The rumble of the wagon was the only thing keeping Dawn awake. The rousing exhaustion from that morning's payment session with Estrid, was taking a toll on his stamina, and now he found himself drowsing in the wagon's driver seat. The slow pace they traveled at didn't help much, and they were completely out of Dash Juice. So, he was stuck half-asleep, while they slowly made their way to Reinhold.
Ace and Mia sat directly behind him, playing with the little greenworm that Sasha took care of. Wilmarina sat beside himself, and Shizuka slithered off to the side. The bunyip was keeping a watchful eye on the hunter, but she didn't appear too irritated when he told her what he did with Estrid, so he was unsure of how she felt at the moment. The Order soldiers rode on horses, while Mersé rode with Primera as she was still nursing a throbbing shoulder.
From what he knew, no one knew of the mamono children's existence besides Wilmarina. Said mamono were also eating what remained of their rations, and Tatsuo had fed the entire crowd small meals with the meagre ingredients he managed to scrounge up that morning. No one was satisfied with their meals, but none of them complained after losing everything but the clothes on their backs. Only a couple of them hesitated when the chef was the one to offer it to them, but the grumbling in their stomachs was reason enough.
"Dawn," Wilmarina nudged, "you don't look well… maybe you should rest in the bed. I'll take care of everyone if anything comes up."
The hunter turned to the young hero, contemplating on if he should really leave her with the responsibility. Shizuka's claw on his hand, brought his attention to her; the soft glare she gave him told the hunter that she agreed. Sighing, Dawn nodded, pushed passed Ace without bothering him, and entered the wagon.
Sasha sat with Mimil, who seemed to have calmed down. The little girl leaned against the veteran hero's shoulder, while staring at the floor with a blank expression. She didn't even notice Dawn walk pass her. Sasha gave him a smile, one he couldn't muster the energy to return, so he offered her a thumbs up before plopping himself on the bed.
"You don't look well, hunter.", Elt added.
He and Francesca sat against the wagon wall, while the children quietly played games beside them. The young soldier gave him a wary look as Dawn collapsed onto the bed, while the princess could sympathize with how the hunter was feeling.
"He needs rest, Elt.", Francesca's soft voice soothed the concerned boy, "The hunter has been through much, leave him be."
"My apologies your highness," Elt nodded, "I should have known better."
"Elt," she frowned, "I told you to call me Fran… like when we were kids."
"But…"
"No buts!", She leaned into his shoulder, squeezing his hand, and a loving look in her eyes, "Now hush... The hunter needs his rest, and I would appreciate some peace and quiet myself."
Elt's blush was something fierce, and he was about to ask for the hunter's help. Only to find the man passed out in his bed with his arms and legs outstretched, while still wearing his armor with the exception of his helmet. The exhaustion from the morning, and the healing pains from the siege of Lescatie proved too much for him.
Elt could only sigh, before turning to see the red cloaked hellhound staring at them. He gave a hesitant wave with his free hand, the girl with buring eyes turned away with a blush on her face, and he swore he saw Wilmarina turn back to glare at the new mamono. He didn't know why the hunter was allowing one of Druella's ilk to join them, but he would respect Dawn's decision for now. The hunter was after all, letting him keep Francesca secret for the time being.
Francesca squeezed his hand with strength he didn't believe she could muster. She was doing far better than he expected; she could speak relatively freely, and she was able to hold onto him while they were fleeing from Lescatie, not to mention the fact that she didn't even know she was capable of doing so.
'That potion really cured her, didn't it?', Elt stared at the snoozing hunter, smirking when he saw one of the mamono girls playing with his messy white hair. A harsh series of coughs and the sudden worsening in the princess's condition made him squeeze her hand back. She merely leaned into his shoulder, uncaring for her worsening health, as the thought of being with Elt kept her well enough.
Wilmarina grimaced as her gaze fell on the two of them. Crestfallen, she turned back to the road ahead, staring down at the backs of her people as they marched onto Reinhold. Sighing to herself, she straightened out her back, and grimaced as she found her eyes wandering to the horse her father laid on. He hasn't woken up since the escape from Lescatie, but he was still breathing at the very least.
