Speech = ``...´´
Thoughts = [... ]

ºº

``See? It was not that hard…., when one behaves everything is possible´´

Alpha mused, almost chuckled to herself as she watched with pride the result of her work rest peacefully over another set of warm blankets she had brought. The wings wrapped with finesse with the cloths from before, finally in their proper positions and seeing the small green glow starting to work through its wounds.

In a few hours, perhaps a day at most was what it would take for the bird to be healed completely like nothing happen, erasing what had transpired to him when he fell.

``Ah, it feels nice to some good work...´´

She said as she started to take off the added cloths she had wrapped herself in, placing the knifes in their cupboards, the gloves in their shelves and the sheets of paper that for some reason were burned down the trash-bin.

Her lips wrapped in a thin, though genuine smile as she watched the sun timidly hide between some clouds outside, the warmth of its beings still felt over her skin like a warm blanket, the wind howling softly, almost playfully outside. Her ears perking a bit delighted as they caught on the singing tones of birds chirping out in the distance when before there was none. Seemingly joining rather cheerfully in this gleeful morning.

She leaned a bit over the table she had been working on, placing a hand holding her head. It really was a moment to spent outdoors, and she was more than sure that tonight night would be a clear starry sky.

Sadly… neither her master nor her guest would not be able to enjoy the experience for a while longer at least. Sighing loudly she looked at the still sleeping form of the bird.

True, she had to scare to death the little thing at first...and perhaps it not had been the best thing to do in retrospective, she had still a long way to go to do her best….but it clearly have proven effective enough when the little bird was too stunned to do anything but remain still like a statue.

And after a bit, it fell asleep..too tired by all that was happening to continue on. She would not have blame it for that. At least that way it could rest and gain some much deserved relief.

She slowly stretched her hand forward, stroking its feathery head, slowly….and kindly. Making sure that she did not wake it up on accident.

It was really soft, warm too...and the way its small, little chest slightly heaved up and down was rather cute. It made her heart fell a bit...fuzzy, because..as she had been working on its treatment she had come to realize what had trouble her when she first saw it.

In a way…, it felt like dealing with a child. Too small to understand what was going on, too scared to think rationally, wanting to get away to safety...wherever that maybe.

Her lips grew a little more stiff, her eyes not watery, yet no longer happy or grateful.

She too had been like that...

When her body ached and hurt so badly as the curse continued to claim what it wanted.

When people chased and tried to hunt her down, sometimes yelling hurtful things, in others just a pebble that managed by luck to struck her in the back of her head, making her scalp feel like burning while blood slid down her golden mane an into her back.

When she begged for help only to be slam in the face with just more bigotry and cruelty...

Yes, that was right..she had been afraid, hurt and fearful of what could come next...barely able to relax as everything turned blacker and blacker as the curse claimed more and more of her flesh. An agony that had marked her just as much as this would her small avian friend.

And yet, above all things...that sense of familiarity.

Perhaps that was the true reason why she had helped it back into its feet...what had drawn her to it and push away any thought of practicality as she delved deeper and deeper into the irrational wants of her soul.

Helping it, doing as much as she had done meant nothing in the grand scheme of things.

It would not change the world that thought her dead.

It would not defeat the cult that held the world under its clutches...

It would not take away the pain either of them had gone through.

With everything at stake, with the truth that had been shown to her...this could have been considered an act of pure selfishness..and yet, she had done this regardless. She had done this for herself.., for her heart. And act that had no goal or hidden truth behind it…, just someone trying to make an ugly world be a bit better for wear.

Just like someone else had done for her.

..

..

She shook her head, brushing away a stray lock of golden hair. Hmpf, funny wasn't it? How she could become so lost in thought and start trying to rationalize her own and every actions and wishes just by looking at a small bird.

Now that was cute...

Well, it didn't matter…she should try to enjoy the peace of a tranquil and beautiful morning in her home while she coul-...

``CRACK…!´´

``BONK...!´´

``PLAMM….!´´

``CRUSH..!´´

``PUMPK….!´´

..

..

..

Well, it was a tranquil moment to enjoy at the village. It had been…, putting a special emphasis on had to make the point more visible as a series of emotions started to parade before the young girls eyes at what on EARTH was that noise...

