Chapter 21
Welcome Ambassador
"Where do you lead me anyways Sefilia?", she wasn't sure if his head was okay, did he miss what the king just said?
"What did you wish the most … after being together with me.", the vixen added after she had read his mind.
The human thought again, "I wanted to be accepted … be a part of the people … You don't wanna tell me… ?", he was surprised and happy at the same time.
He surprised her once more, he could be wise like the oldest warrior and keep cool like an iceblock, but then he could be clueless like a little kid, she had to laugh a bit.
"Congratulations John!", she said and gave him a stormy little kiss.
The vixen brought him in front of a small, decorated door. Some pictures were hanging at the walls and at the door itself. When John took a closer look he saw blurry pictures of people who got drenched into a bright light, just like Sefilia had told him.
"What do I have to do? … Do I need anything?...", the human was a bit nervous, he wasn't prepared for something like that at a day like this one.
"John stay calm, you don't have to anything. The scientist will do their job, just follow their instructions and everything will go well."
"Shouldn't we go in?", John asked after a while, when they were still standing in front of the door.
"We have to wait, until they have finished their preparations, they like to keep their secrets as good as possible so that no one could cause trouble with the machine.", Sefilia explained.
"Yeah, a Sharpclaw with a mark could be the worst that could happen.", John thought out loud.
"I also think this has to go, too.", the vixen pointed at his temple.
"The translator?", he was already really good in forming normal sentences in the Cerinian language that would make at least some sense, but the problem was that, when he got nervous he suffered of a lack of vocabulary.
'I just have to stay calm, then everything will be okay.', he cheered himself up mentally.
She felt his worries, "You can do it.", and with these words she removed the gadget with a little nip and pushed him into the direction of the door.
Just in the second he reached it, it opened up and he entered. With his last gazes back to the vixen, he heard her voice again, "Everything will be fine.", but this time, perfectly in his own mother tongue.
The door closed, before he was even able to answer her and the human got greeted by a Cerinian fox in his 40s.
He wore a white lab coat and small round glasses and it seems that he didn't shove himself in the past few days.
Many lights of the room were dark, what could have been caused by the attack. Only a single light was on, in the middle of the room.
It shone on a little platform and a with symbols decorated, four squared pillar, which was at least as tall as a man, on it.
They didn't shake hands, but instead the scientist wanted him to step on the platform.
He didn't say much to John, he just said that he shouldn't panic or cross his arms during the process. The best thing he could do, was just to stand still, let his arms hang down and not leave the platform.
He did as he got told to and stepped on the platform and waited. When he stood ther, he saw one or two more Cerinians standing next to a consol and typing something in.
The human turned his head to see at least something, but the lights still were dark.
Suddenly, there were little electric sparks, shooting from the walls of the room to the pillar. That was the moment, John returned to his former position and again looked straight at the pillar.
Nothing happened for a while and again the human got nervous, or more afraid he got struck by a lightning.
He was about to ask, if something was wrong, when he noticed that the post started to load with energy.
The symbols started to glow from the bottom and slowly raised until they reached the top.
Then the post started to grow from the bottom. It grew until it reached twice its former size.
The part of the pillar, which was connected with the ground before now opened up and presented four bars with the exact same size. The bars formed a circle over the head of the human.
The light which had lit up the middle of the room now got dark as well and now the pillar, whci appeared to be the machine, started to buzz.
The human felt a warmth which got emitted by the pillar. The buzzing and the warmth increased for some seconds and then it happened.
The ring that had formed over his head shown that bright that only its weak reflection of the light from the stone pillar made John close his eyes of pain.
But he didn't move, if something like this wouldn't be normal the scientists would have stopped the process or at least pushed him of the platform, before it was too late.
His skin started to tingle at his arm and chest and he was wondering, if he got sunburned of the light or if it only was his imagination.
The tingling didn't feel bad though, it was more like a little massage.
The light slowly faded, the good feeling disappeared and the pillar went back to its original state.
When everything had turned back to normal, John was ordered to get of the platform.
It took the human some seconds to see at least something again and then he turned around and went of the platform.
Another Cerinian with a lap coat and a clipboard in his hands waited at the bottom for the young human.
The lights were on, but he wasn't able to identify anything new on his skin.
One of the scientists rose his arm and the light in the whole room went on.
The first thing John saw, after he regained his ability to see, was the surprised expression of the scientist with the clipboard, when he inspected his armor. He wrote something down and then asked John to remove his left arm protection.
He noticed the symbols on his arm, they were familiar to him, but he wasn't sure where he had seen them before.
John also had to remove his bandages, it was strange to him that his wounds didn't hurt that much anymore as before.
