Wow, it has been more than two months since I updated. I am a terrible person. Oh well. Sorry it took so long. I fell out of Drakengard and went back to pokemon for a bit. Though one could technically say that I am still out of Drakengard, I had an urge to write something and so, I turned to this. Just be happy it's not another chapter of What the Hell?.
Just so you know, this chapter is HUGE. But not only is it huge, it is a little unrefined. I wanted to get it out as soon as possible, so it may not be up to the caliber of writing that you guys are used to seeing out of me. I'm really not that proud of it, but you guys have been waiting a while, so I'm going to go ahead and put it up. Just FYI.
Shadow of a Soldier
Chapter 12
Arioch Lives
Angelus took off with a mighty heave of her legs into the brisk, cool night air. It really was turning out to be a rather event-filled night, seeing as how the Desert Seal was broken and they found Inuart's harp in the sand. Not to mention they were now speeding through the darkened desert to another Imperial gaol that housed a potential ally. Angelus snorted. Knowing their run of luck, the pact-partners would be either utterly useless or insane beyond reason. However, they needed all the help they could get, even if they were more of a liability.
As Angelus leveled out in the sky, she turned her attention to her pact-partner, who seemed uncharacteristically cooperative. What was wrong now? She snorted as she made a quick glance at the human on her back. Maybe their last dominance clash had settled everything? Surely not. This one seemed far too stubborn for his pride to melt away that quickly, though she wouldn't mind if it did. Still, she may as well enjoy the peace and quiet while it lasted. She turned her attention back to the front to discover yet another obstacle in her path: a horde of flying stone torsos and stone heads. It appeared that she and the rest of the party were expected. She felt the Caim human shift uneasily.
…What are those things? he asked as Angelus began to bombard the flock of flying stone enemies with her fire.
The mighty dragoness scoffed as she easily dove down out of the way of a flying green ball of energy. "Do you even care? I thought your warmongering held no boundaries."
I was just asking, you flying, scaly windbag, the human retorted venomously.
Angelus glared back at her pact-partner. The battle of insults was on. "Ignoramus."
Overgrown bat.
"Imbecile."
Rabid bloodsucker.
"Bloodthirsty mongrel."
Fire-breathing control freak.
"Sadistic worm."
Jealous midwife!
"Masochistic moron!"
Insecure simpleton!
"Insolent grub of a human!"
The human quickly unsheathed his sword and let it dig into the soft flesh of the base of her neck, allowing a few buds of dark, crimson blood to appear. If I hadn't of gotten so badly hurt on that accursed day, I wouldn't need you! I would have killed you where you lay! Then I wouldn't have to listen to your constant mothering and ceaseless sarcasm!
Angelus snapped at her human counterpart while letting a few small tongues of fire escape her maw. "Do you think I wanted this? To be constantly reminded of the already blatantly obvious human stupidity and rode on like a damn head of cattle? I would have let you kill me if I knew I was going to be used like an oblivious beast of burden!"
At that moment, a stone head let loose a fireball, which struck Angelus in the shoulder and earned a cry of pain from the dragoness. Already infuriated by the mental battle she was in the middle of with her pact-partner, she shrieked and threw one of her own fireballs, which demolished the stone head easily. After feeling the tip of the human's sword removed from her neck and heaving a heavy sigh, she turned her attention back toward her foes. If she did not focus on the real battle, she and the Goddess' hope would be lost forever. "We must clear them away and hurry to that voice," she commented wearily. In response to this, the human merely sheathed his sword and slunk back into his previous position: a slouched pout.
Caim was not having a very good night. First off, the dragon was being more maternal and vexing than ever. Second, because of the dragon's stupidity over the little dominance dance they were individually trying to win, she made the mistake of leaving the Temple in the hands of Verdelet, thus leading to the destruction of the Seal. And then they found Inuart's harp… A shadow entered his eyes as he recalled his sister's sorrowed face at the news. He couldn't find Inuart, the one person that made her smile these days. He had failed her…
A sharp pain in his side brought him out of his reverie and back into his current situation: the dragon was eliminating the surprisingly large horde of enemies in the night sky with a bit of difficulty, since some of them could shield themselves from her attacks. The throbbing at his side made him hold it with his free hand and he grimaced. Of all his wounds, this was the persistent one? Granted, it had been a serious wound to begin with, but with his pact, he should be able to get over it far sooner than if he was an ordinary man. He snarled at himself, frustrated at his inability to heal. Why was it taking so long?
