39 Covet My Hear

Somewhere on the outskirts of the Artiren region, the snow covered land was cloaked by an ongoing blizzard. Hige had taken off his scarf and wrapped it around Hitomi, along with his over shirt, as they pressed forward in search of shelter. The hare anxiously watched the skies, dreading the possibility of Templar swooping down upon them. His gaze shifted to Hitomi, feeling her body shivering, as he saw her breath visible in the frosty air. With a slight wince, the hare held his free hand to his side, cupping what appeared to be a fresh wound. Blood had stained his turtleneck, with tears near the entry wound. Peeking out from it was a broken arrow, that he had attempted to remove, but failed to pull it out.

Hitomi timidly gazed to Hige, with a concerned expression. "Kyuu...." She still had the wounds she received before. The blood was finally clotting up, but the bruises had not yet healed.

Hige glanced back to her, struggling to smirk. "Hey... I'll be fine... Don't worry..."

Pushing through the storm, the two reached what seemed to be an entry. This cave however, seemed to have served as a hideaway, with tons of crates and things stashed inside. This was definitely a smuggler's den, but Hige certainly was familiar with the place. He had brought Hitomi inside, having her sit down at what seemed to be an previously burned pile of wood. He stepped away from her briefly to grab some snow in a bucket, and then a cloth.

"Kyu..." She whimpered, looking to his injury, as Hige took care of her wounds.

"I'll fix myself up, I just wanna make sure you're alright first. Kay?" Hige reassured her, lighting the campfire with a forced smile. "Finally I can get rid of these ugly Templar threads..." He muttered, before pulling off his shirt to toss it to the side.

The wound became clearer, where an arrow had made direct contact with his side. Hitomi watched with worry, as Hige finally tore the arrow out of his side. He winced as more blood came forth, but Hige quickly went over to some crates, to grab some supplies to bandage himself up. Afterwards, he went further into the cave, putting on a spare change of clothes that seemed more fitting to a smuggler, and returned to sit next to Hitomi.

"Kyu... Kyuu..?" Hitomi tilted her head with her foreign inquiry.

Hige shifted closer to her as he gazed into the burning flames. "This used to be my home, before I started working undercover... My friend and I were smugglers..." Hige glanced off. "...but my stupid ass got him killed..." He mentioned in a somber tone. "I just somehow keep putting others in danger..."

"K-Kyu?" Hitomi's ears went backwards as she leaned her head against his shoulder.

Hige's eyes shifted her way, as he sighed softly. "Well... It's kind of a long story."

"Kyu." Hitomi nudged him.

"I mean, if you really wanna know..." Hige glanced back to the flames. "When I was younger, a pair of smugglers took me in, but I wasn't some pet. We trusted each other..." Hige recalled the first meeting with Shane and his mentor, before he continued to explain more to Hitomi. "After the old man passed away, we started working with a man named Runfaust. The plan was to smuggle things away from the templar forces to help struggling races survive." Hige smirked a bit, as shadows casted over his eyes with a soft chuckle. "That's where I came in. We schemed a centaur templar into buying me as a pet, so that I could infiltrate their ranks." Hige lowered his head with another sigh. "But... Things went south after I got caught." Hige explained, going silent.

Recalling a time since passed, Hige drifted into thought. Hige was speaking with Shane at Knothole, over a pint. Hige was already pretty messed up, with some bruises from his incident with Dimitri.

"Jeez, those Templar seriously did a number on ya... Well, you already managed to sneak off without them noticing. Could just forget about the whole thing and never go back." Shane shrugged, leaning to his palm. "There's other jobs we can do."

"I know, but..." Hige closed his eyes with a sigh.

"You wanna save the girl, I get it. How bout this then... Discretely go back to your cell in Skyworld, and convince them you're one of them. Set up a meeting in Oakwood, as if it's a trap to lure me out. We'll put on a show, the templar try to catch me, I get away, you get the girl and we all make a clean get away."

"So that's your plan then? What if it doesn't work?" Hige crossed his arms, with an unsure expression. "This plan is stupid, Shane..."

"You love her, don't ya?" Shane smiled to the Hare, before Hige came back to reality, looking to Hitomi who carried tears in her eyes.

