Alya had returned with an armful plus a basket full of books, and they had already spent the day reading through them. Nino had offered to help, and while Red was hesitant to accept it, she really had nothing to worry about. After about an hour and a half of reading, he had made an excuse to leave, and had not returned. Alya loved the opportunity to pour over books of lore though, books that she apparently had not read since she was younger.
"Wow, the god of mischievous is pretty devilish! I cannot believe that I did not remember anything about these gods' stories; they're amazing! No wonder you were named Tikki, miss; she's a great namesake. I think I would have liked to be named after this one though."
Red sighed. Reading for hours was hard, especially when Alya interrupted her train of thought every thirty minutes. "Trixx is the god of mischief."
"So? It's still a good name. What if I joined you on the road and became Rena the Red? Nino could come too! He could go by Wayzz, the god of turtles and being bored." Alya smirked.
Red gave Alya a hard look. "Wayzz is the god of knowledge and strategy, and he has a turtle shell on his back to symbolize his wisdom. Have you found any useful information about the gods in that book?"
Alya looked slightly embarrassed. "Uh, yes, possibly. Sorry. There's a great deal of information about the major pantheon of gods in this book. Tikki is the goddess of life; she created all humans and now lives in the sky, watching over everything. Plagg is the god of death, eventually her husband, when the world ends, and she joins him, becoming the goddess of the earth and the growth of living things. Then there's Trixx and Wayzz who we just went over, and Duusu, the goddess of emotion. She's the supposed ancestor of all dark creatures on earth, or at least her and Nooroo are, who is the god of magic. And finally there's Pollen the-"
"Wait, there is information on Nooroo in that book?" Red exclaimed, as she cut Alya off and went over to where the girl was sitting.
"Yes, there's a small section. He has a following of people who practice magic in his name and try to bring balance to the world. Sometimes, at least. There's not much information on him though."
Red swiftly took the book from Alya's hands. "No, there would be very little information on him. The only time I ever heard anything about him was a long time ago, from a small story my Uncle told me. He is a just god, and most of his followers were just, but some practiced magic for evil purposes, and others fought in the name of Nooroo; those who were murderers and thieves. He is the one god who has outlasted all the others, but not in a good way. Most writing on him is banned for fear of more people joining the sect of the Akuma. It has mostly been eradicated, but so has the good name of the god of magic and peace."
Alya watched Red curiously as she scanned through more pages. Then she stopped at an image, read the description, and thrust the book back into Alya's hands before going back to the pile of books she had read. Red pulled aside one of the bottom ones and compared it to the tome of curses she had been scanning when Alya interrupted her. The language of the tome was nigh ununderstandable, but she was able to find a sketch of a thin-winged butterfly, just like in Alya's volume of gods. And then Red looked back to the book she had pulled from the stack she had finished hours ago. It was on the history of the kingdom. She flipped it to a page she had been curious about before, and checked the information on it against the "butterfly" curse. Then she nodded to herself, got to her feet and grabbed her satchel, bow and arrows, and cloak. She looked in her bag and made sure to shove daggers into the secret inner linings of her red cape.
Alya blinked hesitantly and then stood up as Red made to leave the shack. "Wait, what did you find?" Red ignored her and headed out the door. Alya followed. "You can't leave! It's night. If you go after him now, you'll get hurt again!"
Red looked back at Alya and smiled as she flung her cape around her shoulders. "I'll be fine. I just need to check something. But I think I might know how to fix your wolf problem, once and for all."
Alya watched as Red vanished into the night, bow and arrow already at the ready to be fired. She looked up at the thin slip of the moon, and sighed, frustrated, as Nino came out from his small house to check on her. "She's gone?"
Alya nodded. Then she reentered the shed with Nino behind her. She bent and picked up the books that Red had been looking at. Then she sighed again. "I have no idea what she's doing. I just hope she's doing right."
A/N: Hi guys! We are now two thirds of the way through! Excited for the next chapter? I sure am. :) I'd love to hear predictions, and before I go, I'd like to ask a favor of some of you. I just posted a story on my fictionpress account that has two characters that are very precious to me in it, and I would love if anyone checked it out (same pen name over there as here). It's not long, but if you're not up for it, that's completely fine. See you all soon, and hope you enjoyed the chapter!