Hello!
Amber: It's nice to see you all again.
Me: And I'm cheerful because I've finished a KatJ chapter! Oh, I'm happy about this one.
Amber: And Jango came home covered in some weird mint green goop and he's washing it out, so we can have an author's note without him barging in.
Me: Although that much of a mess means he was either setting a trap, or, and this second option has only a point-zero-zero-zero-zero one. percent chance of being true, maybe he fell into a trap instead.
Amber: I wouldn't bet on it... Anyways, we should get to reviews.
Me: We should. Starting with West, my ever vigilant friend. Yes, defeating the band that contained Christy's Will didn't take an incredibly long amount of time, but I felt it was reasonable considering how many resources they have at their disposal. And yes, Crystal, Sandra's new pet and mount. I can imagine your response to seeing it in particular, heheh... Granted, none of us got out any better off. Yes, I will try and keep it within the 'borders' of what is reasonable in terms of mature content, and it probably won't get any stronger than what I've had so far. Raina's prescence invokes all sorts of thoughts that people might not want to have. Thank you for your trust.
Amber: Someone named Ralmon reviewed the first chapter of this story, with a very honest and helpful review.
Me: Yes, thank you Ralmon. We had a discussion regarding your review in PM, so that's cleared up.
Amber: AveragePichu is also back. Hi, Phillip. Thank you for spotting errors you saw. It's very helpful to be informed of those things so they can be fixed.
Me: Kalmarin reviews chapter three telling me he laughed a lot in that scene in chapter two. Unspecified, which will lead me to assume you're talking about the clothes issue Gabriel and Christy had.
Amber: Aewynessa, it's good to see you and Mona. Although... What common fictional archetype would something like Crystal even fulfill? So... I'm gonna get off topic here. Hi, Mona. I think your author would appreciate it if you didn't spoil things... It's a big responsibility not to.
Me: And finally, we have Eric566. Hello, my friend. Thank you for joining us. You have no idea how happy I am that I surpassed your expectations. I don't know what kind of care Sandra would even need to give a living crystal creature that is photosynthetic. And... Having pacifists as protagonists was one of the many things about this story that lead me to have a lot of pride concerning it. Oh, and Demon Territory. Yeah, very ominous. Speaking of Demon territory, I imagine you and all the other readers are just waiting to get on with the story so that you can get there! Well, don't let me stop you!
Amber: Chapter start!
Chapter Twelve: Goals and Dreams
I was dreaming. I could tell. My surroundings were different, but I felt peaceful, which seemed to counter what I should have felt, which would have been panic at potentially getting kidnapped by who knows what.
The moment that thought entered my brain, my hand felt at my neck, only to find fur. Right, okay, Christy. Back to the present. Last time I had vivid dreams, they were nightmares about my sister. Now that I had her back, my dreams weren't very specific. There was a bit of a thing last night that I mistook for reality when I thought my sister was back to the way she used to be. And acting shy when Gabriel tossed her her cloak. But I was only fooled as a result of wishful thinking; It was everything I wanted that I didn't already have.
But without that wishful thinking, without that hope, the resistance provided by my mind magic as a passive effect was there to help me know that I wasn't waking up in a real house in a comfy bed.
I sat up slowly and took my surroundings in. My hand bumped into something, and Gabriel mumbled something in his sleep next to me. I giggled as I saw him taking up as much of the bed as he could, his arms and legs splayed out over the side of the mattress.
Then I tickled him awake, making sure to lean back because I didn't want a bruised muzzle from waking him up like that. When he bolted up, shouting, I waited for him to rub the sleep out of his eyes in his human form. He shifted to his beast form upon seeing me. "Best dream ever," he commented, either referring to the one his fictional self had just had, or the dream version of him was just as aware as I was that I was dreaming.
"Hey."
Gabriel's voice sounded through the air, but Gabriel hadn't spoken. That was fine; Dreams could be inconsistent and inaccurate. I smiled and nudged him. "Hey." I returned softly.
But Gabriel was suddenly looking out towards the rest of the room, and I looked as well. There, leaning against a door to whatever was beyond my dream, was who looked like Gabriel in his human form. The Gabriel next to me was in his lucario form. I blinked. Two Gabriels?
I blinked hard. I didn't want that kind of dream. One Gabriel was a handful. A wonderful handful and fun to deal with, but a handful. This human Gabriel had a much more generic looking bow, although it was still blue.
"Over here." he waved. He stepped away from the door.
"Oh you're kidding me." the Gabriel at my side rolled his eyes. "Now? You're doing this… Now? I finally get a decent dream and this is how it's going to go?"
Oh, fun. It was a dream where everyone around me thought it was real. Characters, everyone!
Then my eyes fell on the white shadow of the other Gabriel, and things clicked, making me feel real dumb. "Holy crap, you're Gabriel's imaginary friend," I observed a little louder than might have been necessary.
He chuckled at me. "Pleased to meet you." he extended his hand as Gabriel and I got off of the comfy bed we wound up in in the dream.
Dream Gabriel and I looked at each other, and we communicated with eye contact alone. Next thing the ultra-powered dream invader knew, we simultaneously punched him in the jaw, Gabriel using his human form fist before quickly shifting to lucario form once more.
He lay on the ground, eyes wide and full of 'what the heck just happened to me'. Dream Gabriel and I crossed our arms, looking down at him. "Oh, crap," I thought to myself. "This is a dream version of Gabriel… I punched the matchmaker without him. That wasn't very nice of me."
Well, I'd be sure to tell him all about it. For now… "You're Gabriel's lookalike." I proclaimed, keeping the stern expression on my face.
"First time for everything," he grumbled as he stood up and dusted himself off. "Punched by a happy couple for matchmaking."
Gabriel stepped forward. "We agreed that we'd do it the moment we saw you together," he explained. Now I was suspicious. Were we sharing a dream? The way the Gabriel lookalike addressed my Gabriel, and nod immediately addressing me implied that he was actually here, but I didn't think sharing a dream was possible…
The lookalike looked between the two of us, giving each of us a thorough up and down look. Then he laughed. "Oh! You two think you're dreaming regularly."
Gabriel blinked, turning to me. I smiled at him, and he smiled back. Yep, we were sharing a dream. I don't think I could have imagined such a sincere expression. We turned back to the guy who had been making our lives difficult in unison.
"Want to tell us why you thought it best to not only make our first kiss too awkward, but then seal yourself in a room with people who might want revenge?" I asked with a raised brow. I was smiling, but given the nature of this guy's interference, he deserved both a hug and a brutal beating.
"Probably should have made it less obvious it was me," he replied, his tone conveying how happy he was with his choice. "Seriously, though. Either one or both of you would have died back in that compound if you weren't so devoted to each other. I'd love to say I did it just to save your lives, although matchmaking gets very entertaining when you're as old as I am…"
I raised an eyebrow. "You look Gabriel's age, maybe younger." I pointed out.
"And has looked eighteen since I was like two." Gabriel nudged me with his input. That was right. I had not thought of it. Come to think of it, I must not be using one hundred percent of my brain right now. Gabriel grinned at me. "You think you're fully awake?" Gabriel continued shrewdly, a grin on his face.
