Chapter 19: Home for the Holidays

Night had fallen on Terry and May group as they decided to make camp on the side of Route 110. Having decided that staying one more night in Slateport was not worth the possible trouble they could face and headed out soon after reuniting. Much to Terry's disappointment Ron and his Pokegirls were still lost in the maze so they couldn't ask him for a ride back.

With everyone gathered around the campfire Rosa introduced herself to the group, and regaled everyone with stories about her life before they met.

"And so there I was in the treasure chamber; the stone walls were covered in ancient pictographs." Rosa recited in a dramatic voice most narrators would be jealous of while waving her hands around as if she were trying to paint a picture in the air. "On the stand in front of me was a small golden idol. With my goal in sight I could hardly contain my excitement, but I knew that this room would have the most deadly of traps and one wrong move could cost me my life. So when I approached the Idol it was clear that the pedestal it rested on was one of these very traps. I took out small bag and filled it with sand trying to mimic the weight, and using my nimble hands swapped the idol for the bag. However I had misjudged the weight and the trap sprung releasing a GIANT boulder!"

Surrounding her was an enrapt trio of Lei, Dart, and Mara hanging off of her every word. While the other less gullible members of the group sat back and listened to the dubious story letting her finish. 'I think I saw that in a movie once.' Terry thought to himself.

"I managed to get away from run the two ton rock by leaping over a pitfall. Saving not only myself but also my former tamer's favorite hat that he gave me for luck." When Rosa ended her grand retelling the three in front of her gazed up at her with an amazed look in their eyes.

"What happened after that?" Lei asked bristling with curiosity.

"Well, we turned the idol over to the museum for a large sum of cash so that my old tamer could move onto his next project." Rosa added while looking in to the distance, "But as all good things do it all came to an end, and we had to escape to the Jhoto region."

"What happened?" Her audience asked in unison.

"It's a dramatic tale of tragedy and survival. Are you sure you want to hear it?" The three all nodded fiercely, their intensity made a bemused smile pull at the corners of Terry's mouth. Rosa continued her story with a dramatic flourish. "It started on the last expedition my former tamer and I ever went on. During this excursion we encountered a group of thieves sent by Team Rocket intending to take the relic for their own nefarious purposes, and only after a long and harsh fight did we win against them, but in the end it was all for naught. Team Rocket had discredited my tamer ruining his good name, forcing us from home and country."

"We had no choice, so late into the night we stole away and escaped to the Jhoto region where no one knew our names." She clenched her fist in front of her with dramatic tears streaming down her face. "With my tamer unable to enter the scientific community again we led a quiet simple life in the country side; toiling away on a small farm just to make a living. It was a happy life, until harsh reality came crashing in. My tamer became bedridden with a rare disease and slowly began to waste away. What meager amounts of money we managed to save quickly evaporated from the constant medical bills required to prolong his life. Without money my tamer's lifesaving medicine would not come, and I couldn't run the farm by myself, so I turned to the only thing that I could do with the skills I gained from our time as adventures. I became a master phantom thief."

Her declaration was punctuated with another flourish. That's just too unbelievable. Terry commented to himself filled with a strange mix of awe and disbelief. "Of course I still held onto my honor and chose to steal only from those corrupt officials whose greed made the lives of everyday citizens harder. At one time I became quite famous, the media even named me the Shadow Fox from the little black fox figures I would leave behind."

"Really?!" Lei exclaimed turning to her tamer Lei excitedly asked with sparkling eyes, "Terry you're from Jhoto right? Did you ever here about her?"

A surprised look passed over Rosa's face as she waited for Terry to answer with a slightly worried expression. "Uh, yeah I believe I saw a couple news specials on her." Terry lied causing a pleased smile to stretch across Rosa's features. Continuing from where she left off Rosa retold her "adventures" late into the night, until everyone called it quits and went to sleep leaving Terry on night duty. While stifling a yawn Terry was suddenly grabbed from behind.

"Heey, Terry." Karis's seductive whisper was accompanied by the heavy smell of alcohol on her breath. "Let's do something fun."

"Whoa! Karis, how much have you had to drink?" Terry pulled himself out from under of her and turned around to face the intoxicated dark type.

"A little bit." She chuckled happily showing Terry the half empty bottle of wine, its empty sibling discarded behind her.

"That's more than a little bit…"

"Aww don't be so stiff," she took a quick drink from the bottle; "I've got a third anyways."

"Where do you hide all of them?"

