So… this chapter gets a bit heated. This may be a chapter that you should read with caution. It is pretty essential to the story, so try not to skip it. It is important, but I do wish you proceed with caution. Please do tell me whom you think Silver should belong with. It's still an open offer to any of the three. (I wont write Noctis x Silver just because he still believes he will be with Luna in the future.)
I do not own any characters other then my own. Some characters have been named and are present in the game, and I do not own them. I would like some entitlement to call anything not canon and original that I have included in here as my own.
Chapter 6 ~ Midgardsormr
Prompto opens his eyes to see the large pink nose and white fangs of Francis. The large feline stands over him, watching him intently. Francis gives a low growl and looks over to the side. Prompto follows his gaze to see Silver lying on the ground. She has her claw gauntlets on and hugs herself tightly. Blood drips down from where the claws dig into her skin.
Francis looks back at Prompto and steps off of him to pad over to Silver. He licks her arms where the claws dig in and tries to nuzzle her neck. Prompto gets up and walks over. He shoos Francis away and moves Silver so she sits between his legs with her back to his chest. He gently unbuckles the gauntlets and pries the blades from her arms before slipping them off and depositing them to the floor next to them.
Francis wanders over and licks the blood off her arms, whining and growling with worry. Prompto shoos him again, "Go sit outside. You aren't helping." Francis growls but does as he is told. Prompto runs his fingers through her hair and holds her tightly against him. "Silver, wake up." She growls and tries to pull herself from his hold.
She tries to move again and realizes, though she is still sleeping, that she is being restrained. She gasps as she wakes and tries to free herself. "Silver, stop!" She freezes with tense muscles. If she were a feline like Francis, she would certainly have every single strand of fur standing on end.
She looks to the floor to see her gauntlets lying haphazardly beside them. She feels coolness on her arms as a breeze comes into the cavern. She looks to her arms and sees the blood beginning to smear as Prompto's arms keep hers at her sides. She reaches carefully to touch her arm and looks with uncertainty at the blood.
She notices she still strains against Prompto when he begins to breathe a bit deeper and strained. She relaxes and leans back against him. He gives a sigh that sounded much like a sigh of relief. "You are really strong for someone so average looking." She doesn't hear him though, for she is lost in thought as she looks at the crimson coating her fingertips.
Prompto puts his hands on her shoulders and she snaps back to reality. She jumps away and turns to look at him with fear. His arms are smeared with her crimson blood. She opens her mouth like she wants to talk and looks around, struggling to try to say anything.
She sighs and gives up, knowing she was unable to say sorry and to explain herself. She holds her arms out at her sides as a blue swirl of magic travels around her. She now wears a long sleeve V-neck and her cloak had reappeared around her shoulders, fluttering slightly as the magic begins to leave.
She brings her fingers to her mouth to whistle for Francis. She points to Prompto and looks away. Francis pads over and licks the blood from his arms and hands, growling slightly when he is done. She walks over and picks up her gauntlets before letting them disappear with the blue swirl. She stands before Prompto and takes his hand. She bows her head slightly, showing her apology.
He chuckles at her and pulls her in for a hug. She strains against him at first, but relaxes and leans into him. "You don't need to be sorry." His cheeks turn pink as she wraps her arms around him and gives a sigh. She lets go of him and walks out of the cavern to look at the morning sunrise. She guessed it was probably about seven, give or take. Francis growls at her and walks towards Sen's home. She sighs and walks with Prompto back to the little house.
She wanders in and plops down on the couch. Her brother calls from his room, "Quinn, your friends were by a little while ago. I would join them back at HQ, if I were you." Silver nods and begins to walk towards the door. She spots his dog tags and looks back at him.
She picks up the glass vase filled with marbles and shakes it a little. "Quinn, please put my vase down." She smiles and does as he asks, holding it high up in the air and letting it slip through her fingers. The vase shatters on the ground as the marbles go flying and rolling in various directions. Sen stands calmly. "Quinn, so help me, if you do not pick that up this very instant."
Silver backs up to the little table next to the door and reaches behind her to grab something off of it. She takes Prompto's hand and slowly backs out of the house and down the steps. She laughs as she turns and sprints across the clearing and into the forest. Prompto runs after her, easily keeping up with her pace.
"What did you take from that table?" He questions as they run through the forest to the HQ. She holds up a pair of dog tags that jingle as she runs. "You did not just take his tags…" She waves for him to be quiet and puts her hood on once they reach the street. She walks over to the little shop and crosses her arms when she sees Claire manning the counter.
