Immediately upon entering the animal sanctuary, Drim and Jaid were already met with chaos. “Cosdammit! Please everyone, just come back to your enclosure.” Dice was scrambling around, chasing after a flock of monsters, desperately trying to catch and corral them.
“Not a chance, stupid!” one of the Macawkeys cawed at him as they flapped away out of his reach.
“Rreh, yeah not a chance, stupid!” another monster parroted the first, continuing their torment of the man. Since they were a mix of macaws and monkeys, driving people insane was one of their most favorite hobbies. Often shortened to just ‘Mockeys’, the creatures had no concept of a filter or social etiquette.
“Seriously!” Dice continued his plea. “You’re going to get me into so much trouble. Haven’t you eaten enough? Hey, don’t throw that!”
“Not stopping until we eat it all!” a Mockey screeched between gulps of gorging itself on a heaping bag of monster chow.
“Rreh, never enough!” another followed up, swarming back to the pile of food that it had abandoned for a few more seconds as Dice chased it.
Drim was the first to comment on the situation with a bit of cheek. “Made some new friends, Dice?”
“Tah, dammit!” the boy winced when he realized he was caught and came up with the quickest explanation he could. “They tricked me! Can’t say how I ended up here last night. Guess I was drunk, but I was starving and looking for something to eat. And then these guys said they could show me to some food if I let them out, so I fell for it and cut up the top of their cage. Then when we got here, it was all monster food!”
“My question is…” Jaid’s eyes drifted up towards the sky. “Why don’t they just fly away? There’s no ceiling here, they could leave at any point.”
“It’s simple. They don’t want to,” Drim provided his professional insight. “They’ve done a good job here of making the monsters feel safe and at home. Out in the wilds they’d just have to contend with other monsters for territory, or be hunted by humans if they act up. Here they have a generous space all their own and are provided and cared for. But that doesn’t mean they don’t have complaints, however. It seems they wanted to gorge themselves well beyond their daily allotment of food.”
“Oya, Mockeys, might want to flee back home,” the king suddenly changed up his way of speech, closer to the same mocking tone that the monsters used. “Dontcha know. They’re about to walk the Eagliger. Scram before you become a snack.”
“Eek, Eagliger?!” a Mockey bawked in panic. “Back to the cage!” the flock flew the coop and scrambled back to their aviary, right through the hole that dice had made. Drim then went and blocked it off with some wood and vines until proper repairs could be made.
“That should settle it,” Drim confirmed after Dice apologized once more. “Eagligers are their biggest predator even with only a few in the world. I don’t even know if they have one here, but Mockeys would never chance it either way.”
“And Dice,” Jaid took on the responsibility of reprimanding the man. “Try not to be so gullible in the future.”
With the small crisis averted, the pair marched ever forward. They scoured most of the sanctuary in a fairly short amount of time, finding no traces of their friends. It appeared most of them, even with their judgment impaired, had the good sense to stay away from ravenous beasts. Though the majority were quite tamed and friendly.
“What’s going on, Drim?” Jaid finally got annoyed after the man had suddenly started leading them around in circles. “This is the fourth time you’ve walked us past the entrance of this habitat.
“Hmm, I can’t say for certain,” the king pondered. “But my gut tells me there’s someone in there. I’m getting the slightest hint of morality. Though it’s really faint. Could just be a monster with a surprising amount of conscience like Ten. But no, that shouldn’t be the case here. I guess we’ll just have to check it out.”
The two Fiends entered the habitat that was essentially a tropical marsh, minding their steps around the delicately placed pools of water. “Are there even any monsters in here?” the knight was wary, but there were no signs of anything around.
“They’re Chameleoctos,” Drim explained. “Camouflage is their expertise. They’ll hide from anyone except for their handlers. Just mind your step and they’ll stay out of your way. But now I have a good idea of who’s here.”
