Mystic Heart Odyssey

Part 6: In the Shadows of Kryckwood

Chapter 9

Cuddles, chatting with a witch, and yet another ingredient fetch quest. Good thing Algrytha’s such a friendly… whatever she is, huh?

-Llox

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When the trio arrived at her house, Algrytha immediately set up the kettle and started preparing the tea while the boys got comfortable. Initially, Lykou walked over to one of the stools, but before he could sit down, Kuna tugged on his arm lightly. The canid gave him a questioning look.

“C’mere,” Kuna said, trying to pull him over to the clear spot near the wall. He sat down, leaning against the wall, then patted his lap. “Your turn.”

Lykou blushed and folded his ears down, then grinned bashfully. “You’re the one that’s still recovering, you know,” he said as he got down onto the floor, then reclined back into the sereva’s waiting arms.

“Physically, maybe,” Kuna said, cuddling the konuul close. “But I’m never too weak for this.”

“This… isn’t hurting your shoulder is it?”

“Nah. As long as you don’t lean on that side too much, I’m fine,” the sereva assured him. “Besides, the pain’s starting to fade anyway.”

“Well that’s good…” The canid’s tail flicked around a bit- as much as it could with a large chunk of it pinned underneath him, anyway. “...thanks, Ku.”

Kuna rested his head on the konuul’s and smiled. They lounged there while Algrytha worked, enjoying the relative peace and quiet for a bit. Eventually, the kettle started whistling, startling them both- especially Kuna, for whom the concept was still pretty alien. The witch brought them each a cup of tea a few moments later, then sat down on a stool near one of the tables with a cup of her own.

“Thank you again, Algrytha,” Kuna said as he sniffed at the cup, then let out a content sigh.

Lykou just held his in his hands, enjoying the warmth for the moment. “Yeah, thanks. We really appreciate the hospitality.”

“Of course, of course,” Algrytha replied. “So... tell me about how it went with the ruins.”

“Well, on the bright side, the potion worked,” Lykou began. “So thanks for that.”

“A lot better tasting than the other one, too,” Kuna added.

“Didn’t really have much taste.”

“Exactly,” the sereva quipped, then took a careful sip of his tea.

“Heh. Anyway, we made our way through the ruins and ended up at this big open space inside another set of walls in the middle. Apparently, it’s where the revenant’s body and the axe are kept- plus the bodies of four other people that helped him do the ritual thing.”

“Really now?” Algrytha commented. “That’s interestin’. Somehow never heard about that bit.”

“Yeah. And, uh… he can… well, use them, too,” Lykou commented, frowning and staring down into his cup. “We did manage to talk to him a bit, at least. Told him why we were there right away, like you suggested, so he didn’t attack us immediately.”

“But that’s how we found out he couldn’t just let us get to the arch,” Kuna groused. “He said the only way to use the arch or get the axe was to defeat him in this special… challenge thing.”

“A challenge, eh?”

“Mhmm. Have to beat him in one-on-one combat. Goes until one of us yields or can no longer fight,” Lykou said, then folded his ears down and looked away with a sad, embarrassed look. “I… tried to beat him. Thought I might even have figured out how to do it, by destroying all the skulls. Turns out that didn’t work.”

“For a typical ghoul or the like, you’d be onta somethin’ with that, so yer instincts were good at least,” Algrytha said, nodding. “Revenants are another story though. Especially ones like him.”

“We were wondering if you might have any insight about that,” Kuna said. “Maybe some loophole in the rules he has to work with or something?”

“Hmm… so let me get this straight,” Algrytha said, tapping her fingers on her cup thoughtfully. “To get the axe- and get to the magic arch, apparently- ya gotta beat him in a duel type thing, right?”

Lykou nodded. “Something about making sure only an ‘honorable, worthy warrior’ gets the axe and releases him from his duty,” he said, then shrugged. “He said I had the first part, which I guess is nice.”

“Hey, you’re a damn good fighter, Ku,” Kuna assured him with a gentle squeeze. “Especially considering that wasn’t your usual job back at Lakefire. If he wasn’t an undead freak, you’d have won that fight handily. Not your fault he cheated and used five bodies at once and refused to admit defeat.”

