Chapter 8: Jump Start
As the volves around him doubled down on their growling, Rex became immensely thankful he could at last form coherent thoughts.
He was familiar with their hunting tactics; he could very clearly remember Gramps' lesson on fighting groups using them as examples.
He ignored that the takeaway from that lesson was supposed to be 'never fight groups on your own'.
Volves are marathon hunters; they specialize in chasing down prey at a reasonable pace to tire it out and then taking advantage of their numbers. It was how they often took down monsters several times their size.
In contrast, their top speed only being above average made them quite susceptible to ambush predators—things that skulked in tall grass and trees waiting to sprint like mad once they were sure they could beat their target in a race.
It wasn't exactly what Rex did, but a titan dropping from 20 peds up while you were enjoying a nice family meal was probably close enough.
The pack had already been reduced by half; Rex only wished he knew how he did it so he could do it again.
Besides the volf info dump, there wasn't much else he could draw out of his lessons to fight here. He had hand-to-hand experience, of course. Enough to know that most of the force behind a proper punch comes from pushing off the ground with your legs, therefore Rex is currently incapable of punching.
With how big he and his arms were, he could probably slap something fierce. That was probably how he took down so many already.
The question was if that would be enough against a unique monster.
He thought back to more of the general lessons.
Stay ready, but avoid tensing up.
Feel the flow of the situation.
Reflexes are always faster than thinking.
He took a deep breath as he dropped his stolen meat.
He had stared down monsters before, and now he was one.
As Bernard began pacing around, Rex growled in return.
Courtesy of his new and massive lung capacity, Rex's was far louder.
The smaller volfs stumbled from the noise, with the volume also shocking Bernard himself plenty.
Rex felt his dorsal fin flare out on pure instinct, the appendage shaking with the noise. He wasn't exactly sure what purpose that fin served; he could swim just as well without it, and it flattened too easily to be any help turning when moving at full speed.
Then again, it wasn't as if he had enough swimming practice to know what full speed meant for him now.
Rex reared up, balancing himself on his tail, intending to repeat the move he made on that old ship. He felt his dorsal fin begin to pump and compress the air he was sucking in, the feeling of his chest threatening to burst the sign it was working.
The building pressure nearly reached the breaking point when a scent he caught on the intake made him freeze. A sudden flash of fear stopped him dead before he could make a noise.
His body started wiggling uncontrollably as the compressed air blasted him around, quickly diffusing through his various vents. His eyes began darting around the open area, and he could almost hear his instincts demanding to know what in the Architect's name he was thinking.
There were dozens of monsters visible in the distance.
Dozens of monsters even bigger than him.
Dozens of monsters who were no doubt stronger than him.
If he let loose that roar, there was no telling what might take it as a challenge.
Okay, good instincts. Any better ideas?
Burrow into the ground to escape.
What? How?
Beat your chest to establish dominance.
He could barely keep himself balanced as it was, and he's expected to move that much?
Lower your head and threaten to charge.
Him and what legs, exactly?
Make yourself look as big and intimidating as possible.
That…Could work…
And if you can't beat your chest, beat something else.
Just demonstrate how strong you are.
Finally, useful advice.
Hit him with your tail. It'll be funny.
And back to the weird ones.
Bernard bared his fangs with a snarl; Rex took too long to make good on whatever threat his growl made.
In response, Rex dropped himself from his tail and snarled back. To make that boast of strength, he began slamming his fists into the ground as hard as he could. Over and over, he pounded and pummelled. Bernard's initial surprise fed an increase in caution. The pain it put on Rex's hand was dull and insignificant as his efforts began cracking the earth.
It seemed to be going well. Even if Bernard only hesitated, the rest of his pack began running from the rumbly ground.
Confident he had made his point, Rex made one last heavy slam into the dirt, and the sound of the crumbling ground settled around him. Bernard's attention was taken by something above them as the sound intensified, and Rex looked up just in time for a small boulder to land square on his face.
He must have made too much noise; the vibrations knocked something loose from the cliff face. The rock's weight carried his whole head into the very ground he was just loosening, as if the earth itself was directly telling him to cut it out.
He heard another cracking noise, and the weight on his head suddenly felt lighter.
Rubble spilled from his head as he struggled to raise it back up. A sudden wave of vertigo made him return to a daze, though this time from blunt force trauma rather than hunger.
The word concussion barely had enough time to form in Rex's mind before Bernard lunged at the Titan.
His body's response was so smooth, Rex wasn't sure he believed what he just did.
As soon as the volf leaped, it took fractions of a second for Rex's mess of instincts to tell him that Bernard was now unable to change course. His arms plunged themselves into the loose ground like driving stakes and began a demonstration as to why they were so big.
He lifted himself into a handstand, his entire and not inconsiderable body weight easily suspended. He felt some twinges in his shoulders from the amount of torque he just put them under, but felt some satisfaction with the result as he watched Bernard's confused face sail between his arms.
Clearly not expecting to miss, the volf's tumble of a landing gave just the opening Rex needed.
With his raw strength and the pull of gravity adding to the momentum, he slammed his massive tail back to the ground and on top of the enemy.
A puff of air went out of his nose. That instinct was right, it was kind of funny.
Bernard yelped in pain from the strike and yelped once more in surprise when the tail wrapped around him.
With a surprising amount of ease considering his lack of leverage, Rex managed to lift the monster and swing it with all his might into a suplex throw, an entire half circle of air time to be slammed back into the ground.
As his final strike against the Volf's pride, Rex lifted him back up, and with all the force he could muster, he released the beast at the top of the arc.
Though the throw had enough angular momentum to pry his arms from the ground, the makeshift catapult named Rex accomplished its purpose.
The red canid hurtled toward the cliff face, and the battle reached its conclusion. The match was over, and Rex was left in a state he had become very familiar with recently: flat on his stomach. Luckily, his neck was long enough to look over himself at his foe.
In an impressive display of tenacity, Bernard managed to get to his feet. With one last quick look over his opponent, he very quickly decided he had better things to do with his time than try and kill whatever this thing is.
As he watched the leader and what remained of the pack retreat in what was assuredly a purely tactical fashion, Rex made a puffing sigh. He decided this matter had been handled and that his shoulders were going to be very sore in the morning.
He had moved a bit from his snack in the struggle, and finding himself lacking the energy to crawl back over to it, he elected to log roll to the rock that was his placemat.
Upon a second look and smell, he wondered how he had managed to eat so much of it already. The exposed innards reeked to High Elysium, and the stench of rust from the sheer amount of blood was nauseating. He tried breathing through his mouth as he took another bite and remained unimpressed. The meat had an unpleasant combination of textures. Any bite could conceivably be any different cut, some tough beyond belief, others soft as cotton, and all of it incredibly stubborn against his teeth. It was beyond gamy, stringy enough to work as dental floss, while what little fat existed within was hard and squeaked like it was rubber.
Rex began wondering how, in the Architect's name, those volves could stomach this stuff. For that matter, how could the mere act of putting it on a hot piece of metal for a bit make it taste so unbelievably better?
These must be the sort of questions that keep philosophers up at night.
Was being a philosopher even still a proper profession?
No, these days it would probably be a hobby in adjacent fields, like law or psychology.
He sighed in resignation as he took another bite. No matter how far he let his thoughts wander, he just couldn't ignore how miserable a meal this was.