"We're asleep, Gabriel." I jabbed at him, exactly how the boy expected me to. We quickly shared a laugh and looked back to Other Gabriel. "What are you still doing here?" I asked.
"Well, the ultimate goal wasn't to let you have…" Other Gabriel coughed dramatically "Fun times together in the dream. I did it because I wanted to meet Christy and I reckoned your Gabriel would want to supervise the occasion."
"You have a habit of manipulation and putting people to sleep." Gabriel nodded shrewdly. I barked a laugh out at the lookalike's expression, one of amusement (he had started the joke, after all) and embarrassment.
"That's about right, I plead guilty." Other Gabe shrugged. "You can't deny it worked, though."
Both of us were forced to acknowledge that point. "We're all alive." I agreed.
"Except for one." Gabriel's expression turned dark. "All except for one."
The expression he got in response from his lookalike was more… Weary. "...Yeah." he agreed while I comforted Gabriel using my tails and one of my arms to hug him. "Except for one. You've probably guessed this by now, Gabriel, but I know how it feels to not get everything right too. I'm an old timer. I've got a lot of experience with both screwups and success."
"How much of an old timer?" I asked out of the blue, hoping to change the topic. I didn't need Gabriel wallowing in shame and his double wallowing in memories. I finally got to meet this guy, I wanted to know more about him. And I didn't want Gabriel making himself worse off by thinking about it over and over; That wasn't a healthy thing to do.
Other Gabe coughed.
Now my Gabriel was intrigued. "Well?" he asked, apparently not knowing.
"...Three and a half billion."
Our jaws would have hit the floor if physics worked like that. "Three and a half... What!?" Gabriel and I asked in perfect unison.
"Maybe a little less, maybe a little more. Somewhere around that mark." he winced. "Yeah… I know. I've been around for a long time."
"Gabe." I elbowed my boyfriend. "Maybe he's an immortal ancestor of yours or something."
My joking tone was met with skepticism, as Gabe was still recovering from the bombshell and Other Gabe was still slightly embarrassed about the situation. "I can tell you how Gabriel and I look exactly alike," he said. Our ears perked up in unison as it seemed storytime was rolling around. We could relax here, it seemed. He saw our expressions and chuckled. "Geez, you look like little kids on christmas."
"Damn right. You always had a habit of being vague, and now you're talking." Gabriel told him gleefully.
He blinked, seeming to deflate somewhat. "You haven't ever complained about it." he noted "...When using a joking tone, you have, but… Has it truly been weighing on you for that long?"
"Well…" Gabriel's voice caught "Not really. Because you were there since I was two, it kind of meant more that you were still there and what you taught me and helped me with than your actual backstory. Still, it's a bit exciting, and I do want to hear more now that I know exactly how old you are."
Other Gabe brightened and nodded. "Well… First, I should explain how the multiverse works."
We blinked.
"...Essentially, this world, these two countries, are just the tip of the iceberg for a lot. A huge amount of places. The countries are a tiny part of the overall world. The overall world is a tiny part of your universe, which is essentially the bubble that everything a vast majority of things can reach within that plane. The multiverse is essentially an infinitely-spanning sea of those bubbles, making the universe an infinitesimal speck in the multiverse, and the multiverse is where I come from."
"Uh…" I muttered.
"Parallel worlds, is that what you're talking about?" Gabriel asked Other Gabe.
He shook his head. "No. Parallel universes are different. Yes, they qualify as a multiverse. A lot of universes have parallel universes within them, stacked on top of each other either through their timeline or other means of existing. The multiverse I am talking about isn't dimensionally separated, it's spatially separated. And what I am and the method that results in Gabriel looking just like me is in relation to that multiverse."
"This is complicated," I commented, trying to wrap my head around it.
"It's about to get more complicated." Other Gabe promised. "In the multiverse, there is a concept we call 'waves of influence'."
"...Huh?" we asked, once again in unison.
"What they are… Well, it's hard to quantify. I don't personally know how to quantify it in a way that makes sense yet. The point is, they exist and they result from significant events in a timeline. Time is a complicated thing. It can flow in entirely different ways in different universes; In this one, for example, there was never such a thing as destiny. It's more of a big ball of wibbly wobbly… Timey wimey… Stuff... But in some other universe, it may be structured like a straight line for example. A universe where destiny exists and things can be set in stone. But in both, when a significant event happens, waves of influence are released by the universe it is contained in, spreading throughout the multiverses."
He took a deep breath. "When someone specific does something significant within the timeline, in other universes, the chances of someone looking exactly like the first person existing increases. While Gabriel still would likely have been born, if a version of him had not done something significant, he might have a different appearance, perhaps different abilities."
"So… You're the original?" Gabriel asked, brow raised.
To our surprise, the seeming-eighteen year old shook his head. "Probably not. I've only been around for three and a half billion years. The lifespan of the multiverse is a lot longer. I'm probably not the original, but I can say I've had the greatest influence… Because I'm a multiversal being and not a universal being, plus the effect of my nature…"
"And that means…?" I prompted him.
"I am what is called a sentient core." Other Gabe revealed calmly. "Specifically, the sentient core of aura. That means I am the sentience behind all aura. This body is… Pretty much just a shell for my mind. My actual body is all aura in the multiverse, which… Gives me a rather immense impact on the timelines of every universe out there."
"And so most universes would have a version of you?" Gabriel clarified "And the version in this universe is me?"
"Yes, and yes." he confirmed.
"How do you even handle that?" I asked. "Being everywhere at once?"
"With practice and time, I slowly climbed out of the insanity that I was put in when I wound up this way." Other Gabe murmured. "As for the power it grants me… Not well. My core, this body, holds the power that all of the aura available to me has. Which… Is all of the aura in the infinite multiverse. If I am not incredibly careful, I could destroy everything. That is why I did not interfere directly in this conflict. I am afraid that if I make a mistake, my attempt to help could turn out a lot worse. Granted, my practice leads to me likely succeeding nine hundred ninety-nine times out of a thousand, I am not willing to take a chance."
We were silent after that. The old timer seemed sad. He was hunched over in a manner that suggested defeat. "All I want to do is make it as easy as I can." he finished quietly. "And if doing that requires me to speed up your relationship, then I would do that. So I did."
There was a long, awkward pause as we listened in to the 'sentient core'. But then, we smiled. "I understand." I nodded.
"Me too," Gabriel said more quietly, Malvolio's death still likely weighing on his mind. I don't think he would ever really be able to forgive himself for that. He was too good. His goals too pure. It would always haunt him. What I could do was remind Gabriel that we were both still here, and that my sister was here, that my friends Armalita and everyone else were here…
My family was right in front of me, all of them. Now that they were there, there wasn't anything we couldn't do for the future. And the best thing for Gabriel was for him to constantly be reminded that he did have a family, no matter what.
"So what now?" Gabriel asked.
"Now? I guess you wake up. You got your licks in, and some voluntary exposition thrown your way, and are in a good mood still. I should probably let you get a deeper sleep for now, so you will feel even more rested when you wake up. When that happens…" Other Gabe turned to my Gabriel. "Your team should have a serious discussion about the most dangerous people in your compound, so all of you can help with planning."
