naked or getting there by now," she said, then proceeded to grab at Natani's cloths. "In fact, I think you're making us look suspicious! Let's see what you have under those robes!" What happened next was a sequence of Flora pouncing Natani to the ground as she tried to tear his clothes off, which had Corvin steaming.

"Corvin, I have run into what you have would call a 'situation', I need help."

Corvin, who was almost at his breaking point, screamed into his mind, "what, Jack!? What exactly do you need help with?!"

"There's too much funny material everywhere, I don't know what to use to make a joke that'll mock your performance in keeping your friends in check."

"This is no time for jests!"

"This is the perfect time for jests."

"Excuse me…" Never before had Corvin turned his body to round on somebody faster in his entire life, the frustration in him building to a point he could feel his biomass starting to writhe under his skin. The man in question who was responsible for Corvin nearly twisting himself in half was a human. A blonde human. One with glasses. Mid-twenties... Corvin was instantly suspicious.

"That's quite an exotic keidran you've got there," he commented, while flashing Corvin a smile that did nothing but increase his suspicion. "Might I inquire where you obtained such a creature?" he asked.

Corvin sighed. "Sir, I'm sorry, but I'm currently losing all control of the situation, so..."

"Er, sorry…" his face lowered, but then brightened up again when he looked back up at Corvin. "Would you and your keidran consider joining me for a drink? I'd love to learn how you acquired such a variety of keidran."

Oh, that wording didn't sound good to Corvin. "Look, I'm sure you're a nice person, but with my hands so full..." he gestured to Flora, who was in the process of tearing at Natani's robes, "I need to find a boat, and on the way I need to find whoever's idea it was to burn those flowers, so if you'll excuse me-"

"Looks to me like you won't be getting there very fast," the blonde man noted. " Why not come with me? Trust me, a few minutes out of the scented air will do them some real good. And maybe I can help you get to the docks."

While the prospect of going with this stranger seemed nonsensical, the prospect of staying out here where everything was spiraling out of control so downright terrifying. Corvin could do nothing but nod in defeat. "Fine! Fine, give me a minute! Keith, help me! Keith…?" he looked to Keith for help... then was stunned when he saw Keith staring at Flora's backside.

"Flora… tail up…" he was in a hopeless, drug-addled daze. Useless.

"Kill him later, get them safe now." It was the one goal Corvin needed to focus on at the moment, and he would start by prying Flora off of a increasingly-panting Natani. This worked, fortunately. "Flora, we need to go."

"Oh, Corvin!" She blinked, and just for a moment Corvin saw some semblance of sanity in those yellow eyes. "Sorry, I don't know what came over me…" The sanity was lost as she began to nuzzle his neck.

"..." It was here that Corvin had reached his breaking point. He nodded towards the blonde human, who began to walk to a large house thankfully not far from them. Flora was busy clinging to Corvin, so he wouldn't have to worry about her. This left two free hands for Keith's foot and Natani's throat, which he grabbed without hesitation in order to drag the both of them away.

The door to the house was opened, the blonde gesturing for them to enter. Natani was thrown in while Keith was dragged through the doorway, with both Corvin and Flora being the last to enter the house as the blonde closed the door behind them. "Here we are! Those keidran should feel better almost instantly."

"Oh, I hope so." Corvin's first thought was to find a chair to sit in, which thankfully he did. He collapsed in it as soon as he neared it, his head dropping into both of his opened hands. "Well, how about it? You feel instantly better, Flora?" he mumbled from his position.

Keith and Natani were still getting their bearings, but thankfully life had started to bleed back into Flora. "A little better, I guess… I'm sorry I couldn't control myself… it was like my head was in a fog…"

The blonde man clapped, startling Corvin and causing him to look up. "Oh, you speak very well! Great!" he praised, stepping closer to Flora. "I sure wish I had a keidran like you in my… eh… collection…" Corvin grew tense at the mention of "collection". "I'd love to learn more about you and your history…"

"Hm, wait a minute... waaait a minute here! Creepy smile, glasses, light hair, and he's got a collection, too? Don't tell me we've found the alternate version of your father, Corvy."

"He looks nothing like him," Corvin interjected. "Facial features are all wrong. And his hair was brown, sandy at best."

"I dunno, I mean, if you squint the chin kinda... nah, you're right. No resemblance. Still creepy, though."

"Of that we can both agree."

Flora blushed at the compliment the blonde had given her. "Well… I'm nothing special, really…"

"True, you'd be better if you were a bit more shapely and well-endowed… now that would be the perfect keidran…!"

"Nya!" The comment was delivered in such a blase manner that she literally toppled to the floor.

Keith found the initiative to clear his throat, garnering everybody's attention. "So, we're inside. We appreciate the help, but we're in a hurry. We need to get to my island."

The only effect this had was to cause the blonde man to sigh as he took his glasses off and began to wipe them with a cloth. "Ah, yes, the basidian islands. don't see too many of your type here these days. Allow me to formally introduce myself." He put the glasses back on and flashed them with a smile that was too big for Corvin's taste. "If you haven't guessed, I am a slave trader. My name is Eric. I'm what's you call… a collector."

Until now Corvin had yet to meet a man who had said so few words and already had gained such a negative look from him. The slave trader bit was bad enough, but him saying "collection" brought unpleasant memories to Corvin. But he was likely their only chance of getting a ship to the islands, if his wording was anything to go by. He needed to keep listening.

"Obviously," he continued, "my occupation gives me many opportunities to travel to far-off places. I don't believe our encounter was by chance. I think that I can help you. You see, you'll have a very hard time trying to find any kind of boat during this festival. But perhaps if your willing to stick around 'till tomorrow, I think I could arrange one of my own ships."

Flora had finally picked herself up off of the ground, brushing herself off. She regarded Eric with a frown. "Aw man, we have to spend the night here? I have a bad feeling about this… something bad always happens to us when we're in a human city…"

"No, something bad always happens when we sleep in a tavern," Corvin griped. "Still... Keith, a word?"

Keith nodded, walking over to him. Eric had already started another conversation while Natani stood in the corner, giving all of them confused looks.

Corvin leaned back in the chair, so far that only two legs were supporting it. "What do you think?" he asked. "Trust him?"

"Not really," Keith answered. "Someone is organizing these events, I'm sure. Somehow, I think someone knows what we're after. What are the chances that we'd meet a guy who happens to have a ship?"

"Slim to none… but that's rather presumptuous of you, isn't it? I mean, come on, the guy's harmless." For emphasis, Corvin's hand outstretched to the two. Eric seemed elated at the conversation he was having while Flora was beginning to grow increasingly nervous.

"You have the most wonderful fur pattern, my dear!" Eric praised, looking at her up and down.

Flora blushed deeper. "Er, thank you… I think…"

"I mean it!" It made Corvin wary, the way Eric kept looking at her from almost every angle. He already didn't trust him due to how he looked and acted, but this was starting to go down to territory he wasn't comfortable with. "Your fur is absolutely lovely. It's neat and clean, perfectly even…" It was at this point Eric had made his first grave mistake in the presence of Corvin, and it had only been five minutes. He grabbed Flora's tail and lifted it, inspecting everything that lied beneath it. "Ah, yes, the white fur goes all the way around."

"Mer…!" She flushed a shade of red Corvin didn't even know exist, before turning around to face Eric with and angry look. She slowly raised one of her hands, and Corvin winced when he saw light glean off of her claws. Then she started to frantically tear at Eric, with the scraps of clothes that began to float away being the only thing Corvin could keep track of.

"Shouldn't you be red by now?" Keith asked, leaning down towards Corvin's level.

"Believe me, I'm absolutely furious at him," Corvin grumbled. "Normally yes, Keith, I would act violently at this point. But Flora's a big girl and to me it seems she's defending herself fine enough." He did a double take when he saw a drop of blood splatter on the floor. "Then again there has to be limits to this."

He leaned forwards, using one hand to pull her away from Eric. His eye briefly glanced down the the necklace he gave her, long ago. All this time she had it tucked in her fur, out of sight, so he'd admit it had been awhile since he'd seen it. Though he was confident in saying it didn't glow red before. "Did you see what he did?" Flora growled, her eyes still glaring at Eric from the corners.

"I know, I saw," Corvin assured. "I'm just making sure you don't scratch him enough to cause blood loss."

Eric, groaned, picking himself up off of the floor. His clothes had been torn in multiple locations and there were more than a few bloody scratch marks on him. Corvin would feel a small amount of sympathy towards him had he not touched Flora like that, so right know all he felt for him was a steady stream of anger and annoyance.

"P-please forgive my rudeness," he said, and then proceeded to wipe his glasses once again. "I truly did not mean to offend you. I'm just used to inspecting my slaves in that way… you see, most of the slaves I deal with are traditionally much more subordinate then you…"

Oh, Corvin could almost see the steam beginning to pour out of Flora's ears. "I'm not a slave!" she yelled. Corvin had to keep a firm grip on her shoulder so she didn't fly at Eric again. "I was one once, a long time ago, but I'll die before I'm a slave ever again!"

Eric, looking confused, turned to Corvin for helo. "Oh… I'm sorry… but… I don't understand… she isn't a slave, then?"

Refusing to move from his chair, Corvin shook his head. "She is not. We're all just friends." His eye wandered over to Natani. "... Most of us are friends."

"Seriously?" Eric's shoulders slumped. "I must admit I'm a little disappointed. I was really hoping to buy her from you."

"I'm afraid that will be quite impossible, Eric, and that's not at all what we came here for. We came for a ship."

He gave a weary sigh and nodded, sending a little relief into Corvin. At least he had given up on the topic, which was more than he could say for other people. He let Flora go in confidence she wouldn't maul the man again.

"Well…" Eric said, looking at Flora yet again. "Now that I think about it… boat rides can be very boring… there is something Flora can do for me… if she's willing, of coarse…"

"Does it... involve... talking like... this...?" Corvin asked. He say the odd looks they gave him and sighed. "I just... forget it. What do you want?"

"Come." It was a simple command from Eric, and everyone decided to oblige by following him to a door opposite of the one they had entered. He opened it, and gestured for them to enter the room. Corvin was the first to enter the room, and immediately regretted this decision, because he was the first one to see them- the paintings.

The room was littered with the things, painting depicting various keidran in various lewd positions. Admittedly they were all well done, but Corvin didn't know if that was something worthy of praise or something to be horrified at.