"That's a secret." She laughed merrily while slapping his shoulder in a jovial manner. There's something off about this, Terry thought feeling that her behavior went beyond simply being drunk. Before he could think any deeper on this he was suddenly assailed by Karis shoving the bottle in his mouth pouring a little down his throat. "Come on, come on already it's boring being the only one drinking."

*cough* "All right already." He took the bottle she was pushing into his face and took a drink from it. "Sheesh, this some of the strongest wine I've ever had; how much alcohol is in this stuff anyway."

"You like it? It's a special recipe an old acquaintance of mine made." She slurred the sentence a little while taking the bottle back and taking a large drink from the bottle.

"Really?" Terry accepted the bottle from her again. Between the two of them the bottle quickly emptied with a lot of it going to Terry making his head fog over a little. Pulling out a third bottle she opened it giving Terry the first drink.

"Hey Terry, do you want to have a bit of naughty fun?" She suddenly proposed with her trademark smile, causing Terry to swallow a bit more wine than he intended and choke on it. "Just kidding! I'm a bit too drunk right now for that… Hmm? What's with that disappointed look?"

"W-what look?" Terry said looking away and taking another drink from the bottle. An evil and playful smile pulled at Karis's lips. She leaned in close to him causing Terry to turn a questioning glance at her. As he lowered the bottle Karis moved quickly and kissed him stealing the drink from his mouth.

"Haah, I think the wine tastes better that way." She sighed with her usual smile on her face. Taking the now half empty bottle from Terry she poured some into her mouth and sealed their lips again. When they parted she asked, "Don't you agree?"

Terry could only nod dumbly as Karis took another long drink from the bottle and locked lips with him feeding the aged drink to him pulling her tamer to lean over her. Continuing their little game Terry took another pull from the now almost empty bottle and accidently swallowed it when Karis traced the line of his jaw. Looking down at her alluring, smiling face Terry felt desire fill his heavily fogged mind as he took another drink from the bottle and kissed her passing the ruby red liquid to the dark type. Breaking away from their kiss Terry's head dropped to Karis' breasts and remained there for a time.

"Zzz" Karis could hear a soft rumbling sound coming from her chest.

"Terry?" Looking down in confusion she saw her tamer's peaceful sleeping face.

"Zzz"

"Tsk, light weight." Karis clicked her tongue and pulled herself out from under him. Leaving him next to the fire in a sleeping bag she gazed down at her inebriated tamer and sighed with a slight smile, "Well at least that was pretty fun, good night Terry."

Terry was awoken by the early morning rays hitting his face which were shortly followed by a splitting headache. Looking up he found himself face to face dual pictures of fury. Terry asked them in a noticeably frightened voice, "H-hey Emy, May what's, uh… what's wrong?"

"Oh, did you hear that Emy? He doesn't know what he did after all." May turned to Emy with a scary smile.

"I heard, maybe we should tell him?" There was a dangerous edge to Emy's voice as she asked May with an eyebrow twitching.

"No I think he should be able to figure out on his own. Don't you?" With the two of them in agreement they turned to Terry. "So tell us what you think it's that you didn't do."

Terry could feel himself sweating bullets under their gaze. Think man think! What could possibly have gotten them this angry? What happened last night? What did I forget? "Did I forget to switch night duty shifts with May?"

"Oh he's close, but don't think that's it, right May?"

"Did I not wake everyone in time?" Terry asked trying again.

"Wrong again. Here's a hint, try looking around camp."

Turning his gaze away from the frightening pair Terry looked at what had become of the camp. Food stuff and bags had been scattered everywhere. Soot, Dart and Luna were wondering around the camp cleaning up the mess and salvaging what they could. It was then that Terry failed in his night watch duties and had let a feral Pokegirl or something rummage through their packs robbing them of all of their food. "I'm sorry."

After he finally realized what he had done and apologizing for it the two's anger had lessened by a small degree, but he was not let off of the hook just yet.

"H-hold on girls." Terry panted after everyone carrying the entire group's packs as penance for his crime. Looking over at Karis he silently cursed her out in his unreasonable anger. Why am I the only one who's punished when Karis gets me in trouble. At least don't enjoy my misery so much! The jovial smile on the dark type's face served to only irritate him further, but a second later he felt all of his frustration drain away. Even though she was still smiling at him she seemed distracted.

By the time they finally made it to their rooms at the daycare the Sun was hanging low in the sky slowly falling below the horizon. While everyone else left to resupply Terry was left behind to unpack. Dropping the heavy load Terry rolled his shoulders and felt a couple vertebrae pop. "That hurt."

