Tears continue to build upon Kenoses' face as he removes his cowl and mask dropping to his knees "I'm so glad I could see you again Aeolus."
Aeolus rises from his chair to comfort Kenos, "as I am to see you, young master. You're the spitting image of lady Amiri, but your eyes look more like your fathers now."
Aeolus wipes the tears off of Kenos face and looks at him, "Young lord. I'm very impressed you've made it this far. I bet you have countless stories of what you've endured getting here, as well as questions as to how I ended up in this position. However, before discussing that, where's Doza?
Kenos scrunches his face in disapproval, "he's busy getting drunk."
Aeolus's face begins to stiffen up, "That irresponsible brat, he was always neglectful to his duties but to have let you out of his sight. Lord Kronos and Lady Amiri would be disappointed in their young pupil. I'll have to grill him on their behalf."
Aeolus walks back to his desk and speaks into his radio, "Clear my schedule for the day V." The radio buzzes in and Kenos can hear V on the other side, "but sir we're backed up enough as is, at this rate will never finish."
Aeolus slips on his coat and turns back to the radio, "I have more pressing duties to take care of at the moment so I suppose will just have to deal with it."
Aeolus turn's off his end of the radio and looks to Kenos, "Common young master let's find your heedless mutt.
Aeolus throws the bar door open immediately locating Doza who was secluded in a booth located in the corner of the room. Kenos follows closely behind as Aeolus angrily walks to the booth.
"You irresponsible fuck", he shouts gripping Doza by his collar and dragging him up.
Doza casually slides his mask down covering the lower half of his face, "look buddy I don't know what the hell you're going off about but I suggest you bother someone else."
Doza begins oozing Zen trying to intimidate Aeolus, by this point the whole bar had taken notice of the two squabbling. A majority of them were shocked to see their guild director act in such a way. Aeolus begins releasing his Zen countering Doza's aura and eventually overpowering it.
His Zen feels familiar where have I felt it before, pondered Doza staring down his assaulter. "Aeolus?" he calls, tilting his head.
Kenos pops up from behind Aeolus, "You got it."
Doza chuckles, "No fucking way, your alive!!! Then does that mean?
Aeolus lets go of Doza's collar, "May lady Amiri and Lord Kronos soul's find light in the Otherworld."
Doza pouts, "what of the others in Kronos's circle.
"Will discuss all of that momentarily", said Aeolus. "Barkeep, send some drinks and food to my personal lounge. There we can talk and move freely.
Kenos and Doza follow Aeolus to the back of the bar where they enter a hallway, "whatever's cooking in there I need a piece of that," said Kenos drooling through his mask. Aeolus continues towards the room "That's one highlight of the guild halls, all types of rare animals get brought to us so where real selective of who we hire as chefs. Everybody wants good food so it works as a motivator for a lot of the hunters.
Doza listened to the conversation in silence, his mind was concentrated on something else. Something's different about Aeolus, then again seven years is a long time of course things are different now.
Coming to the end of the hall Aeolus puts his hand on the knob and turns back to the others, "There's another familiar face in here", he smiles. "Prepare yourselves."
Aeolus opens the door to his personal lounge and a huge black blur lunges towards Doza knocking him on his back. "Nala!!!", shouted Kenos as the black panther ran under him, lifting him onto her back. "You're here too. You got a lot bigger", he laughed.
Doza lifts his upper body from the floor and removes his mask, "it's nice to see you to Nala", he groans. Nala pounces on Doza once again pinning him down and continually licking his face, causing Kenos to fall off her back landing on his but. They all laugh hysterically until they are interrupted by a knock at the door,
"Come in", said Aeolus. The door opens and four waitresses walk in holding food and drinks for them. "I appreciate the work you guys do around here," he continues.
Doza quickly adjusts himself brushing his hair and chin stubble down "What a pleasure to meet you ladies. How bout we all get to know each other when I'm done talking to this old fart. You can show me what this town's nightlife has to offer." All of them blush but before an answer could be given. Aeolus walks towards Doza hitting him on the crown of his head.
Kenos burst's out in laughter.
"Don't mind him," sighed Aeolus, "just another fool I'm responsible for. You may take your leave. I'll call you if we need anything else, just keep the liquor coming and some juice for the younger one." The three of them sit together and begin eating. Nala positions herself at the foot of her tree eating from her bowl.
