Emery groaned in his sleep as rays of light began hitting his eyes, telling him it was time to wake up.
He slowly opened his eyes to wake up and immediately regretted it.
"Good morning." Said Emery's kidnapper nonchalantly as she had her face one centimeter away from Emery's, scaring him.
Sadly, Emery couldn't do much with his fear as he realized he was both tied up and had tape over his mouth. By the time he realized this, Nefeli began laughing.
"Ah, you should've seen the look on your face." Said Nefeli cheerfully before noticing that Emery couldn't speak. "Oh, right, let me take that off." Nefeli quickly removed the tape like thing on Emery's mouth and continued. "My name is Nefeli, the world's greatest thief and your kidnapper."
"...you don't have many friends, do you?" Asked Emery with a frown at his kidnapper's nonchalant declaration of being a thief.
Much to Emery's surprise, Nefeli looked VERY uncomfortable with his words, even physically. It looked like it was a sensitive topic to her.
"Well, Moving on. I'll be taking you to Xadia." Said Nefeli quickly changing the subject. "The king and your artificer boss or whatever is probably dead by now. So you're all that's left."
Emery fought the urge to roll his eyes at the fact that she was telling him he was probably dead TO HIMSELF. Alas, he wanted to live another day and that meant keeping quiet.
"So, since we're gonna be together for a while, what's your name?" Asked Nefelis cheerfully only to be met with silence. "Nothing? Okay then. If you don't answer, I'll give you a name myself and it could be very embarrassing." She teased.
Emery kept silent. He didn't want to accidentally say anything that might reveal his identity.
"Hmm, you're like a little artificer. The big artificer is called Emerick, so now, you're Emerick Jr!" Emery was not impressed and very much let it show. "Do you have any objections, Junior?"
Emery sighed. "No." He deadpanned.
Nefeli pouted at the utter lack of an amusing reaction and crossed her arms. "Okay, tough guy, let's get going." She grumbled as she started flying away with her large wings leaving Emery still tied up and unable to move.
Emery could only sit there in shock before, a few seconds later, Nefeli crashed back in at super speed.
"I, uhh, forgot you were, uhh, tied up and kidnapped soo-"
"Pfft." Emery quickly broke into laughter at Nefeli's actions and before long, Nefeli began blushing in embarrassment before curling up into a ball behind a tree where Emery couldn't see her.
A minute after Emery stopped laughing, Nefeli got out from behind the tree and untied Emery's legs and torso to allow him to move.
"Let's go." She said dejectedly looking on the verge of breaking down.
Although she was his enemy, he felt bad for her. He never could've imagined she was this easy to mess with.
Nevertheless, Emery complied with her wishes knowing that she could force him to walk if she wanted.
"You don't look good." Commented Emery calmly as they walked together.
"I'm fine." Nefeli growled. "Why couldn't they have forced someone else to do this."
Emery's ears perked upon hearing the last part.
"So you don't like this job?" Asked Emery raising a brow.
"Of course not! I'm a thief not a kidnapper."
"So why did you kidnap me when you could've just stole the books and left?" Asked Emery curiously.
"...have you ever wanted to make someone proud to the point you'd do something stupid?" She said on the verge of tears.
Emery went silent and Nefeli continued.
"My paren- wait!" Said Nefeli before realizing the current situation. "You're my prisoner, i shouldn't tell you anything!"
Emery raised a brow. "You're a thief, i doubt following the rules is something you do often."
"S-still!"
Roar*
"Uhm, what was that?" Asked Nefeli worriedly knowing the source of the roar was probably close by.
"A roar, I'm guessing." Replied Emery mockingly as he began backing away from the source of the roar.
"I mean, is it something dangerous?"
"Has anything that can roar ever not been dangerous?" Snapped Emery quietly.
"Good point." Replied Nefeli before a large Banther appeared from the trees.
Nefeli quickly dashed into the air and flew away, leaving Emery alone with the beast.
"Oh." Said Emery realizing he was alone in front of a Banther.
Emery slowly backed away as the Banther got closer and closer to his location. He remembered something about not turning your back to predators from his previous life and stuck with it. He couldn't do much else as hus hands were completely tied up.
The Banther warily got closer to Emery, but right at the last step a black blur stole Emery away.
"Sorry, forgot about you...again." said Nefeli as she flew with Emery in a princess carry before losing her stability. "We're gonna crash!"
The two screamed in union as they flew through tree branches and leaves until they finally hit the ground.