"Hey Terry." A cheerful voice called out to him from the door. Turning around Terry found Rosa walking into the room with him shutting the door behind her.

"How come you're still here I thought that you left with the others." Terry rubbed his neck where it had popped painfully.

"Wow, that must have been heavy," she commented as she came over to inspect the pile of supplies he just dropped. Look at him with a hint of worried in her bright clear eyes she asked, "How's your back? Do you feel alright?"

"Ha this is nothing! A mere hundred thirty pounds is not that heavy at all!" Terry boastfully lied while flexing a bicep.

"Whoa, that's more than I weigh." Rosa commented staring at the camping supplies and cooking set in a new light. "But still carry that much for as long as you did would have been hard."

"Well it like Emy says 'you have to accept the consequences of your actions,' and besides what I did was inexcusable." Terry sighed rubbing his shoulder again trying to relieve the ache.

"Here let me give you a shoulder rub." Rosa started pulling him towards the bed getting him to sit on the floor next to it.

"Are you sure, I thought I was still being punished?" Terry asked but still complied with her request and sat down on the floor with his back to her as she sat on the bed.

"I personally think that you had been punished enough." She started working out the knots in his muscles "Damn your shoulders are as hard as concreate."

"Ahh, that feels good…" Terry sighed contently while feeling the tension in his back flow away from under her fingers. "You're really good at this."

"Of course I am! I spent five years in a secluded monastery at the top of a frozen mountain learning the art of shoulder massages. I even earned high praise from the wise sage living there." She happily declared dropping into her theatrical storyteller voice.

"I-is that so? Well I'm glad to be the beneficiary of your training." Terry smiled wryly after hearing this sudden and outrageous statement.

"Thanks for playing along." She muttered too quiet for him to hear as her hands paused for a brief second.

"?" Looking back at her from over his shoulder Terry checked to see what was wrong. "Did you say something?"

"Nope." She answered with a happy smile. "So how do you feel now?"

"Much better." Terry answered stretching his back he let out a happy sigh. Standing up to face her Terry offered his gratitude. "Thanks for that."

"No problem, it's always a treat to massage the shoulders of a hero."

"A hero?" Terry was taken aback at the sudden and strange compliment. Scratching his head he asked. "What makes you say that?"

"You've done some pretty heroic things that no one else would." She smiled up at him from her seat on the bed. "And as much as I hate the whole damsel-in-distress trope, especially when I'm the damsel, it was pretty impressive how you didn't think twice about trying to save Lei and me. So that makes you a hero. "

"Others would call that being stupidly rash not heroic; also I didn't do much to save you."

"Whether you did a lot or not doesn't change the fact that you had personal role in saving me. Besides, I personally feel that all heroes need to be a little stupid from time to time. No one wants someone who's unattainable."

"Somehow that doesn't sound like a compliment." Rosa's cute smile caused him take her words as more of a complement despite his words.

"You know, being a hero is pretty good don't you think? After all it's the hero who gets the girls in the end." Leaning back with her hands on the bed behind her she added in an inviting tone, "So hero, are you going to claim your damsel?"

"Of course," Terry simply said and leaned in sealing her lips with a hungry kiss. She responded with as much passion quickly deepening their kiss. As his excitement grew he ran a hand from her hip and up her side just brushing past her breast causing an excited shiver to run through her body. Drawing his hand back down her body he traced the underside of her perfectly rounded breast moving his arm as if he were painting her body and his was the brush. In an upward stroke he lightly cupped her chest gently pressing on her nipple through the clothes.

"Ah!" Terry gasped suddenly and pulled away. Running his tongue over his lips he tasted a bit of iron.

"Sorry." Rosa apologized with a nervous smile, "I tend to nip whenever I'm excited."

"It's alright just surprised me a bit." Terry shrugged it off and leaned in again locking their lips together, albeit he was a little cautious of her teeth as he chased after her tongue.