"Corv, uh... what the hell'd you just walk into?"

"I... don't think I rightly know..."

"It's like some kinda... perverted art gallery. Wow. We might as well slap a lab coat on the guy to complete the flashbacks your getting right now."

"Quiet, you."

"Voila!" Eric spread his arms wide to the paintings before him, the others having about the same reaction that Corvin did. "These are my paintings! As I told you, boat rides can be long and quite boring. If you would model for me, I would love to paint your image"

"Wow, these are really good…" Flora commented, staring intently at the paintings. "You want me… to model?"

"Sure," he said, "you have quite an exotic look to you."

"Oh… thanks… I guess…"

Eric stepped next to her, nudging her with his elbow. "…And if you want, we can, ya know, have some fun afterwords…" nudge nudge, "a little… private entertainment…"

There was a small whish sound as something flew pas Eric's ear, followed by a loud thunk as something embedded itself in the wall behind Eric. Eric looked at the object in confusion while Flora, Keith, and Natani's eyes flew to Corvin when they realized it was one his his knives that he had thrown.

"You are not to lay a hand on her now or during the voyage, and any time hereafter. Otherwise the next one goes into one of your precious paintings." Corvin hoped, for Eric's sake, that this would send a good enough message for him not to touch her. He didn't want to hurt him due to the fact he would be in close proximity to Flora. However, if the need arose, he was more than happy to stick a knife in more than the paintings.

"U-uh... of course, message understood." Eric's eyes flickering between the knife and Corvin did not go unnoticed. "Eh, well… my offer still stands. I'll take you aboard my boat in the morning if you want. If you don't mind, I need to find my healing crystals, excuse me…" And with those words he ran out of the room as fast as he could.

Corvin let a laugh out, sighing while shaking his head as he walked over to the knife. "Honestly, I don't care for the man. But I," he said as he pulled the knife from the wall, dropping it into his sleeve," am curious on your thoughts about him. How about you, Flora? What do you think about A-Eric. Eric." He cursed himself when he saw Keith blink at him, and then proceeded to try and hide any sign of him reacting. Another thing to add to the pile of suspicions Keith had over him.

"Eh, as much as I hate to admit it, we need him," she said, shrugging. "It's the perfect opportunity… but I'm not going to enjoy posing in front of him. You'd better make sure he doesn't try anything."

"I will," he assured. "Anyways, we should enjoy tonight. You can get a bath, we can sleep on something other than dirt, and in the morning go on a grand line adventure! In the middle of the ocean… surrounded by water…" The prospect still wasn't all that appealing to him. He knew this had been coming for quite awhile, and was hoping seeing it coming would calm his nerves. It did no such thing.

Fortunately Flora was there like always, reassuring him by putting an arm around him. "Aw, don't worry, Corvin, I'll make sure your high and dry! And that does sound kinda nice… murr…" She dragged him away, to where Corvin didn't know. He much didn't care, either. After all the pandemonium tonight he longed for some time alone with her.

---

Eric was kind enough to provide all of them with guest rooms to sleep in until morning. Corvin being who he was didn't sleep, and opted to lean on the balcony outside that oversaw the streets below, hoodie tossed to the side for now, leaving the thin shirt underneath. It was around midnight and the amount of people attending the festival had begun to die down some, so at least things had begun to quiet down some.

He heard a caw, and automatically stretched his hand out, letting a crow land on it. It began to preen it's feathers while Corvin just stared unblinkingly at it.

"Hey Corvin…" His head swiveled to Flora. who was standing in the doorway with a towel wrapped around her neck. "Come on, they finally got the water warmed up. Hey, what are you doing out here?"

"Nothing. Just watching." The crow on his hand pecked one of his fingers. "Crow flew in and landed on me," he explained.

"Ah, I see." She walked next to him, looking at the bird standing on him. "You know, it's really weird how crows always fly near you."

"Yeah. Can I keep it?"

"No."

His head sunk down, and he let a sigh out. "You're just like my mother. She never let me keep any crows, either."

"That's because they're gross," Flora said, brushing her hand against the crow. It cawed at he before flying away, with Corvin sighing even deeper once it left.

"Oh, I wouldn't say that," he said. "There is a reason I have such a fascination with the creatures."

"Oh?" She quirked a brow. "And what would that be?"

Corvin smiled, his head looking out into the night sky, where a flock of crows were flying past the moon. "I remember when my mother was explaining the concept of death to me," he began. "Oh, she was a wonderful woman, you would have loved her. I asked her why things needed to die in the world, not just people but trees, animals, anything living. She said that creation was a beautiful thing to behold, but that there was only so much room in the world for so much. Nothing lasted, so death existed to destroy the old and useless to make room for the new." He faced her once again, closing his hand in front of her. "'Before Creation must come Destruction'. That was her words. That the reason for death was so there could be life, and without life there would be no living, and that a life without living was not fit to be lived in." He spread his hand open, and pointed it towards the flock of crows. "Crows are intelligent creatures that reflect this sentiment, hence my namesake. Corvin translates to crow in case you didn't know." Flora nodded, for indeed she did not know that was what it meant. "They symbolize death in the way they are almost always found over the dead and scavenging their remains. Yet they also bring brings nutrients to any life they fly above from whatever waste was made from the consumption of that dead flesh. People always say that they are a bad omen due to being a symbol of death, but after what my mother said I only saw them as a good thing. It's why I can nothing but admire them, and it is out of utter respect that I feast upon them." He looked back at her. "Do you understand, Flora, why I adore these creatures so?"

She looked at him deeply, processing every single one of his words. "I do," she said. "But that still doesn't explain why they fly towards you."

Corvin laughed- a genuine, honest laugh- and rubbed the back of her ears, which brought a happy look to her face. "I practically pour my heart out and that's what you have to say? You're terrible."

"Fine, it's very deep and passionate." She pecked him on the cheek and grabbed him by the arm. "Your mom sounded like a nice person."

"Yeah." He looked down. "She really was. Always saw the good in people."

"Can I ask what happened to her?"

The mood darkened considerably at that question, with Corvin's eyes darkening. "She died," he said without a tone of emotion to his voice. "That's all there is to it. Come on, your bath is waiting."

He picked up his hoodie and began to put it on, making Flora frown. She liked it better when his face was visible. She clung back to his arm, rubbing against his back. "Corvin..."

"Flora, it's fine-"

She began to purr into his back, silencing him immediately. "…Murr… don't be so moody, Corvin."

He sighed, pulling his hood up while giving her an assuring pat on the shoulder. "I... I won't. I can't whenever you do that, after all."

She reached into his hood and ruffled his hair, giving him a smile. "That's the spirit! Now, come on!" she ran out the room, leaving the door wide open.

"Alright, alright, wait for me!" he called, running after her and closing the door behind her.

---

Most of the way to the baths was filled with the two chatting amongst themselves, with Corvin admiring the architecture of the building while Flora stared at each and every painting they passed.

"These walls are nice," Corvin commented, inspecting them thoroughly as they passed every board that made the walls up.

"I guess," Flora agreed, albeit hesitantly. "Though it would be nicer if there weren't pictures of him hung every five feet." It was just unnerving, seeing Eric's creepy smile on every single wall in this house. The smile was, after all, rather disconcerting.

Corvin ran a finger along the wall, muttering, "These walls are really nice."

"Why, hello Mr. Corvin." They both stopped when they heard the soft, feminine voice that came from a figure standing in front of them. "I am a servant of my master, Eric. I have finished preparing your bath. Shall I stay and help you with your bath? You'll find that I can provide you with a variety of… services," she offered in a sultry way that in no way sat right with Flora

Corvin shook his head, looking at the figure that stood before them. "Sorry, wasn't listening, there was a fly on the wall. Wha..." His eyes widened at the girl in front of them. She was a keidran, about Flora's age, though if she were a feline or a canine was hard to discern; she had both features. Grey or light-brown fur, he couldn't tell which, messy, tousled hair of the same color. Turquoise eyes.

"And wow, would you look at the size of those-"

"Hey, you hussy!" Thankfully Flora was there to run in front of Corvin and to block Jack's train of thought. "Back off, he's mine! Right, Corvin?"

Corvin gave a wry grin, wrapping an arm around Flora's shoulder while his other arm was stuck in his pocket. "Really, Flora? Hussy? Kinda rude of you, don't you think?" She made a "hmph" sound, crossing her arms. "As for you," he said, turning to the servant, "I don't need any assistance nor services."

She cast a confused glance at him. "Oh… what? Than why are you going?" she asked him.

"Just to watch her," he curtly replied.

She seemed to have accepted that answer and shrugged it off, as she stepped aside to let them through. "Well, okay… right this way…" she said, and proceeded to lead them to the baths. She left them as soon as they reached the entrance, going to tend to her own business while Flora stepped into the bath room.

Corvin stayed back, staring gloomily into the room. It was rather nice, with stark-white textiles and a warm bath in the middle that Corvin could easily mistake for a swimming pool at first glance. The slave trade business was apparently more lucrative than he had imagined. Yet, as much as he wanted to go in there and bath with Flora... he couldn't. The water would burn him the second he stepped foot in there. He couldn't even enter the room the mist given off by the water was so thick.

"Mrr? Corvin?" Flora looked back at him, cocking her head to the side. "Are you coming in?"

"I... Flora, I'm sorry." He hung his head, stepping back from the entrance. "T-the mist... it's too thick. It'll hurt me if I go in there."

She blinked, then realization came across her eyes as her ears flattened out against her head. "Oh, Corvin. I forgot you couldn't touch..." She bit her lower lip, looking back at the bath, then back at Corvin. "Forget the bath, I don't... we can just go back and-"

"No no no no no!" He quickly stepped up to her, lightly pushing her back into the room. "I don't want to ruin this for you. You had a rough time in the forest, you deserve this." He noticed her staring at a peculiar spot on him. "What is it?" he questioned.

"Your hand," she said simply. he looked at it and instantly hissed in pain, drawing it back to his chest. When he had pushed Flora back into the room the mist had clung to his hand, and the surface flesh had begun to bubble.

"It's fine," he assured. "Healing. Don't worry about me, I'll be fine. Just enjoy yourself for me, okay? Please?"

