Chapter 2 – Treasure Hunt

Traveling many miles through the woods with Legat following loosely behind Suki slows her pace to a brisk walk and wags her tail, "This is going to be fun."
"Indeed it is. So what's so special about this behemoth? You said a crystal right?"
"Yep."
"So you get the crystal… What do I get?"
"You get whatever is in its hoard."

"Sounds okay. Lets go then," he says as he motions for her to lead the way with his hand.
Suki peers into the cave and quietly trots across its floor, spotting the monster a couple yards from the back of the cavern sleeping amongst a pile of forgotten treasure. Legat walks in so silently she isn't sure he is touching the ground. Legat walks up to the sleeping monster and whispers, "Lets wake it up so we can have some fun," he says before he flashes his fangs and sinks them into the beast's neck, waiting for it to wake with rage, and backs to Suki afterwards. "Mmm, now lets have some fun shall we?"
She laughs, "Lets enjoy it while it lasts," and bites the behemoth's tail and runs up its back to bite its neck. Legat draws two blades, a dagger and a sword, runs under the belly of the best while it's distracted and stabs the front right leg of the monster with the dagger and slices the back left leg with his sword, listening with joy as the behemoth wails in pain. Suki gouges the behemoth's right eye out with her claws and deftly trots back across its neck to its back and bites away.

Watching as a group of imps swoop from the ceiling, Legat catches one by its leg. With his free hand he stabs it through the throat, slicing anther imp's wing above it in the process. Suki pounces from one imp to another as they fly, mauling them as she goes. Legat removes the sword from the imp by cutting half of its neck, then looking at the behemoth, charges at its mouth, slides, and thrusts upward to place the blade in it's jaw. Letting the fresh blood trickle down this throat. Suki continues to pounce the imps as if they were stepping-stones as Legat pulls out a barbed chain from around his waist and watches the imps fall. Any imp that fell with life's energy in it, died before it hit the floor from a swift whip of the chain. Suki lands next to the monster and bites at the behemoth's neck, lapping up the coppery sweetness. Legat latches a hooked blade onto the chain and launches it into the behemoth's good eye, to have it quickly enter and slowly rip out the eye, dangling. The behemoth scatters around in a blind rage; attacking anything within its grasp.
Suki runs for the crystal in the behemoth's current absence from its hoard. The behemoth turns and starts charging straight for her and Legat runs as fast as he can to grab his chain and swing it around the behemoth's neck. Pulling himself to the creature's head, raises his sword, and lunges it into the beast's brain. Jumping as the massive creature crashes down at her heels, Suki ignores the felling of the beast and grabs the crystal from the top of the hoard. At first, there's a dark blue glow from the crystal as she holds it in her mouth. Then she goes limp where she stood, dropping the crystal. Moments later she shakes herself and stretches, picking up the dropped crystal and trotting to Legat with her tail wagging and says, "Finally I have it."
"Congrats."
"It was a tad bit stronger than anticipated but I absorbed the energy from it soon enough," she explains before putting the crystal in a small pouch around her neck to add to her collection.
"You have quite the collection," he says and pulls a crystal from the base of his dagger and hands it over, "A gift."

She takes it and adds it to her pouch, "Thanks."