"Hey kid!", She turned to see Ace hop into the driver's seat with her, "What's bugging mew...? Cat got your tongue…?", Wilmarina blinked in astonishment, not knowing what to say, "C'mon girly, I only have so many cat-puns. It'll take furrever to get through meow'll of them though, and I'm not kitten with nyah."
Groaning, the young hero pointed to her father, "Please stop Sir Ace, I'm just worried about my father."
"You mean the geezer, right?", The palico halfheartedly pointed to the comatose old man, "Is he taking a grandpa-catnap or somethin?"
"Geezer? I thought your people respected your elders," Wilmarina frowned, "and he's not a grandpa either… he just had me late in his life."
"Sure," Ace rolled his eyes, and leaned back in his seat, "whatever you say.", He quirked a brow at the high priest and added, "From what I heard from Tatsuo, your dad went out of his way to humiliate him when he was trying to warn everyone... That doesn't really sound like an elder to me; that sounds like a bully to me."
"My father has his reasons, I'm sure.", Wilmarina huffed, "My father is an admirable man, and a high priest of the Order… he wouldn't do something like that without justification."
"Sure… sure," he smirked, "whatever helps you sleep at night..."
"Stop teasing her, Ace.", Shizuka butted in with a pinched claw on the palico's ear, "Wilmarina, is the situation with your father serious?"
"Argh, let go of me!", The palico whisper yelled, but his complaining went ignored by the two of them.
Wilmarina sighed, "He's fine for now, but if he doesn't wake up soon… I don't want to talk about it."
Shizuka released the felyne, who proceeded to hiss, claw at her, and then pounce back into the wagon's depths. The faint glow of orange eyes staring back at them with hatred only cats could muster. The bunyip brushed it off, "Well, I hope your father wakes up soon… I can't imagine losing my father like that."
Wilmarina grimaced and turned back to the road ahead, wanting to erase the conversation from her memory. Tears welled up in her eyes, but she refused to shed them. She was a hero, heroes don't cry; they don't show weakness, especially in front of monsters. Wilmarina released a breath she didn't know she was holding, and laid back in her seat as she watched the early birds flyby.
-0-
"So… what exactly is a friend?", Pluck asked, "Are they a pack member, or are friends like a… more… what's the word?"
"A friend is the human term for a companion, but yes, a pack member would be accurate, Pluck.", Kushala lazily laid on his side, playing with the wind currents with every tap of his claw-fingers against the cliff edge.
"And what do friends do together?", Pluck sat on the cliff's edge as well. His new feet swaying in the currents Kushala created, with his trident like wings idly tapping the ground beside him.
"Hmm," the older of the two pondered the question, "I don't know… Lowen, what do friends do?"
The griffon groaned as she tried her best to fly up to the mountaintop, as Kushala considered flying upward against a downward draft was a form of learning to fly. The mamono had asked the old one-eyed dragon how he and Pluck were able to fly so fast, and he told her that she would never be able to fly like Pluck. But she could learn his way, though his way would require her to learn to fly in an entirely new fashion.
"Can we take a break!", She yelled back, "My wings feel like they're going to fall off!"
"Hmm," Kushala tapped his chin as he flicked another gust her way, "you can stop when you beat the current."
Pushing her wings to the limit, she pushed herself out of the wind tunnel, and flew to the top where she landed beside a disappointed Kushala and a curious Pluck. Grumbling she stomped up to the older of the two with righteous fury, only to fall face first into the soft dirt as her entire body felt more like jelly than muscles and bones.
"Were you… trying to… KILL ME!", The exhausted griffon screamed against the ground.
Kushala grumbled, clearly not pleased with Lowen, "I should kill you… you cheated. Now get up, were not done yet."
Struck with primal horror, Lowen crawled over to Pluck, and gripped his claw for dear life. Now Pluck is far from stupid, nor is he uncompassionate towards others, what he is however is clueless. He is a dragon, a dragon that would come to live far longer than any of the other monsters in the world, but he did not know the world as Lowen did. He barely knew his own, and what he did know didn't apply to this world at all.
So, when she saw the blank confused expression on his annoyingly pretty face, she could only see the dread reflected back in his curious eyes. Deciding that putting her life into the hands of this fool was the only option she really had at the moment. She mustered the most pathetic plea she could and said, "Pluck, I am your friend… and you are my friend… and friends don't let other friends die."
Pluck raised a brow beneath his helmet like horns, "Lowen, stop complaining, you won't die."
