Project: TheirWorld - Chapter 040 - Part 1

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Rewards and Revelations

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TheirWorld

As she approached, Guin shifted out of her fox form. Bowing, she greeted, “Hail, Dragon King.”

Behind her, she heard Jormund and Dawl huffing as they caught up .”Who is this guy?” Dawl asked, leaning on his knees. “Damn, that owl flies fast.”

“Shut up!” growled Jormund, putting his hand on Dawl’s head to force him into a bow. “Hail, Dragon King!” he said in a loud voice.

“That guy is the Dragon King?” the Master Hunter looked up in his shock, but Jormund forced his hand down again.

Guin choked down her laughter, but thankfully for everyone involved, the Dragon King seemed to find it just as amusing as she did. “Be at ease, silly Che,” it laughed. “I am not as uptight as most guardians. I find you all rather fun!”

‘Rather fun’, is it? For you, maybe… While she grumbled in her head, she moved to ask, “Y-Your… Highness? M-My lord - Lady - uh…”

“Just ‘Tethaigou’, if you would,” the Dragon King told her.

“Ah - Then, T-Tethaigou,” Guin tested the name before going on. “We have finished the tasks that Lady Reili set upon us. The poachers have been caught.”

Tethaigou smiled. “They have been punished, then, Hunter?” It’s sharp blue eyes fell on Dawl.

“I…” Dawl looked at the ground. “They have been… detained, mi’lord, but…”

“But?”

“I beg mercy, mi’lord. They are just children!”

“Euen!” hissed Jormund, glaring at him. “I thought you said-”

“I did say!” Dawl hissed back. “Because I knew you would be like this!”

“You-!”

“Those children have broken the law, hunter,” Tethaigou informed him, his face turning up into a grin which Guin did not like. “It is only right that they be punished - by you, or I, it makes little difference…”

Dawl shook his head, and for a moment, Guin feared for him. But he spoke simply: “I am not saying there should be no punishment, King. I merely ask that they be given a chance to atone - just as I have been.” Dawl looked at the Dragon King full in the eye as Jormund gaped at him. “If that entails that my choice, or any reward I might have received, be given to them, then so be it. I was their teachers; their sin is my own.”

“Dawl…” Guin murmured in mild shock. She shouldn’t have been so surprised, she realized. This was simply who he was; regardless of the ill he had done, in his heart, he was still a good person.

Jormund, however, was unconvinced of his friend’s logic. “Euen, you can’t mean…”

But Tethaigou let out a loud laugh. “Master Hunter - you are amusing! And here I thought the little lying pastor was going to be my favorite! Wise, Candidate - I commend you on your choice of friends!” From atop the statue, Wise cooed warmly. The Dragon King sighed. “It is no matter, I suppose. Very well. I shall leave the children alone - for now. Perhaps I shall give them a little bit of a curse - but nothing too horrible. Perhaps, I shall have it’s weight divided between them and you.”

While what Guin heard didn’t sound terribly promising, Dawl’s face lit up as he kneeled, “I should be in your debt, mi’lord!”

“Hm. Yes. Debt. Let’s start with my name, yes? Tethaigou.”

“T-T… Lord Tethairgou,” Dawl stammered, his head bowed so low that his nose touched the ground.

The Dragon King rolled his eyes, but said, “Close enough, I suppose. We’ll work on that.” It turned to Guin and said, “Congratulations, Candidate. You have kept your promise to the Lady reili. Let us hope that you honor the promise made with the same spirit.”

“I shall!” Guin said, as the Quest Completed screens came up for , , and . Each came with a faction reward and a handful of tokens. ended up being quite a lucrative quest, earning her extra stat points for [Spirit] and [Fate].

“Now for the rest of your rewards,” Tethaigou said. I guess not all rewards are listed with the quests? She thought, petter her cloak again. She figured that her cloak was the reward she had gotten for her completion of the quests - but they had been crossroads quests, which meant that the real rewards should be for Dawl and Jormund.

“Let’s start with our good friend, the Master Hunter of Bade,” went Tethaigou in an all-too-pleased kind of tone. “You. You are a strange man,” it said as it clicked its tongue. “Growing up in these woods with Rew, you are no stranger to us - yet, unable to see us, we are but strangers to you. You must have both reward and punishment, by your own will - yet, for the love I still bear for your grandparents, my hand hesitates… Alas, there is nothing for it. Know that what happens next is of your own doing!”

The Dragon King raised its hand to its face and began muttering. Its clawed hand began to glow blue. As its incantation grew louder, it reached out and pointed to Dawl.

“Hear my curse, mortal Che!” commanded the Dragon King. “Henceforth, you shall no longer be the Master Hunter of Base, Nay, to them, you shall be as a stranger. Only those few who you hold your memory in their hearts as close as you do theirs will remember. I hereby grant you the Sight you need to serve; this, my curse, that will bind you to me and rob you of your Che-hood. You are not servant of mine, but of the forest itself, and a stranger to the Che-kind.”

As the Dragon King finished, Dawl doubled over in pain as his eyes began to glow a bright blue. He criest turned to shrieks as he began to claw at his face. In both fear and shock, Guin ran over to him, putting her hand on his shoulder as he fell to the ground.

“What have you done to him?” Guin demanded to know, looking between Jormund and the Dragon King.

Jormund looked at the Dragon King in alarm. “My Lord, what is this -”

“‘Tethaigou’,” the Dragon King told him with a bored voice. “Don’t worry about him - He’ll be just fine.”

“How is this ‘just fine’?” Guin shouted.

In a flash of green light, Liorax appeared out from Guin’s body. He promptly landed on Dawl’s head, and as his eyes glowed, Dawl’s muscles relaxed as he slumped forward. “Master Dragon, you are far too fond of these Che-creatures,” the cat said, flicking his tail in annoyance as he sat on his haunches and bat his paw at Dawl’s hair. “This one is a worthless fool, anyway.”

“I’ll decide if he’s worthless,” Tethaigou told him, sounding hurt.

“Ugh,” went Liorax. “You are attracted to him, aren’t you? I didn’t think he’d be your type…”

The Dragon King snorted. “This, coming from one who has taken so well to the half-Che.” Guin blinked. ‘Half-Che’?

“Of course!” Liorax said, hopping up onto Guin’s shoulder and rubbing his face against hers. “Even you know how special she is! And she’s mine to look after, anyway!”

“Liorax,” Guin interrupted. “What did you do to him?”

The cat purred loudly, staring at her with wide green eyes. “Put him down.”

“Liorax!”

“Relax,” he said. “He’ll wake up in a couple of hours - and probably faint immediately after, knowing him.”

Tethaigou coughed awkwardly. “Shall we continue? The next to recieve reward will be you, who wears my mantle,” the Dragon King pointed at Jormund.

Jormund shook his head. “I deserve no reward. I merely wished to fix the mistakes of the past.”

“Then, shall I offer you a deal?” Tethaigou grinned mischievously. “Two choices are before you now, young Jormund: Will you serve me as a Servant of the Dragon King, helping to keep the laws of the forest, or, will you leave this forest and never return?”

The moment of truth, Guin though, not at all envious of Jormund’s position.

Guin saw Jormund’s knuckles go white as he gripped his spear.