Gales POV
"You want me to get rid of the skill?!"
'That's right.'
We had been traveling for a few days now and had been through a lot with avoiding monsters, braving the elements and moving past unstable rock structures that activated [Self Preservation] at some moments that nearly screwed me over. I then decided to ask Codec if it could get rid of the skill entirely since it really wasn't benefiting me at all.
"It could be a useful ability one day and it will tell you when you are in active danger and-"
'There are times when I need to take a risk if I want to survive in this world. If this skill is gonna prevent me from doing what I have to do then I'd rather not have it at all.
"...I won't get rid off it completely but I can turn it off when you don't need it."
'That's fine.'
[Self Preservation] deactivated
It felt good knowing that Self Preservation wouldn't get in my way again and considered deactivating [Enhanced Senses] but decided against it as it did prove helpful in some cases regardless of the overwhelming smell and I had long since grown used to my new hearing.
Once that was out of the way I checked on how Ashes was doing and wanted to know how close we were to her village.
She took a look at the compass from the survival kit that I gave her while on our journey.
"We were walking in the right direction for a while.... oh!
She pointed towards four rock pillars that formed a small circle in the distance and quickly ran towards it. I followed her and saw her stand in the circle and look off in the distance and pointed in the direction she was looking at.
"Over there! That's the entrance to Wyrm Valley!"
I looked in the direction of where she was pointing and could just barely see a small path leading down into a cave. After spotting it I looked back at Ashes and saw a conflicted expression on her face, almost resembling that of relief but also hesitation.
I remembered a conversation we had while we were traveling and it was me asking her how she ended up becoming a slave.
"H-huh? Oh I uhhh.... I was out on a trip with my family and I had gotten lost and then those slavers grabbed me." Ashes explained.
I could see her flinch a little at my question and duting her explanation she avoided my gaze while stuttering. She wasn't a very good liar and I could tell there was something she wasn't telling me. For starters why didn't anyone come looking for her? I highly doubt that her people would just let a bunch of humans just enslave another dragon, its clear dragons are valuable from how quickly someone was to buy her. She rarely spoke about her family which I found strange in a ten year old but I could be over thinking it. A part of me wanted to ask more but I decided not to pry any further.
I was taken out of my thoughts by Ashes calling out to me.
"See I told you that I knew where we were going!"
"You were right" I admitted.
She the grabbed a hold of my hand and started to lead me in the direction of the cave all with a huge smile on her face.
"Nothing can stop two friends that work together!" Exclaimed Ashes.
I flinched as she said this. Friends. I could feel an uncomfortable feeling begin to build in my stomach and wanted to yank my hand away and run.
"Gale is everything ok? You look like you're about to fall over." Asked Codec
'I'm fine.' I responded in my head.
As I tried to push that uncomfortable feeling back down Ashes continued to talk.
"Don't worry about your ears and tail when we get there! I'll explain everything to everyone! I'll protect you no matter what!"
I didn't say anything and continued to walk until we entered the cave.
We descended further into the cave and we thankfully didn't need a light source due to both of us being able to see in the dark. We eventually made it to a crossroads of tunnels in which Ashes took the lead and lead us down one of the tunnels and explained that there's multiple different tunnels in these caves that lead down into different places that contain traps for intruders. She's been through these tunnels multiple times and knows the directions like the back of her hand.
'Codec'
"Yes?"
'Can you memorize the tunnels we took to get here?'
"Of course but why do you need me to-"
'Don't worry about it'
"O-ok..."
I continued to follow Ashes through the tunnels until we reached the end of one of the tunnels that lead out into a massive cavern that was lit up by massive luminescent blue crystals. The cavern seemed to span for a few miles and reminded me of a small valley. Further away I could see a large town settled within the cavern. The majority of the town looked slightly rural and reminded me of buildings you would find in the countryside but at the center of the town was a massive castle that towered over all the other buildings and the castle itself reminded me the ones you would see in medieval times.
We started to walk on a paved stone path that led towards the town and I noticed in the middle of the path there were also diverging paths that lead into different caves. Ashes noticed me looking at the caves and explained that the cave we took was one of the lesser used entrances and isn't usually guarded but was the one she was most familiar with. That caught my attention a little at the fact we used one of the lesser guarded entrances instead of finding one that had guards so Ashes could at least talk to one of her own. We eventually made it past the point where all of the paths met and continued a little further until we made it about halfway to the town. It was at this point I stopped walking and moved my hand away from Ashes.
