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storiesfromhalcyontale · 10 months ago

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Chapter 14: The Battle of the Outlands.

I woke up the next morning and groaned. Alright today was it. I thought to myself, grabbing my glasses and placing them over my eyes. Either we fail miserably or we stop Crooler. I looked around the room thinking to myself for a moment, a part of me still hoped this was some sort of dream that I was in a coma when the machine exploded. However that wasn’t the case, this was real. I was going to fight in a battle in a couple of hours, I got out of my bed and looked out at Chima. I didn’t realise how beautiful it was. The past couple of days have been so stressful and taking this moment to breathe and take in the scenery was just great. Soon I heard my door open and turned to see Laval standing there.

“How ya feeling Sho?” He asked me, he walked next to me and began looking outside with me.

“I dunno to be honest.” I responded with a sigh, “I’ve just been so stressed the past few days that I just need a moment to myself before this battle”

“I understand what you mean.” Laval looked at me, “I used to do this alot during previous wars. Mainly when Cragger was under the persuader plant.” I looked at Laval, I sat on my bed.

“Really?” I asked curiously, one question lingered in my mind. “Did…Did it hurt fighting Cragger?”

“Huh?” Laval seemed somewhat taken aback by my question, he smiled painfully “Yeah… Especially now that I realised I love him.” He turned to me “But I’d rather not focus on the past!” He grinned, “Cragger has clearly made up for what happened.”

“Yeah” I smiled. That was awfully wise coming from Laval I thought, “Yeah I guess you're right.”

“Yeah. Why are you asking this anyways?” Laval turned to me, “Is this about Asriel?”

“Yeah..” I responded looking away from Laval, “I…I dunno it’s just that I’m worried about what happens today..” Laval sat next to me and patted my back.

“It’ll be alright Sho.” Laval muttered, “Asriel will be alright.” I rested my head on Laval’s shoulder like a little kid would do with an older sibling. Frankly I was scared, and I’m sure my facial expression conveyed that enough. I didn’t know what was going to happen, Laval took notice of this and decided to change the subject. “You know the first thing I’m going to do once all of this is over?”

“What?” I murmured, looking at them with curious intent in my eyes.

“Go on a date with Cragger when I have the free-time to do so!” He grinned although I could tell there was a slight blush coming through their cheeks “And I mean a proper romantic date! Not like speedor racing or anything, plus it’d be a break from all the king duties”

“Really?” I asked, I honestly felt proud of them both. “That’s great!” I smiled.

“Thanks Sho.” Laval responded, “Anyways, what’s your love life like?” He turned to me with genuine curiosity.

“Eh, I’ve always been more of a third wheel.” I answered, shrugging my shoulders. “The whole ‘boyfriend-slash-girlfriend’ thing never really interested me.”

“Oh.” Laval responded, somewhat pleased with my answer. “I mean understandable, that sort of stuff isn’t for everyone.”

I nodded my head, “Even when I was younger I always found it weird, it's something I never understoo-”

"Laval? Is Sho up?" I heard Lavertus shouting.

"Yeah give us ten seconds!" Laval shouted, "C'mon Sho, we have a long day ahead of us."

I lept off the bed and nodded as I I held my hand out. Laval grabbed it and jumped to their feet with a little wobble. Laval embarrassedly grinned and I just chuckled. We both left my room and went to find Lavertus. We found him in the throne room and he seemed to be hiding something behind his back.

“Uncle Lavertus, you wanted to see us both?” Laval asked, trying to peek behind Lavertus' back.

“Yes yes!” Lavertus said with a grin on his face, he seemed to be working on something almost in a world of his own. Lavertus began to take some measurements and I just looked at him confused as he turned around to back what he was doing “Hmmmmm, you both are similar heights…”

“What’s this about Lavertus?” I asked, trying to peek at what he was doing.

“No peeking Mr.Sato!” Lavertus responded, covering up whatever he was doing. “You both need to wait. Although I’m almost done!” I sat by the pool of chi orbs, patiently waiting for Lavertus to finish whatever he was doing. Soon he called us both back over and me and Laval stood there waiting to see what he did. “So! I’m sure Laval that you know that I’ll be battling in the shadowind armour.”

“Yeah you mentioned this to me last night.” Laval responded, I looked at them both confused.

“Well, I thought of something brilliant!” Lavertus responded, He revealed two suits of armour similar to what he was wearing. Almost identical copies, the only difference is that they were modified. I looked at Laval whose eyes were gleaming with excitement whilst I looked puzzled. "I thought since they'll probably target Sho why not have three Shadowinds running about?"

