AN: Short chapter, but you all deserve something. Btw, I'm not uncomfortable with writing smut scenes but I just wanna make sure I do things just right and nothing gets too repetitive. Thanks for the advice and support.
Now please enjoy this chapter.
A felyne had moved from under the barroth's carcass and now stood in front of us, shakily holding his spear in front of him with the tip aimed at Diablo. However, it wasn't just any felyne, no, despite the tribal paint and debris that discolored his fur, I could tell that he was my felyne, my one and only furry bro, "Nikki!" I yelled.
The felyne stopped shaking, lowered his spear, and looked towards me, though his spear was still aimed at Diablo. He narrowed his beautiful big blue eyes me before they widened and he spoke to me with that silky kitty voice I missed for a long time, "Xavier?"
I felt Kulu poke my side before asking, "Who dat?"
"Nikki." I said softly, keeping a good portion of my attention on my lost pal. Then Kulu poked me near the eye and with a scowl, I turned back to the group.
Kulu poked her index fingers together, shook her head, and said, "No, no, what the felyne said."
"My name." I answered. They gave me curious looks, no doubt bewildred by such concepts known as names.
Diablo pushed past the girls, "What the fuck is a name?" He asked, his scowling face getting a tiny bit too close to mine. I could hear a tiny hiss come from Nikki, my ever loyal eternal companion. Luckily, Diablo's ignorant ass didn't care.
Jyura hummed before snapped her fingers, "Maybe he means a title?" She voiced out a guess, judging from her tone.
"But why... Xa-Xavier a title? Does it mean something?" Kulu asked.
"It does actually," I had some pride in my tune, but hey, I really liked my name. "It means New H-", I doubt they knew what a house meant so, "Home. It means New Home."
Diablo had the nerve to scoff, "Sounds pretentious."
This triggered my inner sassy auntie, "Excuse you, boy?"
Jyura coughed in her hand to get my attention, "So, like, is that a deed title 'cause I'm pretty sure that has nothing to do with personality." Ah, so from the sounds of it, simply recognizing through scent, sight, and sound wasn't good enough for monsters. Deed and personality titles was how they rolled.
"Uh... well, my birth symbolized something special. So deed title, yeah." I said, figuring they'd buy it.
"Ah, pretentious and megalomania. Quite a title for you." Said Diablo, who I figured had the title Jackass of the Dunes.
"Okay meathead, why don't you guys tell me your titles? In fact, you can start us off." I felt Nikki climb onto my body and sit my shoulder as I said this. Man, I remember how his weight would slow me down when he did that. Now it was like having a small DragonHawk on my shoulders except he wasn't trying to peck out my eyes, his claws weren't digging into my flesh, and my screams of bloody murder weren't being ignored.
Diablo looked to the side before growling out, "Fine... but only because you somewhat managed to best me in combat." Damn right I - somewhat? "My title is Soft Rage."
I had to hold back a snicker. Him being called Soft Rage? I'm "guessing" that's a personality title. Still, I did wonder what other Diablos are like if this guy is called Soft Rage.
"Me! Me next!" Kulu bounced up and down with her hand up until I gave her my full attention. "My title is Smarty Claws."
"Fitting." Diablo groused. If I were closer and didn't have Nikki on my shoulder, I'd elbow him in the ribs.
Smarty Claws paid him no mind and turned to Jyura, "Now, what Jyuratodus friend's title?"
"Hehe, they call me Mud Skipper." She said heartily, "in case most of you are wondering," she already knew Soft Rage didn't care and gave him a side glance at the "most" part of her sentence, "I have a tendency to travel. I'm not a one pond lady."
"Territory whore, eh?" Soft Rage rumbled while he folded his wings, "monsters like you are annoyances that need disciplining."
Mud Skipper emitted giggled, a fake one however, "that a threat, my guy? I wouldn't think someone with 'Soft' in their title would be hard enough?" Oh boy, she was teasing him.
"That a challenge?" He nearly roared.
I didn't give her time to respond, "Ahem!" The gang all turned to me and I spoke, "Anyway, we need to get back on topic." But then a thought crossed my mind, "Okay. We'll get back on topic after this one question? Why didn't you tell me your title's before now?"
