41 Haven and Chimeras
Looking out from the window of his room, Andrew takes in the scenery that the town below him provides. It's a vibrant sight as no two buildings shared the same painting and façade even though they were all lined up together.
The age of each establishment varies as well, with some looking worn by both time and nature as they have cracks and moss doting around the face of the building. However, it didn't make the buildings look neglected. Instead, it made it look rich in color as the moss serves as a bed for other more colorful plants to grow on and add to the beige concrete that the buildings were made of.
Drew would be lying if he thought that the flora is the only thing giving life to these weathered houses. The people and different animals frolicking and mingling together also brought a ton of liveliness to these otherwise nature-taken buildings.
There's no tranquility other than the cool breeze blowing against his face as he continues to look out his window, thoughtlessly taking in the wonderful sight that he doesn't see a ball of feathers hurtling towards him.
"Hm?- Woah! What're you?" Andrew catches the bundle of feathers with one hand seconds before it could hit his face. He then holds the ball of plumes with both his hands and inspects it.
'It's spherical,' he thought.
The spherical ball of feathers that fascinates Drew suddenly stretches its large wings out as its entire body begins to unfurl. It's two pairs of legs plant themselves onto Drew's hands and he feels like they're paws of a cat. It also has a tail of a cat but it ends in a fluff of plumes.
His confusion only grows all the more when it opens its large eyes. It has both features of a cat and an owl, with its face predominantly that of an owl's.
"Aren't you adorable, but what were you doing flying towards me?" Drew asks the strange creature in his hands, thinking it would answer him.
He's unaware that he's holding a chimeric beast in his hands, particularly one that's called a calibiso. They may not possess the ability to speak but they're still quite intelligent. It shows it by turning its head around which causes Drew to look in the same direction as it.
Drew sees another calibiso, the same as the one in his hands, perched on a ledge of a building. Its eyes leering at the one in his hands.
Comparing the two, the one sitting on the top of the building has a larger figure and its feathers are darker with white stripes at the end of each feather.
"Oh so that's why. I suppose you're in luck. I'm going out today so how about sticking with me?" Drew cradles the calibiso and closes the window so that the other one couldn't get in.
Upon getting accepted by him, the calibiso climbs around him until it reaches his shoulder where it sits on.
"I should think of a name for you. Does the name Hauche sound good to you?" Drew scratches the chin of the calibiso. In response, it purrs and starts nipping at his index finger with its beak.
"Well then, it's time for our date with Lu." Andrew prepares for his outing with a new companion on his shoulders.
He plans to take a shower before meeting up with Lu, so he goes up to the wardrobe in the guestroom and opens to see what clothes he can borrow. He ends up taking a black dress shirt, white slacks, a white tie, and a pair of grey socks.
Drew then saunters towards the bathroom, throwing all the clothes that he's going to be wearing onto the bed which causes Hauche to also jump onto the bed and wait for Drew as he takes a shower.
…
"I look like I'm headed for a meeting than a date," Drew says while looking at himself in a mirror. He still has his long black hair in a low ponytail, but this time he has his bangs slicked-back. It makes him look clean, but also awkward as he puts it.
He also has his black dress shirt buttoned up to the collar and the white tie around it looks tight that just by looking at himself made him feel strangled.
Letting out a sigh, Drew loosens his white tie and begins unbuttoning the collar of his shirt to let his broad chest breathe.
"Let's go Hauche," Drew calls for Hauche as he opens the door. The chimeric beast leaps into the air and flies onto Drew's shoulder. With one of its wings, it ruffles Drew's slicked-back hair.
"You didn't like it too?" Drew grins at Hauche while he walks through the wide hallway of wherever they are.
The tile patterns on the floor are something Drew has only seen in churches. Even the large stone columns with arches connecting them to their adjacent column are unique to a church, which bothers him because of how Adela described this town.
As Drew makes his way down a wide flight of stairs, he starts running into vestals, or at least girls dressed as vestals.
They're wearing black habits and veils, an unusual color for Drew since the vestals in Mires wear white. Additionally, the ones in the capital are strict when it comes to uniformity which can't be seen in the vestals here in Haven as they're wearing other accessories with their uniform.
