Kuro
Two days had passed since Naru had her 'dream.' After she told me about it, I instantly saw it as more of a vision than a dream. She saw things I hadn't even told her about, so I definitely didn't think it was just a random dream. I had been thinking about possibilities of why she had this vision, but I couldn't come up with anything coherent. Every idea that popped into my head just ended up having no concrete reasoning behind it. It got to a point where I was just conjuring up nonsense in my head, so I just dropped the theories for a bit. There wasn't any point in giving myself a headache trying to think of an explanation for something I had no idea the reasoning behind in the first place. I also had no way to look into the reasoning, so I just need to drop it for the time being.
The past two days were mainly spent getting Shiro used to other pokemon than Naru and I. I was expecting her to have a storm of issues when it came to this, but she did surprisingly well around others when she knew they weren't dangerous. We started with Kage and Vero. After explaining the whole situation regarding Shiro to both of them, we had her introduce herself to the two of them. It went rather smoothly, and Shiro seemed to be comfortable around them after a few minutes of talking. This made me grateful, as we needed someone other than Naru and I to be familiar with Shiro, just in case anything unexpected happened. It's not like it hasn't happened multiple times in the past, so better safe than sorry. Not to mention, Shiro was definitely being hunted previously, as her location was closed in on by a Void admin, and there was no guarantee that it wasn't going to happen again. If Shiro really escaped from a Void facility, then they would definitely want her back, or worse. For this reason, I wanted to take more precautions to make sure Shiro wasn't in any kind of danger.
I was happy that I took said precautions, because Naru and I were now on our way to talk with our boss about something, and I didn't have a good feeling about it. She hadn't called out to us directly since she gave us our missions, and that was because she gave everyone their first tasks, but I didn't know what to think about being called to her since then.
"So why do you think we're being called?" Naru asked from next to me. "It's a bit out of the ordinary, don't you think?"
"If I had to guess, she probably wants to give us a task to complete directly." I told her. "Although, I don't really know for sure. It's been a long time since she called out to us, so maybe she plans on doing something different." I couldn't really think of a reason as to why she needed to give us a task directly. I would think the only reason she directly assigns a mission in the first place would be if someone was specifically qualified for a certain task to complete, but wouldn't she assign a task like that to someone who has been a Raven for more than a month and some change?
What exactly would we be qualified for that the other members aren't..?
I stopped my continuing train of thought about why we were being called out. I was going to find out in a few minutes anyway, so thinking about it more would be pointless anyway. We kept walking through the Nest, on our way to our boss' office. Even after living at the Nest for over a month, I still didn't fully know my way around the place. The size was large as is, but there were also not many differences from one part of the it to the next, so I had a bit of trouble keeping my bearings when walking around. I'm pretty sure the only places I know how to get to by heart are the shops and Kage and Vero's room. Those are the only places I go to regularly, so I know how to get there, but when it came to other parts of the Nest, I was mostly clueless. Luckily, Naru knew her way around so much better than I do, so she was able to lead us to our boss' office. If she had the same problem that I did, then we'd just be wandering around the Nest looking like idiots for who knows how long.
After a small while of walking, we arrived at a door that I hadn't seen since we first arrived here. One that matched the entrance to the main lobby of the Nest. I walked up to it and knocked a certain pattern with the back of my paw. Every Nest member had a 'code' of sorts that we used if we wanted a word with our boss. Everyone's was different, but they all consisted of a series of knocks that wasn't too easy to describe. The point is, we all had a pattern, and we all used said pattern to get into our boss' office. Once I finished knocking the pattern into the door, it slowly opened. Not bothering to wonder how exactly the door opened, Naru and I both walked into the room.
Once we did, I took in the familiar sights of the office. The violet coloring of the walls, and the golden chandelier on the ceiling surrounded by strange shapes. I still wondered about those shapes, but I passed them off as a design choice and looked at the shiny Greninja sitting behind their desk. She had one hand folded over the other, pressed up against the bottom of her face. When she looked up at us, she grew a small smile.
"Hello Kuro, Naru." She simply greeted. She had a strange tone in her voice that I couldn't place. "It's been awhile since I talked to the two of you directly." She stood up from her desk and then walked across the room in order to stand in front of us. "I know it's a bit strange to start off with this, but I want to apologize to you about something." I tilted my head and was about to question what she needed to apologize for, but she bowed her head down and started to talk before I had the chance to.
