Remnos and I were currently in Generoc Town. This would be my first time coming here in person, and Remnos knew everyone in town.

We soon came across the steeple; walking inside, we would meet Pastor Arktory. He was a handsome man with pure white hair that was long and messy, very different from any pastor I’ve seen. He soon stepped from behind his podium and said,

Pastor Arktory: Oh, what a surprise, the infamous Remnos with his new master. How interesting.

Remnos: Hi there, Pastor, this is Jason. He’s my new boss. This is his first time in Generoc town. I wanted him to get to know everyone, and so we start with you.

Jason: Hello.

The pastor would put his hand to his chin and chuckle.

Pastor Arktory: Jason, what an odd name. I don’t think I’ve ever heard such a unique name before in all my years of study in Xanadu.

Jason: Oh, so you're from out of town.

The pastor would chuckle, saying

Pastor Arktory: I guess you could say that young Guardian was dispatched here by the Xanadu Cathedral.

The pastor would then teleport towards me and then stare intently at me. His eyes were as blue as the sea, and his smile was so incredibly relaxed, almost creepily so.

He stared directly into my eyes as if he was trying to read my very mind. I was entranced.

He then leaned back and snickered to himself; covering his mouth with his hand, he said

Pastor Arktory: My, my, you certainly look tender and tasty; it would be a shame to let you slip away.

I was incredibly flustered by those remarks; it was like he was flirting, but I also felt like I was being threatened.

The pastor would snicker once again and say

Pastor Arktory: Well, then I would hate taking up all your free time when we both have important things to do.

Remnos would chuckle at my flustered expression and would then take me to the town square. It was an incredibly lively place. Walking around, Remnos was able to introduce me to everyone, and they were all incredibly nice. I would soon be introduced to a man that looked like an anthro shark. He wasn’t wearing a shirt, and his pants looked like they had been ripped several times over. He stared at me and smirked.

Before high-fiving Remnos, he said

Anthro Shark: So then we have some fresh meat in this stale town, huh?

Remnos: Exactly, this is Jason; he’s my new boss, hehe.

Tenra: Well, then, it's a pleasure to meet you, pal. I’m Tenra. I work down at the port. I mainly do heavy lifting for ships, but on occasion I have to put some smugglers in their place the hard way.

Tenra would then pick at his teeth at that last comment.

Jason: Well, it’s a pleasure to meet you.

I was even more nervous being in this guy’s presence than I was in front of the pastor; this guy could actually eat me.

Tenra would then begin to snicker before taking my hand and giving it a soft kiss, and I noticed that as he was doing that, his eyes for a brief moment would roll into the back of his head like he had just taken a puff from a blunt.

Tenra: Mmm, you're absolutely divine; I can already tell.

Jason: Excuse me?

Tenra: Hehe, don’t worry about it anyway; I should be off. I need to unload some cargo at the docks. Goodbye, Remnos, and delectable morsel.

I was starting to get weirded out by all this; both the pastor and Tenra were being incredibly weird and overly flirty for some reason.

Jason: Remnos, quick question.

Remnos: Sure, what’s up?

Jason: Why are certain people acting overly flirty towards me?

Remnos: Hmm, no clue.

Remnos would then smirk. Chuckling to himself, he obviously knew something and was purposefully not telling me. We then made our way to a large mansion with music flowing from the building. I was impressed such a luxurious building was located in such a small town.

Remnos: this is where Count Ringford lives.

Jason: This place has a count??

Remnos: Well, this is his vacation home, but yes.

Remnos would then ring the bell, and the front gate would open by itself, and they made their way up the steps, arriving at the front door. The count would answer it himself, and he was an interesting fellow.

He wore black and red cultist robes with gold adornments; he wore white gloves on his hands, and around his neck was a cavat neckerchief adorned with a red jewel. His eyes were covered with a white mask with black-colored eye holes.

His skin was similar to an Egyptian man, and he spoke with a soft yet emotionless voice.

Count Ringford: Greetings, I am Count Ringford, the 67th and Leader of the Phantom Musicians, how may I help you today?

Remnos: County This is Jason; he’s taking over for Lady Muriel. I wanted him to get to know you.

The Count would then tilt his head and stare at me silently.

I was admittedly weirded out but somehow mustered up the nerve to say:

Jason: Hello, my lord, it’s a pleasure to meet you.

At my response, Count Ringford would flinch and loudly gasp; his robot-like demeanor would break as he became incredibly flustered, his cheeks turning red as he started panting.

Count Ringford: you…. That ethereal aura, could you truly …. Oh my

The Count would then slam the door and yell.

Count Ringford: Get the hell off my property, you filthy heathens! Away with you!

I stood there thinking to myself, “What the fuck just happened?”

