31- Forgotten truths

At last, with Feugan’s cooperation, Ayi was finally relieved of the ghost feeling of caresses not aimed to her, as well as tickles on members that certainly didn’t belong to her, giving her a moment of respite after the hectic morning that had taken place.

At least for a brief time.

While the small talk continued within the dragon’s room, walking on the hallway with firm and sure steps that didn’t betray his inner turmoil, the guildmaster approached the currently merry-filled room. With a female guild’s staff beside him, carrying a sizeable magic device. He glanced her way, which in turn made her look back at him with a reproachful look, almost as if admonishing about his current thoughts. He would have much rather carried the device in her stead, it wouldn’t have been an issue for him at all. But all the female staffers in his guild were quite strong-willed and very self-sufficient, with most of the staff being former to in advanced training adventurers all of them still in their prime, the rest of the staff took quite fast to the stubbornness of adventurers, for better or for worse.

For his part he was carrying a bag filled with a plethora of items and devices they would soon some to use, not heavy at all, “around half a score of stones maybe?” he thought as he carefully raised the bag once more.

While going over the things in the bag as well as the explanations he had to give about each one while he kept lifting the bag up, part mental part physical exercise, just in the manner in which he preferred to do things, they reached the door to the dragon’s room. He stopped in front of the door as he held his knuckles ready to knock, he took a deep breath and prepared himself. So many things had changed in the last few months, and yet they didn’t seem to stop or even show signs of slowing down, now he was about to introduce himself to a ‘new hero’, he would be lying if he said he wasn’t nervous at all, otherworlders always had a different set of values and morals. At least this hero was a beastkin, or at least she was according to the reports that he had been given were correct. He had decided he wouldn’t blindly follow those thought to base his decisions, after all, it was very unlikely a dragon would call someone from a different race “master” with no reason at all, and that went double for someone that checked as “Dragon Lord” according to the magical examiner.

Steadying himself, he knocked the door. The response was swift and cordial, one of the Kobolds visiting the guild, opened the door and gestured him to enter. He found it very amusing, all his previous interactions with kobolds had lacked so much cordiality, or any at all. After all it was very challenging to bring demise to someone and be cordial about it.

Quickly putting his memories of adventuring days aside, entering the room as soon as he heard Mimiru’s cheerful voice calling his name as she waved in his direction, inviting him to the table.

It was then that he realized the weird scene unfolding inside of the room. A fallen knight in front of a dragon sitting on top of his hoard with the princess on his clutches-

…

“Naw, that’s just too dramatic” or so he thought to himself, ignoring the convoluted scene, he proceeded to go to the table ready to greet the new troublemaker beastkin lady that Feugan had brought.

“Greetings, I am Eckhardt Springs, functioning master of the adventurer’s guild…” after saying it he stopped for a brief moment, unsure for the third time in his life, trying to recall if there was any specific on how to treat someone from a different world.

“the lady accompanying me here is Jaquell D’Antre, staff chief of the guild” he said as he signaled to the human lady accompanying him.

From her part Ayi was quite baffled, finding herself unable to properly respond or even digest what she was seeing in front of her.

The man in front of her was quite obviously military. His muscular and obviously well-trained body, along with the short haircut and overly serious expression on his face, just gave that impression, but it went farther than that.

He wasn’t wearing any fatigues or didn’t seem to have candied himself up as it was so common on pretentious higher ups when trying to make an impression. His clothes while being simple (and gaudy) looked spotless and very well fitted despite his massive build. Albeit the clothes seemed more appropriate for some renaissance fair, red and black landsknetch vest and hosses, somehow still fitting on the flamboyant peacock’ish style of this realm.

A very white wrinkleless undershirt seemed to accentuate this militaristic impression of hers, along with leather boots and vambraces that would have been the envy of anyone, given the incredible polish work on them that made them look pristine.

Also, so far everything he had done spoke of discipline and command.

Even the way in which he moved once inside of the room, his short and concise mannerisms, the way he succinctly introduced himself.

Without even fully realizing it herself, Ayi found herself standing at attention. Her sudden movements had incited a surprised reaction in the room, filling it with a brief silence until she finally came to herself.

