Hey guys! Chapter 2 is delivered, but before you read it I have something to say. If you read Chapter 1 earlier, and are now here for Chapter 2, you might want to go back and reread Chapter 1. I rewrote some parts of the prologue and chapter 1, but nothing story wise has changed. Chapter 1 however has an additional little short story in it now that you'll want to read for some context in Chapter 2.
Also, I changed the name of the FF from Elementia to Nova, there's a reason, but you don't really need to worry about that right now :P.
Well, that's all I have to say, so please enjoy :).
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V1: Wild Child
C2: Adventurers
One thing to note about the Eternal Night Forest is that it is not only famous for being the most dangerous place that borders the Beast-Plain Kingdom, Pendragonia, but it is also famous amongst adventurers for the dungeon known as Shadow Deep. (The names of the kingdoms are often called after the clan that is currently in rule.) As such, there are often many adventurers who travel through the southern trails until they reach the mountain deep within the western regions of the forest where the entrance to Shadow Deep is.
One such group of adventurers is currently traveling through the forest, headed back to the borders of Pendragonia. In this world there are many different skilled and talented adventurers, and very few of them are ever the same.
Among this group of adventurers are two males and three females.
There is Amber, who is of the bear-people race from the North-Western Forests in Pendragonia. With soft, tan-brown hair and amber eyes like her name she carries a massive, two-handed battleaxe. The only thing more dangerous that her battleaxe would probably be her two massive weapons she has on her chest. Amber is what is known as a berserker, a melee proficient fighter who use massive strength to crush their foes.
Next to her is Anna, the human knight. Anna has black hair and black eyes, seeming to blend into the dark atmosphere of the forest. If it weren’t for the metallic gleam of her steel armor she would hardly be noticeable. She carries a sword and shield on her back that are currently in worn shape from previous battles.
Behind the two of them is Anderson and Muiredon.
Anderson is from the Avian race, and he is a bard. Bards are a type of support wizard which use music to channel mana into their surroundings creating various effects. Unlike other beastman races, the Avian race are actually monsters that are extremely human in nature. If you look at Anderson, he has the head of a bird, beak and all. His arms have wings on their underside, and his legs are that of birds too. His feathers are black, while his tummy feathers are white. He carries a guitar on his back, as he seems to hum while walking casually.
Muiredon is a dwarf, standing only about three and half feet in height. He carries a simple mace at his side, and wears a gray robe while carrying a backpack with herbs and medicines. He is a cleric who specializes in light magic, specifically the healing class of light magic. He carries the standard features of a dwarf with brown hair and brown eyes and the always important, giant beard to put all the men of other races to shame.
Then, at the very back, is Leilatha. She is an elf, and a hunter. She wears black leather and keeps her hair tied up and covered with a black hood. The reason for that is because he hair is blonde, so it makes a challenge when trying to stay hidden in the dark. She has blue eyes and the noticeable beauty of the elven race. As she is in charge of rear-guard she is always on alert to their surroundings, her eyes always focused on the movements of the forest. Next to her is her companion who is a black wolf with red eyes. He is a monster species wolf known as Night Hounds.
All five of them are quite relaxed, happy that they’ve successfully achieved results in their exploration of Shadow Deep. They’re currently on their way back to the Adventurer’s Outpost, which is on the borders of Pendragonia and the Eternal Night Forest.
Adventurer’s Outposts exist all over the humanoid kingdoms as places where adventurers gather before they delve off into the unknown wilderness to fight monsters or explore dungeons. These outposts are managed by the famous Adventurer’s Guild, which organizes all the recognized adventurers in all the kingdoms.
As they’re walking, only about a fourth of the way back to the border… suddenly a figure shoots out of the side of the brush in front of them, and then disappears into the brush in the other side. Not even half a second later, another figure does the same.
“....”
“Did you guys see that rabbit?” Anderson is the first to speak.
“....”
“What about that naked cat-person child chasing it?” He tries again.
“....”
“He didn’t look that old you know.. could be lost..” (Someone’s gotta do something eventually…)
“*sigh* Let’s go save the brat before he hurts himself.” Anna finally reacts to the situation, and the rest of the party runs behind her as they run in the direction that the figures disappeared in.
….
Just a few minutes earlier in another area of the forest, Nova is at a small pond having a drink and relaxing. As he enjoys the calm environment around him, a brush nearby starts to be disturbed. A small moon-white rabbit appears from within, and catches Nova’s attention.