"What?", She gasped, "You're actually going to help me?"
"Help you?", Pluck tilted his head to the side, "Why would I help you? If you fail Kushala's training, you'll just be falling about half a mile down, you'll be fine… There isn't even anything sharp down there too! What are you complaining about?"
Kushala stifled a laugh as the horror returned to Lowen's features, "Alright Lowen, dear girl, if you must take a break then you may… Pluck?"
The Valstrax turned to the old dragon with a nod. Kushala had to stifle another laugh, "I feel that it is important for you to know that the creatures of this world don't have the same… durability we see in the hunters."
"What do you mean?", The young Elder asked as he began poking Lowen's skin, "Lowen seems tough enough. Why couldn't she survive the fall?"
"I am not tough... I'm firm…"
"Yes, you are, Lowen," Kushala ruffled her sweat drenched hair, "yes you are. However, you would not survive that fall… now, would you?"
"No, I wouldn't… I need water…"
Kushala nodded and nudged her closer to Pluck, "Take her to that lake we passed over on our way back. And Lowen, I want you to explain what friend do together to Pluck. It's the least you could do."
Pluck scooped the mamono into his arms with a brief 'Okay', unaware of the fact that he was carrying her bridal style, much to Lowen's annoyance and Kushala's amusement. He brought her close, which caused an angry shade of red to spread across her face, and then he took off into the sky. The griffon's screams followed the living comet's descent into the world below.
Smirking to himself, Kushala leaned back, and took in the clear blue sky he rarely had the opportunity to see. Faint avian shapes in the distant horizon, the swirling clouds, and the hint of sea air caressing his metallic skin caused a calming sensation to come over him.
"Are you going to say something, or are you just going to keep standing there?", Kushala glanced at the banshee patiently observing him.
Her mouth opened and closed in a speech pattern he was familiar with, yet he couldn't hear a thing. When she finished, Kushala placed his chin in his palm, and simply laid there; waiting for her to speak up. Disturbed, the banshee bit her lip, and moved closer to him. The Elder allowed her touch him, but he too was surprised when she simply passed through him.
"That is new...", Kushala mumbled, "Was that supposed to do something?"
The mamono's expression fell, she nodded her head, and took a seat beside him with an air of depression overcoming her. Sighing without a sound, she returned to simply observing the old dragon. To which Kushala decided to stare right back, thinking it would somehow make her disappear. Seeing that she wasn't going anywhere, he decided to ignore her, and that he would rather be anywhere else at the moment. So, Kushala got to his feet, and hopped off the cliff with gusto.
Lowen had told him that she protected a treasure of such value that a dragon's hoard would pale in comparison. His curiosity was peaked, though he only knew a couple of Elders that actually kept such possessions. They tended to be incredible, vast lairs of material of seemingly worthless value, but that was only the case for anyone beside the monster itself.
His first venture into a Nakarkos den came to mind as he made his descent. He dreaded the thought that Lowen was protecting a mass of corpses and debris, he was lucky to escape his first encounter with that beast, and he doubted he would be so fortunate the second time around. He could still feel that disgusting mucus worming its way into carapace, gumming up his tendons, and restricting his wings.
Mortal terror aside, Kushala landed without a sound in Lowen's cache cave. Observing that the interior lacked any form of light source, and that his night vision was relatively subpar for Elders, his lack of a second eye didn't help much either. He decided to take the cautious approach as he cloaked himself in winds so fierce that it ripped into the stone floor beneath his talon-feet.
Walking into the darkness, he found the cave's tunnel to be rather small in size, only large enough to fit maybe a single Elder of average size. Considering that Kushala was much larger than the average Daora he doubted he would have fit comfortably if he was in his previous body.
Upon reaching the end of the tunnel, he found the so-called treasure Lowen told him about. Gold filled the entirety of the chamber, a couple of precious gems, and the occasional gaudy piece of equipment. A crack in the ceiling that introduced sunlight to the dark cavern's center, as well as the painting she described in great detail. What he didn't expect to see was the banshee calmly stalking him from on top the hill of gold.
Kushala released the wind aura, seeing no reason to keep it flowing, and knelt beside a significantly large pile of gold. Taking a gold piece in his claw, he carefully began forcing the coin to bend. The test did not require any significant amount of strength, but the coin proved itself to be in fact gold.