Gabriel took the wisdom in stride, nodding. "Hey, are you going to come back so you can meet everyone else?" he asked.
He shook his head. "Nah, not right now at least. It's a miracle Armalita and Christy can handle one of us" he grinned.
"Make me immune to Sandra's magic?"
"And spare myself the potential hilarity? Really?"
I rolled my eyes. "Alright, I think sleep is a good thing to have. The deeper the better tonight."
Other Gabe patted my Gabriel on the head. "Have a good night, then." he smiled as he turned away from us and promptly burst in a flash of aura energy, disappearing seconds before I lost 'consciousness'.
I woke up cuddling with Gabriel. My tails still woven into the bed we had been sharing. The remaining two of my tails I was using in the same way as my arms: cuddling with Gabriel. He was awake, I could tell, and had probably been for a while, but the way I was sleeping, he couldn't have and probably wouldn't have wanted to move.
I let him know I was awake by moving, moving the two free tails I had off of him, His eyes popped open as I gave him my smile.
He smiled back, bringing his paws up to his eyes. In the split second that his paws went to rub his eyes, he shifted so that it was with fists that he more efficiently rubbed his eyes with, and then shifting back to his beast form.
"Hey," I said. "What's up with that? It's almost like you assume I like you better in your beast form. You look just as good either way."
He blinked. "...No comment." he said, sitting up and pulling the 'covers' made of my woven tails down a bit. "Okay, comment. I'm used to being in my beast form constantly since Taika. And I guess it has something to do with the fact that you're a taikan. If I'm like you, it's even easier to feel comfortable around you."
I sat up and then stood up, waiting for Gabriel to do the same. As I unwove my tails into their normal size, I hugged him from behind and to the right. "You can do whatever you want to," I told him quietly. "Just don't think I have any preferences either way."
He paused and put his hand (yes, hand) on my arm that was around him. "I appreciate it, Christy. Thank you." he closed his eyes and pressed his head against my cheek for a moment before breaking the hug and stepping back.
"Isn't that sweet. And just begging to have your heads knocked together." A familiarly sultry tone sounded behind us, making us bristle and leap away so we didn't get our throats slashed. Raina seemed to be awake already, or she had gotten out of her sleeping bag, snuck up on us on stick-littered ground, and got behind us within ten seconds.
"Do you ever sleep?" Gabriel breathed.
"Raina…" I murmured, again not knowing what to say to my sister.
She twirled the gold object we've had for so long on one of her claws, and I worried she'd be leaving marks all over it, because Cobalt is probably tougher than gold. However, when it fell into her palm, I saw no scratch marks. Come to think of it, neither of us had ever tried to actually damage the thing, probably because we thought it was important. But it was gold. Gold was relatively easy to break…
"Yes, I think we've established what my name is." she rolled her eyes at me. "And sleeping's for chumps. If you're roughing it, which everybody but you two lovebirds are."
There was a pause.
"And now that you've accepted your dependent, lovebirdiness, it's no longer a valid means of teasing you," Raina concluded with a nod.
I noticed something. "Raina, you keep twitching…" I muttered.
"Yeah, you were really still when you wanted to be when I met you." Gabriel pointed out.
She shrugged, winking at him and looking at the rest of the people who were sleeping. "Eh, I'm on torture withdrawal," she said as if it were nothing. "Wanna take bets on how much I want to see your blood? Taking bets now while I count the wounds I'll put in Cobalt to wake his lazy tail up."
My tail swiftly snagged her wrist. "Nobody. Is torturing anybody. In our journey." I proclaimed sternly. "You will have to learn to go without. Cold turkey, capiche? It's hard enough getting my sister out of you without you getting your torture fix."
She pouted. "One cut? It'll just be down the chest a little… It won't even bleed much."
"No." I crossed my arms. She huffed and stretched, showing off as much of her body as she could and making my boyfriend realize she had taken off her cloak again. One sweep of aura fire had the black cloth practically floating over and landing on her like a blanket. She caught it with one hand so as to not cut it on her horn, and obediently brushed her large bundles of fluff that made up her pseudo-wings behind her and into the cloak as she put it on and tied it together in the front.
"One thing I have always wondered…"
Gabriel and I leapt ten feet in the air, I think.
"How exactly your blades remain perfectly sharp no matter how many things you attack with them." Armalita finished. Holy hell, she moves quietly when she chooses. Here's hoping Cobalt doesn't gain ninja skills in his sleep.
"Dunno, Don't care," Raina grunted as she walked over to where I would cook breakfast and waited, brushing her cloak under her as she sat down to avoid getting dirt and stuff in her fur. After the dungeon grime story, I could understand her need for cleanliness.
"It's handy, whatever it is." Armalita drawled as she extracted a whetstone from one of the pockets on her… Well, they don't qualify as pants. More like sizable underwear that's part belt. Now that I was paying attention, I was seeing tiny vials hidden barely in the material of her minimal clothing, possibly for her to slip her own needles into. Armalita carried poison around to add to her needles for throwing?
I tactfully ignored that and watched Armalita start to use that whetstone on the bladed edges of her trident. It was a very methodical and mechanical process, which helped take my mind off of things to just watch.
Gabriel, for his part, seemed to be checking on Sandra and her pet, Crystal. He moved as carefully as he could, despite Sandra being atop a large beast. He got close to the face of the crystal beast, noting that the spotlights that were its eyes were not present, which seemed to mean they were closed. He slowly put his paws on it and rubbed them along its face and behind its ears.
After a few minutes of this, the eye-spotlights of Crystal flickered on as slits and widened to the eye shape, lifting its head slowly to observe Gabriel directly. It casually butted him on the chest with its nose and then proceeded to lay its head back down, watching all of us.
He walked back to me, clearly glad that the beast hadn't ignored his presence this time. I smiled at him, while Armalita finished sharpening her weapon. The warrior wolf taikan slid her trident in its place where it always lied on her back and went to wake Cobalt up personally. I directed Gabe to watch the show with me.
"We so need popcorn," Gabriel commented with a smirk.
We watched Cobalt slowly wake up as Armalita gently nudged him awake, mindful of his skittishness. The metal dog taikan blinked his eyes open slowly, focusing his eyes with some difficulty once he realized he wasn't just looking at the sky. I knew when he finally registered Armalita hovering over him because his eyes widened fully. "Ah! Armalita?"
"Good morning, Cobalt." she greeted him.
"I-I'm sorry, did I oversleep?" He asked shakily as he scrambled out of his sleeping bag "Sorry, sorry, I-"
Armalita covered his mouth with her hand. "You didn't oversleep." she reassured him. "Christy was simply going to be making breakfast soon, and if you weren't awake, I would worry that somebody would eat all of it."
She shot a glare at Gabriel that could only be identified as mildly playful if you knew her really, really well. Otherwise, it would seem just as stern as she always was. Gabriel fell for it, and I did only for a bit, because while she wasn't too different than when I left her, she was different enough for it to be harder for me to understand her.
Cobalt blinked. "Uh… Oh," he muttered confusedly. Armalita turned back to him.
"Cobalt, you look like you think I'm going to bite you," Armalita noted calmly.
"A-are you?"