Hesitantly, she nodded. "Alright, I will." She went back to the bath, Corvin hearing her sighing contently as she sunk into the water while he leaned on the wall next to the entrance. If he didn't admire the wall so much he would have punched a hole in it out of anger.

"Water," he mentally groused. There was no end to his hatred for the substance that he once treasured as a source of life.

"Ah, hello again, Mr. Corvin!" Corvin nearly jumped out of his skin when the servant from before popped up in front of him. "I thought you were going in the bath with Miss Flora?"

He shook his head. "I, uh, I couldn't." He took a few steps back from her. "Yeah. Couldn't."

He gave him a confused look. "Ah? Is she not letting you?"

"No, it's not her. It's me."

"You? Oh, no!" Her confused look turned to one of worry. "I didn't accidentally make the bath too hot and accidentally burn you, did I!?"

"No, it's not that!" He backed further away from her. Flora had shown herself to be the possessive type, something she had shown the second the servant made eye contact with them. "I just can't physically enter the bath is all!" He heard something troubling from the baths. The sound of someone quickly sitting up while in the water.

"Why not?" she asked. He heard footsteps start to rapidly approach them. "Is it because of the-"

"You!" Corvin sighed, holding his head in failure as Flora ran out of the baths. "What are you doing here!? I thought I told you we don't need you!"

"I was too late..."

The servant blinked. "No, you said 'back off, he's mine'."

"Well we don't need you to help us!"

"Please sto-"

"But I've been ordered to help, it's my job…"

"Who told you, that pervert? Figures!"

Corvin weakly held a finger up. "Flora, maybe you can-"

"Hey, master Eric is not a pervert, he-"

"He is too! Why else would he send you in here to interrupt us…?"

"I don't know, I just do as I'm told…"

Once again, Corvin tried to interrupt the two. "She was just-"

"Well, trust me, we're fine, we don't need your 'services'."

"Hey, master says I do well with my serv-"

"I don't want to know about that stu-"

Corvin walked away. Flora shouted after him, but he didn't listen. He felt too angry and wanted to be alone. She called for him again but by then he had already darted around the corner.

---

Flora sighed, looking around every single corner for Corvin. She didn't know she would upset him by talking like that, but it wasn't like it was her fault! It was all that servant's fault, creeping up on him like that. Twice, even!

She peaked around another corner, only to come up empty again. "I can't believe Corvin walked out on us like that. He seems really stressed out lately. I guess I should talk to him tonight about it." She spied another bathing area with steam coming out of it, a devilish grin coming to her face. "Ah, there's the second bath. I wonder if Keith's still in there? Heh, maybe I can bust in on him…"

She poked her head in, peering at the two forms in the back of the baths. "Hey Keith, are you in he-… buh…!?"

She was expecting a lot of sights when she looked in there. Natani on top of Keith, with both looking at her in shock, wasn't one of them.

"This isn't what it looks like?" Natani said in a weak tone.

"Do you mind, Flora?" Keith drawled, composing himself the second thought caught back up to him. "We're just two normal guys… uh… doing what guys do in a bath, you know?"

She slowly nodded. "Oookay… well, I gotta go… do the thing… and find Corvin... so, see ya later…"

"Oh, Corvin?" Keith pointed a finger to the left. "He went that way."

She quickly thanked him, running in the same direction he had pointed while abandoning all thought to whatever was going on in that bath.

She finally found Corvin, outside of Eric's estate. On the streets in front of his door. His back was turned to her and he refused to move as she approached him. "Corvin, what are you doing?" she asked, stepping just behind him.

He turned, and from his frown she could tell he was upset about something. He wasn't any good at hiding it whenever he was in a bad mood. "It's frustrating, you know. Living like this."

"What?" What he meant by that, she had no clue. "Living like what?"

"Me." He gestured to himself. "This body. The water."

She sighed, stepping closer. "If it's about the bath..."

"It's not just the bath!" he shouted, gripping the sides of his hood, startling Flora. "It's... things with this body had been bugging me for awhile, a couple of things. I've just been putting them in the back of my head, but then you started shouting with that girl and-"

"Shh…" she put a finger to his lips, which silenced him as soon as it made contact. "Corvin, it's alright… I don't know what you're talking about, but if something is troubling you then you know you can tell me."

"I know, I... I've just been..."

She kissed him. It was quick, but sweet. She imagined him having a dazed look as she pulled away. "Corvin, if you're really that upset about the bath than you don't have to worry about it. After all, we still have the bed."

He smiled softly, looking down. "Yes, I know. I'm sorry, I know this is unlike me and all, but it's all just been piling up on me. So-"

He didn't get any further. The first thing Flora saw was the spurt of blood that came from the center of Corvin's chest. The second was Corvin looking down in shock at the wound. Third was the spear that had caused it.

She screamed.

---

Tonight wasn't Corvin's night. He didn't mean to just blurt all that in front of her, and Jack had berated him for even hinting at there being an issue other than the water. But the truth was frustration had been building in him. The strength, the lack of feeling. The constant lies he kept telling her. When he heard her shouting at that servant it's what he pictured her looking like if she ever found out he lied... which one day she would. One could call it him being frightened and running off.

But then she came out and reassured him it was alright, and he believed her. He wanted to tell her what he was, he really did, but there were so many things keeping him back. Her never forgiving him for lying. Jack not letting him. Her seeing him as some monster or freak.

But she wasn't like that. She was understanding, one of the main reasons he loved her. She would give him a chance. She had enough compassion to give him a chance to explain and see things from his perspective, to understand why he hid it from her, from everyone.

These thoughts were erased when the spear went through him. Normally, this wouldn't be a problem, all he would have to do is pull it out and punish whoever the idiot was who did this. Only, he couldn't. He couldn't move a single cell of his being. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't move, and because of this his stiff, unmoving body was pushed over by the wind.

It was there he saw the problem. The spear was glowing, a bright blue color that covered the weapon in a glowing aura, with dots of light lifting off of it. It was restricting his movement. He didn't know how, but it was.

"J-Jack... what..." Even his thoughts had a hard time speaking out.

"C-Cor..." Jack had it even worse. They were both frozen until someone removed the spear.

It was then he saw the fourteen figures approach Flora from behind, who was staring at him with wide eyes, too horrified to act. One in black armor and red robes with stepped behind her, Corvin taking notice of a giant crescent blade strapped to his back, along with a black dragon tattoo under his right eye. He delivered a quick blow to the back of her neck, and her body crumpled to the ground. Despite the immense fury he felt, even in his mind Corvin couldn't roar in fury.

"Ha! Nice going, Roderick!" One of the others cheered to the one the knocked Flora out.

Corvin committed that name to memory, his hate for this new man being emboldened by the sickening grin he put on. "Heh, yeah. Cheyenne, nice soul-binding spell… you sure he can't move?"

A dark-haired woman stepped next to him, looking down at Corvin with contempt. "Yep, until it's removed his soul is frozen and he's stuck… won't be able to even breath… he'll probably suffocate, if he hasn't by now."

Had the few thoughts Corvin could muster be filled with thoughts on how he would kill them, he would have laughed.

"Good." Roderick said. He stepped up to Corvin, taking great care to stomp his boot directly into his face before crouching down. "That was for the Templar you killed… he was a friend." Corvin vaguely remembered him. "Since you're going to die soon, might as well tell you what the point of all of this is. We're gonna take your keidran bitch to Kasura village, where the Templar will hand her over to the wolf clan… where they'll execute her. Goodbye, Blue."

He kicked Flora in face before picking her up and carrying her off. All it did was silently enrage him further. The rest spent a good ten minutes kicking Corvin before leaving with Roderick. He didn't care. They didn't hurt him. He couldn't move his eyes, so they quickly vanished from his sight, and eventually all was silent. There wasn't a single sound in the street.

Inside his mind, he screamed.

---

Keith let a annoyed sigh out, Natani doing the same. Weird revelations had been revealed to him last night, but he could care less. What he did care about was the fact that it was morning and he couldn't find hide nor hair of Flora or Corvin, though for all Keith knew the hair part didn't even apply.

They searched everywhere, the guest rooms, the baths, every single inch. Not a single sign of them. Eventually the both of them gave up, opening the front door in hopes of searching the streets for them. They didn't have to look far as Corvin's still form was right in front of them on the street, spear through his chest.

They both ran to him, wide-eyed and in a panic as they ran their hands over his body.

Natani shook her- his, Keith had to correct himself on that- head when a finger pressed to his neck. "He's too cold Keith, he's gone."

Keith shook his head. "No, he's always that cold. It's fine."

"He has no pulse, Keith."

"But..." he couldn't be dead. Keith had seen Corvin do too much for him to die to something as measly as this. His life depended on Corvin being able to do so much. He couldn't be dead. "Pull the spear out."

"What?"

"Pull it out!" They were desperate words, and Keith was feeling mighty desperate at this point. He wasn't one to give up as easily as that, Corvin being even more stubborn. "Pull the spear out, maybe he's still alive!"

"Keith-"

He didn't listen, instead choosing to grip the spear and pull it out, throwing the thing far away. That's when he felt it.

Red light flooded from Corvin's hood the second it was removed. A red fog began to lift off of him as he shakily lifted himself from the floor. And somewhere crows began to incessantly caw.

Natani started to sweat as he stepped back, and Keith did the same. The feeling he was experiencing was not unlike the feeling a rabbit would feel when being chased by a fox. The feeling of a stronger animal being near you. The instincts withing you telling you that the animal in front of you was too powerful and you had no chance of surviving and encounter with it, so therefor you must run. What Fight or Flight would feel like of Flight scooped Fight up in it's arms and flew away as fast as it could without thought or question. It's what both of them felt at that moment, and Keith couldn't figure out what made Corvin so terrifying at this moment that he radiated such power.

Corvin's body twisted to one single direction. Then he ran. Ran faster than Keith could even keep up with, a blue blur shadowed by red that bolted off in some direction, to where he didn't know. He could only watch in disbelief as hos body disappeared over the horizon. Interestingly a flock of crows began to follow him, with more flying in from every direction and joining the flock.

"K-K-K-Keith..." Natani's voice was frightened, a stutter caused by pure instinctual fear amplified by keidran biology. "What... what was that?"

"I don't know," he answered simply, staring dumbly after Corvin. "I... just don't know..."

---

"My fault my fault my fault my fault my fault my fault my fault..."

