- Earth, Ireland...
"I can't believe that I let you three talk me into this..."
"Hey!"
"I didn't count you because you spent the time trying to figure out how to get your zipper unstuck, Mira."
"Oh... okay then."
The rest of the girls shook their heads as they continued on their journey to finding Behemoth and Ziz.
Surprisingly, Thrudd didn't take as much convincing as the girls thought that she would.
It only took a little bit of puppy-eyes and some sincere honesty before she ended up caving and coming along on their glorious sisterly misadventure.
She was keeping her paranoia in the back of her mind, but Thrudd hadn't stopped thinking about things that could go wrong ever since they teleported here.
She was a worrier! She couldn't help it!
As they flew on Bagheera's back, she made sure to sit extra close to Courtney- who she considered to be the most worthy of her protection.
The girls' teleportation became erratic when they arrived near the Aran Islands in the Republic of Ireland.
While that wasn't necessarily uncommon, as some gods are known to safeguard particular havens that they develop a liking to, but this place seemed almost too heavily protected.
Celtic gods didn't typically put all that much forethought into hiding things like this. In fact, if there was something that required this much effort to hide, they would usually just keep it on their person.
So what was inside was either too big to move, or they weren't the ones who hid it here.
Either scenario was really preferable- especially for Courtney who had always secretly longed to do a bit of treasure hunting.
"...Sister?" Thrudd nudged.
"Y-Yea?"
"Relax a bit, yea? You're jittering like something in Thea's nightstand."
Courtney looked down and realized that she had indeed been rather animated for the last couple of minutes.
She finally stopped bouncing up and down ad scratched her cheek in embarrassment.
"S-Sorry... I'm just a little bit excited. But I'm totally chill though, I promise." Courtney nodded.
"Are you now?" Thrudd laughed. "I think that most of us would disagree."
Thunder rumbled in the sky and on the ground as her arm became charged with divine power.
Lashing out, she struck the wall with enough power to sink an island.
But instead of the entire mountainside giving way and crumbling, Thrudd's entire right arm imploded from the inside out like an overcooked hot pocket.
The gust of wind generated was so powerful that it nearly lifted Courtney off her feet.
And when she saw what happened to her sister's arm, she all but had a panic attack.
"Holy shit, Thrudd! A-Are you okay?!"
Thrudd only smiled warmly as a response. "Our youngest is worried about me? That's so sweet." She hugged her.
"D-DON'T HUG ME WHILE YOU'RE MISSING AN ARM AND BLEEDING OUT!!" Courtney flailed.
"Calm down, calm down."
A horrific scene occurred where Thrudd forcefully regrew a whole arm in less than ten seconds.
Had she not left so much of her power back in Tehom, she probably would have done it in less than five.
"You see now, sister?" Mira cooed. "Even we have obstacles that we may run into sometimes. We will always protect you, but I want you to know how to truly solve things for yourself one day... just incase the horrible moment arises where we cannot come to aid you."
Now, Courtney seemed to be looking at things from a much different perspective.
Her parents were so protective of her that the thought that they might not be able to get to her one day had never dawned on her. Especially since they could both split themselves.
But Mira was right. Life was so unpredictable- even for the family who guards the multiverse.
No matter what, Courtney wanted to be able to do for herself if she were ever forced to.
Even if she never asked her father to make her into a dragon.. she still wanted to be able to contend with one. Or in this situation, outthink one.
"You seem motivated now." Mira smiled knowingly. "Ready to give it a try?"
"Yea... And thank you." Courtney suddenly hugged Mira with all of the strength in her body.
Mira nuzzled her sister's cheek softly and smiled contentedly.
"What is family for, kiddo?"
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