Breaking away from the kiss that could have gone on for hours, Terry moved to her neck and began to trail a line of pecks leading to her chest. Reaching up Terry deftly unfastened the first few buttons on her white blouse in a matter of moments. Is it a good thing or a bad thing that I'm getting good at undressing someone else? Terry was briefly distracted by this thought before dismissing it as irrelevant. In his moment of distraction Rosa reached out with a free hand and pressed it against his hardening member as Terry finished with the last button and tossed her blouse off to the side. With one hand she unbuttoned his jeans and pulled down the zipper freeing Terry from the now too tight confines of his pants. Gripping him in her hand she pulled him free from his obstructing boxers and slowly ran her hand up and down his hardened member. Terry enjoyed the painfully slow sensations of her hand as he focused on the task in front of him. Unclasping her bra he discarded the restrictive article of clothing before hungrily delving into her chest. Terry lightly nipped her nipple paying her back for the earlier bite causing her to gasp and tighten her grip on him. As his mouth was busy attending to her chest Terry ran a hand down to the waist band of her pants. Quickly unfastening them his hand slipped in side and traced her lips through the sheer and silken fabric of her panties. Releasing her grip on him Rosa pushed him back tugged his pants and boxers off of him in one go; Terry removed the last of his clothes and tossed them to the side completely forgotten before they even hit the floor. With his flag pole proudly standing tall in front of her she ran her tongue from root to tip in one lustful lick. A shiver ran through his spine as her tongue ran along his length again causing him to voice his pleasure through an appreciative moan.

Reluctantly pulling himself from her grasp he dropped down and laid his hands on her hips. Sealing her lips again as he hooked his fingers into her waistband and impatiently pulled her remaining clothes off and discarding them to form a pile with the rest of their clothes. Moving forward Terry placed a small peck on the inside of Rosa's knee; she shifted her legs out of the way allowing him access. As he made his way to her lower petals at an agonizingly slow pace he reached up and ran his fingers through the triangular tuft of hair adoring her pelvic mound. As his mouth finally reached its destination his fingers slipped down and applied pressure onto her clit as his tongue explored her petals. Rosa placed her hands on Terry's head as she moaned out a pleasured growl while her tail swished restlessly from side to side. Just as her impatient fidgeting was reaching a peak Terry pulled away causing her to growl in disappointment. Terry smirked a little at her reaction and he pushed her onto her back with a kiss. Raising her hips she both met his hardened member as he guided himself in and shifted her tail to a more comfortable position between their legs. Coming up for air Terry released her lips as he eased his full length into her entrance causing her to gasp and latch on to him whimpering into his ear. Starting to move he enjoyed the sound of her breath in his ear.

"More, faster." She breathlessly demanded, happy to comply Terry picked up the pace and switched to shorter strokes trying to hit where it feels the best. In the throes of passion Rosa dragged her sharp claws across his back leaving red angry scratches as she bit down onto his shoulder sinking her teeth into him but not breaking the skin. The intense pain caused him to twitch and jump inside of her heightening her pleasure, surprisingly the pain only heighted his arousal. As he started thrusting harder she rose to meet him. Releasing his shoulder she licked the bite mark in an absentminded apology. With a surprising amount of strength she rolled him over as she sat up on him, still connected they pulled themselves up on the bed so they wouldn't fall off in this new position. Making the bed creak she bounced herself hard into his lap while digging her fingers into his chest once again leaving scratches on his skin. Leaning in she latched onto his lips chasing his tongue, using the opportunity Terry cupped her breast and lightly tweaked her nipples. Rushing headlong into the final stretch she ground her hips into his before shivering and squeezing down on his manhood. As her orgasm ran through her Terry felt all of his pent up desire release into her. Rosa collapsed onto him as they both shivered through the aftershocks, they rested like that for a while enjoying each other's warm. With one hand resting on Rosa's hip Terry absentmindedly traced the bite mark on his shoulder.

"Sorry about that." Rosa apologized placing her own hand over the mark.

"Don't worry about it. I might have enjoyed that a bit. Only just a little though." Terry said scratching the side of his head. Upon hearing that Rosa's cheeks colored red a little as she smiled. Taking a moment to enjoy the afterglow the two of them rested for a while before getting up to resume cleaning and preparing before the rest came home.

The rest of the day passed by quickly and the group called it a day early so that they could leave as soon as possible. The morning sun found the whole group up and ready to leave, after saying good bye to the old couple they set out to Rustboro. Much to Terry's relief they decided he had done enough and took their packs back leaving him with only his own to carry, despite the reduced weight Terry still lagged behind at the back of the group. Terry's mind wandered as he enjoyed the passing picturesque scenes of natural beauty surrounding the group, when his eyes returned to the road in front of him his eyes rested on a beauty of a different type.

"Sometimes being at the back of the group isn't such a bad thing." Terry commented while watching the sway of Luna's hips as she walked in front of him using her parasol to shield herself from the sun's rays.

"It's not without its perks, right?" Karis whispered into his ear surprising Terry making him jump and give out a muffled shout. Turning around Luna looked back with a silent question in her ever shadowed and gloomy expression. Letting her know it was nothing by waving his hand, she was still curious but didn't pursue it and just turned her attention back to the road in front of her.