It's all Corvin could think as he ran. He ran in a straight line, in the direction he saw them go off in. He was spamming his sonar constantly, hoping he would get a ping back. He did eventually, somewhere far off. He ran as fast as he could towards it. That fact he saw some of her bones broken only motivated him to move faster.

It was those two he knocked out in front of the city. They must have tipped them off. It was his fault. He should have killed them, then Flora wouldn't be in this mess. Then he wouldn't have to do what he was about to do.

Templar. The words was like poison in his mind. The ones that took her must have been Templar. They were armed, looked trained, and for what other reason would they care about one he had killed? He thought it was completely idiotic. Why track him down for one little crime? What was the point? Where was the sense?

None. There was none. But on the other hand he knew too little. That would change as soon as he arrived at this village.

Two seconds later he arrived, standing in the treetops on a hill overlooking the village. It was big enough, population of about a thousand, he would say. Templar flooded the streets, wolves in armor flooded the streets. Everyone else must have been shut in their homes. Sonar located Flora at the top of the tower in the middle of the village.

It made no sense. Templar, from what he heard, didn't cooperate with wolves. Operations like this wasn't carried out for an escaped slave and a petty murderer. Was it because Flora was supposed to marry someone important? The wolves had a king, she was to marry to royalty...

He blinked. She was to marry Sythe, as a sign of peace between tigers and wolves. That would only hold merit if Sythe was related to the kind in some way, a son or cousin. And Corvin had gone and ripped his arm off. Hence Natani and Zen. But why Templar? Why them?

It didn't matter. He would get all the answers he needed soon.

"How do you want to do this?" Corvin could feel something in Jack's voice. A trembled of excitement at what was to commence. "Remember that you can shapeshift. It wouldn't be that hard to consume someone for a disguise, sneak your way to the tower, grab her-"

"No time," Corvin interrupted. "They have her. She's hurt. I don't have time to be careful." Another pulse revealed that even more of her bones were broken. They hurt her. They were still hurting her. He didn't have time to play it safe, to avoid causing a commotion. Not with that many guards.

"... Then you'll have to kill everyone in your way."

"You do it."

There was a pause. "What?" It wasn't a question asked in a angry tone, a confused tone, or a questionable one. It was a hopeful one, one that begged it to be true.

Despite what Corvin was, he wasn't a killer. The Templar in that city was out of reflex, the guards an accident. The dragon in self-defense. The idea of killing sickened him, honestly. A pointless waste of life that he so wished he could avoid but he couldn't.

Jack, though... he didn't care. He only cared about consuming others, about getting biomass. Survival. To him killing was even less than a chore. It was necessary for survival, and he had no qualms about it, whereas Corvin couldn't stomach it.

"Jack, I... to kill that much... I can't."

Jack understood completely. he understood Corvin's logic. Corvin couldn't be blamed if somebody else in his body did all the killing now, could he? Sure, he was about to give him control of his body. But Jack had the exact same options as Corvin did. He could get her without bloodshed as well.

He wouldn't. Corvin had eaten so little in his time with him, consumed so little. He was starved, and to him this was the perfect opportunity for a fill. They both understood this as two consciousnesses switched soundlessly inside of Corvin's mind. But now it was Corvin inside of the Jackdaw's mind. The clothes changed color, the surface looking as if blood was running over them as they changed from blue to red. The hood fell down, and the tips of Corvin's black hair that was blue turned red. The red glow ceased, but the irises stayed red.

Jack flexed his hand, looking at it in wonder. And around him the crows cawed.

---

Roderick and his fourteen comrades weren't all that famous, but they were revered fighters for the Templar order, which is why they found it a personal insult that they had to guard the entrance of the village where the prisoner they had handed off was being processed. Roderick had to go off to a camp far off in the west to give a report, so it was the fourteen of them. Just standing there, bored expressions of their faces.

"This blows," one said. The others hastily agreed, each and everyone angrily grumbling something under their breaths. Nobody had told them why they of all people needed to go on guard duty, in fact nobody knew why they needed an entire village full of Templar to guard one girl while the exchange was made with the wolves.

One of them was far away, pacing in frustration in front of the other thirteen. Interestingly enough it was the woman from before who had made the spell that had incapacitated Corvin in the first place. Whether Jack chose to kill her first in retribution of that or because she was just the closest, none would ever now.

The thirteen were only able to screw their faces into panic and get a single syllable of warning out before they found the lower part of her torso thrown in front of their feet. Jack held the top part up by the neck, looking at it in a mixture of excitement and curiosity.

"It's really sad, you know," he absentmindedly said the the remaining thirteen, who pulled their weapons with grief-stricken faces. "I could tell Corvin really didn't want to do this. And that's what the messed up part is. He doesn't hate you people at all, he's just really confused. He's not making me kill you all because he wants to, he's making me kill you all because he legitimately thinks he has no choice. He thinks that if he loses her than he will have lost all reason to live." His face, Corvin's face, scrunched in disgust. "He is an utter fool."

The face turned from disgust to manic as he stuck his tongue out, the appendage stretching to five feet. It shot it's way through the woman's body, tearing it's way through her mouth and wrapping around her neck, snapping it. Black tendrils sprouted from Jack and consumed the body in an instant, the biomass being absorbed into his being.

He laughed, laughed loudly as he inspected his own hands. "Oh, but who cares how much of a fool he is when he would actually let me do this!?" For the first time he was experiencing so many sensations he couldn't feel when trapped in Corvin's mind, feeling so much. He scratched his arms, enough to draw blood as he laughed at the feelings he was experiencing for the first time. The biomass gained from Cheyenne healed the damage. "Oh, this feels so wonderful!"

"You damn monster!" one of the men yelled, charging at Jack with sword poised to strike. Jack stared at him through to corner of Corvin's eyes with glee as tendrils swarmed his body, leaving something behind in an instant. Atop his skin a a smooth, black carapace covered in red-glowing fissures, smooth armor that left nothing exposed. The head was covered by a expressionless helmet, the face being nothing but a smooth, black plate. The sword was swung at him, and the blade broke off the armor, the man wielded that sword seeing the look of panic in his own eyes through the reflection of the helmet. It was the last thing he saw as Jack swiped at his head, leaving nothing but a pulpy mass that splattered onto the ground as the rest of the body toppled to the ground.

More tendrils swarmed around his arms, the left becoming a twisted mass of tendrils with four claws at the end. The right arm became a twisted mass of tendrils that ended with a long blade nearly as large, slightly curved blade nearly as large as Jack was. The remaining twelve were cut to pieces when Jack dashed behind them, twirling his body and relishing the feeling of the blade slicing through all if them. The black tendrils consumed the bodies.

He laughed.

---

Jack was having the time of his life.

He ran madly through the streets in a mad dash for the tower in the center, and it seemed as if every able-bodied fighter in the village was trying to converge on him. But nobody could hurt him. Jack was faster than everybody who ran to him, stronger than everybody who tried to attack him in that village. Weapons bounced off his armor his his claws and blade easily slipped through their armor and shields so easily he felt almost no resistance, and every single person he killed he consumed. Even if they could wound him in some way, at this point he could regenerate any amount of damage they could deal to him, which at this point was currently zero.

It seemed as though hundreds opposed him, and hundreds were felled with almost no effort. Buildings and entire streets went slick with blood as Jack ran closer and closer to the tower. And interestingly Jack saw the conviction in the men and woman fighting him begin to waver. Some tried their best to stay far away, some deserted and ran. But regardless of what they did they still died.

At last he rounded a corner, the tower entrance being at the end of a street filled with guards who were trembling at the sight of him. Hundreds of tendrils were spawned from his back, chaotically twisting behind him as they consumed all the viscera left behind.

"We-we can't kill this thing!" one of them screamed, the man practically shaking in his armor as he stepped back. "It just killed hundreds of us, and we can't even scratch it...!"

"Oh, gods, we're gonna die…" another wailed. That one had already dropped his weapons, total despair taking him over as he fell to his knees.

"Stand your ground! We can take it- we outnumber it!" Though encouraging, the guard's voice wavered as her hands shook.

"A monster... it's a monster..."

The words were all meaningless to Jack. Biomass was channeled into his hands, and his expressionless face raised to meet their terrified ones. Biomass was used to expunge a large amount of air pressure through Jack's hands. A large stream made up of thousands of pounds of air pressure tore through the entire street, destroying everyone who stood between him and the doors to the tower, which were also blown off.

He leaped to the entrance, slowly walking in. Most of the people who were behind the door had died, the force tearing their bodies apart. Everyone else was wounded and dying, bleeding all around him. He slowly made his way to the center of the tower, tentacles sprouting from his back, ones tipped with long blades. They whipped around him in a flurry, killing the rest.

Leaping up to the tower was a small feet in of itself. So was kicking the doors open to the room the sonar told him Flora was in, along with some wolves. A Templar in more stylized armor than the rest of the ones he killed. They died in seconds, each being impaled by a tentacle and consumed.

At last, all became silent. Nobody else in the tower was alive except for him and her. He sighed, stepping up to her still body. He didn't need to look much to tell most of her bones were broken.

One of the tentacles hovered over her still body, the tip of it's blade centimeters from her throat. "Do you know how many problems I would solve if I did it?" The question was more directed at himself than at her. "Oh, but Corvin would never forgive me if I did. I can only do this if he let's me."

He picked her up, slinging her over his shoulder. "If I were to kill you Corvin would lock me in the deepest corner of his mind where I'd never be free to do this again. So for now, I need you."

Jack jumped down the tower, not letting Flora go. The truth was that Jack hated her. He utterly hated Flora, because in his eyes she was the reason Corvin held back so much. Look at the situation they were in now, which wouldn't have happened if Corvin had just killed those two humans. If Corvin would kill people for biomass instead of forest animals and crows Jack wouldn't be starving like this all the time. Corvin, and by extension Jack, would be free to do whatever they pleased if she wasn't around. But that was fine, for one reason and one reason only: Corvin didn't age. Regeneration meant he was immortal. Flora would live twelve, thirteen more years at best. So Jack could wait. He could wait that long when he had eternity.

Those were his thought as he dragged her out of the city by her leg, tossing her to the ground once outside the city gates. Corvin would want his body back soon, and as soon as he took control back he would heal her. And then he'd be cast back to being the voice who nagged him in his head.

