Erlo Waking Up

Azra saw Lo in the middle of drying Erlo when he came back to the square with the other villagers. Lo excitedly greeted Azra, which accidentally made him rip the towel against one of Erlo's spikes. Lo wouldn't have stopped drying Erlo just because of that since he had already made one or two holes in the towel. But this time, the towel tugging against a spike woke Erlo up.

Erlo's eyelids fluttered, and his ears twitched as he slowly lifted his head out of Lo's lap and looked around.

It took less than a second for Erlo to realize he was in a place he wasn't when he woke up, and he rushed to his feet. Since the villagers surrounded him on all sides, Erlo didn't make any rash decisions, but he snarled as he turned around in a slow circle, eyeing each and every one of the villagers.

Erlo had just woken up and was mostly acting based on his instincts when his eyes landed on Lo, and something deeply hidden within his subconscious stirred. Erlo's expression softened as he remembered the petting, food, and joy of his youth.

Lo noticed the clarity and recognition on Erlo's face, and he raised his hand.

"Hey…"

Lo's movements, even as soft and inviting as they were, startled Erlo.

Lo slowly lowered his hand and kept whispering to Erlo the same things he shouted when ha and Azra looked for Erlo in the forest and when he washed the Rage Powder waste off of Erlo's body.

The only way Lo knew that it wasn't completely ineffective was through how it no longer looked like Erlo would bite his hand off. But it still seemed like Erlo had spent too long in the forest while suffering from the Rage Powder. It would take more than a few sweet words to rehabilitate Erlo to village life as a household pet.

Lo was in the middle of signaling the villagers to slowly back away and open a path out of the encirclement for Erlo when a stream of gentle golden light entered Erlo's body.

Lo had been keeping an eye on Erlo the entire time, so he noticed as soon as Azra began sending divine power into Erlo's body. Lo was already confident in Azra's abilities to solve problems and heal people, but he was unsure what Azra would do when Erlo was perfectly healthy. There wasn't anything wrong with Erlo. He didn't remember or want to remember his life before the Rage Powder.

However, Lo still believed in Azra helping Erlo in some way. Lo not knowing what Azra was capable of didn't mean Azra was only capable of what he had shown Lo so far.

Erlo's slightly less tense expression reinforced Lo's belief that Azra was indeed capable of more than what he had displayed during the short time he had spent in the Village of Thorns.

Erlo still showed his teeth in a snarl, but both his snarl and his gaze were less ferocious than before Azra used his magic. And as the comfortable feeling of divine power suffused into Erlo's body, Erlo calmed down. He wasn't panicked and ready to pounce at the first sign of movement.

Azra himself hadn't expected such a great effect. He merely wanted to give off the impression of doing all he could to defuse the situation. However, to Lo and the other villagers, it looked like Azra managed to calm down the wild and bloodthirsty Erlo all on his own.

Azra wasn't sure why his magic had been so effective. Maybe it was more calming to people experiencing great distress, and that was why Erlo calmed down so quickly.

However, things didn't end with only Erlo calming down after benign bathed in Azra's magic. Erlo turned to look more deeply at Lo after he relaxed his stance. Curiosity filled his gaze instead of the previous wariness. The pointy ears pointing right up instead of laying flat against Erlo's head gave him the impression of an alert and friendly dog as long as the spikes running from his forehead down to his spine went ignored.

Lo had learned from his previous mistake, and he calmly let Erlo observe him, despite wanting to jump in glee when Erlo tilted his head in slight confusion.

After some time of intense visual inspection, during which no one in the village dared to move, Erlo decided to take a slight risk as he approached Lo. One step at a time.

Erlo slowly closed in on Lo, maintaining vigilance while also expressing his curiosity. Erlo was soon as close to Lo as he needed to be, and his nostrils flared. To the deathly still villagers, Erlo's sniffing sounded like a hurricane, each huff tightening the tension hanging in the air like thread on the verge of snapping.

The thing that made the thread snap wasn't Erlo smelling Lo. It was Erlo pouncing on Lo.

The villagers ran forward to pull Erlo off of Lo but stopped when they noticed that Lo wasn't screaming in pain. He was laughing like a little kid. Compared to most other villagers, he was indeed practically a kid, but his gleeful laughter was full of childish joy.

Erlo didn't pounce on Lo to attack him. He merely recognized his old friend and, in his excitement, accidentally pushed Lo to the ground.

An observant person would have seen Erlo's tail twitch with happiness the moment before he lept at Lo, but the villagers were all staring tensely at Erlo's face and at Lo.

Since Erlo had recognized Lo, the villagers backed away and gave the two of them some space. A few villagers even decided to call it a day after all the excitement and began leaving the square. Mahenny also left since he had his personal well he could use to clean Tissa. But he reminded Azra about the promised dinner before leaving.

With night falling and everyone else leaving, the remaining villagers also slowly said their goodbyes to Azra. They would have left Lo a greeting as well if it weren't for the ferocious wild beast playing with him.

Soon enough, only Azra, Lo, and Erlo remained at the village square when dusk fell. The encroaching darkness brought Lo out of his bout of happiness at having reconnected with Erlo. Lo stopping their playtime also made Erlo regain his calm and wild look as a beast of the forest as he eyed Azra, who stood patiently a few meters away from Lo.

While Erlo had recognized Lo and remembered the joys of its youth, he was still hesitant to act intimately with anyone else so soon. Erlo looked at Azra with some wariness as he stood between Lo and Azra.

However, Azra wasn't afraid of Erlo. It didn't look like Erlo was planning to attack him, and if he was, Lo would try and stop him. But even without that, Azra was confident Erlo wasn't going to attack him.

Azra moved some holy attribute mana into his hand, creating a soft golden light ball of divine power. Even just looking at the ball of golden light was enough to remind Erlo about the comfortable feeling he experienced not too long ago, as well as in the forest when he felt his rationality slipping to the Rage Powder again.

Erlo stepped closer to Azra, still vigilant but no longer as hesitant. Just like he had to Lo, Erlo began smelling Azra. However, it didn't end with Erlo pouncing on Azra. Erlo got close to Azra before closing an eyelid and presenting his head to Azra's outstretched hand.

Azra wasn't sure what Erlo wanted, but he reached out with his still-glowing hand and gently held it in the air directly above Erlo's head. Sensing Azra's proximity, Erlo pushed his head against Azra's hand.

All the while, Lo stood in the background, stunned at how easily Azra had become friendly with Erlo. Not to mention how it almost looked like Azra was granting a blessing unto Erlo with how he placed a golden hand on top of Erlo's forehead while Erlo closed his eyes.