Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party!

Submerged under the horizon, the sun painted the skies in gradients of red. Sinking deeper by the moment, it urged the birds and their prey to flit into hiding and make room for the much more sinister forces. The wind in their aid, propelled the birds to their nests, as for the critters, Gaia pursued them in her burrows, providing them with shelter.

'The forest has grown quite…' Looking around at the trees that'd suddenly grown quiet, Raven pondered a reason but found none at all.

"There!" Catching a glimpse of smoke rising up ahead, Mino rushed forward smiling. "We're almost there, I can smell them!"

"W-wait!" Raven cautioned, but the demi-human girl kept dashing forward.

With a defeated sigh, the mage hastened his agility and followed right behind her. Not even half a minute later, the two were finally standing before the house they'd been looking for all day. Resting over a foundation of bamboo shoots, the wooden structure had flimsy paper doors and a slanted roof that converged into a wooden pipe to collect rainwater.

Walking over to the front door enclosed by conjoined rooms on each side, Raven knocked at a gentle rhythm. The sound of steps on a creaky wooden floor approached from within and as the door slid open, Aerin's eyes widened as she noticed the two.

"Raven?" She muttered, her lips quivering in disbelief.

It had only been a few weeks, yet in her heart, it felt like centuries. The death of her father, however cruel he might've been, had her feeling distant not just from herself but from everyone else she knew and loved.

"And…Who?" Shifting her eyes to Mino, she stared at the queen with a dreamy look.

"A friend you could say," tapping the ruby against Mino's belly, Raven put the queen back inside the bracelet.

The flash of light made Aerin jump in fear, but as it quickly settled, she took a deep breath; her eyes focused back on her savior. Throwing herself into his arms, she squeezed Raven's body. The tenseness of his muscles, and the mere presence of him not being a dream–filled her heart with comfort, something she'd been looking for a few cycles of day and night.

"You okay?" Raven asked, moving his arms around her as well.

Burying her face against his chest, Aerin only sniffled for a few minutes. But eventually, pulling herself away, she looked into his eyes and answered. She told him all about the death of her father, and how it was her mother's fault. And though she barely cared for the man in his life, somehow, in death, despite being tortured by him day and night, Aerin couldn't help but mourn his death.

'Shit, I didn't expect all this.' Raven thought as he pulled Aerin back into his arms. However, this time as he did, Brenna walked up from the left side of the corridor and glared at him with her hands folded.

"What are you doing?!" She exclaimed, frowning foul.

"Shut up, will you?!" Escaping from Raven's grasp, Aerin scowled at her mother. Glitching at the look of disdain, Brenna instinctively stepped back. "Don't take out your anger on him!"

Staring back at her daughter with a bead of sweat trailing down her temples, Brenna brushed the matter with her hand. Turning back with a scoff, she walked away, leaving the situation in Aerin's hands.

"Should I…Come in?" Asked Raven, unsure whether he should intrude or not.

Washing the anger with a head shake, Aerin grabbed Raven's hand and led him deeper into her house. Made of pure wood and paper, the structure stretched in a square pattern inside, and the creaky wooden hallways were all joined together. In the midst of it all, was a slight opening with a koi pond and shoots of bamboo growing out the ground.

"I heard, you and your companions are heading off on a journey," surprisingly enough, the news seemed to reach Aerin even in this secluded area.

Shifting his attention to her back, Raven kept walking as she led him to a room to rest in for a while.

"We are, that's why I thought I should make good on my promise to visit," the specter of his own demise flashed before Raven, the journey ahead was bound to be cruel, however, revealing those things to Aerin was far from the right thing to do. "We'll be back soon though, don't worry."

'I'll give her a teleportation ring once Linkle is done making one.' Making a mental note of it, he remained quiet until Aerin left him alone in a guest room. Looking around in the meantime, Raven was somewhat impressed by how meticulously their house had been constructed.

And even though the paper doors seemed to be a hazard, it seemed like the walls themselves were inscribed with warding runes to keep monsters from finding them.

'No wonder we couldn't find it, if it had not been for the smoke we would've still been wandering through the forest.' Lacking the intelligence to avoid the spike ball-like shield, there was no way the monsters in the surrounding forest could figure out what the smoke entailed. If anything, it sends them into a state of alarm under the pretense of a forest fire nearby.

"Mino, come out," touching the ruby on his wrist, Raven let the cowgirl out again. As she stood before him standing with her eyes half closed with annoyance, he reached out to her shoulder and added. "You can stay out, I'll talk to Aerin and she'll inform Brenna about you. But, don't mention that you were the queen of that cave nearby."

"As long as I don't have to live in that cramped jewel, I'm fine with anything," agreeing to the terms, Mino pulled out the futon from a sliding door cupboard, and throwing it on the floor, she jumped right onto it.

Rolling around on the futon with an exalted smile, the queen was finally experiencing comfort since her wound had healed. Not long after being left alone, Aerin returned with a tray full of aromatic refreshments which carried a rosy hint. Diluted with ice the drinks washed the weariness of their muscles, and slowly drifted them to sleep before dinner was even done.

'I'll wake them up later…' Thought Aerin, hoping to share a meal as well as a comforting night wrapped in his arms.

[Sorry for not posting yesterday, I'm sick so expect only one chapter per day for a while. Again sorry about that, I'll return to the usual rate as soon as I get better.]