Chapter 10-Nexus
As evening shadows lengthened, the brunette Bow Hero and her companions had completed a two day trek on foot on a long abandoned branch off the main stone-paved route leading to the far off mercenary country of Zeltoble. The narrow cobblestone road had been abandoned for decades; long enough for mature trees to grow up right through the roadbed. The ruins they were interested in scouting out lay in an unfertile region of arid plains better suited to traverse than settle. They had passed by very few villages and a smattering of farms. They had encountered far more wild avian filolials than either humans or beastkin on their lonely journey.
Charlotte had utilized her passive skill Robust health to quickly transition from the balmy Mediterranean climate to the dry, hot grasslands on the far side of the mountain pass from the capital of Melromarc. It allowed a tiny slip of a young woman to effortlessly keep up with her far burlier male warrior subordinates. Neither the human Cyril nor the wolfkin Darius saw fit to complain, but both were looking worn down by the incessant travel on a torturous, uneven path. Cyril sat on a nearby rock, clearly wearied from having walked for days in his heavy armor.
A condescending toothy smirk appeared across Darius' jet black furred muzzle as he jeered with piercing yellow eyes, "You should have stayed behind, weakling human."
Cyril panted a little out of breath and annoyance blazed in his brown eyes as he stood up again and met his rival's gaze, despite being a little shorter. He snorted, "I've learned how to march across leagues of any terrain in my service to the crown, you no-name pickpocket. Aren't you roasting in that ridiculous black cloak of yours, Mister Okami?"
Their blue eyed leader sighed in exasperation, "Honestly. You two fight like rambunctious brothers."
Kuznetsov backed off from his confrontation and rubbed his short black hair in exasperation, "I…forgive me, Miss Charlotte."
Darius bowed respectfully and noted with restrained resentment, "With all due respect I will never see this peon to my people's oppressors as kin, Sir Charlotte."
Charlotte unconsciously bit her lower lip; it was a nervous habit that she had picked up whenever she was confronted with disharmony. It included any kind of aggravating setback like ruining a painting, losing for the umpeeth time to her game obsessed BFF Nora, or breaking up a petty quarrel. She put her hands on her hips with a pout and shook her head with a sigh. "Listen up. We are here to build up our levels and stop the waves as a team. That's it. If you have personal baggage that you can't deal with, there's the door. Walk away with no strings attached." After a suitably long and uncomfortable pause she shifted her gaze from one follower to the other, and asked firmly, "Well?"
"I'm in," Cyril replied passionately. "I will not lose my focus again."
Darius crossed his arms but nodded curtly. He growled softly, "I will never leave your side, ma'am."
Charlotte tapped her orange crystal bracelet that served as her stored form of her cardinal weapon, "No calling me ma'am, or you know what happens!"
"I meant Sir Charlotte," the wolfkin replied hastily. He was not about to blow his chance to continue his service to the fair Bow Hero. His spite at King Melromarc's mook notwithstanding; he would not allow his feelings towards the racist humans to mar his spotless service to this world's savior.
She broke out into a cheerful whistle as she entered the foothills leading to the ruins followed by her contrite companions. According to her research monsters had randomly spawned out of a one-way portal in a cave system far underground, leading for this road to be forsaken by all the humanoid races for the last few decades. Efforts to wall off one exit from the myriad caverns only lead to multiple failures. The group bore the blood-stained history in mind as they carefully walked past a long derelict and crumbling human fortification.
Darius' ears suddenly flattened as he growled, "I smell fresh blood, Bow Hero."
After summoning her elegant bow with triple shots preloaded, Charlotte noted with incredulity, "I saw this destroyed outpost from miles away. Why didn't my Clairvoyance skill pick up any movement?"
The wolfkin crouched down next to a trickle of dark fluid that had dripped down from a crumbling wall section above. He picked up a few drops with his claws, sniffed at it carefully and shook his head, "Orc or goblin blood. Dead for a few hours."
