Clearing outside of the Old Guild House

"So can I get your name yet, you little shit?" Blake asked, sitting on a stump while staring at the kid he found in his ne-uhmm old house.

Said boy was tied up and made to kneel in front of Blake with the sun slowly setting in the background. "..." The kid just stayed quietly at Blake and turned away. "AH!" But looking at him from the left was Gram.

"My Alpha asked you a question, so answer him!" Gram growled baring his fangs at the boy, making him move a little to the right.

"Huh!?" But on that side was Nash for some reason looking down at the boy and stomped his hooves into the ground to leave a print of it. "Ugh!"

"Will the three of you kindly leave the poor young boy alone." Risabeel came up and pulled the boy away from Blake, Gram and Nash. "There is no need for any of this."

"Huh?" Blake looked at her, confused for a moment then held up a hand. "Why though? This kid, right here, was living in a house that although abandoned for years wasn't his. When found out, he threw a drumstick at me, stepped on me, and threw a rock at me then ran off while laughing his head off half the time..." He paused to look at the kid who had a smirk on his face from hearing that. "...And the other half, he was running scared like a baby."

"..." The boy's smirk was wiped off his face and went into a staring contest with Blake. "Just leave me alone old man!"

"OLD MAN?! Fuck you, kid! I'm 17!" Blake yelled, waving a fist in the air, but Risabeel moved back with the boy out his reach. "Hey!"

"Sir Blake, hold your fist, for I shall not allow you to harm this child." Risabeel disagreed with Blake's attempt at beating the boy. "And the same goes for the two of you." She looked at Gram and Nash, making them stop and looked like they weren't doing a thing.

Blake sighed and sat back down on his stump, watching as the boy stuck his tongue out and pushed his head up into Risabeel's chest. "...Fine, I'll not beat the shit out of him...yet, but could you at least get him to talk so we can find somewhere to drop him off."

"I shall try." Risabeel nodded then moved in front of the boy and leaned down to his height. "Please, young child, I know that you may be afraid of my friends, but fear not, they shall not harm you if you simply speak to us..." She paused to pull down her hood since it was getting in her way. "...now, would you tell me your name?"

"Eh?" The boy's eyes went to Risabeel's jet black horns. "D-D-D-D-DE-!" His words were caught in his throat, and he slowly stepped away from Risabeel. "Ah!" He jumped back when she tried reaching out to him.

"Yep, she's a Demon, kid," Blake smirked as the boy lost some of his hope. "Why else do you think I listen to her, she's got my soul in her hands, and you might be next! Haha!" He crept forward at the boy.

"Sir Blake! Please! Stop that at once!" Risabeel harshly objected with Blake as her cheeks puffed out and turned red then Vas appeared on top of her head from out of nowhere to croak. "Vas! Not you as well!"

"Ah! Lord Vas! Her familiar has appeared to take the soul of his master's next slave!" Blake gasped and even jumped behind a tree when Vas caught a fly. "Look at him, pure..." He waited for Vas to croak again which he did. "...EVIL!"

"Please, stop!" Risabeel whimpered when Nash and Gram followed along with Blake as they found themselves behind some trees as well in fear of the mighty Vas, who let out a yet another low croak.

"Forgive us! Oh, frog king of the deep!" Blake and Gram yelled while Nash let air pass slowly through his lips.

"..." At this point, the boy was able to tell that they were all playing around with him, but it still scared him that a Demon was standing right there in front of him. "What did I get myself into? An Ala, a Dragon, a Greater Wolf, and a Demon? How is this guy okay with this?" He thought as he watched Blake continuing to tease Risabeel.

"Hmm?" Blake stopped messing with Risabeel to look back at the boy and smiled his way. "Having fun yet?"

"Huh?" He was surprised and didn't know what to do at first, then look away. "Old man!"

"What was that!?" Blake dropped his act and was about to go after this kid, but Risabeel got in front of him again. "Just one punch, Risabeel! Just one!"

"I shall not." Risabeel insisted back at Blake.

Then Mari appeared out of the trees to get both Blake's and oddly the boy's attention. "Hey, Blake! I am almost done with the food, and I wanted you to taste it!" She yelled while pulling at Blake's arms with him willingly going with her. "Hmm?" But she looked over at the boy since he was staring at her this whole time. "...Hi, I'm Marius, but I like Mari better."

"Hi, I'm Nobel, nice to meet you, Mari." The boy answered without a hint of lying or hesitation in his voice while speaking to Mari.

"Oh?" Was all Mari said then went back to pulling on Blake to follow her, but he and everyone else were looking at Nobel's sudden willingness to speak.