Elsewhere, the sun was beginning to come out around the campsite. Miles had fallen asleep by the campfire, but was now starting to wake up. He yawned, before rubbing his neck, as he glanced behind him to the tent. Through a small opening he could see the girls were all still sound asleep. From how early it was, Miles figured he was the first one up, until he realized that Ronan was absent from where he had fallen asleep.

"Ronan?" Miles tilted his head, glancing around. He paused for a moment, thinking about the night before.

Previously, Miles and Ronan were sitting in front of a campfire, while the girls had already gone off to bed. "I wonder if she's really still out there?..." Ronan muttered to himself.

"Hmm? What are you talking about?" Miles peered over to the other cat.

Ronan turned to Miles, with a soft shrug of shyness. "Well... There's this beautiful woman I've been admiring from afar for some time now. Rocky keeps telling me to go talk to her... but I just haven't been able to work up the nerve to do so. Maybe I should just come out and tell her how I feel. What's the worst that can happen, right?"

The memory ceased, as Miles groaned a bit. "Man, and I thought I was horny. I better go find that guy before he does something stupid..." He muttered, deciding to venture off into the trees around him.

Some distance from the camp, Miles came up to a clearing with flowers growing wildly around. He took notice of Ronan approaching a very attractive female Lugooz, this caused Miles to hide himself behind a tree trunk. The maiden was sitting amongst the flowers, with her pointed cat ears wriggling, from the sound of Ronan's pacing through the grassy field.

"Umm... Hello." Ronan spoke up coyly.

The feral female turned around with a surprised expression to see him. "Hi?" She replied, curiously, as she stood to her feet. This woman had a wonderful figure, with long blue hair and a scar through one of her golden eyes.

"I hope I'm not disturbing you, miss. I just can't help but notice how captivating you are." Ronan bashfully admitted.

"Man, he's dense." Miles rolled his eyes.

The catgirl tucked her hands behind her back as she innocently smiled to him. Petals from the flowers gently blew passed her in the wind, as Ronan's heart was beating out of his chest. "Tee-hee." She giggled. "Aren't you supposed to introduce yourself first, silly?"

"Oh! Yes. Yes, my apologies. My name is Ronan Valdizan, and what might your name be?" Ronan stammered awkwardly, completely forgetting.

"You can just call me Seiko." She replied, in a playful manner.

"What a beautiful name." Ronan smiled. "I admit, I've kinda fallen for you from afar, miss Seiko... I hope I'm not being too bold is saying so." Ronan admitted, gazing to her with adoring eyes.

"What an idiot... This chick's so gonna reject him." Miles muttered to himself, watching quietly. He was positive that this girl wasn't interested in Ronan, judging from his own experiences.

Seiko drew closer, as she came face to face with Ronan. Their noses nearly touched as the blue haired feline smiled to the nervous male. "Not at all. I've noticed you watching me for some time now too. I was hoping we'd finally be able to meet." She said, licking Ronan's cheek in a cute manner, as her hand felt his exposed chest.

"What?" Miles gawked in utter shock, watching the bashful male fall into the flowers with Seiko. Flower petals rose up into the air, as Miles was completely speechless. "How in the world did he-?"

Some soft footsteps were heard not to far from Miles, followed by another female's voice. "Wonderful, she disappears on me yet again! I bet she's in that field again... Huh!? WAIT! SEIKO?! W-What is She doing?!... UGH!" The voice gasped in disgust.

Miles shifted his gaze over, seeing another female Lugooz. Just like Seiko, she too had blue hair, but with a beanie over her ears. This girl was wearing rather unusual white attire, and seemed to be a bit taller than Miles.

"(She's kinda cute.)" Miles thought, faintly blushing.

The she-cat was staring out at the two, completely flustered, but as she abruptly turned away, her eyes caught Miles staring at her. "What are you gawking at, you creep?!" The startled cat girl gasped, in frustration. Miles' hair suddenly stood on end, as panic rushed in. The girl abruptly stomped up to Miles, grabbing him by his collar, as she leered at him. This girl definitely wasn't messing around. "You were spying on my sister and that man, weren't you!?" She snapped, flaring her teeth. "You have some nerve staring like some-some PERVERT!"

Miles sweated, as he quickly held his hands up anxiously. "I think you have the wrong idea!"