"If there was a battle here half a day ago, then we were too far out of range to intervene. Do not blame yourself, Miss Charlotte," Cyril added somberly.
Charlotte gave a courteous nod to her nimble thief, and Darius easily free-climbed up the half destroyed walled tower. He soon dropped down a rope after securing it to part of the ramparts. They quickly made up to the third level by bypassing the shattered stone staircase and gaped at a ghastly vista. Along with the corpses of a few waylaid travelers, a band of feral orcs, perhaps twenty or more lay in positions that clearly telegraphed that they had been caught completely off guard. Their crude iron armor indicated that they were not native to this world. Only a few of them had even drawn weapons before an unimaginably powerful force had fatally ripped through the evil band. It was hard to tell an exact number as they were all cleanly sliced into four or more pieces each. Curiously enough their human victims were still in one piece. A firepit that was reduced to a few dying embers still sat beneath a cauldron filled with a thick stew that smelled just like chicken soup to Charlotte's nose.
Cyril calmly placed his hand against the side of the blackened cooking pot and noted, "Still tepid. It would probably be safe to eat in a pinch."
Charlotte had seen enough; she whirled around and puked over the wall after the shock of seeing their dismembered foes. After finishing her dry heaves she recalled a searing memory. Other than attending a few wakes, she had only ever seen a dead body once. One weekend last semester Nora had spiked a high fever, and the duo had caught an Uber to the Vancouver General Hospital ER at three in the morning. Once the doctor had stabilized her friend, Charlotte had wandered off aimlessly to find the bathroom; only she walked into a bare room with a single table in the center. She had covered her mouth in shock at the sight of a clearly human-shaped form underneath a white sheet illuminated by the harsh overhead fluorescent tube lights. The bitter memory of that dead man left all alone had left a permanent imprint on her soul. She had resolved never to take her life for granted and returned to Nora's side with her cheerful façade back in place. She had never told anyone of her experience, although the feelings of melancholy despair occasionally seeped into her photography on occasion when she was in a bad place. Usually after her mood improved she would delete her 'mistakes', and return to her usual milieu of injecting a sense of lingering hope in even in her sadder subjects such as black and white abandoned buildings or a trees stripped of their vegetation by the winter chill. Well, she told herself, there isn't cute kitten pictures in the world to blot out what I just saw. She spat out the sour stomach acid and forced herself to turn back around while trying hard to not eye the carnage too closely She spoke to her wolkin thief, "Well Darius? Who killed these bastards?"
"Are you oka-," a worried Cyril inquired.
"Fine! I'm completely fine! Just do your thing please," his mistress urged. Find your equilibrium, she insisted to herself.
"Yes, milady."
The wolf kin examined a cut off limb closely and appreciated the dismemberment technique. Even his razor sharp daggers couldn't make a neater cut than this. He noted with admiration, "I daresay it reeks of magic, milady. No blade short of a Cardinal weapon could slice this cleanly."
The Sword knight slowly pivoted around in a circle and closely examined where the bodies had collapsed. He nodded sharply in agreement and noted with muted horror, "I must agree with Okami. It could only have been top tier wind magic or its ilk. I am standing in front of the cooking pot facing the Cliffside; I can clearly see that all the blood spray is radiating outwards." He mentally reconstructed the scene. "I see a group of evil monsters anticipating a feast as they divvied up the spoils taken from their murdered victims. They must have come out of those tunnels a few days ago at most based on the amount of ash in the firepit. Most had been seated, in relaxed groups of two or three. More than a third of the group had their backs to the fire."
"So it would seem, Kuznetsov," Darius added. He stood next to him, and called an unspoken truce with Cyril as he pitched in on the commentary, "Maybe half a dozen of them were faced outwards to spot intruders with bows. Our assailant appeared right where we are standing, and took them completely by surprise. They were attacked without mercy with a single blow, and they must have all died simultaneously."