He now was surprised himself, he didn't knew what the symbols meant, but they had an interesting pattern.
A white, about peach sized, halved, empty circle started at the upper part of his upper arm, drew two half an inched sized lines over the theoretical position of his bones. They united at his elbow and parted, when they had reached his lower arm, where they were drawn, like on his upper arm.
the lines again ran together, when they reached his wrist.
From there a line for every finger started.
Each of them was quarter an inch thick and made circle around every finger joint, the lines stopped at the last joint and except the circles the whole mark was only visible at the backside of his arm.
Something he only had noticed after the end of his observation was that his wounds were almost completely healed and only small scars, which would disappear in some time, were left.
Then he looked at his equipment. His arm protections were decorated like his arm, but they were connected with a line on his shoulder.
When he saw his chest armor, he knew, where he seen had something like that before.
There were two parallel lines with a circle here and there, like on Sabres armor.
That was probably the reason, why the scientists had made such big eyes.
The human was wondering what the meaning of this was, but he was sure, he would know the answer soon.
The blade and sheath of his sword both had a sinous line, till the tip. His revolver also had this symbols, but they didn't just met at the end, they formed a cycle at the muscle.
Also the magazines had such a line around themselves.
The one with the clipboard filled out a list as fast as he could, while another one helped John to fixate his armor again. He also removed the now unnecessary bandages.
But before he got handed over the paper, both scientists shook his hand and welcomed him as official Cerinian.
The human finally gave the adherer back, which allowed him before to enter doors and use Cerinian equipment, and thanked them.
The one with the clipboard handed him a document said goodbye and showed him the way outside of the room.
For the human it was an amazing feeling to open a locked door, without asking a Cerinian to help him out or using the adherer.
In mentally shouted happily, when he touched the door, its symbols started to glow and it parted in its middle.
Behind the door stood his lovely angel.
She smiled happy and flung her arms around his neck, "I told you that everything will be fine!", she greeted him this time on Cerinian. Her tail was swishing happily from her left to her right and back again.
She pressed the translator back at his temple and observed his armor.
"It looks … great! And this marking … Can I take a look at the document?"
The human nodded, "Sure.", and handed her the paper.
Her eyes were flying over the paper, before she again looked surprised at her boyfriend.
"What's wrong?", this look of her often meant either something good or bad.
"Where do you have your marking?", she asked stormy.
"On my arm.", he said, while pointing on his left arm.
"Strip down, I have to see it!", she said hectically. He wasn't sure, if he hopped that she just mixed something up in her excitement, or if the vixen really wanted him to do so.
On his first thought he just removed his left arm protection again and let her do, what she wanted to.
he observed what Sefilia was doing with his arm.
She ran her fingers down the lines on his arm and looked at the rings on his fingers, "Uhm, Sefilia?".
'These lines, they are so similar, but something is different.', she thought to herself.
The human was worried that his mark had hypnotized her.
She blinked with her eyes, when she heard his voice started to become louder and came back to reality.
"Sorry.", she muttered and blushed slightly, because of her wild curiosity, "Your mark looks similar to Sabre's, I just wanted to be sure, that's all.", she excused herself and went back to the paper.
"If we can trust this paper, and I hope we can, the ancient machine elected you as a new ambassador of the Cerinian people."
A little laugh escaped the human, "Okay, now seriously, what does it mean."
The vixen got a little angry and her ears and eyebrows showed that to him, "This is no joke John!"
He noticed her serious look, "So I really am …?", he lost his common sense of building sentences. Such a high and important position, for him? First he thought the scientists would have misinterpreted something, but Sefilia checked it too, so it must have been true.
But again a little laugh escaped him. The vixen already clenched her fists, "Sorry.", John excused himself, "It's just the situation and the mission we are on. That just fits a little too well, that's all."
"I guess you have to continue your laughter later. One of the king's servants was here, while you were inside.", she told him, while she helped him, to put his arm-armor on again.
"What did he say?", he asked curious.
"We should go back home and take all the things which we still want to use and bring them outside. Some people will help us to clean the house. We also should change our clothes and pack some things for the trip."
He looked at the both of them, she still wore her smothered and blood sprinkled lap coat and pants. The human himself still wore his armor.
"I guess that would make a wrong impression, if you are at the CloudRunner hideout, fully equipped for battle."
She had a point there and he nodded.
On their way through the palace, the situation was almost as tough as it was before they had left the room, where they all laid dying and stormed the throne room with Randorn.
As it seemed the rumor had already spread that John was an ambassador, but no one really dared to ask him, well almost no one. Ronald fell on his knees and begged the human to show it to him.
