What the hell are you doing on this holy night?
"Big bro, how nice is that?" warm flames brought a sense of comfort in this dark and cold night.
"Very wonderful haha!" a full and excited voice tore through the silent night. A bearded middle-aged man with a beer belly sat on a sawed tree trunk.
The crackle and sparks of the campfire lit up three more excited faces.
All males. Two younger ones and another middle-aged man.
"Big bro, have some more soup!" over the campfire, comfortable, a pot of potato soup satisfyingly cooked. The bubbles left one either in shock or mesmerised them.
Yet under all these peaceful moments in this quiet and beautiful night, a raging and blackened voice was cursing heavens and hell digging resting gods and devils out of their graves, risking to be cursed to purgatory for eternal damnation.
'You bloody *** how dare you eat so happily and act like a big disgusting family while you kidnap this absolutely adorable personification of true gap moe, huh? Yes, me and not the princess! I'm this cute and OP yet I let you catch me, why? Because I'm fucking weakened due to this stupid bond! I swear if I get out of here!'
Yes, in a small cage next to the tree trunk the middle-aged man sat on was a small trembling pet dragon gnawing on the iron cage but also sweating and panting like crazy.
The yearn in Eric's body made him weak and feverish. It was horrible. If it wasn't for this current state due to the bond, Eric would've never let himself be caught by these ridiculous traffickers!
So, Eric, insignificantly sat there, watching how these men ate their fills while Eric was evaporating from an awful curse eroding his will to live.
He finally stopped this futile attempt of trying to leave, while he was ignored anyways, when all energy left him. Despite his body lacking strength and overcome by exhaustion, the fire inside Eric never left. It burnt and burnt and burnt his heart into crisps.
All Eric could do was subdue this horrible feeling and regain his calm. Imagine your heart is a pond and the yearning is a koi fish. Turn it circling around your heart into energy. Breathe in and out.
Fuck off! This meditating shit doesn't work at all!
With sad and defeated eyes, Eric finally laid down on the ground and closed his eyes. He had to wait until he replenished his energy to escape. How bothersome.
"Bro, this is so good," all the while he had to listen to grown adults talking like flat ass characters, as flat as that pancake sister or bro next door.
"But today we managed a great feat! We captured a rare dragon! Everyone rejoice!" the big bearded bro shouted and out of nowhere this group pulled out beer glasses and got themselves drunk. Eric rolled his eyes down the mountain of Mordor before he finally fell asleep.
"Ha...ha... huh..." strange noises disappeared into the night.
"Nghnn... mhm..haa..." they excruciatingly got louder.
"Just a bit more, just a bit more... ah...nhnn... " flowing along with the wind they graced around the small dragon and woke him up.
Its little eyes half-opened before they widened drastically. W-What in the world? In this pure, holy night, what do you think you're doing? Fuck! Eric still, half-awake, half-slumbering, the surroundings felt like a blur to him. Shaky. His senses were messed up and he felt dizzy.
Hey, hey, what are you thinking, shaking me like a cocktail? Scowling, more weird noises came into Eric's mind and his face blanked before it was filled with shock and disbelief.
N-No way. Were these so-called brothers... in the middle of the night... With each other... no fucking way, right? The genre didn't change again, right?
Eric must've heard, wrong, no, Eric was sure he was wrong. Haha.
And indeed, "Howl are you awake?"
It was only Eric's imagination. A weird forbidden and unwelcome illusion.
He should've listened better, the noises made weren't from males' but a female's!
It was Eli! Did Eli save him from these kidnappers? Coming to this conclusion, Eric was alert and woke up completely. Any sleepiness was immediately thrown away as if it had never existed in the first place.
The night was dark but Eric still saw the hunched over form of Eli, still heard her frantic breathing and still managed to notice that Eli was badly hurt!
No way, were these Murim marital arts people able to defeat Eli so easily? Well, Eli without weapons was probably just a bit above a normal human. But for some reason, Eric got a bad feeling seeing Eli like this. Did this princess really put her life on the line to save Eric? Honestly, Eric even felt a bit touched.
Howl must mean a lot to Eli. Eric wondered if there was a backstory to it or if it was because Howl was cute, Hans' pet or Eli was actually a very good and kind person?
Then Eric was nagged by another question, why did it take Eli so long to find him? Did these Murim people do something?
"Sorry, Howl, hang on a bit. I'll bring you back safely. I'm sorry, I failed to protect you."
At this, Eric almost teared up. Look at her saying these words when obviously it was Eric who ran away, look at her bruised from vowing to safely protect him when she couldn't even take care of herself.
"Go back to sleep, Howl. Everything will be fine."
But not everything was fine because right after Eli said those words, screams and shouts appeared.
"Get her! Take back the dragon!"
Yes, the kidnappers were on their tails but no matter how injured Eli was, she continued to maintain her speed and eventually Eric, even though he didn't want to, passed out again.
***
BAM!
"What do you mean, it's not your fault? Are you trying to avoid responsibility?"
BANG
Once again loud noise woke the slumbering Eric up but this time, the moment Eric opened his eyes, heavy tension and intense suffocation weighed on him.
What was up with this atmosphere? Why was everyone on edge?
Eric looked around. Right Now, he was lying in a corner of a meeting room. The one in the HQ where the new earthers first met the masters of Murim. In the middle of the room, the king maddened confronted the Murim masters who sweated bullets, so large, even Eric from the back of the room could see it.
"Please calm down, your majesty. Indeed it was the fault of Murim and we take responsibility for the behaviour of our people but please do not-"
"Nonsense! What do empty words bring?" From the loud intensity of the king's voice, Eric guessed something bad happened.
"Your majesty, please calm down. Albeit hurt, her highness is fine," one of the servants quickly jumped in.
"Fine? You call my dear Eli being in a coma fine? My granddaughter was kidnapped and harassed by Murim!" The king turned back to the masters, "Was this intentional? No one but you know that we've arrived and she's the crown princess of new earth! It seems like you're siding with magic!"
"No, absolutely not! Please do not make such assumptions! We remain natural!" one of the Murim masters quickly fired back.
The king was literally trying to wage a war against them with such a statement. How could they know that the princess foolishly snuck out and then got into trouble? Murim was a lawless zone, everyone knew this!
But Eric finally figured out what was going on. Apparently, to save Eric, Eli was now in a coma and the king was mad and about to start a war. Great... was this all Eric's fault?