Anime North was awesome. Got a pile of manga, including Highschool DxD. Research time. :)
And sorry again about the chapter mix up. x.x
Chapter 49
I was angry. Incredibly angry. From the instant my eyes opened and saw nothing, to the moment I realized I was in bed with Haruhime curled into my middle.
Pushing the anger aside a moment, I took a brief inventory of myself. My last memory, crystal clear in my blindness, was the removal of my last tail. As they cut each one off, I felt massive chunks taken out of my magic. Worse than when I used my 'spells', instead of being 'drained' by use, it was 'removed'. It took about a minute before I slipped into mind down, while my missing ears listened to the faint laughter. Blind, hopeless, broken and bleeding, I simply couldn't stay aware.
Now, as I wiggled my toes, all ten of them, and moved my ankles, knees, hips, back, shoulders elbows, wrists, and fingers, I seemed to be 'whole', I even had a little fuzz growing on my ears and head. Except... I only had one tail. Had someone found and brought one back?
With an experimental mental nudge, I tried to wake up the fluffy appendage. But it was staying asleep. So, taking the hand that wasn't under the cuddly body next to me, I reached behind me to give it a pet.
"No... no... nononononono you didn't!" I said, in a voice that sounded like I'd swallowed gravel. This wasn't my tail. Too smooth, too well groomed, too short. I knew this tail almost as well as I knew my own, and it belonged on the rear of Haruhime, not me. "Please tell me..."
I put my hand on Haruhime's back and ran it down her spine. Aside from a small sticky spot just above the cleft of her shapely rear, there was nothing.
"Fox? You're awake?" I heard the voice of Aisha say as the door to the room opened. "What's... oh no..."
I tried to speak, but the anger had returned. I was sitting up now, with Haruhime's body cradled in my arms. I heard, and felt, Aisha enter the room, and stop just out of arms reach. "Calm down Fox." Aisha said over the sound of my growling. "Come on, relax. Please, I need you here."
"I am so angry right now, if my eyes were working, I wouldn't be able to see straight. How long?" I asked, then coughed, feeling some of that imaginary gravel try and work itself loose.
"Here. Gods damn it RELAX" Aisha yelled at me, putting a hand on my shoulder, "Last time you started glowing like that you wrecked the place. Come on. Deep breath. Drink this."
Using her voice, and the hand on my shoulder to anchor myself, I did as instructed, my nose catching a whiff of dried blood as I swallowed the water slowly. "How. Long." I repeated, my voice sounding like sand now. Better, at least.
"They found you almost two days ago." Aisha explained, "You were... Well, I suppose you were there." I nodded, starting to rock back and forth gently, hugging Haruhime close. "Yeah... Anyhow, you were under the care of Haruhime, Lord Miach, Lord Ganesha and his head surgeon and Nazza for about a day and a half. We, oh, yeah, Ryuu is around someplace." I nodded managing to smile just a tiny bit, "Put you to bed a couple hours before sun up. It's now just after sun up, say eight o'clock."
Haruhime's tail finally moved, swishing against my back as I felt the strong desire to swear. So I didn't.
"I can't see. What did she use?" I asked.
I heard Aisha stand, then, "Looks like an old knife. Like what a supporter would use, short and curved."
"My first restoration project." I said, "It was mostly rust when I bought it." I moved my legs, knelt, then stood. "Hope you don't mind, but I'm going to need your help to dress."
"Where are you going to go? I mean, you're blind."
"I am very aware of that."
"Nazza said she'd have something for that in about a day."
"Too long." I said, "I felt it, every second of it. The instant I lost my tails, I was done. Mind down. I know what happens if it goes on too long." I 'looked' towards where Aisha's voice was coming from, "She's on a clock, and I will not wait. Now, can you help me dress, or would you like to hold her while I fumble about for socks?"
"Let me get the elf." Aisha said, "And what's with the mask?"
"Mask?"
They did in fact, need to swim. Most of them could still swim, as their armour was mostly leather, but Marius was wearing half his weight in metal, and even if he was quite strong, there was pretty much no way he could swim.
The solution was fairly simple. With Lilly's rope and a little climbing gear, Bell swam ahead, finding the underwater cave marked on the map. Tapping in an anchor or two, and making a couple of trips so he himself didn't drown, Bell threaded the rope and gave Marius a way to pull himself through the water much faster than sinking to the bottom and drowning.
It still wasn't an easy swim. But, they dragged Marius out of the water, coughing and sputtering.