As the dragon finally finished off the last of that particular flock, Caim couldn't help but smirk viciously. Though she was a pain in the ass, she could fight! With this power, he would be able to eliminate the Empire and set Inuart free from their grasp. His parents would be revenged, he would have his little kingdom back and the dragon could piss off to wherever the hell she wanted. Furiae would be safe to live back at their castle and everything would be back to normal. As if in response to his thoughts, the dragon scoffed. "Does only slaughter calm your soul?"
Caim frowned, a little annoyed that she had interrupted his thoughts. Can't I be genuinely glad that you won?
"No."
Verdelet, since he had not said anything for a while, decided to chime in. "If you were truly her brother, you would not be so quick to bloody your sword." In response to this ever-tactful remark, Caim's lip began to twitch and searched for a small knife to throw at the old man.
Angelus, though she would like to see the human stick a knife in the old man -or to see him miss and hit the wretched black stallion the hierarch was riding instead- stopped him by jarring her shoulder blades violently. "I very much doubt that killing the hierarch would make that statement any less true."
It would relieve some stress, though, the Caim human remarked as he resumed his search.
Unaware of the pact-partners' conversation, Verdelet continued. "Caim, do you wish to kill the entire Empire alone? Such a frightful ambition."
Angelus heard the Caim human scoff and mutter, Yes, to a cowardly, senile old man, it would, and continued to search for something to throw. The dragon snorted in amusement and flew to the next throng of aerial enemies. The Caim human was so easy to irritate. As she prepared to attack, she wondered how long it would take for the Caim to finally give in to his instincts and kill the old man.
Suddenly, a flash of white moonlight reflected off of something hidden in the dark and struck out, slashing the leathery hide of her chest. She roared in pain and felt another slash along one of her wing membranes, causing her to stumble in the air.
What the hell's attacking us? the Caim human cried as he searched the skies from her back.
"It doesn't matter what it is, it needs to die!" Angelus roared in response as she whirled around to find her assailant, only to see nothing but night. Suddenly, she felt a whirl of wind brush past her and then a sharp pain sliced through her hip.
"Damn phantom!" she cried as she tried to find the enemy. "Show yourself!" Her wing now throbbed as she attempted to keep hovering in the air, as well as her hip and chest. Then, she felt the human shift on her back as he unsheathed his sword again. I see it, was his calm remark.
Without a moment's hesitation, she saw the human swing the sword to force the fireballs contained within the sword to fly out into the night. His aim was true and the attacker was revealed: a ghostly phantom with a large, iron sickle. Angelus snarled and followed up her human counterpart's attack with her own fireballs. They struck and the ghost fell to the ground, shrieking. However, the small victory was bittersweet; the wounds that the phantom had inflicted were hindering her ability to fly. She made a quick glance to her left wing, the one the spirit had wreaked, and grimaced at the large tear between the first two fingers. She would have to land, and it would have to be soon. Though the final throng of enemies was not yet destroyed, she moved to bypass them and go straight for the gaol. Apparently, the human would have nothing of it.
Where are you going? he almost shouted, There are still enemies! They all have to die!
She shrugged the human's blood thirst off. "With my wing injured like it is, I won't be able to fly for much longer. We must get as far as we can to the gaol before I have to land."
No! he cried, furious. You have to kill them! KILL THEM!
Angelus snorted angrily and built a large magic attack to try and clear the main bulk of the flock before she had to land. "There will be no end if you try to crush them all, ENOUGH!" The blast she emitted was enormous; streams of fire-red letters of the ancient language spouted from her mouth, seeking out all of the enemies in the near vicinity, slicing and burning as they went. After the attack, she stumbled again in the air, this time almost losing her air current and falling. Though her wing began to throb with a pulsating, hideous, blinding pain, she sped up to try and keep her focus on her objective. She had to make it to that damn gaol. Verdelet, who sped below them on the infamous black stallion, saw the stagger in her flight.
"My Lady Dragon," he began with concern, "what is wrong? There is blood splattering on the ground all around me! Are you wounded?"
"Of course I am!" she howled in response. What, did he think that she was stumbling on the few thermals available for fun? That the sky was simply raining blood? She felt a small flicker of concern from her pact-partner, but when she was about to ask about it, it disappeared as soon as it had come.
