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twst-kumi · 2 months

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Twisted Maiden [Act II]: Curse of a Dreaming Rose.

[Act II] CHAPTER 1

[Name] hummed pleasantly as she was dressing herself up. She sent a message to Vil who asked when she would be at NRC to watch the competition. She checked her reflection as her eyes fell on the apple-shaped birthmark. It was very small so she barely noticed it until now.

“_ [Name], your friend is there.

_ I'm coming!”

She dressed up and hurried down to see Heric waiting for her eagerly. It has been a few days since the incident. Flora looked at her relieved she was able to move on. The fairy had been worried she would get some trauma. But from what Mr. Pot said, they didn't need any for now.

Mr. Pot, although he is their history of magic teacher, has a diploma in psychology. Since they needed to keep it under wraps for the sake of some students (Vil and [Name]), who worked in the entertainment industry. Mr Pot took some time to have some therapy sessions.

Hugging the fairy, the young girl left excitedly with the Kingsword student. The trip was short. A quick ride on the bus and they were standing in front of the school gates. There were a lot of people and even people from the national channel. Of course, because of her recent rise in popularity, some people did recognize her.

“_That… It's her…”

Silver was walking in the crowd with Sebek when he noticed a familiar silhouette. He could recognize it from afar as he had been seeking her for many nights in his dream now. It was to the point that he dreamt of her when he couldn't find her dream to visit her. The young man could feel his heart beating fast. To the point, he was worried that everyone could hear it.

“_Who?”

Sebek looked in that direction before looking back at his friends. He looked around in disbelief. Silver just left him behind, worst he abandoned his duty. They had to protect Waka-sama, even more with the warning the guys from Heartslabyul gave them about Leona’s devious plan. But no, instead his upperclassmen left everything behind for a girl he only met in a dream.

[Name] was exploring the campus with great excitement. She and Heric split as she was planning to see Vil.

This was until she noticed the strange mood around. It was heavy, almost like something was going to happen. She looked around to see if she could see any of the main cast. Feeling a long shiver in her back, she suddenly turned around.

“_ Uh? Ruggie?”

She grabbed his hand as he was going to pickpocket her. The hyena was a little surprised. [Name] tripped, taking Ruggie with her in her fall.

The young girl’s mind was in shambles as she looked at the hyena. His hand firmly on the small of her back, he held her against him. Ruggie looked surprised himself as he prevented them from hitting the floor. She was beautiful. Unlike the Hyena women, she looked soft and delicate, very different from the rough and dominant nature of his species.

“_Did we meet before? How do you know me?”

[Name] was surprised for a moment. Right, they never met so she wasn't supposed to know him.

“_Ah, I saw you play Magicshift on TV. You were really cool!”

The young girl improvised a bit. Ruggie could feel himself blush. It felt good to be recognized like that. His tail was wagging as he held her. The hyena couldn't help but pick on her scent. It was a sweet and flowery aroma, he could smell raspberry on her with a note of rose and peach.

Ruggie wanted to take a nip, he was sure she would taste sweet like candy or a Raspberry donut.

“_I see, did you come to watch the competition?

_ Yes… I… uh …”

[Name] blushed as she felt him nuzzling his face in her neck. His eyes closed as he took a deep breath in her neck. The young girl pushed him slightly forcing him to come back to his senses. Ruggie looked at her shocked by his action. She smelled good, yes. But he had never done anything like that before. What would his grandmother think of him? She would be disappointed in him, right?

It was like the young girl was making him lose control.

Ruggie let go of her and stumbled back in shock. [Name] groaned in surprise as she glared at the hyena. She didn't know what his problem was. First he try to sneak on her, then became touchy with her, and now threw her on the floor.

Ruggie’s ears flattened on his head as his face burned red.

“_Uh… sorry I didn't mean to do that. Anyway, I will go now.”

Before she could say anything, Ruggie had already scurried away. She said she was a fan. HIS fan (in his mind). This gives him another reason to give his all for the matches. They better make sure that their plan works.

[Name] looked at Ruggie's shadow disappearing, dumbfounded. She took a minute to understand what happened. Did he have to be so rude as to drop her and run away like that?

“_ Are you alright?”

She turned around to look at the silver-haired male kneeling next to her. He stared at her with worried light blue eyes. [Name] could recognize Silver even among the crowd. After all he was the prettiest man she had ever seen… after Aurelius and Vill of course.