Claire leans on the counter with a large smile. "Who's your friend, Sen?" Silver looks to Prompto. She places Sen's tags on the counter and then points to Prompto. Claire gives a smirk, "I'll need verbal confirmation from you. The recommendation doesn't count if you don't tell me." Silver is quick as lightning as she takes Claire's collar and pulls her close.
"Alright! I'll do it!" She lets go of the woman roughly and picks Sen's tags back up. Claire gets out some paperwork and a pen. "Please fill this out. Since an eight star hunter recommended you, we will allow you to begin at four stars. We request that you continue to travel with the hunter that recommended you until you attain the next rank, however, we cannot stop you from doing as you please."
Prompto quickly fills out the paperwork and hands it to Claire. She gives an annoyed huff as she takes the paperwork to the back room. She comes back a few moments later and sets one pristine looking dog tag and a small chain. "Here you go. Be careful out there. Though it wouldn't be a total shame if you never came back," she points to Silver then crosses her arms and looks away.
Prompto thanks the woman and follows Silver out. Silver makes her way to the diner where she sees the old man taking the rest of her group's order. He looks up and sees her run towards them. "Good morning Miss Quinn. Your friends here are real good company." She opens her palm to the sky as a little booklet appears. She flips it open to the large snake known as 'Midgardsormr'. The old fellow looks around at her current company and then at her. "Well, I won't tell Sen I gave this to you. You better come back in one piece Miss Quinn."
Silver nods enthusiastically and accepts the flier from him. She sits with the others and listens to them complain that Prompto had not returned. He tries his best to talk himself out of the little hole he dug. Silver raises her hand to quiet them all and points to herself and then covers her eyes.
"Silver asked me to stay. She wanted an interpreter because her brother kept askin' her stuff." She nods when they all look to her. "You should have at least come back to let us know you were going to stay there," Ignis scolds him.
Noctis points to the dog tags around his blond friend's neck, "What are those?" They all turn and look at the tags except Silver who looks away, pretending as if she had no part in this all. "I signed up with the hunter's association. They gave me a four star hunter status!" He takes off the tags and holds them out.
"I see," Ignis takes them, "You certainly are trouble." He looks towards said trouble, Silver. She gives an innocent smile. They all sigh. Silver holds up the bounty paper and points back to Lestallum. "Before we go," Gladio points over to the weapons truck, "I'd like to look at their weapons here."
Gladio finishes his drink and gets up to go look at the weapons with Prompto and Noctis. Silver waits at the table with Ignis. The old man, whom the royal party had learned was Ezekiel, came by to chat. He brings a rather interesting drink and sets it in front of Silver. It's a tall glass with white liquid near the bottom and light blue liquid near the top with large chunks of ice.
"What is this?" Ignis questions. "Arctic Lightning, Silver's special. I make sure to bring her one every time she comes by. Since she doesn't come by so often, they are pretty special. Its milk, a splash of vodka, and blue curacao." Silver stirs it a bit before taking a few sips.
"It is rather inappropriate to let a minor partake in alcoholic beverages," Ignis frowns at them both. Ezekiel laughs, "I think this is the best part about Silver: she is mute and young looking. Believe it or not, Silver is old enough to make her own decisions."
"We all assumed you were around sixteen or seventeen," Ignis looks at her with amusement. She gives a thumbs up and shows he needs to be going a bit higher. "Eighteen?" She does it again. "Nineteen?" Silver nods. "I suppose you are still under the legal age, but as a hunter, you are supposed to live like any day could be your last."
"Living every day like it could be your last," Ezekiel says with a sigh, "One of the few things about being a hunter that really has its ups and downs. Miss Quinn here could end up being remembered as the youngest hunter we have had in a long while. She would only be remembered that way if she falls before she is twenty-three. We all pray that Miss Quinn and Mister Sen have enough adventure to keep them happy, but not enough to kill them."
"That reminds me," Ignis looks over to Silver, "How come everyone seems to know her brother, but not her? The hunters we had come across had though she was her brother. Do most hunters not know she is part of the association?"
"It is true that most hunters are unaware of her presence within our ranks. Because they both go under the name Xenova, the more known of the two seems to get the credit. Since Sen had his hunting accident, Miss Quinn goes around doing all the hunting under their family name. She runs around here pretending to be him as well because he had asked we keep his new disability on the down low."
"I see," Ignis nods. "You are one of the very few that knows of everything that happens behind the scenes then, eh?"
"In a way. The head honcho knows too, but he could care less. We let her do whatever she wants or she pouts and causes trouble." Ezekiel pulls out his phone when it dings and reads the text. "Miss Quinn, do you have Sen's tags?" She looks away guiltily. "You better go bring that back to him. I'm sure the speech to text doesn't show that he was yelling, but the ten or eleven exclamation points make me think he's upset."
She sighs and looks towards Ignis. "Would you like me to accompany you?" She nods slowly. He gets up and walks to the others to tell them he will be back soon and explains the situation a bit. They wave him away, too enthralled by the variety of weapons in the truck.
He walks with Silver back into the forest. She turns away slightly as she walks and seems to be fidgeting with something. Ignis frowns, wondering if he should call her out on it and tell her it's unbecoming. His frown disappears when she turns back with a notepad and hands it to him. 'Please tell Silver about Ignis' he reads on the notepad.
"You do know English after all," He gives her a sideways glance, not incredibly well. "Such a vague request," he drones. "I am Noctis' advisor. I do nearly all of the cooking and I do bail him out of more trouble then he is worth," he gives a chuckle. She snickers at him. She stops and summons another small book with a blue swirl of magic.
It's a tattered, black colored book that looks almost like a little day runner. She flips around the book a bit before settling on a page she seems to find suitable. She tears it out carefully and holds it in front of her. She looks away as a faint blush makes its way to her cheeks.
"What's this?" Ignis takes it from her and looks at it. He raises an eyebrow once he sees that the writing is in English. 'Spicy Chickatrice legs'. It lists several ingredients and a few different ways to cook them. "For me?" She nods and lets her book fade away with magic. "This is very thoughtful of you, Silver. Thank you."
Silver waves off his thanks, as if to say, 'it's nothing'. They continue walking until they reach the clearing. She walks up and opens the door casually, as if she had done nothing wrong. "Quinn," Her brother says from the armchair, "Will you be so kind as to bring me the tags?"
She wanders over, looking back to Ignis as he leans against the doorframe. Sen stands and takes the tags from his sister. He puts his hands on her shoulders and moves his right to her cheek, feeling the side of her face. He smirks and pulls his hand back quickly.
The sound of skin contact in the form of a slap sounds through the air as Silver stumbles backwards a bit. She looks up at her brother with shock and fear. He frowns at her with his arms crossed. "How dare you steal those! How dare you come into my home, smash my marbles vase and steal my tags to do gods know what with them!"
He steps forwards and grabs the collar of her cloak, lifting her from her nearly cowering state to bring her face close to his. He looks towards the door when he hears Ignis clear his throat. "I would advise you to let go of her," Ignis warns him.
Sen lets go of Silver roughly, sending her to the floor on her butt. He crosses his arms and turns away, "Quinn, you are nothing but trouble. I rescue you from Eclipse, keep you fed, teach you English, and get you in good with the association. Then suddenly, all you ever write about is, 'Oshogo this', 'Oshogo that', and 'Oshogo says I should do this'! And then you just up and leave!"
Silver gets up and wipes the tears from her cheeks. She fumbles with the tags around her neck before taking the thicker picture one and tossing it at him. She turns and storms out of the house. Ignis closes the door quietly and follows after her. He catches up to her once she slows her pace.
"Silver, is Oshogo another hunter?" She shakes her head and summons her claw gauntlets. She points to them. "Those were from Oshogo?" She nods. They walk back to the HQ and meet the others by the Regalia. Noctis has a new sword while Gladio happily polishes his new shield.
If anyone had noticed Silver's unusual distance from everyone, they chose not to make it known. Noctis gets in the drivers seat, leaving Ignis to squish into the back with Silver and Gladio. Prompto fiddles with the radio as they pull onto the road headed for Lestallum.
Noctis had decided, while Silver and Ignis were gone, that they would go to Lestallum first. If they made it there in good time, then they would make for the waterfall. They had all decided that was a good idea; save for Silver who refused to even look at anyone, leaving her angrily glaring at the radio from the middle seat.
Prompto turns around in his seat and leans slightly so he can be face to face with the angry woman. "What's your deal? You were normal and excitable this morning. Now you're angry," He deeps his voice and gives her a mock frown. Ignis waves for him to stop and shakes his head slowly.
"It would be unwise to anger her at the moment. Just look at the scenery around you, rather than bother our already irritated hunter," he suggests. Prompto rolls his eyes and sighs as he sits back in his set and looks at the passing trees.