Due to the harshness of her response to his earlier question, Verdelet's next one was voiced with a trace of fear. "Are you well enough to keep flying?"
Angelus paused for a brief instant, then replied wearily. "Yes… For the moment…"
Caim shifted on the dragon's back with a little hesitancy. The rather large wound on her flank was already festering with small pockets of puss and fat oozing out and the burn on her shoulder was smoldering in the cool night air. He didn't know how much the dragon's wing membrane and chests wounds hurt, but he knew that they did to a point; the slight throbbing in his chest and hand were enough to deduce that. He could feel the weariness that came with blood loss creep over his and her systems, which didn't make him feel too secure while he was hundreds of feet up in the air. He decided it was better to keep the crimson beast focused until he dismounted. Dragon, he began cautiously as he glanced over the edge of his ride, I still can't hear the damn voice. Can you?
The dragon gave a snort before answering. "Yes…" she began slowly. "The voice wails and keens. No sane man or woman speaks with such a voice."
Caim smirked as he leaned back a little. Insane or not, this person might be useful. At least more so than that cowardly toad and his annoying little gnat.
The dragon snorted again, this time in contempt. "Does compassion drive you? Or do you seek to recruit even the mad to your cause?" She turned to look at him in the eye. "Either way, you will end up killing them in your blood-crazed state eventually."
Before Caim could come up with a sarcastic remark, Verdelet, in all his usefulness, declared, "The Imperial prison is before us." Caim looked forward to see the gaol, a depressing, dark, dank building in the distance, which was surrounded by Imperial troops. "The voice emanates from there."
…………
Two Imperial soldiers casually made their way through the torch-lit hallway of the gaol. It was a slow, harmless night, so they felt it all right to meander through the halls until their shift ended and they could finally get some well-deserved sleep. As they were strolling, a feminine cackle echoed throughout the prison, causing one of them stop.
"No matter how much I hear it, I can't abide that voice," one with a rounded helmet commented drearily.
"Is that so?" the other, a taller man with a cylindrical helmet, replied. "I've grown fond of it, I have."
"Puh. Long as it's a woman, huh?" the first answered with a hint of sarcasm. "You're the odd one, liking an elf like that. Have you seen her eyes? Pretty scary, if you ask me. Even when she smiles, they're dead."
The second shrugged. "Me, I feel sorry for her. Better for her if she had died with the rest of her family." As the manic laughter continued, the second soldier sighed wearily. It was almost the end of their shift, why couldn't the elf stay calm for a little bit longer so they wouldn't have to deal with her? "Right, then," he stated, "Let's go settle her down."
"Careful, mate!" the first exclaimed, "She'll get you for sure!"
"That's all right. We're not her type, now are we?" As he moved to unlock the prison cell that held the mad elf, a rumble outside stopped him. What was that? There hadn't been an earthquake here in a hundred years… He turned to his shift-partner. "What the--?" the first soldier started as he frantically glanced around the prison walls.
"Oh, bloody hell, the Union!" the second soldier exclaimed as he figured out the source of the rumbling. "They're attacking!" And as they tried to run away, the walls exploded in fire and rubble…
…………
"Uhnn…" What was that explosion…? What had that been…?
Arioch lay in the middle of what was once her prison cell, still bound by her leather shackles and chains. The Empire had attacked her village and killed her family, then took her hostage. She had been in that bloody cell for too long…
Then, a light chiming sound came to her ears; a sound like the little metal instruments her children used to play with… At the thought of her offspring, she opened her eyes to see if they had finally come to take her with them, so that they could be one once more. However, instead of seeing the bright little faces of her darlings, she saw two lights: one a bright, lively fire and the other a deep, cooling orb of water. They circled around each other in a strange dance as they approached her, slowing when they were only a few feet away.
"It is too soon for you to die," the two lights stated simultaneously. Somewhat alarmed and curious, Arioch sat up as they spoke. "Now… you will come with us."
…………
Angelus was having a little more trouble now with flying. It seemed that the wing tear was spreading, and if she didn't land soon, it would be even harder to heal. She grimaced against the pain. If she couldn't fly, that meant the Caim human had a valid excuse to rampage on the ground, and knowing him, he would get into mortal peril again. As soon as she cleared the last large sand dune, she began to circle for a landing. The Caim human shifted uncomfortably on her back.
