FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Chapter 10

There was a pleasant feeling of warmth surrounding Russo as he felt his body gently rocking back and forth. He slowly opened his eyes to look up at the sky and stretch himself out on the hay and alfalfa he was comfortably lounging. He propped himself up and did a quick survey of from the back of the wagon he had hitched a ride on. The sun was hidden behind some well placed clouds but its warmth radiated around and through the puffy white shapes. It was an absolutely gorgeous day Russo thought to himself as he put his hands behind his head and rested on them.

"Hey mister, you think it'll be much longer before we reach Tedrah?" Russo called out to the human directing the horse drawn wagon.

"Nah, shouldn't be too much longer now. We'll be there within the hour," The human called back to him.

"Good to hear," Russo replied.

He didn't show it but Russo was ecstatic to be nearing his final destination. A month ago a guild member from Tedrah stopped by his village to take care of some thieves causing trouble for local farmers. They kept stealing the farmers' harvests right from their barns and storage sheds. At the rate it was occurring there wouldn't be enough left to feed the village, much less the farmers themselves when winter barreled through.

The village elders decided that enough was enough and that the thieves were no longer minor nuisances that could be ignored. So they called in for help from the Tedrah guild, a neighboring city that was only two days travel away.

A couple of days later a strapping white mouse showed up to offer his assistance on behalf of the guild. Russo remembered seeing him walk into the village wearing a necklace threaded with magic crystals, a brilliant green robe embroidered with strange markings, and just looking like a magical bad ass in general. He distinctly remembered the mouse's red eyes, which while unsettling, were offset by his laid back and patient demeanor. The mouse listened to what all the farmers had to say, their theories on how the thieves were getting in and exactly when during the night they would strike. From there the mouse asked to be shown which farms and storage sheds had been hit and which ones hadn't yet. After the tours came to an end and the day started winding down the mouse began to discuss his plan for catching the thieves with the village elders and those affected. In the middle of the village, where anyone could overhear him. Russo was surprised about how open he was about discussing his plan since the thieves could easily be listening in, blended in amongst the common folk. At first Russo thought the mouse was stupid for failing to realize that as he talked openly about his plan to hide out in one of the farms that had yet to be hit.

The next morning though Russo realized that in fact the mouse was a confident, capable and glorious manipulative bastard when he showed up with a bound thief in the middle of the village. Turns out the mouse had actually banked on the thieves overhearing his plan. He had purposefully herded them into hitting up some of the sites they had already taken a crack so as to avoid him altogether. Of the farms that had already been robbed only a few still had anything worth stealing in them. The mouse waited inside one of them, patiently waiting for one of those idiots to fall into his trap.

Having caught one of the thieves the mouse bound him up with magic and presented him to the village elders the next morning. However they all knew that more than one person was responsible for the string of robberies, yet the thief they had was keeping his mouth shut tight. They needed to make him talk somehow.

One of the farmers who had been repeatedly ransacked devised a devious plan to not only get the thief to talk but also afford all of those wronged an opportunity to take out their pent up frustrations on him. All while still being productive! They tied up the thief tight with some rope and knotted one loose end to the saddle of a horse. The farmers all took turns running errands on around the village, dragging the thief along as they went. It didn't take long for the thief to start singing a very different tune and give up the location of his cohorts hideout. With their hideout revealed the mouse, and the majority of the townspeople stormed off into the thieves hideout and proceeded to mete out a truly world class ass kicking.

When the deed was done the elders thanked the mouse liberally for his help and some of the grateful farmers offered him some of their recovered harvest as thanks. But, like a gentleman, he politely declined. As the mouse was leaving the village Russo ran after him, desperate to ask him a particular question.

"Mister! Mister!" Russo called out as he chased after him.

"Hmm?" The mouse curiously asked as he stopped to turn around and address the human. "No need to be so formal kid. The name's Virgil. Did you need something?"

"Uh... not really, I... I wanted to ask you a question."

"Ask away."

"I'm nowhere near as skilled a mage as you are but I know a couple spells myself... mostly to help me shirk off of work."

Russo demonstrated this by teleporting behind the mouse and then back in front of him. "A-anyway I was wondering... do you think your guild would have any place in it for somebody like me?"

A soft smile formed on Virgil's face. "Depends on whether or not you actually do your work and keep up with your training."

Russo laughed nervously.

Virgil chuckled softly as he continued on, "Anyway, the master of my guild is a pretty nice guy and if you're willing and eager to learn what it takes to become a great mage and help out the people, I'm sure he'll give you a chance."

