Daniel glanced to seeing Squeak taking care of Alyssa then held Triska’s sword out to Specca.
“Specca, hold onto this for me,” he asked, with Specca nodding and reaching out to take it.
“What? Wait a minute, why does she get my sword?” Triska asked shaking her head.
“Because you’re done with it for the night,” Daniel scolded her. Triska looked at him with a stunned expression then to Specca as the nixie took hold of the blade. Specca set it down beside her with her tail wrapping around it, the girl then glancing to Triska as she adjusted her glasses.
“I warned you, those are the rules,” she reminded. Triska stared at her with disbelief then looked to Daniel as the boy was shaking his head at her.
“You’ll get it back tomorrow, until then hands off, you’ve lost the right to hold it today after you attacked Alyssa like that,” he lectured firmly. Triska opened her mouth to protest before the boy pointed to her.
“If you argue with this or try to take it back before tomorrow, then you can skip your ‘turn’ tonight,” he added. Triska gasped then shook her head quickly.
“Wait, please don’t say that, I’m sorry, really, it won’t happen again,” she pleaded. Daniel breathed out then looked to seeing Alyssa giving Triska a weary glare while Squeak kept licking her cheek.
“We need to talk about this, I’m not going to have what happened earlier start more fights between you girls,” he spoke up. All the girls watched him curiously, with Squeak sitting back up next to Alyssa as the witch held a hand to her cheek, feeling the sharp pain having vanished while the bleeding had stopped as well. Daniel looked around at all the girls, with Triska quickly sitting back down against her pillow while watching him with worried eyes, Specca lying down on her legs while holding her skirt down a bit to keep it from rising up, Squeak lying on her legs with her abdomen sticking back alongside the wall behind her, and with Alyssa glancing to Triska with a glare before looking at Daniel with timid eyes. The boy sighed and looked up with a tired expression as he knew he had to quell this dispute with them quickly or else more blood would be spilled.
“First off, you’re all friends with each other, don’t lie and say you’re not, it’s obvious you all care for one another after all you’ve been through together. Remember that we’re out here for a reason, to speak to monsters about coexisting peacefully, and that means you all should be prime examples of getting along with each other,” he reminded, with the girls all slowly nodding while remaining silent. Daniel glanced around at them then looked to Specca.
“Now, Specca is our guide out here, she knows more about monsters in Eden than even I or Alyssa do, and as such we need to listen to her. If she says it’s safe, then it’s safe. If she says it’s dangerous, it’s dangerous. Let me make this clear about our monster encounters, her say is final. I won’t doubt what she says about any we come across, I trust her with my life, with all of ours even, and you all should do the same,” he informed, with Specca smiling bashfully and looking down with a small blush while the other girls glanced to her.
“However,” Daniel continued, with Specca then looking back to him curiously as he shook his head.
“She doesn’t know everything about the world, nobody does after all. And there will be times when we have to react faster than she can evaluate the situation. We have to trust our instincts then, it just may keep us alive,” he reasoned, then looked to Triska as the girl was watching him with concern still.
“In those situations, if we don’t know what we’re up against, then we may have to fight. Triska made the mistake of not listening to Specca earlier, we all know that, but if Specca hadn’t found out what that fluugher was, then her decision to attack it would have been correct based on survival instinct,” he pointed out. Triska looked down with remorse as Daniel looked around at all the girls.
“In cases like that, if Specca cannot determine what the monster is or if it can be reasoned with, and it appears hostile, then Triska will make the call,” he announced, with Triska looking back up to him with wonder. The other girls glanced to her curiously as Daniel nodded at his friend.
“She’s trained to be a fighter her whole life, and knows what she’s doing in a fight. There’s no denying she knows how to use her sword well, she even attacked a Darker One with everything she had to help save Alyssa. If there really is no other way out, if fighting is the only option we have, then Triska’s say is final,” he reasoned. Triska and Specca exchanged glances as Daniel turned to Squeak and Alyssa.
“Squeak, you’ve done well with listening to others and reacting to the situation properly. You attacked the fluugher on instinct along with Triska when you felt it was hostile, and you heeded Specca’s warning and stopped your attack when she told you to halt. You can’t say a word to us, yet you’re a team player on all fronts, and for that I’m glad,” he said, with Squeak nodding and smiling at him with a squeak, the girl then making some hand signals as she tried to say something to him with a bunch of squeaks, with the group just watching with confused expressions. After Squeak was finished saying whatever it was she was trying to say, Daniel just shook his head with a weak smile.
“However, we’re going to have to work on some sort of means for you to communicate with us, otherwise we might miss something important from you during these difficult situations,” he added, with Squeak blinking then looking down with a troubled expression. Daniel nodded then looked to Alyssa, the witch watching him with a timid expression.
“Do you really trust Triska more than me?” Alyssa asked softly. Daniel shook his head and sat down on the floor in the middle of all the girls, with all of them watching him curiously as he slowly looked around at them.