"Rex!" A very heavily panting and gormotti-accented voice called out in the distance.
Nia and Pyra had caught up to him.
Fair enough for them to be worried; he had just jumped off a cliff without warning and apparently caused a small earthquake.
He looked up and tried telling them that he was fine.
What came out of his mouth was a sort of rumbly whimper.
The pair of them very clearly hesitated as their run towards him slowed, and Rex's mind returned to defense. He whipped his head back around to look behind him, ready to face down whatever scared them.
He found an empty field.
He looked back at the girls and made the best noise he could to denote confusion. They had made more progress in approaching, and once within earshot of normal speaking volume, Nia voiced their concern.
"You, uh…you got a little something on your…" she explained as she gestured to her cheek.
He wasn't quite sure what she meant, but by reflex, he wiped his mouth on his forearm. The deep red streak it left was all the explanation he needed.
He did his best job of licking and wiping his face clean, but he couldn't be sure he got all of it. With how dirty his hands were, he probably only succeeded in covering his chin with soil.
"Well, I hope it was at least worth jumping off a cliff." Nia's words held some indignation.
Rex slid himself away from whatever was left of the ardun, and made his 'No' chuff.
Nia's raised an eyebrow.
"I'd say sorry about that, but I'm a little mad you jumped away just to stuff your face. I was right in the middle of saying something."
He made the best approximation of an apology he could manage.
The gormotti sighed.
"I suppose it's not actually that big a deal. Anyway, as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted…"
She strode herself to the top of the rock where the volf pack had been resting, Rex barely needing to raise his head to be at the same height, and she presented the landscape in which the three of them found themselves.
"Pyra, Rex, I would like to unofficially welcome you both to the province of Gormott."
Rex recognized that name. How could he not, he was here just under a month ago.
However, this was a view he most definitely did not remember catching on his previous visit. He had thought the forest he trudged through to get here was familiar, but he was glad he didn't remember before he made it to the surface. Lest he realize how close he was to what he buried down there.
Stop thinking about it.
The sprawling, lush green landscape was a far cry from the dim and dank underbelly of the Titan. The verdant hills running off the spine of the Titan were sights that had no doubt taken away innumerable breaths from thousands of tourists. The whistle of the calm spring breeze and the noises of the animals that called this place home were wrapped together in a beautiful symphony of nature. It was more than easy to see how lumber was the province's biggest export, Rex could see trees that dwarfed several Leftherian isles at once.
It was unlike anywhere Rex had ever been, so teeming with vitality that it was almost too easy to forget about any threat of war.
Unfortunately, Rex was too well-versed in history.
He knew that this province was under tight imperial Ardainian control.
He knew exactly what happened for it to be so.
He forgot exactly where he learned it from, but he knew any given square ped of dirt he could see had a solid 10% chance of having human blood split on it at some point.
All that, just and only because of how massive and lush the landscape was.
Actually, now that he was thinking about it, where did he learn that?
School at Leftheria never covered much history besides their own, and he didn't spend long there anyway.
He didn't remember ever buying a Gormotti history book, either.
It probably didn't matter. There were far more important things to pay attention to at the moment.
"And that…" the far more important thing said as she pointed to a very jagged spot on the horizon, "is Torigoth."
Pyra gasped a little. "Torigoth village?"
A small smile grew on her face, and she excitedly asked, "They've rebuilt? Oh, that's wonderful!"
Rex and Nia looked back at the redhead in slight confusion.
Rex might not remember where his gormotti history knowledge came from, but his seafarer knowledge definitely recognized the name Torigoth, and it was most certainly not a village.
"Rebuilt the village—what are you…wait a moment…that guff Malos was spoutin' about you being some 500 years old, that was true?" Apparently, Rex missed a very interesting exchange when he was dead.
It was hard to keep his mouth closed as his head flicked back to Nia.
She flinched at the action, and Rex's eyes kept darting between the two girls, waiting for an explanation.
"Well, don't look at me." Nia quickly recognized what he was doing. "All I know is what I just said: Malos said something about knowing her from 500 years ago."
They both looked back at Pyra.
"So, was it the truth?"
"Well, um… technically, yes, but 499 and three quarters of those years were spent in that ship you found me in." The poor blade seemed a little embarrassed to have this much attention directed at her. "I'm sorry, but what does this have to do with Torigoth Village?"
It didn't explain anything, but Rex could tell she didn't want to elaborate with how fast she changed the topic. He's done the exact manoeuvre quite a few times recently.
Stop thinking about it.
He glanced back at Nia and found her lost in thought for a moment as she rubbed her temples.
"…you were on Gormott five hundred… okay, no. Not opening that can of worms right now, my headache's coming back." Nia cleared her throat before returning to the initial point: "As I was saying, the city of Torigoth: Capital of Gormott—"
Pyra's eyes lit up with happiness at the words city and capital.
"—and where we're heading. One of the biggest ports in all of Alrest, and it's just about the only one on its Titan. Funny how that works, eh?"
"I'm so glad to hear it's developed so much." Pyra started looking a little nostalgic before a slight flicker of sadness flashed across her face and erased her smile.
She didn't dwell much on it before asking another question.
"Capital city, you said? What happened to The White Chair?"
Nia and Rex both cringed a little at the question. He hoped Pyra didn't notice.
For someone so old to ask that so innocently...
Rex looked at the gormotti, who met his eyes. He could tell they both came to the conclusion that it was better to keep quiet about it.
"I'll tell you later. In the meantime, uh…" she shielded her eyes as she looked up at the sun. "Rex, what time would you guess it is? Noon, half-passed?"
He gave a chirp for yes, with a quick head tilt in an attempt to convey he was agreeing to the former.
"Noon then. There's a good place for camping halfway to town, just across Garanti Plains," she gestured in a general direction across the large prairie between them and Torigoth, "but it's a bit of a ways from here."
She reached up and scratched Rex's chin a little. "What d'you think, big guy? I figure we've got some six hours 'til sundown, think you can take us a few more Titanpeds that fast?"
Rex wasn't exactly sure what he should be feeling. His first thought was slight offense. While not inaccurate, the 'Big Guy' moniker made him feel like a child or pet being spoken down to, and that was before having his chin scratched.
He was almost angry when he couldn't deny that the scratching actually felt really nice.
For the sake of his own pride, he raised his head out of her reach and looked down on her in return.
Nia's face quickly turned sheepish as she realized what she just did. "Oh! Uh…sorry. Old habit. See, Dromarch really likes-"
Nia choked on her words. Passing it off as a cough, she settled herself incredibly quickly.
"-Well, nevermind."
Rex hadn't said anything—or rather, he wouldn't have said anything if he could—but he had noticed the kind tiger blade wasn't with them anymore.
He had fully witnessed the light leave his core and the glazed-over eyes of the driver as well. Looking back, he wasn't sure how those memories made him feel. They were slightly blurry and mostly colourless, tinged red after a certain point. As a matter of fact, the whole sequence in the room felt slightly repressed by something.
More to the point, he couldn't begin to imagine what Nia was going through because of it. He could attest that death was not very fun, but he wasn't a driver. Nia said Dromarch had been by her side for ten years. Rex gained self-awareness when he was about 3, only a sparse two years earlier than that. To have had a friend for that long and such a close one at that, he could hardly fathom it.