“Heh, thanks Ku,” the canid said with a faint, brief smile. “Either way though, I still lost and can’t set foot there again today.”

“Today?” Algrytha probed. “Why’d ya specify ‘today’?”

“Part of the rules. I could technically try the challenge again after a day has gone by if I wanted to,” Lykou said, then sighed. “Not that I see any point, though. Damn challenge seems rigged. I don’t see how anyone can possibly beat him.”

“I don’t suppose you have any suggestions?” Kuna asked. “Or… I dunno, some potion that can let you punch a ghost out of a body?”

The witch sipped her tea thoughtfully and pondered the question for a minute. “...ordinarily, that kinda thing would take a very involved and difficult potion ta make,” she said, finally. “But… humor me fer a moment. When you were tellin’ me about yer adventures this mornin’, you mentioned that… ability thing ya used ta escape the giant, then that nasty demon fucker. Can ya describe it a bit more?”

“Uh… maybe?” Lykou replied, scratching his chin a little. “It’s hard to describe. It’s like things just kind of… slow down, except not really? I can just sort of see things in a strange way and react and think a lot faster than usual, and… I dunno. There are bits that get hard to remember, unfortunately. Especially after last time, heh…”

“He gets this faint glow around him when he does it,” Kuna chimed in. “And something weird happens with his energy. I can’t figure out what, but I can kind of sense it. And when he was getting us away from the demonic duo, there was one point where he sort of… channeled something into the ground that made a bunch of rock break up and stuff.”

“Hmm…” Algrytha narrowed her eyes and stroked her chin thoughtfully, then got up and walked over to the table with scrolls piled up on it. She shuffled through them for a few minutes before finally plucking one up and opening it. After a few moments of skimming over the symbols on the inside, she turned back towards them and walked back over, still reading it. “What yer describin’ is a kinda magic I’ve only barely heard of, so I can’t really tell ya much about it. But that said, I do have a recipe that might help ya temporarily get a better grip on it. ‘n’ if it works the way I vaguely remember, that should let ya attack him directly.”

Lykou perked up. “Really?? That… that’d be amazing!” he responded, his tail tip flicking around excitedly. “I’ve been wishing I could control that ever since I first realized I could do it!” He blinked a few times, then sheepishly smiled at the witch. “Uh… not that I’d want to impose even more…”

Algrytha smiled and waved the comment off. “Nonsense. I’d be happy to give it a whirl. Had this one sittin’ at the bottom of the pile fer so long I almost fergot I even had it.”

Kuna sighed but smirked faintly. “But I’m guessing we’re going to have to go hunt down strange ingredients again, aren’t we?”

The witch chuckled. “That’s right. Lessee,” she said, skimming the scroll again for a moment. “...oh. Right. Well, first you’ll have ta fetch a fruit of the wretched wood.”

“...wretched wood?” Kuna asked dubiously. “That… sounds ominous.”

“Yeahhh… why’s it called that? And where would we find that?” Lykou added. “All the trees we’ve seen are half dead looking and don’t have any fruit that I can recall.”

“You’ll have to head a bit west from my garden. As fer why it’s called that… well, just stay on yer toes. Won’t be as crazy dangerous as the Wraith’s turf, but you’ll still want to keep yer guard up.”

“Oh great, I just love vaguely ominous warnings,” Kuna snarked.

Lykou winced and nudged him a bit. “Hey, just be glad she’s even helping us at all.”

Algrytha snickered. “Nah, he’s right, I’m bein’ a shit. But that’s just how I am. Wouldn’t want to spoil the surprise. Don’t worry, you’ll both do fine as long as ya stay alert.”

“Alright… what else do we have to get?” Lykou asked.

“I’ll tell ya when ya get back with the fruit. There’s only one other thing ya have to go fetch, ‘n’ it’ll be the other way from here.”

Kuna sighed, then sipped some more of his tea. Lykou started to set his cup aside and sit up. “Well, I guess we better-”

“Oh don’t rush,” Algrytha insisted, setting the scroll aside and picking her own cup back up. “Relax a bit and enjoy yer tea. I imagine yer little tussle with ol’ Elzhan must’ve been… stressful, ta say the least.”

The konuul frowned and nodded a little, settling back down as Kuna gently pulled him back again. “Y… yeah. Was definitely… intense.”

