Chapter Nine

"Aurora, news from Garro- aaaahhh!"

I burst into our shared home, ready to inform Aurora of the Lord's home and our current lack of leads only to find a wolf sitting in the living room. I let out my scream and leapt back to be in the doorway once more, ears standing up and tail bushed, my eyes trained on the canine.

"O-okay… that's… That's a wolf… um… g… good… doggy…?"

The wolf perked up by my presence, returning my frightened stare with a more curious one of his own. It didn't move in the slightest towards me, but Aurora stood from beside it to glance between us.

She seemed just as confused as the wolf was, taking a few moments before making an 'ooohhh' face and facing me properly.

"It's okay, Finella. He won't bite you. Sorry if he scared you; I heard him outside and… he sounded so sad…" She paused and knelt down beside him, making sure I could clearly see her hand on his new collar while she gently stroked his fur. "It's okay if I keep him, right?"

Normally, I would have demanded she got rid of it; wolves ate rabbits, and they were usually the reason we had to relocate villages back when I was younger. But looking at her, she really couldn't see the ferociousness hidden behind those eyes of his, and seeing just how much she cared for him…

I found myself standing down.

"Er… We-well…" I stammered, forcing myself to try and at least appear relaxed and reassured for her sake. "It's… your house, technically… I guess… Just so long as he doesn't jump onto my bed… or approach me in any way… I'll try to deal with it."

Really, this just meant I'd have to hurry and learn how to build my own house so I wouldn't have to even worry about it. For now, I finally moved inside again, shutting the door behind me and cautiously moving to where my bed was along the wall.

"A-anyways… I, uh," a quick pause to clear my throat and steady my voice, "I just talked to Garroth. We didn't miss to much, still no leads with the explosives man and he sent Zenix and Brendan to clear out the old Lord's home. I figured maybe we could look into that later."

"Oh, really? Hmm… Maybe there's more stuff there we didn't see when we went there last time." Aurora agreed, looking to her wolf with a smile. "Oh! And maybe Ambrose can help us sniff something out, too!"

"Erm… Ambrose…?"

"Yeah, I think Ambrose fits him really well."

Right. Her wolf. That was the name she'd given him, probably even before I'd arrived. That, of course, meant I wouldn't have been able to force him away anyways. Once you name something, it becomes an attachment; one that can't easily be broken.

"Either way, there may be something we missed, like you said. After all, we were interrupted last time," I pointed out, adjusting the contents of my backpack to be better suited for a small trip instead of a long one, followed by taking some of the lambchop I had gotten earlier out to have a bit of a meal. "I'm so curious, I want to go right away, but… They only just started on it earlier today, so there may not even be much to find. It's only mid-afternoon now, though, so maybe by evening or nightfall when they return, we can do some snooping."

"I don't think Garroth would be happy if we went out during the night, though…"

"Hmpf, I can keep us safe, and he knows that. I was just distracted last time; I've learned, so this time around I can keep you safe for sure. I don't need a guard, and you have me as one. I mean, I'm an adventurer, for crying out loud! He's seen me fight! I'm not some delicate flower or anything! Ah, n-not to say you are, I mean, it's just… I haven't really seen you fight before, so I'm not too sure how well you could handle yourself in that kind of situation."

"It's okay, I understand what you mean," Aurora reassured me, thankfully not seeming to mind my 'delicate flower' comment, "I don't enjoy fighting much like you do. But you can't blame him for worrying too much. Someone just died, and their previous Lord was lost, remember? I think… it might be a matter of his pride."

"Fair enough, I guess…" I sighed, pausing to finish the slice of meat I had started, "But he should focus more on keeping you safe than me. He's lucky; I'm not seriously in the mood to fight tonight, actually. Still… he is right about one thing. So long as that murderer is out there, we should be cautious about traveling outside the village on our own."

"Well, we could always talk to him together about it sometime. And who knows, maybe he likes you~!"

I moved to lay back on my bed, using my arms to support my head a bit as I stared up at the ceiling.

"Likes me, huh…?" I muttered, mulling it over in my mind. "If that's the case, then I honestly feel a little bad for him. I told him this already, but honestly… If things are safe enough around here, after the dust settles and all, I might leave for a little while – a week at most – just to adventure around some, satiate my need to wander without a purpose.

Awful as it is to admit, peace is… kind of boring to me. Not to say I'd wish harm upon anyone or anything like that, nor would I ever hope for a war, but… I don't enjoy sitting idle somewhere with little or nothing to do. If the people aren't in serious need of help at the moment, I would like to explore and see if there might be anyone else I could lend aid to, maybe even find a trace of the culprit. Or just waste a couple of days in an old mineshaft searching for hidden treasures the town could use. You… wouldn't mind, would you?"

I turned to look towards her, a little hopeful that she'd be okay with me leaving for small portions of time to handle my hyperactivity without causing problems for the people of the village.

"You… want to go on an adventure?" She paused for a few seconds, looking to Ambrose to think about it. "Well… um… I suppose I don't mind…? I just don't know what I'll do without your help around here if you're gone for too long."

"I mean, I'd love to take you with me, but… one of us should remain here. It would be best to avoid the both of us disappearing too often if we have the ability to. Besides, I won't travel too far away, so you could probably just send for me. But, first thing's first, tomorrow we have to look into the Lord's house. Oh, and we should talk to Dale about giving him a kid. Much as I find them to be nuisances… it might not be a bad idea to start building up our population."

"Really? A baby?" Aurora asked, giving that kind of cute excited look towards me. "That'd be nice. A couple of children running around would be really cute~! I'm sure Dale would love a child, as well as Molly. They both seem like they'd become wonderful parents, especially once Molly becomes fully sentient."

Her gushing actually made me shudder a bit. How could anybody see the appeal in tiny, helpless, kind of annoying, needy little things that could barely communicate for the first few years of their lives? I couldn't even begin to imagine how unbearable I must have been as a child, and I had three other siblings born the same day as me! That just seemed like a nightmare to me!

"If it wakes people up… having a kid or two in the village couldn't hurt. At the very least, we've been making slow progress, which is better than nothing."

I rolled onto my side, facing out the window to the beach and feeling the exhaustion of lost sleep from this morning catch up to me.

"I don't know about you, but honestly… I'm a little tired. It might be early to sleep, but I think after today, we've earned the rest. We'll worry about everything tomorrow."

Aurora never responded verbally, but as I stared outside and pondered where I'd even venture when I had the chance to, I could hear both her and Ambrose get up and move to where she had set her own bed up. The mid-afternoon sun made it quite difficult to fall asleep, but I managed all the same, just as I always had.

I remember having a few scattered dreams and nightmares, both about the morning's events and what the future may hold for us, but nothing seriously detailed enough to note. Or horrible enough to prevent sleep. Thankfully for the both of us, we were able to sleep all through the night, allowing us a bright and fresh start on the next day.

A/N: Hey guys, short chapter today! Thinking about it, I probably could have just had this as the end of chapter eight, but bit too late for that! Besides, I'm currently in Maryland to visit my dad and younger brother, so it isn't as easy as I thought to keep up the schedule.

Also, I know last chapter I said I would be doing this purely off of our RP based on the original MCD, but something in the reboot struck me as I watched it, which was Brian. Looking back on the original, Brian's character made possibly the least amount of sense, going from child to near-adult faster than any other child in the series. We skimmed over that detail for the sake of our RP, but I think I'll find a way to tackle it myself when the topic comes up next chapter.

In other news though, god DAMN that reboot was good!