“Wait what hold up-” I looked at Lavertus confused “Why are you doing this exactly?”

“Well.” Lavertus said in a David Tennant-esque way, “I believe that the soldiers will try and target you if they find out you are fighting. So I created replicas of my suit for you, then I realised that we are completely different height-wise so I decided to also make one for Laval!” He gave me and Laval the armour “Try them on please!” I looked at Laval who was staring down at the costume in awe, I looked at it slightly puzzled. But I thought that the points Lavertus had brought up were good ones, I would be targeted for my lack in skills with a sword so anything would help. So I left for my room and walked upstairs as I observed how to get the outfit on in the best way possible. I removed my jacket, although I did feel slightly weird without it on, and gradually got the armour on. Though it was slightly big it did work and I placed the helmet on top of my head, which tinted everything in a cyan colour which took some adjusting to. I left my room, being careful not to trip on the red cape that followed me behind. “How does it fit?” Lavertus asked, looking at me with a curious look in his eyes.

“It’s alright” I responded, taking a seat and removing the helmet “Just tryna adjust my eyes to the cyan lenses you’ve used.”

“Oh they do take awhile to adjust to.” Lavertus responded, taking a seat next to me “However I think everything looks nicer in cyan personally so I’m not complaining about it.” This made me chuckle, though I kind of disagreed with his point of everything looking better in cyan. I heard footsteps and looked up to see Cragger up-ahead. He walked up to us and took immediate notice of what I was wearing.

“Whoa Sho! You’ve got your own Shadowind costume?!” He gasped, looking at me in awe.

“Not only me.” I responded as I stood up and stretched, “Laval also has one, and to be honest I think it’ll look better on him than me.” I looked at the helmet, which was shaped like a lion head, yeah this will definitely look better on Laval. As I thought this I saw Laval walk into the room, and yeah my assumption was correct. I looked back over and smirked as I saw Cragger’s face, he looked flustered by seeing his boyfriend in the suit which made me laugh to be honest.

“How does it look?” Laval asked, not noticing Cragger behind him. “It fits doesn’t it?”

“Yeah it does” Lavertus affirmed, adjusting the outfit slightly. “And I’m also not the only one who thinks that.” Lavertus pointed behind him and began to laugh. I soon began to laugh alongside Lavertus as Laval turned around and saw Cragger behind him, both of them got incredibly flustered over this which honestly I found funny. Laval removed their helmet to reveal that their cheeks had gone bright red.

“Hey Laval.” Cragger muttered, covering the blush on his cheeks with his tail and yet failing to do so as the redness on his cheeks was obvious to make out, “You look good.”

“Thanks mudlover.” Laval responded, placing a careful kiss on Cragger’s forehead. He then turned to me and Lavertus, taking time to compose himself before speaking, “Also Sho you should take this.” he handed me a satchel full. I grabbed it and looked at it carefully.

“What do I need this for?” I asked, looking at Laval as he continued to compose himself.

“If your going to be looking for Asriel inside of the base then you might as well get some chi to the prisoners” said Laval, he had a very strict sounding voice which sounded quite similar to Lagravis actually. He walked over to the chi pool and picked up some orbs. Placing them carefully into the satchel, I took one out and looked at it carefully.

“What’s the use of chi exactly?” I asked as I placed the orb back into the bag.

“Well…” Laval thought for a moment, “We’ve based our entire society around chi basically. They can also be used to power ourselves up, giving us more energy and or power.”

“Oh so like Adrenaline.” I said briefly “Wait then why does Crooler want it then?”

“That I don’t exactly kno-” Cragger placed his hand over Laval’s mouth.

“She wants to seize chi for herself and take out the lions.” He said bluntly, “She’s always had something against the lions, even since we were younger.” He then looked at Laval with a sorry look in his eyes “She used the persuader plant on me to try and take out the lions. But Laval honestly helped me snap out of it. Multiple times in fact.”

“And again you're welcome.” Laval said jokingly before turning to me, “Do you understand why she’s such a threat now to our way of life?”

“Yeah I think so.” I thought for a moment, “But why is she like this though?” I looked at Cragger, as he seemed like the one to answer this. Cragger yet again had a sorry look on his face.

“Well, I was kinda the favourite twin.” He’d mutter, “Which caused Crooler to be sort of neglected.”

“Oh.” I said as I looked down at the satchel. There was an awkward silence, though the information was somewhat useful it was actually kind of upsetting. Though I don’t understand Crooler’s motivations, maybe I could talk to her. Lavertus tapped my shoulder and we all looked at him.

“Get your masks on. I think the lion army is about to begin setting off.” He stated as armed forces began walking out of the temple and to their respective vehicles.