Rex hadn't ever lost someone close to him like that. His parents passed long before he knew them. The closest thing 'Rex' had was-
Stop thinking about it.
He hadn't known Nia for very long, but a good friend would do their best to help her with her grief. If it brought any comfort to her, it probably wouldn't hurt to let her scratch him every now and then.
…but he at least deserved to do some teasing in return.
He lowered his head back down to her level, slightly raising his chin to indicate she could continue. It put a smile back on her face, if only slightly, and she restarted.
It really did feel surprisingly nice. He grumbled contently at the scratches.
He gave her a solid 20 seconds before licking her face.
Nia made some noise combining a sputter and a cry as she fell on her rear, and Rex's brief worry if he used too much force was immediately overtaken by how incredibly bad she tasted.
Cloud sea, sweat, mud, swamp, loose hairs—it was worse than the ardun. He began sputtering himself and tried wiping his tongue on his arm to get the taste off.
Nia grunted as she wiped her face off. " Guh! Serves you right! Never do that again!"
As far as plans for levity go, it didn't turn out to be the best one. At least it pulled Nia's mind out of whatever she was stuck on.
As they both calmed down, Rex heard a small collection of noises coming from behind him.
Titan and Gormotti turned to look, and they found a redhead trying her best to keep her laughter in.
"It's not funny!" Nia protested.
However, the Blade continued snickering, and Rex had a great seat to watch Nia try to stop herself from smiling.
"S-stop it, I'm trying to be mad at him!" Nia was slowly failing to stop herself from laughing as well.
"Alright, let's just get on with it then." She dropped the subject and remounted the Titan named Rex.
Pyra followed suit, and both girls were back in the least dangerous spot to sit: directly on the base of his neck.
It was the only seat on him where their legs could grip anything somewhat comfortably. They were initially worried they might strangle him, but his scales proved far too sturdy for their tiny squeezes to reach his blood vessels.
"So, since we apparently all need a quick rinse, there's a small lake more towards the spine." Nia pointed. "They call it Lyta Oasis."
"What about that pond we crossed on the path down the hill?" Pyra asked.
Nia tapped Rex a little. "You seriously think that puddle is deep enough to rinse this guy off?"
She then stressed with some annoyance, "It's a bit of a detour, so you'll have to go fast as you can."
The last statement echoed in Rex's mind.
Fast as you can.
The world around him was slowly drowned out by his thoughts.
Fast as you can.
His eyesight sharpened to a razor's edge once more, and he caught the faintest glimmer of water in the far distance.
Fast as you can.
Fast as he could.
Fast.
Fast?
Fast.
Far.
Far.
Walk?
Slow. Bad. Fast.
Roll?
Riders. Dangerous. Bad.
Jump?
Jump?
Jump.
Jump fast?
Jump fast.
Jump fast!
Jump Fast!
When he returned to his senses, he was floating on his back in a pond with two girls using him as a raft.
That was the third thing today Nia told him to never do again.
73 seconds ago:
"It's a bit of a detour, so you'll have to go fast as you can."
Nia waited for some acknowledgement from her mighty steed.
"…Rex? You catch that? Fast as you can. Think you can manage?"
She kept waiting.
She nudged him a little with her foot.
"Gormott ground control to Captain Rex; come in, Captain."
She kicked him a little, just to try for his attention.
"Is something wrong?" Pyra asked in a worried tone.
Rex slowly started moving his weight backwards as he crouched low and tight on his forelimbs.
With how experienced she was riding Dromarch, Nia could recognize the little buttwiggle Rex was doing even if she was asleep.
60 seconds ago:
He was winding up for a pounce.
She was more confused than worried at first.
That was until she heard the hissing.
She and Pyra turned. Sure enough, his dorsal fin was extending.
His arms were primed like springs while his tail was coiled like one, and she heard his grip strength crack the boulder he stood on.
The air-sac-fin-thingy began bulging at the sides from the pressure.
A sudden chill pulsed down her spine, pleading with her to grab onto something for dear life. Nia was a bit too stunned to act on it.
Pyra didn't have such a problem.
"Hold on!" Was the last thing she heard before Pyra pushed her flat against Rex's neck, keeping the gormotti steady with a death grip on the strange grasslike substance growing atop it.
47 seconds ago:
A deafening pfft and a sudden massive acceleration made Nia's vision start greying and narrowing.
Her head grew colder as her blood was pushed down her body. She could feel her heartbeat kicking up faster to compensate. Her legs started hurting from the increased blood pressure.
The air rushing into her face made it hard to breathe, and she already wasn't in a great position for that with her head pressed under so much Pyra.
38 seconds ago:
The force running into her lessened; if Nia had to guess, their speed had probably evened out against air resistance.
She took a massive gulp of air while she had the chance, pushing her head out of the sandwich she was caught in.
She opened her eyes and was caught by an incredible sight.
The colours and peripherals suddenly returning to her vision made the bird's-eye view of Gormott pop more vividly than anything she had ever seen.
Her ears flapped in the wind, knocking her bangs out of her face to make sure nothing could block her sight. In a word, it was gorgeous. She had never seen so much of Gormott at once. The rolling hills and colossal trees, the deep green of the whole landscape.
It hadn't changed one bit. A small smile crawled up her lips as the nostalgia soaked her memories.
Not every experience she's had here was good, but all the same, it felt right to be home.
30 seconds ago:
The apex of the leap came and went, and with it, anything stopping them from falling.
The impressive view was a great distraction, but it soon dawned on her that they were probably 500 peds off the ground.
She tried to keep her wits about as she felt the free fall in her stomach.
This wasn't immediately a problem; people have survived worse falls.
They've also died from better ones.
Though, more accurately speaking, falling never killed anyone.
The issue was hitting the ground.
25 seconds ago:
As gravity steadily pulled them faster, she tried remembering what little she knew about these types of emergencies. Most key among them, how to survive.
Option A: have a parachute.
…
Option B: Wreckage ride. If you survived whatever made you start falling, you're probably inside something that was flying. Anything between you and the ground at the time of landing is going to take at least some of the impact, lessening the force your body gets put under. All you need to worry about is sticking to the floor so you don't crash into it when it suddenly becomes slower than you.
She was relieved to be reminded of that.
Rex had jumped this high of his own volition.
In all of nature, nothing came to mind, nor would it make sense for something to not be able to survive a fall from its maximum jump height.
She clung harder to Rex's neck. Nia had several pieces of her mind to give once they landed, but at least she could take some solace in knowing she was probably safe.
22 seconds ago:
It all happened faster than she could fully comprehend the sequence of events.
Rex raised his hands in front of him, and a blast of air slowed his descent in an instant.
The shift in acceleration also bucked Nia from her seat.
Pyra shouted her Driver's name as she reached for her hand, trying in vain to catch her before she flew away to her certain doom. With Rex slowing down and Nia retaining their speed, Pyra was out of reach before she even reacted.
Nia felt her pulse quicken as her stomach dropped once more.
She saw the terror on Pyra's face as she fell further from her hand.
She saw the abject indifference on Rex's.
No, it wasn't indifference; it was something else.
Pure emptiness. No emotion of any kind.
No fear, no concern, no acknowledgement that he could even see her
His vertical pupils were thin as paper, like he was out of his mind blasted on narcotics.
Despite all of this, control of the situation remained in his hands.