"Yeah? Coming with you?" Blake went along with Mari and watched Nobel's head swing in Mari's direction while they walked off. "What was that?" He thought as Mari dragged him back to the cart where a pot was under a campfire with Saffire and Baba sitting next to it.

"~Oh~ Hubby, are you done talking to that little cutie," Baba asked as she was floating over to Blake.

"Can't really call it 'talking' since the only thing I've gotten out of him was his name, and that was only because of Mari," Blake answered still trying to figure out why that was. "Wonder why? Any ideas?"

"I might have an answer...but I'd need to see for myself." Baba shifted her eyes from Blake to Mari with a small smile on her face. "Hehe."

"Hey, Granny! Knock it off!" Mari spat at Baba then pulled Blake over to the pot. "Hold on!" She stirred it a little then brought up the spoon to taste. "Hmm? You try it, Blake!" She held the spoon up to Blake.

"Mind telling me what it is first?" Blake asked, looking at the mostly white and creamy liquid with some chunks of...somethings in it. "Still smells great!" He thought after taking a whiff of it.

"It's potato soup, now try it! Try it! Try it!" Mari cheered loudly, even jumping up at Blake.

"Kay, kay, fine!" Blake grabbed the spoon before Mari hit him with it and took a taste...then another...and another...few more...then he just japed the spoon in his mouth. "Mmm! Not bad! It's great." As he talked, the spoon moved up and down in his mouth, and he thought about having more.

"Hey! Get that out of your mouth! Scaleless!" Saffire yelled at Blake and ripped the spoon out of his mouth. "This is for stirring and serving not for stuffing it in your face hole like a pig!" She added, sounding oddly motherly at the moment and looked the part since she was back in clothes thanks to Baba keeping extras on hand.

"~Oh~ What's the matter, Hot-head?" Baba asked, floating in between Blake and Saffire then with a wave of her finger she got the spoon out of the Dragon's hand. "Hubby's spit should add a bit of taste to it, don't you think so, Mari?" She asked with the spoon floating over Mari's face.

"Blake's spit..." Mari muttered while staring at the spoon.

"No," Blake said in a stone cold tone and with the quickness of an arrow, he grabbed the spoon out of the air then wiped it on his shirt. "There, it's clean, happy?" He asked, looking at Saffire but she just blew a puff of smoke at him. "...Lovely, I'll go get the others, and you guys can get the bowls ready." He tossed the spoon back into the pot and went back to Risabeel and the others, with Risabeel still trying to get anything out of Nobel. "Hey, guys, soup's on tonight,"

Gram swung his head at Blake after hearing him. "No meat?" And with a shake of his Alpha's head, he stood up. "It'll have to do since I haven't found a good hunting spot yet..." He walked off towards the cart a little. "..." But turned to Nash on the way. "...or I could eat you?"

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"!" The horse blew air from his nose into Gram's face.

"...Yeah, I was joking, right?" Grma muttered with a grin then the two walked off.

"Ah yes, right away, Sir Blake," Risabeel said then tried to get the ropes on Nobel undone. "Could you aid me in this knot, it is quite hard."

"Wha?" Blake just looked at Risabeel a little confused. "You want me to untie him and give him food?" Risabeel nodded after Blake asked that and he laughed a little. "Hah, next, you'll say you want him to sleep with us!"

"Well, with both Sir Lutwig and Sir Nathan being gone, I am sure there must be some space unoccupied, yes?" Risabeel mused with an innocent look on her face.

"Hell no! Not after this kid threw a drumstick at me! Ran over my face! And hit me in the head with some weird rock hard cookie!" Blake yelled at Nobel rather than Risabeel and went into a stare down with the boy.

"It's called a rock cake, old man!" Nobel shot back at Blake.

"I don't care what they are! They fucking hurt! And enough with the old man, you little shit!" Blake moved in on Nobel to hold him by his collar and force the boy to look him in the eyes. "Or should I just roll with it and teach you some manners as an 'old man' should, huh!?" He warned and gave Nobel a little shaking making him dizzy. "Huh?" While Blake was doing that he suddenly got the feeling that he was slowly falling into blackness and looked at Risabeel. "Uh?" When he did, she had on her stern look on; arms crossed, lips in a small line and eyes glared. "..." Which got Blake to let go of Nobel and back up a little with the tied up boy doing the same. "Now Ris-!"

"Quiet..." Risabeel commanded with the might of a queen and kept up a judgmental gaze on Blake, making him nod. "...now then I can understand the reason for your treatment of the young lad Nobel, due to the way he acted upon our first encounter with him, but that does not give any right to you for viewing him as a lawbreaker of the highest order. Not only did you tie him up and interrogate him, but you also wish to leave him without a meal nor a place to rest which you ripped from him not too long ago," She lectured Blake, and with each of her words, some of her dark mana leaked.