“Right.” Laval muttered as we all put our helmets on, bringing back the cyan tint from before, “Let’s get going, Sho you’ll be hopping into the lion tank with me.”

“Oh alright.” I answered, as I followed Laval out to the lion tank. The suspense was tense and I didn’t know what to expect going into this battle. Laval and Cragger were seasoned fighters whilst I was a kid whose biggest battle was trying to get a bargain at the shops and my first and practically only lesson on sword fighting was yesterday. I sighed, but then I saw Laval turn to me and smile.

“You okay Sho?” He asked as we continued walking, their eyes showed concern but also confidence.

“Yeah… just worried that’s all.” I responded, “Just never been in a battle that’s all.” Laval sighed and looked at me, I could tell he was struggling with what to say.

“Look Sho.” He muttered, “I can’t promise you won’t get hurt, but I do promise that Asriel will be alright. We’ll make sure no harm comes to him.”

“Right…” I responded again, with less confidence than before. I’m guessing Laval could sense my confidence getting lower as he went silent for a moment before speaking again.

“You know there’s this thing that Cragger said once that for whatever reason I still think about today” Laval turned to me, “‘Water is like friendship, it only pulls you down when you fight it. Let it flow! and it shall lift you up and carry you along to all the places you ever wanted to go.’. Something along those lines, whenever I’m going through some sort of rough patch relating to friendship I just think of those words and they help.” I smiled a tiny bit.

“What’s with the water comparison?” I asked curiously.

“Oh! Well I nearly drowned and Cragger used a comparison of friendship to describe swimming” He laughed, “But I’d rather it be said with the term friendship in mind.”

“Yeah, that fits better.” I grinned, though my mood was still rather down about everything, however Laval’s words did help. And made logical sense too surprisingly even though he used the comparison incorrectly it still made me hopeful. We both soon got to the tank and hopped in. I took my seat and took off my helmet and looked down at it, with hope that this battle wouldn’t end with my death.

We soon found ourselves going through some sort of jungle area, but it was a lot more dangerous and we were overall rushing to get through the area as fast as possible and to the hideout that Lavertus had found. He was leading everyone to the area which seemed to have been cleared out of any dangerous plant-life from what I heard Lavertus saying as we rushed to the area. This was proven to be fact by the time we reached Crooler’s base, as it seemed most of the surrounding area was chopped down for this base to exist. Laval and I both got out of the tank and walked up to Laval, I placed my helmet on my head again and took a steady breath.

“We all know the plan right?” Lavertus looked at me and Laval, “We all know what’ll happen?”

“Yeah.” I muttered in-between breaths, “Rescue the captives first then find Asriel.”

“That’s right Sho!” Lavertus responded, “This feels like I’m looking in a mirror or something.” I heard Laval laugh while I chuckled. “Sho you wait over there until the battle starts, when you hear Laval roar sneak inside and give the satchel to the captives so they can join the battle. We have spare swords for them.”

“Oh alrighty.” I responded, “I’m gonna get going. Wish me luck I guess.” I waved goodbye to Laval and Lavertus and walked up to the base and stood by the wall. Just waiting. Waiting… I can’t believe I’m about to do this. I thought to myself, I’m about to fight in a battle to try and rescue my best friend. I’m sure Laval has felt these exact feelings when he was battling Cragger but… it hurts. It hurts a lot. I don’t want to hurt Asriel or anyone frankly. I sighed. “I’m really gonna do this aren’t I..?” I muttered to myself before hearing Laval roar. I looked towards the entrance of the base and saw a couple of different animals exit through there, many looked ready to fight in this battle. Once most if not all of them ran past, I slipped in. I didn’t know the general direction but I wandered about just looking for the prisoners. It was taking what felt to be around two hours but soon I came across this prison area, most of the animals in there were in fact lions. Many of whom looked like they haven’t eaten in days, one of them came up to the bars. She looked to be a lioness wearing almost a worn out tunic attire.

“Guys someone’s here!” Rest of the prisoners turned towards me, “Lavertus, you came to help us!”

“Lavertus?” I laughed a tiny bit, “That’s a first.” The lioness looked at me confused, “I’m guessing your Li’ella then?”

“Yeah.” She muttered, “Wait, if you're not Lavertus then who are you?” I took my helmet off and threw it onto the floor.

“I’m Sho Sato.” I said as I took the satchel off my shoulder and handed it to Li’ella “And Laval told me to give this to the prisoners.” I looked as she opened the bag, revealing a blue glow on her face. She looked back up at me as she took one of the orbs.

