Runaway Pet

“Okay, this isn’t working,” Nona breathlessly said, dropping on the grass, next to their fallen, exhausted companions. “We need to figure out another way.”

“You sure you cannot throw a damn spell at that hyperactive fur ball?” Thorny exclaimed, pointing towards the frenetic dog, who was hysterically running.

“I told you already,” Adish tiredly said from the spot where he was lying flat, breathing laboredly. “I know a few immobilization spells, but for them to work, the objective must be inside its area of effect, which is impossible with how damn fast he runs.”

“He is also avoiding all my traps, and despite my superior eyesight, I can barely follow him.” Lorian said with an exasperated tone. “I cannot fathom how something that small can give so much trouble.”

“Well, small or not, he is still the Goddess’ pet.” Vesper said, fanning her face. “I thought that your experience with Zander had taught you that size does not matter.”

“W-What are you implying, druid?”

“When you sparred I mean. Your daggers and knives were smaller than his old cutlass, but you still managed to beat him the last time you fought on the deck.” Vesper offered Lorian an innocent smile. “I wonder what you were thinking to get these scarlet cheeks.”

Nona was so lost in her thoughts that she missed Adish and Vesper laughing at Lorian’s glaring expression. There had to be a way to catch that dog without harming him. But how?

“Jeez, and that pest has the nerve of smirking at us while swimming in the lake.” Thorny cupped his hands to his mouth and shouted, “I hope you drown, rat with paws!”

Nona’s heart skipped a beat. An idea had just popped into her mind.

“Guys, I think I have it.” She looked at the others, who were looking back at her with anticipation. “But it’s quite risky. And there is a chance that one of us ends up hurt.”

Her plan was initially received with a shocked silence. Then, as expected, a few teasing comments followed, but to Nona’s surprise, no one hesitated to go with it.

* * *

It took them almost an hour to prepare everything. In the meantime, the chihuahua had apparently decided that they weren’t a threat, because he was peacefully sleeping on a rock, curled up on himself.

“Okay, let me check that we haven’t forgotten anything,” Adish said, enumerating all the items they had gathered at the water’s edge. “Yes, I think we are ready.

“See, Thorny? In the end it was worth it to keep those beautiful shells,” Nona said, chuckling when Thorny just huffed instead of admitting she was right.

Vesper and Lorian joined them at that moment.

“Hey, how did it go?” Nona asked.

“Better than expected,” Vesper said with a proud smile. “Most of the beasts completely ignored me, but the bicephalous elephants and the gigantic armadillos agreed to help. Apparently, they are quite tired of the dog’s incessant barking at night.”

“All the traps have been set too,” Lorian sighed. “I hope this plan works, because I doubt I can reuse them again.”

“Great. Then, there is only one thing left.”

Nona reached for the last item. She looked at it with a nostalgic smile for a couple of seconds and handed it to Adish, who took it with hesitant hands.

“Listen, Nona, it this doesn’t work–”

“It will.”

“But if it doesn’t, it doesn’t necessarily mean that there is anything wrong between–”

“Adish.” Nona smiled reassuringly. “It will work. Trust me.”

The mage nodded and adjusted his glasses, his brows knitted in concentration.

“I’m going to start then.”

After recovering their stamina with a potion, Vesper smoothly shifted into an imposing, black panther, and waited for Lorian’s nod to start their silent approach towards the chihuahua.

As they feared, even if Lorian and Vesper hadn’t let out a sound, they were still a few meters away when the pet woke up in alert, and resumed their previous frantic escape.

“Tsk. Well, they had to try,” Thorny said with resignation before proceeding to shout instructions to Lorian and Vesper, who were trying to corner the chihuahua.

Meanwhile, Nona carefully followed Adish’s instructions to place each item in the correct place of the magic circle the mage had drawn in the lake. Nona made sure just to focus on her task at hand, ignoring the sounds of Lorian’s traps being activated - unfortunately without catching their objective - and also Thorny’s hysterical shouts whenever it seemed that the Vesper was going to lose the chihuahua.