"Wondering why you didn't notice it before?"
"Actually I am… Why didn't I?"
"Well, lets just say there's things about me you don't know," he replies before walking behind a pillar in the cave and emerging from the other side of it fully clothed. "So what now? And these fit and look much better don't you think?" he asks while gesturing at his new clothing.
Suki nods, "Well, seeing that we've had our fill of chaos for the moment I say we head for the nearest town and get some information." She walks around him and admires the clothing, "A very nice fit."
"Why thank you. I 'made' it myself. So where is the nearest town?" he asks.
"Lets see… Well, the nearest town would be a little past Stones Crossing and south of Brackenwood Forest. I think it's called Duern."
"Fine with me."
Suki sits at Legat's feet, still in her vulpine form, and looks to the mound of weapons and the sort in the hoard, "Are you going to get anything from that mess?"
He looks over everything quickly and reaches deep into the pile, slipping something into his pocket, "Okay, I'm ready… wait --" and grabs a set of throwing knives. "Okay, now I am."
She laughs lightly, "Alright, lets go then." And trots on out of the cave, leading the way to Duern with Legat following slowly behind.
When they make it to Stones Crossing they find themselves amongst a pack of sand golems. "Ooh. Haven't seen those in a while."
"They don't look like somethin' to eat to me, so…" he says while looking annoyed.
Suki laughs, "No, they aren't but I've heard that this may be the only surviving pack in the Otherworld, but I do see your point. So lets move on."
"Well, shouldn't we let them join the others?" he asks.

She thinks for a moment and flatly states, "No."
"Fine then." And glares harshly at her, "Lets keep going if we must…"
Suki's ears flatten as she walks onward and her tail twitches in an annoyed manner. He glances at her with a concerned look on his face, "You look sleepy. Should we make camp here? It's not like we'll get much information at this time anyways, would we?
She pauses and turns to him, "No, we wouldn't." and knaws on a bleached femur bone of an imp.
"Then that's it, we make camp here?"
"Sure."
Legat gathers some firewood together and makes a fire after a few failed attempts. Laying down next to the fire with his head on a log, starring at his fox comrade, "Good night. See you tomorrow?"
Suki lies down and curls her tail around her, the white tip touching her nose. "Yeah, see you then."

In the morning she stretches her little vulpine body before transforming into her halfbreed form.
"Aww isn't that cute," he says.
She smiles and sits on a nearby stump, drinking some water from a canister. Legat stretches his body with a yawn and sighs afterwards, "So what now? Do we head for town?"

"Yeah, sounds good to me. There won't be anything good to feed on until then and I'm hungry."
Legat gathers his belongings and makes way towards town looking to see if she's ready to go. Suki packs her things and nods afterwards. Leading the way once again.
"We're off to see the…" he sings, mumbling off toward the end on noticing how annoying that song is. Suki laughs lightly and shakes her head.
"I'm… I'm sorry." he apologizes.

"Just try not to make it a habit."

"Oh I know I don't even know why I did it. I hate that song and the movie was awful."
Suki plays with one of her crystals in her left hand as she walks. While Legat sharpens his newly found throwing knives, "Shiny." And looks at his reflection in the blade. Suki thinks about absorbing the crystal energy from the crystal but decides not to. Legat keeps walking while looking at the newly sharpened blades. Suki watches a gryphon soar the skies ahead of them. Legat thinks for a second, looks at the gryphon and the gryphon looks back with a knowing gaze. He pulls out his chain and whips it around the gryphon's leg and grabs Suki by the waist, the gryphon flying toward Duern.
"Nice plan but how do you know it's going to stay on this path?"
"Trust me," he says while glancing into the gryphon's eyes.
"I'll take your word for it then."

Legat pulls himself and Suki up onto the back of the gryphon. She sits on the gryphon's back and enjoys the ride, unsheathing her scythes and sharpening them. Seeing the town below the gryphon glides lower almost knowingly. As it passes over a rooftop Legat jumps off to slide down the slope of a roof and jump onto another. Suki quickly sheaths her scythes and follows suit, "This place hasn't changed much."
"It has since I was last here. All but a few buildings."
"I see," she replies, her stomach growling in the silence. "Heh, it seems as if my stomach is already a step ahead of me."
"Well I have some 'years old' business to take care of so I must be going. But I'll be sure to meet up with you later," and he slowly starts walking into the shadows. "Bye for now, and don't eat too much." And facing away from her he gives her a sly grin.
Suki laughs, "Oh I'll try not to. I'll see you later then." She walks on down the alleyway, her tail wagging in anticipation of her meal.