The man knelt down next to a rather conspicuous pile of fallen leaves. On their own, they might not have appeared too out of place. But seeing as they were from trees nowhere in sight, it certainly raised an eyebrow. Drim shook the pile and all the foliage dissolved away, revealing their hidden friend.
It was an unconscious Rezin, who was slumbering soundly despite being surrounded by monsters. His portable gaming console was resting delicately on his lap with one hand jostling the joystick, clearly having dreams that he was still playing. Normally, his boss would have been happy to let him snooze it out of his system, but at the very least they had to move him to somewhere safer.
But Rezin woke up at the very first shift and was quick to understand the situation. The very next thing he did, though, was check his game to make sure he hadn’t somehow screwed up his save. “Wait, how the heck did I clear that boss?! I was struggling on it for so long and now it’s dead! Cosdammit, now I’ll have to replay the whole thing!”
“Why do you have to do that?” Jaid inquired. “Shouldn’t you be happy you beat it and now you can move on.”
“Hell no!” the Nobody was unusually crass. “Beating them is the whole point of the game. That’s where the fun is! But you can only fight them once, and I don’t want to move on without overcoming it. And I hate that drunk me was better than real me! I won’t be able to rest until I figure out how he, no I, did it!”
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“Alrighty then,” the pair left the boy to his self-made suffering and moved on now that they’d confirmed he was alright.
“I’m guessing there must be someone in here too?” Jaid caught on when Drim stopped walking as they passed a cave entrance.
“Yes,” the man answered without a doubt. “Even if I couldn’t sense them. Look at the sign. This place would be worth checking out anyways. It’s a creature you’ve had a run in with before.”
“Can’t say I recognize the name,” Jaid could only shrug at it but headed inside the monster’s lair anyways. Barely a few steps in, and Bunchy the Buzzhound was already on the offensive, growling at the knight, still recognizing her as an enemy after all this time.
But the beast calmed when she saw Drim approach, knowing him only as the friend who had helped her in her time of need and allowed her to reunite with her found family. The favor that the monster owed him outweighed her disdain for the woman, so she ceased her growling and untensed her muscles, but still kept a wary eye on Jaid as the two approached.
Bunchy was even accommodating enough to raise her wing when Drim squatted next to it. With the massive pinion covering out of the way, which essentially had just been acting as a big blanket, the two Fiends got a first glimpse of the pair of women happily snuggling away in their sleep. It truly was a shame to disturb them, but since Kada was the proprietress of the place, it’d be best if she took action sooner rather than later in containing and addressing the damages.
That was if they could wrestle her free from Alk’s insane grip, her snuggling more of a stranglehold. But much to the protest of the unconscious women, they eventually got Kada free and upright. “Ngh, is it morning already?” the woman with ocean-blue hair that was even more disheveled than usual proceeded to curse the existence of the sun that she couldn’t even see.
“Mmm, yeah I don’t remember much about last night either,” the woman admitted after the usual catchup spiel. “If Niloy did spike all our drinks, I can’t say that it stuck out to me. Oh! But I do remember one thing. Drim totally did something crazy!. You were there, Jaid, there’s no way you forgot that, right?!”
“Erm,” the knight racked her brain but was coming up short. “Can’t say that I do.”
“Hmm, in that case, maybe I should keep my mouth shut,” Kada suddenly backpedaled. “I only caught a glimpse of it, so I’m not the best person to explain what happened. I bet Chorus has footage, and that’d do a better job than I ever could.”
“Great, this day just keeps getting better,” the king groaned. “Apparently I made a fool of myself in front of everyone. And not only that, it was recorded to be preserved forever. I don’t even know what it is, but I doubt I could get Chorus to delete it. They’d have backups hidden somewhere too, even if they did pretend to erase it to humor me. Oh well, no point in worrying over something I can do nothing about.”
“Well don’t worry, you weren’t the only buffoon last night,” The Mermaid attempted to reassure him, but her amused tone certainly wasn’t helping. “Speaking of people who shamed themselves, where’d Lieu get off to? I swear I saw him just before I passed out last night.”
