Chapter 3: The Reaper

The Reaper

 

            Two weeks after recruiting Lepp to the cause, he, Azazel, and Kamikaze went out of the castle into the wilderness for two weeks of what Master Zetsumei called “survival training.”  Azazel questioned for a moment why Lepp was included, but then he remembered their mutual master had a knack for knowing things he was not involved in.

            It was already night on their second to last day in the field.  The trio were sitting around a fire in a clearing in a small patch of woods miles away from the castle.  Azazel’s eyes opened from his sleep and he noticed Kamikaze still awake on her watch duty.  He slowly sat up and looked at her glowing in the light of the fire.  She was just staring at something in the distance, probably just zoning out.  It had been a long and uneventful two-week period.  They were supposed to be out here for survival training, but nothing had happened to cause them any trouble.

            “Wanna swap out early?  You look like you’re about to pass out, ‘Kami,” Azazel said, groaning as he stood up.  He stretched and grabbed his sheathed rapier and strapped it around his waist, with the blade at his back, hilt aimed towards his left elbow.  His red eyes looked around and he sighed.  “This whole thing was pointless.  Nothing has happened in these two weeks to trigger any sort of fight or flight scenario.  It is what it is, I guess.”  Azazel leaned against the tree he was sleeping against.

            “I have to ask, why the sudden friendship with Lepp?  I mean, don’t get me wrong, he’s been an awesome sparring partner for training my magic but…it kinda seems like it came out of nowhere, ya know?  What are you planning?”  Kamikaze turned to her brother and stared him in the eyes.  It was clear she had been wondering for a while; it had already been a month now since Lepp first flung ice into their lives.

            Azazel hadn’t told anyone else about his plan yet and figured this might be the perfect time to let his sister in on his secret.  He sat next to her and explained what was going on in his head.  As he explained, he saw a smile break on her face.

            “Zazers…I love it.  It’s an awesome plan.  So the three of us and…” she stopped for a moment as she thought.  No one else they knew came to her mind.  “Well, maybe three isn’t a bad starting point, huh?”  Her eyes flickered away for a moment as the two of them realized they had lived sheltered lives since they came to the castle.  Azazel shrugged and wrapped his arm around his sister’s shoulder.

            “We’ll get there.  Three is definitely a good starting point,” Azazel said as his eyes turned to Lepp, who silently stood up and stared into the woods as several pairs of amber eyes peeked out at them.  The snow felinus materialized his golden staff as the other two scrambled onto their feet and grabbed their respective weapons: Kamikaze’s twin swords and Azazel’s rapier.

            “Shadow Lupines.  You guys think this is why Master Zetsumei sent us out here?”   Lepp wondered aloud as the lupines began lunging at the trio.  Lepp launched out masses of ice as the two blade wielders began slashing and stabbing their way through the lupines.  Azazel cried out as one clamped onto his bicep, ripping into his crimson shirt, revealing the gray fur underneath. 

Azazel growled and held his rapier back as a mass of fire blasted directly into the lupine attached to his arm.  He cried out in pain, but his task was accomplished as the lupine immediately released its grip and fell to the ground as a lifeless lump.  The hound staggered into a tree behind him as the pain in his punctured arm continued to get worse.  He fell to the ground as his vision blurred…

“Hey now.  Dying isn’t allowed when I’m around,” a feminine voice sounded next to him as a young hound walked up, dropping a bag next to Azazel.  The hound had black and white fur seemingly divided by hard lines with purple and yellow polka dotted fur scattered on his arms and legs.  He had a purple mohawk and a purple patch of fur over his left eye.  Purple stripes of fur ran down from his shoulders down the outer edges of his chest.  In his right hand was what seemed like just a simple pole.  He held his left hand out as a healing aura surrounded Azazel.

“Take it easy.  I’ll cover you, how about that?” he said smiling softly.  He looked at the lupines being held off by Kamikaze and Lepp and his look immediately took a serious turn.  He took his pole in both hands as a massive curved blade formed at the tip revealing the true nature of the newcomer’s weapon.  The hound took one step and immediately seemed to vanish; when he reappeared, he was in the middle of the shadow lupines.  The hound now had a stern glare in his amber eyes.  With one swift movement, he spun around with his scythe slashing through a massive group of the creatures, sending them all flying.

A howl filled the night sky as the beasts turned tail and retreated.  The hound stood back up and glanced at his scythe.  “Thank you Ouroboros, that’s enough for now,” he said as he looked back over to Azazel.  The healing aura dispersed as he knelt to the injured hound.  Kamikaze and Lepp began to interrupt until Azazel shook his head.

“He helped us out and healed my arm, leave him.”  The newcomer held Azazel’s arm up and ripped the shirt, apologizing in the process, to get a better look at the arm.  The fur around the bite had turned black and the smell from the puncture holes was putrid.  The hound let go of Azazel’s arm to look into the bag he had dropped upon his arrival.  He found some stitching needles and thread along with an unmarked bottle with a blue liquid in it.

“This might hurt a little…well, it’ll actually hurt a lot.”  The hound looked back to Kamikaze and Lepp.  “You two are his friends, right?  Name’s Oktober.  We can talk later, but can you two hold him down?  I can’t have him squirming while I do this.  As for you, “Oktober looked back to Azazel.  “I need you to lie on your back, okay?”  Azazel hesitated for a moment before nodding.  Azazel dragged himself away from the tree and, with Oktober’s help, laid on the ground.

Kamikaze and Lepp moved forward and helped keep Azazel in place; Kamikaze keeping his legs firmly on the ground and Lepp sitting on his stomach, using a bit of magic to form straps of ice around his other arm.  Oktober stifled a chuckle before turning his attention to the arm.  He uncorked the unmarked bottle and poured a little bit of the blue liquid over the entire area of the bite.  As soon as the liquid met Azazel’s fur and the skin beneath it, the liquid immediately bubbled, and the hound smiled.

“Good, this won’t be too bad then.  You got lucky, the lupine that got you must’ve been young; the venom wasn’t very potent.”  Oktober looked at Lepp’s confused look and began explaining.  “Shadow Lupines produce a venom in their teeth.  It’s not too well known, I suppose, since most people don’t really wander the wilds.  I’ve been out here for a few months now, so I guess I learned quickly how to deal with it.”

Oktober worked as he talked, tying the punctures from the teeth shut with the needle and thread after ensuring some of the blue liquid seeped into the bite wounds themselves.  “Alright, a single night’s rest and you should be good as new,” he said as he put away his supplies.  “If the three of you want to rest, I can keep an eye out.”

“Sounds good.  But what about after the night passes?  What will you do, just wander the wilds more?  How about a home?”  Azazel and Kamikaze looked towards Lepp who had spoken up.  The felinus looked towards his companions and smirked.  “Well, he’s already proven to be more than proficient in battle and we lack any sort of healing support.  He helped us without any knowledge of reward or indicator of gratitude.”  Lepp looked to Oktober next.  “What do you say?  Assuming my friends agree, would you like to come with us?”

Azazel and Kamikaze smiled and nodded, looking to Oktober and anticipating his reaction.  The hound stumbled over his words for a moment before finally being able to speak up.

“Absolutely.  It’ll be nice to have a proper home.  It’d…it’d be the first home I’ve had in quite some time…”  his eyes wavered as he finished speaking but he quickly regained his composure.  The subject was dropped as the trio from the castle fell into slumber and Oktober jumped into a tree to keep an eye out into the wilds.

With the rising sun, the four packed their things and looked to the east where the castle sat far in the distance, glowing in the sunlight.  Azazel looked to the other three and smiled as they began their return, and first arrival, home.