Chapter 157- The Dragon Appears

Chapter 157- The Dragon Appears

[A week after Keeno and company moved through the village]

A man in silver knelt in the snow surrounded by several others wearing similar armor. This was a place where a village once stood, poor as it was, an now it was reduced to a still smoldering pile of ash and dust.

“Commander!”

The man turns his head, sorrow etched across his face and even deeper in his dull golden eyes. Snowflakes fall and melt in his shoulder length red hair and well-groomed beard of the same color.

“Found anything?”

“Only burned bodies that crumbled to ash when we tried to touch them.”

The commander would usually become emotional over such dire news, but should he let a single tear drop from his cheek, it may well freeze in his eye, that is how unfortunate he and the rest of the surviving Paladins of Life had been since the day the Dead Zone fell.

“It’s no doubt the work of that vixen bitch.”

As soon as the words left his mouth, it felt like something grasped his heart with a spiked fist. He faltered and fell back to one knee.

“Commander Thor!”

The commander held his hand up, signaling his companion to stand at ease.

“It’s just more of that pain in my heart. Just thinking of that bitch- grk – fills me with the pain of all the souls she’s murdered.” (Thor)

“I understand, Commander.”

A flash of rage crossed the second paladin’s face whenever the kitsune was mentioned. He and Thor were two of the few survivors from the Night of Dread, as they had come to call the night when the Dead Zone of Odeen fell. They will never forget the face of the kitsune woman who destroyed most of their companions in a flash of golden light and lightning that cut through even Thor’s resistance. The most vivid of sights in their nightmares were the blue irises swimming in a sea of black darker than a moonless night.

“Sir...what if we can’t catch her? All tracked have long been covered by fresh snow. The only information we have is that she’s traveling with a large group headed someway this direction.”

“Don’t worry, we’ll catch her. As long as we hold faith in our goddess, nothing under the suns can hide from us.” (Thor)

A cold wind blew, causing the two men to shiver. A short time later the rest of the small company reconvened and started off in the direction of the silver fox of death. Unbeknownst to them, however, were the eyes of several ravens watching them from the skies, as well as the ears of the foxes perked in their direction, listening to them in hopes of being of some help to their two-legged kin whose fluffiness was worthy of worship.

[Keeno POV]

A week after the village, Huginn suddenly flew up from my tail and began circling around us in the sky. A few minutes later and a few more, smaller shadows began flying with them. Before long Huginn returned. Seeing as it was too big to land on my shoulder, I held up my arm and they perched happily before leaning in.

“Any news?” (Mostima)

“Apparently, I didn’t do a good enough job of purging those parasites of Ama’s. Now they are tailing us fueled by a misguided sense of revenge.” (Keeno)

“Should we stop and wait for them?” (Freya)

“No. We’ve already delayed Margaret and the others long enough, so making them stop for longer feels wrong.” (Keeno)

“If I may intrude, none of us mind. The cold is one thing which we are learning to adapt to, but Lady Okami projecting warmth constantly in a large area helps more than you realize. And besides, they aren’t expecting us back for at least two more years. Those at the top in Lokir know that diplomacy, especially diplomacy in Odeen, takes a long time.” (Margaret)

“Hmm. Still, I think it’s best to keep moving. If we’re lucky, they’ll fall to the elements before reaching us.” (Keeno)

{Hm? You’d usually want to wait and take care of them. Are you feeling alright, Keeno?}

“I’m fine, Ama. I just...want to be out of Odeen.” (Keeno)

{Ah. I understand. Well at lea-}

“Waaaaaaaaa!”

I looked around for the source of the sound that interrupted Ama before feeling a soft sensation rubbing on my leg. I looked down to see a fox with pure white fur and emerald green eyes looking up at me.

“Waaaa!”

I knelt next to it which caused its tail to wag in all its fluff glory.

“Waayip!”

“Glad I could help, though I missed my chance to tease Keeno now.” (Pram)

Pram pouted similarly to Freya who had moved closer to Pram and began patting her head. Pram’s tail wrapped itself around Freya’s waist and pulled her closer.

“Guess I’ll just have Freya comfort me with her nice headpats for the time being.” (Pram)

I was lost in my new fire wings, so I barely heard what Pram said, but I figured it was just flirting with Freya, so I just nodded along with her. The wings, though, were quite nice. I couldn’t feel anything through them, but they reminded me of mum’s. Every so often a small bit of black would course through the sea of blue flame while in the parts where a membrane would be the faintest outline of golden Runes could be barely made out.

{We are going to need to work on getting your dragon features to come out on command instead of just emotion, but that can wait, seems like they are starting to fade.}

Just as she said, my wings began to dissipate into embers until completely vanishing like they were never there in the first place.

{This helps me quite a bit now. Keeno, I may be a bit quiet for a few days while I work on this idea I have. While I’m doing that you should practice getting at least your wings to appear.}

“Ok, Ama. I’ll do my best.” (Keeno)

Ama didn’t respond again, though I did hear her start mumbling something here and there. Soon after all of this, the horses of the knights and the wagon bearing ones were rated and watered and we set off again.

Chaos Realm:

Luna: Fufufufufufuahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha! Keeno is a Mouse Princess!!!

Pffft!

Tamamo: Mouse?

Luna: Can’t explain here, will tell you later. I have a feeling if I explained, Payto here would somehow end up in trouble.

I wouldn’t, but I thank you for being prudent.

Luna: Your wel...come? What was that?

*Sigh*Your Abyss of Fluff powers are expanding beyond my Chaos Realm, Luna. Reign them in.

Luna: How do I do that?

Imagine putting them in your inventory.

Luna: ...Oh, that was easy.

Hmm.

Tamamo: Did something happen in this small lapse?

Not really. She may have blessed someone in another Chaos Realm somewhere unintentionally, but that person is actually very receptive of both Abyssal Blessings as well as Fluff Blessings, and even then, it won’t really take any noticeable effect for a while. But I will have to have Luna meet that God of Chaos eventually to smooth things over.

Luna: Are you able to show me who I accidentally blessed?

Easily. *snap*

Tamamo: ...

Luna: Cute. Needs more tails, but cute.

Let’s see...modern world, superpowers, beastkin, lots of yuri, named Lily...well, at least this world is good. I’ll be in contact with that God of Chaos to make any necessary adjustments, but don’t worry for now. If something happens that needs bit of our intervention, I’ll contact you about it.

Luna: Alright. Sorry for causing any trouble.

It’s fine. Things happen.

Tamamo: Oh! Luna, look at the time! It’s starting soon!

Luna: Sorry to just up and leave after that, Payto, but something important is happening, so we’ll see you again soon!

Have fun you two, and don’t do anything Atmos would.