Relationship Problems [Solo/Training]

Ayero was at a loss for what to do regarding Kabu’s behavioral problems. While she respected his independence and understood that he didn’t want to spend every waking moment by her side, she was wary to let him wander the streets of Reim by himself with all of the recent trouble he had caused. Mind you, he hadn’t done anything serious but his repeat offenses of “stealing” food and scaring people had gotten the young woman banned from quite a few shops and stalls in the marketplace. Tired of paying reparations for the livestock and merchandise her scaly companion had decided to snack on, Ayero sought to put a stop to his unruly behavior.


”Are the city’s rats so unappetizing to you?” She murmurs to the snake and gives him a sideways glare as his head lifts from her shoulder, eyeing a small pen of chickens as they passed. The pair had been strolling through the marketplace during the evening with Ayero intent on finding some winter clothes for Vincenzo. The young boy had remained back at the inn, his childish charm earning him points with the middle aged innkeeper who had children of her own. She often looked after the boy while Ayero went out to earn money, something which the Fanalis woman was grateful for.


The farmer who had come to the market to sell his wares eyed the Fanalis and her snake with caution, to which Ayero offered a half-smile and a wave before grabbing at Kabu’s neck. Tugging at him, she attempts to reign the snake in with an irritated grunt. Eyes fixed foreward on his potential snack, Kabu ignored his master in favor of listening to his stomach. ”Oh Ilah, not now Kabu. You just ate!” The snake replies by flicking his tongue out in a sassy gesture, sliding his body from around Ayero’s. She briefly recalls Lagi’s advice, remember how the man instructed her that the proper way to discipline beasts is to be strict with them. She didn’t want to take it so far as to purposely injure Kabu repeatedly or starve him. She felt like such methods would work for more…primal creatures, but Kabu was intelligent enough to hold a grudge against her for mistreatment. Grunting, the woman narrows her eyes and tightens her hold on the snake. ”No, Kabu.” Her voice is thick and demanding, using the same tone she took with her siblings when they were up to something.


But the Heliohapt snake didn’t seem to care what she had wanted and began to wriggle about in her grip, intent on being released from the Fanalis woman’s grip. But the more he struggled, the stricter and more insistent Ayero became. ”That’s enough, Kabu! If you can’t behave, then we’re going back—“ Her stern eyes meet Kabu’s ruby gaze as the black serpent swivels his head to look at her, both master and beast unrelenting. As Ayero jerks her arm harder to try and get Kabu to move back towards her, the snake has had enough and rears his head back with a hiss before striking. His fangs sink into the arm holding him, causing the woman to let out a startled yelp and withdraw her hand. Slithering quickly from her body, Kabu lets out a final hiss before sliding into the darkness of an alleyway. Seething with rage, Ayero clenches her fists and grits her teeth before shouting. ”Fine! See how you do on your own!” Ignoring the bit of attention her outburst had attracted, the red headed woman stomps back to the inn, alone.


[597/1000]

Stirring slightly and mumbling something unintelligible, Ayero is drawn from her light sleep by the sound of muffles sniffles and whimpers. Sighing with a bit of vague irritation at having been awoken again, the Fanalis woman turns over onto her side in order to face the source of the sounds. All at once any frustration she had felt from being disturbed melts away and is swiftly replaced with a dull aching of the heart. It was like clockwork nearly every night for the past two weeks, no matter where they stayed or how hard Ayero tried to comfort Vincenzo. The boy would always wake up in the middle of the night, terrified of the visions he saw and the memories he was forced to relive in his sleep. If he was loud he would wake his sister right away, but over the past week or so he tried to get through it without relying on the comforting embrace and words of his caretaker. So he would lay awake, trembling and terrified until he could bare it no longer and allow sounds of distress to escape.



Feeling the shift of her weight on the mattress, Vin lifts his head up from the pillow he had been using to try and smother his soft cries. ”S-sis…” He stutters out, looking at her with a clearly distressed face. Holding himself up with one arm, the young Fanalis boy uses his free hand to wipe at his tear stained cheek. ”C’mere.” Ayero’s muttered voice is weighed down with fatigue but it still carries the weight of a concerned older sister. Vin snuggles into her side unabashedly as she wraps an arm tight around him, resting her hand on his back where it rubs in slow soothing circles. The crying didn’t stop completely, but it does seem to let up a bit, Ayero notes. Dear Ilah, he’s shaking… She frowns to herself in the dark while running her hand along his back as his body is wracked with sobs.



He mutters something into her side, his words muffled against the sheets. ”Hm?” Ayero squeezes his side, casting a curious look at the child curled against her body. Turning his head to face her, Vin give her a desperate look. ”I-I miss Kabu…” Ayero blinks in astonishment, not having expected him to say that. It takes a few slow seconds for his words to sink in. While she knew well they he missed their family each night, she didn’t expect the black snake to have that big of an impact on the boy. Then again, Vin didn’t have too many other to lean on—he spent his days with her and Kabu, and occasionally in the inkeep or in the company of one of his sister’s friends. Ayero frowned when she realized this, suddenly feeling very guilty that she had driven Kabu off and deprived Vin yet again of someone important to him. She was used to being alone, but Vin had spent his life surrounded by an obnoxiously loud yet loving family. In the fog that was her mind, she briefly recalls how Kabu had taken to the young Fanalis, often winding his body gently around Vin in an attempt to comfort when the boy lapsed into sadness.