But John didn't wanted to much attention and promised the energized fox that he would show it to him at a later time.
Stella even blew a whistle, when the two passed and tried to start a wave of applause for the couple, but not many people even listened to her, because they had to mind their own business at that time and the ones who had heard her were too embarrassed of her comrade so say a single word.
Before they left the palace they had to check for their friends first, Sefilia knew that the healing of the Bafomdads was successful, but she was more worried of their mental state, especially of Adarils.
Luckily the furor in front of the room had stopped and was gone for while now as it seemed. Their three friends were still inside. Katt and Beseril were sitting on a bed, the little fox was sitting on Katts lap and as it seemed he was asleep.
"How is he doing?", Sefilia asked silently, not that she accidently wakes the young canine up.
"He will be okay, his mother was right, he is a strong boy."
The young couple told their friends about their journey with Randorn and asked them to keep an eye on Adaril as long as they were gone.
They didn't want any stranger, even if he was a Cerinian, to take care of the boy, he should be with friends now, at least for a while.
"Sure.", they both agreed, "We may have to help to rebuild the city here and then, but we will keep an eye on him.", Katt explained.
"We will make it as much comfortable as possible for our young friend darling, don't worry.", Beseril added and put on a light smile.
"We are going home now, you should do that to and see, if there is anything you can save, before the cleaning teams throw it away.", Sefilia finally said, before they all together left the room.
Katt was still carrying Adaril and did her best not to wake him up.
"How where they even able to break through the gates? Beseril told me these gates were almost indestructible.", Katt asked, when they walked pass a big piece of a gate, that stuck in the middle of the street on the ground.
"As far as I know, the Sharpclaw used bombs to open the gates.", Sefilia answered her, "But to tell the truth I don't know anything that is so powerful that it could cause that much destruction."
Katt dropped her ears and mumbled something which was barely understandable, "The last transporter…"
"What did you say?", John had heard it, but wasn't sure.
"That's what was in the last transporter, those bombs.", feelings of bitterness again flew through her body.
But before those feelings were even able to corrupt her again, she felt a warm hand on her shoulder.
Beseril wanted to show her that she shouldn't feel bad for what happened, she had done the best she could have done.
The people of the capital had scattered across the city and started to rebuild, what has been destroyed.
It slowly became dark and so the people started to go home, or at least find a place, where they could stay for the night.
They saw Siren, shooing some soldiers around. They should hurry, to build a house, before it was too dark to find the way back to the barracks.
Her face still didn't look good, but she smiled.
"It seems that your plan had worked, their conversation seemed to went on good … But they didn't just talk.", she whispered to John, "And no I won't tell you what.", she added, when she saw what John was about to ask.
They again came to the place, where they always parted. They said goodbye to their friends, because they weren't sure, if they would see each other, before they would return of their trip.
Their three friends were just out of sight, "John… ?", Sefilia seemed to be worried about something.
"Yes?"
"There is something, I should tell you…", the vixen said hesitating.
"You didn't get pregnant, did you?", John asked joking, because he no idea, what she wanted to talk about.
The vixen turned a bit red, "God no! … It's about Adaril … he was awake … all the time."
John perked up his ears, "That is something you should worry about."
"I know how much he is looking up to you, but he is somehow … afraid to talk to you. But I don't know why…", she was worried about the little fox.
John put his hands on her shoulder, "I will talk to him, as soon as I can."
When they reached Sefilias house, they were glad that everything seemed to be okay. Some windows were broken, the door was shattered and the outsides of the house were covered in scratches of claws and weapons.
Some extinguished torches were lying on the floortiles in the kitchen.
The Sharpclaw thought that the whole house was made of wood and simply tossed some torches through the window.
When John walked up the stairs he saw that there was no damage at the upper floor at all, everything was untouched and just got a bit dusty.
He went downstairs again, "As far as I can see they only were on the ground floor.", he called downstairs to Sefilia, who had entered the living room before.
She didn't answer and he was already worried that a Sharpclaw may have hid somewhere inside the house.
He jumped the last five steps of the stair down and stormed into the living room.
"Sefilia! … Whew I already thought something happened.", he was relieved, when he saw that his fear was not necessary.
She was kneeling on the ground besides a pile of wood and broken glass. Her ears were hanging down and he wasn't able to see her face.
But he saw, how she tried to reach into the pile. Her hand was already bleeding and now she cut herself again.
He stopped her of doing it again and make her wounds even deeper. He carefully wrapped her hand in his still armored one.
"Sefilia, what are you doing? Why do you hurt yourself?", his gaze fell on her other, unhurt hand, she was holding something in it, a piece of paper, or more, a picture.