“Thanks Sho.” She smiled, she plugged the orbs into some sort of chestplate. Then a ginormous version of herself appeared for two seconds then disappeared, revealing that blue glint that Lagravis had. She soon began to pass around the chi.

“Don’t worry, I’ll pick the lock. I ain’t no Akemi but-” Li’ella reached round the lock and with her own hand alone, shattered the lock almost effortlessly, “WHOA-” I gasped. Chi is so powerful, I thought to myself as I placed the helmet back on my head.

“Thanks Sho.” Li’ella said as she ushered all the captives out, “And also, Asriel is somewhere in the base. I don’t know why Crooler decided for him to stay here but I can’t read her mind.”

“Alright. Thanks Li’ella.” I muttered as I ran, looking for Asriel. I placed a hand on my sword, my nerves were getting the better of me again. I heard footsteps behind me and turned around as I unsheath my sword. Only to be face-to-face with Asriel.

“Sho. What are you doing here?” He asked as he summoned a chaos sabre, I looked at his eyes and that red glow was still there. He was still under the control of the persuader plants.

“I’ve come looking for you!” I responded, my voice began to tremble, “Asriel this isn’t who you are man!”

“It is and we both know it.” He answered threateningly as I took the helmet off as Asriel seemingly knew it was me, “This is my destiny! To always be some sort of antagonist.”

“Asriel we both know that isn’t true” I shouted, “You aren’t a bad person man!”. Asriel began charging at me as the chaos sabre and sword connected making a silencing clashing sound.

“You lie Sho!” He shouted at me, “Crooler’s right all you do is lie your way out of things!”

“I-” I was astounded, Crooler made up these things about me not only to keep Asriel in her little trap but to also try and push me away. I, however, stayed firm and kept Laval’s words in my head. “Water is like friendship, it only pulls you down when you fight it.” I looked at Asriel, “Asriel that’s Crooler getting to you man! Don’t let her!”

“You're lying to me again?!” Asriel grabbed my neck and held me up in the air, “You're just a pathetic liar Sho. And I don’t need that.” Asriel gripped tightly on my neck, I was sure he was going to choke me out if I didn’t say anything.

“Asriel…I’ve spoken to your parents.” I muttered. “What..?” He dropped me as my sword fell on the floor next to me, “You're lying again.”

“Would I lie about this though?” I asked him, “Asriel, our realm and chima are connected and gaster used a signal booster to contact me.” I could tell Asriel was thinking.

“Sho….” I looked in his eyes, as I saw the red glow flicker.

“Asriel I get that you miss your family.” I said, standing up as I took deep breaths, “I miss mine too. And they certainly miss us, so please Asriel…fight Crooler’s control.” I could tell Asriel was fighting the control of Crooler and honestly I was scared, all my defences were down and one good slash at my chest could kil me.

“Sho…” Asriel muttered as the red glow in his eyes disappeared, “Sho what have I done…?” I hugged Asriel as I began to cry. To be honest I’m not the one that’s supposed to be crying but this is the first time in what four days I’m actually talking to Asriel. The Asriel I know, and frankly I was happy I had someone who I considered my brother back.

“I sososo sorry Asriel!” I wept into his shoulder, “I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you I’m sorry for causing any of this!”

“Sho..” Asriel hugged me, “None of this is your fault. I honestly don’t blame you for anything.” He then looked at what I was wearing, “What are you wearing?” He asked.

“Something that Lavertus made for today…” I muttered with a slight smile.

“Well it fits nicely” Asriel complimented as he stopped embracing me.

“Asriel what are you doing?” I heard a voice and turned to the direction of it. Crooler. “Asriel you were meant to kill him, not hug him. Are you insane?” stepped in front of Asriel.

“What is your problem?” I asked, trying to keep myself from punching her, “Why are you like this man?!”

“It’s my destiny!” She responded, snapping her jaw at me, “It’s my destiny to control all of chima!”

“You shouldn’t put all your hopes into destiny!” I answered back, “Destiny can be changed and or be wrong all-together depending on the interpretation!”

“Wrong…?” Crooler muttered. I can tell she was confused.

“Look Crooler, I know what you went through.” I said with a tremble in my voice. I could sympathise with her. “And I get it. I also wasn’t given the best hand at life, but I didn’t make it my whole personality and based my aspirations on it. Our childhoods don’t dictate who we are.” I can tell she was thinking.

“But…I…” She shuddered, “This is all I’ve known!” She snapped at me, “All I know is neglect and favouritism towards Cragger!”