"And yet, nothing was looted, no valuables were taken, and none of the human bodies were buried. This mystery attacker was not attacking out of greed, for justice, or for revenge." Kuznetsov rubbed his bearded chin in bafflement, "It makes absolutely no sense. Why ambush a bunch of orcs from another realm that killed a few stray travelers and yet not take anything of value, or see that their victims were given a proper burial? Was it just to show off or out of boredom?"
A soft voice from atop the squared off roof made everyone's blood turn cold, "They killed one of my subjects and they were in my way, Bow Hero." All three whirled around to see a truly baffling sight; what appeared to be a small child perched on the crumbling ledge topping the old keep. She was draped in a billowing pure white cloak over her multicolored dress, and her pink eyes gazed with an air of cool command at the rank amateurs below her. Her shoulder length silver hair blew in the breeze, and three prominent arcing strands of hair stuck out from the top of her bangs. She shook her head slowly as she used a small set of pearlescent white wings to drift down to the parapet. "I had hoped that Takia's intervention would have made a difference, but I am not impressed with you so-called Heroes thus far."
Charlotte's mind boggled at what this child-, no what this unimaginatively dangerous being was saying. She had her bow raised with her projectiles ready to let fly as she asked in a steady voice, "How do you know Takia, miss?"
The mysterious girl spoke a brief prayer for her deceased follower and then with a wave of her hand the stew pot and the orc bodies dissolved into a flash of light. She met Charlotte's gaze fearlessly and explained, "I helped him to taint the summoning ritual, my child."
She did what? The Bow Hero's weapon started to waver imperceptibly. Her face wrinkled slightly at the only external sign of her pain inside. She seethed with quiet resentment, "You yanked me out of my comfortable life and threw me into this perilous path on a whim?"
"No. You, the Sword Hero and the Spear Hero need to work with the maligned Shield Hero or you all will perish. I choose emissaries from the Shield Hero's homeworld that would support and love him without conditions." She raised her hand and forced her weapon to convert back to its bracelet form. "You had best accept your destiny. There are many that need your help, and the sooner you rise to your role in saving this world, the less chance I will need to kill off all the Cardinal Heroes and start over."
Darius' claws unsheathed as he growled in fury, "Hey bitch! Nobody threatens my mistress and lives!"
Half a second later, the girl was an inch from his face before blasting him into Kuznetsov, sending them both sprawling.
Cyril groaned as Okami's tail was stuck in his mouth. After spitting out the fur he groused, "Well that was productive."
"Ergh…shut up human!" He was absolutely humiliated and overmatched by this brat. Still, he was not one to ever give up. He hoisted himself back upright and begrudgingly helped Cyril to his feet as well. He called out, "Sir Charlotte, get behind us!"
The Bow Hero slowly shook her head as her status screen was disabled, and she was too underleveled to overcome the jamming magic. She remarked somberly, "Stand down Darius and Cyril. We're not going to win this by force. How do we prove our worth, Miss..?"
The winged child gave an emotionless nod as she challenged the human girl's resolve, "Now you realize your place, Bow Hero. I am Fitoria, Queen of the Filolials. You can make a start by going into that tunnel, and lend a hand to those less fortunate than yourself." She reached out and gently tapped Charlotte's orange crystal, causing it to absorb some off her power.
Charlotte calmly met Fitoria's gaze despite being completely outclassed and asserted, "I do not know my place, your Highness. I've always been the proverbial square peg in the round hole. I will fight for this world my own way."
The Filolial Queen created a bright flash of light and then the three warriors were alone again.
Charlotte wondered with a touch of wonder, did Fitoria just smile at her in the instant before she vanished? She abruptly released a breath that she did not realize that she has been holding and then gave a thumbs up sign to her loyal followers. No matter her inner tumult, they had a job to do.
…
Late that night the luckless travelers' bodies were respectfully buried and the badly shaken warriors entered the tunnel system. Both Charlotte's gemstone and burning torches illuminated the claustrophobic corridor. There was repeated evidence of attempts to plug the tunnel many times in the past. All countermeasures had without fail been breached. All three were gloomily contemplating that fact that they had had their tails soundly kicked by an unimaginably potent and capricious monarch. Predictably they soon reached a glowing blue barrier obstructing their path just where the passage flared out.