Nova stares… his mind completely blank… and then it clicks. “AH! ITS YOU!” The rabbit already realized who Nova is, after all, there's not that many cat-children in the forest. The rabbit laughs as it remembers the time it tricked Nova into climbing up a tree.
“You damn rabbit! You’re not getting away this time!” Nova quickly activates his feral form and pounces as the rabbit, but the rabbit simply jumps out of the way before he can reach him. The rabbit shakes its ass in front of Nova, taunting him, before it runs off into the forest.
Nova really doesn’t know how to handle being teased well, so he speeds after the rabbit.
The rabbit was shocked at how fast Nova caught up to him, so he had no choice but to speed, but this was only followed by Nova speeding up too.
The next few minutes are followed by Nova and the rabbit speeding up until what was once a chase turned into a full on race to see who could go faster.
This was around the time when Nova and the rabbit flew by in front of the group of adventurers, not paying them any mind.
….
The group of adventurers are running through the forest, following the obvious trails the rabbit and kid are leaving. Apparently they’re running so hard they completely forgot to even hide their tracks.
“I wonder how old that kid is, he runs pretty fast. I did hear people of the cat race were pretty fast.” Anderson says nonchalantly as he is simply flying next to the group.
“*Huff* Forget *huff* fast *huff* this speed is insane. *huff* If I *huff* wasn’t carrying so much *huff* maybe I would’ve caught up *huff* by now.” It’s quite obvious Amber is having a hard time. But not many others are doing any better. They are all carrying all their loot they gathered from the dungeon, which is weighing them down quite a bit.
After about half a minute later of running, they suddenly spot Nova who laying down on the ground in a grove of grass in between a group of trees, breathing heavily. Next to him is a rabbit which is flexing its arms and cheering above Nova in victory.
Anderson flies up and chases the rabbit away from Nova, and lands down beside him. “Hmm, you okay kid?”
Nova simply looks up at Anderson, with a confused face as he’s still trying to catch his breath. In this time Amber, Anna, Muiredon, and Leilatha all have gathered around Nova too, and stare at him.
(Who are these people? Some of them kinda look similar to me… but that bird is really weird. I’ve never seen such a big bird. Hm, some of them are suddenly giving me weird looks…)
Suddenly Amber, Anna, and Leilatha all squeal at the same time, “””SO CUTE!!!!””” and the scoop Nova up and begin cuddling him. Nova, with what little energy he has left in him, tries to escape from his fate of being suffocated in their bosoms…
“Haha, lucky kid.” Anderson can only chuckle at the reactions of these ladies.
Suddenly, in the branches above them, a noise shakes the air, “ROOOOAAAAAARRRRRR!!!”
….
In the time following from when Bahina left to live on her own to the point where Nova would be able to do the same, Bahina had tried many times to come see Nova. But each time their Mom would chase Bahina away without Nova knowing. Over time Bahina had been quite depressed, and missed Nova dearly. She held on to the hope that one day he would be able to leave the den as well, and then she would just have to find a way for them to live together...
(HNNG, patience Bahina. Just a few more moments and Nova will finally be free. I can’t believe Mom wouldn’t even let me visit him… That old hag probably wanted to hog him all to herself. Haha, just you wait, as soon as he leaves your den he will belong to me!
Ah! There he is! Yes… say your goodbyes to Nova dear Mother, for soon you won’t be able to stop me anymore!)
After Nova left the den, he began running westward into the forest, and Bahina followed behind in the lower branches of the trees, making sure to hide her presence as best as possible.
In the following hours, she was quietly thinking of plan in which she could convince Nova to live together with her in the forest, but as she was doing so she saw a rabbit appear next to him while he was resting by a pond.
(Hmm, isn’t that…?)
But while she was thinking, the rabbit and Nova suddenly dashed off into the forest.
(Ah! Wait for me Nova!!)
After she got lost a couple times, and fell from the branches once, she finally caught up to Nova. But what she saw wasn’t something she was expecting..
(Huh? Who’re they, is Nova in trouble? They don’t seem to be threatening him… wait a second… why do some of them smell like they’re aroused?! AH! They’re cuddling with my Nova! THEY’RE THIEVES!)
“ROOOOAAAAAARRRRRR!!!” Bahina leaps from the branches towards the group of adventurers near Nova.
The adventurers suddenly leap back, Anna and Amber have drawn their weapons while Leilatha is holding on to Nova. Anderson and Muiredon jumped off to the sides, out of the combat.