“_Yes, thank you. I tripped down.

_ Everytime we meet you are sitting on the floor.

_ Pardon?

_ Here let me help you.”

Silver smiled softly as he helped her up. He couldn't help but wonder if they were destined to meet like this everytime.

“_ Thank you, I'm [Name], Yamada [Name].

_ I'm Silver, Silver Vanrouge. You said your last name is Yamada?

_Hm? Yes.”

Silver wanted to question her about her name when Vil interrupted them.

“_ There you are! I was looking for you.

_ Vil?”

Vil hurried to reach her. He didn't want her to know that he didn't like the idea of other getting her attention. Vil wasn't jealous of course, in term of look he was the best. And in term of wealth, he was better than Silver.

Vil felt good in the fact that he was one of the best eligible man for her. A hand on her back, he took her hand out of Silver’s grasp and walked to the stadium.

“_ Thank you for helping her Silver. We will take our leave now.

_ Ah sure….”

Silver could feel the small hostility behind his smile. Could it be they were together? Silver should be happy for her but he felt a pang in his chest. Silver couldn't feel happy at the idea.

“_ Khee hee! Children sure grow up fast.”

Sitting on a branch, Lilia watched the scene unfold. The young girl looked familiar, like someone he used to know. That being said, it looked like his son was in some sort of love triangle.

Vil was trying hard to found Yuu while pulling [Name] along. Once Rook told him he was at the stadium, he took her there saying he wanted to show her around. The young girl could see, he was hiding something.

***

It was chaos, it hasn't been long since she survived Neige’s Overblot. And now, before her, or at least 5 meter away from her and Vil, Leona Kingscholar was in middle of an Overblot.

The area was so dry, it made her throat hurt. It was like she was choking on dust. Vil tried to shield her face as things were becoming ugly.

“_ No way!”

[Name] felt her heart drop but this time not because of Leona. Before her, facing the Savannaclaw dorm leader, someone she recognized easily. She pushed Vil out the way as tears gathered in her eyes. The young girl couldn't help but stagger as she tried to reach him. How long has she been looking for him? How worried was she?

“_Yuu!!”

The young man was startled as he heard the pleading voice. She looked different, older, maybe a tiny bit more mature but it was her. His treasure, his reason for living… his sister.

It was like everything around him was muted so he could always notice her. Almost like in trance, his hand moved up to touch her.

“_Kyaak!!”

Overblotted Leona grabbed her arms while sneering at them. She was pretty maybe even prettier, with tears in her eyes in his twisted mind.

“_I will keep you. You will be perfect to stand by my side.

_ What the fuck? No!”

Before Leona could even say anything more, his head was met with a flying kick by Yuu. Everyone stayed silent for a few minutes looking at the lion who was sent flying on the ground by the magicless prefect. Yuu hugged [Name] against him as he glared at the Overblotted dormlead.

If looks could kill, Leona would have died a thousand times with Yuu’s terrifying glare. They weren't sure, they ever saw anything scarier.

tag:

@cocomollo @owodi @illytian

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llaberration · 10 days

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Coyne's Chronicles: Shadow Over Yfiria- Chapter 26

They rested together through the next day, keeping a low profile to avoid being spotted by anyone who might be around the area. It was fairly remote but this was not a time to be taking risks. As early evening came around, Heric silently slid himself into the lake to look for some fish, returning with two large catfish a short while later.

“Do you know when Fez is likely to... emerge?” he asked, laying his catch down carefully on the ground.

“Uh...” Coyne shrugged, “honestly he just does what he does,” he chuckled, “he's a dragon, I get relatively little say in the matter.”

Heric let out a low chuckle and nodded, “Understood, well, tell him that there's some breakfast for him, and he might find the energy to wake up. Iewan, you hungry?”

The human nodded, sitting up, “I'll get a fire set up to cook some,” he stood up and went to start collecting up some kindling.

Coyne was surprised to see the man actually go off to start doing something for himself... clearly building fires was something they did where he came from as well. It was good to see him actually doing something. Now that he thought about it, Coyne realised that the council was probably the worst place for someone in Iewan's situation. It was everything he knew nothing about contained in one place, with no respite and nowhere else to go. At least here on the mainland, there were some nonmagical beings.

Gently pressing at his stomach, Coyne tried to wake the others, “Fez? Heric brought you some breakfast, you want to come and get some?” he grimaced a little as the scaly little body yawned, and gave a little stretch of the legs.