“And I get that it sucks Crooler.” I said bluntly, “And blame your actions on Cragger, on Crominus and Crunket. I don’t care. But all of this, that’s your choice my friend!” I could tell Crooler was thinking, and I didn’t blame her. She just had her entire philosophy and motives broken down by a random sixteen year-old human.

“Into the fort!” I heard Lavertus’ voice and me and Asriel turned our heads in the direction of it. However when we both turned our heads back to Crooler. She had vanished, I didn’t know what to say. I just wiped my eyes of any emotions I had and just looked at Asriel.

“We should probably find Laval.” I muttered, as we both began walking.

“Yeah..” Asriel responded. We both exited the base as celebrations occurred. Crominus and Crunket both walked up to me and Asriel.

“Is Crooler with you two?” Asked Crunket with concern, “Is she alright?”

“No she isn’t.” I responded, “She actually disappeared, we didn’t see where she went. And FYI, you two need to stop playing favourites and love your children equally. Cause that's what motivated Crooler.” Me and Asriel walked away to find Laval and Cragger, leaving Crominus and Crunket rather shocked at my response.

“Asriel you're alright!” Cragger shouted, walking up to us both with Laval following behind. “And not too injured I see too!”

“Yeah. Sho didn’t put up much of a fight really.” He responded, “I just want to go back to the lion temple..”

“Right.” Laval answered, “We’re all about to begin heading back anyways if you two want to hop into the lion tank.”

“Wait before you do.” Cragger tapped my shoulder, “How’s Crooler..?” I looked at Cragger.

“She’s…alright I think. She disappeared.”

“Alright…” Cragger sighed regretfully and let me, Asriel and Laval walk to the lion tank. Laval and I helped Asriel into the lion tank as we both got in. Laval started driving the tank as sat next to him. I looked at Asriel who looked overall worn out and decided to take a photo of him to send to Gaster.

3pm Sho sent a photo. Sho: Too tired to call but Asriel’s alright. Gaster: Okay Sho. I’ll tell Toriel, Asgore and Frisk immediately. The machine needs at least a day of charge before we can get you two home. Sho: Alright Gaster. See you tomorrow.

“Asriel we have one more day here before we can go home.” I muttered, looking at him.

“Alright.” He responded briefly before resting his head. I decided to do the same, resting my head on Laval’s shoulder.

“That was so scary…” I muttered as I yawned.

“Don’t worry Sho it’s over.” Laval responded almost parent-like, “I’m proud of you man. It's not everyday a kid can just rescue his best friend like that. That's honestly something you should be proud of Sho.”

“Thanks Laval.” I answered as I gradually fell asleep, with a smile. Which frankly hasn’t happened in awhile, just knowing Asriel was safe and that I would be going home soon gave me something I haven't felt since Asriel got kidnapped.

Hope.

<-Previous chapter

Next Chapter ->

This chapter actually came out quite nicely, even though it is a bit Steven Universe-Esque. I wanna focus on one specific part of the chapter actually, the moment between Laval and Sho actually not the fight itself between Asriel and Sho (even though I think it came out quite nicely as it showed Sho's almost inability to fight his friends.). Throughout the past couple of chapters I've been building up Sho and Laval's friendship but realised they only really had one moment togehter, that being chapter 3. And I didn't have a somewhat decent way to peak their relationship so I wrote this moment where Sho actually opens up a bit to Laval. And even though it's short I absolutely love it, two characters who I think are too kind for their own good (I'll develop Sho more in Halcyontale btw dw abt it) that are so similar yet different. Just opening up to eachother. Laval opens up about S1 and Sho opens up about his worries about Asriel, it all works nicely!

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storiesfromhalcyontale · 11 months ago

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Chapter 13: Final Preparations

I woke up from what felt like an endless slumber, sunlight entered my room. I sat upright and grabbed my glasses and put them on my face. I looked around. Today's preparation day. I thought to myself climbing out of my bed and heading downstairs, I could see Laval talking to a group of lions which I guess were a part of some sort of king duties. I decided to not start a conversation with him as he looked somewhat stressed. I continued to walk around for a while, soon finding Lavertus sparring with a lion soldier. I just stood there and watched for a little bit, soon he noticed and stopped the fighting to talk to me.

“Sho, just the kid I wanted to see!” Lavertus shouted, walking up to me.

“Hiya Lavertus.” I replied taking a seat, “Are the lions preparing for a fight?”

“Yeah, the crocs will be joining us from what I’ve heard.” He took a seat next to me, “Anyways, what will you be doing?” He looked at me.

“Obviously I’m joining in. I need to save Asriel after all.” I retorted. Lavertus looked at me for a moment.