The gang all looked between each other and said all at once, """Because you never asked.""" Fair point. Other fair point, neither did they. But fine. I'm not salty about that statement.
... I'm a little salty about that statement.
"Right," I drawled. I turned to Nikki and asked, "As much as I want to hug it out with you and recap all the crazy nonsense going on between us, with me," I said gesturing to my body, "I need to know what happened here?" I motioned to the scene of the crime.
Nikki gulped and shook his head, "Xavier," I didn't like that somber tone, "we've seen a lot of monsters. Many of them fierce as they are sexy." I noticed the lack of bulge in his loincloth, which definitely signaled the severity of the situation, "But... none of them were like this monster. She... she swooped around in the evening and... and tore the place up. I was hunting during the wrong time and had to hide as I tried to make it back. I ended up here, underneath this poor bastard."
"Damn. But wait, back where?" I asked, leaning my head towards him. He looked nervous, but not because of me. The gang followed my movements and were leaning in towards him. I'd be more uncomfortable at the closeness they were to me too if it weren't for the fact I've been inside all three of them.
Whoop Whoop!
After giving them an annoyed glance, I took Nikki in my hands and put him on a lower rock so that he was pretty much facing me only while the gang was behind me so that he could be more at ease. "Thanks," he muttered, "Xavier, I've been caught off from guild contact for a while... and I met some locals. Some rather friendly locals if you get my meaning."
I did. I did and I didn't like it. "You do have the map right?"
"I did." He quickly said, no doubt trying keep my frustration down, "But, uh... I can't sugercoat it, pussy found me first, I lost the map, and now I'm in a tribe."
"Fucking of course!" An exasperated shout left my mouth and went to the freaking heavens.
"Listen. I was out cold and a local hunting party found me, brought me back, gave me food and naturally, I gave them some seeds for the fertile fields otherwise known as their women. I became caught up in my 'planting' and found myself engrossed with their ways shortly after." He said in a nonchalant manner, as if this was okay.
"In less than a week?!"
"I'm a fast Felyne!... except at sex." Then he had the audacity to start glaring at me, "And you're currtainly one to talk! What the hell happened to you?! And who are they?! And more importantly, what exacly were YOU doing." His face went from a scowl to a smug smirk, "~Remember that the nose knows all~." He sang out.
At this point, my body was trembling, waiting for him to finish so I could explode, "I DON'T KNOW, OKAY! I" And here we go, "One moment I'm fine, then I wake up! Now this! Next thing I know, I'm fuckin' these guys while looking for help!" I at least had enough wits to not mention being human before all this. Imagine trying to explain that Ku - I mean - Smarty Claws. Gods only know how Soft Rage would do. Pretty sure Mud Skipper would just be confused and that's it.
"Hello new friend!/Hey kitty./Hnnn." My trio greeted at once. Nikki just waved at them.
"Nice bunch," then he turned back to me with a serious expression, "You know, if anyone knows about the beast that came last night... it maybe our Super Elder Priestess."
"Super Elder Priestess?" I asked incredulously.
"I know." He sighed. "I didn't ask and I will not ask... she's rather eccentric." Another weird wise man, fantastic. "Anywho, I'll talk to her for you and see what she says."
"We can't come in with you?" Smarty Claws asked while moving in from the side, next my leg. Now that I noticed, Soft Rage and Mud Skipper were looking over my shoulders.
Nikki held up two fingers, "Two reasons, they don't know you and you couldn't fit in our hole."
"Maybe if we lube up?" Mud Skipper asked.
Nikki shook his head. "Trust me, it's too tight." He gestured for me to lower and climbed on, riding atop my crown. Probably enjoying my larger size for mounting. "Forward my rocky steed!"
I could hear two of the trio giggle at my expense and I grunted, choosing to follow his directions. I could practically feel Soft Rage grin.
"What the fuck?!" Soft Rage roared, scaring off the local Noios behind us, "This is in my territory! You vermin were literally just a dig away!"
Huh, so Nikki was literally just a walk away in a Lynian village next to a small rocky Mountain net to soft Rage's lair. That seems convenient. And safe.
"Technically, we're just outside the border." Nikki chuckled before his face turned into a sneer, "What are you going to do about it? Name one time a Diablos ever killed a Lynian."