"...No." Armalita shook her head. "I'm not. And most people wouldn't, Cobalt. You need to start keeping that in mind."
"Y-yes ma'am." he flinched. Jeez, was that kid ever going to get out of that fear state he was in around Armalita? He clearly was crushing on her, but she scared him at the same time. What a weird combination. Perhaps it was born of a false sense of worthlessness he has for himself that made him think someone as powerful and noble as Armalita was dozens of leagues above him.
"Here's a thought," Gabriel said once the cobaltum taikan calmed down enough to stand up properly. "Let's brainstorm ways to get Cobalt to feel more confident."
I elbowed him. "After you give us all the scoop on what you know about your compound's defenses." I reminded him.
While Gabriel had a sharp intake of breath as he remembered what his double said, Armalita looked at me strangely. "What has you so anxious to plan today?" she asked.
"An all-powerful dude with a white shadow," I replied. "We'll elaborate later."
"Yeah… But we can at least have breakfast first. So we know what we're talking about and not half asleep." Gabriel argued. This was probably a reasonable thing to say, so I agreed and my tails flared out to collect my pack and start taking my precious cooking supplies out of it.
Raina stood by me and watched as she passed the gold switch thing from hand to hand. Why she was so fascinated by it, I had no idea. "Do you like gold, Raina?" I asked as casually as I could while in the process of collecting ingredients from our packs.
"Nah." Raina set the switch spinning on her upturned claw yet again. "But this thing doesn't get cut by my claws, which kinda absorbs my attention, 'cause it's gold. You know I can cut through metals tougher than that. Why, Cobalt's a prime example."
"We never tried to break it. We thought it wouldn't be worth it because whatever purpose it had it couldn't fulfill while broken."
"Welp." Raina shrugged and continued playing with it. She sounded like she didn't care much. I sighed.
"Come on, Raina, give me a chance." I pleaded as I added sausages to the scrambled eggs.
"But your near-tears face is so funny when you beg." Raina walked away, leaving me to wilt a bit and continue cooking. Was it really, honestly too much to ask to have my sister back? Why didn't I ask Other Gabe about it?
Oh wait. I expected something along the lines of 'reconditioning is best done properly'. That was probably true, but it hurt. It hurt so bad. I wanted it to be over with quickly. Yet, I couldn't have that. Not if I wanted her to become better properly.
But then… Why wouldn't it be proper to speed it up like that? Was there some other reason that Raina couldn't just recover with the wave of Other Gabe's hand? Was it something like… Something about who she is, or is it about the difference between her now and her then?
Maybe… Maybe if she regained her innocence at the snap of fingers, it wouldn't last long. The full force of the memories she had of torturing people and enjoying it could break her like a twig. She might never recover from the guilt that way. The way we have it now, I couldn't have my sister back fully, but she could eventually get to the point where I at least recognize her. In other words, without wiping her memory, it wouldn't be possible for her to be the sweet little girl she had been before.
Other Gabe clearly did not like the idea of removing someone's memories. That begged the question: Was I justified in wanting to do just that to get my sister back?
I needed Gabriel to talk me through this… The thought of erasing much of Raina's memories was building, and I didn't know whether it was okay or not.
I finished making breakfast and distributed it, quickly making my way to Gabriel and sitting besides him. "Gabriel, I need to talk about something important." I murmured. He paused, a bite halfway to his mouth.
"Go for it." he replied quietly.
"I realize that your lookalike didn't fix Raina because the only way to properly do it would be to erase her memories… And he didn't want to do that, but once I thought of it…"
I trailed off, before remembering that I didn't have to worry about him interrupting me. He was waiting patiently. "I kept thinking about it. I'm conflicted now. I want to do it, really, because it can get my sister back, but it just sounds so wrong… What do you think?"
Gabriel let the silence hang in the air as he readjusted himself in his seated position. "Well… Look at Raina," he suggested. I did as I was told, taking her appearance in without comment, seeing her picking on Cobalt with Armalita defending him. Gabriel's words still reached my ears as he spoke. "She's a very complex person. She still paints, and not all of her paintings are bad things. She enjoys reading, even if those books are of the more… Well, you know. Her sadism comes from a different source, the brainwashing, but it's not like suggestion. She is a completely different person in that regard. It's difficult to even call it artificial anymore."
I looked at him, keeping my expression even, waiting for him to continue.
"So what would you classify her as? She makes her decisions, has things she likes and dislikes, and there are elements of your sister that are still there. She's a completely different person, but she's still a person. The reason why taking memories on that scale would be destructive is because that person in Raina's body is who she is now. Are you willing to destroy that for your own sake?"
I soaked his explanation in and shook my head. "...No…" I whispered. "And it would be Raina's six or seven-year-old mind in an eighteen-year-old body, and there would be a lot of other complications… And the world wouldn't forget what she's done either… No, you're right. I can't do that to someone. Erasing a few minutes isn't nearly as destructive as unraveling what makes this Raina… Raina."
He patted my shoulder gently as he turned back to his food and began eating again, clearly convinced the issue was solved. I closed my eyes for a moment instead of eating my own breakfast, not feeling too hungry.
That was until Gabriel's aura flames licked at my chin, and I opened my eyes to see a chunk of my breakfast floating in front of me, wrapped in the azure flames. "You really should be eating," he said. I obediently opened my mouth and let him put that bit of food in there before chewing it down. I quickly picked up my fork and started eating my own food with vigor, realizing that I was most certainly hungry even if I didn't feel like eating.
Ten minutes later, I was washing and drying the dishes with relative ease. I loved my fire and water magics, allowing me to rinse, wash, and sanitize the plates and bowls, as well as my frying pans. Meanwhile, Armalita and Gabriel redistributed the materials in our packs, making sure the food was easily accessible.
Cobalt looked like he was about to ask Armalita something, but Gabriel cleared his throat and waved us over. Armalita and Cobalt were quick to obey for different reasons, the former knowing what a serious look meant, and the latter perfectly willing to see what his friend was doing. I was already nearby, and Raina… Well, she was just playing with our switch in the background, unconcerned. She leaned against Crystal, who Sandra was napping atop, her dangerous tail swishing slowly in her sleep.
Click!
I closed my eyes, pulling memories up in my mind of the things my lookalike told me to do and my memories of the people we might come across. It was time for a good danger warning.
"Okay… So most of you don't know this, because we didn't mention it yet, Christy and I shared a dream last night courtesy of my lookalike." I said bluntly, watching Cobalt's eyes widen and Armalita's eyes narrow. "But most of that information's not what I'm about to talk about. My lookalike suggested that I give you guys information about some of the most dangerous people I know of in my compound, because we might have to face them. There are… Four people I know of that we need to be careful of, but I don't know any of them personally."
Now Raina had joined us, having apparently heard the words 'dangerous people' and decided it was a good idea to find out who she could get away with attacking.
"So let's start." I sat down, thereby communicating that the story might be long. Christy and Cobalt followed suit and I began.
"There are four seriously dangerous people I can think of," I said. "Their names are Moira, Wasp, Demon, and Valkyrie."
"Three of those names seem relatively self-explanatory," Armalita noted calmly.