Not even ten seconds had passed before Alpha immediately became alert of her surroundings like a deer would when realizing that predators were lurking behind the bushes. An arm stretched forward, invoking a sword made of steel and slime from the air in a blink of purple/blueish light while her dress started to shed out like the petals of a flower and turned into something more simple, yet more battle fitting in the form of a white and golden tight-suit.

She stepped away from the table, her eyes searching for targets or foes that may have slipped into the town like before, perhaps into this very room while she had been distracted by her own thoughts. However, she found none of the sorts...though it did not mean much.

Still, as she took a step forward and close to the door she knew that there were also no sound of steps or even footsteps outside, or the usual sound of conflict that she had come used to by now.

As far as her senses were telling her, she was...relatively alone.

With a silent nod, she lowered her stance…., but not her guard as she considered her options. The bandit attack from before still in her mind, and if worse came to pass...then she and the girls would be alone to deal with them.

It was barely a few seconds, but it felt for an eternity as she swung back and forth on what to do, her imagination going wild in a series of scenarios were ran. For a second she was almost tempted to go and search for Beta. The silver haired girl had much to learn before been a capable fighter, but two were more than one and it would make the situation more safer and stable if she knew where everyone was at the time.

However, she was close to the sound. Very close. Too close...

She bit her lip, her grip over her sword tightening as she dashed towards the source. Prioritizing timing over battle tactics, leaning over her past experiences that whatever it was...she could deal with them in a blitz of lightning and blood.

Though something told her that was not going to be the case as the sound in question felt hollow and heavy, unlike those made of a bandit or monster.

By the time she turned around the corner in between a guff of breath and the blink of an eye she was met with the southern edge of the town. Most of the buildings were destroyed or in different states of ruins, like the rest.

All...but one: The storeroom.

By elimination…, it could only come from it

A building they..and by they she meant Reaper had adapted for them to store both their resources they collected and whatever else they wanted, always there and ready for the time when they were needed.

If one were to look for something, they would certainly find it in the enclosed walls of their makeshift warehouse: Food, tools and even weapons.

Perhaps, holding them all in the same location could be seem as a dangerous prospect if they were to be attacked, risking the probably of being cut of from it.., but in the present time it worked rather nicely towards their favor given that only four-three people lived in the abandoned village she corrected herself as she remembered hat given Reapers duties to expand their area of influence.

A task that she was yet forbid in aiding since they were still too young and… "unprepared" to offer their strength to him.

It was a thought that nagged at her…, like a sharp dagger poking at her ribs, but she soon brushed it away.

He had his reasons and she should not pressing him on them, besides...at this point in time she should be focusing on her training and not daydreaming of what it was and what it could be.. for if she were to tag along with him now, she would only be a burden. And after all that he had already given her, some appreciation and gratitude should be shown.

Even if it was something just as simple as mere training...

She soon made her way towards the building, strangely...finding the door open much to her surprise instead of closed to avoid any wild animal to get inside. The doors were not busted though...nor there was any sign of violent entering. Still, her worries started to grow.

Her arm raising her blade at the ready, adjusting its length so that it would work better inside the building as she slipped inside in complete silence. Her feet moving nimble and quick that the floor did not even register her presence yet.

Eyes switching from left to right, her ears perking at the muffled sound of something rolling down.

The interior just like outer layers of the building was clean and polished, not even a single speck of dust hovered in the air, the windows bereft of the cracks and grime that other buildings showed allowed the sunlight to beam across and bring much needed warmth to a room that had been devoid of it for way too long.

She rose her leg and stepped over the rolling object, stopping it on its tracks before she looked down to regard what it was…a can of prepared meat.

It was not the most surprising see to find, especially in a storeroom of all places...what it was more eye catching however was the small board laying alone in the ground right next to it. The size of a book, though unlike one of them it did not have a frontal cover to shield its white pages from view.

There were things written on it...

Curious, she crouched…., picking up the object from the ground to take a better look at it as the sword in her hand dissipated. Dusting away whatever specks of dust had landed over it even though there was no need for that in the first place given that it had not been left there for that long anyway.

It did not took her long to realize that what she was holding was Gammas own pen-book, the one she carried most of the time when she was not training on the sword or her stamina. The third recruit of the Black Legion having written her name in a bold letters just above the first page...as if knowing that one day she may misplace the thing and hope for someone to find it in her place if possible.

Though she would prefer that she would not lose it in the first place, that level of prudence was something that she approved.

