(ROUGH DRAFT) Endless Sky ~Elemental Chaos~

Chapter Twelve

Avaro and Lucerne continued to joke about until Renny and Sunset returned. Having walking in on Avaro claiming he can fit the most hotdogs in his mouth than everyone in the mansion.
"I was just joking," he said while Sunset gave him a look of disproval mixed with concern. Renny looking as if pretending not to have heard him.
"He wasn't," Lucerne added, Avaro turning to him and whispering, "Shut up!" through clenched teeth.
"Just make sure you get your own and they only go into one hole," Sunset meowed, Renny coughing to smother her snort of laughter.
"I'm not putting hotdogs in my nose," the dragon replied. His friend obviously thinking something entirely different and wrong.
"What?" Avaro looked around, feeling as if he missed the joke he was supposed to have understood.
"Don't worry about it," the old cat responded, going over to sit by Renny's chair as she took the tray.
"It seemed like you guys liked them," the woman commented as she placed the empty tray on a nearby desk, taking her seat by Sunset.
"We've ate nothing but unseasoned prey the past few days, which I don't mind. But I know Lucerne could only last so long," Avaro said, nudging his friend who scoffed.
Despite his previous irritation towards Sunset, the jokes with Lucerne had really eased his tension. He felt more relaxed and easier to reason with. Another reason why Avaro felt lucky to have the celestial in his life.
"Well lucky you, it won't be long anyways. Even if you did plan on staying there forever," Sunset muttered. Avaro decided to ignore that.
"So obviously, there's a reason we were gone for so long," Renny said, fixing up her robes a bit. "And it's not just so you guys can settle and relax a bit,"
"Didn't know that was a reason but it did work," Avaro whispered to Lucerne. The celestial making so sign he heard him.
"Sunset can't risk being out ther for long, nor can she risk being spotted by you guys," the potion lady explained, her friend interrupting.
"And I can't trust you two to know what exactly to do, say, and who to even speak to," She growled.
"Yes..." Renny said slowly before continuing. "So anyways, I will be coming a long as a visiting friend. If that works for you two,"
Avaro's eyebrows raised as he slitghtly turned his head to Lucerne, noticing him do the same.
"She is coming with us!"
"There's just some things we have to polish up for this plan to actually work," Renny said, having not noticed or not cared for the exchange the other two made.
"And what's that?" Lucerne asked as Avaro directed his attention back.
"Tell me about yourselves," the woman said with a bright smile. "And I'll tell you about myself. It doesn't have to be personal. Just normal things like favorite color and food,"
Avaro frowned, feeling a bit suspicious.
"Why do we need to do that?" He asked.
"So I can act more like a friend and not some stranger tagging along. I don't want to look uncomfortable or confused, it might alert the others," Renny explained, relieving some of the suspicion. It made sense to him now, somewhat.
Avaro crossed his arms before opening his mouth to speak, but his friend quickly cut him off.
"I'm Lucerne, a retired Celestial Beast. Like most of my kind, I like the color blue," he said, glancing at the dragon he just interrupted.
Avaro pouted. He wasn't going to be stubborn, all he was about to say was his name and status. Maybe his favorite color too. "You can trust me," Avaro wanted to whisper, but kept to himself. Waiting as Lucerne explained his fascination to stars and what his favorite food was.
"I think I heard of Celestial Beasts before," Renny said, thoughtful. "Though I am sure you're the first one I met," she added with a small nod to Lucerne.
"Unless we're a known species, we usually stay hidden in the worlds we go to. It's not a law, but if we disturb the peace we can get in massive trouble," the celestial nervously chuckled, knowing full well Avaro's world did not know of "Celestial Beasts" of any kind.
"It's usually the human worlds that are the issue. Even if we portal away to avoid imprisonment, the news articles and videos and pictures would cause so much hectic," Lucerne sighed. "I never caused any issue, but I've heard stories,"
Renny nodded as she listened, her eyes glistening with fascination.
"Yes, lots of space," Avaro quickly barged in, making sure Lucerne could not continue. "For me it was trees. Large trees, bigger than the ones here. Cause I am a dragon," he said, almost smugly. As if being a dragon was somehow superior than anyone else.
"Lucerne was a dragon too," Renny pointed out. "I saw him,"
"Well that's because celestials can change their form to all kinds of beasts," Avaro huffed before continuing. "I have a human form I use so I don't crush all of you,"
"I see that,"
"All my kind does, but we usually are dragons. We have a kingdom for the high ranks, village for the citizens like me, and a small village for the humans," he continued, noticing Renny was losing the shine in her eyes.
"Am I really that boring?"
"W-Well anyways, I like practically all meat whenever cooked or not and my favorite color is blue," Avaro quickly finished, no longer interested in speaking.
"I thought it was red," Lucerne said with a confused frown.
"What?" He looked at his blue friend, suddenly realizing he's slipped out the wrong word.
"Oh! Right, yeah, red. Red's my favorite color," Avaro quickly corrected, confused on why he said blue in the first place.
Lucerne still looked a bit confused, but seemed to have taken Avaro's word as a  mistake that was corrected.