“Get up kid.” He said to me, holding out his hand, “You're going to need to learn to fight with a sword if that’s the case.” I looked at him confused.

“Sword fighting?” I chuckled, “Lavertus I like the idea but I’m a gamer that can’t even punch a doll down.”

“That’s why we’ll start with the basics this morning, then later on in the afternoon we’ll get into the more complicated stuff.” He replied, still holding out his hand. I sighed.

“Worth a shot.” I grasped his hand and he pulled me up. He handed me a sword with a blue glow radiating from the middle of it.

“Alright so… let’s start off with a defensive stance, defensive stances are probably the best stances to start off with..” Throughout the morning, Lavertus taught me two different stances. The defensive stance was for more dire situations, where you're getting swung at. The stance has less mobility about it but did allow for some attacks to be delivered by you, the attacking stance was much better though. However there are two separate versions, the normal one which didn’t include much movement. The second one used much more quicker movements and allowed for more swings and different attacking angles. However it did leave you less defended, I much preferred the second attacking stance in my honest opinion so we both spent the morning perfecting both the defensive stance and second attacking stance. By noon we were both tired and took a seat, soon Laval came out looking for us both.

“There you both are. What were you two doing?” He asked, helping us both up, “You're kinda needed at this meeting.” “Sorry Laval.” Lavertus muttered standing up, “Just teaching Sho how to sword fight that’s all.”

“Oh really?” Laval gasped looking at me, “Didn’t expect you to be much of a teacher Lavertus.”

“Eh, I wasn’t too bad.” Lavertus sighed, and soon we found ourselves inside the lion temple where Cragger and two other crocodiles were also there. One had a golden crown that covered the top half of his face, he was also wearing some sort of red tunic. The other crocodile was wearing a golden crown with white fangs pointing out of the top, she was also wearing a pink dress.

“Crominus, Crunket, thank you for meeting with us on short notice.” Laval said, I looked back at Lavertus who stood away a tiny bit.

“So this is the kid we’ve been hearing about?” Crominus growled, looking at me. Figures, I stand out afterall. I concluded.

"Yeah I'm Sho Sa-" I was about to say but then I was interrupted.

“Crominus that isn’t important at this moment in time.” Crunket stated, looking at Crominus “We’re here for much more important reasons remember.”

“Right right.” Crominus replied, turning back to Laval. “Cragger says this meeting is important.”

“Then he’d be right.” Laval retorted, looking at Cragger. “Well I’m sure you’ve heard about what’s been going on.” “Cragger has filled us in with the details..” Crunket responded, giving a sympathetic look at Laval. “We are so sorry for what happened to your father..” I saw Laval shudder for a moment before composing himself.

“It’s fine…” Laval responded, “Anyways, thanks again for helping us with this situation.”

“Crooler’s our daughter.” Crominus responded, “She may be exiled but she’s still our daughter.”

“Right..” Laval responded, “Well I’ve planned a massive raid of the camp, we’ll need to find the lion prisoners and free-”

“What about that Asriel kid?” Crominus asked, looking at me. I don't think he meant it maliciously but...I almost saw red.

“What do you mean about that Asriel kid?” I muttered, I stared daggers at him.

“Dad don’t.” Cragger tried stopping his dad from speaking but failed.

“Well logically speaking, is there going to be some consequence for him?” Crominus looked between me and Laval, “He did stab your dad and everything.” I felt my throat begin to dry up, Cragger looked at me with a worried expression.

“Well, he’s being manipulated by the persuader plants. So I doubt there’ll be much of a consequence there.” Laval responded with a shaky voice. Crominus looked as if he was going to say something, but Crunket raised her hand.

“Crominus stop.” Crunket said, “You're making the kid panic..” Crominus turned to me then looked back at Laval.

“Alright.” Crominus bluntly said, “What were you saying Laval?”

“Right...” Laval’s voice began to drain out a bit, I felt a familiar ringing in my ears. Each breath that drew from my mouth was getting bigger and bigger. I felt a tap on my shoulder and I quickly looked behind me and saw Lavertus.

“Kid are you alright..?” Lavertus muttered.

“Yeah…Yeah.” I looked around, I felt a bit shaky… I could hear Laval’s voice again.

“-do you agree with this plan?” I heard Laval say.

“Of-course we do.” Replied Crunket, “We will be there. Just make sure your army is prepared.”

“We will Crunket, don't worry.” Laval replied.

“Alrighty then, now that’s sorted… come along you two!” Crunket gestured towards Crominus and Cragger, “Let’s get back to the swamp.”

“Could I stay at the lion temple for a bit?” Cragger asked, walking up to Crunket.

