Much to my dismay, the biological clock inside of me boots my furry butt awake, rubbing my eyes and opening them wide afterwards, blinking rapidly before groaning, I mashing my face back into the pillow in a fruitless effort to return to the comfort of the dark. I just wanna sleep in for a bit dammit, especially after yesterday, first chance I get I'm gonna beat this clock into submission, see how it likes it. I twist and turn, sitting up and yawning, puffing up and stretching, letting out little happy sighs as my back cracks, probably shouldn't have slept in that possible, but the damages already been done, still worth it.
I slowly turn and sit on the side of my bed, mashing my face with my hands to force myself away, eyes finally zapping to attention. I squint, and then open my eyes wide, reaching down and grabbing my paw, bringing it up for a closer inspection. It's covered in dirt, naturally, but its also very obviously caked in blood from the fight. 'God dammit' I think to myself, grumbling and leaping onto my feet 'I was gonna wash at least, but I really hope that she doesn't see this.' I don't particularly wanna sniff myself, too spooked, so I'm gonna assume I smell like garbage anyways. I quickly toss on my shirt, at least moving the rest of my gear onto the bed and speed walk out of the room, Anna already in the process of walking into my room, I give her a quick hug, picking up speed dashing past her with a surprised-confused look on her face
"HeyAnnagonnawashbebacksoonbye!" I blurt out, door already open and swinging myself a steep left using the frame of the door, Annas blurting out a muffled message as I continue to rush to the back of the house, I'll get to axing down logs later and following the memorised path to the river, tossing my shirt onto a branch and fumbling to drop my shorts, at least I manage it before I reach the river and leaping into it. The water brushes and soaks into my fur, I already feel so much cleaner, I swim upwards and let in a breath of fresh air, shaking my head to clear my vision of my soaked hair, my hands reaching down and scraping and intensely brushing at my paw, gotta get the blood off, get off of me dammit!
After a few seconds of the intense brushing, my paw feels so much cleaner, and the previously solid blood flows with the water downstream, effectively liquefied, and with the shake of a leg I move back to cleaning the rest of my body, a needed but uneventful process. 'I gotta leave her soon, I can feel it in my bones, and so can she' I think to myself grimly, face turning into a frown as I scrape and wash down my arms 'It feels like a lust for adventure, or just moving around, I do owe her more than a few visits though, could help out around the house while I'm here too.' My musings are cut short by a small cough, my ears perking up and towards the noise. Turning behind me, Anna stands with her arms crossed, a frown of clear disapproval on her face, I look up to her and smile sheepishly, my ears flattening as I wave to her.
"Er, hey! Just wanted to get clean nice and early, ya know?" I let out a small nervous laugh as she stares me down, but she sighs and pinches her eyes soon after. I look down at my bare body and yelp, only just realising that I'm slightly vulnerable as I dip the rest of my body under the water, only my head poking out from the water.
"Calm down Zeke, I've already seen what you have 'packaged', I just need to chat with you when you have time is all, while I'd love to see you squirm a bit, it's also a serious topic." I force myself to sink deeper into the river, maybe i could become a fish to escape this torment. I do nod and give her a solid thumbs up as she finishes her sentence.
"Heythatsgreatcanyouleavenowthanks" It's actually becoming more difficult to keep myself sunken into the river, partially due to the force of it, Anna herself laughs aloud (bloody Demon Woman) as walks back up, hopefully far away from me and back to her house. I only huff as I swim to the shoreline, what was I thinking about before? Probably wasn't too important. My cleaning session only slightly ruined, I shake like a dog once more, at least that's a constant way to freshen myself up. Ears flicker as a chill runs up my spine, there's something behind me, I turn around , praying to got there isn't another thing looking at me, tail snaking around a leg as I do so and covering up as best as I can. Lo and behold, Short Hair from yesterday sitting down and a mirthful smile on his stupid mug, waving oh so innocently. I yelp and hop behind a rock, crouching down, the grace of my shorts nearby saving my ass, I grumble and cover myself up, making extra sure that its on tight before standing up straight again, my own arms crossed as I stare down at the laughing Keidran, the shoe is on the other foot now.