A face was the only thing he could see on the creased paper.
He again looked at the pile and remembered, where they were and now he understood, why she did that, "Please let me do that, I promise I will be careful.", he softly said to the speechless vixen, she nodded and slightly moved aside.
She held the picture with her hand and watched out that no blood would drip onto it.
John worked himself down from the top of the pile till the bottom and removed everything piece for piece.
The pictures were very important to Sefilia. They were memories of the time, when her world was still alright and peaceful. John knew that and paid extra attention that he didn't damage the pictures even more.
When he had moved the whole pile aside, he helped Sefilia on one of the couches, which weren't damaged and went to her room to get a bandage.
When he was back again, she still sat there motionless and starred at the pictures. The human didn't wanted to disturb her and so he gently took her wounded hand and opened it slightly so that he could wrap the short bandage around it.
She twitched here and there, but didn't say a word.
When he was finished John sat down besides her and waited for her to come back again. After a while the young human wrapped his arm around her and tried to comfort the vixen.
John felt how something soft and slightly wet touched his cheek, "Thanks." The vixen besides him said, after her lips had moved away from his face again.
Sefilia raised herself slowly of the couch and walked to the door. His eyes followed her movement and he was wondering what she was up to.
She turned around a threw a happy smile at him, "Come on John, we still have some work to do."
They went into their rooms to change and pack some things they might need on the trip. A little bit of sorrow flooded the humans soul, when his look fell on his bed and he knew that his friends would never again cuddle up to him in the middle of the night. He remembered Randorns words, there was time for grief, but not now.
He first had some things to find. The first thing was his music player.
He found it, where he had left it, under his pillow.
The human put it on the bed, among some other things.
His jacket, two pairs of underwear, two pairs of trousers and a shirt or two.
During his search he also found a dusty old box, with a loose lock on it. Born as a curious person he opened the box. The lock was mere decoration than it argued anyone out of looking at its precious insides.
The content itself was not as precious as he thought.
The human held some dusty pieces of wood in his hands and prevented himself of making a to him well know sound, when a new has been found, 'Picture frames?', the human thought to himself, before a big smile appeared on his face.
She was just watching out that the pictures, which got damaged already didn't suffer any further harm and placed them on her working desk, which got a little dusty due the quakes, which were caused by the bombs.
"Some many things happened today.", she thought out loud, "So many terrible things… But if anything will turn out well it soon will be over and John can keep his promise.", she blushed a bit of her and John kissing each other passionately.
But something dark crept up her mind, "But that creature… this thing… it really scared me. And this voice… I often heard it in my dreams… It is real and the pure evil! I have to talk with Randorn about this, when we come back from…", she had totally forgotten what she was doing and now hectic grabbed her movement again.
"I have to hurry!"
The vixen bit her lips, "What should I choose? What should I choose?...", was the only thing she could say, when she stuck her head in her wardrobe, which were filled with so many dresses and other pieces of clothes.
The door of her room was open and John saw how a pile of clothes had already build up on her bed, most of the were dresses, which were totally not designed for a walk through the jungle.
He knocked at the door frame, "Oh hi John, do you have everything already?", Sefilia asked, after she had thrown a short look at him.
"No not yet.", he wanted to surprise her and waited until she had stuck her head into her wardrobe again.
He walked over to her working desk and did his work.
The next time, Sefilia had packed a dress from her wardrobe onto her bed, he greeted her with one of the pictures safely protected by one of the picture frames.
She smiled and kissed him shortly on his lips, "I love you."
"I love you too.", the human answered her kiss with one of his, even more passionate ones.
Their lovely togetherness was about to intense even more, when they both started to sat down on her bed.
That was, what they always wanted, just the two of them alone.
It seemed that they had already forgotten what happened around, if not a lout knock brought them back to reality.
They both blinked with their eyes, when they found themselves lying on Sefilias bed, she on top of him.
He still wore his armor, but that didn't seem to bother her, because of the fact that its owner softened it for her.
She decided to go to the door so that John was able to find a suitcase in her room, where he could put his belongings into.
A group of five Cerinians was standing on the stairs of the house, "Oh it's you.", Sefilia had identified them as the helpers, who should clean the house.
"We only need your help on the ground floor. The upper levels of the house are unharmed."
They all nodded and started to clean the mess the Sharpclaw had caused.
They seemed to be some kind of all-rounder team, their clothes were sooty, flecked with blood and all of them had a proper muscle build and short cut hair.
They weren't that talk active and just nodded and made small gestures here and then. Sefilia watched them shortly, they just checked the different furniture that stood in the room and tossed the damaged or destroyed ones out of the also broken window.