“That’s putting it mildly. Only worse one I can think of was with… Tuimana,” Kuna said, then shuddered a bit. “And we were mostly just trying to get away in that one.”

“Well, take the chance ta recover, then. The ingredients shouldn’t take too long ta fetch, ‘n’ ya gotta spend the night before ya challenge Elzhan again anyway. Once again, yer welcome ta stay here fer the night.”

“Thanks, Algrytha,” Kuna replied. “We can set up a bed on the floor this time though, so you can have that table back.”

“Yeah, we’ve got a mat we use anyway.”

“Whatever makes ya comfy,” the witch replied with a shrug. “I’ve got plenty’a other table space though, so it’s still open if ya want it.”

*****

After taking the time to rest up and eat a light lunch, Lykou and Kuna set out to find the so-called ‘wretched wood’ and acquire its fruit. They were both annoyed at the ambiguous nature of the directions, but Algrytha assured them they’d know it when they saw it. Initially, they were just relieved to find the section of the Kryck they were passing to be fairly mundane looking. No shambling corpses, no shadow spirits or wisps, no sightings of the forest’s more disturbing nighttime beasts, and definitely no signs of the Wraith.

Nonetheless, they were still very much in Kryckwood, and it wasn’t long before it reminded them of that fact. Along the way, they passed a few more small pools of the water they’d learned not to touch. There wasn’t much flora around. And even if they weren’t fresh or moving, there were a few scattered bones laying around here and there, especially near the pools of water.

And then eventually there was a single ghost. After they’d been hiking about an hour, the air grew chilly and they felt that eerie, unsettling sensation of a presence nearby. They both paused and tensed up, searching their surroundings for any signs of a body that might suddenly and violently surge back to some semblance of life and attack them. Fortunately, there seemed to be none forthcoming.

After a few minutes, the ghost appeared. It was somewhat vague-looking and indistinct, with only the blurriest, faintest bipedal form and a confused, absent-looking face. The boys and the specter stared one another down in uncomfortable silence for a few minutes. Lykou tried talking to it, but it didn’t either didn’t understand him or had no interest in replying. When the ghost showed no signs of doing anything in particular at all, Lykou gently tugged on Kuna’s arm. Kuna nodded and they both carefully walked around the spirit to continue on their way.

At first, it slowly followed after them, making them tense up again. But after a short distance, it stopped, then turned and faded away as it returned to the spot they’d encountered it.

“Wonder what that one’s story is,” Lykou pondered out loud.

“No telling. I’m guessing it m-must’ve been here a l-long time, though,” Kuna said. “For it to have l-lost that much of its original f-form and… n-not be able to talk.”

“At least it wasn’t a hungry ghost or something. Guess Algrytha was right about them not all going that way. I wonder how many different kinds of things they can become?” Lykou wondered. “I wish there was some way we could help them all move on…”

“That’d be nice, but it probably m-means getting rid of the w-wraith,” Kuna pointed out with a small shudder. “And w-we are NOT going back there.”

Lykou sighed and nodded sadly. “Yeah, you’re probably right.”

“You can’t always save everyone, Kou.”

The konuul folded his ears and hung his head a bit. “I know…”

Feeling a bit bad, Kuna wrapped an arm around him and gave him a gentle squeeze. “Hey, it’s awesome that you want to, though. Even that revenant guy had to admit you have a damn good heart, after all.”

Lykou shot him a small smile and returned the hug. “Thanks,” he replied, then took a deep breath as he tried to shake off the momentary funk he’d fallen into. “Well, let’s keep going. I wonder what this ‘wretched wood’ is supposed to look like?”

“Good question,” Kuna commented as they continued walking. “Kryckwood’s already kind of, well, wretched on the whole as it is. Guess kind of more depressing than the rest, somehow? Hard to imagine, though.”

“Maybe. At least she said it’s not as bad as the Wraith’s turf.”

Kuna’s eye twitched slightly. “Thank fuck for that, at least.”

“I guess just watch for any trees with ugly fruit on them, or something.”