“I… I am sorry, that was… You kind of reminded me of some… people… and force of habit took a hold of me” She said, without a single hint of falsehood in her words, the man in front had in fact made her remember about half a dozen drill sergeants, as a matter of fact.

“I am…” She stopped for a second, a revelation coming to her. She had spent a whole lifetime under a different name. So a question was brought to her mind, “just who am I?, how should I introduce myself?”. Then the memory of her own proclamation flashed in her mind.

“I will look out properly, for all three of us, from now on.”

“I am Ayi ’Naa, It is a pleasure to meet you.” She said loud and clearly, which seemed to lift an eerie mood that had somehow settled within the room. She extended her right hand forth, now noticing the hulking man was still somewhat confused, his eyes darting from her direction to Mimiru’s.

This time she was surprised, Mimiru was standing at attention as well, a different posture from those she knew back from earth, that much was obvious, but it was an undeniable fact that the cheerful human girl that she had just met found herself caught by surprise by a higher-ranking officer. She was now asking herself if this was the core nature of the adventurer’s guild, she had a sudden flashback of the very unfit individuals at the training grounds, now more than ever it felt like they were undergoing basic. It made sense that an organization that was supposed to run the logistics and control ‘murder-hobos’ would need to be militaristic in nature. She felt a chill just from thinking of the possibility that she might find herself undertaking such a thing again.

The towering man let a long deep sigh, for a brief moment looking very tired and much more his apparent age.

“Oi Mimiru. What do you think you are doing? We are not about to begin any sort training, we are not even in the grounds, unless you are keen on doing some laps just sit and help me out here, wouldya?” Ayi felt relief at the old man’s change of demeanor. In her experience, the most ruthless and unreasonable officers would never break their facade of absolute control or accept to any sort of mistake of their own, he seemed to care, she liked that.

“mmphm. I-Im sorry old man, you scared me comin here with your scary training face on” Mimiru half mumbled at first as she had to swallow a piece of bread she had in her mouth before properly answering.

“Oi! Are you being serious and respectful here or not?! You even did the salute with a piece of bread in your mouth! And you dropped the honorifics too fast just now didn’t ya?!”

At this point Mimiru made a gulping sound that it was equals part dramatic and hilarious, making everyone just chuckle at the exchange that had taken place.

“Anyway, lets deal with business first so this kido can go back to her food and maybe later she can show me if she can improve her lap times”

Now completely ignoring Mimiru's cries pleas for mercy, the guildmaster offered a seat to the much smaller woman accompanying him, which he promptly took as she put the large ornate blue crystal which she was holding, he took a seat beside her and in front of Ayi, signaling her to take a seat as well, he then put the sizeable bag he was carrying on the table and bringing everyone’s attention off the obviously magical device on the table and back to himself as the sturdy looking table creaked under the weight of the bag. He cleared his throat, then after briefly looking at each one of the otherworlders, Ayi, Feugan and Zoey, with a look in his eyes that was equal parts regret and melancholy. He finally locked eyes with Ayi, which made her in turn straighten up a little more to which apparently, he decided to just brush off as he continued speaking.

“Look. Miss ‘Naa, I know you would rather be with your family right now, if my reports are right, you have just…” He stopped briefly, which in turn made Ayi a little anxious for what he was about to say next. “arrived… you have just arrived from a long travel. And I would love nothing more than to let you all enjoy your awaited family reunion, but there are certain things that are best done by the soonest possible”

He then grabbed the bag he had brought, opening it and immediately bringing up a flask with a translucent green colored liquid from its contents, he extended his hand and offered it up wot Ayi. She took it and looks at it, using all her experience in concoctions and beverages he drew a simple conclusion. She had no idea what this liquid could be.

“T-Thank you. but what is this?”

The rugged old man cocked his head to the side for a moment until comprehension hit him.

“Oh! Sorry! That’s just some simple herbal potion to help relieve headaches and help with the stress, Brannon would just grab about any medicine and be able to list all its properties, I figured maybe that was an otherworlder thing”

“Ah, so this is tea then uh?” She said while looking at the transparent flask as gently brushed the cork stopper with a finger, perhaps it had more medicinal properties than what normal tea would bring to your 4 pm “English break”, given that magic and dragons were real, or maybe tea leaves were actually hard to come by. If earth’s bloody history on tea was an example to be believed, tea must be a commodity in any medieval civilization, doubly so if it had any actual magical and meaningful results, unlike the tea back at earth which had as many real tangible medicinal effects and properties as any Karen-bought essential oil.