"Ok! Ok! I get it! Just lower the Demonic levels, please!" Blake backed up even further with his hands up in the air then he looked at Nobel. "...Alright, kid, want some soup? A cake? You can have my hammock if you want, hahaha! See we're getting along just fine! Risabeel!" He nodded like he was a bobblehead with a hand hitting Nobel's back a few times.

"Haha!" Nobel sneakered as Blake was acting like a scared baby under Risabeel, but then he felt the same falling into blackness thing Blake got. "Uh?"

"As for you, young lad Nobel..." Risabeel set her gaze on Nobel, making him sink under her. "...do not take any of what I have done for you as a sign that I am on your side. Understand that you are just some child that I am taking pity on and I do not know how you came to your current situation...so if it comes to pass that you deserve it then I shall not be the kindest of people." Now even Vas was giving Nobel a stern look. "Understand?"

"Yes, ma'am!" Nobel nodded just like Blake did then looked up at him and whispered. "Can we go over there now?"

"Sure and don't look her or the frog in the eyes..." Blake whispered back as they got out of there as fast as they could and headed back to the others.

"..." All of whom were done getting their soup, but all of them gave Blake, and Nobel confused looks as they looked like they were forcing themselves to get along while Risabeel was walking behind them with a cheery look on her face.

"What's with all of you?" Saffire asked with a raised brow at the three while she was pouring some soup into a bowl with two others bowls on the same hand.

"Nothing," Blake answered in a low tone then grabbed the bowl but the Dragon didn't let go. "Thank you for the food." He muttered with a small smile and took his food.

"Ahem, Sir Blake?" Risabeel got Blake's attention while he was eating on a stump next to Gram who was licking out of a bowl and Nash was chewing on an apple.

"Yea?" Blake looked up at Risabeel, and she motioned over to Nobel still tied up and forced to sit on the ground with two bowls in her hands. "I will let him eat with us and sleep with us, but there's no way I'm untieing him," Blake groaned and went back to his soup until Risabeel gave him her stern look again. "Ugh! But I can feed him!"

"Like hell! I don't want anything in your hands coming anywhere near my mouth!" Nobel yelled with his head turned away from Blake, then Risabeel came up next to him. "N-n-not you either! You're scary!" He shuttered, jumping away from her as best he could, leaving the Demon visually hurt.

"Huh? Anyone else?" Blake shrugged and looked at the others; Gram and Nash weren't options, Saffire snarled at him for looking at her, Baba was up in a tree looking at Blake lovely, which left Mari, who wasn't around oddly enough. "Where's Mari?" He asked surprised that she wasn't sticking around him at the moment. "Oh?" Then he saw her come out of the cart. "Hey, Mari, mind feeding the kid if you're done eating."

"Oh?" Mari put a finger to her lips to think a little with a more cutesy look on her face than usual. "Hmm!" Before nodding to Blake and walked over to Nobel while taking a bowl from Risabeel. "Ahh!" She loudly cheered, holding up a spoon for Nobel that he happily ate from.

"Hmm?" Blake eyed them a little because he found it a little weird that Mari was treating Nobel so nicely. "Huh?" While he was watching them, he noticed a small bit of blue slime dripping from Mari's(?) feet. "Hehe!" He chuckled, making Nobel looked over at him.

"What are you laughing at, old man?" Nobel spat at Blake for staring at him like a creep. "Huh?!" But then his eyes went wide when another Mari stepped out of the cart holding up a small freshly baked cake partly wrapped in some cloth. "Wait? You have a twin?!" He grasped, wildly switching between the two Maris.

"Hmm?" The second Mari looked at Nobel as she went over to Blake. "No, that's my pet, Slime Os. I asked it to change into me to help with this cake!" She corrected him while handing the cake to Blake. "Here!"

"Wait? Pet Slime...?" Nobel slowly turned to Os and to his horror it was morphing back to a blob of slime. "Ah!" Worse yet it turned red and latched onto his legs. "What is it doing!?" He tried wiggling out of Os' hold, but that only helped it get up to his stomach. "HELP!" He screamed as he threw himself on the ground, trying to crawl away, but Os was working its way up to his shoulders.

"Hey, this is pretty good, nice job, Mari!" Blake praised Mari for the cake which happened to be filled with some jam.

"Thanks!" Mari cheered as she jumped into Blake's side, nuzzling up on him. "The jam's from those berries I got back in that forest where we met Rena and Lu, and Os' is really helpful when it's not a Slime."

"HELP!" Nobel cried again with Os starting to take up his face.

