Reincarnated into a Snow Griffin-Chapter 113

Kasumi, the baby black fox, with an odd serious expression plastered against his young face, does not answer my question about the city until we have already armed camping and are sitting around a fireplace, me with my paws crossed in front of me with the koala Ethan sitting on my belly, enjoying himself completely it seems as he starts peeling some sort of sweet smelling fruit from the island in a bowl, looking like a dragon fruit with red and green colors and an opening egg dragon shape, but smelling and probably tasting different from the ones I know.

Still the promising sweet fruit does not distract me from the matter at hand, although it makes me keener on letting Ethan stay there on my fluffy belly for a while if that means getting a few of those.

"So little fox, how is it going to be?" I ask straight away, looking over the pair on the other side of the fire, their gaze unwelcoming of the subject and probably for many reasons, but I too had my own to insist on the subject.

So that`s what I do.

"Don`t call me little, I`m older than you."

"Then how about acting like the adult you claim to be by answering my question?" I ask with the purpose of stabbing his apparently fragile ego, first pushing then pulling back around by saying: "Look, I know you don’t want to talk about it and it might bring harmful memories, but we made a deal before and I ask a purely professional question, we need to know what we will be dealing with so the changes of surviving it are higher, and that’s beneficial for all of us."

I did not have the time nor the patience to beat around the bush with him or to be polite and give him time while keeping my cold uninterested demeanor, we would be going against the Ghost City at the earliest tomorrow, so is reasonable to say the minimum that I wanted, no, this information is actually crucial for the success of this mission.

And still I forgot who my companions were.

"What`s the hurry little griffin? Cannot wait to go back to being lovey doves with your boy there?" Seems like this fox does not come with a filter between his mouth and his brain, a unique type of stupid, no, a clueless jerk, a rare type, one of a kind, so unique that must be put to study on how one could act in such a way, asking such an insensitive question while genuinely sincerely smiling at me.

"You little-" Ethan starts standing when I raise a paw to silence him before he can get into a fight with Natasha again who already has a fire dancing in her eyes, and something tells me is not the reflex of the orange flames against them.

"I have my own personal reasons to be in a hurry and I`m sure you have your own to want to keep things to yourself as well, but I would not be insisting on this if it wasn`t crucial." I say, his expression darkening and deepening as I go, hesitant yet considering my words, but I too hear myself speak and realize that I was asking something of him that I was not giving myself.

Trust, and confidence.

How could I ask him to tell me about a place that clearly left a scar on him as a complete stranger, to push him against the wall like this, to ask of him something that I was not ought to do it myself.

I clench my jaw, closing my beak with a clang, knowing what I had to do and yet not liking it one bit, just like he is conflicted at the moment.

So I sigh, resigned with my fate, and look away towards the dark horizon.

"I would not be putting on the spot if it wasn’t really important..." I start, finally looking back at the group that was now listening attentively, sensing that the subject would be different this time.

"I was born in the Higher Lands, the floating islands up above, just my mother and I on the icy landscape. She taught me everything I know, worked hard to raise me, and even though she may be too much of an excessively overprotective mother she was the best mother I could have ever asked for but... the islands were taken, stolen from us, and with it I lost my ability to track them and tell directions... " I say, my paw flexing with the reflex of covering the scar beside my head, discreet with the hair and fur growing over it. "I have been unable to get back to her all these years, and all these years I`ve been searching, and until now I have not had a clue where the floating island may be, until now that is... and this mission is crucial to free a friend of mine from that time, and I am hopeful that she will know what to do and how to get back there. That’s why there must be no mistakes in this mission, and why I must insist on the question."

There, I said it, it wasn’t so hard after all, a few words in and the rest flowed like water, almost pouring from me, and yet I did not have what it takes to look the others in the eye and see their reactions, and swallow another sigh.

And still no answer comes from the fox to my disappointment, and as I’m about to get away so I don’t have a fit of anger and ruin my image the demon warrior is the one to answer:

"That place is... not as simple as it seems." She starts, to the surprise of the fox who opens his mouth to interrupt, but seems to think things through and closes his mouth back up again, eyes unblinking staring at Natasha, paying attention to her words.

"But I guess is fair for you two to know since we may as well be dead tomorrow after and, if there is any chance that what information we have may help us at all in this mission, then is worth sharing." She sounds reasonable, but not completely honest.

"And I have a lot to say, for not only is the place of my death, but the place that I had triumph... as the Demon Lord of the past."