Remnos soon started chuckling once again and took me off the property. Remnos was chuckling heavily; he was in on this somehow. I know it.

We soon met with the mayor; he was a kind old soul with eyebrows that completely hid his eyes and a beard that nearly reached down to the floor. He was dressed like a gentleman from the 1890s, with a small round hat and a brown suit and tie with plaid pants. He had a small walking cane with him too.

His name was old man Toa, and he had been serving as mayor for a long time. He was a nice old man who gave me a biscuit. After that, we went to the dispatch center and met with the secretary that ran the entire facility.

Her name was Karea, and unlike me, she closely resembled a Remnos and Tenra; she was an anthro bat.

And to my surprise, she was incredibly attractive to the point where I would consider her to be an icon for furry culture.

She was incredibly welcoming, but she soon rushed us out as soon as things got busy.

The last place we visited was an amphitheater, but it was being used as a classroom. The teacher was a man with summer green-colored skin; his hair was dark green and looked to be made of leaves. He was wearing clothing that greatly resembled a scholar, and around his neck was a large pink and purple caterpillar with golden string-like antennae and large eyes.

The green-skinned man would then dismiss the class, and as the students left, Remnos took this opportunity to bring me down to this scholar, who looked towards us and let out an annoyed sigh.

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Scholar: Remnos, what is it this time? Do you really wish for another go with the Board of Corrections?

Remnos: Hehe, not this time, teach. I just came to introduce the new Ewe Guardian who is taking the role from Lady Murial.

The scholar would then turn his attention towards me, and his caterpillar would soon look to me as well.

I was sensing a pattern and braced myself for what was to come. I took a deep breath and said

Jason: Nice to meet you, sir. My name is Jason.

The scholar soon came towards me. He was two feet shorter than I was, and he quickly began to blush. He stared at me with a look of adoration, and the caterpillar around his neck started to purr lovingly.

I then noticed that flowers started blooming in this green-skinned man's hair. He soon recomposed himself and backed up. He then started to pout and say

Carmeli: I’m Carmeli, a teaching scholar from the United Academec Association. Please keep your distance from me with your piercing gaze and expertly crafted body.

Jason: Excuse me??

Carmeli would then blush and say

Carmeli: Shut up, you idiotic peon.

The caterpillar around Carmeli’s neck would then let out a gentle cry, nuzzling into Carmeli’s cheek. Carmeli then began to calm down, saying

Carmeli: You're right. I need to calm down; I’m just being weird.

Jason: So is that Caterpillar your pet?

Carmeli would then start shouting again, saying

Carmeli: Hah, shows what you know, you idiotic. Peon This is Mino; he’s one of my companions from Eldrax, the Forest nation.

Mino would then let out another cry that seemed to calm Carmeli down, and he even gave Mino some scritches under his chin.

Carmeli: Now, both of you, please leave. I need to pack up and go home for the day.

As I and Remnose were about to walk off, I felt something tug my wrist. Turning around, I saw that a vine had sprouted from the ground and had wrapped itself around my left wrist.

Carmeli looked at me completely flustered, like he didn’t mean for that to happen. He soon got incredibly angry, and soon the vine dropped to the floor, going limp, and I soon caught back up with Remnos. We then made our way back to the pasture, and Remnos was holding his hands behind his head and was humming a song.

Jason: Remnos Seriously, do you not know what happened with all the guys you introduced me to today?

Remnos: Nope, not a clue.

I decided to not press the matter because it was obvious to me that Remnos wasn’t going to explain himself no matter how hard I tried.

We would soon return to pasture, and upon arriving, I saw that the incubator was full of ewe eggs. Mayble was coming out of the storage shed and waved at me. He soon came over to me and explained that his scouting trip was plentiful; he found an entire clutch of ewe eggs and a bunch of seeds as well as some sun tokens.

I was greatly impressed and gave Mayble three pats on the head, and he embraced it, letting out a set of joyful bleating.

I soon went into the cottage and would sit down at the dinner table. I would then pull out a journal and begin writing about my incredibly odd day. Sometime later, I was interrupted by a knock at the door. Walking over and opening it, I saw it was Eve. He smiled apologetically, his hands behind his back, and said

Eve: Hello, Jason. How are you this evening?

Jason: I'm good. Is something wrong?

Eve: No, well, um.

Eve would then begin to get all fidgety and worried.

Jason: Well, Eve, explain yourself.

Eve: Remnos was telling a ghost story, and it spooked the smaller ewes, and now they're too scared to sleep. I suggested that maybe you could spend the night with us to make them feel better.

Jason: Ok then, if it will help them feel better.

It was obvious to me that it was Eve himself who was really spooked, and he was trying his best to hide his fears.

I soon grabbed a blanket from the cottage and began walking with Eve to the Ewe House.

Eve: Um. Jason Can I hold your hand??

