Don't Wake the Beast

When I woke, I bawled like a baby. Malmagos, the source of all my woes, understood me better than I ever understood myself.

And I’d like to believe—even for a moment—that an inhuman god could somehow care about me.

It was a messy cry.

I was so overwhelmed by everything I’d seen that I didn’t even notice I couldn’t feel the left side of my body.

Looking back, it wasn’t pain. It was emptiness.

When I reached for my chest, I was baffled to find nothing there. Finally craning my neck downward, I saw why.

I was missing an arm.

So… that’s what they meant by a phantom limb.

I wanted to laugh, but all that came out was a sob. That arm should’ve been Py Pir’s. She should’ve been the one to live whole.

Instead, here I was. 

I had to think of it in a different way. If I was dead, things would have been so much worse. Malmagos would be very cross if my soul slipped away before I’d reined Malmitres in for a few more years. Daisy could probably handle it herself if it came down to it, but still.

I forced myself to sit up. I needed to know if we’d been captured or somehow escaped. The place looked much like where Engelklein had led us before.

Py Pir…

I swallowed hard and shut my eyes.

“Hey! Stupid Idiot’s awake!”

That wasn’t any of my friends’ voices.

I turned. Lysandra stood there, pouting.

“You think you’re some big hero, huh?!” she shouted, tears spilling as her fists thudded against my chest with all the power of a small dog. “S-Sacrificing yourself for my sister like that, when the arrow would’ve k-killed h—... H—...! WAHHHH!”

God, this girl is the walking definition of a dere. I’m too out of otaku practice to know which one.

“Thank the gods,” Yuree-El said softly. “I wasn’t about to lose another friend.”

“I’m so sorry, Yuree, I—”

“Apologize again and I’ll hit you,” Yuree-El cut me off. “Things aren’t so dire that we can say for certain Py Pir’s dead.”

But that drop was cavernous!

“We’ve come to the conclusion there’s a greater chance than not she survived the fall,” Lysandra said.

“We trained her bones enough to withstand anything,” Yuree-El added. “Gravity shouldn’t be much of an obstacle compared to what she’s endured.”

“And there are ledges she could’ve hit on the way down to soften the fall."

“But if she isn’t…” Yuree’s voice faltered. “Then my mission has failed.”

“Again, we don’t know that for sure,” Lys said quickly. She was giving Yuree a strange look. Oh god. Don’t tell me.

Yuree in a yuri scenario is just so lame.

“If her parents did indeed claim the throne, and they learned the truth about her sudden death…” Yuree-El trailed off.

“My people would be in grave danger,” Lysandra finished, suddenly grave. “If the lamias discovered it was us who caused it, our technology wouldn’t matter. Against the sheer numbers of this so-called Kingdom of Sand, it would be a death knell.”

I sat up. “We should climb down the cavern and search for her then—”

“No,” Lysandra interrupted. “Finding her that way is fruitless. There are too many mining tunnels she could disappear into. Either way, all of them will reach our people’s long-abandoned mine entrances. We won’t be lost forever… it’s just a matter of—”

Yuree-El sighed. “Reaching Lysandra’s Mountain people first.”

“Stop interrupting what I’m saying…” Lysandra growled cutely.

“But… Engelklein?” I rasped. I’d let her slip from my mind entirely. “What about your Engel?”

Then came the creak of wood. We all turned.

Daisy entered, a little girl carrying a deer slung across her back like it was nothing.

“They took her,” Daisy said simply.

God. Two people now—one lost, scared, and alone, the other kidnapped.

So I did the only thing I was good at. I asked: “How are we getting them back?”

“With this baby,” Lysandra said, holding out a mechanical arm of a rather gorgeous make. Did she... 

She made one… just for me?

“You built this in three days?”

“It only took that long because I had to scrape together shoddy materials in the middle of nowhere! Brr… the surface world’s freezing.”

If Py Pir wasn’t dead, then she’d be in the Mountain Elves' Mines. And the Mines led straight to the Mountain Elves’ home.

I scrunched my face as my fingers traced the smooth edges. “This is my fault. Py Pir being in danger, my insistence we go early. Maybe we would’ve avoided them altogether.”

Daisy gave me a look—different, this time.

“At least you finally see yourself for what you are, doofus.” She shrugged. “It’s one thing to say out loud… and another to actually act on it.”

“I will try. I will make no promises, but I will try.”

...

...

Daisy snorted. “Guess that’s the best I can get out of you.”

She then leaned in and I felt the soft tenderness of her lips on my cheek.

As soon as she pulled back, I stared at her as my face turned red.

“You may be an idiot, but at least you’re an honest idiot. And I kind of like people falling in slow motion. Gives me a savior complex.”

Daisy stepped aside, jingling the healing poultices, adventure novels, and other odds and ends in my bag.

“Whenever you feel like you are ready, Cotter, we go, okay? Not when you think you have no choice. When you feel comfortable with it, we can leave. Repeat after me, Cotter: slow and steady wins the race.”

“R-Right. Slow and steady wins the race.”

“Slow and steady, Cotter,” Daisy warned with that sharp little grin. "Besides. I'm curious to know what Py Pir meant by your 'royal bloodline,' too."

END.