The darkness of the tunnel makes for excellent passtime, a distant brightness, a source of warmth that I find myself gently basking in…
“How does all of this even work? I know you’re not that great at using magic from your own “testimony” but you’re still capable of manipulating this massive amount of mana on a whim it’s absurd!”
Further from the bottom, no moisture is present to dampen either the stone beneath my side, or my mood which it would surely otherwise affect…
“And I still want to know how that “Wildflame” was created! You told me what it is but not how it works or how it was made or how it’s fueled-”
I could just close my eyes, take this gentle moment into an eternity of bliss known only to dreams…
“Hello? Helllllooooooo? Ethan said that you’d answer my questions earlier! I stayed quiet all that time so that you’d answer what I wanted to hear! Jasper? Jasper? Hello? Come on come on come on come on come on-”
“WOULD YOU CEASE THAT INCESSANT YAPPING!?”
“Well you’re not answering anything!”
“Why certainly,” my fangs glint in the subtle darkness of the tunnel, bared out to the unfathomably ANNOYING little creature hopping around me. “Because I’m just SO incentivized to say anything to you! All that will do is make you even MORE curious about it! You want to know about The Blessing, I give you a bit of insight, you want to know about Wildflame, you want to know about how The Blessing is manipulated, you want to know how Phantoms are maintained-I, DO, NOT, WANT, TO, TELL, YOU! One ~snippet~ of knowledge, leads you into a TIRADE. I don’t want to listen to that, do you UNDERSTAND that? HM? Do you need to ask me a half dozen questions AS TO THE GENUINITY of how ANNOYED I am???”
If I’d been given any other order by that man I have no doubt I’d have long since left this baffling creature to ROT in this cavern, but no, I’ve been tasked with watching her, and what a TASK it is!
“Well that’s kind of rude.”
“Perhaps it is! All the more reason you shouldn’t speak to me if you find me rude, yes? Yes, right. Go make your own, educated guesses, thank you please, and come back to me when you have something other than WORD VOMIT to ask!”
“So you’re saying you don’t mind questions in general?”
…Okay, perhaps I must take a moment, to clear my head? A temper must be wrought under control, it’s just so very difficult as I am…
Sucking in a long, heaving breath, I choose my next words as carefully as I can m-
“Jasper?”
“NO. Not… exactly, you could say I don’t mind questions by technicality. But, do you know what I enjoy?”
“Actually no I don’t,” she nods to herself enthusiastically, as if that were some grand discovery. “Wanna tell me?”
Oh… GRACIOUSLY.
“I, very much, enjoy quiet. I enjoy those little moments where I needn’t concern myself with the outside world, wherein there’s a single moment amidst the storm that I simply don’t need to care about. I would go so far as to say, I love my peace and quiet. And as far as places go, this is such… a quiet place. It is a moment, wherein it should be so easy to find that silence that I adore. But, you have done your utmost, to RUIN this for me. And I’m, frankly, so tired of it. I’m so, so sick and tired of you.”
“Uhhhh…”
“If not, for Ethan, I’d have torn you…” Deep breaths, curl in, curl out.
Almost drawing blood, my claws retract at the last moment, every fiber of my being restrained so as to not explode in vicious fashion.
“...To bits, but, that’s not proper either way. I recognize I’m perhaps being the slightest bit unfair to you, curiosity is usually a good thing, a great trait to display, and perhaps on occasion, I’d love to indulge you. But, right, now?”
“Yes?”
“I need you… to shut, the fuck, up. So, I will make you an offer. If you can hold your tongue, for a mere… twenty minutes, the time it should take for Ethan to return, I will answer three questions without retribution. Use this time, to finish your observations, and I will do my best to answer whatever questions arise in that time. Is that, acceptable?”
“Okay! You promise three answers.”
“Yes,” I nod slowly, once, then twice. “Three. Three answers to any questions you may ask me, and I will do my utmost to tell you what I know. I will not engage you in a debate, I will not be an academic study partner in a topic of which I am already a master, I will answer three questions. Do you understand?”
“Definitely!”
“Excellent. Now, in this time… all I ask, is that you do not speak to me. Allow me, to do nothing. I do not care if you blast a hole in a wall, attempt to manipulate The Blessing, as long as you do not speak to me, or directly affect me, I don’t care. Have fun.”
“Okay!”
Shuddering out a breath, I allow my head to settle back on the ground, having had it rising unconsciously throughout my fit of rage. Among having my quiet shattered, I don’t particularly enjoy being angry, but I simply can’t help it. My temper was not always on such a fuse, but…
In, and out…
As agreed, she’s finally stopped. She of course hasn’t stopped fluttering about the entire vicinity, lights blipping into existence and snuffing themselves out as she goes, but, she does not attempt to speak to me, she keeps her distance, not a single mote of warmth from the flames against my fur.
And for the first time since we began our trek back to the surface, I can finally push that deep, simmering pool of rage where it belongs.
Drip…
Past the gates, locked with chain and key.
Drop…
The heat of it all insulated through the walls of my mind.
