Chapter 50: Preparations

Ciaran spent the last day before his sister comes in preparations, sadly for him he had gotten a big distraction that ate a lot of his time.

Roxy the wolf-fox hybrid took a liking to the boy, even tho, it was clearly unrequited love on her part. She was a smart puppy, but a puppy, not the less, and the boy had learned to disdain the simpleminded.

Ariadne on the other hand liked the small creature. It was friendly and wasn't scared of her. The fact her partner was a million miles away from the idea of ever wanting the thing as a familiar helped too.

They spent the better part of the day bathing her so she would at least smell nice for Verdania. They had to impress the dryad, and they were behind schedule.

"Listen, Roxy, soon my big sister will come to visit. Be on your best behavior, ok? We can't have her disliking you, because she needs to agree to a few things, and the list is getting bigger and my confidence is dwindling."

He got a few enthusiastic barking noises from the pup. She was already Rank Zero and could understand the boy to an extent. But she was also just a kid, with no mind-enhancing drugs, and she wasn't able to understand the desperation behind the boy's words.

He sighed and left the little mudball to play with his spider as he got to crafting. The Ravens have delivered his goods, and now he just had to utilize them efficiently.

Trouought the whole night he worked. The first light of the new day didn't stop him either, he still crafted. Over one-fourth of the supplies had been turned into weapons, but that was not enough. He wanted to at least be done with half by the time Verdania came.

Around noon the Alpha had come, he wanted to see what, or who was going to take his daughter to the boy's home. Ciaran told him the deal was off if his Big Sis said no. The wolf was pissed, but the boy said he didn't care.

"You are not even as scary as sis's morning breath, you mindreading mutt." That is what the boy said to him.

The wolf knew it was partly because Ciaran hadn't slept much after meeting his daughter, and partly because the boy had unwavering confidence in whatever was coming.

The wolf was skeptical, and then a dryad appeared out of thin air. Her frail-looking body wasn't giving off a hint of danger, but that was because she was watching over her young.

She was examining their bodies and was pleased they had not sustained any injuries. It took three wacks from Ariadne for the boy to acknowledge his sister's presence.

"Hi, give me a minute, I am almost done with this little one." He said and continued his work.

She didn't know what he was making, but there were hundreds of his little toys stacked up if not even thousands. She also noticed how the local birds were staying clear of those things as if they were the plague.

She was about to drag him out of his makeshift laboratory when she felt a small bite on her ankle. Roxy was told to behave, so she took it as an invitation to play with the new stranger.

Sadly for her, Verdania had a similar temperament as Ciaran. She was kind to the pup, even giving it a belly scratch, but then she left it with the spider again. The dryad had no patience to take care of more children, especially ones that seemed to have endless energy.

It took the boy close to twenty minutes before he was done with his creation.

"Right, as I promised, no new injuries and I have insurance there will be no more unpleasant accidents. Come let me show you." He said as he grabbed one of his makeshift bags of goodies.

Verdania wasn't pleased with his lack of manners, but she could see how tired he was. His eyes were red, he had bags under his eyes, and his hands were shaky. She could see he hadn't slept much recently and that added to her distaste.

She followed him out of the forest, and then the boy came to a stop.

"Let's start with the basics: bombs." He said as he throw a ball-shaped thing at a rock.

BOOOM

It blew up on contact. The explosion wasn't enormous and the blast wasn't anything too big, but it was more than enough to harm Rank Two entities, a more than impressive thing for a boy who was yet to reach Rank One.

He looked at her and grinned.

"These are the least dangerous of my arsenal. Let's move on to the poisons. Here we have some poison powders: The Paralyzers, the Distractors, and of course the Killers. As you can tell the first is meant to stun our pray, and the last will be used to kill in silence. You might be wondering what the mystery Distractors do, well they cause a rash."

"I needed a way to check for ambushes and to be frank, I don't want to use the useful stuff for scouting. Don't you worry tho, though it's very strong stuff, I tested it on the Rank Two wolf and he still can't get the itch out of his leg." The boy said and laughed.

He then waited for her to make her judgment.

Verdania sighted, it was hardly what she was expecting but the things he made were good, great even, but there was just a small little problem with his plans.

"Ok, and you have so many toys now, how are you going to carry them up the mountain smart guy? " She raised her eyebrow.

He smiled and pointed at Roxy, which confused everyone from the dryad to the Rank Two Alpha watching them from stealth.

"I will trade you a, um, a Roxy for a space enchanted storage. Surely you can make one for me, Miss Space Archmage."

Her eye twitched. Great now even her own little brother wanted her for her Space magic, the world was unjust.

"You think a mutt is worth my work you brat? You don't even know what you are asking for." She almost yelled at him. Storage items were rare, very rare, and they were certainly not something a little kid could get his hands on.

"See here is the thing, I really need it and you really need an excuse. Say you take the deal, you don't need to take care of her, on the contrary, I want you to take her home. My Master can get very lonely when we aren't there. She can keep him company, and well, she can also be a convenient excuse why you haven't gone home the give him updates. Just make something up." He said and flashed her his business smile.

'This brat is extorting me. Blackmailed by my own little brother, I am so proud.' Verdania was amused inside, but she still glared at the boy.

"I promise not to take on more than I can chew, we will just practice stealth. I need these things to enhance my lethality, please Big Sis, you don't have to give me anything at the end for the feathers, just help me out this once, ok?" The boy pleaded.

She eyed him up, and then against her better judgment she agreed.

They went back to the Ravens. Verdania didn't miss the opportunity to warn the Alpha not to divulge anything he heard or else his daughter would end up at the kid's experimentation table.

The wolf could tell that the woman was strong, very strong, but her threat scared him more. He saw what the kid would do when he was just collecting supplies, he pitied the poor thing that incurred his spite.

'As deranged as that brat is he is too weak to be a treat. But if he was protected by her, and I couldn't stop his experiments … Better to have them as allies.' The Alpha came to a conclusion and followed them.

It took Ciaran another week to complete all his toys, but then he had to wait an extra three days for Verdania to complete his new storage space.

It was a bracelet that stands out as most ordinary. It is a simple chain, worn by both men and women as a subtle accessory. It was made out of metal. As the boy examined it more closely, he noticed the way it glints in the light, catching the eye with its understated beauty.

"Here. Never tell anyone about it, it will get you in trouble. My level of trouble, Ciaran. You don't know what you asked for, but now you have it. When you get back we are telling Eleftherios everything." She said and the boy was startled.

"Don't look at me like that. I wanted to keep your injuries a secret, but you grow too fast and now you even have an Archmage level of equipment. He will know and he will be angry with both of us. Do what you must, but there will be consequences. There always are." She said, took the puppy in her hands and teleported away.