"To think something so useless would be so cherished.", He thought aloud, "What do humans see in this metal…? It's not strong enough to stop much of anything, it bends when pushed," he punctuated the statement by folding the gold piece in his claws, "and its color… nauseating to the eyes. What do you think Ban-shee?"
The mamono gave him a miserable shrug, a response he took as indifference. Clicking his tongue he flicked the ruined coin aside, and moved to the painting at the center. There was only just enough light to allow him to see what exactly it depicted.
It was a portrait of a mamono, a silver haired, black horned woman with fair white skin that played contrast with her bronze tail, wings, claws, and talons much like his own. There were wisps of flame that flickered from her claws and around her ample breast. The only piece of clothing she wore merged with the flames that covered her form, though she appeared unaffected by the flames altogether as if they were but another part of her.
He staired deeper into the painted woman's golden eyes, as a sense of danger dwelled within him at the mere sight of her alone. Kushala knew this feeling, but he doubted anything in this world could ever compare to the beast that inspired such dread. Tapping his chin, he took a step closer to get a better look at the woman's features.
Tattoos with an origin, he did not know, marked her waist. Those subtle features only drew his gaze to even more of her pleasant, yet fearsome characteristics. The longer he staired into the painting the more beauty would become apparent. Averting his eyes from her feminine shape, he took notice of the world around her. He saw winged serpents with breaths of fire and scales of green, red, and blue. He came to realize that the woman that captivated him so, was but a dragon as well.
"Ban-shee, who is this mamono?", Kushala took a step back, and out of the gold heap, "Is this mamono a dragon?"
The banshee stepped down to look at the paint herself. Nodding in understand, she pressed a finger against the embroidery that read a name he could not read, before responding with a nod. The answer only seemed to add onto the fascination Kushala had for the painting. For whatever reason, he saw the woman as a female, or more accurately, a female kin.
"So, this is a dragon of this world.", Kushala smirked in interest, "Fascinating… to think my other-worldly kin would be so… so… What's that human word?"
"I think you're looking for the word, beautiful.", Kushala turned in surprise to see a group of four dragon mamono of varying shapes and sizes. Two of them did not have claws, but they did possess human arms that transitioned into wings, reminding him of his world's Flying Wyverns. While the other two appeared all too similar to the female in the painting. However, unlike her, their scales were not bronze, but black and green.
The dragon at the front of their formation had black scales, was armed with a broad sword, and armored with white and gold plates on her scales and skin alike. She raised her sword into a cautious guard, drawing his gaze to her dual-colored eyes as she spoke, "So, you're that uncanna that destroyed Lescatie, the Argent Comet. I figured you would be silver, but I'm guessing you got that name from the Demon Silver in your skin."
"Argent Comet?", Kushala backed away, gathering his wind as he did so, "I believe you are referring to Pluck, the Valstrax, he must be this… un-canna you are referring to... Who are you, and what do you want?"
"Oh," the dragon nodded with a new sense of understanding, "then you must be Old One Eye. I'm not sure how I mixed you two up… My apologies, my name is Alto-Eris and we are the Dragonian Dragon knights, and I'm afraid we will also be arresting you as well.", She stood straighter, "For the crimes of murder of humans and mamono alike, taking part in the siege of Lescatie unknown or otherwise, as well as being an unregistered uncanna, you are under arrest! Come quietly and no harm will come to you."
-0-
Pluck landed with an earth-shattering quake, a quake that didn't bother the Elder in the slightest. Lowen on the other hand, fell out of his grip, and began throwing up what remained of her breakfast. The poor griffon finished with a heaving cough, though her first 'friend' didn't know why she was struggling. Kneeling beside her, he simply asked, "What's wrong?"
"THAT IS NOT HOW YOU CARRY SOMEONE WHILE FLYING! YOU STUPID," Lowen gagged on the dryness in her throat, "stupid dragon!"
"Oh.", Pluck shrugged, not particularly affected by her outburst.
The griffon took notice of the rushing river she had been taken to. She crawled over to the riverbed with the Elder following close behind, still confused as to why she was crawling when she could have simply walked over to the water instead. Scooping up water in her claws, she brought it to her mouth. She thanked the gods that it was fresh water, and began washing her mouth of the disgusting leftovers.