Case in point there were a series of notes that had been written alongside a series of poorly made sketches of things, clearly done to give both the owner and future prying eyes a far more easier way to picture the materials they were working with...or what ideas its owner had and wanted to bring to reality.

Calculations, questions and theories...something about market princess. Things that Alpha had seen the girl had shown an interest in.

All in all, it was surprising how fast and clear the girl could make her writing on a sheet of paper given that not even an ounce of space had been spared. Oddly enough, it did not make it any harder to understand its content.

It was..as if there was a beauty in the chaos.., as if it was not chaos at all but actually a well knitted playground. Still, she should try to keep things in a more clean way rather than what others could confuse in gibberish...

Still, that did not answer what had brought all that noise...and if her book was here…, where was its owner..? Unsurprisingly, Alpha would not have to look far...

Though when she did, she could not avoid but shook her head in dismay, pinching the bridge of her nose as she felt a small migraine slowly rear its ugly head at the back of her mind.

This was...for better or for worse Not the firs time since she had stumble across something as such as this.

[Not again…, not this again...]

``U-Urgh…..Please...help!´´

Casks and things from nearby shelves had tumbled down in a mountainous pile in the center of the room which given their enormous size were blocking most of the light coming the outside. Leaving only their frame to be noticed from her previous angle.

And it was from that very same pile where that pained and weak voice implored for her aid.

In normal circumstances someone would have fallen prey of panic at the thought of someone been trapped under all those things, not knowing their state and trying to immediately ran towards them and help them.

In NORMAL circumstances at least.

Alpha sighed already tired at what she assumed correctly at what she was looking at, standing up and approaching the clearly entombed elf given that she could not do the same.

A frown forming on her face as her eyes squinted with a pang of frustration, yet she she did her utmost best for none of that from been noticed. Closing her eyes and taking one last deep breath before addressing the elephant or in this case..elf of in the room.

``Gamma….how did you get completely buried?´´

She fought back the desire to add "again" to the sentence, but that would have been a bit rude...

The mountain seemed to shift to one side and then the other as Gamma tried to tilt her head underneath it, or what was visible anyway to look at her in the eye. A pair of ashamed and a bit frightful purple eyes locked glares with her icy blue ones.

``I-I was simply trying to do inventory of the storeroom when I tripped my Lady..!´´

Alpha rose an eyebrow, her expression not changing in the slightest.

``You tripped..? Explain..´´

``I-..Um…, I stepped on a small can on the floor and fell on my rear...then that can seem to knock over some other larger cans that were line up..´´

``I see…´´

``And then those cans went flying and knocked over some even larger boxes on a shelf that was nearby and fell like dominoes over the other shelves one by one...´´

``How does that make-´´

``And when those larger boxes fell, they accidentally knocked the tool shedge hanging across the wall, sending all king of tools flying, with some breaking the windows..´´

``I see…, so that is what happened. Right?´´

``Well….part of?´´

``Oh?´´

``W-well, you see Lady Alpha... after that happened...the larger boxes that were stored in the upper floor fell one after the other and smashed through the rest of the stable shelves on the first floor as if drawn down by some sort of power. Pouring even more staff into the ground of the storeroom..

``And all of those fell right away on your head.., right?´´

``Eh, not quite?´´

``Eh..?´´

``It was more like a collision…, everything was so quick that I barely had the chance to see it all coming down. The barrels and boxes stacked here came down on me like an avalanche almost as if they had been waiting for the moment to strike…

``…´´

``I am pretty sure that's….. how it happened.´´

Alpha shook her head internally. She really did not know what to make of this….or Gamma.

Normally, she would think that such stupendous clumsiness shouldn't be possible.., by all means, if one were to follow reason and logic as the world she had been born in presented them…. they SHOULDN'T BE!

In fact, right now it felt a bit surreal to stand there and hear about the fantastical way everything seemed to have schemed its way to fall out of place just because the brunette was in the near vicinity.

..

But with Gamma..accidents such as this were all too likely to happen as much as she could draw breath. It was something that though even now baffled her to no end.., she was starting to come to terms with it.

If one were to need for an example for it would be the sun. You did not know why it came back time and time again to bring light each day, you only knew that it was part of life. It did not make it any less destructive though...and to be honest, more than bad luck, Gamma seemed to be cursed.

Cursed...

The word tasted foul in her mouth, making her lips cringe and became crooked as if by themselves had hurt her.

