DreadWolf

◈ Chapter 150:

Rain devoured the last of the gangs, drakes and lapines all, dozens of them. Those who had been killed by each other, or by himself. He had to admit of the two species Lapine was definitely the tastier, rabbit was just so moreish, drake was just a less spicy kobold.

Careful not to make too much of a mess he carried the bodies away from the street and into Lyra's family garden before digging in. Probably for the best as there were a few neighbours peeking through their curtains trying to see what all the noise coming from the lightless dark was.

He finished up with a polite belch. Levelers were so much more filling than animals, there really was no comparison, and the greater growth was alway a plus. Maybe hunting the city's gangs was the better answer to his daily hunger problem instead of devastating Florens' animal population.

With a groan he rolled his claws and stretched like a cat as the feeling of a little growth washed through his body, expanding his size a bit. That was the trouble with needing ever more food to grow the same amount, needing ever more to achieve the same wonderfully satisfying feeling. It made him want to go after all the gangs then and there, to eat them all, toreallycut loose. How many gangs even were there?

He pondered that as he returned to the house and stepped through the broken down wall. There was no one there, nor were there any bodies as he had eaten those too, but there were voices coming from a room deeper inside the house.

Rain followed the sound and found Lyra with her family sitting at a dining table, her exceptionally beautiful elven mother serving tea from a teapot as though they hadn't just been raided and almost killed by multiple warring street gangs.

There was a certain amount of alarm as Rain entered, which he didn't think was entirely fair, he had been careful to clean off the blood.

"This is the monster you said belongs to you Lyra?"

"Mhmm! He was a gift from a friend. Don't worry, there's like ten- no, twenty- uh, thirty! heart pins aimed directly at his heart, or something, he can't hurt a fly if I don't want him too, but I don't need to because he's a good boy, yes you are, aren't you just!" said Lyra, tilting her head and smiling up at Rain, her eyes squeezed shut.

Rain gave the sheep girl a very flat look.

"Aheh, anyway, he's been keeping me safe. It would take a seriously strong leveler to beat him in a fight, and before you get any ideas dad, no, you couldn't beat him, you would get destroyed."

"I wasn't about to say anything," grumbled the large sheep person, ram person? Woolie? Rain wasn't sure, but he did have two large curling horns on either side of his white furred head, matched with a gold-brown waistcoat and a pair of armless ivory spectacles balanced on the bridge of his muzzle.

"Well good. Come here Rain I'll get you some tea."

"You're going to serve the thing?!" scoffed Lyra's father.

"Yep. Aren't you at least a little grateful he saved your life? I think the good boy deserves some tea."

Rain momentarily considered throwing Lyra out a nearby window, but with a sigh he stepped forward and took the seat she pulled out for him.

The wooden chair immediately collapsed as he put his weight on it and he was dumped onto the floor.

"You knew that was going to happen." he growled.

"It can speak? I thought I heard- but..." said Lyra's mother looking faint.

Rain adjusted and sat cross legged which at his height left the top of the table slightly below his chest. It wasn't that far off from how Lyra was sat at the table with a chair honestly, but he still felt ridiculous.

Lyra's father squinted at him. "Why do I get the impression that this slave is valuable, as in paying a fortune in gold to possess kind of valuable."

"Eh, something like that. Here you go Rain."

Lyra slid a steaming cup of tea over to him which Rain peered at. Hesitantly he lifted a paw aiming for the handle, but then recalling what happened at Warwick's he adjusted and aimed for the cup part. He carefully and slowly slowly brought index and thumb together to squeeze and lift the thing, with perfect precision.

He misjudged and the tea cup was instantly crushed in a splash of hot tea that made the others flinch. Chunks of delicate shattered ceramic slid across the tea puddled table top.

"Aww, that's okay Rain you big clumsy pup, don't worry, I'll get you another one."

Rain was getting the distinct impression that Lyra was setting him up for something somehow, and that was... concerning.

He glanced to the side and found a smaller teenage version of Lyra staring up at him with very wide eyes. Her hair was done up similarly to Lyra's except with pink ribbons, and she wore a slightly too large long sleeved blouse.

"Is this your... mega puppy?"

"No Ceria, not a puppy, a very dangerous monster. You've killed enough monsters in the dungeon to know that monsters aren't to be treated lightly, they are to be treated as a threat and a source of levels," grumbled the ram.

The mini Lyra's lip wobbled as she seemed to remember something.

"Kill the mega puppy? But he saved us... saved us from..."

"Look what you've done dad! you've upset her! Rainisa mega puppy, a super soft and kind one, just uh, ignore all the dead gang members. Look, Ceria, try and pet his arm."