"Last time I talked to you, I brought up your parents, Kuro." She closed her eyes. "I wasn't aware of what had happened to them in the past, so I brought them up insensitively. I'm sorry for doing that." After she was done talking, she didn't raise her head. She stayed in the same position, waiting for a response.
And here I was hoping she didn't know about them…
"Um… You don't need to apologize." I awkwardly shifted my ears, as the situation at hand was making me a bit uncomfortable. "You didn't know what happened, so it's not your fault. Plus, that was more than a month ago, so I wouldn't worry about it." She finally changed her position and looked at the two of us again.
"Thank you for your forgiveness." She simply said. "Now, for the reason I called you here, first, I need to ask the two of you a question. Naru, you know the town of Myriad well, don't you?" Naru responded instantly.
"Yes, I do. I lived there for a long time, so I know my way around the whole town pretty well." Naru said.
"Very good. Now, Kuro, you know the open area that surrounds your old home, don't you?" She asked me, and I wondered why exactly she wanted to know how well we knew our old homes.
"I know the forest near it really well, and I know a lot of the area that leads towards Myriad." I told her.
"Perfect." She turned around and grabbed some papers from the top of her desk before putting them in a folder. "We have a lot of missions in those areas as of late, and it would be easier for me to send Ravens to do all of the tasks in one trip as opposed to sending a different team there day by day. Also, because the two of you know the area related, I thought you would be the perfect ones to handle it." I shifted my bag to the front of my body to receive the folder. "I have a set amount of jobs for you two to do listed here, are you up for it?" She asked us. Naru spoke up first.
"Wait, if we're doing a whole list of missions, are we staying there for more than one day?" She asked. I wondered about that as well, especially when it usually takes us around a full day to do one task normally.
"You'll most likely be there for a few days. I'd say a week at most if you have a decent rate in your task completion." Myra told us. "You'll be flown out there by a Raven, and in a week from when you arrive, I'll send someone to bring you back. You'll also get a small device to coordinate information to us from Myriad, or if we need to let you know about something." Myra then took out a small circular device with a violet exterior. The violet coloring had two small orange lines rounding the device, surrounding a screen that was just short of being the size of the entire metal contraption. The screen was blank, taking the form of a black circle in the middle of the Violet. It didn't seem to have any buttons of any kind, so I had no idea how the thing worked, but I decided to not question it immediately.
Myra slid it into my bag before taking another one out from behind her desk. She held it up to the side of her head, and began to explain.
"These small devices were brought to us about a month ago by an outside company. They're programmed by psychics, and they give you the ability to communicate with someone telepathically as long as you have the device in your vicinity." She explained, and I put on a confused face.
"Telepathy?" Naru questioned, and obtained a nod from Myra. "How does that even work without us being psychics?"
"I'm not sure, after all, they weren't even designed by the Nest. All I know is that you can link them with one another, and then that gives the pokemon the ability to talk to anyone they happen to be linked with as long as the device is in their possession." Myra further explained.
"Technology is weird…" Myra put the second device she took out into Naru's bag.
"Both of these are already linked with Core, and he's who you'll be reporting to if you need to relay any information. Of course, you should also let us know if something has gone wrong on your end, that way, we can help you out with it." Myra told us. "Now, as for how you use these devices, since you both keep your bags with you at all times, you'll always have the ability to communicate with Core and each other if you link them. In terms of how to actually communicate with them, it's all in your state of mind." I tilted my head in confusion in synchronization with Naru, and Myra chuckled. "Basically, you need put the pokemon you're trying to talk to in your head, and focus on them. Think about how you want to communicate with them, or how you want to tell them something, and then put those words through your mind. If done properly, then the pokemon on the receiving end with hear your thoughts."
Right after Myra was done explaining, I felt a headache coming on. Who designs this kind of thing? What kind of pokemon even come up with these ideas? I shook my head, not wanting to try and understand something far beyond my current comprehension.
"Why don't you two link your devices with each other and try it out? It would be a good idea to get a feel for it in case you need to use it out in the field." Myra suggested.
"How do we link them?" Naru asked.
"Just put them both on the ground next to each other, and after a minute or two, they'll link up." Listening to Myra, I grabbed the device out of my bag with my maw, ad placed it on the ground. Naru then did the same, and we observed the two violet circular communicators. After a minute, the screens on both of them lit up. They shared a dark blue shade, but no words or symbols appeared on them. The screens just shared a solid blue, until shifting back to black after a few moments. Once they were back to normal, Naru and I just stared at the things cluelessly. This did not go unnoticed by Myra, who started to laugh.
