NOVPUBThe night had been long for all the Dungeon Raiders, but the morning showed the fruits of their efforts. While Uriel and Luna were outside hunting, Nika and Medusa worked hard on repairing the ship’s hull as best they could with the materials they had at their disposal.
"Did you guys had fun playing in the forest?" Nika scoffed when she noticed Uriel returned blushing in silence while Luna held the semblance of a cocky smile on her usually bare face.
"Uhm... yes." She said as she dropped the alligators she hunted on the formerly pristine floor.
"Hey! You’re staining everything with blood!" Medusa scolded.
"Would you rather go hungry?"
"Hungry...? Are those for eating!?" Nika made a disgusted face, but Medusa reacted differently.
"What? They’re really good! I think we have all we need to cook them." Being raised by the wealthies of the wealthy, Medusa had the chance to try all sorts of exotic meat and she disappeared to the kitchen, followed soon after by Luna who pestered her about making her meat rare.
It didn’t take long for Medusa to prepare the meal and she did the best she could with the few ingredients that were still in good condition after being abandoned in the ship’s kitchen for so long. There was a small problem with her cooking, though.
Medusa didn’t bother in hiding where did the meat come from. It was a fact that in high cuisine the chefs showcased the exotic meat by leaving parts of the animal untouched and presenting it, in this case it was the tails, but that didn’t bode well with the group.
None of them were too thrilled about being the first ones to grab a bite, not even Luna who was the one who hunted it, and a very awkward meal took place.
"So, how did it go?" Nika asked trying to deflect attention from her long enough to ’accidentally’ drop her dish to the floor.
"I saw nothing, I swear!" Uriel replied blushing up to his ears.
"You look guilty..." Nika lifted a brow and leaned forward, not really caring about the alligator meat anymore.
"Uhm... he is." Now it was Luna’s turn to blush, though it wasn’t for the same reason Uriel was. It was because he risked his life to save her from the rougarou, even though the cryptid was hunting them because of her. He could have simply left her on her own and she wouldn’t have held a grudge against him, but he decided to put his neck on the line to protect her.
From the time she met Uriel, she had always liked him. At first it was his scent, Uriel’s smell was similar to old books, an aroma she found to be familiar and comforting. Then, she found out he was a kindred spirit to her, even though his field of study was different he dedicated long hours to his research and saught after knowledge just like her.
Her feelings then evolved into something different, when she received her very first love letter by his hands. Her sister Cassandra had always been popular, her beauty and self confidence always made her the center of attention and would receive countless proposals, gifts of all types and love letters. But the one Uriel gave her was the very first time she got any attention from the opposite sex.
But now things went completely out of hand. It was something bigger than friendship, greater than love, it was imprint. As a werewolf, her instincts drew her near the ’alpha’ type personality and Uriel couldn’t have been further away from that at the beggining which was why she managed to keep her distance from him.
After receiving Water warlock’s blessing, though, he became more decisive and commanding and it made her notice him. However, the proverbial cherry on top came when he protected her.
Her instincts began wreaking havoc on her hormones and she couldn’t keep herself from rubbing herself on Uriel at every chance she had. But this didn’t bode well with Nika and Medusa, who began suspecting something else happened between them.
As an ex girlfriend, Medusa knew she had nothing to complain about and had no right to tell Uriel who to date or not, but that wasn’t Nika’s case. She felt aggrieved that time after time Uriel would ignore her and even when he felt powerfully attracted to her thanks to Water warlock’s blessing, he kept his distance from her.
For Nika, a physical relationship with Uriel would have been more than enough. It had been a long time since she had the kind of adult fun she required, but Uriel was too headstrong and never fell for her flirting or blatant proposals.
As the meal progressed it became increasingly more awkward. With Nika feeling feeling left out, Medusa feeling offended even though she knew she shouldn’t be, Luna wandering inside her own mind and a very confused Emma who didn’t know why the atmosphere suddenly became so dense.
"Oh! I forgot to inform you guys about this." 𝓃𝓸𝓋𝓹𝓾𝓫.𝒸ℴ𝓶
"Don’t you try to shift our attention to... is that an entity rank flux orb!?" Medusa’s eyes lit up in joy.
"Yes, it was quite troublesome to get it." Uriel replied.
"It was a rougarou, a huge one at that and, uhm, Uriel killed it by himself without knowing its weakness." Luna said proudly and then the sound of a fork falling loudly on a plate echoed in the room.
"Hang on, you killed an entity without even knowing its weakness!? That’s supposed to take a full heavenly rank hunting party." Emma had spent enough time with them to already know that some cryptids had allergies or weak spots. That alone was a huge piece of information that could potentially change the tides of war against cryptids and give her a huge headstart in her career as a journalist.
She really wanted the scoop, but informing everyone about it without care could be potentially dangerous, even life threatening.
By digging deep into society, she noticed how under the city everyone saw, there was another city were different groups owned the truth and they weren’t keen on sharing. Still, the news about a heavenly rank hunter killing an entity cryptid in single combat should probably be safe to share and could also be a career maker.
"Don’t even think about it, we did more than enough by making the last Vlog entry you proposed." Uriel glared at her as though reading her mind and the room fell silent again.
"This food sucks." Luna broke the silence by voicing what everyone thought about Medusa’s ’high cuisine’.
