Now, this definitely wasn’t something Elliot expected to happen.

“Get out of the way, Mika.”

The three were still in the same room, but Elliot was no longer in the bed, dragged out by his legs, by the older sister in order to do something most likely unspeakable. Well, he didn’t really expect her to do something too harsh, but that had probably been what the little girl, er… Mika, was thinking. He had actually expected to be thrown out with only the fancy new peasant clothes on his back.

An improvement of his old self, honestly.

“No! I didn’t know you hurt him! He told me someone shot him! Was that Asweld!? Why would he do that!?”

Now he was hiding behind a little girl, as if that would make any difference.

“Move. Aside.”

The little girl flinched, but remained determined, hands outstretched to form a protective T. The elder sister’s eyes shifted into something more primal as she spoke, and Elliot was no longer sure he was gonna make it out alive.

“N-No! You’ll hurt him!”

Despite the shaky voice, Mika seemed stalwart, even as Elliot’s body forced itself to become smaller at the menacing tone of the older sister. Then he realized what an idiot he was being. He was gonna die either way, right? Might as well let the girl live a life for him.”

He let out a shaky sigh, standing up and placing a hand on the girl’s shoulder. “Don’t worry. I don’t think your sister’s gonna do anything.” Mika looked back at him in surprise, and only seemed more shocked when he moved her next to him. She tried struggling out of his grasp, but almost went off balance as he let go without any resistance.

“What!? But! She’ll hurt you! I know how she is! I thought she was finally getting better but she’s acting just like befo-”

And before the little girl managed to finish that loaded sentence something unexpexted happened. The older sister brought up her hand, as if to strike the girl.

That wasn't the unexpected part, however. See, usually Elliot’s dilapidated brain would have been either too stupid to realize what was happening, or too slow to do anything meaningful to get in the way. That was no insult on him, though. He was actually quite proud of his hesitance to do anything, since it gave him a chance to think twice and not act like a goddamn idiot in moments of crisis.

This was a matter between family, after all, and it had nothing to do with him or anyone else for that matter. Any other time he would have just backed up and let things happen, too slow and stupid to act on his instinct.

Unfortunately, miserably, stupidly…

This had not been one of those times.

“Eek!?”

The little girl let out a squeal as he pulled her girl into him, bringing a terrified arm up to protect Mika and, more importantly, himself. The moment after was silent, and eventually it gave Elliot enough courage to open his eyes again. He probably should have kept them closed. The older sister still had her arm outstretched, but she had a look of horror on her face, staring at her own hand as if she was the one being put under it.

That just left a silent trio, all in shock of the events unfolding. Leila was left pale while Mika seemed to only just realized where she had fallen, and Elliot himself was with closed eyes, sweating up a storm. If there was anything he could have said to fix this he could, but he wasn’t feeling anywhere near that brave at the moment.

The little girl seemed to understand what was happening at that point, unfortunately. She pushed Elliot away and ran away, causing him to lose balance and fall to the floor thanks to his shaky legs. He tried calling out to her, but she was already gone. She didn't make it out the door before making the atmosphere just a bit worse, unfortunately.

“I hate you, Leila!”

The little girl's shout rang around the room, filling it with a brief noise before the deafening silence took over again. Then it was just him, and the woman who had shoved a spear into his throat. He could almost swear the arrow wound in his arm hurt more in response. If any other person was put in this situation, they'd probably have fainted on the spot. Elliot's brain wasn't smart enough for that, though. Instead he-

“Fast little bugger, isn’t she?”

“...”

Did that. What the hell did he just say?

How a human being could regret a set of words escaping their mouth so quickly baffled him. In a vain attempt to protect himself, Elliot shot up in the air and slammed into a corner, arms covering his vital organs. “Seriously, I don’t think it’s your fault. The little girl’s way too trusting, I know that. But also I wasn’t gonna do anything bad I swear, um…” He was blabbering, glancing back to the window every four seconds like a caged fox, but…

The sister didn’t really seem to care.

Her eyes were blank, and she was looking at her hand with almost disgust. He didn’t really understand why, honestly. Siblings always fought in his memories. The amount of times he had to hide away as his sister tried chasing him down for ‘dress-up time’ still gave him nightmares occasionally. It must have been something else, and there was no way in hell Elliot was skilled enough to unpack it. She still seemed to have the dead fish eyes, so he turned towards the door and carefully made his-

“You.”

His stance lowered and he broke into a graceful dash, using his own arms as propellants to push himself forward. Somehow the woman teleported next to him, though, because the cuff of one of his sleeves was grabbed before he even got any actual wind in his sails.

That, and the fact that she seemed to not even budge when he was yanked back like a dog on a chain, made him think that there really was no winning this fight.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“...Where are you going.”

The voice was dead, and for a second he thought about how foxes bit their legs off when they became stuck in bear traps…

Nah, not yet.

“I-I just thought you needed some space. You know? Everyone deserves a bit of alone time and-”

His arm was squeezed at the wrist, just hard enough to feel something bend. Something that really shouldn’t. He turned to her in pain, and kneeled when the pain became too much to ignore. “O-or I could stay with you! Everyone deserves a shoulder to cry o- Gah! I get it! Oh, fuck that hurts, please let me go!” Elliot was on his feet at this point, cursing every foul word his mind could think of, as hard as he possibly could. He promised that he’d learn to shut up at some point, because this situation had only gotten worse.

“You’re going to apologize with me. You’re going to tell her I saved you.”

He nodded immediately, barely even comprehending what she said as he was pulled along. They exited the small wooden cottage, and for the first time ever Elliot finally saw what old timey civilization looked like-

Wait, what the hell?