Pluck all the while watched her as she cupped her claws and brought water to her mouth. The action perplexed him, but he didn't know why. Kneeling down beside her, he placed his claw beneath the water's surface, letting the gentle current wash pass and around his scales. It was a sensation he never truly stopped to appreciate.
He brought his claw to his mouth, but was frustrated to find the water dripping from his grasp and back into the steam. Looking back over to see how Lowen did it, he cupped both of his claws together, repeated the action, and brought the water to his mouth. Thinking, 'This doesn't seem much easier than drinking it normally… but this feels right, for some reason… Why does this feel right?'
"Thirsty?", Pluck glanced back at the griffon to see her taking much smaller cups than he had.
Looking back to his own claws, he could plainly see that he had scooped up about four times as much water than she had. Shrugging, Pluck brought the water to his mouth, and began to sloppily down the near half a gallon's worth of water in one go. Lowen simply shook her head when he finished, "Feeling full yet, or do you want another?"
"Why would I feel full?"
"You just downed a hell of a lot of water in one go," she smacked his stomach, and realized that he was almost completely unaffected by the amount of water in his stomach, "you should be feeling like you just… you know… downed a hell of a lot of water in one go."
"I don't know what you're talking about.", He cupped another half a gallon of water, and downed the second serving without any issues, besides the usual sloppiness.
He was going to take another clawful of water as the sky above grew dark. Both of them turned to see that a storm had formed overhead. Lowen, was the first to take to the air, with Pluck's launch following close behind and eventually ahead of her. They weren't even above the clouds, before they found Kushala combating four other flying mamono.
Tornados surged from his form as he swept from dragon to wyvern and back again. His claws and jaw arcing with Dragon Element, while his opponents struck with swords and spears. The old Elder Dragon ducked and dived, scraped and snapped, and sent forth gushing gales of freezing winds. While his opponents stuck him in hope that they could pierce the Elder's metal skin and apprehend him.
The green scaled wyvern shot into Kushala's back with her lance, while he avoided the swipe from the blue wyvern's longsword. He retaliated with a Dragon infused claw, rending scales from her wings, and a snap of wind to the side of her chin. The next to attack was the green scaled dragon, who attempted to pierce his metal wings; she received a mauling for the trouble, having to nurse a wounded arm as she escaped an additional flick of Kushala's wind.
"The uncanna fights like a beast!", Their apparent leader roared from above, "Watch for his claws, they look like they're coated in magic! Keep away from his front; we can't cut his armor! Cripple his wings! Bring him down!"
Pluck took the initiative, and physically dragged the black dragon leader from the fight and into the world above the clouds. Now leaderless the remaining wyverns turned to the other dragon-girl for orders, and so they returned to their original hit and run tactics, seemingly unaffected by their leader's sudden removal.
Lowen dragged the black wyvern away from Kushala's swinging claws and down to the earth. Tossing her into a tree before taking up the girl's weapon. Disarmed, the wyvern slapped away the longsword heading for her breast, and spat a ball of fire into the griffon's face.
Lowen tucked and rolled, avoiding a cleave from the wyvern's talons, and extinguished the flames in the mud she managed rolled herself through. Still gripping the weapon, Lowen swung at the wyvern, hitting the mamono's arm-wing, and knocking her opponent onto her side with the force alone.
"What the hell do you want?!", Lowen kicked the wyvern's stomach, and had to avoid another flash of fire that only succeeded in licking the feathers of her wing.
"We're here to arrest the uncanna!", The black wyvern growled, "I am under orders to capture them and them alone. If you leave now, we'll forget your intrusion, griffon!"
"Arrest the uncanna?", Lowen had to dodge a leg sweep as the wyvern got to her feet, "What the hell is an uncanna?!"
"Them!", The wyvern pointed to Kushala as he blocked another swing of the green dragon's cross spear.
Lowen had little time realize that the wyvern had already moved to strike. The black wyvern hurried passed her, and kicked into the griffon's knee before taking her weapon back. Now armed, she leveled her longsword with the Lowen's throat, and said, "Make your choice now and leave!"
Lowen looked back into the sky to see Kushala take a lance to his spine, and then her gaze fell on a plummeting Pluck, who was currently tangling with the black dragon leader. These two Elders have been little more than a nuisance to her since day one, but as she watched both of them take and deliver devastating swipes and stabs; she only saw two mamono that she had come to care for, the only mamono she had ever cared for.
