Chapter 4: the night crawler descends
Ember fumed as she stomped down the hallway in a huff seeming to be agitated about something
"Hey ember, what's up? Is something wrong?" Armen asks but gets no response other than a scoff and smoke billowing from her nostrils
"Hey Armen" Astraea says groggily stretching and yawning, she then sees the angry reptile flinging her door off the hinges and slamming it shut, creating large fissures in the wall
"And...there goes another door"
"What's wrong with ember?
"I dunno, she hasn't been this angry since she hated me"
"It might be because she feels restrained"
"Restrained?"
"Yeah, as you may know we liminals have reserves of abnormal strength that we have to constantly keep
In check lest we unintentionally lose control and hurt someone,but there are times when we need to be active and test ourselves to help calm us down, for instance, dragons like ember are used to constantly being in motion or sleeping, wether they're out hunting or just venting. What I think ember needs is some outlet to blow off some steam to put herself at ease, she's been awfully protective of you lately right? Not that I wouldn't be either, but in all seriousness take her out for a flight or to the local liminal gym"
"Wait there's a gym for your kind?"
"Yeah, a kobold named polt opened it up with 's permission 3 months ago"
"Well that settles it then! Hey ember! How's about we go work out?" Armen shouts, to which ember bursts out of her room completely destroying the door with a surprised look on her face
"Did you say workout?!" She asks elatedly
"Yeah, you up to it?"
"Fuck yeah!" She exclaims
"Alright then! We'll leave out in a few! Get some exercise clothes on! Astraea you comin?"
"I suppose I will accompany you, a workout does sound nice"
"Cool well you get ready as well and meet me out front in a few!"
Armen stood outside of his house waiting for the two liminals, the two then walked up to the boy in basic shorts and shirts rearing to go
"You girls ready?" The two nodded ecstatically
"Alright well it's a bit of a walk into the city"
"Who said anything about walking?" Ember asked, grabbing Armen by the torso and rocketing into the sky making the ground she jumped from tremble, crack and cave in from the force of gravity enacted on it, Astraea soon followed and elegantly flapped her angelic wings and took off. Ember got to a height she felt comfortable at and leveled out flapping continuously, Armen clutched the girls arms, gasped and screamed at her sudden actions
"E-ember! What the hell?!"
"What? I needed to stretch my wings, and I haven't flown in weeks, plus we'll get to the city much faster this way!"
"She does have a point master, flying would be much faster" Astraea interjects
"I know that girls, I-it's just...I'm afraid of heights"
"Oh! I'm sorry Armen! I didn't know! Would you like me to put you down? We can walk if you want"
"N-no!, it's ok I'll nut up and take this like a man, just...not too fast ok?"
"I'll go as fast or slow as you wish"
"Thanks ember"
"Of course, now let's go the gym awaits!" She proclaims happily, she dives slightly and flaps her large wings to give her a slight boost as she soars into the city
On the corner of the liminal gym, polt, mon's fitness instructor, sets up for today's regimen
"Ooh boy, such a beautiful day! I wonder what girls will come by today?"Just then she hears a scream coming from the sky and looks up holding her hand up to help block some of sun's light, and stood in awe as a pair of dragon wings blocked the sun's light and landed in front of her with a griffin soon following
"Damnit ember I told you not so fast!" Armen shouts at the girl who has a sly smile plastered on her lips
"True, but you said nothing about diving!" She responds
"Ember, come now" Astraea scolds mildly
Armen squirms out of her grip and brushes himself off and un-frizzed his hair, he then turned his attention toward the awestruck kobold in training gear standing in front of him
"Armen?" She asks unbelievingly
"Hey polt! Good seeing you again"
"~ARMEN!~" she screams joyously and tackles the boy with a hug shoving his head in her chest, much to Astraea and Ember's surprise
"I-it's good to see you too polt" he muffles through her boobs
"It's been so long since I saw you! You could barely even speak Japanese when we first met, it was so cute the way you stumbled over your words!~"
"Yeah, I was a pretty awkward time for me"
"So what are you doing here?"
"Well these two wanted to wanted to get out of the house for a bit so I figured why not bring then to the liminal gym?"