Russo could hardly contain his excitement and Virgil cracked a smile at seeing his enthusiasm. He gently shook his head and slowly started walking away. "Take it easy kid," he said as he waved his hand back at Russo and set off out of town.

That exchange of words had settled it and Russo was absolutely determined to head out to Tedrah, join that guild and become as amazing a mage as Virgil was. Or at least one that was similarly bad ass. He talked it over with his parents, both of whom were small time merchants, and they weren't against the idea. They had done their best to educate their son and teach him how to follow in their footsteps. He was a bright kid but his heart just wasn't in it. It was fairly obvious considering how frequently he skipped out on either checking inventory or manning the front desk of the village store. Oftentimes shirking off his duties in order to go off and practice magic. Russo was fourteen years old as well, practically a man, and it was about damn time he found himself a profession and started training for it. If he wasn't going to become a merchant than he might as well become a mage. They both made it clear to him though that once he left the village he was on his own in the world, they couldn't afford to support him. If he ever had to come back to the village and give up on magic though there would always be a spot for him in the family business. Over the next month Russo did odd jobs for money and saved up enough to pay off one of the farmers who was heading to Tedrah to wheel and deal his crops at the market.

"Hey kid, we're here!" The farmer yelled out to Russo as the wagon came to a stop and Russo's flashback (within a flashback) came to a halt.

"Finally!" Russo said excitedly as he climbed out of the back of the wagon and dusted himself off of hay and alfalfa. "Thanks again for the ride!" He yelled back as he ran out of the market square, eagerly searching out the guild.

Russo slowed his pace as he began to stop and admire the layout of Tedrah, which was significantly more sophisticated than his home village. Cobbled streets as opposed to dirt roads, roofs made out of shingles as opposed to thickets of grass and reeds, god damn this place was high end.

The culture shock disappeared instantaneously as soon as he found himself walking by Tedrah's guild hall. Russo allowed himself to be awestruck by its glory and magnificence. And its second story.

"So awesome..." He said to himself while looking up at the windows lining the upper portions of the building as he walked towards the doors. He pulled on the front door... only for it to not budge. His awe momentarily interrupted, Russo forcefully tried to pull open the door again. Only for it to remain locked in place.

"What the hell?" Russo asked aloud as he continued pulling on the door and furrowed his brows.

"Huh. Maybe I need to... push?" He slowly asked himself as he started to push on the door. No luck.

Russo grew increasingly frustrated until he actually looked at the door he was trying to open and noticed there was a note attached to it. Apparently the master of the guild had been called away for urgent business and wouldn't be back until later this evening. Since most of the members were away on missions he thought it would be best to lock the guild's doors for the day since nobody was around. He apologized for any inconvenience.

"This sucks..." Russo grumpily complained to himself as he stepped back from the door. As he turned away from the hall he bumped right into a rough collie who was staring up at the guild hall just as awestruck as Russo was just moments earlier.

"S-sorry about that," the collie quickly apologized as he came to his senses. He was dressed in dirty ragged clothes that were in desperate need of being washed.

"No problem, I was the exact same way when I first saw the building too."

"This really is something isn't it?" The collie asked in a sense of wonderment.

"It's something special I can tell you that much. Too bad we can't go inside."

"What? Why not?"

"The guild master is out of town and he locked the place up for the day. He won't be back until sometime later tonight."

"Oh..." The collie said as he looked down in disappointment.

"Yeah, all we can do for now is try to kill some time until the guild master returns. Looks like there's a pub across the street. Want to wait out there?"

"S-sure!" The collie said surprised. His tail slowly wagging and a smile on his face after having realized he was being invited to accompany the human inside.

Russo led the way into the pub and with some trepidation took a seat at a table close to the door, doubts starting to swirl in his head about whether or not the much older bar patrons would even want him and the collie here. They both earned some quizzical looks as they entered and sat down, but thankfully none were hostile. Russo picked up a menu off the table and started reading it as a squirrel came up to their table.

"What'd you two boys like to drink today?"

"Do you have any apple cider?" Russo asked as he looked up from the menu.

"Sure do."

"Great, I'll have some then."

"And what about you?" The squirrel said as she pointed at the collie.

"I'll uh... have apple cider too."

The squirrel made a mental note for two apple ciders as she walked off to tend to other tables. Russo turned his attention back to the menu and scanned the lines looking for something to eat as the collie remained silent.

"They have chicken pot pie, which sounds pretty good to me. What do you think you'll get?" Russo asked as he handed the collie the menu.

"I... uh..." The collie nervously said as he took the menu and failed to make heads or tails of it.

"You can't read can you?" Russo bluntly asked after he watched the collie painfully struggle to figure out what to do with the menu for a good minute and a half.