However, seeing the missing digits on Miles' had received a strange reaction, causing the girl make a repulsed face. She abruptly shoved Miles away from her with urgently. "W-Why are you missing fingers like that? You're a marauder, aren't you! Don't come any closer!" She hissed, pulling to a sword at her hip.

"Seriously, chill out." Miles tried to reason with her. "I was just trying to find my friend, and happened to notice how cute you were. Is there something wrong with that?"

The girl relaxed a bit, as she briefly looked Miles over with a suspicious expression. "Hmm. I suppose you ARE way too short to be a threat, so I'll take your word on that." She scoffed. "Wait. Did you just call me 'cute'?" She seemed confused, before growing irritated. "Don't try to be flirty with me, mister! You're way too petite for my tastes. Besides that, you're kind of creepy and gross!" She made a face, sticking out her tongue in disgust.

He immediately felt a sharp sting from those comments. "(... What am I doing wrong? Am I seriously this vile?)" Miles thought, behind shadow casted eyes, as he quickly turned away. With his manly pride wounded, he stormed off in the direction of camp.

Behind him, the girl somewhat stared at Miles disappear from view, with her arms crossed. "Hmph. What a weirdo. I better keep an eye on that one so he doesn't find the clan..." She muttered.

Miles made his way in the direction of the camp, infuriated by having his feelings hurt. He contemplated his failures to why he kept failing, while trying to hold back the tears that flew from his eyes.

However, before he could make it back to camp, a sound quickly caught his attention. He halted, with his ears shifting in the direction of some trees. Behind them was a dirt road on the opposite side. He crept up to peer passed the bushes, seeing a horse driven cart proceeding by. He had no idea why he was so curious about this cart, but before he could ponder more upon it, arrows came flying to the ground in the horse's path. The startled mare reared backwards, knocking the cart off the road, flinging the coach driver to the ground in the process. Miles quickly looked up into the trees above, to notice yet another feral Lugooz. This female was different than the other two, being much taller, as well as carrying leopard patterns in her snow white fur. Her green eyes were like aventurine, and she dressed pretty efficiently to her surroundings. Something about her drew Miles in, and wouldn't allow his eyes to trail away from her. He watched her descend from her treetop position, and maneuver over to the back of the cart to pilfer through the goods, while the driver tried to calm down his horse.

"Easy. Easy, girl." The driver patted the restless mare.

Without being noticed, the woman pulled a burlap sack over her shoulder, and darted back in Miles' direction. Seeing this, he quickly ducked behind the bush he was now peering from behind. As soon as the she-cat leapt over the bush, everything went black...

Some time must have passed with Miles' knocked unconscious. When he came back to his senses, he found himself bound to a tree, some distance into the woods. He tried to move, but it wouldn't budge, which lead to his eyes shifting forward. Sitting in front of him was that snow leopard Lugooz staring his way. Behind her was a handful of make-shift huts and structures made of natural resources. One of the wooden structures behind her, had the sack of food she swiped leaned up against it.

"Seems you're finally waking up. Hopefully I didn't hurt you too bad." She teased, leaning to her palm.

Miles' ears perked up, somewhat surprised by her reaction. Growing curious, his expression changed to a seductive smirk. "Ya'know, if you wanted me that bad, you didn't have to knock me out and tie me up." He flirted.

"Is that so? You wouldn't be here otherwise, seeing we don't normally bring in outsiders to our village" The lady cat replied, almost as if she was flirting back. "I had no choice but to tie you up." She went on, as she playfully poked his nose with her index finger

This action made Miles smile, maybe there was hope for him yet he thought. "You could have always hid me someplace secret." He continued the dance, as he winked to her.

She seemed intrigued by Miles's reply. "You would have me keep you tucked away like some forbidden treasure?"

"A beautiful woman like you, could have me anyway she likes." He answered back, with alluring eyes.

"Such flattery. I may just have to keep you." The female softly chuckled, as she rose to her feet.

The girl from before suddenly approached them without warning."You're not actually flirting with that 'dwarf', are you? Eww. Why did you even bring him here, Minerva? You know how Malick feels about outsiders." She scoffed. "It's bad enough my sister is mating with some domestic tomcat! She's going to get herself pregnant at this rate."