"Okay, what is up with you people today? Inconsiderate assholes, I swear to god, I'll kick your ass!" I yell aloud, hopefully Anna doesn't hear and point at Short Hair, he himself busting a gut at my annoyance, ears flattening again. I pinch my eyes as I feel a headache coming up already, its too damn early for this, the other hand rubbing the side of my head, and after a few moments I re-open my eyes, Short Hair covering his mouth but his eyes still twinkling with a mischievous, I bet hes still grinning at my face, asshole.
"Just teasing, of course, thought you'd be here though, it's interesting to see a Basitin around here." I hear the question lingering in the air, taking a seat atop the rock that protected my modesty, bless this rock. His Human is, infinitely better than yesterday, still rough around the edges, but his smooth tone of voice evens it out. 'How'd he learn a language so quickly?' I wonder. I shrug myself, placing my hand onto my fist and leaning on it.
"I'm a wanderer, kind of, I've taken to it after leaving a village I grew up in, human village before you ask. What about yourself Wolfboy, how'd you get so good at Human too?" I spout my fake background out, hopefully a Keidran doesn't question it too much. He copies my shrug (mocking bastard), his sly smile still on his face.
"Magic is a wonderful thing, sadly you Basitins can't get too much use out of it. Just wanted to talk for a bit is all, is there an issue with that?" I pause, but slowly nod, relaxing further into my hand, a conversation with a Keidran could be interesting. So you can learn a language from magic, huh? I wonder if I can still sneak in something in my head, it could be useful to, well, learn Basitin, could be kind of helpful.
"It'll be an experience to speak to a Keidran, what do you wish to talk about though? I wouldn't know any idle chatter topics." He clears his throat, massaging it lightly, maybe Human takes a toll on a Keidrans voice box, or is he just not used to it.
"Well, I haven't met Basitins much, but why are you so needlessly tall? Are you some sort of cross breed?" I recoil backwards slightly, theres so many questions this boy could've asked, including my name, but nooo, go straight for the height.
"I don't know, I really don't, I just am. It has its perks though, I don't have to use a stool to reach up to high places." I say in a deadpan tone, but clearly Short Hair finds this absolutely hysterical. Fairly sure I already knew they're meant to be short, but I don't know how short yet. "Anyway, its a pleasure to meet you, my name's Zeke, what's yours?" He stops his laughter finally, looking up to me with mirthful expression.
"A pleasure, I'm Zen, the elder of the Magi Brothers." At this somewhat obvious realisation (the robes gave it away, unless robes mean something different here than what I think), but I nod along with it, his counterpart from yesterday must've been his brother then, we do chat idly for a while longer, actually getting comfortable with each other, sharing jokes and generally talking about our previous days, turns out he was around with his brother temporarily for a job of some kind. Speaking of that brother, my eyes squint, if Zens here, that means his brothers here somewhere, and that chill going up my spine means something.
"Nice to know your name, by the by, I've been calling you Short Hair mentally for the past day, I assume you're here for a reason though, aren't you? What is your job?" Blood flows through my ears, I hear the pumping of my heart, drowning out thought but not sound, my nerves jumping left and right.
"It's just a job, sorry Zeke." I hear him say in almost slow motion, already twisting around, snarling and catching his brothers arm, knife already pointed and primed at my back. Twisting and squeezing it, he drops the knife, slugging his gut with my other hand, twisting my own body and lifting him up, I toss the struggling animal at Zen, physically feeling the adrenaline pumping through my veins, his brother sails through the air, Zen lunging forward and grabbing him before he hits the dirt, helping him up. His brother stands upright, hes robed at least, with pouches dangling from a rope, nursing his stomach and wincing. I stand upright myself, pointing a finger at the duo, feeling my face contorting into a furious expression, a pang of betrayal running through my body, wasn't Zen a good guy?
"Just a job my ass, you ain't gonna take me down, you'll break long before that." The pure rage flooding my skull and voice feels unnatural, uncomfortable, but I'm furious at these bastards and I'll be damned if I take this lying down. The first issue is immediately apparent, I've just tossed live ammunition and a target at Zen, there's an entire river blocking us off from each other. The younger brother says something in Keidran, reaching down and pulling out stones, and squeezing them tight, mana stones maybe, his body glowing a deep red.
