Chapter 8: Damsel and the Dragon-Chicken
With a scream still reverberating through the forest I race to the campsite, fully expecting that a certain birdbrain got hungry and deserted her post to hunt, leaving the unconscious Kiera at the mercy of some roaming beast. Contrary to my expectation, said birdbrain is staring at the lying form of Kiera with perplexity, her beak almost touching Kiera's freshly unconscious face.
"Chiia… don't tell me you've been looking at her like that this entire time…"
"Kuuu~~!"
She shakes her tail a little at that, evidently quite proud of her studious nature, while I don't even bother to stifle a sigh at her actions.
"Chiia, you scared the poor woman so much that she fainted. How would you feel if you woke up and a giant beast was right above you, staring you in the eye?"
"... Wait, don't answer that. You'd probably thank them for delivering *cough* being *cough* breakfast."
"Anyway, I'll watch over Kiera, could you hunt something for us to all eat? By the way, that white horse over there is off limits."
"Ku~."
…
Contrary to some of the memories I've seen, setting up camp is surprisingly easy. I cleared the area by absorbing all the biomass around, felled a few trees by eroding their bases with chimeric cells, and snapped off all the branches by hand before tossing the trees around to make a bench. Set up the tent, draw some water with a gravity field, add a little fire magic, and you have a perfect camp in under ten minutes. Really, I fail to see why humans make such a big deal of it.
A few minutes later, Chiia returns with a deer in her beak, and I start roasting some cuts for sleeping beauty over here. To avoid traumatizing our princess (again), I ask Chiia to shrink down a bit, and after resisting the power of her upturned eyes and a "kweeh~~..." she finally assents.
It takes a solid ten minutes more, but Kiera finally starts to awaken, her eyes fluttering open as she gazes dazedly at the forest canopy.
"Whaa… Where am I…"
"Good morning sleeping beauty, I carried you away from where everyone fought and brought you to my camp. How are your wounds?"
"My wounds? They're… fine, I *ow* think… But Del, I had this horrible nightmare… There was this giant bird monster right above my face, just staring at me… I thought I was gonna be eaten!"
"Oh… you mean this old bird-monster?" I say with a grin, point at Chiia. She picks up her head and gives me a deathglare, probably for the little "old" bit I slipped in there.
"HWAAAAUUU!!!!"
It takes Kiera no time at all to lose her dignified demeanor and cling onto my arm, hiding behind my back and trying to make sure I stay between her and the fearsome predator.
Yes, the very same fearsome predator that just came up and rubbed her head on my chest while going "kukuu~~~~".
"Haha, Kiera, that's Chiia, my familiar. Sorry for her scaring you like that, she's too curious for her own good."
…
It's night now, and the two of us are sitting in the light of the campfire, serenaded by crickets and the gentle snoring of a certain rainbow-colored chicken.
Kiera stayed a bit skittish around Chiia for a while, but that all changed when she shrunk to shoulder-size before bed. At that point, it was Chiia who was frightened by Kiera's attempted murder, er, attempted hugging to the point of suffocation.
Once she calmed down, we got to talking about ourselves. Of course, that was off to a rocky start with the day's events, but she started to open up after regaling her with some of Carlton boy's more innocent exploits. Granted, that came at the price of me only reinforcing the "prodigal son" image I so proudly proclaimed earlier, but on the other hand, it's quite a good disguise. Unless you're a thief, there's no need to pay attention to someone with loads of money and the defining personality traits of hedonistic, unambitious, and being completely useless.
After finally evoking a laugh from her tender lips, a strangely serious look comes over her face, and she hesitates a moment before opening her mouth.
"Del… Why did you save me, really?"
"Heh, isn't it obvious? I'm a prodigal son, and you're an attractive woman. What else was I supposed to do?"
"Don't give me that!!!" she shouts, tears suddenly in her eyes, "How can some little wastrel be so powerful, and me, who's trained under the church for a decade, am so weak?!?! I couldn't even save one of them! Not even one! And somehow you're strong enough to just race over and jump in, sweeping it all away!"
It's at that moment that the memories of the bandit I assimilated back in the ruin floods into my mind. He was just one soldier on break, against a hoard of bandits, and he couldn't even protect his own wife and daughter. Two broken bodies tossed away like used trash, a burning shack, and fire… The flames burnt away all the good in his life.
Emotions course through my body, and I can't help but clench my fists, much less the tear on my cheek. Even though they're not my own emotions, just human feelings, why…
I see now. This is what it means to be weak. This is how she's feeling.
"Kiera… Even a prodigal son has things he wants to protect. Had, at least. So I became strong, and I'll become stronger still, because I never want the people I care about to be hurt again."
She seems shocked by my sudden outburst, but the words pour out, like the memories I've stolen away have a will of their own.
"Look, I know how you're feeling. Scared. Powerless. But most of all, angry, because it feels like that's the only way you can move forward. Why did the world make you meet that Demon? Why weren't you strong enough? Why does someone like me wield power I don't deserve? And that anger gives you the strength to keep going."
"Kiera, I won't tell you to let go of your anger. That'd only leave you empty. But as I see it, you have two choices-- anyone in your position does. You can use that anger to give yourself a push, force you to grow stronger and become the person you know you are. The other option… is to break. To become the very thing that made you angry in the first place, and absolve yourself of it. Everyone wants that first choice, but most fall into the second one without even realizing that they've changed."
"I knew a man like that once… He was a soldier, returning from war, only to lose his wife and daughter to bandits in the worst way. He couldn't save them, and it haunted him to his death. To escape the nightmare, he became a bandit himself, performed the same acts countless times, all to replace the two figures haunting him in that burning house with someone, anyone but his wife and daughter."
With that, the memories are assuaged, but I can't end it like that. I've meddled in her life at whim enough, and maybe, just maybe, she wasn't the only one to learn from what I've said.
"So, Kiera… Travel with me for a while. I can't promise it'll be glorious, I can't promise it'll be safe, but I'm absolutely certain it'll be interesting. We'll keep each other on that first choice, help each other grow, and we'll absolutely become better people by the time we're done."
Maybe she wasn't listening to all that I said, maybe had already given up inside, but the moment I stopped speaking she buried her head in my chest, sobbing. Crying, wailing, all manners of sorrow for almost an hour, and as she finally wiped her tears, she looked up to meet my eyes.
"Del… Promise?"
She looked at me expectantly, her eyes shimmering in the moonlight as she held out her left hand, pointing her ring finger towards me. I'm confused for a moment, sifting through the memories until…
"Kiera… Shouldn't a pinky promise be with the last finge-"
"This is a custom where I come from, for serious promises, okay??"
Even though she normally looks older than me, I can't help but see her as a pouting child at this moment. With a smile on my face I indulge her, straining my finger out to curl around hers as they shake.
…
She calmed down after that, and as we watched the fire die down together, we both retired to the tent. I didn't need sleep in the traditional sense, but it seemed to evade her, and after lying awake for a while, her hand crept the distance between our sleeping rolls.
I rolled to the side, my eyes meeting hers for a moment before I broke out in a smile, sliding my hand next to hers. She hesitated and blushed before clasping my hand, and minutes later, gentle snores racked the tent.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone