The Heritor of Illipia

Chapter 19

I accidentally misnamed the chapter last time. My apologies...
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        He woke up to fur, and for a moment, he felt like he was back in the desert with nothing but his survival instincts, growing power, and Zhu to keep him from losing his mind. "You shouldn't linger on such memories. Those days are over," Zhu said in his mind. (Y/n) remained still but looked to find Zhu seemingly asleep. The fox was protectively curled around him just as he would have done before he left. "It hasn't been that long since then. You can't just expect me to act as if I never knew you. It hasn't even been a full month yet," (y/n) spoke knowing Zhu could hear him.

         The fox opened one of his eyes and glared at him. The familiar emerald color took away from the threatening intention of Zhu's glare. "Get off of me," Zhu growled. (Y/n) didn't budge. Sure, he hated Zhu for what he did, but after spending a little more than a year as close friends, (y/n) couldn't take his threats or agression seriously. He was still tired from the fight he had been forced into at the temple and a faint remnant of his pain reminded him of the lethal power his mother was now capable of.

        "Where is everyone?" (y/n) asked as he sat up, but he instantly regretted doing so as a sharp pain shot through him. "Hey, don't move. Do you want to die after escaping death so many times?" Zhu snapped. The fox was on his feet and sat near him so that (y/n) cloud lean against him. "What happened to me? What did you do?" (y/n) asked as he held a hand over his heart to ease his pain. "Quiet. You two are too loud. I'm not in the mood for noise right now," Ykuei's familiar voice said but the hybrid child was nowhere to be seen. What bothered (y/n) more was that he didn't sound like the innocent scared child he was before (y/n) last saw him.

        "Ykuei...? Where are you?" (y/n) asked as he looked around. "Look up," he heard Ykuei mutter. As he did, he realized Ykuei was floating above him as if he was sleeping on the ceiling. "Thanks to your former friend there, my cover is blown, and I'm locked in here with you. It was nice being able to act like a kid again. Most people don't treat me like one despite the fact that I technically am," Ykuei spoke as he stared at the wall.

        (Y/n) was quite confused about what was going on. His mother told him something cryptic, a goddess claimed to be on his side but was not to be trusted, Zhu showed up again, and now Ykuei was a liar even though Illipia had spoken opposite. He couldn't handle the randomness of it all. Did everyone involved honestly think he'd believe everything he heard? Before (y/n) could start asking more questions, a knock was heard at the door, startling him. Usually he would have sensed someone long before they got even remotely close to him.

        "It's just me and Elsword," Ara spoke before unlocking something on the outside of his door and pushing the door open. (Y/n)'s bad mood got a little better knowing that those two had come to visit him and maybe even explain things to him. Ara walked in first and Elsword peeked around the door frame. When he spotted (y/n), the red head grinned like an idiot once again making himself seem a bit childish despite his status as leader.

        "Good to see you again. I heard about what happened. You okay?" Elsword spoke as he entered the room after Ara and sat on the floor in front of (y/n). He seemed entirely unphased by the treacherous fox sitting nearby unlike Ara who had given the fox a glare before sitting near (y/n). "Yeah, I'm all good," (y/n) answered. It felt wrong speaking such a lie nd Elsword must have sensed that. "Are you sure? You aren't in the best of situations right now and Zhu told us that you won't be able to use your power correctly for a while. I didn't believe him at first, but you didn't heal right away when he bit you. You also didn't wake up either. We were getting worried you know," Elsword said with a sad smile.

        (Y/n) could tell that he felt responsible for what had happened since he wasn't there. "It's not your fault. You can't blame that on yourself. I knew it was a bad idea to begin with, but I left anyway. Chung, Aisha, and Add are all okay, right?" (y/n) said as he hit Zhu for biting him. The fox shot him a glare but nothing more. Zhu had read his thoughts and knew why he had been hit. "They're okay but, that isn't the point..." Elsword muttered. He truly felt terrible and that somehow made (y/n) feel better as strange as that sounded.