"No..." The collie said as looked down dejected and ashamed.

"H-hey it's not that big of a deal! Plenty of people can't read and it's not like you can't learn to," Russo tried to reassure him after seeing how ashamed he was. Sure Russo liked to push people's buttons but he never purposefully tried to humiliate somebody. Not unless they really deserved it.

"W-well the what sounds good to you?" Russo asked as he plucked the menu from the collie's hands and started reading off of it.

"Beef and potatoes actually sounds pretty good." The collie said as he licked his lips.

"Alright then, beef and potatoes it is. Don't fret about paying for it either, this is my treat to you. Sort of... as an apology for getting you so down about your uh... illiteracy." Russo said awkwardly as he forced himself to stop talking and closed the menu.

"Th-thank you! But you don't really have to do that." The collie responded genuinely surprised.

"No no no, I insist. My name's Russo by the way." The human said as he realized neither of them had yet to introduce themselves.

"I'm Jem." The collie replied as he warmly smiled at the human.

"So... what made you want to join the Tedrah guild?" Russo inquired as the squirrel returned to give them their cider and take their orders. Time began to fly by as the two began talking about how good impressions by visiting guild members or recommendations from friends and family brought them here and just what all the two of them hoped to accomplish. They began talking about all manners of subjects like what their home villages were like, where they were from, their families, so on and so forth. Jem was rather vague in his descriptions but Russo chalked that up to Jem's lacking vocabulary. The hours whisked by and once it became dark outside Russo paid for both their meals and the duo ventured out to see if the guild master had returned.

There was light streaming out from the windows of the guild hall which was a good sign. They walked up to the doors and this time when Russo pulled, FINALLY the door opened. When they walked inside they found that a multitude of candles throughout the hall were lit yet not a soul was to be found.

"Hello?" Russo timidly called out.

"Hello?" Jem called out shortly afterward in imitation.

There was no response. Russo looked to Jem and shrugged his shoulders and continued walking in between the tables in the main guild hall. Soon enough the door at the top of the stairs towards the back of the guild hall opened and out stepped the guild master. He looked down at the human and the collie from the top of the stairs.

"Can I help you two?" The master asked.

"I hope so," Russo said as he stepped forward. "We'd like to umm..." Russo's nerves and anxiousness got the better of him as he felt the master's gaze weigh down on him.

"Mmhmm?" The master asked as he started walking down the stairs.

"We'd... we'd like to..." Russo found himself stammering on his sentences and unable to complete them as the master drew ever closer.

"We'd like to join your guild," Jem finished for him as he stepped forward to stand side by side with the human.

"Right?" Jem asked Russo as he looked over to him with a smile that put the human at ease.

"Right!" Russo responded affirmatively, smiling back at the collie.

"Really now?" The master said as he reached the bottom of the stairs and stood face to face with the human and fur. He leaned in forward taking a good hard look at both of them, invading both of their personal bubbles and making them incredibly uncomfortable in the process.

"Alright. You're in."

"R-really? Did you already just like peer into our souls or something and realize we have what it takes to be in this guild?" Russo asked astonished.

"Nah, I just did that to mess with you. By the time you complete your training and are ready to start an apprenticeship, that's when I'll have a good idea about just what kind of people you really are. And whether or not you belong here. I'm not the kind of person to turn others away before giving them a chance to prove themselves is all. Head on through those doors at the back of the hall and rest up in the guest rooms. I want to see both of you in my office, the room at the top of the stairs, first thing tomorrow morning. Understood?"

"Understood!" Jem and Russo both replied in unison.

"Good. Now go get some sleep. You two are gonna need it." The guild master began shooing them away towards the back of the guild hall before Russo remembered something important that he had wanted to ask.

"Oh wait one last thing!" Russo stammered out before the guild master shoved them to the back of the hall.

"Hmm?"

"Is there a mage named Virgil here? I was kind of hoping to talk to him."

"Ah... Virgil. I'm sorry my boy but he's moved on from this place."

"B-but I saw him just last month! How could he have already died since then?!"

"Dead? Oh... you, you misunderstand me boy!" The guild master said as he began laughing heartily. "No, Virgil's not dead, he's actually doing quite well for himself. He's just moved on to a bigger and better guild up in the northern part of the country. I gave him a recommendation and my blessings before he left."

"Oh."

"Now get out of here you two," The master said as he shooed them off for good for the night.

Making their way into one of the guest rooms both of the boys were giddy with excitement. "Can you believe it Jem? We're actually a part of the guild!" Russo exclaimed in delight.

"I know!" Jem said, furiously wagging his tail, matching Russo's excitement.