In one smooth motion, he pointed one hand back behind him and jetted himself forward. This had the consequence of knocking Pyra off as well.
Once again, the Titan didn't react. He didn't even look back. His tail effortlessly caught the Blade, demonstrating its prehensileness by wrapping her up to keep her safe.
In tandem, he caught back up to Nia and gingerly plucked her from the air.
Nia was completely covered by his grip; she barely had time to register the fear from falling before she was once again safe.
These two catches flowed seamlessly into a half-forward roll. Rex pulled the two girls tight into his chest under his arms and curled his tail over them, turning himself into one big ball.
They were sealed from the wind and braced for impact before Nia even had a chance to scream from the sudden ejection.
She had been one wrong move away from falling to her death through this whole event, and yet…
She felt strangely secure now.
10 seconds ago:
There was an enormous splash as this strange cannonball found water.
Nia was pressed even harder against the Titan as they slowed to a stop.
Leaks sprang in their little vessel, and they began surfacing.
The sun shone on them as the tail canopy fell. Rex's arms fell to his sides, and she felt his chest rise with a large breath. Nia rolled on her back, looking up at the enormous, twisted tree they landed beside. They had reached their destination.
All things considered, they arrived within fractions of fractions of her estimated ETA.
She stayed down on the Titan, breathing heavily. Her entire body trembled with some combination of fear, relief, and other emotions she wasn't in the correct state of mind to identify.
5 seconds ago:
As she felt her eyelids twitch, she checked a hand to see how badly it was jittering.
After three experiences with near death in such close proximity, she could guess her endocrine system had just pumped out her entire supply of adrenaline.
She didn't really need to guess; she could hear her own heart beating at roughly the rate of a submachine gun.
She almost couldn't close her eyes she was so alert.
It wouldn't be healthy to raise her heart rate further through physical activity.
Not that anything that just occurred to her was healthy.
Anything in the past few days, really.
Death was, by definition, unhealthy.
It was still hard to believe that.
She had died.
She died, and then came back.
It would probably be really rude to Pyra if Nia died again, especially so soon after the girl gave up half her life for her Driver.
Going forward, she would be sure to take extra care when interacting with her new 7-ton friend.
Present:
As her heartbeat began lowering to reasonable levels, Nia decided to take out one of those mind pieces she wanted to give.
"Rex…" she managed to squeak out.
She waited for some sign of life from him before continuing.
He had raised his head and began scanning his surroundings in confusion.
"Rex," she repeated.
Her little noise brought her his attention.
She tried continuing, but it was hard enough to lift her head.
"…never do that again."
It wasn't initially what she wanted to say, but it, along with the implications it included, encapsulated the general thoughts she wanted to share.
Laying on his chest, Nia felt her entire body vibrate with his hum of affirmation. She could swear she felt her ribs rattling against each other like windchimes, even after assuring herself that wasn't medically possible.
Pyra joined the conversation and whimpered a question.
"Nia…Nia are you alright? Did you hurt anything?"
"The cabinet has no statement at this time... There will be an announcement later…when a decision is reached." Nia responded
As the adrenaline started subsiding, Nia began growing light-headed.
She tried relaxing a little to try to lower her heart rate further.
She then went from light-headed to dizzy.
A quick diagnosis came to mind; she removed her gloves to check for other symptoms.
She went from dizzy to nauseous.
Her palms felt cold and clammy. She felt herself having a hard time breathing.
"Hey, uh, I don't want to alarm anyone…" she quietly groaned, unable to convey any worry even if she wanted to.
"But I think I'm going into shock."
Of course, Rex felt bad.
It would be impossible not to.
No matter how many times Nia assured him it was 'non-medical shock' and that she'd be fine if she just rested a while without any excitement, it was painful to see her like that.
Especially while fully aware she was like that because of him.
He damn near buried his head from how hard he bowed in apology. He didn't really have a noise for 'sorry' yet, so it was the best he could do.
Why was he given this body? So far, the most successful thing it's accomplished was chase off a pack of volves. Any bloke with enough bullets could do that.
How did he even get like this? The sequence of events had no cohesion, no matter how many times he played it back in his head.
"Hey, Rex?" A slightly timid voice called for him.
He turned and saw Pyra approaching his small guard outpost.
He hummed a little while tilting his head—the best sign he's thought of for asking a question.
"Nia actually fell asleep, so I didn't want to accidentally wake her."
Rex looked back at the small campsite they dug under some roots.
Sure enough, the grey-haired girl was taking a cat nap.
"How are you doing?"
He grumbled as he plopped his head on the ground.
She found a rock to sit on.
It wasn't incredibly nearby; it seems she's still wary of him.
Not that he blamed her.
She sat in silence, staring at him like she was waiting for him to say something.
He made his question noise again as he shifted his eyes to her.
"Oh, right…you…can't talk."
Chuff. He can't.
"Sorry, just…something about your face reminds me of…well, let's call him an old friend." She smiled a little as she reminisced, "He was a Titan too, and… well, he could talk."
She gasped a little as her face briefly looked worried.
"Sorry! I hope that's not a sore spot. I meant no offense." She added.
Mrmph. None taken.
Hold on, an old Titan that could talk?
…nah, couldn't be. He was old, but no way was he 500 old.
The silence began lengthening. Pyra started twiddling her thumbs as the air grew slightly awkward.
"You…you didn't do it on purpose, right?"
Chuff. He didn't.
"I didn't think so." She propped an elbow on her knee and rested her chin on her hand. Her eyes narrowed as she stared at his face.
"…and…now you feel down on yourself…because you lost control of yourself and hurt someone?"
Chirp. He did.
Was he that easy to read?
"I'm sure Nia would understand." Pyra assured him, "In fact…she might already understand."
He turned his head so they could 'speak' face-to-face.
"…She really cares about you, you know?" Pyra said with a smile, "Back on that ship, one of the first things she did when she grasped the situation was ask if you were alright."
His eyes widened with that revelation.
Did she really? He was touched by her concern, but now he felt even more guilty for making her worry like that.
"She seemed so desperate about it; you must be good friends."
He didn't have a response for that.
All the guilt started to compound itself.
What kind of friend gets blinded by gold and drags you along on a suicide mission?
What kind of friend manages to kill themselves attempting to avenge you?
What kind of friend ends up breaking their own Architect-damned legs-
"I get it."
He reopened his eyes from his thoughts and found Pyra placing her hand on his snout. Even with how big it was compared to her hand, he could feel her shake a little. Rex was impressed by the girl's bravery. If he were in her shoes, he wouldn't do it with a ten-ped pole.
"I…I admit…I may not know you that well…or at all, but…I can tell enough from Nia's attitude. That, and the fact that you feel bad about it in the first place."
She took a deep breath to settle herself before smiling warmly at the Titan.
"I can tell you're a good person."
He held back the urge to chuff, refuting the use of 'person'.
"You're scared, aren't you? Of yourself, I mean. Of what you might be capable of, and of what you don't know if you can control."
Of what he's demonstrated to himself he couldn't control, more like.
All the same, chirp. He was.
"That's…well, at least I think that's natural." She smiled warmly once more, if slightly bittersweetly, at him.
She snapped her fingers, and a fire the size of a golf ball appeared at the top of her index.