The Bow Hero used her Cardinal weapon to scan the field and noted sarcastically, "This is nice. It's very powerful, and it only allows someone to exit."
Cyril reached out to touch the obstacle, but he was hit by a force that felt like a giant hand gave him a rough shove backwards. He grimaced and rubbed his temporarily numbed hand.
Darius took a running charge into the barrier and was repelled back just as forcefully. He nimbly landed back on his feet to avoid falling over on his rump. He huffed, "So these monsters can get out, but we can't get in?"
"Wait a minute. My status screen indicates that Fitoria gave me a temporary boost to my bow," Charlotte noted seriously as summoned her weapon. The orange gemstone briefly flared violet and then the three of them could proceed past the magical forcefield unimpeded.
All three were shocked when they reached a vast communal space surrounded by multiple levels of balconies in a vast u-shape. The badly damaged, 30 meter tall chamber did not resemble any of the brick, wood or stone structures common to this world. Charlotte gasped in surprise as she walked along the slightly tilted floor and instantly recognized the severe concrete and glass brutalist architecture common to her homeworld. Even more crazily, this academic structure was flipped upside down and completely buried based on the atrium windows at her feet showing nothing but solid rock below. Every classroom ringing this space emitted an eerie pale blue glow that faintly illuminated their environment. She focused her mind and her SP bar started to drain as she bypassed her magic into the fluorescent and halogen recessed lights.
About half of the intact lights arrayed into the 'floor' blazed to life, causing Cyril to curse under his breath and draw his sword reflexively. He muttered, "Milady. What by the Three Heroes God is that light? Magic?"
She gave a slight smirk and shook her head, "No. This is technology…Earth-like tech. This is some sort of school or college academic wing." She did a few mental calculations based on the fact that there were no wi-fi hotspots, no LED lighting, and the presence of a neat row of green pay phones that lined the entry foyer. She mused, "I'd say if it came from my Earth, I'd peg it as about 30-40 years out of date. The signage is in Japanese…This place originated from Naofumi's homeland."
Cyril was fascinated to see a fragment of his mistress' home. The bittersweet sight of the ruins made him feel a bit closer to understanding her. Despite the dire threat that the Waves posed to Melromarc and beyond, he did not regret for one second of choosing to serve this kind lady. He spoke up with confidence, "I'll try to get up a floor, milady."
The Bow Hero smirked and called back, "Technically you're going down a flight, Cyril. This hall is upside down."
He chuckled slightly at his commander's attempt at humor, and then he flung a grappling hook up to the railing and soon hoisted himself up to the next level up. Seeing the scattered flickering lights under his feet unnerved him slightly as it gave the whole space an eerie ambience. The fact that was no debris or signs of life made it all the creepier. He peered into an open doorway and saw that the blue light was streaming in through the windows. There was no view of the outside world; just a blank, uniform azure glow. He called out, "Miss Charlotte! There is some sort of portal in this chamber." Without any warning, a sudden tug like a magnet yanked the brave swordsman off his feet and plunging through the window.
"Okay," an oblivious Charlotte called back. She made her way down to a meeting hall at the very 'top' of the building past the stairwell and gazed inside as she saw the tired seats above her head. Until recently she had been an English major with an unofficial passion for art, especially photography and architecture, and she could never warm up to the cold look of poured concrete buildings lit by harsh blue-white lighting. She giggled softly as there were many boring lectures in vast auditoriums on campus she had endured at UBC where she ended up daydreaming about floating up to the ceiling, or imagining the room flooding with water like a sinking ship. Her eyes widened as she saw the row of slit windows hugging the slanted ceiling showed a vista of opaque light blue light instead of the expected rock or earth. "I see the same thing here! No view of the outside."