She decided to go up to her lover again, to continue her search for some fitting clothes.
She had to laugh a bit of the sight she had witnessed.
This time he was the one, who had put his head into her wardrobe, but he wasn't just fooling around, he had already sorted out a pair of tight jeans and an also tight shirt.
"What are you doing?", she asked suspicious.
"I'm just trying to help you finding some things for the trip."
She put her hands on her hips, "You don't let me any privacy do you?"
The human came out of his cover and looked a little sneaky at her, "Weeeeeel… I wasn't looking at your underwear yet… hmm talking of which.", he teased her and pushed head back into the wooden shelve.
"Hey.", she said a little indignant and pushed him playfully aside.
He had to laugh a little, but then came back to topic.
"Now seriously, you won't need so many dresses. One is more than enough, if they even will to talk to us…", the human explained and took seat on her bed.
"I know…", she dropped her head slightly and confronted the human with a normal problem women have, "But I have so many of them!", she said a bit winy and hugged a big part of the ones, she had placed on her bed.
John remembered something, he really approved back then, "You still have the dress, you wore at the audience, right?"
"Yeah, bur…", she wasn't really sure, I she should wear it. It was made of very charming cloth, but she didn't wanted to ruin it.
"Of all the dresses I have seen so far, it is the most fitting one. It's not too dark or flashy. It is highlighting your beautiful eyes and your amazing body… Well considering that, it might be a bit too sexy…", he again added with his sneaky voice and got a pillow in his face.
"Enough soft soap talk, we really need to get dressed. It's about time.", she said with a little purr in her voice.
"Yeah, I guess you are right, we should put that to a later point of time."
The human indeed had some lustful feelings and being a teenager didn't made his situation better, but he had a responsibility and lives were depending on his mission, so he had to take care of these things first.
He left again and went back into his room, but Sefilia had remembered him of something. He searched his dresser for the suite he had worn and found it in the deepest corner.
The small huddle he made with his clothes were just about ready to get packet in a suit case, when he suddenly remembered that he had totally forgotten to ask Sefilia for one.
The human was sure that she just changed herself and didn't wanted to get seriously hurt.
John put his armor aside and started to strip out of his sweaty and even bloody clothes.
He threw everything with a skillful toss in a basket in the corner of the room.
Due his sudden nakedness he felt a cold chill running down his spine and so he fast started to get dressed again.
He was just pulling up his boxer shorts, when he heard the door fly behind him open and a loud and high pitched scream, echoed through his head. He slipped, thanks to his one legged standing and still sweaty feet and hit the ground hard, with his look falling to the door, 'Ouch.', he grunted mentally and saw a well known blue tail disappearing behind the corner of his door.
He pulled his boxers up completely, jumped in his pants and grabbed a shirt, before he started to follow the vixen.
He didn't had to go far though, she was still standing behind the corner, with her back turned to him and seemingly biting in one of her fingers.
"Is everything alright?", John asked cautious, when he saw that her ears were applied and the tips had turned red.
"…Sorry…", she whispered.
"Well you didn't do it on purpose, so it's okay I guess.", he said to cheer her up again.
Her ears suddenly rose and she turned around, "Are you sure? I mean, I saw you naked!", the vixen explained, as she thought the human wasn't aware of the situation.
"I wasn't completely naked, I wore my boxers… well almost.", the human admitted, she had seen him naked, "But then, I also had turned my back to the door and it was just nothing more than a flash of a second.", he explained to her that she felt at least a little better.
"But still…", she still seemed to be worried, "Nudity is a very touchy topic on Cerinia. It is okay for couples who want to mate in the near future, but for freshly found lovers it is an absolute no go.", she explained, while she crumpled her shirt a little.
"Also, psychologists say that if two persons, which expose their nakedness to each other, will be flooded with hormones and soon their primal instincts take over control of their bodies to satisfy their lusty desires.", she told him that, as if it would be a nightmare crawling up her dreams every night.
"That's also the reason, why only male doctors are allowed to check their male patience and female doctors check their female patience when they have to get undressed."
The human wasn't sure, if he should get turned on, by how she described the natural instincts of a Cerinian, or if he should feel sorry, for the sure since her childhood scared vixen.
Nonetheless, the human was a bit confused and first had to make something sure, "Uhm, then you are sure, you saw my… you know?", he didn't wanted to throw a nasty word in her face and because he didn't knew, what the correct word for 'dick and balls' was, he better left a gap there.
"I'm not sure. I actually never saw one…", she turned even redder than before and looked away in her embarrassment.
John already figured out that she was a virgin, because she had mentioned that Cerinians only mate to have their children and during the pregnancy of the woman, because they have nothing invented yet, that could prevent the conception.