It was not a word she was happy to be remembered of...but it made sense in this scenarios that made No sense at all. A sense of order in the chaos that followed her around. Still, curse or not…. she had trouble believing how had she survived all of that falling over her head.

She didn't know and she had a doubt that she would ever find out the truth about the thickness of her friends skull. Only Reaper and the gods would know of it. And for now they seem content in keeping that to themselves..

``My lady..?´´

The voice of the brunette brought her out of her stupor. ``What is it? Are you hurt? Are you feeling bad..?´´

``I..no, is just that you were lost in thought. Did something happened..?´´

That made her blink.

Had she been staring..? Had she lost her concentration again...? That..could not be, right? Without further debate Alpha rose a placating hand.

``Its ok, Gamma...dont pay it much heed. I was just deep in thought..´´

``Are you sure..? Perhaps I could help..´´

``The offer is appreciated, but unneeded...´´

She replied with a weak nod. After that Alpha took a step back as she tried to come up with an idea of hope to fix this mess she had come to step upon.

``Ohh….why me...´´

The pained whining of Gammas brought her out of her musings. Reminding her that, although she appeared to be relatively unscathed as always, she had suffered another "accident".

Still, there was a question that was nagging her.

``Didn't you say that you were going to move the oldest ones later this week so that this sort of accidents didn't happen anymore? Why are you here today..?´´

It was not like the Third of their group had done something bad, she had already rule this out as another working accident, but she needed to know. The brunette started to chuckle nervously as she started to switch her attention away from her towards somewhere else in the ceiling.

``Ah, well…, about that…you see..´´

``Gamma..´´

````IIIEEEE... !I-I am sorry..! I am so sorry, Alpha-sama! It was not my intention to bother you or cause you any undeserved grief my Lady..! Please forgive meeeee...!´´

Gamma tried to raise her hands in a praying position above her head, but...since she was mostly buried she could not. The blond elf could not help but shook her head, understanding what the brunette was trying to do..but not thrilled at the prospect of it.

Of course, Alpha had not realized that part of what had scared the now fear stricken elf was not just the way her voice had grown cold and sharp, but the way her eyes were shining red. And those fangs…especially the fangs.

``Gamma, you haven't. Breath in, breath out...and speak´´

``Yes! Right away...Auch!´´

Once again, Gamma tried to stand up and salute at her leader, only to end up hitting her head with something that was most likely that big, boxy thing.

``I am sorry my lady, all this happened because I found myself with some free time and thought perhaps I could do the checking earlier rather than later.., especially since I wanted to calculate with crates we should use first and which we should put for last...´´

Alpha could not help but tilt her head to the side as she contemplated what had been said. Understanding what the girl had tried to do... and finding nothing wrong with it.

``Thats... actually a pretty good idea…, a far more accurate depiction of what we have in store and their useful life could come in handy in the future when we have to make more important decisions of rationing.´´

``Yes, that was what I had thought...and the sooner I did it the better since time waits for no one, but those who control it..control everything´´

The strength and conviction in brunettes eyes was something commendable of respect.

``Thats...remarkably wise Gamma…´´

``I am honored by your words, my lady, but they were Master Reapers words. I just tried to emulate after him..´´

That made her smile. It seemed that all of them were trying to act in some sort of way or capacity after him.

``I see, then you did well in following his steps..sadly that was not what happened, right?´´

Gamma shook her head, or at least...Alpha thought she did

``Oh the shame of it all, I did everything I could to prevent it from happening…., but this was completely outside my expectations. I don't think there is a single box or shelf untouched...´´

``That…. would be an understatement´´

Still, she could not hold the girl totally responsible for it. It was not like Gamma had gone out of her way to damage their own property.

Good thing that most of the things there were far more sturdier than they appeared thanks to the reinforce magic that had been cast on them a while ago, another gift from their benefactor.

His wisdom and insight of the future still protecting them from much of the mess...as-well some dumb luck if you tried to see things in a positive light from Gammas perspective.

They would still have to repair some of the damage anyway and clean the floor. Reorganize everything that had become mixed with what should not be there…, place them in their respective positions, make sure nothing had breached them and stained or soiled their content. So on and so on...

She sighed tired, placing a hand over her hip. She really missed Reaper...

``Lady Alpha?´´

``Yes?

``Can you...help me up? Its not precisely comfortable down here... ´´