…Is your wing hurting you that much? he asked, not without a tiny hint of concern. Will you be able to fight?
Angelus scoffed. "The tear is more of a threat than you may think, Human. If I let it get out of control, then it may never heal properly, and because of that, I may never fly properly again. I am merely making sure that I am not putting myself into unneeded danger." She turned to glare at him over her singed shoulder. "Unlike some…"
The human made no move to respond, so she turned her attention back to the front. Unfortunately, with the tear in her wing, she didn't expect a sudden gust of wind that her wing normally wouldn't catch, and was suddenly pushed off course. She was sent sprawling into the air; her talons were out to grab for something solid and her wings were out full. Grimacing against the pain, she folded her wings completely, leaving her a large bulk in the sky. As she dropped, she opened up her wings at the last minute, but it was too late to save the landing.
Angelus grunted as she crashed into a large sand dune head first, and because of the sudden stop, the human went flying and landed thirty some odd feet away. Growling against the sharp pangs of sand getting into multiple wounds and her already wounded haunches sore from the landing, she stood up slowly on all fours and shook her head to clear away what sand she could. She glanced around the pale moonlit desert sands and saw the human sprawled on the sand face down.
Verdelet made his way to her side, a very concerned look on his withered face. "My Lady Dragon!" he cried, "are you all right? That looked like such a painful landing…"
She was about to respond when the human interrupted her thoughts. Damn dragon! he cursed as he picked himself off of the ground. I'll be spitting out sand for a week! As if to reiterate this, he promptly spat onto the sand while brushing himself off. Angelus growled.
"Forgive the inconvenience," she replied with a humble, penitent tone to her normally scathing voice. "If I knew this was going to upset you so, I would have magically healed myself in the air. Why didn't I think of that sooner?" The Caim human turned to her with more scathingly hateful disdain in his eyes than she had seen before. Of course, she didn't take this into account and went on. "Wherever would I be without your guidance, oh wise Human? Surely, without your guiding hand, this world would wither and perish." As the human glared, he threw a rock at her, which landed ten feet in front of her, and began to walk off.
In retaliation, or maybe just for the hell of it, Angelus tossed a small fireball at him, which hit the sand right behind the human, causing a wave of sand to spring up and crash down onto the Union soldier. For a moment, all he did was stand there with his hands tightening into fists, his shoulders hunched like an angry cat, and, of course, small streams of sand slowly pouring out of his ebony black hair and armor. Angelus wondered whether or not he would try to kill her then, but she saw no change in his stance. After a long pause and letting out a lengthy, frustrated sigh, he resumed walking towards the gaol; this could be settled later.
As Angelus let her sadistic smirk grow on her reptilian face, Verdelet dismounted the damned black stallion and tied the reins to a dead tree. "I will try and cover Caim's flank." He swung his staff around as if to prove to her that he actually could fight, though it was already apparent that he couldn't. "You may do as you wish, Lady Dragon."
"Hmph," Angelus scoffed. "I don't need a human to tell me that."
He chuckled and bowed. "Of course not." He began to trot at a slow speed to try and catch up to the Caim human. "We will be back!" he shouted as he faded into the dark horizon. Once he was completely gone from both her sight and nostrils, she sighed heavily. It was a rare time indeed that she felt utterly useless.
A nervous whinny to her right caught her attention and she turned to see the accursed black stallion anxiously dancing around his tether, trying to get as far away as he could from her. Angelus snorted in amusement. "Alone at last, it seems…" she commented quietly as she slowly stalked closer to the horse. She opened her mouth ever so slightly to reveal the white fangs within her maw. "How fortunate."
…………
Caim rushed out into the valley after clearing the mountain cave of Imperial soldiers. He had been fighting for a good hour or so, and still the soldiers kept coming; there was no end to them. Not that he minded, of course. After he obliterated one particular group of soldiers, he stopped for a moment as he felt the dragon's emotions rise with glee. Confused, he slowly turned back to the tunnel he had just emerged. What could she possibly be so damn happy about?
Before he could ask, he saw a black-robed figure stumble its way towards him: Verdelet. Caim sighed in annoyance. Now he was going to have to baby-sit the hierarch as well? He stabbed his sword into the ground, frustrated. Dragon, he demanded, Why is the old man out here? He then took into account that the hierarch was on foot and flinched. And where is the stallion? …You didn't eat it, did you?