"A dragon and a griffin?!" Polt exclaims incredulously" talk about you're rare liminals!"
"Armen...who is this?" Ember asks, slightly growling underneath her breath as white smoke billowed from her slightly parted lips at this girls outward affections toward him, and the fact that his head was in between her boobs, which only angered her more
"Oh I'm sorry girls, this is polt, she's a member of the exchange act in charge of keeping liminals fit and active, and she was one of the first liminals I met when I moved to Japan, me and her were real buddy buddy back then"
"Hey there!" She exclaims happily
Ember snatches Armen away from her and glares daggers at the hapless kobold who was unsure of what she had done to anger the dragon so, Armen just pats her arm and reassures her everything is fine
"It's a pleasure to meet you miss polt" Astraea interjects once again, trying to ease the tension
"Likewise, so I reckon you girls are here to blow off steam right? come with me!" She enters the studio like weight room and it's filled with a variety of liminals, lamias testing the strength of their coils on specially designed machines for their tails, nekos and inus on treadmills and doing squats and leg exercises, harpies using leg lifts and ab rollers, minotaurs and holstaurs benching and curling.
"This is just our basic weight room, but here at the liminal gym, we have specialized exercise rooms and equipment for every species of mon imaginable, for our aquatic counterparts we have swimming and lap pools, for slimes, we have viscosity testers, for centaurs we have advanced treadmills designed to move at speeds that centaurs would normally travel at in the wild. But for our more 'combat savvy' and tougher liminals and we have holo simulation rooms to test their speed strength, durability and unique powers, this room is specially designed for liminals like minotaurs and giants but I'm sure you're dragon friend will manage quite well, the simulation can be dialed back or increased to the liminal's preferred challenge liking to simulate an actual environment that a liminal would confront danger in, of course the only threat here would be the combat drones"
"You guys really go all out providing adequate exercise for these girls, what do you say ember? wanna take it for a spin?" Armen asks, Ember's expression grew dark and a sinister toothy smile crept across her lips as she lets out an unsettling giggle, she cracked her knuckles and looked back at him
"Hell yeah, start it up!"
"Alright then, ember please step inside" polt says prepping the control panel
Ember stands in the middle of the room as the simulated environment places her in the middle of a medieval battlefield, and soon after demonic soldiers appear from everywhere, and then they jumped her, one swung a sword that she dodges easily and flings the soldier away who smashed into two others which fly toward a boulder and smack against it with enough force to break they're spines, another bigger burlier demon throws a massive punch at ember but she holds firm being slightly pushed back by his force alone, she delivered her own on his hand breaking it, then jumps toward him at breakneck speed, cocking her arm back and delivering a mild punch which hit him with enough force to crack the vertebrae in his neck and make his head spin around backward,collapsing to the ground.
"Pftt, is that it?" She says cracking her neck and rolling her arms"that was barely a warmup" the three others just looked on astounded, they were witnessing a dragon's strength firsthand
"Oh my gawd that was the coolest thing I've ever seen!" Armen gushes like a true geek, ember blushed a bit at his comment and kicked the floor slightly, at heart, she loved showing off to him.
"Indeed ember, quite the impressive show of strength and combat prowess" Astraea admits, with a tiny bit of envy behind her kind comment, she was always stealing the spotlight, that attention hog
"Well now that I've tested your skill level, let's move on to a harder simulation, this time level 5" polt activates a small panel that has all of the skill levels pulled up and clicks on 5
The simulation remains the same, but the demonic soldiers are much bigger and muscular and have glowing runes on they're bodies
"Simulation commence!" Polt proclaims
Ember nonchalantly approaches the demons not expecting anything new, but is pleasantly surprised by one punching her so fast that she couldn't respond and sends her into the wall she shakes it off and looks on surprised, then pulls an invigorated smile on her lips and her slitted pupils shrank once again
"Aww hell yeah! That's what I'm talking about!" she cries out joyously and launches out of the wall and attacks the demon, the others gang up on her and they to bury her in the ground with their collective first poundings but she uses her insane strength to hold them at bay, she whips her tail around and trips them all and swings her arm around to catch them all in a single punch and hurl them to the nearest wall. Then a whole group of smaller demons surround her and begin to gang up on her, she fights off as many as she can handle but is overwhelmed my they're sheer numbers
"Oh god ember!" Armen exclaims trying to pry the simulation door open, desperate to help her
"Armen wait!" Polt says
"Wait my ass polt! turn the damned simulation off! she's gonna get killed!"