"I'm about too." Soft Rage cracked his knuckles but I held out my hand towards him.
I had to chastise him. "Cool it down. Remember, we need the info."
"No, you need the info." He snarled. "I don't have to do jack shit nor do I need jack shit technically." He then grumbled.
I should've asked why was he following me then but that wasn't too important now. I let Nikki off my head and into the tight crack of the earth. "Please don't take too long..."
NIKKI POV
I knew me and my Meowster would meet again but currtainly not like this. So many questions and all the answers would have to wait.
"Hunter Nikki Sturrdy Shaft, my beloved!" I nearly fell over from the glomping I had received from Katska Vital Vigor, a grimalkyne I had become very familiar with, "You had no Idea how worried I was!"
Very fun fact about the New World, a native species of Lynian did inhabit this place and they were called the Grimalkynes. Cool right? Rather than resemble bipedal cats they resembled bipedal lynxes, with longer ears, longer tails, and sharper claws and teeth.
What are cats or lynxes? Fuck if I knew, someone told me about them...
"There there, no simple beast c-gwah!" Meouch! My words gave way to a croak of pain from having my girlfriend tightly grab me by the junk. I only withered further under her glare.
"And of course you come back with that reckless attitude!" She growled. I always had a thing for the intense. "It looks like you're in need of punishment!"
I held my open palm and said, "Now hold up, sweet cheeks." She froze and listened, "I have to speak to the great elder about a situation most dire. Sadly, my punishment will have to be put on hold."
"Awww." She groaned whilst letting me go, no doubt bitter about the lack of coitus. After the shit I've seen and the lack of masturbatory satisfaction, I felt the same. The fact I had to talk to the Super Elder Priestess made it worse. I at least received a peck on the cheek, "I'll be waiting my love."
"Ditto." I whispered before making my way through the cavern. It was a nice place, somewhat different from my old, old home. More tribal, with simple "housing" in the rocks, either natural or carved in, and paint and markings selectively painted in may places. The most elaborately painted area was a crevice with underground foliage around it.
The den of the Super Elder Priestess. 'Here we go...'
"Niiiikkiiii! Niiiiikkiiiii!" She must've sensed my presence with her weird ass voodoo powers.
I answered. "I'm back, Priestess!"
"Niiiiikkiii." I knew what that chastising tone meant.
Sigh, "I'm back Super Elder Priestess. May I enter your domain?"
"Super Elder Preistess allows this action. Super Elder Priestess requests however that you wipe your shoes off on the welcome mat."
"I don't wear shows nor do you have a welcome mat." I had to inform her with a deadpan monotone for effect.
"Niiikkiii, I have a great task for yooouuu!" Effect clearly lost on her.
"Um, ma'am, I bring urgent news."
"More urgent than a lack of mats and footwear?!" Yes, she was actually saying that with skepticism.
"Yes." I answered as I entered her domain, walking through the beads acting as a door. Sitting atop a great chair of stone was the Super Elder Preistess herself. Pretty much the same size as any other grimalkyne except more voluptuous than any other, as I'm told. She was definitely bustier than any lynian I've ever seen.
Too bad she was... this, "It better be or my hand will get urgent with your heeaaad!"
"Right," I muttered. "Super Elder Priestess, during my day of hunting and gathering, I encountered a terrifying creature that sent the wildlife into a panic then silence. Sadly not all the monsters managed to escape the creatures wrath-"
"Hehe." She laughed.
"-and I got witness the terror firsthand." I had to continue, "It was larger black scaled female monster with orange and red on the under belly and lower wings. It had horns, while not as big as a diablos, probably put them to shame with the way she tore it up with those horizontal things. But that's not all, for the few minutes I saw her, I could see spikes growing on its back, large, horrifying spikes. Spikes she embedded in an unfortunate barroth." Considering my best friend was now a barroth through the magic of the gods or some shit really made this all the more uncomfortable for me.
"Hush little shaft." The hell did she just call me? "I know of what you speak... but I don't care at all."
"Wha - why?!"
"Cause I made a deal with the foreigners."
"I thought you wanted to enslave them, how'd that even happen?!" This made no sense, the Priestess was a straight up sociopath with barely any regard for even her own people. She pretty much tells her tribe to avoid the fleet members unless they ended up here.