Darius ran nimbly up the smooth slope of the underside of the switchback concrete stairwell to the highest level. He peered into a classroom with a dozen black-topped lab benches just overhead. All he could see was the same annoying impenetrable light. He drew out a pair of daggers as the fur on his nape stood up reflexively, but the same mysterious forced that overpowered Cyril sucked him through the portal as well. He tried to scream out a warning, but he was cut off before he could say anything more than, "Miss-"
The Bow Hero suddenly felt a deep sense of dread as she could no longer hear her followers. She turned around to call out to them, but she grimaced as she saw bright flashes of light flash through the windows as too many ugly, green skinned humanoid monsters emerged into the chamber from all sides. They had pointed ears, glowing yellow eyes, greasy black hair, cobbled together armor, and primitive clubs and spears. As she shot two of them down with her triple shots, she yelled, "Darius! Cyril!" She gave the fight her all even as she knew she was going to get swarmed within seconds.
…
Cyril struggled underwater as he groped blindly around in a cylindrical shaft filled with water. He kicked off the bottom and shoved his body up towards the blindingly bright circle of light. He breached the surface with a gasp and clung to a line attached to a water bucket. He groaned as his metal armor weighed him down, but he stubbornly started to haul himself up the rope line up to the top of the wooden crossbeam at the top of the well. With the last of his energy he tumbled over the lip into a dry yellow sandy soil under the midday glare of sunlight directly overhead in a cloudless sky. He sputtered in disbelief as he looked around the rocky outcroppings, the occasional stunted shrub, and endless desert dunes extending to the horizon.
He muttered, "Crap, this isn't Melromarc anymore." He wearily called out, "Okami…Milady…Miss Charlotte!" All he heard back was a mocking echo. He sunk back down with his back to the stone well and sighed. The only upside was that he was not going to die of thirst. It was then that he noticed fresh purple blood spattered all over the ground. Whatever had been wounded here was not small and not human. Rather than turn tail, he recalled Queen Fitoria's admonishment to help. With a fatalistic sigh he sheathed his sword and retrieved the well bucket. He used the water to wash out and fill a nearby dented and discarded brass pot, and then set out after the blood trail. He carefully carried the pot with his mechanical left hand while his shield was slung over his shoulder and his steel sword was left in its sheath.
He turned a corner and immediately his tan skin paled. Resting up against the cliffside in the sparse shadows, a dark blue dragon the size of small shack lay curled up into a ball with pain quite visible in its amber eyes. Its beautiful cerulean mane was stained by its own violet blood. Readily visible in between two of its trapezoidal pale blue belly scales was a deep and presumably fatal stab wound. "Go ahead human," it snarled. "I'm finished anyway. Do your worst."
With a shaking hands Cyril walked close to its snout and offered the pot to the beast, "Y-you wanted water, right?"
The dragon's wings fluttered in agitation as she could not believe what she had just heard. She exhaled her warm breath over this utter fool and spat out, "Idiot. I could kill you quite easily at this range. Were you dropped on your head?"
Cyril managed a small titter despite being mortally afraid, "Open up please."
She opened her mouth and gulped down the refreshing liquid. Her slit eyes regarded this insane human with more than a little disbelief, "What is wrong with you," she gasped. She grumbled and pointed back towards the well, "More water."
He obligingly returned to well and refilled the container. When he returned he blinked as he saw a miniature dragon infant seated at its parent's…mother's side, crying plaintively. It was a carbon copy of its mother except in scale. He crouched down next to the knee-high creature and offered it the water.
The baby howled in anguish at seeing its dying mother, and whined with a high-pitched voice, "Kuuuuuuuuuuuuuun!"
The mother dragon licked her crying baby's mane and smiled toothily, "Live, my child. This idiot human is of a good heart. Trust him."
Cyril bowed his head as the dragon expired and took her last breath. He reached out and petted her silken mane and sighed. He then knelt next to the orphan dragonlet and offered his open hand and instantly winced as his new acquaintance bit down on his palm with tears burning her yellow-orange eyes. He grunted softly and his red blood dripped on top of the dried purple blood. He smiled through the pain as he had been through far worse, "I know. I know it hurts, my friend. I'll never abandon you."