“Breakfast you say?”

“Catfish.”

“Oh right... handy having a Sea dragon about huh?”

“Well he's definitely better at catching fish than you,” chuckled Coyne.

“That is something of an expertise for them. Which is good because I swear they eat four times as much as the rest of us. Alright, it's time for us to start getting ourselves moving anyway,” the dragon shifted his position a little, “I'll come out.”

Coyne was a little bit concerned about the egg as he felt the dragon make a powerful movement, setting all of the muscles in his throat into 'nope' direction. He felt the thing shift a little bit as his stomach pinched, but he shouldn't have worried. Dragon eggs were clearly tougher than chicken eggs, and Fez had said that the thing was also cushioned by magic. Even as the muscles in his belly went into full reverse, though he felt the object move a little, the shell easily resisted the additional pressures.

He carefully caught Fez in his cloak, bringing Trevor and Alan out as well, since they were going to need feeding too. Fez returned all three of them to full size, and they settled quietly in a civilised circle as Iewan worked to finish building a small fire, and began to stick-roast several slices of catfish while the two dragons ate the rest. It was a moment of peace and calm, and though Coyne could feel an overhanging sense of dread about what they were facing, he also felt an underlying companionship that was all but new to him.

Since he had come to be, he had spent periods of time with people here and there. Mostly in the early days, to trick them into gambling with him for coin. He had never settled among them though, always going town to town so people didn't get used to him or find out what he was. He had tried to find companionship among monsters, but his human appearance had swiftly drawn their hatred, and sitting in a dungeon pretending to be a chest just wasn't his idea of excitement so he had been alone almost from the start. This was the most time he had spent in anyone's company in so long, and yet it didn't feel unnatural at all. These were his friends. He gave a dumb little smile to himself as he realised this, the smile of someone indulging a fond memory, or funny joke in their head, and experiencing genuine warmth from it. The road ahead was going to be hard. He knew that. What they were going into was idiotically dangerous, and he did have fears about it. But for the first time, he kind of felt like he had an obligation to help past Fez just asking him to. This continent was home for all his friends, and they had attachment to it. His attitude that it didn't affect him that he had lived so firmly under for the longest time, was only relevant as long as he didn't care about any of those that it did affect. Also now that he knew it would consume everything made being immortal extremely unappealing. Who wanted to be the only living thing in a plagued, dead world with only infected dust monsters for company. Not him.

He folded his hands behind his head, and leaned back against the foliage of their shelter, looking upwards at the slowly darkening sky. “Fez?”

“Hm?”

“What happens now? Like... specifically?”

“Well, we need to get that egg into the hive and...”

“I know, I know that part... but we need to get there first, don't we?”

“We do.”

“And you could just fly us right there... but we have no idea what state the place is in, right?”

“Correct.”

“I was thinking we should prepare for this a bit. Like... has anyone here actually faced one of the infected?”

“I've seen them killed from the top of the wall?” offered Trevor.

“Yes but we won't have the benefit of that will we?”

The Cave dragon flicked his tail, looking pensive. “I suppose you do have a point... we have been rushing through this somewhat. The threat of overwhelming destruction does have that effect...”

“And I agree... haste is important,” said Coyne, sitting up a bit so he could look properly at the dragon. “But we should at least pool our knowledge on it. I for one know only that it's big and it's dark and it's scary and I shouldn't go near it.”

“Very well,” said Fez, “Point well made Coyne,” he settled himself a little more comfortably before starting to speak. “Obviously, we now know the origins of this plague came from the dragons in a misled effort to wipe the lands clean of each other. It backfired and tried to wipe the lands clean of everyone,” he began, holding up a hand as Heric sat up immediately to question this. “Questions after,” he clarified with a polite smile. When the Sea dragon lay back down, looking troubled, Fez continued. “It manifests in three main ways of which we are aware,” he held up three long fingers. “First, a disease of sorts, that can spread to any creature, no matter how magical or non-magical. From rabbits, to men, to monsters, none are safe. Second manifestation is ecological collapse. Wherever it is centred, the land itself will begin to die as though it has been stripped by fire. Existing plant life will wither and die, blackened and dessicated, and nothing will grow to replace it.” He paused to consider that he had summed that up well enough before putting down his third and final finger. “Third, the 'hive' as we have been calling it. This one we know very little about. It appears to be a massive stone-like structure formed or constructed over what was once the city of Indimnis. We don't know what's in it or under it. Whether it is hollow or solid. All we know is that it pulses with some kind of malevolent power, and that if we purge that using the egg of light, the rest of the plague here will wither and die,” he paused, considering. “Any questions?”

