Fanatics and separating Paths

--- Elena’s POV ---

The next day we woke up in my bed and Audrey was lying naked beside me. Rubbing my forehead, I sat up and remembered what we did. I’m crazy…

Sighing, I stood up and got dressed. Thanks to symbiosis, both my clothes and armours were stored in my body and I didn’t have to bother with dressing up and taking them off. Nobody except for Dred would enter my room, so I just left Audrey as she was and closed the door. I barely left our little house when Jake appeared in front of me.

“Where is Audrey? She left with you but didn’t return last night,” he asked, his eyes trying to sneak a peek behind me and catch sight of his lover.

How cute~

“You don’t have to worry about her. We just had some… fun,” I whispered into his ear as I walked past him. I saw his body twitch.

The Dark Scars were packing their things and destroying their temporary houses. We should be able to leave in half an hour, at most. Since even a single spell would take care of mine, I had some free time and so I decided to train my body. But just as I was about to begin, one of the Dark Scars ran up to me, holding a small device in hand.

“Master! Master! I’ve got news!” he shouted and then stopped in front of me.

Considering that it could be something private, I used whisperings to talk with him. “What is it, Urnoth?”

“As you’ve asked me, I was on the lookout and a few seconds ago, a small aircraft flew to me and dropped this thing in my hand. There was a note on it, which said that I should take it to Elena- Master. I’m sorry,” he hung his head.

“You can be really sorry for not using my name more often. Sheesh-”

“I don’t think I’m good enough to use your name, Master. Once I feel I’m strong enough, I’ll do it!”

“Haah- fine then. So? What am I supposed to do with this?” I asked as I started inspecting. Thanks to gaining new territories and materials, Hector was able to better his own kingdom, Drung, and provide us with many strange devices. But they were really useful so I had no complaints.

I knew that most things had buttons to turn them on, so I started pressing the buttons on the two sides until it finally lit up. Well, it’s screen lit up, to be more accurate.

She- she touched my hand! Our hands touched! Master touched me!? As if he was chanting a spell, Urnoth’s thoughts resounded in my mind. He and his brothers were the strongest among the Dark Scars, but their behaviour when in my presence was no different than the others’.

After so much time, I couldn’t help but get used to their strange antics and thoughts. Of course, they were no different when it came to Dred, though they seemed to fear him more, even though he never hurt them. I believed Dred was gentle. Unless he was dealing with his enemies… But then again, they were like this only because of our blood.

“I can hear your thoughts,” I shook my head. Urnoth’s body turned stiff, even though I’ve heard lines like his countless times. I wasn’t even bothered by it anymore. Seeing his expression, I just chuckled and focused back on the small device. As it seemingly finished to turn on, it started ringing and shaking and almost fell out of my hands.

Accept call?

I tried to press the button and the screen from before disappeared only for another to take place. Dred was inside. Is this thing using some sort of void magic?! Amazing! We have to learn this spell! I thought excited. If we had a spell like this, we could easily carry even thousands of people without anyone’s notice and just make them appear! Poof!

“Elena, it’s me, Dred.”

“I can see that, dear~”

He coughed in his hand and mumbled something like, he wasn’t alone. I didn’t know what did it matter, but I decided to keep my emotions to myself and just wait for him to tell what he wanted.

“This thing you hold is called a cell phone. Knowing you, I’m sure you’re thinking this is some void magic, but you’re wrong. It uses some radio waves if I recall correctly. Anyway, I didn’t call you for this.”

Oh, damn it! And I was so happy already…

“I’m all ears.”

“You’ll all have to come here to Dink,” he made a serious face.

“What? Why?” I bit my lower lips.

“I know that we had different plans, but there is something you have to hear and we should look for something before proceeding any further with our plans.”

It must be serious if he is so sure of it.

“Alright. I’ll be there in a few days in that case. But… I believe we could leave the Dark Scars alone. It’s not like they’re brain dead and we need to command them.”

“I know, but I prefer keeping an eye on them. I don’t want them to die,” Dred replied.

“Haah- fine then, they’ll come with me in that case. Anything else?” I asked.

“No.”

“How do I stop this… call?” I started looking for a button or something.

“Just press the red button on the screen.”

“Oh! Thanks~”

“Wait!” he shouted all of a sudden, startling me a bit.

“Hmm?”

“I- I miss you,” he muttered and then he disappeared from the screen.

Huh? Aww~ I’ll have to reward him when we meet up. Although he was silent most of the time, I knew his heart was akin to pudding when he was dealing with me.

“Thanks for bringing this to me. Am I supposed to keep it? I forgot to ask,” I asked Urnoth.

“Ah! Oh, uhm…” he stuttered, seemingly surprised by my ‘sudden’ question.