"Sheesh Karis don't sneak up on me like that." Terry complained.

"I didn't sneak up on you, you're just not very observant, and besides it's too much fun watching you jump and panic like that." Her usual smirk gracing her features once again.

"You really enjoy tormenting me don't you?" Terry sighed.

"Yeah I do." An evil smile pulled at the corners of her mouth and she looked over at him. "I particularly like how red your face gets whenever I catch you looking."

Leaving him behind, she trailed a hand along his jaw as she passed by him giving him a parting smile. Time passed quickly and after a chaotic overnight stay in Rustboro Terry and May's group found themselves walking into Littleroot; home for the holidays.

Terry led everyone to his house where he was informed by his father that they would be holding a party to celebrate the coming New Year and their group's temporary return. When Terry knocked on the door it swung wide open with Norman standing on the other side of the threshold. With a large grin on his face Norman greeted them, "Welcome back everyone."

"It's good to be back." Terry returned his father's smile and entered the house with Norman ushering them in. After the customary introductions the party began, in attendance were both Terry's and May's parents. As the party progressed into the night they all broke off into separate groups. Terry regaled Norman and Prof. Birch with stories of their trip while Emy corrected erroneous details and filled in missing details, Luna sat off to Terry's side sipping at a drink letting the alcohol slowly built up in her system. The two mothers doted over Lei giving her excesses affection. May and Soot had their hands full trying to rein in a drunk Dart and Mara. Calisto skulked in the corner next to Terry group watching the others with Rosa watching over her trying to get the water type to cut loose a little be a little more outgoing. Karis absent-mindedly sipped at a tumbler as she watched the party unfold from her vantage point at the unpopulated end of the room.

After finishing his final story Terry felt it was time to do some rounds around the party. Terry could only laugh as May apologized profusely after Dart and Mara ate most of the party's food. Moving on he noticed that Rosa had given up on persuading Calisto to join and instead challenged her to a drinking game, before he was roped into it Terry quickened his pace and found himself next to Karis.

"Hey Karis you okay, you seem a bit… distracted." Terry asked the dark type clearly concerned over the distant look on Karis's face.

"It's nothing, just a headache." She dismissed his concern with a wave of her hand, "I'll just go lie down for a while."

With that she disappeared up the stairs walking to Terry's room, leaving him even more concerned. With the party winding down everyone gathered in the TV room, the desire to catch up with loved ones winning out over the need to sleep. At midnight Prof. Birch and his family bid the others good night and left with May and her group in tow. As the night progressed Terry's concern for Karis grew and he decided that he should check on her, leaving Emy and the others to entertain his parents.

"Wait a second Terry." Rosa called out to him. "I'll go check on her, shouldn't you go grab something for her headache first."

"You're right I'll go look for something in the medicine cabinet." With that Terry made his way to the bathroom.

Watching him leave Rosa quickly walked into the bedroom Karis retired to hoping he would take his time.

"Hey Karis," Rosa said to her harem sister catching her attention. "I thought you said you were going to rest?"

"Huh?!" Karis stopped with her hands where she was closing the zipper of her personal pack. Dropping the pack back onto the bed she laughed awkwardly, "Yeah, about that."

"Why are you packing up? Are you planning to go somewhere?" Rosa asked in a falsely clueless tone.

"Something like that." Karis said avoiding the question.

"Why are you trying to run away?" Rosa decided that beating around the bush would be pointless and counterproductive.

"I'm not running. It's just that I've grown bored with my current life style, and I figured it's time to find greener pastures or something like that." She gave the normal type her well-practiced elegant smile.

"…Hah" Rosa sighed after a second. "Come on, at least give me the real reason."

"I don't know what you're talking about." Karis looked off to the side as her smile started to crack.

"I'm not stupid enough to believe that bullshit." Rosa felt a bit of anger building up. "You at least owe us that much."

"Alright… I'll tell you." Karis's smiling mask finally cracked in half and slipped off her face. "I just wanted to…. end it on a high note or something."

Letting her continue Rosa didn't say anything.

"I just didn't want to be here when something bad happens and end up getting hurt."

"Why are you so sure something bad was going to happen?"

"Because it always happens, especially when I get too attached." Karis rubbed her arm and looked down and away unable to look up at her companion showing a distressed expression, "Each and every time."

"What happened?"

Sitting down on the bed Karis began to tell her tale.