"But I imagine you don't want to feel that again. So, that's why you need practice." She started playing with the fire a little, rolling it around and between her arms like it really was a ball. "Because if you have control over your power and yourself, you can't hurt anyone."
The advice, or maybe it was just her tone in general, gave him a warm feeling in his heart. It was almost motherly, how warm and supportive she sounded. However, there was a strange undertone to it—not quite pain, but at minimum some soreness. It was almost as if she was speaking from personal experience, which was concerning for something a young girl was telling a monster.
Of course, the irony was not lost on him that guidance on how to avoid hurting others was coming from the woman who burned him to death.
Although she kept speaking about the incident, Rex had to wonder if she was even aware she did that.
Then again, her Blade weapon didn't move no matter what he tried, so maybe the problem was him trying to use it anyway.
Nia had mentioned this girl had a special name, but he couldn't quite remember what it was.
"Oh! I never introduced myself, did I?"
Could this girl read his mind?
"Nia did introduce us, but I should do it properly." She took a few steps back and dusted herself off a little. "You may already know, but my name is Pyra, and… well, it's not much more than a title, but officially I am the Legendary Aegis. At the moment, I'm just Nia's Blade. It's very nice to meet you, Rex."
Aegis, yeah, that was it.
Aegis…Aegis…
The name sounded incredibly familiar, but he couldn't quite place a finger-uh, claw on it. Well, if he couldn't remember it, it probably wasn't that important.
She kept looking at him once she finished her introduction, somewhat expectantly.
He made a quiet groan in response, lifting his head a bit to match her eye level.
Pyra's face quickly flashed with realization. Seems she once again forgot he couldn't speak.
She hesitated for a moment as her face turned a slight pink before placing a hand over her mouth.
"It's very nice to meet you, Ms. Pyra." She replied to herself, forcing a deep voice, "My name is Rex. I may not be very experienced with my new body, but I hope to be of great service to your Driver."
Rex just stared at her. It didn't sound anything like him, though somehow she did get the accent right. Not that she would know either of those facts.
In response to his stares, the poor girl turned beet red as she raised her other hand to her face, turning away to hide her shame.
"I…I-I'm so sorry. It…I felt like the tension was a little high, and…you know, the topic was sort of heavy, so I-I thought I could…" her voice squeaked with embarrassment as she tried to justify herself, "…that was…that was very silly…I'm sorry."
Faced with this, Rex couldn't help himself from laughing. A chittering croak, like an engine turning over, steadily leaked between his teeth. She carried herself with so much poise until now. Silly as it was, it was almost refreshing to learn that the legendary Aegis had a sense of humour.
A fearful realization suddenly crossed his mind, he shut his mouth. He had to be careful with things like this; humans were about the only animals where smiling was seen as a good thing. He didn't really have lips anymore, so baring his teeth almost certainly looked like the threat it meant to everything else.
"It seemed like a good idea at the time." Fortunately, Pyra didn't seem to mind.
He laid back down and waited for her to calm herself.
He extended his hand to her.
She shook herself, lightly tapping her cheeks to snap herself out of it, before facing him with a fresh smile, more than happy to put her little impromptu ventriloquist act behind her.
"Right! Like I said, it's nice to meet you, Rex."
She extended hers to match.
They both quickly realized the problem at play, and Rex extended a single finger instead.
Her smile widened, satisfied that she had managed to do something about Rex's moping, and she happily shook the digit.
He suddenly felt something catch on his claw, and Pyra flinched backwards with an 'Ow!' as she pulled her hand back.
Rex immediately purred in concern, but Pyra quickly put her smile back on.
"No! I mean- sorry, no, I'm fine. Don't worry, it just cut my glove a little. Even less than a flesh wound, I'm fine."
Still, Rex insisted on sniffing it. There was the tiniest scent of blood, but he wasn't sure if that was from his own breath.
"I'm okay, I promise. Don't even worry about it."
Except he had to now.
He could crush rock with his bare hands.
He could cut flesh with a finger.
He could break bone with his teeth.
He could smell a gogol soiling itself half a titanped downwind.
By every metric he could think of, he was more of a monster than he'd ever been.
Nia has the Aegis in her company now. While he still couldn't place a meaning on that, the Blade herself claimed she was legendary. Nia mentioned they were looking for a port; surely that meant there was some Architect-decreed mission they were setting off on. That's how legendary Blades usually worked in the faerie tales. It also meant, in all likelihood, that the Praetorium would reconsider whatever negative stance they have towards Nia.
It wouldn't do good for their image to travel with a beast such as him. Perhaps he should make himself scarce after he's finished escorting them to Torigoth.
Nia began stretching from her place on the ground.
When dealing with shock of any kind, even non-medical, the best immediate course of action is to lay the victim down with legs raised higher than the head.
That being said, lying on hard ground and doing the pike sit against the wall resulted in a few stiff spots in her back.
Blood pressure was back to regular levels. At least, it felt like it was.
She was still a little dazed from it all.
She had no idea what Rex was thinking.
From that blank look she saw on his face, she had a feeling that he might not have been thinking at all.
Looking back over what she knew, she tried piecing together an explanation, or at least a theory. She continued to be astonished how many times she'd had to do that for this one kid.
He was suddenly a Titan.
He said he sort of knew why.
What he didn't say was if this had ever happened before.
What he had heavily implied was that he had no idea what he was, which further implied he had no idea what he was capable of.
He was already a considerable mess of biology from the outside, she wondered how screwy his brain chemistry might be.
A lot of people assumed the brain was where all the memories were stored, but a lot of muscle memory is actually stored right in the nervous system. Wouldn't you know it, next to the muscles they're memories of. With Rex's size increase, that would also mean a massive increase in nerves to fill it all. Nerves he's never had before, but maybe they already contained knowledge on how his body works.
She remembered the roar he made on the old boat. She remembered she couldn't remember it because it was so loud that she passed out. She remembered it took a lot of effort and specific actions on Rex's part to pull it off before it knocked her out.
If he truly had no idea what he was capable of, he wouldn't have known he could do that. So, he was either lying when he told Nia he didn't know what he was or, preferably, his body did it automatically. If she had to guess, he probably wanted to chase those bastards off so badly that he just let it happen as his new reflexes went through the motions.
Every now and then, Dromarch would catch the sight of something shining on the ground, and he would jump or paw at it without thinking. Nia herself, and perhaps Gormottikind as a whole, were prone to getting incredibly distracted whenever a bug flew near them. The cases with Rex could be similar, if massively more extreme.
If just now was the same, if he made that leap purely on his instincts after something set them off, it was entirely possible that everything that happened was always within his expectations. His body's expectations, anyway.
That being said, as helpful as the massive adrenaline rush and quick nap were to fuel her thought process, she felt that particular song and dance didn't need an encore any time soon.
She finished her stretches with a full v-sit to touch her toes and rocked backwards into a roll onto her feet.
Unnecessary?
Sure, but a bit of activity after more or less being drunk all day certainly would not kill her.
This time, she was absolutely sure of that.
Lately, she was having some poor judgment in that regard.
No, that was mean. As far gone as he was, she was sure Rex wouldn't have done something that could have been lethal.
They were far away, but Nia could hear them.
Not much escaped her ears, certainly not at that distance.
She thought of denying the 'really caring' accusation, but it was definitely not the time for that. There was also the problem where she actually did ask if Rex was okay first thing, so any denial would have evidence against it. That said, she was raised to take pride in her actions, so she didn't actually mind if it was common knowledge.