Russo made his way towards the bed on the left side of the room while Jem took the bed on the right. Both started removing their clothes as they got ready for bed, with Russo stripping down to his boxers before sliding under the bed covers. Jem took off everything and tossed his clothes on the floor before climbing into his own bed.

Russo laid his head down against the pillow and closed his eyes. He could feel his eyelids growing heavy and his breathing becoming slowed and rhythmic. "Good night Jem." He sleepily said as he was getting comfortable.

"Good night Russo." Jem happily replied.

Russo could feel himself being slowly pulled into a deep sleep as he felt his body become incredibly heavy. More so than he had ever felt before. Man, he was going to sleep great tonight.

"Russo? Russo are you still awake?"

Russo's descent into dreams was interrupted and he felt his body lighten up a bit.

"...I am now Jem."

"Oh... sorry. Thanks again for dinner by the way."

"Don't mention it," Russo groggily said as shifted around in his bed and turned away from Jem.

"Hey Russo?" Jem interrupted again, right as Russo was about to make himself comfortable.

"What?" He asked, irritation present in his voice.

"...I'm really glad I got to meet you today."

"I... I'm happy I got to meet you too Jem," he said as he felt the irritation disappear from his voice as it was replaced with sincerity. Honestly, Russo was glad to have stumbled across the collie and become fast friends with him. He enjoyed his company and appreciated his amicable companionship while they were both waiting for the guild master to return.

Russo shifted in his bed again and as he closed his eyes to get ready to try and fall asleep for a third time, his departure to dreamland was unsurprisingly held up yet again.

"Russo, Russo wake up."

"*Sigh* Jem I'm already a-" Russo stopped in mid sentence when he turned to face Jem. The collie wasn't in his bed. Nor were his clothes on the ground and his bed looked like it was perfectly made. It was as if Jem had never even been there.

"Jem?" Russo worriedly called out as he sat straight up in bed.

There was no response.

Russo quickly picked has clothes off the ground and dressed himself as he hurried out into the guild's main hall.

"Jem? Jem where'd you go?" Russo called out in the darkness while he carefully walked in between the tables in the hall. Wait... wasn't this whole place lit bright with candles not even half an hour ago?

A sense of dread and a feeling that something was terribly terribly wrong began to sink in. Russo hurriedly made his way through the guild hall and out into the streets where high in the sky the moon shone brightly, unobscured by any clouds. Stars twinkled brightly against the dark purple canopy of the night sky.

"Jem!" Russo called out into the darkness. Russo felt himself taking shorter and quicker breaths as he became more and more nervous. Not a single window was lit in any of the buildings he looked at, there was no wind whistling through the deserted streets, no bugs incessantly chirping, no garrulous or raucous laughter spilling out of the pub into the night air. The only noises to be heard were Russo's footsteps echoing against the cobblestones and his increasingly panicked breathing.

"JEM!" He screamed out one last time at the top of his lungs in a desperate attempt to not be suffocated by the silence.

This time though he got a response. Seemingly from everywhere around him a distorted voice spoke to him, echoing endlessly, making it all the more difficult to comprehend what was being said.

"KE.... PUH...."

"W-what the hell?" Russo asked as he frantically looked around, trying to find the source of the voice.

Whatever it was the voice grew louder and the echoes more forceful.

"AAEE....UHHHH...."

"Somebody?! Anybody?!" Russo fearfully called out, terrified of being left alone with whatever this thing was. The voice continued to grow louder and clearer and the echoes seemed to shake and reverberate not only the buildings but Russo's entire body as well. There was a rumbling in the air that had slowly been growing in intensity yet it suddenly came to a halt and the voice and echoes went quiet. Only to return an instant later, the voice screaming with horrifying intensity, the echoes constantly overlapping one another.

"WAKE UP!!!"

"What are you talking about, I am awake dammit!" Russo screamed at the voice, unable to even begin to understand what the hell was going on.

The castrophany (catastrophe + cacophony) of the sounds was almost too much to bear and the rumble in the air shook the ground itself. Russo struggled to keep his balance. All of that came to another screeching halt when Russo heard the sound of glass cracking... coming from the sky? Russo looked up and saw a huge crack had formed on the moon, running from top to bottom.

"What the fuck?" Was all he could say in disbelief as he steadied himself and stared up at the moon.