"Armen! Just look through the window!" Polt says more annoyed then stern, he reluctantly looks back inside expecting to see ember in a bloody pulp but he notices a bright orange lights irradiating and shimmering from the piled up demons, then it explodes with incredible force, ember breaks out of their collective grasp, lets out a thunderous roar and billows a torus of flames at the surrounding creatures frying just about all of the ones in sight. But a large amount of them still clung on and rushed her once more, she opened her wings and flapped into the air, then she took a deep breath and the threw her head back, her eyes glowed pale yellow and a ball of orange red energy collected near the entrance of her fanged maw, revving up like a futuristic energy gun.
Quick as a flash, she discharged the ball of fire energy which spiraled toward the ground and struck with the force of a nuke completely decimating the entire facility, the force was so great that it caused even the glass on the control center window to shake and crack slightly
When the smoke cleared the simulation room was back to normal, albeit the gigantic scorch marks and holes riddled through the walls, ember stood in the middle of the room and beams a happy smile at the the three spectators, who were completely awestruck and just stood by and said nothing for 5 straight minutes.
"Ahh! That was fun! And a decent enough workout to say the least" she exhales happily and starts walking toward the entrance
"Looks like we're gonna need a new simulation room" Polt concludes, breaking the silence
"Amazing..." Is all both Armen and Astraea relpy
"Yes, she is rather strong, but that's to be expected of emberwings" a new unknown voice chimes in, Armen, Astraea and Polt all turn around to a wyvern who seemed to have stayed for the show, but how long has she been standing there?"
"Oh, hey phelsa! What are you doing here?" Polt asks seeming to know her
"My dragoon master brought me here to exercise and I was just on my way to the flight simulator when I heard the commotion in the sim room and saw that dragon obliterate completely those drones, quite frankly it's very rare to see a dragon amongst humans and so accepting of them at that " phelsa looks at both Armen and Astraea with curiosity
"Griffin" she confirms
"Wyvern" Astraea replies
Phelsa then approached Astraea and holds out her hand for a fist bump, for which she happily obliges to with a smile, phelsa pulls a faint smile on her face as well
"What's going on? I thought dragons and griffins hated each other"
"Well technically yes, but wyverns are in a dragon classification all of they're own, known for being powerful and agile flyers but significantly more adept in physical strength than regular dragons and on many occasions wyverns have aided griffins in defending their territory in fights against enemy dragons or Knights or hunters, so over time the two species came to trust each other and formed a crucial bond that benefits both parties, like a kinship" polt explained
"Ahh..I guess that makes sense" Armen gets a good look at phelsa, she was as tall as ember yet leaner, her face was framed with forest green scales and her eyes were a hazel blue,her hair was straight platinum blonde and had four large spikes sticking out of it and her skin creamy tan, her figure was still quite built and muscular due to her enormous wings which were her actual arms and must have taken a hell of a lot of strength to flap, her legs were slender and ended in long dragon claws, she wore a basic training outfit for an athlete specially designed for wyverns, the arms were exposed as not to create wing tears and a hole in the back of her pants for her long tail to snake through without trouble.
She turned her attention to Armen and slowly sauntered toward him
"You must the famous Armen" she says
"Yeah that's me, nice to meet you, I guess I've become a common story amongst your kind" he holds out his hand, which phelsa gladly takes
"For the so called 'dragon tamer' I thought you'd look a little 'different', but an honor to meet you either way" she politely acknowledged, at first Armen had pegged her the emotionless silent and brooding type, like ember used to be, but now she came off as a battle hardened, endearing friend, who loved giving people a hard time and seemed none to bothered by the fact that he was a human
"So I'm guessing wyverns don't hate humans?"