Lyra's parents became extremely alarmed as Ceria reached out a hand and hesitantly touched Rain's fur. Her face, which was drawn and pale with remembered distress, lit up as she buried her fingers in soft fluff and started petting, unable to stop a smile appearing on her face.

Rain decided he desperately needed to find a way out of this Lyra designed situation, gods knew what she was planning next. He turned his head to the elf.

"Aren't you worried the city guard will come after what happened? They might not take kindly to Lyra and me being here... so..."

The elf took a moment to deal with being directly addressed by a monster. "Uh, th-that, is uh," she shook her head slightly as though to clear it. "We... are far from any guardhouse here, and I can't imagine our neighbours are willing to leave the safety of their homes to go wandering through the pitch black night to go fetch them. It should be fine until dawn, I think."

"Yeah Rain, it's fiiine. Anywaaaay, totally random topic change, what do you guys think of close relations between monster and leveler?"

Lyra's father choked on his tea and the elf had to slap her hand on his back to clear his airways.

Rain nodded. Lyra had made him seem as non-threatening and silly as she could to prime her parents. Of course.

He glanced at the nearby window. Maybe it wasn't too late to escape through it, he could use the cover of darkness to hide as he fled.

"Wh-what are you im-implying Lyra?!"

"Huh? Implying? I wasn't implying anything, it was just a question about monster leveler relations in general, you know, like with the dungeon surge recently. Us levelers sure do hate monsters a lot haha. Why? What did you think I was talking about?"

The two parents gave Lyra a disbelieving look.

Ceria rubbed at the scar on her nose, then looked over Rain's body. "Eh, I kinda get it, big fluffy and very safe. Didn't know you were so kinky though sis, a monster? For real? That's pretty fucked up..."

Hearing that the ram looked like he was about to swallow his tongue, his eye twitching violently.

"This- this had better not be true, Lyra a-"

The elf thumped a fist into his shoulder

"You did marry an elf you know."

"What does that have anything to do with anything?!" he squawked.

"That elves are more, hmm, open minded than most, mostly anyway. Lamia wish they were half as open minded," she patted him affectionately on his furred cheek. "Big, fluffy, and safe huh?"

It was Lyra's turn to choke and splutter on her tea, having to grab a napkin and wipe away the tea all over her chin.

As she did so Ceria bit her lip as her gaze looked over Rain more closely.

"Yeah, really really really big and a body like-"

"Gods please save me from my elven family," groaned the ram, burying his face in his hands.

"Ceria, please stop looking at my-- at my monster in that way."

"Wow, so greedy."

"You can go find your own one."

"Hmpph maybe I will."

"You aren't even going to entertain that idea Ceria, we've fallen far enough without something as scandalous as that getting out."

"But Lyra is getting away with it!"

"Yes, but we tell everyone we've disowned her so it doesn't matter. Do you want us to do the same with you?"

Lyra stared at her parents. "Y-You do?"

The elf sighed. "It's... I won't pretty it up for you Lyra, it's a convenient lie. One that was easily believed as you had already left Florens in disgrace before this thing with the bounty. You are an adult and you inherited my admittedly bad habit of flexing the truth a bit, I know that you fully understand."

"A bit? Your idea of the truth looks like a soggy pretzel," grumbled the ram.

"Oh shush."

Lyra seemed to struggle with the idea that she had been outwardly disowned, but then she sighed, her shoulders falling, a certain heavy sadness falling over her.

"I... understand, probably too well. You know what with everything that happened... I just... wanted things to get better, that's all I ever wanted... and now I'm fake disowned... How did it end up like this?"

The elf patted Lyra's arm comfortingly. "It's okay Lyra, it wasn't your, uh... you did what you felt you needed to do, and just took on a little too much work is all."

"A little? I left Florens because everyone hated me!... I thought it would be better out there, but somehow it became ten times worse..." said Lyra, despondently stirring her tea.

"You should never have left, this city is your home, it was never right to be treated so poorly, and then to have that thing with the Lord happen to you, gods what an abhorrent Lamia, he really does give us nobility a bad name," sniffed the elf.

"If you can even call us that anymore," gravelled the ram, "Losing the estate, nearly all our possessions, and being up to our eyeballs in debt. Here's the thing Wynather, it's all about perception. No one calls a pauper nobility because doing so devalues the real nobility by association, even if they have the heritage." He gestured at the room broadly as if to demonstrate their dire financial situation.

To Rain's eyes the place looked fabulously wealthy, with ornate furniture and oil paintings all well kept and expensive looking, yet the Ram seemed to be implying this was poverty. He wondered what the ram would label how he had lived in his past life. Super poverty? Extra plus poverty?