“Let’s get something clear here, I trust you all. You’ve all been by my side out here, you’ve all been helping me with my journey, all of you are important to me. And there are some things that each of you excel at, which is why the rest of us should be supportive of that. Specca is an organized thinker, she knows a lot about the world and the monsters we’re going to be seeing, she would be the first we should turn to when planning our next move or how to approach these monsters,” he started, with Specca blushing from the comment. Daniel pulled his dagger out from his shirt pocket and tilted it around in his hands, similar to how Triska always handled hers.
“Triska is quick to react on her feet, and would know what to do when we don’t have time to think or plan a course of action. She’s trained to fight and can take more hits than I can and still remain standing, that’s for certain. If we’re caught off-guard she would be the one I would trust to get us out of danger quickly, however we needed to,” he continued, with Triska smiling softly at him. Daniel then put his dagger away and looked to Squeak.
“Squeak is able to help us when we need it with her own skills, be it with her incredible strength in a fight, or with healing injuries using her saliva. We’re sort of her guide out here in the world above her nest, but she’s able to help us with whatever we may come across all the same. She’s there as our shield in a way, able to help us up when we stumble across trouble. We can always count on her to help us, I know I do,” he explained, with Squeak nodding with a squeak and a smile. Daniel smiled a bit and shook his head.
“Even though there is a pretty big language barrier between us,” he mentioned, with Squeak blinking then looking down with a weak smile in response. Daniel then turned to Alyssa, with the other girls looking to her curiously now as well.
“And you, Alyssa, have been what’s kept us together out here,” he said, with Alyssa looking at him with wonder.
“What? I have?” she asked.
“Yes, you have. We wouldn’t even be out here right now if it wasn’t for you; this ride and the horse pulling it are from you. Your magic has helped us survive out here, as well as your experience traveling in the outerlands. You’ve aided Specca with the planning and research on what monsters to find and speak to, you’ve helped Triska and Squeak fight off danger with
your magic, you’re able to help with cooking from time to time alongside the rest of us, with everything that we do out here you’ve been right there to help us every time,” Daniel explained. Alyssa looked at him while being rendered speechless as the boy pointed to her focuser.
“You have the power to help me with my quest, Alyssa, and you have the power to strengthen what we all have as a group,” he complimented, with Alyssa looking down to her crystal while thinking about his words.
“What we have as a group?” she asked. Daniel nodded and looked around at the girls.
“Specca’s intellect, Triska’s fighting spirit, Squeak’s protective nature, and your…” he said as he turned to face Alyssa, the witch watching him with hopeful eyes as he smirked slightly.
“And your magical power,” he finished. Alyssa watched him curiously then tilted her head slightly.
“And?” she asked softly. Daniel thought for a moment then shrugged.
“And your horse and caravan?” he replied.
“And?” Alyssa asked again as she leaned closer towards him.
“Um… and the fact that you’re the famous Wildfire Witch?” Daniel added unsurely.
“And?” Alyssa asked again as she leaned even closer to him, batting her eyelashes a few times with a small smile on her face. Daniel hesitated as he watched the small girl crawling forward onto her hands and knees as she smiled innocently at him, then slowly shook his head.
“And… I don’t know what else you’re driving at here,” he said with a shrug.
“Oh, I think we can all take a wild guess,” Triska commented flatly, with Specca and Squeak watching Alyssa with dull stares along with her. Alyssa giggled and gently took hold of Daniel’s hand.
“Just think about it, Daniel. There are other things I can offer you,” she purred with a wink. The other girls narrowed their eyes at her while Specca set her hands on her hips.
“Excuse me, but are you implying that you’re the only one who could have sex with Daniel?” Specca snapped, with Daniel jumping with a startled expression from that. Alyssa merely glanced to her with a shrug.
“Well, real sex anyway,” she reasoned.
“What’s that supposed to mean, what can you offer that I can’t?” Triska barked out.
“For one I’m a sweet little girl, while you’re just a loudmouthed, temperamental idiot,” Alyssa shot back with a dull glare. Triska growled with anger while Specca crossed her arms with a raised eyebrow at the witch.
“Be that as it may, at least I have a developed figure to offer to my love, not one of an adolescent little girl,” Specca shot back. Squeak looked at her with discontent and squeaked something while gesturing to her own breasts and hips while Triska shook her head and looked at Specca with anger.
“What do you mean ‘be that as it may’? Are you agreeing with what she called me?” she yelled out.
“You yelling that to me isn’t doing much in your defense of her statement,” Specca replied while rubbing her ear from the teen’s shout, with Squeak glancing to the human with a raised eyebrow and nodding in agreement.
“There, they agree with what I said,” Alyssa boasted smugly.
“No they don’t!” Triska yelled out at her.
“See? Still yelling, I rest my case,” Alyssa concluded while pointing to Triska.
Daniel, at this point, had covered his eyes with one hand while looking down with a tired sigh, listening to the girls arguing back and forth between one another.
“Hey!” he called out. All the girls stopped and looked to him curiously as he slowly shook his head.
“Can we at least agree that each of you is important to me, and that you all have your own strengths that will help us on this trip?” he asked plainly. The girls looked to each other for a moment then back to him with a simple nod.
“Ok,” they said together, with Squeak squeaking in agreement. Daniel nodded then turned around and made his way towards the front seat of the caravan.
