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“I know you’re not a slave, Rhyderi. I told them you’re not a slave. Just… ignore it, ok? I’m not ever going to treat you like a slave,” Seres grumbled out as she followed a nearby road. After a bit of traveling, she came across a mostly abandoned town.
“Huh… Why aren’t we just staying here?”
Rhyderi nodded his head as he ventured ahead into the scrub. When they came across the abandoned town, he took the opportunity to slip away to explore, wandering into the vicinity of the abandoned town with both caution and suspicion.
“There’s a reason for it, there has to be.” Rhyderi spoke in a very quiet voice, almost a whisper. “This area is occupied by dragons, yes? The likelihood of encountering some in an area like this is pretty high.”
“I suppose, or mabye they just don’t know this area well?” Seres suggested. “I mean, they do come from another universe… and I don’t think they spent much time on Earth there. Maybe they just don’t know about this town, huh?”
Seres perked up as she spotted a local convenience store. “I think I found our water source! Come on!”
Rhyderi frowned as he followed after Seres, feeling particularly uneasy about the entire area around them. While abandoned dwellings were certainly nothing new to him, he had a nagging feeling in the back of his mind and worried about the details as to WHY the place had been abandoned.
He hurriedly stepped into what remained of the convenience store. “What water do you expect to find in here? Bottled water was probably raided when this world fell apart.”
“Fweh, this doesn’t look like a place that would have been raided,” Seres confidently stated. “I mean, this is a tiny little town. I doubt anyone who would raid lived here.”
Seres grinned as she looked at the contents of the store. “Yea, there’s pleanty of stuff here. Let’s nab what we need.”
Rhyderi sighed and stepped over to assist Seres with the gathering of supplies. “Do note,” He frowned, speaking at a slightly higher-than-normal volume as helped her pick things up, “This doesn’t make me your slave. Or an assistant. Or below you. We’re the same here today, yes? Good…”
He clearly wasn’t at all comfortable with the thought of being a slave.
“Ooooh…,” Seres quickly moved in to give Rhyderi a rough, frienly hug. “Stop that. Your my friend and brother, not a slave. I will never, ever treat you like a slave. And I will never let anyone treat you like one, understand?”
She reached up to give him an affectionate noogie before she let go to explore the racks. “Hmm… looks like the power’s been off for some time, but the water and some of the other drinks should be still good. So should the cann- Oh… I think some of Gaea’s monsters are in this town too..”
Seres frowned at the managled body of someone who had tried to raid the store earlier on.
Rhyderi scowled as Seres touched him. While he didn’t push her away, it made him feel uncomfortable. However, he didn’t’ say anything and stepped over the nearby corpse, allowing his eyes to scan the area for supplies afterwards.
“How long ago was this place standing and busy? Certain things would have expired. Maybe not canned food, but be sure to read packaging before you take it out.”
Rhyderi glanced upwards, peering up at a huge hole in the ceiling. It was too planned, too perfectly circular in shape to be an accident. The Paladin seemed even more concerned when he began to hear hissing in the roof cavity.
“You might also consider running shortly.”
“I don’t know, probably a year,” Seres guessed. “I mean, that’s what most of these expiration dates are indicating.”
As Rhyderi mentioned running, she glanced up at the hole before she shrugged. “Oh, I’m not too concerned. Do you know how easy it is to take down a plain old behemoth. Father had me training on them when I was ten.”
Rhyderi took the opportunity to glare heavily at Seres. “That doesn’t mean you can be nonchalant and casual about a possible threat in the area! Don’t let your guard down, never underestimate an opponent and never, never let your guard down. I say that twice, because it’s twice as important!”
The hissing in the roof became much louder. After another few moments, six glowing red eyes appeared in the darkness. A rather large four-legged monster sprang down out of the hole, wearing twisted and bent parts of the store-shelving as armor-plating. It screeched twice, and two more followed the leader down out of the hole.
“Oh, I didn’t say that I didn’t have my guard up. I just am more than confident that I can handle a behemoth without much trouble,” Seres grinned at Rhyderi as she teleported her twin blades into her hands. However, when the three monsters jumped down, the girl scowled.