"Gale? What's wrong?" Ashes asked as she turned to look at me.
"I've kept my promise. This is where we part ways."
"....Huh?"
"Huh?"
Both Ashes and Codec looked at me with a confused expression on their faces as I started to walk away until Ashes grabbed my arm.
"W-what do you mean?!"
"I promised you that I would take you back to home now matter what. You're home now so that means there's no reason for me to stay."
"I-if you're worried about what people would say when they see you then-"
"Will they listen to you."
"Huh?"
""Can you guarantee my safety if I step into your town. That I won't be attacked by your people."
"I-I d-don't..."
"I'm not going to put my faith in someone who can't guarantee my safety and especially someone who's still hiding important details from me."
Ashes flinched as I said this with tears beginning to form in her eyes and in a small voice began to say " ....i thought we were friends."
"No we aren't. We were just two acquaintances working towards a similar goal that's been achieved. Goodbye."
Ashes began to cry but I didn't stick around and began to walk away.
"Hey what's going on!? Why did you act so mean towards her!?" Codec exclaimed
'I only said the truth."
"That was no excuse to act that way to your frien-"
'WE. ARE. NOT. FRIENDS.'
Codec flinched at my tone but I didn't care. As I continued to walk Codec hovered behind me and said "She's still standing there crying"
'She'll start moving eventually'
I continued to walk and Codec soon told me that Ashes after standing for a bit started to walk towards the town but I didn't respond. I didn't want a friend. Everytime I had a "friend" I put all my trust in them and every single time I was hurt. They all acted nice and caring telling me that they had my back no matter what and helping me when I needed it... it was a lie they showed their true colors afterwards and ... hurt me in a way never recovered from. I refuse to trust any so-called friend again.
'Don't worry we'll look after you!'
'We'll be friends no matter what!'
'You need anything at all just come and find me.'
My mind kept playing back those memories and I remembered one other moment.
'Do you... wanna go out sometime?'
I could feel a mixture of disgust and rage as I remembered those people and their real faces.
'Useless little brat can't you try harder!'
'Why should we believe anything you say.'
'How dare you show your face around here! You show up here again I'll kill you myself!'
'Hah! Get real! You actually believed all that!Who would ever love anyone like you.'
I walked faster and faster as my mind kept replaying those moments and my heartbeat quickened. The more I tried to push those thoughts out they came back just as fast and I could hear the same voices again and again and again. I was only brought out of my thoughts by Codecs yelling.
"Gale!"
'Huh?'
"I've been calling you for a while! We didn't take the same path as before."
Apparently while I was reliving those moment I had unconsciously started walking towards one of the main tunnels that Ashes had told me about. As I noticed my mistake and started to slow down at a turn in the path, I saw it. To my left built into the wall of the cave was an outpost armed with what looked like mounted machine guns.
My blood froze as soon as I noticed this and dove towards a nearby rock and hid and began to hyperventilate. As I tried to catch my breath my mind began to race 'How could I be so stupid! I should have paid more attention to my surroundings! What if they see my ears? Can I run away? What do I say?'
"Gale what do we do?!" Yelled Codec.
I took a moment to catch my breath and once I calmed down enough I started to talk to Codec.
'Can you fly over there and check to see how many there are?'
"Unfortunately no. I can't travel so far as I'll be forced to go back to the system."
'I saw you fly away that far before?"
"T-that was mostly exaggerated. My body is still a part of the system and even if I tried to do that my body will come straight back."
'...Alright then can you at least look behind me and check to see if anyone's looking?'
"Ok."
Codec then flew past me and looked at the outpost.
"Hmmmm... I'm not seeing anyone right now... maybe they're on a break?"
I took a moment to decide what to do next and soon I grabbed my cloak and crumpled it into a ball and tossed it as fast as I could to try and bait anyone who might be aiming at me. The cloak soared in front of me for a bit and landed softly on the ground without being shot at.
"No movements whatsoever."
I stood still for a moment and after making sure my ears were still covered and tucking my tail into my clothes I slowly held my hand out and announced "I am completely unarmed and I'm just lost and trying to get out of here. Please don't fire at me I am walking away from the rock and into the open."
I slowly walked away from the rock with my hands raised and faced the outpost and waited to see any reaction. I stayed in place for a moment and waited for anyone to call out to me and when no one did I slowly walked towards the outpost. There was no reaction. Was there no one here?
I walked closer towards the outpost and at the base of the wall I could see an open metal door in the wall and saw two rifles lying on the ground. As soon as I saw this I picked up the pace and jogged towards the door and looked through the door and could see stairs leading up. I cautiously walked up the stairs and as I made it to the top I found myself in an empty outpost and had to cover my nose a bit as it looked like some snacks and some drinks were scattered around and had some bugs and small animals digging into the bags that scattered when I approached.
The outpost itself wasn't too big and had a few consoles and security cameras on the inside and a few cameras on the outside. Attached to the frames of the outpost's windows and faced towards the stone paths were futuristic looking turrets that looked to be in good condition but appeared to be deactivated. On one side of the outpost wall I also saw a rack of various weapons of handguns, rifles, different colored grenades, as well as some swords and knives.
It was all very impressive but I had no idea why it looked completely abandoned and began to look around for any evidence. The food didn't look old enough to be moldy or completely rotten but the smell told me that it was beginning to show signs of something that was left out for at least a couple of days. There wasn't any signs of a struggle or any type of panic in the outpost and looked more as if they left normally but didn't clean up their mess.
After looking around for a bit I went to a console that had multiple screens about the size of a small TV and could see live footage from different cameras being played.
'Codec can you read the words of this world?'
"Yes. What do you need me to read?"
'I wanna play back the footage to see what happened and where everyone went off to.'
"Alright then. Now let's see..."
Codec then translates the words on the console and on the screen and I managed to start and play it back to about two weeks. From there I can see a few different people dressed in what looked like uniforms and were all dragon demihumans sitting at the console and watching the footage of the cameras. The footage was thankfully in color and had sound so I was able to see that they all had different colored scales that varied with a few repeating ones but none in black which was interesting. They seemed to regularly cycle through different guards at different hours and the guards were usually punctual.
I skipped through the days to try and find the moment they decided to leave. In about a week was when I found the outpost empty and as I found it I rewinded the footage to the previous day and started searching for the moment they left and listened in to a conversation between two of the guards who were sitting next to each other at the console.
"Awww man I can't believe we've gotta stay on guard duty for the start of the festival!" Groaned a man with red hair and scales.
'The festival?' I thought.
"You know we have to follow the shifts assigned to us. The next shift will be here to relieve us in three hours." Replied a woman with deep blue hair and scales.
"Sigh... I know. But I wanted to join in on the dancing and music and maybe see if someone was looking for a dance partner~."
"I pity the poor woman who chooses you for a partner."
"Hurtful. No wonder you couldn't find a dat- OW OW OW OW I was joking!"
The blue haired woman began to step on the red haired man's tail, angry at his comment and afterwards I began to foward the footage to just before the next shift arrived where I saw the red haired man sitting further away from his partner eating different snacks and the blue haired woman drinking what looked like juice while watching the camera screen.
"Ummm..." Said the red haired man
"What." Replied the blue haired woman with a slight bit of venom in her voice.
"Sorry about that comment I made about you not finding a date. I knew you were trying to find a date but wasn't able to because of our job and that was pretty messed up of me."
"...It's fine. I shouldn't have said that thing about pitying the woman who danced with you. Sorry."
"If you want... we could go together?"
"H-huh?!"
The blue haired woman blushed and stammered and stared at her fellow guard and soon they were interrupted by the turrets powering down for a moment.
"O-oh it looks like our relief is here!" Stammered the blue haired woman.
On another screen that displayed the outside of the outpost it showed two dragon demihuman men in uniforms approaching and the turrets powering down to let them through.
"Oh that's good. Um. Sorry about the weird suggestion. Just forget I mentioned anything" said the red haired man as he started to leave.
"W-wait!" Exclaimed the blue haired woman.
"I-if you really want to... we can have one dance..."
As soon as he heard this the red haired man smiled and said "Y-yeah! You better be ready cause we're gonna dance all night lon-!"
Gone.
