Legend of the Western Lands

Mercenary Squad Avil (3)

Sleep is great. Actually, it's the greatest mandatory function most living beings need to survive. Cale applauds any higher creator that included this condition- although, if actual gods created humans, he will unkindly tell them to fuck off. Just on principle, of course.

Now, as much as Cale loves to sleep and he's certain that his darling sleep also loves him, a tiny child in the form of a dragon saw things differently. His blue eyes sparkled like supernovas in the dark and an endless stream of 'Secret hideout! Secret hideout! We need to investigate, human!' interrupted the otherwise peaceful atmosphere.

The rain outside would have been the perfect background noise to accompany a beautiful sleep, but no. The kids want to go outside...while it rains. Cale's gaze wandered to the outside where the previously lush grass had turned into a muddy annoyance. His distasteful gaze wandered even further to the gloomy sky where no sign of the rain stopping any time soon was visible.

Cale felt like weeping.

"Human! We need to go now! Before they wake up again.", Raon's rambling interrupted Cale's self-pity.

Wake up again? A confused glint entered Cale's eyes and his eyebrow rose questioningly. What did they do while he wasn't paying attention? Better question, how can he act like he never knew anything about it? Denial is always the way to go.

"They should be knocked out for a bit longer.", Ohn commented. Her nonchalant expression scared Cale a bit.

Vicross just sighed, already resigned to the fact that they will go investigating soon. Cale wanted to protest as he was quite able to say no to the kids and the whole 'Secret Organization'- stuff is something along the lines of 'Been there. Done that. Don't need to do it again. 0/10. Not recommended.' for him. He did it once and still has the scars to show their struggles.

The previous meddling was because human trafficking goes against Cale's principles. Just that and no more.

Without realizing it, Cale's gaze met the expecting eyes of the kittens and Raon. Three pairs of sparkling eyes stared at the disguised redhead. The 'no' on the tip of his tongue got swallowed down and a resigned sigh took its place.

"Cast magic on me before we leave." was the only thing the exasperate redhead uttered.

'This is hyung's fault.', Cale complained internally. The royal was the one who interrupted Cale's peace and sent him to another whole continent. Everything that is happening here is Alver's fault.

A wave of magic washed over Cale. Both thermal magic as well as a waterproof charm, Cale noted absentmindedly. His tired mind already thought up countless situations as to what they may encounter soon.

The kids didn't talk much. The little bits he could piece together from the excited rambling of Raon, Hong's inconveniently placed comments, as well as the actually useful but far too scarce additions of Ohn, didn't paint a reassuring picture.

Well, he has Choi Han and Eruhaben if things go south.

After a short discussion with Ron and Vicross, both agreed that with the kids already acting and causing some level of mischief, any stealth wasn't needed and the two will remain behind in the case of some other people being noisy. Ron's slight smile, really just a small tilt of his mouth, gave Cale the chills. The redhead prayed for Silvio's group and hopes that they won't start asking questions while he was gone.

They left the camp at a fast pace as the rain and murky grounds made their detection far harder. Cale didn't know where they were going. Raon's "We moved really fast and then there was a stone that looked like my piggy bank! We looked at it a bit and human, so many trees, but they look weird. Not like ours at all!" wasn't that helpful in judging the distance or location.