My calling

Author: Cornell Valentine Gainsborough

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

MAKAI! Seperates Paragraphs

Chapter 6: Unexpected

The rain was falling in heavy torrents, making travel by foot a near impossibility when combined with the raging wind and lightning storms. Add in the fact that it would still be dark outside for another hour or so, and you'd have a recipe for trouble. Luckily, Nelius was still asleep, his mind going over the events of the past few days, blissfully unaware of the fact that he had a visitor.

In his mind, his 'Dream Self' appeared again, but his feather wing had changed, integrating a few white and brown feathers, giving the wing a grayscale appearance. He lifted his left hand, which was equipped with the Shatter Gauntlet, and formed four small orbs of energy- red, green, blue, and yellow, each representing the four main elements of the Netherworlds: fire, wind, water, and star respectively. The small spheres then entered into the Gauntlet, making it glowing an iradescent color.

Outside of his dream, Nelius rolled over onto his left side, inadvertently pressing his head into something soft, almost pillow-like. Though he didn't wake up, the voice of his "companion" certainly brought him out of his sleepy haze.

"My my, someone's rather frisky in the morning, aren't they?" With just that statement, Nelius, eyes flew open with a sound comparable to a whip crack. His eyes drifted upward to see one very familiar face. "Small world, wouldn't you say?"

In under two seconds he was against the opposite side of the cave.

"Wha.. h-how'd you get in here?" His face was contorted into a mix of surprise and fear, mostly fear.

"Hun, I happen to use this cave as a little summer home, so you could say I live here." His face drained of all color; he never imagined the day that he'd walk into someone's home, even if it was a cave. "But, since it's raining out, you can keep me company. You don't have anything else to do, right?"

Nelius looked from her to the cave entrance. It was still coming down fairly heavy out there. Essentially, it was stay here and risk being eaten alive or leave and risk getting frozen to death. He gave a sigh.

"Looks like we're stuck here for a while, until the rain stops." The Elbacky decided to move closer to him, to make conversations a litle easier.

"You know, you're the first humanoid to ever set foot here." She said, watching the rain fall.

"Really?" That statement caught his interests.

"There actually used to be all different kinds of creatures that lived in this Netherworld. But, about five years ago, a good number of the monsters here just started disappearing."

"Disappearing? You mean, like just vanishing?"

"Exactly. One moment, I'm holding a conversation with one of the White Dragons, then he just disappears. This just continued until about two years ago when Brad, our reigning Overlord, took it upon himself to restore a lot of what had been lost over those three years. He's done a great job, but he really needs more variety in the creatures he's bringing in; over 90 percent of this world's population is nothing but Felynn demons."

"What of the other 10?"

"Mostly the other creatures that are native to the Netherworld. It's a real shame, though; aside from you showing up, there's rarely anything new around here. Most of the really good stuff happens in the central city."

"There's a city around here?"

"Brad managed to ressurect some old ruins and buildings from the previous Overlord's reign, and combined it with the technology he's gathered from other worlds. Though it's rare that we ever see him outside of the city boundaries while on this world; even when he is, he's only out of the bounds long enough to do something, then it's right back to the city for him."

"Sounds like he's forced to stay in the boundaires; you think it could be that his life is bound by the Netherworld?"

"I think it's the other way around... the Netherworld is bound by his life here. If he strays too far out of the bounds while here, this world would start to crumble apart."

"How do you figure that?"

"..." It was her turn to be at a loss for words. "Don't know, really. It just popped up." She decided to quickly make a quick subject change. Moving right next to him, she struck up a new conversation. "Well, as long as we're stuck in here, why don't we get to know each other a little better?"

"Say what?" He just gave her a WTF look.

"Since we're going to be holed up in here until the rain stops, I figured that this would be the best time to get to know you better. After all, you're going to be here for a while, right?" She had a look on her face that gave her a personal sense of victory.

