Prelude 5 - A Lost Pet

The little creeping spider in the back of Kaye’s head returned. He knew proper quests were a part of all this. It had even been the allure of adventuring when they were young. Cestia would envision the most ambitious tasks, such as plucking crystal fruit from the moon, and the most mundane, such as finding a dozen differently-colored beetles in the undergrowth. The former, naturally, always ended in failure with Cestia hoisting Kearny to the branches just out of reach and him doing his best to be as helpful for her.

Although, sitting atop the old tree, on the throne of the forest with all the lands they had ever known or could possibly imagine laid before them still felt like a victory. Once, Kearny even glimpsed a sliver of rainbow in the distance and nearly fell off his perch with excitement, thinking he’d caught sight of the legendary Bifrost bridge.

Having a quest didn’t bother him. He just would’ve liked to further consider where he was putting his newfound potential energy. But his throat tightened and the exact words he wanted to say fled from him. Cestia would probably put her efforts into increasing her strength and Rufus implied the same should be true for him. Asking further questions only made him nervous that his momentum of success would meet the jagged wall of everyone’s irritation. He was doing fine without asking questions, so it didn’t matter anyway.

Char flattened his fringe as though he had a pair of arms joined together beneath a pink blanket as he noted, ”Several days ago, I was putting on a measured but contemplative performance when I met a wandering young man flaked by mud with fresh branches and needles biting at his collar. I thought him lost at first, and my supposition was not far from the truth. He is a Nortmir in need of your assistance.”

With Char’s precise guidance and detailed landmarks, it wasn’t long before Cestia, leading the pathfinding this time with Rufus and Kaye not far behind, came upon the man.

Only Kaye wasn’t confident on the “man“ part. The individual they met, according to the actor Charmie’s direction, wore rather snuggly-fit gray trousers which ended at the fleshy part of the knee. A woolen, green jacket dangled over their soft thighs, strung with large, silver rings that jangled whenever they shifted from one foot to the other. Bright red mittens with happy animals covered their slim hands and their glinting, obsidian hair was ever so slightly longer than Kaye’s neck-straining crimson locks. No curve bent the fabric at their chest, but some ladies around their town were waiting bloomers beyond Kaye and Cestia’s eighteen winters. Furthermore, Char used the rather-archaic “Nortmir” along with a cacophony of other old words and phrases, so Kaye resigned he could’ve been mistaken.

All the other details matched. The flakes of mud, without the simplest attempts to wash them off, crusted as the person listlessly regarded them. A long, needle-covered twig, healthy compared to the one Kaye had used, clung to their dipped shoulder like a patient caterpillar. Though they had found them exactly where Char promised, the shadowed, sunken look to their eyes indeed reflected that "lost" sentiment. 

Hunching over, the stranger greeted them politely and asked in the same breath, “Have you seen a sweet, fluffy little hairnut who responds to Crosha...and to Pelsdott? Please please...”

Rufus took a step back from the proceedings and gestured with his eyes for Kaye to join Cestia, who responded, “We haven’t seen...something like that but we’ll find it for you. Where did you see them last?”

Gulping in a quick breath, the stranger detailed what sounded like a familiar area not far from the rickety bridge they crossed to get on the train.

Without prompting, they gave their name as Reiden Harnes with a clipped but decently manly voice. Kaye pushed aside his questions, which didn’t matter, to ask, “What does a hairnut look like?”

Cestia added and clarified that they weren’t from the runic lands, rather Darings sent along by a “talking Charmdrop”. To this, Reiden’s eyes lifted with a flash of hope as he praised “kindly Cast”.

To Kaye’s question, Reiden started with a normal rabbit and added a denser, snowy coat with nearly buried fanned ears that dipped on the ground. His hands traced the air as he noted that a hairnut loved to be groomed by a light brush but even in its wild state their fur was among the silkiest things he had ever felt, especially his pet’s.

On this last note of ownership though, Kaye scrunched his eyes as he noticed the briefest hint of hesitation from Reiden. So, he pressed, “Is there anything else which might be important to finding him?”

Brushing his sleek, midnight-toned hair away from his face, Reiden swallowed hard and admitted, “I’m not its first owner. I cared for an older lady who lived in North Pronderosa. She called him Crosha but told me to call him Pelsdott. As I made sure she was comfortable and her house was taken care of, he would curl up snuggly in her lap. It was like we were a team, making sure she always smiled. When I found her one day recently, she was...asleep in her chair, but never to get up again. Crosha desperately hurried across her, nipping at her cheek, licking her hands, and making the most mournful whimpers I’ve ever heard from an animal. It took the will and strength of five men to separate him from her.”

Despite the fury and bloodlust Cestia had shown earlier, Kaye watched as her eyes twinkled with the crystalline hints of tears and her fingers spread over her grimacing mouth.

Pulling in a fresh breath, Reiden continued, “In her papers, she asked me to care for her ‘dear, constant friend’. I’ve done my best. At least, I hope so. My duties often take me far from home. Pelsdott always sat by the front window, gazing north. He barely nibbled on any food I gave him, even the freshest radiant carrots. All he cared about was this little golden band with a felt summerflower that he would wear around his neck. He would at least let me pet him when he wore it.”

Like usual, the plethora of words washed over Kaye. However, clear images fastened themselves to his inner thoughts. They had the same shades as when his mother passed all too soon after the loss of his father.

He could see himself hugging her forever-still face, cooling in bed despite all the blankets wrapped around her, and feel the anguish flare up anew, like fervent tears mixed with a nausea that refused to leave his gut. He had no context for the golden band of which Reiden spoke, but he carved as much detail as he could into his thoughts, like a constellation etched by fingernail scrapes. No matter what effort it took, he would do what he could to help.