The baby had no other way to express its pain then biting this stranger with tears stinging her eyes.
The sword knight shrugged in mild exasperation as he realized he could not abandon this feisty little hatchling to her fate. He made a prayer to the Three Heroes God and then shimmied back down the well rope to the now glowing pool below. It was time to go home….with a dragonlet clamped to his hand.
…
In another place and time a young lady with her wrists shackled behind her knelt in a rank smelling and mold-covered stone dungeon. She offered up her prayers to the long departed Shield Hero that her parents were such devoted servants to. She closed her eyes even though her it was unnecessary and smiled serenely. "Oh Shield Hero, look after my dear mother's and father's souls, and take me to your side," she calmly intoned.
A shrieking sound of the cell door swinging open hurt her sensitive hearing but did not interrupt her devotions.
"Hey girl, the war with Siltvert is over," came a somewhat guilty-sounding voice of the younger guard. "Our Lord stated your second sight is useless to him now."
Kiata heard two guards unlock the door and enter her cell. She fatalistically nodded and weakly stood up with the kinder guard's help. She gave a slight bow, "Thank you Guardsman Sivod."
The gruff elder guard snapped, "Why are you thanking him, you foolish kitty?"
"Kindness begets kindness, Guardsman Korlat," she replied calmly. Although she already knew, the blind catkin felt obligated to politely inquire, "How am I to die today, gentlemen?"
Sivord guiltily shifted from foot to foot as he mumbled, "The blade, miss. I'm…sorry."
Korlat groused, "Just shut up and hold her steady, whelp. We can get breakfast after we gut her." He drew out his sword and adjusted the tip to pierce her heart.
The feline girl felt rather than saw a tall intruder rise up behind them from a magically enchanted standing puddle of water. She straitened up and her feline ears flicked as she heard her guest's nearly inaudible footfalls. She noted, "Killing them isn't necessary, sir."
Darius simply boggled at the sight of a young lady in rags as she was propped up by an armored guard with a bare scruff for a mustache and beard. A portly older guard had his weapon ready to run the starving girl through. A simple flick of his wrist and the senior guard gurgled and toppled over as a dagger protruded from his eye socket.
Sivord desperately tried to turn around but three sharp stabs to the back caused him to quickly collapse in a heap. He coughed up blood and gaped up at a black-furred muscular wolfkin dressed entirely in black sneer over him like a rabid canine.
The girl knelt down as the young man was wracked with pain. She was a catkin in her mid to late teens with pale skin, raven-furred ears and tail, and ebony-hued tangled hair. Her sightless green eyes looked more at the ground than forwards. She pleaded, "Please…can you heal him, Master Okami?"
How the hell did this starving beastkin know his name? He growled, "Why heal someone who tried to kill you," he asked with disbelief as he picked the shackle lock open, and handed over a healing vial.
"Welcome to my humble home sir," the girl softly replied as she administered the healing draught to the stricken human. Then she chanted softly a healing incantation. The disabled guard quickly fell unconscious. She smiled at she stroked at his cheek, "Thank you for sparing Guardsman Sivord. He was always the nicest of the guards."
"I will never understand why you care for vile humans that were just about to execute you," Darius huffed as he helped her to her feet. "I was sent by Fitoria, miss."
"The situation must have been dire for her Highness to send you into the Nexus, Master Okami." She wobbled and Darius quickly caught her. "Thank you for coming."
He hoisted her up into a body carry, and felt deep concern that she was nearly as light as a songbird due to malnourishment. "The human made cave system with the glowing blue portals, is this so-called Nexus?"
"Yes, kind sir." She relaxed into her rescuer's arms and nodded, "I can't see much other than light and shadow, but I'm keenly aware of the taste and feel of mana. The portal is reopening, so please hurry."
The sound of armored boots thundered down the hallway and the arriving guards barely missed the sight of a thief dressed in black with a cat maiden in his arms sink down into a glowing puddle.