Doza takes a bite of the food on his plate and looks up to Aeolus, "how did you end up escaping the massacre. After I decided Kronos wasn't coming to the rendezvous point, even though he warned me not to. I returned to the estate. What I saw when I returned haunts me to this day. The last image of Lady Amiri etched into my skull is her body mangled and destroyed."
Kenos drops his head down to his plate. "I remember that day, he said he was going hunting but when he came back he had no food and didn't even want to look at me."
"It wasn't good enough for them to just poison her", Doza continued. "Even after her death, they ripped her body to shreds. But at least I could recognize her. I couldn't make out a single other corpse among the piles of bodies there. But by that point I had no tears to cry", he chuckled. "My skin was too busy boiling at the fact that somebody could come in and do this to my family. So answer me truthfully as to how you survived."
Aeolus takes a deep breath, "Me surviving the attack was nothing short of a blessing. After the both of you left, I along with the rest of Kronos's elite guard and our men fought valiantly against our attackers. Still, we were unprepared and for that, we paid dearly for it. The men we had guarding the forest were all taken out, crippling our numbers."
"Did you manage to see who the enemy was during the assault", asked Doza.
"There's no way to find them", Aeolus replied. "The people fought were nothing more than just pieces to the mastermind's puzzle at least that's what I deduced over the years." Anyways", he continued. "Eventually things started looking pretty dire, only us of the inner circle were still standing. That's when the enemy played their trump card, I don't know how they pulled it off but they summoned one of the sacred beasts, Anguish the Raging Bull.
"I never witnessed anything with such a destructive force. We fought our hardest, even Lord Kronos was pushed to his edge forcing him to Invoke the blessing of the storm god, his ultimate technique. A technique that turns his electrical properties into divine lightning. It all happened in a flash my vision was shit by that point but I could still see. There was an explosion of white light and then. I remember seeing a strong figure in the distance as they pushed me off the cliff. "It was Kronos, his last message to me was to survive"
Doza stops Aeolus from speaking "so you are blind under those sunglasses."
"He couldn't be", screamed Kenos. "If he was, how'd he find you so easily.
He's sensing Zen you dumbass", Doza retorted.
"Both of you hush up", shouted Aeolus. "I'm not done with my story yet. But yes Doza I see by sensing Zen now and let me remind you that any of the young master's shortcomings would be a reflection of you.
"Yeah" Kenos added, sticking his tongue out.
"I was lucky enough to wash up onto the beaches down the coast and picked up by a camp of survivors", Aeolus continued.
"Survivor's!!!"Kenos and Doza both shout, spitting out their food.
"So there are other survivors", said Kenos letting out a reliving breath.
"Yup, even though a lot of people died due to the poison, some of our noncombatant members managed to escape through the docks."
"Now that I think back", said Doza. "Most of the ships in the hidden docks were gone by the time Ken and I departed."
I came too in a tent on the outskirts of Xiomarian territory", Aeolus continued. "There I reunited with my wife Dania and my son. You both remember D'anthony don't you. During the massacre, he helped evacuate the survivors and set up the camp.
An annoyed expression grows on Doza's face before sipping his liquor, "Of course I remember him. We competed to see who could represent clan Umbrage in Xiomara's Military Academy."
Kenos slams his cup of juice on the table, "I remember to, he'd always be off on his own. Whenever I followed him I'd get lost chasing him through the forest, No matter how much I struggled to traverse the harsh terrain of the Star-Crossed forest, he'd maneuver it with grace and precision. Thankfully, Nala would always find me and bring me back if I was gone too long".
Doza gets up from the table and back onto the couch. "So we understand how you survived now, but how did you end up here the director of a hunters guild in the middle of nowhere. "
"Well", said Aeolus. "After a couple of days of resting our scouts suspected that they'd close in on us eventually, so we decided for the safety of everyone to disband in hope's that the Umbrage will call for them to reunite once again. So that we may exact our revenge."
Kenos, who was resting on Nalas soft fur, look's up to the room's ceiling. "They're waiting on me."
"Me and my family ending up in the Bogs of Kelyn was also by chance. We were passing through when the previous director mentioned he owed Kronos an incredible debt for helping him keep the town funded with the guild. He swore to look after us as much as he could, offering us new identities, housing, and food for minimal work. Before he passed he ended up giving me his mantle of director. I've been running this place ever since. Most of the time this place is filled with people with prices on their heads. We do a good job of mediating problems but most people in the town like to keep to themselves. Enough about me though, what did you two endure to reach here"