For a moment, the dragon didn't respond. When he was about to ask again, she solemnly replied, "I'm afraid Verdelet left the stallion of his own accord… and unfortunately, while I wasn't looking, a platoon of Imperial soldiers came and attacked. I did what I could, but the stallion--"
You DID eat it! Caim shouted back, furious. We still need it, dammit!
The dragon then appeared on the peak of the mountain, hanging onto the rock face with her talons and wing thumbs. Her amber eyes were glowing with mischief in the moonlight, and Caim could see small trails of blood around her mouth. Her tail was slowly waving side to side in amusement as she slightly cocked her head. "You can always get another one."
Caim sighed and pulled his sword back out of the ground. He knew he shouldn't have let Verdelet take the black one… It wasn't like he had any emotional attachment to that particular stallion, but it was the principle of the matter. Damn dragon…
Verdelet shivered in fear as he saw the oncoming platoons of Imperial soldiers. He turned to Caim, his pale, wrinkled face amplified by the full moonlight. "The voice has become more unstable. If we do not hurry--"
Caim shoved the useless hierarch aside as he began to trot toward the army in the near distance. The old man would only get in the way. A sadistic smile began to weave its way across his face when the dragon interrupted his thoughts.
"There will be no more of THAT tonight," she commented as she made her way to his side. It seemed that she could move well enough one the ground with only her hind legs on the ground and her wings folded at her side. Caim's smile descended into a grim frown as she stopped a few feet from him. Even with her wing wounded, he still could not be rid of her? She turned her head to look down on him. "It's rather frustrating to try and speak to you when your mind is nothing but a bestial yearning for blood and carnage." Caim was about to retort when a voice wormed its way into his mind.
"A light..?" a feminine voice asked in the back of Caim's mind. "I saw it…"
Dragon, Caim began as he glanced around for the gaol. Now that they were on the ground, it was difficult to see. "Is this the voice?"
The dragon grunted a response as she leaned forward on her wing thumbs. "Yes… It seems she is still alive. How fortunate…"
Verdelet's voice entered their minds. "Light? What is this voice trying to tell us?"
Disregarding the hierarch's question, the dragon smelled the air and allowed a growl rumble through her chest. "Hmm… The voice is coming from this direction…" She let out an angry snort. "But the Empire will not let us by easily."
Caim smirked as he performed a few fancy tricks with his crimson blade. That doesn't matter. We'll get in anyway. Though his bloodlust was somehow being repressed by the dragon, he charged into battle all the same, eager for his death toll to reach even higher heights.
Angelus roared as she followed somewhat awkwardly on the ground beside her pact-partner. Though it was rather difficult to focus on the battle and to restrain the human's bloodlust simultaneously, she still felt as if she were making progress. She had successfully stopped the human's mind from deteriorating, so it may be possible to erase it all together. She knew that the Caim human was much more powerful within the blood-crazed state, but he was prone to stupid mistakes, and that could not happen. She could not allow that to happen if she wanted to live another month.
She ran on her hindquarters, circling the already destroyed gaol and burning whatever resistance there was so that they may find the pact-partners in peace. The Caim human was not too far away, hacking and slashing at a group of five Imperial generals. She snarled at her partner's large disadvantage. Though he was taller than most humans, these generals towered over the Caim human at least by a few feet and wielded far larger and more powerful weapons than his blade. She began to run toward him as his sword was knocked out of his hand and he was thrown onto the ground. "Stay down, Human!" she warned as she got within firing range. The Caim saw her approach and stayed down on the sand as Angelus breathed a long stream of fire.
When the five generals lay charred on the desert sand, Angelus let out a contented snort of approval. The Caim human didn't seem to appreciate her effort, however. You didn't have to do that, Dragon, he snarled as he picked his sword up where it had fallen. I had everything under control.
"So you were planning on letting those Imperial giants to kill you?" she asked politely as she turned back around to finish off the small groups of soldiers she had missed the first time around. "Forgive my impudence." She bowed her head ever so slightly and, as she was about to walk off, she kicked some sand out behind her, once again drenching her pact-partner with sand.
As Caim was about to make her other wing useless, Verdelet's voice entered his head. "Hurry!" he began with a sob in his voice, "The voice changes! It becomes faint!"