Regardless, from the position of the sun and the length of her shadow, she'd guess that conversation was some two hours ago. A very helpful skill she'd picked up from roughing it so long.
The last thing Nia heard before she started napping for real was Pyra suggesting that she help Rex train, so her Driver should probably see what came of that.
As she looked around a little, it occurred to her they were somewhat dangerously close to Sauros' Bed, and so she began running to check much faster.
Thankfully, she didn't come upon her friends being brutally eaten by an ancient sauros.
What she came to see as she came over the hill was much stranger.
Pyra appeared to be coaching Rex as he practiced sprinting.
She might have to add a question mark to the word sprinting, because the longer she looked, the less recognizable his motion became.
He was essentially throwing himself forward, a bit like Dromarch would sprint, but completely without use of his hind legs.
He'd catch himself with arms out, fling himself into a short jump supplemented with a blast of air, catch himself again, fling again, and repeat, presumably until reaching a destination.
Said destination would soon change as he threw on his brakes, that is to say, drove his hands into the ground.
This manoeuvre kicked a massive cloud of dirt into the air. How massive? Around fifteen peds of skidding to a stop worth.
He stood still for a moment, sniffing the air. Nia's split second of wondering what he smelled was immediately answered and forgotten as the sudden head flick in her direction made her flinch.
Pyra noticed the titan's change in behaviour and the loud yelp behind her.
"Oh, Nia, you're awake!" She greeted her driver cheerfully: "Rex and I were just doing a bit of practice. Are you feeling better?"
"Much, thank you. How's that practice going?"
"Well…" noting Rex had begun approaching, Pyra held up a hand, signalling him to stop. "He's gotten really good at moving, but we're still working on slowing down."
The Aegis drew her sword and walked about twenty peds before tracing a line on the ground.
"Stop right about here!" She shouted at the Titan, "Try those suggestions I made again!"
The Titan in question raised a thumb-claw in confirmation, and his rear wiggled a little before he took off towards them.
He was impressively, if somewhat frighteningly, already at the speed he was when Nia arrived.
When he was fifty peds from Pyra's stop line, he didn't include an air blast in the throw forward and instead used one as he was taking his next step. He pressed his enormous tail into the ground behind him, and his efforts resulted in him slowing all the way down to taking single steps.
He didn't quite come to a complete stop before Pyra's line, carrying five peds too much momentum.
"That was great, Rex!" The red head nonetheless congratulated him.
In a vehicle test, that would have been a ten-point demerit, but for his first and a half days being a Titan, not to mention one so locomotively challenged, it was genuinely impressive he's managed to improve so much. Especially since his hands were completely broken just this morning.
It wasn't as if you needed a license for walking anyway.
Rex sauntered over from his successful stop, making a concerned humming as his head came close.
"Thanks. I'm fine." Nia patted his nose a little. "And I know you didn't mean it, so don't worry."
She noticed Rex break eye contact and delivered her follow-up:
"If anything, I should be worried about you. Do you have any idea what happened in the first place?"
One chuff for no.
"We've tried retracing his steps," Pyra spoke up, "but it hasn't happened again yet."
Nia's eyes narrowed as she hummed, carefully looking over the titan's face.
"Well, that's inconvenient."
She pondered for a moment if she was right in saying she should be more worried about Rex. That fact that she so easily accepted this whole situation made her wonder if she really was alright or if she suffered some kind of head injury.
Maybe she was hallucinating this whole thing. Shock did tend to cause things like that, but then Rex was the cause of the shock, so that much was probably real.
In which case, it didn't make much sense to be hallucinating something so mundane.
Not that she was intimately familiar with the functions of hallucinations. Psychology was always a bit further outside her wheelhouse than she'd like, but no matter how often she tried studying it, the concepts never came to her as naturally as medicine and biology did.
What was she supposed to be thinking about?
Right, the possibility of head trauma.
Wait, no, further than that, she was worrying about Rex.
Damn, maybe she did hit her head on something. Then again, confusion was a natural symptom of shock.
Now, where was she? Right.
"Well, if you can't do it again, it might've been a freak occurrence. What I'm wondering is if it might be because you've suddenly got more nerves and instincts than you usually do." Nia stated the gist of her first and currently only working theory.
"I see…at least, I think that makes sense." Pyra saw the sound in the logic.
The Titan just mumbled. The vibration slightly numbed her hand, but Nia couldn't tell what emotion that was meant to convey.
She shielded her eyes, once more looking in the general direction of the sun.
"Well, with that settled, we've lost a lot of daylight." She looked back at Rex and asked, "What time is it, Mr. Titan?"
He stomped his right arm in place twice before stomping once, pausing, and stepping another—
"Sorry, was that four or five? …oh, six? 'K, thanks."
—six times with his left.
It was sixteen past two.
At least, that was probably what he was trying to say.
"Right then…" her gut told her what she was about to suggest was most likely a bad idea, but her back was still stiff and a headache still pounded dully behind her eyes, so she wasn't sure there was another option.
"Rex? Think you've got enough in you for the last stretch?"
Aegis and Titan looked at the gormotti with confused faces.
She was expecting this, but she thought it made sense.
"What? You've been practicing this whole time, and… that hasn't happened again. You know, 'Once is an accident' and all that." She explained innocently. As annoying as it sometimes was, she did enjoy abusing her unassuming-girl-of-small-stature card on occasion.
"Well…I guess so, but… are you sure you're up for it, Nia?"
Damn it Pyra, you wonderfully caring person, why do all your concerns have to be so reasonable and conscientious?
She sighed a little before she told the truth. "After napping on the ground the past hour and a half, I'd rather another bout of shock than rough it out here any longer."
"Oh…" Pyra looked a little disappointed with that.
"Is that a problem?"
"No, not really, it's just…" Pyra started rubbing her left arm, a mix of embarrassment and nostalgia on her face. "well, I haven't been camping for five hundred years."
"…Pyra, you said yourself you were asleep for most of it. By that logic, you also haven't slept in a bed for five hundred years. 'Sides, we haven't got supplies." Nia gasped with a realization: "or any money..."
Anger and fear bubbled up in her stomach. She had left her wallet in her cabin when those bastards took her to explore the boat. Why wouldn't she? It wasn't like there'd be working vending machines in the cafeteria.
There was a moment of silence between all present before what could only be described as a very excited gurgle came out of Rex.
His excited face quickly became distraught as he began fidgeting impatiently.
"Rex, what's wrong?"
He groaned and attempted miming…something, it was hard to tell.
"Do…you need to use the loo?"
One chuff for no.
"Uh…did you…pull something while training?"
One chuff for no. He added a step backwards to his charades.
Backwards…back in time?
Back to what?
Back…through the conversation—the last thing she said!
"You have an idea to get money?!"
The loudest chirp he's made yet.
Looking back, it made a lot of sense. He may have been a kid, but between the rented ship, his equipment, and sending money home, he was evidently really good at penny pinching back when he still had fingers small enough for it.
He pawed at the ground, loosening the dirt in front of him, and began making a drawing to express his idea.
He tapped his masterpiece with a look of pride in his certainly genius plan.
"…that's a very nice square, Rex, but what does it mean?"
He grumbled and added to the drawing.