The cracking noise continued reverberating as Russo saw the crack grow larger and larger... and extend into the sky itself. Extending out from the moon in all directions the sky began to crumble and all logic and sanity was thrown to the curb as Russo looked on in horror and slowly backed away. The sound of cracking glass grew in intensity as the cracks spread through the sky and extended all the way down into the horizon. From there they spread to the ground itself. The sound of glass breaking soon accompanied the sound of cracking glass as the entire sky started falling to pieces. Shards of the moon and the night sky began plummeting to the ground. Behind the purple and star speckled canopy of the sky was revealed to be a depthless, unfathomable darkness. Shattered remnants of the sky rained down and cracked and pierced through the ground itself, revealing that the terrifying darkness was below as well. Russo ran through the city, avoiding the falling sky and the gaping holes in the ground. As he was running he saw to his horror that the horizon itself was beginning to disintegrate and was simply sinking into oblivion. The darkness began to surround him from all sides and the amount of ground that was safe to stand on was running out fast.

Russo watched on helplessly as he was forced to come to a stop when shards of the moon crashed directly in front of him, taking the ground out with it. With no way forward, he came to a halt. Watching on fearfully the buildings around him collapsed and the cobblestone roads beneath his feet began cracking and tearing. He heard one last glass shatter, right as his feet fell through the ground. He felt himself tumbling down into the abyss below in deathly silence as his eyes went wide and he yelled out. Russo looked on in a daze at the pieces of his world falling alongside him. A shard of the sky was floating next to him and he could see a star twinkling brightly against a small fragmented purple backdrop. Russo didn't know what to think.

For what felt like an eternity, Russo fell deeper and deeper into the darkness along with the fragments of his world, all in eerie silence. Out of nowhere he heard a strong whistling of the wind and he didn't even bother to try and rationalize it. He just looked around trying to find the source of the noise. Weaving in and out through the tumbling shards of his broken world Russo could pick out a strange gray mass. It kind of looked like a sideways tornado that was pinched at both ends and constantly spinning. It didn't make any sense to him but then again he was nearly crushed by the moon a little earlier so what the hell did he know about what was weird and what wasn't? It continued to masterfully weave itself in and out between the shards for a while. It was a hypnotic, almost beautiful thing to watch. Or it was until it suddenly made a beeline for Russo and came rocketing straight at him. Russo tried his best to shield himself by placing his arms in front of him in a protective position, but whatever it was rammed Russo square in his stomach, rendering his efforts pointless.

Russo felt the wind knocked out of him and like he was going to throw up as he spun and tumbled backwards through the air. The thing circled around him and smashed him straight in his ribs and before Russo even had the chance to gasp in pain it rocketed around him to crack him in the back of the head. Russo flailed about in the air in pain and could do little to reorient himself while falling. He let himself plunge headfirst into the darkness as he became woozy and his vision blurred. Craning his head up to try and see where the gray spiral thing had gone, he noticed that it had stopped circling him. It had gone back to weaving in and out between the shards, completely ignoring its prey. Or so it seemed. To his dread Russo saw that as it passed by the shards they were sucked into it and violently rotated about it. The human watched on in fear as it gathered up all of the shards above him and below him. It rocketed back up past Russo high into the air and began to menacingly circle its prey. In an instant it shot down at Russo and smashed straight into his chest. Russo screamed in agony as he felt his chest being torn open by thousands of shards of glass.

The gray spiral circled around him once more to assess the damage done and then disappeared with the remnants of his world into the darkness. Even with his blurred vision Russo could see drops of his blood floating up from his chest as he continued falling. He felt his eyes getting heavy and his body going numb from all the physical abuse. He was about to close his eyes and let himself fade into darkness... before his descent came to an abrupt halt as he smashed into a hard flat surface. His head slammed against the... who the hell cared what it was. It more or less functioned like ground. Regardless, Russo's head slammed against the ground hard.

Tears welled up in his eyes from all the pain, from the lack of understanding what was happening, and from the loneliness. As he lay splayed out against the ground bloodied, battered and beaten he heard the sound of glass cracking again and the voice from earlier returned.

"Wake up." It echoed a thousand times over, this time much more gently.

"I don't understand..." Russo weakly said as he felt tears streaming down his face and blood flowing down the sides of his chest.

The cracks extended out from where Russo had smashed into the ground to his right and to his left. Light could be seen trying to pierce through them.

"Please wake up." The voice gently urged as it echoed and overlapped itself.

"Leave me alone..." Russo replied as the cracks in the darkness suddenly shot upward, climbing high into... well what once was the sky as far as Russo's understanding was concerned.

"Russo... please wake up." The voice pleaded with him.

