Author Note: fixed chapter 1 and 2
Enjoy and leave a review if you can
Chapter 3: Tanuki friend and awakening her Fire
Ashen One and Fire Keeper walked around taking in the sights of the glorious city in front of them unknowingly of the dark and corruption these walls had, and finally reached the big market.
"We finally reached the market Beatrice, why don't we go and see the foods they have in a human city?" Sieg said to his beloved, noticing her giddiness at the hustle and bustle, announcements and laughs, people of all ages converging in this place to sell their wares, socialize with friends, date with their beloved ones or make a mess of things and promptly getting arrested for it.
"I've never thought i would see so much life in a single place like this Sieg" Beatrice said with a smile, the people at Firelink shrine were courteous with her and sometimes had their share of friendly squabble, but everyone could see the strain of hopelessness that with time made everyone go away and die without coming back, only André and the Shrine Handmaid were left by the end, "yes Sieg let's explore i'm sure there's many tasty things in here waiting for us" the maiden recomposed herself and stopped feeling sad for the past, for now she was in a adventure with the Ashen One in this beautiful land and both were living to the fullest.
"Hey! hey you, the couple over there, why don't you taste our products?" a merchant woman with squinty eyes and a smug grin in a corner called to them "free of charge for a beautiful couple, i bet that after having a taste of it the couple will be even more beautiful" the unkindled was wary, for the sudden goodwill of the stranger reminded him of his old bald friend who loved to kick him from ledges and put him into traps, while the Fire Keeper was happy for finding a good soul that would give them something while expecting nothing in return.
"What's your plan lady? it's uncommon to offer someone things for free because they are beautiful" Sieg interrogated the disguised tanuki about her motives but her eyes kept closed and her grin became bigger.
"It's nothing big, i just noticed you two have a really nice aura" the calculating tanuki planning for the future said with sincerity "and i hope to make friends for the future, since it seems you will achieve great things" then she showed her wares to the fire keeper who was curious to see what she had.
"These are rare in this region controlled by the Order but are highly requested by the noble and rich people to spice their intimate lives" the tanuki showed them an assortment of fruits, flowers and other things, one of which the duo already recognized it was the prisoner fruit they've been eating for days now, but were clueless about the rest.
"This here is called a corruption fruit, not normally available in the human realm, it is a food imported from the fallen god pandemonium, people say they are formed from the tears of angels that fall into depravity and the taste is so delicious it can make normal men and women fall faster than those angels, nobles use it to get increased pleasure at night and women... hehehe why don't we let you discover it yourselves later" she looked at the duo reaction and thought they wouldn't resist the temptation of corruption.
"This one is a wrapping vegetable, women use it to improve their skin condition, making it more charming and beautiful to get the eyes of their men only to themselves, noble ladies use it to stop their cheating husbands from going out with others" she and Sieg looked at Beatrice's porcelain face who shied away from the stares "your skin is so fair and beautiful i even doubt this would have any effect, but if it does i would like to see it at least once" the tanuki didn't tell them that eating more until reaching the core would make the woman itch all over and not be satisfied until completely naked and rubbing herself against her man's body to stop the itch.
"This one is a licking fruit, women normally suck and squeeze it with their mouths and use it as training to lick a man's "fruit", men can consume it as well but the taste is not good for them it's recommended that after the girl sucks out the pulp she feeds the man mouth to mouth" both of her clients weren't amused with this one, Sieg wouldn't want his beloved doing something as shameless in public, scrap that even in private he wouldn't like seeing her putting that phallic thing in her mouth. And Beatrice for all her desire for her champion of Ash would never do something as shameless as that even as a tease before the act.
"It seems this one wasn't good for you" the tanuki then showed the couple fruit, that guarantees the couple who eats it stays together forever dragon lifeblood which increases power stamina and endurance, the undead liked for it was a consumable power within without the draining your life part. And the happy tanuki kept showing them more and more things until no things were left to be shown.
"So my friends, what did you think about my wares? just for today i can give you a free taste of rare things only nobles and merchants can get" she rubbed her hands waiting a positive answer from the amused couple before her.