“Someone calling me?” a grumpy, groggy voice called from the other side of the cavern. The man in question crawled out from Bunchy’s other wing, struggling to worm his way free from the heavy, leathery blanket. At first glance, Drim and Jaid prepared to shield their eyes again as they had with Whill after noticing that the man was shirtless. But they breathed a sigh of relief when they saw he was at least wearing underwear.
“Why are you so indecent?” Alk was still quick to chastise him, though, having woken up at some point from all the commotion.
“Eh?” the man looked down and his eyes widened. Unlike the other exhibitionist they’d run into, Lieu at least expressed an appropriate level of shame. And while his current attire was sufficient enough to not scar anyone present, maybe he found his underwear adorned with cartoon bullets to be a bit embarrassing. So he grabbed Bunchy’s wing, pulling it up to his chest to cover himself.
“Wait, I remember now,” The Guerilla had been racking his brain, struggling through the initial delirium. But as an experienced drinker, used to hangovers in his life before a Fiend, he recovered quickly. “A few of us were gambling, and we were so drunk off our asses that we couldn’t get our Common Cards to transfer money.”
“That is a safety feature, yes,” Drim suddenly confirmed. “To prevent people from being drugged and having their money stolen, the cards won’t allow transfers if they detect you’re too intoxicated. Similarly, they’ll prevent wildly expensive purchases so that people don’t wake up with massive regrets. There were a few kinks and angry letters initially, but Nathym’s worked it out over the years.”
“Well whatever,” Lieu was clearly annoyed by the unimportant interruption to his story. “Point is, money was off the table. So we started betting our clothes. Can’t say I remember much of what happened after, but I guess I didn’t do so hot. Probably bailed at some point to look for a comfy place to pass out. Which I guess lead me here. But uhh, I’m gonna go find some clothes now. And you bastards saw nothing!”
The man quickly scampered out of the cave, trying and failing to present himself with the least exposing angles possible until he was out of sight. Kada begrudgingly snatched her phone, staring at the screen and scowling for a few seconds before she too rushed away to deal with whatever message from her staff that she’d received. Alk seemed content to lay back down, snuggle up to Bunchy, and let the wing drape back over her.
So Drim and Jaid resumed their caretaking hunt, only finding one more member in the animal sanctuary. It was someone they never expected to find in such a precarious and vulnerable position. Roque was splayed out in the feeding trough of the Penguolin pit—penguins and pangolins—with his phone resting on his face.
After he was woken up, without so much as a hello, or thank you, or immediate acknowledgment of the other two Fiends present, he did what any respectable sleazebag would do and checked on his money.
“Zjik, zjik, zjik! I thought these mawhgers were investors!” The Swindler eyed the Penguolins that had huddled around him, embracing him as one of their own. “I mean, c’mon! Look at their little suits! How could I not take them seriously when they’re clearly dressed as professionals?! But where did I send all that money to?!”
“Ah, okay, phew. It seems I made a new account and sent it to myself. Now that’s a relief. Well hang on. Damn that little upstart, ZjoZjo! It seems she deduced that I was out of it while we were texting and weaseled some seed money out of me. That chunk of change could see her skirting by easy for the rest of her life.”
“Tch, and the contract we made means I can’t take it back. Hmm, but the overall payout terms aren’t bad. I’ll make it back from her if I’m patient and she lives up to my expectations. Just another gamble, and I never make bets that I think I’ll lose.”
“But wait! Ahk!” Roque slammed down his phone, only to immediately pick it up again and swipe furiously. “What mawhging nonsense stock trades did I make last night?! That’s so much money gone already and the market just opened! It’s going to take days for me to make it all back. Days!” The man didn’t even move, immediately making calls to his various accountants.
So Drim and Jaid left the man in… whatever the opposite of peace was in his case… and left the sanctuary. From there, they headed into the resort's main building, where the king could already sense several of his comrades—anxious to find out what hellish states he’d find them in.