He heard something behind him, a soft gasp. He turned around, for no other reason that to see what it was. The villagers who actually lived here had finally left their homes to see what all the noise was about. They all seemed shocked and stunned and the amount of carnage they all found around them, looking at the endless amount of bloodstains in looks of disbelief in horror.

A little girl was staring at Jack. A pale girl with white hair and purple eyes. She wasn't making much reaction, just staring at Jack curiously. So Jack walked up to her, wondering briefly why she was staring at him like that. He chalked it up to a child's curiosity and thrust his blade at her.

It never connected. The red glow on his left arm, the one with the claw, turned blue. Jack felt the arm move to intercept the blade, the claws impaling themselves into the other arm to stop the blade from touching the girl.

"Jack... stop. You've done enough. You don't need to kill anymore. We have her, so let's just go."

That was Corvin's voice. Jack didn't want to listen, because they could still take more biomass. He didn't see the point in not taking what was in front of him right now, and therefor forced the one arm he still had to inch it's way forward. The girl was staring at him wide-eyed, too frightened to move.

"I said that's enough! What are you doing!?" The arm continued to move forward, Corvin trying his hardest to stop it. "Stop it, Jack! Stop it!"

"I don't want to."

No sooner had Jack thought those words had a bladed tentacle burst from him shoulder, cutting off the only limb that Corvin had control of. It fell to the ground at the same time the girl's two halves fell. The villagers saw and screamed, running in every direction that wasn't towards Jack.

His response was silence, crouching down and sticking his blade into the ground. Biomass tunneled through the ground, spreading under the entire village. Enormous black spikes erupted from the ground, most forming a ring around the village for the sole purpose of preventing escape to any and all withing, some forming inside the village and demolishing homes. And Jack, satisfied with this, entered the screaming village.

Soon all was silent.

---

To a normal person, the sight of a human wearing completely clean clothing as they carried a seemingly perfectly fine and healthy-looking keidran through the streets would have been a slightly uncommon sight, but nothing to take a second glance at. To Corvin it was absolutely sickening.

No, sickening wasn't a word he could use, because he didn't feel sick at all. He didn't feel anything, really. Not horror, not anger, not sadness, not even guilt at having made the mistake of letting Jack take his body over. He'd given it back as soon as he had consumed all of the villagers, after which Corvin had screamed countless things at Jack as he healed Flora. They both refused to speak after that, so the journey back for the most part was silence. To Jack it had been a perfect opportunity for biomass. To Corvin it was a complete and unnecessary waste of life. Suffice to say they both had conflicting views on the matter.

There was an upside to it all, at least. Out of all the memories he had absorbed, he learned some useful things. One was other languages, so he didn't have to worry about that again, and among that other small things here and there that answered some of the questions he had about this world. But first and foremost was the reason why this happened in the first place, and the answer to that was simple: Corvin didn't know.

He remembered punching a wall in frustration at this revelation due to how foolish it was. None of them were told why there needed to be such a large presence of soldiers in the village for such an exchange, and the memories in Corvin told him there was a great amount of confusion surrounding it. All that the commander of the detachment was told was that "heavy resistance may be encountered". That commander was currently one of the many memories swimming around in his head.

But it was a clue, at least. They were expecting him. Even more so they knew that he was dangerous, but there was a very, very short list of people why knew how dangerous he was based on what he'd shown he could do. And that list comprised of one person, who was a certain deity in the form of a stone mask. Lots of questions, almost no answer, Eric's house was in sight. All Corvin cared about was how mad Eric would be considering it was almost dusk and they were supposed to leave in the morning.

He opened the front door, blinking when he saw a pair of yellow eyes halt themselves right in front of him and glare into his hood shadow.

"Where were you? What the hell happened?" Keith asked, anger overlapping the worry in his voice.

"Flora ran into some trouble. I got her back, so everything is fine." He could never tell them what happened. He'd been working for so long to gain their trust so when he finally told them what he was they wouldn't reject them. To tell them what happened at Kasura would make it all pointless.

But Keith was indignant, and continued to press him. "Corvin, I'm asking-"

"And I'm telling you," he interrupted, "that everything. Is. Fine."

"Cor-"

Corvin's hood went down. Keith was the only one in that room, and Corvin trusted Keith. The hope was something like this would go a long way in earning his trust and to help him drop the matter. Keith stared, wide-eyed at Corvin. He even blinked to make sure he wasn't hallucinating.

"Corvin..."

"Keith," Corvin said slowly, "this is one of those times where you just need to trust your friend, alright? I know I'm not telling you anything and that it's frustrating you, but I need you to trust me when I say everything is fine. So please trust me, otherwise this would have gone to waste." Corvin allowed a small smile. "After all, I had a big reveal planned and everything, was working on it for a month. Shame that will never come, huh?"

It was a complete lie, but the small chuckle Corvin gleaned out of Keith made it worth the effort. His yellow eyes stared into Corvin's deep blue ones, and he sighed, putting a hand on his shoulder. "I know this was hard for you," he said. "And I've traveled with you long enough to realize this is probably the biggest show of trust you of all people can show, which for something as small as this is saying something." He smiled along with Corvin. "Fine, I'll trust you. But if this ever comes up again I'll need some kind of explanation."

"Fine," Corvin agreed, pulling his hood back up. He sighed in relief at the security the shadows brought. "Anyways, onto more important matters. I didn't bungle our ship passage with this dilemma, did I?"

"You almost did," Keith admitted, causing Corvin to wince slightly. "I told Eric there was something you needed to do, so he agreed to wait. Another hour though and it would have been off, so count yourself lucky."

Corvin nodded, giving a Keith a farewell as he walked away, likely to the docks. Corvin would join him shortly, as soon as he got his emotions in check. Sacrificing the secret of his face was hefty to him, but to assure Keith it was a willing price to pay. He was one of the few friends he had in this world, as well as Flora's. To lose his trust was the same as losing her's by proxy. And that, he could not allow.

He sighed once again, looking ahead. There was one reason he stayed behind. He spoke, using keidran dialect for the first time, "come on out, Natani. I need to have a few words with you." He honestly didn't like the feel of talking like that, too guttural in his opinion. But he needed to do what he needed to do.

The wolf stepped out from behind a support column at the opposite end of the room, leaning on the pillar and crossing his arms. "Since when could you speak keidran?" he asked.

"Picked it up while I was out."

He scoffed in disbelief. "You picked up an entire language in an afternoon."

"Yes. I did." There was one single thing that Corvin needed to make sure of, one thing that if left unchecked would make all of his efforts for naught. "Back to current matters, I can't fathom what you were doing behind there, nor do I care simply want to know if there any other reason you were sent to try and kill us. Was there? Any reason at all?"

"Yeah, there was," he easily answered. "You tore the arm off of someone related to the King of Wolves. What did you think was going to happen?"

"To be fair I warned Sythe beforehand and left him alive. And I didn't even know there was a king at the time." The visible parts of Corvin's face darkened. "Natani, I will make this very clear. You are not to tell anybody of what I did to Sythe. Understand?"

"No, I don't." An angry look overcame him. "You're making it sound like your companions don't know they're traveling around with a complete psychopath."

"They're not because I'm not one."

"Then what would you call what you did to him?" he challenged.

"As I said, I warned him. And I'm warning you, Natani." Corvin reached behind him, simultaneously opening the door behind him while shifting Flora into a more comfortable position. "Tell any of them what I did, and I kill Zen. It's as simple as that." He didn't allow himself to look at Natani's eyes as he became infuriated, turning around and walking through the entrance way. "Ship will be leaving soon. Best get a move on."

He shouted something at Corvin, but he ignored it. Then Natani angrily shoved past him in a made walk to the docks. Corvin didn't much care. As he said before, he would do anything to protect the trust he had built with Keith and Flora for so long. And now he and Jack had gone too far to let it all just be for nothing. So he'd do anything necessary to preserve it.

Anything.

---

Corvin wasn't much of a fan when it came to water, and that was true even before his life became derailed. Most of it had to do with the fact he had never been to an ocean before. Nowadays that aversion was doubly so, but there wasn't any other method to getting to the islands other than a boat. So boat it was.

It was a nice boat, he supposed. Made of wood and sails. Seemed sturdy. But most important of all, it floated. Corvin took a few precautionary on the plank being used to make a walkway from the dock to the boat, shook his head, and briskly walked up the plank until he was standing on the deck of the ship. He sighed in immense relief once he was confident he wouldn't be falling into the drink.

He heard the sound of somebody clearing his throat behind him, Corvin turning to see Eric giving him an irritated glare while he tapped his foot. "You're late," he grumbled, refusing to cease the foot tapping.

Corvin held Flora's unconscious body up to eye-level. "I had to go and-"

"Oh my goodness!" Corvin was startled at the speed Eric rushed to her, looking at every inch of her. "Is she alright?"

Corvin protectively pulled her closer to his chest while stepping away. "She's fine," he answered, "she just needs some rest."

"Of course, of course." Those nods were too eager for Corvin's comfort. In fact everything about Eric did something to cause him discomfort. "There are plenty of rooms, so please take your pick. I hope she feels better soon."

"She will." Corvin turned halfway, then turned back to Eric. "I suppose I should thank you for doing this for us, despite the circumstances. So thanks."

"Eh, no problem. I was going to be sailing out anyways. The basidian islands are as good a place as any. Just don't forget that deal we had. I get Flora to pose for my artwork on the way there. Speaking of Flora…" he looked tentatively down at her. "I have to ask… this trip is going to take nearly a month. Flora's not in any danger of… you know, going into heat during the trip?"

Corvin felt something in him drop at the mention of being at sea for a month, but he ignored it in favor of chuckled while shaking his head. "Oh, no, we already had that adventure. She'll be fine, trust me."

Eric smiled in relief. "Ah, good. Kathrin's safe too. That rules out all female keidran."

Corvin tilted his head. "Kathrin?" The head tilted back. "Oh, you mean the keidran with the big... eyes." He nodded slowly. "Yes. Eyes. The teal ones."

"Yes, that one. You've met her already?"

"In a manner of speaking, yes... anyways!" Corvin spun on his heel, heading towards the nearest door. "Flora needs her rest, I'll put her someplace safe. Until next time." He opened the door, descending quickly down the stairs into the boat while closing the door behind him.