By now she wouldn’t be able to get to sleep, but that didn’t stop her from trying to soothe Vin. ”Here. Why don’t you hold this?” Ayero slides her hand under her pillow and retrieves the locket she’d found on the bandit leader after he fell, holding it out to Vin. The child’s eyes widen upon seeing the silver trinket, something he thought he’d never see again. ”Mom’s necklace!” He exclaimed almost in delight as he reached out to touch the locket. Grasping the jewelry firmly in his hand, he brings it to his lips and closes his eye. After a few moments of hesitation Ayero lets out a breath, relieved to see that Vin found some comfort in the family heirloom. She settles down to try and relax once more, letting her eyes fall closed.



[Dominance Spec Training: 1276/1000]

A steadily growing light seen from behind her closed eyes and the soft gasp that Vin made roused her once more. Turning herself back over to face Vin, she watches him stare in awe at the locket in his hand. The boy had tried to sleep while clasping the necklace tightly, thoughts of his gentle departed mother drifting into his mind. They were soothing images, but saddening all the same as she was no longer here to comfort him through these difficult times. Ayero did her best to ease his mind, but she was not the woman who had raised him from birth. The boy’s intense desire to see his mother had somehow triggered him into feeding some of his magoi into the necklace, which neither sibling knew to be a magic tool.


”Sis…what’s going on?” Breathless, both Ayero and Vin watch as the front of the locket illuminates with a white-blue glow before an image forms on the surface of the gem. To Vin, who was holding the locket, the images would appear as if he were present in them, looking through his own eyes. Squinting at the tiny image, Ayero has a tougher time figuring out what was being played out in the scene before them. It took her a few minutes, but she finally recognized the figures as her mother and father, at least twenty years younger than she had remembered them.


The young couple was smiling and laughing, the young Fanalis woman rubbing at her swollen stomach and speaking soft words with a gentle look on her face. ”That’s….” Ayero’s eyes widen at the impossible image of her parents before they had nearly a dozen children. How was this happening? Was this some sort of dream? ”It’s mom! And dad, too!” Vincenzo’s face lit up like she’d never seen it before, and she realizes that he must be seeing the same thing too. After a few minutes of watching the happy couple in silence, the image changes to one many years down the road. The young couple had grown older, and they sat at a table surrounded by their many children. The family of mostly redheads was boisterous and loud, and Ayero couldn’t recall a family meal that was had in silence or without the usual fights and laugher.


Vin’s scant magoi begins to run dry and the image fades, leaving only the smooth blue surface of the gem. Collapsing from the mental and physical exhaustion, the Fanalis child nestles back into the pillows with a smile on his face and the necklace still clutched in his hand. Ayero lays there in silence for several minutes, contemplating all that had just happened. ”Vin?” She calls softly, but there is no response, only the sound of the boy’s steady breathing as he falls into a deep slumber. Settling back down into the sheets herself, Ayero lets a low sigh leave her lips. The images shown to them by the necklace rekindled the warm feeling of being surrounded by an obnoxious yet loving family. Not matter how hard they fought, eventually they came together as love for their kin won out over any misdeeds. It dawned on her that the relationship she and Kabu had wasn’t all that different. They sometimes clashed and fought and Kabu liked to come and go as he please, but he always remained at her side during a fight. Letting her eyes fall closed, Ayero resolves to put her anger behind her and search for Kabu first thing in the morning.

---

Two weeks had passed by since Kabu and Ayero had their fallout. The large black snake had eagerly taken to the streets initially, and life passed easily for the first few days. He remained cloaked in the city’s shadows, feeding off of rats or any animals that he pleased for that matter. But after about a week, things began to take a turn for the worse. The shopkeepers he occasionally stole from when he thought the rats to be too gamey were prepared to deal with him, arming themselves with weapons or hiring beast-slayers to fend off the serpent. He slept in the cold alleyways, often being woken by large dogs or other nocturnal predators who tried to attack him in his sleep.


Slowly, Kabu began to miss Ayero. Despite her controlling personality, she was usually able to reason with the shopkeepers he’d angered to avoid a harsher punishment. She made sure that he was fed and provided a warm place for him to sleep, and pet his scales often. Even though she yelled and scolded, the Fanalis woman he had followed out of the desert had their best interests at mind. Curling his head into his tail tightly, Kabu drifts slowly off to sleep.


Kabu was awoken the next morning with a rock to the head, courtesy of a small group of neighborhood children. Wincing at the impact, the snake opens up his eyes in time for them to land on the children who stood bunched together several meters away from him, giggling. Shaking off the dull ache from his head, the snake rears up and hisses loudly. He didn’t intend to attack little children unless they truly proved to be a deadly threat, but kids didn’t seem to know this and scattered at the snake’s warning. Settling back down to try and get some more sleep, Kabu is unaware that one of the children he’d frightened away ran and told a nearby shopkeeper than he’d seen a strange, dangerous looking black snake in one of the alleys.