"You know that excessive consumption of these things corrupts humans and monsterizes women right?" Sieg began speaking remembering the contents of the encyclopedia, making the merchant nervous "so why are you selling this in a human supremacist country, and why aren't you afraid of being snitched by us?" he waited for a reaction, if she dropped all pretenses of courtesy and friendliness he would struck her down where she was, the corner where she set up her stall didn't had much movement and the sounds of the marketplace would drown any resistance she put up.
"You got me, i'll tell you so let's not get violent now my friends" the exasperated and a bit fearful tanuki began explaining "i noticed you have extremely high concentrations of spirit energy and demonic energy far surpassing any hero or monster, hell even Lilims and their husbands feel like newborns in comparison to you both, and i bet some heroes in this city also noticed it, or where notified of your existence after the check for corruption everyone who enters here goes through" then she pointed at them "but you two feel like humans, i can feel no incubus or monster power coming from you both and that boggles my mind" the tanuki sighed "so the desire of wanting a friendship is true, because i feel like you could do great things in this world and, i would better be a friend in your graces than a enemy at the end of your sword" she had a strained smile thinking if her reasoning appeased the couple.
Satisfied with her sincerity both Ashen One and Fire Keeper nodded in satisfaction "well done madam, you've successfully earned our graces" Sieg patted her in the shoulders earning a squeak from the tanuki, after all with such high quality spirit any mature monster would go in heat from seeing him, she only could hold herself back because she was of the more intelligent civilized kind, and because he clearly had a companion already which made her sad and jealous, but she let these feelings be shown to the couple even if she died.
"Then i'll accept your offering, i'll get the dragon's lifeblood, if its effects are really like you advertised it would be a boon during battle" Sieg loved his buffs and getting all the benefits of power within without any of the demerits would be a boon for him if the need arises.
"I'll accept the wrapping vegetable" Beatrice said, she liked the compliment the tanuki gave her but was self conscious for her arms were burnt from tending to the fire and never healed, so she hold on to the hope that with this she wouldn't need to cover herself as much and her Ashen One would love her more for that.
"It was good knowing you my, friends but it seems i need to disappear from town," the tanuki began packing up, "next time we meet let it be in a better scenario, and i recommend you to run from here unless you want your vacation disrupted by the Order," it would be good to warn them not that they would be in any danger, maybe only the monster lord and her husband would even stand a chance in battle against these two, "for your next destination why don't you travel to the country of Zipangu, you would love the views in there, the cherry trees are blossoming this time of the year" now fully ready to go she gave them a bow "may you have luck in your journey friends" then the tanuki disappeared leaving behind only a single leaf.
"She was a good girl wasn't she, i hope we meet her again" Beatrice smiled for a moment she has seem Patches in her.
"But she didn't tell us her name and calling for a tanuki girl without a name to go by will prove itself a hindrance" Sieg had no ill will for the possible trickster who just gone away, after all Patches was a friend to the very end, "it seems our continued stay in here will prove bothersome so we must get ready if the order tries to mess with us" he looked at his beloved, maybe it was time to make her have some means of defense, and he was thinking of something that would attune well to a firekeeper.
Both began walking away from the hustle and bustle of the market reaching a isolated part of the city which looked like the slums, and after a quick scuffle with some unsavory bastards who looked at Beatrice the wrong way and now are nothing more than corpses people avoided like common trash, they found out what looked like an abaddoned house and welcomed themselves in.
"Cornyx and Karla taught me well, maybe i should teach you some pyromancies Beatrice" the Ashen one proposed to the Fire Keeper, what better weapon for a Fire Keeper than fire itself? He could also try to teach her the dark arts but he was hesitant of doing so when remembering what happened to Irina after giving her the dark braile tomes "I think you also need a weapon to defend yourself in the event we are separated from one another" Sieg gave her the Demon's scar, it would be a good self defense tool for Beatrice since it weighed next to nothing and no one could wrist it away from her for it was pure chaos fire manifest.