'What's a church doing here in a town of witches?' Drew reaches the base of the stairs and finds himself on the first floor open corridor of the church.
Taking a look around as he walks through the open corridor, Drew realizes that this place is no church but instead a large monastery judging by all the different buildings that share the same design.
The monastery buildings enclosed an entire field of grass with trees as well as vibrant floral gardens around it which give Haven its signature nickname, and it's in one of those floral gardens that Andrew sees Lucifia with her arms crossed.
He walks towards the floral garden by taking the gravel path that leads to it. As he gets closer, he begins to see Lu in detail. Strangely enough, she's not wearing her blue dress, but instead a white knee-length sundress.
Her long silky white hair gleams against the midmorning sunlight while her sapphire blue eyes shimmer with fascination as they stare at a small group of vestals, each with their own unique chimeric beasts.
"Do you like animals by any chance?" Drew asks appearing beside Lu.
"So what if I do, what're you going to- … -do." Turning to look at Drew, Lu instead finds herself face to face with the cutest creature she's ever laid eyes on. It instantly stole her heart.
She immediately tries to go and pet Hauche but then suddenly hesitates, leaving her hands hovering over the cute beast.
"What're you doing?" Drew's confused by Lu's hand hovering on Hauche. To him, it looks like Lu's trying to tell his fortune and Hauche is the crystal ball.
"I'm waiting for her to accept me." Lu has quite the intense look on her face as she patiently waits for Hauche to trust her. It didn't take long or rather, Hauche was never afraid of her in the first place.
Hauche jumps onto Lu who cradles the chimeric beast with one arm as she uses the other to pet it.
"So, are you ready for our date?" Drew asks taking the lead as the two of them leave the monastery.
Lu wasn't listening to him, right now she's giving Hauche her undivided attention.
"You're so soft and cute. Plus, you aren't afraid of me and you don't smell." Lu's lips curve into an innocent and delighted grin as she continues to pet Hauche.
Drew feels proud that he somehow put such an endearing smile on Lu pretty easily, but she also forgot about him pretty easily as well.
While heading for town by following the stone path, Drew asks Lu why she loves animals so much and why she was so cautious with Hauche.
"You know calibis are pretty smart right?"
"Is that what they're called?" Drew says which lets Lu know that a calibiso could outsmart this man.
"Yeah, and because they're smart they know to steer away from danger. So of course, they'd naturally be apprehensive with demons to the point of just running away at the sight of them.
But this girl here, this adorable girl here isn't afraid of me~ and I have no clue as to why." Lu buries her face against Hauche's belly and begins gently nuzzling her face against the chimeric beast's fluffy stomach.
"You keep calling it a 'she', but is it? How were you able to tell at first glance?" Drew asks and sees Lu pull her face away from Hauche's stomach to stare at him as if to ask where he's getting all these stupid questions from.
"A male calibiso has extra plumes on their foreheads that make it look like horns. Females don't have that," Lu answers Drew as he reaches his hand out to pull a plume from Lu's hair.
Lu sees that the two of them are already in town, walking on the streets of Haven that are chock-full of stalls. The busy streets remind her of Aspen and everything she experienced in that city.
"You seriously do love animals, don't you? Alright, I'll take note of that for today." Drew's words help in alleviating the heavy feeling building in Lu's chest as she remembers everything she's done in her feral state.
"Are you sure that you're fine with me being with you instead of say, Aranea or Melissa?"
"Well, I thought about waiting for them to come back so we could all explore the town together," Drew replies while looking at the small plume he's holding between his fingers.
"Then I started thinking that it wouldn't work out since you still haven't explained yourself to Melissa. I also want an explanation myself.
But then I thought that it could wait when we're all back together. Because right now, I just want to give this day to you." Drew glances at Lu with a smile after delivering what he thought is a romantic and uplifting response.
"Huh? What did you say?" Lu mumbles out while she has her face buried against Hauche's stomach again.
"You didn't catch any of that!? At all!?" Drew shouts thinking that he's embarrassed himself for nothing.
"Nope, care to run that by me again?" Lu asks faking ignorance. In reality, she heard every word he said which made her hide the delighted smile on her face by burying it against Hauche.
"No way! I'm not saying it again, you can just take a guess!" Drew's angry reply gets Lu snickering.