'Pluck may be an ignorant fool, but… he's my friend… my only friend.', Her glare moved from Pluck to Kushala, 'He isn't any better… just less dumb, more arrogant… no.', Lowen turned her glare to the blue wyvern holding a blade to her throat, "Make me, bitch!"
-0-
Pluck shot through the clouds, black dragon in claw as he continued to push himself further and further into the sky until he was sure she wouldn't be able to rejoin the fight anytime soon. Only when the air grew cold, his breath labored, and his head light did he release the mamono. A decision that he would immediately come to regret.
She was fast to say the least; she sliced and stabbed and swung until Pluck found himself falling back to the earth with her. Her face was calm, her motions precise, and her strength more than surprising. Pluck knocked the blade from her grip with a bash of his trident wings as they continued to descend. Despite the loss of her weapon, her assault continued as she wrapped her legs around his waist. She began to pound his chest with her bare claws.
Her closed claws felt more like small hunter's hammers, and with each blow he felt the wound on his chest throb with terrible pain. The crack became a noticeable fracture as she brought both of her claws together for finishing blow. The dragon paused; a look of horror stretched across her face at the sight of the rupturing gash. Growling, Pluck took the opportunity and switched their positions.
Now with him above her, he began sucking air through his broken vents, causing Dragon to surge from his wound and shock the dragon knight with the foreign element. But Pluck wasn't done yet; he wrapped his arms around the mamono and forced her to make immediate contact with the burning wrongness that was the first element. His wings flared with Dragon and Demon Energy as he rocketed back to the earth with the knight forcibly strapped to his chest.
Kushala and the other dragons only barely noticed the flash of red and purple as they shot passed them. Giving them a moments pause, before they returned to fighting one another. With Kushala proving to be the greater force as he swept both dragon and wyvern aside with a swing of his tail and another flick of overflowing gales.
Pluck and Alto-Eris landed with a thunderous crash, a shallow crater the size of a small castle formed from the impact, with neither combatant capable of moving. Pluck rolled off of the knight, his chest vents leaking blood, Dragon, and Demonic Energy. He couldn't breathe, for the first time in his life; he couldn't breathe, and all he could feel was the growing panic as the pain set in. Gasping for air, he began coughing up the water he had drank mere moments ago, there were faint hints of blood in every drop.
The knight wasn't fairing any better, she had yet to move from her spot at the center of the crater. Arcs of red lightning sparked from her body, and she could barely feel the fractured shards she called ribs. She, unlike the Valstrax, could breathe with only an intense pain keeping her from doing anythin. Her pained eyes fell on the choking form of the uncanna beside her. A look of horror on her face as she watched the male dragon choke on his own blood.
Her gaze fell on a griffon and her comrade, Shirtiya. She raised a weakened claw in hope that they would put aside the battle to help them. The coughing grew more strained, and his pain became more than just apparent as blood began to pool beneath him. Alto-Eris couldn't believe that she was already come to regret accepting this mission. She didn't want the blood of anyone on her hands, especially an uncanna.
As the shock waned, her consciousness began to slowly fade. The last thing she saw was the hovering figure of her second target. The last thing she felt was the gentle touch of her friends and subordinates. The last thing she heard was the quite voice of Old One Eye and the sorrow in his voice.
"Give him space… I don't know… We just have to…"
Her dreams were filled with nothing but the horror of what she had done. She hoped to the gods above that this was all but a dream as well, and that this was all but a horrific nightmare she just had to wake up from. Of course, the sight that greeted her when she awakened wasn't exactly what she hoped for.
-0-
"What have you learned so far?", Druella's voice echoed through her mind.
The youngest hellhound listened to the voice of her lord as she settled into the corner of the wagon, hoping that no one would be able to hear their conversation from the very back. No one besides Chloe could actually hear the lilim's voice, but if she was going to respond; she would have to speak aloud.
She answered with a hushed voice, "The hunter is a kind human… he told me that as long as I listen and not attack anyone, that I would be allowed to stay… And that if anyone else causes any problems then I should go to him for help."
"Interesting," Druella mulled it over, "have you learned anything else? Knowing that the hunter is compliant is good, but I'm hoping for something more… juicy."