“Hmm… three. This may take a few minutes. Well, let’s go, Rhy!”
Without waiting any longer, Seres lunged forward to slice at the tendons to the leader monster’s forelegs before she brought her second sword up to slice open the creature’s throat.
“Rhy…?” Rhyderi blinked. “Nobody has called me that for years.” He removed the rather-large claymore sword from its place on his back and cast a quick Light-blessing on the blade before he charged forwards to join the fray.
The first creature screeched with anger and torment when its legs were sliced. It bared its fangs and made an ear-piercing shriek at Seres, at least until its throat was slit open. The shrieks turned into blood-choked gurgles and the creature fell silent only a few seconds later.
Meanwhile, Rhyderi swung around to the rear of the attack, stabbing another of the creatures square in the middle of its spine, paralysing it. With another quick swipe of his two-handed sword, he had decapitated the creature with one clean movement.“Have you got a timer?” Rhyderi chuckled as he advanced on the remaining creature. “I think a few minutes was an overestimation!”
Seres rolled her eyes as she pulled her sword out of the first behemoth’s throat. “Don’t be silly, Rhyderi. If we had a timer, we’d be too distracted. Let’s just dispatch them as soon as-“
Seres then grunted as she saw the third one leap at Rhyderi’s back. So, she quickly rushed in to impale her right sword through the skull of the remaining creature.
“Watch your back…. Now, that’s over, let’s get the shit here and return back to the base, huh?”
Within the moment of a heartbeat, Rhyderi had ducked his head. He had seen Seres rush at the creature and naturally reacted. In the same movement, his ears lowered on his head. His sensitive hearing heard the hum of Seres’ blade moving through the air, and he winced as he heard metal connect with flesh and skull overhead.
“Bless the Light…” Rhyderi stood up again once everything was clear. “Maybe I was a bit too slow that time. Thank you.” He gave her a slight bow and nodded at her suggestion. Without needing to be told again, the Paladin snatched up whatever water-bottles he could carry and began stuffing them into an old hessian sack that was lying on the floor nearby.
Seres took a few seconds to swipe the blood off her blades so that the metal wouldn’t corrode before she teleported them away. Once her weapons were put away, the girl returned to looting supplies to bring back.
Thus, Seres grabbed several canned foods and bottles of water. She also decided to nab some of the alcohol and some twinkies that looked like they may still be edible. As she finished gathering up supplies, she moved to Rhyderi so that she could nudge his shoulder.
“Done?”
Rhyderi was still busy stuffing the sack with water and tinned food when Seres nudged his shoulder. He hefted the huge weight over his back and was able to carry it on his shoulders with ease and grace. He gave the other an amused grin and headed for the door.
“I’m done. We should go back. And remember, this isn’t stealing.” Rhyderi nodded. “It’s not stealing if the owner was dead and it’s just lying here abandoned.”
“Heh, you say that as if stealing from the dead would be a horrid thing anyway,” Seres shook her head. “Trust me, there’s a lot worse crime than taking a few harmless items.”
Seres hefted her own pack before she jogged out to return to the base. Once she arrived, she dropped her packs down in front of the General.
“Here are the supplies that you asked for, sir.”
—
Meanwhile, Desiree was busy preparing a stir-fry for her family. She hummed as she stirred the meat with the rice, quite content on cooking.
General Sephiroth tilted his head slightly as he watched Rhyderi and Seres return to the camp. His eyes narrowed as he saw the supplies they were carrying, and when the packs were dropped down in front of him, he made a heavy snort of disapproval.
“What is this?” He nudged the hessian sack with his boot. “What happened to the supply cans? I told you to fill up water from the stream. Instead you…” He went quiet as one of the water-bottles fell out of the sack and rolled onto the ground.
“Where did you get this.” It was more of a demand than a question. The General’s tone was suspicious and demanding all at once.
—
Kalysto had decided to hang around the kitchen shortly after Desiree had started cooking, for her sensitive hearing ensured that she was able to hear the sound of the sizzling stir-fry from anywhere in the house. She leaned over her wife’s shoulder and gently purred into her ear, then coiled her arms around the lady’s midsection, poking her in the back with her pregnant belly.