Jason: Sure thing. Eve

Eve’s stronger Larger hands would then wrap themselves around my smaller ones, and Eve would open the Ewe House and walk inside. Everyone was asleep, and Eve led me to his stall where his bed resided. I soon got on the bed and relaxed, and Eve would then wrap his entire body around mine, clutching onto me like I was a teddy bear. It was going to be rough, but I still managed to get some sleep.

POV SHIFT

Jason is a truly odd name, and yes, it’s not on any of the naming calendars within the records. Mmm, but Jason, there is something about you that I simply can’t ignore, and yet it conflicts with the vows I made when I was forced to become a servant to Drevia, the God of Shadows.

Oh, how this town would panic if they found out that their pastor was a devotee to the lord of shadows and father to the predators.

Oh, how I could kill them all in the name of my Lord, but at the same time, I enjoy their adoration and praise, but then there is Jason, that unique soul that sends a seductive chill up my spine and brings me into the very thralls of lust.

If anything would make me forsake my devotion to my lord, that man could do it.

But it is hard to explain why he’s not even that special looking, but yet being in his presence fills me with so much yearning that I cannot even comprehend as to why.

For what reason? My mind draws no possible answers. I just know that I want Jason to be mine and mine alone. Hmm, maybe I will visit him tomorrow.

POV SHIFT

I walk through the front door and slam it behind me and stretch; there was a massive shipment of supplies that came in today, not to mention heavy building materials.

And I have two months before my mandated three-day vacation. God, this is going to be rough.

Walking into my little hovel of a home, I check on my brother. I walk into his room and see him lying in his bed, his eyes closed.

My brother was born with a debilitating illness that left him bound to a bed. He was born with the illness, and it slowly got worse. Our parents pretty much abandoned us, and I took charge.

Luckily the mayor is willing to help pay for my brother’s care; a nurse comes by to care for him while I’m at work. I walk over to my brother and stroke his cheek with my claw. I then go to the kitchen and grab a 5-pound ham, eating it bone and all.

I then sit on the couch and start to relax as I’m chilling, listening to the radio. I slowly start to think of that young Guardian and his adorable features. his smooth yet styled raven hair, his petite frame that I could oh so easily crush, not to mention his sweet face. I start to wonder what his other features are like.

I soon snap myself to reality: what the hell am I doing?

I only met the guy for one count, one moment, and I’m already having lustful fantasies about him. What the hell is wrong with me? He’s just an ordinary human. Why is he filling my thoughts so heavily?

I try to calm down, but the more I try to push Jason out of my mind, the more I want to get him undressed.

I decide to take a cold shower, and sure enough, it’s dulling my strange and unwanted obsession. After my shower, I fall asleep on the couch, only to find I can’t escape my obsession even in my dreams.

As my subconscious wants to play out an entire domestic fantasy of us together.

Gods help me.

POV SHIFT

It is late, the moon is full, and as I ready myself to play my piano, something from earlier today plagues my mind. It was that human that visited me with the Warrior Ewe.

That human brought out long-buried feelings and warmth that go against my nature.

I was taught to be an unfeeling slave to the arts, and that was beaten into me at a young age. The Ringford family has always been told that all feelings and emotions are useless when it comes to creating our melodies; if any emotion were to come out, it could spell disaster.

Either way, I shouldn’t focus on it now; I must perform.

Sitting at the piano, I begin to play the song Servitude. Like always, I play specific keys to properly perform the Ringford. Melodies are precise and calculated with no room for error; if so much as two notes are played out of order, who knows what could possibly happen? As I play each note, I hear the effects all around me. Skeletons begin to rise up from the graveyard out back; their bodies will be covered in monk-like robes, and they’ll make their way into my home. These skeletons are known as Whytes, and they are servants to the Ringford bloodline.

I soon play the final note and turn around and see an army of 100 whytes all of them taking a knee.

Count Ringford: Now then, my servants proceed to clean the mansion and go out to gather Mors Lumena flowers. This is a command.

The Whytes all bow their heads and leave to do their respective tasks.

I then walk to the den and take a seat on the couch. The Mors Lumena Flower is a spectral plant that grows from the corpse of the dead. It’s supposedly a representation of regret or sadness.

We Ringfords have been collecting and experimenting on these flowers, and we have found that they hold great power. My family has discovered ways to use these flowers for both medicinal and volatile purposes. One of my descendants discovered a way to use them to perfectly revive the fallen.

This ended up being so sought after that my descendant had to completely destroy his research notes on the matter but still wanted it to be of use, so he engraved the entire formula on his body. His corpse is currently located in my family's crypt, and because of his high value, his section of the crypt has the strongest security.

