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"Take care, see you son!" Aquamarine waved her hand as we walked away from the house with everything packed inside of my Inventory.
"Thanks for your hospitality! See you soon!" I said.
"Thanks for the food grandma Aqua!" Takeshi said.
"It was very yummy!" Laura said.
"G-Grandma?!" Aquamarine felt slightly shocked she was called like that. "Well, these two children are too cute, I wouldn't mind being called their grandma." She giggled.
"We'll be going too, old hag. We'll come back with the rest in two days I hope."
"Yeah, yeah, take care."
Balladur and Baldur quickly waved their hands as they said goodbyes for now.
"Ugh, stop calling me old hag!" Aquamarine angrily said, the old dwarf woman was indeed quite easy to provoke.
Like that, we made our way out of town quite easily, making a last stop at Helga's shop with her husband.
"So you're going for the next days?" She wondered.
"We said two days but we might take a bit longer to come back depending on if something happens." I lamented.
"Nah its fine, take as much as you want, we'll be waiting for you guys until you're back." Said Helga.
"Yeah! Take care! Make sure to bring more potions to sell us, the ones you brought sold like hot cakes!" Myriad said.
"Haha, sure, sure, we'll bring a big haul!" I said.
"Thanks for all your help, you guys were very helpful in everything." Said Partner.
"It is not as if we won't see again, but in this world, you never know what might happen one day. So thank you, and take good care." Said Emeraldine.
"Likewise!" Helga said.
Like that, we made our way outside of the country's walls, as Brunhild guided us across several dangerous-looking areas in the mountain nobody went to. For us it was easy to maneuver around all these cliffs, but just for good measure, I put the three dwarves and the children inside my shadows.
"It's here…"
Brunhild quickly reached a very far away cave in the mountains, unexplored by anybody due to the dangerous path she took, in the cave, there were many things stored inside. Ragged clothes everywhere, bones, monster pelt, dried meat, barrels with wine, magic items, piles of ores, and so on.
"Ah, I was starving…" She sighed, quickly beginning to snack on her last pile of only a few dozen ores, they looked like large pieces of combined colorful ores of many types, like they're usually found. It is only thanks to my Inventory that I can separate them easily. "Phew, not enough, I've not collected ores in a long while, buying them is impossible I have no money. Maria, can you help me store my things inside your Inventory?"
"Sure, it'll be in a flash!" I said, storing everything around us as we made our way deep into the cave. "I can also give you the ores I've mined, we got plenty and there'll be more we'll mine later, so feel free to snack on the ones we have when we are back home. Lucifer told me that eating ores was essential for your diet."
"Ah… thank you. I didn't really wanted to ask you because I thought it would be a bit too cocky from m to ask for such a thing, especially when ores are valuable for you all." She sighed.
"Nah its fine, don't worry about it." I said with a nod.
After walking across the caves, we suddenly noticed several drawings, they looked like they were made out of the blood of monsters and animals. But some colors were also like those that flowers or other herbs made. Lucifer stopped walking as he saw these drawings in the walls, his eyes turning watery…
"So this cave is our home…" He sighed. "These drawings…"
Lucifer caressed the drawings, they looked like they were made by a little kid. One of them, the biggest one, looked like a family of dragons. There was a big dragon father, a slightly smaller mother, and three little dragons, they were all together and seemed happy, the sun shone brightly atop them.
The smiles of those little dragon children hit me hard too, and so did to Lucifer, who began to cry once more, tears flowing out of his eyes without stopping…
"This… was made by little Acacia. She was always such a good artist… She drew many of her illustrations all over the caves…" Lucifer said in between tears. "I miss my little girl…"
"She… must had been a lovely girl." I said, patting his shoulders. "Who are the rest?" I wondered.
"This is… Drako, the youngest boy, he was playful and liked to make pranks…" Lucifer said, caressing the drawing gently. "This one is the oldest boy, his name was Akasha, he was intelligent and very responsible, he took care of his siblings… I remember… the last time I saw him was when I taught him how to hunt by himself. He was so happy when he managed to defeat a Mountain Boar by himself…"
And then, Lucifer looked at the larger dragons. The taller one was him, and the slightly smaller one was probably his wife.
"And this is my… wife, Crystal. She was a beautiful and intelligent woman… Her scales were shiny like crystals, and she was always reprimanding me for everything…" Lucifer laughed while in between tears. "She always… reprimanded me for being reckless and a bit stupid… She was always right, wasn't she? I was… I was everything she said I was…"
Lucifer was quickly hugged by his sister and me, and then the twins came rushing out of my shadows, hugging the dragon from his legs.
"Don't cry uncle…" Said Takeshi.
"It is fine… You're not alone anymore." Laura said.
"You two…" Lucifer sighed.
"We are in this together, okay?" I said. "They might be gone, but they're still alive in these beautiful drawings, and inside of your heart and that of your sister." Sadly, I couldn't feel any of their souls here, this entire cave was empty of souls.
Brunhild held her brother's hand.
"Come, it'll be worth it." She said.
At the end, we remained in silence as we followed Brunhild, until we reached the end of the caves.
And right in front of us, there was…
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