As they continued searching, they became more unnerved at the growing number of bones laying around, half buried in the ground. Most of them appeared to be from various animals, though there were a few decidedly anthropomorphic partial skeletons here and there. Despite many of them being cracked or broken, there were no teeth or claw marks on them, and every one was completely devoid of any fleshy bits.

Eventually, something new caught their attention- a relatively healthier-looking tree. It looked different from most of the others in the forest. For one thing, it had more leaves on its branches. And its bark was a darker shade of brown, compared to the shades of gray that covered most of the others. And, most importantly, it had a scant few odd-looking fruit hanging off of certain higher branches. In the distance, they spotted a handful of others that looked similar.

“This must be them,” Lykou said, perking up. “Still don’t get the name, but they definitely stand out from everything else. Maybe the name’s ironic or something?”

Kuna furrowed his brow. If anything, something about the discovery made him feel on edge. “They don’t r-really look particularly wretched. I’ve e-eaten uglier fruit, and the trees, if a-anything, look healthier than the others.”

“Maybe the fruit is poisonous until it’s cooked?” Lykou mused, scratching his head thoughtfully.

“Y-your guess is as good as mine,” Kuna replied with a shrug.

“Right, well,” Lykou said, starting to set his things down. “I’ll go grab a couple of those fruit. Keep an eye out for danger for me.”

“Sure,” Kuna agreed, looking around. “Just be careful.”

After the konuul finished setting his bags aside, he approached the tree and started looking for the easiest path up to the nearest fruit. Most of the branches appeared to be a little higher up than he could reach with a good jump, so he was going to have to shimmy up the trunk a bit or possibly cross from a nearby tree with lower branches to work with. While he was figuring it out, however, Kuna started feeling more and more uneasy as he eyed the bones littering the forest floor. Slowly, he started to notice a certain pattern, and then something dawned on him.

“Kou, hang on!” the sereva blurted out with a wide-eyed, slightly panicked expression.

Lykou immediately hunkered down and looked around warily. “What is it? What’d you see??” he asked in a somewhat hushed tone.

“Get away from it, quick!”

Lykou furrowed his brows in confusion. “From what?”

“The tr- DUCK!”

Luckily, the konuul had spent more than enough time with the sereva by that point not to ask something like ‘what duck?’ and instead quickly dropped to the ground- just in time for a massive, bark-covered claw to rake through the air above him.

“What the-?!” the canid blurted out as he quickly bolted away from the tree that had suddenly taken a swipe at him.

A pair of large, glowing orange-red eyes had opened on the trunk, and a jagged maw started to open up underneath them. The tree-monster glared at them and let out an angry, vicious growl as it swiped its woody claws at the two of them. Kuna quickly backed away alongside his canid friend, causing the swipes to miss them by a few feet. Once they seemed to be out of its reach, they gawked at the arboreal monster.

“Well, I guess we know why it got its name,” Lykou commented.

Kuna blanched at him. “Ya think??”

“This is definitely going to make getting the fruit a lot trickier…”

Suddenly, the ground started to tremble and shake as the tree began thrashing around with increasing ferocity. Chunks of the soil began to crack and part as its roots began poking up out of the ground. After a few moments, the tree began to rise up as more and more of its roots were freed.

“Timetorun,” Kuna blurted out in a panic, as he started to back away.

But Lykou furrowed his brows and scowled at the tree. “Nah.”

“...what?!”

“I’m not running from this overgrown, grumpy kindling,” Lykou replied stubbornly.

“Really Lykou?!” Kuna cried out in exasperation. “How do you expect to take down-”

“Relax, we can go in a moment. I’m not planning to fight it, exactly,” Lykou said, then grinned as the wretched wood began shambling towards them, with a certain glint in his eye. A faint, shimmering aura started to appear around the edges of his fur. He slipped his knife out of its sheath and flipped it in his hand nonchalantly as the tree monster approached, all fear suddenly forgotten. “You know, the day we first met, I was originally out helping Naira and some of the other gatherers. I think it’s about time I do a bit more… gathering.”

Kuna eyed him for a moment, first in disbelief, but then he noticed the subtle glow. He facepalmed, despite feeling a certain degree of relief. He simultaneously wanted to both kiss him and smack him in that moment.

