302 Vol. 5 pt. 10 Patch 3.0: (1/2)
With an unknown amount of time between now and when the enemies from the depths will attack, Fenrir can not afford to waste time and he now finds himself preparing for a trip into the mountains.
The mountains that have stood tall and proud since their arrival to this region are the tallest that he has ever seen both in reality and in-game. While their bases are hidden behind the forests surrounding them, the snow-covered peaks reach high above the clouds. They stretch from the southern end of the coast to its northern end, and they are part of a massive range that sprawls from this eastern coast to the western coast of the continent. Though, the mountains at this end of the continent are far taller and more impressive than they are elsewhere.
And somewhere within these mountains are the supposed dragons that Fenrir wishes to make an alliance with.
For this mission of his, he was only planning on bringing Rao, Azalabulia, and Nell, but Cassiel and Serra decided that they want to tag along. After all, they've never met any dragons before, and who wants to pass up that opportunity?
Rao and Shogun make a great scouting time, Azalabulia is just powerful and likely an invaluable asset in case any fighting happens against strong opponents, and Nell is on good terms with one of the world's serpents. Serpents and dragons are basically members of the same family to Fenrir, so he's decided that bringing her along would be a good idea.
With only four of them and Shogun, they wouldn't need much supplies and getting around would be easier. But now, with Cassiel and Serra wanting to tag along, they have a bit of a problem. Not only is their manpower going to be unevenly split between those working on preparing the defenses while most go into the mountains in search of dragons, but they have to take more food and carry more supplies than they otherwise would have had to.
Had this been back in the day, Fenrir would have had no problem telling unnecessary people that they would potentially be detrimental to a mission – especially one as potentially important as this one. But now? Well, it's just a game and he wants his girlfriends to be happy, so why not?
”It's probably not going to be too pleasant climbing through mountains, and you might get hurt. Just keep that in mind,” Fenrir tells Cassiel and Serra.
”I'll be fine,” Cassiel says. ”I'm more worried about the others.”
He knows that she has a good point. Cassiel has never shied away from getting rough and dirty, but… Nell is Nell, Serra is Serra, and Azalabulia is Azalabulia. He can't easily imagine any of them being the types to handle climbing around in mountains.
This is when Nell expands her wings out to lift a few feet up off of the ground. ”I think I will be fine as long as I can do this!” she says.
”I… I completely forgot you even had wings,” Fenrir says.
”That is rather understandable since I never use them! I much prefer walking with my own two feet when I am in-game, after all. I must admit that I do not feel fully comfortable doing this, either. It is… a very odd feeling.”
”In that case, we only really need to worry about how Serra and Azawaza will do.”
”I've got this,” Serra says.
”How so?”
”Look,” she says, pointing down at the ground by his feet.
”What?”
”Look closer.”
Fenrir tilts his head before crouching and looking down at the ground, not seeing anything other than grass.
This is when Serra climbs up onto his back, wrapping her legs and arms around him. ”I'll be fine as long as you carry me,” she says.
”You know this is going to make it even more dangerous if I have to carry you around, right?” he asks.
”What if I do this while you carry me?”
She slides her feet down toward his crotch.
He quickly grabs them to pull them back up to a safer and less perverse spot.
”You don't need to go that far,” he says.
”I'll pay you back later then,” Serra says, giving the back of one of his canid ears a quick nibble which causes him to jump.
Fenrir stands up with Serra still clinging to his back. She then slides down him since she doesn't need to be carried quite yet, resulting in her shirt getting caught between their bodies and ending up covering her head as she accidentally flashes the others.
”You're ridiculous,” Cassiel says, grabbing onto Serra's shirt and tugging it down.
Serra replies with a thumbs-up as Fenrir turns his attention to Azalabulia.
”Have any experience with mountain climbing by any chance?” he asks, expecting the worst. She's older, a teacher in reality, and has spent all her time being a magical caster type in-game. He doubts that somebody like her is going to have much experience with climbing. There is also the fact that she's just so clumsy and—
”Tons!” Azalabulia answers. ”I was raised in Colorado, and we always went out on the weekends and during summer to go hiking, mountain climbing, camping – I – I can teach all of you how to do it the best way!”