"Let's hope the way out is easier." He commented as he wiped his face dry. "Though, if I were to have drown, the water at least tastes good."
They all chuckled, before Lilly lit up the last lamp and gave Wiene the patch of glow moss. "It's very dark in here." She commented, "And... Lilly thinks it feels... Different?"
"Yeah... It's like... We aren't being watched by the walls? Like it's not the dungeon." Asuka commented, kneeling and putting her hand to the floor, "Feels like normal stone..."
"Yes... Not alive, like the dungeon." Chigusa said, holding her own lamp up high.
"That's because, it isn't." Someone said, just outside the bubble of light surrounding the party. "Are you the ones?"
The voice was deep, but also clipped, like the words were coming from a mouth not quite made for speech. Everyone tried looking into the darkness, but it was just too absolute outside the glow of the lamps and moss. There was a thump, like something heavy and wooden being dropped. "Where is the fox? She would be with them..." The second voice sounded a little more natural, but with a bit of a lisp, like they were talking around fangs.
"Kodori is wounded." Bell said, stepping forward, but holding up a hand to keep everyone in place. "My name is Bell, and I am captain, in her place." The white haired boy stepped closer to the wall of darkness, as if offering himself to it.
"I know this one." A third voice said, one that made Welf and Bell perk up a little, "Yes, he smells like her."
"Hm, one more then." The first voice said, "Where is she?"
Bell was about to reply, but he stopped, tilted his head sideways a moment, then looked behind him. Half turning, he offered his hand towards Wiene. "This is Wiene. Our newest Familia member." A pause, as Wiene timidly stepped forward and took Bell's gloved hand, yet was still trying to hide behind him. "She's a dungeon born, like you. Shh..." Bell tried to calm the girl, raising his other hand to her forehead and brushing the hair out of the way of the tear shaped stone set there.
"Well then." The deep voice rumbled, "Not as fun as the test we had in mind..." With two lumbering steps that could be felt through the boots of everyone present, a shape entered the light of the party. A lizard man. Two meters tall at least, and dressed in full armour, adventurer armour, it loomed over the white haired boy and dragon girl. "Light." He declared.
Black fabric was drawn away from multiple light sources. Each one of those lights was held by something obviously inhuman. A woman, tall and slender, wearing Kodori's old pants, with talons instead of feet, and wings instead of arms. Something that looked like a massive humanoid bear, wearing sheets of metal and carrying an equally huge shield. A spider, black and bulbous, with the upper body of a woman in plate armour where the spider's head would be. A half snake, half woman, clothed in long strips of battle cloth and armed with a bow. A hell hound, long and sleek, nearly as tall as Marius at the shoulder, and maybe five meters long. I white ball of fur that looked like a cotton ball, yet had two red eyes and a long slender unicorn horn. Another harpy, only with golden feathers instead of that tropical green. The list went on, all told there were maybe three dozen, humanoid or not.
"When Fels told us not to test you... well, as we intended, I said," The lizardman spoke as if having a conversation with himself, "But Fels, how are we supposed to test them? I mean, we want to see if they just run away at the first sight of trouble."
Here, he knelt, offering his hand to Wiene, "Then he said, they would never abandon Familia. Pleased to meet you, Little Wiene, I'm Lido."
Unsure at first, being dwarfed by the lizardman who was almost twice the mass of a normal one, Wiene looked at the hand, then to Bell. Bell himself looked unsure, but he seemed to shake it off, his face switching to what Wiene knew as 'job to do' face. "Remember to do it properly." He said to her quietly, letting go of her hand, and standing beside her.
Her hand free, she looked up at Lido, who was stone still and still taller than she even when kneeling. Eyes following his body, down the arm, to the massive scaled hand, she reached forward, and took hold of a finger. "Pleased to meet you." She said, looking up at his face again, properly, as Lady Hestia and Ryuu taught her. "Mr. Lido."
"Pleased to meet you too, Little Wiene." Lido 'smiled', the human expression on the wide maw of the lizardman looking out of place. But, after Wiene shook his hand properly, he turned to Bell, "And you too, Bell Cranell." He offered his hand again.
Kodori had taught him about how important a handshake could be. How in that first moment, how one shook your hand could tell you what they thought of you. How much respect they might offer, or how little they had for you. Taking Lido's hand firmly, parallel to his, he looked the lizard man in the eyes, and shook, "You as well, Mr. Lido."
Monsters and surface dwellers looked at the three standing apart from their groups, and all at once, the monsters let out a cheer.
"Yeah, creepy mask. Haru showed me a white one like it once." Aisha said, making me freeze in mid step towards what I was pretty sure was my dresser. "Um, you're going to walk into your screen. Here, let me get Ryuu, you just... Stand there and look adorable for a moment."
Retreating footsteps, a door opening, a call for Ryuu. Mapping the room in my head, I paced back and forth. Two steps, turn, two steps, turn. I was so angry at myself. I'd done pretty much everything I told BOTH Familia not to do in a combat situation.
Don't go alone.
Don't chase monsters that are running.
Retreat if you get in trouble.
Wait for backup if you are separated.
I screwed up every one of those. And if they enemy wanted me dead, I'd be dead. That's it, second chance to live a fulfilling life gone. Here, in this world, I cared about people. People cared about me. And I nearly threw it all away because I couldn't keep a lid on my FU
My borrowed tail swatted me again.
"Sorry." I said automatically, all thoughts derailing. My arms adjusting Haruhime a little so I could just... hug her better.
"Sorry?" Ryuu's voice said from the door, "Oh sister... She didn't..."
"She did." I replied. "Aisha?"
"Yes?"
"Hold her please? I need to get dressed. Sister? Help me?"
"Of course... But..."
"See that mask on the table?" I asked.
"An interesting conversation piece?" Ryuu said, a smile in her voice. "The detail is exquisite but... It wouldn't go well with dinner."
"I tried to enchant it. Not just little stuff, but serious... guide me to my closet? Thank you." I pawed around inside the closet, my fingertips touching the shoulders of at least a dozen different textiles. "And for the most part, it worked. If I can get the last part working, maybe... Sister? This one. Help me get into it?"
"Wow, Fox. That's fancy. Like... formal occasion fancy." Aisha commented.
"Since Welf and I made my second coat, I haven't needed it. And the last formal thing I went to was Apollo's Gala." Haruhime's tail swatted me again, "I wasn't going to swear."
Two quiet laughs, followed by one of my own. "Are those sleeves... They are! Where are those from?"
"My last coat, after Phryne ripped it in half. Sleeves were still useful, so I made this 'highly mobile' kimono Lilly helped me buy for the Gala, into something I could wear as backup armour..."
All the while Ryuu was helping me put the thing on. It was far too complicated for my tastes. But, I'd been slapped hard for my mistake of rushing in. I could only guess how much effort went into healing me, but I was sure as *swat* ... Heck not going to do it again without some kind of protection.
"Now, the mask?" I said, rolling my shoulders a little to settle it on my shoulders. "I've lost weight? Huh..."
"Fox... You were... You know, I'm going to let some one else tell you how bad it was. I just do not want to go there." Aisha said. "I feel sorry for who ever cleans up the infirmary."
I heard the tiny stomping feet of an angry Goddess a moment before "Where do you think you're going young lady!?" Then, "Oh no!"
I felt the weight of the mask being put into my hands, and heard what sounded like a little bit of paper ruffling towards the floor. "I." I oriented the mask so I could put it on, "Am going to fix this." I put the mask on carefully, fitting my ears through the two holes I knew I put in the top. "I am going to get my tails back." As the weight settled on my head, and the enchantment on the inside 'stuck' to my face, my voice changed as I spoke through the thin slit I'd put at the mouth of the mask, "And I am not going to ask nicely."
I couldn't 'see'. But it was something very close to it. It was like my mind's eye was being fed almost triple the amount of information. My ears could hear Ryuu's heartbeat, the muscles of Aisha's legs twitch and step backwards slightly, the quiet shallow breathing of Haruhime, and the gasp of Hestia as I 'looked' towards her.
"But... If you get caught again..." It took a moment for Hestia to find her voice, and it had a faint quiver of fear in it. "Then both of you will..."
"Lady Hestia." I said, my heart aching like it hadn't for nearly ten years. "When I get my tails back. And wake Haruhime up again, I am going to ask her to marry me." I held up a hand, "And after this mess settles down, I will find, or create, a way for us to have children together. Even if I have to petition a dozen different Gods to do it."
I heard Aisha's arms shift Haruhime around a moment before she started clapping. "Wow, bold words there Fox."
"But... Can't you wait for the others? They've gone down to... Umm... Do that thing, you mentioned might happen." Hestia stumbled over the lame explanation.