Lykou took a few steps forward, so that the tree monster would focus on him rather than the sereva. The tree swung down with two limbs on one side, with what now more clearly looked like wooden claws at the ends, hidden among the leaves. The konuul deftly jumped over the first, then landed on the second limb as it came down. It brought another claw down from the other side to try and grab him, but he backflipped over it and landed on the ground.

He reached down to his arm and activated his bracers, then ducked, narrowly missing another swing from the left. He tumbled out of the way just as it brought another limb down for an overhead strike. Then a sudden second swing from the left finally hit him. Fortunately, it was exactly what he wanted. He used the impact to send him sailing over to where he’d set his bags down previously, then quickly dug around inside it. He barely had time to pull something out before a huge, woody claw snatched him off the ground and lifted him up in the air.

Kuna watched on fearfully as his friend was brought in front of the gaping maw on the front of the trunk. Until then, he figured he’d let the konuul just do his thing, given his track record with his special ability- but this was a bit too close for comfort. He knew he couldn’t do much, but he wasn’t just going to stand there and let the konuul get eaten. Under other circumstances he’d try manipulating the tree’s own limbs against it, but he suspected that’d be impossible even if he wasn’t still in a somewhat weakened state. The trees were probably like the biting flowers- enough of a mind to resist such magic being used on them directly. Plus, trees were always tougher than other plants to manipulate. Using what energy he could muster, he managed to dredge up a couple thick vines and us them to pry back against the limb holding Lykou. The wretched wood reacted with surprise and mild confusion as its limb was briefly halted. It glanced down at the ground, then looked around before settling its eyes on the sereva and glaring at him.

But then Lykou surprised Kuna. He glanced down at the vines, then back at the sereva and shook his head with a grin. Then he managed to pry one arm just free enough to pull out his knife and sever the vines. He then winked at the sereva before turning his attention back to the shambling menace holding him in its clutches. “What’s wrong, big guy? Look too much like cannibalism right now?” he taunted, then lightly stabbed the side of the claw holding him. “Maybe I just need to piss you off more?”

The tree snarled in annoyance, then brought him up to its mouth and threw him inside, much to Kuna’s horror. It even appeared to be trying to chew the canid up- but was clearly having a time of it, as Lykou fought back at its jaw. The numerous sharp pointy bits of wood that served as teeth left his own woody armor with plenty of scratches, and he was clearly straining as well, but they also gave him something to hang onto. A number of tendrils suddenly lashed around him and tried to burrow into his flesh, but they seemed to be struggling to get through the tough bark protecting him.

Kuna charged at the monster and tried to use all of his energy to magically keep the tree from closing its maw on his friend, but was getting nowhere fast, much to his tearful horror. It didn’t help that the thing was slashing at him in retribution, making it hard for him to focus as he dodged away from its terrible claws. As weak as he already was, he didn’t dare try and use his bracers.

Suddenly, the arboreal menace froze with another confused expression, followed by one of alarm as it actively gagged and spat Lykou out. Smoke followed him out as the monster turned to search for water. For his part, the konuul looked a bit roughed up, with a variety of thin red cracks appearing in his woody body. Fortunately, none looked serious and they were already starting to mend themselves slowly. For a moment, he looked slightly dizzy, but he quickly recovered as Kuna rushed over to his side and embraced him. In his hand, he’d swapped his knife for one of the other pelenock teeth he’d collected back in the Crimson Isles, with the pointy end still glowing hot.

“KOU! Thank fuck!”

Lykou patted his back and smiled. “C’mon, you know I’ve got this. Now hang tight, we’re not done yet.”

“Wh-??” Kuna started to ask, but was interrupted as Lykou grabbed him and tumbled out of the way as the angry wretched wood slammed a balled-up fist down where they’d just been a moment before. The small fire that’d started in its maw had already gone out even without water, and it was thoroughly pissed.

“Can you run?” Lykou asked him, then helped pull him out of the way of another swipe.

“K… kinda, I-I guess?”

“Alright then. Follow my lead!”

Lykou led him away with the monster following along behind them somewhat slowly. They could easily have escaped at the slow pace it was going, but that wasn’t the konuul’s plan just yet. His keen gaze flicked around until he spotted what he was looking for, and began leading Kuna and, by proxy, the wretched wood towards another similar-looking tree. He then used their momentum to grab Kuna’s arm and, as gently as possible, maneuvered him off to the side. “Go that way! I’ll catch up!”