[Kabu B-tier Training: 928/1000]

Ever since the night Ayero and Vin discovered the magical properties of their mother’s necklace, Ayero had spent a good amount of time looking into her past. And it wasn’t just her past—it was that of her family, more specifically, her Fanalis heritage. She found that she could look beyond the life of her mother, far back into the time when her Fanalis family was free and fought for their country. This only encouraged her further to find Kabu and make amends with the snake in order to keep her “family” together.


It had been several days since she’d started to search for the runaway serpent, searching the marketplace as well as the alleys when she had time to. She hoped that Kabu hadn’t run off to the thick forests of the countryside, or that he hadn’t caught himself in trouble. Still, she held out hope that he was still in the city and that she’d be able to find him before anything happened to him.


”…ig snake near the farmer’s stall! I told farmer Leo and his face got all red!” The drifting chatter of a cluster of nearby children reaches her ears and she turns on her heel, eyes wide. Farmer Leo was one of the unfortunate stall owners who had his merchandise snatched up by Kabu more than once. If the kids were talking about her scaly companion, it would make sense that the man would be so upset.

---

After confronting the kids to ensure that what they had said was true, the Fanalis woman wastes no time in rushing towards the area of town where she knew farmer Leo sold his wares. A small crowd had gathered near the mouth of an alley adjacent to the man’s stall and Ayero could see a man brandishing a sword standing deeper into the alley as she got closer. Eyes narrowing, she quickens her pace and pushes her way through the onlookers.


Seeing a familiar head of red hair emerge from the crowd, Kabu picks his head up. He had been hissing at the man with a sword who was slowly closing in on him, shifting his position to try and find the easiest way to strike the snake. From his clothes one could probably conclude that he was a mercenary, a man who had been hired to slay the pesky snake who had been interfering with business. Cornered and scared, Kabu readied himself to either fight or escape until his Fanalis companion showed up.

”Excuse me.” Ayero cleared her throat as she walked between Kabu and the sellsword. ”I will take this from here.” She cast the man a wary gaze, her eyes traveling to his sword then focusing on his body as a while to observe his body language. The man raised a brow at her intrusion, noting the armor she wore and weapon she carried. ”This is my kill, miss.” Ayero tilts her head upwards a bit as her hand comes to rest on the hilt of her blade, Kabu slithering over to her slowly and giving the man a glare from behind her legs. ”This is no one’s kill. This snake and I are…friends.” She hesitates in searching for the correct word, finally settling on what she felt was right.


”Your friend has been stealing from local merchants. There is a price on his head.” The man informs her, slackening his stance ever so slightly as he speaks with the woman but maintains his aggressive body language. ”Then I will pay the bounty myself.” She declares, moving her free hand to her waist and unfastening the pouch of coins tied to her armor. ”Will this be enough?” She dumps out half of the contents into her open palm and extends it out towards the mercenary with an intense yet earnest look in her eyes. Lowering his weapon, the man takes the money after a few moments of contemplation but looks unsure about the nature of this deal.


”What in blazes are you doing, boy? I told you to take care of that menace!” Stomping into the alleyway comes none other than farmer Leo, his face as red as Ayero’s hair with rage after witnessing the transaction. ”That beast destroyed my property on multiple occasions! You’d better be prepared to pay me for reparations, girl, if you don’t want me to get the authorities involved.” Pausing for a moment, Ayero glances down at the serpent who had wound his way along her feet. Closing her eyes, she sighs and flicks her head slightly. Taking the hint, Kabu hisses brightly and winds his way up Ayero’s torso. ”Take it. This should be enough to cover whatever he stole from you.” She tosses the half full bag of coin to the older man with a shrug and gives him an expectant look. Peering into the bag and finding the amount of gold suitable, the farmer squints over at the woman. ”And what guarantee do I have that he won’t go and do it again?”


”He won’t. Trust me.” The woman responds sharply as she brushes past the man, not wanting this to go on for any longer than it has to. ”If he does, you can have us both thrown into jail.”

---

”You really had me worried, you know. I’m sorry for being so harsh with you.” The pair had stopped in a different part of town for lunch. Kabu gave her what she took to be a sympathetic look, hissing softly as he nudged his head against her cheek as if to say I’m sorry, too. The fact that Ayero had stepped in and used her money (which she had been carefully budgeting) to pacify the aggressors and save his hide had touched the beast and reminded him of why he had followed her this far. Smiling softly at the gesture, Ayero strokes Kabu’s head with slow motions. ”I understand that it’s not in your nature to stick with me at all hours of the day. So I’ll put my trust in you and allow you to roam as you please, so long as you stay out of trouble. Understood?” A loud hiss of affirmation and the bobbing of Kabu’s head satisfies her and she lets a genuine smile slip onto her face. ”Just remember to stay away from farmer Leo. Now let’s head to the job board, we’ve got to earn back three weeks worth of coin…"


[Kabu B-tier Training: 1000+/1000]

[End]