“Whoa! Isn’t that an Azure Tiger? I never heard of them living in this forest. It’s still young, so we should be able to defeat it. Anderson back me up, I’m going to charge it.” Anna has already begun analyzing their attacker, while the rest prepare to follow up her charge.
If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
However Nova, has already noticed Bahina as well as the aggression the people are directing at her. (These people… they want to hurt Bahina!) He quickly pushes his way out of Leilatha’s arms, and dashes past Anna who has yet to charge. “”AH! Little boy, no! It’s dangerous!”” They both scream, but hes already drawn too close before they can react.
Images of the boy being ripped apart flash through their minds, and they all cringe slightly in expectation… but unexpectedly.. the boy and the tiger are hugging. The boy is clinging to the Azure Tiger’s neck, a highly dangerous monster, and is glaring daggers at Anna like she is the one who did something wrong.
“W-wha… What the hell? I-I don’t even…” She is completely at a loss for what is happening.
Leilatha’s companion begins trying to explain the situation to her through their mental link, *Miss, I believe the Azure Tiger and child know each other. It seems the Tiger is called Bahina while the child is called Nova.*
*Boris are you saying that this child has tamed that Azure Tiger? That’s impossible!* Leilatha simply can’t fathom that a young child would be able to subdue such a monster to be its companion.
*No Miss, they simply know each other. There is no magical bond between the two.*
“Ah… Uhm, Anna, Amber, it appears that this tiger and child are related to each other. Boris explained to me that, but they don’t appear to bound to one another. The child is called Nova”
“Uhn.. Is that so..” Even with that information Anna is still unsure as what to do.
Leilatha tries approaching the child and tiger with her hands in front of her in a peaceful manner, “Hey there Nova, we’re sorry for acting so aggressively. Your friend simply surprised us is all, would you um, mind calming down a bit?” But.. Nova simply looks at her with a confused gaze.
*Miss, the child was speaking in monster language, maybe he doesn’t know common.* Boris adds on.
*WHAT?! MONSTER LANGUAGE?! Don’t be ridiculous Boris, thats impossible.*
*But Miss.. it’s true. Here, let me try communicating with them.* Boris walks past Leilatha, and begins speaking in monster language. Monster language is different from the known humanoid languages as it is done entirely through one’s mental aura. Sort of like morse code, they send pulses of their aura outward in a form of communication.
“My Miss wishes to apologize for being so aggressive, but since you attacked first it was justified. My Miss is willing to forget this event, and wishes to befriend you.” Boris simply relays his master’s wishes, but he doubts that for a tiger who attacked not so long ago to have any intention of cooperating.
“Ah, okay.” Nova replies, before calming down. He nods as he understands, and Bahina follows Nova’s attitude. However, she is still nervous about letting those three ladies get near Nova again.
Boris is briefly stupefied at such a quick, simple response forgetting he’s supposed to be negotiating with them. *Boris, what’d he say.*
*Ahh, Miss, he said he understands that we mean no harm.*
*Good! Ask him where his parents are, we need to know where we should be taking him.*
“My Miss wishes to know where your parents are, this forest is far too dangerous so they want to escort you back to your village.”
“Hmm? My mom lives to east in the forest, but I’m not supposed to return.”
“W-what? What do you mean you’re not supposed to return? And in the forest? Just who is your mother?”
“My mom is a really strong tiger, even stronger than Bahina. And yeah, she lives in the forest? I completed my rite of passage though, so I’m to live on my own now. Well, supposed to… I think Bahina has plans to harass me though…”
“Guhu… Big sisters have to look out for their little brothers, just imagine what those women would’ve done to you if I hadn’t interfered.” Bahina tries to build her defense, maybe this is the opportunity she was looking for to convince Nova.
“Yeah right, you’re planning to cuddle me just like they were aren’t you!”
Defense crushed. “Ahh… Nova.. you’re mistaken.. maybe.. just a little bit.. don’t say you don’t like it..” She tries to bring Nova into her embrace.. *Smack* Nova hits on the head, and escapes the trap.
All the while Boris is just sitting there not knowing what to say… *Ehem.. Miss. It appears that this child was raised alongside the tiger. They consider themselves brother and sister and both of them were raised by another Azure Tiger that lives east of here. But he says he’s supposed to live on his own now, sort of like when a tiger comes of age it leaves the den.*
*... Holy cow. You’re saying this child was raised by an Azure Tiger? And he’s lived in this forest his whole life then? NNN.. what to do…* Leilatha begins explaining everything to the rest of the group, and they all show the same shocked expressions that she had. Truly the weirdest circumstances that came out of nowhere.