"Igniras!" He shouts, I'm surprised I can understand that, , and I quickly remember that the magi brothers can use magic offensively, a ball of fire appearing in front of him, flaring and rushing towards me. The fire barely singes the hair tips of my arms as I jump off of the rock, my senses flaring up with fright and surprise as it blasts against a tree, turning the bark on it to a crisp. I gape a little bit, magic really is interesting, before turning my head towards the pair, face turning back to a fierce frown, the younger brother looks determined, still clutching his pouch and stones, Zen however looks pensive, looking down or away, even as he clutches a knife, for throwing maybe? Rage filled blood still pumps through my veins, my body a jittery mess, as much as I want to reach over there and snap their vile bones, I breathe deep. My heart throbs a stinging pain, but maybe I can still make this right?
"Zen, come on! We don't have to do this, and I don't wanna hurt either of you, not that I can but that's besides the point." My voice still wavers from anger, deep breaths still helping with that, rolling away from another fireball sent my way. My body wants to reach out and grab them by their sick little necks, but god, can I live with that? Just cause they're doing a bad thing doesn't make them bad people, right? Zen still looks conflicted, but he reaches out and taps his brother shoulder, interrupting his spell casting, red mist fading around him. He barks at him, and they have a small verbal scuffle mixed with glaring, Zens obviously taking my side in this at least.
'In, out, one, two, three' I think to myself, mental instructions to myself to calm down. Finally after a while longer of bickering, they both turn to me, Zen at least looking complacent with whatever they discussed. It's at this point that I notice something odd, both of them have brown eyes, akin to twins, but one of the younger ones eye's stuck with a glassy grey look.
"Listen, Zeke, I really don't want Nat to get hurt from this, we attacked you a few nights ago, you were travelling with Templars, so we assumed you were with them. It's just our job, but we can hopefully mix something with our employer to convince." Nat, as I now know his name, looks huffy and leans against a tree, clearly intensely against the decision, though he's at least out of the conversation.
"I knew you two were, it was too damn coincidental." I cross my arms, I'm still royally pissed about this, but my heart sings with joy, he's still a friend, or a positive acquaintance. "I cant respect the profession, but I respect your will for your brother. What happened that night? Why was I with Templars?" Zen looks confused, eyebrows furrowed.
"You don't know? How are we meant to know? You were with them willingly, that's all we saw." I sigh and pinch my eyes together, doing that a lot today really.
"Okay, god dammit, I'm an amnesiac, partially anyways, I'm looking for something to refresh memories cause I have no bloody idea whats going on." I explain to him, I'll give him context at least.
"..I'm sorry, I really am." He looks away and down, remorse flooding his tone. "We, I, realised too late that you're not quite who we're meant to be targeting." I swear god this motherf- okay, that's it. I grumble to myself as I waltz into the damn river, I'm not taking my shorts off for this, Zen tilting his head and Nat looking upwards. I swim to the other side, I can actually manage that now that I'm not gonna get shanked, and walk up to him, standing up straight and looking him in the eye, hey look someone that's actually my height for once, take that everyone else. I wrap my arms around him and bring him close, he himself yelping as i lift him in the air, hes either surprisingly light or I'm just overly strong.
"You're an asshole, you're getting wet hugs for it." I say simply, Zen trying to squirm away to no success. At least Nat finds it humorous, laughing at his miss-fortune. I place Zen down, him regaining his footing as I look towards the young one. "You threw fireballs at me, I'll smother you too if you yak it up." That at least shuts him up, I can already see red mist surrounding him as I poke out my tongue. At least Zen looks calmer, as does Nat by by-product, though I do turn to him.
"What did you mean by targeting, though? You owe some explanations at least." I'm not sure if ending up being interrogated by your 'target' makes you a good assassin by any means, but I'm not gonna look a gift horse in the mouth. I hear Nat sigh, and glancing at him reveals him slumping onto his rump, back of his head thumping against the tree and groaning, I'm surprised he can understand us, does the magical language transfer affect more than one person?
"We've been, hired essentially, to take care of and disrupt Templar soldiers and supply lines, at least until further orders." He explains, hand rubbing his neck. I hum and tap my paw against the ground, claws digging into the dampened dirt as I begin to think. 'Travelling with Templars, surely Anna and Gerome would've noticed that, wouldn't they? Why didn't they bring it up? '
"Anything else?"