Wait... Russo recognized that voice. "...Jem?" The fissures of light piercing the darkness had extended as high as they could and looked to be slowly coming together. A multitude of hairline fractures extended from both of the single long running cracks. From afar it seemed like the fractures on both sides extended and contracted in such a way as to form into the shape of an oval. The outline of the two ovals nearly side by side remained in place as the sounds of glass shattering could be heard again. Shards of darkness began falling from within the ovals letting light pour in. Russo was blinded by it and was forced to close his eyes. When he opened them again he found that the scenery had changed dramatically. He found himself in a bed, his shirt gone and his chest covered in bandages and rags. The bed he was on happened to be in a small room that was quite homey and comfortable. Sitting in a chair to his left was Jem.

"Jem?" Russo asked the collie, unsure if any of this was real or not. The pain in his chest from being attacked from that gray thing still persisted though, that was real enough.

"Thank goodness..." Jem said as a weak smile formed on his face. There were noticeable bags under his eyes and it looked like he hadn't slept in days. He leaned forward to embrace Russo in a hug and let his muzzle rest against Russo's shoulder as he let out a sigh of relief.

"Uh... good to see you too Jem," Russo awkwardly said as he struggled to lift his arms up and weakly pat Jem on the back. Awkward it may have been, but Russo was glad to finally see his best friend again and returned the hug as best he could. Jem slowly nuzzled Russo's neck as the human returned the hug.

As Russo was embracing Jem he saw a bearded and gruff looking human enter into the room. Dude totally killed the mood of the passionate bromance going on.

"You." The human said pointing directly at Jem. "Bed," He tersely followed up by pointing out the door to a different room. Jem hesitatingly disengaged from the hug and did as he was told. Jem shuffled out of the room and Russo could hear him collapse onto a bed and start snoring softly only moments later.

"You gave your friend quite a scare there," The gruff human said as he approached Russo and slowly removed the bandages and rags off of his chest. Russo looked down at his chest and was alarmed to see a huge and raw diagonal scar stretching down from his left shoulder down to his right hip. "You were out of for a good three or four days. But then again when your friend brought you in you already had one foot in the grave," the human calmly said as he grabbed a vial of ointment off a dresser next to the bed. He dabbed some on a cloth and patted Russo's wound down with it. It burned terribly. Afterwards the man washed his hands and reapplied fresh bandages to Russo's wounds.

"...How did I end up like this again?" Russo asked confused as to what all had happened to him. He knew that gray spiral thing fucked him up pretty fierce when it rammed him with all those shards rotating in it, but it shouldn't have been a nice clean cut like this.

"You mean you don't remember?" The bearded human asked surprised.

"No I... I guess not..." Russo said embarrassed.

"Shoot, those highwaymen really must have messed you up if you can't even remember what they did to you. Though your friend did say you took a couple nasty kicks to the head. Ah don't worry about it too much, I'm sure it'll come back to you. And if it doesn't... well your friend can explain everything that happened. Once he's gotten some sleep that is." The gruff human began to shake his head. "He's just been sitting by your bedside these past few days begging you to wake up, apologizing and whatnot and never slept a wink the entire time. I got some other errands and patients to tend to in town so just stay here and get some rest all right?" With that the gruff human left the room and began gathering and organizing the medicine he needed to make his rounds around town.

Russo slid back in his bed and let out a sigh. He focused his gaze on the chair Jem had been sitting at. In his mind he slowly started to try disentangle his messed up dreams from reality as he vaguely began to remember a gray gentleman dressed in black and blue meeting him on a dirt path.

---

Chapter 11

For the remainder of the day Russo lie in bed combing through his thoughts. He didn't quite remember everything that had transpired but he did remember that he and Jem were ambushed by two gentlemen. Also, that one of them, a gray weasel, beat the crap out of him. That was about it before Russo started drawing a blank. He was curious as to how Jem actually managed to dispose of both of them, but Russo supposed it didn't really matter. He was alive right now because of Jem and he was eternally grateful for it. Seeing as how there was so little to remember Russo quickly grew bored of trying to probe his mind for memories that didn't want to surface.

As he sat in bed not remembering, Russo found to his relief that he could manifest magical energies again and was capable of simple spells once more.

"Looks like the magical drain wasn't permanent." Russo contentedly thought to himself as he let magic flow through his fingers with no real purpose in mind. Just felt good being able to feel that magic energy a flowin' again. Though that was about all Russo was physically capable of considering he was exhausted and his limbs still felt heavy as lead. Having been out cold for three days plus made it difficult for him to fall back asleep though, and that only served to drag out his day and make it even more tedious and boring. With nothing better to do Russo found his thoughts reluctantly drifting back to his surreal dream. As he dwelled upon it he came to a horrifying realization. Oh God... When he first joined Tedrah's guild he had been just as excited and clingy... as Dax. Nowhere near as annoying, but dammit... Russo ashamedly admitted to himself that he had acted a lot like Dax when he was younger.