Then they were "purrocessed" like the rest.
"An old man came when I was walking and I changed my mind."
"... uh." So that answers my question, sorta. "What was the deal." She smirked and I felt my heart ready to freeze.
XAVIER POV
"Oh thank the gods!" I gasped, swiftly removing myself from a deteriorating conversation, "So what's up, what did your super guru or what's her name say?"
"The Super Elder Jackass threw me back to the fleet without my knowledge or consent so she could get some parts." He said in a monotone conveying his annoyance, "I gotta move my ass to the settlement in the Ancient Forest ASAP. Oh, and If i didn't have you with me, I'dve have to do it by myself."
That's not what I expected nor wanted to hear. "First off, it's a jungle. Second, What? But what about -"
"Nikki Sturrdy Shaft!" What the duece! A Lynian woman of some sorts jumped out of the hole and right on to my partner, calling him by his old stripper name. In the few seconds of my friend's arrival, I was straight up garnering more questions than answers. "I heard about what my grandmother did and I wanted - are these monsters your friends?" The last was spoken as she studied me and the trio further back.
"Yes." Nikki confirmed.
"Greetings." She said with a small wave.
"Uh, hi there/ Hello friend/Yo/Meh."
"Anyway," the female Lynian said as she helped Nikki up, "I just wanted you to know that while you're being sent off, you will always be a member of the tribe... and have a special place in my heart." She placed his hand over her chest and they stared deep into each other's eyes. My boy looked to be tearing up.
"Oh Katska." Nikki embraced her in a lip lock. They stayed like that for a full minute. She broke it off slowly and retreated back to hole, holding Nikki's hand for as long as she could, never looking away until she flipped into the pit.
I was about to ask but Nikki knew well, "Girlfriend who happened to be the granddaughter of the priestess and more than satisfy my jungle cravings."
I nodded at his explaination "Makes sense."
Nikki swiftly ran towards me and held up his hands in a "lift me up" motion. I lowered myself and he ran up my body to sit on my right shoulder. "Can we talk in private?" I nodded and shooed the trio back. "Why are you so eager to head to the settlement? Have you forgotten your little make over." He whispered.
"Because of you." I whispered back, "Before I came out here, I was in the Ancient Jungle-
"Forest."
I ignored that. "-and an old weirdo-"
"Deja vu." I heard him mutter.
"-Told me to come out here. And here we are now." I reasoned. "You can be my mouth piece to the people and help me reunite with my own kind." I nearly lost it in my excitement but kept enough cool not to exclaim my desire.
"You do know that this idea is risky as fuck right?"
"Oh, do I have other options?" I snarked.
"Don't you?" He asked again, "Did you try, I don't know, writing to them?"
"And would they believe me, let alone trust me?" I hissed, "You're my meal ticket Nikki. You've dealt with natives, know monster language, and you know me. Writing will be my addition to the ticket and your my ticket."
He stared at me, no doubt thinking this over. "Alright. For you, good buddy." He smiled and it warmed my heart. The daunting duo reunited once more!
"Alright!" I yelled, turning around and getting the trios full attention, "Me and my Felyne friend here are heading to the Ancient... Forest. Who's staying and who's coming?"
"I'll always come with you!" Smarty Claws cheered. She ran up to me and hugged side. No surprises there.
"I heard the forest's mud is rather lack luster... sorry, but I have to pass." Figured Mud Skipper wouldn't be down for that, not that I blamed her. She sure does have a nice mud hole.
"I'm not going. Not enough sand and too many trees. I like sand, not trees." Soft Rage grumbled. "I take it you want me to watch over that worthless rock of yours."
"Nope actually, I'm taking it with me. Just be sure to look over your territory while I'm gone."
"What else would I even do?" He rumbled rhetorically.
"And leave the uh." I had no idea what those species of Lynians were called.
But Nikki did. "Grimalkynes."
"Grimalkynes alone." I finished.
"Fine." He then snorted out some black smoke before growling out, "But if they enter my domain..." He pointed to his horns, more than implying what the outcome would be. Nikki hissed back at him and Soft Rage snorted dismissively.
If only he knew who he was dealing with.
I shook my head and said, "Let's get going."