"Wow, interesting," Renny said once they both turned their attention to her. "I suppose it's my turn now?"
The two nodded.
"Alright, you know me as Renny. I'm an alchemist, or potion maker, or a potioneer, all work. My parents are alchemists too. But they live somewhere else," she said, shrugging and continuing.
"My grandpa was the first, he was trying to recreate some essence but failed. Told my parents not to try since it was dangerous, but they couldn't have even if they wanted to, they had no idea what essence he was using," Renny chuckled and motioned Sunset over. "So they worked on other things. Sunset takes strengthening potions often to stay mobile. Without it she's a true old prune,"
"HEY!" Sunset erupted, her fur puffing out. Avaro cracked out in laughter while Renny snickered, leaving Lucerne looking alarmed at the furious fur ball.
"I'm just teasing you," the woman chuckled, patting Sunset's head and nearly losing a finger or two. "Okay okay! I'm sorry!" She quickly added, but the smile she had didn't really make it feel sincere.
Sunset huffed and padded off and out of the room, tail flicking in irritation.
Renny waited for a few moments to make sure she was gone.
"...She hates it when I call her an old prune, but I still do. My dad called my grandpa that when he was still alive, he always gave him a funny look," she snickered, reminiscing the stories her father gave her.
"Did you ever meet your grandpa?" Lucerne asked, trying to change the subject.
"No, he died a few years before I was born. I would've loved to have met him. I did l met my grandma before she passed a decade later. Sweet lady," Renny replied with a soft smile. "She wasn't all into potion making, but liked to forge for things and organize. So they worked well together. One gathers materials for the other to use,"
"That's sweet, was it age that got to them?" The celestial continued with the questions.
"For my grandma, yes, my grandpa..." Renny's face darkened.
"We found him dead one morning. Murdered. Never did find out who, or why, he was killed. There was a clear struggle and no weapons left over, so he didn't take his own life," she explained, her smile gone.
Avaro shivered, disliking the sudden shift in the mood.
"Oh... Did he have any enemies..?" Lucerne questioned.
"None, people loved him for his skill with potions that helped them. We can only guess someone was trying to steal and it backfired badly," the potion maker responded, getting up and out of her chair. "Everyone was devastated when they found out he died. Especially his wife who was asleep when it all happened. Blamed herself for not waking up and trying to save him," she headed over to the cauldron and peered into it, making Avaro curious on what was inside it. If anything at all. There was no fire under it or smoke protruding off it, Renny could easily be looking into an empty cauldron for all he knew.
"They questioned everyone. But everyone came back clean. They couldn't find anyone with even the slightest suspicion. So in the end, we all gave up. The killer remaining free, somewhere..." Renny went silent, finished.
"I'm sorry that all happened to your family," Lucerne apologized, shifting a bit in discomfort.
"It's alright, it was years ago anyways," she replied as she turned back to them, her face reverting back to the bright smiling one she had before.
"I think we should be heading to the elementals now though, I'm sure we all know enough,"
"Oh right!" Lucerne exclaimed, quickly jumping to his feet. "Come on Avaro," he added, holding out a hand to his friend.
Avaro blinked at it before quickly taking it, getting pulled to his feet before letting go. "Lucerne can make us a portal close to camp, no need to have to fly all the way back," he said as he brushed himself off, his friend nodding in agreement.
"Alright, that sounds like a good idea, lets go," Renny said, slightly bouncing on her feet like an excited child.
"Now? What about Sunset?" Lucerne exclaimed, looking at the door the old cat vanished through.
"She'll be fine, we already discussed thr plan. She'll know that's where we went,"
"Alright..." With that said, Lucerne lifted a hand and opened a sparkly blue portal. Little harmless white particles flaking off both ends as it glowed.
Renny's eyes widened in awe as she quickly went through it, Avaro following with Lucerne right behind him. The hard ground turning soft with grass and dirt.
"The entrance to camp should be over there," Lucerne said, pointing to the right.
"Yeah that's right," Avaro replied as he walked off, taking the lead. Renny stayed back, looking around at the nature around her.
It didn't take long for Avaro to notice a pair of fluffy shapes through the trees. Two Wild cats guarding the entrance.
A pang of worry shot through him.
"Zeru said Lucerne and I can go as we please, but he never mentioned anyone else. Nor us mentioning bringing a friend," he thought, glancing back and spotting Lucerne's equally alarmed face.
"We'll be fine, if they refuse to let her in, we'll just get Zeru to give us permission. It shouldn't be that hard," Avaro reassured himself, making a small nod and picking up the pace slightly.
The two shapes stiffed up when noticing Avaro, but quickly relaxed upon remembering who he was.
"Welcome back!" The one on the right meowed. "Who's that?" The left one hissed as Renny arrived with Lucerne.
"She's a friend of ours," Avaro explained. "She was looking for us. Roxxan must have told her we were here,"
The cat narrowed his eyes.
"I'm sure Zeru wouldn't mind, we can even wait out here while you go get him," he added, getting a bit worried.
"Zeru is extremely busy right now," the cat meowed.
"Oh? With what?" Avaro asked.
"Something with that Cinder folk. I believe he's on trial of execution."