It seemed that to say that was more painful than anything else she had told him so far, besides the story that Sabre wanted to kill him once or twice.
"To tell the truth, I haven't seen a female one too.", John suddenly said to let at least her fell better, "Well, besides the baby bath times with my mum, when she decided that her in the tube would make me feel better, thanks to the teenager nightmare mom, and all those bitchy girls that treated me like shit, I haven't seen one too.", he somehow now understood her feelings, something really just died inside him.
He wanted to change the subject, but then something else fell out of his mouth, something he tried to suppress the whole time, "Well, if you still feel sorry for what just happened, you could give me a little pay back, if you know what I mean?"
The next thing he felt, was a hard slap over his face.
"Yeah, I know, it's my fault.", John admitted, but laughed despite the pain.
The vixen was just about to say sorry, for what she did, but he stopped her, "It's alright, but I hope I'm not the only one, you are slapping in the face.", he smiled a bit and infected her with it.
He noticed something that stood at her side. She saw his gazes and quickly explained, why she actually came to his room.
She handed him a medium sized, with black leather covered suitcase, "I remembered that there weren't any of these in your room and so I decided to bring you one, while I tried to find something."
"What were you looking for?", he asked of pure curiosity.
She smiled, "Just a little surprise that might happen during the trip.", she said happily and didn't let him ask further questions.
The human took the suitcase and dusted it off.
A big cloud of dust had emerged that made both of the caught.
"Dad bought it ones, but never used it.", Sefilia explained with little tears in her eyes caused by the dust.
"You can see that.", John commented.
"Miss Wolferos, we have finished our work.", a male Cerinian of the team stood at the bottom of the stairs.
"Thanks a lot.", she bowed a little down.
"Everything that seemed to be okay, is standing in the middle of the living room. And we already ordered new windows and a new door so that no wild animals enter and leave as they wish.", the blue fox said friendly and bowed down as well.
After that he and his workers left the house.
It wasn't sure, if they continued working or finally were able to go to sleep, but that wasn't part of the business of the young couple.
They were just about to split up in their rooms again, when his own smell remembered him of something.
"Sefilia, do you know if the water is running?", John asked, slightly disgusted by his own smell.
"No, the pipes got damaged during the attack. It will take them a while to get the water running again.", she explained to him.
"Bummer… I guess I have to pack a pair of trunks too.", he thought out loud.
The vixen was a bit surprised, "Is it really that urgent?"
"I once read in the library that CloudRunners have a good sense of smell and to be honest, I am covered in sweat and stinking Sharpclaw blood."
She was too busy to check it yet, but the vixen didn't smell good as well and perfume would make it even worse.
"Let's hope we find someplace where we can wash ourselves.", she agreed and went back to her room.
As she had told him, the suitcase was empty, but there still was some dust inside.
The human went to the window and shook it out.
While he did so, he looked at the surrounding buildings. Many of them looked similar to Sefilias, broken windows and doors. In some of them the people already installed new windows and doors, but others didn't need that, because they had burned down to their foundation walls.
All in all, the mood o the city was dark and the upcoming dusk didn't make it look better, but then there still was hope.
Among all this desperate looks was something that still made live worth living it.
The sound of laughing kids, which ran through the street and played catch, let reappear a smile on the sad faces of the people standing beside their destroyed homes.
John thought how Randorn wanted to manage a night trip and he hoped he found a comfortable solution, stumbling one time through the jungle was one time too often.
He felt how a cold breeze was coming up and better closed the window again.
The human grabbed the things he had huddled on the bed with his player and trunks and put them all together inside the old leather case.
He was ready now and put on his jacket and went out of his room.
He wanted to see, if Sefilia had already finished, but when he tried to enter he noticed that the door was locked.
The human knocked at the door, "Sefilia, are you in there?", he was afraid that she didn't trust him anymore, after everything he said.
"Yes John.", she answered back.
"Why did you lock the door?"
"Well, I'm still getting dressed and I just wanted to avoid a problem like it happened, when I came into your room and I guess I were right.", she said amused.
The thought that Sefilia stood behind that door, stark naked aroused the human, "Oh just cut it off already John!", the vixen said slightly annoyed, but with a little laughter in her voice.
"We will have time for that later, just have a little patience."
There was a knock at the doorframe, before they could continue with their conversation.
John went downstairs and saw a messenger of the king standing under it, "You should come to the eastern gate, Randorn is already waiting for you there.", he said, bowed and walked away again.
John didn't even had the chance to bow down as well, this person seemed to have lots of work to do.
He went back upstairs and again knocked at Sefilias door, Sefilia a messenger was here, they are waiting for us at the eastern gate!"