"Your devices are done linking, so you should be safe to try and use them now." The two of us nodded and both placed the devices back in our bags. Immediately after that, I tried to empty my mind. I imagined that using this would take a lot of practice, and it would be difficult to-
Kuro? Can you hear me? Hello?
I jumped at the sound that had just played in my head. It sounded like I was being whispered to, like the voice was coming from right next to my ear and wasn't loud, but at the same time, the voice sounded like it wasn't whispering, almost like it was talking at normal volume but got quieted down. Of course, I also recognized the voice as Naru's.
I closed my eyes again and tried to focus for a response.
Can you hear me Naru? I can hear you fine. I… Thought back.
Yes, I can! Wow, that was a lot easier than expected. Naru's voice played in my head.
I opened my eyes, no longer needing to focus. That was actually really easy… It sounded so complicated that I assumed it would be difficult, but I have no reason to complain.
"So have you two managed to communicate?" Myra asked from in front of us, and the two of us nodded.
"It was a lot easier than I thought it'd be, which is a bit of a relief." Naru said, and I nodded once more in agreement.
"Now that you both know how that works, I'll call a Raven to bring you to your destination soon. I suggest you get everything you need ready and prepare to head out." Myra told us. The two of us nodded in affirmation and then exited her office.
As soon as we left and began heading back to our room, I thought about actually leaving the Nest for a week. The idea itself I didn't have a problem with, but the aspect of needing to leave Shiro right after we got her comfortable here was something I couldn't quite keep out of my head. I was suddenly very glad we took the time to introduce Shiro to Vero and Kage, because we were most likely going to have to ask them to check up on Shiro every now and then in order to make sure she stays okay. Either that, or we would need to take Shiro with us, which would be dangerous, so I instantly put that thought aside.
On the way back, Naru and I conversed on what exactly we thought we'd be doing in Myriad, or the surrounding area. Myra did give us a list of tasks, so we decided to look at them on the way back.
There is a Gardevoir that runs an orphanage as of two weeks ago, it seems very beneficial so we want it to be checked up on and helped if needed.
There is a Raven who is accepting applications to join the Nest as medical staff, they will be at the place where the applicants' tournament was held, we want these applications to be retrieved.
Do a general sweep of the town to make sure nothing underhanded is going on.
Survey the residents and see how commonly the Void is known as a threat.
Verify that there are no Void bases around the perimeter of the town, or in the town itself.
Investigate a small town two miles east of Myriad, we sent two Ravens there a little while ago and neither of them have reported back yet. We'd like to know what exactly happened to them.
"Looks like we'll have our hands full for a bit." Naru said from beside me. "Although, at least none of this looks dangerous, besides that last one that is."
"Well, hopefully their communication devices just broke or something. There isn't anything explicitly stating that something bad happened." I responded, receiving a nod in return.
"I hope you're right."
The two of us made it back to our room, and walked in on a barely conscious Shiro. She was stumbling around, it looked like she had just gotten up from sleeping. However, when the two of us walked over to say something, her mind seemed to start processing again.
"Hi Kuro and Naru!" She happily chirped without stuttering. After talking to her the past two days, she seemed to not have a stutter problem anymore when it came to Naru and I, which I was grateful for. She still stuttered a bit around Kage and Vero, but progression in small steps is okay.
"Hi Shiro!" Naru happily greeted before petting her head, something I noticed has happened a lot in recent memory. I looked at the two engage with each other happily, and I smiled. I was really glad that Shiro was here safely with us and not getting hunted by some psycho who wanted to do who knows what with her.
Thinking back to the events that brought Shiro to the Nest, I began to wonder about something. That Mr. Mime… Rage, he was really close to the Nest when he was hunting Shiro, about a mile away. A Void admin being so close to so many Ravens could be really bad, but then again, there are two Void members in the Nest itself, so having another one close by wasn't too much of a surprise. The Void definitely knows where the Nest is at this point, there's no doubt about it. Not only are Kai and Aven here, but Luna was as well, and considering that she's the leader of the Void, there's no way our location isn't known. I wanted more than anything to tell Myra about this, but it's my word against theirs, and being a recruit, my word will not hold up against two leaders, trusted leaders at that.