"So what if I am? What you may see as an imperfection in your eyes, may not appear the same in mine. If Malick is displeased, then I'll deal with her consequences, you need not involve yourself, Morrigan... Shouldn't you be more concerned with Seiko's actions rather than mine?" The taller female, Minerva, replied with a stern tone. "You do not wish to become an aunt, am I right?"

"No, of course not! Though, I still think you should have left that one out in the woods. He has no business snooping around in our affairs. He's a pervertive, rude, ugly little creep, Minerva." Morrigan, the other female crossed her arms with a disapproving gaze. "Who knows what kind of trouble he'll bring. Just look at his hands!"

"That's enough, Morrigan!" Minerva snapped, causing the shorter female to flinch, and nervously taking a step backwards. "Take your leave of me." Minerva stated, coldly.

Morrigan made a disgruntled expression as she turned away, and quickly stormed off from them.

Minerva sighed, keeping her gaze on the younger female. "You must excuse my clan sister, she is young, and not used to seeing many outsiders." Minerva apologized, before turning around to peer down to Miles.

Miles curiously peered up to her, with a gentle smile. "I'm actually more surprised by what you said. Does this mean you weren't just humoring my advances?"

This made Minerva chuckle. "Perhaps I shall leave it unanswered for now."

Miles seemed conflicted, unsure what Minerva was thinking about him. "No fair. Do I at least get your name?" He replied, in disappointment.

"It's Minerva, though I'm sure you heard my clan sister address me as such." Minerva replied.

"Maybe." Miles smirked. "I'm Miles."

She smiled back. "Well Miles, I suspect it would be wise for you to return to your camp. You have other woman in your care, do you not?" Minerva crouched down, to place her hands on the bindings.

Miles looked to her with a surprised expression, realizing that she may have been watching him. Truthfully he liked the idea of that. "So. You've been keeping tabs on me, huh?"

"Perhaps." Minerva teased him, cutting the rope with her knife. "There. You should return to your people now. These woods are not safe." She said, standing back to her feet.

Miles stood up, looking at this towering woman. He took her hands, gazing up to her seriously. "Minerva. Won't you come with me?" He inquired. "I'd like to get to know you more."

"No, I'm afraid not. I'm needed elsewhere." She reluctantly admitted.

Miles released her hands, with furrowed brows. "Will I ever see you again?"

"I can't be for certain, but for now you should go." Minerva replied, motioning to the circling riders in the sky above.

Miles grew uneasy at the sight, and begrudgingly turned from Minerva. "I hope I'm not too late." He grimaced, knowing he had to hurry. Miles urgently made his way into the woods, with the camp as his destination. Minerva turned around with her ears fixed backwards, to watch Miles vanish into the woods. Dusk however was approaching in the sky, as Miles hurried back to camp, knowing things may no longer be safe there.

Meanwhile around the camp grounds, the scene was panning up from the grassy field, to come into view of hand resting on the ground. Drawing closer, it was revealed that Eclipse was laying there, with fresh burn wounds on her left arm and hand. She was clutching to the ground, wincing from the pain. It was clear that she had been flung from the tent that rested across the campsite. Something big was there with them, thrusting Djinn back into the dirt with a large black tail. Clawed feet stepped closer to the tent, where a terrified Talis was trying to protect her nest. With her arms and tail coiled around it, her back was left unprotected to the attacker.

Clutched by her neck, Talis was forced away from her eggs, and elevated into the air. She struggled with tears flying from her eyes, as she saw what was standing in the shadows behind. It was none other than Gaigas holding her throat, as if she was weightless. "G-Gaigas... P-Please... Stop this..." Talis begged, but was ignored. She felt her body forced away, as she was thrown into Djinn.

The camp around them was becoming engulfed by fire, and Ronan was no where to be seen. Gaigas however had turned his attention to the eggs, where the violent dragon crouched down to pick one up. His eyes trailed back to look at Talis, who was now in Djinn's arms. A diabolical grin crossed his face, before he turned back to the eggs and started devouring them.

Talis weakly tried to get to her feet, with the look of horror crossing her terrified face. Inaudible screams cried out at Gaigas as she ran at him, to only be knocked away with a forceful spiked elbow. Talis fell to her face in the dirt, sobbing from desperation and panic. Her glazed over eyes faintly saw the male Terra turned around, to drop an empty scaled shell to his feet.