Finally, after setting almost twenty items, Adish handed Nora the last, most important ingredient, now enchanted with the proper words. Nona felt again quite relieved that Adish’s allergy wasn’t triggered when performing rituals, apparently because objects acted as the conductors between the caster and the actual spell, so magic didn’t flow directly from the mage’s body.

“Alright. Your turn, Nona. Maybe it would be a good idea that you practiced a bit. That name is quite long after all, and if you get it wrong–”

But that long name easily left Nona’s lip with care and fluency, without a single misspell.

As soon as Nona pronounced it, the magic circle shone with a blinding light that made Adish fall backwards with a shocked curse.

“It’s working! Wow, your bond must be really strong for the invocation to succeed between dimensions.”

Nona didn’t even register Adish’s words.

By then the light had faded, allowing her to see a familiar, confused face, framed in longer rebel locks, that made her pulse quicken and a familiar warmth spread inside her.

“Wait, where am I–?” Nona interrupted Aecor’s confused question, hugging him with such effusiveness that the merman was tackled against the ground, where the magic circle was slowly vanishing. “N-Nona?!”

“I’m sorry.” Nona rapidly separated from Aecor, whose ocean eyes were shining in disbelief. She didn’t even give him time to return the hug before starting to babble. “I know this is too sudden, and I hope I have not caused you too much trouble summoning you like this, but we need your help to capture the Goddess’ pet and, oh Sweet Goddess, you look fitter and more handsome than ever and that ear piercing is new and looks really good on you, and I’ve missed you so much, and–”

Aecor brusquely dragged Nona against him again, and silenced her clumsy speech with a passionate kiss. Nora sighed in content and wrapped her arms around Aecor’s back, kissing back, momentarily forgetting where they were, or what they were even doing.

Adish loudly clearing his throat next to them acted as a quick reminder, and Nona broke the kiss.

“O-Oh, right, yes, the mission.” Nona let out an embarrassed giggle. “So, I know this is a bit sudden but–”

“You need help capturing the Goddess’ pet, yes, you said it right before calling me fitter.” Aecor said with amusement, grabbing Nona’s hands between his. “Of course I’ll help. Just tell me what to do.”

Nona rapidly did so. When she finished, Aecor nodded with confidence.

“I think I can do it. I will get ready then.”

“Wait, before you go,” Nona crossed her arms, pouting slightly. “You haven’t said anything about my Merman. Is it because I speak it terribly?”

Aecor blinked a few times, confused.

“Wait, I thought that I could understand you because of the pendant I gave you…” Nona chuckled when Aecor’s eyes opened in stupor, after realizing that the pendant was still on the circle. Aecor looked at her again, with his eyes shining in a way that made Nona’s heart flutter again. “Did you learn Merman because of me?”

Nona gulped and nervously scratched the back of her head.

“W-Well, yes. I mean, if I’m going to meet your family someday, I thought it would be better if–”

This time it was Aecor who tackled Nona to the ground with an effusive hug, right before recapturing her mouth in a new kiss that Nona automatically returned.

“Eeeeeh, hello?! Our leader remembers that there is a pet that we need to capture?!”

“Ah! Y-Yes, yes, sorry Adish!”

“Damn, you are lucky that Thorny is so busy helping Lorian and Vesper,” Adish commented with a mix of exasperation and amusement once Aecor disappeared underwater.

“Hey, I just heard my name. Did you say something bad about me, four-eyes–? Careful, Lorian! The rat with paws is about to escape between those elephant legs! No, no, no, no, Vesper, go to your right with the armadillos to cut off his way out!! To the right!!”

“Wow, he must be really focused to be calling them by their names,” Nona said, impressed as Adish nodded in agreement.

“Indeed. And now, if you’ll excuse me…” Adish sighed and adjusted his glasses, “I’m going to run.”

Once Adish was at a prudent distance from them, they set the second part of the plan into motion.