“What was that about dragons creating it?” asked Heric immediately.

“Oh right right... that's still a secret...” Fez put a mischievous finger to his lips. “Sorry.”

Heric's green crests stood up all the way along his neck as he blustered, “Look here now Myfeziah you can't just blurt out something like that and not clarify yourself!”

“Welll...” Fez rocked his head back and forth, “You can't tell anyone else though, alright?”

Heric nodded.

“Remember the dragon wars?”

“Well, obviously not personally. But I'm aware they took place...”

“During those, one of the dragon species thought it would be an awfully good idea to make a plague that would wipe out other kinds of dragon with a mind to setting it loose in the population centres of their enemies and win that way. What they created was too strong, grew out of control, tried to destroy the world so they had to get rid of it blah blah...” he waved his hands dismissively. “Then a century or so back some humans in Indimnis dug up some artefact or relic and were able to use that to recreate or awaken the plague, thinking they could use it to defeat their enemies in Sidkenall and it consumed them and their entire society before turning its attention to everyone else. It's been growing for almost a hundred years simply because nobody knows how to do anything about it. The reason the human scholars, mages and medics have been able to do nothing to stem the slow but persistence advance, we now know, is because it is dragon magic that made it. The wall and its defences have slowed the spread into the south, but whatever is lurking in that hive is apparently strong enough to wipe out all life on all continents if we don't stop it. Whatever it is, it's been festering for a long, long while, and we should fear it.”

Heric blinked a bit at this outpouring of information, trying to take it all in, “So... that's what was so important...”

“Hmmm?”

“To my father. We all knew he wasn't ready to rebirth yet... but he said this was important enough for him to go ahead of time... now I understand,” he shook his head slowly.

Fez's permanent, mischievous look slid from his face and he paused, allowing a moment of quiet before speaking in a more sombre tone, “He did it to save everyone. Paying back a long-gone sin of our kind.”

Heric let out a low sigh, “Well, it had to be someone. All of the other elders too busy?”

“Tasked with other matters of importance, too critical to let go, or caring for recently hatched clutches,” confirmed Fez. “I am sorry it had to be Ridgar Heric but it was his choice.”

“I am not angry about it,” said Heric, “Not even upset, it was his decision. I was merely confused. This is a lot of information that has added context to a few things my father said before he went. But do not feel any sorrow. He was not mourning his choice, merely frustrated that it had to be over so soon.”

“Well the timing was unfortunate,” agreed Fez, “And we had quite the fiasco getting him out of there but at least he is still with us to cure this mess.”

Heric gave a mild smile and nodded, “Indeed. If all goes well here, I shall someday be the one pushing him around and helping him learn to fly.”

Fez chuckled quietly, “Back on topic though. Any other questions about the plague?”

“The disease aspect of it,” said Coyne, waving to draw attention. “How does it spread?”

“I can answer that,” said Trevor, “They used to teach us about this when they were preparing us for the possibility of being... weaponised,” He paused a moment to hesitate before starting to talk, “The infected perpetually give off some kind of thin, light dust. It sheds from their skin, their breath, everything. If you breathe it in by being near to the sick, or it gets into an open wound, that's how you catch it. They always told us to be careful not to get bitten. Cover your mouth and nose, and wash if one has come near to you or touched you. Some people seem more susceptible to it than others. You can always tell when someone is infected because the first thing that will happen is the whites of their eyes will start to turn yellow,” he pulled the edge of his eye down to show the area that he meant. “That's the first sign, then their skin will get all pale, breathing becomes hard, like their throat and lungs are really dry. They'll experience a desperate thirst, and a painful dry couhg. After a while of this, the the whites of the eyes start to turn red. Once they start turning red, you have about twenty minutes to get away from them before they become infectious. Once infectious, they will slowly start waste away to dust, driven to be near as many people as possible as they slowly crumble into nothing over a period of up to two months. Infecting as many as possible.”

