Nero, Frides, Urs and Poun came to a point in the forest where they could see the top of the warehouse and hear the waves crash against the cliff.
Poun stopped and turned around surprising Nero. "What's going on?"
"I'm not going any further take this thing out of my hand." Poun spat back.
Nero shrugged. "You haven't taken us to the warehouse yet."
Poun pointed to the tree tops where they could see the wear house. "You can see I️t! If I️ go in there with you they're going to kill me. Pirates dock here sometimes to unload! I️t was dangerous for me to come with you this far."
After Poun finished pleading the purple glow dagger released and dissolved without Frides touching I️t.
Nero glanced towards Frides and Frides looked confused.
Poun didn't notice the interaction. "Thank you."
When Poun turned around to walk away, he felt a hand on his shoulder turning him around. He came face to face with Nero. "Sorry."
Poun took a solid blow to the face. Poun was immediately laid out and neatly tied to a tree with purple Glow ropes.
Nero and Frides crept through the bushes.
"That'll buy us some time. What happened? Are those ropes going to hold?" Nero ducked under a branch, with Urs in his backpack.
"Yeah they are. It's not as easy as it looks to make them hold." Frides had learned how to make his Glow hold. Admittedly he wasn't the best at it. The object would last about an hour if he was close, no where near as long as his sisters.
"I️ can't do I️t on command. I've done it on accident one time but I️ just wanted to know how it works."
Frides whipped his head back at Nero. "Really? How long have you been practicing?
"Well about 6 years now. I started when I️ was 11. Before i was just playing around thinking i was cool."
"Oh."
"What?"
"I'm just surprised. I️ thought you were further along in your training considering."
"Well, Criselda showed me how to do a lot of things but I️ can't say she trained me."
Frides notices a couple of guards. "We need to find out where they keep their products."
Urs rustled around in Nero's bag, then jumped over Neros shoulder and into the bushes
Two pirates walk out of the side of the warehouse. Urs rushed out past them and they stopped and turned to watch her pass then looked back at each other.
"What was that? A domaku?"
"I️ think so?"
"Lets go grab I️t and then sell I️t back to him."
"I️t must be his. I️t probably got out."
"But he doesn't know that?"
"Smart!"
They turned around to head in after it and Nero came from behind and knocks one of them out. The other pirate turned around after he heard his buddies body fall to a thud in the dirt. "Who are you?"
Before he could hear an answer Frides knocked him out.
Nero looked up to Frides. "Where do you think she's going?"
"She can probably smell her mother. I don't know why she couldn't smell her before."
"I️ guess we should follow her." Nero ran past Frides and entered the building. He looked both ways and then turned back to frides. "See which way she went?"
Frides walked past him and went to the left.
"You could have just said that."
"...." Frides ignored Nero's question and answered with his own. "Do you think before you act?"
"What? I didn't know where she went, after I saw those two guys."
They walked through the hallways cautiously. Nero followed as Frides lead. They heard a loud growl come from up ahead and picked up the pace to find a man struggling to get a hold of Urs. A guy and a girl laughed while he struggled. Nero started to move towards them but Frides got in the way. He turned and looked at Nero.
"Follow my lead." Frides ran around the corner and called out to the guys trying to apprehend Urs. "Hey!"
Nero was confused but decided to go with it and ran after behind him.
"Hey! Don't hurt it!" The three guys looked up, and the guy trying to get a hold of Urs lost his grip and Urs scurried over to Frides. Frides picked her up and inspected her. "You guys didn't damage it did you."
"No." Taylos said defensively.
Frides started to check her wings and her face. She started to get flustered and feelling uncomfortable, so he handed her to Nero and he put her in his bag. "If you did, you guys will be giving me every bit of money I lose."
"My mistake we didn't know where it came from."
Frides exhaled and softened his expression to one of fatigue and frustration. "This thing was just a real pain to get here and its been real stressful. We cant even stay in town without someone trying to take her."
Taylos could see something in Frides' eyes. Something colder than the usual snatch and grab poacher. "Yeah..yeah... I understand, Domaku are rare. Credit us with a little more integrity. That's all yours."
"And then we make it to the front door and this idiot, nearly lets it get away." Frides gestured at Nero and Nero looked confused.
He realized he should play along. He turned to them, and shrugged his shoulders unapologetically. "Its always my fault."
Taylos could tell there was some kind of friction between the two and decided to drop it. "Yeah that's some luck. We thought we caught Ehecatl, once.
"Ehecatl? What happened?" Nero was genuinely curious. Ehecatl was one of the Twelve Sacred Beasts.
Jibot caught the glimmer in Nero's eyes. "A hurricane. It flapped its wings and uprooted the trees, all we could see were trees flying through the air, as well as our entire team."
"Whoa." Nero's eyes shined and he felt a jab and got a seriously pissed look from Frides.
"You think you can help us out? You guys know where we are supposed to take it?"
Dia had been sitting back and something didn't seem right about them. "Where? Who told you that?"
Taylos stopped her. "Dia relax! Sorry guys, they don't let people like us down there. If he told you to go ahead, then there must be a reason." Frides and Nero froze and got nervous. Taylos pointed down a hall. "Its down those stairs."
Nero and Frides and Urs waved back at the guys as they walked down the hall. They came across a door that was locked.
Nero looked at Frides. "Can you?"
