From the bottom of my heart, thank you to my p4tr0ns: Morpheaus, and RTB <3 <3 <3
Become a p4tr0n too and read up to FOUR chapters ahead!:
h t t p s : / / w w w . p a t r e o n . c o m / t r a s h w i t h g l a s s e s
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It took a few hours before we turned back to our true forms, so it was night, and we were having eel soup which Spoon had prepared with delight, maniacally smiling while throwing the spices into the pot.
"Good job! I knew you had a Deathbead in you, boy!", Twelve-Ax said, patting the little person on the back with such a strength that Spruce almost fell forward.
"No, it's all thanks to your training… Master!"
"No, no, no. I can tell you're building a solid magical foundation too. I just taught you a couple more advanced techniques ahead of time so as to allow you to fight properly."
"Yes… I'm giving my best", Spruce, who now had short straight black hair looked at Ike and I and smiled, not with arrogance, but thankfulness.
"It's not just the little person, right, Le- Hyber?" Lola said, resting her head on Hyber's lap. "They all have a little bit of Deathbead in them! Hey, why don't you invite them to join the Clan?"
"Hm… Maybe you're right", the sleepy boy said, tilting his head to the side.
"I- It's an honor, but I'm very proud of my clan too. The Clan my father helped to bring glory to", Ike politely declined.
I thought about Sunburned and Cloudless. About the Coyote Clan, or the little I knew about it. It was… tempting. To fully become part of that group. But it wasn't like family, more like friends! I was tempted by the offer, but family wasn't something I knew much about yet. I wanted to think more about that, before making any decisions.
"I… Need some time to think about that", I replied.
"Yeah, me too", Spruce said the same, embarrassed.
"That's fine, that's fine!", Twelve-Ax laughed. "For now, just enjoy the night!"
And so we did. We ate as much eel as our stomachs could hold, and then we had some more beer. We observed another brawl spring up in between the drunks, and Twelve-Ax punishing the aggressors when they made him spill his drink by forcing them into a hellish training session. Lola forced Hyber to dance with her, and we clapped our hands to the rhythm of the flutes and drums. The boys kept mostly quiet, but they threw acknowledging nods at us and reassured us that we had a vital role in that day's mission, and that we would always be welcomed in the Deathbead Clan.
The party only really ended at dawn break, when everyone was already sleeping on the sands of the beach, too drunk to even crawl to their tents. And I wasn't in any different condition.
When I woke up again, in the afternoon, I saw preparations being made on the beach so that the Clan could finally start mining the dragon horn: a dozen axes and picks were being thrown into the canoes, as well as rope and nets.
"I don't suppose you need us to break the horn off the skull too, right?", sitting on the beach and watching the waves beneath a palm tree, I asked the sleepy boy, who was still yawning, just waking up.
"Waaah….! No. The rest of the Clan can take care of things from here on."
"Well, I think it's time to go back to school then. I already lost enough classes with this and my previous adventure…", I got up, and brushed the sand off my butt.
"Sorry about that…"
"Nah, it's alright. It's not like attending my mark will change in a couple days anyway", I showed the red Ø symbol on my hand.
"Ah, that… I heard there will be an opportunity to change that soon. A tournament or something."
"Hey, that sounds nice. Maybe I'd finally have a break if I participated and raised my status as a student."
"Yeah, all this is bullshit forced on us by the Council Member Tanka, it wasn't like that before… Anyway, good luck with that" We stood side by side for a whole minute in complete silence. Then, he finally spoke again: "my story... is not as impressive as that of the others. I had been born in a very common tribe, to very common parents... but I lacked the very common basic skills to live there. I couldn't farm, hunt, prepare food, build houses, get water, sew clothes… I was a failure at everything. And I was treated as such. Then, one day, a group of raiders invaded our tribe, and killed nearly everyone... but me. And that is because, I had finally discovered something I was good at, Coyote. Fighting. Ever since that day, my objective has been to kill the leader of those raiders, a man named 'The Broken'. Not for revenge, but simply because I want to experience this thrill. Yaaawn…", he yawned again. "Are you going already?"
"Yes. Thank you for everything, Hyber. Really. It was fun…", There was one more thing. A question that refused to leave my mouth.
"You don't need to say that. Friend", hyber smiled.
Friend! I had a new friend!
"Yeah! See you again in the Bear Mountain, then", smiling wide, having my question answered without even asking it, I dashed for Ike and Spruce, and invited them to get back to the learning place.
*
I watched as Coyote pulled Ike and Spruce with his hands away, running towards the portal in the distance. Ahead of them, just picking over the horizon, black clouds foreshadowed a storm.
"…We have the energy source now. How fast can you get to the Rock With Wings?", I asked getting up.
"In about two months if we keep a low profile, Leader", Lola answered.
"There's no need for that anymore. Just get me that relic as fast as possible. We will proceed with the plan as soon as we get it", I said, putting my hand in my pocket and feeling the carvings in the red rock inside of it: an eye in high relief, and another in low relief, or a black eye on top of a white one. "Then, we will invade the Bear Mountain and finish our mission as Master Wolf ordered!"