Gladio puts his arm around her shoulders, "Just tell us why you're upset." She looks at him with a blank expression. "Right, you can't talk." She gives him a look of extremely mock shock, as if to say, 'you don't say?'. Gladio leans forward to get a better view of her left cheek, "What happened to your cheek?"
Silver slowly raises her hand to hide her cheek and leans back in her seat. Ignis gives a sigh, "We had an incident with her brother. Things got a bit… heated." Gladio gently grabs her chin and moves her head to look at her cheek, "He hit you?" She nods. She feels the arm around her shoulders tense. "Once we are done with all of this, we are going to go back and teach him that men don't hit women."
She sighs and shakes her head slowly. The car ride to Lestallum was exceptionally silent afterwards. They stopped to refuel and stock up on a few extra potions. Silver waits in the car as they all get the things they need. She rubs her cheek absently, feeling the tingle of the reddened skin. She was certain it would bruise.
When everyone piled in the car, Noctis decided he was still going to drive, he handed her a cold drink, "Put that on your cheek." She nods slowly and does as he asks. They drive again, slowly making their way to the parking spot closest to the waterfall. Silver took the opportunity to look around at the scenery.
They pull in to the parking spot where a little shop and refueling station lie. There is a caravan trailer as well and a great view of the land when looking over the railings. They all get out of the car and look around the place. Silver walks to the railing to look down at the rushing river.
"Alright guys," Noctis points towards the road. "Let's get going. The sooner we get down there, the more energy we will have to go through the cave afterwards." Silver follows them as they walk on the street and to the stairs that leads down below. Silver walks slowly down the steps as she looks around. She waits, wondering where the large snake will intercept them.
They walked along a dirt path with large bushes on either side that declines and takes them closer to the water. They turn a curve and stop. The path is a lot steeper, and at the bottom lays an open area by the water with one very large snake sunning itself.
"Is that?" Noctis questions as he points to it. Silver gives a nod as a haunted look makes its way to her face. Prompto takes out his camera and zooms in for a photo. "Well, Noct," Ignis gets his attention, "What do you want to do?"
"Silver?" Noctis turns towards the she hunter. She looks at the snake and then at Noctis. She glances at Prompto taking photos; her eyes widen and she face palms. She holds out her hand and the same odd black whistle with silver etchings appears in her hand. "What is that?" Gladio gets closer to look.
Silver holds up her hand to keep them all from questioning. She blows the whistle as an odd tune comes from the end. She waits a few seconds, listening. Noctis looks at her like she's crazy, "What are you—" She holds up a hand to silence him. They all look to the sky when a screech resounds through the area.
The large autumn colored griffon she had summoned once before flies high in the sky above them. She puts the whistle away and steps back a few steps so the others do not see her. She equips her claws and holds one behind her back, letting it manifest the black best taming magic.
The four are all too enthralled with the large griffon swooping down and raking its claws on the snake to notice whom was really behind its motions. She would give directions to it as the snake would try to strike, showing it where it needs to be to dodge the attack. Prompto glances back at her and gives a sly smile, knowing exactly what she's doing.
She looks back at the battle when she sees the snake catch the griffon from the air and begin to wrap itself around. She lets the magic dissipate as she sprints towards the two beasts. The four call after her, wondering how she could be so crazy as to interrupt the fight between two large beasts.
Prompto runs after her, knowing her intentions. The other three soon follow with weapons drawn. Silver jumps and launches herself at the snake, sinking her flaming claws into its cobra hood. It hisses out in pain and anger, releasing the griffon from its coiled body and the beast flies away. She gives a pained cry as the serpent purposely falls backwards to try and crush her. It large body keeps her pinned to the ground as it rolls around.
She hears a few gunshots before the serpent rights itself and takes a look around. Silver springs to her feet and runs back towards her group. Noctis gives her a smack on the back of the head and a stern look, "You could have died." She gives a sheepish smile as she lets flames erupt around her claws again.
They all pull their weapons out. Silver gets into fighting stance. "Here we go," Noctis gives a sigh as he runs first to attack the snake. She narrows her eyes, let this epic battle commence.
…
Is Sen the bad guy or is he just a bad brother? Will they beat the great snake? Will they get the royal weapon from the cave behind the waterfall? Will Silver actually go in the cave? Will you want to try what Silver does afterwards even if I strongly recommend you do not do so?
Find out in Chapter 7: "Calm Before the Storm"!
Leave a review or private message me. I want to know how you feel about Sen being a cruel brother who was actually very bitter towards his sister. I still want to know whom you want her to be with. Up until I decide, she may end up having a bit of romance with each of them. Please do let me know.