“That is true of humans who become infected,” agreed Fez with a nod, “When other animals or monsters get infected, it seems to draw them back to the hive first for who-knows-what purpose. Then it sends at least some of them back out, large or small, to test the defences of the wall, showing that it is at least AWARE of the inconvenience for it that lies in said structure. There is some kind of intelligence and reasoning to it, but whether that is a shared mind and consciousness among its infected, or whether the disease simply gives them orders to obey, we don't know.”

“Question,” said Iewan politely. “If someone is infected by a bite, but are still in the pre-yellow eye or yellow-eye stage... can they be cured?”

“The college did a lot of experimenting with that,” said Alan, “One of the professors thought it could be cured by flooding the body with clean blood, or a blood cleansing of some magical nature, but no spell or medical technique had at the time been crafted that could do that. He was working on one but... was only ever able to slow the infection, not stop it.”

“Nice to know the college was trying to do something to protect people,” commented Fez with a shrug, prompting a snort of agreement from Trevor.

“Agreed,” shrugged Alan, “But it did provide us the knowledge that there is no practicable cure for the plague, and as far as we know, no flesh and blood creature is able to resist to it.”

“Okay, that's good. Well. That's not good, but we know now,” said Coyne. “So we need to make sure nobody gets bitten or infected. Biting is easier to avoid but we don't know what we will face as we get near the hive. How do we protect ourselves?”

“Your human soldiers... when they're fighting the infected. How do they avoid inhaling the dust?” asked Heric, directing the question at Alan and Trevor.

“Well. They have their helmets, but under those in the face area, they have a layer of densely woven cloth, folded up a few layers thick. It filters the air so they can't inhale it. When they get done with the fight, it gets taken out of the helmet and burned to get rid of the dust,” replied Alan.

“That's good, we can use that,” said Coyne, pointing at the man, “We can use cloth to cover faces right?”

Fez nodded. “I don't see why not. It's straightforward enough.”

“How about bites then?” Coyne looked around, “The dragons will be fine, their scales protect them from most biting but...” he touched Alan's arm, “Squishy. Easy to bite.”

There was a moment of quiet as they looked at each other, then Trevor's brow furrowed more deeply and he pointed, “Coyne you have the magic books?”

Coyne nodded.

“Can you hand me 'basic spells for idiots'?”

The mimic rummaged in his bag until he found the hefty book, gently tossing it to the druid, who began to flick animatedly through it, “Here it is,” he said, muttering to himself as he stood up and ran though the book a few times. He incanted some words a few times, a flicker of magic passing over him, and he looked at Fez. “Try to bite me? Gently please?”

Fez frowned, “Are you sure?”

“Yeah, give it a try. Again, not too hard... I'm not entirely certain this is going to work.”

“Alright. Suit yourself,” Fez leaned forwards, his jaws opening. As the needle sharp teeth began to close on his arm, the druid spoke one last word, and the jaws suddenly stopped.

Fez blinked in surprise, visibly straining as he bit harder, the muscles in his jaw and neck tensing and flexing as he exerted more force. He flexed his neck, and the arm was moved, tugged with him, but the teeth still could not pass into the skin, held away from it by an invisible layer.

“Okay please stop now thank you,” said Trevor, visibly sweating as he took his arm back and examined.

“What did you do?” asked the dragon, sniffing at the man.

“It's a shielding spell... protects against physical harm only, and only for a brief, twenty second period after the trigger word is used. Each casting lasts ten triggers, or an hour, whichever ends sooner, and the triggers can be stacked one after another with no wait in between.” Trevor held up the book for them to see, where there was a page titled 'So you're the kind of idiot that gets injured a lot?' in which it detailed this basic shielding technique.

“That's good. We can definitely use that,” said Fez, licking his teeth noisily. “We need to keep in mind that you two can do more if you practice utilising your magic.”

“Can the spell be cast on those around you, or only on yourselves?” asked Coyne.

“I believe it's only on the user,” said Trevor, rubbing his chin. “Why?”

“Because I am still biteable,” said the mimic.

“I thought you were unkillable?” Alan replied, looking surprised.

“I am unkillable, but I am not invulnerable. We have no idea if I can be infected with the plague, or what would happen if I was. I could become the most dangerous thing it has,” Coyne sat forwards, a little awkwardly, sharing this concern for the first time. “Think about it. Something it has that doesn't waste away and stop spreading because it has crumbled into dust. Something that, given long enough, could travel anywhere because it doesn't need to stop, or eat, or rest, or die.” He paused, letting his words hang in the air. “There's a chance I might not be affected but... can we risk it?”