“Hurry up and finish that,” Kalysto spoke in a low gentle voice, “So I can eat it all. Then cook me…. onions and hot-dogs. With chilli-pepper sauce. You know how I like it.”
Seres stood at attention as the General inspected her bag. When he mentioned the stream and supply cans, she frowned. However, she waited for him to finish his inspection.
As the man finally asked where they got the supplies, Seres calmly replied, “There is a small town that clearly suffered a loss when Behemoths choose to make it a mating ground. The residents were dead. However, there were still supplies left over in the town. We encountered the town before we found the stream, and we felt that the water would be cleaner.”
—
Desiree paused in her cooking to stare back at Kalysto. “Know how you like it? But you’ve never…. How am I supposed to know how you like something you never eat, Kalysto?”
Sighing, the girl gently nudged her mate off of her so that she could prepare a second pan. “I hope you know that you’re definitely showing now.”
General Sephiroth shook his head, looking particularly unhappy. “I told you go go to the stream and fill up the water-can. While I am impressed at your ability to scout the area, I am disappointed that you couldn’t even follow the simplest of orders.”
He picked up the supplies and dragged them into the tent to have a proper look. “This changes things.”
—
Kalysto stepped back from Desiree and rubbed her belly. “I’m showing that I’m hungry too.” She chuckled in amusement. “I just told you what I wanted to eat – that’s good enough isn’t it?”
Seres lips drooped into a slight pout as the general scolded them for not going to the stream. “Sir, we encountered the town before we found the stream… We thought that we shouldn’t waste any more of your time by ignoring the town.”
–
“Yes, yes, you did tell me what you wanted. I’ll make it. I just need another few moments to make an entirely new dish, Kalysto. So, you’re going to need to be patient,” Desiree replied.
“You don’t want me to add jelly beans in with this like you did that one dish, do you?”
General Sephiroth sat down in the tent and motioned for the other two to come in. He began to pick at the cans and read the labels, tossing one of them out of the tent immediately. It was a can of creamed corn, and he absolutely despised it.
“You couldn’t even follow the simplest of orders…” He grunted. “The stream water would have been adequate for heating up to use when we clean ourselves off. Bottled water is too valuable to use for washing.” He threw another can out of the tent, which contained mushy peas. “Good work for finding supplies. Next time, do what I tell you. Or do it better than what I’ve told you such as what you’ve done now… but do it in a way that doesn’t cause conflict with the order I’ve given.”
Rhyderi just sat down, looking confused.
—
Kalysto looked disgusted and shook her head. “What, are you crazy ? Jelly beans are meant to be eaten on their own. Silly.”
Seres frowned at the fact that some of the cans were just being tossed away, but she decided not to speak against it. Instead, she simply nodded.
“Very well, I understand. Do you want us to go back out and get the other type of water for cleansing? Though… the town may have working plumbing, sir.”
–
“That’s what I said when you asked for it the other day…” Desiree grumbled out. “Don’t worry yourself about it, Kalysto. So, onions and chili, huh?”
The girl grabbed the needed ingredients so that she could begin to mix them together and make a dish out of them. After about ten minutes, she finished off both the stir fry and Kalysto’s dish. So, she set up the plates on the kitchen table.
“Milena, Zephyros! Time for food!”
“Just… stay here.” General Sephiroth snorted, not much feeling like issuing another order for Seres to change on him. “You said the town ahead is a mating ground for behemoths? How do you know about this? Did you see activity?” He scowled as he peered out of the tent. “Perhaps we are too close…”
—
Kalysto happily sat at the table when dinner was called. When Milena came to sit at the chair next to her, she grinned at Desiree, joining her daughter in banging cutlery on the table-top.
“We know about the behemoths because we encountered a small family of them. Three of them attempted to attack us,” Seres calmly reported. “However, they were dispatched of. I do not have any reason to believe that they would threaten our mission here.”
–
Desiree sighed as her mate and daughter both began making a racket with their silverware. As she set Kalysto’s meal down in front of her, she whispered out to her, “You’re supposed to set an example.”
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