289 Vol. 4 pt. 92 Patch 15.0: (1/2)
When Fenrir and Azalabulia return to the others, they are not met with teasing nor knowing eyebrow wiggling.
Instead, everybody seems too busy discussing something. Going by how not a single one of them is smiling, and the serious expressions on their face, it is clear that something is going on.
”What do you think is wrong?” Azalabulia asks, the seriousness of the group even snapping her out of her mumbling and giggling.
”I have one idea,” Fenrir answers.
And that idea of his gets confirmed once they make it up to the others.
”Hey, what's wrong?” Fenrir asks the group who's all standing together in a circle.
”Oi, how come ya didn't think of tellin' us this sooner?” Tabitha asks.
Fenrir looks over at Nell.
She nods and says, ”I told them like you told me to, my hero.”
”Right. Thanks. Anyways, uh, I just didn't bring it up because of everything else going on. Plus I only just recently found out,” Fenrir says.
”So, ya decided to go and have some fun while havin' her break the news for ya?” Tabitha asks.
”Well… when you put it that way, it does sound pretty bad.”
”How'd it go?” Oleander asks, leaning in.
”Yeah. How'd it go?” Serra asks as well.
”W-we can talk about that later,” Fenrir answers.
”The-there's nothing to talk about!” Azalabulia claims.
Oleander and Serra look at each other and then back up at the other two to give them some thumbs-ups.
”Anyways… sorry, Tabs. I just didn't have a good time to bring it up before,” Fenrir says.
”Ya could have said somethin' last night or earlier!” Tabitha shouts. ”Ya didn't think it'd be a good idea to tell us right away about some mysterious underwater army?!”
”Well, it might be an army, but it's not like it's marching this way or anything. It's just sort of standing around on the bottom of the ocean.”
”And for how long do ya think it's goin' to stand around doin' nothin'?!”
”Hopefully forever?”
”I know you're used to bein' spoiled what with havin' four girlfriends and all that, but don't ya think that this might be a bit too much wishful thinkin'?”
”N-no? I mean, maybe it's only going to do anything if anybody tries attacking the serpent or going too far east. Why else would it just be standing around doing nothing?”
”I don't know, but it sounds like somethin' that should be seriously considered when we're supposed to be buildin' a city!”
”Alright, you're right. It's not like we can just ignore a major potential threat like that when it's there. I wouldn't want us to build a city only for it to get wiped out by some random underwater monster army's attack.”
Then Fenrir remembers something.
Back when he first visited the town to the north, he was told about how the walls built around it are for more than to protect them against storm surge.
”—raging storms and the creatures that come in with them.”
”Just gotta worry about the storms and what they bring.”
Is that what they were talking about?
Though, even if that does turn out to be the case, the sheer size of the army that Fenrir was shown could easily wipe out that town regardless of what defenses it may or may not have.
They also said something about dragons, prompting Fenrir to look up at the mountains.
”What if,” Fenrir thinks to Saya, ”you could be a puppy-dragon hybrid? Like, you would still have puppy ears, but you'd also have horns and wings and a dog tail.”
”No,” Saya answers, ”and don't you have way more important things to be worrying about right now?!”
Fenrir sighs and looks back down to Tabitha. ”I heard about creatures that come with storms. That's why they have those walls built up there and nothing is built outside of them,” he explains.