"F..."The golden tail swatted me again. "Da..." And again. "No. I really can't now. Do you know where the other half of Wiene's tracking bit is? For her Collar. My half was in my coat."
"Tracking?" Ryuu asked, "Like the collar on Chime?"
"My version of it. Just in case Wiene wandered off, I wanted a way to find her. But, also for her to find a way home. All three pieces can find each other." I explained.
"So... If Wiene is wearing her collar... And your coat..." Hestia mumbled. I could hear her heartbeat speed up as she realized what that meant. "They're in danger of being found!"
"Aisha? They are after you and Haruhime too. The ones who did this to me." I said, grabbing my new tail and petting it so it would stop swatting me every time I thought about swearing. "Bell too."
"But... How are you going to help?" Hestia asked, "Your eyes..."
"Chime is by your right foot." I said, the hyper sensitivity I was feeling letting me hear the critter's miniscule breathing. Kneeling, I picked up the bit of paper that fell. My fingertips traced it, and I could feel the marks left on the paper by what ever wrote on it. "And... Oh... Okay..."
"How... Can you read that? Are you really blind?" Aisha asked.
"I'll explain later." I felt myself smile under the mask, "Aisha? Can you take care of her for me?"
"Won't be hard... I mean..." Aisha sighed, and I could hear her hug her friend close. "Is there anything I can even do? Aside from keep alert?"
"Lady Hestia? You know where our potion supplies are right?"
"Yes, but after... There isn't much left." She replied, "Haruhime had to use her spell to keep you from... while..."
I stepped over to her, hugging the Goddess, "I understand. But please. I need to know."
Sniffling, she kept going, "She drank, or ate most of the potion supply. By the end she was so sick. We might have a little left, those pills you made for sure."
Petting Her hair, I looked back over my shoulder to Ryuu, "Sister, I won't go out alone again. Can I ask for your help?"
"Always."
"Lady Hestia, Aisha. Try and feed her at normal meal times. Give her one of the mind pills with broth. It might help a little. If nothing else. Keep her warm, always, and make sure to clean that cut on her back." I let Hestia go, and knelt a little, feeling her breath against he metal of the mask. "I will be back. And when I return, you can ground me. But if I don't do this, I'll hate myself forever." I paused, thought, and said, "Give her my memory stone to hold too, and hold on to hers, Lady Hestia."
"I understand." Hestia replied. "Though Wiene took your stone."
"Thank you." I tapped my foot against the floor, and felt Chime give my foot a headbutt. "For luck." I said at her.
Bell, the Xenos, and the rest of the Alliance, were having a party. They had been taken further back through a small network of caves until they reached what could only have been called a 'village'. Lacking wood, the 'homes' were really just dug out of the walls. But they had magic stone lamps, food, water, and even some smokeless cooking fires.
"What do you think Bell?" Lido asked as they stood at the entrance to the massive 'village' cave. "Fels has been able to help us get some really convenient things down here."
"Magic stone lamps." Mikoto started, "Cutting tools for mining. Magic stoves... They really are a 'people'."
"Well, more or less." Lido said, rubbing the back of his scaly head, "I mean, some of us can't speak, or use tools, or really do much at all." He pointed a clawed fingertip towards the large needle rabbit. "Like her. Made a new friend already though."
Wiene was currently hugging the giant fluff ball, the needle rabbit leaning into it and making a quiet rumbling noise. "Bell! She makes the same sound Chime does! Only bigger!"
"Chime?" Lido asked, putting a hand on Bell's shoulder and backing up, moving the two of them out of the way of a small dragon. Small being only slightly larger than the drake on level ten.
"Oh. The little needle rabbit Kodori picked up after you took care of her." Bell answered, smiling as the larger version hopped its way over to listen in, Wiene laughing as she clung to it and was bounced around. "Yes, we are taking good care of her." Bell said, getting down on one knee and carefully petting the fur around the long unicorn horn.
"Isn't that great?" Lido said with his version of a smile, "See? Fels was right."
The bus sized hell hound approached, grumbling. The air around it smelled like brimstone, but it only seemed 'grumpy' not 'hostile'.
"Oh come on." Lido said to it, "So you were wrong about Kodori being one of us. Besides, you wouldn't have been able to go up with her. Maybe some day soon, you know, after she meets you."
"You understand them?" Bell asked.
"Not exactly. It's like... Trying to read a book that has words and pictures. You have to guess at the words, by the picture." Lido explained.