…
Another orc screamed as three arrows pieced his chest. Even with an arrow jutting out her shoulder Charlotte calmly kept firing as she backed out through the auditorium doors. She cursed as she knew her life was about to end; and she hated to screw over her allies by dying before the Second Wave arrived. Much to her surprise a giant man leapt over her head, picked up the nearest foe and flung him bodily into a spear wielding warrior.
He was a towering, impressively muscled young man with a white horn jutting out of his skull. His white hair billowed dramatically as he smashed two enemies heads together and shrugging off the effects of several arrows shot into him. His blue eyes burned with rage as he was long past caring if he survived or not as long as he took as many of these bastards down as he could. He barked, "Run for your life, kid!"
Charlotte regained her composure as she shot one of the orc archers through the head. She snapped in mild annoyance, "Don't count me out, Oni-boy!"
He laughed uproariously as he plucked up a fallen opponent's spear and used it to run a charging attacker through, "Hello Miss Bow Hero! I'm Lugiel Orga! Charmed!"
The Bow Hero felled the other archer and huffed, "Charlotte Curtiss, How do you do? Welcome to the Nexus!"
Cyril ran charging through the door and used a shield bash followed by a sword thrust to gut an axe-wielding monster. He apologized, "I'm so sorry I was delayed, milady!"
Charlotte felt like laughing with glee. She knew the tide had abruptly turned.
Darius threw daggers at another foe, causing him to stumble and collapse. The remaining half dozen orcs tried futilely to flee back through the windows, but the one way portals trapped them in the kill zone. Seconds later, they all lay slaughtered. As soon as they were finished, a bright blue light blinded the Bow Hero and her retainers and left the space empty of the bodies.
Charlotte collapsed against a wall and panted out of breath. She grunted in pain as Cyril expertly extracted the arrow and gave her a healing philter. She gasped, "Thanks guys. You saved me."
Lugiel stretched out and casually removed arrows from his oozing wounds. His brown tunic and white shirt were now bloodstained. He smiled and waved to his new mistress. "Need a hand with the Waves, Miss Charlotte?"
She sighed as her ears rang painfully by his booming voice. She was now downright annoyed as she realized that he was that punk boy that dragged her from Earth into this world. "Let me guess, you don't remember paying me as visit at the UBC campus?"
Confusion flashed in his rather attractive blue eyes as he shook his head, "Ummm…nope."
She dispelled her bow as she was ready to leave this stupid Nexus behind. "It's good to see you again Cyril and Darius."
Both underlings bowed with respect.
She tapped her crystal and registered Lugiel Orga-Level 22 Lancer.
"Miss Curtiss may we join your cause," a musically sweet voice inquired.
The Bow Hero gaped at the sight of a green-eyed emaciated cat girl draped with Darius' jet black cloak clutching a baby blue-scaled dragon. "W-what the hell happened to you?"
Okami snarled, "She was tortured and about to be put to death, Miss Charlotte. She cannot see well, but she is a powerful psychic."
Charlotte gently patted the dragon babe's head and then gave the girl a sympathetic hug. "We can drop you off somewhere safe if you prefer not to fight."
The girl shook her head. "No, I was born to stand by your side, Miss Curtiss. Both me and our draconic friend will support you with all our spirit."
Charlotte gave a grave nod and acquiesced. She beamed at the baby lizard, "Okay, what is your name, cutie?"
"Kuuuuuun," the dragonlet enthused. She liked this kind-looking brown-haired lady far better than that mean metal-handed bad man. She smelled nice like her late mama.
"Hahaha! I just thought of a line from Star Trek II…Khaaaaaaaaaan!" Charlotte giggled and stroked her friend's soft mane, "You're Khan, okay?"
"Kuuun! Kuun!"
She happily signed on two new followers. The appearance of the second name on her status screen nearly made her jaw fall off in stunned shock, Khan the Nogard-Level 1, and Kiata Aliki-Level 11 Seer/Healer. Seriously, she thought as her the room swirled around her head. It can't be possible. Did I just recruit Takia's daughter?