"Nice, just nice…"
The voice sounded chilly, barely keeping in all the hatred she had built up over the time of Moros absence.
"Do you know what the funniest part is? Every time I was asked, ' Do you know where Moros is? Does it look like I do?'"
Malissa began to speak faster, the tone dipping more into anger.
"Do I look like his Mom? No, I do not know why he did not go to school. Yes, I have tried to reach him. No, he did not answer. Yes, I have sent them a message. No, he did not tell me either where he went."
Moros kept quiet, everything he did and could say now would be used against him and his balls. His instinct to flee was screaming up, but he did not like his odds of survival if he listened to it.
"Quite the comedian are we not? Staying away from school on this planet for nearly 2 whole weeks, huh? Not responding to any message, because you are the funniest boy I know, huh? Really funny my guy, really, really funny!
Moros mind commanded his mouth to keep quiet and not let out a single laugh.This was a trap and he would not walk into it.
Drops of sweat formed atop the man, who was in deep, deep trouble. This was not solely caused by his fear. It was also the ring of fire that had formed around his surroundings.
Even if he wanted to run away now, there was no way he could ever do that. The fire mage had some burning questions that she wanted answered…
" I am really thankful that you are not dead, Moros. Otherwise, I would have never had the chance to be the one to actually kill you."
One might have mistaken her words for a threat. Judging by the heat radiating out by the flames, coming closer and closer it was more of a serious consideration…
" What will it be this time? Let me have a guess…"
Moros kept silent, his story would only seem like a lie. Explaining his circumstances would only sound like a fake excuse.
"You just forget that you had school for 13 days straight. How about you just beame a wanted criminal on Elysium and had to flee from some sort of evil crime syndicate that used you for some super, evil secret experiment…"
"She is awfully close to the truth. Just that the ones involved do act in the interest of forces of 'good.' Though I do doubt she is willing to hear your tale…"
Moros could only look at the flying dollar bill and the wolf that stood before him and question their sanity. Did they have to appear before him and her to add fuel to the fire?
As if the circumstances were not dire enough of their own, they began to fan the flames to start another damn forest fire here.
Was burning down the Evergreen Forest not enough?
Why not burn him to a black, charred mess while they are at it?
"Fool," barked the wolf in a low voice. "Do you think others can see our form, especially if they share bonds with the Gods?"
"He thinks that he is looking all secretive while staring like a lunatic. My dear host, allow me to tell you a little thing…why do you assume that you were not yet murdered in cold blood, by the one you call Malissa?"
Moros was caught off-guard by that question. Indeed, despite all the danger he felt lurking behind him, he had yet to experience any real harm.
Though he did not turn around, at this point he felt wise to just let this situation run its course.
"Maybe you just fucked off and disappeared after falling in love with a big pile of money. Perhaps you had a jolly good time fighting and killing goblins, huh. If you pray hard enough, maybe you will find a goblin that can't be killed and always stands up again, you fighting-obsessed, money-craving bastard…"
"How is she doing this? How can she predict your story without being closeby? To any outsider the things you have lived through would seem fully absurd?"
Moros stared at the sky and wondered that much himself…"Why can I just not tell her the truth?"
His mouth wanted to open, but he found himself unable to speak the words. He literally could not speak.
" I do apologise for not allowing you to speak the truth to her. But my existence as a system forbids others from knowing about our little pact. Otherwise there might be un-for-seen consequences"
Moros hope of surviving this ordeal just evaporated into thin air yet again. How could he get out of this whole thing, if he was not even allowed to tell her the truth?
Could he even tell a lie convincing enough that would explain everything in a believable way? Should he just insist he lost his memories?
"Hello Madam in a bikini top that I have never seen in my life, who are you? And where do you know me from?.You say my name is Moros? I have never heard that name in my entire life, you must have mistaken me for someone else"
As if that would not get him killed much sooner.
He quickly turned around to come up with the best lie of his life, because that very life dependent on the excuse he would be coming up with now.
He could not see the face of Malissa since she had covered it in her dancing flames, though just judging by her body language, the dropped shoulders and the twitching arms and legs…she was certainly not very happy at this moment.
One should rather say she was more than mad. So mad that Moros had never seen her in this state.
"I must admit that I was on a secret mission for the Terra family."
She did not move an inch, but she still had not incinerated him. As such she was indeed willing to listen to his side of the story first before deciding what to do with him.
"I could not contact you, since any communication or information regarding this event would have just reflected negatively on the family. Would I have been caught, they simply would have dropped me since I am just the problem child of the Terra family"
Moros spoke with all the sincerity he could muster, which was not a lot, but his brain could not come up with a better story even if he would have thought for a very long time.
He simply uttered what came to his mind and he tried to keep his eyes steady, often looking to the floor as if he was ashamed.
Which he, of course, clearly was not.
" A secret dungeon was discovered here and it was my turn to find its location and secure it for the family. The problem was that other members of the family could never move without the wrong kind of eyes focussing on them."
The flames were still very intense, but the heat dropped a bid? Moros knew enough to not think he was safe just yet. He still needed to tell his story to the bitter end, or else she might catch some plot holes in this mess that he had just created for himself.
"Dion, did not tell you about it because he very much knows that this sort of rumor should not spread!"
Moros shook his head at the mention of his brother, casually throwing all the blame and shade onto him─like any true brother would do.
"Announcing my absence from school was also not an option, since that would just make even more people curious. Painting this as some kind of average teenager tantrum was the best strategy we came up with to assure absolute secrecy"
"I do apologise for not informing you for such a long time, but I didn't even have the option to do so. You see, the took my magical device as a cover- up"
The flames lessened yet again, by now it was only a pitiful flame that surrounded them. He could run if he wanted to. Though in doing so, he would destroy the alibi he had worked so hard for,
Malissa without saying a word turned around, her face still obscured by the flames.
"ICE-CREAM, NOW!" she yelled at Moros, who, like a soldier in war, simply followed orders and ran behind her.
He did not know where to get the money from or where she wanted to eat. But he did not dare question her authority.
He had survived this terrible situation; that was all that mattered to him at the moment. Even if buying some ice-cream for her was a steep price he had to pay, it was better than the alternative…his balls thanked him for offering up money instead of them.
This had never been something that was about winning, it was just about how much he lost.
And there was much he could have lost instead, of his pride and the money for an ice-cream.
"However, the only thing that you truly lost are your brains! Don't you see behind this act of hers?"
Moros looked at the wolf that walked beside him and shook his head, opening his mouth he replied in a barely audible tone.
"Do you think I was stupid? I did notice that I was not talking to the Malissa I know there…"