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Sorry to keep you guys waiting on this one! A couple days is better than four months though, so progress!
Anyways, Cobs hit the 2k marker on votes huffing and puffing, but I'm still going to give it a celebratory update while I whip the rest of it into shape. Thank you all for the lovely votes and comments, as always~
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"Are they there?" Truvius whispered, peering around the corner with confusion.
Káel shushed him, bending low as he pressed himself against the wall to sneak up on his target. Truvius mimed him, still wearing a face of confusion as they approached a broken down hole in the wall.
Phantom gave Káel a thumbs up and walked through the hole first, his silence lingering for a couple painful seconds as he skimmed the empty space. "There's nothing... "
Káel looked at Truvius and nodded, receiving even more confusion from his friend. "Is someone the-"
Káel shoved his hand over Truvius's mouth to silence him. "There could be, just wait."
Truvius' face relaxed with a smile as he lightly nodded, patiently waiting for Káel to round the corner first and skim the empty room.
With a flinch of surprise, Káel grounded his feet. The room was small, but it certainly wasn't empty as Phantom had said.
Dancing in the middle of the darkened space was a halo of light, cast from the form of a single shimmering white butterfly.
He looked around cautiously. It would be absurd to think the bug was someone's guardian, but all the same in it's soothing presence he felt watched.
Truvius came upon his side, a sigh dropping his shoulders. "Nothing."
"Nothing?" Káel replied, eyeing his friend with a confused frown. A butterfly was easy to pass off any other day on Earth, but the way this one glowed with supernatural mojo had to be worth even a shred of attention. "Well what's that?"
Truvius looked to where he was pointing, first frowning, then scanning Káel's gaze as if he thought it was a practical joke. "What's what?"
His mouth twitched to reply, the words drying as a loud scraping scrabble whined from the hall behind them, a molve squeezing its fat body through one of the windows the only thing on the two boys minds as they tensed with fear.
"Molve's in the building," Phantom said flatly. "Maybe stop admiring the floor."
Káel stopped pointing, sealing his lips with confusion as he watched the butterfly drift into a wide crack in the ceiling. No one seemed to see it, but all the same it felt incredibly real to Káel. So bright it lit the escape route long after it fluttered out of sight, a glow so rich and welcoming it screamed only one thing.
Follow me.
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Vera grinned at their latest bunch of victims, the three glaring students feeding her smile as she rounded up their ribbons like trophies.
Without the flag to ground them, the molves had swept throughout the ruins like a pack of bloodthirsty dragons, ten ribbons already secured and more to likely come with twelve minutes on the clock.
With a grin she gave the molve she had saddled up on a rub, the strange mount seemingly enjoying her presence more and more. She had known the nature of molves walking into the clearing. They were enchanted for the front lines of war, to run, hunt, and kill. Protection, much like herself, suited their nature quite ill.
And she had given them the excuse they needed to do what they did best.
She opened her mouth to point them down the next corridor, the words falling flat as a strange breeze tickled at her neck, sending a spiking chill right down her spine as she ripped her attention leftwards. The wall before her held no secrets, bare and cracked. But it was blocking her view to whatever had ticked at her senses in such a strange way.
In a round of silent patience she watched the wall, focused on finding the source of her discomfort. There was a distinct tingle to the air, a feeling she found to be an ominous omen more than anything when it reached her senses.
If history had its way with patterns the omen on the other end was best kept away with a lot of attention. Something was wrong and she was going to find it.
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Káel could feel Truvius slowing, his stuffy stamina working against them as they scrambled to flee the molve hot on their trail. It had cracked through the wall just as they'd made their escape, forcing them down a thin alley with two forking paths.
He didn't have time for a thoughtful strategy. His roommate wouldn't even make the divide with the pace he was setting and despite it all being a game, Káel really didn't want to lose to a cocky molve. With a breathless pant he looked at Phantom keeping in perfect stride to his speed. "Phantom, can you taunt that molve?"
"You don't even need to ask," Phantom replied, twisting around to run backwards as he waved his arms at the beast. "Didn't think Cobalt purposely enchanted their golems to move like slugs, guess that's why you got the babysitting gig! You wouldn't even be able to chase down a fully armoured knight on a real battlefield!"
