Chp.25: Something has changed

While Kotaru, Tikka and Teramon were talking among themselves, Darbi and Haku had returned to the carcass of the lizard which, from what his sisters had screamed, they understood was a great basilisk. Haku had no idea where his sisters got such information, but he probably wouldn't have the chance to ask them. They had made it very clear that they didn't want to talk or even get close to him. So, he let Kotaru ask the questions, and just hoped she'd also ask them how they knew the name of the creature they'd killed.

"How are you going to use this thing?" Darbi asked looking at the carcass. "To me it just looks like an overgrown lizard. At best we could have a snack..."

"I doubt we could eat it. This armor is too thick" Haku said as he tapped one of his claws on the animal's bone spines. "And even if we remove this protection, I don't think it would be a good idea for us to eat this meat. It spit very corrosive poison, for all we know its body could be poisonous too"

"Are you sure?" Darbi looked quite disappointed. "Maybe if we rip out the venom glands..."

"I wouldn't risk it. For all we know, the poison could be contained in the blood" Haku replied.

Darbi sighed. "Okay, you won. So what do we do? Shall we leave it here?"

"Don't make hasty decisions. Even without eating it, it can be useful for us" Haku said, pointing to the bone spines. "This stuff is pretty strong and tough. If we can peel them off and strap them on we might get some extra protection"

"Do we need it? Our scales are already very hard" Darbi opined. "And this armor is certainly very heavy, it would slow us down"

"If we just take some pieces of the armor it won't be so heavy. Also we can keep them in the dimensional bags. Instead of simple protections, we could make small shields that are easy to extract, so we won't have to spend much time with the enemy" Haku replied. "And yes, we already have our scales, but they're not as strong as this armor. We've seen that with..."

He was about to say 'with Rhaegal', but he fell silent before finishing the sentence. Darbi's claws and teeth hadn't even scratched the great basilisk, while Haku had been able to severely wound Rhaegal with a single blow. This showed that the great basilisk's armor was still much stronger than their scales. In the future, as they grew older, their skin would become impenetrable… but for now, they were still too vulnerable.

Darbi understood what his brother was saying, and pressed no further. "Okay. So, how do we take off this armor?"

Haku walked towards the creature's head. The javelin with which he had killed it was still stuck in its ear. With a jerk, he plucked it free from the flesh and placed it back in its dimensional bag. He would have preferred to use an arrow imbued with magic to finish off the beast, but none of the ones he possessed were long enough to penetrate to the brain; fortunately, the javelin had still been sufficient. This time their victory had really been mostly luck: if one of them faced the great basilisk alone, or if they faced it together but didn't know the runes, they wouldn't stand a chance.

Haku pointed to the animal's ears. "We use the same method we used to remove the protection from here: we fill our paws with fortification runes and then use all our strength to tear away the bone plates one by one" he said. "Also, this time the great basilisk can't fight back, so we can look for the best leverage point without worrying about it attacking us"

Darbi and Haku tried using that method, and it actually worked. Albeit with great effort, the bone plates detached from the skin of the beast, even if part of it remained attached to them. The smell of the great basilisk's exposed flesh wasn't exactly good, but the two dragons were used to smelling much worse.

As they worked, Darbi looked absently up the hill where their sisters were. "They've been talking for quite a while" he said. "Girls are really longwinded, aren't they?"

"They'll have their own things to tell each other. Let's leave them alone, they haven't seen each other for a week" Haku replied. "You should go talk to them too. You too have been separated from them for a while"

"And what about you?" Darbi asked him, though it was clear he already knew the answer.

A quick shadow passed over Haku's face. "You saw it, they don't want me around. I won't force them to talk to me. If they don't want me, I'll accept it"

Darbi was sure that would be his brother's answer. "As much as I appreciate that you finally respect our sisters' wishes, I don't think they don't want to talk to you anymore" he said. "They just need time. Be patient"

"I'm patient, but I'm also a realist" Haku replied. "I wouldn't forgive myself for what I did. Even if they were able to let go, forget... they'll never live peacefully with me less than two hundred meters away. Not after everything that's happened. I won't force them to live in fear, I won't force any of them. If they don't want me around, so be it. I'll step aside"

Darbi sighed. "Haku, I know that right now you're still dealing with a mountain of shit in your head, and that even if you don't show it you're still horribly upset, but you shouldn't let that stop you from having hope" he said putting her paw on his shoulder. "You can't forgive yourself, and I understand. But that doesn't mean our family won't forgive you. Don't let your emotions sway your judgment. You've always been logical, so try to use your usual logic..."