I personally use the Mors Lumena as a source of sustenance, mainly because there is nothing more that can be done with them. I do mean that my family has found every possible method to use Mors Lumena, leaving little room for further development, and to this day people are using Mors Lumena recipes in several ways, from creating life-saving tonics to specially designed explosives, leaving me and my family with the healthy check.

But there is the other more concerning thing about the Ringford family: it’s the cult we created; it’s called the Phantom Choir.

We are a cult that uses music to raise the dead for what purpose, you may ask, and that is for whatever the musician requires.

My family’s cult is incredibly well known for both good and bad, with several members of the cult having been executed while other members have created mercenary groups and security firms with the aid of their undead armies.

But while the cult has both good and bad, there are some within the cult who lead lives of solitude; those who do are slowly forgotten, doing whatever they like and even starting their own small sects of the cult. I even hear some have created hermitages.

By this point I have little control of what each sect and group does, but the members themselves see me as a god, and if I tell them to surrender, they will without hesitation.

So very rarely is my presence needed unless the authorities need my aid.

And quite frankly, I am done with the whole thing. I don’t really care anymore about my cult, about the Mors Lumena; not a thing brings satisfaction.

And I am brought back to that human Jason, I think his name was; he was able to bring long-buried feelings and joy into my heart, and that alone was more than I have felt in my whole life.

I need that human in my life. I need to feel more, and if that human was able to do that, then I need to keep him by my side.

I wonder if I should send a Whyte to watch over him, and I think I will.

That human must be mine and mine alone.

POV SHIFT

As I feed my companions, I look up at the moon through the skylight. It’s a beautiful sight to see, calm and majestic. I deeply regret leaving Eldrax. The Forest Nation is home to a majestic and beautiful mystery that is not seen anywhere else.

Leaving it was hard; in truth, I was forced to leave mainly to join the Academic Association after my father neglected his obligation to be free.

My village had made an arrangement with the Academics to provide a descendant of the Virideon Scholar’s bloodline who retired in my village a long time ago and started a family. I am one of his descendants, and so was my father, but he wanted to be free, and so he bailed, putting the responsibility on me.

In return for my presence, the Academic Association provided my village with a healthy fortune to get them by.

My life at the Association was hard; I was tormented constantly because I am, to my knowledge, the only Dryad in history who cannot master botanokinesis. Plants don’t listen to me; instead, they act on my feelings and subconscious, which is incredibly annoying for a Dryad.

Aside from that, the Association was hoping for another prodigy like my descendant, but I couldn’t keep up and had to study twelve times as hard as the other students just to get by.

I somehow managed to gain Silver Rank, which is third in the Scholar hierarchy. Silver Rank Scholars can take teaching and town advisory professions; meanwhile, at Platinum Rank, the rarest of all Scholars get a position in the Halo Palace. It is said that those in the Halo Palace govern the entire world, but that has yet to be proven; in truth, no one knows what goes on in the Halo Palace.

I soon begin to relax and go to my vanity gate. I soon tune into a theater performance; it’s called The Boy and the Rose King.

A standard romance play. Soon I hear a series of cries. I soon look over and see that it’s my companions.

They all stand on their four back legs, waving their stubby front legs. This is their way of saying that they want to come over to me, but they don’t want to crawl there.

I let out a soft sigh, and soon my vices do their work, bringing my five companions over to me. They then curl up in my lap and start to snuggle into me and join me in watching the show.

My five companions are special caterpillars; they are the size of pugs, and they will eventually grow into savior butterflies.

Savior Butterflies are special large insects that go around healing the weak; they are hyperintelligent and incredibly rare.

Their mother entrusted her eggs to me, and I took them with me when I was dispatched to Generoc Town. We've been together ever since.

As we watched the show, my companions slowly fell asleep; they got so sleepy after their dinner. I enjoyed their soothing snoring as the theater came to an end, and I shifted to the Xanadu Town Cryer. He started talking about the latest events, all of them interesting in a certain way, and soon I got so incredibly tired, and the warmth my companions provided do me in.

In my dreams, I wake up on a bed, and lying next to me is that idiot peon. He stares longingly at me, and soon he’s on top of me, holding my wrists down and pinning me to the bed. I struggle slightly, but I actually like being pinned down like this. The idiot peon soon begins to lick his lips, and I begin to blush. I feel his hot breath, and all I can imagine is what he might do to me. My heart races as he leans in for a kiss, and I am so excited, but before I can taste him, my alarm goes off, waking me up, and I am pissed.

Why did my subconscious create that scenario, and why did I like it so damn much? Gods, I then remember my companions are still sleeping on my lap. Well, some of them are sprawled out still near me, but they are so damn cute.

Luckily I don’t have work until late in the evening, so now I just relax and take it all in.

And try to come up with a theory why I was fantasizing about that idiot Jason. Gods, even thinking about his name causes me great distress.

End of Episode