The massive hell hound lowered its head, and sniffed Bell's head, his white hair shifting with the breeze. It then backed up a half step, snorted, then walked off.
"I guess I do need a bath." Bell said with a chuckle.
"Well, that's one thing we don't have." Lido said with a shrug. "But level eighteen isn't far, and some of our other exits have ponds too. But!" It was then Lido clapped his hands together, the big scaly paws making an echoing noise throughout the cavern over the sounds of monsters meeting adventurers. "Today we welcome our first guests to our home. Our first Friends from the surface!"
There was a cheer, a mixed thing of words and growls.
"So! Let's get cooking! It's time to celebrate!"
I put on my last pair of boots, then 'looked' towards Ryuu. I heard her nod, the air around her quivering with the motion. "Do you have any idea how to find them?" She asked.
"Yes and no." I admitted, "I am not at my best, and I'm thinking more on 'when I find them'."
"The token?" We left the building, my senses opening up now that I was out of the confines of an enclosed space.
"That's part of it. Right now, its telling me 'down'. But that's not very useful."
"No, I guess it wouldn't be."
"Though, that does tell me they are both down from here. I won't really be able to tell much more until I'm 'between' them. Instead of so far to one side. If that makes sense?"
"Yes." Ryuu laughed quietly, "That's what I am used to hearing. Don't run into the gate."
"Used to hearing?" I missed my first try to put my hand on the gate latch, but it rattled as I touched the gate, and I corrected my aim.
"You being thoughtful. I understand our need for swiftness. But you've just been healed from what most would consider... A good reason to retire." I could hear the frown on her face as it changed the tone of her words.
"Save my lady, then think about it. Think 'what now', not 'what if'." I said, "Speaking of swiftness... I am going to need to adjust to this mask, and my magic feels different."
"Shall I run in front of you? Are we taking the normal way in?" Ryuu asked as we got closer to the main street. "Also, I'm curious... That paper, what did it say?"
"She thought of you before herself. Fels." I quoted. "I hope she says yes when I ask."
"Me too. You'd make a good mother, I think." She replied, "I'll snap my fingers if we need to make a sharp turn."
Feeling like the mask was fresh out of the forge, I nodded.
We didn't stop. Not to say hello, not to apologize for pushing past. I followed Ryuu's steady footfalls, her Hostess of Fertility uniform boots sounding distinct among the hundreds of other footfalls I could hear.
People were curious too. I could hear stray comments from the people we rushed past. Was it an emergency? Is that the Demon Fox? What's with the mask? Doesn't she work at the Hostess?
I hardly noticed it. My thoughts were focused inwards. My borrowed tail was different. Colour aside, it felt like it had added a new shade to my magic. Having so much of it 'missing' the cage inside my mind, holding the flame of the 'beast' I called my magic... It was really just a grumpy ember now. My own anger aside, it was a shadow of its former self.
I was actually kind of thankful for that. Had I had all my tails, and found Haruhime in that state, I'd probably have skipped 'anger' and went straight to 'murderous rampage'.
But I could feel something was different. So, I tried my most basic trick, and pushed my magic to my limbs.
The surprise I felt when I could suddenly see, made me stumble and fall. Ryuu managed to get out of the way in time, but I rolled past like it was my first day sparring with her. The dungeon wall I finally stopped at was a little jagged, but it thankfully didn't do more than bruise me.
"What happened?" She asked as I stood up, blind again because of my broken concentration.
"Let me try that again..." I huffed. "Where are we anyhow?" I steadied my breathing and started to fan the little ember that was my magic.
"Floor twelve. We're making good time."
"Good... Now..." Again, I focused, and 'pushed' the energy towards my skin.
And I could see. Sort of. My vision was basically gold with black outlines. But I could clearly make out Ryuu, her hooded cloak and smooth wooden sword. The walls of the dungeon around us. My bare hands, with their newly healed skin. "The guise of the hunter, sees through the eyes of her lover." I mumbled, "It's kind of like... a black and white picture. Except its gold with black outlines."
"You're also glowing a little..." Ryuu said, getting closer, "The mask's eyes especially." She was nose to nose with the mask now, but I couldn't feel anything through it.
"Hm, it seems to have turned the other enchantments off..." I said, relaxing the effect, my sight returning to darkness, and my other senses jumping back to where they were. "You used my shampoo, didn't you?"
"It smelled nice. And you needed a bath after..." She paused.