"W-wha… Already?... Fine I'm coming!"
He heard the door lock snap open and the she presented him her dress up.
She wore a dark-green blouse, with a blue shirt underneath. A brown leather belt with some Cerinian symbols on them supported her green tight jeans. And her feet were sheltered by some closed shoes for rougher terrain.
The vixen also carried a case with each of her hands.
"Do you have everything you need?", he said half joking and smiled a bit.
She shook her head and smiled, "In the other one are my instruments and some medicine dummy.", she said amused.
Being a gentleman at heart, John couldn't let her stand there with so many luggage, "May I help you with that?", he asked friendly and she handed him her clothes.
"Thanks.", she said, before she closed the door of her room again.
While he carried both of their bags downstairs, he was surprised that only her clothes had at least twice the weight of his own stuff. He shook his head and grinned a bit, because she still wasn't able to decide what to wear.
"The jacket is still fitting you well.", she commented, while they walked downstairs. John just answered with a smile.
He had to put down their things again, because he was still walking in socks around and first had to get his old, more durable shoes on.
"It is strange.", Sefilia said, while he had sat down.
"What do you mean?", John asked, while doing the first shoe.
"The streets look so empty and lonely. Everything looks so sad… But still I'm happy, because I know that everything will be over soon.", she said with a longing voice.
"I don't want to ruin theses thoughts, but we first need the help of the CloudRunners, or else it won't look good.", the little pessimist in the human said.
"I am sure everything will be good.", she said and grabbed together with him their luggage again and walked to the eastern gate.
It was already dark, when they arrived there and what they saw affright them in awe. There were the gate had been before, was a crater on the ground and a big hole in the wall. The lower part of the gate was almost completely gone. Only some remaining parts stuck in buildings around them or laid on the street.
The upper part of the gate was lying near the hole. These parts maybe got loosened out of their hinges so that they didn't fell on people which just passed by.
Only some lights of the streets were working and the ones which worked barely gave any light, it was just enough that people didn't walk against the walls of the buildings.
Some people with Palis, where standing near the crater. Small bright dots were visible in the Palis faces, it seemed that they could easily see at night due their natural, cat like ability.
When John and Sefilia came closer they identified the people as Siren, Beseril, Katt, Adaril and Randorn, who was sitting on a carriage.
Their friends still wore the clothes they had worn before.
John saw how Katt whispered something into Adarils ears, but the boy just shook his head and hid behind the feline. She tried to talk to him, but he didn't wanted to.
Two of the Palis they had seen, were not nonfriable to the carriage, "What's on the carriage Randorn?", John asked, when they stood beside their friends, when he saw that it got covered by a canvas.
"CloudRunners are bigger than us, so they need more supplies to take care of their wounds.", he explained, "Do you have everything you need?", he asked back.
They nodded, "Good, then fixate them on the Palis and then lets go.".
One of the Palis had walked up to Sefilia and nudged her with its horse muscle at her cheek. She giggled a bit, "Oh hey… It's you.", she caressed it a bit on it's face.
"You know each other?", the human asked incuriosity, while he locked her luggage at the side of the horse-like creature.
"Back then, when she still was a foal and I a little girl father paid me some riding lessons. We came along well. I always called her Snowwalker, because of her feet.", he saw what she was talking about. The Pali had snow white feet and even a part of her legs where white.
"You already rode that other hack too John.", Siren said and pushed the Pali into the humans direction.
"Really? Because I didn't paid that much attention the last time.", the mount snuffeled strongly in his face, "Oh…. Yeah… know I remember you.", the human said, while he tried to get the bad breath out of his face.
The human also fixated his case at the side of his Pali, when their friends came to them to say good bye.
Adaril was the only one, who didn't wanted to come to them and stood a bit away at a wall.
"Sorry, I don't know what's wrong with him.", Katt excused him, "See you soon guys and soldier boy, watch your loins, will ya?", she said with a blink of one of her eyes and pushed her elbow in Johns rips.
The human rolled his eyes, while Beseril approached them and hugged them both deeply, "I wish you luck my friends.", but this time John watched, where Beserils hand was moving to.
Siren was the last one, who approached them, "I am glad that you are alright again Sefilia. I and the royal majesties wish you best of luck and back in one piece.".
"Thanks for your help John. Today we could reach a new level … He and I.", she didn't wanted to appear that soft and punched the human hard at his shoulder.
They all backed a bit up, when their friends saddled the mounts.
They were good to go, when Randorn tossed the both of them something, welding goggles, "Put them on to see in the darkness.", he explained and let the reins in his hand flick.
