It had been three weeks since Agnès joined them, and she has been immensely helpful in keeping the health of the troops and taking Gwen as a study buddy of sorts. When she was not helping around with her herbs, she was bonding with Luna over clothes.
Rosy was also very helpful, using her earth magic to increase the defense of the walls, and providing a transport service for the ferrying of people and resources.
The forest wolf named Bell also helped out by pointing out wild vegetables and fruits, as well as good places to hunt. Though she was a bit of a stickler of which animals they could and couldn’t cull. It also turned out that forest wolves were more like forest nymphs, or vice versa. Nymphs who decided to take on a wolfish form in the vampire lands to keep a low profile.
The rabbit kobold, who Van named Sena, brought her small tribe of about thirty to join his camp, including a few gem bunnies and horned rabbits. Which was nice… but he wasn’t sure if they would be very helpful considering their size… but it turned out he was wrong, for they made for great scouts and gatherers, and didn’t seem to mind scouting and sometimes bringing back some regular rabbits they hunted to help feed to camp. And though he never saw them eat any of the regular rabbits, he did feel it was weird that they were so okay with killing and letting others eat creatures that were so similar to them…
Though perhaps it wasn’t that hard, Rosy didn’t mind others eating bears, or Bell mind others eating wolves. It could be that from their point of view, the animals they hunted and ate were not even the same species as themselves, so it didn’t matter. Which made Van wonder if he saw a human being eaten by a monster, would he really care? Technically he also could drink from humans till their death, in a way, that was also kind of like eating them… right?
He shook his head, driving the strange thoughts away as he focused on the task in front of him, ordering the imps about and telling them what they can do to help out. Which was something of a morning task of his, making sure everything and everyone was properly doing their jobs before he went into the tent to start his day of ranking up fairies.
Though if he had to be honest, he would prefer being distracted by his job and stray thoughts than falling back onto his worries about his wife. Who had left again to explore the forest with Rosy again to hunt down monsters as she willed. Sometimes staying out for several days at a time, making him pace with concern for her well-being.
It was such another one of those days where Luna decided to stay out for an extra day without telling anyone. And while Van trusted her to return, he still couldn’t help himself fear for the worst without him there by her side.
“Van, I think you should calm down, I’m sure Luna is going to be just fine,” Agnès said in response to his constant pacing. “You did say she beat up Rosy right? I highly doubt there is much in this forest that is a challenge for her for you to be concerned about. And that’s coming from someone who lived here for half her life in this forest.”
Then hesitated as a few potential threats popped up in her mind when she thought about it. But kept quiet so as to not worry Van, promising to talk to Luna later about the dangers of the forest she should watch out for.
“Ya! Don’t be such a worrywart! Mom wouldn’t go down that easily!” one of the imps said all of a sudden, barging in the conversation.
Van turned and noticed it was the red one with the bad mouth and attitude.
The red imp got in his face, glaring down Angrily at him, with her hands on her waist. “Do you really think there's anything mom can’t do? Some dad you are! Don’t go lumping mom with other women! You motherfucker!”
“Sister! Please! Don’t be so mean!” the green imp begged her sister, quickly zipping into the conversation.
“Seriously, you're such a mama’s girl.” the blue imp said with annoyance, lazily flying over to her sister and grabbing her by the tail, and pulling her back to work. “You can complain after we finish our jobs.”
“Ow! Let go of me! I said let go!” the red imp yelled as she was roughly taken away. “Let go of- ah!” she moaned, her already red face getting flushed. Then blinked and doubled her efforts in begging her sister to let go of her before her inner M was exposed. Which might be a little too late…
The green imp followed a little after them, then turned and bowed her head and apologized a few times before chasing after her sisters.
“Well… those were certainly characters…” Agnès said as she watched the small group fly off into the distance. “What even is their job anyway?” she muttered to herself.
Oddly enough, the tension in Van’s body relaxed by a bit. The imps antics doing more than expected to help calm his nerves. Even going so far as to think a bit more positively about the situation.
Or at least, that was before he got a call from the gate, yelling about Luna being injured…
Van quickly rushed over and arrived just as Luna walked through the gate. Her arm twisted the wrong way…
“Gods Luna… what the fuck happened to you! Are you okay!” as battered, bruised, and clearly heavily wounded Luna hobbled forward.
“If you think this is bad, you should see the other girl.” she chuckled or at least tried to as halfway through it ended in a coughing fit that spewed blood all over the place.