“Still though… We can’t just leave him here…” (Anna)
“Yeah, but he’s been living in the forest. Plus look at that Azure Tiger, it could probably kill any other monster in this forest even at its young age.” (Anderson)
“Not to mention he doesn’t have any real parents in the villages, you guys know what would happen if we took an orphan into Pendragonia and left him there..” (Amber)
“Truly would be a fate worse than death for the lad, I heavily argue against it.” (Muiredon)
“Maybe we could take him with us to the Adventurer’s Guild, surely they could find a good place for him.” (Leilatha)
“That might be the best bet, but you’re all forgetting something. What about the boy’s opinion? Shouldn’t we ask him if he wants to leave?” (Anderson)
“What are you saying Anderson? I don’t care if he was raised in the forest, there are far too many dangers in the wilderness. We’re not leaving him here.” (Anna)
“Let me see if I can convince him to come with us first.” (Leilatha) *Boris can you ask Nova if he would be willing to come with us? We’re going to take him to the Adventurer’s Guild… Tell him we’ll give him some delicious food if he comes with us.*
*Miss you really think he’s going to follow you for food? He’s not a house pet cat. I guess I’ll try.*
“My Miss would like to know if you would be willing to follow her, she says if you do she will give you delicious food if you agree.” (Haah, I wonder what she’ll come up with next to coerce him..)
“Ok! Sounds fun!”
“....”
*Miss he agreed.*
“Haha, Nova has agreed to come with us to the Adventurers Guild. Mission Success!” (Leilatha)
“Seriously? So fast? How on earth did you manage that?” (Anderson)
“Haha, it was easy. Amber, make sure you cook lots of food for Nova okay?” (Leilatha)
“Ooo, so the little tiger wants to eat my food. Hnnn, I can’t wait to feed him, ehehe.” (Amber)
*Grrrr* (Bahina)
….
In the dark forest, the group of adventures, Nova, and Bahina are gathered around a campfire in an area between the trees. Nova is sitting in Leilatha’s lap as Anna and Amber are sitting on each side of her. They tried to use a blanket as make shift clothes for him, but he wouldn't wear them, however they managed to convince him to at least use a bit of them as shorts.
“Here here Little Nova, open wide, aahhnn…” Amber holds up a piece of roasted meat in front of Nova, he quickly bites into it without hesitating. “Haha, so cute…”
On the other side of the campfire, Anderson is playing his guitar and singing ballads cheerily. Earlier when he began playing Nova was staring at him in amazement, clearly seeing this young kid enjoying his music so much made him a little bit happier that they decided to take him with them.
Muiredon on the other hand has begun his nightly drinking of dwarven ale that he carries with him every time they go to dungeons, but don't underestimate him, even if he was incredibly drunk he could still heal like it was nobodies business. Muiredon even tried to give Nova some ale, but he was quickly reprimanded by the girls.
Meanwhile Bahina is in the background eating raw meat from a deer she caught as she glares at the three women. She originally tried to protest, but ever since Nova tasted the cooked meat he’s been completely mesmerized by it.
(Hnn.. I want to feed Nova too.. damn these women corrupting his tastes.. )
Later that night when everyone was going to bed there was a fierce fight between the girls and Bahina, as the adventurers wanted to cuddle with Nova, but Bahina wasn't willing to let this fly. She felt she already gave up too much ground by letting them feed Nova, but to go so far as to cuddle with him in their sleep? Impossible. Never. Over her dead body.
In the end, Nova just ended up walking over to Bahina and falling asleep as he leaned against her fur. The girls had to give up, at the sight of him sleeping was too cute for them to disturb with their own selfish desires. Bahina was elated, thinking she had won a great battle.
....
In the trees far above where the adventurers are camping, a solitary figure is looking down at them. A figure with pure white fur with azure stripes; with flames burning strongly from as if the stripes are trying to free themselves from the white fur. The mother of the cubs stands, but no longer is she only ten feet tall. Right now, she is standing almost thirty feet in height, and her flames are blazing much fiercer than earlier.
As Nova is sleeping, he rustles a bit beneath Bahina’s embrace. His mother’s voice intrudes upon his dreams.. “Grow strong Nova, the world is much bigger than this forest, and unfortunately I can’t teach you the strength that your kind truly possesses. Keep Bahina at your side, she’ll be able to protect you until you’re strong enough.. I truly hope we meet again..”
Without even so much as a movement of wind or sound, she disappears from the forest, returning to the wilderness from where she came.
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