"Hey, why does Scaleless get extra food?" Saffire growled at Blake and Mari, granted she was looking more at the cake than the two of them.

"I didn't take you for a sweet tooth, Hot-head?" Baba asked from her tree, making Saffire turned her fiery gaze to her. "~Oh~ scary!"

"Back off, Tits Mcgee, I only make treats for Blake!" Mari yelled at Saffire, switching out of cute sister mode for a second. "And the same goes for you too, granny!"

"Unless it's a charming young man, I don't like sweets," Baba answered with a shrug unfazed by Mari's name calling, unlike Saffire who was mumbling to herself in sadness.

"MMH! HMM!" While Nobel at this point was entirely covered by Os and looked like a giant red worm as he wiggled on the ground wildly, oddly enough Os didn't get on his hat which was left perfectly fine on Nobel's head.

"Seriously, soup? Sweets?" Don't we have anything meaty around here?" Gram asked done with his soup even licking his bowl clean then looked at Nash who blew air at him. "Please, you're useful to my Alpha...but, it's still tempting...haha."

"Is everyone finish with their food?" Risabeel asked as she went around picking up the bowls from the others even the one Nobel knocked over while he was wiggling around.

"I think so," Blake answered, handing his bowl to Risabeel then held the last bit of his cake out of Saffire but pulled it away when she reached for it. "Unless you don't want my spit on this too?" He teased a little then held it back out. "...Or do you?"

"Shut it, or you burn!" Saffire snarled but less angry than usual and snatched the jam cake from Blake before he could pull it away again. "...Thanks." She whispered as she savored the taste. "Mmmm!"

"You're welcome..." Blake said, leaning back a little then got up since Nobel was still screaming as loud as he could from under Os' hold and walked over to the pot to pick up a bucket of water. "Welp, I should make sure Os doesn't suck him dry," He muttered as he threw the water on Nobel causing Os to slip right off him.

"Aa-a-h, I-I-I feel so violated..." Nobel groaned as if the life had almost been suck out of him, along with something else far more personal.

"Yep, Os does that," Blake muttered after hitting Nobel with some more water just in case and cause he felt like it. "At least you don't have to take a bath since Os cleans up anything."

"Ooo?" Os turned to Mari while changing its color to yellow and was doing its whole bubble and wiggle thing to talk.

"Os says he tastes like bread for some reason." Mari translated what it told her to Blake.

"And he smells like it too," Gram added after going up to Nobel and sniffed him. "Yep, bread."

"Hmm?" Blake thought about something as he looked at Nobel recovering from his 'personal' time with Os. "Okay, I'm calling you Bread from now on!" He suddenly declared after he was done thinking. "What do you guys say?" He turned to the other for their input.

"Huh? I have a name, you know?" Nobel asked with a puzzled look on his face as if Blake was an idiot.

"You're the boss, so I'll go with it, now if you would let me..." Gram agreed with Blake then took off into the woods for a nighttime run.

Baba floated over to Nobel and looked him up and down a little. "Hmm? Bread seems a bit too hard for such a little guy. I'll go with Muffin if that's okay, Hubby?" She cooed then moved over to the cart. "I'll be waiting for you inside..." She sent a gust of wind shaped like a heart Blake's way.

Which was lit on fire by Saffire blowing on it. "Call him whatever you want, at least it's not one of your human names they all sound the same to me." She growled then went after Baba with Blake raising an eyebrow at her. "Just making sure she doesn't sneak into your hammock again."

"Sir Blake, I commend you for your playfulness, but that name is rather..." Risabeel started but trailed off afterward, letting it a hang in the air.

"Ture, but..." Blake was going to answer her, then turned to Nobel. "...Are you ever going to call me, Blake?"

"Only if you fix your face, old man!" Nobel answered with his tongue stuck out.

"Bread." Blake turned back to Risabeel while pointing at Nobel with both hands.

"Then, I shall refer to him as Lad Nobel if you will allow me to." Risabeel decided on what to call Nobel then made her way to the cart.

"What about you, baby sis?" Blake asked Mari and smirked when Nobel's eyes widen a little. "Yep, she's my little sister, Bread."

"I like it." Mari nodded with her fists held up.

"Then call me, Bread." Bread went right along with Mari despite how much he hated that nickname, and his cheeks got red when she smiled at him.

"Good! Now let's sleep!" Blake declared, grabbing both Mari and Bread in each of his arms one giggling while the other groaned. "I need to hit up that town over there for supplies if I'm even going to think about fixing that Guild House." He muttered as he marched over to the cart and had Mari open the door for him then had Nash lightly kick it shut.

Chapter End