"I think the one I know the least about is Moira. I haven't even seen her, but all the stories say the same thing." I looked directly at everyone. "She is a mermaid prokopian."
Armalita raised a brow. "Mermaids can command water," she noted, looking at Christy.
"I'll hold her off if we come across each other in battle." Christy nodded. "Anything else about mermaids I should know?"
Armalita frowned, before shaking her head. "I do not have extensive knowledge about them, only the basic ability they have. Christy does seem to be the best choice."
Cobalt grimaced. "Splitting up may be a bad idea, but all of these people sound scary. Should we really be packed together where all of these guys can attack us at once on their home turf?"
Armalita looked me squarely in the eyes. "It is Gabriel's home turf too." she pointed out.
I nodded. "I have a much better mental layout of my compound" I agreed "I should be able to get us there, even if it's a bit rusty after seven months."
"So a water controlling mermaid, and we don't know what kind of weapons they carry." Christy pointed out. "We'll need to be careful. We don't know if her human form has guns or melee weapons."
"Point." I agreed. "The next one, one I know little about but have at least seen fighting, is Wasp. I've heard stories about her. She is a prokopian who didn't like that her beast form was a rather weak, bee-like creature and signed up for experiments to fuse her beast form and regular form together."
Cobalt blinked. "What, like a taikan?"
"No." I shook my head. "Her body is mostly human, but instead of being able to shift, she has her antennae, her wings, and her body is extra light but stronger. She uses twin sharp cones as weapons, Huge white conical points on fancy handles. Like stingers. Very fast, and from what I've seen when I caught a glimpse of her on the battlefield, very deadly."
Christy frowned. "How did this 'Wasp' person not get sent out to war if she was so deadly?" she asked.
"That, I don't know," I replied quietly. "In fact, you could ask that question about all four of them, I think."
When nobody had a response to that, I continued. "Next up… Valkyrie. She… Well, we'll get to that… She is, wait for it… A valkyrie prokopian. Very dangerous. I see her more often than the others; I think she lives nearby where I used to. Training rooms of all types, she excels in. Her subspecies can fire the silver feathers of her wings…" I looked at Armalita. "The two of you share a lot of qualities. Valkyrie uses her projectiles and two short swords, while you use very similar projectiles and your special trident."
Armalita let this soak in quietly for a while. "Then she and I shall do battle if necessary." she proclaimed eventually, determinedly. "Now, you said you would get to something later?"
"Uh, yeah." I rubbed the back of my neck. "It's a bit weird. Valkyries are all female in appearance, don't ask me how I know that or how they reproduce, I don't know the answers to either, though Valkyrie might. Point is, nobody around her knows whether her human form is male or female, because she never shifts out of her beast form, possibly because her beast form is essentially better at… Everything than her human form could be."
Raina opened her mouth.
"I don't want to have a discussion on reproduction right now." Christy admonished her sister.
Raina rolled her eyes. "You lot are no fun."
"Thank you, Christy. Lastly…" My gaze darkened. "Demon. He too named himself after his subspecies."
Armalita tensed. "The beasts that live by Demon Mountain." she hissed. "The relatives of the dragons, the demons."
"Those demons." I agreed. "He is the one I know a lot about just because everyone says to stay away from him and exactly why."
"Well, don't keep us waiting, buddy-boy, go on." Raina gestured impatiently to me.
I sighed and nodded. "Okay. Demon was a kid who… Let's just say the people in charge took a different approach with him. Practically from the day he was born, He was raised to be perfectly obedient to the people at the top. A living weapon, and a very, very dangerous one at that."
"Pretty much not alive?" Raina asked.
"Alive… But robotic, essentially." I whispered. "There was only one person he listened to… And that was Boreas. There was something else about Demon accepting commands from anyone who could beat him in combat, but… Nobody could."
I shivered. "Demon is terrifying. I met him on the battlefield when he and I were maybe ten during training, probably just to test the guy's current limits…"
Christy shuddered. "How'd you do?" she asked.
"He squashed me," I said darkly. Everyone's eyes widened slightly save Raina. "I took a step and I was out for the count. He got from in front of me to behind me in an instant, his katana drawn and held to my neck. His katana, by the way, is permanently coated in cursed flames. It didn't feel good just to be near the fire. When we were set for a round two in our beast forms, he swatted me like a goddamn fly with his tail and paw and almost roasted me with a beam of cursed flames before he was called off by Boreas. I didn't hold a candle to him when I was ten, and I definitely can't now."
Christy had another question, and she sounded worried. "Where was he when you escaped?" she asked.
"Because he just obeys orders, he's not too flexible," I explained quickly. "His primary job was… Is… Defending the compound. He couldn't care less who was leaving it. Let me put it to you this way. If Demon had cared about what I was doing, I would be six feet under right now."
Christy shivered at my tone and my certainty, but it was Armalita who spoke up. "Do you know why that particular one is not at war?"
"Because he only listens to Boreas," I explained. "And none of the people who would take charge of him can best him in battle, so he wouldn't listen to them."
"He sounds like a guy I could make bleed without being supposed to feel bad." Raina proclaimed happily, brandishing her claws.
We all winced. "Don't get excited. We're planning this out so we never, ever cross paths with him." I said, turning to Armalita and Christy specifically. "We can't use the rooftops like we did to enter your compound, Armalita. With both Valkyrie and Demon able to fly, and quickly, we can't risk it. We need to… Get in there, do what we came to do, and…"
I trailed off. And what? Do what? There was a power vacuum in Taika but in Prokopios, there were people who could potentially take his spot. "And… Someone will have to take up that power vacuum so someone else doesn't... " my mind turned to the old man and the four robot-like guys with laptops. That old guy could potentially take Boreas' place.
"Someone who will work to end the war." Christy nodded. "Someone will have to make their way back to Taika to manage the power vacuum as well. Nobody was influential enough to take over so easily, and yet… It will not last forever. One we are done here, one of us must go and maintain order in Taika."
"Not quite." Armalita disagreed as I went to agree. We looked at her in confusion until she elaborated. "Christy, you recall me taking Cobalt and disappearing before we chased after Gabriel?"
Christy's eye twitched reflexively in response. "Yes… I remember you randomly dragging Cobalt off when Gabriel was already on his way," she said just a little frostily.
"Relax, please." Armalita retorted, unconcerned. "I explained it to you in part when I left. Gabriel had to be a sizable distance from the compound before we made contact with him. The other thing I was doing was labeling several people who wanted the war to end as soon as possible, and that's a lot of people. They won't be doing anything. I am aware that this sounds unfairly demeaning, but it was akin to putting a doll in the captain's chair."
I looked at Christy, and she looked at me. Then, we turned back to Armalita. "When exactly were we going to find out about this?" I asked.
"It didn't come up." Armalita defended herself calmly. "And not only would it not affect the result of a power vacuum, it literally would not affect our journey in any way. It was simply… Reassurance."
"You gotta tell us these things." Christy admonished the warrior, who had the decency to look a little bit mollified.
"Of course, Christy." she nodded solemnly. "On reflection, it was a careless lack of judgment, even if the chances of this change were low.
"I'm talking about communication between friends." Christy elaborated.