Kuna was reluctant to part with him, but knew better than to question it. Once he’d fled a short distance away, he turned to see the shambling monstrosity arrive by Lykou’s side. It too a big swing at him with one of its lower claws- and, because he dodged, it struck the other tree, immediately waking the second dormant monster with a heavy smack on its trunk.

The second wretched wood opened its eyes and mouth with an angry roar, then turned and instinctively clawed at the first. The first was initially surprised and confused, but soon the two were having an outright brawl. Lykou used the chaos to jump onto the second one’s claw and climb up the connected limb. He then nimbly jumped between both monsters’ flailing limbs as they thrashed around, both at him and each other. It wasn’t long before the two were in tangled mess, with their less-flexible upper limbs getting locked together as they clawed and snarled at one another. Their roots even grabbed and wrestled with one another down below, causing them to occasionally start tipping over violently.

As the world danced around him, Lykou pulled his knife back out and made a few quick slashes as he passed a cluster of fruit, which he then collected in his arms as he somersaulted down behind the second tree. When he landed, he quickly bolted around them and hurried back to Kuna’s side. When he arrived, the sereva just gawked at him for a moment, then snapped back to his senses. “Y… you got the f-fruit…”

“Yep!” Lykou said cheerfully, then glanced back at the fighting trees. “Let’s go grab our things and get out of here before they decide to set their differences aside.”

“R-right…”

Once they’d gathered their bags and put the fruit away, Kuna found his walking stick again, and they started making their way back to Algrytha’s as quickly as possible, at least until they were well out of earshot of the freakish arboreal brawl. Along the way, they made sure to avoid getting too close to any other healthier-looking trees with bones scattered around them.

Eventually they did slow down and took a moment to rest as Kuna leaned against a normal tree, then gradually slumped down to the ground. He pulled out a snack and winced, rubbing his shoulder a little. He then gave Lykou a look. “...do you get off on it or s-something?”

“Huh?” Lykou asked in confusion, after finishing a sip from his waterskin and sitting down next to him. The glow had faded around his features and the effort had started getting to him. Fortunately, he’d disabled his bracers shortly after they’d gotten back to their belongings, so he was still nowhere near as wiped out as the sereva.

“W-worrying the living fuck out of me,” Kuna snarked, then quickly took a big bite out of a mango he’d pulled out of his bag. “Always putting y-your damn life in danger…”

The konuul folded his ears down and shot him a slightly sheepish smile. “Hey come on, Ku. I had it under control, obviously. And we had to get the fruit, you know.”

Kuna sighed. “Always gotta be a damn hero…”

Lykou was a bit taken aback and frowned, then rubbed his arm and looked away. “S-sorry, I uh….”

Realizing he’d come across a bit more harsh than he meant to, Kuna quickly embraced him. “No no, I mean... that came out wrong,” he assured him. “I just... w-worry about you. I can’t s-stand to think of something happening to you, but then you go a-and just… tempt death all the time.”

“I know, I know,” Lykou replied, then sighed, hugging the sereva back. “Believe me, I’d rather take a nice long break from it myself. But we keep getting stuck in these situations where I don’t have much choice.”

Kuna wanted to argue, but didn’t have the energy, so instead he just took another bite out of his fruity snack, leaning against the konuul a bit.

Lykou squeezed him gently around the middle with one arm, giving him a concerned look. “You’re still shaking a little. You alright?” he asked, then glanced around. “I think we’re pretty well out of danger, you know.”

“We’re still in the Kryck,” Kuna pointed out, then took a sip of water. “But it’s m-mostly the weakness. That… took a lot out of m-me, and I didn’t have m-much to begin with.”

“Fuck... Are you going to be alright to keep going? I can keep watch while you nap for a while if you need to.”

Kuna shook his head. “Out here? No way,” he adamantly refused, then gestured to the fruit in his hand. “Taking a small snack break should help. M-might consider the nap when we get back to Algrytha’s, though.”