"Let's take the next floor or two slowly. I need to work on this." I sighed, the metallic tone of my voice vibrating from the mask. "I need to know."
"As you wish, sister." She replied, starting from what she had heard about when I was found.
"Has my sister come up with a plan yet?" Ryuu teased me gently as we neared the eighteenth floor.
"I'm trying. But my thoughts are... mixed up." I replied. "I know this must be done. I refuse to let the one closest to me, aside from my Goddess, die because I was careless or ... Sigh, stupid words..." I hadn't learned 'indecisive' yet.
"Then what is the issue?" Ryuu asked, peeking around the corner to the last stretch before the eighteenth. "No Goliath." She said.
"They broke me, sister." I replied. "If I didn't have a goal in mind, right now, that is practically burning in my chest, I'd probably be at home, trying not to sleep." I paused, sighing, petting my borrowed tail, "They made sure I was awake for everything, right up until they cut off my tails. And knowing what was needed to put me back together..."
"You asked." Ryuu replied quietly, putting a hand on my shoulder.
"I'll put the biggest thought first then." I said, ears twitching at a drop of water falling some twenty paces off. "I have killed three people, since I started. Phryne, and two of the ones who attacked me." Her hood ruffled, indicating a nod, "Phryne, after I gave myself to my madness, the first Amazon because I panicked on my way to save Lilly, and the second one... Well, I'm not sure I really did that one. My tails, and my unbreakable grip twisted her head off just before they really got started on me."
I was surprised when Ryuu laughed at that, though she squeezed my shoulder to tell me it wasn't at me. "I think... No, I know where you are going with this. Follow me."
So I did. Pushing my magic outwards, I lost the hyper sensitivity of the mask and gained the gold and black vision of the lenses. We ran down the path to the eighteenth, off the first cliff, instead of taking the path to the town, and through the forest. I'd never fully explored this place. Too much going on, but some of it was familiar to me. Where she took me though, wasn't, at all. A secluded little clearing with trees almost making it inaccessible without jumping over or cutting through them. What I saw there surprised me.
It was a grave site.
No other way to describe it. Old and worn weapons were placed, point down, into the dirt. Stones, not of the dungeon, were placed next to them, and a single word, different for each, was carved into each stone.
"This. Is my Familia." She said simply, standing amongst the weapons and stones. Stunned, I stood there, unmoving, as she continued, "Before I started living at the Hostess of Fertility, I was an adventurer, like you, of the Astraea Familia."
"I... I've only heard the name." Greek Goddess, was all I knew of this one.
"I am the last member. My Goddess has left the city as well, out of sorrow for losing almost all of us." Ryuu said, shaking her head, "You've heard of 'Evilus'?"
"In passing. Familia who didn't want to play nice with others." I said, "Wiped out or exiled, though that's all I know."
"The Rudra Familia was part of Evilus, and, for killing my Familia, as the last survivor, I sought revenge." She said, tracing a finger over the hilt of a blade, "Tricks, traps, assassination, I killed them all."
Not wanting to watch her cry, and not wanting to hear it either, I took off my mask, and held it under one arm.
"It was luck that Syr found me, and Mama Mia's kindness that let me survive my wounds. I've been hiding there, as my actions caused... well... No small amount of trouble." I heard her approach me, "I am with you sister. But, unlike me, you have someone to return home to. Do I regret doing what I did? No. But you still have to look at yourself in the mirror when this is done."
Her offer was clear. She was willing to do anything, at all, to help me. But she was reminding me that I still had to live with my choice. So, I chose. "Sister. There are five monsters to hunt. They are smart. They work together as a pack. But, they are sick, and must be put down."
For the life of my love, I'd become a monster.
"Can you tell how close they are now?" She asked.
"Sort of." I replied, putting the mask on again, and fishing in my pocket for the 'yin' side of the token. "One is..." I pointed down, and towards the nearest wall. "It isn't moving either." I pointed more or less towards the base of the giant tree, "The other isn't as far..."
"And Lady Hestia said they were going to the twentieth floor..." She paused, her heartbeat speeding up slightly, "How will you deal with them, then?"
"The token is in the pocket of the one wearing my coat." I said, making to scratch my chin, but being stopped by the mask, "I say, we return the favour. Here's my plan... First, I need some cloud fruit... Actually, a bunch. I'm kind of... really hungry..."
Despite the situation we both laughed quietly.
Notes!
A little shorter this time. But the next chapter is going to be quite messy. :)
Until next time, dear readers.