Armalita blinked. "...Yes. I failed that as well. I will not do it again." she promised, before turning to me. "Is there anything else about this 'Demon' person?"
"I don't think there's a thing that katana of his wouldn't cut… Kind of like Raina's claws here. Christy's tails might withstand it, but I don't know. I don't even know the appropriate way of escaping if he does appear, because he is incredibly fast and has no mercy. We can't just throw ourselves into the game like Christy and I were forced to do for your compound. We honestly have to sneak in. Otherwise, we're going to be torn apart."
Raina held up a hand, bringing attention to her. "So… This guy won't talk back to me, turns obedient if I beat him up a little, is also fast, and can shift forms into a rideable dragon thing?" she clarified with a smirk. "If he's a looker we might just be in business."
"Do not confront him, are we clear?" I asked.
"Crystal." Cobalt nodded rapidly.
Sandra's pet raised its head lazily to look in our direction before deciding beauty rest was more important, and it put its head back down.
Raina just smirked.
"Are we clear?" I asked in her direction, my tone harsh due to Christy visibly being affected by her implications. She turned her smirk on Christy, her eyes showing no remorse, only a sadistic light at the sight of her sister being emotionally compromised enough to think of things Christy usually wouldn't ever do.
"Clear as pea soup." Raina snarked before turning and walking away.
"Gabriel… Do you recall what his human form looks like?" Armalita asked, keeping her voice gentle after that exchange.
"Black hair, kind of a medium length, could cover his eyes if it wasn't styled…" I murmured, trying to recall. "His eyes are this unnerving acid green, just like his subspecies. His clothing was pretty much black and 's all I recall from the last time I saw him, but I don't know if he's changed in appearance in recent years, because when he's not following orders, he tends to keep to himself."
"Not even passing glimpses over the years?" Armalita pressed.
"Hardly." I shook my head. "Sorry. But as long as we stay out of places where Demon might be around, we should avoid him entirely."
"We'll integrate that into our plan." Armalita nodded. "But that's enough for now. We should start moving. We have to try and skirt between the Demon Mountain territory and the warzone. There is a healthy distance between the two because nobody wants to risk being hunted down by the… 'residents' of the blackened mountain."
"You've seen it?" I asked.
"A picture of it, taken in a memory lense." Armalita nodded.
"We should get moving, then," Christy said as she mobilized herself. I reached out with my aura flames and first pulled her into a hug.
"Please don't stress out too much… We just have to be patient with her." I murmured. "I know how much it hurts."
"I feel vulnerable in front of her," Christy whispered back. Every time I even look at her when she's smirking… It's like a stab to my heart…"
I gripped her shoulder comfortingly. "Let's start moving," I suggested. "And we'll think about this later, okay?"
"Road trip?" Sandra was awake and leaning against Crystal's neck and head, resting between its ears. Her tail waved back and forth slowly, but we were safe as long as she stayed atop Crystal. The fur around her mouth had some of her breakfast in it, but she was licking it away as we watched her.
"Is she just going to be in the background all the time unless it's time for her to suddenly barrel through something?" I asked, and despite her growing anxiousness and emotional instability, Christy gave her signature humming chuckle as she turned her attention to something else. "Come on, Sandra, can you get your beast moving?"
"Okaaaay." Sandra slurred, patting Crystal's neck. "Yip yip!" she giggled, hiccupping and reaching for the flask at her waist.
I turned away to check on the others as Crystal stood up immediately upon hearing those words (for some reason). Finally, we were on our way.
The environment was as beautiful as always. Gone were the wonderful mountains and uneven terrain dominated by green, and fading were the flatlands full of forest. Approaching was a thicker forest of intriguing plants of countless kinds. Flowers and bushes, various trees. We crossed biomes over the course of the day, looking around at all of the sights.
"Be on your guard." Armalita commanded eventually "It is now possible for the enemy to hide from us at closer range. If we must fight…"
"No," Christy interjected. "Fighting is a last resort. Gabriel and I have a lot of power to avoid and block attacks. We try to talk them down first."
Armalita accepted this easily. "My point regarding our guard rising still stands." she pointed out. She left it at that, unwilling to further push something she had already made quite clear. We spread out slightly as we walked, having to take an odd path so that Crystal could fit between the trees. If the forest got much thicker, we would have to skirt around this section, which could eat up some of the time we had gathered.
Under Armalita's instruction, we were set for any sneak attack. My eyes were closed and I maintained my aura vision, sensing everything from my own two paws to the small sources of aura among the trees, bugs or birds. The plants gave off an azure glow in my vision, making it seem to me like I was walking on a bed of light, but not necessarily obstructing my vision.
"Armalita, how well do you know troop movements?" I asked.
"Not extensively. I study every document I can get my hands on, but considering my status as a guard, elite or not, I am not the first to receive that information." Armalita answered immediately. "As far as this forest goes, I know very little. We are not at the boundary for the actual battlefronts, but Taikan patrols certainly come through here and are more vigilant than anyone who travels through the more sparse forest from before could be."
"So Gabriel should stay in his beast form?" Cobalt asked.
"I'll be doing that anyways." I reminded him. "Considering I'm our three-hundred-sixty-degree view watchman, which I have to be in this form for."
"Why shift forms in the first place then, huh?" Raina asked.
I waved my paws at her. "Do you see these paws shooting a bow"
"This from a man who uses powerful spheres of raw aura energy." Armalita chimed in.
"Those can be dangerous!" I defended myself. "The aura bolts of my bow just fling things around."
Raina rolled her eyes. "Sap."
I was about to retort with the word 'pacifist' when the image of Malvolio's glassy eye flashed across my mind and I clenched my eyes shut, trying to focus on my surroundings again. I could sense the sadist smirking at my failure to respond.
I wanted to be a pacifist, I still did, but that wasn't an option anymore… Right? I didn't get to be a pacifist anymore… I shouldn't be. I was a murderer. I failed to do what I needed to do to get Christy out of there.
"Hold it, buddy boy," I thought to myself. "There were a ton of unknowns in that compound. Complete success would have been down to luck, not preparation or skill"
I mentally nodded to myself. That much was true, I had to admit. Still… I shouldn't have had to kill him.
The alternative, though was either me being dead or us having escaped without Raina.
I looked to the unique taikan, who seemed to be spacing out, bored, as she walked. Her bare feet seemed not to matter to her in any capacity despite walking on rocks and sticks. Ninety-nine percent of me said that rescuing her was the right choice from the start, no matter what position she was in. Part of me, a traitorous part, whispered to me that if we hadn't gone and saved her, I wouldn't have had to kill Malvolio in the end.
Her presence was tearing into Christy and I so much that I couldn't trust myself to be entirely level-headed all the time. The doubt ate at me as I watched her verbally torment Cobalt or Christy, something she would do with her claws if she weren't hopelessly outnumbered. The knowledge that right now she wouldn't hesitate to make her sister bleed if she wanted didn't sit well with me.
This travel went on for a while until we reached a clearing. The sun was beginning to set, and we were still surrounded by tall trees. I looked up into the thick branches. "So… This is where we camp, right?" I asked. "Who wants to join me in finding out how close we are?"
Christy's ears twitched. "Tree climbing? Fun."