Talis' eyes widened as it shattered on the ground, followed by more screams and tears. "Nnnnnooooooooo..." Her shaken voice whimpered, as she collapsed from attempting to get up.

"Tzz. If you want my spawn so badly, I'll just give you some more." Gaigas grunted, turning his attention back to Talis, as he approached her.

Djinn could feel the motion from the ground, and urgently slithered to Talis' aid. She coiled her snake-like body around the female dragon like a shield, as she hissed at Gaigas.

The black dragon grew annoyed, abruptly grasping hold of Djinn's snake hair and pulling it roughly. "Get out of my WAY, or YOU'RE NEXT!" He bellowed at her.

Djinn endured the pain, holding her body close to Talis the best she could. "Do with me as you want, I won't let you HURT HER!!" Djinn retorted, defensively.

"M...Miles...." Eclipse muttered weakly, seeing the approaching feline coming their way at top speed.

As the urgent footsteps rushed Gaigas' way, he swung around to catch Miles' sword, that came thrusting his way. Gaigas shoved Miles back, quickly shifting his wings to use the spiked tips like blades. One after another, Gaigas jabbed his wings at Miles in a flurry of attacks, that were too fast for the feline to keep up with. Miles was struggling to keep grip on his katana with only one hand, but he couldn't give up so easily. He chose this route, and now he had a job to do. Gaigas took advantage of this, and used his tail to trip Miles, as he released more green flame breath from his jaws. Miles scrambled out of the way with haste, but parts of his tail lit up. He panicked, falling back to his rear as he patted them out in a hurry.

"I've had enough of these intrusions." Gaigas growled, raising his cupped claws into the air. Enveloping within them, dark magic began to swirl in around the camp like a plague, covering everything in a festering layer of purple darkness.

The dark ooze began to glow as it wrapped around his prey, constricting them with great force. Trails of dark particles were levitating around it, like toxins in the air. Miles forced himself up, slashing away the dark matter as he struck Gaigas with his blade. The Terra felt this wing tear, as the sword penetrated the soft tissue of it.

"RAWWWW!!!!" He roared, letting out a sharp cry of pain, as he quickly pulled himself away from the feline.

The dark aura began to circle around, before shooting at Miles like falling stars. Miles took the blunt force of the magical attack, being flung into a nearby tree. Miles had a bit of blood dripping from his nose, as flinched from the sudden surge of pain in his head. This left the girls open, drawing Gaigas' attention to them. Clutching Djinn by the neck, he attempted to force her from Talis. Djinn's blind eyes focused ahead at Gaigas, as they began to glow as she made a sharp shriek. From this close proximity, the blind gorgon was able to use her petrification magic. The left side Gaigas' face and body began to slowly turn gray with rock-like growths forming upon his skin. It cracked in some places, as those parts of his flesh began to harden and calcify like rock.

"WHAT MAGIC IS THIS!?" Gaigas shouted in a panic. The black dragon scrambled backwards, as he dropped the snake Terra to the ground. He urgently flew up to avoid becoming completely petrified, as he bursted out of the woods and into the sky, where the surrounding army was already hovering.

Miles sat up, looking way up into the air. "We need to leave this place..." He stated, in concern.

His eyes caught notice of Djinn releasing Talis, who rushed for the burning tent to her destroyed nest. She was in tears, frantically digging through the rubble of broken eggshells. Miles got to his feet warily, to see the dragoness in her fragile state. His heart really went out to her, but something caught his attention. Underneath the destruction, was a single egg that was left untouched. Talis went from complete distress to relief, as she quickly pulled the egg to her chest. However the tent was falling apart from the blaze, forcing her to retreat, nearly tripping in the process. Djinn however was not too far behind, and caught her before she could hurt herself or the egg.

"Is there any left?" Djinn asked, understanding the emotions and situation, despite not being able to see it.

Talis subtly tried to smile, as she took the gorgon's hand to place on top of the egg. "One... One survived." She explained, as a tear dripped onto the scaled egg. Talis hugged her, while holding tightly to that lucky little egg.

"Thank goodness." Djinn smiled, accepting the motion.

"Eclipse? Is she okay?" Talis suddenly turned in worry, to the wounded elf.

Miles peered over, as he made his way over to Eclipse. She was still laying on the ground, with her arm bleeding pretty bad at this point from the burns. The feline crouched down to her, trying to help her up.