One this was all set in time, he allowed his body to droop slightly. Talking to that man and keeping a straight face was always a challenge.

"Now then..." he thought to himself, looking down at Flora. "Where were those rooms again?"

---

After awhile he finally did find a room that he and Flora would be calling their own for the next month. For a ship Keith had told him that it was actually fairly nice, and the room reflected that. Mostly the bed, which was fortunately big enough for two. Other than that there wasn't much else in the room besides basic furniture, but it didn't matter much to Corvin.

They'd been at sea for about three hours now, with the sun having set long ago. Corvin had laid Flora down in the bed and had refused to leave her side until she had awoken. Fortune smiled down upon him when her body finally started to move and her eyes slowly opened, Corvin immediately rushing to her side.

"Flora," he whispered, laying his hands on her head and back and easing her up. "Do you feel fine?"

"C-Corvin..." she mumbled, putting her hand on his chest. "The spear's gone..."

He smiled in relief. She appeared sleepy at first, but he saw that some life was slowly beginning to return back to her eyes. "Yeah. Don't worry, I fixed everything. It's fine now."

"What happened?" she asked, sitting up on her own now. "All I remember is you falling down, and then I started to panic, and..."

He could tell the memory alone was distressing her, so he kissed her on the forehead. She quieted down as he rubbed the back of her head affectionately, with her softly sighed as she leaned in closer to him.

Admittedly, he was relieved that all she remembered was the spear and nothing else. Like the wolves hurting her while she was unconscious. But he managed to fix everything they broke, and if she didn't remember it, it wouldn't affect her in any way. Everything was fine. "Flora, I know you're confused, but I'm going to have to ask you the same thing I asked Keith."

"Huh?" she blinked. "Ask me what?"

He exhaled, sitting down on the bed. "Flora, some bad people wanted to hurt us. Wolves had something to do with it." He decided to gloss over as many details as possible so as to not cause too much suspicion.

"Wolves?"

"Something about the marriage thing, same reason Zen and his brother came after us. That being said..." He pulled his hood down, looking down as he sat closer to her. "Some things happened, and like I said everything is fine now. But... if it's not too much trouble, can we please not talk about it?" He grew alarmed when she looked down. "Flora, it's not like I don't trust you enough o-or anything like that, it's just-"

"It's fine," she interrupted. "I'm not upset at you or anything. I just feel bad."

"Ah, Flora..." He rubbed a hand over his face, then looked back at her. "Look, I don't want you to blame yourself or anything. It's not your fault that the whole marriage thing is the reason all this bad stuff-"

"No Corvin, I really don't feel that well." His eyes widened when he saw a green tinge begin to form on her face.

"O-oh," he stammered, "um, are you going to be okay, or-"

"I think I'm going to throw up..."

"Oh gee, uh..." he stood up and grabbed her hand, helping her onto her feet. "Do you want me to help you to the bathroom?"

His answer was given when she shoved her way past him and bolted to the one window in the room. Said window was torn open by Flora as she leaned her head out of the porthole. Corvin turned away when she began to vomit into the sea.

"Huh. Guess she gets seasick..." he glumly thought as she shakily pulled her head back into the room, closing the window behind her. "Are you okay?" he asked.

"Yeah..." she answered, grabbing his shoulder. She collapsed back onto the bed, dragging Corvin into it with her. He gasped softly when she pulled his head into her chest and wrapped her arms over his midsection.

"Uh..." It's not that he didn't appreciate the gesture or anything, but it was rather impromptu.

"It's alright, Corvin," she whispered, pulling him in tighter. "I don't blame myself for what happened or you, but it's sweet of you to worry about me. And if you say everything is fine, then I believe you. I trust you more than anybody else."

"Oh." A sense of relief washed over his as he settled into her hold. "Okay. Thanks."

"Mh-hm. But right now, Corvin, I just want to go to sleep."

"Sleep?" he asked. "But you just woke up."

"Well it's night and I'm still tired." She let a yawn out. "So let's just sleep now, okay?"

"'Kay."

She sighed contently, settling in the bed herself and closing her eyes. "And after awhile if I don't fall asleep and start to feel better we ca fool around some."

He blinked. "... 'Kay." That was fine, he supposed. He was just glad he was able to get through with this and leave her happy. Hopefully after awhile the memory of it all would fade away and he wouldn't have to think about it ever again. Then they could both be happy.

Then again, he did feel happy at the moment with her saying she trusted him. That was certainly a big step. For the first time in what seemed like months he smiled. Flora always knew how to make him happy.

---

The next morning found Corvin staring up at the ceiling. Flora wasn't there, she went off to do... whatever it was normal people do in the morning. He'd forgotten what that was. But it was morning, and he really didn't feel like doing much of anything at the moment, so here he laid. Doing nothing in particular but stare at the ceiling.

"... Soooo... still mad?"

Corvin's brows furrowed in irritation. "I told you to stop, and what did you do? You went back in the village and killed everyone."

"It's not like you care," Jack noted.

"That's not the point!" Corvin yelled internally. "Do you have any idea how I'm supposed to explain that to them if they ever find out? How am I suppose to explain away all of that?"

"Just say I did it, simple." Jack made it sound like explaining there was a separate person in your mind was as easy to explain as well. It frustrated Corvin even further.

"Jack, what you did was barbaric. In anybody else's mind they'll see some sadistic monster who's as liable to eat them as he is to have a conversation with them."

"And in your mind?"

"Don't change the subject just because-" Corvin stopped himself after brushing his hand against the floor, only to feel wood and not cloth. "Where's my hoodie?"

"Wha?"

"My hoodie, where's my hoodie?" He knew he left it right here on the floor after last night, when Flora did get better after all. But it was nowhere on the clean wooden floor. Just to make sure he even lifted the bed up to look under it. No luck. "Where's my hoodie, Jack?"

"Calm down, Corvin, I'm sure it's-"

"WHERE IS IT, JACK?"

"So this is what sets you off, huh?"

The door to the room opened, Flora humming to herself as she walked in. Corvin was on her in less than a second, gripping her shoulders and shaking her. "Hoodie. Flora. Where?"

"Corvin, calm down." She tried to pry his hands off of her, but they automatically re-gripped her shoulders and continued to shake her. "I said calm."

"I'm calm," Corvin assured, his eyes shaking as concern wrote itself across his face. "I'm the epitome of calm now, Flora. I'd be even calmer is you told me where my hoodie is."

"I gave it to Kathrin," she explained. "She washes all the clothes and you never wash that thing, so-"

"You put my hoodie near water!?" Corvin nearly screamed. That wasn't good, because if Kathrin exposed that hoodie to water it would melt. This would lead to questions that Corvin would have a hard time answering. "I need to go get it."

"But Cor-" Corvin didn't listen, instead choosing to run out of the door in a blur, slamming the door behind him. She sighed, running a hand across her face. "Why do I even bother, there's no way I'm going to be able to break him out of that." Not that she ever tried, she knew an impossible challenge when she saw one. Bathing Corvin and washing his clothes were apparently among that list.

"Although..." she thought, sitting down on the bed, "he never smells like he needs a bath, which is weird." She shrugged, laying down. "Ah well, I guess it doesn't matter... hey, why is the bed crooked?"

---

Washing clothes was something was something that gave Kathrin some small form of catharsis on giant boat trips like this. That and reading, but right now wasn't the time to be reading. Now was laundry time, and all the fun that came with it! Like looking at people's clothes.

She read a book once that said the type of clothes people wear help express what their inner personalities was like, and if that were true Mr. Corvin must have been a strange person to only ever wear something like this. She'd never even seen his full face because of the silly hood! And he seemed real reclusive and shy, so it made sense he'd hide behind the hood. Now if only the books could explain why he only wore one color.

She shrugged, lifting the hoodie over the tub of water. That was a mystery she could solve once she got to know him! He seemed friendly enough, surely one of these times she could get to know him more. Maybe even get him to indulge in her services and get some practice in. He seemed nice enough and-"

"GIMME!"

All thoughts ceased as something slammed into her, knocking her to the ground. She got up easily enough, looking around wildly to see whatever knocked her down. But strangely, the laundry room was empty. And even stranger was that Mr. Corvin's hood-thing was gone!

She waved it off, going to the next set of clothes. It probably wasn't anything to worry about, clothes didn't disappear without a reason. She was sure it didn't matter that much. She just hoped that Mr. Corvin wouldn't be too upset if it didn't turn back up.

---

The Next Day

Today was a new day, one where Corvin would try not to lose any of his clothes. Everyone had finally settled on the ship, so the time had come for Corvin to begin entertaining himself. Then he remembered the promise he had made to Flora about teaching her to read and decided to do that first.

So there they were, in the library which Corvin was thankful for. He would have been more eager to go on this trip had somebody told him there was a fully-stocked library with quite a wide selection of genres. He'd have to read some of them when he got the time.

Anyway, the learning. Corvin was sitting next to Flora as she tried to read out of one of the child fantasy books Corvin found on one of the meticulously organized shelves, organization he was oh-so thankful for. "So, are you getting any of this?" he asked, leaning in closer to her.

"Not a single word," she sighed, her head falling to the book.

"Okay, okay. Let's try a different approach." He pulled another book off from another shelf. "You're fluent in reading in keidran, so we'll try working off that. I know the language, so that can help with the cross-referencing."

"Eh?" Her head lifted from the book as she gave him a curious look. "I thought you didn't know keidran?"

"I do," he said, pointing to the title of the book written in keidran. "See, it says right here, 'keidran mating positions and other'..." he stopped himself, putting the book back where he found it. "Not that one..." he muttered, then pulled another book out. "Alright, let's have a go with this one. 'Human and keidran se-' grr..." The book crumpled under his grip as he shoved it back onto the shelf.

Flora let a giggle out as she saw Corvin's eyes scan the book titles of that particular shelf back and forth with his face slowly growing more and more disturbed. "Is everything fine?" she asked, grinning at the flustered look he was beginning to adopt.

"No, this can't be. This can't be an entire shelf of books dedicated to lewd material! It defies all logical reason that somebody could compose something like this!" Clearly he'd underestimated the perverse nature that Eric possessed. A calamitous mistake on his part.

"You know there's a shelf of clean keidran books over there," Flora reminded, pointing to a shelf on the other side of the library.