"We'll start setting up sleeping areas, then." Armalita nodded, although neither Sandra nor Raina seemed to be ready to help at all.
Christy used her tails to curl around the branches and lift her up one at a time while I took the route that involved actual exercise. The trees were strange, having both pine needles and some non-evergreen leaves as well. We clambered through the mess of branches to reach the top and see over the forest.
"...Oh…" Christy murmured.
The mist that had dominated the distance was beginning to clear now, and now that we could see more into the horizon, the silhouette that greeted us gave us chills. Through the odd fog that still covered the view of the upcoming mountain, we could see it in shadow. The pitch black image in the distance rose up like a monster. It was large, wide, and its tip was broken into shards and spikes that left a gap in between, like some sort of huge deadly weapon planted in the ground. Some of those shards extended out from the mountain's surface like the blades of razor wire, as if entire chunks of the mountain had been lost and we were looking at the remains. I wondered how much more chilling it would look in person, when we got through that odd fog.
"Can you tell how far away it is?" I asked.
"Not really… Maybe a couple day's travel, but we won't be going that far. Another day in this direction at the minimum, maybe less. Then we have to start skirting carefully around the territory."
We clambered down, expressions grim. "That is one scary mountain," I announced once my paws touched the dirt.
Raina raised a brow. "Gonna have to see this for myself," she said.
"I can help you up, Raina." Christy offered immediately, but Raina pointedly ignored her and started clambering up. She moved smoothly through the trees, getting not the slightest amount of sap on her like the kind I was currently shifting to get out of my fur. As I worked on the unwelcome sap, Christy looked around at everyone clearing away twigs and stones and moved to help.
As her tails swept the area clean, unveiling a nice clearing of grass, I was looking around. "Christy, Can you make your woven bed with just one tail?"
"It'll take time, but I could do it." Christy nodded. "Does everyone want comfortable bed tonight?"
"Let's go with yes." Raina dropped out of the tree next to her sister. "I prefer squishy mattresses, but some fluff will have to do."
Christy smiled at her sister, as she stood close to her. "I'm glad I can be of some help to you," she said. I saw the movement, and made to stop her with my aura flames on instinct, but the azure fire passed through Raina like nothing was there, and Raina's claws flashed, striking Christy in the muzzle.
"Come on, don't say you didn't see that coming." Raina mocked her. "Personal space, you know? Besides, you shouldn't ever get close to someone who loves the sight of blood."
Christy had almost toppled to the ground before I caught her in my arms. She wasn't badly hurt… Just some scratches across her face that would heal overnight. But she was bleeding slightly. "Raina…" she murmured, and I gently set her on her feet. Then, I turned to Raina, angry.
"She's trying to be nice!" I exclaimed.
"Makes it all the better." Raina retorted easily. "And she'll do it again, and again, and again. That's who she is, and you know it. Who am I not to take advantage of such a weak position? It's so easy. And she'll keep throwing herself at me in the hopes that she can 'fix' me. Frankly, I feel as intact as I want to be."
I opened my mouth, but Raina swatted me with a backhand, not knocking me down but spinning me around a bit. There was pain in my muzzle, where her claws had nicked me. I stood straight and turned around.
"Don't. Hurt your sister again." I threatened, Christy's safety the one thing on my mind now. "Never, are we clear?"
"Clear as toxic sludge," Raina smirked and punched me in the face, or tried to. I caught her fist with my paw, grunting as her strength somehow nearly overcame mine. Where had she developed all of this strength and speed? Was it just… A compensation for the lack of magic? Her muscles didn't show nearly enough to make it seem like she would be that fast. In fact, she had a lot of… Fat reserves in most places other than her belly. Or did her speed just outmatch my strength in a way?
I earned a nick on the ear for my troubles and she walked off as I mentally counted to fifteen and turned to check on Christy, who looked more emotionally compromised than ever. I gestured for her to sit down, and sat down with her in the grass.
"Gabriel… You're hurt." she murmured.
"Eh, I'm fine. Your cuts are deeper than mine." I told her quickly. "But they're not too serious. She intentionally avoided your eyes."
"I don't know what to do… I don't know what to do…"
"Hey." I gripped her shoulder, breaking her free from the trance she almost fell into. "It could take us years, but we have to do this. Maybe it won't even work, I don't know, but we don't get to give up. We have to keep trying." I said.
Christy shuddered and pulled me closer for comfort, and I, in turn, pulled her closer to comfort her. "Hey..." I whispered. "Did Raina used to have any… Weaknesses, Christy?"
Christy looked at me, confused for a moment, but closed her eyes in thought moments later. "She… When we were young, There was one thing... But… It's been so many years. And she's completely different, and…"
"That doesn't matter." I grinned. "You should go for it."
Christy absorbed this while I looked around. Raina had gone to hang out by herself again, and hadn't seemed to hear us. She slowly smiled. Then, maybe something triggered in her at the memory of doing something to her little sister to submission when she was young, because that smile turned into something almost… Sinister.
"Christy, why are you being scary?" I asked shaking her. She blinked and looked at me, her smile returning to normal.
"Sorry, sorry. It's impossible not to be like that when that comes up."
"You looked evil."
"You know… I think I should get some evil out of my system." Christy's tails twitched at the prospect of what she was going to do.
"Could you cook us dinner first?" I half asked, half pleaded. "And it'll be easier to catch her if she's… sleeping in a bed made of your tails."
Christy's eyes lit up.
"One bed for me and you, one for Cobalt and one for Armalita 'cause they're not that far yet, and Sandra's just gonna stay on Crystal, and your tail shouldn't be touching her own tail anyways. That leaves you three free tails when you create the bedding for Raina's…"
Christy was convinced, and I was grinning like a madman. We'd probably all regret this when the episode ended. Worth it. It was so going to be worth it.
As Christy began cooking, keeping the food she prepared as simple as possible this time, I walked over and sat near Cobalt and Armalita. I blinked. "Armalita, how'd you get the switch thing?" I asked her.
"My sister had it in her grasp." the wolf taikan gestured up to the feline on top of the crystal beast. "While I fail to understand at what point she managed to separate it from the Prosecutor-"
I coughed. "It might help Christy if you called her 'Raina' instead.
Armalita visibly tried not to flinch. "Of course. My apologies. As I was saying, I do not know how she separated the object from Raina or when she did so. Speaking of this object, can you explain more about its significance?"
"Not in any way that helps you understand what it's for," I admitted. "We don't know what it does, we don't know what it's for, we only know that we're supposed to take it with us when we go places because it was given as a gift to Christy with a message to take it along with us. Other than that… It's just been extra weight."
Armalita frowned. "That truly is all the information you have?" she asked, seeming disappointed.
"Well… Raina couldn't damage it." I ventured "But I don't see how that helps…"
"It does," Armalita stated. "It means one of two things. Either the object is a metal like gold with a similar weight, but is not gold—I would not know what metal that could possibly be—and the other option is that the item has magical origins."
I blinked. "Oh," I said kind of pitifully, before noticing Cobalt's impressed expression, which made me smile. "So if it's magic, what kind of magic is it?"
"I can't tell you that, I don't have the information." Armalita deadpanned. "Now why are you smiling so broadly?"