“You sure? I can try and carry you if you want, though it might be tricky with all our-”

“You are too much sometimes,” Kuna said with a faint grin, then laid his head on his shoulder. “Don’t worry, I’ll rest plenty when we get back.” He then frowned and pulled back to look the canid in the eye. “But you are NOT going back out without me, got it?”

Lykou chuckled a bit. “What, even if the other one’s easy to get?”

“No. Not taking any chances.”

“Fiiiine,” the konuul playfully whined, then gave him another little squeeze before taking another sip out of his waterskin.

“Shame you can’t do that… thing you do at will,” Kuna commented. “It never ceases to amaze me every time you use it.”

“Thing-? Oh, right, that thing. I… wait, I just did it again back there, didn’t I?”

“Y… yes?” Kuna replied, arching a brow. “You… weren’t aware of it at all? Not even a little?”

“I mean… in hindsight yeah, now that I think about it,” Lykou said, scratching his head. “Just didn’t notice until you mentioned it.”

Kuna stared at him thoughtfully. “...it’s so strange you can do that and just not realize something’s happening until afterward.”

“What can I say? It just feels kind of… natural, in the moment,” the canid responded, then shrugged. “Not until later when I think back and realize how much slower things seemed to be moving at the time, and how much stronger, and just… different I felt.”

“It’ll be interesting to see how that potion works out,” the sereva said, then furrowed his brows and shot his friend a look. “Just… promise me you’ll still yield if things get too close.”

“I will, I will, don’t worry. If that potion works like we’re hoping though, hopefully he’ll be the one to yield.”

“Just… don’t wait until he’s literally about to chop your head off this time, alright?”

Lykou smirked briefly, but then saw the serious look on the sereva’s face and pulled him into another full embrace. “I won’t, Ku, I promise.”

“Good,” Kuna replied, then sniffed and closed his eyes, letting a couple tears leak out as he returned the hug, ignoring the dull pain in his shoulder. “That s-scared me so much…”

“I’m sorry, Ku. I… should’ve yielded sooner, I know,” Lykou said, rubbing his arm gently. “It’s just hard for me to admit defeat like that, especially under the circumstances.”

“I know,” Kuna said, then sighed again and smiled faintly as he nuzzled against the konuul’s neck softly. “Ya big brave idiot. S’one of the things I love about ya, even if you go too far with it occasionally.” A moment after the words left his eyes shot open and he blushed. Fuck! Did I just say the L-word out loud?

Lykou chuckled and rubbed his back. “I’ll try to take fewer big risks.”

At least he didn’t pick up on it or take it… that way, Kuna thought to himself, folding his ears down. He was glad the canid couldn’t see his face at the moment. He again clenched his eyes shut as he processed his own thoughts. What’s wrong with me? It can be used in other contexts. You can love things and people without being IN love, so why am I freaking out about that? ...spirits, Hoku was so right. I’ve definitely got it bad for him… fuck.

“-plenty, in case you’re getting low,” Lykou finished saying to the oblivious sereva stuck in his own head. When he got no response, he arched a brow and tried pulling back. “Ku?”

Kuna snapped out of his thoughts as they pulled apart, realizing he’d missed something. The realization kept the blush on his face. “Wha- oh! S-sorry, I guess I kinda… s-spaced out there,” he said with a sheepish smile. “What’d you say?”

“...I was saying make sure you drink some water, too, and I’ve got plenty left in case you’re getting low,” Lykou replied, giving him a concerned look. “You alright? I hope your fever isn’t coming back. You look a bit flushed.”

The sereva’s eyes darted away briefly as he took a swig from his own water jug. “R-right,” he said afterwards. “F-fever… uh, I don’t think so, but let’s keep going just in case.”

“You sure? You should finish eating first, at least…”

“N-no, I’m fine, really!” Kuna assured him as he grabbed his walking stick with his other hand and used it- with Lykou’s help- to get back to his feet, somewhat shakily. “I can eat and walk. W-wanna get back as quick as we can, you know?”

“If you’re sure,” Lykou said, handing him his bag. “Let me know if you need help with anything. You can lean on me if you need to.”

“S’what the stick is for,” Kuna reminded him with a small smile. On the one hand, he was sorely tempted, if only for the excuse for close contact with the canid. But he also didn’t want to be a burden. “But I’ll keep that in mind. Thanks, Kou.”