Van quickly moved into a grab and supported her, using his mana to cast healing magic and transferring his aura over to her to increase her natural healing recovery. “Let’s get you to the medical tent.”
Agnès finally arrived, unable to keep up with the speed of a vampire. What she saw made her gasp in horror, but already she was kicking herself into gear and rushed over to help Van support her while taking a look at Luna’s broken arm.
Luna coughed up some more blood and swung her head in a form of a nod behind her. “Don’t forget to take care of my new friend too. She’s in just as bad a shape as I am.” she barely managed to croak out.
Both Van and Agnès turned back and their eyes widened as Rosy came plodding along carrying a large three-tailed fox on her back that was almost as big as her. The fox was black, white, and red, with a blue tail, a red tail, and a green tail, each with a white and black stripe. The pattern on her fur was whimsical and flowing, giving the fox a very elegant design and look.
“The queen of the east forest…” Agnès muttered in awe.
Even Van was impressed, just as he was angry at Luna for challenging such a powerful foe, and the fox for hurting his beloved. But he will have words with them both later, for now, they have to make sure Luna recovers from her ordeal. The fairies and their ranking ups can be worried about a little later…
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
Setting Luna up at the medical tent, he made sure she had everything she needed before leaving her to Agnès’s care. He wanted to stay behind and help out a bit, but he knew that there was probably not a lot he could do to actually help when it came to healing a person. Not to mention Luna insisted that he go and do his job of helping the fairies rank up, saying that Amie put in a lot of effort to make these arrangements for their benefit.
Which was surprisingly logical coming from her, so with that, he felt like he had no choice but to get back to work, downing another mana potion to top him off before leaving.
After that, the day was largely the same as any other over the past few weeks. With the only difference being how antsy he was in wanting to leave the magic circle and go check on Luna to see how she was doing. In the end, the day passed without much fanfare, and with great relief, he Shooed the last fairy out and rushed over to see his beloved once more and see how she was doing.
“Luna, How are you feeling?” He asked, a concerned expression on his face as he made his way into the tent and walked over to the bed she was resting on. He sat down on a nearby bed to better watch over her, relieved that most of her bruises were less prominent and that her more major wounds bandaged. The bent arm now in a cast wrapped in gauze that had finely printed runes on it that promoted healing.
“I’m feeling fine.” she said, completely uncaring of the wounds she received. “This isn’t enough to kill me. Maybe inconvenience me, but certainly not kill me!” puffing out her chest and showing him a confident smile devoid of any of the fears that a normal person would have after taking that much damage.
It was the fight with the bear all over again, and Van simply couldn’t wrap his brain around why Luna was acting like this. Just when he was finally getting the confidence to push out and take charge, he falls back into his old habits as his concern for his wifes well being takes precedence over everything else. If he still had access to his soul realm, he may not have minded as much, but considering that if she dies it could become permanent…ish...
He shook his head not wanting to think about it, then turned his attention to Luna and placed a gentle hand on her shoulder, looking at her with tired eyes.
“Luna… you can’t keep doing this. I… I honestly don’t understand what’s gotten into you. You're acting more reckless than Thea! And that’s saying something… please… no more of your little ‘outings’ until we get my soul realm fixed or I or Anna can come with you. I’m not going to let you go out anymore without my express permission.” his eyes and voice growing hard near the end.
Luna looked at him, deep in thought, as if trying to find the words she wanted to say. In the end she sighed. “I’m sorry Van, but once I heal, I'm going back into the forest. I don’t care if I have your approval or not.” she gripped the covers of her sheets, looking at something in the distance only she could see. “I’m not going to slow down… if anything… I have to go faster!” her voice filled with determination.
Van was taken aback, never before had Luna blatantly just refused him or ignored his wishes. “Luna please, this isn’t like you! You have to see reason, what you're doing is just plain dangerous!”
Luna chuckled darkly, turning her eyes, ones mixed with self-loathing and anger onto Van, making him retreat his hand and lean away in surprise. “Reason!? You just want me to go back to the old Luna! The Luna that was submissive! The Luna that was afraid of everything! The Luna who was powerless! So powerless she couldn’t even protect her own husband! Twice!” The grip on her sheets became even harder, almost tearing them apart.
“I AM NOT GOING TO GO BACK TO THAT OLD LUNA!!!” she yelled, then looking away, her arms shaking in barely constrained self-loathing, her voice distant yet clear, more like she was talking to herself than at Van at this moment.