"Oh with a burning passion"
"Yeah kinda should have figured that" Armen admits
"But more or less than dragons hate you're kind in fact we have a history of truces and bonds that put our grudges on the back burner so to speak, but I'm surprised you knew the difference between us"
"Yeah well, reading is fundamental"
Phelsa giggles and pats him on the back making him stumble over
"I like ya kid" she states proudly
Armen grabs his aching shoulder and gives her a nervous chuckle, she seemed much calmer and more mellow than ember and even less hostile for a fact, granted hostile is one thing dragons due well and murderous intent is almost always laced in their words, phelsa seemed to have come to terms with the world she lived in and accepted humans no less, perhaps like ember to she had learned not always to see this world and its inhabitants in a glass half empty, (holier than thou, superiority complex) mentally, its almost as if she's not even a liminal at all but a regular girl disguised as one
The sound of approaching claws tapping against the ground got armen's attention, he turned to seen ember arriving and stopping abruptly to stare down the wyvern
"Hey ember! Long time no see firespitter"
"...phelsa loum" ember starts, approaching the wyvern with a scowl on her face, she stops in front of her then the two competed in a glaring match, after a few seconds ember holds out her fist, phelsa complies with her own fist, both of them share a hearty chuckle and hug briefly
"Good seeing ya again wings!"
"Right back atcha fire spitter! So this is your little tamer?"
"Yup! My brave,yet sometimes very stubborn, dragon whisperer!" She exclaims proudly holding Armen close to her
"She's quite the handful Armen! I hope you can handle her!"
"Trust me I've been down that road already! I know how she is and how she can be! But she's anything but unmanageable!" He happily concludes scratching the dragoness between her horns once more, making her mewl blissfully and pull a content kitty smile
'Wow, never thought I'd see the day! A dragon finally being tamed! By a human no less! This is getting interesting!' Astraea contemplates
"Well girls, you ready to go home?" Armen asks
"Can we fly?!" Ember pipes up excitedly
"Why not?" Armen responds cheekily
Astraea senses something and swivels her head in the direction of the disturbance
"What's up Astraea?" Armen asks
"I thought I saw someone watching us from behind that wall"
"Your going stir crazy!" Ember quips
"Mmm...perhaps"
"Cmon Astraea lets go home!"Armen urges
"Y-yes master! Thank you for inviting us in miss Polt!"
"My pleasure girls! Always willing to help a fellow liminal! Bye bye!"
Astraea turns to leave following closely behind her two housemates, but shot her gaze back to the wall she watched tentatively and saw a pair of beady red eyes and a pearly while fanged smile highlighted on a black silhouetted figure, she stops and narrows her eyes,then turns away walking out of the facility.
Back at the house, ember just goes about playing a few games on they're custom ps4, while Armen is in his room just listening to music and sketching, when Astraea pops in.
"Master Armen?"
"Hmm...?"
"You got a sec?"
"Sure what's up?"
Astraea step down next to him with a worried look I her eyes
"What's wrong Astraea?"
"This has been bothering me for a while, well,actually ever since last week I've been sensing an odd presence that's constantly near your vicinity and a strange silhouetted figure I spotted at the training facility today has me on edge"
"Odd presence? what odd presence ?"
"I'm not quite sure...but it's almost like your being stalked by something or someone, it's like an early warning system is going off in my head every time I sense it or when I'm close to you but what I'm trying to tell you is this, if ever you choose to go out in the proceeding future, please, ask one of us to accompany you"
"U-umm ok Astraea your starting to scare me!"
"My intention is not to scare you master, but to make you cautious and aware, it is possible another dangerous liminal has set her sights on you! And as your houseguest and servant it is my job to protect you!"
"I really appreciate that Astraea! I'm really glad you two care so much about me"
She blushed Andre her feathers quivered as she swiveled her head away
"T-think nothing of it and make no mistake, it is simply my duty as your servant and your familiar!"
"Mhhm..sure it is" Armen teases, which warrants an embarrassed squawk from her
"Hahaha! Well I guess il go for a little walk then and let you two get settled" Armen states, walking away only to be pulled back by Astraea
"M-may I accompany you master?" She asks softly
Armen's heart almost melted at the softness of her voice, so much so that he blushed scarlet.
"I-if you want too!"