Is there really nothing I can do? How long until the Void actually launches some kind of attack on the Nest? I paused for a second, and thought about the idea that just came up in my head. There really wasn't any reason why the Void wouldn't just take the fight directly to the Nest, that is, unless they aren't confident. The Nest makes each one of their members out to be some kind of terrible force that we should never challenge directly, but could they be weaker than we think?
I wasn't about to go and assume that the Void was weak, far from it. However, the Nest just might be stronger. Either that, or Luna is just toying with everyone. What reason would she have to do that though? Is it just to stir up confusion? So she can take down the Nest more easily in the future? For her own pleasure? Maybe-
"Kuro, are you okay?"
My head snapped to the attention of Naru's voice. I was just lost in thought, and I don't know for how long. I was probably just staring into space for the past few minutes…
"I'm okay, just thinking about a few things." I responded while twitching my ears. I spoke with a little less enthusiasm than I initially wanted to, but I still kept my tone cheerful, so hopefully my worry wouldn't get sensed.
"You space out a lot, Kuro." Naru told me. "You should try to relax your thoughts more often. I know we have a lot of stuff we're ignorant to right now, but we'll find answers in due time. Try not to strain yourself."
Try not to strain yourself… I played Naru's words back in my head.
"I'll try my best. I guess you can say I'm still not completely used to not being alone with my thoughts all the time." I told her.
"It makes sense if you were on your own for so long, but you've been adapting well in other areas, so I'm sure you'll just get used to it with more time." I responded by nodding my head.
"You were by yourself before you came here?" Shiro asked from in front of Naru and I.
Right… She doesn't know about any of this…
I gave a nervous chuckle. "Yes, for a long time before I came here, I was alone."
"How come?' She asked, and I gave a small sigh. Not wanting to tell her about my… Situation, I told her that, at the time, I felt more comfortable when I was alone so I traveled around just exploring until I found my way here. Shiro was way too young for me to give her the truth, so I just told a white lie.
"I was alone for the same reason." Naru then followed. "Both of us liked being alone with our minds, so we both stayed alone. Although, the two of us had a change of heart recently and both came here." Naru further lied. I felt bad for lying to Shiro, and I could tell by the tone of Naru's voice that she wasn't exactly comfortable with it either, but it was necessary nonetheless. Also, this conversation reminded me of something we needed to tell Shiro.
"Right, Shiro." I said, and she turned her eyes to mine. "Naru and I need to… Go away for a little while. We have something we need to do that is going to take place a decent distance away." I told her. I really did have second thoughts about leaving Shiro here, but I didn't want to risk her safety at all. It would be much better for her to be at the Nest than out with us in the field. The field is too unpredictable, while the we'll know exactly how much protection Shiro has in the Nest. However, while that was settled, I still worried about how she would feel about us leaving in the first place.
"How long will you be gone?" She asked. I couldn't pinpoint the emotions she held in her voice.
"About a week." I responded, still worrying about a negative reaction. I took a quick glance at Naru and saw that she had a similar look of slight distress. However, Shiro didn't look very reactive to the situation at all.
"Okay! I hope it goes well for you!" Shiro cheerfully said.
I was kind of at a loss. I thought she would be upset about us needing to leave her right after taking her in, but she sounded like she was more than ready if something like this came up. When the fact we needed to tell Shiro about this first popped into my head, I thought about how I felt back when my parents had to leave me alone for a while. I was always upset about it, and I never wanted them to leave. Since Shiro seemed only slightly older than I was when I had those feelings of distress, I expected a somewhat similar reaction, especially since she didn't remember much from her past. Naru seemed to share similar thoughts with me, gauging by her expression.
"You're not worried about being alone again?" Naru asked concerningly.
"It's only for a week, right? I lived in that weird shack for a month by myself, and I was okay. Plus, it's different now that I'm here. Both of you said that it's safe here, so I trust you!" Shiro exclaimed.
I was, once again, speechless. This girl… She's so much emotionally stronger than I was when I was younger. I thought back to after my parents died, primarily, the first bit of time I was alone. I had no idea what I was doing, and after hiding from ferals and learning what plants not to eat through trial and error, I was still hopeless. I never saw the light in anything because of recent events haunting me. Yet, here a Vulpix is standing in front of me, not worried at all about being left alone again because she has confidence that we'll come back. She doesn't have any memories to go by, no previous experiences to reference. She even pointed out that, since she's at the Nest now, she's safer, so she's seeing the positives in being alone again for a little while. I smiled, and let out a small chuckle.