“Never mind, I’ll just keep it. Are the others ready to go?”

He turned around and after taking a quick look, he replied, “I think they are, it’s just that I didn’t have the time to pack up my things since I was on the lookout-”

“Do you want me to help you in that case?”

“What?! No! I mean, there is no way I can let my master-”

“You’ve made me curious, so I’ll help you,” a smile formed on my face as I started to walk towards his house. He started sweating profusely, which I haven’t seen him do in a long time. After getting used to the hard training, they didn’t even break a sweat anymore…

As I reached his small wooden hut, I opened the door and my jaws dropped. I looked at him with my mouth opened wide and wanted to ask what the fuck, but no words left my lips. Maybe I was a bit of a hypocrite with my reaction, but it wasn’t every day you saw an altar with your picture on it and candles in front of it.

“Master, this isn’t what it seems-”

“Of course, it isn’t…”

He hung his head in defeat and peeked at me only from the corner of his eye. “Why are you so silent? Shouldn’t you start packing?” I asked as I picked up his bag from his bed and started packing his things.

“Is Master not angry with me?”

“Hahaha, why would I be angry? It’s surely not something I was expecting, but if it makes you happy,” I turned around and looked at him, my hands on my hips. “Though I’m a bit curious as to why did you make this altar?”

Scratching the back of his head, he replied, “I- I’m not like my brother, Sareg or like my sister, Liz. They’re much more outspoken and decisive than I am.”

“Certainly, being indecisive isn’t a good thing, especially in a battle,” I nodded my head, understanding his problem.

“I’ve seen Master make decisions so easily, even when it was hard to make, while I… I can’t even make up my mind to-” he turned silent.

“To what?” I crossed my arms in front of my chest.

“To ask out the girl I like… and so, I’ve been praying to Master, hoping I’d get some of your courage and decisiveness,” he muttered.

“Well, that was unexpected.”

“Could you help me somehow?” he looked into my eyes.

After thinking about it for a bit, I replied, “Hmm- I’ve decided not to delve into other people’s matters, but since you asked me… I think I’ve got an idea.”

“Really?!” his eyes shone with interest as he grabbed my arms.

“Ah! I beg your forgiveness-” he was about to kneel on the ground, so I grabbed his shoulder and pulled him back up.

“It’s fine, stop whining. Sometimes I can’t help but look at you as if you were my children and it hurts me to see you keep this distance.”

“I never thought about that,” he hung his head and then apologised.

“No problem. Now then, your first task is to walk up to the girl you like and compliment her somehow!”

“Eh? But I don’t think I can do something like that-”

“Do you want me to force you?” I smiled at him.

“Master- You can be really evil sometimes, even with us,” he shook his head.

“How rude! You put it as if I was evil when dealing with others!”

“Erm, well…”

“Fine! I know! Don’t look at me like that,” I waved my hand and continued packing. “We can chat later, but we’re never going to finish like this.”

“Ah, of course,” Urnoth nodded his head and got to work. There were times when I or my friends helped out the Dark Scars, after all, they were still orphans with no life experience. Some of them had it easier, while others had more concerns. Cases like these where they asked for help happened from time to time and we were always glad to help.

When I left Urnoth’s hut, I noticed Audrey holding an eight coloured ball, the size of a head. She threw it towards our house and upon contact, it exploded. A powerful shockwave hit my chest and destroyed the house I shared with Dred. I couldn’t help but feel a bit sad at these times. We should make a place of our own sometimes in the future. A place where others can’t reach or find us, where we can be all alone, together! I started dreaming.

I’ll tell about this to Dred. I wonder what he’s going to say.

“Can we go?” I asked Audrey as I walked up to her.

“Yes, and why did you not wake me up?”

“Well, you seemed to be fast asleep, so I didn’t want to wake you up.”

“Yes, but Jake reprimanded me for disappearing without telling him anything and that I took so long even in the morning,” she whispered.

“Isn’t it fine this one time?”

“It is, but still-”

“Then don’t complain. Let’s go! I want to see Dred!” I raised my voice and transformed into his wyvern form. I couldn’t wait to kill Padinyss and get his true form…

“You’re just hungry for-” she didn’t finish her sentence.

“What?” I snapped my jaws in front of her.

Knocking on my teeth, she pushed my head away and then climbed onto my back. “I want to fly!”

“But why on my back?” I complained.

“Because it’s fun!”

“...” Shaking my head, I flapped my wings and raised into the air, the Dark Scars behind me in their Bat forms. Since it was a very useful spell, we taught the Dark Scars the Shapeshift spell and it wasn’t hard to find a cave full of bats…

It also made travelling and scouting easier!