Lorian and Vesper coordinated to lead the chihuahua towards the lake. Lorian used his throwing knives to force the chihuahua to change direction, and Vesper made sure to block the escapes that were not covered with the wall of elephants and armadillos.

Eventually, the dog had no other choice but to approach the lake, around which Nona had used several scrolls to cast the Hold Monster spells. As expected, the chihuahua avoided all the areas of effect, and managed to jump in the water through the only available opening that had been left there on purpose.

“Your turn now, Sardine Boy!”

By the time the chihuahua, who was swimming at a rather fast speed, could understand what was happening, a water whirlpool suddenly formed under him. The dog started to bark hysterically, moving his paws frenetically to try to avoid being dragged underwater.

But it was useless.

A few seconds after the dog sank, Aecor reappeared on the surface, grinning with satisfaction.

“I believe you had some matters to discuss with this little fella,” he said, playfully tapping the head of the enraged, wriggling chihuahua whose whole body was now restrained with seaweed.

Nona found herself suddenly trapped in a group hug as her companions cheered with enthusiasm and relief. Even Lorian and Thorny hugged each other, but then realized what they were doing and quickly separated with awkward expressions that made the others laugh even more.

“Thank you very much, Aecor,” Vesper said with a grateful, breathless tone, shifting back into her human form. “By the way, you speak Human very fluently.“

Nona stared at Aecor in disbelief. She hadn’t noticed that until Vesper mentioned it. The merman winked an eye at her.

“I wanted to be prepared too, in case I met your family one day.”

Nona was about to jump in the water to kiss Aecor again when a distant impatient shout reached them.

“Heeeeeeey!! Did we succeed or nooooot?!”

She laughed and looked at Adish, whose small figure was frenetically waving his arms from the other side of the hill.

“Yeeees!! We did iiiiit!!” she shouted back with relief. It seemed that the mage had managed to go far away enough not to be part of the team during the encounter, avoiding that almost-deathly ray impact.

“RELEASE ME YOU ASSHOLES!!” Everyone but Aecor jumped startled when the chihuahua suddenly talked with a deep voice that didn’t match his high-pitched barks at all. “I DON’T WANT TO COME BACK WITH THAT BITCH!! I’M TIRED OF BEING DRESSED IN PINK RIBBONS AND BOWS AND ALL THE TRICKS SHE MAKES ME DO TO GET LIKES–!!!”

“Would you like a snack?”

The chihuahua instantly shut up and stopped struggling in Aecor’s arms when hearing the merman’s soft proposal.

He obediently stood still, moving his tail furiously with his enormous, pleading eyes fixed on the merman.

Everyone went silent, staring at each other.

“...Was it really that easy?” Thorny muttered in disbelief.

Everyone groaned in exasperation.

* * *

“Damn, those marine cookies are really good. Do you have more, Sardine boy?”

“Yes, here you have.”

They were all gathered close to the lake, so that Aecor could stay in the water. The chihuahua was now in Nona’s arms, rather sated after eating a load of cookies.

“Are you ready to summon your owner?” Nona gently asked. The chihuahua sighed with resignation.

“Won’t you happen to have a cigar, right? I could really use one now.”

“Sorry, but none of us smoke,” Nona said with an apologetic tone.

“Yeah, figured it out. You look like annoying healthy youngsters. Well, it was good while it lasted.”

The chihuahua cleared his throat before howling.

Nona wasn’t surprised by the Goddess’ quick manifestation in the sky, as sudden as the previous two times. The others though jumped startled, in shock.

“Shit!” Adish’s eyes widened behind his glasses. “That was…fast.”

“And anticlimactic," Vesper added.

“Very anticlimactic,” Lorian agreed.

“Awww, here you are my little cotton candy!!” the Goddess smirked at the chihuahua, who shivered with disgust in Nona’s arms, and beckoned him to get closer. “Come here with mama. I have so many new outfits to try on you–”

“Wait, Your Holiness.” The Goddess batted her long eyelashes and finally focused on Nona, who was looking at her with an uncharacteristic serious expression on her face. “Before you can have your pet back, there are a few things I would like to discuss.”