Corvin leaned back on the chair, groaning as he looked at the shelf. "But it's all the way over there..." he complained, then reoriented his position in the chair. "Forget it, I think we made substantial progress today in educating you. We can call it here."

"But we've only been here for five minutes, Corvin."

"Substantial progress," he repeated, grinning at Flora's smile that conflicted with her disappointed look. "Hey, give me a break. I'm still reeling from the fact that Eric has an entire shelf of erotic and informally erotic literature. In fact I believe this is the first time somebody has defeated me with categorization."

She laughed, sitting up in the chair and patting him on the back. "Okay, Corvin, whatever you say. We can try again tomorrow." She made a move to leave, but stopped halfway, looking back at him. "And thanks for doing this for me, Corvin. It's really nice of you."

"I'd be a terrible lover if I didn't do this after saying I would." He looked back at her. "You're welcome, Flora."

She gave him a parting smile, and then left. He sighed, leaning back in the chair and glancing back over at the shelf that caused him so much ire. "Really, it's absurd. How much spare time does one need to accumulate in order to make something like this? The paintings were one thing, but this..." his eyes focused on a particular title, his hands reaching over to take it. "'Tips one how to please you're female keidran lover: volume three'? Huh... interesting." He looked behind him, making sure the coast was clear as he put the book in his pocket, lifting his hood back onto his head.

"I saw that," Jack teased.

"You saw nothing!"

"Ooh, taken an interest in that one, eh?" Corvin let a weak whining sound out in his mind once that voice reached his ears. "You know, that one really is good. You know, the author of that book went to extensive lengths to gather as much material for that series as possible, traveled the world talking to esteemed physicists and taking the advice to heart using more... pragmatic methods."

"I didn't know this, Eric. Thank you for enlightening me," Corvin grumbled, turning the chair around to face Eric. He almost leaped onto the table when he saw Eric was standing less than a foot away from him. "Please don't tell anybody." Because if he did Corvin would kill him.

"Oh, come now, Corvin. I wouldn't even dream of it! Far be it from me to interrupt a man's quest into the studies of refining his pleasuring techniques."

"Please don't phrase it like that..." Corvin groaned, laying a hand on his forehead.

To Corvin's concern, Eric took on a worried look. To his horror he came closer. "You seem upset," Eric noted, "based on your tone and the fact that you would pick that particular volume in particular..."

"Please tell me we're not going there."

"... You wouldn't happen to be having problems in the bed with Flora, would you, Corvin?"

"We are going there..." Corvin thought, his hidden eyes looking at Eric in disbelief. The worst part was that the man actually looked concerned. "No, there aren't any problems, Eric. I just... want to make her happy, is all."

"Ah, you're a good person, Corvin, to worry about her satisfaction above yours," Eric said, sitting down next to Corvin and draping an arm over his shoulders.

"Please no..." Corvin internally begged, fighting the urge to rip that arm off while praying this would end soon.

"However!" Eric continued, the other arm pointing straight to the ceiling, "sexual intercourse between two lovers is a sacred act meant to be enjoyed both both participants."

"How did it come to this?"

Eric ignored him, continuing. "If you focus on nothing but making sure she is pleasured and not yourself, you'll throw the equilibrium of it all off and leave you both unsatisfied."

"You make it sound like sex is a science!" Corvin protested, throwing his arms up.

"Because it is, Corvin. I have a book on that shelf right there that provided scientific insights to it." True enough, he did.

"Ack..." Corvin's head flopped onto the table. "It's not as simple as that, Eric, it's not her that's the problem. I would know if she was unsatisfied, and believe me, she's more than that. It's me that's the problem."

"Oh, no!" Eric cupped both of his cheeks with his palms in shock. "No, say it isn't so! You're saying she's... that she's selfish in bed!? But she seems so nice, you wouldn't think it at first glance..."

"It's nothing like that!" Corvin yelled, head raising off the table in an instant. "It's me that's the problem!"

Eric gave him a confused look. "Forgive me, Corvin, I don't follow."

Corvin mentally kicked himself. Great, now he'd have to tell Eric something to cover this up. He should have left the library when he had the chance. "I have a physical problem," Corvin began, growing nervous when Eric egged him to go further. "I have congenital analgesia," he lied, hoping to this would work.

Eric blinked. "Congenital-what?"

"Congenital analgesia," Corvin corrected, resting an elbow on the table and cheek in hand. "It's a genetic disorder of mine. In layman's terms, my nerves are deadened to a point I can only feel a minute amount of pain, almost completely negligible. Unfortunately, the same thing also applies to... other sensations. Such as pleasurable ones."

"Oh. Oh..." Eric nodded sadly in understanding. "That is unfortunate, Corvin. You have my sympathies. Does Flora know?"

"No, nobody knows. I'd appreciate it if you didn't tell them."

"Of course."

"I mean," Corvin said, looking ahead, "It's not like I don't like it or anything, it makes me happy to see her happy, but my motivation starts to die out whenever I'm reminded of it."

"A-huh," Eric nodded, reading the book Corvin had pulled out. He stopped paying attention once Corvin started his rant.

"And it's not like I can tell her," Corvin continued, his eyes narrowing at Eric. "She'll start to worry and that could affect the relationship, or even worse want to stop doing it out of sympathy for me. I can't bear the thought of depriving herself of something she likes for my sake."

"Yeah," Eric airily agreed, flipping the page.

Corvin's mouth turned to an angry grimace. "You could at least pretend to care!" He yelled, the volume doing nothing to effect Eric as he batted an eye towards Corvin.

"Corvin, my friend-"

"No." Corvin would call Eric many things. Friend wasn't one. He hadn't even worked his way up to acquaintance yet.

"Corvin, I won't go as far as to say that I understand what you're going through, nor do I ever want to know what it's like. But chin up!" He got up, patting Corvin on the top of the head. "Any advice I could give you would probably be wasted, but I'm sure something in the books could help You. Just keep trying, Corvin. It's all you can do."

Corvin stared blankly down at the book, got up, turned around, and walked away. "I think I'm done with books for the day..." he muttered, opening the door.

"Suite yourself," Eric said, then yelled, "remember! Paintings!"

"Eh-yeah-heh-sure." Corvin wasn't really in the mood to form a coherent thought, slamming the door on that note. This was the very reason he didn't like talking to people about his problems, it got very strange very fast. And with Eric it only rose to levels he wasn't at all comfortable with. It was there Corvin decided that all further lessons he'd be giving Flora would take place in their room, because he wouldn't be able to bear being in that library for a week.

---

The Next Morning

Flora had decided that Corvin needed to be more social, because he couldn't spend the entire trip cooped up in the room. He very well could, but she worried about his ability to talk to other people. He would have scoffed in her face had he not known that would have just caused her to drag him to the middle of the ship to meet everyone. So at her behest he stood in the back of the kitchen, watching everyone eat breakfast. She never said he had to actually socialize with anybody.

Really, he didn't see why she worried. There were only two other people on the boat he didn't know, two more of Eric's slaves. He had yet to meet them personally, and if he had his way he never would until he felt like it. Right now he didn't.

"Good morning, Corvin."

"Stop it." Corvin turned around, pointing a finger at Eric. "Stop doing that. You keep sneaking up on me from behind. I don't like it." One of these days he really would lash out at Eric by accident. Yesterday's events didn't help that.

"I have no idea what you're referring to, Corvin," Eric said, grinning a grin that told Corvin that was an utter lie. "Anyways, Do you know where Flora is?"

It wasn't even eight in the morning and already Corvin was done with this day. "... Dressing," Corvin warily replied. "Why?"

"Well, I wanted to ask her if she could model for my painting. You've had her all week in the library and in your room, I thought she could use a break," Eric explained.

"Ah. I see." He turned, making his way to the room. "Fine, very well. I'll fetch her. Expect her to be by your art studio in around ten minutes." Part of him was extremely uncomfortable with this, and would be taking measures to insure nothing obtuse happened. But another part of him realized this would be an excuse to escape the kitchen and go back to the room, so that was good. Though he wasn't sure if the smile Eric grew as Corvin walked away was a good sign or a bad.

He shrugged. Either way he was going to make sure nothing bad happened. He had the perfect plan to ensure Flora's protection, after all. So nothing could possibly go wrong.

---

Flora sighed as she stared at the door leading to Eric's art studio. She'd been dreading this ever since the arrangement was made, and no amount of assurance from Corvin could help her calm down.

"It'll be fine," he said, giving her an assuring hug. "Eric is... well, his heart is in the right place. He's a special person."

"Good special or bad special?" she had asked, not at all convinced.

"Special special. Don't worry, it'll be fine. I'll make sure he doesn't do anything out of line."

The only reason she believed those words were because they came from Corvin, which was all she needed. So, with great hesitation, she knocked on the door, calling rather weakly, "Erm, Eric? I'm here for the, uh, paintings…"

"Ah, Flora!" The door swung open, Eric gesturing for her to come in. "Good to see you! Come in, come in. close the door behind you how are you feeling?"

"I'm… good…" she answered, stepping in and closing the door behind her. There were paintings lining the wall everywhere, and already Eric was at his canvas with paint at the ready. With that creepy smile of his.

"There's no reason to be nervous, Flora," he assured. "I know we haven't talked much in the last week, but we're all friends here, right? You can trust me. Now here, put this on." She was given a light pink dress she immediately eyes with disdain. But that wasn't the problem.

"You… want me to change… right here?" she asked.

"Why not…?"

She blushed, refusing to meet his gaze. "Well, ah… I don't know… it's just embarrassing!" How could undressing in front of anybody but Corvin not be?

Eric just chuckled at this. "Embarrassing? Aw, don't be ridiculous. I've never heard of a modest keidran. Come on, just take it off. I'll turn around if it makes you feel better…"

He at least did turn around, which brought Flora some small comfort. She began to undress, asking, "you're turned around, right?" just to be sure.

"Yeah, yeah," he said, "I'm not looking… directly, anyw-huh?"

Hearing that, Flora turned around, tilting her head at the sight of a shattered mirror Eric was staring into. "Why do you have that broken thing lying around?" she asked, folding her arms.

"I, uh, you know, reasons. Anyways!" He turned around, a slightly more disconcerting smile on his face. "Painting! Yeah, painting. Let's do this."

"Alright, let's get this over with," she muttered, lightly batting at the frills found at the bottom of the dress she now wore.