"He made love to the minotaur, Estrid, this morning.", Chloe nodded to herself, "She's nice… she reminds me of Rachel."
"Yes, yes that nice, but is there anything else?", Druella was getting impatient, "I would love to hear more about the sex, but I need to know if you have learned anything about the Hunter's Guild."
"Dawn, the hunter," Chloe clarified, "told me that he was a very high-ranking member, and that I could only tell you what I learned from him if he knew exactly what I'm going to say."
"Fine," Druella sighed, "do as he asks of now for now, but once you get something relatively important, make sure to tell me. And if it's really important, tell me right away. I don't care if it angers Dawn, if it's something we can really use."
"I don't think that would be a good id…"
"You are not there to think," Druella interrupted, "you are there to observe and to feed me everything you learn… Am I understood… pooch?"
"Yes, mam.", The little hellhound curled in on herself. Fear and guilt filled her mind, leaving one last thing on her mind, "How are my sisters?"
"They're fine," Druella waved away her concerns, "I have um… Miranda here, she going to relate whatever you want to say to them."
Gulping down her dread, she said, "Can you tell her that… I love her, and that I miss everyone?"
Silence was all she could hear for a long moment. Her sense of dread only grew with every passing second. It was only when she began losing hope that she heard the lilim's voice echo through her mind, "She left to go tell them… If you have anything important to report, just think of me and call my name… otherwise, keep the fact that we are speaking a secret. We don't want you anyone getting any ideas, now do we?"
"Yes, mam."
"Good, I'm going to start using the hero's eyes now.", Druella's voice began to fade, "I will contact you again, same time tomorrow."
Left alone once more, Chloe watched the children play amongst themselves from her spot in the corner of the wagon. She felt cold, oddly so as she is a hellhound, a beastman known for their intense heat. But she was used to always having her sisters beside and around her. They always made her feel warm, safe, even strong when Miranda wasn't around.
She loved Miranda, she always has, but for some reason, she did not know, Miranda had always been cold to her. Unlike Alpha, who was always there for her when they were younger. Now that she thought about it, she missed Alpha's gentle embrace, and how she would hold her whenever she felt unsure or scared. She missed the warmth of her sisters, and the security she felt in the arms of her Alpha.
She missed Rachel's stern yet caring demeanor, and Bonnie's lax yet playful teasing. She missed Elizabeth in general as of lately, and though she wasn't super close to the triplets, she missed them all the same. Then her thoughts came back to Miranda, and she didn't know what to feel.
The question of why kept coming up, and the confusion that followed it only made the situation, in her head, worse. She had to ask herself, 'Does she hate me? Why would Miranda hate me? Did I do something wrong?', And then her thoughts moved to denial, 'She doesn't hate me… it's just tough love. She's mean because she wants me to be strong! That's right, Miranda loves me!'
One of the human girls settled beside her, "Hi! My name is Marnie! What's yours!"
Blinking in confusion, Chloe moved her red hood aside to get a better look at the girl, who didn't seem to mind that she was talking to a hellhound. Chloe smiled an awkward smile, "Um, my name is Chloe… Why are you talking to me?"
"Because you look lonely!", The girl answered with a big happy grin, "And mama Sasha says we should always make lonely people know they're wanted!"
Chloe looked to the veteran hero, currently cradling the youngest hero she had ever seen. Sasha Fullmoon returned her stare with a friendly wave and a loving nod. Looking back to the child, the young hellhound slowly relaxed in her spot, a new warmth in the center of her breast came over her. She smiled back, happy to have someone to talk to besides Druella.
"Well, Marnie… what do you want to talk about?"
AN: So, Monster Hunter Stories 2 has been consuming my life for the pass week or so, and I can comfortably say that it is my favorite JRPG to date. It has a great, though flawed, story with fun combat, and customization a plenty. If any of you guys don't like the mainline MH games, but want to actually meet the monsters in the games. Then I would suggest picking up Stories 2 on Switch or Steam, both are fine options. You'll get at least a solid thirty-five to fifty hour story with plenty of endgame content to go around.
I actually had to double down on my writing recently to keep up with the loose schedule I made for myself, so that I could continue playing the game. As I am writing this it is 2:12 in the morning, and I am incredibly tired and my butt fell asleep.
Regardless, I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter, and until next time.