Van didn’t know what else to do but to stare at his wife with a mixture of worry and shock. He didn’t know what to say. What could he say? He had experienced, and in some ways still was, experiencing the same feelings Luna was going through right now. But It had never occurred to him, that while he was looking forward to things going back to as close to normal as they could get. Luna was hoping for the opposite, wanting to stay her new confident and self-reliant self.
“Luna…” he began to say, but already was at a loss for words. Not knowing what he could possibly say or do that could comfort his wife's worries and concerns.
In the end, Luna acted first, getting up from the bed in one swift motion. Face hard and like a mask, she didn’t even glance his way as she stood tall. “I’m going for a walk… I need some fresh air…” she said, then strode out the tent, leaving Van behind…
Van just stood there shocked. Never before in his entire life would he have thought Luna of all people would just leave him behind like that. In the end, he found himself sitting back down on the chair, his eyes staring at nothing as his mind ejected itself out of his skull, and thoughts of blankless nothing invaded it, taking his empty mind for themselves.
He must have stayed like that for several hours, for by the time he came to, it was already starting to get dark, the light of the sun slowly dimming away. All that time he spent sitting down was for nothing… there were no new ideas or revelations that would have helped him in this scenario.
In the end he sighed and walked out to get some fresh air for himself. Walking around he thought to himself that perhaps he should go visit Rosy and her new friend. Perhaps pick their brain on how they perceive Luna and her actions and what they thought about it.
In the end though, what he learned from Rosy wasn’t very helpful. Rosy only knew about the Luna that beat her, not the Luna from before. The fox was still resting, sleeping surprisingly contently next to Rosy, both of them under a makeshift lean-to as their new home.
Van made sure to ask Rosy that should Luna come by and try to name the fox she just acquired, to suggest a name like Iris, or a few other names that Van suggested beforehand. Not wanting the same thing that happened to Rosy that happened to the fox. With a nod of her head, Rosy agreed and Van bid his farewells.
He felt like he shouldn’t have been so kind to the fox, considering that it had literally bent his wife's arm around. But at the moment, he couldn’t really be angry with it right now, or should he say, whatever anger he had was already long gone from his mind. As it felt like he already experienced several days passing since Luna came back with the broken arm.
He ended up wandering around camp, not wanting to turn in just yet, a little worried that Luna would be there and things would become awkward. Agnès then found him and the two began to talk.
“I’m sorry that happened,” she said after Van finished. “Though… I suppose I understand a little…” she looked far off into the dimming sky, the stars just starting to pop out as they walked around together. “If I could change who I was… for the better… I wouldn’t want to go back to my old self either…” sounding sad about that…
Van only too well understood the feeling. But while he understood it, he didn’t expect it to present itself like this… he wanted his wife to be happy, wanted her to feel confident in herself like she should be. But now he was wishing she was back to normal… or perhaps… this is what’s normal for a woman…
Now that he thought about it… headstrong, overly confident, hard-headed, always ready for a fight or to have sex. That was literally the definition of most of the ‘normal’ women that made up this world. It very well could be, this was the Luna as she was meant to be… and maybe the Luna, Luna wanted to be…
He sighed and told this to Agnès, asking for her thoughts on the matter.
“I think you should make up with her before she does something... reckless… I can’t say I know her very well… but from what I was able to gather these past few weeks, she can be a little… stubborn… but I also know she can also be the sweetest person around.” her expression softened. “And a really good friend…” she then turned to Van. “I’m sure if you try, you’ll get through to her…” giving Van a gentle smile and with a tone of voice that tried to convey her desire to give him confidence.
Van was touched by her attempt to make him feel better. “Thanks… you're right… I'll try talking to her again. Maybe I can’t stop her… but I think I can at least hold her back until she recovers…” giving her a small smile of thanks in return.
The two shared moments before parting ways. Agnès to her own tent, and Van back to his where Luna was probably at right now.
In the end, Van was able to make up with his wife somewhat and was able to convince her to stay at least a week or two until her arm heals. They then started to talk about other things, such as Luna’s desire to remain her confident self. Van promised that she was going to remain confident, but that he just wanted her to make sure that confidence wasn’t foolhardiness in disguise. Then it was Luna’s turn to promise that she would be more careful in the future and take fewer risks.
With that done, the two made love and went to sleep in each other's arms. And the days went by...