I looked at Cobalt. "Armalita's got a point, you know. You should try to be more assertive." I told him. "And you have every right to be more confident, too. Don't let Raina get you down."
While I walked away, my aura senses told me that Armalita was giving Cobalt a look and Cobalt was waving his hands around and my ears told me he was trying to change the topic. I chuckled as I approached Christy's food prep area.
The kitsune was just about finishing the simple meal, cooked using her tail flames. "Dinner," she called as I walked up to her. My pace quickened for those last few steps in excitement, only to be met by one of her tails. "Be patient" she chided me while the others approached.
"Why?" I whined childishly.
"Because you'll eat too much." she told me with a smirk, pushing me back.
"Will not!"
"Will too, dog boy. Now wait for everyone else." she playfully pushed me away while the others approached. Armalita handed me Christy's gold object, which I slowly put onto my belt while doing my best to maintain a sad pout and failing.
"Dude. You need pouting practice." Raina brushed against me as she passed, nicking my side with her claws along the way for no obvious reason. I winced and placed my paw against the shallow cuts to stem any bleeding and noted with satisfaction that nobody had dawdled in making their way to Christy's cooking area.
Christy served our dinner and we all eagerly ate it up, Raina included. Like always, I kept a careful eye on Raina, trying to understand her as much as possible. As usual, she was actually very clean in how she ate, keeping as much stuff out of her fur as possible. She was sitting in the grass, ignoring what Christy had woven for her with one of her tails, which was essentially a block of her tail. Her cloak was pulled under her to prevent her getting any grass stuck in her fur.
Because of this need for cleanliness, she was the last one to finish eating. She proceeded to sneak her hand into her pack and drag out what appeared to be a miniature paint kit. Her two painting colors, red and black, were embedded in sealable cylindrical containers that were numerous enough to have normally contained many more colors, but these ones held alternating black and red. The two columns of these pockets of paint were a part of what looked like a rectangular board, the rest of which had places to hold the board, and the rest was embedded in a smaller rectangle that looked like paper. There was an almost finished painting. I could only tell that because I was to her right a fair distance. I couldn't tell what it was, but Raina pulled a small brush out of a part of it where it seemed to have been snapped in.
She laid it down flat in her lap and opened two of the plastic lids, one of a rectangle about two inches by four inches with dirty water in it, used for cleaning a brush in a way. The other was one of the red paint cylinders. She began to paint, and I looked away. I didn't want to disturb her while she did something so… Alive.
Everyone else avoided disturbing the girl as we sat back and, I'm assuming everyone was doing as I was, thinking about what we were doing.
In general, I mean. I didn't know what really was best in this case, but I wanted to find a balance between enjoying the trip and working to… Do our job. I bit my lip; I didn't like thinking of it, but if it was necessary.
I needed to have a conversation with my lookalike. I wouldn't ask him to make the war end himself, but maybe I could ask him if there was something, anything I could do so that I could end the war without killing him. Or maybe he'd want me to figure it out myself.
No, he could be a prat sometimes and he obviously took some degree of pleasure in the power he used to do his matchmaking shenanigans… But he was a friend and he didn't keep things from me unless it would depreciate me in some way. When I was young, if I had known he had been an immortal, all powerful being, I probably wouldn't treat him like the friend I do now. He protected himself by hiding the aspects of himself that would bring worship or unnecessary respect his way. Instead, he played the part of a normal person who happened not to age, the part of a particularly real imaginary friend.
And I was okay with that.
Christy started washing the dishes, and because she wasn't cooking, she let me help her this time. Working alongside her brought its sense of warmth as I imagined a while back when we did something similar in our home together, in Christy's cave.
It came time for bed, and Christy used one of her tails for each person, making them longer and longer and weaving them into honest-to-goodness bedding, a large bed for me and her… One for Raina. Christy still had two tails left unaltered, which shouldn't raise suspicion just yet because she did that last night and only used them to increase the range of her hug.
Then, finally, we all got into bed. I closed my eyes and kept my aura senses trained on Raina. It wouldn't necessarily look much different when she was sleeping, but I could hope that she wouldn't move much. Granted, she didn't do much twitching normally. When she was standing around normally, she doesn't move her fingers around, doesn't shift around in any way when standing still. Her movements, in general, were very smooth and seamless, no twitching, nothing.
So I had to analyze how quickly her chest was moving to determine whether she was asleep or not. Granted, that required keeping an eye on her chest, but Christy would understand. This was going to be worth it. Besides, I was no pervert. Well, not a pervert when it was someone other than Christy. I was willing to be honest, I got a lot of mental images despite my best efforts to ignore them when Raina teased me about Christy.
So Christy got to test her sister's weakness, and I got a little bit of revenge.
Raina fell asleep at a normal pace as the stars came out alongside the moon, which rose in the east. I tapped Christy's waist with my paw surreptitiously, and she started acting. She slipped out of bed absolutely silently, a glint in her eye. It was honestly a bit scary. What was she going to do to her sister? I knew it wouldn't physically harm her, but…
As Christy glided across the grass, I stood up as quietly as I could as well. I sensed with my aura vision (because the moonlight didn't show everything).
Suddenly, parts of the tail bed that Raina was in moved, suddenly lashing Raina's limbs in place and tying her down at the belly as well. She woke up instantly, her claws striking at Christy's tails but being ineffective against six complementary tails worth of strength magic and the corresponding passive resistance.
As Christy practically glided up to the foot of her bed, Raina smirked at her. "Oh, you naughty, perverted girl, Christy." she teased, flexing her claws.
"Just wanted to have a little… Chat." Christy said, smirking herself.
"Amateur. Your bondage techniques are weak. If this were regular rope, I wouldn't even have to use my claws to escape." Raina informed her sister blandly.
"But they are my tails, so I can use them any way I want." Christy brought her two free tails up besides her, pointing them at Raina. Her smirk turned sinister. Whatever thought was corrupting her, I was anticipating the big reveal of Raina's weakness.
"And how are you going to use them? You look like you snapped. I must say, sadism really suits you." Raina offered.
"No, no it doesn't" I mentally disagreed. Raina was kind of screwed up in the head. Take her words with a grain of salt.
"Do you know what I'm doing this for?" Christy asked. At this point, I noticed that Armalita had woken up.
"I'm sure you'll tell me."
"Remember the old days, when we were little kids?" Christy asked.
"Yyyep."
Her tails shifted and wiggled around in the air. "And perhaps… You remember what I always would do if we argued?"
Raina's entire demeanor changed in a single instant. Gone was the smirk, the almost droopy eyes, the stillness. She shuddered, her eyes widening significantly, and her mouth drew in a flat line. I was amazed. Some memory had definitely surfaced, and it wasn't treating the girl well.
"I see you do remember." Christy's sinister smirk turned into an evil grin. Raina's eyes went as wide as they possibly could and her expression turned to one of horror, the girl straining against Christy's tails.
"It's time." Christy laughed, wiggling her fingers and moving the two free tails forward "For a visit from the tickle monster!"
So... That happened.
Nothing to say. Reviews would be appreciated as always. Thank you all for reading and have a nice day. I need to hit the hay...