89

--TheirWorld--

With a heavy sigh, Guin watched Paw as she was joined by the other three. “Why do I suck so much at people?” she wondered aloud.

“Probably the same reason I do,” Ibraxis told her gruffly. Next to her, he sat on all fours and wrapped his tail around him like a cat. “When you try too hard to not make mistakes you end up acting in the ‘right’ way rather than the ‘meaningful’ way. People notice. You end up being more construct than person. “ He side eyed her and said, “You’re especially bad when ‘Dassah’ comes out of ‘Guin’s’ mouth.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” she eyed him back with a scowl.

He chuckled. “I would have loved to have heard you tell Bahena you plan to use my powers to the fullest extent,” he mused.

“Are you kidding?” she twitched. “She’d have skinned me alive on the spot.”

“More like eaten,” he smirked. “But, then again, I suppose I wouldn’t have let her.”

“Why not?”

“I’d have been on your side, in the end,” he said in a quiet voice as he looked out. “In this world, at least. My powers… aren’t really mine. But they are free. I can look at this world, decaying though it is, and say, without hesitation that, if nothing else, I am free. And no one can take that from me here. Not even Bahena.” His golden eyes were wide, and glowed with a distinct, dream-like shine.

She took a moment to let his words to sink in, then she sat and hung her legs over the outcropping. “You’re good at this,” she said, her toes running across the mud below.

Ibraxis tilted his head to look down at her. “At what?”

“Being… ‘Ibraxis’,” she said. Drakov and Tea waved at them before turning back to talk to Stella and Paw. “They’re calling us. We should head over.” She started scooting over the ledge.

“Guin,” Ibraxis started. His voice was a little odd; it was almost as if he was saying her name for the first time, but it could just as easily have been more about the strange nature of their conversation. “Guin is different from Dassah.”

“I know,” she told him, looking back at her feet. “But it’s like you said. Here, I am free.”

“From what?” he asked.

She tilted her head. “You know,” she smiled. “I don’t remember.”

Shock flickered through his eyes. “You don’t… remember?”

Shaking her head, she turned and narrowed her eyes at the corpse of Othren. “Oops,” she went, pointing. “Forgot about him. I’m surprised he hasn’t turned into a chest, yet.”

Though Ibraxis followed the direction of her finger, he asked, “Do you think Dassah will ever be as free as Guin?”

“Who knows?” Guin went, pushing herself up off the ground. After stretching herself out, she took a deep breath and put her hands on her hips. “Maybe someday. I have to live through you and your sister’s drama first.”

Ibraxis laughed a fun, chittering laugh that made her smile. “You and me, both,” he said, standing back himself. “She has a terrible time keeping our game lives and real lives separate. I’m going to hear all about this mess here later, don’t you worry. I’m just as a afraid of her as you can get.”

“For shame,” Guin mused. “You two are family. You should be nice to each other.”

“I don’t want to hear that from you, of all people,” he said dismally. “I thought we were on the same side here?”

“After all that PKing business?” she said slyly, then cocked her head at Othren’s body. “You did a hell of a number on that guy. Do you think I can still get his liver? I wonder if it has the same effect being cooked. If it does, maybe I should learn some cooking skills… It would make things a bit more… palatable.”

“Why, in the name of the Mother Mountain, do you want to get his liver?”

“I want to eat it.”

“What!”

“Don’t ask questions. I just do.”

“I don’t understand.”

“You don’t need to,” Guin told him shortly and hopped down. He followed on all fours, looking both curious and offended at the same time. Doubtless, he didn’t think she was serious.

Of course she was, and she managed to pry the melted armor off him well enough. It certainly wasn’t the most pleasant of experiences, but at least he was cooked and not rotten — though ‘well-done’ was more the term she would apply to him. He hardly looked human — which helped, to some degree. She still couldn’t quite shake the fact that she was about to eat the liver of someone she had been speaking to just minutes before. Even the thought of it was grotesque.

She finished the job as quick as she could. The buff — which did apply itself — was the same as it always was. She had to admit though, she thought the raw liver tasted better to her gumiho tongue. Ibraxis watched in horror as she licked the juice off her fingers.

“What?” she asked.

His eyes narrowed as he looked at her. “I feel like I have to re-evaluate you after this.”

Guin waved him away. “It doesn’t matter,” she said. “You’ll never see ‘Dassah’ doing something remotely so daring. Ever.”

“No, but,” he started. “I’ve fought a lot of females that scared me less then you are doing right this moment…”

Guin blinked, then laughed out so hard that her stomach hurt. Captain Othren’s body turned into bubbles, and left a glowing chest behind. “Ohh,” she went in interest, sitting straighter on her knees. “I’ve never seen a glowing chest before.”

“It’s because its a boss chest,” Ibraxis said, then opened up a whole party screen. “You guys coming for the loot, or are Guin and I gonna take it?”

“Oh, crap, I wasn’t thinking about it!” Drakov said. “I checked the others, but there wasn’t much worth mentioning. The silvers already been disbursed.”

“Can’t you just check it?” Starshine asked with a shaky voice. The fall she took seemed to have affected her more than Guin thought it might have.

“Apparently boss chests are different,” Guin shrugged.

“Oh?” Drakov went with a raised brow. “There’s actual treasure?”

Guin laughed. “Yes dongsaeng, actual treasure.”

Within a few moments, everyone had gathered around the glowing silver chest that Captain Roger Othren had left behind.

Tea’s reaction was arguably the most amusing, with his wide eyes staring into the lock of the chest as he stood on all fours. Drakov just looked happy to see the loot. Starshine and BronzePaw both just stood off to the side, grinning.

“Shall we?” Ibraxis asked.

“You got the killing blow,” Guin told him. “You should open it.”

He shook his head. “Nah,” he said. “I’m higher leveled and better geared than all of you put together. Plus, all I really did in this fight was land the finishing blow. You guys did the work.”

Guin nodded, and turned to BronzePaw. “Paw, why don’t you open it?”

“Me?” The bronze garule blinked. The others quickly nodded their approval.

“You were awesome, holding all those guys back!” Tea said excitedly, breaking his gaze with the inanimate object to sit on his haunches and perform some mock boxing moves. “So strong!”

“I wouldn’t have survived if you hadn’t come to the rescue,” Guin said. “Plus, you basically killed at least one of them all on your own. None of us can really claim that.”

BronzePaw kicked at the ground.

“Mage tank, go!” Drakov went, giving everyone a good laugh.

Carefully stepping forward, Paw knelt in front of the large chest and ran a hand over the top of it. To the side, Tea stood at attention. The chest creaked open, and BronzePaw let out an impressed sounding whistle. Each of them received two gold coins, and as for items, she drew out one thing at a time.