"Flora, what's the big deal, anyways? I've seen you naked many times in the last week."

She sighed at that reminder. "It's not the nude thing, I don't care. It's just… it makes me nervous when you're watching me undress. You really come across as a creepy pervert sometimes. Especially with that… sex slave of yours."

Eric adopted a slightly appalled look. "What are you talking about? Kathrin? She's not like that… I've never taken advantage of her."

Flora blinked. "Wait, you've… never…"

"No, not at all."

"But… you sleep in the same cabin!" she argued.

Unabated, Eric began to paint. "Now, don't get me wrong, Flora. I have spent…" He stopped for a moment to search for the right words. "'Quality time' with several of the slaves I own. But… when our family acquired Kathrin, she was just a kitten. I was only ten at the time." His eyes seemed to soften ever-so-slightly as he recalled the memories. Now if only something could be done for that smile. "At first it was almost like she was a pet. But we got older. I won't deny that we fooled around occasionally, we were kids after all. We were curious. But… I guess I just respect her too much to do that. She really means a lot to me… I usually spend our nights teaching her how to read."

That gave her something to think about. Eric was starting to paint an entirely different vision than Flora previously had of him. "Oh, Corvin's teaching me to read, too," she added, looking down slightly.

"Oh, so that's what you two have been doing in the library. That's nice of him." He cleared his throat. "Well, enough about my past… hmm… I think this is a good enough warm-up… now please take off your robes and bend over against that pole there." Coincidentally, the ceiling creaked above them rather loudly the second Eric said that.

Flora sighed, disrobing the dress and moving up against the pole. She didn't have much choice but to do what he said, but that didn't mean she had to like it. "I don't know about this… I knew this was bound to happen when I agreed…" Flora muttered, a light blush coming to her cheeks.

"Aw, come on, there's nothing perverted about posing nude… this is purely for artistic purposes."

"…You promise?"

"I swear. There is no reason to be nervous." If anything that just made her more nervous. "Look at you… your tail is plastered between your legs. Come on, loosen up."

Against her better judgement she lifted it, albeit unwillingly. "Uh, how's that?" she asked.

He hummed in dissatisfaction. "Well… you could lift it a bit more…" The tail was raised higher. "…A little more…" higher it went. "Maybe… a little-"

"Just what kind of painting are you planning on making, anyway!" she yelled, giving him a furious glare.

He gave a nervous chuckle, hiding behind the canvas in a vain attempt to use it as cover. "Fine, fine. Tail down is fine, too." He resumed his painting as Flora grumbled to herself, moving back against the pole. "Hm… so tell me, Flora… how did a keidran like yourself end up traveling with Corvin… a human?" he asked, brush refusing to stop moving across the canvas.

She she craned her neck to look at him better. "What do you mean…?"

He shrugged. "Well, it's highly unusual for a human and keidran to be traveling together. Especially now that… well… war is so close."

"Huh… it's been so long… Corvin… he saved my life, several months ago." She could feel the memories start to come back to her as she recalled those events from what seemed like forever ago. "I'll never forget the first time I met him."

"Why? Did he do something courageous and heroic to save you from some terrible threat?"

"He ran face-first into a tree," she deadpanned. Eric had worked up an excited face that deflated as soon as she said that. "I still don't know why he did that. Anyways, where was I...? Oh yeah." She did a mental recount and continued. "I was a runaway. I was scared of him at first, and I think he was scared of me, too. I feared he would turn me in, but he never did. And… I guess I loved him for that. We've been traveling together ever since. Eventually one thing lead to another and we… uh… did as all animals do…" She coughed in embarrassment.

Eric nodded along, continuing with the painting. "Hm, Flora's more attached to Corvin than I first thought. I wonder if Corvin feels the same way?" he questioned himself, shrugging the answer off. "… Well, at least I got her tail up again. This is going to be a good painting…"

He felt something drop on his shoulder. Curious, he looked at what it was, discovering a hand resting on his shoulder. But upon seeing nobody behind him, he did the next logical thing and looked up, only to have his eyes shrink when he saw Corvin there. Upside-down, with his feet planted firmly on the ceiling.

"Hi," he said. That was all the words Eric needed to cause him to run from the room as fast as possible. He didn't even bother opening the door, and caused a hole to be created when he ran straight through. Corvin, meanwhile, was laughing hardly as he dropped from the ceiling, finally sighing as he leaned on a beam next to the painting.

Flora looked back and forth between the whole in the door and Corvin, stunned. "How long have you been there?" she asked, quietly wondering to herself how he managed to stick to the ceiling like that.

"Oh, the entire time," he answered, shoving himself off of the beam. "I told you I wasn't going to let him do anything weird to you. Even had to break a mirror he tried to use to peek at you."

"Oh, so that was you..." she dryly stated, her eyes flicking to the mirror and back to him. "Well, thanks, I suppose. Though I feel bad you chased him out before he finished."

"Eh..." he waved a hand back and forth as he leaned back to examine the painting. "It looks like he got enough to work off of later. Now..." He zipped behind her, grabbing her shoulder and pulling her to him as he pulled a book out. "Time for readings," he said.

"Corvin..." She rolled her eyes, choosing to follow him as he lead her out of the room.

"Ah-ah-ah! No, don't want to hear it! I made a commitment and I'm sticking with it. Now where'd we leave off, grammatical structure, right...?" he muttered, flipping through the pages as he tried to find the place they had left off from. Flora just stuck her tongue out at him, but happily followed along as they went back to the room.

---

Three Days Later

"You've, uh, been eating a lot lately, Flora," Corvin remarked. It was early enough in the morning that they were the only ones in the kitchen, and Corvin had spent the majority of his time watching Flora voraciously down morsel after morsel of food.

"Yeah, I've been very hungry recently. I'm not really sure why."

"Hm. Did something happen I'm not aware of?"

She stopped eating to pause in thought. "Mmm, nope… well, actually…" She pointed a fork at him. "I've been thinking… we've known each other for a long time now, right?"

"Six months and counting," he confirmed.

She slowly nodded, looking down slightly as she put the fork down. "Well, that's a long time for us keidran… and well… I've been wondering…" A blush came to her cheeks. "I mean, even though it would be impossible to do… have you ever thought about… well… um… marriage?"

There was something akin to a crash inside of Corvin's mind. Like a bombshell had gone off in his head and scattered his thoughts asunder. Despite this, he managed to compose himself and turn his chair to face her. "Marriage, huh..." He pulled his hood down to meet her eyes. "Marriage?"

"Well, we're a couple, and if we really wanted to we could hold an unofficial ceremony," she explained. "It would be about the closest thing we could get officially calling each-other husband and wife."

Corvin didn't like those titles. Those titles made him sound old, and thoughts of old age just reminded him of Flora's lifespan. "B-but I mean, marriage?" he stammered, using his hands to make circles in the air. "I-I don't know, I mean, it seems like so much and we wouldn't even have many people to invite to the wedding! And by that I mean only Keith."

"Well, the people on this boat seems nice enough. And there's Natani, too," she added.

"... Boat people, sure." Corvin ran his hand through his hair in an effort to try and calm his anxiety. "But still, it feels like such a big commitment, I don't want to change anything between us for the worse and I'd have to write a vow and I don't know if I would be able to handle doing something like that because just talking about it is sending me into a nervous wreck and-"

She kissed him on the forehead to quiet his panicked rant, cupping his cheek in her hand as she looked him in the eyes. "It alright, Corvin," she said. "I'm not expecting an answer right away, I just wanted to let you know I'm thinking about it." She smiled, ruffling his hair. "But an answer sooner than later would be nice. I love you, Corvin."

"I... I'll think on it," he promised. "I love you, too, Flora."

She smiled, kissing him again and standing. "I'll be in the library practicing if you need me for anything. See you later." She turned and left, leaving Corvin alone in the kitchen. He let a deep sigh out as he leaned back in the chair he sat it, staring up at the ceiling.

"I'm not a hundred percent sure I'm marriage material," he admitted, closing his eyes and thought.

"You're just afraid of writing a vow and telling it to her," Jack accused.

"True, but that's not the reason." His eyes opened back up. "Marriage is one of those things that cement utmost trust between a couple. If we were to get married I would have to confess everything to her, otherwise she'll lose all trust in me if and when she finds out about me later. And I want to tell her everything about me, I really do, but... I just can't. Not until I'm completely sure she'll understand and stay with me."

"So if not now, then when?"

"... Soon," he thought, closing his eyes. "I feel like we're almost there. I'll tell her, before it's too late," he promised to himself. It was a matter of timing and waiting for the right moment. A moment when he was sure she wouldn't be turned away from the revelation from what he was.

"I promise, Flora," he repeated to himself. "If that's really what you want, then I'll tell you everything. When we're both ready."

---

Weeks Later

The rest of the trip had been rather uneventful from that point onward. Corvin would spend most of his time with Flora, and rarely leave the room. He barely ever talked to anybody on the boat and only had passing conversations with Keith. The only words he had spoken to the two slaves Eric had to work on the ship, a dog and a fox, were passing greetings at best. Same applied to Kathrin, and Eric was avoided due to him constantly try and give Corvin advice. Natani was outright ignored.

Then the morning came when a knock was heard on the door to his room. He blinked slowly, getting off the bed while Flora rubbed the sleepiness out of her eyes. Eric had seen fit to give her an actual pair of pajamas due to her having barely any other clothes. Corvin hadn't known whether to thank Eric or curse him for giving her another excuse to cover herself up. And he really didn't like the particular shade of pink they were.

Corvin opened the door, giving a wave to the person on the other side. It was Mike, the fox slave Eric had. Corvin had decided a week ago he liked him better than the other one, Evals, due to Mike having a more polite attitude than the dog. It was about the only reason Corvin didn't slam the door in his face, if only for the fact Mike could show actual manners.

"Guys, we hit land. Master Eric says to wake up," he explained. Corvin nodded, Mike taking that as a sign to leave. Corvin closed the door behind him, walking to the one window in the room and looking out of it.

"Huh," was the only thing he could say. He could see land in the distance, though they were still a ways off from making port. They would arrive soon, though.

"Are we there yet?" Flora sleepily asked, shuffling her way to Corvin.

"Yes, almost," he answered, glancing back at her and then back at the island. "So, that's the island of the basitins. Well, Keith, time to see what you dragged us all the way out here for."