"So the first thing you need for pyromancy is to conjure your own flame, you should be able to reach inside yourself and grab it, make it's power yours" he explained to Beatrice the feeling of using pyromancy and how it was more attuned to the will of the user than knowledge for sorceries or the reciting of stories and legends of the gods and saints to bring forth miracles, and as expected she easily conjured her own flame.
"So this is my own flame, it feels so warm and familiar, like it was with me for my entire life" the firekeeper looked at her small but warm flame, so feeble it could disappear at any moment, but just like herself it would never do so for it had the tenacity to live through the age of Dark and would keep existing as long as her Ashen One stayed with her.
"It's a gentle flame just like you" Sieg hugged her "now that you have your own flame lets turn this little ember into a inextinguishable bonfire, let me upgrade it" Sieg began the process of offering souls and titanite to the flames to bring forth its power, he didn't knew how Cornyx did it but he had resources to spare, and with much trial and error Sieg finally got the gist of upgrading the pyromancy flame and now Beatrice's flame was maxed out, and after some testing she could will to life and put away without problems both the Demon's Scar and her Pyromancy, now the Fire Keeper wasn't a defenseless maiden to be throw around but a fighter that with time could be his equal, his partner in love and in jolly cooperation.
"It's night now Sieg we should find a place to rest" the maiden suggested to her hero of Ash, the trial and error to reinforce her flames costed them the entire afternoon and it was late in the night now, "let us depart from here else more unsavory men may bother us" she was reminded of those bandits that tried to attack them when they reached the slums during the day, and it would be harder to deal if a bigger group came with the cover of the night.
"If those came it could be good training for you Beatrice", Sieg had an idea, "now that you have ways to defend yourself, we should train your battle senses and scum which doesn't deserve their lives should be excellent sparring partners for that", he noticed that Beatrice was slowly opening up to the idea. It's incredible how she could change so much since the moment they woke up in this era, from a gentle maiden loyal to the wishes of the Ashen One to the very end, to a curious girl who had no shame in the ways of sex during our travels, and even after discovering the properties of the fruit they've been eating decided to roleplay being under its effects to turn into a beast in bed, and now the flames of a fighter are flaring up inside her and that made the Fire Keeper even more beautiful by the second.
"T-then we should go find more bandits to train with" Beatrice never expected that she would change like this after being unburdened by the task of the Fire Keeper, she never thought of herself as being a tomboy like this but couldn't deny she was getting hyped up to train in the ways of battle, not only for herself but also to defend her beloved, "where should we start first Sieg" she asked accepting she was a tomboy with a thirst for action.
"It's late at night now, if we just walk around eventually more men wanting wanting a piece of us are bound to appear" Sieg said confidently for which bigger bait existed for these bandits than someone as fair as his beloved, "let us depart Beatrice, let's make this place a bit safer for the good people on this night" the Ashen One took his beloved Fire Keeper hand and both disappeared in the dark.
On that night it was said the slums became a little safer and a rumour was born, that whoever did evil would be caught by the mourning vigilantes who would burn you until not even ashes remained.
On the next day after exploring the slums and cleansing the filth in this area they found themselves in front of a church, and a familiar voice was speaking inside
"Now now kids, let us prepare for breakfast, Annie please bring me the vegetables we are growing in the frontdoor" they heard a little child positive answer and waited until they opened the door, and the child surprised by the appearance of the couple screamed for her caretaker.
"What is it Annie is the Order here again?!" Sasha came running from the back then stopped after seeing her acquaintances "Hello again sir Ashen, and lady Fire Keeper, would you want to come in?" she invited both
"Long time so see Sasha" Sieg was being smug with the exasperated nun but before he could continue he got a kick from Beatrice, "we would love to Sasha, ah before i forget we decided on our new names after we parted ways, you can call me Sieg" the man bowed.
"And my name is Beatrice" the maiden smiled and did a curtsy "how did it go with the children?" the maiden asked before both her and Sieg were pulled by the nun with a unexpected force and the doors of the orphanage closed.