Read Chapter 1 of New Sky Saga: Arcadia here
The four walked on towards their destination while chatting excitedly among themselves.
"I can't wait to see where we're going to play today" Ayaka piped up animatedly. Playtime was always her favorite time of the day. It wasn't because of the attention she got, but it was the milk that came after it. In fact, anytime that involved milk was all right in her innocent, 10-year-old eyes. She was bribed, obviously, but she was unaware of this since her cat DNA gave her an unhealthy love of milk.
"I wonder if we're going to the ruins again. To be honest, they sort of scare me because of that story about the Scions. I can't believe they all died in the same place at the same time. Creepy," Yuri said with a shiver. The ruins she was referring to were the Ruins of Old Avalon. Unlike the city of New Avalon in the Region of the Light Mages, the ruins had a violent past, culminating in the Elemental Balance.
For all intents and purposes, she had a really good point. Anyone with half a brain would notice the obvious air of despair looming over the destroyed city. Even though it was bright outside, the ruins seemed to cry out in agony over its fate. They were also full of Feral Hybrids, half-human people who simply failed to maintain control of their humanity. They maintained their human looks, but their reasoning was lost along the way. In most of the world, ferals were not fully recognized as human by choice. Here, they eked out a living. Not very glamorous, but it fulfilled their basic needs. Some ended up as pets, while others simply chose to move to Old Avalon. Zion's family were not afraid of them, however, and they provided protection to the feral tribes, with overwhelming support because the ferals were not as dangerous as most assumed, but rather looking for somewhere they could live without causing harm to either humans or Hybrids.
"Don't worry, Feral Hybrids are actually way more peaceful than you'd assume," Zion reassured her with an unreadable look on his face. Whenever he got that look, things usually got put on hold or altered. They walked towards the city while Yuri kept a ready hand in case any trouble happened to come their way.
"There may be some who aren't so friendly," Yuri countered. Zion sighed. She was always so nervous for no reason. Sometimes it was adorable, but now was not one of those times. He walked over towards her and gently held her hand towards her side to help her relax. She took notice of this and blushed furiously while slipping her hand away slowly, as if she were enjoying it.
Saya simply looked on with awe at how bold her immediate master just acted. Although she knew that this was a friendly act between them, she couldn't help wish that it was her hand he was holding. While lost in her thoughts, she failed to notice that the youngest member of their party slipped her hand between her hands. She almost yelped in surprise, but stopped herself since it was not becoming of her to do so.
"Lady Ayaka, what is it? Are you nervous?" Saya looked down at the catgirl with her ethereal warmth. Ayaka shook her head and pulled her along to catch up with the older couple. Eventually, they came to the city gate ruins, which was loosely guarded by two tigress hybrids with a sleepy look on their youthful faces. Zion stepped forward and snapped, startling the two.
"Oh, hey. We were just about to take a nap before someone decided to snap us to attention," the older of the two said with clear irritation on her face. Without the irritation, she was quite beautiful with her bronze skin and orange and black hair. Her green eyes attempted pathetically to instill fear into the group, so she sighed and looked at her partner. The other simply looked as if she saw a ghost.
"Rina, Rema. We were just passing by and you two were on guard, so I had to have a little bit of fun before heading through," Zion addressed the older tigress, who was named Rina. Rina sighed with her face inside her palm. She couldn't believe that this kid was actually important. I mean, seriously, he acts like he's 12, looks like 16, and fights like he's 30. Pick an age, dude, she thought to herself. Normally, she'd actually say this out loud, but she was actually under the weather, so she didn't waste the time or energy to do so.
Rema, the younger tigress, decided that this was a good time to make her presence known.
"So, Mr. Zion, what were you about to do that required you to pass through Old Avalon? A playdate, perhaps?" she asked nervously. Most people would have been surprised at how small her voice was considering she was a half tiger hybrid. No one present was. After all, despite her size, she was Ayaka's age after all.
"Right in the head, kid," Zion confirmed. After a few minutes, everyone said good-bye and our party continued through the ruins. After about 6 hours of walking through the ruined city, the group came to their destination, Arcadian Meadows, named after the goddess Arcadia. Ayaka failed to contain her excitement and took off for the nearest tree and began climbing it. Saya sat down and watched her struggle to get up to the second branch. She couldn't help but laugh at how cute Ayaka was when she was having fun. A few minutes later, she looked over at Zion and Yuri, who were off by the lake talking among themselves. Apparently, it wasn't a very serious conversation based on the way they were acting. The teenagers looked over at her and walked over to where she was perched and sat on both sides of her.
"You seem more relaxed. It's decided, you're coming here with us every Saturday. No objections," Zion said with his trademark grin. Saya looked stunned at how casually he said that. She laughed daintily. Zion took this as a sign to get her to open up, so he began to mock his father.
"My dear boy, it is time for me to have my 11:50 breakfast, is it not?" he said, sounding hauntingly close to his father. Saya tried to reprimand him, but was enjoying the humor too much to form the necessary words. Out of nowhere, Ayaka appeared behind them and startled the three.
"Where's daddy? I thought I heard him ask for breakfast #3," Ayaka said with a confused look on her face. At this, the older people roared with laughter. This was immediately halted by a deep, hearty laugh that was clearly not one of theirs. Everyone looked around and saw a tall, muscular, middle aged man joining in on their fun. Saya blushed and tried to start apologizing, but he held up a large hand to stop her.
"My boy," he said in a deep, booming voice that was clearly full of humor, "of all the impressions I have taught you, you decide on the shortest one? I feel as though I have failed to teach you how to impersonate your old man."
"Sorry, dad. It was a spur of the moment deal to get Saya to open up a little more, so I didn't exactly dig deep in the books," Zion apologized. It was remarkable to see how well the family got along. Most parents wouldn't allow for their children to impersonate them, let alone teach them to do so.
"Hi, High Ambassador Genji. Haha, that rhymes," Yuri said, obviously dwelling on that fact.
After enjoying a day of laughter, Genji pulled Zion and Ayaka off to an isolated part of the meadow so he could tell them the reason why he found them.
"It seems your mother's curse is getting worse. I fear she may not have much time before she passes on," he said grimly. What he failed to notice was the effect this had on the two. Ayaka nearly lost all color in her face and Zion looked shocked.
A/N: Here it is. Chapter two of New Sky Saga: Arcadia. It kind of took a little while for me to actually figure out how to end this chapter. Like always, I write it, you comment on it.