Back in my home town of Fortree city and a couple weeks after my threshold a childhood friend asked me to become his alpha. I accepted his proposal since I happened to have liked him as well. We traveled for some time mostly sticking to the northeast regions, over the course of a few months he gained another two Pokegirls. Then one day we were caught in a powerful rain storm on route 120. I never should have told him that the deluge was going to cause a landslide. If I never told him then he wouldn't have insisted on warning those people living on the side of the hill.

… But of course I did tell him, and being the busybody that he was he ran off to warn them. While he was trying to get those stubborn people to move into a safer area I walked up the slope, I was trying to gauge how much time they had left. As fate would have it the land shifted under my feet and the mud slid down starting the disaster. I was lucky and got carried into a tree and lost consciousness, but everyone else, including my tamer and sisters, were not so lucky. When I came to and wanting to find out what happened I came down the slope and saw the place in ruins. The survivors, in their idiocy, gave into superstitions and blamed me for the disaster. They didn't even let me give them a proper burial.

"That's horrible," Rosa shocked by this sad tale, didn't know what else to say. Karis ignored her comment and continued to tell her tale.

That's not all fate had in store for me. About a year and half later I met my next tamer who managed to help get over the trauma a bit. He was kind of an ass but there was a good side to him as well. We had some fun times together, but it all ended when he found himself in debt and turned to gambling to pay it off. He was usually lucky most of the time and made some money however, as such things always do his luck turned and he found himself in more debt than he what started with. Somehow he ended up blaming me for his misfortune and came after me with a knife, I managed to get away and left him.

"After all of that I came to the conclusion that it's better to make the most of the time when everything fun and happy and leave before you have to suffer through the trauma of when everything starts crashing around you." Karis ended her story with her despondent conclusion.

"…" They both sat in heavy silence for some time before Rosa spoke up, "So that's why you're running away?"

"Yeah… so what are you going to do now? Are you going to stop me?" Karis asked.

"No."

"What?" Karis lifted an eyebrow in surprise. "You're not going try to stop me at all?"

"I have a policy of letting others make their own mistakes." Rosa shrugged.

"That's… pretty nihilistic, hero girl."

"Of course I try to help them after they learned from it, and save them if they need it."

"I see," Karis commented. Getting up of the bed she pulled her pack onto her shoulder and took a step towards the door before she stopped and asked Rosa a question, "By the way how did you know that I was planning to run away?"

"That was pretty obvious," Rosa commented, "you had the look of someone wanting to escape, and since I'm also a runaway of a sort I recognized it right away."

"?" Karis gave her a questioning look asking her to explain.

"I'm not so much a runaway in the sense you are." A miserable expression passed over her features, "I always found reality to be too harsh, I'm sure you agree. All people are limited and bad things happen just as often as the good, but not in fantasy. At least in fantasy you know the good guy wins and everything turns out right. In fantasy you don't have to sit there watching a loved one wither away into nothing, while you sit there helpless unable to do anything about it. So I try to keep the story going for as long as possible."

Unable to take the heavy atmosphere anymore Karis started walking towards the door with a parting farewell.

"Hold on a second." Rosa suddenly stopped her surprising the dark type. Turning a questioning look to her Karis stopped mid step. "You shouldn't leave through the front. You're running away after all you have to go out through the window."

Looking between Rosa and the window she just shrugged and with a slight smile said, "You have to keep the story going right? Alright I'll play along."

Going over to the window she got up on the sill and gracefully dropped from the second story window. Rosa sent her off with a parting fare well.

Turning to the door she called out to the person behind it. "Alright Terry you can come in now …thanks for waiting."

The door opened and Terry entered. "Are you sure we should let her leave like that?"

"Hell no."

"Wait what? But you said…"

"I said that I wasn't going to stop her. I never said anything about you stopping her." Rosa clarified. "And if you stand there any longer I'm going to kick your ass. Hurry up or she'll get away!"

"R-right!" Terry quickly chased after Karis going the same way she did.

Walking over to the window Rosa looked out at her tamer's retreating figure. "Good luck hero, I hope you're good enough to bring her back. If you're not up to snuff it's better to just let her get away."

End of chapter 19

Author's note

My classes are starting up now, but I don't think they will affect the update schedule too much so expect it to be about the same, if not slightly slower. As always let me know what you liked and what you didn't.

Numbershooter

College has just started for me so my free time will become shorter if not lost for a while.

Terry:

Emy

Luna

Calisto

Karis

Lei

Rosa

May:

Soot

Dart

Mara