"…I'm sorry, but how's the addition of a squiggly line meant to make it clearer?"
His tail rose up, and he traced an enormous circle around himself. He swapped back to his finger pen and makes an arrow pointing through the squiggly line from his circle to the square, and a second arrow going back through the squiggle to his circle.
Nia looked at Pyra for support and found a pair of sorry eyes just as confused as she is.
"…well, I'm sure it's a great plan. Just…I guess let us know when you're doing it?"
He continued grumbling while he lowered his head for rider access.
Pyra climbed on first and helped pull up her more vertically challenged Driver.
"Right, next stop: Torigoth!" Nia announced somewhat triumphantly. She then added for good measure, "Oh, uh—preferably at a reasonable pace, please."
Her stomach didn't get that same drop as when he catapulted himself, which was already a good sign.
As Rex picked up speed, it fully occurred to her just how speedy he was, even without legs. It should have been much more startling that this relatively tiny Titan had… for lack of a better word, such a powerful engine under the hood.
For how mismatched the majority of his body was, he was surprisingly aerodynamic.
Nia was passing the time by watching the scenery, but they couldn't have been travelling longer than an hour, and they were already a third of the way to town.
Rex wasn't panting whatsoever, even after all the practice he had been doing. This much punch and good fuel efficiency to boot? Truly frightening. Of course, she really didn't want to be feeling that, especially about someone who had basically done nothing but save her life the whole time she'd known him.
No, she wasn't scared.
She was concerned.
Concerned for him.
Her breath hitched a little whenever she thought that. She didn't know why. They were friends, of course. It was only natural for friends to worry about each other.
No reason at all her heart rate should increase by 30 bpm while she justifies this.
So, stop it, heart.
Back to the point, she was concerned for him.
He had suddenly become something this dangerous. He has occasional lapses of judgment where he loses control of himself.
There isn't another way to put it.
Rex is sick.
He's contracted some sickness for Blades.
That was largely considered impossible, but no better explanation came to mind.
It was a relieving moment when she came to that realization back in her little cave camp. Because if he was sick, then there wasn't a better girl on Alrest he could have met.
She was suddenly shocked back to reality when she noticed they were already halfway there.
"Whoa, Rex! Slow a bit, take a detour! Hug the cliff the rest of the way!"
Slow he did, right down to a full stop before he turned his head around to look at her.
"Big unique gogol lives in those woods, and I mean massive. Massive and mean. Name's Territorial Rotbart, and it has the second highest bounty on Gormott because it keeps attacking trader caravans."
Rex's head flicked towards the offending woods.
His nose sniffed a few times.
"No! Don't even look for him!" Nia chastised the ignorant boy, "You even look at the thing wrong, and he'll take it as a challenge. Like I said, stick to the cliff, we've got more than enough time 'till sundown for the long way 'round."
"I think I remember fighting a unique gogol once." Pyra spoke up, "I mean, it definitely won't be the same one, but it certainly wasn't a pushover. Although, I suppose that was mostly from inexperience, it was far from the highest bounty on the continent."
"Well, technically speaking, Rotbart's only the third highest, but Pristine Douglas hasn't been sighted for decades, so nobody counts him."
"The bounties could get pretty ridiculous back in my day. I should look at the board sometime, see how the ecosystem's changed."
"That might be fun, and you could tell us what types were dominating their areas back then."
Pyra smiled at the suggestion.
"I'd be happy to share. You know…" Her smile turned somewhat sly. "Come to think of it, I actually helped beat my most expensive Unique on Gormott…"
"You don't say? Then, maybe…no, even with your help, I doubt we could handle Rotbart." Nia didn't even finish the suggestion before she shot it down herself. Pyra's old Driver was probably much better with her weapon than Nia was.
"Probably not, I'm afraid. 500 years without practice does wonders to dull a Blade's edge." Pyra really has a good sense for helping people feel better, doesn't she?
"Well, that aside, tell me about the other one."
The redhead giggled a little, happy her little move to shift blame worked.
"He was called Herculean Gibson, a giant ardun with golden scales, and his head was worth a whopping 200,000G!"
Her storytelling voice was, frankly, adorable. Speaking like a camp counsellor, telling silly, spooky stories around a campfire.
"How'd ya beat 'im?"
"Well, it was a massive team effort—"
It sounded as if she gasped. After a few seconds passed without further story,
Nia turned to find the Aegis rubbing her eyes.
"Pyra, you alright?"
"Y-yeah, fine, just…just some dust in my eye."
Nia knew she was lying. Even at this speed in open air, she heard Pyra's discreet sniffle.
Before she could say anything more, that speed began decreasing.
They were still a quarter-titanped out from Torigoth's main gate, and the lack of anything in their way made Nia very confused.
"Rex? Why are we stopping?"
"I'm alright, don't worry." Pyra assured him, "You can keep going."
One chuff for no, though which statement he was denying wasn't clear.
He lowered his head and, without much of a second thought, Driver and Blade dismounted.
He stood back up, and of all things he could do from that position, he began stretching.
"Oh, do you need a break?" Pyra asked, "I guess we have been running for a while."
One chuff for no.
"What's the problem, then?" Nia's confusion was only increasing.
Rex quickly traced a square in the dirt, and, for the second time today, Nia watched this stupid Titan throw himself off a cliff.
It was a far more graceful leap than the dive at the armu carcass, he even threw a flip into it.
Nia's fresh amazement and chunks of her befuddlement mixed together in a beautiful stew of conflicting emotions, which produced a single and very loud " HUH?! " once Rex was already well out of sight.
Both girls ran to the cliff's edge, crawling up to peek down into the cloud sea.
The tide was high, so he was probably already submerged.
"Wha-he-wheh…why would he…" Pyra struggled to find the words.
" What the feck?!" Nia did not have such problems.
Of all the dumb things he's done today- No! No, calm Nia.
Angry Nia never has good ideas.
Facts. Go over the facts, and try to stop gritting your teeth so hard.
Okay. He was of sound mind; he knew what he was doing. He made his drawing to prove—
"The drawing!"
Nia got to her feet and ran back to it.
A single square was the first step of his money-making plan.
In that case, he must have been obliging her request to let them know when he was doing it.
Following that, why would a square need him to—
"...I swear to the Architect if it's this simple…"
She drew a squiggly line above the box, and an arrow from the box going through the squiggle.
"…Titan's foot."
She started laughing to herself.
"Nia? What happened? Did you figure it out?" Pyra voiced her worries.
"Yeah…yeah, I did." Nia managed to get out between chuckles, "I don't know how I forgot."
"Um…forgot what?"
"Pyra, he's a salvager."
Nia caught the moment the lightbulb came on in Pyra's head, and she began laughing as well.
"That…that does make sense, doesn't it?" Pyra's little fit was much more controlled than her Driver's. "…do you know if he can breathe down there?"
Nia wiped the tears from her eyes. "Don't you worry, he could even when he was small. Well, normal-sized, I suppose."
The Gormotti got to her feet, dusted herself off, and looked at the city in the very walkable distance.
"Well, the salvage runs I've seen him do take a fair bit of time, so what say we scope out the places we can sell whatever he comes back with?" Nia suggested, "Get a list of the going prices and stuff, or whatever salvagers do."
Pyra dusted herself off in kind, saying, "Well, I suppose it would be good to stretch our legs after sitting for so long."