Under further questioning, Reiden explained the other day he came home to Crosha gone. With persistence, the little creature had found a small enough opening between the wall and the glass to escape. Despite its determination to head north, unkind feet and guards had forced it through the southern gates, which Reiden had pieced together by asking around. He’d glimpsed the little hairnut but once. It had lost that brilliant, golden flower ribbon somewhere along the way. At that attempt to catch it, Crosha flared its teeth and fumed with untempered rage. He feared that its time in the wild had seeped in and the poor thing was beyond living among others.

“Please please… Help me find him. Although, if you find him happier out here, maybe I just need to let him go...But I need to know that I did all I could.”

Cestia readily assured the young man that they would do that and more. Kaye knew she couldn’t promise all that, but he nodded with her. For the moment, they helped him clean off and left him in the clearing with “Cast” and Rufus for company.

Before they left to begin their search though, Rufus reminded them to search both high and low, considering the bounds of a hairnut were greater than one might expect. He also warned them that even though a feral, angry one was only a level 2 type creature, they were both only level 4.

“There is no lost pride in running away.” Cestia held her jaw tight but dipped her head faintly to Rufus’s statement.

Soon, it was just the two of them, alone in the forest with a singular goal in mind. While Cestia crouched down to check the lowest bushes, Kaye took the opportunity to mark on his parchment that he wanted all his gained potential to go towards strength.

<STR + 3> — <STR = 11>
HP = 120, SP = 14
ATK = 19, DEF = 2...

At least it wasn’t one anymore but a lot of the stuff on his parchment still felt desperately pathetic.

To keep his mind off how far he still had to go to even feel on the same level as Cestia, let alone earning the title of the King of Adventure, Kaye followed what he surmised from Rufus’s tip and squinted through the late-day sun at the upper branches of the evergreens. Cestia dug in and swiped at the moss-mottled floor of the forest as fervently as she had with polishing away the damage she’d done to Char’s stage. Before long, they found Crosha.

It was surprisingly out in the open, as though it had been evading Reiden more than people in general. Still, they approached it slowly from opposite sides. The small, natural sounds, like birds shifting from one branch to another or little animals scurrying about, seemed to give pause for the heaving whimpers of Crosha. Some of them sounded like an old gate battered back and forth by the wind but soon rose to an agonized crescendo.

It sounded like a baby without breath fighting to cry. Furious squeaks followed between those noises as it shook and yelped. Then, it went silent and completely still.

From that stony absence, a bitter noise rumbled through it. Though its eyes were not red, a similar, vengeful fury bled through its snowy peace. Since she was closer, it launched at Cestia first.

Despite all the Charmies she'd slain and her eagerness to challenge Char, her knife didn’t rise swiftly. Setting her feet and turning at the last moment, she batted at the creature with the blunt edge, wincing. As soon as the hairnut had tumbled down, it recovered and bounded to its feet again with a wide-mouthed attack. Cestia responded by crouching down and bringing her shoulder around to use the critter’s momentum against it.

She dodged against Crosha’s swiftness and slapped it aside even as her fingers started to run with red, faintly tinting its otherwise immaculate fur.

When Crosha finally took notice of Kaye, some of her previous intensity loosed. With a swift headbutt, Cestia knocked it off-course but also leveled herself with staggering pain.

”Find that golden band!” Cestia howled through grit teeth as her eyes flicked to her inventory. None of the random things she’d acquired thus far could distract or mollify the angry creature.

Scrambling on unsure feet, Kaye swiftly gazed all over the forest for some contrast of gold against all the green and brown. He didn’t want to wander far from the fight, but he could find nothing.

Finally, right before he wanted to convince himself to turn back, he caught the faintest glinting amidst the roots of a tall tree. Bits of fur and layers of mud obscured it, but a good shake and a firm brush restored some luster.

Dashing back to the struggle, Kaye was relieved both Cestia and Crosha were alive, though winded, sharing a glare, and bracing for the next attack.

“Here!” Kaye cried out with the band stretched to catch as much sunlight as he could find. Crosha didn’t need to turn his head to see. He lowered his stance and Cestia dipped her dripping hands. Carefully, Kaye approached and offered up the straightened band to the creature. A rumble of irritation warned him not to risk slipping it around its head, so he just placed the item right in front of the hairnut and took a step away towards Cestia. The furry creature gave a slight, pained whimper. Bending its head forward, Crosha nuzzled the fabric and shut his eyes.

Cestia brought Reiden over while Kaye made sure it didn’t try to escape again. Fortunately, it made no effort to stop nuzzling the golden fabric. Besides, Kaye wasn’t sure what he could do if it decided to flee.

Running the last few steps, Reiden embraced Crosha and whispered between tears. “Thanks to my friends of Mithgard and beyond for reuniting us.”

Gently, he slipped the band around the hairnut and dabbed a bit of water to clean its blood-speckled fur. Cestia had already cleaned her weeping wounds and wrapped them with a bit of fabric from her travel bag.

“I’m so sorry, my friend. We both miss her greatly. But those we lose are never truly lost. They follow us as our ancestors do. She is always by your side.”

Kaye scrunched up his face. He had no idea if such creatures understood words. But he had spoken to all the livestock when the farm became a little sadder and quieter. It was probably his imagination that they could feel a difference, but it still meant a lot to him to let them know. No matter if it was a meaningless gesture.

Slowly, tentatively Crosha pressed its head affectionately into Reiden's chest. It even flicked its tongue out. In return for their invaluable assistance in reuniting them, Raiden gave them each 1000 Zel as a reward. Additionally, Kaye felt a little different, as though something around was responding to what they had done.

< +100 XP and 50 points DARING ADVANCEMENT.>
<QUEST COMPLETED.>