"Not so much, we've had to fulfil some, trading more or less, for some items, which is why we we're still around but nothing more." My ears flicker up at hearing that, glancing towards him.
"Wouldn't happen to be from some spindly human, hm?" Zen tilts his head, looking taken taken aback, and curious.
"Yeah, how'd you know?" I sigh and rub my face, groaning into my hands.
"I was trading a package for that guy myself, had a run in with a Guard cause of it." I mumble, muffled by my hands, who set this up? This cant be an accidental coincidence, could it? Zen's eyes opens wide in realisation, fingers clicking.
"Oh! That explains why he was so ruffled up, thought he was gonna trip over himself and ruin the entire thing." At least this prick sees something amusing about the situation, Nat himself also groaning, either from boredom or annoyance.
"All of this can go to hell, what was in that pouch anyways? I didn't particularly wanna have my hands on it any longer than I needed to." At this, Nat reaches around to her back, revealing that disgusting looking pouch and passing it to Zen, they're actually very in tune with each other. He opens up the pouch and pulls out the metal, thing. Simply looking at it rubs me the wrong way, as if its existence is reprehensible enough, the hair at the back of my neck raising up.
"Its a slave collar, a Templar slave collar, it saps the free will of whoever's wearing it, its why some slaves just cant get away, its law to keep a mind control spell on a slave at all times." He explains, a magicked slave collar, and its law to have it on? My eyebrows furrow as my fingers clench into a fist, breathe deep Zeke, breathe.
"I feel like it'd have been better to not know about it, but whats done is done." Thankfully Zen gets the hint, stuffing it into the pouch and passing it back to Nat. "So, I assume you're trying to dismantle this thing to unfuck its mind control?" Thankfully Zen nods (whether or not hes telling the truth is another question), oh wait a second! 'I actually need to get to get back to Anna, shes probably wondering whats taking so long'. I clasp my hands together, giving the two a grin.
"Well, I sadly must be going, someones expecting me, but you already know that. Attempted murder aside, this was fun enough, lets do less of that next time we meet, shall we?" I give him a wink while he smiles awkwardly. Nat at least looks happy to get outta here, already stepping to his feet, though I groan as I turn around.
"You think you two can toss me across the river? I 'wanna get wet again"
Needless to say, neither of them actually attempt to throw me over the river, instead choosing to disappear again, at least my shirts not soaked, shorts are ruined and my fur is overly poofy everywhere, but I managed to get out of that unscathed. I still feel, raw to say the least over all that, but we've patched it up, right? I shudder, I don't know what I'd have done to them, just be thankful its done with, Zeke. I whistle and waltz into the house, Anna tapping the table impatiently as I greet her with a overdone smile.
"Annnaaaa! When'd you get here? I didn't think I'd see you her-" A glare from her cuts me off, pointing directly to the seat the opposite side of her. I smile sheepishly as my ears flatten, taking said designated seat, she closes her eyes and sighs heavily.
"You have to leave, and you know that too, I just don't want you to." She says finally, remorse and sadness filling her voice. I tilt my head as my lips fall to a frown, I didn't think she'd be so sad about all this.
"Anna.." I trail off, though I don't continue, no need to break her concentration, but she knows I was with Templars that night, why didn't she tell me?
"I know what'd happen down there, you're an awful liar too, even I knew you weren't from a human village." I flinch and rub at my arm, god dammit, she could at least pull some punches with that, I'm a little too attached to her, it seems.
"You aren't the same Basitin that were with those Templar, are you? You lack the same drive that you had, you're not Zeke at all, are you?" She inches closer, her eyes studying my face, I freeze, I want to back up but I cant, I gulp down my anxiousness and cough, trying to stop the constriction.
"..you'd be very correct, Anna, I'm not Zeke, not at all, I don't know if that's even my name, or who I am, I died, this is just another chance at living." She clasps her hands together, looking down at the table, I can see her eyes closed behind the gaps though.