"You're right. So, might as well get started." He didn't even attempt to resist. "So, exactly what kind of Netherworld was this before the reconstruction?"

"Aside from the city and Brad's spaceship, it's essentially remained the same, except that when the previous Overlord was here, there were a few actual humanoid demons. So, what about where you're from?"

"It's a basically standard Netherworld, with humanoids and monsters working alongside one another. There really isn't too much that really stands out there." He tilted his head back, looking at the ceiling of the cave. "Though, like I said yesterday, the Overlord started to become irritable about three years ago, when she came back from this exploration. She mentioned something about a..a.. Aw, damn."

"What's wrong?"

"I can't remember the name of the project she'd been conducting. All I remember of it is that the subject of the research began with the letter D."

"Don't worry too much about it, it's been years, right?" He nodded in confirmation. "Anyway, what are you going to do here?"

"I originally said I was going to leave Sirea's employ, but I find myself now believing it to be a ruse." He looked out at the torrents of rain still falling from the sky. "The real reason I left was to make myself stronger."

"Why?"

"Overlord Sirea used to be a really good Overlord, but ever since she came back from that trip, everything's started to go downhill. I couldn't bear it anymore. I guess I really wanted to find someone who can train me, not just to give Sirea a good ass-kicking and bring her back to the way she was, but to also.. in a way, complete myself." His Elbacky companion looked at him as he laughed. "I'm surprised at myself, I almost sound human with such sentiments."

"What makes you say something like that?"

"Ah, I'm probably just rambling again." The growling of his stomach brought about a whole new subject of talk. His face flushed a light color. "Whoops. I guess I haven't had too much to eat over the last few hours." He stood up and headed over to his bag. "You want anything?"

"No thanks. I'm good." The rumbling of her own stomach caused her face to flush a light pink color, though it was slightly darker than his blush. "Scratch that. You have anything good inside of that bag?"

"Let me check." Opening the bag, he took a look at what he had. His face blanched as he saw the mess that was strewn inside of the bag: wrappers of various products from the previous Netherworld littered the bottom, mixing with the unopened products and creating a mess. "Eh, do you know where I can find a local dumpster or something?"

"Excuse me?" She appeared comfused by his strange request.

"You know, a place where I can dump off some trash?"

"The only one I've known about was located near the city, from the previous Overlord's reign. As far as I know, it was closed off." Those had been the words Nelius had been dreading. From what she'd told him of this world, he figured out that he'd pissed off the Overlord and was possibly a wanted man. Add in the fact that the majority of the population was Felynn demons, and he figured that a trip to the city would be the end of him.

Though he didn't like those odds, nevertheless he had to get rid of the trash that was bogging him down, and possibly get some information while he was at it.

"Well, it appears as though I have no choice. I might not want to do this, but when the rain stops, I'm headed to that site to get rid of my unwanted trash." He dug through the bag, finding a good amount of still edible food hiding among the junk. For his gracious host, he got her a black bass that had cost him quite a bit back in the town of Midnight. For himself, he decided to grab a small bag of chips with a peanut butter sandwich.

As they ate, he was busy formulating a plan as to how he could get to the sealed off site in order to lighten his load. When he turned his attention to his companion to ask how her breakfast had been, his face drained of all color for the second time.

The Elbacky's face was heavily flushed. She swayed back and forth, much in the same matter as the other Felynn back at that grenhouse yesterday. When Nelius checked the bag again, he found several sprigs of catnip scattered throughout the bag.

"Saaay.." When he looked up, he found himself staring right into her face. "I ever tell you how cute ya look?" She had a semi-dreamy expression on her face, a clear sign that she was influenced by the plant. He tried to back away, but she tackled him to the floor, her tail swishing back and forth. "Wanna wrestle?"

He was going to be in for quite a hell of a day.

MAKAI!

So ends another chapter. If anyone has a good name for the Elbacky, feel free to send in a name. I may just use it in a future chapter.

Until Next Chapter,

Cornell Valentine Gainsborough