Káel slowed a little to get to Truvius' side, the molve's bellowing roar ringing in his ears as it turned its run into a leaping sprint. Without any time for words, Káel snatched Truvius' ribbon, quickly slipping it in his pocket with a wink before speeding off ahead of the irked molve.
They hit the fork and Phantom took an opposite direction, thumbs up as he clicked in to Káel's makeshift plan and lead the snarling beast away.
Káel hid a smirk as he sprinted off down his path.
Safe.
With a double check over his shoulder he slowed to a walk, taking in the sappy scent of the forest as he refreshed his energy on the toe of a crumbled wall. All was silent in the ruins, spare Puff's ragged breaths as he sluggishly pattered over to Káel's rest. But for reasons that escaped Káel, the lack of scrabbling claws or his screaming classmates couldn't nurture comfort to take over his mind.
The silence, especially when he was sat so close to the forest, wasn't natural.
Káel scooped Puff onto his shoulders, double checking again for Phantom before skimming his potential routes. As he rose to his feet one route in particular pulled his strides, driven by the glowing white butterfly that weaved in and out of sight.
Like in the room, it had the same mystical pull, warming the dried air and bringing a sweet floral scent to his nose. He would definitely be gracing the library to look up the strange bug, but for now, a childish pull in the back of his mind yearned to make it land on his hand.
He took one silent step, stealth hugging his toes as he crept after the small wonder with a stare so fixed to its vibrant glow he hadn't blinked once. With all the care in the world to work out his plan, Káel had made it close enough to the butterfly to make out its long white antennae, a small mane of fur coating its little body as it fluttered about.
With a rigid smile he stretched his finger out, hope tickling him as it fluttered around his hand.
And shattered as it drifted off around the corner.
He clenched his jaw to soothe his frustrations, taking a cautious step around the corner to tail the escapee.
This time he'd get it for sure.
He slowly closed the distance, his palm stretched to tempt the creature into it. Everything came with enough patience, he didn't even need his uncle to repeatedly point out the fact, but this butterfly was dangerously close to snapping it.
As soon as he took another step, the butterfly fled around the next corner.
"Just-" Káel bit back his words, letting all his frustrations escape through his nose.
He was the one harassing it anyways.
As he rounded the final corner, the forests thick wall of scaly trees greeted him. The butterfly was front and center to his view as well, just across the scattered mossy rubble to rest open winged on the black and foreboding pine in front of him.
Káel took advantage of its exhaustion, quickly hopping across the uneven terrain to get to the large tree. As he came under the pine's small umbrella, the floral sweetness twisted with sap and must, a scent so sickeningly strange his nose scrunch.
But he was so close he held the breath anyways.
One more step.
Káel slowly stretched his open palm to the wood, pulled to his task by a mysterious need for accomplishment. He wasn't getting duped by a butterfly, he was going to make it do exactly what he wanted.
Which summed up to the simple task of landing right in his palm.
And now that he was stood at the very edge of the forest, it did just that, crawling off the scaly wood to move across his fingers and nestle right on the curves of Káel's palm. Despite the overwhelming glee of success swelling in Káel's chest, it felt strange. Strange by the way he didn't feel the tickle of its little feet walking across his skin, but certainly felt the pinch of Puff's claws flexing right through his combat suit.
Even stranger that, as he moved to poke the bug's furry back his finger passed through an empty pocket of air, leaving a webbing of cracks to crawl across the butterfly's fragile form and quickly shatter it into nothing.
He froze as the cracks spread through the air, engulfing the scene before him in the cloak of a shattered mirror. But as every chunk crumbled into shimmering dust, it left the scene beneath it the same as before, spare the wall he'd turned to face at the sound of Phantom's hollering voice, his friend's presence now clear as day while his voice ripped through the air.
"Snap out of it!"
Káel flinched at the sharp bite to Phantom's voice, staring in bewildered silence at the strange handful of meters Phantom was giving him.
Before he opened his mouth to speak a low growl tickled his ear, shifting every disc in his spine as Puff's claws flexed through his suit again. His guardian didn't have to know how to talk to tell him what was going on.
Phantom wasn't giving him space, and there wasn't a tree behind him.
And it wasn't a butterfly that had landed right in someone's palm.
It was Káel.
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Quality Quip #28:
'The man who doesn't know the meaning of the word fear probably doesn't know many other words either.'
~Anonymous