"I know, I realised very quickly that something happened, you healed far too quickly, you were far too kind to be the same person I saw. And that's the reason I helped you as much as I can, you might've died, but you deserve to live dammit!" She stands up as she exclaims the last word, her frown turning to a wide warm smile, I do jump as she stands up though, no I'm not spooked.
"And you will live, as Zeke, not whoever you were before." She finally finishes, her eyes closing again as she sits down, continuing after a brief stop "You were a lot colder, calmer, more calculated, i could see it in your eyes, and much more Basitin and less whatever you are now, just before you ask about that."
Well, she dropped a massive bombshell on my ass, at least it answered a few questions, though I sigh heavily, leaning backwards and holding my head in my hands.
"What a pain in the ass, at least I don't have to keep lying to you about it all." She giggles, back to her warm smile and exterior "You left the Templars yourself, didn't you? Somethings happened to it, surely they weren't always like what they are now."
"I, didn't exactly agree with the way it's spreading, not with how controlling its turned into, and with the disappearance of the previous Grand Templar.." She trails off, I can get her point though, sudden shift in power and direction as well as a new leader to boot? Sounds like a coup, or an assassination at least. I nod though, at least to show her that I've been paying attention.
"Well, what's meant to happen now? I don't wanna bring attention to you, Anna." She shrugs, but smiles and leans forward
"What you want to do, you want to leave and go across the seas, don't you? To see the world around us and thrive, I can't stop you, but I want you to know there is a home for you." Her smile turns sad, though there's a perseverance in it, as if shes been through this and know hows to handle herself. A chill goes up my spine, my ears swivelling towards the door, I stand up, Ill trust my guts with this.
"Anna, go hide." I say simply as I bound over to my room, strapping on my outfit as quickly as I can, chain mail check, cloak check, gloves and swords are on. As I head out into the room, Anna has disappeared back into her own, I tip toe across the area onto the door, Anna seems to have at least put the latch on before zipping into her room, crouching and raising my head to the door and honing in, listening to whatever movement I could.
The areas quiet, much too quiet, dead silence is far from natural, or good either. I stand up slowly, raising my hand to the latch. I pause, one, two, three! Lifting it up and kicking the door, it goes straight into a body, the door slamming back onto the frame, and into my incoming foot, whatever behind it finally getting the hint and moving away from the slamming door. The door launches open, the hinges buckling at the pressure, the figure laid out on the ground as I pull out and raise my sword high, almost feeling its begging lust to be brought down on the interloper. I pause as he holds his hands in the air, no fur, hes a human, clad in regular cloth clothing, looking up to me, his hair flung backwards and revealing brown eyes filled with fear.
"Hold, hold" His explains, startled and voice wavering. I lower my sword only slightly, glaring at his face, dirty blonde hair, same guard I met last night? At least I recognise him, he doesn't have any weapons on his person, as far I can tell, I give him the benefit of the doubt and sheath my sword, he breathes a sigh of relief. I continue to stare at him, crossing my arms.
"Hey, Guard, odd seeing you here. What's your business intruder?" I sigh as he struggles to get up, his bandaged leg not helping him in the slightest, reaching down with a hand and offering it. He looks at it, discomfort glazing over his expression before he grabs my hand, yanking him up and stabling him. He looks very uncomfortable with being here, looking at every other direction but my face.
"Sadly, I've been.. compelled to be here by a superior, you're no Keidran apparently, not that there's much of a difference in my eyes, and there's been a lot of shit thrown up cause of it that's made my boss very unhappy.." He finally says, lips frowning as he crosses his own arms.
"For what reason, and why the snooping? You were a lot quieter than I'd expect from someone like you." I rib him a little bit, clearly he doesn't appreciate my humour judging from his deepening frown.
"Can't say I exactly want to anyone else to know that I'm here, and I'm here to apologise for, urk, our initial meeting." I raise an eyebrow, glancing behind him and seeing atop the hill an armour clad figure, not too different from what the Guard in front of me was wearing, though with a more ornate and styled look in terms of visual appearance. His cape billowing in the soft wind, one hand on the hilt of his blade as he looks towards us, I can imagine him glaring a hole into the mans back. After a few seconds I roll my eyes, reaching over and flicking the idiot on his nose, its amusing to see him flinch backwards and rub at the afflicted nose.