“But you’ve been here a lot recently, I don’t see a reason to stay here today.” Crunket responded.

“Well…” I could see Cragger trying to find a way out of the situation he’s seemingly put himself in. I looked between them both, trying to think of some sort of excuse Cragger could stay here.

“He’s agreed to help me practise sword fighting.” I quickly blurted out looking at both Crominus and Crunket, “Since I will be joining both tribes tomorrow in the fighting.” I saw Crunket thinking for a moment.

“I see.. Well Cragger, We’ll meet you back at the swamp.” She responded, “It was also nice seeing you again, Lavertus.” I looked at Lavertus who smiled a tiny bit.

“Same here Crunket.” Lavertus responded, and soon Crominus and Crunket left the lion temple.

“Thanks for that Sho.” Cragger said, walking up to me. “I don’t think I could’ve gotten out of that one..”

“It’s fine really!” I said. I turned and looked towards the direction Crominus and Crunket were heading. I sighed and turned back, “Crunket seems nice, I’m not too sure about Crominus though..”

“Yeah sorry about him..” Cragger muttered, “He can be a bit insensitive sometimes..”

“It’s fine..” I whispered, To be completely honest he wasn’t exactly wrong for asking… I looked at Lavertus and smiled, “Should we continue where we left off?”

“Sure sure” He answered, “you and Cragger go up ahead though. I have some jobs I need to take care of.” Lavertus wandered off somewhere, not in a hurry though so I wondered what he was doing. I looked at Cragger and smiled.

“You're just here cause you wanna see Laval huh..?” I looked at him as he became all flustered, I laughed.

“Yeah…But I can help you with this first!” Cragger replied, shaking his head. We both walked outside and back to the training ground me and Lavertus had used the previous day. “So what was he teaching you exactly?”

“Just like some different stances, we’re meant to be actually using it in combat today.” Cragger began to laugh a tiny bit.

“I love his enthusiasm” He laughed, “But in my opinion, to learn fighting you’ve gotta experience it.” I looked at him like he was making some sort of joke, although he wasn’t laughing.

“Wait, really?” I asked, looking at him shocked, “Cragger, if you think I can fight then you're sorely mistaken.”

“Then we’ll take it in baby steps.” Cragger stated, ��Maybe that’ll get us somewhere. Just stand over there then we can begin.” I stood on the other side of the court, A lion guard passed me a sword and I stood in a defensive stance. This made Cragger somewhat chuckle, “What’s that stance?”

“Lavertus taught it to me.” I responded with a mutter, “Why is there anything wrong with it?”

“No No!” Cragger responded, “It’s alright, I just think Lavertus is trying a bit too hard to be like his brother.” I thought for a moment, Well that is true. Lavertus has definitely been acting more serious as of recent memory.. “What you wanna do is…Well I’d never expect to be doing this so I guess we just wing it.”

“Sooooo what do we do?” I asked in a worried tone.

“We fight.” Cragger unsheathed a weapon similar to mine and charged at me, OH FU- I stood there as our weapons clashed. I saw Cragger smile a tiny bit. “Don’t worry Sho, this is how my dad taught me how to fight. So you’ll be fine.”

“Cragger should I be worried?” I jokingly asked, parrying hits from Cragger with a sloppy execution.

“Well you’ve picked up parrying real fast!” Cragger exclaimed, stopping his attacks. “Now, try and attack me.” I looked at Cragger, surprised, “You can do what you must to knock me down.”

“Are you sure I can do something though?” I asked with hesitation, looking at Cragger, “I’m not that Strong really.”

“Sho, I’m sure you're much stronger than what you give yourself credit for.” Cragger stated, putting his right hand on my shoulder, “Sho, I believe in you. Now c’mon!” Cragger went to the end of the court and smiled at me, “Give it your best shot!” I put my headphones on and began to blast music, I was gonna focus for this.

“Alright!” I shouted, I jogged on the spot for a moment, “I’m sorry if I hurt you!” I began running towards Cragger, Alright.. I think I’ve got this if I can somehow incorporate that right hook then- I swing my sword at Cragger, - I can catch him off guard and- “ACK-” I fell to my feet and looked up, “You used your tail?!” I gasped for air.

“I’ve used that trick loads while play-fighting with Laval. Never had a chance to use it for practice as of recent memory” Cragger stated, helping me up. I took off my headphones, “Also don’t blast music, it wouldn’t be useful in the actual battle.”