Now why did she have to go and say that? Now Nia couldn't ignore the vague soreness in her rear. The Titan named Rex really wasn't made to be transportation.
As their short hike was framed by the setting sun, they made sure to carve a short message in a nearby boulder for Rex.
Between the revisiting of Sheeno Woods, the event before that, the discovery of Rex, the incident with his core, the other incident with the volves—wow, how long has this list gotten?
To put it simply, it had been an eventful day.
They were just three easy steps away from capping this very eventful day off with dinner and, a hopefully very soft bed.
A quick stop by the shop, meet back with Rex, and sell his haul.
Quick and simple. Then in the morning, find a boat, and they're off to the World Tree.
The best laid plans never survive first contact, as they say, but Nia was optimistic.
Nia was also not in the mood to put much more work into the plans tonight.
The girls waved to the lumber workers they passed as they approached the gates.
Nia glanced at Pyra to see her reactions, and the red-head looked as incredulous as expected as she stared up at Torigoth's pride.
The colossal windmill at the city's centre was as eye-catching as ever, it seemed. It certainly put every smaller windmill on the roofs surrounding it to shame. However, Nia understood that comparing them was doing them a disservice. Every windmill in this city was a marvel of ether-less ingenuity. She had no idea how anyone hadn't thought of catching the air running past a continent as it walked as an ether substitute before these were all built. It was the one thing she could remember from her singular attempt at learning engineering; the power of something spinning on its own should never be underestimated. Those windmills powered damn near everything in town: the circular saws, the flour grinding wheels , the automatic furnace bellows... Well, she didn't quite know how they powered those , but she knew they did.
Even with all of that, the windmills were far from the only thing worth looking at. It was impressively obvious how big the lumber industry must be in this city: everywhere you could look, except maybe back out the front gates, was a quality piece of wood-based architecture. Even this far from the lumber yards they passed, the air still carried the nostalgic—
Achoo!
—and sneeze-inducing scent of sawdust.
Nia smiled along with her partner, most likely for different reasons but at all the same things. So many years Nia had been away...
It really hasn't changed a bit.
"Fie! Who has the courage to heed the Empire's call?"
Yep, not one bit.
"Your strong heart today will build a strong Mor Ardain tomorrow!" A thick ardainian accent called from the centre of a large cluster of people in the plaza.
"Nia, what's going on?" Pyra whispered.
"Ardainian Driver recruitment. Probably want to bolster their ranks before the inevitable next war with Uraya, and nothing bolsters better than a new Driver."
The colour and wonder completely drained from Pyra's face as she heard that.
"…oh…I see."
She probably didn't want to hear that those two were still going at it.
"Yeah, and they can get a bit morbid to watch, so let's just find that salvage shop and—"
"S'cuse me, miss!"
Yet another ardainian accent called out, this one directed fully at Nia.
She turned back at the gate and saw a soldier running to catch up with the pair.
"Yes, can I help you, officer?" Nia put on her best fake smile and helpful voice. Nothing good came of making a scene with imperial soldiers.
"Sorry about this, we just missed you as you came in, see?" He was bent over and panting, clearly not appreciating the weather disagreeing with his uniform. "Shift changed just now."
"The…shift for what exactly?" Nia asked innocently. Well, innocently should be a given; she hasn't done anything wrong.
"Gatekeeper. Like I said, sorry, but I need to ask you a few questions. Standard procedure, you know how it is these days."
She didn't, and neither did Pyra, but he didn't need to know that.
"O~kay…" He sighed as he pulled out a clipboard and clicked a pen. "Name?"
"Nia."
"Nia…?"
"Just Nia."
"Just Nia, right. Where are you coming from, then?"
"Sheeno Woods. Our boat got stuck in some trouble and we wrecked down there."
"Oh, you don't say? Terribly sorry to hear that. Well, hey, at least you got out before high tide."
"Thankfully. It was quite the trek here, but we made good time, eh Pyra?"
The aegis laughed a little, slightly nervous. "Yes, we certainly did."
"Oh, speaking of," back to the gatekeeper. He quickly gestured to Pyra, "Driver registration number?"
"576F746168-B" she could rattle off that ID as easily as she breathed.
"Ah, inherited! Very fun." He copied it down with impressive speed, "Uh, I'm sorry, was that last bit 128?"
"168"
"Got it, and this is Pyra, you said? She a family Blade or did you find her?"
Nia's breath hitched a little.
"Um…well, I had a family Blade, but…no, I just happened to stumble upon her."
The soldier took the hint.
"Ah…I'm so sorry, I didn't know. I'm sure they were an incredible chap."
"S'fine…anything else?"
"Right, right, just a few more…uh, before you wrecked, where were you coming from?"
Nia's eyebrows furled at that. Their clothes were well muddy enough to prove their wreck cover story, and it was obvious he believed it, so why was he pushing harder on that?
"Uh…just traveling around; we were coming from a quick stop in Argentum and-"
"Argentum, eh?"
Was that all he needed? This was slowly getting suspect.
Wait a moment; he didn't check any other part of her registration. Was he just repeating a part back incorrectly to see if it was fake?
"Alright, just a couple more things, Miss Nia."
"Of course." She tried not to let any hint of suspicion enter her voice.
"Our watchtowers say they caught you with a Titan before it jumped into the cloud sea, and you continued on foot. Any comment on that?"
"That…" She was surprised by the question, but she couldn't pause for too long without looking suspicious.
"That was our ship's Titan," Pyra spoke up. "He was largely unharmed and was nice enough to carry us here from the woods."
"That so?" He marked something down, "ship or boat, which was it?"
Pyra's eyes narrowed. "Pardon me?"
"Your Driver said boat, you said ship. Which is it?"
Nia stopped herself from scoffing, "Is there a difference?"
The soldier just stared at her for a moment before saying, "Gotcha."
"I'm sorry, I've visited Torigoth a few times, and this doesn't seem like very standard procedure gatekeeping. Is there a problem?" Nia put her foot down, as much as she didn't like causing a scene, she also didn't like being strung along.
"Maybe, maybe not." The soldier lowered his board and pointed the clicky end of his pen at Nia. "Where were you on the night of the 14th?"
Nia had absolutely no idea where this was going, what he was talking about, or what it had to do with her.
"Pom Village— I'm sorry, am I being detained?"
It had gotten this far, Nia just had to bring down the hammer. It raises questions, but it gets soldiers off your tail for long enough to leave town. Looks like that soft bed will have to wait.
The soldier didn't react; he simply clicked his pen so it wouldn't leak and put it back in its pocket.
"As a matter of fact, yes."
Nia's heart dropped.
"What?!" Pyra blurted out incredulously.
"On what grounds, exactly?" Nia tried her best to stay calm.
This attempt was admirable but ultimately futile, as the soldier's next sentence caused every piece she had placed in the puzzle of Rex's origin to crumble into sand.
"Under suspicion of accessory and/or culprit to the murder and subsequent identity theft of one Rex of Fonsett."
Nia never knew her eyes could open so wide.
Blade: Pyra
Rarity: * * * * * * *
Weapon: Aegis Sword
Role: ATK
Battle Skills:
Purifying Flames: Specials have a chance to finish off weakened enemies. Resplendence: Increases Blade combo damage. Flaming Edge: Increases damage of critical hits.