"...Crap." Russo whined to himself as he slowly realized an embarrassing truth. He had been so hard on Dax because Dax had been behaving just like he had. It was humiliating being reminded that he had once been like that. "I guess I could be a little nicer to him..." Russo thought to himself. Virgil never gave him any grief in the brief time Russo harassed him.

With the day's required amount of reflection and personal growth out of the way, Russo proceeded to spend the rest of the day in bed being absolutely bored to tears.

An indeterminate amount of time later

The doctor returned as the sun was beginning to set and faint traces of light could be seen poking through the windows of the house. Russo heard some shuffling coming from the other room after the doctor entered the house and shut the door.

"Remember much of anything?" He asked as he walked into Russo's room. The gruff human was wearing a black robe covered with wax and thick brown leather gloves that were stained with inky black splotches.

"A bit. I remember being knocked around but I don't remember being knocked out. Nor do I remember being carved open," Russo said as he raised his eyebrows and looked down at his chest.

"Somethin's better than nothin' though."

"I guess. What's with the getup by the way? I don't remember seeing you walking out of here wearing that."

"That's because I just changed into it. I'm gonna need to take some precautions since some gal in town has come down with something nasty. Seeing as how I'm the only one around capable of treating her, it's up to me to give it my best shot. Sorry to throw this on you so suddenly but she's going to need your bed tonight."

"Oh, uh, sure. No problem." Russo said as with great effort he slowly pulled himself out of bed.

"Ub ub bu buh buh... not so fast, your wounds haven't fully healed yet," The doctor said as he motioned Russo to remain in bed.

"But you just said someone else needed this bed," Russo stated, confused by the seemingly contradictory requests.

"Just stay in bed, I'll have you back on your feet in a jiffy."

"Kay..."

The doctor went back through the door and sifted through his bag. He returned holding a magic crystal and a thick cloth.

"Alrighty now, I'll need you to bite down on this," The doctor said as he handed Russo the cloth.

"Okay," Russo responded unsure of himself. He took the cloth in hand and placed it in his mouth.

"So uh, what's this all for?" Russo mumbled through the cloth.

"Oh... you'll see. By the way this might sting... A LOT."

"Wait what?" Russo mumbled worriedly as the doctor gripped the crystal tightly in his glove. Green light could be seen glowing from between his fingers. The doctor took his other hand and put it on Russo's chest and cast a spell.

"Doc what ar-AAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!" Russo screamed through the cloth as he bit down reflexively on it. The insides of his chest felt like they were on fire and his ribs felt like they were being ripped out of him. An excruciating pain persisted for but a few moments.

"Alright, you're good as new. You can get out of bed now." The doctor said as he took a step back and looked at Russo, satisfied with a job well done.

The pain had subsided as quickly as it had come about but Russo's body was still shaking.

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR?!" Russo screamed as he ripped the cloth out of his mouth.

"Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, before don't get all fussy on me. Now tell me, how do you feel?"

"HOW DO I FEEL?! HOW DO I FEEL?! I FEEL... pretty good actually," Russo replied as he calmed down and lowered his voice. His limbs no longer felt heavy and a lingering pain in his chest that had been present throughout the day had vanished. Truth be told he felt a hell of a lot better.

"That's what I wanted to hear. Most of my patients prefer to let their injuries heal on their own slowly but I do happen to know a few spells to speed up the healing process. Granted, only problem with em' is that most people's bodies don't like healing that fast and it hurts like a bitch."

"No shit," Russo said, still smarting from the spell's effects.

"Anywho, your scar should have closed up and your broken ribs should be all fixed up. You and your friend ought to be good to go."

"...Any reason why I didn't have any say in the matter?"

"Well, I pride myself on seeing to it that all my patients leave my care in the best of health. Seeing as how you're an out of towner I couldn't feasibly do house calls or anything of the sort. So the only way I could see to it that you left my care in tip top shape was if I sped up the healing process. Also if I told you that what I had in mind was going to be incredibly painful I'm pretty sure you would've said no, and I couldn't have that."

Russo sighed and shook his head. He pulled himself out of bed and began rummaging through the room for his tattered clothes. Jem, finally aroused from his nap, poked his head in the room, curious as to what all the ruckus was about.

"Russo, you okay? I heard screaming and-"

"It's nothing." Russo curtly replied as he found his slashed and bloodied vest and put it back on.

"I was just worried is all," Jem replied as he frowned at Russo. The doctor turned to Jem. "So Mr. Jem, about the cost of my services..."