“But why would you bring me this tea? You said its for headaches and stress, right? I don’t feel any sort of headache or ailment, in fact I can honestly said I had never felt better in my whole life” She answered with a certain warm feeling in her chest as she realized once again that her body was most definitely not giving her any sort of excruciating pain or that her head felt lighter than she could ever recall, she turned to look at Zoey, which in turn gave her a bright heart melting smile to which she had to answer back by caressing the head of her daughter.

“Is that so? Because apparently, you had an ugly altercation earlier today to which you answered back with ‘brutal’ force”

“THEY THREATENED MY DAUGHTER!!” Ayi had stood up again in a flash, slamming the table with her fist, her face red and her expression twisted in anger just as her voice had turned nearly into a snarl.

Somehow the guildmaster didn’t flinch or show any kind of surprise.

“Please, hear me out. That’s not what I am here for. As far as I’m concerned, those thugs had it coming, What I really find worth attention is your constant outbursts, I don’t think you are this prone to lose your temper. Therefore, I’m worried that something is affecting you this way.”

With each word as he explained himself, Ayi was able to relax, she then felt the small hand of her daughter on top of hers as she looked at her with a pleading look, she gave her a small apologetic smile. She tried her best to calm down, there was some truth to what the guildmaster was saying, she felt like her emotions were too transient, a lot of things had happened in a very short time, so it was obvious she would be in edge, she knew the feeling very well and if in this world of fantasy and magic there was a reasonable solution, she would gladly take it.

“I mean no offense with this” The guildmaster interrupter her thoughts as he decided to continue talking after some time which he had given her to digest his words and calm down a little more.

“Brannon suffered the same issues, he had never learned to process the energies in the land, which put his body and mind through a lot of stress…”

“I constantly regret that it took me weeks to realize that he wasn’t a lunatic, but rather a man that had spent weeks without proper control of his core” His voice had changed, in front of Ayi wasn’t the would-be-sergeant-bodybuilder from another world, but a morose man looking for atonement. The visage quenching her anger immediately.

“Will this tea- er… will this potion help me in controlling the… the energies that assail me?” Ayi cringed HARD as she said it, her face practically a draconic crimson hue by now. She felt like she was roleplaying a goofy fantasy dialogue out in the open. Feeling embarrassed to a degree she didn’t thought possible, perhaps also due to the unnatural effects of the realm to her.

“Oh! not at all. That will require some training and practice, which is what I come to offer you with as promptly as I was able to come. The potion, and it is a potion indeed, will alleviate the effects you suffer from the erroneous process of energy”

“I... see… and thank you for being so understanding”

“No need to be concerned about that Miss ‘Naa. I’m only an old man doing what I believe is right. Oh here, this beastkin cowl will help you muffle the excessive sounds until you get used to them” As he said it he offered a very plain looking cowl, making Ayi think of a simple medieval peasants cowl if you put some extra work for a proper arrangement for animal ears on top.

“Beastkin usually use something similar to this for their newborns, to help them muffle the sounds that would otherwise startle them due to their very sensitive ears. This is one made for adults to help them sleep, but it will serve us just fine”

“Brannon once told me that where he was from, there weren’t any sort of beastkin races in existence. So by a wild guess I thought on bringing it just in case the super sensitive ears were affecting you as well”

Ayi looked confused at the cowl, then at Zoey’s ears and back to the old man.

“Why would her ears affect me?”

“Uh…”

“{He means your ears, Master}”

“Why? What’s wrong with my ears?” Ayi panicked and moved her hands to the sides of her head, to where one would find ears on a human, yet she found only hair, she was paralyzed, feeling goosebumps run through her skin, slowly moving her fingers up along her head now in, until she reached a soft tuff of hair/fur covering her very own feline ears that she had somehow managed to not notice at all until this very moment.

“OH GOODNESS!! I AM A CATGIRL!!”

“P-Please Miss ‘Naa, let’s start with the potion and we will very slowly start the conversation from there”