The two travelers were nearing the end of their journey, though it would end poorly for one and quite well for the other. This was, of course, to be expected, as Axis was Axis and Vaile was Vaile, and both of their fates had been sealed long before they began to move together.

Axis, as you might imagine, was having a blast, as his tiny little mind was unable to process all of the mockery, slurs, and general nastiness that a multitude of monsters and the like had thrown his way at every single stop. Vaile, on the other hand, found these intrusions to be a mixed bag.

On the one hand, he had to deal not merely with the idiot that he had been traveling with, but also the more… clingy Tamed Beings. Vaile was no eunuch, but likewise, he was not really all that interested in sexual dalliances, nor was he interested in the overly obsessive nature of those that kept trying to convince him to stay with themselves.

On the other hand, he could not help but get a bit of joy whenever Axis got humiliated or put down, although the poor teen was, as always, utterly oblivious to this, which only made the whole thing that much better. Likewise, though some of those he had met along this path were more obsessive and lustful than he wanted, others were far more reasonable.

One of such ‘more reasonable’ entities was just up ahead from where the unlikely pair of people were right now, and rather than set up some kind of event like many others had, she was simply sitting around and waiting for Vaile and the dense little shit with him to get close. Reclining in the sun with a cool drink in her hand and her body fully supported by a seat made from a still-living purple-black cobra of unusual size, Zahra said nothing and did nothing until Vaile had gotten close enough for a normal conversation to take shape.

“Lovely day, isn’t it?” asked Zahra as she leaned back a bit more, her loyal serpent shifting its mass to let her recline further. “The breeze is nice, don’t you think?”

“It is raining.” Axis replied, completely wrong as usual. “There is no wind.”

Zahra looked askew at the teen before rolling her eyes.

“I heard he was a little… off… but that is just bizarre.”

Vaile shrugged and shook his head in response to Zahra’s words. He had seen this enough times for it to have gotten stale beyond measure, but it had been that way when it first occurred and so he had no real other option (that didn’t involve either leaving or killing the teen) besides simply coping.

“I know what you mean.” Vaile grumbled. “I’ll be the first to admit that I did not expect him to be like this. There is ‘dumb and dense’ and then there’s whatever this little turd on a bun is. It isn’t a mental illness, and it isn’t something medical, that much I know for sure, and that makes this all the worse…”

“So, he was just ‘born dumb’?” inquired Zahra.

“Pretty much. I know we both know that Monarkea did this by magic and by genetics, but I can’t say for sure whether this is due to one, the other, or both. Honestly hoping it is the former rather than the latter.” Vaile replied before looking back at Axis who was holding his ‘shield’ over his head.

“What is he doing?” Zahra asked.

“Trying to turn a frying pan into a drying pan.” mocked Vaile.

“But there is no rain…”

“He thinks there is, and what he’s doing is the smartest thing I’ve seen him do so far.”

Zahra shook her head. “He can’t be that dumb.”

Vaile gave the undead, Sun-Goddess Pharaoh a deadpan look. “Oh, he is certainly that dumb.”

Zahra stayed silent for a few seconds before issuing a single “Well…”. It was obvious that she had come not for some random special ‘event’ but simply to check up on Vaile and also to see whether what she had heard about the dumb teen was true or not. There was one more reason, one that she, the other Tamed Beings, and Vaile all knew about, but they had all chosen to pretend that the reason didn't exist until the correct time had come. Axis needed to remain in the dark up to the time of his execution arrived.

“On a much better note,” Zahra said, changing the subject. “how are things? My realm has been doing wonderfully since you left, by the way, and that is not due to you leaving, of course.”

“It’s been.. eventful.” Vaile replied as he looked skyward. “There was that issue with Arachnaerok, and then I had to bail from that and ended up in a kind of Eldritch Horror kind of place, and then I just kinda ended up here.”

“That is overwhelmingly vague, but that’s fine.”

“Thanks, because I really don’t feel like talking about it all.”

Zahra nodded. “Some things are better left unsaid. Some events should stay buried, and other simply need to vanish from memory. Thanks for naming Arachnaerok, by the way. She’d been paranoid about death for a while, and that added her to the Alliance’s ‘living WMD’ arsenal as well as cement her place in our ranks.”

“Well, it was the least I could do for her.”

Zahra laughed lightly, “If that was the least you could do for her, then I look forward to seeing what happens when you go all-out.”

“And I just hope I never do.” Vaile stated. And he really, really didn’t.

Vaile looked around and noticed that Axis had continued walking and was now a fair bit away from him.

“Sorry, I’ve got to make sure he doesn’t get himself killed too soon. It was nice seeing one of the few people who aren’t trying to do… stuff to me.”

Zahra smiled. “And who says that I don’t want to?”

Vaile began to walk briskly away at that point, and Zahra laughed another response.

“At least I have some degree of self-control!”

“That you do!” Vaile yelled back. “I just don’t want to test it too much! Thanks for the chat!”

“Likewise!” yelled Zahra. “And keep yourself pure for me! I may be more disciplined, but I still want you!”

“Aaaaaaand I’m outta here!” yelled Vaile as he picked up speed.