She even trusts us to come back so strongly, regardless of the fact she's known us for about two days.
"You're so much more optimistic than I ever was." I said to her. "Also, thank you for trusting us on such short notice." She smiled in response, and then did something I wasn't really expecting. She walked over to my side, getting a strange glance from both me and Naru. Right after that, she jumped onto my back, almost making me fall over in the process. I stumbled a little bit, trying to regain my balance from the unexpected gesture. Noticing my struggle, Shiro started to laugh, which was soon followed up by Naru. She then placed her head on top of mine.
"I trust you because you made me feel safe for the first time from what I can remember. Not only that, but you protected me, so how can I not trust you?" Shiro said in a happy tone. When she said this, I felt a strange emotion stir up in me. It felt so foreign for another pokemon to say something like this to me. I was without interaction with any others for the longest time, and even before that, I was being protected by two pokemon, not protecting anyone myself. For a pokemon to say that I made them feel safe, to suggest that I could protect them, brought out a large feeling of happiness from within me.
How can one's life take such a drastic turn in one month of time? I thought to myself before smiling.
"You know Shiro, you won't be alone while we're gone either." Naru said from next to me. "We introduced you to two of our friends, and they'll make sure you don't feel alone anymore." When Naru said this, Shiro jumped off of my back and onto Naru's. Caught off-guard, Naru had a similar reaction to the gesture that I did, to which the situation repeated itself but with roles traded. After looking at this, I had the thought of my life changing so fast pop into my head again. I actually had pokemon I could call friends now… I wasn't alone. Having others in my life brought out the same feeling of happiness from the core of my being.
After a few minutes of Shiro asking random questions about our 'trip' as she called it, we realized that it was time for Naru and I to leave for the time being. After coming to this realization, Shiro hopped off of Naru's back and walked back over to her bed. Naru and I prepped ourselves with whatever we would need on the way there, (Just a lot of medical precautions) and then got ready to leave.
"We'll see you when we get back Shiro!" Naru told her happily.
"Good luck!" Shiro shouted at us in response. With that, we exited our room and began to walk to the other side of the Nest, where we were getting picked up by another Raven.
The platform to start an escort to a far away area was located at the opposite point of the Nest, so we had a bit of a walk before we got there. It was a bit inconvenient that the service that we were going to have to use on a near daily basis as we started to deal with harder missions was located as physically far away as possible, but it was nothing more than a minor annoyance. It wasn't anything that I don't do tenfold in training, so it didn't bother me much other than it being a bit of a time sync.
Nonetheless, Naru and I were fully prepared to go back to Myriad in order to accomplish some menial tasks. I may have over prepared us a little bit, as I ended up getting a lot of medical supplies for a simple mission that didn't consist of any combat, but better safe than sorry. After our first mission, I will never think I'm being over prepared again. After all, anything can happen, no matter how unexpected.
Naru and I were wrapped up in an idle conversation about random things when we finally made it to the other side of the Nest, and the platform in which we were to meet with our escort. The platform was a large golden-floored hexagon located at the edge of the Nest, so by looking out into the distance, all you could see are endless fields. There was a large staircase with the signature violet coloring that the Nest held leading up to the large golden hexagonal platform. We climbed said staircase and as soon as we set our paws down on the cold golden surface, we were approached by a vaguely familiar face.
"Hello, you're Kuro and Naru, yes?" The Altaria asked before widening her cloud-like wings from her blue body. "Of course you are! I remember you two from the applicants tournament!" Her tone changed from formal to energetic really fast. After all, when you realize that you're talking to other recruits, you tend to not feel the need to be formal.
"Hi… Aria, is it?" Naru greeted. I could tell she was still a bit taken aback from her change in energy. "It's nice to formally meet you."
"Likewise! Anyways, I heard you were going far away for a little bit, what does our boss have you wrapped up with?" She asked. I appreciated her friendly attitude, but I'd be lying if I said it didn't make feel the slightest bit uncomfortable. I didn't really know why, but it was just a strange feeling I had.
"We just have a list of things to take care of in Myriad." Naru explained. "She said that it would be more efficient to send one team that knows the area rather than send a different one every day to accomplish tasks that took little time to complete."
