Chapter 41 - Thirty-Nine

I woke up feeling groggy, heavy and numb, with a weird taste in my mouth, but mostly just glad for waking up at all. I try to move, feeling too hot, and ended up bumping onto something.

I hear voices after my movement, and some weight over me as I try to open my eyes, only to encounter Leo's face very, very close.

I try to jump back but I hit something again, the sudden movement making me dizzy so I flop back down again. Someone lift the weight out of me, making it easier to breathe as I frown in concentration, trying to clean my mind.

I pass my tongue over my dry snout and someone brings fresh water for me, pouring it down slowly, even if I was so thirsty that I wanted to gobble it up in one go, having it off of me every time I went to fast.

Satisfied I tried once more to open my eyes, encountering a pair of golden ones staring me down.

"How are you feeling?"

"Heavy, numb, tired, but no pain." I said in a raspy voice, looking eagerly to the rest of the water, which Leo's bring closer yet again to my lips.

I stand in a half-sit half-laying position, my long black legs stretched in front of me, slowly taking the place we were in.

We were at Aeglos room, the wooden walls and view from the forest a great indicator, not more than the elf himself behind me, holding my brother in his arms.

When my eyes encounter his I can already see the tears wanting to roll out of his eyes.

"Hey little brother." I say in a tired voice, which makes the river of tears overflow as he escapes from Aeglos grips and jumps right at me, crying with his snout on my neck, taking in my smell and my presence.

"Ohh, brother – sob- I was soo – sob- worried – sob- we all were – sob- when you wouldn't wake up – sob sob."

He hugged me with his paws, staying as close as he could, making me lick his face clean of tears.

"You silly, I wouldn't leave you here alone uhm? I did promise, didn't I?"

"No –sob- actually you didn't"

I laugh weakly at him, feeling my head heavy and laying down again as he kept passing his tongue over my fur, as if confirming that I was really there.

"What happened?" I ask Leo, looking in his direction and trying to ignore the fact that we four apparently shared Aeglos bed.

"You were poisoned by the Dragon on our way out, probably one of his attacks hit you."

Poisoned? The descriptions didn't say anything about poison though? Maybe it was concealed? Or the level difference made that it didn't show all the information about it?

I don't know, I just know that I'm too tired to think about it right now.

"And…" Leo continues, having one of his rare moments where he struggles to say something.

"And?"

"The damage was too severe, and it was going to the rest of your body, so I had to take drastic measures… and cut our tail off."

I was almost asleep again when I heard that, my ears perching up and my eyes wide, going straight to where my tail should have been. My lower part is covered by blankets, so Aeglos takes them off so I can look at it.

Nooo, by prideful whip tail! I didn't even have a chance to show it to my brother! I felt like a peac.o.c.k who had their feathers plucked out!!

Before I could despair, however, I was just thankful that it didn't hit a leg or something, otherwise that would have been a real issue.

I didn't have a stump tail like before, having some of it left; not the full ledge, not even haft of it, but enough that it reached to 2/3 of my leg.

"Sigh, well, it had to be done." I said, trying to adjust to the fact, still feeling like I had the long tail as I moved it around.

Couldn't use this one in battle anymore…

"Brother!!!" Hunthor says, jumping up on me and biting my ear like the old times.

Oi, that's not how you treat a sick person now, is it!

I grab my chance and bite his snout, pushing him over me and pinning him down on Leo's lap, licking his face up and then pushing him over, making him roll off the bed and on the floor; lucky him that the bed was only a cushion over the ground.

"Brother! That was meany!! I was just so worried about you!!"

"Oh yeah?! And that's how you treat a sick person?! Stay there and think about what you did!"

He whimpers, flopping his ears down, but as he looks up a smile grows from his snout.

"I missed you brother." I snorted, laying down again.

"I missed you too, dumb brother."

I was getting sleepy again.

"Just one question though." I say as my eyelids start to feel heavy. "Why the hell are we all sharing a bed?"

"I was curing you, your temperature could drop drastically in the middle of the night, so I watched over that." Leo said.

Ok, reasonable.

"I didn't want to leave you brother! I was so worried!" Says my brother.

As expected I guess…

"… This is actually my bed you know?" Says Aeglos.

…

Just because of that?? Sleep on the sofa or something!

I didn't respond, however, as the tiredness starts to claim me once more into a deep sleep.

~~~~

After a week today was finally our last day with the elves and Leo as I finally recovered from the poison and shock of losing my beautiful tail.

I haven't shown my human form to anyone yet, only to Hunthor once I gave him the crystal but different from me he did not have the transformation maxed out, which made a quite strange image as the changed into a dog humanoid hybrid.

Need to train him on that…

One of these days that I was still in bed, however, with our four group still laying together for some reason, my brother thought to be interesting, just then, and only then, to share that Leonel was the one who saved him in the woods.

I still ask myself why Leo didn't tell me anything, and why my brother took that long to tell me; is a really important thing for me you know?

So once we were saying our goodbyes I went to him, trotting my way over, snoozing Shrum a little and making the words come out of my mouth before I regretted them:

"You know, we never talked about you saving my brother and all…" He tries to stop me, but I raise my paw at that, continuing: "No, I went there inside the dungeon, risking my life to save the others elves only because they saved me, and as of now you saved my brother, so that makes me… own you one."

He stops at that, thinking, and, with a smug smile, he hands me a stone with a rune in it besides a silver chain over it, closing it over my neck.

"Then how about this? One day, in a few years, I will need you by my side to fight with me. At that time I'll use this stone to let you know I need your help. How about it?"

"It depends. What are you going to fight for?"

"Freedom and respect, for the elves and magical creatures alike."

I look him deep in the eyes, his golden eyeing holding his gaze against my silver ones and I knew that he really mean it, so I nod.

"Then you can count me in, Prince Leonel."

At that he laughs, and me and my brother leave the woods behind to fight our way to our own freedom.

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Ta~~daaa~~~

This is the end of arc 1!!!

It had more than 484 pages with 67.851 words!

Banzai!!

ﾟ*｡(･∀･)ﾟ*｡

MC: So... does it change anything?

Author: … Now you will be an a.d.u.l.t?

MC: So what? I was already an a.d.u.l.t… mentally. It doesn't change anything.

ML:… I would like to disagree on that, my little hound.

~~~~

Hey, don't go yet!!!

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tapas.io/Vivi_Mayaa

At last but not least important, a BIG thank you for the AMAZING feedback from you guys, and I hope I can keep making interesting books for you all!

And don't be shy! I like talking with you readers, as I did with @Sin-ah who gave me great ideas for the story!

And how many of you knew that English is not my native language?? Huehuehue.

See ya in arc 2!! ゜(*＞ｖ＜)ゞ*

Things will get interesting from now on….

And M for mature.

Hehe

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