Frides kneeled down and glowed a purple Glow lockpick. "Whatever gets this over the fastest."
The door unlocked and lead to a bunch of stairs carved into the ground leading down what looked like an old mining shaft. Nero frowned. "Creepy?!"
"It's just an old mining shaft."
"It wasn't like this before."
"You've been here?"
"No the other place he ran the business out of was more like a house."
"What do you mean?"
Nero felt like he had to come clean to Frides. "The guy who owns this place now, he had another location and I️ worked with him there as a bodyguard."
"You mean like a retainer?"
"No we just met and he hired me to protect him. The people here didn't like him. I️t was before I️ knew what he was doing."
"Why did you stop."
"Long story, I️ found out and told him to stop and then I️ killed him."
"And you say I'm a bad bodyguard."
"I guess it wasn't that long a story, whatever. I️ fucked up and then I️ fixed it. I️ thought I️ did at least."
"That's what I'll say when I kill you..." Frides got to the bottom and there had been cells added. They walked by and could barely make anything out because how dark I️t was down in the mine "What does he do?"
"He's a green book broker."
"What's his chapter?"
Urs started to wiggle again in the backpack and jumped out then ran. "Ow. I'm going stop putting you in there since your leg seems just fine."
He felt his neck and tried to see if he could see if he was bleeding. "And I️ think you scratched me. Hey where are you going?"
He tried to see down the hallway but couldn't make her out. He slowly walked down the hall unable to see and Frides followed him.
They heard a whimpering coming from the dark corridor. Nero picked up his pace and stumbled forward with his arms extended feeling for a wall to guide him. He Glowed his staff to light the way.
Frides chuckled. "I was wondering when you were going to do that."
Nero grabbed onto a wall and followed it toward the sound of whimpering. As they got closer he could hear the sound of waves crashing against rocks. The cave started to illuminate itself and he saw the moonlight shining through a carved out window in the cell wall.
Nero made out the great mass that was a fully grown mother Domaku. Her cub tried to nudge some life back into her but she was not moving or responding at all. Nero pulled on the cell door and I️t seems to be locked. Urs must have squeezed between the cell bars. He looked down and notices a lock and grabs I️t and places his hand over the keyhole. After a second of sitting on the keyhole he slowly pulled his hand away and a key made of glow manifested from the palm of his hand. After it was finished being formed it detached from his hand and he grabs I️t and turns opening the cell door.
Frides jaw dropped. "You knew how to do that? Why did you have me pick it?"
Nero was too focused on Urs and her mother to respond. He walked in slowly already realizing that Urs mom was dead. Frides caught up and stood outside of the cell.
"Urs?" Urs didn't turn around. "Urs, I didn't know she was this hurt."
Nero looked at the opening on the top of the mothers head and the dried up blood that had stained her once beautiful white fur coat. "Urs! Look at me! I️ just didn't know she was in this kind of condition. This doesn't even make sense. Maybe we could have not stayed the night, but you wanted to play with Ouran a little longer, so it's not all my fault. It's not my fault. It's not my fault, but.... I'm so sorry...I can't... I can't save anybody." He uttered.
Urs turned around and looked up at Nero.
"I can fix this." Nero walked out of the cell and looked over at Frides and quickly shifted his watering eyes. "Eh..."
He stopped to gather his self and his thoughts. "I'm going to go upstairs now and it might get dangerous again. I'm going to go up and um have a conversation with the owner of this establishment." Stopping every few words, he tried to hold himself together.
Frides grabbed Nero's arm. "Wait a second. We don't even know how many people are up there. What are you going to do?"
Frides looked at Nero in his eyes but Nero's eyes skated around the room never making solid eye contact with Frides. "He's not dead."
"No." Frides denied Nero. Frides refused to allow Nero to make a decision that could harm both of them.
"No? No, what?" Nero turned to Frides now angry enough that he didn't avoid eye contact.
"It's too dangerous. I don't know what the situation is with you and this guy but you're not thinking again. Which seems to be your usual."
Nero pulled his arm from Frides' grasp. "I'm not asking for your permission."
Nero tried to walk through Frides but he put up an arm. "I have to protect you. I don't have a choice. As your bodyguard if everybody in the room dies, you die after me, in whatever order that is."
Nero pushed Frides' arm out of his way. "No! I'm going, you don't have to go if your afraid."
"I'm not afraid of dying. It's a part of the contract, I have to die for you!" Frides poked at Neros chest. "I don't want to, so if I do die I'm afraid of it being pointless, especially when it comes to you. How about you?" Frides tried to level with Nero.
Nero could see that Frides was trying to level with him. He was basically saying he had to go along with whatever crazy situation he would get in. "As long as I kill him. You don't understand! This town is shit now. It's my fault, he was supposed to be dead, I killed him. Then he went and killed more people and destroyed all of these peoples lives. Lyras life! I know you care about her?"
Nero spat back at him with rage filled eyes still a little puffy.
Frides could see that Nero felt like he was truly responsible. "If you don't and you do fail and die trying, how do..."
"Well at least I tried. I don't blame the people of this town they can't help themselves. They don't know how!" Nero interrupted.
"Great. You think you're the first to try to stop him? Well you can guess how that turned out or maybe you know?" He asked Nero a non rhetorical question.
"So then what? What am I️ supposed to do?"
Fride said as plainly as he could. "Think."
TO BE CONTINUED...
Thanks for reading!