Never in my life had I ever felt so unnerved and frightened. It happened in an instant. I was listening to their conversation and before the red haired man could finish his sentence he vanished. Not just him but the blue haired lady too. The two guards opening the door vanished and dropped the weapons they were carrying. There was no flash, no struggle, no warning, not even a flicker of something moving past the screen, absolutely nothing. They were just gone.
"W-what just happened?" Stammered Codec.
I rewinded the footage a few times to see if there was a glitch in the footage or if I had unintentionally skipped anything, but no. Everything we saw was real. I could feel my body start to shiver at how unnatural the dissappearance was and asked Codec for help on finding a way to communicate with anyone and we were able to find a option on the console that would connect us to the other outposts and speak with them. I contacted my first outpost and said "Hello? Is anybody there?"
No response.
I connected to the next one to the same results. Then the next one and then the next one after that. No one responded.
I backed away from the console and could feel the shivering get worse as I couldn't understand what was going on.
'What happened to everyone? Was it magic? Is there something wrong with the technology? Who did this?'
As I kept trying to figure out what happened my mind froze as I realized something.
Ashes.
Without thinking I grabbed a few grenades off of the weapons rack as well as a handgun and ran towards the town.
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Ashes POV
Sniff. Sniff
I couldn't stop crying. I kept walking towards the town and kept wiping the tears but they still kept coming. I really thought we were friends. Gale was the first person I actually felt comfortable around and someone who actually trusted and believed in me when we were in trouble. Not only that but he even saved me and brought me back here even though he was risking his own life.
I wiped my tears for what felt like the hundredth time as I got close to one of the entrances of the town.
I remembered what Gale said about him not feeling safe coming here and how I was still hiding things from him. It hurt to hear that but I knew he was right. I didn't know if I could convince everyone that he really is a good person when my own family didn't even listen to me.
'My family...'
I thought about my family and how I really didn't want to see them right now. I knew if I showed up now they would punish me and they won't listen to anything I have to say.... not like they ever did in the first place. They never listened to me and they always put me down and they never treated me like I was worth anything at all... not like Gale.
I was almost at the entrance when I wiped my eyes for the last time and made a decision.
'I'm going to make them listen! Along with everyone else! I'll convince everyone that Gale is a really good person who saved me and is nothing like the bad wolves in the stories. That way he can come here and feel safe here and I can prove to him that WE ARE FRIENDS!'
Filled with determination I walked to the entrance and was prepared to meet the guards. I passed through the large stone frame of the structure that represented the towns entrance and found.... nothing.
"W-where are the guards?"
There were always at least two guards stationed at the entrances of the town to prevent any intruders or wayward monsters from approaching the town. I spotted two of the standard rifles that most of the guards are armed with lying on the floor with a bit of dust starting to collect on them.
'Did something happen to them? I should go find someone.'
After thinking that I ran further in the town and found confetti and streamers scattered across the street from the festival along with a bunch of food and alcohol that looks like it was dropped all over the place. Everything looked like a mess and smelled like one as well but I couldn't find anyone.
"Hello! Is anybody here?"
I yelled in the empty streets but heard no response and kept running around trying to find anyone. I eventually found the main square where most of the festival takes place and found empty stalls with some nearly burnt to a crisp thanks to their stoves along with abandoned instruments on the ground and an empty stage where people would go up and perform.
I could feel my body shiver as I walked through the usually busy square as I knew something awful had happened to everyone. I soon found the path leading to the castle and hesitated to go in for a moment but I soon gathered enough courage to start walking towards it.
Thud.
I stopped walking as soon as I heard it. I checked my surroundings to see where the sound came from until I heard it again.
Thud.
It was heavy. It sounded like a heavy bag of concrete hitting the floor. I listened closely to see if could find where it was coming from.
Thud.
It was closer this time. At first I didn't realize what it was until the heard it once more.
THUD.
It was a monster.
As soon as I realized what it was I got ready to run. Just as I started moving I saw it. It came around the corner of one of the streets walking slowly. A monster the size of a small house that walked on four legs and looked like a big ugly green lizard with a inflatable sac under its jaw. It was a monster that would never come down here normally and could easily hunt other monsters like the Razorclaw and at times people. A monster called the Wind Guzzler.
As soon as it came around the corner it looked at me and charged.