“Where are we!? Why are there only trees!? Weren’t you with a bunch of people a moment ago!? Ah, goddamnit I just wanted a shower- gah! Stop doing that!” Elliot cursed as the sister twisted his arm again, causing a jolt of pain to race through him. He hadn’t been too wary of the situation, since he had assumed they’d been inside a town, and that he could have run away immediately…

Now? He was still in the middle of the woods, only now he had no compass or map to lead the way for him. He was screwed, in every single way possible…

Least he could do was get into this woman’s good side, then.

His pained, scared face tried to calm itself, his eyes taking on a gentler tone. “Hey, uh… The forest is dangerous, so we might need to hurry up if we want to help your sister. I’m not saying we should split up or anything, but we could cover more ground if you let me go. At least, I won’t be dragging you down. How about it?” She looked at him for a second, and he almost regretted speaking until she finally opened her mouth.

“We’re going to look for her. The forest might not be filled with monsters, but there are still things a girl like Mika cannot handle alone… You are right.” She let go of his arm, surprisingly, and he rubbed it tenderly as she kept walking. “Do not attempt an escape. I cannot guarantee your safety otherwise.” He nodded. The words were still cold, but there was worry in them. He didn’t know if it was for her sister, or whether it was because she was unsure he would betray her, but…

At least he could tell she was human for it.

He hurried to chase up to her, scanning the forest for any sign of movement.

“Don’t worry. I’ll stay near you. It's not like I have any better chance out there than your sis, haha… Ah, sorry.”

Seriously, what kind of moron was he?

He noticed her flinch at his words, and decided to shut the hell up finally. The rest of the day went by searching for Mika, Leila screaming her name to try and call her back. She obviously didn’t want to return, though, so instead Elliot scoured the area to see if anything moved when the name was called, hoping to find the little brat hiding in a bush somewhere.

Nothing, even after the skylight started turning orange.

The entire time, he had been having to deal with a slowly intensifying, panicked version of the damn sister.

“Mika! Mika!? Please! I’m sorry! I’m so sorry! Please come back! Mika!”

Her voice was slowly going hoarse, and it was wavering, but it was still as loud as it had been since the beginning. She seemed to be trying hard not to cry, though he could tell from her jerky movements that she was starting to suspect the worst… Even in this frazzled state, however, she was much faster than him, and he had to force his breathless self to his limit to catch up.

He’d had enough of that.

Groaning, he let himself stop as the girl seemed to take no notice of his separation. Letting his lungs refill, he thought of a better idea. He put an arm out, and placed his other to his side. Just like he thought, the book materialized from black smoke. He looked at the screaming sister in the distance cautiously, and sighed in relief when he realized she was already far out of sight. It meant he could use the magic freely. The book opened to the only page with any words, and he smiled at what was inside.

“Summon fiend” (3/5) (F-rank)

Mint-(Goblin) (F-rank)

Pepper-(Red Goblin) (F-rank)

Avelyn-(Harpy) (E-rank)

+6 intelligence

+2 agility

Avelyn. She also got her name in the book. That was nice… he was also relieved that he had been able to save the three. If any had been killed while he’d been knocked out it would have been an absolute nightmare to go and retrieve their bodies. Honestly, despite the wound in his arm, things could have been a lot worse.

Well, not too much worse.

“Summon fiend, Avelyn.”

Unlike the goblins, Avelyn almost seemed to manifest from the air, green wisps of light surrounding her as she swooped right past him, landing on the ground while looking everywhere in curiosity. “Where? Place? Where?” She hopped on one leg, landing on a tree and using her claws to hang on. Her eyes met his eventually, and a giant smile appeared on her face.

“Boss!”

She bolted at him, and he brought up his arms to protect his valuable face… Wait, boss? The moment caught him off guard, and it was just enough for the light monster to tackle him to the ground, wrapping her wings around him in a rather soft and luxurious feeling hug. He was still too caught up in what she said to push her away, however.

Hehe… Boss.

That sounded nice…

Ah, wait!

He smacked her on the head, earning a pained chirp from her as she went back. “Not right now, Avvy. There’s a little girl out there and I think she’s in trouble! We need to help her! Do you think you can fly around and- What the hell are you doing?”

Without warning, the dumb bird started sniffing him, pressing her face against his chest as she stepped on his legs. This was really weird, considering she looked like a girl from the waist up. At least, she did in the face. “Ok, get the hell away from me. We’ll talk about personal boundaries as soon as we find a...” The talons in one of her legs squeezed a bit too tightly on his thigh, and he almost had a heart attack as he realized she was actually pretty strong herself. Could he fight her off if he tried? Probably not…

She came closer, this time using one of her talons to pull the cuff of his shirt, sniffing it like if she was checking if she could wear it or not… Elliot almost decided on using Capture fiend again until she jumped off. She grinned and pointed in a direction, the same one the older sister had run off to.

“There!”

Then Avelyn’s face scrunched up, and she pointed another direction, to the left of where the terrifying woman went. “...No! There! Um… No… Yes?” She looked back at him with a questioning look, as if this had all been a game and he was gonna congratulate her when she got it right.

Well…

He jumped back up and grabbed the harpy’s head, shaking it left and right like you would when playing with a pet dog. The harpy made a dizzying yelp, but he was too happy to stop. “Good job, you dumb bird! Now we know where she’s gone. I’m giving you a reward when we get back. Some seeds or something!”

"Aaaahh!!! Yay!"

He chuckled as the harpy started flapping her wings as she sat, suddenly a lot more happy about being shaken around now that she realized it was actually praise. “Avelyn won! Hahaha!”

He grinned, wondering why the hell he didn’t just run away from that dumb sister sooner. He pointed at the direction Avelyn pointed to, and began his search.

For real this time.