The carriage slowly put on speed and the two young riders followed him into the dark of the night.
The eremite was already a bit ahead and so they didn't see their friends waving with their arms.
The outside of the city was drenched in total darkness.
When the human moved the goggles over his eyes and everything became bright. It looked like the light of the moon had intensed on a big scale and flooded even the smallest corner of their environment.
He took a short look over to Sefilia.
Their eyes met in the darkness, what made them both smile a bit and they turned their heads back to the front.
He tried to throw a peak under the hood of Randorn, but he got covered in a dark shroud.
Before they entered the jungle, he looked a bit at the environment. The fields and grasslands were trampled down and some big stress marks were visible. 'That had to be the bombs.', John thought to himself.
Something bugged him since the end of the battle, "How many people were able to flee of the Sharpclaw?", he called to Randorn, who was still sitting on the carriage in front of them, "Many! They only attacked from two sides. The biggest part of the population escaped into the jungle or reached the palace in time. But unfortunately is the number of the victims still unbelievable high.", John cursed silently and Sefilia sadly dropped her ears.
The stayed for a while on the normal path and Randorn always was in front of them and had the lead.
Thank to the goggles the whole jungle appeared like it was day, only that less animals were hear- and visible.
The human didn't know, how late it was, when Randorn lifted his hand and let their small convoy into the jungle. He only knew one thing, he was damn tired.
They stopped on a little clearance and climbed of their horse-like mounts. They tied them to the branches of the trees.
Randorn did that with the help of his staff and let his reins hover to the next tree and let them knot each other.
"Here.", the eremite handed both of them a big blanket from underneath the canvas.
"Make the best of your situation, I will go now and be back in the morning. And Sefilia?", he turned to the young vixen.
"Yes?", she was a bit surprised, what could the eremite want from her?
"Take this, you will need it.", he handed her a lighter.
John was about to stop him, but then the old man already had disappeared.
Sefilia tested the lighters functionality, "John, can you go and cut down some dry branches of the trees? I will go and gather some leaves."
"Alright.", the human nodded, "If anything happens, just scream and I will be there asap."
She nodded back and then they parted.
It didn't took the human long to find some dry branches of the strange jungle trees, so he cut them down and carried them under his arm.
He was still able to see their camp and didn't have to walk that far for his own ease.
He arrived about the same time as Sefilia. As John, she had her arms full of leaves and placed them on the ground.
Together with the branches and the stones, they built a campfire.
It took them a while. During their construction the Pali sat down and lowered their heads.
When they were done, Sefilia lit the fire.
Since the carriage was too far away and apparently loaded to the brim, they sat down besides a mossy log that stood near the fire.
They both laid down, with a root between them and covered themselves with their blankets and tried to get at least some sleep.
John put of his goggles and laid his sword aside, but in range and closed his eyes.
Unfortunately the covers weren't as thick as they thought and soon a cold was annoying them.
But still, the human was about to fade into the world of dreams, when a sneeze woke him again.
"Sefilia?", he asked, just in case someone else was around.
"Yes?", the vixen answered slightly embarrassed.
"Are you cold?"
"A bit. Why?"
"I have an idea, but I first want to hear your opinion about it.", he wasn't sure, if he should ask her that, after what he did in her house.
"I'm listening.", she knew what he was about to ask and smiled a bit.
"You can, well only if you want… To share some warmth…", he got interrupted, when he felt a sudden weight distributed over his body.
"Of course I want and know lay this big warm arms around me, you big shy soldier.", she purred, while snuggling deeper into his embrace and wrapping an extra layer of blanket around them.
The vixen was lying on top of him and her ears were tickling his face, but that didn't bother him and still he had to avoid again some teenager feelings that tried to pump more blood through a special part of his body than he wanted.
"Sleep tight.", Sefilia whispered silently and placed a kiss on his chin.
For the human it was too much movement to kiss her too, so he simply moved the blanket up a bit higher shortly under her own chin to make sure she wasn't freezing anymore.
He himself felt good, with his love in his arms and the stars over their heads and soon only their breathing was hearable.
Author notes:
Hey everyone, it's me again.
To stop the negative thoughts of some people, this is not the end of Cerinia. The story is finished, when it is and I'll sure tell you, when this has come.
But not only a new chapter of my story has opened, also a new chapter of live has started. I can proudly say of myself that I have a job now.
It sound funny, but because of my job, I have more free time than I had in school before and now I try to post at least every month a new chapter of one of my stories.
Sorry or the ones, who are waiting for a new chapter of AWaaD, the next chapter is almost finished, I just need to check some things and then it can online too.
The next chapter of Cerinia will come out in the first or second week of October, so stay tuned folks ;)