"...Behind you." Eclipse softly spoke, in a fatigued tone, as she peered over his shoulder.

As Miles turned around, he spotted his phoenix fly into view. A smile came to his face. "Ember." He said, as the giant red bird landed beside him, to nestle his face. "She's my ride, don't worry." Miles faintly laughed, as he stroked the bird. "It's not safe here anymore, go ahead and climb on." Miles stated, helping Eclipse onto his phoenix's back.

"There's no way she'll be able to fly with all of us on her back." Eclipse spoke up.

"I know, but you're too wounded to walk." Miles replied.

"Where's Ronan?" Talis inquired nervously, as she and Djinn approached them, trying to avoid the cinders coming from the nearby flames.

"He's probably in that village..." Miles pondered. "He should be fine, we don't have the luxury of waiting on him right now. We need to get someplace safe."

"The path to our hideout has little to no shelter. Templar will be upon up before we even reach a halfway point." Eclipse stated.

"Pretty risky then..." Miles pondered.

"Eclipse, you should rest. Leave everything to us for now." Djinn tried to reassure her friend. "Miles. Do you know another location?"

Miles thought on the village, but he couldn't guarantee they would be allowed in. He didn't have much time to ponder on this, and quickly came to a decision. "Yeah, we may need to go underground to get there though. Come on, the longer we wait around, the sooner we'll be caught." Miles urged them to follow him.

However, as he turned to the best route, several Templar Pegasus riders came swooping in with their elegant lances. These lady knights clustered together like a pack of winged lions charging for their prey. The force of their powerful wings were so strong it blew the flames out from the nearby damage Gaigas had caused. Their hooves landed, rushing at the group with a vengeance. Miles decided to take front, running at the incoming knight as if this was a jousting tournament. His sword was drawn, slashing at the winged horse, only to be thrusted back from the bladed lance.

The other Templar units began to surround the wounded maidens, separating them from Miles. In the state they were in, it was as if they had been greatly outnumbered. There was no way they could get out of this, Miles thought, as his determination seemed to fade as the Knights prepared to strike once again. Just when all seemed to be lost however, a barrage of arrows came bolting in like strikes of lighting. One of the riders near the girls, took immediate mortal damage, slumping onto their mount before falling to the ground. Another rider fell off from the force of an arrow through their leg, as both Pegasus flew off into the sky. This left only a few remaining, with Miles still in the line of fire.

Another arrow blasted, piercing the rider's cranium before they collapsed to the dirt below. As their Pegasus fled, Miles noticed a form behind the falling white feathers. Perched in a nearby tree, was that beautiful feline archer, Minerva. He was filled with relief upon seeing that enchanting woman, but her job wasn't yet over. Still two templar remained in pursuit of Eclipse and the others. They were far too weak to fight back, rendering them defenseless. With a quick flick of the wrist, more arrows were drawn back on Minerva's bow, and quickly fired off at the attackers. One took a hit to the chest, dismounting as the other had before her. With only one Pegasus remaining, the Templar knight redirected her target and flew for Minerva.

Like an amazon, Minerva leapt from her perch, diving towards the incoming rider. She withdrew a Bowie knife from her boot as she landed onto the back of the horse to stab the knight in the back. The knight quickly attempted to flee, knocking Minerva off as she flew her mount into the air. Mid fall, Minerva pulled to her bow, and fired another shot at the Templar, connecting with her target. The body dropped rapidly, with the neck snapping on impact, as the Pegasus fled off after the others. Minerva landed on her feet, approaching where Miles was. However, one templar remained, still pinned up against a tree ahead of her. With this opening, it gave the lady Templar the opportunity to draw a bow and arrow. Before she could fire the shot though, Minerva redirected her body to target them, and impail them with one last arrow.

Miles stared in amazement as this intense female placed away her weapon and turned to face him. She drew closer, and crouched down to extend her hand to him. "Just couldn't stay away from me, could you?" Miles joked, as he took her hand.

Minerva smiled as she pulled him to his feet. "I suppose I just can't help myself." She replied, before her gaze shifted to the approaching phoenix and the girls. "It might be wise if I accompany you and your pack after all. These woods have gotten far too dangerous with those Templar flying about."