Fenrir blinks a few times. ”Huh. So you're more of an outdoors kind of girl than I thought you'd be.”
”I have to admit it's also part of why I wanted to go to Alaska – to experience the nature there! Unfortunately, I never did find anybody to go snowboarding and skiing with… wait!”
”What?”
”We have all these mountains here! We could get Tabitha to make snowboards for us, right?”
”You get really excited about this sort of stuff, don't you?”
”A-ah… sorry. Is – is it weird? It's probably not feminine at all… I – I was always worried that—”
”Don't worry about anything. It's nice to see that you get excited about things other than explosions, and I'm sure that Tabitha could make something like snowboards for us.”
”Are – are you sure?”
”Come on, Azawaza. You know that none of us are going to judge you for being into outdoors stuff. If anything, that just means more activities for us to enjoy together. Right?”
”Sounds fun,” Serra says.
”Just think of everything that could go wrong!” Nell says.
”There aren't any mosquitos or invasive bugs in this game, so I don't see why not. It'll be harder to get me to do anything in real life unless you get me tons of mosquito spray, though,” Cassiel explains.
”See?” Fenrir asks.
Azalabulia blushes, twirls some of her hair around one of her fingers, and looks away slightly. ”Y-yeah.”
”Good. Now, as soon as Rao and Shogun are ready, we can get going.”
”What's taking them so long anyways?” Cassiel asks.
”No idea.”
Meanwhile, below The Shoebill's deck, Rao is struggling to convince Shogun to come with him.
”Bro, come on,” Rao says, reaching a hand down toward Shogun only for Shogun to lightly bite his hand before going back to what he was previously doing: cuddling with Rock.
”I know you don't want to be separated from your girl for long, bro, so I swear we're not going to take long. Come on.”
Shogun looks at Rock, looks up at Rao, and then barks.
”I didn't raise you to be this stubborn. Come on, you're going to be flying the whole time anyways, so you won't get to see her even if she does come with us.”
Rao knows that he has to be careful not to say the real reason in front of Rock. Truthfully, they all know and agreed that Rock—being made out of rock—would be too slow and clumsy to bring along with them. She doesn't have a full range of movement compared to regular dogs. If she trips and falls, she might be in serious danger since her body breaks relatively easily from blunt impacts. Her limbs are especially at risk. So, to have her go with them when they're going to be traversing dangerous terrain that is easy to trip on and fall long distances, none of them want to risk bringing Rock along.
Except for Shogun.
”We need you, bro. How else are we going to fly ahead and scout things out? The only reason they even want me to go is because me and you can team up and scout for them,” Rao pleads.
Shogun ignores him and curls up against Rock whom is more than happy to cuddle back up against him.
Rao takes a few moments before asking, ”Bro, you know why she can't come, right?”
Shogun lifts his head and nods.
”Then why do you still want her to come? You know she'd be in danger, right?”
Shogun shakes his head.
Rao sighs and looks at Rock. ”Yo, Rock. Do you actually know what's up?”
Now it's Rock's turn to nod her head.
”So, you know how dangerous it is?”
She nods again.
”Do you want to come?”
Rock barks and licks the side of Shogun's face.
”You know bro isn't going to be happy about that, right? It's going to be up to you to convince him to let you come.”
Rock nods and stands up, getting Shogun to stand up as well.
”Alright, I get it. You two are a package deal now. If that's what you want, it's all good, but good luck getting past the others.”
They ignore his words to instead run up the stairs to the deck together.
”Seriously. What's up with everybody around here being all in love with each other? Even the shortie has got a crush now,” Rao groans to himself before heading above deck.
”It's okay. You might find somebody someday. Maybe,” Oleander says, poking out from behind the mast as soon as Rao steps onto the deck.
”Dude, you were listening to all of that?”
”Listening to you talk to Shogun and Rock was too cute to pass up. And funny. It's especially funny since you couldn't get your way with them.”
”That's messed up. You shouldn't listen to people when they don't expect it.”
”Just like how you shouldn't go around flipping girls' skirts to see if they're actually girls or not?”
”I – I mean, come on, I admitted I fucked up and apologized.”
”I know, but I'm still going to tease you for it.”
”I see how it is.”