Russo finished dressing himself as Jem and the doctor haggled over the price of the doctor's services. Russo overheard the final cost decided upon for the doctor's... doctoring and he began fumbling about for the gold coins he kept in one of the pouches hanging from his belt.

"So that comes out to-" Jem said to himself as he slowly counted out the proper amount of gold coins.

"Don't worry Jem, I got this covered," Russo said as he tightened his gold pouch. "This oughta cover it," Russo flatly stated as he tossed the proper amount of gold coins into the doctor's face as he walked out of the room. Jem chased after him outside.

"What was that all about?" Jem demanded to know of his friend as soon as he caught up with him.

"Bastard cast a spell on me that made me feel like my chest was going to freaking explode." Russo grumpily replied.

"Was that what all the screaming was about?"

"Mmhmm."

"Why would he do such a thing?"

"To heal me apparently."

"Did it work?"

"...Sort of." Russo admitted as he looked down at his feet.

"Then what are you being pissy and ungrateful for?"

"Because that asshole cast his spell, makes my insides feel like they're being torn apart and rearranged and then, AND THEN he has the gall to more or less say "tough titties" when I complained about not even being given a say in the matter."

"All I'm gonna say is that I think it was for your own good."

Russo grumbled to himself as the duo slowly meandered out of town. The warm light cast by setting sun caused the buildings they passed by to cast long shadows. As they walked in and out of the shadows a small grin formed on the collie's face.

"Hehe, well if you have the energy to bitch and complain at the man who saved your life, it's pretty clear to me that you're back up to speed and haven't changed a bit. Good thing too, because I was starting to worry that whole affair might have traumatized you."

"Eh, I might actually start carrying around magic crystals from now on as a precaution, but aside from that I don't really see any reason to change the way I act or conduct my business. I must be doing something right if I was able to singlehandedly destroy Peccamen," Russo said with some pride in his voice.

"As well as the town of Letum," Jem cheekily chimed in.

"Okay so maybe I'll put more thought into the possible consequences of my actions from now on. And try to make it so that my good deeds aren't constantly nullified by not so good ones."

"Hmm, regardless it's good to see you alive and well buddy," Jem happily said as he slapped Russo on the back.

"Yeah, well... I have you to thank for that. I don't know how you did it but I really owe you one for getting me out of that mess Jem."

"N-no problem. You've always kept on eye on me so why wouldn't I do the same for you? Besides I care too much about you to let anything happen to you, you silly bastard," Jem quickly blurted out. He morbidly thought to himself that none of this would have ever happened if he hadn't been such a wuss and would just man up and tell Russo already about what he was. He could've become a giant right away and crushed up those killers seeing to it that Russo never got hurt. But no, he was too damned scared to tell him. A sense of guilt slowly began to nag and eat away at him.

"You don't owe me anything Russo. It's enough just having you alive and well," Jem said as he looked down at the ground.

"Al-alright."

An awkward silence followed as the two struggled to adequately deal with their obvious feelings of bromance and guilt, for what they had and hadn't done. They walked in silence through the streets of the (still and forever nameless, because I don't feel like putting in the effort to name it) town as the sun continued slowly sinking over the horizon. The sky provided a brilliant yellow, red, and orange backdrop, as they milled about out of town.

"Wait, why are we even walking? I can just teleport us back home!" Russo blurted out loud as he came to a sudden realization and abruptly changed the subject, much to everyone's relief. (Mainly mine so I can quit writing about and trying to flesh out their relationship.)

"You really think you're up for that already?" Jem asked incredulously.

"I'll be fine," Russo said as he grinned to himself and readied the spell, his hands glowing a warm orange color that was nearly invisible to the eye as Russo was being bathed by the rays of the fading sun.

"Care to teleport us to our new haunt then? I could really use a drink and some good local cooking after all we've been through."

"You got it," Russo said as he concentrated on teleporting to the waypoint set up in Tedrah.

"Oh, one last thing Russo?"

"What?"

"Dinner's on me."

Russo stood still for a moment, staring dumbfounded at Jem. "God I've waited so long to hear those magical words."

Jem stuck his tongue out at him and Russo smiled and shook his head as he teleported them both back to Tedrah. They reappeared back home as the sun sank beneath the horizon. The sun dragged down with it the warm reds, oranges and yellows that filled the sky minutes earlier, leaving behind shades of purples and blacks to bleed out into the sky. They appeared in a flash of orange light in front of the pub they now frequented and happily barged inside, comforted by the familiar sights, sounds, and smells. Unbeknownst to them a small jet black bird had been circling high in the sky, keeping sentry for the past few days. It had witnessed their sudden reappearance and immediately it flew off and disappeared into the darkness over the horizon.