In the far reaches of the night, the dim light from Chronia's retro TV flickered through the motorhome as a faint buzz accompanied the playing anime. With the TV situated on the floor, Chronia was huddled up against one of Zalroth's tails as she had it tightly wrapped around herself like a sleeping bag, her eyes sparkling as she watched each frame of animation giddily.
Lily itched her head in confusion, her brain chugging to a crawl at trying to follow the plot of the anime being played in front of her as she led on the bottom bunk of the bunk bed-turned table.
"I don't get it... who even is this squid guy?" Lily groaned, confusedly tilting her head and rubbing the back of her shark tail against Nolazir's neck as the elf slept on top of her.
"Oh he was a prevalent character from around episode one to a hundred and fifteen before he disappeared for around fifty-three episodes," Chronia explained excitedly, keeping her eyes trained on the screen to not miss anything. Despite the concise explanation, Lily was still confused about the squid's identity but resigned herself to confusion limbo, unwilling to go through the tedious effort of watching so many episodes. Just the thought alone caused smoke-shaped bubbles to come trailing out her ears, and Lily faceplanted her pillow, deciding she'd used her brain enough for one night.
"A vehicle, like any possession, is a reflection of its owner, allowing one to peer into their mind... Does that sound any good?" Ruiria asked from her bedroom elsewhere in the motorhome.
"I dunno," Zalina mumbled, not entirely sure why Ruiria was trying to write proverbs. The little kitsune could only murmur sleepily, the relentless waves of proverbs draining away her mental energy until she was a lifeless husk.
Trapped on the floor as Chronia's sleeping bag, Zalroth rested his chin on his palms, unamusedly watching an anthro orange cat and an anthro blue squid fighting some sort of skeleton dude and samurai woman on the TV.
"Even with context, I'm lost," Zalroth remarked as he watched the cat do a firework-loaded crossbow trickshot. Zalroth slumped back into the mass that is his tails, exhausted with himself as he recalled his poor showing against the amethyst gem dragon. He stared at the ceiling, mulling over how he could've got around the monster's mana absorption. But try as he might, nothing came to the kitsune's mind, causing the guy to huff in frustration.
"What are the chances that character influenced Ruiria and how her keither ability manifested?" Malfaroth mentioned as he leaned over the upper bunkbed's head and watched the TV. On the TV, the samurai reeled her hand back, the neck of the potion bottles snug between the fingers of her right hand and a vial in her left. Popping the cap off the vial, she chugged the potion, causing pale cyan spiral-shaped particles to float out of her body before zipping around the room.
"You know. I never thought of it that way, this was Ruiria's favourite show as a kid," Chronia stated amusedly, "Though it's not hard to see why. Viva is pretty cool with how she boosts her stats using potions, especially that swiftness potion making it seem like she's being empowered by lightning.". Although not showing any visual reaction, Zalroth listened to Chronia's remark, his ears flicking from side to side with contemplation and giving him an idea as the night went on.
If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.
The following day, the motorhome was once again on the move, making an effortless track down the road; however, unlike the other day, it had a new driver in the form of Malfaroth, using his magic to pilot it with a moving ice reconstruction of Ruiria. Nolazir glazed upon the icey look-alike, the upper half of her onesie loosely hanging from her topless body and the arms of it wrapped around her waist like a belt.
"How come you never make golems of dudes?" Nolazir asked, flicking her head and slapping her ears against the sides of her head to show her disappointment. The demonic prince itched the back of his head while averting his eyes to the ceiling.
"Like you wouldn't exclusively use golem magic to make Lily golems," Malfaroth retorted, making the very tips of Nolazir's ears tint a shade of pink. The elf huffed in frustration, wanting to go off on the guy but forced herself to stay silent, mentally mourning over her inability to lie as she walked away.
On the roof of the motorhome, Zalroth sat in silence, lost in thought as his tails and ears fluttered about in the passing wind. He stared at his raised hand, his eyes trained on the small trails of purple mana crawling around his hand, their form taking on a jagged lightning-like appearance as they moved.
Jetting to a single point before the kitsune moved, the lightning mana coiled around Zalroth's index finger, tightening around it with a vice-like grip. Zalroth narrowed his gaze, the tingling sensation coursing through and around his index finger aiding in keeping him focused solely on controlling his mana.
"Takoyai made this whole controlling mana things look easy. One wrong move and-". Chronia bursted up through the sunroof, flinching it open with a loud bang and startling Zalroth. Following the sound of the cracking snap, Chronia found Zalroth situated at the back of the roof, his body mostly obscured by his kitsune tails before he retracted them and his kitsune ears.
"Hey, Zalroth, the GPS said we'd be arriving at Nettle in a few minutes so you should come inside, can't have Ruiria getting any tickets," Chronia stated energetically before delving back into the motorhome, not even allowing Zalroth the chance to even acknowledge her statement. Zalroth sighed as he rolled backwards and onto his feet. He extended his arm outward and aggressively slammed his hand into a fist, snapping his finger back into place, before he dropped down into the motorhome.
"Say what was the noise earlier?" Chronia asked while floating up to the sunroof, landing on Zalroth's shoulders and closing the sunroof. With Chronia standing on his shoulders, Zalroth rolled his eyes and crossed his arms as he felt a tug on his trousers.
"Nothing, probably just a stick being stepped on or something," Zalroth replied dismissively, using a finger to deflect Zalina's small hand as she threw a playful punch at his face. Zalina giggled at being so easily stopped, wrapping her tails around Zalroth's arm to anchor herself to him before flopping onto the guy's crossed arms.
"Keionu, can we and Unoma go to the city?" Zalina pleaded, grabbing at Zalroth's cape and pulling at it as she channelled all her might into her puppy-dog eyes. Zalroth rolled his eyes even harder, knowing the girl wouldn't relent. Given that Zalina inherited Chronia's attachment to a decision once they've made it, Zalroth slumped his head in defeat. Zalina cheered victoriously, knowing her originator would go along with her whims. However, as she cheered, Zalina noticed Nolazir sitting at the side table playing Checkers with Lily, who matched her friend in how she wore her onesie.
"Incredulously flamboyant," Zalina murmured mentally, wondering how the girls could be so brazenly exposed in front of people.
"You're one to talk," Zalroth remarked mentally, causing Zalina to flinch and turn bright red.