”Good! Anyways… don't feel too bad. I'm sure even somebody like you will find somebody someday.”
”It's not like I feel bad or anything.”
”You sure about that?”
”I mean… I guess I'm kind of jealous, or maybe bitter, I don't know. It's not like I'm upset or anything. I just… I guess I kind of want to know what it's like, or something, probably. I don't know.”
”You know, Rao, you're actually pretty likable when you're being honest! Plus you're not super douchey anymore. Aaannddd, you are pretty handsome. So, just be patient! Maybe you'll find some cute girl up in the mountains. You never know! After all, I wasn't expecting to meet my Cor in some bar full of huge, oily, muscly men. And I doubt that Fenny was expecting to meet… four girlfriends in this game.”
”He's way too lucky.”
”I know, right? But Fenny has always been lucky. You just have to hope that some of that luck rubs off onto you! It'll happen even faster if you rub yourself against him.”
”No.”
”Boo. Come on, join the cute side! We have cookies. And lots of cum. Like, lots of it.”
”I'm going now. See you in a few days, bro.”
”Mhm! Me and Cor will be here helping Tabitha out, so try not to get yourselves killed in the mountains. If you do get killed, just remember you'll respawn naked over here where everybody can see you.”
”I won't die. You'd enjoy getting to see me too much.”
”You know it!”
Rao shakes his head and waves to go and rejoin the others.
There, Fenrir is dealing with Rock's insistence on wanting to come with them.
He didn't want to just outright go and tell her that she wasn't allowed to come because he is worried about her getting seriously hurt. His girlfriends are just players of the game and will respawn if they die. Rock won't. If anything were to happen to Rock, there would be no way to bring her back.
But, at the same time, she's his dog. She's been with him since the very beginning. She hasn't gotten to do much with him lately, so it wouldn't be fair to keep on sticking her to the sidelines hoping that she'll be content just lazing around with Shogun. As much as he wishes she would be happy just doing that – living a nice, safe, lazy life… he knows that she wouldn't be happy with that if her master is going out on adventures without her.
”Alright, Rock,” Fenrir says, squatting down so that he can be eye-level with her. ”You can come with us, but you're not allowed to get hurt. Alright? I'm going to retire you to nothing but being-lazy duty if you get hurt.” He wouldn't actually, but he's hoping that the threat will be enough to get her to be extra safe. ”And just bark if you ever need help. If the ground is too uneven or there is a cliff too high to climb up or anything, just bark and I'll help you out. Don't try to do it on your own if you're not sure. Alright?”
”Helicopter parent,” Cassiel says under her breath.
”I'm not a helicopter parent. I just care about my dog and don't want her to get hurt.”
”Sounds like the kind of stuff my dad would say to me to give me a bunch of rules.”
”You know, some rules are alright to have. We can't just screw rules completely.”
”We can if rules get personified,” Serra says.
”What?”
Serra wiggles her eyebrows.
”Oh. No, there is no Rules-chan, and we're not going to screw her,” Fenrir says.
”Boring,” Serra pouts.
”Just let her come with us and stop worrying so much. Rock will be fine,” Cassiel says.
”You know, you were worried about her, too,” Fenrir calls her out.
”Y-yeah, but she obviously wants to come with us really badly, so let's just let her.”
”So, just because she wants something really bad, she gets her way? What if we have kids and you tell them they're not allowed to do drugs, but they really want to?”
”That's not a fair comparison.”
”Yeah, but you have to have rules before then. If you suddenly introduce rules only at the most extreme time to do so then they're not going to listen.”
”Hmph. I guess…”
Fenrir sighs and says, ”But, I promise that we won't have too many rules. Only the really important ones. Alright? No helicopter parenting.”
”Good.”
”Kiss and make up now,” Serra says.
”It's – it's not like we were fighting or anything. There isn't really anything to make up for, is there?” Fenrir asks.
Though, when he looks up at Cassiel, he sees her annoyed with the fact that he's not kissing her.
He surrenders and kisses her before there is anything to actually have to make up over.
”Are you done being all lovey-dovey in front of everybody now? We're on a tight schedule, bro,” Rao says.
”Right. Alright. Let's just take this wagon up to the base of the mountain and then we'll go from there,” Fenrir says.