Fez grunted, “No, and for more reasons than just that,” he leaned forwards and gently touched his nose against Coyne's middle.

“Well yes that too,” sighed the mimic. “That too.”

There was a silence as they all looked thoughtful for a time, lost in their own personal preoccupations until Alan finally broke the quiet. “So what now?”

Fez flicked his long tail, “Coyne has made good on his point here. We are underprepared for this,” the dragon looked grim. “We have the tool for the job but lack knowledge.”

“Okay, so what do we do about it?” asked Alan, looking around the group.

“Well, if all we lack is knowledge,” said Iewan, “then we should gain the knowledge.”

Heric let out a rumbling chuckle and gently reached out to scruff Iewan's hair. “Humans. So direct. So straightforward. Lack the knowledge? Gain the knowledge,” he smiled a broad and toothy grin, looking at Fez. “You heard him. What do you do now? Gain the knowledge.”

Fez looked at the larger dragon, tilting his head, “Gain the knowledge? How?”

“One little iddy bit at a time,” said Heric, stretching his wings. “We'll do it together. Make a plan, gather supplies, then do this properly.”

“I thought you were returning to the island as soon as you were rested,” Fez looked curious.

Heric shrugged, rolling his huge shoulders, “I don't see what possible good I can do there at the moment, among those who accepted a false accusation against me without question or investigation. The space will do me good, and it seems I will be of more use here,” he reached out with a large hand, grabbing Fez's horns and giving the smaller dragon's head a challenging shake, “Can't be trusting everything to a whelp,”

Fez jerked his head away with a playful growl, snapping at the other dragon's hand. “I'm no whelp and you are well aware of it,” he grumbled.

Heric chuckled, “Well. Perhaps not. But it seems to me that another pair of heads couldn't be a bad thing at this stage. You still have further to go before you can simply call it a day and cure this plague.”

Fez huffed a little, flicking his wings slightly in agitation, “perhaps urgency had us all a little too firmly in its grip.”

“And that is understandable,” agreed Heric, “when your home is in such danger, we would all feel urgency. But this is something we all need to agree should be done properly.”

“So what do you suggest oh extremely old and wise one?” asked Fez.

“We have to make it a series of steps. So first of all, send some of our more normal humans into a town for supplies. We need cloth, and ideas for making Coyne less... biteable.”

“Good start,” agreed the Cave dragon, “The towns at this end of the wall are small but they are still on the wall, and as such, I would expect them to have the same supplies for dealing with the plague.”

“Okay, but how are we going to travel around unnoticed?” asked Coyne. “Like. I know how to blend in with the locals, and I can hide Fez in the process, it worked for us before. But...” the mimic gestured to Heric, “You're kind of hard to miss.”

The blue dragon looked at himself and nodded, “I suppose I might draw a little attention.”

“Yeah just a little,” agreed Coyne, “And remember humans here just love to wear dragon scales so you might want to not get spotted.”

Heric chuckled and nodded, “Alright, your concerns have been noted. If we're going to be travelling on foot, pretending to be humans so we can utilise their supplies, I will come up with an adequate disguise to pass among them.”

“Okay. So when do we set off?” asked Trevor. “Time is just passing us by and I'm anxious to see some progress.”

Fez gave a nod, “I'm going to do a little scouting flight. See if I can plot a route to the nearest town. You guys get ready to start moving.”

“You want us to keep a low profile? Super low profile? What... kind of arrangement do you want here?” asked Coyne.

The dragon stood, stretching his wings into some warmup flaps as he considered, “We'll use Bubbles. Trevor you can stay out if you want, your decision, but when we're in a town I want you in one of your animal forms, not human. Alan, you're too distinctive with your eyes, so you know the drill.” He glanced at Heric, “I will assume you're going to make arrangements for yourself, and for your assistant there, if you want to feed him to Coyne be my guest, if not, I'll trust you to figure out how he can pass unnoticed. He's not exactly typical fare for the humans on this Yfiria.”

“Thank you, and he's not my assistant. We'll figure it out though. Take care to fly subtle... I know you are already well aware of the dangers of flying near the wall.”

“More than aware,” replied Fez, glancing at his still-healing wound.

Coyne looked around at the group, and held up his hands with a sigh. “Alright. Who's onboard and who's walking?”

“Can I ask you something?” a small Iewan asked, looking nervously at an equally small Alan.