“Good enough, I’m going to find a place for us to stop for the night, try not to draw more blood from one another in the meantime,” he said before sitting down on the seat and taking hold of the reins. The girls all turned back to each other with stern expressions before the boy snapped the reins, the sound signaling Lucky once again resuming his trek across the trail and the girls once again resuming their arguing and shouting, along with squeaking, at each other. As Lucky pulled the caravan along the trail Daniel was sitting back against the ride while listening to the horse’s trotting feet, the wheels rolling below, and four bickering girls yelling at each other behind him. He sighed then looked up at the sky as it was turning to dusk, hearing two girls, presumably Triska and Alyssa, rolling around on the floor in a struggle together while shouting, and thought about his four companions that all wanted to be his mate.
“This is not helping me pick one, not at all,” he said dryly to himself.
*****
Under the darkening sky Falla was flying back towards where she left her sister and the young human, the butterfly girl carrying a pouch that was made of leaves wrapped with small vines and flowers that she had crafted out in the wilderness. She glanced to her carrying parcel with a raised eyebrow then looked around the landscape for where she left her sister earlier.
“Not sure what kind of beetles humans prefer to eat, but surely the kid would like some of these in here,” she reasoned to herself with a shrug. The girl burped then patted her chest with a smile on her face.
“Nothing like finding a nest of the delicious little buggers next to some sweet golden sap, looks like my luck’s starting to pick up again,” she said happily to herself.
She flew across fields and trees, scanning the area carefully for any sign of her sister or the human child. After a while she stopped and looked around with a puzzled expression.
“Odd, I was sure they would be right around here,” she mentioned carefully. There was no sign of anyone around the surrounding area, not even any wildlife. Falla groaned and looked up with a dull expression.
“I gave her one simple task of staying put, and what does she do? She doesn’t stay put. You’d think I would have learned my lesson by now,” she muttered before flying down to a clearing near some trees and bushes. She touched down on the grass and looked around with annoyance before reaching into the pouch and pulling out a blue and black beetle.
“Hey! Luna, Emily, where are you two?” she called out before munching on the insect. The girl chewed it with a bored expression as she searched around the area for her sister, not hearing anything or anyone responding to her call.
“You’ve got to be kidding me, where could she have possibly gone now?” Falla groaned with annoyance. After a few more steps she stopped and looked down, seeing that she stepped on something in the grass. Lifting her foot she saw Emily’s shoe on the grass, the few bloodstains it had on it a clear giveaway it was the child’s. Falla reached down and picked it up, examining it carefully before looking around quickly.
“Emily? Luna?” she called out, again not getting a response from either of the missing girls. Falla looked to the shoe then slowly glanced around the area as she started to get a very bad feeling about this.
“On second thought, looks like my luck is still shit.”
Chapter 4
Hidden Feelings
In the world of Eden, it was always a good idea to travel with those you could trust and count on. It would be dangerous to traverse the world alone when humans and monsters could pose a threat at any time, and traveling with friends was a better alternative to trusting complete strangers. Facing the dangers of the world with those you knew and cared about would help make the journey easier, and if you’ve never traveled with them before, allow you to really get to know them better. You would have plenty of time to talk about anything you wanted, learn what was driving them forward in life, discover what was truly important to them and why, become even closer from mutual interests and goals.
And in cert
ain cases, learn how you each truly felt about one another.
*****
In the night sky above stars were starting to be seen behind the clouds as the day was slowly coming to an end. Parked at the base of a large hill under a tall tree was the group’s caravan, with Lucky leisurely eating some grass and Daniel gently petting the horse as it ate for the night. Next to the caravan a small campfire was going, the fires burning in a little pit that was dug out while four girls were seated around it. Triska, Squeak, Specca, and Alyssa were eating dinner together, sitting on large vines and roots that were manifested by the young witch of the group to sit on. Alyssa had merely waved her staff around gracefully before the roots were uplifted and moved through the dirt by her magic, rising up from the ground then curving back down into the dirt to form makeshift seats for the girls to sit on while they ate something that Specca had prepared for the group on this night.
“This is much better than Triska’s boring sandwiches,” Alyssa commented before she bit down onto a fried fish on a stick, munching on the cooked meat while over the fire two more fish were sizzling on their sticks they were speared onto. Specca nodded in agreement while Triska glared at Alyssa.
“Again, I could only pack things that won’t go bad so quickly, I would love to go hunting if we ever stopped for me to do so,” she snapped before taking a strong bite out of her fish. Alyssa just gave her a dull stare and shook her head.
“So then go hunting, we’ve stopped haven’t we?” she pointed out dryly.
“Right, nice try. I’m not giving up my turn with Daniel tonight just to go find something else for you to eat,” Triska scoffed, looking away with a stern expression as she ate her dinner.
“Specca caught these pretty quickly during a small break earlier today, how long does it take for you to hunt for something?” Alyssa replied with a smirk. Triska growled and bit down onto her fish again, not saying a word while Specca glanced to her with a weak smile.
Chronicles of Eden - Act 2 Page 10