Just A Taste

While they were walking towards all the graves Vandor and the others took in the sight.

"How did you guys find out about this place, not really a place you just casually find and it doesn't seem to be a part of the Astral Zone above."

Hearing Vendor's question, Xilo peeked over at Tearia who was trying to take a step away from Xilo.

"I'm sure Tearia could explain it to you, She's the one who found it after all."

With a devilish grin Xilo grabbed Tearia's hand before she could run away and rooted her in place.

"Oh, uhm, actually...."

Her face was turning red from all the embarrassment she felt as multiple pairs of eyes fell on her.

"How did you find it, Tearia?"

Vandor had noticed her discomfort with the topic but since Xilo pushed for it, he figured he'd play along.

"I- I didn't, Xilo and Xelfia found it after I...well, After I tried to attack them. They got away at the time and ended up here by a complete accident. I'm sure if that didn't happen no one else would have found this place."

Tearia knew she was trapped so she just ended up blurting it out. "Whatever!" With a hmph Tearia turned away from Xilo as she caught up with Xelfia. Laughing at all of Tearia's reactions Xilo could feel the confusion manifesting from behind him. "Well that was cute." It didn't go exactly as he had hoped, however that was fine. Briefly explaining what had happened to Vandor and everyone else who was listening in, Xilo assured them it was fine. Swapping between Tearia and Xilo, Vandor couldn't have imagined something like that happened. "A weird bunch." Scratching his chin he was curious about a few other things.

"I would have thought dragons were nearly extinct, who knew so many were actually hiding here the whole time. I wonder if there are any more places like this around the world."

"Maybe it can be something we look for in the future. If they're hiding like this though I doubt they want to be found. The first time we came here, there were a whole bunch of tests that locked us from advancing in those rooms we were in before. They wanted to keep as many people out as possible."

"Since you can pass the tests, surely they didn't want to completely abandon the world, right? They seemed to be all disabled now as well."

"Maybe you're right, Vandor, I hadn't thought of it like that before. They could be trying to find people that are "worthy" or something along those lines. The tests being disabled now though is weird. I really hope my hunch isn't correct."

"You're hunch?"

Not elaborating any further Xilo saw Xelfia stop in front of him just a little up ahead. Putting down all the junk he was carrying, Xilo ran over beside Xelfia to see a small set of graves waiting for them. "These are.." Looking at the names on the graves "Xina and Rin." Those two names sat in the middle of each Stone. Carefully encarved in dark black ink with small bits of fire here and there. Different from all the other graves these ones were more clean with a few flowers lying around them. "Someone took good care of them." Xelfia almost started digging with her bare hands before Felli quickly ran over to grab a shovel they had and handed it to Xelfia.

"Should probably use this instead."

Digging up a large enough hole under Xina's grave Xelfia did it half by herself. Xilo had asked to join a few times and received no replies until he gave up and grabbed a shovel of his own to join her. The two of them dug in silence until they were done. Once that was over they jumped out of the pit and looked at Tearia. "I know." Without even having to ask Tearia took a step forward as she grabbed the necklace around her neck. Closing her eyes, she wrapped her energy around the corpse, avoiding the giant fire crystal and brought it out. The giant golden body of beauty fell inside the hole with a loud thump. Once that was done Tearia backed up and paid her respects with everyone else.

"Sleep well with your family, Mom."

Before she closed the whole up Xelfia reached down and grabbed at her Mother's stomach. "I'll see you again someday. Sorry for this." Digging her claws into the flesh of her mother, everyone watched on as Xelfia ripped out a chunk of flesh from the corpse. Speechless, everyone watched as she took a look over it once before presenting it to Xilo. Awkwardly, Xilo swapped between the piece of meat and Xelfia. "Huh?" He was worried for a moment that Xelfia might have lost it. The smile on her face just grew wider as his confusion grew.

"Here, just take it Xilo."

"What?"

"You always take a bit of flesh from the Astral Beasts we destroy and eat them. So I figured you should eat a piece of Dragon as well."

"Uhhhhhhhhhh, you know that's a piece of your Mother right!? I can't just eat it, plain and simple."

Watching Xilo freak out Xelfia couldn't stop a smile from appearing as she pushed him further, no more gloom for her.

"Oh? Is that so, if you don't want my Mother you can eat me instead, I'm sure I'm quite tasty. I know you want to, too."

Licking her lips, Xelfia enjoyed seeing Xilo turn red before grabbing the meat from her hand.

"You're doing this on purpose, aren't you. Haaa...fine give me the meat, I'll think about your offer another time."

Pushing Through his embarrassment he tried to not let it phase him but he could feel his face burning up.

"I'll be waiting."

Winking at Teoria, Xelfia and the girls all laughed at Xilo's embarrassment, thankfully no one else heard any of that.

"Oh, what's that?"