Aurea Erinys: The Golden Queen

Interitum Consilia

We're in the Ancient Forest now, looking for any monsters we could recruit.

Jack speaks up, meekly; "Umm... miss..."

"What?"

"I heard that a Zinogre was spotted here, and she was aggressive. I think they were planning on hunting her."

"Really?~ Thanks, guess you're useful after all."

...

I hear the guttural roar of a peculiar elder dragon nearby. I go to see it, and I see a Blackveil Vaal Hazak unleashing his miasma.

I slide down to it, her looking at me curiously.

"Join me, Vaal. We're going to kill all the hunters who have hunter your kin."

She looks at me, her eyes shining under her veil with intelligence.

She contemplates what I said, before nodding.

"Alright, good. For now, help out the other monsters in the area when they're being hunted, and kill all the hunters you see. Do what you wish with their bodies."

She nods, walking away.

"Good, now with that, let's just focus on finding that Zinogre."

Vekalia gives me a much more motivated look then before.

As we walk through the forest, we collect a few Jagras bodies for later.

Vekalia speaks up, "Y'know, I heard legend before, of Fatalis. They say they were able to call all the monsters to her, so it's weird you can't."

"Yeah... maybe it's because I've only got the helmet?"

"Maybe? But you have the wings and the like, so I'm not sure."

"hmm..."

"Though, I do miss the calm."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean... I miss the calm of home. Of just relaxing, not having to worry too much about a stupid war."

"This war is anything but stupid-"

"It is. All the lost life that's happened so far, all the lost life that will happen... the wasted breath... It just reminds me of home... petty fights blown out of proportion."

"hmm..." She seems really upset with this... with me... but I don't get it. This war was started because of Stygian, because of Rigen. Whatever, she'll realize the weight of this eventually, I'm sure.

We cross over a river.

We've been through so much with each other, so it should be fine. Hopefully, this Zinogre reminds her of why we're here.

We hear a howling from across the forest, aggressive as can be.

Speaking of which, let's go.

I begin running across the forest, Vekalia beside me.

We jump across a large gap with some vines, Jack following close behind.

We reach the source of the howl, and we see a surprising sight.

Zinogre is holding the body of a great jagras in her teeth, and placing it in front of a small, young Zinogre.

The pup has much thicker fur, with no thunderbugs, and few hives.

"Starlin..."

"What?"