Drip…
Until all that remains…
Drop…
Is the vast emptiness of my mind, only puddles of what came before remaining, slowly bleeding away into the vast reserves beneath the calm desert.
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Drip…
Drop…
Drip…
Drop…
And eventually, even that bleeds away, leaving me with only the gentle rising and falling of my own breathing. The flood locked far and away behind the gates.
…
Click…
With such a calm, even the reverberations through the walls of the tunnel are felt, my perception heightened to degrees far above the norm.
Clack…
Screech hops from stone to stone, sending minor vibrations throughout the vicinity. It is an acceptable divergence from silence, the movements almost rhythmic. Despite her obsessions, the girl is a fascinating thing.
Unlike myself, my compatriots, she was not born with the presence of mind that is befitting her current status. She… is a monster, genuine in body and mind. Yet despite that, here she stands. Unrefined, yet shining irregardless. No doubt she would be accepted into the ranks of any scholarly tower with her keen mind, but she instead found her way into the hands of a monster tamer.
Brutish, an unrefined type, often ruling through strength and fear. Yet, just as unlikely as the circumstances of her being, an odd type she found herself under. I do not know if I should consider her lucky or not…
Or perhaps I should consider her lucky, that she should even exist? A common creature, standing amongst others, not as a beast of burden, but as an equal, nae, perhaps superior? How does it feel, to need not question your own existence? To be born as what you are, and to be okay with it? A harmony of body and soul? Perhaps that was once a question I knew the answer to, but I suppose the answer eludes me now…
Tip…
My body hitches at the irregular sensation, drawing my attention outwards to the wider world.
Tap…
Screech remains blissfully unaware, eyes drawn to everything but the tension winding its way through my body.
Tip. Tip. Tip. Tip.
My perception of the vibrations quickly melts away, replaced with my eyes in an instant. Shadows blot out the gentle light streaming into the cavern.
“Remain still.”
“Huh?”
Lunging forward, my jaws wrap around Screech, the recipient letting out a quiet chirp of surprise. Of course I don’t bite down, that’d be rather antithetical, but I do immediately start sprinting towards the figures ahead.
Screech squirms for a moment, surely just out of shock. And I cannot blame her. She lacks the skills and the stats to recognize the situation within the blink of an eye, but I do not. I must take responsibility, to follow the orders left to me in this instant.
“Look alive!”
I can’t be sure, lacking the proper skills, but I’m fairly sure an attack of some sort is being prepared before my very eyes, an individual robed in black and grey raising a staff in my direction, but I do not relent for a moment.
Accelerating as quickly as I can, I break to the left as Screech finally stops struggling, likely recognizing the magical concentration no doubt aimed in our general direction.
“What’s-”
Running up the side of the wall, I [Hunter’s Pursuit] with the bird in my jaws in tow three times in quick succession, phasing through massive pikes of earth that formed moments prior, piercing and blockading the area I’d been in that instant ago. Screech shudders violently in the aftermath, but I pay no heed to it, pushing with my hind legs with as much force as I can muster, launching myself off the head of the woman that I had placed myself behind.
Activating [Hunter’s Mark] at the same time, I cave her head in with-65!!-extreme force. Certainly not a fatal blow, but enough to leave her and her party disoriented in the aftermath, as well as enough to propel me forwards with ever greater force.
Burning the last of my MP, I [Hunter’s Pursuit] downwards, landing on the ground and kicking off with as much force as I can muster once more, and again, and again, carrying the momentum of it all as seamlessly as I can as I pierce through, into the early morning sun.
“Who the heck are they!?”
“Adventurers, likely. I wouldn’t be surprised if a bounty was placed upon Ethan’s head for our actions in the town. It was my fault, I should’ve warned him ahead of time, but I did not realize in that moment what was happening until it was far too late. I noticed a lightly garbed man, likely a tracker or rogue of some sort, it would not surprise me if they found their way here through such means. Fortunately, the rest of the Huntsmen should be fine, the veil they’ve established should protect them from any further tracking.”
“I-what???”
“Now’s not the time. Change shape, we should take to the sky to avoid them.”
“Aren’t we already super far away though?”
They’re not wrong, I’m running as fast as I can, but what they do not realize-
Wham!
An arrow plants itself in the ground near us, buried half a foot deep into the dirt.
“Skills and stats do not lie, we are not on top of the food chain, we must escape it entirely. They will still be able to track us, but once Ethan returns [Recall] should take us safely away after we've led them off. Transform, now! You are capable, are you not!?”
“Okay! But does this mean you can answer my questions while we’re fl-”
“NOW IS NOT THE TIME!”
—
“So you think we’re being ambushed by adventurers," I nod to myself as I keep sprinting, grabbing onto a protruding rock and swinging myself around the bend in the path.
“Mhm.”
“Hmm… alright Jasper, I’ll take your word for it. So, I just keep on keeping on then? Or should Screech get back to flying? They have tracking, right? So it'd probably be better to take to the skies, right?”
“Mm.”
"Get a little distance first? Alright, seems legit, we SHMOVE!"
“So can you answer my questions nnnnnnow?”
“Mmmmmmmmm………”