Lyra shrugged meekly. "I know what I did, I led so many along, I fed them lies and made up hope when I couldn't-- I couldn't do it! I just wanted things to go back to how they were for us! I think I can say that out loud now without wanting to curl up and die of shame. What happened in Lynthia was my karma for that, and it... helped, helped me deal with the guilt I guess," she fiddled with her empty tea cup before glancing at Rain and lowering her voice, "But in other ways I feel like I'm drowning..."

"Life is cruel, it comes down to who you can protect when everyone wants to kill you." gravelled Rain.

Lyra squinted at him. "I feel like you're taking steps backwards sometimes. Like you're becoming more monstery as Opal becomes less monstery."

Rain shrugged.

"It's just how things go. Protect what little you can in a storm." he glanced at Lyra. "You should know that now, you're hunted too, like a monster. Every leveler out there wants to kill you, the only difference is that instead of levels they get gold. Maybe that's why you understand me, because you've become a monster in your own way."

"Uh, no Rain, ahaha, I think not," said Lyra nervously waving her hand in the air as though to flap away the idea. "I'm not a monster, I just... seem to hang out... with a lot of them... uh, a lot... apparently." She nibbled her lip as she considered that she was the only leveler in their little group.

"I always knew you were secretly a monster sister, ever since you started stealing my hair ribbons. Totally monster behaviour."

"Shut up Ceria," said Lyra, rolling her eyes.

"I don't like this," said the ram adjusting his ivory spectacles. "I'm not a fool, I can tell you're wrapped up in something. It needs to end. Sell this... slave, and remain with us, safe and sound away from any monster."

"Dad, I'm not staying with you, hell, I'm not even going near any of you until I know for a fact this bounty is dead and gone forever. It's just way too dangerous to be around me, in fact it's dangerous just being here. Is there somewhere you can go where you won't be found?"

Wynather hesitated but nodded. "I have property in the city no one knows about, an obscure inheritance, we can hide there, it should be safe."

"Good, then that's where you're going," said Lyra, getting up from her chair.

"Now? But the butlers aren't here, how are we possibly going to take all our luggage?"

"Bloody well carry it yourselves! Gods, when was the last time you did a dungeon dive without a million servants? You know what, don't answer that."

Lyra flapped her hands and yelled at her family until they finished their tea and gathered together enough belongings to make do in Lyra's mother's place.

As that was happening Red was dragged out from Lyra's wool and made to splash cleaning potion over the blood splattered garden and street. Rain of course savoured a portion of a bottle for himself to properly clean his fur, and then hung around in the dark watching Red with narrowed eyes to Red's distress, checking to ensure he didn't use too much of the precious liquid. There wasn't much left of the stuff, even with how much better they had gotten at using it efficiently.

Rain returned to the house to find the family coated and hatted up to avoid being recognised. In Lyra's mothers case a wide floppy brimmed summer hat plus a puffy coat, and in her fathers a heavy woollen cloak with a hood. They carried fancy suitcases underarm as well as wheeled behind. Altogether they looked fairly ridiculous and Rain half wondered if they would make the walk without getting lost or mugged.

The very first glimmer of light was beginning to glow from over the horizon when they set out.

Rain and Lyra watched from the broken gates as the family made their way down the street, arguing with every step.

Lyra bit her lip.

"Uh, maybe it would be better to make sure they make it at least part of the way?"

"They might be okay..."

They watched as Ceria became unbalanced under the overstuffed bags of luggage she held and fell into a hedge, Lyra's mother squawked with fright and began fighting the hedge to pull her free.

"..."

"Yeah, I'm gonna say we should follow them for a bit," mumbled Lyra.

Rain found himself stalking after Lyra's family, a grumpy goblin held in arm, a sheep girl on his shoulders, all of them invisible and unseen.

It was a long walk to be trapped with Lyra's family and Rain wondered if he was ever going to escape. He almost turned around and fled when Lyra's mother started talking about size difference and how that would even work, holding up her hands to demonstrate different shapes that he really did not want to know were supposed to be, and worse when she started comparing those shapes and sizes to Lyra's father by holding them up against him. He was fairly sure Lyra was struggling too with the way her thighs clenched around his neck.

"I regret everything ever," groaned Lyra.

"I could have told you that telling them was a really bad idea."

"You didn't think it was going to be bad in this way though, did you?"

"...No." He watched as Ceria held her hands firmly over her ears as Lyra's mother started discussing how important bed size and steel reinforcement was with such size differences and how their own bed compared under enthusiastic strain. "...This is not how I imagined it going. At all."

Lyra's father might have had a point about needing saving from elves.