Without hesitation, Caim dashed into the still smoldering gaol, searching for the pact-partners. He could now hear the voice as well as the dragon probably could, so it was merely a task of honing in on the voice. He eventually found her sitting in what was probably once her cell with her back to him, her leather bindings scattered about her. There were two lights dancing around her dark brown head: one red, one blue. Caim's brow furrowed as he stared at her back. She had two beasts?
Verdelet arrived shortly after, heavily panting from the sprint through the desert. "This is she," he stated in between breaths, "This is the new set of pact-partners." As Caim silently mocked the hierarch for his talent of stating the obvious, Verdelet took a few steps forward to the elf woman. "You too have a pact-beast. What is your name?"
The woman stood and lolled her head to the side as if examining something in the distance. "Arioch," she replied slowly and turned to see them face-to-face. Caim's brow lifted at the sight of her face. If she weren't an elf, she would have been a beautiful woman. But there was something in her deep red eyes that told him something was wrong with her. He shrugged it off. There was something wrong with everyone these days.
"You… surrendered your womb," Verdelet continued as he took another step toward her. Though Caim wanted to know how he knew that, the Arioch elf didn't seem to mind his comment. Without making a response to his statement, she slowly turned to her surroundings.
She smiled as the thought of her dear darlings came to her broken mind. "Tell me. Are there any children here?"
Verdelet mistook her glee for concern and replied, "Fear not. They have been evacuated."
Arioch sighed in dismay. She had hoped she would find her children so they could be one again… They tasted so good… "So, there are none here. A pity. They're so sweet…"
As she scanned the faces of the people that had found her, her eyes rested on the young man in the armor. He was human, but that didn't matter. She licked her lips in anticipation. He was still young enough to have the sweet taste of youth within him… Giggling in glee, she half ran, half staggered to him and grabbed the black shirt under his blood-stained armor. Oh yes, he would still be tasty. She could smell the sweet, intoxicating flavor of her young in his scent. She looked up into his eyes, which weren't that different from her dead husband's, and opened her salivating mouth in preparation. "…But an adult will suffice!"
Caim gasped as she went for his neck and tried to pry her off. However, she had a firm grip on his armor and he was already tired from the rather long night that he had endured. He grimaced as her teeth managed to break the skin just below his jaw. Damn elf! he cried in his mind as he shoved her off with one last surge of energy. She stumbled back, but she was determined and flung herself at him again, trying to tear into the wound she had made.
The dragon, because of her bulk, couldn't fit into the destroyed gaol, so she could only roar from the other side of the wall. "Get back, elf!" she warned. Verdelet stepped forward, his staff held out in front of him, began to chant in the ancient language.
"Hom gellech ne'allay fray natila. Hom gellech ne'allay fray natila. Hom gellech ne'allay fray natila. Hah!"
The chant now completed, a light shone from the hierarch's staff and transferred itself to Arioch's neck. As if a weight had been placed upon her, she fell to the ground, paralyzed. Caim stumbled back from the elf and rubbed his bleeding neck. He wasn't too sure if she should be a part of their entourage anymore…
Verdelet sighed and turned to Caim, somewhat proud that he had done something useful. "This lock spell will hold her, but for how long I cannot say. I will take her with me, for her own good, as well as for others around her."
Angelus snorted at the old man's words; the best thing for that elf and the others around her would be to kill her and be done with it. No mind that far gone could be brought back, no matter how one tried. The "Arioch" was a very dangerous lost cause. Still, the addition to their team would make the entire trip much more interesting, since the elf might eat the hermit. Disregarding the wound the elf had inflicted upon her pact-partner, she warmed to the idea. "So this is what you call 'human kindness'?" She couldn't help but chuckle. How wonderful…
…………
Woo! Done! I'm finally done!
Anyway, sorry again for the wait. I really hate having to put ya'll through that, but college has now taken a firm hold on my life, so I don't have as much free time anymore. It's heartbreaking, I know.
Some of you might be wondering why Verdelet dismounted the stallion in the first place, since he was going to be running and all without it. Well, all I can say is that it's because he's Verdelet.
In Memory of Blood, there's this picture of older Caim and Manah walking through a blizzard. For some odd reason, I really love that picture. Mostly because it features Caim, a rarity in that book, but I still really, really like it. It makes me so happeh.
My little Ava puppy is now 53 lbs at 7 months. o.O
Ja!