"Thank you..." The both of them looked away from each other while still grasping at each other's hands
"I-umm s-shall we go?"
Astraea asks
"Y-yeah"
"Ember were about to take a walk, would you like to go!"
"Ohhh! Get reckt son! Hey! eat a chode you noob dicksucker!" Ember shouts incoherently as she is playing call of duty advanced warfare
"I guess that means no!" Armen confirms
"Indeed well let us be off!" Astraea agrees, yanking him out the door with her before ember had a chance to turn around
The two of them decided to take a little waltz down to Fukushima to enjoy the hustle and bustle and visit shops along the way, Astraea decided to stop into an arcade with Armen and play a virtual reality shooting game with him(which she easily won) then they stopped for ice cream(which Astraea drooled over) and then headed to the park so Astraea could spread her wings, and she looked absolutely graceful and elegant zipping through the air that it attracted he attention of passerby and children who complimented her beauty and asked if she would give them rides. All in all a beautiful day
Astraea seemed like she was glowing the way she beamed a happy smile and sighed blissfully as she clung to Armen's arm
"You know Astraea, if I didn't know any better I'd say you suckered me into going on a date with you!" Armen sarcastically quipped
"Now whatever would make you think that master?~" she coos
"Yeah that's what I thought!"
Just then a teenage girl runs up tho them with a look of wonder in her eyes
"Oh my gawd oh my gawd! A griffin! Your so beautiful!"
"O-oh thank you!"
"C-can I take a picture with you?" She asks giddily
"Of course!" Astraea allows making the girl squeal with elation, then she pulled out her phone and both made duck lips, but then more and more crowded around them asking for pictures and wanting to touch her tail and wings, so Armen decided to dick out of the chaos and let Astraea have her moment in the limelight(so to speak)
He then got a call from mon so decided to pick up
"Hello.."
"Hey Armen!" Jones chimed over
"Oh hey jones how's it goin?"
Just wanted to let ya now a new girl will be headed your way next week! How are those two doing?"
"Eh pretty good! Though Astraea's having a ball right now with all the attention s he's getting from teenage girls and boys alike obsessed with fantasy creatures, they're literally drooling over her!"
"Pfft hahahaha! Sounds like you two are having a ball! Where's ember?"
"Oh she decided to stay home and pwn some noobs!"
"O..kay..I'm gonna pretend like I understood what you just said, but I'm glad you guys are having fun!"
Not but 10 feet behind him, that same beady red eyed being stared him down from a dimly lit alley, she pulled a devils grin on her lips as she edged closer and closer to Armen, then slowly reached out
"You will soon be mine..." She
Whispers
"So are you guys headed home soon? I'd like to drop by, plus there's a certain ogre here who's been dying to wrap her arms around her favorite human again!"
"Yeah! We'll be headed back in a fe-mmmphh!" he is silences by a fell male hand covering his mouth and pulling him into the alley, he struggled with all of his might buy she was much too strong
"Hello? Armen? He-" she smashes the phone with her heeled shoe and retreated into the dark alley, once there she turns him around to witness her glowing eyed glare
"Finally! You're mine!..."
"AAAAUUGGHHGUH!"
Astraea's cat ears perk up and she turns her attention toward the sound with the girls following
"What was that?" One of them said
"Was someone screaming?" Another piped up
Astraea then realized, she wasn't watching her master, and that screaming was probably him
"Master Armen!" She cried out and dashed out of the crowd toward the direction of the scream, she searche d everywhere using her incredible sense of smell to try to narrow don her search grids too she reached a dark alley
"Master? Master?! Master where are you?!" She cried out desperately until she found his broken phone and a few droplets of blood next to a his jacked which had four claw marks raked through it
"M-master..." She said, becoming choked up, piled up his jacket and held it close to her chest as tears began to trace down her cheeks
"Why? Why did I get distracted?! I-I was supposed to..." Her sobbing was cut short by her recognized get an al too familiar scent, the scent of fresh blood,and those droplets on the ground couldn't have been from Armen, it would be on the jacket as well...
"Oh no!" She jumped up, grabbed his destroyed phone and launched into the sky, flying as fast as she could back home
Armen hadn't been killed...he had been kidnapped...