'Am I gonna get gutted once that bodyguard is done checking the wounded Vyurborne?'
<...>
'DOMINION!'
'You're really making me stressed out here, Dominion. Stop hyping him too much, man! I'm already shitting myself here! How the fuck did you forget about this guy anyway?'
'Oversee your empire? Wait, wait, wait, I'm really lost here, Dominion. Who the hell is this man? And how the fuck are you so knowledgeable about him?'
'What?'
'Wait... This guy is that general we're talking about earlier?'
'What the fuck is he doing here?'
'Well, he's definitely menacing. He's been looking at me as if he's already imagining the many ways he can fillet my body.'
'...what? I was joking!'
'What the hell is a man like him doing out here?'
'Whatever his purpose is, our first meeting couldn't be any worse than this. Seeing a human carrying a dying Vyurborne... What shitty timing.'
While Dominion was speaking, the soldier checking on the wounded Vyurborne suddenly sprang up with an elated tone.
"It's her, general!"
Times then averted his attention to the soldier after hearing those words. A shocked and exasperated expression painted his wrinkled face. "Be more specific, soldier. What do you mean 'her'?"
"It's here! The traveler saved Gertrude!"
Times looked at me again with a gaze drowning in a sea of bloodthirst. But this time, his dropped jaw showed a rather shocked expression that I never expected to see from him after what Dominion had told me.
And yes, Times really did lunge forward. I took a step back, but my defenses immediately fell when I realized that he wasn't rushing towards me. Instead, he dashed straight into the wounded Vyurborne lady at the foot of the buloke, kneeling beside her with trembling hands and a few weeping hiccups.
And then, he cried.
'Eh?'
Times began to choke up as tears flowed out of his dark sunken eyes like a leak in the middle of a storm. The Vyurbornean leader covered his mouth with his wing while the other caressed Gertrude's cheek. The supposed bloodthirsty general started to stutter, and his composure slowly melts away as he tried to utter a few weak whispers. And before long, the general pulled the injured Vyurborne into his chest and wrapped his hands around her head. A refreshed smile suddenly appeared on his now bright and relieved face. Times' wings caressed the injured Gertrude's back with his eyes closed, lips trembling as its corners perk upward. Meanwhile, the soldier with him just knelt beside him wordlessly, awaiting his next orders.
'Yes... I... I can't believe it, but… He is.'
As I continued to converse with Dominion about our shared shock, General Times opened his eyes and directed a gentler gaze at me before speaking with an exasperated voice.
"You saved my daughter, traveler." General Times whispered in a husky tone while sniffing and coughing now and then. "I am indebted to you."
'What are you talking about?'
'So?'
And thus, Dominion and I gazed at General Times with awe as he gently patted on his daughter's head, whispering her name repeatedly with a beautiful smile of a father elated for his daughter's return.
"Gertrude… Gertrude…" Times whispered as he rocked Gertrude's body in his hands. "Forgive me, forgive father. I'll never let you go again."