"Ow, at least i didn't drop you this time." Joked Nefeli.
"There was another time and you dropped me?!" Exclaimed Emery angrily as she layed on his back from the crash. "We need to stop that Banther. Do you know Aspiro Frigis?"
"Too messy for a thief. I just learned how to use Fulminis with my hands and knocked unsuspecting victims that way instead. Like you!"
"Well, can you knock out a bear panther abomination with a Fulminis?" Asked Emery with a frown.
"I can try." Shrugged Nefeli as she hopped into the air and drew the rune for the spell as the Banther approached their location. "[Fulminis]!"
A bolt of lightning sprung from the rune and hit the Banther, but it wasn't enough. Nefeli was talented, but she never fought anyone, only knocked them out. And the dosage of lightning used to knock out an elf or a human isn't the dosage for a Banther.
The Banther looked angry and ready to fight. Something that made Nefeli wince as she realized her oversight. She was about to fly away again, but this time she remembered she had to take Emery with her.
In another black blur, Nefeli flew with Emery just far enough to not crash into anything.
"Untie me, i can help." Said Emery before Nefeli quickly did as ordered without a fuss. "That was fast. Give me my bag i have something there."
Nefeli did not argue and just gave him the bag. From inside, he pulled out the sci fi pistol looking weapon.
"Now, i need you to distract it for a minute." Said Emery and Nefeli quickly nodded.
Ignoring how willing Nefeli was, Emery began preparing the weapon. Meanwhile, Nefeli used her skills and her wings to stay in the attacking distance of the bear without getting hit.
She gracefully dodged through all attacks with ease. And it wasn't long before the weapon was charged and ready.
Emery got closer to the Banther and fired. The spell inside the weapon right now was Aspiro Frigis and it trapped the Banther in a mass of ice.
Emery let out a sigh of relief as Nefeli landed onto the ground.
Before the two could leave however, they saw a few Banther cubs reaching out to the big banther in the in the ice.
"She was attacking us because she thought we we're a danger to her babies." Said Nefeli calmly.
"Yup." Said Emery tiredly as he began walking away with his bag in hand.
"Uhm, hey, why didn't you run away while i distracted the big lady?" Nefeli asked sheepishly as she followed Emery.
"I'm pragmatic, not heartless." Shrugged Emery.
"I was always told humans are evil and can't be trusted. Guess that was wrong."
"It's a matter of individuals rather than species." Replied Emery calmly.
"Shame no one will see that with war around the corner." Added Nefeli dejectedly. "With your prince and the dragon prince dead and all "
Emery went silent and frowned as he remembered something. "What if they're both alive?"
Nefeli let out a sound of confusion.
"King Harrow knew about the assassins. He must've told the princes to leave before they came. They could be alive. Meanwhile, our high mage kept something with a lot of sky primal energy somewhere in the castle, it could be the egg. We just need to find them."
"Wait, hold on! The egg can't be alive! It was destroyed!"
"Think about it, would a dark mage really waste something as powerful as the egg of the strongest being in the world?"
Nefeli went silent, realizing that Emery was right before he pulled out a robot hamster toy out of his bag.
"What's that hamster supposed to do?" Asked Nefeli curiously.
"It does a lot of things. One of them is being a compass for magic by concentrating a large amount of magic in the antenna to the point that it gets attracted to what we're looking for." Said Emery calmly as he attached his weapon to the hamster toy with a cable and raised an antenna out of the toy.
Emery tapped the hamster toy's belly and it sprung up like a platform before the hamster faced a certain direction.
"The strongest pull is that way, so is the egg."
"That's not the castle." Nefeli quickly realized. "Wait!What about your prince?"
"He always has that weird glowtoad with him. But i doubt i can find it. The egg of an archdragon attracts more energy than a glowtoad ever could. For now, we follow the egg."
Nefeli went silent for a few seconds before nodding with a forced determined expression to hide her fear.
"By the way, you still haven't told me your name."
"...Emerick." Said Emery with a light smile.
"...the second?" She asked and Emery shook his head. "The third?"
"The first."
xxXxx
If you haven't figured it out, Nefeli is a very talented thief, but also a giant pushover. She hides behind her talent and a mask of confidence to hide who she really is. She is very weak mentally and hitting a few slightly sore spots can easily send her over the edge. She absolutely knows nothing about dealing with people apart from how to efficiently steal from them.
Tell me how i did. Leave a review.
Toodles.