“Hm?” the mage glanced over at the other man.

“Does this make you at all uncomfortable?” the man looked up at Coyne, who was looking expectant.

“It did at first,” replied Alan, “The first time... I was terrified. Second time, a little less so. Now? Not at all. It all seemed really weird until I found myself on an island full of dragons, werewolves and other mixed creatures that may or may not find humans delicious.”

“You... avoided being eaten by being eaten?”

“Hey, nobody wants pre-eaten food, even if it's still kicking,” the mage shrugged, “At least that's worked for me so far.” He paused and gave Iewan a look, “You've been eaten by dragons though, quite a bit I'll bet. Why is this so odd to you?”

“That's different. They're dragons... and they're not really eating us they just store us in their crop.”

“Uhuh... different. If you say so,” Alan looked up at Coyne and gave a little nod, raising his arms as the mimic gently gripped him and lifted him up. “Just try to relax. Close your eyes and pretend it's a dragon,” he called back to the small man as the mimic opened his mouth and started to gently push the mage inside.

Iewan looked up a bit nervously, what remained of his insides squirming nervously as he saw the soft bulge of the mage pass through Coyne's neck and disappear at his collarbone. He inhaled a little apprehensively and looked down at his feet, trying not to watch.

Coyne cleared his throat a bit and glanced down, “Aww, don't look like that,” he said, gently putting a hand down to lift the small man. “I know this is different for you, but stay calm, you're going to be fine, just pretend I'm a weird dragon.”

“Weird dragon, yeah, I can do that,” Iewan let out a slow, nervous sigh, gently gripping his middle as Gut reacted to Coyne's gentle grip, “Okay, just do it, before I change my mind.” He drew a slow breath and chanted silently to himself 'Weird dragon. Weird dragon,' as he felt a burst of damp heat on his face, and then he was met with slick, warm flesh. It actually kind of was like a weird dragon... warm and damp, hard points of teeth, though these were a lot less sharp. If he looked past that, it was almost familiar. Even when there was a loud swallow, and things around him got tighter suddenly, he just held his breath, closed his eyes and focused on the feeling he knew. Of Ridgar swallowing him into the crop to keep him safe when he was going deep sea swimming, or when he was frightened by the strangeness of this new world. It was a feeling that brought safe memories, confused and overwhelmed ones among them, but always safe. Before he knew it he was being squeezed and squashed until he fell into a slightly more open space, squirming around to try and orient himself.

“Hey, hey you're okay,” a gentle voice spoke up, and a guiding hand on his shoulder helped him to a sitting position.

“Thanks Alan,” he replied, wiping slime from his face, and gently touching to check Gut was okay. The creature had remained settled during the trip down, familiar enough with the process to just ride it out, but now they were sitting, a curious black appendage was emerging to examine their surroundings. He gently tried to push the thing back into hiding, not wanting to freak the mage out.

“It's okay,” Alan spoke gently, pushing his glasses back on. He had taken them off so that he could see better despite the darkness when the other man had arrived, the energy showing through the orange haze of Coyne's. He had caught a glimpse of the other energy before he had put the glasses back on. “Coyne told us... about your... about Gut.”

“Oh,” Iewan relaxed a little bit, “And are you... okay with it? I know it's kind of weird and terrifying, a lot of people aren't okay being around a Seahorror... sorry, a Kheascean.”

“Well... if I can ask before I decide... it's not infectious is it?”

“Huh?”

“Can he like... create more Kheasceans? Infect other people?”

“Oh OH... no. No. Though they do reproduce asexually, they only do it under certain conditions. One of which is being immersed deep in cold salt water. And even then, the young don't normally take to whole living beings with a proper immune system and white blood cells to fight the attachment process off... I'm... an exception to the rule. My situation was a bit more... complicated.”

“So... you mean... I won't catch it?”

Iewan chuckled, “You won't catch it. Even if you hug him, you won't get all horrored.”

“Okay good good... then I'm okay with it.” The mage paused a moment, taking a slow breath, then looked over at Iewan again and spoke. “One more question.”

“Hm?”

“What's an immune system?”

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Gonna try and spam updates every couple of days until we're all caught up! Just because we're still three chapters behind everywhere else and I want to get caught up before the book is over. For literally no reason of significance. Just my own personal integrity lol

#safe vore #soft vore #extreme cuddling #nonfatal vore #novel #sfw vore #fantasy #male vore

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