"You scared the hells out of Anna and I, to say sorry, when I said that it was no hard feelings as I left you, are you kidding me? It was a favour for someone else, something that was a mistake to get caught up with, but it was nothing exceptionally personal." Besides, its not like he betrayed my trust or anything, I'm still sore over that, the twits.
"We good then? Can I leave?" He asks impatiently, the sun setting probably means that he has to go back to his post, or home. I hum for a bit, before clicking my fingers, a small 'ahah!' from my mouth.
"Shout me some alcohol tomorrow and we'll be even, I assume there's an Inn over there." He looks confused at my request, lips forming 'shout?', maybe that's not used here, but he seems to get what I mean and shrugs.
"Right, whatever then, the Inns near the town hall, if you managed to see it anyways." Well, the town hall would probably be the big building, so I'll eventually find it.
"Great, it's a date then." He looks flabbergasted, recoiling in shock and making blubbering noises as I laugh, gods this man's gonna be hysterical to tease. I wave at his captain, I assume it's his captain and shut the door in front of his face, hearing him scamper away just makes me laugh that little bit more. I let out a breath I didn't realise I was holding and turn around, Anna having tip toed into the room. 'You're not that sneaky, Anna, at least this time' I think to myself, giving her a small thumbs up.
"Everything's good, sorry about scaring you, just got a tad worried is all." She folds her arms, oh no what did I do, an eyebrow raised.
"You had a run in with a guard, hm?" Oh, oooohhh, I didn't tell her about that. I scratch the back of my head, making a shrugging gesture with my other arm.
"Eeeh, long story, small misunderstanding, all cleared up now though." She still doesn't look very pleased, but she rolls her eyes and drops her arms, and hopefully the issue along with it.
"I'll slap you around in a second with a broom, you mutt, just go chop the rest of the wood before you leave." That last word, 'leave', has such a serious undertone to it, I do need to leave eventually, and finishing up the wood would at least comfort her for some time when the winter comes. I smile sadly, walking up to her and clasping my arms around her, holding her tight as her own arms wrap around my back. I've noticed she doesn't get many visitors, and shes a motherly figure, shes taking this a lot better than I expected. She sniffles into my chest (aw now I just feel bad), though with the soft whap I feel against my back, along with her pulling away with her own sad smile, shes definitely taking this at least fairly well.
"Are you gonna be okay, Anna? I can always stay for an extra day or two, don't want you to spout too many more gray hairs over me after all." That turns her sad smile into a genuine one, whapping a hand against my chest. Considering that I have chain mail on, I feel like that hurt her more than anything else, but she brushes it off. Glancing towards a window, I can see the setting suns rays beam through it, has today really been that long, or have I been that distracted?
The rest of the day is spent with Anna, not speaking much, but I got chewed out more than a few times because, I did end up telling her about what happened with Gerome, the Guard and such. I really need to know his name cause calling him Guard when there's other guards is kind of strange. Sipping over tea and idle chatter is surprisingly wholesome and nice with her, the encroaching day looming over my head still flutters my heart, nerves spiking whenever my mind travels to it, will Anna be okay alone? Why am I so anxious? The tightening in my chest only squeezes harder the more I think of it. Nonetheless, I can't let it get myself down, and sending a warm smile Annas way and sipping on her gorgeous tea always makes me feel better. I'll awaken earlier tomorrow, hopefully anyways, there isn't much wood left to cut up anymore regardless.
Authors note: The scene with the Magi Brothers and the Guard at the house went over a ton of rewrites, small and large alike. I was worried about the canonical aspects with Zen/Nat, but Zen does have some aspect of human speak down, and I recall there being a way to magically insert knowledge into a persons head, though I might (hopefully not) be wrong. The Guard scene (who he is to be revealed next chapter) was originally meant to be a fight scene, but I wasn't sure if it'd clash with the already almost fight scene beforehand, and he was also meant to be drunk in the scene too. If there's any questions, leave a review with your thoughts on the chapter as well as the questions and I'll do my best to clear up any confused thoughts, I plan on re-writing previous chapters sometime to make it more cohesive, but I want to get other chapters done before hand, constantly going back to re-write things rub me the wrong way. Until next time.