"Why do you think I'm tearing this great basilisk apart?" Haku snapped annoyed. "This is a logic problem. Something I can solve. I just have to think about how to use the resources this corpse provides us. That..." and he pointed to their sisters on the hill, "...isn't a logic problem, it's… something else, something I can't handle. The logic doesn't work there. I just can't think of what actions and reactions I can use to get myself readmitted into the family. I can't do it, and I don't want to do it". Haku's tail twirled nervously. "So… let me focus on this carcass, okay? This is something I can handle, so let me handle it. I don't want to think about… about the fact that my own siblings don't want me around them anymore"

Darbi bit his lip. He knew his brother was just trying to distract himself, to not think. He had avoided talking about that subject all week after all. "You know that sooner or later you'll have to face them, don't you?" he asked him. "When an animal is wounded, it must heal itself. You cannot ignore your wound forever"

"I know" Haku said, and his claws dug lightly into the great basilisk's exposed flesh. "Just... not now, okay? We'll discuss it sooner or later... but not now"

Darbi was silent for a second, then he nodded. "Okay, I respect your wishes. Let's think about this carcass then" he said. "Rather, why do we keep detaching the bone plates of the head? Wouldn't it be more convenient to move towards the neck and the rest of the body? Those of the back seem thicker"

Haku was happy for the change of subject. "We'll take off the plates of the back later. I want to completely clear the head first, especially the area under the mouth"

"Why? What's on your mind, brother?" Darbi asked, knowing that Haku almost never did anything for nothing.

"I want to reach the poison bags" Haku explained. "When the great basilisk spat its venom its throat swelled, so the venom sacs should be under the jaw. But there is also the possibility that they are on the top of the head, like snakes, and that what the the great basilisk had in its throat was simply saliva or mucus which was then sprayed with its venom"

"Do you want its poison? Why?" Darbi asked. "We already have other poisons"

"Yes, but none of them are as powerful as this one. I mean, what other poisons corrode or even melt the ground? I'm sure that this one would be able to melt even the rock" Haku replied. "It could be very useful to us in the future. We could use it to remove obstacles in our path, for example. Or if we found a very difficult opponent we could throw this poison at him and melt his skin. The possibilities are endless"

That battle had taught Haku one thing: it was absolutely imperative to get as many resources as possible in anticipation of the next opponent. If they hadn't had the runes, they would never have been able to remove the great basilisk's armor or keep him busy while he formulated his plan. It was fortunate that they had taken the time to learn the runes. And without the javelin, a tool that had seemed almost useless when he picked it up, they couldn't have killed the beast directly. Therefore, Haku was not going to leave any more stone unturned: if in the future they had to face more dangerous creatures, then he wanted to do it with all the weapons that fate could provide him.

The great basilisk's venom could be used in many ways. For example, if they had met an opponent that was too dangerous, like the infamous hydra (which Haku still didn't know what it was, but which from the reward seemed quite fearsome), they could have thrown the poison on him and killed him, or at least distracted him enough to escape. Or they could have spread poison on the ground to make it more difficult for their pursuers to pass. In short, there were many possibilities; obtaining great basilisk's venom could prove very useful in the future.

"But how do we carry it?" Darbi asked. "I mean, if it corrodes everything it touches, it will be difficult to take it away"

"We have many containers enchanted or protected by magical runes that we stole from ogres and fairies" Haku replied. "We'll try them all. And if they don't work... then we'll remove the poison bags straight away being very careful not to puncture them. Those sure can't be corroded by poison. For lack of better options, we'll take those away"

Darbi cackled. "Sometimes I'd like to get inside your head, brother. How do you always think of everything?"

"It's a gift" Haku replied amused, but suddenly he stopped. His eyes widened and his body froze as a shadow passed over them blocking out the sun.

Haku looked at Darbi, who froze as well. "Quick! The invisibility rune!" he shouted, and his brother didn't ask him to repeat it. Haku looked breathlessly at the hill, but to his relief it seemed that his sisters were hiding as well.

He looked up. A giant reptilian figure was flying across the sky. It had large bat wings, a long tail, and two huge hind legs. The creature gave a few screeches, then moved away. Haku noticed that something seemed to be tied to its chest, as if someone had placed ropes to prevent something that was on the creature's back from falling down.

When the beast finally moved away, Haku breathed a sigh of relief and deactivated the rune of invisibility. Darbi did the same, gasping for fear. Soon after, their sisters also joined them. "Did you see it!?" Teramon exclaimed. "There was another dragon!"

"It wasn't a dragon. Too small. Besides, it only had two legs" Haku said. "It had to be a wyvern"

"A wyvern?" Tikka murmured. "It wasn't on the bounty list..."

"Which means it's not a wild animal" Haku said. "I saw strings tied to its chest. I think it had a saddle on its back"

"You mean a human or a beastmen was riding that beast?" Kotaru asked. "I don't like it"

"And you are right. That wyvern almost certainly belongs to a level adamantium soldier, as they are the only ones capable of taming them. Which leads us to only one conclusion". Haku's eyes narrowed. "Something has changed. The armies of humans and beastmen are moving towards the border... and towards us"