"I see. Well, I'll happily escort you there in record time!" Aria proudly stated. She then looked up in the sky, as if investigating something. "Hmmm… It's about noon now, so if we leave now, then I can get you there a little before night hits." She told us, to which we both nodded. "Alright! Climb on and then we'll soar!" Aria lowered her body for us two smaller pokemon to climb on. Naru first climbed onto her, and then sat somewhat close to her neck. I then followed and sat behind Naru.
"Are you sure you can support our weight?" Naru asked before we started to fly.
"Of course!" Aria energetically responded. "All of my training has been geared to strengthening myself physically ever since I decided I wanted to be an escort for other Ravens to get to their destinations. Plus, I've already escorted pokemon much heavier than two eeveelutions, so no need to worry!" Once she said this, a certain question popped into my head.
"Did you join the Nest to be an escort?" I asked her. She sounded like she changed her mind after getting accepted into the Nest, and I was a bit curious as to how that worked.
"So you *can* talk!" She started with, which made me slightly embarrassed. "Apparently, the way they have it here at the Nest, assuming you got in through the applicants' tournament, you can switch over to being an escort at any time if you so please. Since my skills greately adhered to being an escort, I decided to switch over. Plus, I meet a loooot of new pokemon this way, and I find it very pleasant!" I found it interesting how the Nest operates. You'd think that all those who were chosen from the applicants' tournament were important enough to the Nest, due to their combat ability, that they would be stuck in the field that they were accepted in, but apparently not.
"I didn't know there were different fields to the Nest on the first place." Naru said with a small sigh.
"I'm pretty sure the Nest recruits pokemon with combat abilities, ones who have medical talent, and ones who can escort other Ravens. At least, that would make sense to me." I said afterwards.
"You've got it!" Aria replied energetically. "The ones who got in from the applicants' tournament have free will to change to another path they're more suited to, but it doesn't work in reverse, the Nest is too picky about Ravens being able to defend themselves for that." She further explained. After everything was said, it made sense to me why it was structured that way. After all, if you have someone who is great at healing someone, but can't properly defend themselves, even if they never go on a mission that is supposed to have combat, it's still risky. After all, look at Naru and I's first mission. Adversely, if you have someone who may have good combat ability but is even better at, say, escorting others, than it would make sense for them to be able to switch. After thinking it over, I somewhat agreed with it, even know it had a few flaws.
"Well, you two aren't here to talk about how things work behind the scenes, so why don't we get flying?" Aria asked.
"Sure! Let's go!" Naru excitedly said, and I nodded. Admittedly, I was a little bit unnerved at flying on another pokemon at such a height, but I decided to trust in Aria and her training, whatever it was.
Not like I have another choice in the first place…
With that, Aria began to fly, and I immediately felt the wind blow through my fur, as well as gravity's attempt to pull us back down as soon as she lifted off the ground. After gaining some altitude, the wind in my ears picked up, I felt the colder air, and we began to fly off to our destination.
Hello Readers!
Now, before I say anything, I need to address the elephant in the room. Why haven't I updated in so long? Well, my schedule hasn't really been agreeing with me lately. Right after I started school back up and had a proper schedule set, I thought it would be no problem to find time to write this, as well as keep up with everything else going on. Needless to say, I severely underestimated my work load, and I'm paying the price for it. I thought I could balance this with everything else, but I misjudged by quite a margin. Now, this doesn't mean I'm going to stop writing this or anything, I enjoy it way too much and I love providing something that other people will read and enjoy. I'm going to try my absolute hardest to make more time for typing this, I don't want to have to upload monthly, as that really feels too slow to me. However, if it's the only choice, then I'll go with it.
Now, enough of my excuses, time for actual author's note of fun and happiness. First off, I want to inform everyone that I have gone back and edited the first five chapters, so those are in much better shape now. I find it baffling to me that I re-read these things twice before I upload, and yet I still let a ton of grammar and spelling mistakes get through, as well as a few incoherent sentences. Now, I consider my grammar to be pretty decent, but I tend to mistype a lot of things, especially when I have to work from my phone. How I don't catch these when proofreading… I blame ADD.
Finally, I want to thank all of you who have stayed, regardless of the lack of updates as of late. I greately appreciate it, as well as all of your criticism, PMs, the usual. I am grateful for all of you who read this story, and I hope you enjoy it as I continue!
Also cringe name change…. Because why not?
See you next chapter!