“Oh.” I muttered, “I see.” I jogged back to where I was and began to sigh “Alright, here I come!... Again.” I began to run up to Cragger and swing my sword, he was able to parry it. He continued parrying it until I saw my opening, I dropped my sword from attacking and swung my arm in a right hook motion then stopped just before I hit his face, then similarly what he did to me earlier I swept his legs and pointed my sword at his chest.

“Whoa Sho..” Cragger muttered, I offered my hand as he got up “That was sick! Did you pick that up from me?”

“Yeah!” I stated, looking at him, “Although I added some improvisation to it.” I looked around, and saw Lavertus and Laval. Both had their mouths gaping wide open. “You both saw that?”

“Yeah!” Laval said excitedly, “Sho that was amazing!” He ran up towards me with Lavertus following shortly behind.

“Sho how did you manage that?” He asked, looking at me curiously, he was holding some sort of tray.

“Well, I picked up some stuff from Cragger and replicated it. Visualisation thing.” I answered, “Also are those muffins?”

“Yup!” Lavertus responded, “I planned on baking them today. Go on, try one Sho. If anything they’ll give you a boost of energy.” Lavertus handed me a muffin.

“Oh sure!” I responded, I realised I haven’t eaten in days. I took a bite out of the muffin and my eyes glowed excitedly. “WHOA LAVERTUS! THIS IS BRILLIANT!!”

“I knew you’d like it.” Lavertus grinned, “Plus I think it’s given you alot more energy.” This muffin is just as good as Akemi’s cooking . I thought as I scoffed the muffin quickly and smiled, a genuine smile.

“Sho I haven’t seen you smile like that in awhile” Laval said looking at me, he then turned to Cragger. “How’s my little swamp boy doing?” Laval pecked Cragger on the cheek, which made him blush immensely “Wow, it’s weird showing romantic affection in public.”

“Yeah it is.” Cragger responded with a laugh, both him and Laval grabbed a muffin from the tray and began eating them. I sat down, catching my breath for a moment. Laval took a seat next to me as he finished off his muffin.

“You alright Sho?” Laval asked, “You seemed a bit zoned out during the meeting.”

“Huh? No, I’m fine..” I responded, almost taken-aback by this, “Just what Crominus said caught me off guard that’s all.” I looked down at the floor, “What about that Asriel kid?... Well logically speaking, is there going to be some consequence for him? He did stab your dad and everything.”

“Sho nothing is going to happen to Asriel once we save him from the grasp of the Persuader plants.” Laval stated, “I can promise you that much.”

“Thanks Laval…” I muttered, I stood up and stretched, “Well Cragger should we continue where we left off?” I looked at Cragger, who by this point was just finishing his muffin.

“Sure!” He responded, jumping to his feet and running to the otherside of the court. “Let’s both go all out alright?!”

“Yeah!” I yelled, grabbing the sword and preparing to fight. “I promise I’ll do my best!”

I wasn’t sure how long we spent training, but by the end of the session it had begun to get dark. I had found myself sitting on the floor after a day of training. Although I didn’t win many of the matches I did, although I nearly beat Laval at one point, I had noticed some sort of improvement in my stamina. It might be a tiny improvement but it was still there. Laval and Cragger were training, although it looked more like play-fighting than training, I laughed a tiny bit. Soon, once they had finished training, they both began to walk up towards me and Lavertus who were watching. Neither of them had seemingly noticed the sun began to set.

“That was hella fun!” Laval exclaimed, “I’ve missed play-fighting.”

“Same!” Cragger responded, he looked up to the sky “Well I’m going back to the swamp.”

“Alright, Bye Swamp boy.” Laval teased, Cragger pecked him on the cheek as me and Lavertus waved as Cragger walked out of the lion temple. I looked at Laval as he waved, Then I looked up. I felt my nerves getting to me again… I hope whatever this plan is succeeds… I don’t even know how I’m going to get home yet. I stood up.

“I’m heading to my room.” I said, turning around.

“Alrighty Sho!” Laval responded, “See you in the morning”

“Yeah kid.” Lavertus yelled behind me, “Good luck in the morning.” I waved back and left for my room. I put my headphones on and listened to music for a little bit, I was just thinking. I don’t think I’ve had a moment alone all day, I was just hoping that Laval’s plan would work. I’ll also try and contact Gaster tomorrow if we do rescue Asriel, I just wanted my best friend back.. I laid in my bed and closed my eyes as I hummed the melody of "I say no" from the west-end version of Heathers. Soon I turned off my music and fell Asleep..

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This is actually where I start doing something that carries over into my other stories, and that is referencing media I personally like in my stories. And since I was really into Heathers at the time I decided to add it, though there isn't much reason for it here thought it'd be a nice nod. But after this I started using references for more thematic reasons.

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